Questions, questions, questions...

Cool series of questions from a cool blogger, Zak Sabbath. Check him out...

My answers are below:

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

Probably the stretch of improvisation I had to do in order to expend the 24 hours between uses of "plane-shift", while on my own and totally outgunned.

2. When was the last time you GMed?

Monday, 1/16.

3. When was the last time you played?

As a player? Wow... 2005?...

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

The garrison commander of a besieged large (1,000+) town pulls a Benedict Arnold, and the bewildered PC's are now thrust into organizing the defense.

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

Provide taunting mood music, or imply a countdown.

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

Last time, smoked almonds and red wine. Aw yeah.

7. Do you find GM-ing physically exhausting?

Yeah, but it gets easier. Ask me the next time I run a session that falls flat... That's exhausting...

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

Upon losing all his cash to a cutpurse, rather than simply doing a song & dance at the nearest tavern, his bard proceeds to scam his way into a wealthy merchant's home and seduce his daughter... Didn't really see that coming.

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

It's joyous to see both happen, in quick succession: when everybody's laughing their asses off, and then they get hit with something that makes everything *stop*. Priceless.

10. What do you do with goblins?

Make them entertaining, or make them really fucking devious.

11. What was the last non-RPG thing you saw that you converted into game material (background, setting, trap, etc.)?

The de Sade graffiti trick from "Quills", but with blood instead of poop. (Look it up, kids)

12. What's the funniest table moment you can remember right now?

Not terribly hilarious, but I had a great time the first opportunity I had to start throwing little notes exclusively to one character about something going on in his head. My noobs hadn't seen that, yet...

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

Planescape: Well of Worlds. Looking at throwing some major curve-balls at my gang of noobs.

14. Who's your idea of the perfect RPG illustrator?

I would buy any product that hired Eddie Campbell as its illustrator.

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

Yes, and it's a very, very cool feeling...

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

Plunging my noobs into a dungeon created solely with Paul Jaquays' "Central Casting" system. Put together some connective tissue, and it's a hell of a ride.

17. What would be the ideal physical set up to run a game in?

A retired nuclear cooling tower. Awesome reverb, and quite a bit of underlying contemporary anxiety about one's general well-being...

18. If you had to think of the two most disparate games or game products that you like what would they be?

The old Twilight: 2000 series and Ars Magica. Going from meticulous number-crunching to a total devotion to story development.

19. If you had to think of the most disparate influences overall on your game, what would they be?

Shakespeare, Joseph Campbell, and High On Fire.

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

Imaginative, and un-self-conscious.

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

Nightmares. I've used some exceptionally vivid imagery from horrific dream experiences to describe specific elements of game action. Works pretty good.

22. Is there an RPG product that you wish existed but doesn't?

A really good planet-scale terrain generator that's not dependent on computers.

23. Is there anyone you know who you talk about RPGs with who doesn't play? How do those conversations go?

Not really, but I'm working on changing that.