A Dorkland Interview - Nefertiti Overdrive with Fraser Ronald

A few days ago Dorkland! covered the new Nefertiti Overdrive Kickstarter -- an RPG that offers punches to faces and kicks to groins, all in the exotic setting of ancient Egypt. Today we had the chance to sit down with Fraser Ronald of Sword's Edge Publishing about Nefertiti Overdrive and its ongoing Kickstarter.

Dorkland!: Having a successful Kickstarter under your belt already, what did that experience change in the preperation for Nefertiti Overdrive's Kickstarter, if anything?

Fraser Ronald: I've had a successful Kickstarter (Centurion) and a failure (Farewell, Something Lovely). Having a success means I know what to expect, how to get the project rolling, and I also have some support mechanisms already in place, such as using the same company for fulfillment as I did for Centurion.

The problem is that past experiences also create expectations and assumptions, and I'm working hard to rid myself of those.

DL: Why ancient Egypt?

FR: Nefertiti Overdrive is based on a story idea (more of a screenplay idea, but let's not quibble). I stumbled into the story, and the story dictated the setting. I was doing some reading on Sudan, and learned of the Kingdom of Kush. That led me into reading about the 25^th Dynasty and its fall to a Lower Egyptian dynasty backed by the superpower of the day – the Assyrians. That sparked the story idea.

I guess I could have transplanted the story. It really would have fit into any setting in which a foreign (but culturally related) dynasty is being removed, but I didn't really see the need. Ancient Egypt is cool, right?

DL: Why wuxia? How does it fit ancient Egypt?

FR: This was also dictated by the initial idea. You can kind of blame the Prodigy for this. I was walking to work and listening to music while mulling over the initial story idea that became Nefertiti Overdrive. The song "Warriors Dance" from the Prodigy album "Invaders Must Die" came on. I was thinking of a scene on a wharf, and when the music came on, I started to think of a fight scene. A crazy fight scene. That's where the wire-fu aspect came into it.

I've been berated – and not without reason – for using wuxia to refer to "wire-fu" (for lack of a better term) – the kinetic, physics-ignoring style of fight choreography made famous in North America by the Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Wuxia is a literary genre from China, and while many "wire-fu" movies are adaptations of wuxia stories, wuxia is not synonymous with wire-fu. In my defence, everyone to whom I have mentioned Ancient Egyptian Wuxia understood exactly what I meant.

In any case, the cinematic action element came into the story at that point, and then it began to dominate the story in my thinking. It was also the reason why this project changed from screenplay or story idea into a role-playing game. Choreographing those fights in my head, and thinking of other cool fight scenes, I decided I wanted to play it as a game.

And thus Nefertiti Overdrive: Ancient Egyptian Wuxia was born.

DL: You mention the rules are similar to some of your previous titles, what are some of the differences?

FR: The main difference is the task resolution mechanic. Nefertiti Overdrive uses four dice, derived from the character's Attributes, for task resolution. One die is used for initiative, two dice for success, and one die for effect. Using things like Luck, a character can have more than four dice, and those extra dice can be used however the player wishes to increase any of the three results. This task resolution system is completely different than those from Sword Noir, Kiss My Axe, and Centurion.

DL: What is there in Nefertiti Overdrive for fans of your previous titles? What is there to draw in new, potential fans?

FR: I would really like to believe I have fans. If I do, it means they probably really dig my games. What those games share with Nefertiti Overdrive is my focus on cooperatively building a story. The philosophy remains one of cooperation, with players and GM working together to create a fun and exciting story.

That's really important to stress. If you are the kind of GM who feels it is his duty to destroy the characters or make it nigh impossible for them to succeed, this is not the game for you. If you are the kind of player who needs to undermine the story the GM is trying to build or point out to him why he is so wrong, this is not the game for you. If you play RPGs with your friends, if you consider it a win when everyone has a good time, and you all try to support each other and allow everyone to have some spotlight time, I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy Nefertiti Overdrive.

For those unfamiliar with my other games, I hope the cooperative nature of the game would be appealing. I would also hope that potential backers would appreciate Nefertiti Overdrive's easy character customization. While pre-generated characters are provided, the game does include character creation rules, and like my other games, these rules will allow a player to pretty much build the kind of character she wants.

This game is designed to allow characters to be awesome in their niche, and who doesn't want that? This is a wuxia game, after all, and so the heroes are generally going to succeed and be completely amazing doing it ...until the scene in which they get trounced happens, but we're pretty sure they'll live through that.

DL: The characters seem to be quite the motley crew. Why have these specific characters?

FR: One of my favourite movies is the 13^th Warrior (I said it was a favourite movie, not a great movie). One of the aspects that I love about that movie is its a-historical nature. The vikings in it all come from different periods and geographic regions, some before the Viking Age or beyond the reach of the Vikings. It didn't matter if a 12^th century Orkneyman in an 18^th century kilt hung out with a mercenary in 15^th century Spanish armour, what mattered was they looked cool doing it.

And they did.

As I mentioned, this all started as an idea for a screenplay. With the 13^th Warrior as a touchstone, I let my mind go wild when thinking of the kind of combatants I could have on the good-guys team. I even had actors I envisioned in the roles (you can still see that initial conception at http://swordsedge.ca/2013/05/odyssey-of-the-fall-of-the-kushite-pharaohs/). Those characters changed as they needed to fill roles for a game rather than for a movie, but their essence and backstory remain.

DL: The game seems to be rather combat or martial focused. How do the rules handle other situations? What might there be for players that are not as combat-inclined?

FR: The actual task resolution system does not differ between combat and non-combat. The idea is that for combat, the narrative is cinematic. That applies as well to non-combat, but may include details and information rather than a cinematic description. So, in combat, in order to get the highest dice possible from one's character's Attributes, one might say something like "charging at the group of Assyrians, the Monk drops to his knees just he reaches them, sliding under their sweeping swords, then using his spear, he vaults up into the air, twisting and coming down directly on the head of the leader." Outside of combat, you might say something like "The Monk puts the prisoner at ease with his clownish antics and his sympathetic statements, first drawing out some minor personal details about the prisoner to build rapport, and then subtly questioning him about his contact with the traitor at court."

Both of those are detailed narratives describing task resolution, and both of those would get the player the highest dice to use.

DL: The setting seems pretty light. How well will Nefertiti Overdrive's rules work with other ancient settings? Other settings, in general?

FR: Unlike Centurion, which was very focused on the history and its details, Nefertiti Overdrive is style over substance. The Attributes are specific to the idea of cinematic action rather than Ancient Egypt, so it could port very easily to other settings. I could easily envision doing just about any cinematic action game with the mechanics. What it can't do well is different genres. There are games that do investigation, horror, and cultural evolution, but that's not Nefertiti Overdrive. The Three Musketeers? Yeah, I definitely think Nefertiti Overdrive could do that. Oedipus Rex? Um, no.

I have said the game can handle non-combat situations, and it certainly can, but it was designed as a game in which characters punch badguys in the face (or kick them in the teeth, put an arrow through their eyes, hack off their limbs, etc). It handles that very well.

DL: How possible is it to min/max characters in Nefertiti Overdrive? If it is, what's the most min/max'd character you've seen or created?

FR: Pretty much every character in Nefertiti Overdrive is min/max'd. There is no "balance" in the game. I think balance has its place in certain games and for certain reasons, but it doesn't have a place in Nefertiti Overdrive. That would be Nefertiti Acceptable Speed. There's no reason to make a character with an undesirable element. If you want to make the best damn assassin in the world, that's pretty easy to do. It's actually kind of the point. He doesn't have to have a weakness – though it'd probably be more fun to give him one, even if it is only narrative, like the Serpent's curse (one of the pre-gens).

DL: Lastly, what is your favorite part or experience of Nefertiti Overdrive so far? What do you really think makes this title stand out?

FR: Once players realize that the game flushes common sense and the laws of physics down the nearest commode, things get really interesting. Why not go through the wall to beat up the Assyrians? Why not call upon the wrath of Amun-Ra to topple a column, crushing badguys beneath? Using the shields of one's enemies as a ramp and then launch oneself in a corkscrew spin that only ends when you've impaled the evil Assyrian captain? Check!

Because I love outrageous fight choreography, it's my favourite part of playing the game. I honestly love it when the characters succeed and are awesome doing it. Sometimes I love it too much and forget to really challenge them. Seriously, though, when everyone is having fun, shouting and laughing, recounting the unbelievable last scene, what does it matter if the characters were properly challenged? The players were. They were challenged to create amazing narratives. It's always awesome when they succeed.

