Alessio Cavatore

TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF

I was born in Turin, Italy, forty years ago. My highschool was classic-oriented (Greek, Latin, history and philosophy...). The I changed to science, getting a degree in biology, which I finished in the UK with the Open University, after moving to Nottingham in 1996 to work for Games Workshop as a translator. After a year or so, my job at GW changed to games designer. Fifteen years later, in 2010, I went self-employed, making my own company to create my own games and sell my sword out as a mercenary games designer to other companies that make wargames. I'm married and I have a four-years old daughter.

HOW DID YOU GET INTO GAMING?

I started writing rules when I was about eight, to play games with plastic HO-scale toy soldiers on the chequred wooden floor of my bedroom. And the house cat normnally won those games, crushing entire armies with his gigantic paws.

Then, at fifteen or so, I discovered D&D in a club in ton and role-played for quite a few years, and then, a few years later I saw these people playing a game of something that looked awesome: Warhammer! I started a Skaven army, won the Italian tournament (it was still very small...), and that shaped my future career.

WHAT IS IT YOU FIND SO APPEALING ABOUT GAMING?

Like all geeks, I have a vivid imagination, and when I play something, it's easy for me to identify with whatever characters/armies I am in control of, from my Elf in Lord of the Rings Online, to the Captain commanding my platoon in Bolt Action.

SHARE A FAVOURITE GAMING MOMENT WITH US

Oh, dear, there are so many! Maybe that all-encompassing experience of playing a single game of "Empires in arms" that lasted months and months. The banter and some of the betrayals that happened during that campaign still have repercussions today. People still attack other players to avenge events that happened now ten years ago!

WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY PLAYING?

I'm playing lots of war games (Kings of War, Warpath, Bolt Action, Fanticide, Deus Vult, and some more that I cannot name yet), but this is playtesting more than playing for fun, which counts as work!

I'm playing a lot of Shuuro, Wrath of the Elements on facebook – that's a free, online, fantasy version of my game Shuuro that allows you to play your friends and players all over the world. We have recently added a campaign mode, where you conquer the world of Loka by defeating opponents in game of Shuuro. But I guess you could say that it also counts as work.

So, to relax I play computer games (like LOTRO) and board games (Galactica, Small World). One day I'll find the time to resume role-play!

CAN YOU TELL US WHAT YOUR FAVOURITE GAMES ARE?

Excluding any game I wrote or co-wrote (that would seem weird):

War games: Warhammer 5th edition. Blackpowder.

Role Play games: Serenity/Firefly

Board Games: Empires in arms, Fortress America, Axis & Allies Pacific, Smallworld, Battlestar Galactica, Condottiere

WHAT WAS THE LAST GAME YOU PLAYED?

Shuuro, Wrath of the elements, just a few minutes ago... it's just too addictive!

WHICH PRODUCTS HAVE YOU HAD YOUR WORK PUBLISHED IN?

The list is quite long. It's easier to check my portfolio here:

http://www.slideshare.net/cavatore

ARE YOU WORKING ON ANY GAMING-RELATED PROJECTS AT THE MOMENT?

Oh yes! River Horse is engaged in making eight different game systems for five different companies around the world. Exciting times ahead. Sadly, I cannot disclose more about quite a few of these upcoming games, and if I did, then I'd have to kill ya.     ;-)

TELL US A BIT ABOUT SHUURO AND HOW IT CAME TO BE.

One day, many years ago, I remembered that when they teach you to play chess, they tell you that a bishop or a knight is worth three pawns, and a rook is worth five pawns, while a queen is worth nine pawns... (it's called realtive value of chess pieces, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_piece_relative_value ). As a wargame designers, it occurred to me that it is just a simple points values system, where a pawn is worth 1, a bishop/knight is worth 3, a rook 5 and queen 9. The next question was of course: if you could exchane chess pieces for points and use the points to buy different chess pieces, what would you do? Or indeed, if you had different amount of points on different size boards, what would you buy? 

There and then, Shuuro was conceived. The plinths were an early attempt to balance out the decreased value of Knights on the big 12x12 board, but soon it was clear that they were nothing more than pieces of terrain (a bit like fortified positions). So, it made more and more sense to develop an 'abstract wargame' system, that uses chess as the rules and chess pieces as playing pieces, making the game easily accessible to people (most people know the rules of chess), but sets the games in different size battlefields (i.e. boards), with variable terrain on!

