October is Halloween Month.
Although, this month's blog carnival has nothing to do with ghost stories or other horror themes, it does raise significant questions about what justifies our own and our PC's actions.
Bring any thoughts that you might have on morality in this month's blog carnival hosted by the Games of State.
This week is a great week if you are stumped for ideas. There are a couple of series to be looking out if your creative juices are running low to help you find inspirations or ways to overcome creative barriers.
For DMs, there's also a couple of post which talks a little about DM responsibility as a reminder. But the most must-read for this week is an interview with Robin Laws on a new investigative system that sounds really interesting.
abstract XP
Coming up with original adventure ideas (Part 2)
Original adventure ideas (Part 3)
Ideas for original adventures (Part 4)
Adventure ideas (Part 5)
Generating adventure ideas (Part 6)
Adventure ideas (Part 7)
A series on where to find sources of ideas for creating adventures. The series is still running on the idea gathering part but it should be interesting to see how to weave these ideas into an adventure.
Dungeon's Master
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility
An outline of responsibilities of the DM that I agree with but might want to add on a few of my own.
Gaming Brouhaha
More from D&D Camp
A sharing of what happened in a D&D camp in 1982. Reading this makes me feel that I could experience something like this when I was a kid.
Jonathan Drain's D20 Source
When Things Go Wrong
When things goes wrong, it's time for the DM to step up. Here are some simple things to keep in mind when you are in the hot seat to solve a problem.
Musings of the Chatty DM
Creativity and the RPG Mind: Part 1, Introduction
The start of a new series based on a book on creativity and learning what sort of barriers gamers face. It is a very strong introduction and it would certainly be very interesting to see how this series develops.
Stargazer's World
Robin D. Laws interview
A very long interview with Robin Laws about the GUMSHOE system and some bits of his RPG writing career.
Showing posts with label Interview. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Interview. Show all posts
October 5, 2009
June 18, 2009
Questing with J. Matthew Kubisz of Alluria Publishing Part 2
We interrupt the weekly posting of {Quest Log} for a very special post.
This is the second and final part of the interview with the director of Alluria Publishing, J. Matthew Kubisz. If you missed the first one where he talks about his company, his design ideas and their products, you can catch up here.
In this second part of the interview, we move from the design board to talk about RPG Bloggers and what does Alluria Publishing have installed for the future.
What do you think about bloggers in the gaming community in general? Are there any benefit they can do for independent gaming publishers like yourself?
Bloggers are the backbone of the modern gaming community. They are, essentially, today’s equivalent of “word of mouth” advertisement. Independent companies, such as Alluria Publishing, often have very tiny budgets, and any amount of advertising is welcomed.
Not only that, but bloggers serve as a global playtesting circuit---we constantly scour the internet for blogs that mention our product as we are always looking for feedback.
Your products were torn apart by bloggers (namely by Wyatt from Spirits of Eden with these posts, 1,2). How did you handle the criticism and did you think he had some valid points?
Like many new companies, despite our research and experience, we floundered a bit in the beginning. 4e was a brand new system for everyone, and while many of us were experts at 3rd edition and game design for 3rd edition, we had little experience with 4e. So, we made a lot of mistakes.
Consequently, we started with some abysmal reviews. How did we respond? Well, we talked with our critics. We even hired a few on as rules consultants. We hired more editors and layout specialists as well.
We overhauled our entire first set, and offered revised copies of the races for free to our customers who already bought the product. I even talked with Wyatt, and although he is not yet a fan of many of the concepts, he has expressed that he liked the direction we were heading. We continue to work with our critics and are always looking for ways to improve.
Sure, we won’t be able to please everyone, but we won’t stop trying.
Any future plans for Alluria Publishing?
Alluria Publishing thus far has been entirely electronic publishing. The Remarkable Races line is currently being re-edited, reformatted, and compiled into a single 200-page tome that we hope will help to launch us into the realm of paper books.
As many know, this itself is a daunting project. We are still considering our options, though we will likely partner with another publisher to carry out this endeavor.
Currently we are in the negotiation phase, and will announce more when we can!
Can you give us a sneak peek at any new and upcoming products from your company?
Well, in the next few weeks, the Remarkable Races expansion sets will be released. With the addition of the Players Handbook 2, the game has seen a few new staples to the player character race ensemble. Among these, the racial paragon paths and racial backgrounds have been especially well received.
