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!

Jesper Myrfors

Jesper is an artist, and a damn fine one at that. He is best known for his artwork on various trading card games.

TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF

Well, I was born in Stockholm Sweden to Swedish parents. We moved to the northwest after my father was hired by boeing straight out of his navy career. Grew up in a neighborhood full of kids, we played “neighborhood” games whatever chance we got, hide and seek, kick the can, tag etc…We also got together and would draw, all of us would. Actually Tom Wanerstrand was part of that group of kids and he's in the industry as well. I always loved art and games but I didn't know making games was something a person could do so I followed my passion for art and got a BFA in illustration from Cornish College of the Arts. My first real art gig in the industry was for The Unspeakable Oath from Pagan Publishing, followed by work for White Wolf's Vampire and them Wizards of the Coast, wait, reverse those last two.

I'm married, have kids and still live in the Northwest. I spend a lot of time doing art, making games, writing, making music and biking. I like cats. I believe G.W. Bush and R. Cheney should be in prison. I think the banks should be taken down for their criminal activity and those who destroyed the economy due to sociopathic behavior should spend the rest of their lives making big rocks into small rocks.

I have never and will never try Jenkem.

These days I have teamed up with Brian Snoddy and we make games as a team. He is a fantastic guy, talented and creative. Deadfellas is or latest.

HOW DID YOU GET INTO GAMING?

Well I always loved board games as a kid, but as for hobby gaming:I noticed the ads for Microgames in the back of Anolog magazine for years. My mom and dad read it every month. That was Steve Jackson's first company I think. I always wondered what they were. Then a friend told me about Dungeons and Dragons, a local teacher offered a summer class in D&D and I signed up. This was just after the Monster Manual and right before Dungeon Master's Guide. I was hooked. I found a store in Seattle that migrated to several locations over the years, it was called American Eagles. Those in Seattle will remember it if they are old enough. And in Bellevue…The Triple Alliance opened. They stocked not only AD&D but every other RPG game out at the time as well as Microgames and miniatures. I finally got to buy those games I saw in the magazines as well as Task Force Games, SSI, Dwarfstar and many others. I knew it's what I wanted to do and started making my own games. I actually called Task Force games and they were interested, but when I found out it was a $400 flat fee for all rights I decided against entering the industry just yet. My friends and I made games for each other and had a blast doing it. I should really throw in a shout out to Jennell Jaquays who's work really influenced me back then. Her work for Judges Guild was a real inspiration.

But to answer your real question, while I was in school they asked “What do you want to do in art?” I said make games and they gave me a dog in the headlights stare and replied “There is no such job” I decided to show them and swore I would be published before I graduated. I was and now the “no such job” is a multibillion dollar industry.

WHAT IS IT YOU FIND SO APPEALING ABOUT GAMING?

The ability to create worlds and situations beyond what we experience is the driving force. It's about making dreams and nightmares come true in a relatively safe environment. It's about making the worlds one to live in, or at least vacation in.

SHARE A FAVOURITE GAMING MOMENT WITH US

There are two answers to this. My first is everyone who has ever come up to me and said “Thank you, your work helped me through a difficult time.” How do I even respond to this? I make games because it's my love, I never thought I would actually really help people. What an amazing thing to find out.

As for my favorite in game moment it was Red Alert 2 on the PC. My friend had crushed me. I mean I lost everything but 1 infantry unit. We had crates turned on and it was a pretty big map. My friend decided to do some building while I ran and found a crate that had a construction base unit (total luck!). I quickly and quietly rebuilt while he searched for me. Turns out it was next to a huge tiberium deposit and I managed to build a defense force large enough to take out his first wave of searchers and launch a sneak attack at his rear. By the time he knew I was a threat again, I overran his base and won. Most people would have given up, that's the reason I don't. You don't get the legendary wins if you give up at the first sign of defeat.

WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY PLAYING?

Deadfellas, Wow (again after a year off), Skyrim, Dead Island (best zombie game in my opinion) Dungeon Defenders, Majesty 2, MineCraft, Legend of Grimrock…I loved Dungeon Master on the Atari ST, Royal Envoy 2, Plants VS Zombies (for the Third time), Mostly PC games at this point. Though I love making physical games and Brian and I are working on a several card and board games so we play those a lot.

CAN YOU TELL US WHAT YOUR FAVOURITE GAMES ARE?