After a few years of experience, I realise now that some people are a bit afraid of chess, as they think "I'm not good at chess", and they won't give Shuuro a go because of this 'chess phobia'. The ones that do soon realise that Shuuro is a lot more chaotic than chess and enjoy it. However, to appease those fears, I think I'll move Shuuro one step closer to wargame in its next expansion, making the combat not as straightforward as chess ('the piece that attacks, wins'), but rather resolved by an opposed dice roll, modified by the value of the pieces and the support of other pieces... stay tuned for those rules to be released soon!

 

WHAT WAS IT LIKE WORKING AT GAMES WORKSHOP, AND WHICH PRODUCTS ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF WORKING ON DURING YOUR TIME THERE?

It was a great experience, which taught all I know about writing games and working in this business. I worked alongside and learnt from some of the finest games designers in the world, men that I am proud of calling my friends and mentors. I am thinking in particular of Rick Priestley and Jervis Johnson. 

As far as products, I am most proud of 40K fifth edition and The Lord of the Rings strategy battle game, both of which have a lot of me in them.    

DO YOU HAVE ANY WEBPAGES OR SOCIAL NETWORK ACCOUNTS WHERE FANS CAN FIND YOU?

Absolutely! I'm on facebook and on LinkedIn, and of course here: http://www.riverhorse.eu/about.htm

Angus Abranson

TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF
Hi. I’m Angus Abranson. Over the years I’ve done a variety of roles related
to games and gaming, from working as a Saturday boy at a local games
store (which I later went on to manage), magazine contributor and assistant
editor, writer/designer of RPGs and Miniature skirmish games, a long stint (10
years) in The Camarilla (White Wolf’s global fan club – I started off running
the London branch in the UK and ended up heading their International
Development program which was great fun and also allowed me to travel to
places such as Brazil to meet and help the affiliate branch there), part owner
of Nightfall Games (the company behind SLA Industries) and founder of
Cubicle 7 Entertainment (whom I left after 8 years last December) and now
Chronicle City, my new baby
Apart from being an avid gamer I’m also a massive music fan (both live and
recorded), love films, comics, books and seem to have a wardrobe full of black
(or shades of black) t-shirts.


HOW DID YOU GET INTO GAMING?
I’d been boardgaming, and making up my own little games, ever since I can
remember but got into Roleplaying in 1984 when I spent some time living in
the States. I’d previously played some of the Fighting Fantasy books written
by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson (the UK version :p) and really enjoyed
those and then on the second day I was in the States my cousins introduced
me to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and I was hooked. I very shortly
afterwards played Top Secret, was given my own AD&D Players Handbook
and Dungeon Masters Guide for Christmas, moved back to the UK, found a
store in central London, brought MERP and got involved in a school group.
The rest is, as they say, history.


WHAT IS IT YOU FIND SO APPEALING ABOUT GAMING?
It’s a combination of both the stories that unfold and develop as well as the
social aspect of hanging out and playing with friends. I love playing in long
running campaigns where you can really see the characters and group evolve,
the in-jokes develop, certain situations go down in the annals of the gaming
group ‘lore’ to be recounted years later as well as shorter campaigns, and
one-offs, which have a definitive start, middle and end upon which the story is
complete (whether the characters survive or not). At the end of the day it’s the
great imagination and fun you can have.


SHARE A FAVOURITE GAMING MOMENT WITH US
There’s been loads over the years but one that stands out was an impromptu
no rules game that we ended up playing at an old flat I lived in. There ended
up being five of us and we just started running a systemless game with two
players and three GMs. There was no communication between the GMs and
the two characters started off in completely separate places. Each GM took it
in turn running a scene for alternate players. So GM1 ran a scene for Player
1, GM2 then ran Player 2s scene, GM3 then took over from where GM1 left
off with Player 1, GM1 for Player 2 and so forth – rotating through as the
twin stories developed. It could have gone horribly wrong but it was fantastic
seeing the stories develop, the characters slowly collecting clues to the overall
picture and discovering answers to questions that the other player characters
dilemmas. In the end both characters ended up in the same location (The
Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco) to solve the puzzle – but a hundred
years apart. Between them they managed to defeat the supernatural ‘Big Bad’
but only because of the actions of both characters in their own timelines – and
never realising that they were only half of the overall tale.
We only ever did that the once but it was a truly memorable evening. Improv
can be great.


WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY PLAYING?
I’m not actually involved in any RPG at present. We’re looking at starting up
a game at the house (with my housemates and my girlfriend) but haven’t
decided on what to actually play yet. It will probably be one of the new games
that Chronicle City is publishing though – although I’d also really like to play
Dresden Files or a more ‘Supernatural’ inspired game.


