AMA with Monte Cook (Numenera, D&D, Monte Cook Games, Malhavoc Press)

[Monte At Home]

I gotta ask Monte, you keep talking about the modified OD&D game you are running. I've always had this strange fascination with my Rules Cyclopedia so I gotta know. How have you modified your game? I vaguely remember a blog post somewhere kinda talking about it, but it wasn't that specific.

I futzed with ability score mods a tiny bit, added thieves (with d20-based thief "skills," not percentile), turned most things that were tables into rolling a d20 with a bonus and a target number, and was slightly more generous to magic users and clerics regarding spells, while keeping random spellbook determination). We also renamed all the spells so that they sound like Jack Vance created all of them, so sleep is "clouds of mystic slumber" or something like that. Very minor stuff, to be honest.

 

[Monte At Home]

Hi Monte!

1) Will the Player/GM 'divided' rulebooks of the box set be made publicly available?
2) What would your 5e D&D game have been like if you were placed in complete control?
3) If you could design a game based on an existing literary or film source, what would it be?
4) What are some RPGs you currently play besides your own?
5) Given that you designed D&D 3e, and that it spawned countless knock-offs, what is your favorite iteration of the 3e ruleset (besides the stuff you designed)?

1. They are exclusive to the box.
2. Almost impossible to say. Go back to mid-2012 and look at the playtest documents, I guess, but assume a lot more playtest and development. Maybe exactly what got published. I have no idea.
3. I'm not actually a huge fan of working on licensed games, but... maybe Stephen R. Donaldson's The Land.
4. I like FFG's Star Wars game and I'm looking forward to trying Mindjammer. I'll play Call of Cthulhu at the drop of a hat (and am planning on running Masks of Nyarlathotep soon, maybe). I run an occasional OD&D campaign.
5. Probably 13th Age.

 

[Monte At Home]

That looks like all for today. I'll check back in tomorrow. (I do these posts so that it's easy for me to see where I left off if there are new questions.)

Thanks, everyone! Enjoy your gaming!

 

[morgajel]

It was the "resurrection" of dragon magazine for IOS and Android as an "app" that appears to be wholly owned by the marketing department. It consisted of infomercial articles followed by advertisements for the infomercial product. almost zero content in the way of maps, critter stats, etc.

If you google for "raging owlbear dragon+ review" you'll see the problem spelled out clearly(I'm still a noob on this board so I can't post links yet, sorry :/)

I think if you gave it a perusal you'd see it as a crystalization of your complaints.

 

[morgajel]

Bah, I can't even quote properly, that's how much of a noob I am.

 

[off duty ninja]

Thank you so much for the links Monte! I haven't had an opportunity to visit the local game shop, but now I must. I'm totally stoked to have spoken with a true legend of the art. Keep up the greatness dude!

 

[hawkeyefan]

Hey Monte-

First, thanks for all the years of quality gaming material. I'm currently running Dead Gods in my 5E campaign. A great module that I never got to run because our group always move on to the new editions. So I finally decided to just adapt it. It's probably my favorite single adventure, so thanks for that. And our group is having a lot of fun with it...I don't know if I've ever seen my players so creeped out and nervous.

Your answer about the 5 players you'd like to have sounds like one of the most mind-blowing gaming sessions ever.

Since you mentioned Grant Morrison and Alan Grant, I wanted to see what comics or graphic novels you were into, if any? Only older stuff or anything still being published? Any other creators besides Morrison and Grant that you enjoy?

What about novels? What good books have you read lately? Or does your work prevent you from reading too much?

Thanks for your time!!

 

[Dark Kain]

Hi Monte, I'm a fan since Planescape, currently enjoying Numenera and The Strange

There is a question about "The Strange" setting that it is bugging me since I started playing last year.

How do The Estate agents manage to recognize each other and confirm their identities and rank when visiting recursions different form Earth?
On Earth they have the badges, but nowhere it is stated that the badges can translate (equipment can't translate so I suppose badges cannot) and outside of Earth is often problematic to keep in touch with HQ (the Estate is seriously undermanned to have any good coverage of an important recursion such as Ardeyn, nevermind the near infinite number of minor recursions) so any sort of secret code (that isn't mentioned anywhere, anyway) wouldn't work well, since it couldn't be changed often, even if stolen.

The problem was raised when I was GMing "Tom Mallard's Case" for the first time: at the end of the adventure the players asked some form of identification from the rescured Estate Agent (given what had happened just a little while before it felt a justified request)

Is there something I'm missing? Is there some sort of explanation officially (or unofficially) used when playing at MCG? Are Estate agents supposed to rely on good faith outside of Earth and, possibly, Ruk?

 

[DragonMasterDean]

Thanks so much for the answers. Since a Paladin in Hell is one your favorites, I do have one question. After fighting through all the demons and the balor and get to open the hatch on the deck... how do they get off the ship at that point? Do they wait until it gets to the Nine Hells and it will dock and extend the gang plank?

 

[Rabbitball]

Hey, Monte!

I would like to ask about a specific project that just recently finished up: The Grande Temple of Jing. There are many of the "heavyweights" of D&D that became part of that book, including you, Jonathan Tweet, Ed Greenwood, and Skip Williams. How did that come together?