Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 5: Solo RPGs with Alex T
125 Plays1 year ago
Host Alan Bahr is joined by Alex T. of Blackoath Entertainment to discuss the creative process, solo roleplaying games and how they might be used, as well as much more! Alan gushes over Alex's work quite a bit, far warning.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction of Hosts and Guest
00:00:09
Speaker
I'm Alan Barr, and this is Radio Free RPG. Hello, I'm Alan Barr, and welcome to Radio Free RPG. I'm joined today by my guest, Alex T. of Black Oath Entertainment. Welcome, Alex. Hello, Alan. How are you doing? I am doing very well. How are you today?
00:00:38
Speaker
I'm fine. I'm finally recovering from a bout of fluid. I've been sick for a few weeks, almost months. But yeah, I'm doing better now. Thanks. Well, I'm glad to hear that.
Weather and Personal Admiration
00:00:53
Speaker
So you are joining us from Spain, is that correct? Yeah, here in Madrid, Spain. Yeah. All right. Yeah. Here in North Dakota, we are currently in blizzard conditions with a wide out of snow. So.
00:01:08
Speaker
That's nice. I imagine your weather's a little better than ours right now. Yeah. Well, today's getting a little bit colder. We're supposed to be at minus three, this nine minus three Celsius. Right now, I don't know how much that is in the final height. But yeah, it's a little bit colder, but definitely not cold compared to your standards. So yeah.
00:01:34
Speaker
Yes. So, Alex, I'm really pleased you've joined me today for this interview as I'm a huge fan of the work Black Oath Entertainment puts out. Specifically, Sacrifice is one of my favorite games. It was my favorite game of 2022. Yeah, it's really, really humbling. So thank you very much. Of course. I'm thrilled to pick your brain about this. Awesome.
Alex's Gaming History
00:02:03
Speaker
All right, so why don't you tell us a little bit about your history and how you got into designing and creating role playing games? Yeah, so I guess as as most people, I started playing as a I don't know, in early 90s and 1992, something like that. I mean, most people of my generation like you. So, yeah, early 90s and
00:02:31
Speaker
And of course I ended up being a forever GM, which meant doing a lot of home brewing and writing and that kind of stuff, you know. And well, it was just a natural step going from that to starting to make games for other people. So that's almost out of necessity because
00:02:57
Speaker
I ended up for a while. Fortunately, I have a group now, but for a while, quite a long while, I had no group whatsoever. So I discovered the world of solo RPGs.
Publishing Journey
00:03:12
Speaker
And yeah, concretely, things like D100 Dungeon and Oregon's Darkness, Iron's Horn, this kind of stuff. And I was really, really, really kind of a lot of fun with Oregon's Darkness.
00:03:30
Speaker
And to the point that I actually wrote a sci-fi hack, which was, well, a hack, it was like a whole game. It was a whole sci-fi game. And I wrote Andrea, the creator, said, look, I have this. Maybe you would like to polish it because I saw.
00:03:50
Speaker
This was before he started branching out with, I don't know if you're familiar with Ganesha games and the little site. I mean, his main thing is for against darkness, but then he has this for against the old ones and all this.
00:04:04
Speaker
Oregon's Mars. He has all these side games in the same style. Yeah. So it was before he started with all those. And I came to him saying, look, I have this idea. I think maybe you'll like to do because I knew he worked without it. Maybe you would like to release it.
00:04:21
Speaker
And it was called For Against the Void. And he told me, I'm working with another guy who's writing the exact same thing with the exact same title. So, initially we were talking about working with that other guy, Andrea, and me, the three of us, releasing this thing.
00:04:43
Speaker
I don't know, the thing never really nothing happened with that. I mean, no four against the void has been released. So I don't know what happened on his end. But I said, OK, apparently I can do this because I remember doing that in like a week. Wow. Yeah, I was like, I took it in and OK, I'm going to do this. And I wrote 60 pages of the game in a week. It's easy when you're working working from an existing system, as you know.