CAN YOU TELL US WHAT YOUR FAVOURITE GAMES ARE?
I have loads of favourites for a whole variety of reasons. My top ten is
probably fairly fluid beyond the Top 5, and even then they can chop and
change. My all time favourite is probably Call of Cthulhu, but games such
as Marvel Superheroes (TSR’s Advanced Set), TORG, Kult, Deadlands,
Vampire: The Masquerade, Hunter: The Reckoning, Warhammer Fantasy
Roleplay, Victoriana, the Iron Kingdoms setting for D&D, 7th Sea, Traveller,
Amber and Cyberpunk 2020 all feature strongly. I’ve had loads of fun with
most of the games I’ve played over years – from classics such as Bunnies
& Burrows and Golden Heroes to newer games such as Dead of Night and


Clockwork & Chivalry.


WHAT WAS THE LAST GAME YOU PLAYED?
Airship Pirates. When I was back in London for a few days I hooked up with
my old games group and joined in their game. It was also the first experience
of roleplaying for my girlfriend and was run by Andrew Peregrine (who has
written for loads of games and companies over the years) who actually
designed the Heresy Engine (for Victoriana) which Airship Pirates uses. The
game I had played before that was also Airship Pirates actually, I really enjoy
the setting.


WHICH PRODUCTS HAVE YOU HAD YOUR WORK PUBLISHED IN?
The first game (outside of magazine work) that I had material published in
was a cyberpunk skirmish game/RPG called Dark Winter that was released
in 1992/93 (I think) by a company I was co-owner of called Network X. It was
pretty much a low budget student project but we got the Virgin Megastore
chain (whom used to have a large games section at the time herein the UK)
to stock it, promoted it around various conventions and sold a couple of
thousand copies of it over the course of a couple of years or so.
A lot of the 90’s was actually spent doing magazine work and playtesting for
other companies (mainly White Wolf and Steve Jackson Games) as a lot of
my time was taking up either actually playing/running games, running Leisure
Games (the retail store I was working at) and also helping run The Camarilla.
When I left The Camarilla in 2003 it was mainly so I could dedicate myself to
starting up Cubicle 7 and actually finally start publishing games. Unfortunately
running a games company generally means I was doing a lot of the business
type affairs rather than the fun writing bit – although it did mean that I could
decide what we should be releasing and write up project outlines and hire
writers to then take the outline and ideas and mold them in to an actual game/
book.


ARE YOU WORKING ON ANY GAMING-RELATED PROJECTS AT THE
MOMENT?
I’ve recently just started a new publishing company called Chronicle City.
There has been lots of ‘behind the scenes’ business setup and foundation
building going on so I’ve not had much time to put pen to paper (or finger to


keyboard in a creative manner). I’m working with over twenty other companies
and designers helping them bring their games to print through our print
partnership scheme but we also have a number of games we are looking at
creating ourselves (as well as possibly some older games we’re looking at
rebooting and/or licensing) which I’ll be having a more direct involvement with.
That’s Phase 2 of the plan, but it’s already started moving so hopefully I’ll
actually be able to do some more writing again.


DO YOU HAVE ANY WEBPAGES OR SOCIAL NETWORK ACCOUNTS
WHERE FANS CAN FIND YOU?
Chronicle City has a website that should be up soon (www.chroniclecity.com)
as well as a Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/chroniclecity) and a
Twitter account (@Chronicle_City).
I also have a Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/angus.abranson) and
a Twitter account (@Angus_A). I tend to be a pretty frequent Facebook poster
on my own account though, so be warned!

"The Warden"

The Warden (not his real name) is an author and publisher who is best known (at least, so far) for his tenure at Emerald Press.

TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF

I am the Warden!! While it's obviously not my real name (I'd either have very cool parents or grew up in a disturbing household), it's the one in which I ply my trade as a publisher and game designer.

HOW DID YOU GET INTO GAMING?

I grew up in a small town and my friends and I had a tendency to avoid social trends, like drinking and getting girls pregnant. (We saved that for our adult years.) After a trip to a nearby city, one of the guys came home with the Hero Quest board game and we tore into the sucker for months. After a while, we stopped playing it like a board game and started treating it more like a roleplaying game, though we had never played one at that time. Shortly afterwards, a comic book store opened up in town and they had a couple of shelves for RPG material, mainly AD&D and Vampire (which had just been released). By one year's time, we were dipping our fingers into every setting TSR had to offer and gaming on a nightly basis. Weekends were reserved for all-night games.

WHAT IS IT YOU FIND SO APPEALING ABOUT GAMING?

