Some thoughts about RPGs and Rules…

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The last few days I’ve found myself thinking about games. I’m not usually one to post random musings, but here’s a few.

Through the big bar that is the internet, I was directed to a post by Joe The Lawyer, who says the following:

I remember a conversation with Rob Kuntz where he described a game, DnD I think it was, that he and a player were so into they continued it at a pizza place, sans dice, books, character sheets, paper and pencils, where Rob had the guy guess a number to determine success or failure.  It worked because there was a trusted conflict or situational resolution system that gave the appearance of stuff not being arbitrary. At its core, isn’t that what all RPG rule systems are supposed to do?

He continues…

The famous quote attributed to Gary Gygax:  “The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don’t need any rules.” maybe ought to be expanded to gamemasters and players, and seems to be the deep dark secret of the RPG game design industry.

Did we really need a Numenara, a game which deals with common themes in RPG’s that have been around for decades, and just slapped a new resolution mechanic on all of it?  Do the rules really enhance the game that much?  Do they ever?  The only time I’ve ever seen rules impact the game is that the more rules you have the more the game sucks ass. 

I heard a number of variations of this basic theme at Gen Con this year… rules get in the way, there’s no need for any new system. I’ve been mulling it over since then. What I love most about roleplaying is that it’s a collaborative storytelling experience. Beyond this, many of my favorite RPGs—Lady Blackbird, Over The Edge, Fiasco—are indeed very simple games, with rules that can be summed up in a few pages. But I also enjoy more complicated systems such as Champions.

Ultimately, one thought sticks in my brain: RPG has two parts…. Roleplaying and game. You don’t need any rules to roleplay. You can roleplay in a pizza place with no books or dice. If you need arbitrary resolution, you can flip a coin or come up with rules on the spur of the moment (“OK, rogue, you need to get two heads in three flips to succeed.”). If all you’re looking for is a story, all you need is imagination. But as much as I love the roleplaying, some of the time I am actually playing for the game. If I just want get together with friends and create a story about superheroes, I don’t need Mutants & Masterminds, Villains & Vigilantes, or Champions. When I play Champions, it’s NOT because I have to do it—it’s because I WANT to do it. I enjoy constructing a character within the Hero System. I love coming up with a snappy one-liner (look, no rules!)… and then I enjoy doing a haymaker and rolling 18d6, and doing enough knockback to knock the bad guy through a wall (rules!). Yes, that scene could happen with any ruleset or none at all… but I like the experience of rolling eighteen dice, of making the choice to do the slow haymaker instead of the regular punch, of rolling for knockback. I like the game as well as the roleplaying. I can have fun telling a collaborative story in a bar without any dice or rules. But I can also having fun playing Champions in a bar without any story—just a random danger room deathmatch—because I enjoy the game.

The same goes for Dread. It’s a simple system with an interesting mechanic—using a Jenga tower instead of dice. When you do something risky, you draw tiles, and if the tower falls, you die. Do you NEED to use Dread to tell a scary story? No. In some ways it can even get in the way, because the tower itself ends up driving the risk. The gamemaster can raise or lower the number of tiles drawn, but if players are clumsy or make bad decisions they may wipe the party long before the GM expected it. It’s not the perfect system, or even the perfect suspense system. But it does create a very specific experience—one I can’t get just talking in a pizza place, unless I happen to have brought a Jenga set. The story doesn’t need Jenga. I don’t need it to roleplay. But sometimes what I want to do is to play Dread… and when that happens, there’s no better rule system out there.

Eberron isn’t married to D&D. I can take an Eberron story and adapt it to OD&D, Dread, Lady Blackbird, or the Hero System. Or I can just run it freestyle at a pizza place. But all five of those will be completely different experiences. When I decide what I’m going to play, it’s not just about the story I’m going to tell—it’s about the entire experience I want to have, and system is very much a part of that.

Over the last year I’ve been working on two RPG projects, Codex and Phoenix. With Codex, I decided that not only doesn’t need a unique system of its own, I want to encourage people to adapt it to whatever system that they prefer. Personally, I like the idea of running a campaign in which we might use a different system each session, picking the system that is best suited to the experience we want to have for that session. Meanwhile, I am developing a new system for Phoenix… because it’s a system that creates a distinct play experience, one that’s specifically suited to the goals of the game and entirely different than you’d get from converting the story to OD&D or playing it systemless in a pizzeria.

There’s more systems than I will ever play—or that I ever want to play. And there’s more books than I’ll ever read or want to read, and more movies than I’ll ever watch. Does this mean people should stop writing books or creating movies that don’t appeal to me personally? Should people only be allowed to enjoy the things I enjoy, and forced to stop wasting their money on anything else? I don’t have any plans to ever play Numenera, but that doesn’t mean the 5,000 people who have picked it up shouldn’t have that opportunity, or are somehow wrong to want to have the experience it presents.

Dragonmarks: The Daelkyr and their Cults

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In days to come I’ll be talking about GenCon, Gloom, and Phoenix. But it’s been a few months since I wrote anything about Eberron. When I started the Dragonmarks I focused on specific topics, and I wanted to get back to that. So today I’m talking about the Daelkyr and the Cults of the Dragon Below. As always, everything here is just my opinion. It may contradict present or future canon sources and is not official in any way. With that said…

Eberron has its fair share of apocalyptic villains. The Lords of Dust serve fiendish Overlords who ruled the world in the dawn of time and wait to be released to rule it again. The Dreaming Dark uses our dreams as tools to enslave us. Then there are the Daelkyr. Eight thousand years ago, the Daelkyr came through from the plane of madness, and by the time they were bound in Khyber they’d brought down the Empire of Dhakaan. Unlike the Overlords, the Daelkyr are still active in Khyber. You could go down into the underworld and meet one. Their stats in the 3.5 ECG don’t even seem that impressive, really. So what’s up with the Daelkyr? Why bother with them when you have the more powerful and ancient Lords of Dust around? What do they bring to a story?

First of all, what are the Daelkyr?

The Daelkyr are powerful entities from Xoriat, the plane of Madness. They aren’t the most powerful denizens of Xoriat; they are simply the mightiest to have shown any interest in other planes. They are immortal outsiders, not creatures of flesh and blood. The slightest touch of a daelkyr can sicken or warp organic creatures, and its mere presence can cause temporary madness. Peering into the mind of a Daelkyr can cause permanent insanity. This speaks to the fundamental difference between the Daelkyr and all those other forces: we don’t understand them. The others make sense to us. The Dreaming Dark wants to control the world because that’s the only way they can secure the survival of their culture. The Lords of Dust want to free their masters and restore their primal dominion over the world. The Daelkyr… we just don’t know. At the end of the day we don’t know what they want or how they intend to achieve it. We know what’s keeping them at bay – the seals created by the Gatekeepers – but we don’t know why the Daelkyr haven’t already broken those seals or what would happen if they did. Unlike the Overlords, the Daelkyr are free to move about in Khyber. They have armies of aberrations and cults scattered across the world. Why haven’t they taken more active measures to secure their release? Are the mightiest Daelkyr working together, or are they working at cross purposes? Why is it that their cults often follow completely different creeds and are quite often entirely unaware of one another? Again, at the end of the day, we don’t know. We know they are down in Khyber. We know the power they possess. But we don’t know what they want or what they are doing.