Ad&d 2^nd edition, Awful Green Things From Outer Space, Old MTG, Deus Ex, Doom 2, Wow, Gothic 3 (After the patches), Dead Island, Cryptomaina (coming out from Fun to 11 next year), Pinochle, Talisman, Action Quake 2 (I made a lot of maps for that one), Fallout 3, Skyrim, System Shock 2, Final Fantasy 7, Ogre, Max Paine 2, The Fantasy Quest (For the solo play), Age of Heroes (a miniatures system my friends and I made up and played for years, unreleased to the public) Balderdash, Trivial Pursuit, F.E.A.R. 1 & 2, Farcry 1, Crysis, Mario Party (most of them), Age of Empires 2, I know I'm leaving some out…

WHAT WAS THE LAST GAME YOU PLAYED?

World of Warcraft, just before this interview. They did a fantastic job on that game and look, 8 years later it still holds up. I admire Blizzard and the people there.

WHICH PRODUCTS HAVE YOU HAD YOUR WORK PUBLISHED IN?

This is a hard question in a good way. I have worked on so many games that I don't remember them all. There used to be a really good complete summery on Wikipedia, but some ass hat had it taken down for reasons I will never understand. To name a few Magic: The Gathering, Vampire: The Masquerade…(already I'm working with more colons than a proctologist) Rage, the card game, The Hills Rise Wild, Clout: Fantasy, Call of Cthulhu through Pagan Publishing, Deadfellas, Talislanta (A truly amazing RPG), Shadow Fist (My second Favorite CCG and still in Print, if you haven't tried it…do, Zev is a great guy and deserves support.) Those are the highlights.

A LOT OF PEOPLE WOULD KNOW YOUR WORK FROM MAGIC: THE GATHERING. CAN YOU TELL US HOW YOU CAME TO DO ART FOT IT, AND WHAT THE PROCESS WAS LIKE?

As I mentioned earlier, I swore I would get published before graduating. I was a fan of Talislanta at the time and had checked a local game store (Games and Gizmos) about the status of the game. They told me that a new publisher was working on it, a small company called Wizards of the Coast, and they gave me the companies contact information. I put it in my wallet and forgot about it, mostly. Then when I was trying to get published I remembered them and called their office. I spoke with Lisa Stevens and sent in a portfolio, most of my work was horror oriented and Lisa said she liked my work but it was wrong for the brand. She did however recommend me to Richard Thomas, the art Director at White Wolf. Anyway, I was a pest and wouldn’t leave them alone, I said I would do one illustration on spec, if they didn’t like it I would leave them alone. Lisa agreed and gave me 1 week to do the painting, I did two over the next two days. Lisa liked them, Steve Sechi, the creator of Talislanta liked them and I got the gig. They also said if I wanted to be more involved all I had to do was hang out and attend their meetings, which I did. Soon I was art director (and I rejected the art I did for Talislanta as not being quite right for the brand) I started hiring other artists, meeting some heroes and having fun. It was a lot of work for no pay but I got published.

Around this time the rest of WotC was having secret meetings I was not invited to, not until they trusted me. Those meeting were about Magic: The Gathering. When I finally got to play the game I told them to put all my pay towards stock because I knew this game would change everything.

Initially the their plan had been to buy second or third rights to already published artwork, book covers etc…I thought we could do better and get our own look so I made a deal where the company would pay $50 in cash, $50 in stock and a very small royalty.

The first art ever done for the game was Iron Root Treefolk as I was trying to get the dimensions right for the cards and needed a test piece.

I would call artists and make the offer, 99% said yes I would give them a name and as little description as I could. I believed that the more freedom the artist had the more diversity we would get in building this new world. This was really before the web or e-mail being popular so most of it was done on phone and the original art was mailed to me. I would scan it and color correct it and place it in the borders I had designed. It took a very long time but was one of the most exciting times of my life, watching something I believed in come together.

One of the reasons I had so many pieces in the early game was not because of the pay but because I had to pick up the ball if another artist dropped it. So I ended up doing a bunch of rushed last minute illustrations that I’m not very proud of. That was the down side. That’s eventually what burned me out on illustration for many years. Still, what a ride.

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

That's all I work on. Deadfellas just came out from Exile Games, Cryptomania is about to hit and I have 3 other games that I developed with the multitalented Brian Snoddy. Check my face book page for updates. I also do freelance work and consulting so there are other projects in development but I can't talk about them…noncompetes… they get my soul if I say anything.

