AMA with Shanna Germain (author, editor, co-owner of Monte Cook Games, lead designer of No Thank You, Evil!)

[Guang]

Very soon! The authors – Alina Pete and Anthony Pastores finished writing it last month, and they did an absolutely wonderful job. Artist Winona Nelson has been working on an art piece to accompany it; we just saw her early sketch and are very excited about it. If all goes well, we're hoping to release it sometime this month.

oh, very cool! How can I find it? Is it a pdf, a book, or what? Does it have a name yet?

 

[Xantherion]

I was wondering if there were any thoughts or the potential of getting a licence for a setting from a 3rd party, say a book series, or movie etc...

 

[Shanna Germain]

No Thank you, Evil seems to be firmly aimed at younger kids but scale-able for all ages of play. Will there be more complex rules aimed at older teens and adults to expand the No Thank you, Evil system?

Yes! It’s called Numenera, the Strange, and The Cypher System Rulebook ☺

 

[Shanna Germain]

Hello Shanna, thanks for doing this AMA. I was curious about something you mentioned in your call out for kids to come and play-test No Thank You Evil - you made a point to include kids that might have special needs, including color-blindness, autism, and dyslexia. Had you given children with special needs some thought before you started writing the game? My daughter has down's syndrome, and I fully intend to get her into geeky things when she's older (including No Thank You Evil!), and it was nice to see a game designer being so inclusive. Keep up the great work.

Thank you so much for such a nice comment – I hope your daughter loves No Thank You, Evil! (and all things geeky!). I definitely knew it was something I wanted to incorporate into the game before I began working on it. Both my mom and sister are teachers—my mom mostly works with children with special needs—so it’s something that’s always been important to me.

I wrote a little bit about our process of learning how to design a game that’s inclusive, if you’re interested in learning more about what we’re doing:

http://www.montecookgames.com/competing-with-puppies-designing-games-for-kids-part-3-of-3/

 

[Shanna Germain]

As a retail store owner I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Kickstarter. You guys are much more supportive of retail locations than a lot of other kickstarter companies, so thank you very much for that.

Thank you for saying that! We really want to make sure that players can get the game wherever and however they want, and of course, we're huge fans of brick-and-mortar stores. We started our Asset Team last year too, where players run games in-store, to further support local stores, and the response has been great.

 

[Shanna Germain]

Why is your editor so awesome?

A "No, Thank You, Evil!" game is about to start: what character do you make up?

He isn't. (* waves * Hi, Ray!). Actually, I have no idea why or how he's so awesome, I'm just glad that he is. For those who don't know, Ray Vallese does the majority of our editing for MCG, and he's really fantastic. (He's also a great writer--his novella for the Torment: Tides of Numenera is fantastic!)

I'm a Cool Robot who Eats Ice Cream. My companion is an Awesome Alien!

 

[thom_likes_gaming]

Hi Shanna,

thank you for doing this AMA, cool stuff.

I've always felt that "the RP crowd" in general is not overly sexist / chauvinist. Most of the time, the people I play or work with don't care about the gender of the rest of the group. Is that something you can confirm, both as a player and a creator of games?

 

[Desh-Rae-Halra]

Hi Shanna,

What are some things that fans probably dont know in terms of working in the rpg/gaming industry?
What would be one of the hardest/most difficult aspects of being a game designer?
What kinds of things bring you joy that might not be obvious?
Can we count on more MCG Kickstarters down the road?

Matching:
Monte ____
Shanna ____
Bruce ____

A. Rock
B. Paper
C. Scissors

Thanks!

~Desh (Hint: Owner of a Numenera Shelf-Talker!)

 

[Jacen_Omas]

Hello Shanna,

Congratulations to you and all at MCG on the fantastic games you have been putting out, we are on session 15 of our Numenera campaign and everyone at the table loves it!

You mentioned playing borderlands before, are you a big video gamer? What is your gaming platform of choice and some of your favourite titles? Have any particular games inspired you?

 

[Shanna Germain]

Hi Shanna. Numenera is a very cool setting, and presumably like many people, I first heard of it because of the upcoming Torment: Tides of Numenera game. Has the development of that game impacted the PnP RPG much or at all? Since the game apparently takes place a bit off the map of the campaign setting book (if I recall correctly) and inevitably brings new elements to the setting, do you expect to tie a lot of that new material they develop back in to the PnP game at some point after Torment comes out? (Or are there IP restrictions or other hurdles in place there?)

It seems like a fun situation, like a novelist having their book picked up to be turned into a film before it's even published.

We’ve been working closely with the designers at inXile as they’ve been creating Torment, mostly in terms of world building and the game mechanics.

You’re right that the computer game is alos informing the PnP game as well. We added the location of Torment to the Map of the Ninth World that’s in the Ninth World Guidebook, so you can see where it is in the world. And they’ve designed really creative and wonderful new creatures, places, and people, so you’ll see those appear in future products as well. You'll also see some of the art from the game in the tabletop products as well, to really integrate everything.

It’s been a very collaborative effort—and the chance to work with the brilliant designers over at inXile has been fantastic.