In any case, the E-RPG system from Ironwood Media is an ambitious undertaking: a single RPG system for all genres. Fantasy Sagas is their first "paradigm" for it. They're not the first ones to try this, of course. FUDGE, Interlock, and Tri-Stat all come to mind, though I think GURPS is currently the clear king in this arena. Tough to go up against the master of the Illuminati (fnord)...
What sets them apart is their player-oriented focus (see question 2 below). It's a breath of fresh air in the genre, and, as I said before, I'm really looking forward to playing it. Enough rambling! On to the interview!
6 Questions with the Designer
1) I always start with a personal one. How'd you get started with designing games?
I got started actually fixing games my group and I would play. If things weren't working properly I would house-rule them. It got to the point where I just felt it was time to build my own system from the ground up. The intial system worked great. Over the years, with the help of the friends and family that played together, we were able to fine tune things to the point where we are today. At this point I figured I had a fully developed game system. So I decided to share it through publication.
2) The RPG market is pretty crowded these days. In addition to the plethora of small d20 creators, there are plenty of big guys out there - Fudge, Gurps, the White Wolf line, Deadlands, etc. What sets E-RPG and Fantasy Sagas apart? Who is the target customer?
I'll answer the last part first: the target consumer is really just myself. Everything we are publishing at this point are products that I have wanted as a player. I developed Sagas because I needed a universal system. When I was playing other games I kept notebooks full of pregenerated characters for quick use as a GM, but also to help new players get started. I created Paradigm because those notebooks were such a huge resource for me. The Character Journals are reflective of binders just about all players use. Since I always wanted more from the look and feel of my binders, we created them. This leads us to what I thinks sets us apart from other companies. We want to create things I think players will find truly useful. We aren't publishing things we made that we thought "so cool this has to be in print". That's why there isn't a campaign world yet. We aren't trying to show off how creative we are in a market already flooded with these creations. We want to make new creations that I think players want, in a format that is easy for them to use and adapt. It's really about what the players are doing. They have their worlds already, we want to help them by expanding them. This means better supplements, better modules, all those things that most developers think are small business we plan on making our focus.
3) Okay, that was my hardball question. Let's move to a friendlier (and to me more important) one. I haven't had a chance to play the game yet. Are you going to be running it at any local shops or cons?
We are hoping to hit cons next year, possibly later this year. We want to develop products, advertising them comes second. We are always open to running events at stores, and we will be starting this up more aggressively over the summer. We already ran two events with the Lakeland Role Playing Guild and have had a blast doing it.
4) What's the story behind E-RPG? I gather that it's one system for all genres? Are you anticipating adventures in time-travelling and that sort of thing? Will a character be able to cross genres effectively?
I think the general misconception is that while we developed Fantasy Sagas, that this is its own E-RPG setting. The truth is that Fantasy is the first example of how to make E-RPG work in a setting. We chose to release the Fantasy Sagas because fantasy is the most common setting for RPGs. The rules however work with any genre or setting. This will probably be more obvious when Modern is released. Because of this, I expect that one of the first things players will jump to once all three Sagas Settings are released will be time-travel and demension hopping campaigns. Characters can cross genres and setting with no change. However, players should expect their characters to perform appropriately in the new setting. A fur-clad barbarian in battle armor who has an easy time of a street gang in a fantasy setting may not be as effective against a modern street gang with guns(but it is fun).
5) What's been the biggest surprise with E-RPG and Fantasy Sagas? Any good player stories?
The biggest surprise was the number of downloads we experienced in the first year. We clocked over 5,000 downloads in that period. In game, we have played this game for over 8 years. In regards to player stories there are more than I could share. I'd hate to even focus on just one. Most of the stories I hear relate to dramatic accomplishments of their characters. Character deaths are also a common story. The drama surrounding the events within the games are phenominal, and reflect what I have always found in Sagas, and one of the most important reasons behind the developments. Among my favorites are two stories, one a dynamic swordfight that ended with the player character desperately holding onto consciousness following the death stroke against an opponent, and another was a surprising battle between a psychic player character, and one of the leaders of a cult who also happened to be psychic. The first actually was the basis for the opening snippet of the player's guidebook, which is a brief excerpt from a player's point of view (mine actually) and a new player after a major battle. The second was a play testing session where the rest of the players (myself included) just stopped playing to let the psychic battle unfold on its own. It was a hugely satisfying event and I'll never forget it.
6) What's next for Ironwood? Are you going to be focussing on Fantasy Sagas for a while, or jumping right into the next E-RPG game? For that matter, what will be the next E-RPG game?
We have about three more adventure modules in the works for Fantasy, but our primary focus at this point is the Modern Sagas. We have a similar release forcast for modern as we did fantasy (Player's Guidebook, Paradigm, an adventure module, and Character Journals) I expect that the next fantasy adventure module will release with Modern. The other two will release over the course of development of Sci-Fi Sagas, and with its release. Of course, the release is still open to submissions from freelancers. We've had a few submissions we are already looking at, not the least of which is the follow up to Prophecy.
Thanks again for this opportunity.
Thanks for your time, Ruel. I'm really looking forward to playing Fantasy Sagas!
