After a few speedbumps we were finally able to get together with Jared Sorensen to discuss our experiences with FreeMarket. The original plan was to interview both Jared and Luke, but sadly  due to some technical difficulties Luke could not join us. Things ended up working out really well, though, as CJ and Kevin got a chance to dig pretty deep into some of their concerns and questions about FreeMarket.

Relevant Links

• FreeMarket
• Our FreeMarket Review
• Jared Sorensen
• Luke Crane
• Burning Empires
• Mutants and Masterminds
• System Matters
• Robert A. Heinlein
• Game Design is Mind Control GenCon Panel
• Beta Software / Feature Complete
• Peter Adkison
• Ron Edwards
• Project Donut Facebook Group
• Project Donut Twitter Page
• CHOIRS Project
• Rob Bohl
• Wikis
• Jason Morningstar
• Blade Runner
• The Coen Brothers
• Joshua Bell
• Existentialism
• Boing Boing
• Osprey VTOL
• Inside the Donut GenCon Panel
• Jared’s Events
• Inspectres Movie
• Parsley

Crunchy Bits!

• The Walking Eye Interview 14: Jared Sorensen
• Intro Music “Inner Universe” from the Ghost In the Shell: Stand Alone Complex OST
• Outro Music “More Human Than Human (Meet Bambi in the King’s Harem Mix)” by White Zombie

After running three of his games back-to-back-to-back, we were pretty excited to sit down with D. Vincent Baker to chat about our experiences. We spend some time talking about aspects of Dogs in the Vineyard, In a Wicked Age…, and Poison’d, as well as cover some of his basic design philosophies. Unfortunately our first attempt to conduct this interview met with some nasty technical difficulties. There are a couple references to the fact that this is the 2nd attempt, but we only got about 10 minutes in, so no worries, you didn’t miss anything. This interview was great fun, and we can’t wait to have Vincent on again to talk about abandoning games!

Relevant Links

• Vincent’s Blog (RSS Feed)
• Vincent’s Twitter
• Lumpley Games Forum
• Kill Puppies for Satan
• Dogs in the Vineyard
• In A Wicked Age
• Mechaton
• Poison’d
• Storming The Wizard’s Tower
• Apocalypse World
• GTAIV
• ZORK
• Traveller
• Dragon Magazine
• Dungeons and Dragons Cartoon
• rec.games.frp.advocacy
• The Forge
• Drew Baker
• The Gaming Outpost
• Ron Edwards
• Clinton R. Nixon
• Ed Healy
• Jared Sorenson
• Universalis
• FreeMarket
• The Cheap and Cheesy Fantasy Game
• Graham Walmsley
• No Country for Old Men
• Matt Snyder
• Brigham City
• Burning Wheel
• Tanith Lee
• Jack Vance
• Willow Palecek
• Wicked Nights (Vampire Oracle)
• True Blood
• Judd Karlman
• Matt Wilson
• DexCon
• GenCon
• Dread
• Oo! Let’s make a Game!
• ROCK OF TAHAMAAT, SPACE TYRANT
• The Dragon Killer

Crunchy Bits!

• The Walking Eye Interview 13: Vincent Baker: 1 Hour, 12 Minutes
• Intro and Outro music provided by Oh Possum.

Kevin sits down with Willow Palecek, writer of Escape from Tentacle City, Winner of the 2008 Game Chef Golden Katana that Shoots Smaller Katanas Award for Game That Looks Like it Was the Most Fun to Write. We talk about the core mechanics of the game, as well as what message, or lessons, could be learned from play.

Relevant Links

• Escape from Tentacle City
• Willow’s Blog
• FreeMarket
• Kagematsu
• Ron Edwards
• Fiasco
• Legendary Lives
• Other Worlds
• 3:16
• Gen Con
• S/lay W/ Me
• Shab-al-Hiri Roach
• Zombie Cinema
• Game Chef
• Jason Morningstar
• Mark Adams
• Hentai (NSFW)
• Shaun of the Dead
• George A. Romero
• Poison’d
• Grey Ranks

Crunchy Bits!

• Interview 12: Willow Palacek on Escape from Tentacle City: 30 Minutes
• Intro and Outro music provided by Oh Possum.

Here’s the 2nd half of Kevin’s interview with Ron Edwards.  In it we discuss the necessary skills and attitudes for approaching gaming, a breakdown of some of Kevin’s prior difficulties with Sorcerer, and finally some discussion on what The Forge is all about. Kevin does a fantastic job of sticking his foot in his mouth by comparing The Forge GenCon booth to a Scientology recruiting station. See how he backpedals! Awkward comparisons aside, I had a great time sitting down and talking with Ron. I look forward to seeing him again at Forge Midwest 2010!