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

I'm on face book under my name and I have a blog that I update whenever I feel like it at http://stumptales.blogspot.com/ It's mostly for my creative writing endeavors. Or as some say, advertising my insanity.

Oh and you can see our animated shorts on YouTube at DeadfellasTAS. (TAS is Short for The Animated Shorts)

This was a pretty hasty overview, I will be happy to answer more specific questions on my face book page if anyone has them.

Curtis Lyon

TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF

Hi… I'm Curtis Lyon. I'm a freelance writer and editor, and currently one of the line developers for Savage Mojo's Savage Suzerain. I've been a gamer since the late '70s, but I only jumped into writing for the RPG community a few years ago, in late 2009. For that leap I can give equal measure of thanks and blame to my wife, Sarah, who also partners with me on writing projects. We live in the United States (California, in particular). In addition to the roleplaying, I'm pursuing a career in writing fiction – keep an eye out.

HOW DID YOU GET INTO GAMING?

It was my brother. He had a friend in school who's father was in the Navy and would come home on leave. My brother came home after visiting his friend on one of those occasions and began telling me about this amazing game they'd played – he regaled me with stories of trying to pick pockets and running from the guards and fighting in an arena… and something about a quest for some big treasure in a dungeon somewhere. I'd just finished reading The Lord of the Rings and was an avid wargamer, so I was naturally fascinated and wanted to know what sort of board they'd used. What? No board? Just maps? I got my brother to drag me along to the next game, and I was hooked. Fortunately we had several hobby stores in the region (amazing for 1977), and parents who were willing to indulge us in this strange new hobby. I've been a roleplayer ever since.

WHAT IS IT YOU FIND SO APPEALING ABOUT GAMING?

I'd have to say there are several aspects to it, depending on if I approach it as a player or a game master. I've always loved the interactiveness of RPGs – one doesn't tune out the rest of the world like one must with a book, nor does one simply sit back and be entertained like one does with a television. You have to think, and act, and communicate. I'm also something of an actor, so taking on the roles – especially as a GM – can be quite entertaining. Ultimately, as a player I enjoy the raw escapism, while as a GM I enjoy creating a living and vibrant story to entertain the other players.

SHARE A FAVOURITE GAMING MOMENT WITH US

Wow… There have been so many. But I think the one that stands out revolves around an old Cyberpunk game I ran, and centered around a character named Sonora. She was a biker – a ganger – who was picked up off the street and sold to a corporation for the purpose of testing some experimental cyberware. While there was a great scene when she woke up from the surgery and the head honcho told her what was going on (She looked him square in the eye and told him she didn't work for anyone, capiche?  He looked her square in the eye, showed her a remote control, and explained that the little button would blow her head off if she didn't cooperate, capiche?), the best moment was at the climax of the story. Suffice it to say it was a brutal firefight, but the heroes won the day, the villain was killed and justice was served. The adrenaline and emotion had been running so high that the entire group of players got up from the table, walked into the living room, and literally collapsed on the sofa and chairs in exhaustion to begin happily comparing notes and revisiting the conclusion. I felt I'd succeeded in my role as GM.

WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY PLAYING?

I don't get to play much right now – I'm usually either writing or running games for playtests and demos. When I do get to play, it's usually Savage Worlds, although Sarah has been running one of the Pathfinder adventure paths on occasion, using the QUERP rules to keep it light and simple.

CAN YOU TELL US WHAT YOUR FAVOURITE GAMES ARE?

Sure: almost everything Savage Worlds – although I'm particularly fond of 50 Fathoms and Suzerain. I'm also a big fan of the 2^nd edition BESM rules, QUERP, anything using the Barbarians of Lemuria engine… and I'm developing a love affair with Castles & Crusades.

WHAT WAS THE LAST GAME YOU PLAYED?

Um… I suppose it would be Interface Zero (Savage Worlds). We've got a demo game going on at a local game store that alternates between IZ and a Savage Worlds Fallout homebrew, and we've been trying to get some of the players to take the reins and begin running the games. I still have to give a certain amount of support to the new GM, but at least I can sit back and get some play time in.

WHICH PRODUCTS HAVE YOU HAD YOUR WORK PUBLISHED IN?

Most of our writing has been for Savage Mojo (Suzerain) or Gun Metal Games (Interface Zero)… Sarah and I tend to work as a team.