We here at Dorkland! would like to thank Fraser for taking the time to answer our questions and wish him well with the Kickstarter! If you have any questions about Nefertiti Overdrive or its Kickstarter be sure to check out our previous article, the Kickstarter page and/or Sword's Edge Publishing's website.

A Dorkland! Interview -- Bulletproof Blues Second Edition with Brandon Blackmoor

Despite being in one of the busiest points of a Kickstarter -- the final stretch -- we here at Dorkland managed to get an interview with Brandon Blackmoor about Bulletproof Blues and its Kickstarter.

Dorkland!: How has the Kickstarter experience been for you so far? Is there anything that you have learned since launching the campaign that you wish you knew prior?

Brandon Blackmoor: I should have looked at the ratio of PDF vs. print backers of other RPG projects. I underestimated how many backers would elect for a print reward level, and the net revenue from print reward levels is (for us) about 50 cents on the dollar vs 85 cents on the dollar for PDF reward levels. As a result, I needed to adjust the price points of our stretch goals about mid-way through the first week.

DL: Why set your Kickstarter campaign in a more incremental fashion? Why the sample character artwork first?

BB: Originally, all of the art came first and all of the supplemental written material came after. This was based on the assumption that people would prefer to improve the core book before wanting add-ons. After the first week, I polled the backers (approx 60 at that time) to see how they would prefer the stretch goals were structured. This indicated that they were much more interested in the supplemental material than I thought, so we re-arranged the stretch goals accordingly (at that time, none of the stretch goals had been met).

DL: One of the features of the Kickstarter (and Bulletproof Blues, in general) is a creative commons license -- why have it?

BB: Because one of the primary purposes of Bulletproof Blues is to provide an open game system that anyone can use to build their own game. In my opinion, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike is superior to the OGL for this purpose.

DL: What sets Bulletproof Blues apart from other supers RPGs?

BB: Task resolution is simple, combat is fast, powers are flexible and diverse, and the available range of power levels is deliberately broad. It follows a middle path between the complexity of games like Mutants and Masterminds and the simplicity of games like Bash (which are both fine games).

DL: What does the Kalos Universe have to offer people who are not familiar with it, but are familiar with DC or Marvel? Or people who are not very familiar with any supers setting?

BB: Kalos Universe is our own superhero setting. It allows the players to have a relatively minimal pre-made setting without the baggage that comes with DC or Marvel. That being said, most of the tropes you would want in DC or Marvel are there, or could easily be added. For that matter, if you want to play a DC or Marvel game with Bulletproof Blues, feel free.

DL: On the Kickstarter page Bulletproof Blues is described as a 'setting-dark' superhero RPG -- what exactly is meant by that?

BB: It's really only “dark” in comparison most mainstream superhero games. The authorities don't turn a blind eye to posthuman activities, and relatively few posthumans put on spandex and try to save or rule the world. Most posthumans have the same goals everyone else does: money, power, and fame. Of the themes of the setting is that most people are not “heroes” or “villains”. There is a great deal of grey in the world (but we assume that the PCs will be a lighter shade of grey than most of their antagonists). Also, posthumans are dangerous: even a relatively low-powered posthuman could kill a normal person pretty easily. That's a bit different from most superhero games.

DL: What are some of the bigger changes to the rules of Bulletproof Blues with this second edition?

BB: The rules really aren't changing. We are adding a few small additions (such as “Skill Mastery”, an advantage which confers a +3 task bonus to task rolls when not in combat). For the most part, the changes are cosmetic: new art, new layout, larger format, new character sheet design. We are also replacing the How To Play and How to GM sections with a “GM Resources” section that will provide some additional setting material and (hopefully) some good advice on running Bulletproof Blues, specifically.

DL: How compatible will content created for the first edition of the rules be with the second edition?

BB: Completely.

DL: Supers settings can get crazy (in a good way) -- what is a moment of Bulletproof Blues gaming that you have experienced and felt really exemplified the game?

BB: One of my favorites was when a character snuck into a mental hospital to examine the personal effects of a dangerous sociopath who had died under mysterious circumstances. You probably had to be there.

DL: Lastly, what was the most interesting Bulletproof Blues character you have seen, created or played?

BB: Probably the strangest was Frogger, who was played the nine-year-old son of a friend of mine. Frogger was a swamp monster who'd been living in the bayous near New Orleans since the 1800s.

We here at Dorkland! would like to thank Brandon for his time and wish him the best with the Kickstarter, which has long since met its funding goal and is nearly past its third stretch goal! If you would like more information on Bulletproof Blues Second Edition be sure to check out its Kickstarter page and Kalos Comics' website.

A Dorkland! Interview -- Mutant Chronicles 3rd Ed. with Chris Birch

Despite running a wildly popular Kickstarter, Chris Birch of Modiphius Entertainment still managed to find some time to answer some of the questions we here at Dorkland! had about Mutant Chronicles 3rd Edition and its Kickstarter.

 

Dorkland!: Have you learned anything new from the Mutant Chronicles Kickstarter and what might that be?

Chris Birch: Good question - well I would say that there are so many massive Mutant Chronicles fans who've just been waiting for the return of this awesome game. I keep being surprised every day as more and more join in the Kickstarter - it's like people are coming home!

DL: You've run a very successful Kickstarter before and are currently running another very successful one -- what do you feel is your reason for such success?

CB: I think it's about the huge amount of ground work we do before we get to the Kickstarter - building up the fan base, talking to them, finding out what people really want, not just what we think they want then using that to steer our cool ideas. We already knew what we were going to do with the story, but learning what products people wanted to see first, and what aspects of the Mutant Chronicles universe were more important was a huge help in shaping the releases. We had been playtesting with over 400 groups over 6 months so once you get to those kinds of numbers you can have a great start to the Kickstarter. But then it's about keeping up the hard work. You don't just sit back; you are constantly talking to people, responding, giving feedback, creating new graphics, art and sculpts to show off to keep the excitement level high. So many people think they can stick their new idea on Kickstarter with no backup, no research, and no effort day by day - and that's why not every project succeeds. We're often up till 3am working on the Kickstarter, but also the day to day business of Modiphius and it's really hard work - which is why not everyone is willing to do it. I will say though it's such rewarding work - as you see the response of your efforts almost immediately and get to talk to people who are as passionate as us. 

DL: Mutant Chronicles was created in the 1990's and the old editions show it. Will you be doing any updates to the setting to bring it more in-line with modern technological sensibilities? If so, how? Or, if not, why?

CB: The setting was actually very diesel punk although they called it techno-fantasy. The techno-fantasy is still there but we're defining the tech levels before and after the outbreak of the Dark Symmetry - what do the ships look like before the computer systems fail, and what do they end up looking like. We've drawn together all the disparate stories and timelines in to one, worked out the backstory, filled in some of the odd gaps and answered questions left hanging so people are going to discover all of this through the books. The big thing about the setting is it sits nicely in the diesel punk genre that's appeared which is where it's a 1940's/50's era of technology, everything's bigger and chunkier than it needs to be, engines are massive, vehicles huge, shoulder pads bigger! This all works with the 90's era of design they had at the time, and as we develop the looks of the worlds, buildings, ships and more it will all fit nicely with what has gone before as we'll be reusing the classic Paul Bonner art alongside new artists and the point was to bring the rest of the universe to life, not reinvent it for the sake of it. 

DL: The rules will be undergoing a change, what are some of the changes? Will it still utilize the roll-under method?

CB: Yes it's still a d20 roll under, we're making a big announcement about the rules on Monday the 17th of February, so people will know a lot more about the direction we're taking then and we hope to have a revised beta available about a week later (or before the end of the Kickstarter at least) for people to test out. It's being designed to be a really cinematic system though, allowing to you do all the crazy stunts you always imagined you should be able to do in Mutant Chronicles, without the GM suffering under a weight of stats and modifiers etc. 

DL: One of my favorite parts of the older Mutant Chronicles game was the background cycle during character creation -- what is going to happen to it in the 3rd edition?

CB: Yes, the Lifepath character generation was one of my favourite parts too, and we intend to expand on this, bringing a lot more flavoured events in to the process. It will really help you shape a very cool RPG character, but we'll also have a points buy system for those who have a specific concept they want.  

DL: Why combine the Algeroth and Ilian Guide books into the Dark Soul book?

