Summary

"Kindred: The Embraced" was a 1996 TV series that attempted to adapt the Live-Action Role-Playing (LARP) experience of "Vampire: The Masquerade" but struggled with lore accuracy, fan expectations, and mainstream appeal, ultimately lasting only 8 episodes.

Abstract

The series "Kindred: The Embraced" was an ambitious attempt to bring the "World of Darkness" role-playing game to television, aiming to capture the essence of the LARP experience in a prime-time drama. Despite high hopes from fans, the show's interpretation of the game's lore and its portrayal of vampire society fell short of expectations, leading to its cancellation after a brief run. The series was criticized for deviating from the source material, altering key elements such as clan characteristics, disciplines, and the fundamental rules of vampire existence. However, it is remembered for its exploration of themes like power struggles and personal drama within the vampire community, albeit with a 90s soap opera flair. The show's early cancellation left many storylines unexplored and the potential for a cult following unfulfilled, though it remains a notable early example of RPG-to-screen adaptation.

Opinions

The show was seen as a potential catalyst for RPGs and LARPs going mainstream but failed to shift the cultural perception significantly.
Some fans and the author believe that the showrunners attempted to emulate a high-trust, narrativist LARP style, rewarding melodramatic roleplaying with an abundance of bonus XP.
The series was criticized for its deviations from the original game's lore, including significant changes to clan dynamics and the removal of two clans entirely.
The portrayal of the vampire court was considered underdeveloped, lacking the complexity and intrigue that fans enjoyed in the LARP version.
The show's approach to the "personal horror" aspect of vampire existence was deemed lacking, with the beast within being portrayed more as a strategic disadvantage than a moral struggle.
The series' representation of vampires as "Ambiguously Evil" aligns with the LARP framework, avoiding outright monstrous depictions in favor of morally ambiguous characters.
The cancellation of "Kindred: The Embraced" was met with disappointment, and there were unsubstantiated rumors of a move to cable television before the tragic death of the lead actor.
The article suggests that the show was ahead of its time and might have found a more receptive audience alongside later series like "True Blood" and "Underworld."
The brand's future in television is contemplated, with the author noting the development of a "Warhammer 40,000" TV show and questioning if a new "World of Darkness" series could follow.

Editor’s note: Welcome to our first-ever guest post! Thank you to Oscar of There Will Be Games for contributing to The RPGuide. If board games are your jam, you have to check out their blog!

The Nosferatu, the Toreador, the reporter, the Venture Prince, the cop’s partner, the cop, the Brujah, and the Gangrel.

Kindred: The Embraced was the Best and Worst LARP Ever

Pray for daylight Pray for morning Pray for an end to our deception

- ‘Deception’, The Crüxshadows

When Kindred: The Embraced premiered in 1996, World of Darkness fans were sure tabletop gaming was about to blow up. How could it not? Vampire was the almost-cool RPG that the cooler weird kids played. Plus, we were equally sure the show would be beyond godlike. Cool kids + Hollywood validation = RPGs and LARPs going mainstream!

But that didn’t happen. Apparently we believed what we wanted to believe because we wanted to believe it. I’d like to think Kindred: The Embraced failed to shift the Pop Culture Overton Window because it only lasted 8 episodes. Then again, it only lasted 8 episodes because the masses didn’t grok it and the fans barely recognized it.

Julian Luna, Venture Prince of San Fransisco, and Detective Frank Kohanek

There’s a thorough tear-down of the show on YouTube, so I won’t dive too deep into that. I want to talk about my meta-theory of why Kindred was the way it was.

I don’t think Kindred was meant to emulate the tabletop game. I think someone on the Hollywood side tried to adapt the LARP experience. Basically, the writers imagined the actors as ideal LARPers.

This was before terms like “high-trust” and “Nordic LARP” were in most gamers’ vocabulary. But that’s what Kindred was. A high-trust, narrativist LARP. As if there was a Storyteller on set giving out LOTS of bonus XP for melodramatic roleplaying.

And I mean a lot, because the drama and angst in the pilot was BEYOND cringe-inducing! The cringe smoothed out in the rest of the series, but it was still very 90s prime-time soap opera.

The showrunners shredded the lore. Probably out of fear that mundanes wouldn’t get it. The show did grok some aspects of Vampire. Backstabbing, backroom deals, power struggles, and treachery were all there. And that drama was due to both hunger for power and personal grudges, in about equal measure. There were even a few threats to the Masquerade. But the plots-within-plots of patient monsters were nowhere to be seen in Kindred.

This was probably the then-current LARP ruleset when Kindred premiered.

Kindred dabbled in the Deadly Decadent Court trope. Now that shit is fun. Mainly because courtly intrigue rarely has any real consequences for the courtiers. But again, Kindred didn’t have enough of it. The court wasn’t big enough to be interesting. The power games were fairly pedestrian.

That part was REALLY disappointing. Vampire fans loved that stuff. It’s what made the LARP more fun than the tabletop game. Court was the ultimate intellectual battlefield. Good and bad didn’t matter. Only sides and angles.

Further, the show left out almost all of the “personal horror”. But then, the LARP rules didn’t explore each character’s Beast as much as tabletop. Kindred: The Embraced framed Frenzies as a strategic disadvantage, not a moral failing. And that only came up once, in the first five minutes of the pilot.

TVtropes.com says the Kindred are “Ambiguously Evil,” and that also fits the LARP framework. The rules discouraged players from plunging into pure evil, and none of the show’s main cast were straight-up monsters. Lillie was probably the most evil series regular, and even she wasn’t sadistic or cruel. And Eddie was just greedy. At most, the show’s Kindred were cold-blooded. It was all business, even when it was personal.

For some gamers, the removal of two whole clans was a travesty. On top of that, they got the clans that were there wrong. The Gangrel were more like Brujah, the Brujah were more like Giovanni, and the Giovanni didn’t exist.

Fans of both the game and the show will say they left out eight clans. (Or seven, but we’ll get to that later.*) But the core 2nd edition book only featured the seven Camarilla clans, so only the Tremere and the Malkavians were actually missing. I guess blood magic and derangement-as-personality would have been too much for 90s TV.

THIS vampire burst into flames from being in the sun, but only because he was staked and hadn’t fed recently. Also, staking doesn’t cause torpor. I’m not sure what staking does other than allow for sun-induced-flame-bursting.

The lore changes go on and on…

Kindred could go out in daylight if they’d fed recently.
They could drink each other’s blood because Blood Bonding wasn’t a thing.
Humans didn’t become ghouls by drinking vampire blood. Instead, they were called “licks,” immune to vampire mind control… unless it interfered with the plot. But they weren’t servants, because, again, no Blood Bonds.
All clans had the same disciplines.
There was an *Assamite in episode 6. But they didn’t explain what an Assamite was other than a hired vampire killer who could shape-shift.
And many more…

Daedalus, the Nosferatu Primogen, and Julian.

When Kindred was canceled, there were rumors that it was moving to cable. Then the star died in a motorcycle accident. That dashed any hopes of a revival. Then again, they were only rumors. It’s very possible no one had any intention of bringing it back.

Kindred: The Embraced was about a decade too early. Buffy and Charmed came out the year after, but Kindred would have fit better alongside True Blood and, ironically, Underworld. Unfortunately, the brand got confusing with the whole Masquerade/Requiem thing. But keep in mind that a Warhammer 40,000 TV show is currently in the works. Can a new World of Darkness show be far behind?

Another editor’s note: If you want to know more about Vampire and its various editions, Geek & Sundry posted a great article on it a while back.