''Mind's Eye Theatre'' is a
live action role-playing game
A live action role-playing game (LARP) is a form of role-playing game where the participants physically portray their character (arts), characters.(Tychsen et al. 2006:255) "LARPs can be viewed as forming a distinct category of RPG because of ...
(LARP) based on the
White Wolf 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 ...
universe and shares the setting with the tabletop
role-playing game
A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, or abbreviated as RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out ...
''
Vampire: The Masquerade'', among others.
In most editions of the game, conflicts and skill challenges involving random chance were settled with a "
rock, paper, scissors
Rock, Paper, Scissors (also known by #Names, several other names and word orders) is an Intransitive game, intransitive hand game, usually played between two people, in which each player simultaneously forms one of three shapes with an outstret ...
" system often referred to as "throwing chops" or "hand jamming". In the 2005 release of ''Mind's Eye Theatre'' and ''Mind's Eye Theatre: The Requiem'', this was removed in favor of a random card-draw mechanic to generate a random number between 1 and 10, usually using the Ace and 2 through 10 cards from a standard
playing card
A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a f ...
deck. This mechanic was removed for the 2013 release of ''Mind's Eye Theatre: Vampire the Masquerade'' which returned to the rock, paper, scissors conflict resolution system from earlier editions.
The game possesses rules both for gameplay and player safety. An advantage of the live-action gameplay is the ability to use the real interactions of players to resolve the majority of encounters between
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 and
non-player character
A non-player character (NPC) is a character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster (or referee) rather than by a ...
s.
In 1999, ''
Pyramid
A pyramid () is a structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be of any polygon shape, such as trian ...
'' magazine named ''Mind's Eye Theatre'' (first edition) as one of the ''Millennium's Best Games''. Editor
Scott Haring said "''Mind's Eye Theater'' was the first to take an established
pen-and-paper RPG and do the translation to live-action. And it is easily the most successful live-action game, too."
In 2004, White Wolf published ''Laws of Judgment'' as part of the ''
Time of Judgment'' product line. This volume was intended to bring the current storyline that began with the publication of ''
Vampire: The Masquerade'' in 1993 to a close and a new chronicle would begin with the release of ''World of Darkness'' and ''
Vampire: The Requiem'' in August 2004. ''Mind's Eye Theatre'' and ''Mind's Eye Theatre: The Requiem'' would bring the new setting into live action in July 2005.
In 2013, By Night Studios acquired the license for the Mind's Eye Theatre product line from
CCP Games and in June 2013, ''Mind's Eye Theatre: Vampire the Masquerade'' was published, returning to the original, or "classic", World of Darkness setting. This was later followed by ''Mind's Eye Theatre:
Werewolf: The Apocalypse'' in 2016 and ''
Changeling: The Dreaming'' in 2020. Reviews for ''Minds Eye Theatre: Changeling the Dreaming'' indicated that it contained "fresh ideas" and that it
''is a supernatural enthusiast's dream game".
As of March 2021, By Night Studios launched a free online
System Reference Document (SRD) containing the majority of the rules, mechanics, and fiction from their ''Vampire: The Masquerade'' line of products.
In May 2023, By Night Studios launched a crowd-funding campaign for a new version of ''Laws of the Night'' which would feature updated rules and settings based on ''Vampire the Masquerade, Fifth Edition''. A
PDF
Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...
version of the new book was published in September 2023, with a physical release expected in 2024.
