Black Dog Game Factory was a publishing label founded in 1995 by White Wolf, Inc. for the publication of a number of adult-themed books in their original World of Darkness RPG line. Although several products were critically acclaimed, the audience was limited, and Black Dog ceased publication in 2002.
White Wolf Publishing published Vampire: The Masquerade in 1991, the first in a series of horror role-playing games titled World of Darkness. In 1994, Dirt Merchant Games published the satirical RPG HoL that used several adult themes like sex and drugs. White Wolf Publishing was interested in republishing HoL, but they were concerned it might damage the company's reputation as a publisher of entertainment intended for young adults. For that reason, White Wolf created the Black Dog Game Factory imprint, lifting the name from a company mentioned in Werewolf: The Apocalypse (1991). [1] : 25
White Wolf also used the Black Dog imprint to release more adult-themed supplements for Vampire, [2] Werewolf, Mage , and Wraith in 1995. After that initial flurry of activity, output from Black Dog decreased to an average of two books a year. As game historian Shannon Appelcline noted in 2014's Designers & Dragons, "In many ways, these Black Dog books represented a return to form for White Wolf. They offered up new ways to present innovative material, just as Vampire had been cutting edge back when it appeared on the gaming scene in 1991. Some of that innovation was noticed. Charnel Houses of Europe: The Shoah (1997) — which adapted the Holocaust for Wraith — and the four-volume, award-winning Giovanni Chronicles (1995–1999) — which traced a family from the 1400s to the modern day — both earned attention and acclaim for White Wolf." [1] : 25
The constant friction between pushing the envelope and damaging White Wolf's reputation eventually led to the end of Black Dog. Appelcline explained that "Despite that critical acclaim, Black Dog's smaller audience and the chance that it could still damage the reputation of White Wolf with its more intense and grittier subject matter eventually spelled the end for the imprint. Like Streetfighter , Black Dog was another attempt to break new ground in the late '90s that ultimately went nowhere." [1] : 25 The last publication produced under the Black Dog name was in 2002.
Books published by Black Dog had adult or mature themes, though not all Black Dog-published books dealt with sexual material. Some are labeled as adult because they deal with themes of strong violence or evil (such as Hunter Book: Wayward), religious themes (Cainite Heresy), or controversial subject matter (the Holocaust-based Charnel Houses of Europe: The Shoah ).
Books published by Black Dog include:
| Name | Game Line | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
The Giovanni Chronicles , a four-part series
| Vampire: The Masquerade | |
| Montreal by Night | Vampire: The Masquerade | November 1, 1996 [6] |
| Clanbook: Baali | Vampire: The Dark Ages | June 1, 1998 [7] |
| The Cainite Heresy | Vampire: The Dark Ages | February 24, 1999 [8] |
| Freak Legion: A Player's Guide to Fomori | Werewolf: The Apocalypse | December 1, 1995 [9] |
| Destiny's Price | Mage: The Ascension | December 1, 1995 [10] |
| Charnel Houses of Europe: The Shoah | Wraith: The Oblivion | February 1, 1997 [11] |
| Dark Reflections: Spectres | Wraith: The Oblivion | December 1, 1995 [12] |
| Dead Magic | Mage: The Ascension | July 2000 [13] |
| HoL: Human Occupied Landfill | Hol (role-playing game) | 1995 (re-release) |
| Hunter Book: Wayward | Hunter: The Reckoning | January 28, 2002 [14] |
The imprint also published Eternal Hearts, an erotic novel set in the universe of Vampire: The Masquerade . A book for Aberrant , titled Cults of Personality, was planned for release, but the game line was cancelled before the book made it to print.
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 and White Wolf Magazine, and was initially led by Mark Rein-Hagen of the former and Steve Wieck and Stewart Wieck of the latter. White Wolf Publishing, Inc. merged with CCP Games in 2006. White Wolf Publishing operated as an imprint of CCP hf, but ceased in-house production of any material, instead licensing their properties to other publishers. It was announced in October 2015 that White Wolf had been acquired from CCP by Paradox Interactive. In November 2018, after most of its staff were dismissed for making controversial statements, it was announced that White Wolf would no longer function as an entity separate from Paradox Interactive.
Vampire: The Masquerade is a tabletop role-playing game created by Mark Rein-Hagen and released in 1991 by White Wolf Publishing as the first of several Storyteller System games for its World of Darkness setting line. It is set in a fictionalized "gothic-punk" version of the modern world where players assume the role of vampires, who are referred to as "Kindred", and deal with their night-to-night struggles against their own bestial natures, vampire hunters, and each other.
Vampire: The Dark Ages is a tabletop role-playing game published by White Wolf Publishing in March 1996. It is a spin-off from Vampire: The Masquerade, also published by White Wolf, which is set in modern times. It was released in a new edition in 2002 as Dark Ages: Vampire, and in 2015 as Vampire Twentieth Anniversary Edition: The Dark Ages.
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Mark Rein-Hagen, stylized as Mark Rein•Hagen, is an American role-playing, card, video and board game designer best known as the creator of Vampire: The Masquerade and its associated World of Darkness games. Along with Jonathan Tweet, he is also one of the original two designers of Ars Magica.
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Charnel Houses of Europe: The Shoah is a supplement published by the Black Dog imprint of White Wolf Publishing in March–April 1997 for the horror role-playing game Wraith: The Oblivion, itself part of the series of horror role-playing games known as World of Darkness.
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