To update the Remarkable Races, we decided to put out our own updates. These updates will be released in three expansions, one for each set of Remarkable Races. Included are five racial paragons, one for each race in the set. Each race will also have the option of several suggested character backgrounds. In addition, by popular demand, we have included racial and paragon power cards that can be printed on cardstock and used in the game.
In August, the Clever Classes line will begin with the Explorer class. This will be sort of a medieval Indiana Jones type, something quite different than many of the other classes in the core books, but just as playable and exciting.
You have done races and you are now heading to do classes. Is there any time when we'll see monster products or adventures coming out from your company?
We have both swimming around in the primordial soup of our projects box. Currently we are collecting monsters for a large compendium that will likely be released early next year. Our resources tend to limit our focus, for the moment.
Just a quick thought. Are there any vacanies at Alluria Publishing at the moment?
Alluria is always looking for talented writers, and perhaps even a few more artists. If interested, please send an email to talent@alluriapublishing.com requesting more information.
Just a heads up, we expect our talent to meet some pretty tight deadlines. This has been an issue in the past, with supplemental art, play testing, and editing, these projects can easily take longer than we want them to.
Everyone has to get things done on time or the whole project might get seriously delayed or scrapped entirely.
Look out for Alluria Publishing's new product line, Clever Classes, starting with the Explorer in July. In the meantime, Alluria Publishing is currently hosting Monsters in the Mist where they are looking for monster designs with an Allurian flair (Hints are in the first part of the interview).
It's been fun doing this with Matthew and I would like to thank Alluria Publishing again for taking in the questions. Hopefully, we will see more interviews with other publishers in the future.
If you enjoyed this interview or have anything to say, please drop a comment.
This is the second and final part of the interview with the director of Alluria Publishing, J. Matthew Kubisz. If you missed the first one where he talks about his company, his design ideas and their products, you can catch up here.
In this second part of the interview, we move from the design board to talk about RPG Bloggers and what does Alluria Publishing have installed for the future.
What do you think about bloggers in the gaming community in general? Are there any benefit they can do for independent gaming publishers like yourself?
Bloggers are the backbone of the modern gaming community. They are, essentially, today’s equivalent of “word of mouth” advertisement. Independent companies, such as Alluria Publishing, often have very tiny budgets, and any amount of advertising is welcomed.
Not only that, but bloggers serve as a global playtesting circuit---we constantly scour the internet for blogs that mention our product as we are always looking for feedback.
Your products were torn apart by bloggers (namely by Wyatt from Spirits of Eden with these posts, 1,2). How did you handle the criticism and did you think he had some valid points?
Like many new companies, despite our research and experience, we floundered a bit in the beginning. 4e was a brand new system for everyone, and while many of us were experts at 3rd edition and game design for 3rd edition, we had little experience with 4e. So, we made a lot of mistakes.
Consequently, we started with some abysmal reviews. How did we respond? Well, we talked with our critics. We even hired a few on as rules consultants. We hired more editors and layout specialists as well.
We overhauled our entire first set, and offered revised copies of the races for free to our customers who already bought the product. I even talked with Wyatt, and although he is not yet a fan of many of the concepts, he has expressed that he liked the direction we were heading. We continue to work with our critics and are always looking for ways to improve.
Sure, we won’t be able to please everyone, but we won’t stop trying.
Any future plans for Alluria Publishing?
Alluria Publishing thus far has been entirely electronic publishing. The Remarkable Races line is currently being re-edited, reformatted, and compiled into a single 200-page tome that we hope will help to launch us into the realm of paper books.
As many know, this itself is a daunting project. We are still considering our options, though we will likely partner with another publisher to carry out this endeavor.
Currently we are in the negotiation phase, and will announce more when we can!
Can you give us a sneak peek at any new and upcoming products from your company?
Well, in the next few weeks, the Remarkable Races expansion sets will be released. With the addition of the Players Handbook 2, the game has seen a few new staples to the player character race ensemble. Among these, the racial paragon paths and racial backgrounds have been especially well received.
To update the Remarkable Races, we decided to put out our own updates. These updates will be released in three expansions, one for each set of Remarkable Races. Included are five racial paragons, one for each race in the set. Each race will also have the option of several suggested character backgrounds. In addition, by popular demand, we have included racial and paragon power cards that can be printed on cardstock and used in the game.
In August, the Clever Classes line will begin with the Explorer class. This will be sort of a medieval Indiana Jones type, something quite different than many of the other classes in the core books, but just as playable and exciting.
You have done races and you are now heading to do classes. Is there any time when we'll see monster products or adventures coming out from your company?
