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 “Unpublished,” certainly, but not unfinished.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Was it the greatest unpublished game ever?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!

Supervillains & Sabbaticals

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I haven’t posted for a while, and you may be wondering what I’ve been up to. When’s the next Six Questions? What’s next for Eberron? How about the mysterious Project Codex?

Since my trip to Calgary, I’ve been taking some time to figure out what I want to accomplish with the rest of the year. Frankly, I have a few too many irons in the fire, and I need to set aside some of the distractions so I can focus on the projects that are truly important to me. With that in mind,I’m going to be offline from now until July.While I may pop up occasionally on Twitter (where you can find me as @Hellcowkeith), I’m going to be minimizing internet activity and focusing on creative projects. You can always feel free to contact me through this site, or to leave comments, but expect answers to be delayed.

What am I working on? New Gloom products! The Codex setting! An entirely new RPG! I’ll be happy to discuss these in more detail in the future, but that’s as much as I’m going to say right now. I’m excited about all of these projects, and I need to set aside distractions and get to work.

In other news, I’ll be at Gen Con this year in Indianapolis; I don’t know my schedule yet, but expect to see it in July! I’ve also been moonlighting as a villainous henchman, as seen in the picture above. This is actually a still from the shooting of The Doubleclicks‘ new music video, “Lasers and Feelings“. The Doubleclicks are on tour, and if you have a chance to see them, take it! And while you’re at it, check out their Six Questions!

That’s all for now. Check back in July – I’ve got big plans!

Bakery News & Eberron Q&A!

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What can I say? I enjoy my poutine.

You might be wondering where I’ve been for the last few weeks. Well, Calgary, for one… I had a fine time sampling poutine, playing games and acquiring fine dice bags at the Calgary Expo. Beyond that, I’ve been very busy. I have a number of projects in the works at the moment – my level for Paizo’s Emerald Spire superdungeon, a new expansion for Gloom, ongoing work on Codex, and two entirely new games—and as a result I’ve had to take a little time off from Dragonmarks and Six Questions. But they will return!

Before I get to the questions, a few other bits of news:

  • Gloom was featured in this week’s episode of The Escapist’s The Wishlist!
  • I’m an Industry Insider Guest of Honor at Gen Con 2013. I’ll be bringing all sorts of things to playtest to the convention, though at the moment I haven’t figured out my gaming schedule. If you’re going to GC, watch this space for more news!
  • I’m also scheduled to be a guest at GenreCon in October. What can I say – I can’t stay away from Canada!

Now on with the questions! First, two in a similar vein…

Since the inception of D&D Next, do you feel Eberron will still have prominence in this new system? Will it still be playable?

Currently WotC hasn’t decided what they are going to do for Eberron support in D&D Next. It’s been said that they will at least convert the races and perhaps the artificer. If you want to see more support, the best thing to do is to let WotC know it. Post on forums! Ask Customer Service if it will be supported! If it’s clear there is an audience that wants support, then it’s more likely that the support will come to pass.

 

With 4E not receiving a lot of support and D&D Next still some time away, is Eberron sticking with the D&D system, or able to branch as it’s own?

Eberron is the property of Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast, so legally I can’t create new content for it on my own, in any system. I hope that Eberron will be supported in D&D Next and that I will be a part of that, but since it’s currently unknown I’m also developing a new setting, under the working title (and only a working title) Codex. That’s an ongoing, long-term project and I don’t want to discuss it in detail until I have a clear path to release, so expect to hear more about it later in the year.

 

I was wondering what people called ‘The Last War’ before it ended, and when they started using that name.  I know IRL a very small number of people called WWI ‘the first world war’ when it was just starting, but there were a bunch of other names used at the time.

For most of the people of the Five Nations, it was simply known as “the war.” However, if they were talking about it to a Riedran or Aereni, they’d generally refer to it as “The War of Succession” or “The Succession War.” Cyrans would be more likely to call it “The Insurrection” or “The Traitor’s War.”
Is there any story behind who first called it ‘The Last War’?

I don’t think it’s been stated in canon. I believe that the term is first formally used in the preamble of the Treaty of Thronehold, which essentially states that all signatories have seen the horrors wrought in this grievous conflict, and vow to make this the last time that these nations shall take arms against one another – the last war that Khorvaire will know. The Treaty of Thronehold is as well-known across the Five Nations as the Gettysburg Address is in the USA, and everyone knows the preamble. The Brelish claim that it was Boranel who coined the phrase; the Thranes insist it was Keeper Jaela; and so on.