CB: Well, actually what I should say is that the core book will contain a lot more info on all of the Dark Legion Apostles and then the Dark Soul book will expand on this for each of them as well as covering Pluto, Nero, the Dark Legion's history and much more. The idea was to bring together Ilian's and Algeroth's material in from the two books and enhance it with the rest of the Apostles. We also wanted to show how different they each are - so there will be more defined strategies and the creatures properly broken down, so each apostle has different types of heretic and creatures. The creatures and heretics are all described by how they try to attack - what their tactics are. 

DL: Will all of the original Guide books be given the 3rd edition treatment, even if their stretch goals are not met? What exactly is going to be done with the Guide books? Will they differ from the previous edition?

CB: Yes, we're bringing back all the original guides, though the Freelancer supplement is now included in a specific more detailed guide of Luna for example, and yes we'll be publishing all the books regardless of whether they get unlocked through the Kickstarter. They will be re-written, fleshed out with new material, expanded to be major geographic sourcebooks so, for example, Capitol is also the guide to Mars. There will be a lot more insight in to the organisation, gear and resources, character options etc. 

DL: What is some of the new, expanded content going to be? Are we going to get new Guide books?

CB: There's a lot more storyline to include, the histories and relationships of the Corporations, more cool gear, ships, more guide books detailing things like Mutations (which is will be a growing theme through the storyline - don't worry, no talking rabbits!) rules for spaceship combat, running your own corporation or shipping company - a great kick off for adventures, loads of new content on the Dark Legion

DL: Three campaigns are planned for 3rd edition -- will these relate to the Venusian Apocalypse adventures in any way? Will anything be done with the Venusian Aplocalypse books? If not, how easy or hard might it be to convert them to the 3rd edition?

CB: We plan to convert the Venusian Apocalypse for 3rd Edition and bring it up to date with more artwork, maps and, allegedly, there was an Episode 4. So, I have a feeling that will be really exciting as you'll be able to find out where the storyline was planned to go. There will be a major campaign book (which also reveals some of the secrets) set during the first Dark Legion War starting days after the Pluto landings, leading right up to the final climatic assault on the citadel. The second major campaign book focuses on the 2nd Dark Legion War and is more epic in scale and power. Whilst the third campaign is set during the Dark Eden period (which is still part of the 2nd Dark Legion War) and has a big focus on Earth. 

DL: Lastly, there are a lot of very interesting facets to the Mutant Chronicles universe -- what are your favorite parts of it? What are the aspects that really get you excited about this game and setting?

CB: I think it was the techno-fantasy but with the grounding in the civilisations we know - it's kind of near future, recognisable designs and styling, but the techno-fantasy element lets us do anything. The universe is full of extremes, massive guns, bigger shoulder pads, insane battles and stories. It's the final stand of humanity and I love stories that deal with the epic heroism possible in such extremes.

We here at Dorkland! would like to thank Chris Birch for his time and wish him the best with the ongoing Kickstarter. If you would like to know more about giant shoulder pads, Dark Symmetry, and corporate life, be sure to check out the Mutant Chronicles 3rd Edition Kickstarter page or Modiphius Entertainment's website.

Dorkland Interview With British Comics Force Pat Mills

Pat Mills is a force in British comics, and one who may not be as recognized as a name in the States despite the fact that he created or co-created such important and seminal characters as Judge Dredd, Nemesis The Warlock, Slaine and Marshall Law. He is also responsible for starting the British comic magazine 2000AD, which is still publishing today. I had the opportunity to speak with Mr. Mills because of the upcoming reissue of his Accident Man comics from Titan Comics. Here is how it went...

Dorkland: Thank you for taking the time for this interview. Before we get to talking about the reprint of your Accident Man comics, can we set a little of your biography for those who may not know about it? You started out developing magazines and comics for D.C. Thomson and IPC, but for many one of your greatest, and lasting, creations was the 2000AD magazine. How did this come about, and what made you want to create a predominantly science-fiction magazine?

Pat Mills: I'd successfully produced Battle and Action so now IPC wanted another comic for the boys market. Science fiction was about to go big with Star Wars so an SF comic was the logical choice. 2000AD  was very successful when it came out. The film Star Wars followed a few months later and - surprisingly - our sales went down a little. Possibly because some readers went over to Marvel's version of the film.  For me, personally, I could probably adapt to a Western, Crime, or Horror comic. Basic drama and storytelling remains fundamentally the same.

DL: While with 2000AD you’ve created what are probably some of the most enduring characters of modern British comics in Judge Dredd, Nemesis The Warlock, The ABC Warriors and Slaine. Which of these characters are still your favorite, and what makes them still of interest to you as a writer?

PM: That's tough.  Probably Slaine because I'm in the throes of a new Slaine saga with Simon Davis which I'm really enjoying.  It's called A Simple Killing and is set in Britain and is part of a new story arc The Brutania Chronicles.  It holds my interest because there are still things i want to say about Slaine. The relationship with his father, for example, which was never explored in earlier stories. I also enjoy the sense of a character having real longevity and making the later stories every bit as strong as the early ones.

DL: You have created two of my favorite comic characters in Nemesis the Warlock and Marshall Law. Like most of your characters, neither of them are stereotypical comic characters. What qualities does a “Pat Mills” protagonist have to have, and what drives you to create these sorts of characters?

PM: Nemesis was the product of artist Kevin O'Neill and my Catholic  backgrounds. There's so much inspiration there. Torquemada is the embodiment of every racist and religious fanatic I've ever met or heard about.  Marshal Law originated because I have a huge admiration for genuine heroes who are usually ignored in fiction. I have little respect for super heroes who - in mainstream at least - are rarely heroes in the true meaning of the word. Usually they're pillars of the establishment armed with the magical equivalent of America's high tech weaponry which it uses to subdue the Third World. They ain't heroes. So Marshal Law's views and my own are rather close.  Thus  my heroes have to reflect my own experiences or views;  invariably they're under-dogs, often working class. It may be a catharsis for me to write them, but I think I also have a muse who drives me.   Who she/he/it is unknown but it's a powerful motivation and when I write traditional stories they invariably fail because my muse doesn't like them or motivate me.

DL: While Judge Dredd or Marshall Law are characters defined almost by moral absolutes, characters like Mike Fallon in Accident Man or Nemesis or Slaine are much more morally ambiguous. What is it that appeals to you, as a writer, about characters like that?

PM: They're all reflecting  truth. Accident Man kills people and makes it look like accidents. When you look at events over the last twenty years or more it's clear he's out there and kept busy. There was a time when heroes had to be moral in comics, but we've finally caught up with the rest of the media and have ambiguous characters, which reflect moral dilemmas in our own lives. That can be very absorbing to write and read. We need the comic equivalents of Breaking Bad.

DL: Humor is often a part of your stories, from biting satire to broader farces. How important of a tool is humor to you, as a writer?

PM: It's essential in comics. if it's all "straight",  it's probably a little tedious or worthy and readers will turn off. Even in Breaking Bad there's dark humour and so we need the same in comics. Satire tends to be my speciality. I think because the world is not the way it's presented to us and satire is a way of showing this. I grew up on humorous novels and satire - reading everything I could find that was satirical and that's doubtless reflected in my work. Books like Erewhon, Animal Farm, Gulliver's Travels and writers like Stephen Leacock spring to mind.

DL: One of my readers sent this question to me, to ask you: “With Judge Dredd having been made into a movie (twice!) are there any other of your characters that you would like to see adapted to movies or television?”

PM: Slaine, ABC Warriors and Accident Man would seem to be the most likely bets.  And we're looking at optioning Accident Man just now. So if we can wade through the small print in the contract we've been sent, that could happen. It also has the huge advantage of being low budget! It's been optioned before and I'm actually surprised it's never happened.

Charley's War: there is a lot of media interest  at this time because of the Great War anniversary. Hope I can say something more about that very soon.

Marshal Law we made it up to the Warner Brothers boardroom - just a few weeks before Watchmen came out. So that didn't fly - for reasons of timing and possibly the director and screenwriter assigned to the project. It's hard to gauge for certain. But we hope he's due another round.

American Reaper was commissioned by a film company and is a particularly cinematic story But often that's not enough.

Currently, my money is on Accident Man making it into the screen.

DL: If you could go back and give advice to the Pat Mills of the 70s or the 80s, what would that be?

