[Q&A] Brian Saliba (Dr. Grordbort’s Scientific Adventure Violence)

[7:36 PM] Crowbar Creative: I’m Brian from Crowbar Creative. Our newest thing, which is funding now on Kickstarter, is called Dr. Grordbort’s Scientific Adventure Violence. It’s a pulp scifi setting and supplement for 5e based on the comics and universe created by Greg Broadmore of Weta Workshop. done

[Q&A] Clipper Arnold (Nebula Chaos)

[7:32 PM] Polyhedra Games: My name is Clipper Arnold, I’m the lead game designer and writer at Polyhedra Games, an independent and DIY-minded RPG and board game publisher based in Brooklyn. I created the action movie inspired tabletop RPG Justice Velocity, wrote The Plagued Crypt of Helvete (a third party Mork Borg module), helped publish Tourmaline Valley Tritonia (a 5e adventure game about a touring fantasy band), and am proud to announce our newest game, NEBULA CHAOS, which is now on Kickstarter1

[7:33 PM] Polyhedra Games: I’m a writer/artist/musician in general with a day job, but that’s about the current extent of my TTRPG and board game contributions at the moment

[7:35 PM] Polyhedra Games: Nebula Chaos is an absurd sci-fi/space opera tabletop RPG. It runs on the same core engine as Justice Velocity – something that we’ve dubbed the Polyhedra Core System. This is the second entry with that system, though there are more to come. Nebula Chaos is a technicolor, planet-hopping adventure game with the volume cranked to 11. It’s meant to be quick, cinematic, and easy to play, but robust enough to adapt and create a variety of characters, aliens, worlds, etc. This particular project I’ve been working on off and on for a few years, but the core system has been developed over roughly a decade.

[Q&A] René Lausdahl (Academy of Heroes)

[1:03 PM] Lausdahl: my name is René Lausdahl and I live in Denmark. I am an educator and the main creator of the game system Academy of Heroes. The Academy of Heroes is a role-playing system created for kids and first timers. It is made to be able to interduce, especially kids, to the fantastic world of TTRPG, through which they will be able to experience success, friendships and learn from each other. The rules are very simple and created to both be a challenge and at the same time not to make things too complicated with too many rules and interpretation possibilities. The focus of the system is on the role-playing game and the game will be able to be inserted into most fantasy worlds. The base system uses D10 and has recognizable elements such as health, energy, abilities, and equipment. However, it also varies as there are many stats: combat, defence, energy, life, reach and stride. The rule book itself is short and in A5 size. To make the rules as easy as possible, but still include a degree of progression, the base rules are built around 4 basic hero types: warrior, thief, archer and mage. Each of these can be upgraded in 3 different ways in the Epic ruleset, which right now will first be available through stretch goals, or later (after the Basic edition is released). There are also cards included with the game which will have all the information you need, in relation to your equipment, your abilities or your opponents. There will also be an adventure book, in which there will be a lot of stories and challenges that the heroes will have to overcome. Each individual story will have things that the heroes will have to do, things that they can find and opportunities where choices must be made and where you have to take the consequences of your choices. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/academy-of-heroes/academy-of-heroes

[Q&A] Ash Hauenschild & Richard Kelly (Sunderwald)

[7:32 PM] Richard: Hi! I’m Richard (@ SprintingOwl) and I’m a writer and designer on Sunderwald and a variety of other projects. I’ve previously written games about vampire migration (Dawnline) and fishing (Rod Reel & Fist) and I’m happy to have the opportunity to talk about Sunderwald today. (done)

[7:34 PM] ash-longtailgames: Hiya – I’m Ash and I started Long Tail Games. It’s pitched as an ‘experimental tabletop games publisher’ which basically means I’m looking for projects that push the envelope in some way. If at least one person is convinced this is the dumbest idea ever, it’s probably a good fit for me. Previous things are A Divorce of Druids, Tiny Tome, and Tiny Library. (done)

[Q&A] Jean Bhérer-Simard (Sleepless RPG: Beyond Sanity)

[7:34 PM] JBSdm: Hi! I’m Jean Bhérer-Simard, I’m a guy born in the mid-80s in Québec (Canada), so I’m french-canadian. I’ve been creating TTRPGs since 1995 (age 11), I always preferred creating settings and systems that fostered awesome immersion over playing complex games with ready-made modules.

[7:36 PM] JBSdm: Since early 2022 I’ve been working on Sleepless, a TTRPG for which I came up with both a stimulating system and setting, that I launched a Kickstarter campaign for during Zine Quest 4. The game is about people “waking up” to this dark world of entities that feed on us through our dreams and nightmares and cause what looks like mental illness and abductions.