 

If we corelate the Last War to WWI, what would be your take on WWII?

While there are many keystones in WWI that relate to the Last War, the end of the war is much closer to that of WWII: the appearance of a weapon that completely changes the face of modern warfare. While few nations believe the peace will last, and all are jockeying for power, no nation would dare to start a new war until the mystery of the Mourning is revealed. How could Aundair dare to employ wide-scale war magics in the field when it’s possible the widespread use of such magics is what destroyed Cyre? How can they dare attack another nation until they are certain that nation hasn’t harnessed the power of the Mourning? Beyond this, there is the fact that if any nation COULD harness the power of the Mourning and weaponize it, who would dare to challenge them? Until you answer the question of the Mourning, it’s impossible to define the shape of the Next War. Will it be fought with almost no magic to prevent another war? Will it be much like the Last War, once it is revealed that the Mourning was a fluke? Or will the Mourning be weaponized, making the new conflict take a completely different form from the last?

 

What does Eberron look like a thousand years after the era of the printed setting?

What will it look like? A warped wasteland enshrouded by dead-gray mists. Of course, the way things are going it will look like that in just five years.

 

The “facts” about Eberron are “just what is believed.” How far from those “facts” has the truth gotten in your games? And what drove that departure?

I always tell people not to be bound by canon, and to use the books as inspiration rather than limitation. So, how does MY version of Eberron vary from canon? It would take a lot of time to compile an exhaustive list, but here’s a few things.

  • In 4E, I limit many key magical rituals to characters with Dragonmarks; this helps explain why the dragonmarked houses have the economic power that they do, because they are the only source of these critical magics.
  • Related to this, I’ve always put a lot of restrictions on resurrection magic. Casual resurrection simply doesn’t work for most people, and resurrection spells are often dangerous—you might just bring in random hostile ghosts, or get the wrong spirit in the body, etc. I want resurrection to be one of the rare and impressive magics that people are still amazed by, not a reliable service you can purchase from Jorasco. Reliable resurrection is something that would have a tremendous impact on a society, and I don’t feel that Eberron has that taken into account.
  • I’ve always emphasized the idea that dragonshards are an integral part of any sort of industrial magic, from the creation of magic items to common spells. In 4E this is easily accomplished by saying that residuum is processed dragonshards. The point is to emphasize the importance of dragonshards to modern civilization, which helps people understand the power of House Tharashk and the importance of dragonshard-rich regions such as Q’barra and Xen’drik.
  • I hold to the 3E canon idea that Dragonmarks are bound by bloodline. I might allow a PC to have a dragonmark that doesn’t belong, but if I did it would be a historic, campaign-defining event.
  • I never added Baator to the cosmology, as was done in 4th Edition. I like the existing balance of the cosmology and didn’t see a need to change it. With that said, I like the version of Baator I developed for DDI, in which it is a demiplane (so it doesn’t contradict the original material) and in which Asmodeus’ rise to power only occurred around the Mourning—playing up the idea that the Mourning had reverberations across the planes. This also presents the devils of Baator as an entirely new force in the world. Rather than saying that they’ve always been around and figuring out how they have interacted with the Lords of Dust, Quori, etc, this presents them as an entirely new planar faction that is a concern and potential threat to all the long-term power players.
  • I have a very different vision of Thrane than that presented in The Forge of War, but I’ve spoken about this at some length elsewhere.
  • Likewise, I have a very different vision of the Blood of Vol: the tone and practices of the faith, its history in Karrnath, etc. Again, I’ve written about this at length elsewhere. Looking to the “Why,” the point to me is that a successful religion offers some form of comfort to its followers. It is a way to make sense of the universe. The Blood of Vol is a very GRIM religion, but it is nonetheless a faith that seeks to answer questions (first and foremost, what benevolent god would allow death and suffering to exist?) and build strong communities; it is a faith that ultimately seeks to destroy death and create a paradise on Eberron.
  • I’ve done more with sahuagin civilization than has been covered in canon; this is hinted at in The Shattered Land, and comes out a little in the Xen’drik sourcebooks.
  • I don’t use subraces, and don’t feel obliged to find a place for every new monster or race that comes along. I COULD if I wanted, but I generally see no reason to do so. I feel that intelligent races should have a history and sense of place in the world, so I don’t want to add new ones in without good reason.

I could probably go on for pages. As you can see, most of these aren’t huge changes; they’re just little things. But the short form is I do what makes sense to me for the stories I want to run.

 

What if the kalashtar rebellion fuels up quori hatred & empowers Il-Lashtavar preventing a change in Dal Quor?