For the first, we've done Noir Knights, Shanghai Vampocalypse (which won an ENnie last year), Caladon Falls, and we put out an Adventure Deck for Suzerain that's similar to the Savage Worlds Adventure Deck. We also did some work on the Pocket Universe edition of Suzerain.

For the second, we've done Zeeks: Psionics in 2088, Boston: Broken Cradle of Liberty, and San Francisco: Ruins by the Bay. We've also got a little bit in the Hacking 2.0 update.

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

Absolutely. In fact, we're up to our ears in projects. Some of them I'm not at liberty to discuss (other than to say we've got several projects going for Savage Mojo and Gun Metal Games), but I think I can safely mention Millennium Knights (a sequel/prequel to Noir Knights) for Savage Mojo which should begin release soon(ish), and Machine Nation (an android and robot soucebook for Interface Zero) for Gun Metal Games. We're also helping out on the IZ 2.0 release. Additionally, we plan to have some content in the next premium release of Savage Insider (Mystical Throne Entertainment) – as well as the next regular SI installment – and I've begun working with Basic Action Games to put together an adventure for their recently-released Honor + Intrigue.

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

We have a fan page on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/curtisandsarahlyon.

Darva Shriver

TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF

I'm Darva Shriver. I'm a librarian by trade, specializing in children's literature. Originally from Poughkeepsie, New York, I've spent most of my life in and around Naples, Florida, though a move out west to California or Arizona is in the works. I'm an avid role player and reader, and sometimes enjoy watching history or fantasy genre movies with my pet ferrets, Bilbo and Samwise.

HOW DID YOU GET INTO GAMING?

I actually came into the hobby fairly late. While still attending college in 2004, I  was at a local Harry Potter release party, though I don't remember now if it was one of the books or one of the films, where I met some guys and gals that had a D&D game going. After kind of badgering them to let me come check it out, I soon joined the game, an old school Basic D&D campaign set in the Greyhawk campaign world. That whole group doesn't get together much anymore, but I've been hooked ever since, and taken to getting some of my D&D fix through my blog.

WHAT IS IT YOU FIND SO APPEALING ABOUT GAMING?

I most enjoy the social aspect of getting together with good friends and spending a few hours having fun, but I also really enjoy the immersion into a fantasy world. I've been a huge fan of fairy tales and fantasy stories since I was a little girl, and the chance now to play out stories of my own with friends is cool to pass up on. In a similar way, I really like introducing some of the kids I work with to role playing, encouraging them to exercise their imaginations and create stories of their own based on whatever stories, movies or shows they enjoy.

SHARE A FAVOURITE GAMING MOMENT WITH US

My absolute best memory comes from playing through the classic adventure Keep on the Borderlands, for Basic D&D. Our DM can be pretty tough and strict at times, and for a number of sessions, we'd had trouble with the owl bear and minotaur encounters in the Caves of Chaos. Close to 20 dead PCs by the end of it all! When we finally defeated them, it was my poor first level thief left as the only PC still standing and with a last valiant roll of the d20, I managed to hit and finally kill that pain in the butt. The tension and smack talking that built up to it and the payback of finally being the one player out of six who was able to bring down a challenge that had vexed us for weeks is something I'll never forget. It's even better now when we happen to visit the keep as higher level PCs, or as a different party of younger PCs altogether and get to hear the local bard and minstrel types sing praises of our old exploits.

WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY PLAYING?

Between my impending move, and the recent loss of one of our fellow players to cancer, actual play is scarce right now, but it's given me time to work on material to catch up on posting on my blog.

CAN YOU TELL US WHAT YOUR FAVOURITE GAMES ARE?

Hands down, my game of choice is Basic D&D, Frank Mentzer's BECMI (Basic, Expert, Companion, Masters, Immortals) edition. I pick and choose options and add-ins from tons of other games, with old school Runequest and Arduin being favorites. I'm also a big supporter of the OSR “clone” games, notably Swords & Wizardry, Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess.

WHAT WAS THE LAST GAME YOU PLAYED?

Until very recently, I was running a low level Basic D&D campaign set in the Mystara campaign world.

WHICH PRODUCTS HAVE YOU HAD YOUR WORK PUBLISHED IN?

Nothing beyond my blog, and the forums at Dragonsfoot.org, ThePiazza.org.uk and Canonfire.com

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

Just my blog, Stocking the Dungeon. My current ongoing project is an adaptation of characters, locales, magic and monsters from the old D&D Animated Series cartoon show to the Basic D&D game.

