Fri, 2 January 2009  In this episode, I talk to Malcolm Craig of Contested Ground Studios about his new game, Hot War. Hot War is set in a post-apocalyptic 1960s London, and is a thematic sequel to Malcolm's earlier game, Cold City.
I had played and really enjoyed the game the night before, so I can
tell you it's a ton of fun. Also, Malcolm is such a generous person
that I frequently had to fight to get us back to talking about his
game, rather than mine. He's a great guy and I loved talking with him.WARNING: The Independent Insurgency is an "explicit" podcast. This episode is 65.3 MB big and 1:11:18 long. 00:00:59: What Contested Ground Studios is 00:04:29: Twilight 2000 is one of the first games Malcolm played 00:05:16: Hot War was also inspired by British authors like John Wyndham (specifically Day of the Triffids) and J.G. Ballard, and is unlike "cozy catastrophe" books like A Canticle for Leibowitz 00:06:00: Hot War is set after a nuclear (and quasi-occult) war touched off by the Cuban Missile Crisis 00:06:30: The Zone of Alienation, where physical laws don't work properly, is inspired by the film Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky and the novel upon which it's based, Roadside Picnic, as well as the Chernobyl Disaster 00:08:01: Characters in the game have secret agendas that often come into conflict with their organizations' agendas 00:09:32: A rundown of the game's mechanics 00:13:09: Ani DiFranco's song Letter to a John 00:13:31: We talk about music and politics as influences on game design and life 00:15:13: Malcolm's soundtrack for Cold City is dominated by non-50s music like DJ Krush, DJ Shadow,Fingerthing, and the Joe Acheson Quartet 00:16:10: The soundtrack for a Contenders game Malcolm played set in New Jersey (where I used to live) in 1983 included Blondie, Bauhaus, Talking Heads, The Cure, and The Clash 00:17:41: Malcom needs to visit New Jersey, if only for Dexposure's Dreamation gaming convention 00:18:15: We talk about more music: Nine Inch Nails, Front 242, and Green Day 00:19:11: How Hot War's conflict system works 00:19:55: Malcolm and I both worked the Playcollective booth at Gen Con 00:25:03: Megablockbuster 3:16: Carnage Amongst the Stars handles character death in a cool way 00:26:30: Why design this game? 00:31:09: "The people are not motor-bike-riding leather-clad, crossbow-wielding neo-barbarians" 00:32:46: The prevalence of kilts at gaming cons, Gen Con in particular 00:33:52: Jennifer Rodgers 00:36:17: What other games have you begun to shit out? 00:37:18: Malcolm wrote a game based on the song I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper 00:39:20: The possible third game in this thematic trend would be set in 1920s Constantinople and inspired by the book The Orientalist 00:41:36: The main differences between Hot War and Cold City 00:46:15: Gen Con's t-shirt problems: aggression, passive-aggression, and fascism 00:49:32: Malcolm "nicked mercilessly" from The Mountain Witch, Dogs in the Vineyard, and Covenant 00:53:38: Use of art in the book 00:56:54: The printer for the book is Fidlar Doubleday 00:58:44: Marketing (which Malcolm thinks Evil Hat are particularly good at) 01:02:19: Defining success Closing song is Thick Ass Stout by Skankin' Pickle which can be found at Podshow's Podsafe Music Network, http://music.podshow.com/ Logo courtesy of Daniel Solis: http://danielsolis.com/ Comments[3] |
Tue, 9 December 2008 In this episode, I talk to Seth Ben Ezra of Dark Omen Games about his game, Dirty Secrets.