A common theory is that the Daelkyr aren’t actually soldiers or conquerors: they are scientists and artists. They don’t actually have any interest in ruling the world or in destroying it; they are simply interested in changing it. They took the goblins of Dhakaan and created dolgaunts, dolgrims, and dolgarrs from them and then sent those creatures back against the empire. It could be that this conflict was all they wanted… they didn’t actually CARE about who won, they simply wanted to watch the goblins fight these twisted mockeries of their own kind and see what impact that had. And in the end, it wasn’t the military force of the Daelkyr that destroyed the empire; it was the seeds of madness, the rivalries created, the erosion of faith in tradition, the cults, and all the myriad other long-term effects that brought down Dhakaan. The Daelkyr wounded the empire with brute force, but it was the infection over time that killed it… which may have been their goal all along.

Meanwhile, they DIDN’T make any sort of dolgaunt equivalent from orcs; instead they just spawned a host of cults that linger to this day. Yet many of those cults don’t directly revere or serve the Daelkyr themselves. Again, it seems like change was more their goal than destruction.

Part of the point here is that the release of a Daelkyr is not likely to be anywhere near as apocalyptic as the release of an Overlord. It’s something that would have dramatic effects on a region – but it could conceivably go unnoticed by the world at large for years. Heck, there could be a free Daelkyr at large right now.

Let’s look at a few questions.

Was the daelkyr’s humanoid appearance always part of the concept?

The Daelkyr are often depicted as attractive, androgynous humanoids clad in organic armor. Some wonder “why do they look human, when they originally fought goblins?” In my opinion, this appearance doesn’t remotely reflect the true nature of the Daelkyr; it is simply something the human brain puts together to make some sort of sense of what it’s facing. As such, a goblin might see some sort of handsome goblinoid wearing the skins of its enemies, and a warforged might see an imposing construct clad in the rusting remnants of other warforged. I’m inspired by this image of Galactus from back in the day…

Bear in mind that a Daelkyr can cause confusion at will – which is to say, it can break your mind just by thinking about you. Given that, the idea that different people may see Daelkyr differently is a fairly minor thing.

With that said, I also believe that different named Daelkyr will have unique appearances. We’ve shown Kyrzin (Prince of Slime) as a vaguely humanoid slime with human limbs embedded in it. I’d expect Belashyrra (Lord of Eyes) to be associated with eyes. With that said, I WOULD be more inclined to make Belashyrra some sort of humanoid as opposed to, say, a giant beholder. Daelkyr do carry symbionts designed to be used by humanoids. They may not look HUMAN, but I think they manifest in a humanoid shape.

How high is the Daelkyr threat level compared to the overlords?

As described above, I don’t consider the Daelkyr to be as IMMEDIATE an apocalyptic threat as the Overlords. The release of the Daelkyr won’t mean instant devastation; the main thing is that once those seals are broken, you may never be able to fix them again. The conflict between the Dhakaani and the Daelkyr lasted for centuries, and I wouldn’t expect things to be different now. A released Daelkyr wouldn’t destroy the world… but it WOULD start changing the region around it, and might eventually fling an army of aberrations at the country next door, spread plagues or waves of madness, or otherwise do things that could harm tens of thousands of people or break the existing balance of power.

(The Daelkyr) are a little difficult to use in a campaign as the main villains because they are not as strong, manipulative, or great in number as the overlords…

I’ll touch on influence in a moment, but speaking to “strength”, there’s a few things. First, bear in mind that a Daelkyr should never be found alone. They create monsters, madness, and bizarre diseases as a hobby, and have had eight thousand years to indulge in this. Belashyrra has a battalion of beholders, not to mention dolgaunts, mind flayers, and anything else you care to create. And if you want to say that Belashyrra has bred an army of 100,000 beholders and has it sitting under Sharn right now… than he does.

Second: Don’t be limited by the stats that are presented. First of all, Daelkyr are like demon princes. All of the major ones – Belashyrra, Kyrzin, Dyrrn the Corruptor, Orlassk – should be unique individuals with their own powers. Second, more than any other creature in D&D, Daelkyr should break the rules. The fundamental rule of the Daelkyr is that we don’t understand them. As powerful as the Overlords are, they are part of Eberron. They are embodiments of concepts that shape our world. The Daelkyr are something else entirely. They don’t belong here. Having magic or other fundamental rules warp around them is entirely in keeping with them as a concept.

Aside from the fact that direct magical effects may not work as you expect, feel free to assign powers to Daelkyr that simply have no grounding in standard mechanics. For example, it’s said that Belashyrra can see through anyone’s eyes. Maybe that’s exaggerated; maybe it’s the literal truth. Maybe he can blind anyone he wants – anywhere, anytime – or swap your sight with someone else, so suddenly you’re seeing the world through the eyes of an orc shaman in the Shadow Marches. Meanwhile, the Marchers say that Kyrzin has influence over anyone who’s suffering from excessive mucus. Maybe a faerie tale… maybe not. Again, the key with the Daelkyr is that we DON’T KNOW. This is enhanced by their alien attitude and uncertain goals. If the Dreaming Dark could see through everyone’s eyes, they would use it to further their known agenda. Belashyrra COULD do lots of useful things with this gift, and simply chooses not to. Why?

How much day-to-day influence do the Daelkyr actually have, and why? As opposed to mere personal might?

This ties to the question above: We don’t know, because we don’t know what they want, and we don’t know what they are capable of. It’s possible that anyone who’s got a cold is an unwitting agent of Kyrzin, and that anyone who’s got eyes is an unwitting spy for Belashyrra. Beyond this, ANYONE WHO’S CRAZY MAY BE CRAZY BECAUSE OF THEM. And “crazy” is a very broad term, as I’ll discuss when we get to the cults.

Furthermore, the Daelkyr can always create new things we’ve never seen before. Someone asked if the Daelkyr could actually be responsible for Dragonmarks. Why not? The Daelkyr specialize in creating and modifying lifeforms. They get to break the rules. They could have created the dragonmarks as a weird living way of embodying the Prophecy that the dragons and fiends still can’t really understand… and the aberrant dragonmarks are a weird variant of that experiment. This could relate to the Cult project in my City of Towers novel… and could mean that they could create new dragonmarks, move them onto new races, etc.

So the short form is “How much influence do they have? Well, how much influence do you WANT them to have?” The key here is that a campaign in which the Daelkyr are the villains should feel entirely different from one dealing with the Dreaming Dark or the Lords of Dust. it doesn’t HAVE to revolve around the release of a Daelkyr; it could revolve around the emergence of a new sort of dragonmark, an attack by an army of previously unknown aberrations, the killing spree of a single bizarre serial killer, the spread of a horrible plague… or all of these things stitched together in a strange and unexpected tapestry.

