Posted on by Magnus Seter

FAL Interview: A short chat with Steve Darlington

The first time I was made aware of Steve Darlington was at RPGnet. He posted in what turned into one of the funniest threads ever on any site, and after a few good additions to the thread in question he wrote a Monty Python riff based on the spanish inquisition sketch. Pure genius. Ahem … well it was laugh out loud funny at least. Lines from that post still grace my sig at RPGnet.

After that I followed Steve’s posts with some interest, mostly to see if he would deliver more funny moments. Which he did, again and again. And in between that he posted thoughts about gaming and plot seeds and what have you. Posts that became one of the many reasons for visiting RPGnet, apart from the highly amusing flame wars.

So when it came to my attention that Steve was writing on WFRP supplements, I considered that some very good news. It was interesting to see what he would come up with, and for sure, his work on Children of the Horned Rat (with Rob Schwalb and Gary Astleford) and Night’s Dark Masters (with Jody MacGregor) didn’t disappoint me. I have yet to read through Realm of the Ice Queen (a collaboration with David Chart, Andy Law and Graham McNeill) but I’m sure I’ll enjoy that book too. And there are other fans out there, who asked me to do an interview with the distant Aussie. Steve volunteered and I quickly shot off the questions. He managed to return the answers in between being a guest of honour at GenCon Oz and trying to get some well-earned sleep. He also sent a picture of him holding a … beaver of some sorts, I think.

The Altdorf Correspondent (TAC): Tell the readers a bit about yourself.

Steve Darlington: I live in Brisbane, Australia. I have been gaming for twenty something years but am relatively new to freelancing. I’ve worked on Children of the Horned Rat, Realm of the Ice Queen and Night’s Dark Masters. I’ve also worked on a few other products like Freeport and Grimm and I’m just about to do some work for Vampire.

TAC: How and why did you start playing WFRP?

Steve Darlington: That’s far too complicated a question to really answer here, because it took about ten years from the first time I encountered the game to the first time I actually got to play it. The first time I encountered it I didn’t get to play but my friend did and the next day he told me about how cool it was using the Curse spell to turn people’s hair purple, which sounded pretty awesome.

TAC: What was it that primarily attracted you to WFRP?

Steve Darlington: Adventures. I’ve always had a lot of trouble writing these things and as a young gamer I would buy any module I could find. I stumbled onto an awesome double pack in the bargain bin of my old gaming store: The Enemy Within/Shadows of Bogenhafen book and the Restless Dead book bundled into one. As an incredibly stroke of luck, these books contain some of the best adventures ever written for anything in them. I was hooked.

TAC: How did you land the job of writing for WFRP?

Steve Darlington: The same way anyone gets a writing job: I sent off a resume and a sample to the line developer. I had a friend who was working on Freeport with some Green Ronin staff and he’d heard they were looking for freelancers. It was pretty intimidating to start with my favourite company and my favourite game, but the passion for this game is also what carried me through the fear.

TAC: What are your strengths as a writer/designer?

Steve Darlington: Hmm, a tricky question – I’m much better at spotting my weaknesses. I think my strength comes from my passion for the Warhammer world and its style. I love so much about it, and I love crawling into it again and again and doing everything I can to communicate all the joy and wonder and terror I get from the world to others. I could spend the rest of my life writing Warhammer and consider myself blessed.

TAC: Primary inspirations?

Steve Darlington: History. Geography. Humanity. Politics. The world is my sourcebook.

TAC: A catchphrase of WFRP is “Grim’n Gritty”. What does this mean to you, and how does this influence your game?

Steve Darlington: Grim and Gritty has many aspects. For me, it’s about highlighting the more “mundane” aspects of the world – ours and the Warhammer one. It is a sad casualty of many fantasy worlds that the mundane, the small, the quotidian and the base are swept aside in the pursuit of the epic and the grandiose. Warhammer reminds us all that the mundane and the small and the base are full of just enough evil – and more than enough heroism – to tell the greatest stories imaginable.

TAC: How much humour do you inject into you WFRP game, and how do you do it?

