I'm a fairly new visitor to the world of "indie games," although I'm a fast fan. The opportunity to incorporate new dynamics, like style/fate/peril/luck points is really intriguing to me, as they shift more of the responsibility (and benefit) of creating the story proactively onto the players, rather than having it rest solely with the DM/GM/ST (dungeon master/game master/story teller). That really appeals to me, since it both encourages a greater depth of investment on the part of the players, and allows for greater diversity in storylines and themes.
How has working with White Wolf been?
For the most part, it's been great. I've learned a lot about the industry and had the chance to really hone my skills — writing, editing, game creating, etc. Writing on deadline for a wide variety of different developers, and on teams with a broad spectrum of experienced and new writers can be really challenging, but at the same time, you learn so much. If you don't keep moving forward, keep your head above the proverbial waters, you don't make it for long, so you get better to keep "alive" in the industry.
Thanks to my time with White Wolf, I've had the opportunity to work on projects I'd never have been able to touch otherwise (like Changeling: The Lost), and to work with some fantastic writers, editors, developers, artists, and game creators. I've been able to travel to conventions all over North America and meet with other game professionals, folks who are running game stores or events, game masters and players. It's been an amazing opportunity.
The best part, however, is knowing that you've helped create products that people are having fun playing and reading. There's nothing quite like having someone come up to you and say, "You know that monster you made? It almost killed my character last week — we had such a great time!" Knowing you've helped folks have fun is a fantastic feeling.
What inspired you to start One Geek To Another and how has it been going?
One Geek to Another was kind of a tangential product of the blog posts I did just before GenCon this year, which focused on using conventions to break into the gaming industry. (As was Conventions for the Aspiring Game Professional, but we'll talk about that later.) Some of the information included in the blog posts was very basic (hygiene, personal interaction, etc.) because, well, if you don't meet certain basic assumptions and standards of behavior, it's very hard to overcome that and get someone to take you seriously. The blogs met with a lot of support and approval within the gaming community and the larger geek community as a whole — they were posted on SlashDot and reached thousands of readers, which just blew me away. The response was absolutely amazing.







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