tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56908962496720290812024-02-18T19:06:34.369-08:00Appendix N Happy MealThe toys that made the people who make the games.Vicg61http://www.blogger.com/profile/03216752541301867593noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690896249672029081.post-73955453680741310702018-01-21T22:22:00.000-08:002018-01-21T22:52:57.651-08:00Noah Stevens: Game Writer, Player, Blogger.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Noah Stevens, 2nd from left. about to give the unsuspecting Mike Evans, a "wet willy"<br />with</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Brian Mullins, and Phil Spitzer at WayneCon 2016</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">.</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">I first became aware of Noah Stevens from his DCC RPG solo adventure, <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Hounds of Halthrag Keep. </i>I hadn't yet played DCC but was eager to get started so I bought a copy of the pdf figuring I could familiarize myself with the system by playing solo...but I hate pdfs so, honestly, I only played a little of the adventure. I've gotta buy the soft cover so I can get back to it and play.
Noah has also contributed to <b><i>Narcosa </i></b>and the 2015 edition of <i style="font-weight: bold;">Gongfarmer's Almanac. </i>Over at RPGNow<i style="font-weight: bold;"> </i>he publishes under the name <b><i>The Hapless Henchman</i></b> and, </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;">besides </span><b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Hounds of Hathrag Keep,</i></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> has 2 other adventures available<b><i>, </i></b></span></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Bad Dreams, Bad Grades and Green Smoke,</i> </b>and <i style="font-weight: bold;">Vacation at the Shore</i><b>. </b>I absolutely love <i style="font-weight: bold;">Vacation at the Shore. </i>It's written in that loose Monty Python like surreal-ish style that Noah's G+ posts are often written in, probably best described as mirthful irreverence which occasionally drifts into psychedelic chaos. It's a crazy fun pleasure to read and has been selected as Tridentcon 2017's Best Free Product! So, </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: left;">I'm looking forward to more releases from <b><i>The Hapless Henchman</i></b> and hope to play some online sessions with Noah this year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Remember your </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">TOP FAVORITE TOYS</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of all time</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. What is it about any of these toys that you most identified with? What made this so special? How did you play with these toys? Shared or Solo play?</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Noah Stevens:</b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> It was the COBRA F.A.N.G. which I think I probably saw in a K-Mart flyer shortly after it was introduced to the market in 1983. I lusted after that thing in the way that I don’t think I have cared about a toy before or since. Up until that time, my Joes/Bad Guys had been moving around by putting out their arms and cocking their left or right legs at a right angle and zipping around the sky that way. Owing to a theft of almost all my action figs by a neighbor kid (an inbred fuckhead named Johnny, may he rot in hell forever) - in my Darth Vader carrying case, no less!!! - I was something in a bad way in regards to figs and toys at that time. Of course, I had the cool ones my folks could find (a lot of Empire Strikes Back-era Star Wars toys, the ATAT walker, the Snowspeeder, the Tauntaun). But I think after the painful loss of my other stuff the FANG represented a new era of relief; I think it was probably just before my Atari 2600 hit the household and the Intellivision came a little later and I think I was lost to figs and standard toys from then on. I distinctly recall the diminishing collection as I tried to trade back my least favorites to get my own stolen figures back - I tell you Johnny really left a mark on me that I have not considered until you asked me these awful questions! Fucking Johnny! That was a weird period in my life, and my family’s life. Pretty Chaotic. Just then around age 8 or 9 my dad picked me up a Fiend Folio after my older brother introduced me to D&D once fateful summer night and it was downhill ever since.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Transformer known in the U.S. as Jetfire. But it was really a Robotech Veritech Valkyrie Fighter. I broke his arm off during the very first successful transformation on Christmas morning, and I hid that fact from everyone until just this moment.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The D&D Castle of Snake-Heads (whatever it was) was pretty cool, I guess. And Crystar, I had Crystar himself. A lot of the D&D figs (the half orc assassin, and Warduke of course!) I think that I often played by myself. I wasn’t a very social player and even then my imaginary playground was probably more in my comfort zone (I note with some insight it may have been Johnny’s FUCKING BETRAYAL that turned me around the corner on introvert vs. extrovert! That motherfucker)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Favorite Films or TV </b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What were your favorite movies and television shows of your youth?</span><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> How old were you when you loved these shows? Why did you identify with these shows and do you think these movies and programs had an influence on the adult you?</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Noah Stevens: </b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Maybe in a rough order, probably not according to their release date:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><b>Empire Strikes Back</b></i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (without comment)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I will watch </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>WarGames</i></b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> without fail</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>Night of the Creeps</i></b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - maybe the most perfect horror movie ever made; I kid I kid</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>Return of the Living Dead</i></b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - I had to explain to my wife the other night that Linnea Quigley was maybe the first full frontal nudity I ever experienced in my life, and it’s also in the context of the Tar Man zombie which I mean, it explains my weird fetishes now. Just kidding. Maybe.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>Weird Science</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>Back to School</i></b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> with Rodney Dangerfield (and the corollary </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>Easy Money</i></b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>The Beastmaster</i></b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (I mean, everything about it and Tanya Robert’s boobies, maybe after my latent mind woke up about it)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>Ghostbusters</i></b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - I have remarked to my wife that my persona is something like an amalgam of Peter Venkman and Han Solo and Bill and Ted, and of course this is not probably very healthy.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>The Goonies</i></b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - I cannot recall if this hit me right around the time I was hip-deep into the Fiend Folio, or what. I think every kid my age dreamed of adventure, and this was a perfect one; no parents. All the adults laughably incompetent. Very empowering, for a kid. I saw it at my grandparents’ house the summer of release, and I spent most of that summer making mazes on graph paper, poring over the FF, and hoping/dreaming to see an anime that I didn’t know the name of on TV some afternoon ; I think it turned out to be Mazinger or Tranzor Z</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>F</i></b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>erris Buehler’s Day Off</i></b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (I think at that time me and my dad were having some trouble and I identified pretty closely with Cameron)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Favorite TV of that era: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><b>GI Joe, Voltron, Transformers, The D&D Cartoon, The A-Team, The Greatest American Hero, Thundercats,</b></i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the space Thundercats spinoff. I recall being entranced by </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>Robotech</i></b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, series one, two and three. It appeared on Channel 33 every school day, and I always had to leave with 10 minutes left in each episode, so I never was fully apprised of what was going on. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>Pinwhee</i></b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>l </i></b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(the Canadian kid’s cartoon variety show) was a quiet favorite of mine, which is maybe weird. Somewhat later, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>Ren & Stimpy</i></b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>Pete and Pete. Max Headroom</i></b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (mid 80’s I guess) - there were a few series I recall with different actors etc. but the guy Matt Frewer was the center of it. There was this one saturday morning thing, it didn’t last long - </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>The Mighty Orbots</i></b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Man. GOOOO MIGHTY ORBOTS</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Looking back, maybe the rugged heroism and individualism and implicit anti-authoritarianism in all of it. That idea that clever people get ahead, maybe a certain kind of meritocracy and thumbing your nose at people in charge when they are clearly obnoxious squelchers of good ideas. To be pretty frank, my movie preferences have opened me up to a world of professional hurt and rotten choices. Thanks, Venkman!</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Creating Games</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Think About Playtime:</span><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Did you create games or imaginary worlds as a child? Please give a description of an important original game or play world that you enjoyed. </span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOQstS3smyAPlX4vWSYd3yjESJTf-KAl1nBmBBQKW4wcG9vaayAyBoT73yl3hNcmwqQ71440XIA26OBmToToScwb9_ZIbG9Oi0GUTFr2AdoSVf2B0r8S59ZZ37IGF6ZQuMzOMTLpEB77c/s1600/Hapless.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOQstS3smyAPlX4vWSYd3yjESJTf-KAl1nBmBBQKW4wcG9vaayAyBoT73yl3hNcmwqQ71440XIA26OBmToToScwb9_ZIbG9Oi0GUTFr2AdoSVf2B0r8S59ZZ37IGF6ZQuMzOMTLpEB77c/s320/Hapless.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Hounds of Halthrag Keep</b>, Noah's solo<br />adventure for DCC RPG</span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Noah Stevens: </b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m not very creative, but I’m good at fresh and unexpected (to me) combinations. I don’t recall particular settings or ideas that I cooked up, except that summer I spent doodling mazes pretty obsessively on graph paper the thing was influenced by Atari’s Adventure and this series of books called </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><b>Circle of Light.</b></i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The covers of those two things, together, spun off into an intricate and probably derivative world of very symbolic and nebulous characters. The </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>Circle of Light</i></b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> series (pretty awful in retrospect) had Dwarf, Bear, and Otter as primary characters and that has struck me pretty deeply. The mazes I drew had keys and chests and dragons and pirate ships. Probably no plots or concrete names that I can recall. Pretty likely it was “fetch the key -> grab the treasure -> exit the maze”. Influenced by </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="font-style: italic;">Encyclopedia Brown, You Can Be an Interplanetary Spy,</b><i> and</i><b style="font-style: italic;"> Choose Your Own Adventure Books</b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. There was one CYOA book that involved going into the center of the earth and that one still influences me, even after I encountered</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i> Pellucidar </i></b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and HG Wells and all the stuff it was spun off from. I am intrigued now on reflection that I don’t particularly hold on to imagined worlds and that they are fairly mutable and impermanent. I don’t even like codified fluff in the games I do play in these days. I resent the imposition of an official narrative like the Games Workshop guys are doing these days for example...</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As a child how did you feel about how you fit in with the rest of the world or community or friends?</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Like, were you very social or did you prefer spending time alone? Your environment, was it rural or urban? Were siblings a big part of your playtime? Did adults interact with you in game play, and if so was it structured play (sports, scouting, clubs, etc.) or free form?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Noah:</b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I grew up in a couple of crummy trailer parks in Miami. I do not believe that they were great places, and my folks were always stressed out and in conflict. I had a couple of close friends that I clung to who lived - to my young mind - very far away. My very-nearby buddy Doug and I engaged in juvenile cinematography in Junior High but before that I was wrapped up in one or two friends at a time, very clingy, probably too clingy. I was teased a great deal in school because at that time Miami was primarily Hispanic and me and these two other kids were maybe the only Caucasian types in the school, and I always felt like an outsider; this is a feeling that continues to this day. We played some D&D at the library in middle school, and in Elementary it was frowned on, and in High School it was a magnet program and RPGs seemed like really well-accepted but by then I was too gangly and shy to take part in anything for very long. My mom forced me to stay in track despite my own resentment of it and all the, uh, effort. Me and my brother played a lot of Nintendo together but he was never interested in D&D; my best friends never seemed interested, either. I didn’t even particularly fit well with the guys who did like D&D/RPGs, for some reason. I feel immensely, truly, relatively comfortable with the people on Google Plus who I game with, but I think I am always going to feel apart from people in most ways. Thanks again, Venkman!</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Childhood Playtime's Impact On Adult Gaming</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do you have any thoughts about aspects of your childhood play time that influenced your passion for RPGs? </span><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Have you ever intentionally incorporated memories of childhood playtime into game work you have created/written as an adult?</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Noah: </b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Well, my sinking into RPGs coincided with the arrival of the Commodore 64. I had AD&D1e and the Moldvay set, along with 1e Gamma World, Star Frontiers, and then my second wave was maybe WFRP 1e and Paranoia and AD&D2e with Oriental Adventures. I think I had given up trying to convince friends to play RPGs with me, and turned that into tinkering with Basic programs and Apple IIe programs and genre smashing, even then. I think I didn’t much like ‘official’ settings except maybe the implied frameworks - I think Greyhawk is dull and Dragonlance is awful and Forgotten Realms is bleh, for example… I think of RPGs maybe as a fundamentally imaginary and maybe even lonely undertaking, but of course when you can get that thing in your head across to others it’s a big win. I don’t stick with settings or campaigns or games very long, mostly one shots, and I don’t like official or organized play at all. I buy splat books for 40k mostly so i don’t look like a cheapskate asshole when I hang with my 40k friends… On reflection it seems like my underlying thing is always sort of DIY and imminently disposable if it’s not fun. I guess my RPG philosophy treats RPGs like a bag of chips or something: try it, if it’s fun then eat a little more and if it’s not then throw it away and forget about it.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You are adrift aboard an intergalactic cruiser. You are the last surviving member of your crew. You no longer remember you're mission or destination. Your ship sent out a distress signal, but you lost contact with your home planet months ago. Your chances of being rescued are nil. The ship is well stocked with everything necessary for your physical survival. You have no fear of starvation and there are no security threats. On board with you are two AI bots programmed for average human intelligence. You were allowed 10 items of any type of entertainment of your choosing (movies, recordings, books, videos, games, comics). The ship is capable of playing everything you brought, regardless of format. What choices do you hope you packed away so that you avoid dying of boredom?</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Noah:</b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> FUCK. This is horrifying. I dig loneliness and DIY but this is an existential nightmare…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Okay.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><b>Ghostbusters</b></i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Not 2 - it’s not worth it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>Robocop</i></b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> 1 and 2. Not the others.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>The Rogue Trader</i></b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> 1e book, hardcover.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The 1e DMG</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The 1e Player’s Handbook</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>The Cramp’s</i></b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Bad Music for Bad People</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>The Ramones</i></b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Ramones</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Harmy’s Despecialized version of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>Star Wars</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Robotech - Macross Saga</b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (still have not finished it… boring as fuck in the middle but one day I hope to press through to the end)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>The Forest of Doom</b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (Fighting Fantasy gamebook)</span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Links to Noah's work:</span></b></div>
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;">The Hapless Henchman products </b><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;">on </b><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;">RPGNow: </b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/browse/pub/5686/The-Hapless-Henchman">http://www.rpgnow.com/browse/pub/5686/The-Hapless-Henchman</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Narcosa - Neoplastic Press: </b><a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/137248/Narcosa" target="_blank">http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/137248/Narcosa</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>The Worm Cult of Laserskull Mountain - Gongfarmer's Almanac Vol. 3, 2015:</b> <a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/192673/2015-Gongfarmers-Almanac-Volume-3?src=hottest_filtered&affiliate_id=17484" target="_blank">http://www.rpgnow.com/product/192673/2015-Gongfarmers-Almanac-Volume-3?src=hottest_filtered&affiliate_id=17484</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Hapless Henchman - Noah's RPG Blog: </b></span><a href="http://noahms456.blogspot.com/?zx=1d7e80d9d0fdf3a0" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">http://noahms456.blogspot.com/?zx=1d7e80d9d0fdf3a0</a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Lasrifle and Crow Quill - Noah's Warhammer 40K Blog:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://lasrifleandcrowquill.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://lasrifleandcrowquill.blogspot.com/</a></span></div>
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Vicg61http://www.blogger.com/profile/03216752541301867593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690896249672029081.post-13834350823866229692017-12-24T08:24:00.000-08:002017-12-24T08:24:04.864-08:00Holiday Update And Netflix New Series: The Toys That Made Us<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just a quick note to let you know that starting in January 2018 <b>Appendix N Happy Meal</b> will begin posting again. I have several interviews ready and I'm looking forward to getting this blog back up and running. I know I've announced our return months ago, but it looks like all systems are go now!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm also excited to discover that Netflix is airing a new program called, <b>The Toys That Made Us</b>. I've only seen a few clips so far but I'm a gazzillion percent certain that this program was custom designed for the fans <b>Appendix N Happy Meal</b>. Check out the link below for more info and let us know what you think about the show. And if you have some favorite gaming people you'd like to see featured in <b>Appendix N Happy Meal</b>, please mention it in the comments section.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Happy Holidays from <b>Appendix N Happy Meal</b>!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY-6tt62vrrArv_gHNBXB1YFa4QVnOlsKuPp9gO8ut4zUid2qjGe_4xBCfvbRr5JeYYr1LBu5c8EH6u-WwQHYUX-Qlsuc3D7YdS9JJQc1q6YefVrTt7W0Xm5_2PqyLZ_5DJli4q-1inPs/s1600/the+toys+thar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="315" data-original-width="851" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY-6tt62vrrArv_gHNBXB1YFa4QVnOlsKuPp9gO8ut4zUid2qjGe_4xBCfvbRr5JeYYr1LBu5c8EH6u-WwQHYUX-Qlsuc3D7YdS9JJQc1q6YefVrTt7W0Xm5_2PqyLZ_5DJli4q-1inPs/s400/the+toys+thar.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/80161497" target="_blank">Netflix: The Toys That Made Us</a></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/thetoysthatmadeus/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">The Toys That Made Us Facebook Page</span></a></b></span></div>