We have both swimming around in the primordial soup of our projects box. Currently we are collecting monsters for a large compendium that will likely be released early next year. Our resources tend to limit our focus, for the moment.
Just a quick thought. Are there any vacanies at Alluria Publishing at the moment?
Alluria is always looking for talented writers, and perhaps even a few more artists. If interested, please send an email to talent@alluriapublishing.com requesting more information.
Just a heads up, we expect our talent to meet some pretty tight deadlines. This has been an issue in the past, with supplemental art, play testing, and editing, these projects can easily take longer than we want them to.
Everyone has to get things done on time or the whole project might get seriously delayed or scrapped entirely.
Look out for Alluria Publishing's new product line, Clever Classes, starting with the Explorer in July. In the meantime, Alluria Publishing is currently hosting Monsters in the Mist where they are looking for monster designs with an Allurian flair (Hints are in the first part of the interview).
It's been fun doing this with Matthew and I would like to thank Alluria Publishing again for taking in the questions. Hopefully, we will see more interviews with other publishers in the future.
If you enjoyed this interview or have anything to say, please drop a comment.
June 11, 2009
Questing with J. Matthew Kubisz of Alluria Publishing Part 1
We interrupt the weekly posting of {Quest Log} for a very special post.
This week, I was able to score an interview with J. Matthew Kubisz, director of Alluria Publishing, who were behind a peculiar line of PDF products that introduces new and unconventional races to 4E.
How unconventional?
Imagine having a party with a two-headed hybrid between an ettin and an eladrin, a tiny horned creature with human-sized hands, an adventurous caterpillar that can metamorphosis when it reaches the paragon tier, a living skeleton infused with life energy that fights against undead and a cold and calculating, walking tree.
That's what you get from Alluria's Remarkable Races line that is made under the GSL and is fully compatible with 4E. Each of these races are not tied to any particular setting, so they can placed anywhere if your player is looking to have a little wackiness in their campaign.
In the first part of this interview, I went ahead and asked Matthew to talk a little bit about himself, the company and what went behind the scenes when designing Remarkable Races.
Tell us about yourself and how did you get into gaming?
Gaming has always been a fascination of mine, especially D&D. I started gaming in the early 80s and never stopped. By high school, I was a full-time Dungeon Master, designing interesting campaigns for several different groups of friends (including a group with all-female players, something quite rare at the time).
College life only served to give me more freedom to game. My college record was DMing for a 21 player game that lasted 16 hours. Lately, with a kid and a new family, I have had much less time for tabletop. Though I am always using my spare time to peruse vast volumes of old material and writing new things.
How did you form Alluria Publishing?
After pouring decades into designing campaigns, I not only ended up with a huge repertoire of self-made gaming material, I had also honed the presentation of that material into a solid product.
One night, while waiting for a player to show up, a discussion arose. With volumes of home-brew handouts littering the table, floors, and chairs...it suddenly occurred to us that others might want to buy these materials. I had done a lot of freelance writing before during 3rd edition. I worked especially close with Mystic Eye Games and picked up a general feel for the game publishing business then.
After a few more lengthy discussions, Alluria Publishing was born.
What made you decide to sign up for the GSL? Were there any other systems you were thinking of taking your products to be compatible with?
Alluria Publishing has always been a supporter of GSL and 4th edition.
I personally abhored the concept of 4th edition when I first heard of it. I was even in the forefront of the protesters who screamed against losing paper versions of Dragon & Dungeon magazines.
Since I actually picked up the books, however, I found the new version to be very entertaining. 4th edition is a solid game system; the best version of D&D yet. Sure, it has issues here and there, but nothing like 3rd ed did. I started out in 1st edition. 4th edition feels more like gaming in the good ol' days than any other, but with rules that actually make sense.
Tell us about your flagship product from Alluria Publishing.
The problem with many homebrew campaigns is that they often gather material from a variety of sources, and mine was no exception. The most unique works, however, were the races.
Remarkable Races offers players and DMs alike a brand new selection of truly interesting races.
Our philosophy behind Remarkable Races was to release new and unique races that the D&D universe has never seen before, and will likely never see published by Wizards of the Coast. Much like authors of the past have done with dwarves, hobbits, orcs, and elves; Remarkable Races reflect forces in our modern world. The 21st century gamer should be able to relate better to these races than those designed decades ago.
Currently, the Remarkable Races line consists of 15 new races, each with full writeups, racial feats, monster statistics, magic items, and lots of extras. They are all color illustrated by talented artists with all original art (no stock art!).
