Theory From the Closet

A punk perspective on tabletop RPG’s, their theory, and design.

Show043: Interview with Andrea Sfiligoi

This is the last of my Origins interviews. This interview is with Andrea Sfiligoi, creator of Song of Blades and Heroes, which was an Origins award nominee. It came about due to Paul Czege’s sharp eye as we were looking at the Origins awards nominees. Paul pointed out that one of the minatures games didn’t seem to have a publisher, just an author. We both thought it was cool to see an Indie minature game designer and I decided to see if we could hunt Andrea down and see if he was at Origins. Half an hour later as I talked with different Origins folks we found out he was there and set up this interview.

I really enjoyed talking with Andrea… after the end of this recording I think we spent a good 3 hours or more talking about Italy, America, Politics, and Metaphysics.

Show015: Editing for Game Designers with Thor Olavsrud

This time we have Thor Olavsrud, editor of Burning Wheel, Burning Empires, etc, talking to me about editing from the perspective of RPG’s. There’s quite a bit of static in the recording. Thor unfortunately was on the bad microphone, so his stuff had to be really boosted. More coming I swear… I’ve been busy.

Show014: Google for Game Designers with Alexander Newman

How many times can I get Alexander to say, “It’s a great pleasure to be here Clyde?” Never enough. Notes to come…. No. Really.

Show013: Finances for Game Designers with Luke Crane

Man did I mess up at Origins. More about that later. Hopefully this sounds decent. It starts with some crunch and munch. I got Luke right before the fabled Burning Wheel game where he was too busy lopping off player character’s heads to collect up his Origins award. So I didn’t get to ask him the insightful question, “Dude, what’s it feel like to win an Origins award?” Next time Luke. Next time. Anyway, he needed Vietnamese noodles, unintended bugs, and something to drink. I needed words, so we put the two together. Kind of like your peanut filled chocolate cups.

Section One:

Luke and I briefly discuss, Dinner with Clyde, and the new Burning Wheel Setting, “The Blossoms Are Falling.”

Section Two:

We discuss finances mainly from the position of a beginning game designer, and / or the Indiepunk game designer. Luke talks about Lulu, versus a small print run, the dangers of large print runs, when to make semi larger print runs, how much to spend on art, editing, etc, and a whole lot more. Some examples Luke used are the Ennie award nominated Dictionary of Mu, and his upcoming “The Blossoms are Falling.”

After the jump Luke’s mysterious last words will be explained….
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Show012: Interview with Fred Hicks

This is actually the last of my Origins interviews, but it’s the one I screwed up on the least. This means it was the easiest to edit, and I’ve got a wedding party to go to in another state this weekend.

Fred and I discuss some of Spirit of the Century’s design choices, the OGL, Evil Hat’s Character Creation manifesto, Jim Butcher, and Indie Press Revolution.