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Vicg61http://www.blogger.com/profile/03216752541301867593noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690896249672029081.post-8139438247806289832017-05-09T05:43:00.001-07:002017-05-09T06:29:54.483-07:00Zzarchov Kowolski - Adventure Author, Game Designer, Publisher, Blogger<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Zzarchov Kowolski...<i>Zzarchov Kowolski</i>...<i>Zzarchov</i>....a name full of mystery and intrigue.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Zzarchov Kowolski is one of my favorite adventure writers, if not THEE favorite. His stuff always has that twist, that edge, that resonance, that flavor, THAT STUFF that I want my work to be filled with. But, I guess I try too hard and wind up clumsily waving my ideas around like a lumbering giant with a tree trunk club, you see can see me coming from a mile away. While Zzarchov, sneaky, subtle, adventure twisting, crafty word smithy ninja Zzarchov, he seems to do it so effortlessly and delicately. You don't hear his work bounding towards you like mine, instead his leaves you with a creepy feeling that something is sneaking up behind you that makes the hairs on the back of your neck bristle...but, no, there's nothing there, except you do catch a whiff of something inhuman in the air, but where did it come from? Wait, was that a shadow of a goat on it's hind legs that just sped past the periphery of your vision? Ummm, OH BLOODY HELL! WHAT IS THIS THING!?!? WHAT JUST HAPPENED!?!? WHHHHhhhhyyyyy....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Yeah, that's how reading his work makes me feel. I guess you can say I kinda idolize his stuff. But, I have good reason to, I mean after all, he writes the bloody stuff I want to write. I don't mean that I want to emulate his subject matter or style, it's more like he's mining from the same idea mine that I do, except he's hit a much richer vein than I've found so far. Time and time again I come up with scenario ideas and game mechanic ideas which I feverishly begin to explore, taking notes and writing...only to eventually discover...DAMMIT! Zzarchov's already done it and what he's done blows me away more than my idea does...now. Using cards to randomly create a setting...Oh yeah, Zzarchov's already done it. Weird trans-temporal impact from the past on setting dynamics...Oh, yeah, Zzarchov's already done it. That Gnome thing...Oh yeah, Zzarchov's already done it. This guy's a genius.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The weird thing is, I know nothing about him. NOTHING. I don't even know what he looks like despite being connected with him on G+ for a few years. I begged him to let me in on his online games, a request to which he has obliged by keeping me on his invite list, but so far my stupid chaotic life has prevented me from playing a single session with him. Eventually I'll work it out and I can finally make time to sit at his virtual table and get a feel for how his creative mind spins, whirs, and ticks. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Until then I have <b><i>Scenic Dunnsmouth</i></b>, <b><i>Thulian Echoes</i></b>, <b><i>Pale Lady</i></b>,<b><i> A Thousand Dead Babies</i></b> (my all time favorite adventure title), <b><i>Gnomes of Levnec</i></b>, and his own game rules system,<b><i> Neoclassical Geek Revival </i></b>(green hardcover 4th? edition) to pour over once again and breathe in that beautiful fragrance of pure ingenuity and unbridled creative vision.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Zzarchov submitted this picture as a representation of himself as a child.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Favorite Toys of Childhood</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Remember your TOP FAVORITE TOYS of all time. What is it about any of these toys that you most identified with? What made this so special? How did you play with these toy? Shared or Solo play?.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Zzarchov Kowolski</b>: When I was in First Grade I received a Boglin which I thought was rad as all hell, it was a rubbery monster. I thought monsters were cool. It didn't long supplant LEGO's (along with a handful of random MicroMachines) as my favourite toy, allowing me to play out a sort of proto-sim game. Building a town and having the inevitable destruction and war befall it. Ideally this was solo play, if it was shared play it was because an outside force would be about to wreak havoc upon this town without my approval.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> When I was 8 I got a steel hatchet, which while technically a tool, it allowed me to do all kinds of new fun things. Living in the middle of nowhere in a forest is boring, but with a hatchet I could build all sorts of stuff. I usually defaulted to dams, fences, and unnecessary shelters.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When I was 10 (nearing 11) I got a copy of the board game HeroQuest. This was full of possibilities and I loved the whole concept of adventure games, and being able to make your own maps. I didn't play it all that much mind you, far more time was spent thinking about playing it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It was when I was 12 (the top end of this timescale) that I got access to a 286 and a horde of completely legitimate floppies that contained a score of games. The games were fun, but what was more fun was learning to tinker with them and change them. Usually they just broke because this was before easy access to manuals and guides. It was all blind modding. I accomplished little but it ate up hours dealing with the possibilities.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b style="font-size: x-large;">Favorite Films and TV</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Favorite Films or TV of Your Youth: At what age did you enjoy each favorite? What did you identify with about the shows? Do you think these shows had an influence on the adult you? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Zzarchov</b>: As with all people from my generation I had the usual obsession with cartoons designed to sell toys that I absorbed with frantic glee. Those probably had a very similar impact on me as they did on everyone else so I won't rehash that old gem. Instead I'll go over the outliers that are a more likely source of variance.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Pink Panther</i> (age 4-5)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> When I was a little kid I used to be enthralled with the Pink Panther and watched it religiously. Why? Couldn't really say, I was young and it was a cartoon with a cat. But I would say it did have an impact. The Pink Panther only ever spoke once in any episode that I saw and I can still hear the voice. If you want people to remember when you say things, keep your mouth shut most of the time. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Godzilla</i> (age 8) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You what is cool to an 8 year old and has ridiculously large backlog of movies? A radiation spewing dragon that is there to kick ass and then kick more ass. Any chance I to scour a video store I would look to see what Godzilla movies they have and beg and plead to rent one. Oddly enough I still haven't seen the original Godzilla movie. But I saw a lot of random Godzilla movies where he fights other monsters. I guess the largest impact it had on me was that it lead me to appreciate movies with special effects that don't hold up, even ones with terrible dialog and weird plots. That fed a lot into my love of MST3K.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Harryhausen </i> Movies (Age 10)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When I was about 10 my obsession with Godzilla switched to Harryhausen movies. The visuals and adventure arcs meshed well with the literature I was into. Even today when I visualize monsters, I often think of how they would look in Dynamation. Fantastic movies.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Road Warrior</i> (Age 12)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Road warrior has medieval combat atop hot-rods in a post-apocalyptic hellscape. That is pretty obvious in its appeal to a kid on the cusp of being a teenager. I think Conan may have edged this out as my favourite movie over the years, but if so only by a hair.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b style="font-size: x-large;">Creating Games</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Think About Playtime: Did you create games or imaginary worlds as a child? Please give a description of an important original game or play world that you enjoyed. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Zzarchov</b>: I was big into reading as a kid, so its hard to know at which point a world was mine, versus a mash of other fantasy worlds, versus an alternate reality or alternate history ("What if the Vikings never left Canada!"). Questions about if the One Ring tapped into the Dark Side were ever present in my brain.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As a child how did you feel about how you fit in with the rest of the world or community or friends? Like, were you very social or did you prefer spending time alone? Your environment, was it rural or urban? Were siblings a big part of your playtime? Did adults interact with you in game play, and if so was it structured play (sports, scouting, clubs, etc.) or free form?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Zzarchov</b>: I was a scrawny dirt poor kid from the backwoods with obvious speech differences from my peers and an aptitude for books. I did not fit in well. Both preferences and the necessities of being smack dab in the middle of nowhere lead me to spend quite a bit of time alone as a young child. I did have siblings, but we all tried to stay as far away from each other as possible with a sort of paranoid disdain that only squabbling siblings and extreme libertarians can muster. As children were not supposed to be underfoot unless they were working, this meant almost all play was self-directed and alone (unless you count the dogs).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Despite how much this is beginning to make me sound like either the unibomber or Wilbur Whatley, I assure you I barely remember anything from Chemistry class and own a dog.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Childhood Playtime's Impact On Adult Gaming</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Do you have any thoughts about aspects of your childhood play time that influenced your passion for RPGs? Have you ever intentionally incorporated memories of childhood playtime into game work you have created/written as an adult?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Zzarchov</b>: The most common feature is that my "default wilderness" is the forest and hills I grew up in. The default forests are cedar strewn with massive boulders and exposed bedrock is not uncommon. The hills are covered in juniper bushes and burrs. But the isolation and the risks of simply being when alone in the middle of nowhere also factor in. Rather than hand waive away the irritants of wilderness travel to focus on the "real" adventure I focus on them. How one jury-rigs solutions to those irritants and troubles often helps set the stage for the main adventure. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You are adrift aboard an intergalactic cruiser. You are the last surviving member of your crew. You no longer remember you're mission or destination. Your ship sent out a distress signal, but you lost contact with your home planet months ago. Your chances of being rescued are nil. The ship is well stocked with everything necessary for your physical survival. You have no fear of starvation and there are no security threats. On board with you are two AI bots programmed for average human intelligence. You were allowed 10 items of any type of entertainment of your choosing (movies, recordings, books, videos, games, comics). The ship is capable of playing everything you brought, regardless of format. What choices do you hope you packed away so that you avoid dying of boredom?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Zzarchov</b>: A deck of cards. Give me that and I can build endless games.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I was curious about what Zzarchov might look like today, so I used age progression filters on the <br />picture he sent (see above) and came up with the above representation of him as an adult.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Links to Mr. Kowolski's work and blog</span>:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Kowolski's NGR Publishing available on RPGNow: </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/browse/pub/4140/Zzarchov-Kowolski" target="_blank">http://www.rpgnow.com/browse/pub/4140/Zzarchov-Kowolski</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Zzarchov's Blog - Unofficial Games: </b><a href="http://zzarchov.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://zzarchov.blogspot.com/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Zzarchov's work published by Lamentations of the Flame Princess available here: </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.lotfp.com/store/" target="_blank">http://www.lotfp.com/store/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>And you can find other interviews and tons of reviews of his work online!</b></span></div>
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Vicg61http://www.blogger.com/profile/03216752541301867593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690896249672029081.post-66010475448493021272017-04-14T16:43:00.000-07:002017-04-14T16:43:10.561-07:00Mike Evans - DIY RPG Publisher, Blogger, Game Writer and Designer<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Between this blog, my long overdue zine, SkullF*#K, and a few outstanding projects, I've been carrying around an embarrassing and weighty sack of unfulfilled promises. Well, I've emptied that sack, I've rooted through it and I'm starting to tackle it all starting with this blog. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sooo...Welcome to Season 2 of Appendix N Happy Meal!</span></span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-ca38a5f5-6ec7-0fa4-1e8f-0a8f7971d253" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think the first time I communicated with</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Mike Evans </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">was just prior to an outdoor weekend game event that I wound up missing anyhow</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I was following along with posts and comments about preparations for the event when I ran across an item that sounded interesting. I had never heard of the thing Mike mentioned in his post, but I </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">thought</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I knew what it was. So since I didn't have access to a tent, I wound up asking Mike if he had an extra one of those </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">banana hammocks </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">so that I could sleep in one</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">...</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We kinda bonded a bit after that. Honestly, how could you not bond with a guy after asking if you could hang his thong in a tree so you could curl up in it for the night?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Evans</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is a super familiar face within the G+ OSR and DCC RPG communities. Besides being one of the friendliest guys I know online, the</span><a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/browse.php?keywords=diy&x=0&y=0&author=Mike+Evans&artist=&pfrom=&pto=" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">DIY RPG</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> guy is also one of the most prolific. Check out his blog,</span><a href="https://wrathofzombie.wordpress.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wrath of Zombies</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. You'll find boatloads of material about his various projects including</span><a href="https://wrathofzombie.wordpress.com/category/role-playing/death-is-the-new-pink/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Death is the New Pink</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,</span><a href="https://wrathofzombie.wordpress.com/category/role-playing/barbarians-of-the-ruined-earth/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Barbarians of the Ruined Earth</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, the upcoming </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #263238; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">High Noon: A Gritty Whitebox Western,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and his mammoth and successful</span><a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/198726/Hubris-A-World-of-Visceral-Adventure?term=Hubris&test_epoch=0" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hubris</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> project among others. He's also editing </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #263238; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gathox Vertical Slum</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #263238; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by David Lewis Johnson</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Mike and I communicate a couple times a week and I'm always blown away over Mike's relentless diligence in plugging away on his projects.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Displaying img003.jpg" height="282" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=2141ade5fe&view=fimg&th=15a9a8c4cedaa881&attid=0.1&disp=inline&realattid=f_izvkpb8f0&safe=1&attbid=ANGjdJ9ZDiu4XibJSMwNzcp2bCgtCwNsPVnMDb9F3ZhuH_0Lzm--UJCRonN2zA-9fGfCHTlJT9bvhcn2K_GPNtIcFizF-hVkmFwV7yR9CT_DeOirHa11m1vgdffwEQg&ats=1490558700478&rm=15a9a8c4cedaa881&zw&sz=w1366-h638" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Death Is The New Peacock. Young Mike moments before getting his eyes pecked out.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Remember your </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">TOP FAVORITE TOYS</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of all time</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. What is it about any of these toys that you most identified with? What made this so special? How did you play with these toy? Shared or Solo play?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mike Evans:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I always had a weird mish-mash of toys when I played. I combined GI Joe’s, Thundercats, Transformers, Ninja Turtles, He-Man, Rocklords (yeah because rock people are so interesting), Battle Beasts, Army Ants, you name it. They all had sides they were on and there were all out wars. If I had to choose one that was the most prevalent, it’d be GI Joe’s for the win.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My friends and I would play with toys at the same time, but we’d play separately. I was never a huge fan of playing together during toy time. I saw way too many fights with between friends who did it to enjoy it… The whole, “No! Skeletor TOTALLY beats Optimus Prime” argument always frustrated me- then watching the friends fight, argue and cry. No thanks.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What were your favorite movies and television shows of your youth?</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> How old were you when you loved these shows? Why did you identify with these shows and do you think these movies and programs had an influence on the adult you?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mike Evans:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Star Wars trilogy had a profound impact on my life. Next would be Ghostbusters. Finally I would say Who Framed Roger Rabbit.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Influence? Absolutely. Star Wars is so near and dear to my heart, it’s crazy. I get choked up just hearing the music from when Han is being lowered down into the Carbonite machine. Ghostbusters was just so cool! These dudes with lightning packs blasting away at ghosts! And also there was just something so awesome about Bill Murray in that movie. Even as a kid, I wanted to be like Peter Vankmen! I think Bill Murray’s humor in that movie oozed into my consciousness.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Who Framed Roger Rabbit was really magical for me. I was 8 when it came out and I watched it eight times in theaters. I drove my parents nuts with that one. I remember thinking how amazing it would be to live in a world where cartoons and humans coexisted; hell, I still do! Cartoons like the old Disney shorts and Looney Tunes were very influential in my early childhood, and this movie solidified that. I often am cartoony/animated human being, much to my wife’s dismay.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Think About Playtime:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Did you create games or imaginary worlds as a child? Please give a description of an important original game or play world that you enjoyed. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mike: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I usually created my own games and worlds. One of my favorites was the Forgotten Forest- and the FEW times I did shared toy play, I’d piss my friends off because they couldn’t figure out how to beat the powers of the forest, which was you forget everything that happened when you leave place. That actually went on to inspire The Weeping Forest of Forgotten Memories in my Hubris setting. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As a child how did you feel about how you fit in with the rest of the world or community or friends?</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Like, were you very social or did you prefer spending time alone? Your environment, was it rural or urban? Were siblings a big part of your playtime? Did adults interact with you in game play, and if so was it structured play (sports, scouting, clubs, etc.) or free form?</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=2141ade5fe&view=fimg&th=15a9a8c4cedaa881&attid=0.2&disp=inline&realattid=f_izvkpb8n1&safe=1&attbid=ANGjdJ9e7LNjWQ4tutobh3j_yxiC_9MCna5LpyW3wALcsXjVmSoAZesmIs0Z9qRfANchUD5AMGJSBQdPY9HgK2PxfF_AwaehH-c350cuSU2czkhTQ5TNzvAeQzSAK3g&ats=1490617473579&rm=15a9a8c4cedaa881&zw&sz=w1195-h942" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Displaying img004.jpg" border="0" height="320" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=2141ade5fe&view=fimg&th=15a9a8c4cedaa881&attid=0.2&disp=inline&realattid=f_izvkpb8n1&safe=1&attbid=ANGjdJ9e7LNjWQ4tutobh3j_yxiC_9MCna5LpyW3wALcsXjVmSoAZesmIs0Z9qRfANchUD5AMGJSBQdPY9HgK2PxfF_AwaehH-c350cuSU2czkhTQ5TNzvAeQzSAK3g&ats=1490617473579&rm=15a9a8c4cedaa881&zw&sz=w1195-h942" width="242" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mike: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I grew up in cities most of my life, until 15- then I moved to Whitefish, MT and had to grow accustomed to a more lowkey-style of living. It wasn’t until MT that I started playing tabletop games, so that’s a major boon there. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I’m an only child and grew up pretty fucking spoiled, to be honest. I was really bossy and in charge when I was a kid. When I was 10 years old we were playing guns (we make-believing we were in Aliens) and a new kid started playing with us. He was about 14 and a “cool kid.” I started my normal bossy spoiled brat shit, and he called me out on it, saying that he didn’t like playing with me because I was bossy. That really had an impact on me. No one had ever really called me out on that before and I made a choice from that point on, to be nicer, not bossy, and actually listen to people. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When I was a teenager I did track and field. I liked running, but I hate competitive anything… just not my jam. I did theater for a couple of years until I grew bored with the drama that came along with working with actors.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Childhood Playtime's Impact On Adult Gaming</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do you have any thoughts about aspects of your childhood play time that influenced your passion for RPGs? </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Have you ever intentionally incorporated memories of childhood playtime into game work you have created/written as an adult?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mike:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Oh absolutely. I touched on that a bit with the Weeping Forest of Forgotten Memories in Hubris. I grew up loving Star Trek, Star Wars, and all the gonzo weird fantasy cartoons (i.e., Thundercats, He-man, Thundarr, Pirates of Dark Water, etc.) and always played make-believe in those worlds. All that seems to, at some point, bleed back into my interests with RPGs and what I want to run and write. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Lost in Space Media Cache</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You are adrift aboard an intergalactic cruiser. You are the last surviving member of your crew. You no longer remember you're mission or destination. Your ship sent out a distress signal, but you lost contact with your home planet months ago. Your chances of being rescued are nil. The ship is well stocked with everything necessary for your physical survival. You have no fear of starvation and there are no security threats. On board with you are two AI bots programmed for average human intelligence. You were allowed 10 items of any type of entertainment of your choosing (movies, recordings, books, videos, games, comics). The ship is capable of playing everything you brought, regardless of format. What choices do you hope you packed away so that you avoid dying of boredom?</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mike:</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dungeon Crawl Classics ruleset</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Louis Armstrong Complete boxset</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Complete Nirvana Boxset</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Links:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mike's blog, Wrathofzombie's Blog</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">:</span><a href="https://wrathofzombie.wordpress.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://wrathofzombie.wordpress.com/</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hubris Kickstarter</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: </span><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1070557469/a-world-of-visceral-adventure" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1070557469/a-world-of-visceral-adventure</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">DIY RPG Items on RPGNow</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: </span><a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/browse.php?x=0&y=0&author=Mike%20Evans" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.rpgnow.com/browse.php?x=0&y=0&author=Mike%20Evans</span></a></span></div>