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

My blog, Stocking the Dungeon, is at http://stockingthedungeon.blogspot.com . I'm also active on facebook (http://www.facebook.com/dungeonstocking) and Google + (+darva.shriver)

"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. ;)

David Walters

David is new to writing fantasy gaming material, but he is no stranger to the genre, having written seven novels so far. Read on to learn about him and his work.

TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF

I am David Walters, author of six kindle books (the Dragonwarrior trilogy, the Samurai’s Apprentice trilogy and City of Masks). I’m 36, married and have a son – we all live in Edinburgh, Scotland. I can’t wait until he’s old enough to be introduced to my gamebook collection – I sure hope he is interested!

HOW DID YOU GET INTO GAMING?

My very first experience was with fighting fantasy books when I was seven. I borrowed a few from a ‘mobile library’ van that used to visit my countryside school every other month. I loved the books and quickly got sick of waiting for the van so started spending my pocket money on buying the books - the first one was Steve Jackson’s Creature of Havoc. I remember wondering if I had bought a book from the right series, as it was far harder than the previous books I had read and I could not get very far in it!

Fortunately it did not put me off, and following on from that I got into the Warhammer series at school, and then into other RPGs included Dungeons and Dragons.

WHAT IS IT YOU FIND SO APPEALING ABOUT GAMING?

Gaming is a chance to use your imagination, to escape the reality of everyday life and step out of your skin for a while. I am a cautious person by nature, and it is fun to take risks and do heroic deeds in a safe environment, or simply be someone else for a while.

It is also great to have a laugh with friends and have a common bond from sharing something only your group has experienced together.

SHARE A FAVOURITE GAMING MOMENT WITH US

I remember playing the Star Wars RPG with a group of friends. It was getting to a climactic scene in the campaign where x-wings were flying in to attack a key base of the Empire. The Gamesmaster was mimicking the radio chatter of the lead x-wing and wanted to say ‘cover your wing-men, we are going in’. Unfortunately what he said was ‘cover your women, we are going in’.

We couldn’t stop laughing after that, and the end to the campaign was not quite so tense thereafter.

WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY PLAYING?

Nothing at the moment – I’m too busy writing, but I really do miss it. I am reading the new advanced fighting fantasy rules though, and I’m waiting for Crown of Kings campaign to arrive through my letterbox.

CAN YOU TELL US WHAT YOUR FAVOURITE GAMES ARE?

I love the Way of the Tiger gamebooks by Mark Smith and Jamie Thomson. They obviously had an effect on me as I write my novels with a strong far-eastern theme. They were in a really detailed setting (the world of Orb), and you could play the same ninja character through all the books in an involving story. The authors also wrote Talisman of Death and Sword of the Samurai, both of which were great.

I also like the Crown of Kings books, again another series where you could play as the one character, in this case as a sorcerer, and the magic system was fun.

I liked the Dragonlance setting too, with its interesting characters and settings, although the final age was a bit disappointing. The orders of high sorcery were my favourites, and draconians were great bad guys.

WHAT WAS THE LAST GAME YOU PLAYED?

I devised my own rules for an RPG based on my Dragonwarrior novel, and GM’d that. It really helped me flesh out my ideas for the novels.

TELL US ABOUT THAT SYSTEM.

I experimented with using a deck of card instead of a dice-based system - I figured a deck of cards was just as common place in the home as dice, and seemed a little less random based on which order you played your cards.

Basically, each player had paper stats and was dealt a hand of 7 cards which could be replenished during gameplay as attribute tests were made. Each player had a certain class based on their Dragonwarrior order (Fire, Shadow or Air), and these corresponded to different playing suits which acted as 'trumps' in certain situations, along with the numerical value of the card. The fourth suit was trumps for their enemies.

One thing not having dice did was help the players to focus on their character rather than dice rolls, and to feel like they had a little more control over key events ('if they played their cards right')!

WHICH PRODUCTS HAVE YOU HAD YOUR WORK PUBLISHED IN?

My work is kindle-only at the moment. I’ve read a few gamebooks on the kindle and online, and I really think the new digital format can invigorate the genre (provided we can get away from some of the old ‘instant death’ thinking of old gamebooks).

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

I’m writing my first entry for the Windhammer competition. Gamebooks inspired me to be the author I am today, so I want to try writing one for this completion and see how it measures up.

