Theory From the Closet

Show025: Interview with Ron Edwards and Vincent Baker

I’m going to do notes and links for this one tomorrow, but I wanted to get this out so I could listen to it at work tonight.

Show024: Interview with Jeff Lower

Here is my shortest interview ever. I spoke with Jeff Lower, one of the folks from the Ashcan Front at Gen Con. Jeff is one third of the Sons of Kryos and the creator of Giants. On his show their segments usually don’t go over 15 minutes, and that’s how this interview went also.

This is another one from Gen Con that got screwed up so you’re going to hear hiss as I had to use The Levelator to boost Jeff up on my microphone.

Show023: Interview with Darren Watts

We’re back. The site has been transferred to the new computer and as promised here is a new show. I sat down with Darren Watts, President of Hero Games at Gen Con. We talked about how Hero is designed as a very large toolkit, what the heck Indie means, and several Hero products. If you hear a repetitive thumping that’s Darren punctating his speech by thumping his hand on the desk in karate chop motion. Kind of like those 70’s Steve Austin dolls. He might have had to buy the hotel a new desk, but it was certainly indicative of his passion for Hero.

Show022: Interview with Paul and Danielle Czege plus Matt Synder

3 weeks. Wow. I didn’t think I’ve been goofing with my computer that long. Here’s one with Paul, Danielle, and Matt the folks behind the Ashcan Front. I’ll do links and stuff later, but I need to take a quick nap and then head back to Geek.kon.

Show021: Interview with Chris Moore and Michael Lingner

Here’s the next of the Ashcan Front interviews. I talk with Chris Moore and Michael Lingner about their game, “Psi Run.” This one may be a little on the quiet side. We recorded it in Michael and Chris’s hotel room while Chris’s son was sleeping in the next room. Maybe more later… time for me to sleep.

Show020: The Gen Con Open Mic Experiment

This is a bit of an off show. At Gen Con there was a podcasting booth. I volunteered to spend two separate hours manning the booth. I planned on recording both hours but all the available power outlets were taken on my first shift. My second shift was Saturday morning. I arrived early, set up my equipment, and this is what it sounded like. I edited out some of the nontalking parts, but it’s still an hour and a half long. Here’s a list as best as I can make it out:

• Ryan Macklin from the Master Plan Podcast- My enemy or twin, I’m not sure which. We discuss alcohol and straightedge, the Gen Con Open Mic Experiment, the Ashcan Front, Games on Demand, and why to buy Ricola.
• Alisha, and friends - Their first trip to Gen Con they had just walked in and I got them to stop and talk with me. They play in a weekly game. I then talk to them about RPGpodcasts.com
• J.J. Lanza A.K.A. Working Man from Fist Full of Comics and Games- We discuss the disappearance of Anim5, my erratic sleeping schedule which lead to my earliness to the booth, the lack of gaming for us podcasting folks, their teaming up with The Tome Podcast, Kobolds Ate My Baby, and he passes the Microphone to….
• John A.K.A. Nightranger from Fist Full of Comics and Games - who further expounds on the eating of babies, and the epic tales of Kobolds, ANIMA, The Continuum, and what my plans are for this recording.
• J.J. Lanza A.K.A. Working Man- grabs the microphone again to question me on my purpose behind making this recording which is a great follow up question, from my interrupting of the Interview seminar he was on the day before. My answer? Lacking perhaps.
• Ben Belestra from All GamesConsidered - We discuss his lack of excitement in new games this year, D+D 4th edition, and Full Thrust.
• White Silver Publishing creators of The Chronicles of Ramlar - J.J. takes over my interview duties as I talk to the punters. (Thanks for the word Alexander) They discuss podcasts and mp3 format versus ogg format, what and where they listen to podcasts, the podcasting events at Gen Con, surprise Gen Con discounts, and then The Chronicles of Ramlar. I wish we would have gotten this gentleman’s name.
• Don Dehm from Pulp Gamer - Brings the ipod entry board for the ipod that Pulp Gamer was giving away. Don talks about their interview with Peter Adkinson, their live podcast, and Paul Tevise’s roast.
• Grant Davis from grantdavis.net - They briefly talk about the Nintendo DS, Advance Wars, and Animal Crossing, and the podcasting party at Gen Con.
• Andy Kitkowski from Story Games - We discuss Story Games, Awesome and Brilliant, Andy’s trip to Gen Con, his translation project of the Japanese RPG Tenro Bansho Zero, his running of the game, how Story Games are less reliant on the G.M. always being brilliant, Dragons of Kir, Solomon Kane (Note to Pinnacle, you need to increase your websites usability so folks like me can link to your products. 10 minutes still can’t find it.), Steal Away Jordan, Blood and Bronze, and Andy shows off his dance moves before explaining Blood and Bronze.
• Justin D. Jacobson from Blue Devil Games - We discuss Dawning Star, the Dawning Star charity event at Gen Con for the Shriners Hospitals for Children, Passages, the Ashcan Front, Faery’s Tale, and Bulls Eye.
• Chuck Sukula - We discuss why Chuck came to Gen Con, his annoyance with D+D fourth edition, my lack of content editing, then I hand my microphone to …
• Josh Hoade - Who continues discussing D+D with Chuck.
• Garin Muckenfuss - I blank on describing Geeklabel radio which I do actually listen to occasionally, we discuss why he is at Gen Con, and I give directions.
• MC JJ - returns to talk to me about how the experiment is going.
• David Woo - We talk about why he has come to Gen Con and what he’s doing, then we talk about his upcoming game The After which will be released via Comstar Games, the new modifications to Hero Clix, and the suddenness of D+D 4th edition.