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Vicg61http://www.blogger.com/profile/03216752541301867593noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690896249672029081.post-44826405731517577332016-10-27T09:52:00.000-07:002017-05-09T09:00:29.710-07:00Jeffrey C. Dillow: Creator and Author of High Fantasy RPG and Fantasy Novel Series<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When Jeffrey Dillow's <b>High Fantasy</b> was originally published in 1978, it didn't capture much attention. Neither did the two subsequent printings in 1979. It didn't really appear on anyone's radar until 1981 when Reston published an expanded hard cover second edition. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Third printing of the original 44 page saddle stitched edition. This is the edition I first owned in 1980.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Unfortunately, the most important review High Fantasy received for it's 3rd printing of the 44 page softcover 1st edition, which appeared in <b>White Dwarf </b> in<b> </b>June 1980, unfairly criticized it <b><i>not</i></b> for rules or setting issues, but simply for the fact that it was a fantasy RPG. Essentially the criticism read (very liberally paraphrased by me), 'we already have a dominant game, why would anyone play another?'. Unfortunately, the review reinforced an attitude that was pervasive at the time. Even though game play was different--<b>High Fantasy</b> is based on </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">a </span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">percentile dice system, with a hit and dodge combat mechanic for characters and creatures--it was a time when players were still swooning over the new <b>D&D</b> sensation and thus weren't ready to explore alternate rules systems. <b>High Fantasy</b> also had different classes like Animal Trainer and Alchemist, who could create gun powder and use firearms, but despite this t</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">here was no way to 'compete' with <b>D&D</b> in the early 80's. Even the strongest alternative games at the time, <b>Runequest, Tunnels and Trolls</b>, and <b>Traveller</b>, were obscure titles to most of <b>Dungeon and Dragon's</b> fad audience. Despite this, t</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">he <b>HF</b> still had strong distribution through bookstores as well as hobby shops once the <b>Reston</b> edition came out. Numerous supplements followed in '81 through '83.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Extremely rare <b>High Fantasy </b>boxed set.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I picked <b>HF</b> up in 1980. I was sold on the color cover art of the 3rd printing of the original edition. Sadly though, I never got a chance to play it. No one that I gamed with in the early 80's was</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">...</span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Surprise!</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">....</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">interested in learning another system. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The copy I owned was sold in 1986 when I ditched 90% of my game collection all for $100. All for a slew of records that seemed important to own at the time...How I lament that day.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When I got back into games I often thought of that book. 6 years ago I couldn't find much about it online which made it grow in magnitude as a lost gem that I needed to replace. I tore apart boxes of my old collections at my parent's house hoping it wasn't part of my RPG sale. I kept checking Ebay for copies, kept searching online, and slowly I found info...then a little more...and a little more. Over a couple of years I discovered the other editions and supplements, plus copies for sale that I couldn't afford, and a little biographical info from Jeffrey on a forum. The history of the game seemed to be slowly bubbling up from the murky depths of obscurity. I finally found Jeff's website in 2012(?) and discovered he was publishing novels based on his game world. You really should check the site out, Jeff has lived a very busy and incredibly interesting life. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In 2008 C.D. Berry left a review of <b>High Fantasy</b> on Amazon.com. The comment was a perfect response to Don Turnbull's <b>White Dwarf</b> review, it's just 20 years late. Berry wrote,</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"<span style="background-color: white;">I will sum it up like this; Faster than <b>Dungeons & Dragons</b> and more in-depth than <b>Tunnels & Trolls.</b> Don't let anyone tell you it's a "knock off" of <b>D&D</b>!" </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">I finally made contact with Jeffrey Dillow earlier this year (it's not easy), and I was so over the top excited that he was willing to participate in Appendix N Happy Meal. I'm especially excited to present Mr. Dillow's interview as the first of our new season. Enjoy!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Thanks Jeffrey!</span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.2px;">What were your favorite toys during childhood? </span><span style="line-height: 18.2px;">What is it about these toys that you most identified with? What made them so special? H</span><span style="line-height: 18.2px;">ow did you play/enjoy this toy? (shared or solo play).</span></div>
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<b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Jeffrey:</b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> My early years were filled with a mixture of store bought and homemade treasures. One of my most favorite store bought toy was a pair of </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Johnny Seven</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> guns. This was a plastic gun that was actually seven guns in one. It was a pistol, machine gun, rocket launcher, anti-tank extravaganza piece of equipment that fired bullets and grenades and anything you could imagine. I took both my gun and my brother’s gun to my neighbor’s house. There, CJ (my friend) and I strapped them on the side of two wooden crates. This was the beginning of a two-seater spaceship that would rival any other ship in the galaxy. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">CJ’s father often visited the Army Surplus stores looking for Lionel trains. We went with him one time and brought home bags full of 12 volt lights and WWII switches and we used these to create our cockpit and control panels. We are talking toggle switches, buttons, and large lever switches like Frankenstein used. We grabbed a spare Lionel transformer and hooked it up to supply the power. It was magnificent (in our minds). From CJ’s basement we ventured across the galaxy using National Geographic maps of space to chart our course to different planets. We fought and flew our way through many solar systems to get to our destination. Then we would land, jump out of the crates (I mean spaceship), unhook our <i>Johnny Sevens</i> and fight the aliens. Whenever our ship got damaged we would fly back to our base where we could make repairs and restock for our next adventure. If we ever encountered civilizations that were too advanced for our ship, we simply dug into our bags of spare parts and invented a new feature for the ship that would even the odds and help us win the day. I am very proud to say that we were never defeated in all of these adventures. And I might humbly add, the world as we know it, owes us a debt of gratitude for saving it so many times.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Other great toys included a James Bond attaché case, Strombecker slot cars, and a NASA rocket launcher. These were great toys, but none of these were my favorite.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My father used to pack all four of the kids in the back seat of his car, attach a trailer, and travel around the country. This was torture for me. Sitting in a car for hours to see something I was not interested in was not great fun. After all, I had galaxies and foreign lands that needed my help back home. Along the way, we would make stops at what we called “Junk Stores”. These were the little road-side stores at gas stations that sold souvenirs. There I discovered that you could buy, for 25 or 50 cents, bags of Roman, Trojan, or Barbaric plastic soldiers. These were fantastic, with chariots drawn by up to four horses, bags full of siege towers, catapults, and cavalry horses. Forget little green army men, this was Hercules, Caesar, and my most favorite ancient of all, Hannibal. From there on I was hooked. I begged for quarters mercilessly at each stop until I had multiple armies at my command that followed me across the country. These armies are still here with me today.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">What were your favorite films or TV shows during childhood and what age were you when you enjoyed each favorite? </span><span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">What did you identify with about these shows?</span><span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;"> Do you think these shows had an influence on the adult you? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Jeffrey: </b>I remember being very sick once where I had to be separated from the rest of the family. It was only for a week, but I had a very high fever. When I started to get better and I could sit up, my mother wheeled in a TV. Since none of my siblings could come in the room to bother me, I could watch whatever I wanted. I found the movie “Forbidden Planet”. I knew after watching it, I was back and ready to save the world once more. It was a great moment of clarity. Then I got to eat a big bowl of <i>Chef Boyardee</i> spaghetti (the kind that came in a box not that squishy canned stuff) and watched the <i>Smothers Brother</i>s. They were particularly funny that night.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I am not sure if these shows had a great effect on me or if I was already fully formed by then. I was opinionated and gravitating to the shows I liked and avoiding most of the things I did not like. I hated <i>Gilligan's Island</i> and I was tired of all of the Westerns. There was a time when all three major networks would broadcast competing Westerns at prime time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Jeffrey: </b>I think you can tell from question one that we created lots of games. We had two tree houses and a real miniature train you could sit in that ran around the back of CJ’s house. They never let us hook up a gas powered motor to the train Engine, but we did have a railroad handcar that you get on and ride. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Our games extended to the outdoors where we built real catapults. We could shoot a metal Hawaiian Juice can filled with water for half an acre. Here we used timber and bicycle tubes (not tires) to run our experiments. Advanced models could swivel and elevate for better aim.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">CJ’s dad also had one of the most extensive collections of Lionel trains you could imagine. A permanent track was set up in the basement that covered more than three ping pong size tables with a train engineer’s control station cut out of the middle. There you could stand surrounded by transformers, switches, and controls for the train crossings and loading stations. We had many types of trains and cars to choose from and we reenacted the <i>Great Locomotive Chase</i> more than once. We played with these trains, but it was too formal and ridged to keep our attention for long.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px; text-align: left;">As a child how did you feel about how you fit in with the rest of the world or community or friends? Like, were you very social or did you prefer spending time alone? Your environment, was it rural or urban? Were siblings a big part of your playtime? Did adults interact with you in game play, and if so was it structured play (sports, scouting, clubs, etc.) or free form?</span><span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px; text-align: left;"> </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOfmNvnXZDU-0r4_WhZkt8_A3mWy2e4doM_dEf5zlGHbiROkf39MlcbF5gT3UyVMfqYe80lFFZOxaA0jRIMyHQr-3lIJVnIkU5OU606C2AD97BDc3GPKqvMLd4g3XGeekQ1pvcesSiM4g/s1600/hf410oOM%252B9BhL._SY346_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOfmNvnXZDU-0r4_WhZkt8_A3mWy2e4doM_dEf5zlGHbiROkf39MlcbF5gT3UyVMfqYe80lFFZOxaA0jRIMyHQr-3lIJVnIkU5OU606C2AD97BDc3GPKqvMLd4g3XGeekQ1pvcesSiM4g/s320/hf410oOM%252B9BhL._SY346_.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Jeffrey</b></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><b>:</b> </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I grew up three doors outside of Indianapolis<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack">,</a> but I was surrounded by farms. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is a difficult question because you have to answer it as a child. I would say I fit in well as a standard reply. I had friends. I was confident and outgoing. It was a fun childhood! However, I always felt a little different. I was not concerned with most of the normal things. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I remember trying to build a calculator with my bag of light bulbs and wires. I drilled holes with a hand drill in a plywood board and wedged row after row of lights in them. I was not allowed to use a soldering gun because I was too young, so I punched holes with a nail in aluminum strips and <i>Scotch Taped</i> the wires and lights together. I connected the columns with one set of switches and the rows with another. I tried different cross-wiring configurations to see if I could get a row and a column to add together and light up in multiples. I powered it with one of our trusty Lionel transformers. I got very frustrated because I could not keep the wires connected long enough to test out my theories. I got so mad I turned the transformer on high and blew up row after row of lights. It was a spectacular end to a project, but maddening nonetheless.</span><o:p></o:p><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I had no problem playing alone with my armies and I had no problem inviting others to join in. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I played basketball, baseball, and football. However, I can say with certainty that my younger years were influenced more by free form play.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I had great male role models around, like an electrical engineer on one side and a mechanic on the other. The other neighbor built real igloos out of snow. I mean the kind made from blocks that somehow can be stacked into an Eskimo hut. He also let us borrow every kind of tool we needed. Well, let’s just say he left his garage door unlocked. My time up until eleven was mostly unsupervised. Grown-ups were watching but not organizing. They often stopped us when we went too far. Gas powered things seemed to be off limits. We wanted to mount a lawn mower engine onto a go-cart frame; I already mentioned we could not finish the engine for the backyard train. They also stopped us from using pulleys to build elevators for the tree houses. I think that was because they did not want their expensive pulleys sitting outdoors all summer long. Still, no one seemed to mind when we jumped out of trees with an army surplus cargo parachute. No matter how high we climbed, it never opened. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Jeffrey: </b>I don’t think I need to go into much detail here. Once I read Tolkien I knew I could blend all my interests into one exciting adventure. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I still write and create today. I have created virtual environments for the American Stroke Association, the NIH, and pharmaceutical companies for training. What can I say, “I am just a boy who likes his toys.”</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWltfNGNHfsUhQYyJr-90aoS3YmxJFl6lVY5rmxOOnqCeOry2XqKB5eh6i_ET3EaS-ra7_gMry0ZBeF2yWQKts7Tpo-yuCLo559eU_j7enGni9LMC933upqj4R_2nryY8SCbt_IaMZq8c/s1600/hf-l500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWltfNGNHfsUhQYyJr-90aoS3YmxJFl6lVY5rmxOOnqCeOry2XqKB5eh6i_ET3EaS-ra7_gMry0ZBeF2yWQKts7Tpo-yuCLo559eU_j7enGni9LMC933upqj4R_2nryY8SCbt_IaMZq8c/s320/hf-l500.jpg" width="213" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You are the last survivor of your crew. You are adrift aboard an intergalactic cruiser. You no longer remember your mission or destination. Your ship sent out a distress signal, but you lost contact with your home planet months ago. Your chances of being rescued are nil. The ship is well stocked with everything necessary for your physical survival. You have no fear of starvation and there are no security threats. On board with you are two AI bots programmed for average human intelligence. You were allowed 10 items of any type of entertainment of your choosing (movies, recordings, books, videos, games, comics). The ship is capable of playing everything you brought, regardless of format.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What choices do you hope you packed away so that you avoid dying of boredom?</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"></span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jeffrey:</b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b> </b>I cannot answer this one the way you would expect. I understand that you would like me to list ten of my most favorite things. However, it is the last part of the question that bothers me… “to keep from dying of boredom.” Having already flown through space in my early years, I already know the answer. Without the ability to guide the craft and to engage others in exciting new explorations I would never make it off the launching pad with my sanity intact.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Jeffrey Dillow's High Fantasy Website: <a href="http://highfantasybooks.com/" target="_blank">http://highfantasybooks.com/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">More covers and info about the original game at Wayne's Books: <a href="http://www.waynesbooks.com/HighFantasy.html" target="_blank">http://www.waynesbooks.com/HighFantasy.html</a></span></div>
Vicg61http://www.blogger.com/profile/03216752541301867593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690896249672029081.post-87893354253306726512016-07-04T10:38:00.000-07:002016-07-04T10:38:53.716-07:00Leigh Grossman: Game Designer, Author, Publisher, Wildside RPG<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to play in one of Leigh Grossman's game sessions. Leigh had left the Atlantic City area by the time I befriended many of the people who were fortunate enough to sit at his table in the early 80s. In a way Leigh was indirectly involved in me getting back into gaming after a few decades. It was through my wife's mutual friends with Leigh on Facebook that I found out about his <i>Wildside RPG Rules System, </i>which led me to investigate the state of roleplaying in 2010, and that led me to get involved with the games I cherish now. Which leaves me feeling guilty over not playing <i>Wildside</i> yet. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Leigh is a Professor at the University of Connecticut and teaches classes in writing, Fantasy Literature, and book publishing. He has several fantasy novels and academic books published, and he also runs his own publishing company, Swordsmith Productions. Currently Leigh is running a Kickstarter ending August 4th for a versatile RPG app, <b>Wildside Gaming System App: a free RPG tool</b>, that accommodates not only his own <i>Wildside</i> gaming system, but virtually any game system you play. The scope of this app (which can be used on phones, tablets, and laptops) is so extensive that you need to read the Kickstarter page to appreciate the scope of this project. Although it's called The <b>Wildside Gaming System App</b>, there are customization templates that will allow this app to be used with virtually any system. Definitely a tool I'm checking out for OSR / DCC RPG compatibility.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm really excited to present this interview from a home town author and game designer, especially since this is a perfect opportunity to introduce Leigh to the Appendix N Happy Meal, and OSR G+ communities. </span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.2px;">What were your favorite toys during child hood? Like, the<i> </i></span><span style="line-height: 18.2px;"><i>TOP 3 TOYS</i></span><span style="line-height: 18.2px;"> of all time and pick your favorite of these toys. What is it about any of these toys you most identified with? What made this so special? H</span><span style="line-height: 18.2px;">ow did you play/enjoy this toy? (shared or solo play).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><b>Leigh: </b>When I was very young, having something to ride on was really important to me. The first toy I remember was a little red fire engine that was left behind when my family moved to the Atlantic City area. (I was two and a half years old.) I don't know if it was a favorite or not - I suppose it must have been - but I felt a keen sense of loss at it having been left behind. I remember I had other riding toys, like a metal horse and later a big wheel (whose plastic wheels quickly wore out from overuse on the concrete sidewalk). Once I was old enough to ride a bike I took it everywhere, biking the length of the boardwalk to look at the old hotels and play at the amusement piers, or biking to friends' houses.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Once my brother outgrew his legos (do you ever really outgrow legos?) I got to use them. I built spaceships, cities, worlds. A lot of buildings that (lego) ships of one sort or another could dock on. I never liked the lego "people" which were just starting to be available in the 1970s because they took up too much space; a limited supply of legos meant things had to be smaller scale. I used small plastic figures that were widely available for my very limited budget - typically cowboys and Indians but it didn't really matter since they were more likely to be space rangers or undersea explorers. Eventually a collection of small plastic soldiers from various wars and nationalities supplanted the legos - they would be arranged in elaborate battlefields, sometimes over hours, and then played out - the kind of visual representation that eventually led me to wargaming and other simulations and then to RPGs. This was very much solo play - this was about learning how to express things in my imagination; when I played with other kids when I was younger it generally was outdoor play, or at their houses.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">What were your favorite films or TV during childhood and what age were you for each favorite? </span><span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">What did you identify with about these shows?</span><span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;"> Do you think these shows had an influence on the adult you? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><b>Leigh:</b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;">The one that made the biggest impression wasn't a favorite, exactly. My father was a film professor, and he built a screening room on the side porch of the house (which would become my brother's recording studio after my father was out of the picture, then eventually the room where I arranged giant battles and later ran RPGs). One night, when I was five or so, he showed the movie </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif;">Titanic</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;"> (the 1953 version with Robert Wagner and Barbara Stanwyck). Then, because it was getting late, he sent me up to bed before the last reel. Remember, I was five - I didn't know how the story came out. The iceberg had hit the ship, people were trying to deal with the chaos, it was a battle against desperate odds - and I got sent to bed without finding out how the story ended. I think it was the first time it hit me that it was possible to have a story where you never knew the ending - that not all stories ended with happily ever after or the estranged sister being rolled down the hill in a spiked barrel. (By five I already knew that stories often didn't end happily, but missing endings were new to me, and something that still bothers me.)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;">We didn't have a TV until I was ten years old, so I didn't really have a favorite show. Even with no TV I was passably conversant with Saturday </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;">morning (and afternoon) cartoons, which I would sometimes watch from the neighbor's basement. But books had a much bigger impact on me. From the time my mother read me </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif;">The Hobbit</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;"> when I was six (it took a year, and the seasons lined up which gave it a greater impact) I tended to think in longer story arcs. Even TV which did have an impact was book driven - like </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif;">Star Trek</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;">, which I only saw (in syndication or film festivals) after having read the original James Blish novelizations. I'm hoping my daughter grows up thinking in story arcs - she's five now and I've been reading her the Narnia books.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;">Live entertainment had more of an impact than TV I think. For a few years after my father left there were a lot of really interesting friends of the family in and out of the house - actors and folksingers and people with complex lives. (My mother was co-founder of the Women's Center in Atlantic County and the first rape crisis center in the county was run out of our kitchen.) I remember one family friend singing "Stewball was a Racehorse" and "Puff the Magic Dragon" and being totally caught up in the stories. They were </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif;">real</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;"> in a way that was much more emotionally intense than most TV and movies.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;">Seeing </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif;">Star Wars</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;"> in the theater did have an impact on me. It was never a favorite film in a "this is great science fiction" sense - by the time I saw it when I was ten or so I had read a fair amount of much better science fiction. But the lines around the block to see it, a year after the film had come out, and the visual power of the storytelling opened me up to new ways of telling stories. I think that Star Wars did a lot to start me thinking about how ideas had to be expressed in different media, and how you had to work with the strengths of the medium you were creating in, not try to force a narrative into a medium where it didn't work. There are a lot of intersections between how I write, how I run games, and how I teach, but being conscious of how the storyteller needs to adjust the narrative to the audience. The kind of narrative I set up for a game is very different than I use for a novel - in much the same way the way I teach a "live" course is different than how I teach an online course. But they are all related kinds of storytelling.</span><br />