00:05:10
Speaker
But yeah, from that I said, I said, OK, I think I'm I'm ready. I'm going to write a game from scratch from for myself. And and that's how I wrote Disciples of One and Shadow, which I sent to Exalt the Funeral to Matt and Matt loved it and said, OK, I'm publishing this. And well, from there to to now. Awesome. That's so when did you write? When would you say you kind of started this journey of being a publisher?
00:05:38
Speaker
2018, I'd say. Okay. So only five years ago. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. That's quite a, quite an amount of success in five years.
Sacrifice: Development and Inspiration
00:05:48
Speaker
Yeah. I've been lucky initially to, to ride the success together with Exalted Funeral because when I started working, I mean, my game, Disciples of Onensha was almost there. I mean, yeah, no, they had released the, which, it's funny, what's it called?
00:06:05
Speaker
look at his game and which finder was it called? Which burner? Yeah, which burner? That was actually the first Exalt the Funer release but shortly after was disciples and from then while Exalt the Funer exploded and they released my other games because Beyond the Shroud. I mean I wrote their success with them in that sense and really
00:06:29
Speaker
And also the fact that solo games are really a very, very niche area or used to be before the pandemic. Yes. And yeah, I don't know. A bit of good luck and coincidence, as I suppose. Good timing to be involved in that space. Yeah, that's the thing.
00:06:52
Speaker
Wonderful. Well, let's start with Sacrifice. So I am a massive fan of Sacrifice. When I talk to people about it, it is the role-playing game that sort of opened the potential of solo role-playing games to me.
00:07:09
Speaker
I did not understand them very well. They felt foreign and difficult. And that was the game because it was on a familiar sort of D20 framework I was familiar with that really made it easy for me to click into it and understand how this is supposed to happen. So what is sacrifice? What inspired it? Where did it come from?
00:07:32
Speaker
Yeah, so it's funny that you say that you got started in solo RPGs with Sacrifice, which is the only non-solo RPG I wrote. I mean, it has the solo expansion, but I mean, the core little booklet, as you know, is very solo friendly because I just can't help it. But yeah, it doesn't have the typical oracles and tables that you kind of need to play.
00:08:02
Speaker
solo. Right. But yeah, the idea behind the sacrifice was born from my crazy binge reading of Berserk, the manga by Kentaro Miura.
00:08:19
Speaker
Yes. Yeah, so I've always been a fan of his work. I had the manga since the early 90s. I was reading it. I was always a big fan, but I lost track of it. I didn't read it in a long time. And then, well, with his unfortunate passing, I said, okay, let's revisit it.
00:08:38
Speaker
And it was better than I remember. I devoured the whole thing in like two weeks. And I said, OK, I have to make a game out of this. I'm obsessed. I need to get this obsession out. So I just sat and wrote sacrifice in a month. So yeah.
00:08:59
Speaker
Wow, that's great. Now, the core setting of sacrifice is one that you have termed iron and incense or incense and iron. Yeah, incense and iron, yeah. Incense and iron, yes. Which, well, not a new genre. This might be the first time such a label has been applied to it. Yeah, I realized that
00:09:25
Speaker
There's this recurring theme in a lot of fantasy and well, not necessarily only fantasy, but a lot of fiction with the dark, let's say, Catholic church-like organization looming about medieval peasant feudal society. So I just kind of tie the knots and follow the trail of, okay, which
00:09:53
Speaker
Which stories have this kind of setting and themes? What do they have in common? And how could I tie the thing together?
00:10:04
Speaker
to frame it into a genre. So yeah, that's how I came with the idea of incense and iron. I find in this kind of stories, which, like I said, the main thing is that they have this big, looming, oppressive church, which controls all aspects of society. It's usually very corrupt. It's not necessarily, but most of the times, and definitely for my personal taste,
00:10:35
Speaker
an element of the supernatural without a demonic influence and corruption and these kind of things. And yeah, overall themes of how in humans humans can be. So like the worst thing that can happen to humanity is humanity itself by its own repression and the corruption that that can bring both supernatural and not supernatural.