Dirty Secrets is a modern crime/noir/mystery game without the mystery
being predetermined. Our conversation touches on many issues
surrounding the game, including how it intersects with Seth's religious
faith and the roles of race and class in the game and in society. We
also talk briefly about Seth's new game, A Flower for Mara.NOTE: This episode was shot in a hotel room where the air conditioning kept popping on and off. Hopefully it's not too distracting. Sorry! This episode is 63.6 MB big and 1:09:25 long. 00:00:57: Dirty Secrets is a "detective crime noir" game, similar in tone to the works of Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald, and Dashiell Hammett, but it's set in "your home, last week," and thus also bears similarity to the movie Brick or the show Veronica Mars 00:02:05: Robin Laws covers similar ground with his GUMSHOE rules system in a somewhat more traditional way (with a gamemaster and pre-plotting, for example) 00:03:03: Fred Hicks describes the game as having one player and many GMs 00:05:46: Situation generation 00:07:40: Scene framing 00:10:10: Conflicts use liar's dice and has a back-and-forth similar to Dogs in the Vineyard 00:12:05: Structuring the session 00:14:18: I make reference to the HBO TV series The Wire which is, in the context of this interview, absolutely obligatory 00:16:50: The crime grid 00:22:08: "When Ron Edwards in [The] Sorcerer's Soul talks about relationship maps and drawing them out of detective novels, he's using Ross Macdonald novels as an example." 00:26:31: Seth blames John Tynes and Greg Stolze, and their game Unknown Armies (which was pitched as James Ellroy meets Tim Powers, for his designing Dirty Secrets 00:27:58: The darkness of Ellroy's books and the perhaps-surprising implications for Seth as a Christian 00:30:56: The place that Dirty Secrets has vis a vis Seth's other games, Legends of Alyria and Mara 00:32:28: Ben Lehman describes Alyria as something C.S. Lewis would have written if he'd grown up playing Final Fantasy VII, but Seth sees it as the "intersection of Tolkein and Gene Wolfe" 00:35:41: An obligatory Chinatown reference 00:40:04: Seth loves In A Wicked Age..., and feels that Grey Ranks, Steal Away Jordan, and Dogs in the Vineyard are really "about stuff" 00:42:08: The demographics system, the racial implications, and my issues with it 00:47:14: Challenging design issues 00:47:32: Seth was inspired by the The Iä! Iä! Ph’iles by Christoph Boeckle, which reminds me of Kat and Michael Miller's Serial Homicide Unit 00:49:22: How many times was the game played before you published? 00:55:51: Anything you'd change in the book as published? 00:57:49: Defining success 01:00:18: A bit about Flowers for Mara, Seth's Jeepform game. Closing song is Toccata and Droog by the Hub City Stompers Logo courtesy of Daniel Solis: http://danielsolis.com/ Comments[0] |
Tue, 25 November 2008 In this episode, I talk to Luke Crane of the Burning Wheel Headquarters, about their RPG adaptation of the comic book Mouse Guard.
I'm really happy with how this interview went; it's one of the best
I've put out so far. Luke has some really interesting things to say
about the use of art and the way layout and editing work. We also get
to talk a bit about how the HQ is constructed and who does what.NOTE: This was obviously recorded before the release of the Magic Burner, but it's funny to listen to Luke toy with me. This episode is 64.5 MB big and 1 hour and 10 minutes long. 00:59: The MGRPG will be based on the Burning Wheel system 01:25: Like Burning Empires, MGRPG is an evolution of the BW rules 02:18: Differences include: changes in how you can use dice, advancement, and the way rewards work 02:43: I tried the game at Ubercon 03:05: Mouse Guard is a comic written by David Petersen Published by Archaia Studios Press, which is owned by Mark Smylie who wrote the comic book Artesia and published the Origins-Award-winning Artesia: Adventures in the Known World roleplaying game 03:55: Part of a tradition of fantasy about mice, which includes The Wind in the Willows, Redwall, (parts of) the Narnia series 05:04: Kid friendly? 07:09: MGRPG is "essential Burning Wheel," a version of the rules is as stripped-down as BW can get and still be BW 08:08: The game has tons of new and previously-unpublished Petersen art 09:56: The new ubiquity of the enmity clause: Twists and Conditions 10:51: Conditions (hungry, angry, tired, injured, and sick) are the new damage track 13:31: The new way advancement works 14:47: Versioning through new games rather than re-releasing games 18:34: Why did you design this game? 19:37: Clinton R. Nixon made BWHQ aware of Mouse Guard; he had tried an earlier adaptation, Tiny Triangles 22:07: Other designs that arose from creating MGRPG? 26:51: Anything you had to drop? 27:58: How Traits work in MGRPG 30:24: GM turn and player turn 34:36: The most useful feedback received from playtesters 36:26: The hardest thing to fix 38:14: Choosing a printer 43:07: How are you using art? 48:40: Layout/design challenges 54:16: Marketing 56:05: Playing the game with Dave 58:10: Defining success 59:27: Magic Burner? 59:53: A peek behind the curtain at BWHQ Closing song is Jenny Whiskey by the Hub City Stompers Logo courtesy of Daniel Solis: http://danielsolis.com/ Comments[0] |
Sun, 5 October 2008 In this episode, I talk to Judd Karlman, about his game The Dictionary of Mu.