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<b>Imaginary Worlds</b><br />
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">Think about playtime, did you create games or imaginary worlds as a child? If so, please describe an important original game or play world you enjoyed.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><b>Leigh: </b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">I would sometimes create puppet shows or (attempted) parade floats for adults. The worlds I created were mostly for my own use, though. I remember there was a complex narrative involving a family of ghosts and fourteen invisible horses who lived in an elevator somewhere in our house. That was just storytelling, though - I didn't really have a relationship with them or (as far as I remember) think of them as real.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Other worlds were entirely mythological, or set up as scenarios for solo play. I had whole worlds that I would play in when I was playing outside, with improvised props. It was essentially role-playing, but not shared with others until I was older.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;"><b>Play Community</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px; text-align: left;">As a child how did you feel about how you fit in with the rest of the world or community or friends? Like, were you very social or did you prefer spending time alone? Your environment, was it rural or urban? Were siblings a big part of your playtime? Did adults interact with you in game play, and if so was it structured play (sports, scouting, clubs, etc.) or free form?</span><span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px; text-align: left;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><b>Leigh: </b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">I was mostly comfortable with adults, though I would be mortified if I said something embarrassing. My brother and sister were much older, and I did not socialize particularly well with other kids. I had friends, but with a few exceptions didn't have a lot of "best friends" who I was completely comfortable around until high school. I was very social but also shy, and very conscious that I was faking a lot of socialization around other kids. I was picked on, but was also an outsider. It was accentuated by physical abuse I was going through - there were things I couldn't talk about, and when I tried to (like with the police during the several times I ran away from home) it was made clear that no one was going to help and telling others only made things worse. Eventually, I learned that the power of words could overcome abuse, or at least lessen it - but by that time, by the time I could consciously plan to put a stop to abuse without any adult help, the feeling that I was always an outsider even when I was at the center of what was going on had sunk in (and lingered for decades).</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">I don't think it's a simple cause-and-effect with the abuse - my daughter has a lot of play similarities to me at the same age: Loves to explore, plays well with other kids but prefers to play alone or with a trusted adult and prefers creating her own games to following the "rules."</span><br />
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">Do you have any thoughts about any aspects of your childhood playtime that might have influenced your passion for RPGs? Have you ever intentionally incorporated memories of childhood playtime into game work you have created as an adult?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><b>Leigh: </b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Besides the things I've already mentioned, there was another factor that shifted me from solo play to RPG in groups: When there were friends or outsiders visiting, I wasn't abused. Making friends was a survival strategy at first, not something that came easily to me. Once I'd started doing it, having friends was great of course - I still am close with some players in my original gaming group from the early 1980s. One of the things that abuse did was taught me to step outside myself, to be hyper-aware, to slow time down and plan how to react since reacting in just the right way might get me out of trouble. There were times later when that would be a good thing - talking my way out of a gunpoint encounter, for instance - and other times when difficulty relaxing and being in the moment was a liability. But it meant the transition to gaming was a very happy one. Discovering an environment where an ability to create worlds, to improvise on the fly, to convincingly convey drama and danger were useful for something </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">fun</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">, not just for staying alive - that was a revelation.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">I discovered RPGs when I was about thirteen, and gamed pretty much every day that summer. A friend brought home a single sheet of paper printed on both sides with a bit about this new game, Dungeons and Dragons, he'd more-or-less learned at camp and we improvised with that until I was able to find first the basic set and then the first edition books. This was the late 1970s and the books were not easy to find - they were carried by the occasional hobby shop, but mostly it wasn't even a niche market yet in the northeast. Once I started high school I had a regular group meeting at least once a week, and had started rewriting rules that I didn't like into better game mechanics. Pretty soon I was writing my own games. I still have those first books, heavily annotated and filled with printed workarounds. Somewhere I still have a box with all the characters from that first summer.</span><span class="im" style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You are the last survivor of your crew. You are adrift aboard an intergalactic cruiser. You no longer remember your mission or destination. Your ship sent out a distress signal, but you lost contact with your home planet months ago. Your chances of being rescued are nil. The ship is well stocked with everything necessary for your physical survival. You have no fear of starvation and there are no security threats. On board with you are two AI bots programmed for average human intelligence. You were allowed 10 items of any type of entertainment of your choosing (movies, recordings, books, videos, games, comics). The ship is capable of playing everything you brought, regardless of format.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What choices do you hope you packed away so that you avoid dying of boredom?</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><b>Leigh: </b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">When I was twelve or so, someone visited who was hooked on the Strat-O-Matic baseball simulations, and a lot of my love of baseball and sports comes out of it. I wrote sports simulations of my own (played with friends but never written for publication) and in its final iteration, it made a fantastic game for solo play. I played out dozens of hypothetical future seasons. So some of those Strat-O-Matic games would be great, along with a selection of Avalon Hill and other 1980s wargames. Mostly I think I'd want the means to write new games, though - while playing other people's games is fun, I really like to play in my own sandbox.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><b>Notes:</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Wildside Gaming RPG App Kickstarter:</b></span><br />
<a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/610865190/wildside-gaming-system-the-free-tabletop-roleplayi" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;" target="_blank">https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/610865190/wildside-gaming-system-the-free-tabletop-roleplayi</a><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Wildside Gaming:</b> <a href="http://www.wildsidegame.net/about_wildside.asp" target="_blank">http://www.wildsidegame.net/about_wildside.asp</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Swordsmith Productions (Leigh's publishing house):</b> <a href="http://swordsmith.com/" target="_blank">http://swordsmith.com/</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I really want to give Leigh a bump to help spread the word about this app within the OSR G+ community (but wanted to keep this part separate from the intro & interview). So, the following is a few of the items taken from the Kickstarter page that highlights some of my favorite functions of the app. I sincerely encourage everyone to take a look at the Kickstarter.</span><br />
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<li><b style="background-color: white; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; color: #020621; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Remote Gaming</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #020621; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px;"> - supports text, audio, and video chatting with other members of your group, either during games or separately for planning sessions.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #020621; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px;"><b style="border: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Liberation Sans", FreeSans, sans-serif; font-stretch: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Maps</b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "liberation sans" , "freesans" , sans-serif;"> - view and search campaign and dungeon maps created by your GM or purchased as add-ons.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #020621; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "liberation sans" , "freesans" , sans-serif;"><b style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Dice</b> - Roll dice either privately or shared with your group</span></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #020621; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "liberation sans" , "freesans" , sans-serif;"><b style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Groups</b> - Join a group created by your GM or other open groups (such as groups devoted to spell writing, players of a particular RPG, or finding players in your area). Share messages to the whole group or individual players. (No more making the rest of the group suspicious by passing notes or whispering.) Give equipment or other possessions from your character to another player’s character in the same game.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #020621; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "liberation sans" , "freesans" , sans-serif;"><b style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Roll up Characters</b> - create, copy, modify, update, and print characters, archive past characters. Characters may be free-standing or linked to a particular campaign created by a GM in your group. Characters can be rolled up in the app, or copied from existing characters. The Wildside Gaming System is fully supported, and templates for many other popular RPGs are included. Customized character sheets for “house rules” or your own game can be saved and shared with other members of your group.</span></span></li>
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Vicg61http://www.blogger.com/profile/03216752541301867593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690896249672029081.post-50614750600153099702016-06-19T12:59:00.001-07:002016-06-19T13:00:12.784-07:00Happy Father's Day 2016<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Happy Father's Day From My Family </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">To All Of You!</span></div>
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<img height="359" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjts03zL0U3DDWl5TeqdYYTPS4v4MXMwcoWtFao_Qs9zyS6kYj3UjLsJFHIUuDFUvYAKMYDrgEnzrrx8rBVDZ0X6K8GAm5zzDoUanoOfnDsJD6iHdMU-ZltPQQdwsl2oQXw1pYvezwAc2g/w1218-h686-no/" width="640" /></div>
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Vicg61http://www.blogger.com/profile/03216752541301867593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690896249672029081.post-465510186338202782016-06-05T13:24:00.002-07:002016-06-05T13:26:53.084-07:00Tim Kask: Game Designer, Writer and Publisher, First TSR Employee, Editor of The Dragon<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://garycon.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/TimKask.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://garycon.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/TimKask.jpg" height="400" width="266" /></a><b>T</b>im Kask has been a part of our hobby since the very beginning. He was hired by Gary Gygax in 1975 as an editor at TSR which makes Kask the first full time employee of the company. He had his hands in many of the projects that we all know and loved while growing up during the early years of Dungeons & Dragons (and still do!), including editor of the first 33 issues of <b>The Dragon </b>magazine.. When Tim left TSR in 1980 he created and published <b>Adventure Gaming</b> magazine.</div>
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Currently, Tim, along with Frank Mentzer, Jim Ward, and Chris Clarke, are publishing material through their company, <b>Eldritch Entertainment</b>. He's also a contributing editor for <b>Gygax Magazine</b>. Tim can frequently be found at gaming conventions across the country running games in the great 'Old School Tradition' which he was among the first to create and play 40 years ago. </div>
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Before returning the interview, Tim asked me to define my final interview question concerning <b>Desert Island Media</b>. So in honor of Tim's participation I have changed the final question and it is now the <b>Lost In Space Survival Question</b>.</div>
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Tim, thank you for participating in this interview! If you ever find yourself back in my neck of the woods again, please give me a shout and I'll set us up with a fishing trip you're gonna remember! I look forward to hopefully sitting at one of your tables at the next Gary Con (which I WILL NOT miss again!).Thanks. </div>
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<b>Favorite Toys</b></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.2px;">What were your favorite toys during child hood? Like, the </span><span style="line-height: 18.2px;"><i>TOP 3 TOYS</i></span><span style="line-height: 18.2px;"> of all time and pick your favorite of these toys. What is it about any of these toys you most identified with? What made this so special? H</span><span style="line-height: 18.2px;">ow did you play/enjoy this toy? (shared or solo play).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Tim: </b>Army men from TimMee Toys and MPC, the <i>Blue & Gray</i> play set (with firing cannons) and the <i>Prince Valiant</i> play set with the tin castle (and catapults that fired).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Tons of war movies were made when I was a kid, and my folks took us to the drive-in movies a lot in warm weather. I also developed an interest in military history at a young age. The army-men were a means of recreating battles as well making up my own. The PV set made me love the movies like <i>Ivanhoe</i> and the like, and I recreated them as well. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The B&G set was an entirely different matter; it had cannons that fired. It was only much later that I learned that I had created my own version of HG Wells’ <i>Little Wars</i> in my younger siblings’ sandbox. One of the cannon types’ bore exactly matched the diameter of a “ladyfinger” firecracker. I had real, although tiny, explosives. If they knocked over a figure, it was dead.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I most played solo. That was a result of several factors, chief amongst them that I went to a Catholic school and had no classmates closer than four or five blocks away. My parents were beginning to get concerned about the time I turned 11 or 12 and was still playing in the sandbox. Not long after, I found Avalon Hill’s <i>D-day</i>.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.2px;"><span style="color: #222222;"><b>Favorite Films and TV</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">What were your favorite films or TV during childhood and what age were you for each favorite?</span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tim:</b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My family did not watch much TV when I was little. The big deal each Sunday was Disney, so I really loved Fess Parker as both <i>Davy Crockett</i> and <i>Daniel Boone</i>. My TV was Sat. morning cartoons, especially <i>Mighty Mouse</i>. <i>Mighty Mouse</i> is probably a prime example of what made PTA ladies campaign against violence on TV. <i>MM</i> slaughtered the evil cats by the literal heaps with tanks, dive bombers, machine guns and artillery. <i>Merrie Melodies</i> and <i>Popeye</i> rounded out Sat morning. <i>Popeye</i> battled the Nazis and the Japanese. (Those cartoons are really hard to get today.) Then there were the <i>Three Stooges</i>, but you said only three.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What did you identify with about the shows?</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tim:</b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Nothing; they were entertainment.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Do you think these shows had an influence on the adult you? </span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tim:</b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I loved the historical aspect of <i>Boone</i> and <i>Crockett</i>; they might have led to my eventually teaching History. The cartoons were just fun.</span><br />
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<b>Imaginary Worlds</b></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">Think about playtime, did you create games or imaginary worlds as a child? If so, please describe an important original game or play world you enjoyed.</span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tim:</b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I made up “battles” (they’d be called scenarios today) all the time. Didn’t matter if it was WWII or ACW; I would sort of stick the men around real quickly for one side and walk away. Then I would come back a little later and do the same for the other side without looking. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">With the <i>Prince Valiant</i> set (my favorite comic back then), I went back in time.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">As a child how did you feel about how you fit in with the rest of the world or community or friends? Like, were you very social or did you prefer spending time alone? Your environment, was it rural or urban? Were siblings a big part of your playtime? Did adults interact with you in game play, and if so was it structured play (sports, scouting, clubs, etc.) or free form?</span><span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;"> </span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tim:</b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I was pretty ordinary as an athlete, not great, not awful. I tended to excel in odd sports; but once I faced pitchers that could throw a curve, my baseball career went up in smoke. I played Dad’s Club baseball several years. I was on my bike all the time, often traveling miles and miles in a day with a buddy or two. I swam, I ice skated. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I was a class clown; George Carlin lived my life ten years before me. I was also considered one of the “brains’ or “eggheads” (nerds or geeks, today) only for my smarts. I had a glib tongue and a slight issue with authority in the form of rules that just didn’t make good sense.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I grew up in the Quad-Cites; they straddle the Mississippi River in Illinois and Iowa. In total, maybe 200K altogether back then, but divided fiercely by city limits. There was a high school for each of the cities and towns that made up the area, about 8 in all counting the Catholic HS’s, within 20 miles of each other. They were extremely blue-collar; they were the Farm Machinery capitol of the world, with over thirty factories in their heyday.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My Mom is the reason I love games of all kinds. We played games from the time we were old enough to play Candyland until I left at 18 for the Navy. We played board games of all sorts and tons of card games, checkers, Parcheesi, Chinese checkers and chess. (Which I abandoned in 6th grade when I discovered <i>D-Day</i>.) Her father taught me poker, playing for my milk money; I had more than a few dry lunches until I learned the subtleties of bluffing.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.2px;"><span style="color: #222222;"><b>Playtime Impact on Adult Games</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">Do you have any thoughts about any aspects of your childhood playtime that might have influenced your passion for RPGs? Have you ever intentionally incorporated memories of childhood playtime into game work you have created as an adult?</span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tim:</b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I had favorite figures in my various armies. I gave them special attributes, like having to be killed twice. Sound familiar? Parallel development is a real possibility.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Lost In Space Survival Question </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You are the last survivor of your crew. You are adrift aboard an intergalactic cruiser. You no longer remember your mission or destination. Your ship sent out a distress signal, but you lost contact with your home planet months ago. Your chances of being rescued are nil. The ship is well stocked with everything necessary for your physical survival. You have no fear of starvation and there are no security threats. On board with you are two AI bots programmed for average human intelligence. You were allowed 10 items of any type of entertainment of your choosing (movies, recordings, books, videos, games, comics). The ship is capable of playing everything you brought, regardless of format.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What choices do you hope you packed away so that you avoid dying of boredom?</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tim:</b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As I have no idea if by then they will have little holograms that duke it out or whatever, I will twist your question a little. “In the cargo bay you find a container that says it has games from the late 20th and early 21st Century. What do most hope to find in it?”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">With only two possible opponents to play against, I am hoping that there are several games with what I refer to as “infinite re-playability” in which all three of us can play. That would mean games like one of the<i> Ticket to Ride</i> series (hopefully Europe with the Expansion); <i>Serenissima</i>, a trading game in which fighting is a last resort; <i>Feudality,</i> although the bots may not pick up on the humor; <i>War of Kings</i>, a vary re-playable game of conquest and rudimentary resource management; a complete suite of <i>War at Sea</i> and<i> In the Pacific</i> for straight up competition; <i>Fire & Axe</i>, because it never plays out the same;<i> B-17, Queen of the Skies </i>because if the bots get too easy to beat, this is a fantastic solitaire game; An up-to-date copy of <i>Age of Wonders</i>, the best TBS PC game I ever played that I could play against one or both, or against the AI; the complete set of <i>Babylon 5</i> DVD’s, all the seasons and all the extras; for my last item I hope for a copy of the movie version of <i>Paint Your Wagon</i>, with Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Notes:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Eldritch Entertainment:</b> <a href="http://www.eldritchent.com/" target="_blank">http://www.eldritchent.com/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Tim's Blog 'Dragon Grumbles'</b>: <a href="http://kaskoid.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://kaskoid.blogspot.com/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Gygax Magazine and TSR Games: </b><a href="http://store.tsrgames.com/" target="_blank">http://store.tsrgames.com/</a></span><br />
