Stephen Herron
Interviewed by Jane Lambert

I met up with Stephen Herron in the Changeling chat room on the White Wolf website on August 13, 1997. It was 11am in sunny California and 7pm in a rainy Belfast, Ireland. Stephen is probably best know for his contributions to White Wolf’s "Court of all Kings" and his story "The Belfast Child".

Jane: First, I was curious how you came to play Changeling in the first place and how long you have been doing so.

Stephen: I had been waiting for Changeling for ages. I bought Vampire back in 1991, and was intrigued with the idea of the Faeries mentioned in the 'enemies' section. In fact, I started putting them into my Vampire games immediately ! I bought the Ars Magica sourcebook (Faeries) and continued to read up. Finally, when Changeling came out, I knew that I had found the WW game I had been waiting for. Not so much love at first sight, but before we even met kinda thing.

Jane: Well I can't say I have played that long, I think I started to play Vampire in 1994 or there abouts. I played a Malk and was curious about their faerie affinities. So how did it come about that you helped to write parts of "Court of All Kings?"

Stephen: I started writing the Belfast Child stories practically the same week I got the C:tD book. I had written the first two parts, and had written about 20,000 words of background info when I got brave, and emailed Ian Lemke, suggesting that I could help with some sort of Ireland Sourcebook. He mailed me back saying that there was already a book in progress, written by Nicky and Jackie. He forwarded my mail to them, and basically the next three months were a flurry of emails, four or five a day, as I sent them the stuff I had written, and helped them with the stuff they had already done. I gave them some Irish flavour to their work (I hope).

Jane: Isn't it wonderful what can be done with e-mail and the net? :) So which of your characters do you most closely identify with?

Stephen: Good question... ah, I suppose Robin... of all of the characters, she's the one I feel like, which is odd, since she's a tiny 13 year old girl and I'm a John Goodman-like 27 year old man. Perhaps, upon reflection, that is why... I use Kestry as my online character, but in Court of All Kings, there's a character called James Spencer, the Shanachie. Well, that's me. Actually. The character background is mine, and Nicky and Jackie asked me all sorts of questions to sort out the rest of the character. They sprang that on me much later, but there you go.

Jane: I like Robin, she is so easy to identify with, the way she is in school and wants to be out free. And how scared she was when she was in the iron cage! How evil! So will those characters be in your second set of books? I would like to see Kestry win.

Stephen: :I'm writing now as Duke Kestry, which should give the game away slightly ! Robin and Kestry will be in most of Book Two and Book Three, with a short break for one of them coming up in Chapter Two and Three of Book Two. There are some new characters in Book Two, which will take a slightly different direction, for a short time. There's a new character who was mentioned by name in Book One, but we haven't met him yet. He'll be very important, and he's not a Changeling. Kestry winning ? Well, he might, but Kestry was always more concerned with his people. What point is there in winning if his people get hurt along the way ? For Kestry, victory is keeping his city in one piece.

Jane: :Thats sounds like Kestry :) So may I ask a little about you? You mentioned you are 27. Have you lived in Ireland all your life?

Stephen: Yes, and it was my birthday last week ! So, I'm just 27, and I'm still wearing that particular age in. Feels like a mature 26. Yes, I've lived in Northern Ireland all my life, except for a five month stint in England, when I attended University there in 1989-1990. I dropped out of that course, and studied English at the University of Ulster. It's a very beautiful place, and I sometimes feel spoiled. A lot of the tainted glamour from Court of All Kings comes from my dislike of the tourist industry in Ireland. It's very Banal.

Jane: Well happy belated birthday! :) How long have you been into gaming? And if you could travel anywhere, where would you go? (I personally have always wanted to go to England, Scotland and Ireland, the pictures are so beautiful!)

Stephen: Thank you ! I've been into the RPG scene since 1982, so *looks pale* that's 15 years. Wow. More than half my life. My father was/is a wargamer (he plays Bridge now) and that's how I got into RPG's. When he was my age, he was writing his own Wargaming systems, so like father, like son. If I could travel anywhere, I'd like to go everywhere. I'd love to visit the US, but it's a bit pricey. I recently won a trip to Eurodisney (in a packet of sweets) so I'm off there in September with three friends. I'd like to go to New Zealand, actually, since I read somewhere once that only Ireland and New Zealand look green from earth's orbit. That sounded about right to me. I hope these answers are okay !

Jane: I need to go for now, it was a pleasure to talk to you and perhaps we can do so again soon.

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