I don't think I would do anything that different because of the pressures at the time.  But I wish I'd developed Misty - rather than just coming up with the concept - because I firmly believe there would be a strong  girls comic and adult female comic market now as a result. Stronger - or rather more popular culture - than it is now.

That's a big regret. But producing three comics was hard work and I really couldn't face another at the time.

DL: Let’s talk about Accident Man. Titan Comics is reprinting these stories in a large collected edition, and the preview of it that I have seen looks great. I was actually lucky enough to have seen some of this story in its original incarnation in your magazine Toxic! A friend brought a near complete run of the magazine back from a trip to the UK. What inspired the creation of this character?

PM: My writing partner Tony Skinner told me these guys really existed and elaborated enough to wet my appetite. Not only that, he had the technical knowledge to figure out how these "accidents" would be committed.  Rather like the way Agatha Christie weaved a whodunnit, Tony loved dreaming up ingenious accidents. We had so much fun writing him.  I wanted someone who was a reflection of the vapid, consumerist times we lived in and continue to live in.   A champion for capitalism, a shallow but very likeable guy.  And a piss-take, of course.

DL: Re-reading the preview of the collected edition, I was struck by just how timeless these stories are. What about Accident Man would appeal to the comic reader of today?

PM: Very little has changed. So we're hoping to put an Accident Man 2014 story on line soon. His hair is shaven now and he's ditched the Armani suits, but otherwise it's business as usual.  At the time we wrote him, I called him GQ Man and i was looking through GQ the other day, at the hairdressers, and the magazine hasn't changed. So Mike Fallon is still GQ Man!

DL: What is next for Pat Mills?

PM: I'm working on a Charley's War style series - Brothers in Arms - with artist David Hitchcock. Because there are so many aspects of World War One that haven't been explored in drama. For instance, government issue of cocaine tablets, a love of ragtime - early jazz - the rock and roll of its day, and widespread trading with the enemy.

DL: Thank you very much, for taking the time to do this interview. As a long time fan, it has been an honor to get the chance to talk with you.

PM: Cheers. Great talking with you, too.  Excellent questions.

Have a look at a preview of the re-issue of Mill's Accident Man comic, coming soon from Titan Comics.

 

A Dorkland! Interview -- Fall of Man

The Fall of Man Kickstarter has just under two weeks left at the time of this post, and we here at Dorkland! got a chance to interview the team over at Samurai Sheepdog about the forthcoming post-apocalyptic RPG.

Dorkland: Fall of Man is being created not for just one system, but with at least four different system conversions. Why do it up front and not set them as stretch goals, as other Kickstarters have done?

Samurai Sheepdog: We like this game so much, we wanted it to be available to play by as wide a range of players as possible right from the start. We knew we initially wanted it for the Pathfinder system, but after some conversations, we decided to convert it to the other systems (13th Age, FATE, Castles & Crusades) to expand the potential audience.

DL: How does your post-apocalyptic fantasy setting differ from others that are out there? What about it will really grab potential players and hold their interest?

SS: Fall of Man is not elves, dwarves and trolls in suits convening on who is going to do some virtual cosplay tonight.  Fall of Man pulls in the world of Gothos.  A world LITERALLY made from and created by man’s dreams, fantasies and nightmares.

The goal of Fall of Man is a game world where the GM and players have the opportunity to adventure in a setting which is dark and full of all the horrors we can imagine. Searching to find that little bit of hope and faith (and perhaps a semi-automatic or a bloodripper sword) just to survive.

We have devised the world so you can go very adult if you want.  Explore what it means to have faith and how that works (even crunch wise!). Play with and tweak to find the perfect blend of technology and magic for yourself and your group.  Is this a real world?  Is it a representation of the afterlife?  Was the Maul the Rapture???  (Note we the game designers feel real world faiths should be treated with respect.  The story is presented so the GM can choose what the force behind the one God is.)

Of course if you just want a world of twisted magic and technology in a post –apocalyptic setting, the crunch is there to work that as well.

Blood Magic and Blight Magic fight and exist alongside the power of the one God (an abstract presentation of the Jewish/Christian/Islamic influences combined for simplicity) and technology. People’s nightmares and even their very thoughts can manifest physically. There is a class at higher levels that as they get closer to death, literally start to manifest horrors around them (let’s hope closer to their foes than their friends).

And then there are those who are wholly fantastical. The elves, gnomes, dwarves and other races have all suffered through the transition. The anger of losing their own home and of the new physical deterioration and mutations of their own bodies consumes many of these new Earth inhabitants and dealing with these harsh new realities influences and guides much of their thinking.

We wanted a world where as adult role-players you could experience something a bit harsher and new, mixed with our real world.  Earth.  But we also realize that most GM’s want to be able to pull in content to what they are already doing.  Thus the game is designed to be compatible with Pathfinder and other systems.  And have easy mechanisms to bring players in…and out of the world.  After all, are we sure it was only Gothos that helped caulk up the cracks in our world?  The crunch is also easy to overlay for existing characters, to minimize the transition.

This is a world full of dreamwalkers able to manifest and twist reality (at first only subtly). Of Asphalt Samurai whose code allows for a mix of magic and technology that keeps them alive. Of undead player races who are ACTUALLY undead, gripped with sorrow and pain and the knowledge of their death.  Sparkling vampires have no place here. This is a world where characters with faith in their one God might see a man save some of his friends by beating a million to one odds of escaping a building that was just ignited on fire by a ball of magic from a rival Arcanist. This is a world where bullets are treasure and a good meal worth its weight in gas.

DL: How unique are your classes? What differentiates them from the standard RPG classes?

SS: They are very different. You have, for example the One God based classes, who have mechanisms which represent subtle changes in the game.   Passive DR and multiple dice to accomplish a task.  Things which emulate faith having real game play effects. 

You have dreamwalkers who manifest their thoughts.  Not in a psionic mind control way though.  It is that their fears (and in many cases hopes) become reality.  It is as though the game is their dream and they are aware enough in the dream to manipulate it.

You have the Face class which tends to be intuitive; able to discern things about the past and present, even manipulating situations with that knowledge in a “crunch” way.   They are of course master barterers and their skill-set helps keep the logistics side of the game for the party in better shape than any other class.

The Mechanist is a master at fixing things, and even at times, mixing magic with technology to achieve the end result.  They can get a tank running, maximize ammo, increase the range of weapons, fix jammed items, and tinker with things to make them better.

The Asphalt Samurai mixes guns, swords, tech and magic and lives by a code of honor similar to the samurai of the past.  Their meditation grants them a sense of hyperawareness, allowing them to move supernaturally quick and focused. Because of this, they seem to end up in the right place at the right time or they are able to do more with each moment than maybe others could.

Fall of Man also has its own take on some of the more classic archetypes. 

The Arcanist, for example, is based on the classic wizard but whose magic comes from understanding the new state of the world, and the boundaries between reality and thoughts.  Thus as time goes on, the Arcanist can take over constructs and even other nightmare and dream manifestations, grant items sentience or otherwise magically enhance them, and even pierce the fabric of reality itself.  However, it still maintains its base in classical spell casting. 

The Gifted is similar to a sorcerer, but their magic is almost always warped.  Maybe it mutates their bodies or minds. Or drains life from them or their allies, and when they can, their enemies. Or emits radiation or toxins as they expel their arcanic energy.

The Clerics of Many Gods have the classical abilities of clerics in other games, but also use the favor system outlined in The Hunt: Rise of Evil / Pantheon and Pagan Faiths books.  This favor (which other classes can gain to a lesser extent) grants them singular special effects which go outside the realm of normal spells, but require time and energy to regain.

The Scavenger is similar to a rogue/thief, but with adaptions for the new world.  In addition to some of the classic high damage output abilities, the Scavenger is hard to kill, can “lick their wounds” to effectively ignore the negative effects of damage (for a while) and gain “crunch” based advantages through the use of the terrain around them.

The Soldier is a well-trained warrior who is adept at the fine art of modern combat, with its roots more in D20 Modern than anything in Pathfinder or any of the other game systems.   But something really exciting is their ability to specialize in different classical solider roles; scout, assault trooper, communications, medic, etc.  Heck your whole party could be soldiers and do just fine (We are sure some of the enemies you fight will be this way).  An example of a bit of out of the box thinking on this is a communications specialist granting the party additional time to solve a problem or an officer specialization granting a number of points to hand out to other character’s roles or even allow a player’s turn to be “replayed” to represent tactical thinking.