We talk a lot about the purpose of setting books, what constitutes game
design, and even discuss the possibility of Mu for FATE. I'm really
proud of the quality of this conversation, and I want Judd to design
more fucking games so I can do more interviews with him.This episode is 60 MB big and 1 hour and 5 minutes long. 01:17: Dictionary of Mu: A supplement for Ron Edwards's Sorcerer 01:36: A combination of Conan, Kull, Barsoom and the Bible 02:25: The Kim Stanley Robinson Mars trilogy inspired me to want to do a parkour game set on Mars 03:29: Mako of the Conan movie and Avatar: The Last Airbender 06:31: Settings that do what Judd likes settings to do include: Legend of the Five Rings (1st Edition), Midnight (original hardcover), and Exalted 07:12: Rules differences between Mu and Sorcerer 08:19: Judd's dad made a kill puppies for satan character with Mu 11:19: In a lot of ways, Mu is really a supplement for Sorcerer & Sword 13:11: Luke Crane and Ron encouraged Judd to bring the game to print. 13:54: Charnel Gods also came out of the Sorcerer mini-supplement project 16:35: Giving money to Joshua A.C. Newman for layout consultancy was a big impetus to me to complete 16:49: Rich Forest was Judd's editor for Mu and Jennifer Rodgers did the art. 17:10: Why did you make Mu? 21:55: The shock: solar system game we want to play some day 25:37: Don Corchran played Mu with Judd 27:38: The most useful feedback 30:07: The editing process 31:34: Thor Olavsrud talked about editing on an episode of the Theory from the Closet podcast 34:05: Use of art in the book 35:56: Keith Senkowski nearly called Judd a pussy 39:09: Choosing a printer (he uses Lightning Source now). 41:21: The economics of a print run and the sales flow 44:20: Marketing (having a podcast like Sons of Kryos "doesn't hurt") 47:14: "If I could change ANYthing...." 50:20: Defining success 57:33: The big announcement: Dictionary of Mu and FATE? Closing song is Leave Me the Fuck Alone by the Hub City Stompers Logo courtesy of Daniel Solis: http://danielsolis.com/ PS: Thanks to Rich Rodgers of The Canon Puncture show for help with a niggling Audacity problem. Comments[0] |
Sun, 10 August 2008 In this episode, Judd Karlman, writer of The Dictionary of Mu and my guest on my first episode, was kind enough to interview me about my game, Misspent Youth. Misspent Youth's tagline is "Teenage rebellion in a fucked-up future" and is a game about friendship and standing up to authority. It's coming out in ashcan form at Gen Con 2008 and it's the ashcan edition that we talk about here. It was a pleasure to talk to Judd, who is my oldest friend and someone I'm very glad to know. I'm grateful to him for doing me the honor of allowing me to piggyback on his renown for my self-aggrandizement. This episode is 54.8 MB big and 59:45 long. 00:59: Jennifer Rodgers did the cover art for the game and Joshua A.C. Newman (writer of shock: social science fiction et al.) provided layout consultancy. 01:56: The Adobe website has a lot of good tutorials to learn the InDesign layout program. 02:11: I stole layout ideas from the seminal punk 'zine, Maximumrocknroll. 03:01: Tell me about the game 04:10: Clockwork Orange (film or book) meets Avatar: The Last Airbender meets Ocean's 11 (2001) 04:24: Why did you design it? 05:06: A problematic game of Cybergeneration at Dreamation 2006 helped birth MY 06:28: Covert Generation, a game somewhat similar to Misspent Youth, came out at Gen Con 06 and got me nervous! 07:49: Other designs, such as Obvious Monstrosities--the werewolf game--that arose from the process 09:43: The very first playtest, with Andrew Morris (designer of the free RPG Unistat), and the crappy version of the rules 11:00: Misspent Youth's system is a version of craps that is easier than the one that crackheads play 11:47: Who I stole from: My Life with Master, Dogs in the Vineyard, FATE, World of Darkness, Burning Wheel, The Shadow of Yesterday, and Cybergeneration 14:20: Judd, Joshua, Andrew, Tony Lower-Basch (designer of Capes), and I played in a seminal-for-me game of My Life with Master which Michael S. Miller (designer of With Great Power) GMed 15:00: What got dropped in the design 17:17: Joshua Roby's game, Full Light, Full Steam inspired some now-gone mechanics after I listened to an episode with him of Master Plan 18:50: carry: a game about war by Nathan Paoletta 20:32: Primetime Adventures 20:34: The hardest thing to fix 28:10: The most useful feedback 30:42: Epidiah Ravachol (designer of Dread) and Nathan helped me with a thorny design issue. 32:06: Mickey Shulz (of the Geek Girls Rule blog and podcast) ran the one game that was run without ever having played it with me and found helpful problems 34:27: The Ashcan Front 37:30: The editing process (Tom Mazorlig and Adam Dray) 40:52: Use of art in the book 46:25: The game is being printed by Publishers' Graphics. 49:31: How do you define success? 50:42: Nathan's game Annalise 52:55: What if you can't get to Gen Con? How do you get a copy? Closing song is Letting You by Nine Inch Nails, from the freely-available album The Slip Logo courtesy of Daniel Solis: http://danielsolis.com/ Comments[0] |
Sun, 3 August 2008 In this episode, I speak with Elizabeth Shoemaker of Dissolute Games/Two Scooters Press about her game of quirky dysfunctional relationships, It's Complicated. Elizabeth is a good friend of mine, someone I feel lucky to be sharing the Play Collective booth with at Gen Con Indy 2008. It was a pleasure to talk to her about this game, which I played and quite enjoyed.