Was the experiment a success? Yes, It was exactly what I was hoping for… to get folks with something to say, and stick a microphone in front of them while they say it. Punk Rock style or something. I plan to do it again at Gen Con 2008, but I will have some stock questions thought out, and a helper to deal with the punters, so I can focus on the microphones.

Show019: Interview with Paul Tevis

Here’s the second interview with an Ashcan Front contributer. This time we have Paul Tevis from Have Games Will Travel. We discuss his game, “A Penny For My Thoughts.” Some of the interesting things we talk about are; procedural rules, improv and how the game relates to it, and quite a few other things.

Show018: Interview with Ryan Macklin

This is the first of my interviews with the folks at the Ashcan Front booth from Gen Con. I spent a good portion of my Gen Con time trying to get all of the participants in the booth to record interviews with me. I came up short on that goal, much of the limiting factor was my present equipment’s bulkiness and need for power.

I really want to see the Ashcan Front be successful. There are a lot of really great ideas happening in the creator controlled space of RPG designers. I think the Ashcan Front is a great thing if we want to keep seeing the revolution that’s been going on in roleplaying design for the past years. Anyway….

I interviewed Ryan Macklin, my enemy, who produces the podcast Master Plan which is about game design. We discussed his game, Know Thyself. We also touched on what is good game design, and the difference between, “I will not abandon you,” and “nobody gets hurt.” There were also quite a few other tangents which I may come back and detail later.

Show017: Game Design for Game Designers with James Brown

Here is the first of my Gen Con interviews. I had scheduled to record with James Brown, designer of Death’s Door, Brick Battles, and Blood and Bronze, on Wednesday night. We couldn’t find anywhere to record, so we did a commando recording in the lobby of my hotel. It gave me a chance to use my new omnidirectional microphones and doesn’t sound as bad as I imagined.

James and I discussed Game design, starting with some questions you should be able to answer:

1. What is your game about?
2. How is your game about that?
3. What behaviors does it encourage or reward to achieve that?
4. What do the players do?
5. What do the characters do?
6. What is fun to you and why do you want to play this game?
7. Who do you want to play the game?

We then talk about the elevator pitch, and that you need to consider how art, text, and everything else you do expresses the games mission. Then we discuss various elements of Game Design.

• The reward system: Is a feedback loop that can have positive or negative reinforcement. It’s a way to get players to engage a mechanic or behavior that you want to encourage.
  • A positive example; fan Mail in Prime time Adventures.
  • A negative example; the loser keeping the token in Death’s Door.
• The social dynamic
• Currency: What the game rules give the players and GM to interact with the fiction.
  • In a lot of storygames this will be dice.
  • Can also be statistics on the character sheet. For instance Strength in D+D defines how the character can interact with the environment like doors, weapons, armor, etc.
• Fortune, Drama, and Karma.
  • Fortune is using some element of chance in the resolution.
  • Karma compares things and then the result is generated.
  • Drama
• Escalation
• Player interaction
  • I’ll be there for you.
  • Nobody gets Hurt.

This isn’t quite finished yet, but I need to take a nap and go to work.

Show016: Interview with Mike and Kat Miller

So this one everything was working fine with the microphones, but I accidentally recorded over the first two minutes. Fortunately it appears I got everything important. I spoke with Mike Miller creator of With Great Power, and Kat Miller who is working on a investigative crime drama RPG called Serial.

We discussed both with Great Power, and Serial. Then we talked about Indie Games Explosion, something they organize for Dreamation, Origins, Gen Con, and other cons, plus we discussed Games on Demand something they organize for Gen Con. We talked about their motivation for taking on this organization, and tips for folks who might want to try the same thing.

I think this went really well, I can hardly notice that I didn’t have my usual outline.