00:11:05
Speaker
So, yeah, it's like, sorry, sorry, you were going to say. Oh, no, it's a very evocative genre that I think a lot of us are intrinsically familiar with because of sort of the monolithic history of religion in Western culture. Yeah, definitely. And personally from when I was raised Catholic, so and on top of that with
00:11:30
Speaker
a strong, opposite day upbringing. So yes, I know all about all that kind of stuff. So. Yes. Whereas I was raised Mormon. So I am familiar with, you know, again, the large church with a lot of that influence. Yeah, with everything that it implies. Yes. So one of the great things about sacrifice is the gorgeous art.
00:11:55
Speaker
The art is this beautiful black and white, stunning, almost...
00:12:00
Speaker
a watercolor or ink vibe to it that really
New Release: Godshard
00:12:08
Speaker
sets the mood with this almost muddy, splotchy, in a very artistic designed sense, appearance. What made you go with that particular style? Now, obviously some of it's an homage to Berserk and its artist, but there are a lot of other ways you could have taken that as well.
00:12:30
Speaker
Yeah, so I can't really take much credit on that regard. I was following the artist who's done all the art for sacrifices, Simone Tamietta, also known as Orbe. And yes, Simone, he has a really particular style and it really speaks to me. I'm very fond of that kind of dark, evocative art style.
00:12:57
Speaker
I just thought, okay, this guy is just perfect for this project. And it's the way I usually prefer working with artists. I just give them a small...
00:13:10
Speaker
one phrase idea and let them run with it. So I can't take much credit for the art that's in that regard. But I will just tell him things like, OK, make a demon or make a woman with armor. And he will just do the rest. You know, sometimes those trusted collaborations are fantastic, though, because you know you can hand them something and you'll get something amazing back.
00:13:35
Speaker
Exactly. I think that if you're going to work with an artist, I think it's good to show why you chose that artist and let them show what they're good at and what the setting evokes to them. So yeah, it's just very easy and natural working with Simone. Yes. I've done some work with Simone, and I would have to second that. They have been fantastic to work with.
00:14:02
Speaker
And you don't have to give them much direction. They just nail it every time. Yeah. And so fast. He's such a hardworking guy. Yes. Yes. Yes. So moving on from sacrifice, which I would heartily recommend everyone check out, and I will include links below. I think LFO might have some of the special edition left. If so, I will include a link because it is truly a gorgeous package with every penny.
00:14:32
Speaker
Yeah, he still has some copies. Yeah. So, so, yeah, grab one of those because they are gorgeous. Yes. Your most recent release is a game called Godshard. Yeah. Now, Godshard is this sort of post-apocalyptic fantasy water world with a big ocean hex crawl solo play element to it.
00:14:57
Speaker
What inspired that? Ocean-based text crawls are not a thing I immediately would go to when designing a game. Yeah, honestly, I can't really say this or that was a precise source of influence for that game.
00:15:19
Speaker
For a while, I wanted to make some kind of really focused, again, really focused on hexcrolling. The idea of having an ocean hexcroll with small islands and random encounters with other crews and ships and direct ships. I don't know, it sounded cool to me. That's the best reason to do something. Yeah, yeah.
00:15:49
Speaker
It wasn't it wasn't this concrete thing. I just said, OK, I have this bunch of ideas I want to work with and I have some cool idea for a setting and I just put it all together. And yeah, there you have God's shirt. So OK. Yeah, God's shirt is delightful. It's a very interesting experience to play. Thanks. Yeah, I tried to to streamline the
00:16:17
Speaker
all the exploration rules as much as I could and make it very clear what the steps to explore either the ocean or what to do with the encounters or how to explore an island, how to explore different ruins and settlements that you can find in the islands. I was trying to really gamify all the
Design Philosophy of Solo RPGs
00:16:40
Speaker
elements, which really helped when you're playing solo. It's a solo game out of the box.
00:16:47
Speaker
So let's talk about solo RPGs. So as they are relatively new to me, but your work has inspired me to start designing some and some of the feedback you've given me has been instrumental. So as we've talked about solo RPGs, you have pointed out that one of the most important elements in your eyes as a designer is that the game provides enough tools and tables to remove any non in character decision making from the player.