I find that horror is difficult to pull off without visual aid.

This needs to be the subject of its own blog post, but the trick here is that the gooey symbionts are really the least frightening thing about the Daelkyr. What’s far more frightening is the fact that you don’t know what they are, what they want, or what they can do to you. Say you are looking in the mirror one morning, and just for a moment you see Belashyrra looking back at you. What does it mean? Perhaps a small eye-shaped dragonmark-like tattoo then appears on your hand. What does it mean? Perhaps you start having telepathic intuitions about the motives of people around you. They save you from an ambush, but… what does it mean? Then you hear about another fellow who had the same mark, and who ended up killing his friends and family and disappearing… and no one knows why. The fear here isn’t VISUAL at all; it’s the fact that you are touched by something you don’t understand, you don’t know why, you don’t know what to do about it, and you don’t know what’s going to happen next.

Similarly, when dealing with the powers of the Daelkyr, think about what they actually are and what can make them horrifying. A Daelkyr can use confusion at will. But what does it mean to be “confused”? Does it take you back to the most horrible time in your life when you were surrounded by enemies? Does it make you watch helplessly while your body blunders around on its own? When it uses Feeblemind, it is stripping away your ability to speak, to understand language, to do anything you once could do… the idea of that, of being conscious but unable to communicate, unable to remember how to use a sword or cast a spell… that’s more horrifying to me than any gooey monster. The horror of the Daelkyr is the things you CAN’T fight with a sword… and the fear of what might be coming next.

Why don’t the Daelkyr team up and free themselves, like, right now?

I’ve answered this above, but I’ll reiterate it here… THIS IS A QUESTION DAELKYR SCHOLARS HAVE BEEN ASKING FOR CENTURIES. It may be because they don’t care about being imprisoned. Perhaps it’s because they are immortal and know that the seals will all break in 999 YK when Xoriat finally becomes coterminous again, and they don’t mind waiting. Perhaps it’s because they can do everything they want to do WHILE being imprisoned. Or perhaps it’s because they are engaged in a series of feuds so esoteric and strange that we don’t even know they are going on!

Was the Undying Court ambivalent to the daelkyr invasion of the Dhakaani empire? Or busy with some other pressing business at the time?

Short answer: The power of the Undying Court is concentrated in Aerenal. They undoubtedly took action to defend Aerenal from the incursion. The Dhakaani had already fought the Tairnadal and driven them from Khorvaire, so there was no love between elf and goblin; even if the Court had the power to help Dhakaan, it’s not much of a surprise that they chose to focus on their own defense.

Is there any evidence to support the claim that the daelkyr were refugees seeking asylum in Eberron and that the Dhakaani empire was the one to initiate hostilities, forcing the daelkyr to respond in self defense?

None at all. You may be thinking of the theory that the Quori were refugees seeking asylum in Eberron when they were attacked by the Giants; there’s a fair amount of evidence suggesting that, and more important, neither culture survived to the present day, so there’s no way to verify it. Meanwhile, we have the Gatekeepers, Heirs of Dhakaan, and the Daelkyr themselves as multiple living threads attesting to the hostile intent and actions of the Daelkyr. With that said, it can be argued that the Daelkyr don’t consider collapsing civilizations and warping creatures into new forms to be a hostile act.

Are there Gatekeepers corrupted by the Daelkyr?

Certainly. “Gatekeepers corrupted by the Daelkyr” is an entirely valid foundation for a Cult of the Dragon Below. Consider the link above.

The question about the Undying Court’s reaction (or absence thereof) to the Daelkyr invasion of the Dhakaani Empire reminds me of one that’s been bugging me for some time. Did the Daelkyr only target Khorvaire for their invasion – and within Khorvaire, only the south-west in and around the Shadow Marches and some of the border areas? I’ve read that the chokers may have been formed from halflings, so strikes into the Talenta Plains may have happened – but what of Xen’drik, Argonessen, or Sarlona – who, in the absence of Gatekeepers, would have been defenseless?

As far as has been mentioned in canon, the Xoriat incursion was limited to Khorvaire; notably, there’s no mention of it having targeted Sarlona at all, and even the problems of the Umbragen came after the Daelkyr were trapped in Khyber. They struck across Khorvaire; in addition to the Talenta Plains example, they also wiped out the Dwarven civilization that once existed below the Ironroot Mountains. Looking to the question of why they’d do this when there were other, easier targets… the Shadow Marches has an unusually large number of manifest zones to Xoriat, and this is part of what made the incursion possible in the first place. Bear in mind that there were no Gatekeepers in Khrovaire when the Daelkyr attacked; they were formed in response to the incursion, and if the Daelkyr had attacked Sarlona Vvaraak would have gone there. But most of all, bear in mind that the Daelkyr weren’t looking for a defenseless place. They weren’t trying to claim territory; they were (as best as we can tell) interested in transforming the world. Today, Dhakaan has fallen, and we have dolgaunts and dolgrims, derro beneath the mountains, cults of the Dragon Below, chokers in the shadows… it’s not clear that they are unsatisfied with the outcome. As noted in the other Dragonmark, they don’t seem to be working very hard to break the seals. Having dropped seeds of madness into Eberron, they may simply be watching as those seeds spread, waiting until the time is right for the next phase.

 

Now let’s move from the Daelkyr to the Cults of the Dragon Below. A few people asked variations of the same question…

“Why would anyone find the Cults attractive, given their obviously ‘wrong’ nature?”

Because if you’re in the cult, it doesn’t seem “wrong.” Imagine that you wake up one morning with the sudden realization that you are the reincarnated soul of King Arthur, and that you have to save the world from the new Modred. You have the ability to see the auras of the other Knights of the Round Table, and so you start gathering them together – and they in turn see you as their king. You even find Merlin dwelling in the sewers, and he whispers to you of your missions. This is a perfect model for a Cult of the Dragon Below. The cultists don’t see that “Merlin” is a mind flayer, or that “Excalibur” is a bizarre sword formed from muscle and bone; they see it as the most perfect sword ever formed. Because they are insane. It may be a extremely subtle madness, and “King Arthur” may be a brilliant and charismatic leader. But he’s still convinced that he IS King Arthur, when in fact he’s just some random soldier holding a gooey sword and talking with a mind flayer. To you as an outsider it seems “wrong.” For him, it is his destiny and a quest that will determine the fate of the world.

This is why Cults rarely work together. They are driven by delusions and don’t necessarily share any sort of common creed. One cult embraces the aberration and sees symbionts as a way to improve on weak flesh; another doesn’t even see symbionts AS symbionts, instead seeing them as amazing glittering treasures.

The Cults seem to be an avenue for the desperate and insane, why would a rational person of means who join the Cults?