Publications
*''Mind's Eye Theatre: The Masquerade'', Mark Rein·Hagen, (1993)
*''Mind's Eye Theatre: Book of the Damned'' (1993)
*''The Book of Props'' (1994)
*''Mind's Eye Theatre: The Apocalypse'' (1994, based on ''
Werewolf: The Apocalypse'')
*''Mind's Eye Theatre: The Masquerade Player's Kit'' (1994)
*''The Masquerade, Second Edition'' (1994)
*''Antagonists'' (1995)
*''Mind's Eye Theatre:
The Elder's Revenge'' Playbook, Jennifer Donaldson, John Flournoy, (1995)
*''The Prince's Primer'' (1995)
*''Mind's Eye Theatre: Laws of the Night'',
Richard E. Dansky, Beth Fischi, et al, (1996, formerly ''The Masquerade'')
*''
Oblivion'' (1996, based on ''
Wraith: The Oblivion'')
*''Liber des Ghouls: The Books of Ghouls'' (1997)
*''Laws of the Wild'' (1997, based on ''
Werewolf: the Apocalypse'', Second Edition)
*''
The Long Night'' (1997, based on ''
Vampire: The Dark Ages'')
*''Laws of the Hunt'' (1998, focusing on mortals as characters)
*''The Shining Host'' (1998, based on ''
Changeling: The Dreaming'')
*''Laws of Elysium'' (1998)
*''Mind's Eye Theatre Journal'' (8 issues, 1999-2001)
*''Laws of the Wyld West'' (1999, based on ''
Werewolf: The Wild West'')
*''Laws of the Hunt: Player's Guide'' (1999)
*''Laws of the Night, Revised Edition'' (1999)
*''Laws of the East'' (2000, based on ''
Kindred of the East'')
*''Laws of the Night: Camarilla Guide'' (2000)
*''Laws of the Night: Sabbat Guide'' (2000)
*''Laws of the Wild: Changing Breeds 1'' (2000)
*''Laws of the Night: Storyteller's Guide'' (2000)
*''Laws of Ascension'' (2001, based on ''
Mage: The Ascension'')
*''Laws of the Wild, Revised Edition'' (2001)
*''Laws of the Wild: Changing Breeds 2'' (2001)
*''Mind's Eye Theatre: Book of the Wyrm'' (2001)
*''The Shining Host: Player's Guide'' (2001)
*''Laws of the Hunt, Revised Edition'' (2002)
*''Laws of Ascension Companion'' (2002)
*''Laws of the Wild: Changing Breeds 3'' (2002)
*''Laws of Resurrection'' (2002, based on ''
Mummy: The Resurrection'')
*''Hengeyokai: Way of the Beast Courts'' (2002)
*''Laws of the Reckoning'' (2003, based on ''
Hunter: The Reckoning'')
*''Faith and Fire'' (2003, based on ''
Dark Ages: Vampire'')
*''Laws of the Night: Anarch Guide'' (2003)
*''Vampire by Gaslight'' (2003, based on ''
Victorian Age: Vampire'')
*''Laws of Judgment'' (2004, based on ''
Time of Judgment'')
*''Mind's Eye Theatre'' Core Rulebook (July 2005, based on ''World of Darkness'')
*''Mind's Eye Theatre: The Requiem'' (July 2005, based on ''
Vampire: The Requiem'')
*''Mind's Eye Theatre: The Awakening'' (August 2007, based on ''
Mage: The Awakening'')
*''City in the Sand'' (July 2009, PDF only)
*''Mind's Eye Theatre: Vampire: the Masquerade'', By Night Studios (December 2013)
*''Mind's Eye Theatre: Blood and Betrayal'' (2015)
*''Mind's Eye Theatre: Pickering Lythe'' (2015)
*''Mind's Eye Theatre: Werewolf: The Apocalypse'', By Night Studios (October 2016)
*''Mind's Eye Theatre: Vampire: the Masquerade Volume II: Issue 1'', By Night Studios
*''Mind's Eye Theatre: Changeling: The Dreaming'', By Night Studios (2020)
*''Mind's Eye Theatre: Vampire: the Masquerade Volume 2'', By Night Studios, (2021)
*''Mind's Eye Theatre: Vampire: the Masquerade: War of Ages'' (2023)
*''Mind's Eye Theatre: Laws of the Night'' V5, By Night Studios (September 2023, based on ''
Vampire: the Masquerade, Fifth Edition'')
References
External links
By Night Studios- Website of the publisher.
{{World of Darkness
Live-action role-playing games
World of Darkness
Role-playing games introduced in 1993