00:17:18
Speaker
Yeah, for me, that's absolutely crucial. I know that, that not everybody will agree, because you have, actually, I will, you could argue that the opposite idea is the most popular one, because most solo games right now are very narrative focused and, and require a great deal of improvisation, which yeah, it's
00:17:42
Speaker
It's amazing that it works for some people, but it doesn't work that well for me. And since I make games first and foremost for myself, that's not the route I like to take.
00:17:56
Speaker
For example, Iron Sword, which is a really, really fantastically designed game. When I was playing it, it's just things like the combat and the... There was a lot of hand waving, I would say. I had to stop a lot of times and it's like, okay, there's no precise rule for this. I have to come up with my own...
00:18:18
Speaker
and ruling. So that kind of thing really breaks the immersion for me. The fact that you have to be all the time putting the GM hat, which is something I do all the time already because I am still the forever GM. Sure. I forget to play. So when I play a solo, I want to be the player and make as little as few decisions as I can. I think that's a reasonable position to be in as a solo player.
00:18:47
Speaker
Yeah, so I think that providing with us many tools and tables in oracles and in clear step-by-step recipes, I think they are crucial to avoid that. OK, what do I do now? What's the next step? What happened? What's the situation? How do I resolve it? If you always can't pull this rule or this table, I think, at least for me, personally, it's much easier to not get to that point where you're stuck with the story.
00:19:18
Speaker
Sure, that makes sense. So one of the as I've delved more into solo role playing games, I've sort of started to categorize them in two genres. The first one is the immersive. I'll call it rules, heavy style of gameplay, much like what you design or things like mythic GM. Yeah.
00:19:45
Speaker
And then the other one is feels very much more like a sort of journaling style of role playing game with writing prompts that have been gamified. Yeah. Do you like the kind of journaling solo games, things like Among the Stars, et cetera? No, I'm afraid of that. No. They're not my style of game. OK. I always favor crunchy style of games and more so when I'm playing solo.
00:20:15
Speaker
Sure. As many skills as possible. Yeah. I don't have to decide which skill should I use because it's there. It's right there. It's very clear. I want to make a history check. I know I use a history skill. Right. You don't have to make decisions that your character wouldn't have to make. Yeah, exactly. Interesting.
Upcoming Projects and Solo RPG Elements
00:20:40
Speaker
What is coming next for you? I assume you intend to keep making solo role-playing games. Yeah, it was fun and very easy and fast to make sacrifice without solo rules, but I corrected it immediately with the companion expansion and added the solo rules here because people were immediately saying, where are the solo rules? I said, okay, sorry, I'm not doing this again. I suppose if you have a reputation to follow,
00:21:10
Speaker
Yes. In any case, I have my tool set of Solar Rules, which are very easy to just take and adapt to the different games. That's what I'm doing with the... I did that with Godshard. I did that with Path of the Arm Theater, which is the next little game I have in the... Well, it's done it. I'm just waiting for the artist to finish the last few illustrations.
00:21:39
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. It's, I have like four or five illustrations missing and once, excuse me, once that, sorry. So let's talk about path. So what is,
00:21:56
Speaker
Yeah, so path of the RM theory is what I'm calling a progression fantasy RPG.
Path of the Iron Throne
00:22:04
Speaker
For those of you who are not familiar with progression fantasy, it's a sub-genre of a fantasy literature which focuses on character development and kind of this Chinese xianxia stories, which are really focused on cultivation and developing
00:22:23
Speaker
your power like all they shot in manga and anime that you can think of like Dragon Ball each all that is progression fantasy. Okay. I'm a big, big, big fan of that kind of things. Actually, one of the main reasons I love RPGs is character development. Okay. It's crucial for me to have a meaningful character progression system in a game.
00:22:47
Speaker
So I made a game focused on that. So the thing with Path of the Iron Throne, the setting is quite Celtic, Viking, at least aesthetically, maybe not so much in themes, but visually. And once you see the game, yes, you can see it's definitely drawing inspiration from all that kind of things.
00:23:13
Speaker
But the gameplay, I think it's fun. You have this warrior who goes around exploring a new continent. Well, new for them. It's an old land.