This episode is 53.9 MB big and 58:50 long. 00:56: Two Scooters Press is an umbrella for Elizabeth and Shreyas Sampat 02:12: The #indierpg channel on the Magicstar IRC Network 02:19: Dave Cleaver made an amazing Java applet for online play 03:25: What is the game about? 03:33: IC was in part designed to play games like the TV show Pushing Daisies 04:05: Only two traits: Dysfunctions and Oddities 05:13: No dice! 05:27: JiffyCon 06:02: Burning Wheel 06:15: Emily Care Boss says IC will break people's brains 07:42: Elizabeth's dark secret 08:45: Jonathan Walton is Elizabeth's other big design influence, after Shreyas 09:28: The Knife-fight forum 09:59: Elizabeth recently played Brennan Taylor's How We Came to Live Here and was in an ongoing game of Brennan's Mortal Coil 11:44: How the rules work 15:08: Touching 15:41: Don Corchran's idea: virgins and unicorns! 16:20: Why did you design this game? 17:48: DevP 20:58: Working on a game called Homecoming, about soldiers returning home from war 24:59: Things that were hard to drop 26:40: The most useful feedback from playtesters 27:48: What was the hardest thing to fix? 29:02: Nathan Paoletta is doing the layout, and Elizabeth has done art for his game, Annalise 29:43: Use of art in the book 34:35: Elizabeth is doing photography for Emily Care Boss's game, Under My Skin, a Jeepform game about polyamory 35:08: Annalise also has art by Jennifer Rodgers 36:11: IC is being printed by Guild of Blades, about whom Elizabeth raves 40:27: Graphic design challenges 42:13: Marketing the game by sharing a Gen Con booth with Vincent Baker and Joshau A.C. Newman 43:38: Elizabeth has been talking about the game on Story Games 44:20: Defining success for the game 44:53: You stab people's character sheets in Mist Robed Gate, Shreyas's game 49:47: Elizabeth's favorite games: Annalise, Mist Robed Gate, Exalted 1st Edition (in a codependent way), Meguey Baker's 1001 Nights 52:48: Elizabeth's crazy theory about games from Western MA Closing song is Sum of 3 by the Hub City Stompers Logo courtesy of Daniel Solis: http://danielsolis.com/ Comments[0] |
Tue, 15 July 2008 In this episode I talk with Ben Lehman of These Are Our Games (aka TAO games). We touch on his game about the lives of microcelebrity extreme athletes, XXXXtreme Street Luge, while conducting a wider- ranging discussion about microcelebrity of another kind, playtesting, ashcanning, and "what's wrong with the indie game design community, and what's always been wrong with the indie game design community." Warning, this one gets a mite prickly. This episode is 56.5 MB big and 1:01:43 long. 01:43: Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy 02:12: Joshua AC Newman 02:52: The $3 (negotiable) price point 03:21: The free pdf of the game 03:47: Carl Rigney gave away copies at Endgame for Free RPG Day 04:45: Rachel found In a Wicked Age... at Greenfield Games while at JiffyCon on Free RPG Day 05:23: Tell us about the game 06:16: "Look vaguely like Vin Diesel!" 06:23: Pull quote by Elizabeth Shoemaker, who's coming out with It's Complicated quite soon 06:34: New quote, attributed to Joshua and Ralph Mazza 07:11: Ashcans aren't playtested 07:53: Dogs in the Vineyard is a game about Vincent Baker's issues and adolescence 08:27: Polaris about is Ben dealing with issues around activism and burnout 09:14: Bliss Stage is about sex and relationships 10:22: The kill puppies for satan reference in XXXXSL 14:21: The question that XXXXSL is investigating 15:28: Story Games 15:51: Ben's problems with Jason Morningstar's and Clinton R. Nixon's problems with fame 17:43: Ben is working with Anna Kreider on Thou Art But a Warrior (about which more in Episode 12 20:13: Luke Crane 22:41: "Playtesting is somewhat overrated" 24:49: What Ben doesn't like about Playstorming 27:08: Tony Dowler and Ben's