While we are a new company, and made a few mistakes starting out, we continuously improve our products and offer the updates free of charge. Alluria Publishing's main goal is to provide a superior product.
With Remarkable Races, you were going for original ideas. Where do you get your inspiration for these new ideas for races? Any specific references you can name?
Inspiration comes from all around. Popular culture has its fair amount of influence. TV and movies also tend to tie into some of the concepts. Even children’s books and fairy tales have had their place.
For example, the mogogol race was certainly partly inspired by Thaddeus Toad from the Wind and the Willows. Oaklings have a touch of Vulcan from Star Trek. Little bits and pieces are accumulated from these sorts of sources, the rest comes from odd dreams and old campaigns. The Numistians, for example, are a race that’s been in development in my own games since first edition.
We've already have PHB 1 & 2, with 3 already on the way for next year. There are already 13 races in both books, which has covered most of the 'core' races from previous editions, and who knows what other races will be in the third.
Are you worried that Wizards might be creating more races that might limit the scope of what races you can create?
Well, first of all, the Remarkable Races line has drawn to a close, though we will continually update it with expansions as Wizards continues to develop their product. As far as the scope hedging in on our existing creations; our design focuses on making a product that Wizards shows little interest in exploring.
While many of our concepts may seem a little odd, that seems to be our niche. I feel that’s one of the pitfalls of GSL publishing, we always have to guess as to what WotC is going to put out. Our design team has thrown out scores of concepts simply because we feel Wizards will someday make something similar.
What's the design process like behind each of your product? Any insights you could share on what goes behind the thought/development process?
Design is a slow process. The first step is to narrow the focus. Remarkable Races, for example, is broken into 3 sets: Newly Discovered, Ancients Rediscovered, and Aliens Among Us. Under these loose themes, the next step is simply brainstorming. This takes days, and we don't stop until we are completely exhausted.
An idea gets in if it meets most of the qualifications. For example, for Remarkable Races, the race had to able to answer yes to most of the following questions:
The last step is to bounce it off our rules consultants, who keep everything in balance. The rules consultants' job is basically to tell the design team how their ideas won't work, and that it's an extremely important step. You need someone who often disagrees with you and still knows the rules well on your design team.
What in your design philosophy makes a good race? Which is more important to you, fluff or crunch?
Both are equally important. I have to admit that in the beginning we were more fluff than crunch—as we were new to exploring the nuisances of 4th edition. Now we like to keep it 50/50.
Personally, I am a bit old school, and believe the DM should use rules as loose guidelines. I consider that I am in the minority on this though, and we have several people that make sure we are producing quality, well-tested crunch as well.
Stay tune for the second part of the interview same time next week where he talks a little more about future plans, new and upcoming products and RPG bloggers!
Don't forget to drop any comments if you have anything to say.
This week, I was able to score an interview with J. Matthew Kubisz, director of Alluria Publishing, who were behind a peculiar line of PDF products that introduces new and unconventional races to 4E.
How unconventional?
Imagine having a party with a two-headed hybrid between an ettin and an eladrin, a tiny horned creature with human-sized hands, an adventurous caterpillar that can metamorphosis when it reaches the paragon tier, a living skeleton infused with life energy that fights against undead and a cold and calculating, walking tree.
That's what you get from Alluria's Remarkable Races line that is made under the GSL and is fully compatible with 4E. Each of these races are not tied to any particular setting, so they can placed anywhere if your player is looking to have a little wackiness in their campaign.
In the first part of this interview, I went ahead and asked Matthew to talk a little bit about himself, the company and what went behind the scenes when designing Remarkable Races.
Tell us about yourself and how did you get into gaming?
Gaming has always been a fascination of mine, especially D&D. I started gaming in the early 80s and never stopped. By high school, I was a full-time Dungeon Master, designing interesting campaigns for several different groups of friends (including a group with all-female players, something quite rare at the time).
College life only served to give me more freedom to game. My college record was DMing for a 21 player game that lasted 16 hours. Lately, with a kid and a new family, I have had much less time for tabletop. Though I am always using my spare time to peruse vast volumes of old material and writing new things.
How did you form Alluria Publishing?
After pouring decades into designing campaigns, I not only ended up with a huge repertoire of self-made gaming material, I had also honed the presentation of that material into a solid product.
One night, while waiting for a player to show up, a discussion arose. With volumes of home-brew handouts littering the table, floors, and chairs...it suddenly occurred to us that others might want to buy these materials. I had done a lot of freelance writing before during 3rd edition. I worked especially close with Mystic Eye Games and picked up a general feel for the game publishing business then.