00:23:28
Speaker
which was blocked for your character and those like him for centuries. So you arrive to this new world and you see all this. You thought you were at the peak of your power and you see that you are nothing, but you see a way to improve yourself. And this is by defeating creatures which have, in this way, it's a little bit similar to Pokemon maybe, because you go defeating creatures to collect
00:23:59
Speaker
different powers which you can adapt to your personal path of progression. In a way, all characters are basically magicians because you all cast powers and you have
00:24:15
Speaker
I mean, you have the option of just being here with your sword, your spear, whatever, doing things. But yeah, you're going to be doing very high fantasy flying, throwing fireballs and becoming invisible, merging with shadows, all these kind of things. And the fun aspect is that is exploring, seeing which creatures you can find that have the kind of
00:24:41
Speaker
powers that you want so you can defeat more powerful opponents, because again, how it's in that way set a bit like an MMO. So it has the map is like divided in different sections.
00:24:57
Speaker
and with different character levels. So if you want to move to the next section, you need to be this precise level to be able to explore that. So yeah, it's
Community Engagement and Patreon
00:25:09
Speaker
exploration and progression. And that's the thing. If you like creating new and weird and very tailored characters, this is the game for you.
00:25:22
Speaker
OK, well, that's really interesting. I'm excited to now as a member of your Patreon, I've seen a pretty complete draft of it. And so anybody who wants to see it backing the Black Oath Patreon is well worth it. Alex is one of the most communicative Patreons I've ever backed, constantly updating and making sure people have access to their items. It's well worth.
00:25:51
Speaker
the the cost if you're at all interested in Alex's work. So check out the black with Patreon. I'll include a link in the show notes. Well, thanks. Sometimes I wonder if I'm too too informative because my weekly updates may be too much. But yeah, it's nice that they are appreciated. Yeah. So we've we've discussed some of your upcoming work. You're working on something now you've been talking about with Patreons.
00:26:22
Speaker
for is called Rift Breakers. Tell me about Rift Breakers. Well, this is a game I've been thinking about for quite a while. It's also what I'm calling small projects because my
00:26:42
Speaker
My main focus after my, well, you're familiar with it, across a thousand dead worlds, which was this big science fiction project. It was on Kickstarter last year and all that. So after that, my next big project was supposed
Rift Breakers: Concept and Inspiration
00:26:58
Speaker
to be Empire and Dying. But I've taken a little bit of a break to release all these smaller projects, which take me one, two months to write.
00:27:09
Speaker
because I'm having a lot of fresh ideas, and I don't want to let them waste. Something with Rift Breakers is heavily inspired by MMOs, like Woah, Warcraft, or Elder Scrolls Online, these kind of things. And in the sense that the focus of it is dungeon delving and crafting and character progression.
00:27:39
Speaker
So it has a very, very, very complex, but at the same time, very simple and intuitive system for character development, which you start by picking like four
00:27:56
Speaker
I call them hearts in the game. They are called hearts. They could be almost like classes because they each have this very distinct flavor. Like you have the Bastion heart, which is all protection style powers, or you have the shadow heart, which is like rogue type of powers of the arcane heart, which is more mage type of utility and spells.
00:28:24
Speaker
So you can choose four of those. In the game right now you have, I think it was 16. You can mix and match for whichever combination you want. And each one of those four hearts gives you a set of five powers. So you end up with a toolset in total of 20 powers.
00:28:49
Speaker
which you can, it's really customizable. You just choose which ones you want to use, which ones you have active. So that gives you a huge range of possibilities in character builds. And then the thing with the game is just, you wake up in the middle of a labyrinth without knowing who you are.
00:29:12
Speaker
where you come from, why are you there? You just don't know anything, you have complete amnesia. So while you explore that labyrinth, which is the character creation rules is done a bit like a tutorial for like starting zone in an MMO.
00:29:27
Speaker
So you go through this events that well you get gear you get the you learn about the hearts you you Gain a couple of hearts to start combining things so you start building your character there and then you're losing into the world you arrive to the capital capital city of the other region and There they explain to you that you are this what they call a stranger Sam
00:29:53
Speaker
a special powered human well it doesn't have to be human i mean by default
00:29:59
Speaker
They are all humans, because in my games, I don't like having other racist ancestries, whatever you want to call it. But you can be quite unusual looking. You have all these random tables. So the default is human, basic standard earth human. But you can end up with horns, or green skin, or being halfling size. I mean, you have all these variations. So yeah, you are considered human, but you can end up looking
00:30:29
Speaker
like something very weird. So it turns out that only those who come from the labyrinth have the power to use all these hearts, and they are the only ones who can deal with the rifts that are open all over the area.