See above. “King Arthur” could be one of the greatest generals of the Five Nations, in charge of thousands of troops. He could also be an amazing strategist and extremely rational person… except for the part where he thinks he’s King Arthur. Just because you’re insane doesn’t mean you’re desperate, and “insane” can mean MANY different things. Poor and desperate people might turn to a cult willingly because they see it as a source of power or a means of survival. But madness can strike anyone, anywhere. And that’s not even getting into the fact that Kyrzin could technically spread a cult by using the common cold.

Why do people join the Cults? It seems like their core tenet is that everyone’s going to die, but the faithful die faster.

Game mechanics sort of imply all cults are some what uniform. How much variation is there? Can they hate each other?

Blood of Vol seems like a morally-ambiguous church (at least in terms of followers) -Why was Dragon Below not written similar?

I want to address these together. I’ve already talked about the fact that a Cult can appear anywhere, anytime, and that their creeds can vary dramatically. However, we also have the established, long-term cults that you find in places like the Shadow Marches. There’s a few sources on these:

“Touched By Madness” is an article in Dragon Magazine (back when it was a magazine) that discusses a variety of cults.

The Gibbering Cults are described in this article on the Daelkyr Kyrzin. Gibbering Cults cultivate gibbering beasts, and when a member of the cult grows sick or elderly, they feed them to the family beast. They believe that the soul lives on in the beast, and that they can hear its wisdom when they listen to the beast. Beyond this, they aren’t innately evil. They aren’t going to feed YOU to the family beast, because you don’t deserve it. Some gibbering families may be crazed killers; others might seem just like you and me – provided you stay out of the basement. Really, it’s not that different from the Undying Court.

The Inner Sun cults are mentioned in this Eye on Eberron article. Here’s a quote:

Collectively, the Cults of the Dragon Below are anything but monolithic. Creeds vary wildly from one group to another, and cults spring up spontaneously; sometimes a madman has a vision that infects the minds of those around him. A few common threads of thought, however, appear in similar forms across cult lines. One shared precept is that the world is an imperfect place. Khyber sought to perfect it—to eliminate pain, suffering, death and all other woes—but the other dragons turned on her, and when Eberron couldn’t defeat Khyber, she trapped her.

The second element of this credo concerns the realm of the Inner Sun. It is the belief that a paradise exists within Khyber, a place where people can escape the suffering of everyday life. Most of the cults that subscribe to this belief consider the Vale of the Inner Sun to be a place that can be reached only after death, often coupled with the requirement that one must earn passage to the vale by spilling the blood of worthy enemies. This perceived duty has been the motivation behind the acts of many murderers and vicious Marcher clans.

Many of these hereditary cults aren’t LOOKING for new members. You join one by being born into it, and it makes sense to you because that’s how life has always been. But you could certainly play a half-orc barbarian raised in an Inner Sun cult who’s joined the party looking to kill enough worthy foes to earn his way to the Vale… and he could end up being a great and noble hero, despite this belief.

How do cults operate in Sharn, and what arm of law enforcement rides herd on them?

The point of the Cults is that it’s hard to monitor them because a new one can pop up anywhere and the lack of a common creed makes it difficult to identify. So the Blackened Book is investigating the weird summonings going on in Ashblack, while the Citadel is looking into this whole King Arthur thing, and none of them have noticed the gibbering family living in Fallen.

How would you suggest using a Cult of the Dragon Below as allies to the PCs instead of antagonists?

Don’t make it obvious that they ARE a Cult of the Dragon Below. Again, that Gibbering family may be fine, decent, helpful people who just happen to be getting ready to feed grandma to the gibbering mouther in the basement. Or try this: there’s a cult that is convinced that they must steel their minds and souls to face a terrible threat. They believe that there are CREATURES LIVING IN OUR DREAMS and trying to control us. They are actually going around assassinating people because “Their minds have been consumed by dream-monsters”; they also have some awesome monk disciplines tied to this training. The leader of the cult is, in fact, a mind flayer, but he doesn’t eat anyone’s brains; instead, he “consumes their fears”, a process that does actually seem to strengthen will without harmful side effects; he also helps them operate without sleeping, to avoid the dream monsters, and it’s his training that helps them spot the “corrupted”. He tells the adventurers that he bears their kind no ill will and simply seeks to keep the dream-monsters from consuming the mind of the world. SO… is this all on the level? Is the mind flayer actually training people to oppose the Quori? Are they actually assassinating mind seeds? Or are they in fact just totally misled and crazy, assassinating entirely innocent people?

When did the cults start to take hold? Were there giants and elves/drow that venerated the Dragon Below or did worship of the horrors get footing only after the Xen’drik cataclysm?

Well, cults that literally worship KHYBER have existed long before the Xoriat Incursion. as for Xoriat-inspired cults, we haven’t mentioned any specifically, but there’s no reason some couldn’t have existed before the arrival of the Daelkyr; in fact, it would be logical for there to have been a cult in the Dhakaani era that laid the groundwork for the arrival of the Daelkyr in the first place.

If the Gatekeepers didn’t stop the Daelkyr invasion, how would it have changed Eberron as a game system? Would it have been akin to, say something like Dark Sun or Ravenloft?

Sure, or Gamma World. The ultimate goal of the Daelkyr is to reshape the world, and once they are done they’d likely move on to another world (as noted in the suggestion that the Gith are survivors from another world claimed by the Daelkyr). It would be a world filled with aberrations, madness, strange powers, and the like – both flora and fauna would definitely be affected.

Dolgrim, Dolgaunts, etc, are obviously the goblinoid aberrations – if I wanted to create other races’ aberrations, what is the guiding principle regarding a “corrupt” race? Dolgrims and Dolgaunts don’t seem much like goblins and hobgoblins except in size.

There is no “guiding principle”. It’s going to depend entirely on what daelkyr you’re dealing with. Kyrzin likes slimes and disease. Belashyrra has a fondness for eyes. Orlassk likes stone and petrification. Dyrrn just likes corruption in any form, mental or physical. As noted above, DRAGONMARKS could be the result of Daelkyr “corruption”. A Daelkyr may choose to create something designed to inspire fear or horror in others… or it may design something strange and bizarre that it simply finds pleasing or necessary for its goals. The Dols were created to serve as soldiers and unleashed on the Dhakaani. They were designed to horrify the Dhakaani and to be effective soldiers. Dragonmarked humans could have been engineered as a way to control the Prophecy (or they could have nothing to do with the Daelkyr – don’t get me wrong). Any form of manipulation is appropriate.

What part, if any, do the Lords Of Dust play in the formation of the cults?

What part do you want them to play? If it furthers the goals of their Overlord, a Lord of Dust might well set a cult in motion. The Daelkyr are weaker than the Overlords, and certain Overlords (such as the Voice in the Darkness) don’t see the Daelkyr’s actions as any sort of threat to their goals. Beyond this, of course, there are some “Cults of the Dragon Below” that are entirely dedicated to the Overlords as opposed to being influenced by the Daelkyr.

Why did Vvaraak teach the orcs to fight the daelkyr? Wasn’t Darguun militarily the more capable power? Will of the Prophecy?

