A Role Playing Games Blog
Interview
Interview: Sean Preston
3October 13, 2011
I first met Sean Preston at Gen Con 2010. I think I had exchanged a few emails with him before that, but it would be exaggerated if I said I knew him. I was actually waiting to speak with the guys from Crafty Games when I noticed that Reality Blurs occupied the neighboring booth. So I approached Sean, introduced myself and asked him to tell me about his latest product which was Iron Dynasty at the time. I don’t remember how long we actually talked but I quickly learned that Sean is not only a creative writer and game designer but also a great guy. He’s definitely among the people that impressed me the most back then. Until this day we keep contact, some of you might actually have been involved in our extensive Twitter conversations. The rest is – as they say – history. 
Sean’s latest project is “Agents of Oblivion”, a roleplaying game setting for use with Savage Worlds that combines the modern espionage genre with horror elements. But I think Sean can explain this better than I can, so I asked him to answer a couple of questions for us.Stargazer: Thanks again for taking your time to answer a couple of questions about Reality Blurs in general and Agents of Oblivion in particular. It’s an honor to have you. So, let’s start with AoO. What exactly is it about?
Sean: Agents of Oblivion is what we like to call “the perfect cocktail of horror and espionage”. Heck, we believe this so much we put it on the cover as the tagline. Now, before anyone thinks we’re being cocky or anything, we know everyone’s definition of the perfect cocktail may differ, so we cheated a bit by providing you with all the ingredients to mix your own, suitable to your own refined palate. For those who’ve followed us for a number of years, you know we are all about providing sandboxes and allowing you the freedom to customize the game and still have all the pieces work together without any hassle. At its core, Agents of Oblivion is a spy game with conspiracies and aliens and rival organizations and magic and things that go bump in the night. Well, that’s how I play it. We provide seven different campaign styles—cocktail recipes to extend the metaphor—you can tailor to your own sensibilities.
Interview: Sarah Newton
1October 5, 2011
Some of you might still remember my review of Legends of Anglerre which I posted a while ago. While reading this book I thought it would be a blast to do an interview with its lead writer and editor Sarah Newton. Luckily Sarah agreed to answer a couple of question for us.
Stargazer: Thanks for taking your time to answer a few questions for our blog, Stargazer’s World. Let’s start with a couple of questions about you. Can you please tell our readers who you you are? I especially would like to know what your first roleplaying game was and how you came to work in the RPG industry.
Sarah: My name’s Sarah Newton, and I work for Cubicle 7 as head of their editorial team and line developer and house writer on the Starblazer Adventures, Legends of Anglerre, Cthulhu Britannica, and World War Cthulhu lines. I’m also responsible for their translated games, including Qin and the upcoming Yggdrasil. I’ve been gaming for (cough cough) over thirty years, and am absolutely passionate about the hobby. I began with Tunnels and Trolls back in 1980 – the old pink "Buffalo Castle" was the very first RPG product I ever bought, even before the rules, and I ended up having to make my own rules to play it! After that I got into Traveller, RuneQuest, Dungeons and Dragons (White Box then AD&D), and then pretty much all major RPGs right up to the present day, with the exception of White Wolf, which for some reason I kind of missed – I’ve only recently discovered Exalted, though I like it a lot.
Airship Pirates Interview
2September 29, 2011
Today we have a chat with “Captain” Robert Brown of Abney Park and Peter Cakebread and Ken Walton of Cakebread & Walton. They agreed to answer a few questions about the recently released Abney Park’s Airship Pirates (among other things) with us.
Stargazer: Let’s start with the inevitable introductions. Could you please tell our readers who you are and what your part in the development of Airship Pirates was?
Peter: Hi, I’m Peter Cakebread, one half of Cakebread & Walton, a UK company whose RPG books are published by Cubicle 7. I co-wrote the Airship Pirates RPG with Ken Walton.
Ken: And I’m Ken Walton.
Captain Robert: I’m “Captain” Robert. The world of Airship Pirates is based on my work. I’ve been writing and releasing albums for 20 years, and the lyrics of those often seem set in a very unique retro sci-fi world. When Peter and Ken first approached me with the idea of making this world the setting of an RPG I was already working on a novel. I sent them the novel, and the lyrics, and then I helped gather and organise illustrators (I did some of the illustrations myself, including the cover art) and I did the graphic design of the game book.
Interview: Iain Lowson
0August 10, 2011
Dark Harvest – Legacy of Frankenstein really struck me by surprise. Before I found it in my mailbox I never even heard of it and it was of the best written games I’ve read in a while. I wanted to learn more about the person who came up with all these awesome ideas and so I asked Iain Lowson if he was willing to answer a couple questions for us. And luckily he was more than happy to do so:
Stargazer: Thanks again for taking your time to answer a couple of questions for Stargazer’s World. Let’s start with some introductions. Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Iain: Never quite know what to say to that. Erm… I’m a 43 year old Scottish freelance writer, and I’ve been doing this writing thing full time for about 15 years now. Long enough that I can’t quite remember when I started. I write for anyone who pays me, and can turn my hand to most things. My CV is the kind of eclectic mix that only a jobbing writer can justify, as my LinkedIn profile can attest.
I’m disappointed that, despite my best efforts, I’ve yet to be directly vilified by the Daily Mail. I mean, dammit guys, I write for the console games industry, write twisted horror RPGs, I’m an atheist, utterly despise the current government, and was brought up by a single parent, hard working mother! C’mon! Open goal!!
Interview with Jeremy Keller
5June 9, 2011
Recently I have been posting a lot about Technoir, the upcoming cyberpunk RPG by Jeremy Keller. This game has impressed me tremendously and actually made me sign up for Kickstarter, so I could help Jeremy fund this project.
By the way, the Technoir Kickstarter project has almost reached it’s current $10,000 goal. Check out this page to find out what it’s all about! (Editor’s note: The $10,000 goal has been reached while this post was waiting to be published.)
A few days ago I asked Jeremy if he was willing to answer a few question for us and he agreed. So without further ado, enjoy the Q&A!
Lazy Friday Video Post: “Mike Mearls talks about the future of D&D”
6Check out what Mike Mearls, who is currently in charge of D&D development, told us about the future of D&D. You probably won’t believe a few of the changes they have in store for us!
What do you think? Will this change what we think about D&D? Do you intend to give 5th Edition a chance? As always all your comments are highly appreciated.
Interview with Green Ronin’s Jon Leitheusser
2March 15, 2011
Jon Leitheusser
Anyone who is a fan of Mutants & Masterminds or DC ADVENTURES has probably seen the Threat Reports that Green Ronin has been putting out lately. Threat Reports are 99 cent downloadable PDFs for Mutants & Masterminds 3rd edition. They contain a quick little story about a bad guy and their stats allowing GMs to use them in their M&M games. I recently got the chance to interview one of the creative minds behind the Threat Reports, Jon Leitheusser and ask him where the idea behind Threat Reports came from. I also got to ask question about what it’s like to work with Green Ronin and what future projects he is working on.
Youseph Tanha: I want to thank you very much for taking the time to do this interview with me. It seems like there are never enough interviews like this in my opinion and I really appreciate you making the time.
Jon Leitheusser: You bet!
Youseph: Why don’t you tell me a little bit about yourself? Where you grew up?
Jon: Well, I grew up in Burlington Wisconsin. Which is sort of on the South Eastern corner of the state not far from the Illinois border. Actually its ten miles away from lake Geneva which is where D&D was created. I went to school there (Burlington) and high school there. I went to college in Madison and the UW. I ended up spending 14 years there. Not in school, in Madison.
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