Pulp Gamer » Inside Track

Listen to the table-top gaming industry’s leading professionals share themselves and talk about the business behind the scenes. We also encourage our guests to share stories on their latest developments and sometimes get some sneak peaks at what is yet to come. Topics include board games, card games, and roleplaying games.

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Inside Track 044: Aaron Williams

PGIT 044: Aaron Williams [23:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Derek had the long awaited opportunity to talk to Aaron Williams at the GAMA Trade show. We have all been fans of Aaron’s work for a long time. You have probably seen it on a variety of products but most directly from Nodwick, Full Frontal Nerdity, and Ps228. As always, it was a great visit. Aaron is someone we will always look forward to seeing again. Find more about Aaron at nodwick.com

Aaron Williams’ first cartoon was published in Dragon magazine in 1989. He was 19 years old, and it was drawn on typing paper with a flair-tipped pen. He’s come a long way since then. His work has been published in Dragon Magazine, Dungeon Magazine, and Amazing Stories. While starting his career in cartooning, he worked as an artist for Southwestern Bell Yellow Pages. In 2000 he took a leap and decided to take the Nodwick cartoon strip he’d created and turn it into a comic book. It’s the story of a henchman used and abused by his companions on their many quests to save the world, find treasure, and right the wrongs done by evil.

His latest efforts are to be found both in print and all over the internet. Ps238 is a comic book that also publishes pages on the web at ps238.com. It’s an all-ages look at the first public school for the children of superheroes.

Full Frontal Nerdity is a webcomic about four guys (one represented by a webcam) who delve into all things geeky, including role-playing games, movies, TV, and whatever else the elite classes of fandom are into these days.

Crispygamer.com hosts his strip, Backward Compatible. Primarily centering on video games, the cast includes the CrispyGamer staff, their writers, and anyone who has an impact on what happens when you press a “start” button.

When not cartooning or surfing the web blog-fodder, Aaron is often dragged out into the sunlight by his loving wife to both broaden his horizons and prevent his transformation into a Morlock.

Inside Track 043: Anthony Gallela and the Game Manufacturer’s Association

PGIT 043: Anthony Gallela [27:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We welcome Anthony Gallela to todays show and get involved in a lot of conversation about the benefits of the Game Manufacturer’s Association (GAMA). We had a great time at the GAMA Trade show. You can expect to see the seminars posted very soon.

Anthony has been involved in games and gaming in one way or another for some 30 years. He started as a consumer, playing D&D and Avalon Hill and SPI games in elementary school. In high school, Anthony played just about every game he could find. He also began running gaming events at Sci-Fi conventions.

In his late teens, Anthony moved on to running whole game programs at Sci-Fi conventions, and was play-testing games as well. He began learning the ins and outs of event management through this work and also through running teen events and mall fashion shows. In 1993, Anthony published the Theatrix dice-less role-playing game with some friends under the banner of Backstage Press, and in 1994, he started running the ManaFest game convention in the San Francisco Bay Area with Japji Khalsa. He also helped to open an manage a retail game store in the Bay Area in the mid-90s. Between all of these projects, Anthony worked in most other areas of entertainment–film, T.V., stage, music, newspapers, and magazines. He also did a great deal of marketing and business consulting–somewhere in there earning a degree in Journalism and several management training and teaching certificates.

He also spent the 90s writing articles for gaming publications, consulting on game design, brokering games, designing board games(he is the co-designer, with Japji Khalsa, of the Origins Award-nominated Dwarven Dig! from Kenzer and Co.) and running conventions–the most notable being KublaCon, (formally ManaFest), his share of which he eventually sold to his partner.

Anthony has worked for GAMA since 2001, starting as the Event Coordinator and moving up to land in the Executive Director spot in 2004. As the Executive Director for GAMA, Anthony oversees the running Origins Game Expo, GAMA Trade show, and several industry programs. He still does some consulting and designing (look for Tales of the Arabian Nights, 3rd Edition, from Z-Man Games), and he has a few other interests as well.

Inside Track 042: Skip Williams

PGIT 042: Skip Williams [29:10m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We were very excited to have arranged a meeting with Skip Williams. He had an impact on many years of our lives. Skip is a co-owner in Crystal Unicorn Enterprises where you can find his forums. A bunch of his and Penny’s work can be found in the Vicious Venues Archive. He also mentions some fiction in Time Twisters. Apart from today’s show, you can learn more about Skip Williams in an entertaining interview with Monte Cook.

