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

[Fildrigar]

Hey, Monte.

Back in the early days of 3e, I figuratively fell in love with one of your adventures, Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. It was the first time I felt as if I had been exposed to a truly living dungeon, where things actually seemed to be happening in "real time" while the adventurers were adventuring. Between scripted events happening, and advice for restocking cleared areas I felt like I had finally "leveled up" as a GM. Additionally, there was a vibrant community full of incredibly creative and helpful people on your forums who were always there to offer advice for how to handle situations that arose during play. I still use the lessons I learned from running that campaign ( TWICE! ) today.

Now, I'm often asked where I learned how to better GM, and I feel like all I have to offer people is "read this out of print adventure, and have an AHA moment of your own." Do you have any specific advice, resources, or areas to send people who want to become better GMs?

Fildrigar

 

[Dahak]

For my final questions, let's go back in time...

1) What was it like working for ICE?

2) Did you live in Charlottesville or were you able to work remotely in that role?

3) Of which Hero System or Rolemaster/MERP product are you most proud from your tenure there?

 

[Desh-Rae-Halra]

I just wanted to say thank you to you (Monte) and to Morrus for putting this together and giving fans this kind of access. I think I have learned a lot just be reading other people's questions and seeing them answered as well as my own.

You mentioned you listen to prog metal. If you haven't checked these out, they would be 2 of my best recommendations:

Redemption: Snowfall on Judgment Day
Symphony X: Iconoclast (Deluxe edition if possible) <- This one should be playing on Ruk!

 

[jhosmer1]

Last question from me: If you were going to run a Cypher game that has the PCs piloting giant robots (perhaps in some pseudo-feudal galactic empire , would you add anything to the Vehicle rules? Or would the giant robots be better as artifacts?

 

[Desh-Rae-Halra]

Ok, a few more:
1. For the Numenera Character Options 2 book (on the current Kickstarter), will we see Foci that are astronomically based, like:
Wields a Singularity or Manipulates Dark Matter?

2. I was a purchaser of Kicking It. I wonder now with more KS experience if you would add other ideas to that?

I also backed at the Unique Character(s) for Numenera and they are still going strong.
Salamandros, a Tough Jack who Exists Partially Out of Phase (I call him The Best Jack in the Game)
and
Vola, a Rugged Glaive Who Lives In The Wilderness.

I think it would be cool to offer these kinds of rewards on future Kickstarters. I also loved the Strange Character Cards.

Oh, and as I teach psychology, I use "Osmus" as an example of a neologism

Thanks again!

 

[GrissTheGnome]

Do me a solid apologize to Shanna, I meant to ask more questions during her AMA but life got in the way. I'm very excited about No Thank You Evil, I've been looking for my first RPG's for awhile now that I have spawn. How similar are the Cypher and NTYE systems, for example if for some reason I wanted by NTYE character to guest star in a Strange game, can that happen?

 

[Fiery James]

Just saying hey

No question, just saying hey! Really missed going to GenCon this year and catching up! Wish the ends of our countries were much closer to one another.

-JB

 

[Mark Cleveland]

I think I most enjoyed the insights into the culmination of your life's work that is the formation of MCG. Thanks again for volunteering your time to answer our questions.

1. I began developing a game system six years ago which is uncannily similar to the Cypher System (CS) in many baffling ways. That being said, its task resolution is also influenced heavily by the same in Apocalypse World. I understand that game mechanics themselves are generally unprotected by copyright or patent law, while the artistic expression thereof is. I also understand you are not a lawyer, but I think if anyone would have a firm idea of what should be my actual concerns as a developer, it would probably be you.

Given that:
(a) this would be my first step into professional game development, and
(b) my design goals and mechanics for gameplay I was developing, are satisfied for the most part by CS, and
(c) while my setting is certainly far different, there are thematic similarities to the Ninth World setting, and
(d) most, if not all, of the arguably-innovations I developed could probably be handled as Options in a CS-licensed product

Would I be wiser to seek licensing of the CS (instead of finishing my game system and giving credit where due)?

2. Now that games like Shotguns & Sorcery and Vurt are on their way, would it be fair to say that the floodgates are opening with regards to the full license option for CS?

3. Upon what factors do you place the most importance when making the decision to allow a full license of the CS?

4. Probably answered above, but could a small (or new) developer such as me ever hope to obtain that license?

 

[Melfast]

Monte,

Really enjoyed meeting you and your team at GenCon and had a blast running Mastadon. I've run con games for several systems now, and it was the best designed one out of the ones I've done and a lot of fun. I particularly enjoyed the non-combat encounters that helped create the feeling of the environment for the players (left vague to avoid spoilers).

I have one rule clarification question I want to sneak in now that the CSR is out (and presumably is the most up to date version of the rules), and it concerns using powers after you've run out of points in your pool. The CSR refers to using points from other pools when damage exceeds the appropriate pool value (you take more damage than you have Might points and it rolls over into your Speed pool, for example), and says that only points from the appropriate pool can be used when an ability has a point cost.