After a few more lengthy discussions, Alluria Publishing was born.
What made you decide to sign up for the GSL? Were there any other systems you were thinking of taking your products to be compatible with?
Alluria Publishing has always been a supporter of GSL and 4th edition.
I personally abhored the concept of 4th edition when I first heard of it. I was even in the forefront of the protesters who screamed against losing paper versions of Dragon & Dungeon magazines.
Since I actually picked up the books, however, I found the new version to be very entertaining. 4th edition is a solid game system; the best version of D&D yet. Sure, it has issues here and there, but nothing like 3rd ed did. I started out in 1st edition. 4th edition feels more like gaming in the good ol' days than any other, but with rules that actually make sense.
Tell us about your flagship product from Alluria Publishing.
The problem with many homebrew campaigns is that they often gather material from a variety of sources, and mine was no exception. The most unique works, however, were the races.
Remarkable Races offers players and DMs alike a brand new selection of truly interesting races.
Our philosophy behind Remarkable Races was to release new and unique races that the D&D universe has never seen before, and will likely never see published by Wizards of the Coast. Much like authors of the past have done with dwarves, hobbits, orcs, and elves; Remarkable Races reflect forces in our modern world. The 21st century gamer should be able to relate better to these races than those designed decades ago.
Currently, the Remarkable Races line consists of 15 new races, each with full writeups, racial feats, monster statistics, magic items, and lots of extras. They are all color illustrated by talented artists with all original art (no stock art!).
While we are a new company, and made a few mistakes starting out, we continuously improve our products and offer the updates free of charge. Alluria Publishing's main goal is to provide a superior product.
With Remarkable Races, you were going for original ideas. Where do you get your inspiration for these new ideas for races? Any specific references you can name?
Inspiration comes from all around. Popular culture has its fair amount of influence. TV and movies also tend to tie into some of the concepts. Even children’s books and fairy tales have had their place.
For example, the mogogol race was certainly partly inspired by Thaddeus Toad from the Wind and the Willows. Oaklings have a touch of Vulcan from Star Trek. Little bits and pieces are accumulated from these sorts of sources, the rest comes from odd dreams and old campaigns. The Numistians, for example, are a race that’s been in development in my own games since first edition.
We've already have PHB 1 & 2, with 3 already on the way for next year. There are already 13 races in both books, which has covered most of the 'core' races from previous editions, and who knows what other races will be in the third.
Are you worried that Wizards might be creating more races that might limit the scope of what races you can create?
Well, first of all, the Remarkable Races line has drawn to a close, though we will continually update it with expansions as Wizards continues to develop their product. As far as the scope hedging in on our existing creations; our design focuses on making a product that Wizards shows little interest in exploring.
While many of our concepts may seem a little odd, that seems to be our niche. I feel that’s one of the pitfalls of GSL publishing, we always have to guess as to what WotC is going to put out. Our design team has thrown out scores of concepts simply because we feel Wizards will someday make something similar.
What's the design process like behind each of your product? Any insights you could share on what goes behind the thought/development process?
Design is a slow process. The first step is to narrow the focus. Remarkable Races, for example, is broken into 3 sets: Newly Discovered, Ancients Rediscovered, and Aliens Among Us. Under these loose themes, the next step is simply brainstorming. This takes days, and we don't stop until we are completely exhausted.
An idea gets in if it meets most of the qualifications. For example, for Remarkable Races, the race had to able to answer yes to most of the following questions:
- Does it fit with the theme?
- Is it a new race (never seen in previous editions of D&D)?
- Is it a race that Wizards will likely not make?
- Is it a race that does something new with 4e rules?
- Is it interesting?
- Will people play it?
The last step is to bounce it off our rules consultants, who keep everything in balance. The rules consultants' job is basically to tell the design team how their ideas won't work, and that it's an extremely important step. You need someone who often disagrees with you and still knows the rules well on your design team.
What in your design philosophy makes a good race? Which is more important to you, fluff or crunch?
Both are equally important. I have to admit that in the beginning we were more fluff than crunch—as we were new to exploring the nuisances of 4th edition. Now we like to keep it 50/50.
Personally, I am a bit old school, and believe the DM should use rules as loose guidelines. I consider that I am in the minority on this though, and we have several people that make sure we are producing quality, well-tested crunch as well.
Stay tune for the second part of the interview same time next week where he talks a little more about future plans, new and upcoming products and RPG bloggers!
Don't forget to drop any comments if you have anything to say.
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