The World of Darkness is a terrifying place where monsters roam the streets, and fans of theLA By Nightstreaming series wait for well over a dang year for the final season to premiere.
Well, joy of joys: it’s finally here! The last season of the currentLA By Nightchronicle airson Friday, 3 September at 8PM PST(that’s today if you’re reading this hot off the press).
LA By Night, for those unfamiliar, is a streaming show set in theWorld of Darkness. Specifically, it’s a group of actors and a designated “Storyteller,” playing the gameVampire: The Masqueradeon camera.
They roll dice, improvise, and act out their characters’ actions just like regular tabletop RPG groups do, but their performance is geared more towards telling an entertaining and compelling story to watch than it is towards “winning” at a game.
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The format’s long been popular with RPG gamers and streaming fans, butLA By Night’ssubject matter and stellar cast make it one of the most compelling versions there is.
Watching humans pretending to be monsters is what got me through 2020.
I interviewed fan-favorite cast members Erika Ishii and B Dave Walters, who play Annabelle and Baron Victor Temple respectively, to find out how they felt about the upcoming season five debut.
First off, the excitement was so thick you could feel it despite the fact we were on a video chat.
Both actors asserted that they were looking forward to being as surprised by the events of the season as the rest of us.
Ishii warned me that, after such a long absence, “a very different Anabelle comes back,” and Walters boomed out a prophecy in Victor’s deep voice that “things happen.”
As for what’s changed, the actors promise big shockers throughout the season, but there are also subtle things that eventheydon’t know about yet.
This season was pre-taped, so the actors are done with their part, but as Walters told me:
This season, more than any other, there was a concerted effort to keep us in the dark.
Vampire puns aside, the big idea here was a combination of COVID safety – Ishii said they were “very, very COVID conscious” – and storytelling ambition.
When I asked if this season would have more gravitas than previous seasons, Walters laughed and said “you could describe it asweighty.” Ishii just said one word: “intensity!”
If you’re looking to get caught up, the first three seasons are available on YouTube viaGeek and Sundryand the fourth season is on theWorld of Darkness channel.
Tonight’s season premiere debutson Twitch, but will be made availableon YouTube… sometime after.
Story byTristan Greene
Tristan is a futurist covering human-centric artificial intelligence advances, quantum computing, STEM, physics, and space stuff. Pronouns:(show all)Tristan is a futurist covering human-centric artificial intelligence advances, quantum computing, STEM, physics, and space stuff. Pronouns: He/him
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