00:30:45
Speaker
and just spitting out monsters and monsters and monsters. So your job as a stranger is to get into those rifts, explore them, find the Rift Lord, deal with him, and that way you close the rift. So these rifts are like kind of self-contained dungeons that can appear all over the area.
00:31:06
Speaker
So yeah,
Music Influence in RPGs
00:31:07
Speaker
I don't know. I think it's a fun little game. Kind of fun right now. Yeah. That's exciting. I've seen some of the previews and very interested to see what the final product looks like. I think there's a lot there to hang your hat on and explore. That'll be very interesting for players.
00:31:25
Speaker
Yeah, I think I'm coming up with a few quite original things like the crafting system. I don't think I ever seen anything like that in any RPG. And the follower system, I'm pretty happy with it, too. So I don't know. I think it has some cool ideas that people will like. Yeah, I would recommend everybody back to Patreon and check it out. I'm going to say that a lot today, it seems like.
00:31:51
Speaker
So Alex, aside from role playing games, you also have a significant interest and involvement in music as a musician. Yeah. So let's talk about that for a minute. How does music and your time as a musician influence your role playing game work?
00:32:09
Speaker
Well, I've been dealing with music pretty much all my life at this point. I mean, not as long as with RPGs, because I started in the early 90s, but very shortly after, mid-90s, I was already playing.
00:32:27
Speaker
Yeah, it's just a fundamental cornerstone of my life and it's unavoidable that at least aesthetically it will influence my role playing worlds and creations because, well, as you know, I'm
00:32:44
Speaker
I'm really into extreme metal and all things dark when it comes to music. So of course, if you do grab a God shard, there's no doubt what kind of influences I have. So yeah, it's all death metal, black metal, all these kinds of things. So they create this kind of...
00:33:06
Speaker
non-visual language and landscape that is just very easy to take and to transform into a setting. I mean, all the stoner doom and this kind of funeral doom music really influenced that, for example, Disciples of Bonanchado, which you can see a little bit through the aesthetic side of the covers and the setting, this desolate landscape. I mean, it's really
00:33:35
Speaker
Or at least for me, it really speaks of doom metal. Yes. The thing goes for God, Cheryl, this twisted, demonic, corrupted cults and weird things. It's all just death metal. It's that filthiness from death metal that I wanted to pour into the game. Okay.
00:34:01
Speaker
It's very interesting to me how influence impacts game design, both movies, books, but as well as music. I find some of my best inspiration in particular music or artists when I'm working.
00:34:17
Speaker
Yeah, I always make, at least for myself, a playlist for each kind of setting I want to work on. Some of them I share. I did share a few of the, for example, the Disciples of Bond and Shadow playlist was floating around there. The one for The Thousand Dead Worlds was also, I think that one is still linked on the Discord.
00:34:43
Speaker
OK, that's really interesting. I always make this this playlist for myself and then for others. Cool. Yeah, I'm a big fan of that. I think that's I think that's a great way to communicate how the creator sees the game.
00:34:57
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was even considering more than once recording some music for my games, but I don't know, I always end up not doing it. You should absolutely do that. I would love to hear what that sounds like. Yeah. For example, the trailer for the Kickstarter for the Seekers Beyond the Shroud, that one used one of my
00:35:27
Speaker
published albums or the one of the tracks. So, yeah, that's the closest I I've gone to. I've got to I got to to making some music for my games. But yeah, I get what happens in a later. I hope you do it one day. I would love to see it.
Influential RPGs and Impact
00:35:44
Speaker
Yeah. So what would you say are the five biggest or three biggest role playing game influences on you? You don't need to go into a lot of detail, but if folks wanted to know is sort of
00:35:56
Speaker
What inspires you that other folks have done? What games would you point them at?