Relevant Links

• Adept Press
• Sorcerer
• Trollbabe
• Prime Time Adventures
• Dust Devils
• The Forge
• Burning Wheel
• Planescape
• Runequest
• The Moose in the City
• In A Wicked Age
• Dogs in the Vineyard
• 7th Sea
• Over the Edge
• Riddle of Steel
• Shadow of Yesterday
• Burning Empires
• Jared Sorensen
• Inspectres
• Ars Magica
• Mike Mearls
• Ed Healy
• RPG.net
• Paul Czege
• Vaughn Bode
• Mark Bode
• Cheech Wizard
• Richard Dawkins
• Rob Bohl
• The Last Supper

Crunchy Bits!

• The Walking Eye Interview 11: Ron Edwards Part 2: 1 Hour 30 Minutes
• Intro and Outro music provided by Oh Possum.

While Kevin was over in Chicago to hang out with the Jank Cast he got a chance to sit down with Ron Edwards for an hour or three.  I’ve broken the interview down into two parts for ease of consumption. In this first part, we talk a bit about his inspirations for his new game S/Lay /w Me vis a vis early gaming history and the conservative crackdown on all things considered “obscene.” Then we move on to discuss how identity politics can interfere with system discussion, and then a bit about why and how he wrote Trollbabe. Stay tuned for part two!

Relevant Links

• Adept Press
• IPR
• Monte Cook
• Sorcerer
• Skype
• Code of Unaris
• The Forge
• Actor, Director, Writer stance
• Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser
• Henry Kuttner and CL Moore
• H.P. Lovecraft
• S/Lay W/ Me
• Rob Bohl
• Clyde Roher
• Forge Midwest
• Moral Majority
• Scopes Monkey Trial
• B.A.D.D. and The Pulling Report
• Comics Code Authority
• Zap Comics
• Robert Crumb
• S. Clay Wilson
• Gilbert Sheldon
• Meese Report
• Tipper Gore
• Frank Frazetta, Frazetta “Cat Woman” and Boris Vallejo, Vallejo Conan the Barbarian
• Elmore (Red Box)
• Elric of Melnibone
• The Riddle of Steel
• The Shadow of Yesterday
• Dave Arneson
• Blackmoor
• Nine Worlds
• GURPS
• Champions
• Heroes Unlimited
• Vampire: The Masquerade
• Over the Edge
• Prince Valiant
• Chivalry and Sorcery
• The Jank Cast
• The Infamous Five Threads
• Spirit of the Century
• Robert Jordan
• Vincent Baker
• Trollbabe
• Andrea Dworkin (who apparently denies attribution for the quote Ron used, see the 6th question here)
• Liz Danforth
• The Fantasy Trip
• Eastern Promises
• Anna Kreider
• Dragonlance
• XDM
• Jonathan Tweet

Crunchy Bits!

• The Walking Eye Interview 10: Ron Edwards Part 1: 1 Hour 20 Minutes
• Intro and Outro music provided by Oh Possum.

Due to some lucky circumstances, I managed to land an interview earlier this week with Ryan Macklin and Lenny Balsera. This was a serendipitous event, as Evil Hat had just released their official press release announcing the release date and info about the Dresden Files RPG. I sit down with these two and BS about the challenges of creating a game from the Dresden Files license, then we dive into some of the nitty gritty about how FATE was used to create the world of Harry Dresden.

Relevant Links

• Dresden Files RPG
• Evil Hat
• Lenny’s Blog
• Ryan’s Blog
• The Sunless Citadel
• Duke Nukem Forever
• Urban Fantasy
• Perdido Street Station
• Endgame Oakland
• Evil Hat Brick and Mortar Guarantee
• Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies
• Ptolus
• Chris Hanrahan’s Blog
• Scribd
• bittorrent
• GURPS
• Hero
• D20
• Starblazer Adventures
• Diaspora
• FATE mailing list
• Spirit of the Century
• Jared Sorenson’s 3 Questions
• The Wire
• Clark and Amanda Valentine
• Caine  (Kung Fu)
• Las Vegas: The Strip, Sumerlin, Henderson
• Steve Wynn
• Burning Empires
• The Bracelet Problem
• Mage (The Awakening and the older Ascension)
• In Nomine
• In Nomine Fate Fan Conversion
• Robert Bohl (and our interview with him)

Crunchy Bits!

• The Walking Eye Interview 9: Dresden Files RPG with Ryan Macklin and Leonard Balsera 1 Hour 26 Minutes
• Intro and Outro music provided by Oh Possum.

Our final interview from the heady days of Forge Midwest 2009 is a brief interview with Willow Palecek, Forge Midwest organizer and designer of the FATE-based RPG Awesome Adventures. We talk with Willow about why she made Awesome Adventures, how she got into roleplaying, and how Forge Midwest came to be in Madison instead of Chicago. It was nice talking to Willow and I can’t wait for next year’s Forge Midwest!