Skip Williams professes a love of old things, such as classic Hollywood movies, musty old books, vintage airplanes, his wife, Penny, and the century-old farmhouse he shares with her-though not necessarily in that order.

Skip has numerous role-playing game credits, and has dabbled in many other things. Skip pens the Ask the Kobold feature in Kobold Quarterly and has recently completed a work for Dungeon Magazine.

When not contriving dire plots to bedevil role-players, Skip putters in his vegetable garden and orchard (which keep many deer and rabbits fed), and works to reclaim the fields around the farmhouse from the obstinate weeds that blanket them. He also paints toy soldiers.

The Williams house is the site of an annual Christmas cookie bake that draws friends from both sides of the Atlantic; it’s also the permanent home to a growing pride of unruly housecats.

Inside Track 041: Martin Wallace

PGIT 041: Martin Wallace [31:50m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Martin Wallace has been designing some outstanding game titles since the mid 90s. Some you will recognize include La Strada, Runebound, Age of Steam, and Struggle of Empires. His work can be seen on the shelves from several different publishers, including his own company, Warfrog Games. He loves to work with historical themes and has an educational background which inspires some great conversation in today’s show.

The game that got the most attention today was Toledo. It is scheduled for release in June of 2008. In keeping with Martin’s love of historical themes, we work in 17th century Toledo, Spain to gather the right resources and have the finest and most beautiful swords crafted to present to the emperor. Toledo sounds like a dangerous place where protecting your honor may require some swordplay. We will be looking closer at Toledo very soon.

Inside Track 040: Guido Teuber and Gavin Allister of Catan

PGIT 040: Catan [36:22m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We have been looking forward to talking to Guido Teuber and Gavin Allister of Catan, LLC. We have been enjoying a variety of games at PlayCatan for a while now and now have the chance to let Guido and Gavin share them with you. We even have some links to share with you to download the Catan Online beta clients so you can start playing today.

Guido Teuber grew up in the world of Catan as a subject of playtesting for his father, Klaus Teuber, and later to take on roles inside the company of this successful line of games. He is now a managing director for Catan, LLC, the United States wing of the Catan World. Gavin got his start in the Catan world by translating German for us English speaking folk and now serves as the community manager for the online world.

Apart from Catan Online that you play in, we also talked about several web games that don’t require a client download. The popular one is Catan Dice Game, which is also about to be released as a physical product. You can also play Oceania, Starship Catan Light and Multicatan. They’ll give you a challenge and a brief break, and a chance to sample the games before buying their physical counterparts.

Make sure to join us for the Catan Online world with the client software. Remember this is not an official version but still in beta testing. It is playable and an absolute blast, but you may find a few lingering translation errors. Enjoy, and we will see you inside the world of Catan.

Inside Track 039: Wolfgang Baur of Kobold Quarterly

PGIT 039: Wolfgang Baur [40:05m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Today we have the honor if sitting down with Wolfgang Baur. Wolfgang is responsible for the Open Design project and Kobold Quarterly. If you are missing the fun and adventure adventure of Dungeon and Dragon magazine, subscribe to Kobold Quartery. Wolfgang also mentions his Open Design blog as a good place to visit for more information.

Wolfgang Baur has been kicking around the tabletop RPG field for 15 years, and he joined TSR as a magazine editor back in the early 90s. He edited both Dragon and Dungeon for a while, and worked at Wizards of the Coast for several years before going freelance. Wolfgang has written settings like Dark*Matter and contributed to Planescape, but he’s best known for his many adventures from Al-Qadim to Pathfinder to “Kingdom of the Ghouls” and a recent ENnie-nominee. Now he’s setting his sights on changing how D&D adventures are written and published. Let’s call him a mild-mannered revolutionary with his sights set on giving gamers direct access to the tools of design.

During the course of today’s show, we also mention The Cannon Puncture Show and The Tome. Each have recently talked to Wolfgang. We also found him on Gamer Radio Zero. Be sure to visit them for more of the Kobold Cheif.

Inside Track 038: Joseph Goodman of Goodman Games

PGIT 038: Joseph Goodman [40:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We are joined today by Joseph Goodman. We dove into some new business with 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons and quite a bit about coming releases such as GM Gems, Eldritch, and Haiiii Ya! Post show discussion continues on an “explain it to your mom” discussion where Jeremiah credits Fear the Boot for some great explanations of role-playing games.

