Hosted by Timo

Through the vagaries of the interwebs, Julia Ellingboe found our episode about Race and our mention of her game, Steal Away Jordan.  We invited her to share her intention and opinion about the game in that context, which allowed me to also pick her brain on other topics related to her games and her design.  I mistakenly note that our episode on Race was episode 57, it’s actually episode 59.

Slave Narratives: Book of the Night Women, Octavia Butler, Frederick Douglas, Slave No More, Bullwhip Days: The Slaves Remember (1:20)
Stories of slavery as heroic stories (3:50)
Slavery outside of the default setting (4:30)
Vak: American slavery in particular as a problem (5:00)
Played as a folk tale (6:35)
Mechanic: Goals are secret from the GM, shared between players (07:25)
Graham Walmsley runs a great Steal Away Jordan game (09:45)
Three white dudes and me, Uncle Ruckus and playing the spiteful character (11:40)
Impression as a player rather than the Storyteller (14:20)
Designed for fun, not guilt. Making players uncomfortable as entertainment, comparison to Bachannal (15:00)
Making the owners real (16:20)
The game is not really about race, its more about ownership (18:05)
Scott’s question: Where did you grow up, how did that affect the design? (18:50)
Playing Steal Away Jordan: Being a black woman among (mostly) white men (20:00)
Lines and Veils (22:30)
Fastaval: The Journey and walking away from a game (23:40)
Wanting to understand the experience, versus recoiling from it (26:50)
What a difference a river makes (28:55)
Historical perspective: parrallel to 2nd and 3rd wave feminism (31:00)
Different things that could be gotten from the game, what sort of games do people play (32:25)
Nervous laughter and playing nice (35:00)
The saddest steal away jordan ever, and playing sad games (37:00)
How Julia got in to gaming (38:50)
Having non-gamer kids (39:50)
Malice: the love of frightening dolls (40:45)
Non-slasher horror films: The Omen, Psycho, Fallen, Lost Souls (42:25)
Tales of the Fisherman’s Wife and measuring up to past success (45:35)
Two major themes: Folk Tales and Card Games (47:30)
Cards versus Dice (50:35)
What to do with Tam Lim playtesting at Intercon Massachusetts, Dreamation and Fastaval (51:50)
Dead Inside (53:30)
The Massachusetts Game Collective (54:30)
The joy of game writing (56:30)
Why go independent? (57:30)
The library of Congress as a Resource: American History (59:15)

Announcements: Have fun at Gencon, thanks for playing Steal Away Jordan (01:00:00)

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Interview 5: Ryan Macklin on The Dresden Files RPG
Hosts: JOHNKELLY, Lexx, Todd

Ryan Macklin is from Evil Hat Productions and is the Main Production Manager for the upcoming Dresden Files RPG (to be fully released on June , 2010). The interview was recorded in early January. However Ryan’s introduction was lost after JOHNKELLY got a new computer. None of the interview questions were lost.

You can now pre-order The Dresden Files RPG from dresdenfilesrpg.com (and maybe your local game store). When you do you get the PDF of the books for free instantly! Go out and pre-order now!

Another note for Dresden Files fans. Changes, the 12th book in the Dresden Files series comes out today, April 5th. You can get it at your local book store or from www.jim-butcher.com

Dresden Files is produced by Evil Hat

Ryan Rants

You have been listening to The Jank Cast, copyright 2010 under the creative commons license. You can find out more about us at jankcast.com. All the music in the show is from the song, “Jank is a Dork Word” written and recorded by Todd and is used with his permission. You can send comments and feedback to feedback@jankcast.com Again, we are sponsored by Chicagoland Games, and this is JOHNKELLY reminding you to support your local gaming store. Now go out and roll some dice.

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Interview & Review: Little Fears

Interview with Jason Blair, designer of Little Fears and Little Fears: Nightmare Edition

Interview: JOHNKELLY and Lexx

(36:30) Review of Little Fears: Nightmare Edition

Hosts: JOHNKELLY, Timo, Rob, Lexx

You have been listening to The Jank Cast, copyright 2009 under the creative commons license. You can find out more about us at jankcast.com. All the music in the show is from the song, “Jank is a Dork Word” written and recorded by Todd and is used with his permission. You can send comments and feedback tofeedback@jankcast.com Again, we are sponsored by Chicagoland Games, and this is JOHNKELLY reminding you to support your local gaming store. Now go out and roll some dice.