It's the storytelling. There's a passage in the introduction to the original Vampire game discussing ancient societies gathering around campfire telling stories to each other as their entertainment and how roleplaying games are an extension of that. It's the shared storytelling experience, where even the person pulling the strings behind the curtain will never tell how the events will unfold, who will live, and who will die. Mind you, it's taken me years and years and practice, patience, and learning to get to this mindset, but it's why I'm bored with novels and video games most of the time. I want to leap into the fray and tweak it with my own decisions; every other format is too limiting. For me, only roleplaying games gives me the opportunity to truly become part of the story.

SHARE A FAVOURITE GAMING MOMENT WITH US

We have to go back to high school for that one. It was Dark Sun and I can't remember exactly which character I was playing (likely a druid, but it doesn't matter because I never had much luck with characters when I was young), but we were getting our asses handed to us by a lone woman with incredible AC. None of us were doing any damage to her and we were generally afraid for our characters' lives. That's when I had my character toss his weapon down and pulled out the 50' hemp rope, the savior of every PC's backpack.

I told the DM I wanted to run up behind her and tie this damn rope around her neck then throw her off the ledge we were standing on. Basically, hang her from her precious temple. It was the first time any of us had tried anything beyond weapon or spell attacks and the DM wasn't sure it could be done, but we gave it a shot. After going through some initial troubles with non-weapon proficiencies and establishing my PC didn't know how to tie a proper knot, we found a way, picked her up, and her neck snapped as she dropped 40' off the ledge. That was magic and a major eye opening experience I think about often in my work: sometimes the rules are wrong.

WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY PLAYING?

I was playing a slew of RPGs for a while, one of the few benefits to recovering from a serious accident. I have a regular Sunday rotation of D&D 4e and Pathfinder, as well as the occasional playtest for another game designer here in town, Fraser Ronald from Sword's Edge Publishing. At the moment, we're getting ready for a Savage Worlds fantasy campaign.

I'm also going to use this question to pimp my game because I've been playing it like a mad dog. A lot of my playing time has been spent on Killshot and we're about ready to wrap up playtesting this month before it's release in August.

CAN YOU TELL US WHAT YOUR FAVOURITE GAMES ARE?

I don't know if I have a favorite game, one I would jump on time and time again. It's the same answer I have for my favorite musician or band: I prefer their individual albums, but there are few I'd follow to Hell and back. For me, it's more about having a favorite group who sees eye-to-eye with you on playing experience and rules and storytelling. In that case, I'd say it's the guys I ran my old Shadoworld campaign with because they were always willing to stretch the material to its furthest levels and trust me to take them places few would be willing to go.

There are two games I have a soft spot for: Earthdawn by FASA (and now published by Redbrick) and the Planescape setting. Those games opened my mind to new possibilities in both setting and game design that while I've rarely played them, they feature prominently on my shelf as a reminder of this genre's potential.

However, I'm a nut for RPG mechanics. D&D 3rd edition fits that bill; it was a magnificent design with so much room for flexibility, it didn't start to crack until we piled the equivalent of a dozen 18-wheelers on a piece of string. And I've just finished reading the new Marvel RPG published by Margaret Weis Productions and that's a fried piece of gold right there.

WHAT WAS THE LAST GAME YOU PLAYED?

Killshot. I did a crossover with two different Teams and brought them together at an isolated house where their client mysteriously asked to meet with them, then I ambushed them with over 20 gang bangers and some other assassins hired to eliminate the players. (They had already killed the client, by the way.) The house used in the scene was inspired by my in-laws' property and two of the players were my fiancee's cousins who lived up there, so they knew the property well. The golden moment was when one of the PCs called up the player on the phone and told him to drive up the road with his truck to block off the escaping assassin. When the scene ended, one player was playing his assassin and himself in the same scene - it was surreal.

WHICH PRODUCTS HAVE YOU HAD YOUR WORK PUBLISHED IN?

The first article I've ever had published was on divine antagonists in Dragon #287 (back when they were sold in print) and it's hanging above my desk. Give me a moment while I look at it fondly. After that, my break came from a PDF publishing company called Emerald Press (you may have heard of it) started up by a Shane Garvey (no relation, right?) to publish my first complete supplement, Campaign Options: Mazes. By the time that one hit virtual shelves, I was running Emerald Press and did so for about 8 years producing D&D supplements. We were even nominated for an ENnie award for Combat Advantage #15 a couple of years ago.


WHAT WAS IT LIKE RUNNING YOUR OWN PUBLISHING COMPANY FOR 8 YEARS?