Joseph Goodman founded Goodman Games in 2001. He is the creator of the Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure modules, author of DragonMech, and publisher of too many products to keep track of. He lives in Chicago, IL with his wife and dog, where he spends his spare time reading, writing, and fighting. His amateur boxing record is 2-0.

Inside Track 037: Jamie Chambers of Margaret Weis Productions

PGIT 037: Jamie Chambers [47:35m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

A native of the kudzu-covered hills of north Georgia, Jamie Chambers began playing role-playing games at the age of seven - cutting his teeth on the “red box” set of Dungeons & Dragons. A few years later (and an upgrade to “Advanced”), he ran his very first campaign for fellow sixth-graders: the original Dragonlance modules. A few years later he began playing science-fiction, using a homebrew modification of Traveller called the “Space Dungeon.” Jamie played a young mechanic on a beat-up old spaceship making cargo and smuggling runs, the crew managing to get into trouble wherever they went.

Years later, Jamie is still involved with both fantasy and science-fiction gaming. He now works as the Vice President of Margaret Weis Productions (overseeing the Dragonlance role playing line, the Serenity Role Playing Game, and the upcoming Battlestar Galactica Role Playing Game). He also has authored game products for Wizards of the Coast, Elmore Productions, and Fast Forward Entertainment, and wrote articles for Dragon Magazine, Games Unplugged, and Campaign Magazine. Jamie contributed to Search for Power and Dragons in the Archives, two fiction anthologies published by Wizards of the Coast, and also wrote the appendices to the books in the Dark Disciple Trilogy by Margaret Weis.

Jamie is currently hard at work overseeing two companies and their respective game lines, developing new projects both in games and fiction. He lives in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin (the birthplace of hobby roleplaying games) with his wife, Renae, and three children: Melanie, Elizabeth, and Alexander.

Inside Track 036: Dave Arneson

PGIT 036: Dave Arneson [34:42m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Dave Arneson joins us and has some great stories to tell. With Dave being the co-founder of Dungeons & Dragons, you might expect that we would inquire about the origins and role-playing. You would be correct, but we are even more interested in what Dave is doing now. He teaches game design (one of our favorite subjects) at a school in Florida called Full Sail. He frequently makes it home for the holidays in Jeremiah’s neck of the woods where they might run into each other at a popular game store called The Source.

Dave proudly runs the longest role-playing campaign in the world. It helps that he is the father of the hobby. You can participate in the massively mutliplayer version and get the core books through his company, Zeitgeist Games. Apart from Blackmoor, zeitgeist specializes in computer game design.

Inside Track 035: Jess Hartley

PGIT 035: Jess Hartley [31:29m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We are joined today by Jess Hartley as we partake in the activities of a regular game day at the Espresso Art Cafe in Tucson, Arizona. Our visit was absolutely spectacular. We talked about everything from her freelance work with white wolf to her new life in a beautiful southern Arizona town called Bisbee.

She is the creator of “Forsoothly Spoken,” a regular feature with Renaissance Magazine, which also publishes many of her articles and book reviews. Her first novel, In Northern Twilight, was a Runner-Up for Pen & Paper’s 2004 Fan Awards in the category of Best RPG-Related Novel/Anthology.

Jess has co-authored a number of roleplaying games and rpg supplements for White Wolf Game Studio, including Changeling: The Lost, and several projects for the World of Darkness, Mage: The Awakening, Werewolf: The Forsaken, Promethean: The Created, Exalted and Scion game lines.

She has edited several roleplaying games, including The Lemurian Candidate written by Andrew Kenrick of SteamPower Publishing, which was nominated for an ENnie in the category of Best Adventure in 2006. She was the developer of World of Darkness: Reliquary and is currently editing Rogue Game’s Thousand Suns.

A life-long native of the Pacific Northwest, she spent the last few years in New England, and now has been transplanted to Southeastern Arizona, where she dwells with her husband and youngest daughter and a menagerie of other interesting creatures.

Inside Track 034: Steve Jackson

PGIT 034: Inside Track [40:18m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We get into a lot of great topics today with Steve Jackson of Steve Jackson Games, to include some coming new releases of the popular Munchkin series. We had a great time and received a wealth of things to check out over the web. Be sure to visit these links:

Sign up to play UltraCorps. You start with one planet to explore and expand to hundreds more. Your opponents will be fighting against you to do the same.
Steve Jackson publishes the online ezine, Pyramid.
You will also want to listen Fnordcast, for more gaming goodies.
The crew at Steve Jackson Games plays Puzzle Pirates. Steve does not hesitate to invite us to play.
Make sure to check out the new releases!

