AMA with Bruce R Cordell (The Strange, D&D, Monte Cook Games)

[Desh-Rae-Halra]

Hi Bruce,

1. For STRANGE SUPERFANS, there are still 2 as-yet identified 160 pg hardback supplements to be written. Any initial ideas on what they will be?
If not yet drafted, how about a tour de force adventure through many worlds of the Cypher system.

2. Who was the most influential storyteller/GM on you?
3. Did you ever meet Gary Gygax/ do you have any great tales about being around him?

4. What kinds of music do you listen to?
5. Somewhere back in time I remember reading that when Monte approached you about The Strange, you were writing a book and wanted to finish the book first before doing the game, but he convinced you to do the game first. Is Myth of the Maker that book you were working on before it all officially began?

6. Are you married? I ask, because if not, how does it go when you are dating and explain that you write and design role-playing games for a living?

Thanks!

~Desh

 

[JeffB]

Appeal of cypher system is pretty much the same for all 3: The mechanics throw out a lot of the "false precision" that many game systems employ for a streamlined set of rules that model reality but also give the GM/designer/and player! a lot of narrative power.

Heyya Bruce!

Care to give some examples of the "false precision", and how the Cypher system does things differently? (Im not familiar at all with the rules of any Cypher system game)

 

[Werebat]

Any suggestions on converting The Gates of Firestorm Peak over to 5E? I've been considering it as a good adventure to run after The Lost Mines of Phandelver (maybe Glasstaffs' staff is actually made of nephilium...)

 

[Dahak]

Monte has been adamant about not being interested in resurrecting his older material (Ptolus, etc.) in the Cypher System/MCG, as it would be a step back. I realize that most of your back catalogue is WotC property, Bruce. That said, which of your prior works (if any) would you like to bring back as Cypher products, and why?

 

[Aldarc]

I pretty much find something to like in almost any setting I play in. In the past, I have played a lot Call of Cthulhu, though

What appeals to you about this setting/game?

Never say never! In the short term though, no plans to create a psionic setting. But you and a few others who've asked this question in other venues recently have certainly made me think

The edges, power pools, and expending effort of the Cypher System seem like natural fits for psionics too. But assuming that it was primarily a psionics-focused setting, then some of the foci (i.e. Command Mental Powers) might be redundant. I imagine one would need to expand the foci to more unique manifestations of psionic powers.

Appeal of cypher system is pretty much the same for all 3: The mechanics throw out a lot of the "false precision" that many game systems employ for a streamlined set of rules that model reality but also give the GM/designer/and player! a lot of narrative power.

Would you mind expanding what you mean by "false precision"?

 

[BruceRCordell]

Are you voting for Goblin or Rust Monster?

Gotta go with the alien iron oxide eating monstrosity!

 

[BruceRCordell]

Things are different now, but when you were a game designer looking to make a name for yourself, how did you go about it? Did you seek TSR people out at conventions and hand them manuscripts? Or did you submit relentlessly to Dragon/Dungeon magazine, etc.?

TL;DR I was hired to code an electronic game, but ended up writing print products

Long Version:
I sort of stumbled into it. I was asked several times to write some content for Role Master. I was reluctant at first, since I was still busy pursuing my bio science degree and working the rest of the time in a developmental bio lab. But I finally agreed, and wrote some material that first appeared in Space Master II that described genetically engineered organisms that were essentially super-tech items. I followed that up with a ton of material for Creatures and Monsters.

Meanwhile, I got my degree and parlayed my 6 years working in a dev bio lab into becoming a research associate for a start-up pharmaceutical company. (I think my degree itself hardly came into it--it was the job experience. Thank god for work-study programs!). Eventually I was put in charge running our brand new DNA/RNA synthesis machines, each of which required a computer. A computer that was far more powerful than it needed to be to input sequences, and one that was connected to the fledgling internet. This was around 1992-1993.

Which means I found MUDS and MUSHS, and lost myself in them, nearly. Certainly I learned to code them. Amazing times. It turns out that around that time TSR was looking to create a D&D branded MUD of their own. They brought me out for an interview and hired me. I quit my job at NeXstar (since bought out by Gilead) and went out to Lake Geneva.

However, somehow they decided in that 2 week period that they (they probably being Lorraine Williams, but I'm not sure) didn't want a D&D branded MUD. Probably a story behind that I've never discovered. Anyway, they said, "Well, you can write print products for us? How about you write this title we have coming up called Gates of Firestorm Peak?"

And I did write it, and everyone liked it.

 

[BruceRCordell]

Bruce, congratulations on your MCG endeavors. My questions are specifically about Demascus (love the name btw!)

1. Would he be considered an avenger per 4th edition rules?

2. Any chance of that work ever seeing print, or print on demand? Call me old school, but I like a paper book.

Thanks in advance and continued good fortune to you!

Thank you! I had a few fights go get Demascus and it's spelling all the way through in Sword of the Gods.

1) In fact, Demascus was an avenger-assassin.

2) Damn, I hope so. I'd LOVE to see Spinner of Lies in print, instead of ebook only. When I was told that they were altering the deal, as stipulated by my contract to release a print book, it was sort of one of those "and pray we don't alter it further" situations. This event killed the Sword of the Gods series; I walked away from a 3rd book in that contract when told it would also be ebook only, and they were fine with that. It also set the stage for me leaving Wizards and writing my own books. 5th Edition D&D kept me around a few years longer, but eventually I did leave to write a science fiction novel of my own. Of course, the novel I started writing turned into a RPG called The Strange... but I'm finally finishing that novel (Myth of the Maker) thanks to the currently running Worlds of the Cypher System Kickstarter. So yay!

But back to your question (sorry, drinking coffee), agreed. I really hope they do create a method for Spinner of Lies and the other novels that came out as ebook only at that time to come out in print, too. Especially since print sales are rising again as an apparently large pool of people realize that ebook only is an inferior experience.

 

[BruceRCordell]

Congrats on your continued success Bruce. Going way, way back, the Illithiad and the related adventures are some of my favorite RPG books! What inspired you to author them? How do you feel about those products in hindsight? Is the RPG creative process any different then and now?

My inspiration to author Illithiad and the 3 supporting adventures was Bruce Heard, who scheduled products at TSR among other things. So thank you Bruce!

I had a lot of fun writing the Illithiad because I was able to bring in a lot of my bio-science background to really make them creepy--that's how the illithid tadpoles came to be--I imagined them as parasites that overtook the host. I also drew a bit from my recent discovery of I Ching to create the illithid writing. And of course my love of Larry Niven and his race of tentacled mind controllers--the Slavers. That's where the Alderson disc came from, by the way. Well, the Slavers never had one, but Larry Niven wrote about them in Bigger Than Worlds way back when.

In hindsight, I still really love those adventures. And no, I don't know that the RPG creative process is any different, especially now. I had a lot of leeway during the early years of my writing, and it's like that again at MCG. At TSR, the upper layers of management didn't care what you were doing. And at MCG, there are no layers of upper management, so to speak

 

[BruceRCordell]

Hello Bruce.
While I understand that worlds of cypher (and upcoming Cypher stuff) will be applicable to The Strange, do you have any plans for any big Strange-specific big products, or is it going to be a case of converting stuff across from now on?

We do. One just funded! (in the ongoing Worlds of the Cypher System Kickstarter.) Myth of the Maker, a novel of The Strange. In fact, it's the novel I first started writing after leaving Wizards. But a novel I failed to finish because my pal Monte said, "Hey, you know, that would make a great RPG . . ."