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Vicg61http://www.blogger.com/profile/03216752541301867593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690896249672029081.post-82083597229911591072016-05-30T08:09:00.002-07:002016-05-30T08:09:20.105-07:00James Ward: Game Writer and Designer, Creator of Metamorphosis Alpha & Gamma World. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I expect that most of my readers are well aware of James Ward's impact on our hobby. When it comes to the early history of Role Playing Games, there's probably very few people outside of the OSR community that acknowledge the contributions of anyone but Gary Gygax, and to a lesser degree, Dave Arneson. While their contributions are obviously immense, there was a number of other people whose creative genius helped the hobby to take off like wild fire. They were part of a community of designers, writers, and artists, most of whom were working for Gary Gygax at TSR in the late 70s and early 80s, and Mr. Ward was one of those creative geniuses. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When James suggested to Gary Gygax that a sci-fi RPG should be created, Gary suggested James go for it, and so he did. <i>Metamorphosis Alpha, </i>the first sci-fi RPG ever created was released by TSR in 1976. It's been in print in a variety several editions for a many years. Then two years ago Goodman Games re-released the 1st edition of<i> MA</i> in a hardcover edition that is a loving tribute to the game that also covers it's development and early history. Goodman Games continues to develop and release new material for <i>MA</i> with James and Goodman's own stable of creative geniuses.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Gods, Demi-Gods, and Heroes</i> (coauthored with Rob Kuntz) for D&D published by TSR in 1976. Then in 1980 TSR released his <i>Deities and Demigods </i>(again with Kuntz). I owned these two back in the day, but the first game I came in contact with written by James was <i>Gamma World</i>, first published in 1978. </span>I think it was the 3rd printing of the 1st edition that I owned. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The list of James' other contributions to the hobby is long. He's designed board games and collectible card games. He's written for Marvel and DC, and he's had numerous novels published. In 1989 he was inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design Hall of Fame.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">James' game books, and those of his colleagues, are infinitely more expansive than just their mere word count. For me and my friends in the early 80s, the pages of these volumes were like magic carpets that transported us to places that felt more real than movies, novels, or comics ever could. Back then I never imagined that I might one day have the chance to interview the author of those books, and I consider myself very fortunate that James agreed to participate. Thanks, James! Thanks for the interview, and an especially huge thank you for everything you've given to the hobby! I look forward to finally making it to Gary Con next year and so I can meet you in person (and maybe play in one of your game sessions!!!!). And Happy Birthday! (Albeit, a bit late). James celebrated his 65th birthday last week.</span><br />
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<b>Favorite Toys</b></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.2px;">What were your favorite toys during child hood? Like, the </span><span style="line-height: 18.2px;"><i>TOP 3 TOYS</i></span><span style="line-height: 18.2px;"> of all time and pick your favorite of these toys. What is it about any of these toys you most identified with? What made this so special? H</span><span style="line-height: 18.2px;">ow did you play/enjoy this toy? (shared or solo play).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>James: </b>1 – Six inch tall green army guys</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My father was a lifer in the army. We moved to the state of Washington during the Cuban Missile Crises as the army troops from Washington moved to Florida in case Cuba had to be invaded. Military talk encouraged me to think about military toys and this was before the time of G. I. Joe. I had tanks and canons and lots of military toys. My younger brother was 18 months younger than I was. We shared in the military battles we dreamed up with those toys. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2 – Robby the Robot battery toy</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Forbidden Planet came out in the movies when I was 2. I have a distinct memory of the Christmas tree that year having a Robby the Robot Toy. I sure wish I had that box and toy now. No one but me could play with Robbie. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3 – Raj the plush toy tiger</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When I was young I had lots of nightmares of me falling from a great height and I would wake up screaming. My wise mother bought me Raj the plush tiger and explained to me that he would guard me from harm. I never had a nightmare after Raj started sleeping with me every night. I never played with Raj, he was only there to protect me at night. </span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.2px;"><span style="color: #222222;"><b>Favorite Films and TV</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">What were your favorite films or TV during childhood and what age were you for each favorite? </span><span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">What did you identify with about these shows?</span><span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;"> Do you think these shows had an influence on the adult you? </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">James: </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Forbidden Planet</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Time Machine</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mysterious Island </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In Forbidden Planet I wanted to fight the monsters of the Id before I even knew what the Id was. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the Time Machine the idea of going into the future was a fascinating idea and still is. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the Disney movie the idea of exploring an odd island filled with wondrous things was especially interesting to me. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">All of those shows were filled with adventure. Those and others encouraged me to read a lot and find adventures from science fiction with Tom Swift in fifth grade to the Hardy Boys through 8th grade. </span><br />
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<b>Imaginary Worlds</b></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">Think about playtime, did you create games or imaginary worlds as a child? If so, please describe an important original game or play world you enjoyed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>James: </b>Whatever the current TV show or movie I saw was the background for adventures. I can remember the Buck Rogers cliff hangers with Buster Crabb and the Rocket Man series at the movies. Flash Gordon and the evil Ming was fun to imagine. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;"><b>Play Community</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">As a child how did you feel about how you fit in with the rest of the world or community or friends? Like, were you very social or did you prefer spending time alone? Your environment, was it rural or urban? Were siblings a big part of your playtime? Did adults interact with you in game play, and if so was it structured play (sports, scouting, clubs, etc.) or free form?</span><span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>James: </b>My brother and I ignored real life back in the day. As soon as we could we were out the back door of the house and putting our selves in the pits of Mongo or the super cities of the Han. We didn’t really fantasize when the other neighbor kids started playing with us. In those days we did the games of children like four-square, jump rope, baseball, and dodge ball. My younger brother Larry got in the games early, but when I was in 6th grade we had my brother Mark and I generally just babysat him in the summers. Adults in those days just called us into the house for meals and to wash up. </span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.2px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Playtime Impact on Adult Games</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">Do you have any thoughts about any aspects of your childhood playtime that might have influenced your passion for RPGs? Have you ever intentionally incorporated memories of childhood playtime into game work you have created as an adult?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>James: </b>I have a reputation for writing good science fiction as I designed the first science fiction RPG in Metamorphosis Alpha and the first apocalypse RPG in Gamma World. I know all of those Flash Gordon, Rocket Man, and Buck Rogers series gave me fun inspiration for doing RPGs. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 18.2px;"><b>Desert Island Media</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 18.2px;">What are the top 10 things you would want to have on a deserted island - music recordings - films - books - TV shows - comics - games - or toys? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>James: </b>Hmmmmm, I’m not putting down any survival gear, even though those types of items would fill my list. Other things would include: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Complete Works of Shakespeare</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A powered computer with a hefty memory of games</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The complete works of Robert Heinlein</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A Star Trek powered replicator</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A Julie Newmar robot</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A dome house with the amenities</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">All of the James Bond CDs and a powered cd player</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A large screen powered TV</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">An exercise machine. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Notes:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Metamorphosis Alpha:</b> <a href="http://www.metamorphosisalpha.net/Site/Welcome.html">http://www.metamorphosisalpha.net/Site/Welcome.html</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Goodman Games edition of Metamorphosis Alpha:</b> <a href="http://www.goodman-games.com/store-MA.html" target="_blank">http://www.goodman-games.com/store-MA.html</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>James Ward Board Game Geek Page:</b> <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/1832/james-m-ward" target="_blank">https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/1832/james-m-ward</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>James, Crusader Journals available on Drive Thru RPG</b>: <a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?x=0&y=0&author=James%20Ward" target="_blank">http://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?x=0&y=0&author=James%20Ward</a></span></div>
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Vicg61http://www.blogger.com/profile/03216752541301867593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690896249672029081.post-32687807930492019672016-05-22T06:58:00.000-07:002016-05-22T18:24:35.886-07:00Barry Blatt: RPG Game Writer, Amateur Historian, Blogger, Retired Professional Clown<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Barry age 20.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Barry Blatt is the first GM I had played with since 1982. His <b>England Upturn'd</b> campaign is slated to be released this week by <b>Lamentations of the Flame Princess </b>(May 24th, if all goes well). After reading posts from his play testers back in 2014, who were all gushing over his campaign, I knew this was something I <i>had</i> to play. I jumped on the chance as soon as I became aware that Barry would be running more sessions. That campaign started in December 2014, and despite a few breaks, we were still playing weekly games earlier this year. Unfortunately, the last couple of months of play were difficult to schedule for members and our sessions ended in Feb, but I hope we get back to the game soon. We had finished with the material from England Upturn'd and started exploring a confusing, yet exciting turn within the game world that I don't feel comfortable discussing in case (hopefully) this is a new project Barry is working on for publication.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">One of many exciting aspects of this English Civil War era work is how Barry has created what I guess can be termed 'sub-classes' from the political alignments and religious affiliations of mid 1600s English society. This includes rules for additional magic that can be performed by those of particular persuasions. Roundheads, Ranters, Diggers...if these don't make sense to you now, they will, and you'll be just as blown away as I was with how well Barry collected, wrote, and presented this material (and I think what I've read wasn't even the finished edits). This is a tough, gritty campaign. It was full of perplexing twists, and surprises. I found myself seriously frightened with suspense quite a few times, like when Christian Goodlucke, my 17 year old female character hid in an abandoned church while<i> something</i> (won't spoil it but these things are creepy as hell) searched for her outside. I lamented the capture of the sullen Abel Fell, my first character, then the whole party rejoiced as he was found and rescued, only to meet his demise shortly after at the epicenter of an event, the magnitude of which is too staggering to imagine.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Barry is the perfect author for a historical based campaign like this, the guy seriously knows his stuff. I had assumed for months that he was a historian or university professor. I think everybody thought he was. I was surprised to find out he wasn't. As for his GM skills, Barry is outrageously awesome! I've talked to another member about this and he overwhelmingly agrees. Barry plays out all his NPCs so easily and convincingly. He should be an actor too, well, he was a professional clown.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Barry, Thank you for participating in Appendix N Happy Meal. And THANK YOU for all the work you've done on England Upturn'd, I'm excited about it's release this week and I hope we can get together again online sometime soon.</span><br />
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<b>Favourite Toys</b></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.2px;">What were your favorite toys during child hood? Like, the </span><b style="line-height: 18.2px;">TOP 3 TOYS</b><span style="line-height: 18.2px;"> of all time and pick your favorite of these toys. What is it about any of these toys you most identified with? What made this so special? H</span><span style="line-height: 18.2px;">ow did you play/enjoy this toy? (shared or solo play).</span></div>
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<b style="font-size: 12.8px;">Barry: </b>i. My telescope. I was a nerd, a serious nerd. I did astronomy. The telescope I had was pretty weak and next to useless, but I spied on the moon with it, spotted the four biggest moons of Jupiter and on a very clear night (not many of them in my hometown in the UK) I once saw the rings of Saturn. It was best at doing sunspots though, focusing an image on a postcard on which I'd fill in the spots with a felt tip pen, watching them cross the disc of the sun and seeing the patterns change from day to day. 149 million kilometres from my bedroom to the sun and I could see it all happening. </div>
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ii. My geology hammer. Did I mention I was a nerd? Other kids took buckets and spades to the seaside, I took a geology hammer and a field guide to invertebrate fossils and spent many happy hours clambering over rocks and scaling cliffs, splitting slates and belting limestones and scaring my mum to death. Found a crinoid once, not a particularly good one, but it made a change from fragmentary trilobites and ammonites and ancient wormcasts.</div>
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iii. More conventionally nerdy was my model soldier collection. My thing was Napoleonics, I even cast my own tin soldiers, again scaring the crap out of my mum by melting alloy on the hob at home and churning out regiments. I wasn't that good at painting them, and the detail on the tin ones was bit lacking anyway, but I did my best to copy the uniforms depicted in the books I borrowed from the local library. I'd battle my friends in endless re-runs of the Waterloo campaign, Quatre Bras, Ligny and the main event itself, plus bits of the Peninsular War and the invasion of Russia.</div>
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<b>Favourite Films & TV</b><br />
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">What were your favorite films or TV during childhood and what age were you for each favorite? </span><span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">What did you identify with about these shows?</span><span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;"> Do you think these shows had an influence on the adult you? </span></div>
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<b style="font-size: 12.8px;">Barry: </b>i. Monty Python and the Holy Grail. What's not to like? As an eight year old the whole set up of silly ker-niggits, killer rabbits and Gilliam animations was just marvellous. I don't know if I identified with anything in particular, but did shout 'NI!' at a good many people in the school playground. Influence on the adult me? I still love Monty Python of course and it certainly somewhat influenced my efforts at being a stand up comedian, the charity pantomimes I put on and my generally stupid sense of humour.</div>
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ii. Dr Who. John Pertwee was the doc in the first shows I remember, followed by Tom Baker. Foppish English eccentrics vs 'orrible planet mangling monsters from outer space armed only with a screwdriver and being a smart arse. I think I identified with the smart arsery more than anything else, I was after all the only kid in my class who could spell Ordovician, had dug up a Crinoid and could tell you what a Solar Cycle was. Not sure this influenced me as an adult though for a while in my late teens and early twenties I did have Tom Bakerish hair and a silly hat. Don't like most of the 'New Who' though. The adult me has little patience with yawning plot-holes and special effects laid on thick to cover lack of story and weak scripts.</div>
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iii. Open University. When I was a kid the Open University still broadcast early in the morning and late at night on BBC2. My dad was doing an OU degree and had to watch those relating to his course, but I watched the lot - lectures on Biochemistry, the history of the Enlightenment, Topology, Renaissance Art, Shakespeare, all sorts. This definitely influenced me as an adult. It gave me a good few years headstart on all of my peers in pretty much any school subject you could care to name since I was imbibing university lectures while at Primary School and I still marmalise all comers at Trivial Pursuit and pub quizzes since I still have a brain chock full of peculiar factoids.</div>
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<b>Favourite Books</b></div>
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<b style="font-size: 12.8px;">Barry: </b>Before I discovered D&D I had already read pretty much everything by Tolkein and Michael Moorcock, most things by Fritz Leiber, and some HP Lovecraft and RE Howard, plus Rider Haggard, Andre Norton, Arthur C Clarke and wedge of other fantasy and sci-fi. My dad is a very clever guy but has pretty bad dyslexia; he learned to read late and even now his written English is pretty basic and barely grammatical. When he realised I was getting the gist of reading at four he was overjoyed and told me I could read any book in the house, so I did, including his sci-fi collection, his university textbooks and the collected works of Graham Greene and DH Lawrence he'd got form the book club and never finished himself. Not sure he really meant those last two, they were pretty eye opening stuff for a wee kid. </div>
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So naturally I ended up writing myself, starting my first sci fi novel at seven, stuff about an alien invasion of Earth. I wouldn't say that outside that writing I really did much imaginary play other than with my toy soldiers where I was of course the Duke of Wellington and/or Napoleon, blasting bits of turn-of-the-nineteenth century Europe to bits.</div>
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I did invent my own wargames coming up with a near future game set in earth orbit (board had a lot of concentric circles and manoeuvring from one orbit to another to get the drop on enemies) but it wasn't much good. I also had a map of Europe on which I played out the Napoleonic Wars on a massive scale, but only against myself. My friends just weren't as into the idea as I was at the time, though in our teens they kind of caught up and we spent a lot of time on such classics as Kingmaker, Apocalypse, Divine Right and Squad Leader.</div>
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;"><b>Play Community</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">As a child how did you feel about how you fit in with the rest of the world or community or friends? Like, were you very social or did you prefer spending time alone? Your environment, was it rural or urban? Were siblings a big part of your playtime? Did adults interact with you in game play, and if so was it structured play (sports, scouting, clubs, etc.) or free form?</span><span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;"> </span></div>
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<b style="font-size: 12.8px;">Barry: </b>I lived in a grotty small industrial town which consisted of three housing estates and chemical factory. I never joined the scouts or anything like that and I only had a few close friends. We did explore the local area as far as we could without falling into some kind of toxic waste or getting mown down on the M25 motorway. There were lots of chalk pits and half-abandoned mental hospital that was as creepy as it sounds. </div>
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Adults left us pretty much to our own devices most of the time, the only interaction I can think of was me and my friends dragging our long suffering mothers round the various big museums and galleries in London where we (especially me) would baffle them with explanations of evolutionary theory in the Natural History Museum, the history of ancient Assyria and Egypt in the British Museum and what Dadaism was all about in the Tate Gallery (Open University!). I did spend a lot of time alone with my scientific doodads, and reading and writing. I had pretty much zilch to do with my sister. She thought I was barmy then and still thinks so now. She never inherited the 'nerd gene' or whatever it was that I had and rarely picked up a book. My brother is ten years younger than me and though I led him the first few steps into nerdery when I was still at home introducing him to D&D (though he preferred Warhammer 40K) he never really went the whole hog.</div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.2px;"><span style="color: #222222;"><b>Playtime Impact on Adult Games</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">Do you have any thoughts about any aspects of your childhood playtime that might have influenced your passion for RPGs? Have you ever intentionally incorporated memories of childhood playtime into game work you have created as an adult?</span></div>
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<b>Barry: </b>Of course there are plenty of aspects of childhood play that influence RPGing now. It was then I started to pick up the knowledge of science and history and love of learning about such that continued through my teens and into adulthood. I had the urge to write, to get what was in my imagination down on paper though it is far easier to do this through the half-way house RPGs where you can leave everything barely sketched out and let the rest of the players fill in the gaps as and when needed than writing a novel of your own. Still never finished a proper novel, and I don't think I ever will.</div>
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None of the stuff I actually did as a kid has really made it into any RPG material, though a lot of the things I read have. But then I never really did much, there just wasn't the opportunity where I lived, it was a boring dump I left with zero regrets when I was 18 and hated going back to. Fortunately all my family have left the area too so I'll never have to, it's just a sign on a railway station on the line out of London where you don't open the windows in case the wind is blowing the wrong way and you get the stench of what is left of the old works coming in. </div>
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<b>Desert Island Media</b><br />
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<span style="color: #404040; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">What are the top 10 things you would want to have on a deserted island - music recordings - films - books - TV shows - comics - games - or toys? </span></div>