Even our barbarian, the Wasteland Barbarian is different than other settings as they often mutant and evolve, often overtime, but occasionally on the battlefield!  Did your arm just get slashed?  What the hell is coming out of the wound!!!!

So yes the classes are a bit warped, but are designed to bring something different, not just in their fluff, but in their crunch.

DL: The races in Fall of Man are a mix of RPG regulars and some new races. At least one of the regulars (the gnomes) seem to be different than usual – are any of the other regulars different? And if so, how and why?

SS: One of the things Fall of Man allows for is leveling in your race, effectively evolving you.  This allows for tremendous customization and grants each race a greater level of characterization.  You’re not just an elf with pointy ears and a long lifespan. You could evolve the ability to see fey lines, lay lines and other sources of magic or divining influence and gaining greater ability when around living non-sentient natural things (trees for example).

We wanted each race to stand out as different.  The gnomes are twisted with something called “the bent.” As they level they gain disadvantages, but no so much as to make them un-fun; it’s about adding flavor.  Gnomes also excel at mixing technology and magic.

Halflings are lucky and love stories.  They have been the least affected by the transition to Earth.  However, now at times their stories, much like the dreamwalkers, seem to actually influence reality, granting unseen but tangible bonuses to them and those around them.
   The Reborn/Risen are PC undead.  Most were once humans before the apocalypse, a bit alive again after it.   As they level in their race, they become more and more like classical undead.
   We’ll leave the others as surprises in the future, but as you can see, the goal is to give a new feel to each race to represent their transition to Earth.

DL: On the Kickstarter page you mention: “This setting is based on the Pathfinder system on steroids.” How so? What might Pathfinder players find that is different from what they are used to?

SS: That is a great question. To start off, we worked this game from the ground up to “feel” like an RPG with strong tactical elements to suit the conditions the players must face. I think at the pinnacle of it “being on steroids” is the revamped combat system. It is brutal but not so much that the players stop feeling like heroes.  We have a great injury system that takes away the abstract view of hit points. If you get shot in the hand, you are very likely to drop what you’re holding or if you are stabbed mortally through the head then the result is death.  However, since magic exists as well, you can avoid some of the worst consequences and it is better than what it would be if no magic existed at all. We do this while also keeping the dice rolling and heart of the mechanics the same.

But it is not just the combat that drives the “Pathfinder on steroids” commentary. Even the barter system, which I outline in a short video, has an elegance that makes trade and barter very detailed while keeping it simplistic from a mechanics point of view.

The races and classes are definitely on steroids too. Gnomes for instance, crossed over from the world of Gothos in a bad way, becoming subject to a terrible taint called “the bent”. This is presented in a way that can have devastating effects on the character but not in a way that will cripple the character and make them unplayable. They are often called the Twisted.

Even Humans are beefed up. They have the advantage of free will and can adapt to use both tech and magic. In the “primal balance” of forces that rage against each other (magic vs science, the one God vs many, faith vs reason) that have become tangibly impacted in the merger of the two worlds, humans get to choose.  I could go on and on! The Elves known as “The Blasted” crossed over finding themselves in a lake of toxic sludge, mingling with their natural magic to form a race of elves only a wasteland would have. The Reborn, people of Earth that died and mysteriously came back but in a state of Undeath, with gaps in their memory and no idea what returned their spirits to their wasting bodies.

I will stop there with one more thing (I could write a book about this segment). Gothos was the creation of human imagination, nightmares and dreams filtered into a state of reality through a powerful being. Now that happens on Earth too. There is a saying amongst the people of Fall of Man.

“Beware the sleeping child for in their dreams the stuff of legend and the darkest of nightmares are made manifest.”

DL: One of the aspects of Fall of Man that immediately drew me in was the artwork. How is the art being used in the book? Is it just in periodically for some color and flavor, or is it playing a bigger role?

SS: For me specifically (This is Doug Herring by the way), I am a very visual person. Art is critical to fuel the imagination of the GM and to give them the feel of the world the players live in. Art is part of the storytelling, which has equal if not more importance than rules and tactical combats. The story of Fall of Man, and its predecessor, Gothos (The Hunt: Rise of Evil), are rich storytelling worlds with deep histories and unique twists on old themes. We have yet to introduce a major element to Fall of Man which was the crux of the over-arching battle in The Hunt series; the factions of The Children of the Waking Dream and the Dark Walkers of Midnar. These cults lay hidden in Fall of Man and the ability to manipulate the stuff of dreams and nightmares has not yet come into its own in the time frame we have set for Fall of Man. It is this richness of the world, the characters, classes, and story which made The Hunt an award nominated setting and spawned many books. Art was the linchpin in the storytelling and this hold true in Fall of Man as well.

DL: Has the team min/max’d any PC’s yet and, if so, how about some tips for the future players?

SS: I will say yes, after a fashion. We have controlled min/maxing through things like the combat system and other rule sets (on-going injuries for instance). Even the most tested, maxed out character, can die from a head shot from a sniper rifle if they are not well prepared.

When I think of this and the gritty level of the world I liken a min/maxed character to Daryl on The Walking Dead. Clearly, he is a better tracker, better fighter, and (in a game term) higher level than most of the other characters yet, because of the gritty world and down and dirty fighting, he is still very vulnerable. He gets to have great heroic moments while at the same time we are afraid he might die.

This is the same in Fall of Man.  No matter the level, or how powerful a character, other players will cheer his heroics but the threat of death will always loom. With a “no hit point” system the character will always be challenged to stay alive and wits will always win out over min/maxing your character.

We here at Dorkland! would like to thank the team at Samurai Sheepdog for taking the time to answer our questions and wish them the best of luck with their Kickstarter! If you would like more information on Fall of Man or would like to support the Kickstarter be sure to check out the Kickstarter page and Samurai Sheepdog's website.

The Shepherd Interview with Nathan Sage

We recently sat down with Nathan Sage in the plush Dorkland offices to do an interview about his and Ron Joseph's new comic, The Shepherd, that is currently in its final week of Kickstarter.

Dorkland: How did you get started with comics?

Nathan Sage: Perhaps the moment comics pulled me in was this one rainy day I climbed up into the dusty attic and found a tattered box of my dad’s old Superman comics. From the 60s. A whole story arc of them. I remember reading right through to the last one and feeling crushed that it ended with a cliffhanger. CAN SUPERMAN SURVIVE THIS HORRENDOUS ORDEAL?!

But if Superman introduced me to the world of comics, Moebius was my teacher. In the late 70s he did this series of wordless short stories in Heavy Metal Magazine called “Arzach.” They were so cinematic, so beautiful, so simple in their delivery. And as a writer, that sense of visual revelation has been so vital to the way I see comics. I attempt to write comics stories wherein the writing serves to drive visual storytelling—where the reveals are made with pictures, not words. I mean, that’s why we all got into comics, isn’t it? Because of the pictures?

DL: Why use Kickstarter for this project?

NS: Kickstarter allows us to connect with a much larger audience than simply self-publishing would allow. Recently I was running my finger down that long list of people who’ve jumped onboard our project, and the disparity of where people lived was incredible. Australia, France, Italy, Canada, Mexico, Great Britain. This kind of reach would have been much more difficult without a platform like Kickstarter; with just a few clicks anyone from anywhere in the world can get, and have a part in, our comic.

DL: How has the Kickstarter experience been for you? Anything in particular that you have learned during this experience that might help other people considering Kickstarter?

NS: I had knots in my stomach for the week leading up to our launch. It was a constant struggle of “Is the project page clear? Will people get this? Am I out of my mind?” My greatest fear was that the Kickstarter would launch at midnight New Year’s Day and would be met with a collective yawn of nothingness. But we had done a few things right. We had announced the project and its Kickstarter to the world 2 weeks early (I’d do it even earlier next time), and then at ten days out we started a Ten Day Countdown, complete with graphics and little mini-stories and a teaser video, leading right up to the start of the campaign. And it paid off—the first day we hit 25% of our funding goal.

DL: What are some of the influences that went into creating The Shepherd or that helped with its conception?

NS: I think between Ron and I, each of us bring a long list of influences to bear on the comic, and looking at any one page of the comic you can start to see them. We both loved a lot of comics from the 1970s and 1980s; the Moebius comics in Heavy Metal really show through in my sensibilities in the storytelling and some of the design elements (I think you can really see it in Astrid’s gown and the maniac poachers’ armor). Ron has a special place in his heart for the comics John Byrne drew at Marvel in the 70s and 80s, and outside the comics world he draws endless influence from the creative genius of Jim Henson.

