It is set in a fictionalized 'gothic-punk' version of the modern world, where players assume the role of vampires, who are referred to as 'Kindred', and deal with their night-to-night struggles against their own bestial natures, vampire hunters and each other. Vampire: The Masquerade is a tabletop role-playing game (tabletop RPG) created by Mark Rein-Hagen and released in 1991 by White Wolf Publishing as the first of several Storyteller System games for its World of Darkness setting line.