Quori don’t experience emotion the way most mortals do. They aren’t mercurial beings. They don’t go from love to hate in a single day, or even a year. Like most immortals, they are incarnations of ideas; a tsucora quori is an incarnation of fear, a du’ulora an embodiment of fury, and so on. Essentially, a quori who hates can never STOP hating, or hate any more than it already does; hatred is its nature. The kalashtar quori are an anomaly that must be eradicated so they can be returned to the fold—so the rebellious spirit can be eradicated and restored to its proper nature. So first off, the actions of the kalashtar haven’t actually created MORE hatred among the quori; the quori hate exactly as much as they always have, according to their nature. Mortal dreams can affect Dal Quor—but the quori are part of Dal Quor, and their emotions don’t influence it.

With that said, this is largely while the Adaran kalashtar don’t advocate violence. They believe that the turn of the age will occur; it is inevitable. By meditating on il-Yannah they help strengthen her vision and move towards that new age. But they don’t feel a need to try to hurry the change—and certainly not by a spread of violence and hatred.

If anything will empower il-Lashtavar, it’s not the spread of hatred among the quori that will do it… it’s the spread of hatred through humanity and other mortal dreamers.

 

Calgary Expo!

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This weekend I’ll be attending the Calgary Expo. If you’d like to find me, I’m schedule to be hanging out at the Gaming Demo Area in the Big Four building at the following times…

FRIDAY: 2 PM – 6 PM

SATURDAY: 11 AM – 3 PM

SUNDAY: 11 AM – 2 PM, and see below!

I’ll also be at my Booth (O 02) in Artist’s Alley from 4 PM – 6 PM on Saturday!

I have a new Gloom expansion that needs playtesting, so I’ll certainly be running that there; aside from that, who knows?

 

Six Questions: Christopher Badell

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I know a lot of interesting people. Some I’ve worked with, some I’ve met while traveling the world, some just owe me money. My name may be on the website, but it seems kind of boring if I’m the only person whose voice is heard here. So I’m bringing some of my friends to the site, as time permits. I’m not a podcasty kind of guy, so I’m keeping things simple: one guest, six questions.

I met CHRISTOPHER BADELL on a secret island in the Caribbean (well, OK, not so secret), but I’d encountered his brainchild Sentinels of the Multiverse well before that. Sentinels is a cooperative card game in which players take on the role of a superhero team working together to bring down a nefarious master villain. One of the things I really enjoy about the game is its attention to continuity. The flavor text of the cards is made up of quotes from the various comics featuring these heroes… except, of course, that none of these comics actually exist (yet). With just these quotes, Sentinels manages to suggest a rich backstory for the characters and world, which makes it far more interesting to play the characters; as a comic nerd, I also appreciate the many homages found throughout this universe. But here’s Christopher… 

What’s your secret origin?

Three decades ago, on a dark stormy night in Maracaibo, Venezuela, a dark-eyed child was born. It’s pretty much all been downhill since then. I got taller and beadier and fought crime!

Really, the interesting origin story is that of Greater Than Games, which is what happens when three friends, each of whom excels in their particular field, get together and make a thing happen. I’ve always told stories and made up games for my friends to play, Adam is a fantastic artist who has been growing in his drawing as long as I’ve known him (which is a LONG time), and Paul is a clever businessman who loves games and gaming and works damn hard to make our dreams become realities. The lines that crossed to bring this company about are pretty crazy, and without the coincidences that brought us together, none of this would have ever happened.

But I’ve said too much already. I don’t want to make it too easy on our greatest nemeses!

Tell me about Sentinels of the Multiverse. What inspired you, both in tone and design? What do you consider the greatest strengths of the design? What would you change if you were starting over from scratch?

As I’d hinted in our origin story, Sentinels of the Multiverse is only possible because of the cooperative synergies between Adam, Paul, and I. Which is appropriate for what came out of that, really. Adam and I have been friends for almost 20 years, and we’ve always been into comic books and games – especially cooperative games! So, a few years ago, we were hanging out and bemoaning the fact that we had never played a good superhero tabletop game. We wanted something that made you really feel like you were playing as a hero of epic proportions! And then we wrote one. It was pretty quick from initial concept to execution. Shortly after making the game on index cards, just for us to play with friends, I played the game with my friend Paul, and the rest is history.