Steve Jackson, founder and editor-in-chief of Steve Jackson Games, has been playing games for over 30 years, and professionally designing since 1976. Born in Tulsa, he went to high school, and then to Rice University, in Houston. His classroom work was mediocre; he gave most of his attention to the school paper (he was editor for two years) and to late-night wargame sessions - both of which proved far more valuable than the schoolwork! He has survived involvements with the Republican Party (alternate delegate to the 1972 convention), the SCA (former landed baron and co- editor of the first Known World Handboke) and law school (escaping before the bar exam).

Steve’s first professional design work was for Metagaming, which published his Ogre, G.E.V., Melee, Wizard, and several other games. In 1980, Steve bought The Space Gamer magazine from Metagaming and started his own company. Success was immediate, with his Raid on Iran game. The next year, Steve Jackson Games released Car Wars . . . followed shortly by Illuminati, and later by GURPS, the “Generic Universal Roleplaying System.” In 1983, he was elected to the Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame - the youngest person ever so honored. He has personally won eleven Origins Awards, and several more have gone to the company at large.

In 1990 and 1991, Steve got international press due to the Secret Service’s unconstitutional invasion of his office and confiscation of equipments and manuscripts. SJ Games filed suit against the Secret Service and the U.S. government, and won more than $50,000 in damages. Steve remains intermittently active with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, in hopes of preventing further intrusions against other computer users.

He now spends a good deal of his time helping to manage Steve Jackson Games Incorporated, which at the moment employs 25 people. But he continues to write, as well. His current big hit is Munchkin, a very silly card game about killing monsters and taking their stuff. His current projects include a lot of Munchkin follow-ups, the online game UltraCorps, and the continuing quest to get his games translated into digital form. He likes pirates, Lego, Lego pirates, Kahlua, sushi, and playing games.

Steve is a longtime SF fan, and gets away to cons when he can. He writes filksongs (adequately) and sings (very badly). He is a confirmed Internet addict. His other hobbies include gardening, dinosaurs, Lego and tropical fish. In his copious free time, he reads, eats and sleeps.

Inside Track 033: Bobby Stickel of Sabertooth Games

PGIT 033: Bobby Stickel [23:10m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Today we kick back with Bobby Stickel of Sabertooth Games and have a great time. We talk mostly about Sabertooth’s Universal Fighting System. It is a fighting card game where you can pit fighters against each other from popular video games. This system has the coolest prize in gaming. If you win a big event, you can have a tournament legal character card with your likeness on it. It doesn’t get much cooler than that. Make sure to get your free demo deck and give it a try for yourself.

Bobby is the Head of Marketing & Customer Service for Sabertooth Games. He has a hand in promotions, publicity, advertising, organized play, graphic design, sales, and customer service for the Universal Fighting System. His base of operations is down in Memphis, TN where there are lots of games and lots of barbeque, but no games about barbeque!Sabertooth games exclusively serves the core hobby market. The support for their game is outstanding. You can even request a free demo from them. Retailer packages are also available.

Inside Track 032: Mike Selinker and Lone Shark Games

PGIT 032: Mike Selinker [44:47m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Today we kick back with Mike Selinker and have an obvious good time. Some topics include the Guardian 6 events at Gen Con, Cowpoker, drinking, geocaching, curling, Mendel’s law, and the suspicious performance by James Ernest. Also, for our fellow Stongehenge fans, we mention the Stonehenge Library. Be sure and pay it a visit to download more games for Stonehenge. Oh, and don’t forget the Nocturne Expansion.

Mike Selinker is the president of Lone Shark Games, Inc., the design studio behind games like Pirates of the Spanish Main, Stonehenge, and Gloria Mundi. He is the former creative director at Wizards of the Coast, where he helped revitalize Axis & Allies, Dungeons & Dragons, and the occasional game without an ampersand. His happy crew of mercenaries includes James Ernest, Teeuwynn Woodruff, and many other game creators and hedgehogs. You can check out more at www.lonesharkgames.com.

