1. How did you get your start roleplaying? What
system did you use?
Back when I was around twelve or thirteen, a good
friend of mine introduced me to the game.
We initially played Mentzer Red Box D&D, and then moved onto
AD&D, which is where I started to DM games myself.
2. How and when did you discover the OSR?
On G+ about 3-4 years ago, although I have
collected all the old modules for years, so finding the Revival/DIY scene was
fantastic!
3. Tell me about Monkey Blood Design, How did it
start?
I was painting miniatures/modelling, as well as
drawing map symbols and posting my work on G+.
I was contacted by ProFantasy to work on a symbol set and that pushed my
brain into thinking that what I was doing was worthwhile and valuable to
others. I then decided I would formally
build on that and created MBD. It really took off, and I’ve had little spare
time since haha 😊
4. Tell me about your upcoming release “The
Midderlands”?
My first ever MDB-published work was The DemonStones. It’s got two flavours, Pathfinder and S&W Complete. This was effectively an experiment to learn
about the whole self-publishing scene and see if I could do it.
I see that as the groundwork for The Midderlands. Firstly, here is a link to the G+ page where I put a lot of the WIP posts;
I see that as the groundwork for The Midderlands. Firstly, here is a link to the G+ page where I put a lot of the WIP posts;
The Midderlands itself is a twisted,
medieval-fantasy version of a region fifty-miles across centred on where I live
in England. It’s an S&W Complete-based, OSR, mini-campaign setting with
bestiary of monsters/NPCs and race-classes, and a hex-map, and whilst it’s not
a hex-crawl, it could be used as such as some hexes are described.
Midderlands sample/WIP map below (keep in mind this is a WIP and things will change a bit, it's however super friggin cool!).
I like to think that the book contains a lot of
“game-juice”. No rigidly-defined character and history, but more seeds to allow
a GM to go where they want with it. I’ve tried not to over-describe everything,
but just make it engaging and hopefully useful and fun. Many of the locations
exist but I’ve put a Midderlands spin on them. For example; Blacken Rock in Hex
1816 is described as such;
Blacken Rock
For a start, it’s not black. A large, dark-grey
boulder some ten-feet across sits here next to a small pond. This boulder is
not of local stone, and there appears no explicable reason why the fifty-tonne
piece of solid hellstone should be here.
Hellstone is only found in the northern parts of Scrotland. This strange
stone is flecked with crimson glass-like deposits, and reported to ward off
evil spirits. Many “treasure-hunters” have tied to chip off chunks of this
super-hard substance - all to no avail. No-one has ever managed to budge the
boulder, not even Big Owge from Alderwych.
It is based on this in real-life; http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2652579. I’ve worked on a lot of the setting writing,
and setting look-feel, the initial creature illustrations, cartography and
layout.
These endeavors are rarely one person’s work
though, so I have had help from Edwin Nagy with the creature/class builds and
mechanics. He has done a lot of work with Zach over at Lesser Gnome (now Frog
God Games) with Death & Taxes and The First Sentinel. Edwin worked with me
on The Demon Stones conversion to S&W previously, and he’s awesome! I’ve
also got some supplemental artwork in progress with Jim Magnusson. We have
mutually admired each other’s work for quite a while and it’s been great to
have him on-board the process. It’s
still work-in-progress, but currently weighing in at 150 pages in A5 format at
the moment. I expect it to be PoD with some way of getting printed versions of
the setting map (which I have to finalise). I have a liking for profanity too,
so there could be swear words involved – be aware.
5. What are you currently playing?
I don’t get to play as often as I would like as the
day-job, family commitments and MBD take up pretty much all my spare time. I do
however currently play in an occasional campaign of The Cthulhu Hack by Paul
Baldowski. It’s a friend’s game and I play a Smuggler called Joe Malone.
6. If you could campaign in any world which would
it be?
When I was younger I played in Lankhmar A LOT. I
even overthrew the overlord and ruled it. For years it was Forgotten Realms
though. I played Dungeons & Dragons Online for a few years and really got
to like Ebberon. As it stands nowadays,
I really like the Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea setting created
by Jeff Talanian. I worked on the large world map for the 2nd edition, soon to
be released) so I got to study it in detail. Jeff has created a beautifully-rich
setting and game. Also, I’ve spent a lot
of time working with Venger over at Kort’thalis and his Alpha Blue setting is a marvelous kaleidoscope of gonzo, sleazy sci-fi action with extra pleasure!
7. Tell me about your art & cartography, when
did you start? What your influences?
I’ve been a technical drawing guy since I left
school, so that’s has shaped a lot of the ability. I’ve always loved to draw
since I was a kid, so when all that comes together with a hobby you love, it’s
like a dream. I love the work of Mike
Schley, and going old school Paul Ruiz (Geoff Wingate) of the UK series of TSR modules
and Imagine magazine.
8. Who is your favourite artist and or author?
Artist is probably anyone from the 80’s that worked
on Citadel products, like Tony Ackland and John Blanche. Author is Raymond E.
Feist (Magician, Silverthorn, Darkness at Sethanon)
9. What is one of your favorite adventures other
than something that you’ve released (or worked on)?
I loved the 3E City of the Spider Queen – I GM’d it
and wiped the party out in Szith Morcane. Not sure if they have forgiven me
yet. I have fond memories of playing CM3 Sabre River
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabre_River) and
the gold piece hoard, as well as the Lankhmar modules.
10. When you get a chance to play a character, what
type of PC do you like to play?
Usually a meat-head fighter if I don’t want to do
much thinking. There is something intensely satisfying about rolling big dice
when you score critical hits.
11. What are you most excited about in the RPG
scene currently?
Crikey, there is so much. The amount of talent is
overwhelming. The Scandinavians are creating some of the best-looking stuff
I’ve seen outside of the indie-scene. Tales of the Loop, Mutant Year Zero,
Symbaroum – lovely to flick through and admire art and layout alone.
12. Would you rather be a Tiefling or an Orc?
Orc = meathead, so Orc.
13. What are the plans for Monkey Blood Design this
year?
Get The Midderlands out, and continue to offer my
services. Hopefully I will be as luck this year as last. I’ve got all manner of
personal projects bubbling away. I’ve also worked on a big project for LotFP
for 13 months, so that should manifest this year, as well as Clint Krause’s
Driftwood Verses, Venger Satanis’ Trinity of Awesome Returns, Jeff Talanian’s AS&SH
2E, Liz Chaipraditkul’s Monster, amongst others.
14. Cheezies or Nacho Chips?
We don’t have Cheezies here in the UK, but they
look like Cheetos in the US or cheesy Nik Naks here in the UK. Nacho chips are
presumably Doritos in the UK. To be honest I don’t like either much… but give
me Smokey Bacon-flavoured anything and I’m like a rat up a pipe.
15. Where can we find you on the web?
My web-site which I
really, really need to update and restructure;
I am always found lurking
on my Google Plus stream;
I can also be found
lurking on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest
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