Zak's Questionnaire

1. If you had to pick a single invention in a game you were most proud of what would it be?

Probably Nightwick Abbey/the Dark Country if only because there has been such a positive response to it.

2. When was the last time you GMed?

About two weeks ago.

3. When was the last time you played?

About one week ago.

4. Give us a one-sentence pitch for an adventure you haven't run but would like to.

A Star Trek adventure where the bridge crew find themselves stranded on a D&D-style fantasy planet.

5. What do you do while you wait for players to do things?

Sit there.

6. What, if anything, do you eat while you play?

With my original group it was always pizza, but more recently it's been chips and various dips or chex mix.

7. Do you find GMing physically exhausting?

Sometimes.  Sometimes I actually find it invigorating.

8. What was the last interesting (to you, anyway) thing you remember a PC you were running doing?

Dragging an animated statue kicking and screaming out of the only room it could be animated in, hauling it back to town, and then selling it.

9. Do your players take your serious setting and make it unserious? Vice versa? Neither?

The first one, definitely; however, I'm also partially to blame.  As much horror and what not as I try to inject, I'm naturally kind of a clown.

10. What do you do with goblins?

This

11. What was the last non-RPG thing you saw that you converted into game material (background, setting, trap, etc.)?
The "Groans" from that Hobbit spec cartoon that was floating around the blogosphere recently.

12. What's the funniest table moment you can remember right now?
I had a player who liked to metagame and who had a quasi-encyclopedic knowledge of the various stuff (monsters, magic items, etc.) in 3.5.  I put out a rumor that a "juvenile" dragon was looking for a wizard to teach it magic.  The metagamer, who happened to be playing a wizard, figured that they could easily just kill the dragon for it's hoard.  Once they got to its layer they found he was an Ancient Wyrm that acted like Frito from Idiocracy.  He particularly liked to tell people to "suck one."


That one might also double as the creation I'm proudest of, now that I think about it.

13. What was the last game book you looked at--aside from things you referenced in a game--why were you looking at it?

WFRP 1e.  I was a big fan of 2e and I wanted to see if 1e was everything I've heard it is.

14. Who's your idea of the perfect RPG illustrator?
Mostly that his or her work is appropriate to the material itself.  I will say that I want a supplement or even a corebook to have a consistent look, which usually means a single artist.


Having said that, either Dave Trampier or Russ Nicholson.

15. Does your game ever make your players genuinely afraid?

Rarely.  More commonly the response to my games is "Weird..."  I think I joke too much to scare people.

16. What was the best time you ever had running an adventure you didn't write? (If ever)

I ran the village of Hommlet once and the PCs 1) brought capitalism to the World of Greyhawk and 2) made Hommlet into a tourist trap.  They never actually went to the moathouse.

17. What would be the ideal physical set up to run a game in?
Everybody around the table in comfortable chairs.  I'd also like it if I have enough room for my giant binder and AD&D hardbacks.  I'd also like to have some system where I can easily play thematically appropriate music.

18. If you had to think of the two most disparate games or game products that you like what would they be?
Not really sure about this one.  Maybe Traveller and Harnmaster because of the Sci Fi/Fantasy split.

19. If you had to think of the most disparate influences overall on your game, what would they be?
Atomic horror movies and Medieval History

20. As a GM, what kind of player do you want at your table?

One who is willing to buy in to what I want to run.

21. What's a real life experience you've translated into game terms?

The look of Nightwick Abbey's underworld in my head is very much tied into my trip to Hastings Castle -- but with more slime.

22. Is there an RPG product that you wish existed but doesn't?
A megadungeon "kit" in the style of Vornheim or a wilderness kit in the same style.  Alternatively a simple version of D&D that more or less runs like OSD&D but has a unified mechanic and allows for a modicum of character customization.

23. Is there anyone you know who you talk about RPGs with who doesn't play? How do those conversations go?
Not really.  There was one guy who I would talk to about setting stuff -- he's a writer -- but I got he played in the online Traveller game I did about a year ago.