Steve Darlington: I don’t really inject humour. I find that games are full of humour anyway, players are just naturally funny. What makes WFRP unique among fantasy RPGs is that that humour is very often in character, instead of just out of character. The humour also comes out of the darkness too, just as the darkness comes out of the humour.

TAC: What is your favourite WFRP book?

Steve Darlington: For 2nd ed, Plundered Vaults, no question. It’s probably the most used and most valuable book I’ve ever bought, except for the core rulebook. For 1st ed, Shadows Over Bogenhafen. Did I mention I love adventures?

TAC: What is your favourite WFRP fan material?

Steve Darlington: Whymme‘s excellent time-loop adventure for last year’s competition. I’ve forgotten the name but it was gorgeous.

TAC: What’s the status of WFRP in Australia?

Steve Darlington: That I couldn’t really tell you. I think the battle games are very popular though, and everyone I talked to was jazzed about Dark Heresy, so it seems to be as popular as any non-D&D RPG is these days.

TAC: Have you looked at Warhammer Online? Any comments on that?

Steve Darlington: I don’t know a lot about MMORPGs and my computer would melt if it tried to run it…but I am insanely keen to see this game in action. I can’t imagine anything cooler than walking around the WFRP world. Also, from some hints I’ve got, I think my work in Realms of the Ice Queen might have ended up in the game, since one of the main areas is Praag.

TAC: What are your hopes for the future of WFRP?

Steve Darlington: That it goes on. One of WFRP’s great strengths has become its legendary tenacity and long-toothedness. The greatest RPGs may just be those that refuse to die the longest. I want WFRP to keep going – and still be on its 2nd ed – long after D&D 20th edition is gone and forgotten.

And that’s it, a short chat with Steve Darlington. A few surprises there, especially the bit about Plundered Vaults, a book I haven’t heard anyone else list as their favourite for WFRPv2. It’s good to see the initial releases get some loving as well! Thanks for your time, Steve, and get some rest now!

/Magnus

Posted on by Magnus Seter

FAL Interview: Interview with Jay Little

Those who are following the development of WFRP at the hands of Fantasy Flight Games will know that they appointed a new Senior RPG Developer for the game. I took the opportunity to send a few questions to this new name on the WFRP scene, and the result was a designer diary that was published on the official web site. FFG graciously allowed me to post the interview here as well, and here it is, in most of its former glory! Look for more interviews with other WFRP personalities to appear as I get this format settled!

To read the interview as it appeared at the WFRP web site, with a picture of the man himself, go to this page here!

Recently Adolphus Altdorfer, well-known scholar from the Empire’s grandest city and pen behind the Altdorf Correspondent leaflets, sat down with Jay Little, the new Senior RPG Developer for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, for a discussion. Adolphus was gracious enough to record the conversation to share with his fellow scholars.

The Altdorf Correspondent (TAC): Tell the readers a bit about yourself.

Jay Little: I’ve been an avid gamer for most of my life, and really enjoy the challenges that games provide — they really exercise your mind and creativity. I am also an active game collector. I have well over 650 board games in my collection, ranging from old school Games Workshop classics, some out of print rarities, and a large number of newer Euro and designer-style games. But as much as I enjoy board gaming, roleplaying has always been my true gaming love. My collection of rpgs used to be much larger, but right now hovers around 800 items — which includes different systems, supplements, sourcebooks, modules and accessories.

TAC: How and why did you start playing WFRP

Jay: I actually got into Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay via Games Workshop’s board games. My buddies and I were diehard Talisman and Dungeonquest players when I was younger. In fact, we played so often we literally wore out my first copy of Talisman 2nd edition. At the time, our roleplaying was essentially the D&D red box and a smattering of other games. When I saw a copy of the WFRP 1st Edition rulebook in my local hobby shop, I recognized the art style and setting so I picked it up and thumbed through it — that’s when I first fell in love with it.

TAC: What was it that primarily attracted you to WFRP?

