{"id":386,"date":"2008-10-12T09:41:38","date_gmt":"2008-10-12T13:41:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/?p=386"},"modified":"2008-10-12T09:41:38","modified_gmt":"2008-10-12T13:41:38","slug":"10-questions-with-steve-kenson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/?p=386","title":{"rendered":"10 Questions with Steve Kenson"},"content":{"rendered":"

1. In case some of my readers aren\u2019t sure of what we\u2019re talking about, when we say RPG, or role-playing games, what are we talking about? What is a role-playing game?<\/strong>
\nWell, when I say it, a roleplaying game is something where you and some friends get together, create characters in an imaginary world, and play out their adventures using dice (or some other randomizers) and a set of game rules to determine the outcomes, building the story (and, to a degree, the characters) as you go along. I\u2019ve run into a lot of folks to whom \u201cRPG\u201d now means online games, so I guess that makes me an \u201cold school\u201d gamer, since to me it means tabletop, face-to-face games.<\/p>\n

2. How old were you when you played your first role-playing game and what game was it?<\/strong>
\nI was 12 and it was the first edition of Gamma World from TSR. My school friends and I quickly moved on to the D&D Basic Set and other games as well.<\/p>\n

3. What do you feel are some of the benefits of having role-playing games as a hobby?<\/strong>
\nI think there are many benefits, not the least of which are stimulating the imagination, teaching English, math, and research skills, social time with friends, and providing a fun creative outlet.<\/p>\n

4. What would you like to say to parents who may be concerned about their child\u2019s interest in role-playing games?<\/strong>
\nTry actually playing an RPG with your child to get an understanding of what it\u2019s like from the inside. Talk to your kids about their RPG experiences and why they\u2019re interested in them, rather than relying on outsiders with an agenda (including me!). Get informed and form you own opinions.<\/p>\n

5. When did you realize that perhaps you could go from a player of, to a creator of role-playing games?<\/strong>
\nProbably when I was helping play test the second edition of Shadowrun. I submitted a number of ideas for new spells, powers, and so forth, and the developer liked almost all of them, leading me to realize, \u201cHey, I\u2019m pretty good at this!\u201d<\/p>\n

6. You have a huge list of RPG credits these days. Am I the first person to say, \u201cKudos on doing some work for \u2018Hong Kong Action Theater\u2019?\u201d<\/strong>
\nWow. The first one I can recall. That\u2019s definitely one of my more obscure projects… Back in my full-time freelance days, you took work where you could get it.<\/p>\n

7. Now, I don\u2019t want to ask Dad to pick a favorite, so what are a few of your role-playing publishing achievements you are most proud of?<\/strong>
\nWell, Mutants & Masterminds because it\u2019s the most robust and long-lasting game line that I\u2019ve had the most direct hand in, as both designer and developer. In particular, Freedom City is my baby and I\u2019ve loved watching the setting grow and develop as other creators get to play there.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m proud of my contributions to Shadowrun and I have a deep fondness for the game and its world. I\u2019m also quite pleased to have contributed to Earthdawn, which is probably my favorite fantasy RPG.<\/p>\n

8. All right, you have this question to expound on the virtues of the \u201cMutants and Masterminds\u201d role-playing game.<\/strong>
\nWell, the goal with M&M was to create an RPG that plays like a comic book, and I think mechanics like the Toughness saving throw for damage and the acquisition and spending of hero points help to make it so. There\u2019s a give-and-take to the action, and players are rewarded for doing things in a superheroic fashion.<\/p>\n

Plus, M&M benefits from having top-notch production values and artwork, which is a credit to our Art Director, Hal Mangold, who does an awesome job making the books look good, and to Sean Glenn, who did the initial graphic design for the \u201clook\u201d of M&M.<\/p>\n

