At its most basic, Annalise is a game about making Vampire stories. Each player takes on the role of a protagonist in a Gothic horror story - a creature, whether a literal or metaphorical Vampire - is the central pivot around which your characters revolve, and the rules of the game guide you in discovering its nature and eventually confronting it. The game is designed for short-to-medium turn play (3-6 sessions), but one-shot and convention play is facilitated by the included Guided Play Scenarios.
Annalise is about creating vampire stories from the perspective not of the vampire, but of its victims, servants, enemies, and others affected by its appetite. Sometimes games play out like a Bram Stoker story, sometimes like an Anne Rice novel, and sometimes like a Stephen King thriller. In the process of play, the group discovers and defines the Vampire. The Vampire literally can be a blood-drinking, undead creature or it can be a metaphorical entity that requires something of a less grotesque nature for its survival. No one creates the creature before play, and no one is solely responsible for playing the creature.