Cerise Magazine

Kelley Barnes-Herrmann, who works as the Marketing Director for White Wolf and handles conventions for CCP, is an extremely busy woman. Fortunately for our readers, she was willing to take a little time out this month and answer some questions about her work and her gaming.

Robyn Fleming: I understand that you were a player and fan club member before becoming the Marketing Director for White Wolf – how did that transition come about?

Kelley Barnes-Herrmann: I was involved in the Camarilla, White Wolf’s official fan club, from early 1997. Over time I used my real life skills in event management to help organize and run conventions for the group – imagine 900+ people playing live action Vampire in a hotel for the weekend!

From that, I had the opportunity to work with several of the company employees over the years. In the fall of 2005, I received an email from Phil Boulle, my predecessor, saying, “I’m getting married and moving back to Canada. Would you like my job?”

It was a bit out of the blue, but I was ready for a career change and this would be a big one. I interviewed, was selected from the pool of candidates that White Wolf was considering for the position, moved to Atlanta two weeks after that and have been with the company ever since.

RF: Can you tell our readers a little bit about your job? What is a typical work day like for you?

KB-H: Right now, I wear two hats: Marketing Director for White Wolf Publishing and the Conventions and Tradeshow guru for CCP. My work days tend to run long and I never seem to leave for home at night with everything on my to-do list accomplished.

Aside from recurring weekly meetings for scheduling, development and marketing, I am never sure what the day will bring when I step into the office. And that’s partly why I love it. Things are never boring here!

I can spend the morning working with alternative publishing on adventure material and excerpts from forthcoming books, writing up marketing campaigns focused around one of our tentpole releases or I may be crafting the text for banner ads that play on industry related websites.

There is a constant daily battle with my inbox for me to clear things while I get more and more incoming inquiries. I deal with a diverse slate of requests: convention support, guest appearances, new stores wanting to order our products, customers asking about future products or products we no longer produce and employment inquiries.

Kelley Barnes-Herrmann Afternoons are mostly spent working on our convention commitments, everything from contracts to planning booth layout, to website announcements and related press releases. For our biggest shows, like Gen Con and PAX, we start the groundwork eight to six months in advance.

I may sit in on various playtesting sessions to better understand what products we’ll be releasing anywhere from six months to a year down the line. In addition, I take part in design team discussions for some of the products. For me it is a treat, since it’s not my area of expertise. When one of my ideas is added into the fabric of the work, it’s such a thrill.

The other big component of my day-to-day activity is taking part in management of the Camarilla as the Club Director. Coming from the fanbase means that helping to bring new people in and keep our current fans happy is a personal goal of mine. I work with a great group of volunteers from across the globe to promote our games, the club and its social, role-play and charity activities.

RF: What are some of the things that excite you about your work?

KB-H: My colleagues (and there are so many of them now). White Wolf merged with CCP in November of 2006; this brought new people to work with and a lot of energy. This fall we held the grand opening of our CCP North America offices in Atlanta and to be surrounded by so many brilliant people working on the diverse gaming products we manage just makes going to work a joy every morning.

That being said, I also love to travel and meet our customers in person. My role in the company gives me the chance to do just that, and to see places and cities I have always wanted to visit.

RF: Are there any projects that you’re involved with right now that are particularly exciting?

KB-H: Yes. We have Hunter: the Vigil coming out in August; the marketing for that product line in the World of Darkness will start kicking off in late March. It’s always a challenge to determine what we can share without giving too much away and this game has a lot of fans from the first incarnation years ago, so speculation is rampant about how we are changing it from what they know. I spend weeks with the production team crafting the information release schedule, working on the demo guides, posters, t-shirts and other goodies. That first day at Gen Con is always a high because our fans come rushing in as soon as the doors open to pick up the new core book. That’s when I know we’ve created a new hit.

Coming from the fanbase means that helping to bring new people in and keep our current fans happy is a personal goal of mine.

There are other projects on the table for 2009 and beyond that I would love to talk about, but then ninjas would find me, I would disappear and no one would be around to feed my dog, so I had best keep mum about those.

RF: What first attracted you to role-playing games?

KB-H: Oh. Hm. Blush. Well, I am the stereotypical “gamer girlfriend” who learned to play because she was dating a gamer back in high school. He was very smart, tall and had a great singing voice as well. (He’s also in electronic gaming now, based in Austin.) But, I became avid about roleplaying games when I got to college and discovered Paranoia and Call of Cthulhu.

RF: Are you actively involved in any games right now?

KB-H: I am playing in a live action game set in Casablanca being run at the office for about ten of us. We get together every other month right now because our schedules are so hectic.

When at conventions, I love to quietly sign up for various events and try things out. The National Security Decision Making Game is one I love, even if you have to clear several hours to play, and I enjoy Killer Bunnies. Recently, I have become addicted to the out of print box game Betrayal at House on the Hill. (This is a fabulous, fabulous game. If you can get a copy, do so!)

RF: White Wolf has something of a reputation for producing games that are particularly woman-friendly. Do you have any thoughts about that?

KB-H: It makes me proud. When taking part in design team meetings at the company, I feel my contributions are given equal consideration with my male coworkers. But, I don’t think that we actively try to make angle our games that way.

Our games have strong female signature characters that women can see themselves playing, or have inspired women to feel comfortable to create their own vision in these game settings.

Instead, we reached a critical mass percentage of women who like the World of Darkness, Exalted and Scion, and that has an influence on bringing in new players. I know when I see other women participating or interested in a specific game or company, that it draws my attention as well. And, if the game environment is respectful of women, I know I am more likely to get hooked.

I think that is what has happened with White Wolf Publishing. Our games have strong female signature characters that women can see themselves playing, or have inspired women to feel comfortable to create their own vision in these game settings.

RF: Do you have any advice for women who aspire to work in the gaming industry?

KB-H: When I started with the company, I was also the intern program manager and the last two interns brought in under my tenure were women and both are now valued employees in the Operations and Art departments at White Wolf.

What I learned from them and from being with the company the past two years is this: You don’t have to be a programmer or a writer to be in the gaming industry. Play to your strengths and start off in the areas where you excel. You will be surprised at the opportunities that currently exist in the gaming industry. If your ambition is to move into those specialties, there are benefits to cross-training and getting the guidance from your coworkers that will help you polish your skills.

For those interested in a writing career, my best advice is to keep at it. Right now we have an unsolicited submissions program for alternative publishing at White Wolf which is open to all aspiring writers. If you are interested, visit this link: http://www.white-wolf.com/MoreInfo/Submissions/GameGuidelines.php. I know we are always on the lookout for new talent to add to those our developers can call on to help flesh out upcoming books on the schedule.

Photograph courtesy of Kelley Barnes-Herrmann

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Industry Interview: Kelley Barnes-Herrmann

February 2008 Issue

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