It was an incredible experience for numerous reasons. When I made the decision to give that up, it wasn't made lightly and much of what I'm working on now is in response to those 8 years. I think everyone who wants to tackle designing their own system should work on developing and publishing material within an existing license first because it teaches you to work within certain confines and forces you to learn how the mechanics of a game works. Like anything else, it's based on hit-and-miss efforts and if you can learn from your misses, you'll get better. This was especially true designing material for D&D - especially 4e - because it was so finely balanced there was hardly any room for error. Sure, you can pop out any wild idea and put it to paper or PDF, but if it breaks the game as soon as a player reads it, then it's pointless. It's a major factor you have to understand when you design your own system. The question right now is whether or not I've learned my lesson and only the players will be able to answer that question.

ARE YOU WORKING ON ANY GAMING-RELATED PROJECTS AT THE MOMENT?

You know it. For the past year-and-a-half, I've been working on my own mechanics known as the Optional System and will be releasing my first RPG under it called Killshot. The players are modern day assassins taking on jobs to collect money and experience, but don't let the simplicity of the description fool you. The focus of the game is planning the jobs; players are free to strategize their assassinations however they like and must use their training to study their mark and devise the best assault without getting caught. Think of it as a twisted detective story combined with heavy action.

The main mechanical function of the game are "options," the specific actions you take on your turn. When you successfully perform an option using dice, you gain a bonus option to use immediately for yourself or pass to a Teammate, a concept which works incredibly well in both detection and violence. As I mentioned before, it'll be on sale in August 2012.

DO YOU HAVE ANY WEBPAGES OR SOCIAL NETWORK ACCOUNTS WHERE FANS CAN FIND YOU?

Yeah, there may be a couple. I'm a Twitter junkie, so you'll find a lot more posted there (@Warden_Op) and I have two blogs on the go: I Am The Warden!! (http://iamthewarden.blogspot.com) and Broken Ruler Games (http://brokenrulergames.blogspot.com). I'm also on Facebook and G+, but you'll have to find out what my real name is for those ones and I'm not telling. ;)

Margaret Weis

Today I have the great pleasure in bringing you an interview with Margaret Weis. Margaret was the co-author of the first six Dragonlance novels, which are some of my favourtie Dungeons and Dragons related books. She now runs Margaret Weis Productions, which is responsible for bringing you the Marvel Heroic RPG, Smallville and Supernatural.

HOW DID YOU GET INTO GAMING?

I read about TSR in Publisher's Weekly back in the early eighties. I thought the game sounded like it would be fun to play with my kids. A friend ran a D&D game for us. We loved it. 

WHAT IS IT YOU FIND SO APPEALING ABOUT GAMING?

The use of your imagination! The idea of people telling a story together. The fun of sharing a game with friends and family.

SHARE A FAVOURITE GAMING MOMENT WITH US

My favorite game of all time was a game at a convention. I was "guest gamer". The party consisted of five kender and a gnome. We had SO MUCH FUN! The DM was awesome. The kender ran amuck, of course. We did actually meet a dragon and killed it, more by accident than anything else. 

WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY PLAYING?

Sadly all my gaming friends moved away. I did have a chance to play Serenity at Gary Con. Lots of fun. 

CAN YOU TELL US WHAT YOUR FAVOURITE GAMES ARE?

My favorite now is the new Marvel Heroic RPG by company has just released.:)

WHAT WAS THE LAST GAME YOU PLAYED?

Serenity at Gary Con.

WHICH PRODUCTS HAVE YOU HAD YOUR WORK PUBLISHED IN?

Lots of projects published. Too many to name!

CAN YOU TELL US A BIT ABOUT THE WRITING/GAMING PROCESS INVOLVED WITH DRAGONLANCE, AND WHAT IT WAS LIKE AT TSR DURING THOSE DAYS?

TSR was a wild and crazy place to work. Not really work so much as being paid to do something we loved. Some down sides, of course. The company was always teetering on the verge of financial ruin, so we really didn't know if we'd have jobs from one day to the next. 

The writing/gaming process involved with Dragonlance would take a book to talk about!

HAVE YOU EVER PLAYED THE DRAGONLANCE MODULES?

I play-tested the first module once. I think I was Goldmoon. The character of Bupu came out of that play-test session. 

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY HAS BEEN YOUR MOST FAVOURITE NOVEL OR SERIES OF NOVELS TO WORK ON?

Every series is fun to work on. Right now I'm loving my current series, The Dragon Brigade!

ARE YOU WORKING ON ANY GAMING-RELATED PROJECTS AT THE MOMENT?

The Marvel Heroic RPG with Margaret Weis Productions.

DO YOU HAVE ANY WEBPAGES OR SOCIAL NETWORK ACCOUNTS WHERE FANS CAN FIND YOU? 

I'm on Facebook and Margaretweis.com.