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Interview · Little Fears · Review · Rob

An interview with Steve Townshend
RPG Meetup Chicago set up this event, special thanks to Nate

Here is a list of questions that Steve was asked:
1. Tell us about your history in playing D&D.
2. Tell us about your writing background.
3. How do you bring your writing style into your campaign?
4. What current projects have you been contracted for and what have you published in the past?
5. How did submissions to Dungeon and Dragon magazines work in the ’90′s?
6. Tell us about writing for D&D Insider.
7. How did you first get involved in writing for WOTC?
8. What books are you working on for 2010?
9. What could we learn from the 3rd DMG for 4e that we couldn’t learn from the 2 DMG’s in 3.5?
10. Kevin says that DMG’s arent’ worth buying since 1st Ed, then Steve continues the discussion about the DMG3 and other books he’s working on for 2010.
11. How do you get your assignments?
12. 3.5 or 4e, which do you prefer?
13. How long does it take to write a book?
14. Do know about any future projects?
15. if you were an RPG (other than D&D) what would you be?
16. With all the books published for 4e, we aren’t getting the fluff for Forgotten Realms. Where is it?

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Dungeons and Dragons · Interview · RPG Meetup Chicago

Corey Konieczka from Fantasy Flight Games at the @Spot Cafe

Special thanks to Nate and the Chicago Boardgames Meetup Group for setting this whole shindig up!

Massive Apologies for the poor sound quality and the sound of people making delicious drinks and food.

Part One: Fantasy Flight & Corey Konieczka General
The Questions
How did you get the job?
What job were you doing before?
What was the interview like?
What was your first project there?
How many projects do you find yourself working on at once?
Whats the general timeline of a project?
How big was your team for the Battlestar Galactica Board Game?
What were your trouble spots and how did you get around them?
How important is art to designing a game?
When playtesting a game, do you test with an open market or an internal team?
Do you feel there is a value in testing to a general population who is not as interested in gaming?
Walk us through a day in the life of Corey Konieczka.
What does your day in the life look like two days away from deadline?
Whats with the Fantasy Flight Rule Book?
When working with a major franchise how much involvement is there?
Our own J.P. asks: Is there going to be a second expansion for Battlestar?
Lexx asks: When you are doing an expansion, how much do you have mechanics in mind?
When playtesting, how much money goes into components?
(I drop the recorder, sorry)
What city are you guys in and how do you become and intern?
Are the expansion runs smaller than the base game?
Whats your most challenging project to date?
Where do you start with a game based off a franchise?
As a game designer, how do you keep your enthusiasm up?
Do you know what you budget is for a game?
Do you typically create the mechanics of the game and the design?
How has gaming been affected by the general economic state?
Do you see the global market becoming more of a factor and does that affect how you design games?
How often do you get “no”?
How is it working on a team?
If you got the license for something that you weren’t familiar with, would you go home and watch it?
How do shake off bad game reviews?
What causes Fantasy Flight games to be heavy themed?
J.P.: Whats your favorite non-Fantasy Flight game?
Whats your favorite Fantasy Flight game?

Part Two: The Battlestar Galactica Pegasus Expansion & Middle Earth Quest
We start off by having Corey show up plastic figures for both the Pegasus Expansion and Middle Earth Quest.
Questions
J.P.: Is there a burn the hobbits mechanic?
Is there any influence from the fan film the Hunt for Gollum?
Have you heard when the Peter Jackson Movie is coming out?
What do you see following this up?
J.P.: Is there any possibility of there being more than 4 players?
How much is it?
How does the expansion affect the play time of the base game?
Lexx: Can you play all three together for an epic game?
How big is it and how much does it cost?
Is it the same number of players?
Will the final versions of the miniatures be metal or plastic?
Are they plastic due to the cost to manufacture?
Will the expansion improve the three player game?

It wouldn’t be a Jank Cast Episode if J.P.’s phone didn’t ring.

Corey’s Closing Thoughts
The Jank Cast is copyright 2009. Feel Free to use our content in any non-commercial way. All our music is by Streetlight Manifesto, Visit their website at Streetlightmanifesto.com. Send Feedback to feedback@jankcast.com Now go out and roll some dice.

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Battlestar Galatica · Chicago Boardgames Meetup Group · Corey Konieczka · Fantasy Flight Games · Interview · Middle Earth Quest