As to the inspiration, it really came down to loving the stories told in our favorite comic books and wanting to recreate that feeling in a game form. Stories of group of heroes working together against a terrible foe in a bizarre environment, like we would read in stories of the X-Men or the Avengers. The best part of those teams is the ensemble cast and how they interact with each other, which is what I love about Sentinels. I am proud of how much we captured the feeling of the team being more than just the sum of its parts. The synergies and the unfolding stories at the table as well as the gameplay that really puts you in the place of a super-powered hero are what I was shooting for – and I feel like we hit it square on the head.

If I were starting over from scratch…? I’d make the Enhanced Edition of Sentinels of the Multiverse the first time. The Sentinels of the Multiverse community is super awesome and let us rebuild the game only a year after it came out, which was good and necessary, but that rebuild definitely did all the things I wanted to do in the first place. We learned a LOT in that first year and a half, and I think the products we make now really reflect that quick learning curve.

You’re sentenced to be trapped in the Phantom Zone for eternity. What three graphic novels do you take with you?

Oof. Yikes. Hmmm, let’s say the Dark Phoenix Saga, Batman: The Killing Joke, and House of M. But then, I’d also sneak a pile of notebooks and pens with me. Really, as long as I could write infinitely, I’d have plenty of stories to keep me company.

You’ve just launched a Kickstarter for an entirely new game, Galactic Strike Force. Tell me about it.

It’s SUPER EXCITING! With Sentinels of the Multiverse, the players all take the roles of heroes facing a powerful villain in a crazy environment. Galactic Strike Force is a group of scoundrels, such as smugglers, bounty hunters, and space pirates, all joining forces against an overwhelming opposition force in a science-fantasy setting. This poor rag-tag team is the last ditch effort to save the galaxy – you have very few resources and fewer friends, and if you’re going to save the galaxy, you’ve gotta work together! The story that makes it go is a blast, and the characters and ships we’ve put together are a ton of fun.

The gameplay is card based, but it feels like the unholy child of a deck building game and a tactical wargame, as you’re upgrading your ship and learning new tricks, but then taking that ship and those tricks into battle against opposition ships. It’s really a ton of fun, especially with more players! One thing that I was very interested in was making the gameplay equally enjoyable for any number of players. With just two, you get the feeling of a couple of wingmates taking down an opposing fleet through hit and run maneuvers. However, if you have a table of six, you can really go head to head, and different people can take different roles, like scouting, tanking, etc. That said, the Opposition forces scale well, and they’re MEAN.

We’ve got lots of updates going on over on the Kickstarter, so definitely go check it out!

 

You’re a scarred veteran of many Kickstarter campaigns. What lessons have you learned? Any advice for people planning to launch a campaign of their own?

Find your audience before launching your campaign. Be open with your information – make sure people know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Build a community.

Have a plan for how you will run your campaign. Make use of the entire time. Don’t blow it all on the main page on day 1. You have thirty days (don’t run a campaign for longer than thirty days without a damn good reason) and you should use all of those days. Update often, and make your updates beefy.

Make what you love because you love to make it, not because you want to monetize it. Be passionate about it, and share that passion with anyone and everyone.

What’s next after Galactic Strike Force? 

Well, immediately after Galactic Strike Force, we go full-bore into production of Sentinels of the Multiverse: Vengeance, which we teased a good deal with our Shattered Timelines Kickstarter. It’s not just another expansion to Sentinels of the Multiverse – it’s a standalone game that can be played with the existing SotM stuff, but also adds a lot of new things. New heroes, villains, and environments in fancy box that will supplement the Enhanced Edition box nicely, and it gives you a whole new way to play Sentinels of the Multiverse!

Also, we’re going to Australia this summer for PAX AUS, and Germany again this fall for Essen! Not to mention Origins and Gen Con and PAX Prime… whew! Convention season is nearly upon us!

Oh, and on top of all that, we’ve got a few other Secret Projects that we’ll be talking about later this year. And even more plans for next year!

 

 

Six Questions: Monica Valentinelli

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Editor? Writer? Game designer? Power behind the scenes? MONICA VALENTINELLI is all of these things and more. She wears so many hats it’s sometimes hard to see her beneath them. Recently, she added a new hat to the collection when she took on the role of brand manager (and writer) for MWP’s new Firefly RPG. Somehow she found time in her busy schedule to answer six questions!

What was the first roleplaying game you played? How did you get from there to where you are today?