It would be a bit too obvious to continue my fantasy world from City of Masks, so instead I’m going to try a tricky dystopian future story that is forming in my head. I like a challenge! If the format gels with me, I may write some commercial gamebooks in the near future.

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

I’m on twitter as @davidwaltersx, and Facebook as David Walters author. I also am on amazon on the following link: http://www.amazon.com/David-Walters/e/B005NWQY4G/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

I have a minimal web presence beyond that at the moment, as I want to focus my attention on more writing, and let my stories speak for themselves.

Matt Forbeck

Matt is a prolific freelancer who has been published by many different companies. Read on for more!

TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF

My name is Matt Forbeck, and I've been a game designer and writer for over 20 years. I started out writing for tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons, but these days I write mostly novels and comics and work on computer games here and there. My latest novel isBrave New World: Revolution, which is based on the RPG I wrote for Pinnacle/AEG back in 1999. I also write the Magic: The Gathering comic for IDW.

My big project for this year is my 12 for '12 project, in which I'm writing a dozen short novels this year. I've been funding them a trilogy at a time on Kickstarter, and so far it's been fantastic fun. The first trilogy was based on my Brave New World dark supers RPG. The second one — Shotguns & Sorcery — takes place in a fantasy noir setting I originally developed for d20.

The third one, Dangerous Games, is a trio of thrillers set at Gen Con, the largest tabletop games convention in the western hemisphere. The Kickstarter for that just launched and runs through the middle of June.

Beyond that, I live in Beloit, Wisconsin, with my wife, who's a school social worker who helps homeless students. We have five kids, including a set of quadruplets, who will turn 10 next month.

HOW DID YOU GET INTO GAMING?

I started playing blue-book D&D with the kids who lived across the street from me, back when I was twelve years old. I never looked back.

WHAT IS IT YOU FIND SO APPEALING ABOUT GAMING?

I like having a good reason to hang out with friends and family and actually interact with them. My kids are old enough now to start playing all sorts of cool games with me, and it's wonderful to watch their minds work as they absorb how a game functions and then start to develop strategies for playing it.

SHARE A FAVOURITE GAMING MOMENT WITH US

I brought my eldest son, Marty, to Gary Con I, at which he got to play in his first D&D game ever. Frank Mentzer, the former VP at TSR, ran an original white-box D&D session using the first published RPG module, The Palace of the Vampire Queen. We had a wonderful, old-school time.

WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY PLAYING?

I'll play anything once, but I don't play a whole lot of games more than that. As a designer, I like to pick games apart and see what makes them tick, but I'm not a hardcore fan of any single game because of that. I lose games all the time because I'm more interested in seeing what happens if I try something rather than working up a winning strategy.

Despite that, my kids love playing Munchkin with me, as well as Zombie Dice and Apples to Apples. I'll play whatever they ask me to. I also played a lot of Magic: The Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers to prepare me for writing the Magic comic.

CAN YOU TELL US WHAT YOUR FAVOURITE GAMES ARE?

My all-time favorite is Space Hulk, which is a brilliant gem of fun gameplay and elegant mechanics. Sadly, Games Workshop doesn't like to keep it in print.

For RPGs, I always wind up going back to D&D in any of its several incarnations. So much of what we consider standards in games these days came from it, and it's great to revisit it and see how and why those elements resonated with so many people.

WHAT WAS THE LAST GAME YOU PLAYED?

Either Super Munchkin or Starcraft II.

WHICH PRODUCTS HAVE YOU HAD YOUR WORK PUBLISHED IN?

Oh, wow, that's a huge list. I stopped counting at somewhere over 200 different gaming products, and that was years back. I'm probably best known for my work on Deadlands and Brave New World back when I was the president of Pinnacle Entertainment Group. I also worked on the WildStorms CCG, The Lord of the Rings RPG, a number of D&D books, and lots more.

My most recent game is the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying game. I was part of the initial development team, but I handed that part off to the rest of the crew early on. Cam Banks did most of the heavy lifting not that one.

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

I have a few things in stages too early to talk about at the moment. The latest computer game I worked on — Ghost Recon Online — is in beta at the moment. Also, I just released Brave New World: Revolution, the first novel in that trilogy, to the public.

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

Sure. You can find me at www.Forbeck.com, on Twitter at @mforbeck, and on Facebook as Matt Forbeck. I'm always happy to hear from people who enjoy my work.