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[5] |
this was a great episode! Malcolm was entertaining as hell to listen to!
and it gave me a weird thrill to hear that he had his books printed at Fidlar in Davenport! that's where I'm from and still live! (well, actually, bettendorf, but they're both in the Quad-Cities, so whatever. it's all home to me). i think i even worked a temp job there for a day once. sorry to break it to Malcolm, but it's not in the middle of a prairie. i kind of wish it was, though. actual prairie land is, very sadly, dying out around here.
anyway, Hot War and/or Cold City has been on the "List-of-games-I'm-interested-in-but-not-quite-enough-to-order" for a long time, but I think I'm going to have to bump Hot War up to the top of my list now. It sounds super sweet!
and it gave me a weird thrill to hear that he had his books printed at Fidlar in Davenport! that's where I'm from and still live! (well, actually, bettendorf, but they're both in the Quad-Cities, so whatever. it's all home to me). i think i even worked a temp job there for a day once. sorry to break it to Malcolm, but it's not in the middle of a prairie. i kind of wish it was, though. actual prairie land is, very sadly, dying out around here.
anyway, Hot War and/or Cold City has been on the "List-of-games-I'm-interested-in-but-not-quite-enough-to-order" for a long time, but I think I'm going to have to bump Hot War up to the top of my list now. It sounds super sweet!
posted by: brian peters on Tue, 1/6 12:17 AM EST
I'm so glad to hear you enjoyed it so much, Brian, and I'm particularly pleased that it may have played a role in your choosing to buy the game. I'll let Malc know so I can puff up with pride further.
posted by: Robert Bohl on Tue, 1/6 12:31 AM EST
Hey Brian,
It's great to hear that the interview has got you enthusiastic about Hot War. I hope that when you do get it, you'll be just as excited. I certainly hope so!
Matt Snyder (of Dust Devils fame and another Iowan) also disabused me of the notion that Fidlar operated from some vast printing complex in the rolling praries, with staff riding into work on horses each day. This only goes to confirm it in my mind and increase my sadness. I will now have to go out and look for other printers located in wild, frontier places.
Cheers
Malcolm
It's great to hear that the interview has got you enthusiastic about Hot War. I hope that when you do get it, you'll be just as excited. I certainly hope so!
Matt Snyder (of Dust Devils fame and another Iowan) also disabused me of the notion that Fidlar operated from some vast printing complex in the rolling praries, with staff riding into work on horses each day. This only goes to confirm it in my mind and increase my sadness. I will now have to go out and look for other printers located in wild, frontier places.
Cheers
Malcolm
posted by: Malcolm on Tue, 1/6 05:41 PM EST
Malcolm,
I can definitely say that I think I'd rather live in the Davenport of your imagination than the real one. :)
I can definitely say that I think I'd rather live in the Davenport of your imagination than the real one. :)
posted by: brian peters on Thu, 1/8 06:35 PM EST
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