Renegade Game Studios brings Interview with the Vampire to the tabletop with a new gothic horror RPG, inviting players to explore immortality, obsession, betrayal and the complicated business of being undead.
There are plenty of tabletop roleplaying games where the biggest threat is a dragon, a demon or something unpleasant lurking in a dungeon. But what if the greatest danger was someone you loved, someone you couldn’t leave behind, or perhaps the person you have become over the last few centuries?
That’s the intriguing proposition behind Anne Rice’s Immortal Universe Roleplaying Game, a new tabletop RPG from Renegade Game Studios, currently seeking support through a BackerKit crowdfunding campaign.
Drawing inspiration from AMC’s acclaimed television adaptations of Interview with the Vampire, Mayfair Witches and Talamasca: The Secret Order, the game invites players into Anne Rice’s richly atmospheric world of vampires, humans, supernatural intrigue and deeply complicated relationships (AKA: Sexy-time shenanigans).
A DIFFERENT KIND OF VAMPIRE STORY
At its heart, the Immortal Universe RPG is a gothic horror experience built around relationships, desire, loneliness, memory, devotion and the consequences of our choices.
Rather than concentrating solely on combat and traditional adventure mechanics, the game places character relationships and emotional storytelling firmly centre stage. Players will create their own stories involving vampires and ordinary humans whose lives become intertwined through love, loyalty, ambition and loss. Their chronicles can span decades or even centuries, exploring the personal costs and impossible decisions that come with immortality.
The game uses the distinctive 5d10 rules system, where success doesn’t necessarily mean everything goes according to plan. Even achieving your objectives can create unexpected complications, fresh tensions and potentially devastating consequences.
MEMORY, MADNESS AND THE POWER TO REWRITE THE PAST
One of the most interesting elements of the system is its approach to character development and storytelling.
Characters must contend with three forms of damage:
- Wounds: Physical injuries sustained during dangerous encounters.
- Despair: Emotional damage resulting from the experiences and relationships that shape a character’s life.
- Torment: Psychological suffering and the darker burdens carried by the character.
Healing isn’t simply a matter of finding a convenient medical kit. Characters recover by engaging with their personalities, passions and relationships through roleplaying.
Two particularly intriguing mechanics are Flashback and Rewrite.
Flashbacks allow players to revisit events from their characters’ pasts, potentially changing their understanding of what happened. These can be short scenes or even entire sessions exploring another character’s history. The Rewrite mechanic gives players a degree of narrative control, allowing them to introduce details or connections that can alter the circumstances of a scene.
Need to explain how your character knows the mysterious dockworker who can help dispose of an inconvenient body before sunrise? Perhaps you simply remember an old favour. It’s a clever approach that makes a character’s history an active part of the storytelling rather than something written down on a character sheet and promptly forgotten.
WHO WILL YOU BECOME?
Players can choose between three broad character types:
Human: Ordinary people who may be aware of the supernatural world, protect vampire secrets or find themselves caught up in immortal affairs. Their connections to families and communities give them a different perspective and opportunities within the story.
Fledgling Vampire: Relatively young vampires, created within the last century, who possess considerable power but retain elements of their former humanity. They’re still learning to control their abilities and the darker impulses that accompany their new existence.
Experienced Vampire: Immortals who have had decades or centuries to develop their supernatural gifts. However, longevity brings its own problems, particularly loneliness, complicated histories and relationships that refuse to stay buried.
Character creation also introduces Fascinations, representing the passions and defining aspects of a character’s personality. Players establish personal possessions, important contacts and their feelings towards the other members of their coven.
START YOUR CHRONICLE IN NEW ORLEANS
The crowdfunding campaign introduces the game through the world of Interview with the Vampire, with two major products forming the foundation of the experience.
Interview with the Vampire Starter Set
Designed to make the game accessible to newcomers and experienced roleplayers alike, the Starter Set includes everything needed to begin exploring the Immortal Universe.
It features the introductory chronicle A Scent of Cloves and Lilac, set in New Orleans in 1949.
Players take the roles of fledgling vampires abandoned by their maker, Lestat de Lioncourt. When their coven discovers that someone has entered their home, an investigation begins which soon develops into a murder mystery involving grief, secrets and uncomfortable truths.
The Starter Set also includes a Learn-to-Play booklet, dice, maps, props and visual aids.
Interview with the Vampire: New Orleans Rulebook
For groups ready to create their own chronicles, the hardcover rulebook expands the setting across the years 1910–2020, fitting between established events in the television series.
Players can develop original human and vampire characters, create their own stories and potentially encounter familiar figures such as Lestat, Louis and Claudia.
The book will be available in a standard hardcover edition and a limited-edition Collector’s Hardcover with slipcase.
COLLECTABLES, DICE AND DIGITAL PLAY
As you might expect from a crowdfunding campaign celebrating such an iconic gothic universe, there are plenty of additional goodies available.
Highlights include:
- Three character-themed liquid-core dice sets inspired by Claudia, Louis and Lestat.
- Additional First Bite and Little Drink dice sets.
- A premium conflict tracker.
- Deluxe tokens.
- A Narrator Screen.
- A Chronicle Journal.
- Additional accessories and collectables.
For those who prefer their roleplaying adventures around a virtual table, Renegade has also partnered with Alchemy, Foundry and Roll20 to provide virtual tabletop modules.
These cover both the Starter Set and the New Orleans rulebook, including digital maps, character sheets, NPCs, tokens and integrated rules references.
THE ETERNAL ARCHIVES: MORE IMMORTAL STORIES TO COME
Another interesting feature of the campaign is the inclusion of Eternal Archives 2028.
Backers pledging at the Vampire level or above will receive a year of additional digital content, delivered in six instalments beginning in November 2027.
The releases will explore six central traits of the Immortal Universe system:
Cunning, Rapport, Grit, Knowledge, Grace and Might.
Expect additional locations, characters, antagonists, story ideas, Fascinations, assets, items and cursed gifts.
Interestingly, Renegade has opted not to use traditional funding-based stretch goals. Instead, the campaign presents its planned content from the outset, with the Eternal Archives providing an additional benefit for qualifying backers.
THE CAMPAIGN HAS ALREADY HIT A CHORD
The crowdfunding campaign has already comfortably surpassed its initial $25,000 funding target.
At the time of checking on 4 November 2026, it had raised more than $260,000 from over 1,100 backers. Clearly, there are plenty of fans eager to explore the darker corners of Anne Rice’s universe.
The project is currently scheduled to close on 19 November 2026 at 9pm UTC, with delivery of the roleplaying game currently anticipated for Autumn 2027.
THE FOREVER GEEK VERDICT
What makes this project particularly interesting is that it isn’t simply taking a familiar television property and dressing it up as another conventional fantasy roleplaying game.
Instead, the Immortal Universe RPG appears to understand what makes Anne Rice’s world so compelling: the personalities, the relationships, the loneliness, the moral compromises and the emotional consequences of living far longer than anyone reasonably should.
The emphasis on character-driven storytelling, memories, flashbacks and emotional damage offers something rather different from the usual dungeon-crawling experience.
For fans of Interview with the Vampire, gothic horror and roleplaying games that put storytelling ahead of simply defeating the next monster, this could be a particularly tempting proposition.
And let’s face it, sometimes the most terrifying thing a roleplaying character can encounter isn’t a monster in the darkness. It’s an ex who remembers everything.
Find out more and support the campaign:
Anne Rice’s Immortal Universe RPG – Interview with the Vampire on BackerKit
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