It could have been driven by the Prophecy. it could be that the Daelkyr already had too much influence over the Dhakaani for Vvaraak to reach them. I’m inclined to say that the Dhakaani were simply too entrenched in their own cultural traditions to abandon them and embrace some bizarre tree-hugging dragon’s weird religion. The Dhakaani knew exactly how to handle the situation: steel, military discipline, and the magic of the Duur’kala. If some barbarian orc wants to go pray to moss or the “great earth dragon” – frankly, that sounds like the exact sort of madness our enemy is spreading.

Since the Silver Flame opposes supernatural threats, does the Church of the SF have alliances with gatekeepers against Daelkyr?

The Gatekeepers are almost entirely unknown outside of the Shadow Marches, and given some of the CotSF’s issues with Droaam aren’t entirely trusting of the Church; overzealous followers of the Pure Flame might well see orc mystics as a problem, not a solution. With that said, the Church of the Silver Flame seeks to protect the innocent from all supernatural threats, and the Daelkyr are certainly a supernatural threat. So I think that Jaela would find common ground with Maagrim’Torrn if they ever met, and I think most true followers of the Flame would help Gatekeepers if they faced aberrations together, but Thrane and the Shadow Marches are far away.

Can an exorcist of the SF repel the Daelkyr and Xoriat beings?

An exorcist’s Flame of Censure affects “outsiders with the evil subtype”. As a result, it WILL work against a Daelkyr – an evil outsider – but won’t work against a dolgaunt. Aberrations aren’t really the province of the Flame; it’s used to dealing with fiends, undead, and the like, and the point of aberrations is that they are fundamentally more alien than even a demon; aberrations are the things we don’t understand, things that don’t follow natural law.

GenCon 2013: My Schedule

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If you’re going to Gen Con 2013 and wondering “But where can I see the legendary Keith Baker,” I have the all the answers you need.

If you’d just like a chance to hang out with me, your best bet will be at the Informal Hangout I’m hosting in the Hyatt Lobby from 5-7 PM Friday the 16th. This is a chance to talk about Eberron, Gloom, or Doom, and your best opportunity to hear about my new project, Phoenix. Depending on interest, I may hang out longer – but I’ll certainly be there from 5-7 PM. Please spread the word – this is certainly the best chance to talk!

Beyond that, I’m appearing in the following places and panels:

THURSDAY 4 PM – 5 PM: Putting More History In Your Story. Both RPGs and fiction draw heavily on historical cultures and narratives, even for a new setting. Our Industry Insider Guests of Honor will talk about how to use primary sources to enrich your play. With me, Jessica Banks, Kenneth Hite, and Lewis Pulsipher.

THURSDAY 6 PM – 7 PM: RPG Design and Development. Our Industry guests talk all about the process from theory, to concept, to design, to publication. With me, Timothy Kask, Jared Sorensen, and Darren Watts.

FRIDAY 10 AM – 12 PM: TableTop Gloom – Play with Keith! This will be at the TableTop area in Gaming Hall E. Four unfortunate people will get to play a round of Gloom with me! Afterwards I’ll be hanging out at the TableTop booth until noon to discuss all things Gloomy.

FRIDAY 12 PM – 1 PM: More Drama, More Comedy – Theatre Lessons for RPGs. Steal a few tips from the Actor’s Studio: entrances, exits, and improv tools, among others. Our panel of luminaries walks you through the basics & the advanced techniques to make your RPG night shine! With me, Wolfgang Baur, Matt James, and Lizzie Stark.

FRIDAY 2 PM – 5 PM: The Doom That Came To Atlantic City. I’ll be spending the afternoon over at the Cryptozoic Entertainment booth, running demos of Doom and talking about the game.

FRIDAY 5 PM – 7 PM: Hang Out at the Hyatt! I’ll be cooling my heels in the lobby of the Hyatt for a few hours, and look forward to talking about anything with whoever comes by. If you want to hear more about Phoenix and what I’m doing next, this is the place!

SATURDAY 10 AM – 11 AM: Cooperative Worldbuilding. How do we create a world from scratch? This panel looks behind the scenes with the creative forces and process behind worldbuilding. With me, Jennifer Clarke Wilkes, Kenneth Hite, and Darren Watts.

SATURDAY 12 PM – 2 PM: Emerald Spire All-Stars. Join a jaw-dropping panel of the game design superstars behind the Emerald Spire Superdungeon, a cornerstone of Pathfinder Online’s $1.4 million Kickstarter campaign earlier this year. Panelists will discuss their original dungeon levels and share dungeon-themed anecdotes from their career in gaming, followed by a Q&A and signing. Panelists: Ed Greenwood, Frank Mentzer, Richard Baker, Wolfgang Baur, Mike Stackpole, Jordan Weisman, Chris Pramas, Lisa Stevens, Erik Mona, F. Wesley Schneider, James Jacobs, Jason Bulmahn, and Sean K Reynolds!

SUNDAY 10 AM – 11 AM: Fear of the Unknown. Unlike most horror protagonists, roleplayers KNOW that they are in a horror story and are often well versed in the lore of the setting. As a designer or GM, how can you bring suspense to the table? With me, Kenneth Hite, and Jared Sorensen.

I think that’s it! I hope to see you there!

Wizard World Chicago & Going Last

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Recently I was a guest on the Going Last podcast, where we talked about Doom, Gloom, Eberron, and Phoenix, the project I’m working on RIGHT NOW. Of course, if you happen to live in Chicago, we could talk about it live, because I’m going to be there this weekend for the Wizard World Comic Con!

Most of the time, I’ll be in the game room running demos of Doom and Gloom. I’m also going to be at a few panels with Kenneth Hite and Will Hindmarch…

Friday 4:00 – 4:45 PM DESIGNING FANTASY WORLDS (Room 50)

Saturday 1:00 – 1:45 PM EBERRON AND BEYOND (Room 50)

Saturday 6:30 – 7:15 PM SETTING THE MOOD(Room 50)

Sunday 12:30 – 1:15 PM FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN(Room 34)

Not in Chicago? No worries. I’m also going to be in Gen Con in Indianapolis in little over a week, and then at Dragon*Con at the end of the month! More details on those conventions soon.

Time for Gloom: Unquiet Dead

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The last few weeks have been tied up with The Doom That Came To Atlantic City, but I have other projects in the works. Soon I want to start talking about the new RPG I’m working on, but today I wanted to talk about the next Gloom expansion: Unquiet Dead.

For anyone who’s not familiar with it, Gloom is a transparent card game in which you control a family of eccentric characters. You’re trying to construct the saddest story possible, and as such your goal is lead your family to misery and death while keeping your opponents happy, healthy and alive. You can see Gloom in action in this episode of Wil Wheaton’s Tabletop – or in this video, featuring Molly Lewis, The Doubleclicks, and me!

The original Gloom features the Slogar family, including Lord “brain-in-a-box” Slogar and his cadaverous daughter Melissa. Unquiet Dead expands on this and pulls ghosts, ghouls, mad scientists and all manner of other spooks into the spotlight. Perhaps you’ll be confined in a coffin, have to hide from Hyde, or have a full honeymoon after you’re Wed to a Werewolf. But what are a few of the things that really make this expansion stand out?