The first roleplaying game I played was Shadowrun. From there, I went on to a few other games like Vampire: the Masquerade and a lot of board, card, and video games. I didn’t really get back into RPGs until I re-discovered them through small press games like Obsidian: the Age of Judgement and A/State. That’s how I got started writing for games; I edited and wrote some fiction for Obsidian, then I went on to write a few frenetic, ethereal pieces for Noumenon, which is a game inspired by Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis. I loved the variety that small press/independently-owned games had to offer and it was a good way for me to learn the business and figure out what I wanted to do next – much like I’ve done with fiction. The other thing that really helped, was reading, reviewing, and playing lots and lots of games for FlamesRising.com. Critiques are a great way of studying the medium you’re writing for; I highly recommend it.

My work with small presses has been a mixed bag. I’ve dived into really fun projects, but over a half dozen or so have never seen the light of day – some bigger than others, too. All the while, I was balancing day job concerns. I’m guessing that’s a familiar story for anyone who’s ever written a story or designed games. There are the things you want to do, and then there’s the jobs you have to take. So, the work I’ve done in the industry has been married to what I had time to do, what matched my skill set and, eventually, who I wanted to work for. I started writing for White Wolf after I won a fiction contest and put together a one-scene scenario for the new World of Darkness. I put some feelers out to write other game fiction with other, larger companies, but right now my games plate is full.

You’re the Firefly brand manager for Margaret Weis Productions. MWP released the Serenity RPG in 2005. How will the Firefly game differ from Serenity? Why are you excited to be working on the line?

This is a hilarious question. I just wrote about this in a blog post titled “Ain’t No Better Place In The ‘Verse…” for Creative Directions. I’m going to be giving semi-regular updates there to keep people apprised of what’s happening for the line. Here’s what I said about the differences between the two games:

“The new Firefly RPG, which is based on the hit Fox television series by Joss Whedon, is scheduled for a 2013 release; the system(s) are currently in development. Margaret Weis Productions did put out a game based on the Serenity movie produced by Universal Studios in 2005. The system for that game was a science fiction flavor of Cortex Classic.”

Why am I excited to be working on the line? Besides the fact that it’s Firefly? 🙂 I’ve been working on this property as a consultant now for six months or so. In every conversation we’ve had, the fans and the show have been at the forefront of those discussions. How do we create a game that’s uniquely Firefly? How do we make Cortex fans of new and classic systems happy? How do we balance business and licensing aspects with creativity? Working on this line is like putting a puzzle together, to best serve a multitude of audiences, address concerns, and produce a great game. The nerd in me is very happy that I have such a beautiful Gordian knot to untangle.

What makes the ‘Verse an interesting setting for games?

In my opinion, the ‘Verse resonates with fans because even though the stories occur in a science fiction context – it’s a very human place to be. We don’t really see the devastation caused by the Unification War, but we know it happened and witness its effects on the characters, much like many of us may not remember World War II, but understand or feel its long-term ramifications. Using that as an example, though, it’s not necessarily the ‘Verse by itself that’s compelling, it’s the characters and how they work together to survive regardless of where they live. If you live in the Core, maybe things aren’t as great as they seem. Once we get out into the Black, we’re not fighting aliens, we’re facing each other.

At the end of the day, though, no matter how gorgeous any setting is, I feel good games always recognize that both the player and the group need to have something to do. It’s not just about what character you play, it’s also about why your crew is together. What’s the point of sitting around the table if you’re not connected? In my mind, this is why Firefly is perfect for gaming, because the further the crew ventures out into the ‘Verse, the more jobs they take, and the more they need each other to make it through.

When you’re not creating and editing games, you write fiction. What inspires you as a writer? What’s your favorite story you’ve written?

I was a storyteller long, long before I discovered gaming. I started writing fiction when I was 9 and specialized in writing while at university. The possibility of all the stories out there and the gift they provide us is what inspires me. The potpourri of cultures, of different lifestyles and ways to be, the history of what has come before and the potential of what will be – there is no end to what can be done or how or why. I love, love, love, love to build worlds and write about characters that resonate within these environments, highlighting the best and worst in all of us, whether that’s to frighten, inform, or entertain.

My favorite story is the one that I haven’t written yet. I realize this is a non-answer and somewhat meta, but as someone who’s obsessed with her art, it’s an honest statement. I never stop honing my craft and, while I need motivation and a cheering section like many writers out there, I’m always looking forward to what’s new.

If I had to pick one, though, I’d say I had a ton of fun with a vampire noir tale edited by Robin Laws dubbed “Fangs and Formaldehyde.” You see, in my vampire world, if the bloodsuckers get too emotional? They die. In point of fact, it’s very messy and involves blowy uppy noises and large splatters. Cue evil laughter in 3… 2… 1… Anyway, this story appeared in an anthology titled New Hero Volume 1, and that book is available from Stone Skin Press.