DL: It seems you all are using some of the old school non-digital methods for The Shepherd – what are some of the reasons for that? What might it mean for the readers?

NS: I’ve always loved the way traditional pencils and inks look; there’s a distinctness about it that feels very organic. You look at an inked line and it has a certain smoothness, a certain unpredictability to it that I love. If you could see Ron Joseph polish off pages of pencils and Jake Isenberg ink those pages with brushes dipped in India Ink, you would see two artists who are absolute experts in their craft—they come at the pages with such speed and detail that it’s almost impossible to imagine them doing things any other way.

DL: Astrid, the main character, seems like a fairly normal person – why have her as a main character? What qualities does she possess that makes her stand out as a heroine?

NS: It was important to me that Astrid seem ordinary. That she seem like the girl you know as your daughter, your neighbor, your sister. In early versions of the comic book cover we had her wielding weapons in a defensive stance, but that struck us as too war-like, and it made her feel too stereotypical as a comic book “badass” woman. No, we needed someone who could experience joy, curiosity, innocence; in short, we needed someone who could be underestimated. But what’s inside her is what counts, and for that you have to turn the page.

DL: From a glance, Rul, the poacher, seems straightforward. What sets him apart as an antagonist?

NS: Ron likes to talk about how everyone in the story is the opposite of how they appear. Astrid seems small, innocent, even weak. And Rul is built like a classic comic book hero. And perhaps, in some other story he might be that hero—but he’s one who’s lost his way. His obsession for finding this mythical beast, the Thanacht, has clouded his vision and stood his priorities on end. He is a hero lost in a delusion, filled with hate.

DL: What are some of the unique aspects of the setting used for The Shepherd?

NS: Ron and I wanted to create a world breathing with history and texture. I like to describe it as a distant planet much bigger than our own that’s just at the dawn of its age of discovery—you know, that moment in a planet’s existence when you could have two advanced civilizations across the world from each other, that each have no idea the other exists. We created creatures, from the tiny to the magnificently huge, tribal and urban cultures and their technologies, and even the ruins of previous worlds. And what you’ll see in the story is a clash between ways of life—Astrid’s simple, sometimes magical technology (or lack thereof), against the guns and steel of the unscrupulous poachers.

DL: What might draw people who are new to comics or only occasional readers to The Shepherd? What is there for the more avid readers?

NS: The Shepherd offers occasional readers and avid fans alike a different kind of leading character—a strong, young woman possessed of no special powers, just a heart and a sound mind like anybody else—who comes into extraordinary circumstances when a wounded monster thought extinct a thousand years ago stumbles across her path. Astrid is everything to this comic—she is its heart and soul, the human all of us would like to be in our most trying times—an ordinary hero.

DL: Lastly, what is your favorite part of The Shepherd and why?

NS: My favorite moments in this book are the moments Astrid surprises you. The sometimes quiet, sometimes explosive, violent moments when she reveals the stuff she has inside that you didn’t quite know was there. But then, those are my favorite moments in life too.


We here at Dorkland would like to thank Nathan for taking the time to do this interview with us. If you would like to know more about The Shepherd, or get your hands on a copy, be sure to check out its Kickstarter page.

Author Erin M. Evans And Wizards of the Coast's The Sundering

You have probably heard of The Sundering from Wizards of the Coast, a series of novels and events that will have dramatic changes to the worlds of Dungeons & Dragons! We talked with author Erin Evans about her Sundering novels, her involvement with the event and her background as a writer.

Dorkland: First off, let's talk a little bit about your background. How did your degree in anthropology get you started down the path of a career in writing?

Evans: It was a little more of a side quest, really. I wanted to be a writer, but I knew very early on that one doesn’t usually make a living just by writing. (One also doesn’t tend to make a living as an anthropologist, but I guess I figured two not-quite-suitable careers made one okay one). I loved it. I loved learning how to learn through it. And as odd as it may sound, I get a decent amount of mileage out of it: I might not be studying other cultures, but I do sometimes get to make them up, and having that background makes it all the more fun and interesting.

Dorkland: I know that you used to be an editor at Wizards of the Coast, how did that lead to your work on D&D novels?

Evans: While I was an editor, one of my colleagues, Susan J. Morris, asked if I wanted to audition for a book in the Ed Greenwood Presents Waterdeep series. She was short an author, if I recall correctly, for a limited call, and she had read some of my work and liked it. I submitted a story idea about a woman who insists she’s a dragon trapped in a human body. Susan and Ed loved it, and that became my first book, The God Catcher.

Dorkland: What is it about the D&D universe that appeals to you as an author?

Evans: The interesting thing about writing in the Forgotten Realms setting is how many elements you have to draw from—and how many little suggestions and discrepancies and hints just beg to be a story. On the flipside, you also have the fun of weaving in little hooks and ideas for other people to pick up, whether they’re designers or other authors or DMs or players.

Dorkland: With The Sundering event, how closely do you work with the other authors and the designers at Wizards of the Coast?

Evans: From the start, the authors have all been in fairly close contact. We all had access to each other’s outlines and some of the first drafts. I sent scenes to Paul Kemp, Richard Lee Byers, and Troy Denning in particular, because we had found places where our stories overlapped and I wanted to be sure I was presenting things in the right way. Our editors have been very good at coordinating us as well. (And I like to pester Ed on the regular. Mostly because he’s such fun to talk to.)

Dorkland: How does it feel to be an architect on such an iconic setting?

Evans: It’s absolutely an honor, but the actual work of it is just that: it’s work. It’s what I love to do, and it’s kind of a thrill to sit in a room with other authors and riff on each other’s ideas, to dig through sourcebooks and find these little gems. But I don’t think too much about the enormity of it—I think that would just get in the way.

Dorkland: What can you tell us about The Sundering, and its impact on the D&D universe?

Evans: The Sundering is a world-shaking event that will affect all of the Forgotten Realms setting. Things are changing, the world is reshaping, and not even the gods know what they’re in for (although they’ll soon find out!) The meta-goal is to bring the world back to a place where it feels like the Realms to readers and gamers again, without disrupting the continuity. The novel series is nice because it’s a sextet of stories set during this enormous event, but featuring people in various parts of the world and told on that personal scale.

Dorkland: What advice do you have for people who want to become novelists? What sort of advice do you have for people interested in doing licensed fiction like the D&D novels?

Evans: Write—a little of everything. Read—a little of everything. Learn how to read with a critical eye, and then learn to manage that critical eye before you start to hate everything (It can be a phase, I promise). Write what you’re passionate about, and make sure there’s something true in everything you write.

I think licensed fiction is a strange beast—people who write very well in general can be wholly unsuited to it, because the restrictions throw them off. But it’s a skill like anything, and adapting to those restrictions is a big part of it. I would also say you should love the IP—but not too much. The best tie-in authors I’ve read have just enough distance to bring something new to the table, and enough respect to do it in a way that makes the setting shine.

Dorkland: If you could go back in time and give yourself one bit of advice, what would it be?

Evans: Honestly? Get an agent.

Dorkland: What is the next book that we can expect to see from you?

Evans: My next Farideh novel will be out in September 2014. Fire in the Blood will take my characters to the Forest Kingdom of Cormyr, which is embroiled in a multi-front war as the Sundering rages on.

Peter Adkison Talks About The Return Of The Primal Order

One thing that I have always been pretty open about is the fact that I have always been a big fan of The Primal Order, one of the first products put out by Wizards of the Coast in their early days. With the core book available once again in PDF and softcover book from RPGNow. I am going to talk about this in another post that will talk about the product itself, but the bullet points is that The Primal Order is what Adkinson called a "capsystem," or something that could be put over the top of an existing game and used in conjunction with the existing rules.

The Primal Order outlines the rules for gods and their worshipers, and then has an appendix that explains how to use the rules with games like AD&D, TORG, Runequest, Ars Magica, Shadowrun and other games. Obviously the conversion notes are specific to the editions that were available at the time this book was first published, so there might be a little work involved in bringing this supplement up to speed with the current versions of games.

I talked with Adkinson via email about The Primal Order then and now.

Dorkland: First off, let's set the stage for The Primal Order. As best as you can remember, what was the impetus for creating this line? What was it that you felt at the time was needed in gaming that The Primal Order filled?