Even a man who’s pure of heart and says his prayers by night can become a duck when the moon is full…

THE UNDEAD

Unquiet Dead includes a number of “Undead Modifiers.” These are similar to the transformations of Cthulhu Gloom – modifiers that actually replace the central image of your character with a new picture. This means that the effects of the card stay with you even after the text is covered. So if you look at “Woke up as a Wereduck” above, you’ll see that it says “Undead; Beast, Duck”. Once you become a wereduck, you are ALWAYS considered to have the Beast and Duck story icons… and you’re undead.

Undead characters are considered to be both alive and dead. They count towards ending the game and count towards your score… but they remain active, and you can continue to play Modifiers and Events on them. This can be both a blessing and a curse; you can make things worse for your wereduck, but your opponents can continue to cheer you up. No one ever said a vampire couldn’t find true love! Or sell the movie rights to the story! And speaking of stories…

STORIES

Stories give your families something new to fight over. A Story is a card that starts in the middle of the table. To claim a story, you need to have a certain number of a particular story icon in your family. So after once of your characters is Perturbed By The Pudding and another is Sickened By Salmon, you find yourself with two Goblet icons. That lets you claim to the “Icebox of Doctor Caligari” Story – and you keep it until another player has more Goblets than you do. As long as it’s in your possession, it provides you with a useful ongoing ability. So Stories give you a reason to push your family in a particular direction – and the back and forth of trying to keep your opponents from stealing your Story adds a fun twist.

ONGOING DEATH EFFECTS

In classic Gloom, many Untimely Deaths provide a bonus if the dead character has a particular Story icon. A character who’s Sickened By Salmon loses an extra ten points if he Chokes on a Bone as opposed to being Burnt By A Mob… because the original tale dealt with food, and the death logically follows. Unquiet Dead continues this approach, but now you can get a wider range of bonuses from matching deaths to the logical characters. For example, if you happened to be Worrying About Wolves before being Run Down By The Pack, you’ll have an opportunity to kill an additional character; and if your character is already wealthy when she Took It With Her, your draw limit could be increased by one for the rest of the game.

Unquiet Dead comes out in October 2013, but if you catch me at an upcoming convention (Wizard World Chicago, Gen Con, Dragon*Con) you might have an opportunity to try it out early! Until then, check out more of the Undead modifiers in Atlas Games’ latest preview.

Cryptozoic Saves Doom!

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The development of The Doom That Came To Atlantic City has been a long road for Lee Moyer and myself, and a week ago it looked like a story with a decidedly unhappy ending. For me, the worst part of it was that people who’d put their faith in my design had been hurt by it. When the news broke, we received a outpouring of support from people in the gaming community. Both casual gamers and industry professionals expressed their sorrow, asked about buying the Print & Play version, or what it would take to get to get the game into print. While Lee and I were keen to see the game finally produced, neither one of us were comfortable with the thought of doing that when the first people to support it were left out in the cold. Luckily, Scott Gaeta of Cryptozoic Entertainment felt the same way. So here’s the news of the day:

The Print and Play version of Doom is live. If you are a backer, you should receive download instructions within the hour (make sure to check spam folders!). if you don’t, please contact me through this website.

Cryptozoic Entertainment is going to produce The Doom That Came To Atlantic City… And send it to the backers free of charge. If you backed the game, Cryptozoic will be providing you with as many copies of the game as you were due to receive. They can’t fulfill all of the rewards that were promised by The Forking Path, but they are going to evaluate the rewards and see what else they can do. If you’re a backer, expect to hear from Cryptozoic in the next few days with more information.

You can find the official press release here, and while you’re at it, check out Lee Moyer’s post on his blog.

To be absolutely clear: This has nothing to do with The Forking Path or Kickstarter. The project was cancelled, and this is not a reward or refund from the Forking Path. Cryptozoic isn’t assuming responsibility for the Kickstarter project or the actions of The Forking Path: They are simply doing what they can to make things right for the gamers who have suffered because of it. As I said, they can’t cover all rewards The Forking Path promised, because they are doing this entirely at their own expense to lend a hand. But Cryptozoic will see to it that the backers get the game they thought they were backing, and that is a tremendous relief to me.

Thanks to all of you who backed the game and to those of you who reached out to us over the last week. Thank you for making this game a reality, and for showing such compassion for your fellow gamers.

——

Here’s the Cryptozoic Release:

CRYPTOZOIC ENTERTAINMENT PARTNERS WITH CREATORS LEE MOYER
AND KEITH BAKER TO SAVE THE DOOM THAT CAME TO ATLANTIC CITY
BOARD GAME
Cryptozoic & Creators Pledge that Kickstarter Backers will not be Abandoned!

Irvine, CA (July 31, 2013)—Cryptozoic Entertainment™, a premier developer of original and licensed games, announced today that it will be publishing the board game The Doom That Came to Atlantic City, created by Lee Moyer and Keith Baker.This news comes just a week after the previous publisher announced that the Kickstarter project had been cancelled.
“For Lee and I, the worst part of this is that people who put their faith in our game have been hurt by it,” said Baker. “After the Kickstarter was cancelled, many people came forward with ideas to keep the game alive. But we didn’t want to pursue an option that would save Doom unless it would also get the game into the hands of the people who first supported it.”
Moyer and Baker have fought to bring this whimsical game of cosmic horror to life for over a decade. In 2010, sculptor Paul Komoda joined the team with his unique vision of the terrifying Old Ones. In 2013 it seemed that the stars were finally aligned… until the surprising announcement that the project was abandoned.
“We were really shocked to hear the news about this last week” said Scott Gaeta Cryptozoic’s chief operating officer. “The game looked fantastic and I thought that we might be able to help, so I contacted Keith right away. Keith and Lee told me that taking care of the Kickstarter backers was the most important thing to them and I couldn’t agree more. That’s why we are going to be fulfilling all of the Kickstarter game orders ourselves.”
“Our first priority is getting the game produced and in the hands of the Kickstarter backers,” said Gaeta. “We are already working with the factory and should have a date we can share in a few weeks. We are also going to be demoing the game at Gen Con and the upcoming Alliance Open House. This game is just too much fun not to make it available to gamers everywhere.”
Soon to be available in hobby stores world wide, The Doom that Came to Atlantic City board game invites players to assume the role of one of the Great Old Ones – beings of ancient eldritch power. Cosmic forces have held you at bay for untold eons, but at last the stars are right and your maniacal cult has called you forth. Once you regain your full powers, you will unleash your doom upon the world! There’s only one problem: you’re not alone. The other Great Old Ones are here as well, and your rivals are determined to steal your cultists and snatch victory from your flabby claws! It’s a race to the ultimate finish as you crush houses, smash holes in reality, and fight to call down The Doom That Came To Atlantic City!
For more information about The Doom that Came to Atlantic City Board Game, please visit
www.cryptozoic.com, Keith Baker’s blog at www.keith-baker.com and Lee Moyer’s blog at http://www.leemoyer.com/
Keep up to date with exclusive contests, promotions and game information on Cryptozoic
Entertainment’s Facebook and Twitter pages.