When this question came up online, you indicated in a Google Plus post (copied at the end below) that a character can use Might points to power an esotery when she runs out of intellect points (follow the pool spend in order : Might, Speed, Intellect, Might, Speed). I was hoping this corner case rule would be clarified in the CSR (or as an optional rule), including what edge is used when you pull points from a different pool (Might edge when using Might to power an esotery or Intellect edge since it is an Intellect ability?).

With the benefit of another year of testing and playing, what is the "official" rule in this case and what edge would you apply?

Thanks much.

[Post copied from Google Plus question started by nolinquisitor: Monte Cook, May 21, 2014: "It's the intent of the rules that points come out of pools in a certain order of operation, but that as long you obey that order of operation, you can keep spending points. It's just like with damage: you lose points from your Might, and when you have no Might, they come from Speed, and when you have no Speed they come from Intellect.

This means that while yes, esotery power (and Effort associated with that power) comes from Intellect, if you have no Intellect, it comes from Strength. And if you have no Strength, it comes from Speed. So that means someone could indeed harm or even kill themselves by performing esoteries (or other abilities) over and over."]

 

[Monte At Home]

I'm one of the DMs/players in the campaigns Emus is participating in. Love the book and the setting.

1) Beyond the Emperor of the Church declaring himself the Emperor of the Tarsisian Empire, how did the succession crisis play out in your campaigns? I'm ramping up the church intrigue in our campaign, with a push-back over the Emperor of the Church's move coming in our next adventure.

<strike>2) Obviously, the Big Book is VERY big, and there's Secrets of the Delvers Guild and more Ptolus stuff sprinkled through your other Malhavoc works (all of which I think I've tracked down) and some modules for other companies. Is there any chance of additional Ptolus stuff coming, even if it's just a data dump of your old setting info, either in a commercial format or on a blog or the like? This many years in, we've had a lot of fun making the setting our own -- as Emus said, we've had a lot of fun with Uraq and I've run a long-running campaign based on the Prustan Peninsula -- but we'd love more content.</strike> (Asked and answered, sorry.)

3) The Castain/Lothian stuff is great. It offers pseudo-Catholicism for those who want to run medieval church plots without, I think, offending too many players. But it's also VERY dark once you start looking at all the aspects of the story. Is there a definitive "truth" of who Castain is/was and how Lothian factors into it? Likewise, if most of the Castainite clergy just flipped over to Lothianite clergy, does that mean anything about the sincerity of their worship or the possibility of a Castanite heresy within the Church of Lothian?

4) Beyond Countless Doorways is one of those books that has links to Ptolus. Is it intended to be the official cosmology for Praemal, or was that just a fun thing to add on after the fact, when you were assembling that book?

Thanks for doing this. Ptolus remains one of my most prized possessions of my D&D era. I've always been sad that there were no additional volumes of the Year's Best D20, as that book is wall-to-wall greatness. (And, sadly, a number of the books that it reprints material from are impossible to find, even in PDF form now.)

1. I know it's disappointing to hear, but that was... 15 years ago or so for a lot of that stuff and it's difficult to remember. I remember that the three claimants to the throne were a big part of one of the campaigns and that there was conflict amid the PCs themselves as to who they supported. There was a climactic adventure where the PCs ended up protecting the Emperor of the Church from assassins (if you managed to track down the adventure Black Rain which was on the WotC website years ago, it was based on it) and the events of that shakeup made the Holy Emperor back down. I think that that Segaci eventually got the throne, if memory serves, which led to the Shuul becoming more powerful in the end, which became a big factor of another Ptolus campaign set some time later. But it's been a long time.

2. The big book IS a data dump of all my old setting info. I really don't have much in the way of secret, leftover stuff.

3. What I wanted was to give GMs a way to have their choice of either a monotheistic-style campaign or a polytheistic-style one. My own campaigns were very mixed. I am a fan of early history and tried to make it sort of seem like those periods where the real-world Catholic Church's influence was great but there were still plenty of people who hung onto their own gods. But of course, since it's D&D style fantasy, all the gods involved are real. I remember Zophas (played by Erik Mona), the paladin in the group was a follower of Lothian and referred to the gods worshipped by the other PCs as "demons," as the more orthodox wing of that church is likely to do. That made him real popular.

The Castain aspect of things was something that never got a lot of prominence in my campaign... it was just one of those plot threads that the PCs never grabbed onto. I do like thinking about what happens in a D&D fantasy world where followers and priests lose faith, convert, or discover that some aspect of their religion is wrong, because in a world where religion isn't based on faith but on observation ("I can cast cleric spells, therefore my god is clearly real"), what does that all actually mean?

4. Maybe sorta, but considering that Praemal is a closed-off world, its cosmology is kind of moot.

I wish I'd started doing the Year's Best d20 thing earlier. It came kinda late in the d20 era. It was fun.