00:36:02
Speaker
Well, definitely Stormringer or Stormringer slash Elric, whatever you, but yeah, for me it was more Stormringer because it was the one, that was the first RPG I bought. Well, I bought it with a birthday money because I was 12. So yeah, the first, at least in Spain it was this green cover Elric and this very iconic illustration of Elric.
00:36:33
Speaker
the green one. I'm sure, you know, I don't know. I think in the United States, the Michael Whelan cover, I have that copy on my shelf. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I have two of them actually. Oh, nice. Yeah. I love that. That game in that corner. I mean, that that's the game. I
00:36:48
Speaker
I started the most probably and I made so much content for that game. I made tons and tons. I think I developed almost every setting. I mean, every city that is mentioned in the book, I made maps for it and in the store, everything. I mean, it was years and years of
00:37:07
Speaker
homebrew campaigns for that game. A lot of content. So yeah, that one was definitely a big influence. Then design-wise, I will have to mention, of course, Roll Master, which is one of my favorite games, despite all the hated gates because of the crunchiness it has.
00:37:28
Speaker
I mean, like all people or most people, I started with Dungeons and Dragons. But the second we discovered Role Master, it was like, yeah, OK, no mansion magic. Why would we play Dungeons and Dragons when we can play this? It has much character options. Back then, I was in the GM. And we had a very, very, very good dedicated GM. So that was probably part of why it was so easy for me and my friends to get into it, because he really
00:37:57
Speaker
he really chewed all the rules for us. It was very easy to play. And then, I don't know, I'm not sure what I will... has big influences. I suppose Dungeons and Dragons, but no addition in particular, like just the game, the core rules. I think it's hard to escape D&D as an influence, no matter what, in a lot of ways, especially if you work in the fantasy space.
00:38:27
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's very easy to work with. Everybody's familiar with it. And it's fun. Regardless of the edition, I'm currently running a D&D campaign, and I call it that a D&D campaign because it's no edition. It's a mix of
00:38:47
Speaker
I've taken something from all editions and from a lot of the others are, of course. So it's my homebrew D&D game. So yeah, it's inescapable and it's fun. It works. So I guess my third game will be D&D. Well, there you go. All right. That's really interesting.
Unasked Interview Questions
00:39:07
Speaker
I warned you about some of these questions in advance because I wanted you to be prepared. So what is one question you've always wanted to answer in an interview that you've never been asked and that I'm going to ask you to answer it? I'm afraid I couldn't think of anything. No, that's fine. It's totally fine.
00:39:27
Speaker
I get that. I do remember in other interviews, thinking more than once, why they didn't ask about this and now I can't think of anything. Once you're on the hook, it's a lot harder to remember. Yeah, I've been thinking for it for the past half an hour and I just can't think of anything. So I'm sorry to do this. No, you're fine. You'll see the second we stop the interview, I'll say, oh yeah, this is what I wanted you to ask. Then we'll just have to schedule a follow-up in a couple of months.
00:39:57
Speaker
Yeah. And then last but not least, do you have any questions for
Alan's Work Habits and Game Design
00:40:02
Speaker
me? Anything you'd like to ask? Yeah, definitely. How the hell are you so prolific? How do you do it?
00:40:10
Speaker
Well, on top of that, maintaining good quality because it's not like you just spat out garbage. I mean, all your games are like, shit, this is a brilliant idea. Why don't you focus on it for half a year and make the best game ever? But no, you're like a machine gun of fresh ideas and settings. How do you do it?
00:40:32
Speaker
It's interesting. Yeah, I won. So in terms of getting the work done, I think those are two different questions. Right. One, where do the ideas come from and two, how do I get it done? Yeah. In terms of getting it done, I work like I don't go to movies. I don't go to concerts. I don't like as less. I'm I'm either working or I'm like spending time with my family or friends. Those are the things I do. Yeah. You know, and even when I read books or do watch movies, they're usually related to work.
00:41:02
Speaker
It's probably not the healthiest thing in the world. I'm into that same spiral for the past three, four months. If I'm at home and I'm not doing something, I'm probably going to my desk in the next five minutes and just working. As for the ideas, much like you, I think I just make the games I want to make.
