L-R: Aron Anderson, Kyle Namvar, Jana (Ophelie) Wright, Lee,
Wade Racine, Cory Smith, Wayne Young.
As well as being founding members of the largest international Vampire fan club, all of them were employees of Wizards of the Coast (WOTC), makers of Magic: The Gathering (M:TG). Wade Racine was in charge of role playing game, Ars Magica, that WOTC had been making before the infamous card game. Kyle Namvar and Scott Hungerford developed WOTC's seventh expansion set for M:TG, Homelands.
This picture by Don McCaskill was take on the front steps of Victoria's Empress Hotel in 1994, if you know where any of these people are today, please comment below.
Image © 1994 Don McCaskill
Tags Magic:the Gathering Camerilla gothic Wizards of The Coast Vampire Masqurade
8 comments:
The picture is lovely -- but the names aren't quite correct. From left to right:
Aaron Anderson, Kyle Namvar, Jana Wright, ?, Wade Racine, Cory Smith, Wayne Young (now Alex von Hochtricht, though I'm not certain of the spelling).
While the text regarding Scott Hungerford is accurate, he does not appear in the picture.
6 of the 7 worked at Wizards at some point between 1993 and 1995. The young woman (who is not Rhias Hall) did not, as far as I can remember.
I worked at WotC from Early 1993 through to very early 1996. I am known online as Twilight2000.
I'm surprised that picture keeps popping up. The names, however, are somewhat inaccurate. From left to right...Aron Anderson (yes, just one "a" in his first name), Kyle Namvar, Jana Wright, Lee (sorry, forgot last name), Corey Smith, and Wayne Young (now Alex von Hochtritt, spelling correct). We all worked at WotC at the time, including Lee. The location of the picture was accurate. At the time, all seven of us lived in a rambling old house just off of 25th Ave NE in Seattle. Also, I was not in charge of the Vampire collectible card game. I was in charge of the Ars Magica roleplaying game at WotC.
As for where they are now:
--Aron runs a comic/game shop in Seattle's University District.
--Kyle moved to Palm Springs and last I heard he had purchased an apartment building with his WotC stock.
--Jana lives in Seattle and works in the computer industry.
--I last saw Lee at GenCon 2006 in Indianapolis, where she was working registration for the convention.
--Wade (that's me) lives in Washington, D.C., and works as an international analyst for a think tank.
--Corey moved around a bit, but last I heard he was back in the Pacific Northwest.
--Alex still lives in Seattle.
As for the original founding members of the Camarilla, only two are pictured here...myself and Jana. The Camarilla was founded in 1992. By 1994, there had been some changes, and Corey and Alex were on the Board of Directors at the time of this photo.
--Wade Racine
By the way, the original members of the Camarilla Inner Circle (later the Board of Directors) are as follows:
Matt Burke
Jana Wright
Wade Racine
Lucinda Ziegler
Terry Wyatt
Terri Jones-Wyatt
Eric Carlson
Mary Baker
Matt Basket
(and another individual who was around for only a few months)
Scott Hungerford was not an original member of the Inner Circle, but he might as well have been, given he was in on it from the start. The same goes for Jane Izumoto.
Jana could probably fill in the blanks and correct my errors.
--Wade Racine
I have now updated the text and hope I got it all correct. Its amazing what the mind remembers, or doesn't after some twelve years.
I didn't remember that Terry & Terri where founder, though Wyatt did sign my, House Athanisia, into Chapter status as the first Canadian Chapter.
Thanks for the update Wade, its good to head from you.
Don McCaskill
A correction:
I actually just got of the phone with Kyle. He is now married with a kid on the way, and a nurse-practitioner in nine palms california. He DID buy an apartment building with his WoTC money, but has since sold it because as he said to me a few years back 'being a landlord sucks.'
- Julian
Hey, Sonder...if there is any chance you can get Kyle to get in touch with me, I'd appreciate it. Have him Google me or something, or maybe we can figure out another way to exchange contact info. Thanks. --Wade
I'm trying to get in touch with Wade. A group of dudes he used to know in Germany are getting together for a reunion and wanted to see if he were interested. He can email me at pookawa@hotmail.com
I'd love to get in touch with Kyle as well. We were really good friends in high school but I lost touch with him afterword. I'm pretty sure I was there for the first public sale of Magic at Games n Gizmos but it was so long ago it's hard to remember. I just remember thinking "stupid card game, that will never take off..." :).
-Donby
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