Peter Adkison: The answer to this question is intertwined with the question of why we started Wizards of the Coast in the first place.  Mainly, we wanted to turn our hobby into a business.  We wanted to work in the hobby games industry, making games.  Then it was a question of “What should we make?”  Until we met Richard Garfield our focus was mainly on roleplaying games and we created a big list of things we thought would be cool.  After lots of debate we decided that the work we’d done in our own roleplaying circles around the topic of gods was the most interesting.  Of course we wanted to do something new, to take a topic and dive deeper into it than anyone had done before.  So of all the roleplaying topics that looked interesting to explore, we decided mythology would be where, perhaps, we had the most to share.

Dorkland: I remember, from the time, that not all of the publishers were as thrilled about the conversion notes in the back of the book. Was it difficult to coordinate all of those conversions, and can you remember if there were any interesting stories about dealing with the other publishers (that you can talk about)?

Peter Adkison: Yeah, that was a disaster that almost put us out of business.  We were young and naïve.  We didn’t coordinate with any other publishers, we just did it.  We consulted an IP attorney about how to do this legally, but it didn’t matter, we got sued anyway.  The best story was how Mike Pondsmith, then head of GAMA, intervened on our behalf and negotiated a settlement to the lawsuit and we were able to continue on with a slap on the wrist.

Dorkland: How did this re-release of The Primal Order come about? Do you own them again, or is this licensed from Wizards of the Coast? Will other books in the line also receive a similar release?

Peter Adkison: When I left Hasbro, as part of my severance agreement, I retained the rights to The Primal Order.  In other words, I own it.  Then recently my old friend, Steve Wieck, came to me and suggested they put it online.  They offered to do the work and all I have to do is sit back and collect royalties.  What a deal!

Yes, our arrangement gives them the rights to do the TPO supplements as well.

Dorkland: There was talk, back at the time that The Primal Order line originally stopped that there were manuscripts of other books in the line. If they exist, any chance that they might finally see the light of day? What about some of the other "capsystem" lines, like The Military Order?

Peter Adkison: Several TPO supplements were actually published:  Pawns and Chessboards made it into print.  But, no, there are no manuscripts secreted away.  When we decided to discontinue the line we finished the manuscripts that were in process.  It was one of those rare times in publishing where we were able to power down gracefully and get the stuff in the pipeline to press.

It’s still a fantasy of mine to write the other “Orders” someday.  I have definite thoughts about how I would approach them, especially the military, economic, and government ones.  Right now I want to keep focused on projects that have a chance of making real money because, well, I’m also an entrepreneur at heart.  But in another 20 years or so I suspect I’ll slow down to the point where I won’t want to have employees, investors, and all that and I dream that I’ll sit in the nursing home nodding off to old reruns of Game of Thrones while typing away at The Military Order using long run-on sentences---like this one.

Dorkland: Writers and designers like Greg Stafford have put a great deal of importance on the power of myth in role-playing games. What role do you think that myths and mythology play in RPGs? What role do they play in your own games?

Peter Adkison: I love myths and mythology.  TPO is based on systems for deities that we came up because we had to for the type of play we experienced in our own D&D campaigns.  The old TSR book, Deities and Demigods, was just enough to whet the appetite.  In our campaigns, the gods were always very active and several player characters became gods themselves.  So we needed to do game design work to figure out what that really meant, mechanically.

Dorkland: In what ways do you see The Primal Order books being able to expand people's campaigns?

Peter Adkison: The mechanical stuff we came up with about gods should be interesting, especially to more mechanically-oriented gamers (like most D&D and Pathfinder groups).  But what I think is truly interesting about TPO is that we propose a definition of what a god is.  Meaning, what is the fundamental difference between a divine entity and a mortal entity?  We came up with a concept we thought was intriguing and then in the book we explain that and follow it through to its natural conclusions.  Our proposed definition works well.  It’s a reasonable model for how we imagine gods were believed to be, and from there how gods create avatars, support priests, power minions, imbue artifacts, and, ultimately, how the most powerful gods use the “omni’s” (omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence) and create life.

Dorkland: What about The Primal Order books do you think that you most "got right," even when looking back at them today? What, if anything, would you have liked to have changed, in retrospect?

Peter Adkison: I think the stuff in the previous paragraph is what we did best, defining gods and providing a rationale for how they function---and by extension, all sorts of things related to gods, like churches, artifacts, blessing, priests, and so on.  It’s a decent intellectual exploration.  The mechanics work okay, but I think a more experienced RPG designer like Jonathan Tweet or Monte Cook could have done better.

If I could change one thing it would be to try and introduce more tools to support mysticism.  By defining gods, by reducing them to statistics and points, the gods in The Primal Order essentially become superheroes.  Now that it’s 20 years later (almost exactly) I realize that I didn’t adequately discuss the experience of religious conviction, or mystical experience.  Simply put, I’m older now and I’ve had more life experience.  It would be interesting---and daring!---to talk about things like enlightenment and ecstatic experiences.  You mentioned Greg Stafford earlier.  I’ve never talked to him about TPO but I’ve sometimes imagined that if he read it he would say to me, “Peter, you missed the point.  You wrote about gods, but you didn’t write about Gods.”

Dorkland: There may not be as many gamers who know of The Primal Order books these days. Why should a GM add the book to their GM's toolkit?

Peter Adkison: The Primal Order will help you think about gods in fantasy roleplaying.  You’ll find stuff you’ll disagree with, but that’s great---put your own spin on things, that’s what we roleplayers like to do.  And it is 20 years old, so it probably shows it’s age a bit.  But I guarantee there’s a great deal of thought-provoking material in here.  And, it’s comprehensive.  Just about any topic related to gods is discussed.

Corporia Interview with Mark Plemmons

We here at Dorkland! managed to sit down at the (round) table with Mark Plemmons, author of the upcoming Corporia RPG that is currently being Kickstartered, for a few questions about the project.

Dorkland!: Starting off with a question I often ask people running Kickstarters – how has the experience been for you, so far? Anything good? Anything bad? Any tips for aspiring Kickstarters?

Mark Plemmons: So far, it’s been fun but exhausting! It’s definitely a bit like having a second job, since you have to spend time each day answering emails, working on the product, and handling other types of promotions. My main tip for aspiring Kickstarters is to complete as much as you can before the Kickstarter launches – this includes both getting the product nearly complete, and setting up all your promotional emails and contacts in advance. Gmail has a nice add-on feature called Boomerang that will let you schedule emails in advance, which is really nice for sending out press releases, so you don’t have to spend hours doing that on launch day.

DL: On to Corporia, why bring Arthurian fantasy to a contemporary setting over other types of fantasy?

MP: A common thread in Arthurian fantasy is that the King will return in the time of the people’s greatest need. A near-future ruled by mega-corporations where “might makes right” and the people are oppressed into wage-slavery is perfect for the return of a small group of individuals striving to bring back the knightly virtues of honor and chivalry. Of course, their return also brings back magic and monsters, which puts them in a quandary of fighting a war on two fronts and choosing moral compromises in order to make the best of a bad situation. It’s a natural fit, like peanut butter and jelly!

DL: The first thing I thought about while looking over Corporia was Shadowrun. What elements of Corporia might Shadowrun fans find intriguing? What separates Corporia from Shadowrun and other games or settings like that?

MP: Okay, confession time. I’ve always been more of a Cyberpunk player and, although I have some of the books and am slightly familiar with the setting, I’ve never actually played Shadowrun.  That being said, I’ll answer as best I can.

Both settings have magics and monsters, and as a member of the reincarnated Sir Lancelot’s secret special operations team, the Knightwatch, characters can go on ‘runs’ to retrieve relics, capture monsters, take down supernaturally-powered or mutated humans, do corporate espionage, and so on.

When talking about the differences, there are a few that spring to mind. In Shadowrun, magics and monsters are common knowledge, and the city seems very grim, gray, dark, and rainy. In Corporia, the corporations dismiss the magics, mutations, and monsters as cosmic radiation effects, holograms, or special effects, since they want to keep these arcane things secret until they can control them. The setting, aka “The City”, is mostly clean, white, orderly, and climate-controlled, with criminals and radicals relegated to certain districts, neighborhoods, and ‘slumburbs’ where the citizens can’t afford to pay for police protection. Except for the lack of freedoms imposed on the general population, it looks almost like a utopia.

Also, Corporia focuses on human characters; there are no elves, dwarves, or gnome character types, for instance. Finally, Hackers in Corporia can bring other player characters with them when they dive into virtual worlds, so no one’s left out of the action. There may be other obvious similarities and differences, but it would take someone more familiar with Shadowrun than me to point them out.