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1<b> The Crying of Lot 49</b> by Thomas Pynchon. A short novel with a miraculous amount of good stuff packed in and an admirably goofy sense of humour about the essential tragedy of it all.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">2.</span><b style="font-size: 12.8px;"> Richard II</b><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> - the BBC Hollow Crown version. Fantastically acted version of one of Shakespeare's lesser known history plays.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">3. </span><b style="font-size: 12.8px;">The Pursuit of the Millennium</b><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> by Norman Cohn. My favourite history book, charting the millennialist peasant movements of 1000-1600AD in all their loopy glory.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">4. </span><b style="font-size: 12.8px;">The World Turned Upside Down</b><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> by David Hill. My second favourite history book, the history of religious and political radicals of the English Civil War and subsequent Commonwealth</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">5. </span><b style="font-size: 12.8px;">The Book of the New Sun</b><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> by Gene Wolfe. Lovely fantasy/sci-fi with lots of erudite little corners.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">6. </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Ran</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> dir Yukio Kurosawa. Samurai do King Lear. A bit OTT, but I like it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">7. </span><b style="font-size: 12.8px;">Mother Sky</b><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> by Can. A psychedelic classic from their 1970 album 'Soundtracks'.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">8. </span><b style="font-size: 12.8px;">La Mystere de Voix Bulgares</b><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">, a collection of Bulgarian choral music that sends shivers down your spine</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">9. </span><b style="font-size: 12.8px;">Laxdaela Saga</b><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> - fantastic Icelandic saga, be nice to have a book on Icelandic to go with it; if I'm on a desert island I might as well learn to read it in the original language.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">10. </span><b style="font-size: 12.8px;">A Scanner Darkly</b><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> by Philip K Dick. I love loads of his novels (The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, The Man in the High Castle, Ubik etc.) but this is my favourite. </span></div>
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<b>Notes:</b></div>
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<b>Barry's Blog - Expanding Universe</b>:<a href="http://expanduniver.blogspot.com/"> http://expanduniver.blogspot.com/</a></div>
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<b>England Upturn'd</b>: An extraordinary adventure set in England on the eve of the British Civil War. Available May 24th, 2016, from Lamentations of the Flame Princess. <a href="http://www.lotfp.com/store/">http://www.lotfp.com/store/</a></div>
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Vicg61http://www.blogger.com/profile/03216752541301867593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690896249672029081.post-56126946410582833902016-05-15T07:11:00.000-07:002016-05-15T16:40:36.843-07:00Kasimir Urbanski (aka RPG Pundit): Game Designer, Writer, Blogger, and RPGsite Owner.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Unlike everyone else I've interviewed so far for this blog, I didn't really know much about Kasimir. Sure, he's a prolific, high profile RPG Blogger. Yes, he has authored several volumes of RPG material, most notably,<i> Dark Albion</i>, which was coauthored with Dominique Cruzet. But, I didn't even know his real name until I started writing this introduction. I didn't know he is the owner of RPGsite before writing this introduction. I <i>did</i> know he was a controversial figure within our community, but not to what extent. Really, the only two things I knew about him,<i> </i>besides his blog and books, are: 1) He has publicized his involvement in Ritual Magick on his blog; a subject that I have a strong interest in, and 2) t</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">hrough his blog and his comments and posts on G+ and forums, Kasimir mixes his political and social views with his game author presence and because of that, (and because I'm guilty of political posts in my game feed too), h</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">e and I have butted heads online numerous times. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">I don't support his politics or social views and I don't believe that many folks within my circles share his opinions either. I realized that this may be a problem for some of my readers, and after a google search for this introduction, I'm even more keenly aware of this now.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">So, if that's the case, if I find Kasimir's online persona to be abrasive (as he probably finds mine), why would I chose to interview him? </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Well, for the same reasons I'm conducting and sharing all of the other interviews I'm doing. I'm interested in the early developmental common ground between the people who contribute to, share with, and play in this hobby. I want to explore the person and their play style <i>before </i>they began interacting with the social world of adults and developing beliefs and personal ideologies, even though I realize that reminiscing about childhood is still influenced to some degree by our adult mindset. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Hopefully, the spirit of these interviews is what you, my readers, will focus on. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">I thank Kasimir for participating in this interview. Due to our previous exchanges I honestly thought he would not respond to me. But, instead, Kasimir now holds the title for</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><i> the quickest return rate for an Appendix N Happy Meal interview completion so far.</i> </span></div>
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<b>Favorite Toys</b></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.2px;">What were your favorite toys during child hood? Like, the </span><span style="line-height: 18.2px;"><i>TOP 3 TOYS</i></span><span style="line-height: 18.2px;"> of all time and pick your favorite of these toys. What is it about any of these toys you most identified with? What made this so special? H</span><span style="line-height: 18.2px;">ow did you play/enjoy this toy? (shared or solo play).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><b>Kasimir</b>: Hard to say in terms of one specific thing, but probably from the age of around 7 onward it would be Star Wars actions figures. I had all the collections as each movie came out. And of course for a young boy playing with action figures is a kind of proto-roleplaying. I would later also add GIJoes and DC Super Heroes to that collection (as well as a couple of random outliers; anything that was that same size, basically), and there was a lot of cross-story weirdness going on in my play. With friends or by myself, I could play for hours.</span><br />
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I'll note that I pretty well stopped playing with action figures cold-turkey when I discovered RPGs. It was an instant transition. Unlike a lot of geeks, I have never kept on collecting these or any other sorts of toys. </div>
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">What were your favorite films or TV during childhood and what age were you for each favorite? </span><span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">What did you identify with about these shows?</span><span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;"> Do you think these shows had an influence on the adult you? </span></div>
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<b>Kasimir: </b>I think, looking at it from today, Battlestar and V are very cheesy, Star Trek has a few moments of greatness (STII & STVI, mostly) but are otherwise pretty vapid from a literary perspective, and only Star Wars has a real quality as high literature (that is, as Myth, on par with Arthurian Legends or the like). So fortunately, unlike a lot of my fellow gamers, I grew out of the erroneous idea that science-fiction is really super smart and much more intellectually worthy as a pursuit than westerns or spy novels or harlequin romances. I was somehow (lucky mix of natural perception, and good education) spared from an adulthood of reading hundreds of c-grade Trek or Forgotten Realms or most of the rest of fantasy or sci-fi fiction of today, which is absolute garbage. But Star Trek & TNG I think taught me optimism and some fairly high 'classical liberal' ideals, and as a kid Spock taught me to admire logic (though, like many geeks, probably a little too much for my own good; I grew out of that, a lot of other geeks haven't). V I think helped teach me a lesson about not taking people at their words or falling for things that look good, and to distrust promises of utopia coming from smiling assholes with guns (which is to say, government). Han Solo and Starbuck were clearly enormous influences on me as a model for masculinity: not so much Starbuck's womanizing, but the idea of being your own person, of not taking orders from anyone involuntarily, of being irreverent to 'proper' behavior, but ready to fight for things that matter. And having a sense of humor. </div>
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Finally, the Force was probably one of the very early influences on my eventual forays into the occult. This idea that there was this thing, around you and in you, that with training you can use to do awesome things, it kind of stuck with me. At some level, even though I always liked Han much more than Luke, I guess I wanted to be a Jedi. Maybe that's why I didn't like Luke, he always seemed to do it so badly!</div>
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<b>Imaginary Worlds</b></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">Think about playtime, did you create games or imaginary worlds as a child? If so, please describe an important original game or play world you enjoyed.</span><br />
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<b>Kasimir:</b> Yes, I created elaborate and ongoing worlds over hours and days of play with action figures, for myself and with friends. Likewise, in schoolyard play; I don't know how much of that kids still do but obviously since I was a schoolboy just as Star Wars was coming out, recess in those early grades seemed to always consist of what could only be called a massive ongoing LARP. I seem to recall having created some original characters and all (it's pretty hazy, as some really serious amount of investigative drug use in my grad-studies years leaves things kind of a blur), but for the most part we played canon characters. I tended to be Solo when we played star wars, & Spock when we played star trek.</div>
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">As a child how did you feel about how you fit in with the rest of the world or community or friends? Like, were you very social or did you prefer spending time alone? Your environment, was it rural or urban? Were siblings a big part of your playtime? Did adults interact with you in game play, and if so was it structured play (sports, scouting, clubs, etc.) or free form?</span><span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;"> </span></div>
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<b>Kasimir:</b> I grew up with a mix of world travelling and period of relative stability. My childhood up to around adolescence was fairly social, in part because of moving and how that required either becoming a complete loner or being able to make new friends. Because of language and culture barriers at times I guess there were parts where I felt like an outsider because I literally was one. So I think I learned how to interact both in groups and on my own. I don't remember in that period of childhood being particularly lonely, and I had a lot of friends, but I was also equally content playing alone. I generally lived in large cities, but there was a brief period of living in a smaller town, which instilled in me a lifelong love of large cities. After around age 11 I spent the rest of my basic education in the same place, when the more complex world of puberty started coming along I ran into some problems with socializing for the typical nerd reason: I thought INT was the most important ability score and CHA was a worthless dump stat. It took me several years to figure that out and stop being a fucking nerd, and learn proper (mature) social interaction. I think that maybe having traveled and having experienced different cultures let me figure that out though, rather than get stuck as an outsider like so many other nerds.</div>
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I had (eventually) three younger siblings, but there was an over 10-year age range among us, and the only one remotely close to my age (3.5 years younger) was a girl, and not particularly interesting to play with. Not because she was a girl, I did have some friends who were girls, but because she was very much a girly-girl and not into boy stuff. There wasn't really very much adult interaction in terms of game play; I didn't belong to any sport teams or scouting.</div>
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">Do you have any thoughts about any aspects of your childhood playtime that might have influenced your passion for RPGs? Have you ever intentionally incorporated memories of childhood playtime into game work you have created as an adult?</span><br />
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<b>Kasimir:</b> I certainly haven't consciously integrated any childhood experiences into my RPG design, though I'm sure that there's some incidentals involved. Certainly, all my RPG play and design is 'deep-immersion' and that was very much how I remember doing my make believe/action figures as a child too. So I've been into Immersion my whole life, I guess. </div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">What are the top 10 things you would want to have on a deserted island - music recordings - films - books - TV shows - comics - games - or toys? </span></div>
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<b>Kasimir:</b> Not one book I would want to have on a desert Island would be an RPG book. At least not if 10 was all I had to choose from. And that's even assuming that "survival books" or "how to build a raft and/or radio to get the fuck off this island" manuals don't count. Nor do I think even one of them would be a fantasy or sci-fi book. If it was movies (what would I even watch them with?!) I think Star Trek II might just make the cut.</div>
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I think geek culture is way too self-important, and thinks too much of its own media.<br />
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<b>Notes:</b><br />
<b>Kasimir's Blog:</b> <a href="http://therpgpundit.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://therpgpundit.blogspot.com/</a><br />
<b>Kasimir's Books on Lulu:</b> <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?contributorId=305461" target="_blank">http://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?contributorId=305461</a><br />
<b>Dark Albion:</b> <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/dominique-crouzet-and-rpgpundit/dark-albion-the-rose-war/hardcover/product-22249379.html" target="_blank">http://www.lulu.com/shop/dominique-crouzet-and-rpgpundit/dark-albion-the-rose-<b>war/hardcover/product-22249379.html</b></a></div>
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Vicg61http://www.blogger.com/profile/03216752541301867593noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690896249672029081.post-74455889444032516322016-05-08T13:26:00.000-07:002016-05-08T13:26:07.694-07:00Harley Stroh: Game Writer for Goodman Games, Skateboarder, Blogger<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I think everybody has a favorite Harley Stroh DCC RPG Adventure. Hands down, mine is <i>Peril on the Purple Planet</i>, it touches on everything that I love about fantasy. It reaches into my youthful introduction to Swords and Planets Fantasy literature when I was 14 years old. Lin Carter, Alan Burt Akers, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and John Norman filled that summer between freshman and sophomore years of high school. I spent those summer days sitting on the docks at my family's marina reading about the life and death struggles of Earth men transplanted to worlds that cared little for humans. Barsoom, Kregen, Callisto, Gor. Worlds populated by races and species that were stronger and smarter than us. Worlds where you survived by resourcefulness, courage, and skill with a weapon. It was your spirit that determined your survival, not your degree or bank account. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I was addicted to those worlds back then and a couple years ago I started to revisit them. When Goodman Games announced Harley's Purple Planet adventure, I was over the moon about it. And MAN! did Harley and company deliver! Awesome, awesome stuff. Reading the modules in the boxed set fills me with the same excitement I felt 40 years ago sitting along the lazy summer river of my youth. I can't wait for Harley's next offering, which I believe touches on another passion of mine from way back when...We'll have to wait and see. Harley, thank you, Sir, for sparking my Planetary Adventure imagination all over again and giving the 14 year old who still lives inside of me a place to run wild. 2 Thumbs up, Bro!</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<b>Favorite Toys</b></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.2px;">What were your favorite toys during child hood? Like, the </span><span style="line-height: 18.2px;"><i>TOP 3 TOYS</i></span><span style="line-height: 18.2px;"> of all time and pick your favorite of these toys. What is it about any of these toys you most identified with? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">GI Joes, He-Man figures. But all were eclipsed when I found D&D at the age of 8. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I was / am very much a kid who spent all his time daydreaming. These provided a structure to build daydreams on. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I grew up on a ranch where our nearest “neighbors” were 5 miles or more away. Nearest friends were a half hour drive. I ran a lot of D&D for myself, or for my little brother. Once we could drive, we’d play with folks in town. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">What were your favorite films or TV during childhood and what age were you for each favorite? </span><span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">What did you identify with about these shows?</span><span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;"> Do you think these shows had an influence on the adult you? </span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Harley: </b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Our TV was run off a car battery that we had to disconnect from a VW bug and carry into the house, so we didn’t catch a lot of TV. That said: The <i>Sting; Beastmaster; Ladyhawke.</i> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>The Sting</i> was great because the intelligent guys win. <i>Beastmaster </i>had cool animals (who doesn’t want a panther?). <i>Ladyhawke</i> had Mouse, the little guy who wins in the end. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Influences from the Beastmaster temple, and the Ladyhawke dungeons are still in my writing today. And I’m still yearning to be intelligent. </span><br />
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<b>Imaginary Worlds</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Constantly. Ragnarok was my first campaign world, written for my little brother. It was a fantasy- science fiction mix, with terrible rules for beating up androids. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">As a child how did you feel about how you fit in with the rest of the world or community or friends? Like, were you very social or did you prefer spending time alone? </span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Harley: </b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Apart from family life, I spent most my time alone. Super shy, preferring imaginary worlds to the real one. I was the kid eating lunch alone in the Yearbook Room, so I could write on the computer. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 18.2px;">What are the top 10 things you would want to have on a deserted island - music recordings - films - books - TV shows - comics - games - or toys? </span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Harley: </b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That’s all passive, static. Read it one hundred times and it won’t change. If I’m stuck on an island I need tools for creating my own entertainment, something alive. So an unlimited supply of pencils and paper would be a good place to start. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Notes: </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Harley's Blog - Choose Death:</b><a href="http://choosedeath.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"> http://choosedeath.blogspot.com/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Goodman Games::</b> <a href="http://goodman-games.com/">http://goodman-games.com/</a> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Peril on the Purple Planet:</b> <a href="http://www.goodman-games.com/5085preview.html" target="_blank">http://www.goodman-games.com/5085preview.html</a></span></div>
Vicg61http://www.blogger.com/profile/03216752541301867593noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690896249672029081.post-88801482828056156152016-05-01T09:44:00.000-07:002016-05-29T20:28:17.258-07:00Edgar Johnson: Game Writer, Blogger, Social Games Researcher<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>Metal Gods of Ur-Hadad zine</i>, work for <i>Perils on the Purple Planet,</i> bonus adventure for<i> Bride of the Black Manse, Against the Atomic Overlord</i> and more<i>...</i>Doctor Edgar Johnson III's RPG authorship credits are <i>mighty</i> impressive deeds. His academic credits ain't too shabby either. He's a Professor of Communication Studies with a B.A. in Sociology and a Ph.D. in Communication Studies. Besides teaching, he's also currently applying his academic background to study and research into the social aspects of gaming. I'm super excited about the completion of this project In fact, when I first thought about doing this blog, Edgar immediately came to mind because of the survey's he was collecting a couple years ago for his research.<br />
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Through our online friendship on G+ I think we've both discovered a lot of common ground. I've been looking forward to meeting him in person but my travel plans get squashed every time the chance for our paths to cross presents itself. Hopefully, because of an upcoming event we're both scheduled to attend, I'll finally meet him, his wife and daughter real soon. Edgar, thanx for taking the time to do this interview, Man.<br />
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And, for a glimpse of how I<b> <i>REALLY</i></b> feel about Edgar's writing, you can check out this post from my other blog, <b><a href="http://necropantspublishing.blogspot.com/2014/08/kickassastan-or-bust.html" target="_blank">Necropants'd</a>.</b> Edgar's work was featured in the blog's inaugural post back in August of 2014.<br />
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<b>Favorite Toys</b></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.2px;">What were your favorite toys during child hood? Like, the </span><b style="line-height: 18.2px;">TOP 3 TOYS</b><span style="line-height: 18.2px;"> of all time and pick your favorite of these toys. What is it about any of these toys you most identified with? What made this so special? H</span><span style="line-height: 18.2px;">ow did you play/enjoy this toy? (shared or solo play).</span></div>
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<b><i>Some Oddities about Growing Up Poor</i></b></div>
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This is a difficult question to answer. When I was growing up, and especially between the ages of 5 and 12, my family was dirt poor. As a result I had toys, but the ones I valued the most weren't necessarily the ones I wanted the most. So, for example, what I really wanted was things like GI Joe dolls (the one with the submarine and the kung fu grip) and Star Wars stuff, but I never got it. I wanted those because then I could play "pretend" games with them. That said, though, I did have some things that were my faves:</div>
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I lived in Atlanta most of that time of my life, but in a lot of different places in and around there. My bike was my way to get around, yes, but it also gave me a chance to do some crazy (and probably dangerous) shit. We'd pretend to be Evel Knievel and Dukes of Hazzard and stuff like that. Jumping from earth and wooden ramps. I broke a frame on one of my bikes and had to get it welded because of that kind of thing.</div>