Relevant Links

• Willow’s Blog
• FATE RPG
• Awesome Adventures
• Voight-Kampff test
• Spirit of the Century
• Lenny Balsera
• Starblazer Adventures
• John Woo
• Carolyn Burg
• Escape from Tentacle City
• Houses of the Blooded
• Legend of the Five Rings
• Hero Quest
• Dust Devils
• Champions
• The Forge
• Ron Edwards
• Dungeons and Dragons
• RPGA
• Blazing Rose
• Mouse Guard
• Storming the Wizard’s Castle
• The Mountain Witch

Crunchy Bits!

• Interview 8: Willow Palacek 25 minutes
• Intro and Outro music provided by Oh Possum.

The Walking Eye crew has a sit-down with the illustrious Luke Crane to discuss his games and gaming habits. We cover a fair bit of ground: a bit of rules theory, production strategy and the “unique challenges” that come with working with a licensed franchise. All in all this interview was a total blast and we look forward to a chance to do it again!

Relevant Links

• Mouse Guard/Burning Wheel
• Mouse Guard Comic
• Burning Empires
• David Petersen
• Independent Insurgency Interview with Luke
• The Blossoms Are Falling
• Chris Moeller
• Dictionary of Mu
• Blood Stained Stars
• Iron Empires
• Archaia Press
• Clinton R Nixon
• Realm Guard
• Black Flag
• Burning THAC0
• UberCon
• Gotham Girls Roller Derby
• Adobe InDesign
• Quark
• Weapons of the Gods
• Name of the Rose
• Vincent Baker
• kill puppies for satan
• Ron Edwards

Crunchy Bits!

• Interview 7: Luke Crane 1 Hour
• Intro music is from “The Ballad of Ivory Lass”,  Lyrics by David Petersen Music & Performance by Jesse Glenn
• Outro Music is from “The Plouescal Races” by Gaelic Storm.

Bumpers and Promos

• Spooky Outhouse

After a few scheduling SNAFU’s, we finally get a chance to sit down with Gregor and discuss our experiences with his game 3:16: Carnage Amongst the Stars. The conversation hits a lot of topics, from his gaming history, to design decisions behind 3:16, to what to do with NFA, and finally, which of his games he would save from a drowning. Gregor was a real sport for taking the time out of his evening to talk to us, and we look forward to meeting him in person at GenCon this year!

Relevant Links

• Gregor Hutton’s Home Page - 3:16, Best Friends
• Ron Edwards – The Ronnies
• Traveller: 2300 AD
• 24 Hour RPG, Game Chef
• The Forge
• Malcom Craig – Hot War, Cold City, A|State
• Mayuran
• Pendragon
• Lord of the Rings BBC Radio Play
• Traveller
• Warhammer Fantasy
• RPG.net
• Andy Kitkowski
• Story-Games.com
• Open Roleplaying Community
• Left 4:16 Dead
• WWII 3:16 Hack (weapons) (character sheet and range map)
• IPR (Indie Press Revolution)
• Mouse Guard
• Spirit of the Century
• Houses of the Blooded
• Epidiah Ravachol – Dread
• Kevin Allen Jr.
• Nathan Pallota: Carry, a game about war, Annilise
• Shreyas Sampa – Mist Robed Gate
• Joe Prince – Contenders, Piledrivers & Powerbombs, Labrynths & Lycenthropes
• AT 43
• Fantasy Flight Games
• Vincent Baker -  Arrows, Boxes, Clouds, and Smiley Faces, Kill Puppies for Satan
• The Right To Dream
• John Harper – Lady Blackbird
• Go Play Northwest

Crunchy Bits

• Interview 6: Gregor Hutton 1 Hour
• Intro Music Provided by Mark Morgan from the soundtrack to Planescape: Torment
• Outro Music Provided by Doyle W. Donehoo (released by Games Workshop for free) from the soundtrack to Dawn of War II

In early April Jen and I took a road trip up to Forge Midwest 2009 in beautiful Madison, Wisconsin. We played a lot of games and met a lot of cool people, expect a fair amount of content related to that in the upcoming weeks. One of the high points was a chance to play Hero’s Banner with it’s creator Tim Koppang. After running it for myself and two others (Edward “Sabe” Jones and a dude named Tim who’s contact info I didn’t get) I grabbed Tim (Koppang, not the player) and did a short interview with him. We discuss his inspirations for the game, the term “Storygames” (he’s not a fan), his gaming history, and whether free will actually exists or not. It was a real pleasure to meet and interview him.

Relevant Links:

• Hero’s Banner Homepage
• Song of Ice and Fire
• Bill Mudron (Cover Art for Hero’s Banner)
• Keith Senkowski
• The Forge
• The Gaming Outpost
• GURPS
• Deadlands
• Shadowrun
• Story Engine
• Dust Devils
• Storygames Forum

Crunchy Bits!

• Interview 5: Tim Koppang 30 Minutes
• Intro and Outro Music Provided by Oh Possum