9. Okay, huge swaths of my readers adore your partner Christopher Penczak, so please take a moment to share something amusing about him. I\u2019m all for public embarrassment, but if you prefer, it can be something nice and not humiliating.<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s funny how, in a different world, Christopher might well have been a big-time gamer: he had some experience with D&D as a kid, but the group he played with wasn\u2019t very good, so he didn\u2019t have much fun and gave up on the idea of RPGs. I think, if he\u2019d played with a better group, there\u2019s a good possibility he would have ended up as an RPG author or designer, he\u2019s certainly got all the right talents for it!<\/p>\n

10. Parting shot! Ask us here at The Magical Buffet any one question.<\/strong>
\nSomething I\u2019ve considered recently: how does (or did) your experience as a gamer inform your spiritual life, and vice versa? Is it true what the hysterics of the 1980s claimed: did D&D (or RPGs in general) \u201clead you into the occult\u201d? What\u2019s the overlap between the gaming hobby and the neo-pagan spiritual path, and what (if anything) does it mean?<\/p>\n

That is an interesting question. I didn\u2019t actually start gaming until late high school, which makes me a late bloomer compared to most gamers I know. By that point, I already had a fascination with other faiths and magical practices. Perhaps because I was the only Jewish student in my school, perhaps just because?<\/p>\n

I feel gaming and various spiritualities can overlap. Anyone who has cracked open an old school GURPS source book on Greece or Egypt has been given a crash course in mythology. Dungeons and Dragons, back when there were alignments and clerics to deities, forced players to consider issues of faith and the inner struggle of good versus evil. Personally, my first game ever was Vampire Second Edition from White Wolf. Our game master never let us forget the price you pay for immortality. At its finest, gaming gives you a safe environment to explore and challenge different ideas and societal conceptions. This does serve as an entry point to consider the idea of other faiths and modes of spirituality.<\/p>\n

Obviously, this isn\u2019t universally true. I have met gamers who to put it kindly, are narrow-minded. And of course, being of a faith outside of the norm of your community doesn\u2019t automatically mean you\u2019ll enjoy the hobby of gaming. Gaming, like any hobby is something that some will enjoy and some will find boring, lame, and\/or a waste of time.<\/em><\/p>\n

Extra Bonus Geek Question!
\nI polled several of my gaming buddies, and this question I feel best asserts my posse\u2019s geek cred.<\/strong><\/p>\n

11. In the \u201cSong of Ice and Fire\u201d RPG, will players be able to recreate fights like the one between Gregor Clegane and Prince Oberyn without using dumb tactics for either one or requiring ridiculously implausible rolls?<\/strong>
\nWe certainly hope so! SIFRP (as we call it for short) has a lot of optional detail for systems like combat, but one of my favorite aspects of it is how the player chooses the consequences of damage suffered by the character; all \u201cdamage\u201d in combat builds towards \u201cdefeat,\u201d at which point the victor gets to decide what happens to the loser: death, unconsciousness, severe embarrassment, or what have you. The defender, however, can choose to mitigate such losses by accepting injuries and wounds (long-term setbacks) to stave off defeat, or even to yield (offering up their own terms of defeat) rather than letting their opponent dictate the terms. There are a lot of options in there for making a good story out of a fight.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a>About Steve Kenson:<\/strong>
\nSteve Kenson began freelancing in the RPG industry in 1993. By 1995, he was working full-time as a freelance author and designer on RPGs such as Shadowrun and Earthdawn. He has written for a wide variety of game-lines and published ten novels: seven for the Shadowrun line, two for Crimson Skies, and one for MechWarrior.<\/p>\n

In 2002, Steve designed the Mutants & Masterminds Superhero RPG for Green Ronin Publishing under the Open Game License. Two years later, he became a line developer with Green Ronin, overseeing the development of the Second Edition of M&M, along with games such as Blue Rose, True20 Adventure Roleplaying, and A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying. He remains an avid gamer with his weekly game group.<\/p>\n

Steve maintains a website at www.stevekenson.com <\/a>and a LiveJournal at xomec.livejournal.com<\/a>. He lives in southern New Hampshire with New Age and pagan author Christopher Penczak and residential counselor and part-time tooth fairy Adam Sartwell.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I talk gaming with Steve Kenson. Read, learn, enjoy,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[31,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}