Tell me about The Queen of Crows, and where you want to go with it.

The Queen of Crows was one of the first enhanced e-books published with reader extras. It takes place in the late 1850s right before the Civil War and is a story about a Navajo shaman who must make a terrible choice. Because it was an experiment, I stuck to a short story instead of a novel, to see what readers thought. I was pleasantly surprised by the very positive reception, because writing about Native Americans, even in an alternate history context, is taboo – especially for, as one reader put it, a “blonde woman.” But, this story is a teeny, tiny piece of a much larger world of magic, mystery, and intrigue. I built that world on a timeline reaching back to the dawn of time. This story here is the origin of a key player in the Violet War to come. Not only do I have an urban fantasy novel set in modern day times, but I also have several pieces of short fiction and an outline for an RPG.

So what happened? Well, remember that time versus money thing I told you about? Yep, that was part of the reason why this project stalled. Living up to my namesake, the Queen of Perfect Timing, the release preceded the iPad by a few months. Needless to say, formatting images for the iBookstore and eBooks was part of the challenge, as the technology physically couldn’t match my vision at the time. Even now, it’d have to be an app or require a lot of programming to make it fit. That’s the downside to coming up with something cool; once you make it, limitations will throw you off-kilter.

Confession time. When I’m worried about work, my creativity is swallowed up by a plethora of bad Cthulhu jokes and abysmal reality checks. Now that I’m having fun? I’m diving in with abandon and can visit make-believe land more often. Business plan was activated in January; I’ve got a great group of readers and a ton of initiatives in the works like updating the VioletWar.com website, etc.

It’s scary, sure, but I’m really hoping people will dig these stories and this world in particular.

What are you looking forward to in the months ahead?

I’m trying not to! I’m really grateful I have the projects I do, because I had a dry spell (coupled with nights ending in obligatory fist shaking at the universe) and it turned me into a sea slug. I don’t think there is anything harder for someone who wants to make something – no matter what that “thing” is – for a living. The fiscal realities, coupled with the knowledge and time involved, can cause a person to go mad. At the same time, I don’t want to focus on that aspect with my readers, either, because that undervalues them. My job is to give them the best stories and games I can, and give them a reason to revisit my work again.

 

Six Questions: Kenneth Hite

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I know a lot of interesting people. Some I’ve worked with, some I’ve met while traveling the world, some just owe me money. My name may be on the website, but it seems kind of boring if I’m the only person whose voice is heard here. So I’m bringing some of my friends to the site, as time permits. I’m not a podcasty kind of guy, so I’m keeping things simple: one guest, six questions.

KENNETH HITE is a man of many talents, and a keeper of secrets no one should know. You may have played one of his many games, read one of his books, or listened to him and Robin D. Laws talk about stuff. If not, you should do all of these things, right now. Here’s the man himself…

You’ve been creating games for over thirty years. How did you fall into the dragon-eat-dungeon world of RPG design? What do you consider to be your finest piece of work?

I started out creating games, as you note, for my own game group: D&D and then CALL OF CTHULHU, which became my One True Love. I ran lots of other stuff, too, but those were the bigs. One of my old CALL OF CTHULHU players, Don Dennis, eventually got a gig at Iron Crown, which got him a playtest copy of the first draft of Chaosium’s magical-conspiracy NEPHILIM RPG. He thought to himself: “You know who should see this? Mister Magical Conspiracy CALL OF CTHULHU Doofus.” and sent it to me. I sent Chaosium around 10,000 words of back-sass and got the response: “Is it okay to include your comments in the next draft? And what’s the next book you want to write for us?” That response, by the way, was from Greg Stafford His Own Damn Self.

So that started me off. Right around then, Steve Jackson bought the proposal for GURPS ALTERNATE EARTHS that I’d been badgering him about at GenCon for the last four years or so, and suddenly I was a twice-published author with two hungry game lines to feed.

My finest piece of work? They’re all beautiful and I love them all very much, of course, but I certainly hope my finest piece of work is my most recent one: NIGHT’S BLACK AGENTS, my vampire spy thriller RPG from Pelgrane Press. That said, the original-series STAR TREK RPG from Last Unicorn was my own perfect nine-toed baby. It looked like it fell through a thirty-year time warp from 1968. Oh, now see what you’ve done. You’ve made DAY AFTER RAGNAROK cry. There, there, little setting book. I won’t let the bad man in the hat hurt you.