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Bikes were about freedom. We had a lot of it back then. I literally could leave my house without telling my parents anything about where I was going, and come back pretty much when I wanted to, usually afternoon/dinnertime. Later, as a teen, I often wouldn't come home at all, but that's another story. I'd have to say that my bikes were my best toy.</div>
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<b><i>My Stuffed Animals</i></b></div>
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I had a collection of all kinds of stuffed animals, some of which I got for presents and some of which I got as hand-me-downs from my mom's sisters (she had six of those), two of whom were not much older than I. They were about pretending. My brother and I would do all kinds of stuff with them. I loved those things, and had to repair a fair share of them, usually with things like modeling glue and masking tape, because I didn't know how to sew at that time. Funny thing about me was that I never really thought about asking my mom to do it for me. We were always very independent that way.</div>
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I think that came from my early years. We lived out in the country (rural Georgia) when I was really young, between the ages of about 2 and 5 (when my parents divorced, and my dad became a criminal for some years). Back then we lived on five acres near my dad's business partner. They built two houses, one for each family. It was me, my brother, my mom and dad, and the other family and their two boys. So we spent a LOT of time outside, playing in the woods and generally raising hell. And remember, we were really, really young, but we had forests and streams and hills and all that. I remember when a tornado took down a bunch of trees near the house. The roots got ripped out, so there were these holes/hollows where they used to be. Playing under those was a blast. I think that's where I developed my love of digging and building forts and that kind of thing. Which led to…</div>
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<b><i>The Fort</i></b></div>
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My step-dad had spent some years working with my uncle, the carpenter (that's how he met my mom), and later he worked at West Lumber, on Buford Highway, near Atlanta. Six days a week, 10 or so hours a day. His boss was a take-no-excuses kind of guy. As hard as it was, one benefit was that he got to take scrap/irregular lumber for free. So he managed to accumulate enough to build a fort in the backyard of one of our many houses (we moved a LOT). It was two stories high, with a ladder on the outside. No walls, just platforms. My stepdad put up the framing and my brother and I had to do the floors. We even built some primitive siege engines. My uncle was a carpenter, and my brother and I spent a lot of time on jobsites, because we couldn't afford daycare or babysitters. I learned to make stuff during those years. I still do a lot of stuff like that. We used to have wars with the kid on the next street over. Those guys were assholes, and their family was kinda white trash (not that we weren't, but my parents were hippies, not rednecks). At one point I remember throwing a brick at one of them, and (luckily) missing his head by about six inches. We were fucking crazy. I loved that fort, though. It was a cool thing.</div>
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<b><i>Reading</i></b></div>
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I also should tell you that it was in this period (probably in 1978) when I first started getting really, really into reading books. I don't include them in my toys, because most of them were library books. I loved fantasy stuff, and my step-dad was a real fan of science fiction and horror, so that's where I caught that bug. A lot of those influences came from a very short period between about 1978 and 1980 (ages 9 to 11). It's also important to note that my folks didn't restrict my reading. I read everything in the house, and that included stuff like National Lampoon and my step-dad's collection of underground comics, and I even read <i>Breakfast of Champions</i> by Kurt Vonnegut when I was about… 11 I think. It had pictures in it. I remember that.</div>
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Those were really important years for the development of my love of stories and gaming. It was about this time (1979) that I got into D&D, and got the Holmes Basic set. My friend, Eric, though, was a rich kid. His dad worked on the Alaska pipeline. He had everything, and sometimes I went to the mall with him and his mom. She kind of took pity on me and bought me some miniatures one time. That was really cool.</div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.2px;"><span style="color: #222222;"><b>Favorite Films and TV</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">What were your favorite films or TV during childhood and what age were you for each favorite? </span><span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">What did you identify with about these shows?</span><span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;"> Do you think these shows had an influence on the adult you? </span><br />
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<b style="color: #404040; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">Edgar: </b>I loved<i> Battle of the Planets</i> and <i>Star Blazers</i>. Those were on one of the UHF stations every afternoon after school. I think I liked those because they were different and weird. Same thing with <i>Ultra Man </i>and <i>Land of the Giants</i>. I also dug <i>Dukes of Hazzard</i> and <i>BJ and the Bear</i> (It was the South, so naturally this was The Shit for kids like me). That is to say, there were a lot of shows I liked on TV at that time, but I guess that’s mainly because they were stories, and I was really into good stories. I started writing about this time, as well. Oh, and I saw <i>Harold and Maude</i> on my 10<sup>th </sup>birthday. It made a big impression on me.</div>
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<b>Imaginary Worlds</b></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">Think about playtime, did you create games or imaginary worlds as a child? If so, please describe an important original game or play world you enjoyed.</span></div>
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<b style="color: #404040; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">Edgar: </b>I've talked a little bit about this, above, but there was something I did that I will always remember. One of the books I discovered was by some dude named Zoltan, and was a book of magic. My mom was sort of in a New Age-y sort of period of her life (which would go on for some more years). So I built sort of a hideout in my closet, using big cardboard boxes and crayons and stuff, and read the magic book. I don't know what happened to that book, but I do remember it leading to me being interested in the occult and, later, things like astral projection and the movie <i>Altered States.</i></div>
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My imaginings were always also about having a private place to be. I'm a really territorial person to this day. I didn't have much that was mine, but jealously guarded it, and had a place that was mine, as well. That comes, I think, from after my mom's divorce, when we stayed with various friends and family for about three or so years, and I never really had a place of my own. After the age of 11, when my brother and I no longer shared a room, I made that place my bedroom. Now, it's my office at home.</div>
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But yeah, almost all of my playtime as a kid (and now, I suppose) was about imagining a world other than the one I was living in, because the one I was living in didn't really satisfy. It was meager and kind of dreary, both because of poverty and because I didn't have a lot of friends. We moved around a lot, for one thing, which made it difficult to keep friends. My brother and I also were going to school out-of-district, using a friend of my mom's address. So, I never had much of a chance to bring friends from school home to my place. If I did, we might get kicked out of the Good School, and have to go back to the shitty, dangerous one. We left that one when I was nine years old, because my parents busted me stealing their weed. I was hanging out with a rough crowd, and I think it really freaked my mom out. So, I went from having friends to having pretty much me and my brother, and those guys we fought with, and this kid Eric who was 15 and nerdy as fuck. He's the guy I talked about, earlier.</div>
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">As a child how did you feel about how you fit in with the rest of the world or community or friends? Like, were you very social or did you prefer spending time alone? Your environment, was it rural or urban? Were siblings a big part of your playtime? Did adults interact with you in game play, and if so was it structured play (sports, scouting, clubs, etc.) or free form?</span><span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;"> </span></div>
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<b style="color: #404040; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">Edgar: </b>I never really fit in very well, as I'm pretty sure you've figured out from some of what I've written already. I was a lonely, nerdy kid by the time I was about 10 or so. Later, I discovered metal and then punk rock. That's when I was able to say "fuck you" to most of the assholes who thought I was a dick. Even now I'm kind of a recluse, and tend to spend a lot of time at my house. People come here, and I feed them. Seeing me out and about is a rare thing for the most part.</div>
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My family was really tight—Us against the world, for serious—but my mom and step-dad weren't really into the whole parental thing. So almost all of the stuff I did was really independent of them, except for weekend outings to go swimming at Lake Lanier, and camping and stuff like that. So, my play time was, like I said, kind of solitary.</div>
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I used to read a lot, and got into music between the ages of 8 and 12. I liked the Monkees from their TV show, and from my parents I learned to like the Beatles and the Kinks, and then later, on my own, I got into Ozzy and AC DC, and then Judas Priest. When I was 14 it was punk rock and Frank Zappa. Now I listen to all kinds of shit, but mostly metal, because it's most amenable to gaming, I think. But that's the kind of stuff I did—things I could do on my own. My brother and I did play together some, but mostly because there was nobody else to play with.</div>
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">Do you have any thoughts about any aspects of your childhood playtime that might have influenced your passion for RPGs? Have you ever intentionally incorporated memories of childhood playtime into game work you have created as an adult?</span></div>
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<b style="color: #404040; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">Edgar: </b>I think some of the stuff I mentioned earlier applies to this question. Mostly it was just reading and playing pretend games.</div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 18.2px;"><b>Desert Island Media</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">What are the top 10 things you would want to have on a deserted island - music recordings - films - books - TV shows - comics - games - or toys? </span></div>
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<b style="color: #404040; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">Edgar: </b>Man, I really hate questions like this. It's like asking somebody which of their children they'd leave behind. But, right now, it'd be the following:</div>
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<b>A good hat for my little, bald head. I hate the sun, and burn easily.</b></div>
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<b>A good chef's knife.</b> I do a lot of cooking.</div>
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<b>My DCC RPG rulebook.</b></div>
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<b>My extensive collection of dice.</b></div>
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<b>Some good mechanical pencils and refills, and Pilot G2 pens and spare ink cartridges.</b></div>
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<b>Notebooks.</b></div>
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<b>Glen Cook's Black Company novels.</b></div>
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<b>Music: Black Sabbath, Motorhead, High on Fire, Blood Ceremony, Christian Mistress, Zappa</b>—as much as I could bring.</div>
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<b>I don't think that any movies or TV or comics would come into the picture</b>. It would be all music and gaming stuff, and maybe a few books.<br />
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<b>Notes:</b><br />
<b>Edgar's Game Blog: <a href="http://revdoctoredj.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://revdoctoredj.blogspot.com/</a></b><br />
<b>Edgar's Work with Metal Gods of Ur-Hadad: <a href="http://www.kickassistan.net/p/metal-gods-of-ur-hadad-zine.html" target="_blank">http://www.kickassistan.net/p/metal-gods-of-ur-hadad-zine.html</a></b><br />
<b>Edgar's Work For Goodman Games Can Be Found Here (Purple Planet): <a href="http://www.goodman-games.com/5085preview.html" target="_blank">http://www.goodman-games.com/5085preview.html</a></b><br />
<b>And Here, Against the Atomic Overlord: <a href="http://www.goodman-games.com/5088preview.html" target="_blank">http://www.goodman-games.com/5088preview.html</a></b><br />
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Vicg61http://www.blogger.com/profile/03216752541301867593noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690896249672029081.post-81576147715548559442016-04-24T07:06:00.005-07:002016-04-24T08:57:52.994-07:00Jack Shear: Game Designer, Writer, Blogger, Reader of the Skull Stickered Books<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">Jack W Shear first came to my attention through his <i>Planet Motherf**ker</i> source book. At the time I was just getting back into RPGs after a decades long hiatus and this book was a whack on the side of the head for me. I was already familiar with <i>Lamentations of the Flame Princess'</i> amped up Metal approach to game aesthetics and marketing, but this was a little sideways, down the corner, and up the alley from<i> LotFP. Planet Moth**ker</i> was <i>Monster Magnet, White Zombie, Big Daddy Roth</i> and<i> Heavy Metal Comics</i> all rolled into one slim volume of random tables. While I have always been disappointed that<b> </b><i>PM</i> isn't beefier, I gotta admit that it has indelibly tainted my approach to game world creation, and for that Mr. Shear, I tip my hat to you, Sir.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">Of course, Jack has done much more writing and publishing work than just<i> PM</i><b>.</b> His Gothic <i>Ulverland</i> campaign setting for instance, has three volumes available, but I'll be honest, I'm not very familiar with the rest of his published work. Actually, I feel like I'm the <i>only</i> person I know who isn't well read of Jack's work. I <i>do</i> read posts on his blog, <b><a href="http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque</a></b>, and his posts and comments on G+, but his published work is still on my 'stupid long' list of books I can only buy once I figure out how to sell the house without my wife knowing, or I inherit the world. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">My reason for wanting to include Mr. Shear in <i>Appendix N Happy Meal</i> is the spark of kinship I felt ripping into that Lulu shipment and finally cracking open <i>Planet Motherf**ker </i>a long time ago. I had suspected there would be a lot Jack and I had in common while growing up, and it turns out that we do.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;"><br /></span>
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<b>Favorite Toys</b></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.2px;">What were your favorite toys during child hood? Like, the </span><b style="line-height: 18.2px;">TOP 3 TOYS</b><span style="line-height: 18.2px;"> of all time and pick your favorite of these toys. What is it about any of these toys you most identified with? What made this so special? H</span><span style="line-height: 18.2px;">ow did you play/enjoy this toy? (shared or solo play).</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Young Jack Shear enjoying a good read.</span></td></tr>
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<b style="color: #404040; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">Jack: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">The toys I spent the most time with—the toys that really lasted and I never got bored of—were</span><b style="color: #404040; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;"> </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">Lego</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">, rubber dinosaurs from discount drug store bins, and D&D action figures. I still have those last two, but who knows where my Legos got to. Legos are especially great because they function as both a toy (you can do stuff with them and be entertained) and also as a toolkit with which you can build all the toys you can imagine that aren't sold in stores. Playing with all of those was mostly a solitary thing for me. I grew up in a pretty rural area, and there wasn't really a “neighborhood” around me per se.</span><br />
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<b style="color: #222222; line-height: 18.2px;">Favorite Films and TV</b></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">What were your favorite films or TV during childhood and what age were you for each favorite? </span><span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">What did you identify with about these shows?</span><span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;"> Do you think these shows had an influence on the adult you? </span></div>
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<b style="color: #404040; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">Jack: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">Three shows or films I remember fondly from my childhood were <i>Scooby Doo, Dark Shadows</i>, and <i>Dr. Terror's House of Horrors</i>. All three are “horror” media of varying degrees. I've always been drawn to horror movies and things like that. When you're a kid, monsters are both terrifying and fascinating; horror stories also carry that promise of an illicit thrill—you feel like you're about to see something you aren't supposed to see, something that maybe you're not ready to see, and maybe it will help you understand how the world works. Those early tastes of the dark stuff must have left a lasting impression because most of the stuff I watch now is in a similar vein. The last three things I watched were <i>Penny Dreadful, The Innkeepers</i>, and...well, I just re-watched<i> Dr. Terror's House of Horrors. </i>Still holds up.</span><br />
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<b>Imaginary Worlds</b></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">Think about playtime, did you create games or imaginary worlds as a child? If so, please describe an important original game or play world you enjoyed.</span></div>
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<b style="color: #404040; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">Jack: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">Oh, there was definitely a lot of small-scale world-building going on when I was a kid. Living out in the woods gave me a lot of opportunities to make forts (that were castles, or starships, etc.) and basically retreat into a private inner world. At some point I felt the urge to start writing down some of those made-up worlds. I remember drafting out a sort of “setting bible” for this comic book I was writing and drawing about a team of superheroes who got their powers from Voodoo loa spirits, for example. The whole idea for that stemmed from a book on the Voodoo rites practiced in Haiti that my local library filed in the children's section for reasons I still don't quite understand. I checked that book out so many times! It was certainly a case of being fascinated by something presented as macabre and taking that inspiration and running with it to somewhere new.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;"><b>Play Community</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">As a child how did you feel about how you fit in with the rest of the world or community or friends? Like, were you very social or did you prefer spending time alone? Your environment, was it rural or urban? Were siblings a big part of your playtime? Did adults interact with you in game play, and if so was it structured play (sports, scouting, clubs, etc.) or free form?</span><span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;"> </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-HasCEwooZUk/Vxl4YNsSckI/AAAAAAAAf0I/JVaf5YzVcHQzkShJZlnp9OGgFeZx2OrfwCL0B/w600-h450-no/dracula.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-HasCEwooZUk/Vxl4YNsSckI/AAAAAAAAf0I/JVaf5YzVcHQzkShJZlnp9OGgFeZx2OrfwCL0B/w600-h450-no/dracula.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"I <i>vant</i> your SKULL....stickered books, please." </span></td></tr>
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<b style="color: #404040; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">Jack:</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;"> As a child I definitely spent a lot of time alone, and much of that time was spent reading. When I got a little older and was allowed to check out books from the adult sections of the library, I noticed that some books were categorized as “mystery” or “horror” because they had a skull sticker on the spines of their dust jackets. That was like a beacon that said “take me home and read me.” Growing up an only child in upstate New York didn't really provide a lot of opportunities for socialization with kids my own age, so I read on my own instead. Maybe things like clubs or scouts would have provided something I didn't have, but I never felt like I missed out and honestly I've never been much of a joiner.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.2px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Playtime Impact on Adult Games</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 18.2px;">Do you have any thoughts about any aspects of your childhood playtime that might have influenced your passion for RPGs? Have you ever intentionally incorporated memories of childhood playtime into game work you have created as an adult?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;"><b>Jack:</b> If anything, I would say that childhood play time taught me how enjoyable it is just to use your imagination and</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;"> make stuff up to make your own fun. I really believe those principles are the foundational underpinning of RPGs. Yeah, we've learned a lot about game design and how to present rules and all that stuff, but underneath it all is that naive-but-enjoyable impulse to invent your own fun. As far as influences go, I'm definitely still inspired by all the horror stuff I loved back then; it unequivocally informs the kinds of games I run and the kind of game material I write.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 18.2px;"><b>Desert Island Media</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">What are the top 10 things you would want to have on a deserted island - music recordings - films - books - TV shows - comics - games - or toys? </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;"><b>Penny Dreadful</b> (tv show)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;"><b>Complete Works of Oscar Wilde </b>(book)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;"><b>From Hell</b> (graphic novel)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;"><b>Therion, Vovin</b> (music)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;"><b>The Vampire Lovers</b> (movie)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;"><b>The Sandman</b> (graphic novels)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;"><b>Sweeney Todd </b>(movie)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;"><b>Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe</b> (book)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;"><b>Taschen's book on the Symbolists</b> (art book)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;"><b>5e D&D</b> (game, obviously!)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 18.2px;"><b>Notes:</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;"><b>Jack's Blog</b>: </span><span style="color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;"><b>Jack's Books on Lulu</b>: https://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?keyWords=jack+shear&type=</span></span><br />