snags in making a new race for How to Host a Dungeon 29:18: Primetime Adventures's series creation reminds me of playstorming 30:23: XXXXSL's lineage: The Pool > Inspectres > Universalis > PTA 33:03: Paul Czege of The Ashcan Front 33:34: A game written for Game Chef 2008 is going to be released as an ashcan this year 34:39: What Ben doesn't like about ashcans 36:49: Ben has been playing a lot of Shooting the Moon by Emily Care Boss, Don't Rest Your Head by Fred Hicks, and carry. a game about war. by Nathan Paoletta 38:04: Ben chickens out 40:51: Ashcans and the Sacred Cow Defense League 42:47: The Cockzilla cover for Misspent Youth and its SCDL 47:25: Taking turns in the bullshit phase of XXXXSL 50:36: Defining success for XXXXSL 52:04: The origin of XXXXSL 55:05: Summarizing Ben's prescription for a healthy hobby 57:29: XXXXSL's "amazingly good illustration of Vin Diesel" by Shreyas Sampat 58:40: A reading of the game's ad for 1001 Nights by Meguey Baker Closing song is Sissyfit by the Hub City Stompers Logo courtesy of Daniel Solis: http://danielsolis.com/ Comments[3] |
Mon, 23 June 2008 Hey folks,I don't ordinarily do this for my show (I have this silly pride in not breaking the fourth wall), but at the moment I don't have any shows banked that I can use and things are a little hectic, finishing up my game (Misspent Youth). If you're a game designer and you wanna do an interview and you're reasonably close to NJ (I only do face-to-face interviews for the show), maybe you can help me avoid missing Thursday's show-coming-out-failure. Anyway, it might be a little while for my next show(s), but I promise I'll get back on the stick. Category: general -- posted at: 9:52 AM Comments[0] |
Thu, 12 June 2008 In this episode, I talk with Jason Morningstar of Bully Pulpit Games about Grey Ranks. Grey Ranks is a game about the 1944 00:56: Camp Nerdly 01:07: What it’s about 03:12: The arc of success and failure in the game 04:29: The grid, a map of mental states of characters 06:11: The scene/chapter structure 06:27: In A Wicked Age... 08:50: Historical games and the "getting it wrong" factor 09:15: Anna Kreider 11:33: Radio Lightning 14:02: The Things Held Dear mechanic 16:21: How the conflict system works 19:21: Character death 20:06: The reputation the game has as being dismal 21:49: Why did you design this game? 22:34: Mid-Atlantic Convention Expo 22:46: Luke Crane 26:06: Influences on the game (The Mountain Witch, Shab al-Hiri Roach, My Life With Master) 28:55: How many times was it played before publication? 29:41: The most valuable feedback received 31:18: The hardest thing to fix 31:28: Bill White (designer of Ganakagok) 32:38: What doesn't work? 33:12: A peek inside the structure of Bully Pulpit Games 33:37: Printed by Publishers' Graphics 34:05: Jason says Alphagraphics (aka RPI) are good now (Joshua AC Newman mentioned them in an earlier episode) 35:28: Jason's podcast, The Durham 3 35:50: How Jeff Bent's art is used in the book 38:08: Scott McCloud 39:10: Layout issues 40:02: Form factor & Lulu 42:03: Marketing 42:39: Defining success 44:09: How profit-sharing works in an indie press company 46:58: The Story Game Names Project 47:22: That whole "status" thing 50:52: Anything else to say? Closing song is Little Julie Swastiska by the Hub City Stompers Logo courtesy of Daniel Solis: http://danielsolis.com/ Comments[0] |
Thu, 29 May 2008
In this episode,
I speak with Anna Kreider about
her supplement for Polaris style, in vain) to fend off Christian crusaders. We recorded this on This episode is 77.9 MB big and 56:45 long.
Closing song is Latina Rose by
the Hub City Stompers Comments[0] |
The Independent Insurgency
Interviews from the world of independent tabletop roleplaying game design with RPG writer Robert Bohl.
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