In this episode, I talk to Julia Bond Ellingboe about her forthcoming game, Tales of the Fisherman's Wife. The game is set in medieval Japan and is a GMless game for telling ghost stories. Our discussion includes handmaking books, the difficulty of finding playtesters, and issues of appropriating others' culture.

WARNING: The Independent Insurgency is an "explicit" podcast.

This episode is 53.5 MB big and 58:25 long.

00:43: Set in the Edo period
01:48: The mechanics have you playing War
08:15: The title comes from a famous painting, The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife by Katushika Hokusai
09:11: Why design this game?
11:20: Thematic links between card suits and fiction
12:40: Is this an adult game?
18:15: My prior interview with Carrie Bernstein
19:29: What did you steal from?
20:11: 1001 Nights by Meguey Baker
21:33: What did you have to change from the ashcan?
24:13: What was difficult to fix?
25:36: The trouble with getting playtesters
26:37: JiffyCon and Double Exposure's Dreamation conventions
27:26: Editing the book
28:45: What use, art?
30:36: Getting the game printed (Collective Copies)
31:37: Layout and design challenges
35:19: Form factor
37:27: Marketing the game
38:05: Oh My, a "Sensuality Shop" that Julia would like to market the game in.
39:09: What is success?
44:06: Taking yourself out of the equation
48:43: The cultural sensitivity issues around designing a game about a culture that you're not a part of

The closing song is Tocotta and Droog by The Hub City Stompers

Logo courtesy of Daniel Solis: http://danielsolis.com/