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Vicg61http://www.blogger.com/profile/03216752541301867593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690896249672029081.post-15596204515314734322016-04-17T09:11:00.002-07:002016-04-17T09:33:23.704-07:00Nathan Panke: Game Writer, Spiciest DM<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;"><span style="line-height: 18.2px;">I noticed Nathan Panke on G+ as a friend of a few friends so I circled him. </span>It was a low key introduction, but his posts can grow on you pretty quickly.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">I enjoy following his posts. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">I like his sense of humor, I like the food pictures he posts, he seems like a warm, funny and friendly, loving family guy, who just happens to have notoriety as "The Spiciest DM". Have you seen his selfies? His kooky, crazy selfies from...</span><i style="color: #404040; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">everywhere</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">, like his most recent post gallbladder operation selfies. Even though he's laid up in a hospital right after going under a knife, he still looks like he's having a ball! Seriously, who couldn't love "The Spiciest DM"? He seems like the kind of guy you wish was your neighbor because life would be just barbecues, fun times, and games, lots and lots of games.</span><br />
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<a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-TEKpnkUHfQI/U95PsD4d47I/AAAAAAAAHCA/Yw9d3BVBTWcphT6jQ7p-nmY_Ig6qnEh1gCL0B/w712-h534-no/IMG_2378.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-TEKpnkUHfQI/U95PsD4d47I/AAAAAAAAHCA/Yw9d3BVBTWcphT6jQ7p-nmY_Ig6qnEh1gCL0B/w712-h534-no/IMG_2378.JPG" width="400" /></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">What I didn't originally know about Nathan, was how involved he is in game design and writing. At least not until <b>Rogue Comet Games</b> launched their Kickstarter for <b>Dungeonesque: World of Redmark</b>, 5th Ed. Adventures and Maps. Nathan, along with Stan Shinn, Paul Oaklesh, and Damien Goldwarg, created a series of volumes containing a number of tight 2 page adventures each designed to typically play out in about a 4 hour session with very low prep work. Old school in feel but written for adult gamers juggling limited table time with family and careers. <b>Rogue Comet </b>has just recently shipped it's products to backers. Since the <b>Rogue Comet Games</b> Kickstarter I've discovered Nathan regularly contributes work to zines and websites. I look forward to someday sitting at a table with him consuming wings and beer and rolling dice.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">Without further ado, I present to you, <i><b>The Spiciest DM</b></i> (I love saying that),<b> NATHAN PANKE!</b></span><br />
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<b>Favorite Toys</b></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.2px;">What were your favorite toys during child hood? Like, the </span><b style="line-height: 18.2px;">TOP 3 TOYS</b><span style="line-height: 18.2px;"> of all time and pick your favorite of these toys. What is it about any of these toys you most identified with? What made this so special? H</span><span style="line-height: 18.2px;">ow did you play/enjoy this toy? (shared or solo play).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;"><b style="background-color: transparent; line-height: 18.2px;">Nathan: </b>Easy peasy. Lego and G.i. Joe. Lego is to this day the “perfect toy” in my opinion. I love that sets come with instructions and give some general guidance on what to build but beyond that your are only limited by the individual pieces and your own imagination. I remember my parents went to Germany in really early 80’s and brought back a few sets and my young brain was blown. I had a town building, a spaceship, and a castle. It wasn't long until I tore them apart and made my own wild and weird creations and amalgams of flying castles and post apocalyptic mutant Knights or pirates. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">My brother (who is 2 years younger than me) and I used to “play” for hours at a time. At one time we lived a few blocks from our 3 cousins, who also loved Lego and we decided to consolidate our Lego collections. We had a ping pong table with an entire town and several other tables holding different worlds. Like space, medieval, etc… We probably had over 100 gallons of Lego.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">What were your favorite films or TV during childhood and what age were you for each favorite? </span><span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">What did you identify with about these shows?</span><span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;"> Do you think these shows had an influence on the adult you? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;"><b>Nathan:</b> I had a few shows but I think films influenced me much more.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">Labyrinth, Big Trouble in Little China, Beastmaster (8 or 9 yrs old).</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">All of these to this day are in my top 10 films. They are all fantastic in theme and each unique. I loved the dark fairytale-ness of Labyrinth. Jennifer Connelly was my first crush, like many geeks my age. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">The cowboy cavalier and wise-cracking Jack Burton was my hero! He was who I wanted to be when I grew up, mullet and all! “It's all in the reflexes...”</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">Beastmaster, man oh man. I had no idea what I had. Critics may moan and groan that it's no Citizen Kane or even Conan the Barbarian, but it's my 'Citizen Conan'. I love every part of this film. My dad would put a blanket or sheet around his body and pretended to be those bat-like body devourers. I do that to my kids now. </span><br />
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<b>Imaginary Worlds</b></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">Think about playtime, did you create games or imaginary worlds as a child? If so, please describe an important original game or play world you enjoyed.</span><br />
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<a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-_K1taTOp2-E/VapsZhYxlbI/AAAAAAAAPtI/6SOniDehW18DDnX9OyIiX7Mkt6KGV4FWgCL0B/w896-h672-no/15%2B-%2B11" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-_K1taTOp2-E/VapsZhYxlbI/AAAAAAAAPtI/6SOniDehW18DDnX9OyIiX7Mkt6KGV4FWgCL0B/w896-h672-no/15%2B-%2B11" width="400" /></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;"><b>Nathan: </b>I remember creating a post apocalyptic world for Lego that was ruled by an evil wizard who commanded an army of sand zombies and it was our quest to find magic and super science relics that would bring him down. We had a caravan of Mad Max-style vehicles lead by a giant pirate ship on wheels with mini guns, cannons, and missiles. We would scavenge dungeons and spaceships to find the relics. We used everything from wooden blocks to Star Wars play sets for props.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">As a child how did you feel about how you fit in with the rest of the world or community or friends? Like, were you very social or did you prefer spending time alone? Your environment, was it rural or urban? Were siblings a big part of your playtime? Did adults interact with you in game play, and if so was it structured play (sports, scouting, clubs, etc.) or free form?</span><span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;"><b style="background-color: transparent; line-height: 18.2px;">Nathan:</b> I grew up in a suburb of St. Louis, MO. I would describe myself as an outgoing weirdo, this was doubly so as a child. I remember the first day at school drawing dragons and spaceship on a Thriller cover of a trapper keeper (a kind of notebook - ed.) and thinking, “this is the best Thriller cover ever!” And some other kids making fun of my wild Imagination. I would always draw a crowd, those usually without one. I like Journey and Michael Jackson so the punk thrasher skaters thought I'm a poser even though I also love Bad Brains and Black Flag. The hard core ‘name the group’ thought I was a sell out to one thing or another. Like I said earlier, my brother and cousin were really close and we played most days. We all joined Boy Scouts and that's where I was introduced to RPGs and I've been hooked since.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.2px;"><span style="color: #222222;"><b>Playtime Impact on Adult Games</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">Do you have any thoughts about any aspects of your childhood playtime that might have influenced your passion for RPGs? Have you ever intentionally incorporated memories of childhood playtime into game work you have created as an adult?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;"><b style="background-color: transparent; line-height: 18.2px;">Nathan: </b>My wife jokingly, but in all seriousness, says I'm the oldest kid she knows. I think freedom to make mistakes and fail with little lasting impact is one of the best parts about play or pretend. I can make decisions that have little to no consequence. I love to have my players make choices, hard choices that will not affect them or any other part of their life. It may have lasting memories that could help them solve a problem in “real life” though. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">I've said it before, but Lego has definitely shaped how I think of games and how I love to hack systems, adding to and subtracting from them.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">I have incorporated a metric ton of ideas that I've had as a prepubescent adolescent into almost all of my games. I've used the sand zombies I talked about earlier in several lots of games.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;"><b>Desert Island Media</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">What are the top 10 things you would want to have on a deserted island - music recordings - films - books - tv shows - comics - games - or toys?</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;"><b>Nathan: </b>This Is gonna be hard....</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">Big trouble in Little China</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">Labyrinth</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">Beastmaster</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">Star Wars trilogy </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">R.E Howard - Conan Anthology </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">Jack Vance - Dying Earth Anthology</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">Stephen King - Dark Tower series</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">Herbie Hancock - Maiden Voyage or Blue Note Anthology</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">Firefly</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">Thundar the Barbarian</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;"><b>Rogue Comet Games</b>: http://roguecomet.com/</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;"><b>Wanton Witness by Nathan: </b>http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/158269/Planetary-Transmission-Issue-2</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;"><b>100 Occupations for Black Powder, Black Magic:</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">http://stormlordpublishing.com/product/black-powder-black-magic-vol-1/</span></div>
Vicg61http://www.blogger.com/profile/03216752541301867593noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690896249672029081.post-16056155990069280102016-04-13T20:17:00.000-07:002016-04-13T20:26:14.323-07:00Adam Muszkiewicz: RPG Podcaster, Blogger, and Zine Guy.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="line-height: 18.2px;">I've long wondered what draws me to certain entertainment and hobbies, why do I like what I like, and how come I'm different from most of the people I know. Being part of an online game community is my only real connection to people who share my interests. So, inevitably my question, 'Why this stuff?", has grown from a self-centric perspective, to wondering about the childhood play of other gamers, and if maybe there's some similar quality to our early development. That's the place where this blog comes from. Plus, hey, I still like toys.</span></div>
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I first became aware of Adam on G+ for his <b>Metal Gods of Ur-Hadad </b>zine collaboration with Wayne Snyder and Edgar Johnson. Reading his online game posts and his game blog, <b><a href="http://www.kickassistan.net/">Dispatches From Kickassistan</a>,</b> made me think there's something familiar about Adam that reminded me a little of myself. Later, when he and Donn Stroud started their Podcast, <b><a href="http://www.drinkspinrun.com/">Drink Spin Run</a></b>, Adam's exuberant enthusiasm exuding from my speakers, and the ease at which he could launch himself into a passionate rant about music, games, or books--all the things I can't stop myself from ranting about--made it seem like I was listening to an audible mirror. My wife overheard me listening to DSR one night and asked, "OMG, <i>who</i> is that guy? He sounds just like you."</div>
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<a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-NW9Fc3ZkbyY/VcY6qG581kI/AAAAAAAANyU/LYz5jbVhqdABNikkXqms7qsFlSIBo5GXwCL0B/s553-no/IMAG0190.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-NW9Fc3ZkbyY/VcY6qG581kI/AAAAAAAANyU/LYz5jbVhqdABNikkXqms7qsFlSIBo5GXwCL0B/s553-no/IMAG0190.jpg" style="line-height: 18.2px;" width="400" /></a><span style="line-height: 18.2px;">Adam and his wife Katie, just had their first child, a son named Stanley. Seeing Facebook photos of the family at play made me yearn for those years when my 2 children, Ian and Emily, were first born. Those are amazing years when you get to see the world fresh and full of wonder through playtime with your children. It was while watching a short video of Stanley playing with blocks and letting loose with incredible joy and laughter that I started to develop the idea for this blog. The premise is simple; what was childhood playtime like for the people the the game designers, writers, artists and players who I find interesting. I'm really happy Adam agreed to do the interview. It was important to me that his would be</span><b style="line-height: 18.2px;"> Appendix N Happy Meal's</b><span style="line-height: 18.2px;"> inaugural</span><span style="line-height: 18.2px;"> interview.</span><br />
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<b>Favorite Toys</b></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.2px;">What were your favorite toys during child hood? Like, the </span><b style="line-height: 18.2px;">TOP 3 TOYS</b><span style="line-height: 18.2px;"> of all time and pick your favorite of these toys. What is it about any of these toys you most identified with? What made this so special? H</span><span style="line-height: 18.2px;">ow did you play/enjoy this toy? (shared or solo play).</span></div>
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<b>Adam</b>: I was a child of the 80's, so the big toy brands were the go-to toys. Transformers, He-Man, that stuff. Star Wars was probably king, though, because that was a world-definer for me. One of the interesting facets of my childhood, though, was the fact that in the big faction franchises (Transformers, etc.), I would always get the bad guys and my younger brother would always get the good guys. I think that this inherently adversarial (completely arbitrary) decision might have set me up for DMing in future years, but I'm not too sure.<br />
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I think solo play as a child is unavoidable. There are always going to be times when kids are alone. Most of my play, however, wasn't. I always had other kids of the same (or similar) age around, and if that failed, I had my little brother and a bunch of cousins to get to play with me the way I wanted. Which might also have been a thing. Somehow, it always seemed like I was the kid defining <i>how</i> we played. Not that everyone else was a pushover, I was just louder/more convincing. </div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.2px;"><span style="color: #222222;"><b>Favorite Films and TV</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">What were your favorite films or TV during childhood and what age were you for each favorite? </span><span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">What did you identify with about these shows?</span><span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;"> Do you think these shows had an influence on the adult you? </span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222;"><b>Adam</b>: The absolute biggest influences on me in my childhood were Star Wars (naturally) and Doctor Who. I discovered Doctor Who via a commercial for the show on my PBS station when I was really little and got hooked at an early age. The idea that the magical, demonic or fantastical was really just a different brand of science is all over that show, and it left its indelible mark on my tastes in what we'd later "learn" were "supposed" to be separate genres: fantasy and sci fi. For me, growing up , there couldn't be one without the other. Although I might have strayed from that path at various points in my life, rediscovering the thing I knew at age -- how old? Seven? Yeah, that was a pretty big bombshell that I came </span><i style="color: #222222;">back</i><span style="color: #222222;"> to in my advancing years, surprised that I had known what was up even way back then. </span></div>
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<b>Imaginary Worlds</b></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">Think about playtime, did you create games or imaginary worlds as a child? If so, please describe an important original game or play world you enjoyed.</span><br />
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<b>Adam</b>: I wish my memory was better; answering this question has taken some serious digging and I'm still not much better off.<br />
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I know that none of the games that I found myself surrounded by in youth were ever really <i>satisfying</i>. Everything lacked <i>something.</i> I knew that, so I was always house ruling games, changing them to work in a more satisfactory way. New victory conditions, alternate obstacles or objectives, stuff like that. And of course few cardboard boxes survived in our house for long before I took scissors to them to make my own game boards and hand-made cards and stuff. I'd love to tell you more about games I made, but too few of them survived more than a few weeks, then they'd either get thrown away (as often by me as by my parents) or ruined or I'd forget the rules or I'd get accused of designing games that only I could "win."<br />
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Aside from formal games, in terms of general play, I feel like I was less interested in inventing new games and more interested in remixing the ones we were already playing so they'd do something else. Riding bikes + long cardboard tubes = bike jousting. Stuff like that.<br />
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In many ways, I've never gotten over the urge to tinker with other people's work. I'm less interested in making my own systems/games/whatever, and more interested in making other people's work do what I want it to. </div>
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;"><b>Play Community</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">As a child how did you feel about how you fit in with the rest of the world or community or friends? Like, were you very social or did you prefer spending time alone? Your environment, was it rural or urban? Were siblings a big part of your playtime? Did adults interact with you in game play, and if so was it structured play (sports, scouting, clubs, etc.) or free form?</span><span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;"> </span><br />
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<b>Adam: </b>Until I was 12, I didn't have to do a lot of stuff alone. We lived the suburban dream in Grand Rapids, MI, and my folks deliberately moved to a neighborhood where most of my friends lived. In that group, I was always a sort of leader, if only because I had specific things I wanted to do or play and the other kids just seemed to go along with whatever seemed most interesting. I suppose you could call me social rather than asocial, but that doesn't mean that I wasn't awkward or strange by normal-kid standards; instead, I was more of a "chief of the dorks" when I was growing up.<br />
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A lot of that changed when we moved out of state (to Indiana, of all places) when I was 12. Sure, I developed friendships there, but I spent a lot more time alone over the years I lived there. I was more of a social outcast in Indiana, and in ways that I really wasn't prepared for since I hit the state in the middle of the Satanic Panic and met with serious religious bias for the first time in my life as well as ethnocentrism (Polish Catholics aren't quite the norm in Mennonite/Amish country). We moved again when I was 16, so I had to start over again and by that time was starting to get good at it.<br />
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My brother was always involved with my gaming development; always. We discovered HeroQuest together, WarMaster, Cosmic Encounter. He was one of my first D&D players when I got my Mentzer Red Box at a garage sale, stuff like that. He's four years younger than I, but he got to hang out with the big kids almost by default; Phil was already there, so why not include him, too? Phil's always been my most constant friend, too, so I've always tried to involve him in gaming. We still play in a weekly rotating game every Wednesday.<br />
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I think adults were only part of play at the very earliest of ages. At later ages, if they were involved, it seemed like it was only ever in a very structured way. We were playing a board game or card game that the old folks could understand (which typically meant "less fun than the ones they couldn't understand"). Over the years, Phil and I have gotten our folks to consider some games that would have been pretty well outside their scope when we were kids, which I think bodes well for when my own son, Stanley, is old enough to need folks to play with, himself. </div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.2px;"><span style="color: #222222;"><b>Playtime Impact on Adult Games</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; line-height: 18.2px;">Do you have any thoughts about any aspects of your childhood playtime that might have influenced your passion for RPGs? Have you ever intentionally incorporated memories of childhood playtime into game work you have created as an adult?</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; line-height: 18.2px;"><b>Adam:</b> One of the interesting things about being a kid is that the concept of playing a "character" during any sort of play is much more intuitive than when folks get older. All the cartoons, all these comics, the people in them aren't </span><i style="color: #222222; line-height: 18.2px;">people</i><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 18.2px;">, they're </span><i style="color: #222222; line-height: 18.2px;">characters</i><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 18.2px;">, but they're also </span><i style="color: #222222; line-height: 18.2px;">characters in a particular aesthetic.</i><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 18.2px;"> He-Man isn't the same as Thundarr because the aesthetic was different. I talk about aesthetic being a guiding principle a lot, that Game X </span><i style="color: #222222; line-height: 18.2px;">should feel like this</i><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 18.2px;"> and Game Y </span><i style="color: #222222; line-height: 18.2px;">should feel like that</i><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 18.2px;"> and I think I developed a sense early on for the boundaries of aesthetics, but I unfortunately framed things in poor terms back then ("you're doing it wrong!"). But it did set me on a path to figuring out how to communicate aesthetics, which is pretty much the ongoing hunt in my DMing career. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; line-height: 18.2px;">I feel like I always wanted to do things my way. I wanted the fictions I was exposed to to work the way I wanted the to work. So, like any kid, I started making my own things. My own superheroes, my own ancient deities, my own mythoi and ethoi, so I was sort of primed for the concept of RPGs when they entered my attention. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; line-height: 18.2px;">I think in a lot of ways, by the time I was exposed to RPGs, I was already turning pretty much every game into an RPG. We told stories about our and around our games of Monopoly or LIFE or whatever. Making that be the focus of the game was more of a slight veer than a total change of game. If anything, it meant we were integrating the things we actually enjoyed and cared about into the existing play a little more closely. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; line-height: 18.2px;">And of course, when I say "we," I really mean "I and anyone who I roped into playing whatever with me." </span><br />
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Notes:<br />
Metal Gods of Ur-Hadad Zine available here: <a href="http://www.kickassistan.net/p/metal-gods-of-ur-hadad-zine.html">http://www.kickassistan.net/p/metal-gods-of-ur-hadad-zine.html</a><br />
Drink Spin Run, A Tabletop RPG Talkshow Podcast: <a href="http://www.drinkspinrun.com/">http://www.drinkspinrun.com/</a><br />
Dispatches From Kickassistan Blog: <a href="http://www.kickassistan.net/">http://www.kickassistan.net/</a></div>
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Vicg61http://www.blogger.com/profile/03216752541301867593noreply@blogger.com0