1. What published RPG do you wish you were playing right now?
Well Amazing Tales isn’t out yet, so I can’t choose that. For me gaming has always been more about the people than the system. I like systems that fade into the background and don’t get in the way of the story. I like worlds that are good to discover, but for me that’s always been more about the quality of the GM than the depth of the source material.
The game I’ve felt most intrigued by lately is Night’s Black Agents. I use it as the system for my own Delta Green game. But I’d love to play in a game where the GM had fleshed out some of the ideas in the book, and really got to grips with the system. I don’t use mechanics much when I GM, but I’d love to experience Night’s Black Agents being run by someone who really knew what they were doing.
2. What is an RPG you would like to see published?
Amazing Tales of course! And we’re getting so close. All the art is done and the layout is underway. I’d hoped to have a copy off to Drivethru to get a sample print copy back this week, but for various reasons things are going to take a little longer. Still, the end is in sight.
And I really, really want to know what people make of it. It’ll be the first thing I’ve published. The feedback from playtests has been good, but partly because the system is so simple most of the book is advice, background and illustrations. I want to know what people make of it. And most importantly, I want to know what their children make of it.
And if you like, there’s still a playtest version of Amazing Tales available for download on this site.
3. How do you find out about new RPGs?
Google + is brilliant for talking about RPGs. I assume it has other valuable purposes too, but for me it’s a great place to talk about games. I hang out on the RPG Chat group, and that gives me the feeling that if anything really interesting and new comes along I’ll hear about it.
For kids games the Google + groups Dungeon Dads and RPGs for Kids cover the ground. As does the Facebook group RPGs for Kids
And of course my gaming group have their own sources and so word of mouth is important.
Oh, and Bundle of Holding. I’ve ended up acquiring lots of games I had no idea existed because they were part of a bundle along with *1* thing I wanted.
4. Which RPG have you played the most since August 2016
Amazing Tales, by a mile. I’ve got two kids, and a big part of the impetus for developing Amazing Tales was to have something I could play with them. They’re getting older now (six and eight), and at some point in the next year or two we might need to graduate to something else, but for now, it’s doing just fine.
In vacations we run campaigns, with a session a day themed around wherever we happen to be. Otherwise the games are ad-hoc ways to fill an hour in the weekend or the evening. Sometimes they’re ways to entertain visiting friends.
The fact that Amazing Tales requires somewhere between zero and three minutes preparation for a session is what makes this possible. With young kids you’ve gotta be able to run a game when they’re ready. If they’re in the mood for a game they’re not going to wait, and if they’re not in the mood it’s not going to work anyway, no matter how much prep you’ve done.
5. Which RPG Cover best Captures the Spirit of the Game?
This one. I *love* this cover. From the enthusiastic font for the title, to the mix of spaceships, castles, dragons and pirates. It might just be me, but I hope, I really hope that parents will show this cover to their kids and those kids will be desperate to know what’s going on. That’s the plan. If it communicates thrilling adventures where anything can happen then it’s done its job.
