Mark Rein-Hagen, stylized as Mark Rein•Hagen (born 1964), is an American

role-playing Role-playing or roleplaying is the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role. While the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' offers a definition of role-playing ...

card Card or The Card may refer to: Common uses * Plastic cards of various types: **Bank card **Credit card **Debit card **Payment card * Playing card, used in games * Printed circuit board, or card * Greeting card, given on special occasions Arts an ...

video Video is an Electronics, electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving picture, moving image, visual Media (communication), media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, whi ...

and

board game A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...

designer best known as the creator of '' Vampire: The Masquerade'' and its associated ''

World of Darkness ''World of Darkness'' is a series of tabletop role-playing games, originally created by Mark Rein-Hagen for White Wolf Publishing. It began as an annual line of five games in 1991–1995, with ''Vampire: The Masquerade'', ''Werewolf: The Apocaly ...

'' games. Along with

Jonathan Tweet Jonathan Tweet (born 1965) is an American game designer who has been involved in the development of the role-playing games ''Ars Magica'', '' Everway'', '' Over the Edge'', ''Talislanta'', the third edition of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' and '' 13th A ...

, he is also one of the original two designers of ''

Ars Magica ''Ars Magica'' is a role-playing game set in 'Mythic Europe' – a historically grounded version of Europe and the Levant around AD 1200, with the added conceit that conceptions of the world prevalent in folklore and institutions of the High Mid ...

''.

Career

Late 1980s: Lion Rampant and ''Ars Magica''

Rein-Hagen and Jonathan Tweet founded game publisher

Lion Rampant The lion is a common charge in heraldry. It traditionally symbolises courage, nobility, royalty, strength, stateliness and valour, because historically the lion has been regarded as the "king of beasts". The lion also carries Judeo-Christi ...

in 1987 while attending

Saint Olaf College St. Olaf College is a private liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota, United States. It was founded in 1874 by a group of Norwegian-American pastors and farmers led by Pastor Bernt Julius Muus. The college is named after the King and the ...

; there they met

Lisa Stevens Lisa Stevens is an American editor, CEO and founder of Paizo Publishing, and COO of Goblinworks. She began her career in games in the 1980s, working with Jonathan Tweet and Mark Rein-Hagen to help produce the tabletop roleplaying game ''Ars Mag ...

who later joined the company. Rein-Hagen and Tweet designed ''

'' over a period of nine months, publishing it in 1987. Lion Rampant encountered financial difficulties in 1990, but after Stevens pitched a merger to Rein-Hagen and

Stewart Wieck Stewart Douglas Wieck (May 10, 1968 – June 22, 2017) was one of the founders of the publishing company, White Wolf, Inc. He was also one of the original writers of Mage: The Ascension. Career Stewart Wieck was born in Freeport, Illinois, in 1 ...

, they decided to merge White Wolf and Lion Rampant forming the new

White Wolf Game Studio White Wolf Entertainment AB, formerly White Wolf Publishing, was an American roleplaying game and book publisher. The company was founded in 1991 as a merger between Lion Rampant

company, with Rein-Hagen and Wieck as co-owners. Of his experience at Lion Rampant, Rein-Hagen recalls

1990s: ''Vampire: The Masquerade'' and ''The World of Darkness''

Rein-Hagen was on the road with Wieck and Stevens to GenCon 23 in 1990, when he conceived of the game '' Vampire: The Masquerade'' which became his main project of 1991, and the new company was able to publish the game that same year. Next year (1992) Rein-Hagen wrote (with Robert Hatch and Bill Bridges) '' Werewolf: The Apocalypse'' which was published through White Wolf. ''

Mage Mage most commonly refers to: * Mage (paranormal) or magician, a practitioner of magic derived from supernatural or occult sources * Mage (fantasy) or magician, a type of character in mythology, folklore, and fiction * Mage, a character class in ...