00:41:29
Speaker
And I make the games I would want to play because I feel like if I want to play, there is enough people out there who want to play to justify me making it. And a lot of the times I'm a rules designer. I love making rules. I don't find settings as interesting as rules. Yeah. Because partially because everybody has a setting idea. Right. Like I know if I sell you a setting, you're going to change it anyway. So it kind of feels a little bit like I'm wasting my time to me.
00:41:59
Speaker
Whereas rules, I feel like that's the really interesting part of game development. And so a lot of my games come from me going, I have this idea for a rule, how can I justify using it? And often the answer is I've got to write a whole new game.
00:42:12
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So that's basically what I did with CodShirt. Because at least there's exploration rules and ideas. I say, okay, what kind of setting will fit this? But I'm afraid it's mostly that's we get it the other way around. Because when I talk to people, they definitely prefer settings over rules. And
00:42:32
Speaker
And most people just even want setting rules, but at the same time, they don't want this gigantic tomes of 500 pages detailed settings. So yeah, in that sense, it's tricky to get the right balance. Yes, sometimes people are like, I would like to buy a setting, but also I don't want too much setting. I need you to figure out how much I want and then sell it to me.
00:42:57
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. I think the answer, or at least what I'm thinking that works for me is setting that it's explained passively either through lots and lots and lots of tables or the
00:43:12
Speaker
kind of a world building you do when you describe a magic item or a person. I mean, you do this quite often as well. So when you describe this item, you maybe mention, okay, it was created by this clan of nomads in the whatever market. And you don't mention those mountains in that clan ever again in the book, but you know it's part of the game. So people get their ideas.
00:43:40
Speaker
I mean, it sits there and it sets a precedent for people to work with. Right, the implicit versus explicit divide. Yeah, thank you for... Yeah, that's something I dramatically lean into with the shadows of a dying sun. I really tried hard to say...
00:43:57
Speaker
The game doesn't need to tell you about the setting because the rules and all the pieces that are in the book will already tell you without me writing it all down for you. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's a cool passive way of world building and then the tables and tables and tables that everybody loves a bunch of tables, at least in the in the OSR scene. We're all fans of tables. Yeah.
00:44:22
Speaker
I until recently have hated making tables. I'm finding them more enjoyable lately, though I admit I still eventually look at them and go, I'm done with this. This is too much table. Yeah, no, I personally it's it's dreadful for me. It's when when I'm making a new game is like.
00:44:41
Speaker
80% of the time spent on that kind of content. I mean, the rules iron out in a week or two, and then the rest of the time is just writing the, because I'm so bad at it. It takes forever to come up with cool ideas. So yeah, I hope people appreciate them.
00:45:02
Speaker
Well, I can tell you that I
Connecting and Closing Remarks
00:45:04
Speaker
do and I find your work incredibly inspiring and I'm looking forward to getting more of it to the table and just in taking it to help me become a better designer. So thank you for all your hard work. Well, thank you for being a constant inspiration too, for sure. Well, I appreciate that. That's very kind. Alex, if folks want to find you online or support you, what is the best way to do that?
00:45:31
Speaker
Yeah, so the best way will be just directly going to my website, which is blackhousegames.com.
00:45:40
Speaker
And there you have all the links, especially to my Patreon, I mean, sorry, well, Patreon too, but the Discord, which I live there, except where I'm sleeping, I'm always there. So if you want to contact me, I'm there all the time. So I'm also on Twitter, although that's more of my personal account. So if you don't want to hear about politics or veganism, don't go there.
00:46:10
Speaker
Yeah, if you want to focus on games, go to Discord, my website, and I guess Facebook, even though I'm not a big fan. Oh, yeah, I'm also on Instagram. Everybody, you can find me as Blackout Games or Blackout Entertainment. But yeah, just go to my site and you have all the links there. Well, Alex, thank you so much for coming on, and I really appreciate it. Thank you for having me. It's been very fun.
00:46:35
Speaker
Good. All right, folks, I'm Alan Barr. This is my guest, Alex T. of Black Oath Entertainment, and this has been Radio Free RPG.