Another of the games in today’s discussion was Key Largo. It is 1899 and you have limited time before the hurricane hits to explore as many shipwrecks as you can and sell the found treasure to the locals. It was created Paul Randles and developed by Mike Selinker and Bruno Faidutti. Titanic Games will be releasing the English version in November of 2007.

Mike also shares a peek at his and several other contributions to the coming book, Hobby Games: The 100 Best. The top names in the industry choose and share their favorite games and what makes them special. Green Ronin releases the book in August 2007.

Inside Track 031: Jeremy Stomberg of Fantasy Flight Games

PGIT Jeremy Stomberg [32:47m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

It is with great pleasure that we were able to talk to Jeremy Stomberg. With Jeremy’s love for games, he is a natural fit for marketing at Fantasy Flight Games. We were able to spend some time with him during the last day of Gen Con to talk about Fantasy Flight and some of their treasures.

Tannhouser was talked about at good length. It is an alternate history of 1949 where World War 1 has not ended. Jeremy compares and contrasts it to the coming release of Dust, where World War II hasn’t ended and Nazi expeditions are uncovering some remarkable technology making the world a much different and very violent place.

From one game to another, the Mutant Chronicles live on. This time, as a collectible miniatures game from Fantasy Flight Games. Its set in a dark and brutal future. Megacorporations war across the terraformed planets of the solar system for resources. This game has caught a lot of attention and is expecting to be on shelves very soon.

The big games that had people lining up from around the corner at Gen Con were Tide of Iron and StarCraft. Like all of the big games by Fantasy Flight, these are an impressive armful of quality components.

We also had the honor during today’s show of announcing our acceptance of the Parsec Award for Best Gaming Podcast. We wish to thank the everyone involved with the Parsec Awards for the recognition, a fabulous ceremony, and their contribution to the podcasting community.

Inside Track 030: Peter Adkison and Gen Con

PGIT 030: Peter Adkison [54:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Peter made a special appearance during our podcasting track at Gen Con to subject himself to interview by Jeremiah Lynch and the live audience. We all learned quite a lot, both from and about Peter. He is a jovial and open personality, a successful business man, and a gamer like the rest of us.

Peter Adkison has been an avid gamer all his life. He started off playing family games as a child and has never lost his love of games since that time. In 1978, Peter discovered Dungeons & Dragons and has been a dedicated player of roleplaying games ever since. His favorite games are Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, and Formula D.

Peter’s early educational background was as a graduate of Walla Walla College in 1985 with a BS in Computer Science. After college, he worked for Boeing for six years as a systems analyst. About half way through his Boeing stint, he and some friends founded Wizards of the Coast. After Magic: The Gathering was released in 1993, Wizards had enough money to hire Peter full time and move out of his basement into a real office. Peter continued on as CEO, growing the company exponentially until January 2001 when he sold it to Hasbro.

During his tenure at Wizards, Peter earned a few design credits, including authoring of The Primal Order, some work on Magic: The Gathering in the early days, and, his proudest accomplishment, setting the overall direction and design for 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons. During this time Peter also returned to school to earn his MBA.

Since “retiring” in 2001, Peter made his debut back into the gaming industry by purchasing an entity he always favored—Gen Con a game fair from his old company, Wizards of the Coast. Gen Con, LLC produces the largest consumer fantasy, sci-fi and adventure game convention in North America. Its’ operations include: Gen Con Indy, Star Wars Celebration IV, and licensees for European and Asia Pacific Gen Con shows. In addition, Peter is CEO of Hidden City Games the creator, manufacturer and marketer for the gaming industries first throwing game—Clout and an innovative new card game for girls with an electronic component called Bella Sara.

When not gaming, Peter enjoys rock climbing, dancing, snowboarding, travel, and spending time with friends and family. Peter is married to Melissa Reis Adkison and lives in Seattle.

Inside Track 029: 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons with Scott Rouse and Bill Slavicsek

PTIT 029: Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition [28:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

One of the biggest announcements of Gen Con was the coming release of the 4th edition of Dungeons & Dragons. To get the inside scoop, Jeremiah was able to get some time from the brand manager of D&D, Scott Rouse, and the director of R&D for this and several Wizards of the Coast projects, Bill Slavicsek.

The 4th edition of Dungeons & Dragons will include the books we are accustomed to but also include online content. This content and more information about 4th edition is available at Dungeons & Dragons Insider. Also, be sure to check out the YouTube Teaser Video.

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