About Cryptozoic Entertainment
Founded in 2010, Cryptozoic Entertainment, Inc. is a premier developer and publisher of original and licensed board games, card games, comics and trading cards, including the World of Warcraft® Trading Card Game, The Hobbit board and deck building games, The Big Bang Theory: The Party Game and The Walking Dead™ Board Game. Following a philosophy and core principle of “Fans First,” the dedicated gamers and fans of the Cryptozoic Entertainment team are focused on producing fun and amazing products along with epic events that bring all gaming fans together as part of the Cryptozoic community. Visit www.cryptozoic.com for additional product and event information.

 

The Latest News…

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There’s a lot of things going on that I’d like to write about. It’s been nearly two months since the last Eberron Q&A; I’d like to tell you more about Unquiet Dead, the Gloom expansion that’s coming out in October; and I have a new RPG project that I’m itching to talk about. But right now, Doom takes priority.

If you don’t know what’s going on with The Doom That Came to Atlantic City, you might want to start here. For those of you in the loop, things are moving forward as best as they can. Lee Moyer and I are hard at work on the print-and-play edition of the game, and it should be available to the backers by Friday, August 2. If you’re a backer, you should have received an email about this; if you haven’t, check your spam folder, and if nothing’s there contact me through the website.

A few questions have come up enough times that it’s worth starting a FAQ…

I’m not a backer. Can I buy the print-and-play version of Doom?

Lee and I are still considering what will happen to Doom after we post the print-and-play. Neither of us likes the idea of pursuing an option that makes profits for us while there’s backers who have lost money on it. For now I’ll simply say that it’s not our intention to put any sort of DRM on the print-and-play files, so if you’re a backer and a friend wants the game, go ahead and share it.

What about print on demand?

It’s a definite possibility. It’s a big game, and assembling the PnP version isn’t a trivial task. Right now we’re putting all our energy into getting the PnP file up, but this could be the next step.

Could you make the miniatures available for 3D Printing?

It’s an interesting idea, but it’s not up to Lee or I. The miniatures are the property of sculptor Paul Komoda, and he’d have to make the call on this. At the moment, he’s still waiting for the miniatures to be returned by The Forking Path; once they are back in his possession, it’s something that could be up for discussion.

Can I tell the Forking Path to give you my refund?

Thanks to all of you who have expressed this or similar sentiments, but that’s really not a simple thing and we’d prefer to limit our future dealings with The Forking Path. Right now, we’d just like to see you get the refund you deserve.

In closing, since I’ve been doing most of the talking so far, I wanted to share some thoughts from Doom co-creator Lee Moyer.

Dear Backers,

Thanks to the many of you who have sent your support via mail and in person. It means a lot to us.

I am filled with dismay and anger that this game is still not in your hands, but I am holding myself back from saying more because of the potential legalities of the situation. Keith has been a true champion in this past week, and I am grateful to be working with such an exemplary person.

I am hard at work preparing the Print-and-Play version of the game, reformatting and reworking as needed to more easily print on standard 8.5″ x 11″ paper.  I have unearthed the original pieces of art that some backers will get, and plan to send it as soon as the Print-and-Play is ready.

Thank you for your patience and your support of Keith and I. It means a lot to us, and we are working to be worthy of it.

My sincere thanks,
Lee Moyer

 

 

The Doom Kickstarter: My Response

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Yesterday, Erik Chevalier of the Forking Path announced that he has cancelled the Kickstarter to produce The Doom That Came To Atlantic City, a board game designed by Lee Moyer and Keith Baker, which is to say, me. When Lee and I first heard this news from Erik, it came as a shock. We’ve been working on this game for over a decade. In 2011 we had it ready to go to the printer with Z-Man Games, until a change in ownership dropped it from production. Based on the information we’d been receiving from the Forking Path we believed that the game was in production. It’s a personal and financial blow to both of us, but what concerns Lee and I is that people who believed in our work and put their faith in this Kickstarter have been let down.

First of all, I would like to make one thing crystal clear. Lee Moyer and Keith Baker are not part of the Forking Path. Neither one of us received any of the funds raised by the Kickstarter or presales. I haven’t received any form of payment for this game. Lee and I were not involved in the decisions that brought about the end of this project, and we were misinformed about its progress and the state of the game.

As a designer, I want the ideas I come up with to bring people joy—not frustration, disappointment and anger.  Once I sign a contract granting a company the rights to produce one of my games, I am putting my faith in that company and trusting that it will carry out production and delivery in a professional and ethical manner. I’ve worked with Atlas Games, Wizards of the Coast, Steve Jackson Games, Goodman Games, Green Ronin, Pelgrane Press, and many more, and I’ve never been let down until now. Lee and I don’t know exactly how the money was spent, why the backers were misled, what challenges were faced or what drove the decisions that led to the cancellation of the game. Not only did we not make any money from the game, we have actually lost money; as soon as we learned the true state of affairs, we engaged a lawyer to compel The Forking Path to come forward to the backers and to honor its pledge to issue refunds.

With that said, all that really matters to Lee and I is that our idea has led to frustration and anger instead of bringing happiness. We can’t change the past. We can’t produce the game as presented in the Kickstarter on our own. But under the terms of the contract the rights to the art and design are back in our hands, and we can at least share those. Lee and I will be producing a print-and-play version of the game as quickly as possible, and getting that to backers at no cost. You’ll have to use your own cardstock and paper, and we can’t produce the amazing miniatures sculpted by Paul Komoda. But we can share our ideas and our work, and we hope that you will enjoy it.

This is not the end of the road we thought we were on. Neither Lee nor I know how things reached this point, and when I look at the images from the manufacturer that show so clearly that the game could have been made, it breaks my heart. Lee and I will do our best to get you the game in print-and-play form as soon as possible. It’s not what we expected or planned on, but we at least hope that you will finally be able to get some enjoyment from the game we’ve worked on for all these years.

Sincerely,

Keith Baker

 

Six Questions: Keith Baker

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Mr. Baker, drop the question marks and step away from your laptop. In honor of your birthday this week,  I’m commandeering this installment of Six Questions and turning this hexa-inquiry on you!

I know a lot of interesting people. In my book, Keith Baker tops the list.  Writer, game designer, maker of decent snickerdoodles, skilled swordsman and exceedingly gracious and kind to boot.  I admit, I may be a tad biased as I’m married to him.  Since I get to ask Keith questions all the time, I got some help from some friends and previous Questioneers – Thanks to Molly Lewis, Andy Looney, and Ehren Vaughn for their input!

– Jennifer Ellis

 

Keith Baker. You can talk to me. Tell me, what’s really bothering you?