Jay: Initially, it was the artwork. The foreboding, eerie work of Wil Rees’ “Shadows Over Bogenhafen” and John Blanche’s “Hrothyogg’s Tower” really grabbed my attention. And I had never played a game that was so dark and gritty. In other games, the player characters were always altruistic heroes who knew they were heroes. In Warhammer, it was immediately engaging to realize that you might just be a humble rat-catcher or pedlar trying to just stay alive — someone who more likely stumbled into a web of intrigue or dangerous encounter rather than a hero actively seeking fame and glory. That sort of mindset made for a very compelling game environment, and it really found traction with our players.

TAC: What does it mean to be a senior developer at FFG? What are your responsibilities?

Jay: In many ways, it’s not all that different from being a good GM — just the sense of scale changes a bit. There’s a lot of research, preparation and dedication required for both roles. Plus, you have to wear a lot of hats. As a GM, you’re managing NPCs, adjudicating rules, developing storylines for your players, and trying to create a memorable experience. As a Senior RPG Developer, I’ll be managing and working with freelancers and artists, clarifying and consolidating the rules system, fleshing out concepts that will grow into new, exciting WFRP products and working with Games Workshop to ensure that the roleplaying game lives up to their high standards and properly reflects the Warhammer setting, while also creating the most compelling, enjoyable gameplay experience we can muster.

TAC: What prompted you to apply for the job?

Jay: It was a no-brainer… A chance to work on a great game license like Warhammer and work for a great company like Fantasy Flight games? What’s not to love? And the timing could not have been better. When Fantasy Flight first contacted me to discuss the position, I quickly realized it really was the perfect combination of factors.

TAC: What are your strengths as a developer?

Jay: I think my lifelong fanaticism for gaming is a big plus. I have a wide and varied background both playing and developing board games, card games and roleplaying games. With that broad base of experience, I think I do a good job of seeing “big picture” elements and anticipating how proposed rules/content will affect the game experience. I’m also excellent at playing the devil’s advocate to really stress test concepts; I have a lot of experience as a rigorous playtester.

TAC: What is your favourite WFRP book?

Jay: That’s a tough call. It’s probably a tie between Tome of Corruption and Sigmar’s Heirs. Both offer a lot of great flavor content to help bring the Old World to life, and both have lots of really neat plot ideas a GM can integrate into their game.

TAC: What is your favourite WFRP fan material?

Jay: Without a doubt it’s A Compendious Guide to Old World Coachmen, the career pamphlet by Dave Allen. The Coachman is one of my favorite WFRP careers, and adding the different coaching lines and business elements to this thriving Old World industry adds a lot of depth and realism to the game.

TAC: What are your hopes for the future of WFRP?

Jay: To keep the Old World grim, dark and dangerous — the kind of place you wouldn’t want to live, but as a player, you can’t wait to visit (again and again). I’d like to really expand the player base and share my personal favorite roleplaying game with even more people around the world. The Warhammer games have some of the most dedicated fans and forumites for any game I’ve seen, and I’d love to find even more ways to interact with them and get great content into their hands. And of course, work on all those wonderful, secretive things that I can’t share yet!

That’s it for this time! Let me thank Jay Little for his time, and readiness to answer my questions, and for letting fans read them at the WFRP web site! Let’s see now, who’s next … hey, that chap over there! …

/Magnus

Posted on by Magnus Seter

FAL News: Mutant Chronicles Teaser Trailer

It is a curios thing, watching the teaser trailer for Mutant Chronicles, the movie. The short scenes we see are grey and dark, not much colour left in the world, not much hope. Which is sort of what it should be like, of course.

Mutant Chronicles Movie Poster

But I can’t shake the feeling that something is missing, something is very different from when I wrote the roleplaying game all those years ago.

Balance. That’s it.

The movie picks up on the noir elements we introduced to the setting, but it seems as if the counter-balance to this, the garish over the top imagery, is missing. I’ll ponder this while I wait for the release of the movie, and return with a review then. Until then, here’s the teaser.

The Mutant Chronicles Teaser!

/Magnus