 

Your Cthulhu 101 is an excellent introduction to the Cthulhu mythos. Where The Deep Ones Are and The Antarctic Express introduce children to cosmic horror. Trail of Cthulhu is an award-winning roleplaying game that draws players into the world of H.P. Lovecraft. What draws you to Lovecraft’s work?

First and foremost, he’s just an amazingly good writer. The power of his mythology, and the sure-footedness with which he constructs his stories, get me every time. But I think Lovecraft enjoyed, and I enjoy, seeing the world in the same way: as pieces and fragments of a larger story, one by turns terrifying and wondrous. Lovecraft called this feeling “adventurous expectancy,” and I get that same feeling from both Lovecraft and from things he enjoyed like astrophysics, or travel, or urban life, or research. I feel a great sort of sympathy to Lovecraft, in terms of how his brain determined story and fantasy to work, and on other levels as well. We both love architecture, and both feel stark terror at the modernist sublime. We’re both autodidacts, and share our tribe’s love of the weird fact that confounds and reveals in equal measure. Obviously, we have our differences, too — he didn’t drink and he had weird dirigiste politics, for example — but as writers and readers of the weird I think we’re simpatico.

 

Lovecraft said that the strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown. Unlike Lovecraft’s typical protagonists, the people who play Lovecraftian RPGs are often well-versed in the Mythos… and they are expecting frightening things to happen. What advice do you have for GMs trying to bring real suspense to their horror campaign? 

I should send you to a page ref in GURPS HORROR for this, if I really wanted to move product. (Roughly pp. 131-134.) But to put it another, less four-pages-long way, the key to suspense is, precisely, that your audience expects frightening things to happen. Hitchcock used the example of a bomb going off after ten minutes of talk about baseball. You’re watching a movie, the guys are talking baseball, a bomb goes off — that’s shock. Same exact movie, but you add a minute of footage ahead of time showing a bomb being planted under the table — now, it’s suspense. Your audience — in this case, your players — need to know something horrible is happening in order to sense the horror either in the uncanny events around them OR in the absence of such events. With completely unfamiliar horrors, you’re a little bit lost; this is why HPL stories have such long, detailed buildups so that you can get completely into the head of the protagonist. With a very familiar horror, it can lose some of its strength (although even a vampire can still be terrifying — LET THE RIGHT ONE IN demonstrates that) but that same familiarity can allow the players to sense the horror’s approach. The Mythos, right now, is at the perfect point: just familiar enough that you can spook the players with familiar spoor, but just unknown enough that really, almost anything might be inside that abandoned barn.

 

You have seven thousand books in your personal library. What are a few books you think every gamer should read?

Every gamer? Regardless of genre or style of play? I’d say they should read Thucydides’ PELOPONNESIAN WAR, to get a sense of how history, politics, and war work, and how to turn them into a compelling story. They should read Northrop Frye’s ANATOMY OF CRITICISM, to get a sense of how to break down stories and symbols, core elements of RPGs. And they should read Jane Austen’s PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, because everyone should read it, it being the best novel in English. Also, it illuminates characters, dialogue, social engagement, and how to depict killing-free crises.

All that said, Charles Nicoll’s THE RECKONING, about the murder of playwright-spy-occultist Christopher Marlowe, is the greatest-ever RPG sourcebook that doesn’t actually happen to be an RPG sourcebook, so check that out, too.

 

Tell me about Night’s Black Agents. What makes an evening of Night’s Black Agents different from playing in the World of Darkness or Delta Green?

In NIGHT’S BLACK AGENTS, you play burned spies in today’s shadow world who discover a vampire conspiracy — and worse, it discovers that you’ve discovered it. So it’s hunt or be hunted, kill or be killed, as you use your training and tradecraft to find, hunt, and destroy the vampires while running from their own pawns, Renfields, and monsters. The elevator pitch I use is “It’s the Bourne trilogy if Treadstone were vampires.”

The difference between NIGHT’S BLACK AGENTS and the World of Darkness is that you don’t play the monster, you play the good guys. Also, while the stereotypical WoD game is about maneuvering for position inside a shadow world of monsters, the standard NIGHT’S BLACK AGENTS game is about maneuvering to destroy a shadow world of monsters. I except, of course, HUNTER: THE VIGIL, which differs from NIGHT’S BLACK AGENTS primarily in not assuming that the main heroes are really, really badass.