Honestly? That there’s not enough hours in the day. I have so many interesting projects on back burners that I’ve had to buy a new stove. I’ve got half a dozen game ideas I’d like to flesh out, but I just don’t have the time to deal with them all. Over the course of the last month I’ve narrowed my focus & figured out what I really want to get finished in 2013. But I want to do them all.

Also, what’s really bothering me?

Bluestar: Unpolished Gem or Greatest Unfinished Game Ever?

UNFINISHED? What do you mean, “unfinished”? I have the master in a binder downstairs! “Unpublished,” certainly, but not unfinished.

BLUESTAR was a sci-fi computer game that wove together dolphins, artificial intelligence, and the effects of microgravity on the human mind. It featured a tattooed dolphin protagonist and an organic AI who, in a shocking and innovative twist, becomes homicidal and tries to destroy the station. It was my first outing as a lead game designer, after internationally celebrated designers Ken Rolston and Zeb Cook had each taken their turns at the helm and moved on.

Was it the greatest unpublished game ever? Despite featuring the acting talents of Levar Burton and, well, me – no. When it was finished, my coworker Andy Looney asked me if I’d managed to take lemons and make lemonade. I said that I had, but they were crusty dried-up lemons and the water came from someone’s toilet. So technically it was lemonade, but I wouldn’t want to DRINK it.

Of all of the settlements and cities within the worlds you created, which would you most want to live and why?

Hmm. Off the top of my head, I’d have to say one of the traveling communities of Takalas from the Seven Civilizations sourcebook, because they are AWESOME. I’d also be tempted to live in the City in VR-1 Crossroads, one of the many amazing computer games I designed that you’ve never had an opportunity to play. Crossroads was my attempt to take the text-based MUD and do something new with it… and it shows my long-time love for conspiracies and dreams. The game had two levels of play. You begin in the City, a haven for modern-day strangeness and conspiracies that would certainly seem like home to fans of Fringe, Over The Edge, The Twilight Zone, Illuminati, and the like. But when you go to sleep (in game), your spirit travels to the Dreamworld, a surreal fantasy realm. Where the City is driven by intrigue, the Dreamworld is a place of action; it’s up to you to decide how you want to spend your time. While the Endymian inhabitants of the Dreamworld don’t have much in common with the Quori of Eberron, the Dreamworld was certainly an early model for Eberron’s Dal Quor.

If I had to confine my answer to Eberron – since many people may not be familiar with the Crossroads or Seven Civilizations – I think I’d choose Malleon’s Gate in Sharn, just because I’m a die-hard Gargoyle supporter in the Race of Eight Winds.

In your Six Questions series, why is the fourth question always the best?

The first few questions are usually tied up establishing who the subject is and what they’ve been working on recently. So the fourth question is where you get to bring out the really important, hard hitting questions like “If you were kidnapped by animatronic presidents and forced to work at a Disney Park, what would you want your job to be?” or “What’s your favorite Middle-expression?”

Let’s borrow Walter Bishop’s transdimensional window from Fringe. What’s the Keith Baker in the alternative universe like and what is he doing?

Following the principle that people on the other side are fundamentally the same but take different paths, I think he’s still a game designer. He got his start professionally designing pen & paper RPGs right out of college, but then quit after six years to become a full-time MMORPG designer. Needless to say, most people know of him from his work on the international hit MMORPG BLUESTAR; even more know him as the voice of Abacus from the BLUESTAR movie trilogy. However, he considers his greatest achievement to be the Gloom MMO—rather than killing rats at low levels, you want the rats to kill you.

Of the projects you’re working on now, what has you the most excited?

The one I can’t talk about, of course! I’m developing a new RPG with a friend, and I’m excited about both the system and setting. I’ll probably be ready to post something about it in two weeks, and I’m planning on running playtests at the upcoming conventions I’m attending (Wizard World Chicago, Gen Con, and Dragon*Con)! So check back in a few weeks for more details!

 

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

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This is your cat on lilies.

Hello, Internet! After taking a month off to see other forms of media, I have returned. There are many things I want to post about, but I figured I’d start off with a general round up of news from June.

1. GLOOM AND OTHER GAMES

I took a month off from the internet to focus on work and iron out my goals for 2013. One of those projects is the Gloom expansion Unquiet Dead, which I’ll post about in detail later in the week. I’m also hard at work on an entirely new fantasy RPG. I’ll talk more about this later in the month, but my goal is to have it playtest-ready for all the conventions I’m heading to in August and beyond – so if you’ll be at any of those, you might have a chance to give it a try!

2. WATCH OUT FOR LILIES.

The other day I was reading a book called Wicked Plants, which mentioned that lilies are highly toxic to cats (causing kidney failure and death within 24 to 48 hours). I’d never heard this before, so I filed it away. The following weekend, we brought some flowers in from the garden, and out cat Haggis started munching on them. “What are those flowers?” I asked Jenn. She didn’t know, so I looked it up online… lilies. Because we got him to the vet right away, there’s no long term damage, but we were lucky. So cat owners, watch out. Any part of the lily is deadly – petals, pollen, stalk. I’m campaigning to completely defoliate Portland, just to be safe.

3. CONVENTION SEASON

My convention season doesn’t really start until August, but I’ve got a lot of things lined up. Currently I’m scheduled to appear at the following conventions:

Wizard World Chicago – August 9th – August 11th

Gen Con Indianapolis – August 15th – August 18th

Dragon*Con – August 30th – September 1st

Rose City Comic Con – September 21st

GenreCon – October 4th – October 6th

G.A.M.E. – October 11th – October 13th

4. CHECK THESE OUT!

Over the last month, a number of friends and colleagues have launched interesting Kickstarters or products that I’m excited about. Here’s a few things you might want to take a look at…

TABLE. Roll2Play is running a Kickstarter campaign to fund a new kind of convention – an expo to reach out and bring new people into tabletop gaming. They’ve got a lot of interesting ideas and a lineup of guests including Steve Jackson and, well, ME – so if you’re anywhere in the vicinity of Coppell, Texas, check it out!

The Zeitgeist Adventure Path. EN Publishing is running a Kickstarter campaign to fund the hardcover print release of the first act of Zeitgeist, an adventure path set in “a steam-powered fantasy world beset by conspiracies”… and you know how I feel about conspiracy-laden steampunk fantasy! Zeitgeist is designed for Pathfinder and D&D 4E, and EN Publishing does fantastic work. Check it out!

Boss Monster. This began as a Kickstarter campaign, but now it’s available in stores and online from Brotherwise Games. As a fan of card games, 8-bit sidescrolling adventures, and things that are funny, I give it my seal of approval. If you’re like to know more, read my review from back when it was on Kickstarter!

The Doubleclicks. There’s a new Doubleclicks album coming out on July 9th, and you can preorder it here – and while you’re at the site, check out their tour schedule and lend a hand with their new music video! Or hey, check out their OLD music video, or their answers to my Six Questions!

That’s all for now, but check back soon for a new Eberron Q&A, a post on Unquiet Dead, and a very special Six Questions!