[7:37 PM] JBSdm: I can keep the details about how the project came to be and the KS campaign for eventual questions so…

[Q&A] Jeffrey Seedrak (Grand Odyssey Core Rule-book)

[12:59 PM] Jeffrey Seedrak: my name is jeffrey seedrak lead creator of Grand Odyssey. Grand Odyssey is a ttrpg like pathfinder, dungeons and dragons and shadow of the demon lord. But our game focus more on rollplay and creativity. this is done by letting the playes have more frredom and say of what they are doing. Grand Odyssey is both a game setting and a game manual. Allowing players and game masters to create and play their own game. This game has been created by players playing the before mentioned games and shared their frustration and complaints with us, to fuel the effort and flames of creation. one example: the mandatory amount of starter books to play a game, our game only need ONE book to play, and our goal is to have to retail price of this book below 20 euro/dollar Want a game with more lore, depth, custimazation, and skills. look no further. Grand Odyssey is here! https://grandodyssey.sacredfiregames.com/ (done)Grand Odyssey

[Q&A] Paddy Finn (WayStar)

[1:15 PM] QuantumLeprechaun: I’m Paddy Finn, CEO of Penny Dragon Games. Game designer and writer. We started in 2020 with the Mag of Holding book series. Fast forward to this past week and we launched WayStar, a D&D 5e sci-fi conversion. We smashed a bunch of stretch goals on day 1. Almost at $150,000 on the campaign. And really looking forward to creating this game!

[Q&A] Jared Daniel Nielsen & Zac Goins (Pixen Intrigue: An Illustrated 5e Setting & Hex Crawl)

[7:31 PM] WorldOfGameDesign: My name is Jared Nielsen and I’m the primary investor in World of Game Design

[7:32 PM] WorldOfGameDesign: I started my game company ages ago on an IRC channel much like Discord

[7:32 PM] WorldOfGameDesign: Today we fund dozens of RPG products, terrain products, dice, and convention events for dozens of publishers

[7:32 PM] WorldOfGameDesign: -done-

[7:35 PM] Zac Goins: And I’m Zac Goins, the Creative Director of World of Game Design. We’re here because Jared had a vision for a new fantasy setting called Pixen Intrigue, and we’ve just taken it to Kickstarter. Basically, it’s a setting that’s communicated as a field guide for the first half, and then as a hex-crawl through an urban area for the second half. Pixen Intrigue is kind of like a pocket dimension with small, winged humanoids called “pixens” and a bunch of magic-infused nature.

[7:35 PM] Zac Goins: -done-

[Q&A] Mark Seifter (5E/PF2 Battlezoo)

[7:32 PM] Mark Seifter: I’m Mark Seifter, Roll for Combat director of game design, and Paizo’s former design manager as well as one of the four leads on the creation of Pathfinder Second Edition. I have a Kickstarter active right now at http://eldamon.com/ for monster training, playable monsters ancestries/races, and a Bestiary of award-winning monsters in 5e and Pathfinder 2e! I’m @markseifter on twitter. Check out my Twitch stream with Linda Zayas-Palmer, Arcane Mark, Tuesdays at 7PM Pacific, and Saturdays at 10 AM Pacific at https://www.twitch.tv/arcanemark, as well as my Roll for Combat Live youtube stream with Stephen Glicker at https://www.youtube.com/c/RollForCombat/. Both shows cover a variety of RPG and Pathfinder topics! You can also join my discord at https://tiny.cc.arcanemark/ !KickstarterRoll For Combat5E/PF2 Battlezoo Eldamon Monster Training & Year of MonstersBefriend! Train! Battle! Evolve! Bring elemental monster hunting, training, battling, and evolution to your Pathfinder or 5E game!TwitchTwitchTwitch is the world’s leading video platform and community for gamers.YouTubeRoll For Combat & Battlezoo for 5E and PathfinderRoll For Combat is home to both the Battlezoo line of RPG products for both Dungeons & Dragons 5E and Pathfinder, our weekly live show where we discuss a variety of TTRPG topics, hosts the RPG Superstar contest, and publishes Actual Play podcasts twice a week. The complete line of Battlezoo line of products can be found at http://www.battlezoo….

[Q&A] Samir Wissa (Void Empires: 2750)

[7:34 PM] Nerhesi: Thank you! So I go by Nerhesi on discord and other online forums generally. Feel free to use that or Sam or Samir. I kindly accepted your offer to come and chat about Void Empires : 2750. A recently released, pay what you want, table top rpg (on DriveThruRPG). The quick into is that, basically, after years of GMing and playing many different tabletop RPGs, I found myself play-testing, then contributing and finally even authoring on a couple of major Mongoose Traveller 2e products. At the conclusion of that positive experience, I realised that despite the amount of sci-fi RPGs out there, I (and my gaming crew) felt that something was missing. We wanted something that combined many of the tropes, systems and customization we loved from several systems, into one. (edited)

[7:37 PM] Nerhesi: The 3 design principles, in no particular order: Simple system, deep customization. 5 attributes, ~30 skills, 2d6 plus modifiers vs Target for almost everything. Tons of options for customization – from skills to augmentation to craft. So hopefully, you’re not feeling like a redundant role if there are 3 or even 5 other players. Many times I felt a system gave you simplicity at the cost of character/class/role identity and customization. I tried to avoid that. Meaningful options. I wanted to avoid creating options that ended up being “sub-par”. I can say that I’ve put in a lot of effort into creating a wide variety of meaningful choices. These choices extend from skills, equipment, augmentation to psionics, spacecraft choices and so on. Whether it is adventuring using spacecraft or at a personal scale, the aim is to create meaningful interaction options regardless of your role. Tropes and consistency. So I wanted a lot of tropes from classic space opera – things many of us grew up with. Cybertech, psionics, space ships, shields, fighters, battleships, mechs, Wild West-in-space etc… and yet, avoid the things that made you pause and go “hmm?” You could call it internal consistency or hard sci-fi (Note: this is the usage of the term regarding consistency, not regarding similarity to technology today) (edited)