The Blood Moon Social Club hosted its
first Live Action Roll Play [LARP] based around Mark Rein*Hagen's
controversial and disturbing Vampire the Masquerade on Halloween of
1993.
The event was sponsored by the Kool Kollectables comic and game
store and took place at the Road Runner Ranch. Most people think
that was the beginning. In fact the curators of the RR Ranch were no
strangers to disturbing events or controversy.
The year was 1989 and we had built a
large Santa Fe style hacienda at the end of quarter-hores lane,
twenty miles from Las Vegas. Surrounded by open range and a few
scattered neighbors. We had a herd of twenty-five horses and a
menagerie of calves, sheep, peacocks assorted poultry, a pig and a
goat. In town we had a pet shop Parrot Gallery and there we had
birds, fish, reptiles and even giant black scorpions and tarantulas.
The 'We' in this Dude Ranch project was my wife
Carol our sons Patrick and Philip and our partner Marilyn Gubler.
Marilyn was from a prominent
politically connected family and she had two adorable children Laura
and her little brother Matt.
The project was to build a retreat from
Vegas where family and guests could ride horses, have BBQs and
quietly chill out. At least that was the plan but from the beginning
'quiet' was never achieved.
Saturday nights were always raucous for
the bunkhouse crew were a rowdy bunch. Drinking hard and getting into
fights over poker but such is the way of wandering saddle bums. But
wait I said 1989 not 1889.
Although when the bark of gunfire stung
the eardrums and gun-smoke chocked the nostrils, one was transported
back in time briefly to a day when gunfighters and gamblers cavorted
with dance hall girls of questionable morality. Vegas hadn’t
changed much in a hundred years.
The Road Runner Ranch was known for
its wild west theme parties and other things. There was a darker
side to all those cowboy shenanigans. From time to time my wife Carol
and sons Patrick and Phillip shed our big hats and boots and donned
costumes of a darker more sinister look and we took our crew along
with us. For to work at the ranch meant you had to play dress up with
the eccentric owners no matter how bizarre those games were. One
could surmise that we were a red-neck version of the Addams Family.
We then ventured into the desert
littered with old mine shafts. Imagine the 'new guy's' nervous
questions when instructed to load gallons of volatile liquid and a
black coffin. The plumes of flame and smoke could be seen for miles.
The crew were a mishmash of carneys, vagabonds, and even reputable
citizens on the lame from responsibility, their rough and course
manner made the locals nervous.
The sparsely populated neighborhood was
already suspicious. So when they saw us with live snakes dressed in
black and cammo setting fires, naturally they summoned the local
constabulary. On more than one occasion I had to explain that we were
merely shooting low budget movies, with my new digital video camera. “Well, the neighbors think you’re practicing witchcraft and sacrificing animals,” said the cop with a grim eye on the snake and the black cat.
“As you can see officer the critters are alive and well and if you will step inside the house you can view the tape for yourself.”
“No thanks Mr. Vetter just keep it down,” he said and quickly left a flurry of dust in his wake.
I suspect he'd seen enough horror movies to know that when the creepy man invites the snoopy cop into the scary house... Don't go!
Young Matt grew and developed a morbid
fascination for Magic, Halloween parties and all things of a
frightening nature. Laura had a keen eye for fashion and perhaps
being older and female leaned more toward normal.
We had just framed a large guest house
and Halloween was right around the bend. So we stopped building and
decided to do a one time Halloween blow out. I suggested to all that
with no interior walls in the gust house we could do anything and
after the party just slap up drywall and paint over the evidence. The
idea was roundly accepted. We took black and red spray paint and
tagged evil imagery all over the bare walls and spent a month
decorating and coming up with scary ideas. The Gublers invited all
their friends and we painted up our crew. Frankly that was easy they
didn't need much help to make them look scary. The party was a smash,
young and old ran screaming through our haunted house and the roar of my
chainsaw no doubt frightened the neighbors as well.
We had gruesome fun in those nights, we
made a zombie move and staged Road Warrior battles. But alas as the
80s had come and gone it was time for reinvention. We sold off our
live stock and put away our guns and boots. I had been dragging my
wife to gamer cons for a while and that's where she got the idea of
starting a comic shop. I'd seen Vampire the Masquerade demoed at one
and shortly after Kool Kollectables emerged.
It wouldn't be long before the
RR Ranch would be crawling with Vampires, werewolves and all manner
of fiendish monsters.
Our dear friend and patron Marilyn
parted with us and started the Sandy Valley Movie Ranch. Which is
even more spectacular than anything we had previously. Laura married
a fine gentleman and had a son and still has her hand in fashion.
Poor Matthew never out grew his
infatuation with magic and creepyness. He went on to the NY film
school and now he's an actor, director and staring in Suburban Gothic
a comedy horror film winning all kinds of critical praise and awards.
And to think he could have been anything, a respectable doctor,
lawyer or even a... politician.
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