DL: A Dorklander wanted to know, did Matt Wagner’s Mage comic have any influence on Corporia? What other comics did have an influence?

MP: I do know that Matt Wagner wrote a comic book called Mage, but I’m afraid that’s the extent of my knowledge. I’ve read some of his other works, but never got around to that one.

The main comic book influence was Camelot 3000, a mini-series from the early 1980s, which features the Knights of the Round Table returning in the year 3000. Other comics that influenced the setting include Global Frequency, Hotwire, Stormwatch, Transmetropolitan, and V for Vendetta.

DL: Using photos for the artwork is an interesting choice. What were some of the design decisions behind that?

MP: I wanted Corporia to have a very modern design aesthetic throughout, and especially in the sections that are designed to look like in-game magazine articles, corporate reports, tourist guides, advertisements, and so on. Photographs fit this style well in a way that illustrations don’t, giving Corporia a very striking appearance that sets it apart from most other gaming products.


DL: The photos also appear to fit in with the book and subject matter very well. How did you go about achieving this? Are any of the photos shot specifically for Corporia?

MP: I spent a lot of time trying to find the websites of the very talented photographers and Photoshoppers whose work appears in Corporia. Many of the pieces were already in their portfolios and could be easily dropped into the layout, while others required some modification, either by modifying and layering two separate pieces or, particularly in the case of the illustrations and logos, often creating them from scratch.

DL: One of the core mechanics of the game is to roll 2d6 and choose the highest die (with more effects based on results). Why this mechanic?

MP: All player characters are powered by the Flux, which the corporations outwardly dismiss as cosmic radiation, but which is actually Chaos magic leaking from another dimension, breached when the old magics brought back the Knights of the Round Table. The player characters subconsciously manipulate this Chaos magic, allowing them an edge that non-supernaturally powered characters (who roll only 1d6) do not have.

DL: The REPP stat measures the celebrity of a character and seems to be a pretty unique element of Corporia. What is it all about? Why include it in the game?

MP: REPP in Corporia is a lot like the real-world Klout, a social media ranking of a person’s influence. In a world dominated by corporations, social standing and power is very important, and the REPP score gives characters a measure of where they fall on that scale. For example, it affects how an NPC corporate executive might respond to a PC’s inquiries (politely to a PC with high REPP, dismissive of a PC with low REPP), and how businesses treat high-REPP characters (such as upgrading their hotel room, giving them free gifts, or inviting them to exclusive events). It’s a particularly relevant statistic for the Lister character type (aka A-, B-, C-, or D-lister); this rock star, actor, or other celebrity can more easily infiltrate normally restricted areas, manipulate his or her fans, and so on.

DL: The spell system seems to be quite open-ended with its more free-form magic. What are the strengths of the system? What should players from more traditional systems know about magic when first experimenting with this system?

MP: Casting a spell is as easy as making any other ability check, and allows for a lot of creativity. The player just has to tell the Director (aka the Game Master) exactly what he wants his spell to do, and the Director sets a Target Number. Meeting or exceeding the TN means that the spell was successful.

Of course, there’s a framework around this to guide players used to a more traditional system. There are four spell disciplines for the Sorcerer character type (Holography, Kinesis, Metamorph, and Technomancy) and another four for the Witcher (Charm, Elemental, Perception, and Spiritism); the more points a character has in a particular discipline, the easier it is to beat those higher TNs. The rules also describe the basics of what you can do within each spell discipline, and provide at least eight sample spells (with TNs) as a basis to start from, along with ways to easily ‘power up’ the sample spells simply by increasing the TN.

DL: Lastly, what is the craziest (or coolest) use of magic in Corporia that you have thought of or seen?

MP: It’s a minor little spell, but I’m really fond of Charge, a Technomancy spell that lets characters increase a battery-powered device’s charge to 100% just by touching it. I’d love to be able to do that!


We here at Dorkland! would like to thank Mark for taking the time to answer our questions and, if you like what you've read here, then you may want to check out the Kickstarter where you can learn more and flip through a preview PDF to get a feel for the product.

Dragon Kings Interview

This past weekend we here at the Dorkland offices sat down with Timothy Brown, creator of the Dragon Kings setting, to ask him a few questions about the setting and project, in general.


Dorkland: First off, congratulations on surpassing your pledge goal! How has the Kickstarter experience been for you so far? Any tips for those thinking of running one in the future?

Timothy Brown: Thank you! Kickstarter is a strange animal. Of course, it’s uplifting that all these people share your vision and would like to make it all happen. Anyone thinking of starting one should be prepared to answer a whole lot of questions.

DL: Why this particular setting? Why not a spiritual successor to 2300AD? Might that happen in the future?

TB: I’ve had the Dragon Kings environment swimming around in the back of my mind for quite awhile now. As I talked about it with other collaborators they encouraged me to move forward. That’s the main thing, I suppose, knowing I had an eager group of collaborators. As for science fiction, in many ways that’s my first love, and I’ve got quite a bit of material already written for that, too, in both game material and music, so, as they say, ‘watch this space.’

DL: What, if anything, are you bringing over from Dark Sun? Anything whole or in part? Any concepts in particular?

TB: There are definitely themes common to all my work that appear in both Dark Sun and Dragon Kings. The notion of a world in flux, especially one in decline for mysterious reasons that present the characters with unique, often difficult choices for survival. Also, the idea that applications of power have consequences, especially role-playing consequences (not just a bad die mod). Want to dabble in sorcery? Be prepared to meet its demands. You can throw unique character races into the mix, as well, exotic creatures that bring truly alien thinking into play.

DL: Having a focus on music, art and the setting is very different from the norm – what unique challenge has this presented for you?

TB: The main challenge has been narrowing the wide focus lens of a complete role-playing setting into a single epic tale to tell musically. Just about every aspect of the game world deserves its own song. Making one tale that holds together as a single musical expression while covering as many diverse pieces of the world has been difficult, but the final work will paint a vivid picture of the Dragon Kings experience.

DL: What is your favorite part of Khitus and why?

TB: I’m an alien race fan. I like envisioning different creatures, where they came from, why they think the way that they do. On Khitus, I’ve developed the elephant centaur Pachyaur, the hive-minded Krikis empries, and the arboreal Penmai, and I’d be excited to play any one of them in a game, myself.

DL: The Krikis are an interesting, hive-based race – what sets them apart as potential PCs?

TB: The Krikis are conflicted by evolutionary progress. Their genetically rigid society gave them the strength to thrive in their pre-intelligent state. But with greater cognizance has come individuality and innovation, valuable assets to an expanding culture, but anathema to the their castes and set roles. Heroes can be at once admired and reviled. Visceral guilt causes them enormous pain and inner conflict.

DL: Most of the places seem quite grim-dark – are there any areas of Khitus left that are still “good”, or will the players have to forge those areas themselves? If so, what was the design decision behind that and why?

TB: The southern hemisphere is the most ravaged by wanton plunder, and this is where the setting ‘begins,’ but there are equatorial regions that are as-yet unmolested. Characters have choices to make: defend and maintain what’s left of their homelands, seek to stop or even reverse the desolation, or flee to better places, either permanently or at least to gain respite.

DL: Magic seems to reflect the darkness of the world – how might this affect game play? Is there a “good” form of magic that PCs would use, or will they use this destructive magic, as well? If it is destructive, why would they want to use it?

TB: Sorcery demands an emotional toll on the caster. How the wizard mitigates that toll is key. An evil wizard deflects it onto unwitting victims. The good wizard either takes it upon himself or somehow tricks sorcery into thinking it has been ‘paid,’ but this is difficult. Perhaps the best answer is to match magic’s power with something that is not exactly magic.

DL: Lastly, what is the story behind the art of the worm with the tied-on wings and mask? Did it affix those itself? (Personal curiosity!)

TB: The Dragon Kings who once held sway over the world have, over the centuries, vanished. Exactly where they have gone and why is open to debate, steeped in legend and rumor … The denizens of the Black Fortress know that the simple races – Cold Skins and Krikis – are easily fooled, and contort themselves awkwardly to further their ends – the Dragon King Pretenders.

We here at Dorkland would like to thank Timothy Brown for taking the time to answer our questions, and we would also like to remind you that Dragon Kings' Kickstarter is still going on and if you want to learn more about the Dragon Kings setting and project you can check it out on their website.