Everything you want to know about tabletop role-playing games

Shannon Appelcline’s four-book series The designer and the dragon Showcasing an incredibly detailed introduction to the history of tabletop role-playing games, including profiles of more than 100 companies, including TSR, Wizards of the Coast and White Wolf.

“The scale of this project is obviously huge, and the only way it can be produced is to do one article at a time, one company at a time,” Appelcline said in episode 369. Geek Galaxy Guide podcast. “If I ever watched and said,’Hey, I need to publish four books’-500,000 words in total-I might run in the other direction.”

For each article, Appelcline collects as much information as possible from magazines and websites, and then conducts research on people who have actually worked in related companies.

“Sometimes they send it back and say,’Hey, this is all great. It sounds exactly the same as what we did. I don’t know how you came up with it,'” Appelcline said. “Sometimes they say,’I can’t believe you made a mistake. I’m very angry about it. I need you to fix it. Obviously, the feedback from the latter is more helpful than the former.”

Along the way, he found that the history of board games is full of confrontations, betrayals and scandals, which makes The designer and the dragon Surprisingly vivid reading. “At least one person has read it, and he said he was surprised—for such a small industry with such low profit margins and not much money involved—there is so much drama,” he said.

Recording the rise and fall of so many different companies also convinced him that he would never want to start his own role-playing costume.

“I think once you read The designer and the dragon, You will see that you have to be very, very enthusiastic and optimistic-almost self-sacrificing-to create a role-playing company,” he said. “I respect those who do this very much because I know exactly how difficult. “

Listen to the full interview with Shannon Appelcline in episode 369 Geek Galaxy Guide (the above). And check out some of the highlights in the discussion below.

Shannon Appelcline on licensed games:

“Now there are very strict licenses with a very limited time horizon and can be terminated at any time. Or [your product] There may be a significant delay because people have to view permissions. So I think there is some danger in licensing, and I can jump out and catch you.One is that you have invested a lot of work to really expand and improve the property, such as West End Games Back in the 80s, their Star wars game. It’s a little strange to think of now, but after the original movie trilogy, Star wars It’s basically dead, and the only person actively developing it is West End Games.They put in a lot of work, now they are not there, and Star wars Has moved forward. “

Shannon Appelcline on world building:

“One of the secrets of the role-playing industry is that people buy more books than they have ever played. … It’s interesting to see these worlds that you read are statistically defined, and many These licensed games also do wonders in the development world, and show in detail books you will never see in practice. ICE’s Middle-earth role play It was one of the first truly extensive licensing houses-mainly in the 80s-they just did an amazing job, and introduced one supplement after another-thick 60 or 80 page supplements-extensively detailed Land describes the individual land in Middle-earth, even in a very wide range, you will never see the level Lord of the Rings books. “

Shannon Appelcline on the Fantasy Heartbreaker:

“The word’Fantasy Heartbreaker’ originated from Ron Edwards In an article he published. Ron Edwards basically suggested that many people come up with their own version Dungeons and Dragons, Without seeing how other people in the industry operate, they repeated many ideas that other people in the industry have already seen. When Edwards wrote this article, one of the things he said is that all these games are thrown into the trash can of history, but there are really great things in them, very enthusiastic, even if they didn’t do it, okay — Because they are not as primitive as the designer thinks-we may still find some small things in them.But the more general meaning of the word is “Those who have copied R&D.'”

Shannon Appelcline About Game Designer:

“I think the average designer of desktop games on the market cannot Is not Design the game. They are people driven by their own ideas and creativity, they just can’t extricate themselves. They let all these things bubble up, and they want others to use them. They like the systems they are creating, they like the stories that these systems can tell, and they like fans who are interested in their stories. … The profit margins in the role-playing industry have been very low. I think many people don’t understand how little an ordinary role-playing company-or an ordinary designer-puts in a lot of effort. As long as you put these together, you will let those who really want to be there to join, because they have great things they want to do. “

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