The interview went long and we touch on many interesting topics. These guys having interesting and intelligent things to say about self-publishing, the future of text distribution, their game design methods, their gaming history, products they are working on, the gaming community, their relationship with Evil Hat and the paperback version of Diaspora that is going into distribution. They also share for the first time the well-kept secret of the first Diaspora PDF!

The VSCA (whose initials are also revealed for the first time!) keep rigorous records of their playtesting and design process, from the early days of their SotC/Traveller Hack Spirit of the Far Future to their current projects, which are manifold. You can find them all here.

You can download the file directly by right-clicking here.

Now if you haven’t done so already, please go and vote!

Vote for next year’s judges here (and we have to give a plug for Jay Peters of course!).

Vote for the awards here.

You can directly download the episode here.

Episode length is 57 minutes and 32 seconds, all of which is the interview. It was so long and informative that we didn’t do any intro discussion or preamble. I think it speaks for itself. If you are a fan of Smallville, Josh Roby, Margaret Weis Productions or interested in some of the production and design issues around licensed games, you’ll find this episode enjoyable.

Come on over to this thread on the RPG Haven to discuss all the interesting ideas that came up in this episode.

You can find the actual .mp3 file here.
Links:

Smallville the RPG

Tag scenes

Kallisti Press (Josh’s website)

Rooksbridge

Masterplan episode where Josh and Ryan talk about epic games (Josh’s game Agora comes up here) part 1

Masterplan epic episode Part 2

Happy Canada Day, people!

We will continue this discussion over at the forum, so please feel free to participate.

(running time 46:38 – you can download the file directly here.)

Below are the games we talk about in our discussion:

Trappings
Deadlands: Reloaded
Dust Devils (out of print)
Aces & Eights (check out this website for an excellent example of genre trappings!)

Character Generation
Barbarians of Lemuria
Solomon Kane
Pirates of the Spanish Main
Spirit of the Century

Tone of Generic Games
Legends of Steel: Savage Worlds edition
GURPS
Risus
Oriental Adventures

Structural and Mechanical Genre Emulation
Cartoon Action Hour: Season 2
Slasher Flick
Beat to Quarters
Leverage: The Quickstart Job

(running time: 55:01)
This month WalkerP interviews Luke Crane on the new game FreeMarket, designed by Luke and Jared Sorenson. We begin by updating each other on our own gaming and talking about Jared and Luke’s design history and approaches. Ryan goes into some detail on his experiences with Jared’s game Lacuna.

Download the podcast directly here.

We’ve started a thread on the RPG Haven to talk about FreeMarket and any other issues that came up in this episode.

Links:

Roludo
Lacuna
FreeMarket
Some pictures from the game proofs (graphics look awesome!)

Though it’s still early in the Haven Podcasts’s young life, we still would like to take a shot at the ENnies. They have an eminently sane submission policy, which is that we present one best episode to the judges and they choose a second one to listen to.

So would you be able to help us choose what is the best episode? Consider the judges, who will be listening to a wide range of podcasts and have diverse perspectives. Furthermore, they are going to be listening to a lot of different podcasts. Which episode do you think will best catch their attention and let them see the heart of goodness that we try to deliver?

You can throw your vote in the comments below or participate in a thread over at the RPG Haven Forum.

As always, thanks for your support and ears!

(duration: 1:00:32.  You can download the file directly from this link)

This month, Ryan interviews game designer Neil Gow, creator of Napoleonic-era RPGs Duty & Honour and Beat to Quarters.   In the first half-hour, Ryan takes the time to break down for WalkerP the mechanics of character generation and conflicts as well as some of the historical context for the games.

Both of Neil’s games and their supplements can be purchased in print form directly from his website, omnihedron.co.uk.   His shipping rates from the UK (at least to Canada) are extremely competitive, actually the best I’ve ever seen to the point where I suspect he is taking a loss on them.  So take advantage!  They can also be purchased in pdf form from the Omnihedron Games page at rpg.now.

Also, this month we are participating in the Free RPG Blog‘s 60-second Guerilla  Podcast.  Rob Lang, the owner of this wonderful resource, is sending out 10 60-second mini-reviews of free RPG’s to various podcasts and The RPG Haven Podcast was very happy to be chosen among them.   Listen early in the podcast for the mini-review.  I won’t give away which game it is, but it definitely intrigued me.  See if you can find all 10 out there in the podcast-o-sphere!  And definitely add The Free RPG Blog to your regular gaming blogs to visit.  It’s a real treasure chest of great free games and gaming resources.

Happy holidays dear listeners! We kick off December with the second installment of Ryan’s exploration of gaming groups and how they operate. Personally, I found it fascinating to listen to how Mike’s group plays together. And these guys are pretty hard core!

We also discuss two very pleasant interactions we’ve had with gaming stores recently. Ryan is very happy that the new store Organized Play has opened up not too far from him in the Knoxville, TN. I had a chance to go to Chicago and discovered that Games Plus, in nearby Mt. Prospect, lives up to its excellent reputation indeed.

Ryan has been loving Swashbucklers of the Seven Skies and you can find a link to the wiki for his ongoing Lexicon game here: http://lexicon-rpg.wikispaces.com/

We are always looking for new subjects for the Friendly Neighbourhood Gamer interviews, so if you know anyone, let us know in the comments. We’re interested in how other groups play together and trying to get people who aren’t connected to the online community (tricky to do from a blog, natch). But if you think about it, I’m sure you know someone in your group who would be interested in talking to Ryan and sharing the way you all play together.

We hope you enjoy the show!

This month, I talk to Simon Washbourne about how he designs his games, the history and production process behind Barbarians of Lemuria and some of the exciting projects he is currently working on. I have wanted to talk to Simon for a long time and I’m quite happy with the way the interview turned out.

Here is the link for those of you who want to download the audio file directly.

Barbarians of Lemuria will be available in better game stores in December and is currently available, along with the rest of his oeuvre, in pdf form at RPGNow. He also has several free games available as well as some earlier versions of his published games for free as well over at 1KM1KT. I strongly recommend that you check them out.

Below is a list of Simon’s published games in chronological order, for your reference.

Lashings of Ginger Beer (2003) (although there was a free version around before that)

It’s a Dog’s Life (2004) (ditto the above)

Go Fer Yer Gun! (2005)

Medieval Murder Mysteries (2005)

Tales from The Wood (2005) (there was/is a free version around before that and you can still get it at 1KM1KT)

Medieval Mysteries 1PG (Heyoka Studios 2007)

Battleforce Bravo Adventure Pack (Heyoka Studios 2007)

Barbarians of Lemuria (2008) (Free version around since about 2003)

I’d like to correct one error I made in the interview, where I called mistook Dave “Grubman” Bezio’s first name, calling him Jeff. This is the second time I’ve done this and I really have no idea why. My apologies, Grubman.

As always, I’d love to hear your feedback.

Here is the file for direct download.