1. If you had to pick a single invention in a game you were most proud of what would it be?
Hum, I would like to hope that my Raiders of the Mercenary Coast adventure, written for Encounter Critical, is wacky enough to be enjoyed by any with an interest in playing it.
2. When was the last time you GMed?
It has been over a year now but not for lack of trying.
3. When was the last time you played?
I played Labyrinth Lord this past Tuesday with my fellow Adventure Capitalist.
4. Give us a one-sentence pitch for an adventure you haven't run but would like to.
Using the Mutant Future rules, your a mixed race group of space explorers who have just crash-landed on an unexplored planet.
5. What do you do while you wait for players to do things?
Look at my notes to prepare for what they may do next.
6. What, if anything, do you eat while you play?
We usually eat salty snacks and beer, occasionally chocolate, it dependent on what foods are brought to the game each week.
7. Do you find GMing physically exhausting?
No
8. What was the last interesting (to you, anyway) thing you remember a PC you were running doing?
A few weeks ago I lead the party in singing Happy Birthday to an ogre as attempt to prevent it from attacking us.
9. Do your players take your serious setting and make it unserious? Vice versa? Neither?
I've been running Encounter Critical for the past few years so there's little question of seriousness in the game setting.
10. What do you do with goblins?
Goblins play hockey in the warehouse in Raiders of the Mercenary Coast.
11. What was the last non-RPG thing you saw that you converted into game material (background, setting, trap, etc.)?
I made a Rube Goldberg devise for the final escape for another E.C. game.
12. What's the funniest table moment you can remember right now?
Other then singing Happy Birthday to an Ogre? When I learned an important lesson about NPC placement when the players killed the Doxy in an E.C. game.
13. What was the last game book you looked at--aside from things you referenced in a game--why were you looking at it?
I was actually working on a adventure for Labyrinth Lord last month and looking at the L.L rules, Fiend Folio and AD&D Monster Manuel 2 to stock the dungeon. I also read a bit of the old Hackmaster Players Handbook last year.
14. Who's your idea of the perfect RPG illustrator?
Erol Otis, Jeff Dee, Dave Trampier, Larry Elmore and I like many of the new guys too, Steve Zeiser, Stefan Poag, Peter Mullen, Evil Schemer and probably a few, old and new, that I've forgotten about.
15. Does your game ever make your players genuinely afraid?
Yeah, I think they are always afraid of what I'm going to try to submit them to next.
16. What was the best time you ever had running an adventure you didn't write? (If ever)
Unbelievably, the only adventure that I can remember running that I didn't write was the sample dungeon from the Holmes Basic rules. I should really get out more often!
17. What would be the ideal physical set up to run a game in?
We have a pretty sweet setting in my buddies basement and I've considered running a game outside on a warm day. I like
Jeff's suggestion of the round table by a lake on a sunny day, that's pretty hard to beat. I'd bring a pitcher of Margaritas to that setting too.
18. If you had to think of the two most disparate games or game products that you like what would they be?
I've got a real itch to get my hands, or eyes at least, on first edition copies of Tunnels & Trolls and Warhammer Fantasy Role Play. On a more reasonable and obtainable note, I hope to play around with Risus this year.
19. If you had to think of the most disparate influences overall on your game, what would they be?
Holmes Basic Dungeons & Dragons, Tolkien's short stories, Smith of Wootton Major and Farmer Giles of Ham and first edition Gamma World. Oh yeah, comics, DC's Mysteries in Space and Warlord and Marvel's Micronauts.
20. As a GM, what kind of player do you want at your table?
Agreeable
21. What's a real life experience you've translated into game terms?
I used some trivia I heard on NPR to design some puzzles in an adventure.
22. Is there an RPG product that you wish existed but doesn't?
The "Turn off the Internet so you can get some writing done" Devise.
23. Is there anyone you know who you talk about RPGs with who doesn't play? How do those conversations go?
I mention the wacky hijinks that occur around our game table to any friend, co-worker or family member who will listen and often garner laughter during these conversations. Most frequently, I speak with my wife about our games. She says she is no good at strategy games and I have explained that I think she is confusing rpgs with war games. I have considered designing a vampire hunter adventure to run at one of our occasional gamer cookouts but the idea's still on the drawing board.
So far, I've only designed enough images for one more post. But time is certainly on my side in our temporally deceptive world of the Blog-0-sphere. Don't miss tomorrow's post when I reveal images of Darth Viraxis and his Viraxian Guard.