As far as DELTA GREEN goes, its primary difference with NIGHT’S BLACK AGENTS is the difference between Lovecraft and Howard: doom versus daring. There are also surface differences: DG agents are usually still government operatives, while the default NBA game assumes the agents are freelancers. But given that NIGHT’S BLACK AGENTS, like TRAIL OF CTHULHU, is a GUMSHOE game, you could certainly play a DELTA GREEN game with the NIGHT’S BLACK AGENTS rules and use TRAIL OF CTHULHU for the Mythos component. (There’s a drift in the back of the NBA corebook designed to let you play spies vs. Mythos games, in fact.)

 

The phone rings. A producer with $100 million and the connections to get any actors you want is ready to make a movie based on Night’s Black Agents, but you have to lay out the story in the next five minutes. What’s the plot, and who are your stars?

Mossad sniper Natalie Portman and her hacker/sidekick have an operation in the Syrian desert go very wrong when the guy she’s supposed to shoot doesn’t die and suddenly Mossad isn’t taking her calls and someone who knows the Mossad recognition codes tries to kill her and does kill her sidekick by biting his throat out. So she has to recruit help from other sources: an intuitive-eidetic MI5 analyst (Benedict Cumberbatch), a versatile techie thief (Clive Owen), and a badass fighter (Priyanka Chopra), each of whom she assists in defeating vampires in a thrilling set-piece. From clues gathered at each set-piece, the analyst figures out that the vampires are all working for “The Old Man,” a legend in the former KGB, his old archnemesis during the last bit of the Cold War. So they mount a big operation to take down “The Old Man,” who is of course a vampire lord (Max von Sydow) living in obscene luxury somewhere in Eastern Europe. After killing like a million of his army of Renfields, and losing Clive and Priyanka in the fight, Natalie puts a Clive-designed vampire-killing round through the Old Man — only to be betrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch at the last. He, of course, was the Old Man’s rival vampire — his analytical skills come from centuries of practice. Natalie somehow survives (dives into a big tank of blood, masking her scent) and the last scene is her, racking another anti-vampire round into her rifle, sighted in on Benedict Cumberbatch.

 

 

TableTop Day & My Trip To GloomCon!

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Happy TableTop Day! Atlas Games and I produced a special set of promo cards for the day, and if you’d like to see them in action, now’s your chance! I had a chance to play a game with Molly Lewis and The Doubleclicks, and the video highlights are here.

One question that may come up is just how to work Wil Wheaton, Felicia Day, or Doctor Hannah into your regular Gloom narrative. Perhaps it’s a wacky Gothic episode of the Guild. Perhaps it all takes place on the holodeck. In our game, we took a different approach and set our game at GloomCon, the most miserable convention in the world. When you’re Pestered By Poltergeists, well, it’s probably a Poltergeist marathon; and when you’re Put Into Prison, it’s obviously that Klingon charity prison. Gloom has a generally Victorian flavor, but it’s all about the story you make together; if your group comes up with a different backdrop, it can make for a very different experience.

If you’re in Portland, I’ll be at Rainy Day Games at 2 PM and Things From Another World at 3:30 PM. Wherever you are, I hope you have a fantastic TableTop Day!

 

 

My plans for TableTop Day!

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We’re just a few days away from International TableTop Day. Games are afoot! Afeet! Whatever! I’ve learned a number of new games this month – Agents of SMERSH, Unexploded Cow, Emperor’s New Clothes, Deadwood Studios – and I hope I’ll learn a few new ones this weekend. Of course, I also plan on playing one of MY games…

Atlas Games and I put this set of cards together to say “Thank you” to TableTop for introducing new people to so many games that we love. It’s going to be available at as a free promo at TableTop Day events that are receiving support from Geek & Sundry. If you go to the Event Locator, if the event has a star, then they should have this promo set… though, of course, supplies are very limited and it’s up to the event managers to decide how to distribute the cards.

This TableTop set includes Stories and Guests, two types of cards that aren’t found in the standard Gloom deck. Guests appear in the expansions Unwelcome Guests and Unpleasant Dreams, while stories are found in Cthulhu Gloom. The pack includes rules for using the cards, but I wanted to show you how they work. With that in mind, I invited Molly Lewis and The Doubleclicks over to play a game with the TableTop cards. I’ll be posting the video highlights of the game soon, so you can be prepared when you get your hands on your very own Gloomy Wil!

The Doubleclicks are awesome, but the real star of the show is the photobombing Mister Pants.

Meanwhile, if you live in Portland, you’ve got a few chances to play Gloom with me on TableTop Day. I’ll be at Rainy Day Games from 2-3 PM, and then I’ll be at Things From Another World on Broadway at 3:30 PM. I hope I’ll see you there. And if not, have a Gloomy and Awesome TableTop Day!

Check back tomorrow to see the video!