'' (1993) was based somewhat on a game that Rein-Hagen had thought of in 1989 as something like a modern-day ''Ars Magica'', although ''Mage'' was the first game in the World of Darkness in which he was not directly involved. '' Wraith'' (1994) served as his return to designing the core World of Darkness games. His next game, the fifth in the World of Darkness, was Changeling: The Dreaming, designed with

Sam Chupp Sam Chupp is a tabletop game designer from the United States. Career Sam Chupp is the co-creator of the roleplaying games ''Wraith: the Oblivion'' (1994) and ''Changeling: The Dreaming'' (1995). Chupp was the Special Guest at the Marmalade Dog Gam ...

, Ian Lemke and Joshua Gabriel Timbrook. Rein-Hagen was developing a science-fiction game called ''Exile'' to be published in 1997 and owned by a non-profit known as the Null Foundation. White Wolf encountered financial difficulties in 1995–1996, which resulted in a falling out between Rein-Hagen and Wieck and his brother

Steve Wieck Steve Wieck (also credited as Stephan Wieck) is best known as one of the founders of the publishing company White Wolf, Inc. He is also one of the original writers of '' Mage: The Ascension''. Wieck is a co-founder of DriveThruRPG which later me ...

, so Rein-Hagen left White Wolf taking ''Exile'' with him. His Null Foundation released a draft of ''Exile'' for playtest in 1997, but the game was never fully published. He served as a writer and producer for '' Kindred: The Embraced'', a 1996 TV show loosely based on ''Vampire'', produced by

Aaron Spelling Aaron Spelling (April 22, 1923June 23, 2006) was an American film and television producer and occasional actor. His productions included the television series ''Family'' (1976–1980), ''Charlie's Angels'' (1976–1981), ''The Love Boat'' (1977� ...

and shown on

Fox TV Fox Broadcasting Company, LLC (commonly known as Fox; stylized in all caps) is an American commercial broadcast television network serving as the flagship property of Fox Corporation and operated through Fox Entertainment. Fox is based at Fo ...

. He was unhappy with the finished product because FOX's producers had a vision for the series he did not share. “The show wasn’t as good as it could have been, if they only had listened to me more.” ''Kindred'' was cancelled after eight episodes, however, following the death of its star

Mark Frankel Mark David Frankel (13 June 1962 – 24 September 1996) was an English actor, known for his leading roles in the British film '' Leon the Pig Farmer'' and the American TV series '' Kindred: The Embraced''. Early life Frankel was born on 13 J ...

any attempts to revive it were abandoned. Rein-Hagen continued to work in Hollywood for four years total, but disillusioned and fed up trying to make it as a writer, he decided to leave it behind. “It was the goal of my life, but finally I just left”.

2000s

Rein-Hagen founded the company Atomaton, Inc. a few years later, which published his game ''

Z-G Z-G (short for Zero Gravity) was the first collectible action figure game, created by Mark Rein-Hagen and released in July 2001 as the first product of his solo company, Atomoton. It uses posable 4.5" action figures with 14 points of articulatio ...

'' in 2001, but Atomaton ceased operation in 2003. Rein-Hagen published

Whimsy Cards ''Whimsy Cards'' is a 1987 role-playing game supplement published by Lion Rampant. Contents ''Whimsy Cards'' is an aid for role-playing games, a set of event cards which players can use to affect the outcome of a game storyline. Publication histo ...

, ''Ars Magica'', and major ''Ars Magica'' supplements through Lion Rampant with Jonathan Tweet.Appelcline, Shannon
"History of Game, #10"
3 January 2007. Retrieved 14 June 2013. Tweet and Rein-Hagen worked with Stevens,

John Nephew John A. Nephew is an American game designer, who has worked primarily on role-playing games. Career John Nephew started writing ''Dungeons & Dragons'' material freelance for TSR, Inc., TSR in 1986 while he was still in high school, initially wri ...

, and others who would become hobby game professionals. Rein-Hagen, along with

Ray Winninger Ray Winninger is a game designer who has worked on a number of roleplaying games, including the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy roleplaying game. He is the former Executive Producer for the Wizards of the Coast ''Dungeons & Dragons'' studio. Care ...

and Stewart Wieck, made significant contributions to a game called ''D.O.A.'', designed by

Greg Gorden Greg Gorden is an American game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games. Career Greg Gorden has worked for several gaming companies: * For Victory Games he participated, during the early 1980s, in the design of the '' James Bond ...

