The participants included Wolfgang Baur, Greg Stolze, Gary M. Sarli, and Daniel Solis.

Patronage and Kickstarter- How to Get Paid Up Front

Our lead guest this time out is design innovator and legend Robin Laws (of GUMSHOE , the Dungeon Master’s Guide II, and Robin’s Laws of Good Gamemastering, among many others). He tells us about investigative adventures and player choices.

Tim Connors is known for “Siege of the Spider Eaters” in Dungeon Magazine as well as for his frequent articles in Kobold Quarterly, including the Belphegor, the Baron of Laziness and Invention and Ecology of the Vampire. This year, Tim was honored with a Silver ENnie Award for his contribution to Open Design’s Tales of Zobeck. Tim discusses the relationship between history and fantasy for both vampires and the Red Eye of Azathoth.

Ryan Macklin is lead designer on the Dresden Files RPG, and the creative force for three podcasts: Master Plan, This Just In… From GenCon and The Voice of the Revolution — with over 100 episodes to his name. He also maintains RPGPodcasts.com, a podcast RPG directory, and he’s got stories to tell.

As always, ODP gives away a prize and Wolfgang announces the next contest, so … The show is on!

* ‘Ask the Kobold’ with Skip Williams
* ‘Wicked Fantasy’ with John Wick
* Green Ronin publisher Chris Pramas
* Open Design stalwart Joshua Stevens
* Operatic madman Nicolas Logue

We talk about game design and game mastery, including Courts of the Shadow Fey, Dragon Age, George RR Martin, the Chain Mail minis game from Wizards of the Coast, The Whispering Vault, and how to design a better set of options when working with minis.

Your hosts — Wolfgang Baur, Rone Barton, and Ed Healy — also announce the next contest: A free patronage to the upcoming Open Design projects is at stake, and you could win! Please submit your entry by October 10.

In addition to regulars Skip Williams and Monte Cook, yours truly and co-hosts Ed Healy and Rone Barton discuss the recent crop of ENnie Awards. Oh, and some guests.

We chat with noted Green Ronin designer Steve Kenson about a designer’s relationship with editors. And about how design decisions shift from edition to edition in game systems such as Mutants & Masterminds.

We also talk to Ed Greenwood about all things fantastical; certainly his home campaign became the largest and longest-running RPG setting. I’m a little jealous that my co-hosts got this interview; Ed’s always a got something funny, smart, or wicked to say. Sometimes all three at once.

Finally, it’s not all industry veterans. Stefen Styrsky joined Open Design with the Empire of the Ghouls project, and has been with us ever since. Not only has he started contributing great content to the projects themselves, you can also find his Bard articles in the pages of Kobold Quarterly. Call it a newcomer’s view of the field.

Do Not Miss!

Open Design 003: Kobold Quarterly 10
Chaos and Creativity edition

Welcome to the Open Design Podcast, a discussion about game design and game mastery with hosts Wolfgang Baur, Ed Healy and Rone Barton.

Regular Features:
* ‘Ask the Kobold’ with Skip Williams
* ‘Game Theories’ with Monte Cook

John Wick created Legend of the Five Rings and 7th Sea for Alderac Entertainment Group, winning four Origins awards in the process, before moving on to start Wicked Dead Brewing Company with Jared Sorensen. Last year, John released the long-awaited Houses of the Blooded, which sold out in under a week. He’s a brilliant designer and he agreed to share some wisdom with us.

John’s Open Design credits include the Wicked Fantasy series – articles about classic fantasy races, but with a twist. The first installment is in the recently released Kobold Quarterly Issue #10.

Also Mentioned: Orkworld (Wicked Press), Greg Stafford, Houses of the Blooded (Wicked Dead Brewing Company), John Tynes, NeonCon, octaNe (from memento mori theatricks), Kenneth Hite, Curse of the Yellow Sign, Act I: Digging for a Dead God (Wicked Dead Brewing Company), RPG Countdown, My Monster (Wicked Dead Brewing Company).

Dan Voyce has been a patron on numerous Open Design projects, including Wrath of the River King, Tales of Zobeck, and both editions of Halls of the Mountain King. We asked him to come on and talk about patronage, and his journey from patron to contributing author.

To learn more about Open Design, visit Wolfgang Baur’s homepage.

Also Mentioned: ENnie Awards.

Tim and Eileen Connors have been collaborating on adventures and magazine articles for the last three years, first in Dragon and Dungeon magazines, and then for Kobold Quarterly. More recently, they have contributed to various Open Design projects, including the Tales of Zobeck anthology. We spoke with them about their work, and about working together.

The Connors’s Open Design credits include Halls of the Mountain King, ‘Belphegor, the Baron of Laziness and Invention’ (Kobold Quarterly Issue #2), Tales of Zobeck, ‘Adriel, Angel of Hope’ (Kobold Quarterly Issue #4), ‘Secret Messages’ (Kobold Quarterly Issue #6), ‘Horrors from the 5th Dimension’ (Kobold Quarterly Issue #8), and numerous articles on the Kobold Quarterly website.

Also Mentioned: ‘Siege of the Spider Eaters’ (Dungeon Magazine Issue #137), Kobold Quarterly 008 (Atomic Array 015).

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If you enjoyed this episode, consider subscribing so that you’ll be notified when the next one is released. Feel free to drop by the Kobold Quarterly forums to tell us what you think as well.

Open Design 002: Halls of the Mountain King (OGL)

Welcome to the Open Design Podcast, a discussion about game design and game mastery with hosts Wolfgang Baur, Ed Healy and Rone Barton.

Regular Features:
* ‘Ask the Kobold’ with Skip Williams (Pinning in Combat)
* ‘Game Theories’ with Monte Cook (Do Overs)

We took a trip to The Far Realm with 4th Edition designed Bruce Cordell. Bruce recounts his journey from lab tech to game designer and novelist, and discuss the horror genre from the perspective of a game master and game designer.

Also Mentioned: Elendor MUSH

For some time, Wolfgang has been going back and forth with his nemesis, Phil Menard, about a number of topics – from the differences between the editions to the value of crunch vs. fluff. We invited the Chatty DM come on and continue their conversation, live.

Also Mentioned: Dungeon Crawl Classics (Goodman Games)

Paizo Publishing, former publisher of Dragon and Dungeon magazines, changed the rules of adventure publishing when it introduced the concept of the Adventure Path. Over the past two years, Paizo’s Pathfinder series has been taking that concept to a new level. Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief James Jacobs joins us to talk about the editorial side and how game mastery informs game design. Wolfgang also holds James’ feet to the fire about something that would be awesome!

James’s Open Design credits include ‘Jezebal, Princess of Poison Winters’ (Kobold Quarterly 5).

If you enjoyed this episode, consider subscribing so that you’ll be notified when the next one is released. Feel free to drop by the Kobold Quarterly forums to tell us what you think as well.

Kobold Quarterly was featured on Atomic Array 021. As part of the show, Open Design offered to give away a free copy of Kobold Ecologies to the person with the funniest story about an encounter with a wild animal. The winning entry was announced on the first episode of the Open Design Podcast.

We present here, for your listening pleasure, Craig Johnston’s simian encounter. Enjoy. (May not be safe for some work environments.)