Mayfair Games Mayfair Games was an American publisher of board game, board, card game, card, and roleplaying games that also licensed German-style board game, Euro-style board games to publish them in English. The company licensed worldwide English-language pub ...

in conjunction with White Wolf, but the game was never published. It was based on a concept called "Inferno" that Rein-Hagen had previously spent years working on at Lion Rampant, in which the

player character A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional Character (arts), character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters tha ...

s were all dead characters from previous campaigns. Rein-Hagen sold his shares in White Wolf in 2007 and left the gaming field. As of mid-2008 he was living in

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი, ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), ( ka, ტფილისი, tr ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia ( ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

, with his wife and child during the

Russo-Georgian War The August 2008 Russo-Georgian War, also known as the Russian invasion of Georgia,Occasionally, the war is also referred to by other names, such as the Five-Day War and August War. was a war waged against Georgia by the Russian Federation and the ...

(2008 South Ossetia War). Rein-Hagen was evacuated with other US citizens living in Georgia and founded the site sosgeorgia.org (now defunct) to help the international media track what was happening there.

2010s

In 2012 Rein-Hagen worked on a card game called ''Democracy'' for his company Make Believe Games. This game was successfully funded by

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

in November 2012. As of December 3, 2014, over two years after funding, fulfillment is largely complete. On February 4, 2014 Rein-Hagen released a statement citing poor health as the reason for his lack of communication and promising that backers would get their game. Commentators were extremely unhappy with the tone of the message and complained that Rein-Hagen's ill health had not affected his ability to work on other crowd-funded projects. The game Democracy shipped on November 18, 2014. In a YouTube interview, Rein-Hagen spoke fondly of his former work on role-playing games and how he is working on a new role-playing game. Rein-Hagen elaborated on this role-playing game in March 2013, in another YouTube interview, describing some of the mechanics and speculating on a release date without naming it. In addition he discussed his new game ''Succubus: The Reborn''. ''Succubus: The Reborn'' had a kickstarter through Make-Believe Games that started on March 18, 2013 and failed to be funded on April 19, 2013. The result of a June 2013 Kickstarter campaign, a horror RPG entitled ''I Am Zombie'' was released in 2015.

2020s

Some of Rein-Hagen's current projects in development include The World of Lostlorn, The Curse of BloodStone Isle, and FangKnight.

Bibliography

Lion Rampant

Author *Ars Magica First Edition (1987) *Whimsy Cards (1987) *The Bats of Mercille (Only available at 1988 and 1989 Gencon) * Saga Pack (1988) * The Stormrider (1989) * Covenants (1989-1990) * The Broken Covenant of Calebais (2004)

White Wolf

Author * Vampire: The Masquerade Rulebook (1991) * Vampire: The Masquerade's Book of the Damned * Werewolf: The Apocalypse's Werewolf: The Apocalypse Second Edition * Wraith: The Oblivion's The Face of Death * Book of the Kindred (1996) * Chicago Chronicles Volume 1 * Vampire: The Dark Ages Rulebook (1996) Additional Design * Vampire: The Dark Ages Rulebook (1996) Additional Material * The Book of Shadows: The Mage Players Guide (1994) Design * Vampire: The Masquerade Rulebook (1991) * Book of the Kindred (1996) * The Dark Ages Rulebook (1996) Developer * Vampire: The Masquerade Rulebook (1991) * Vampire: The Masquerade's Book of the Damned * Werewolf: The Apocalypse's Rite of Passage * Chicago Chronicles Volume 1 (1996) * Chicago Chronicles Volume 3 (1996) Original Concept and Design * Mage: The Ascension Second Edition (1995) * Chicago Chronicles Volume 1 (1996)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rein-Hagen, Mark Living people Live-action role-playing game designers American role-playing designers White Wolf game designers St. Olaf College alumni 1964 births