Ivan Van Norman Leaves Darrington Press

Ivan Van Norman has departed Darrington Press after a four-year stint. The veteran game developer and director announced on LinkedIn that he had departed the company, having left sometime earlier this month. Van Norman was previously the company director, responsible for creative oversight, product development and team collaboration as well as providing a public presence for the company.

No reason was given for the departure, although Van Norman says that he'll be focusing on Hunters Entertainment as well as several other passion projects.

Darrington Press announced earlier this week that they had hired Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford as the Creative Director and Game Director for Darrington Press, working on both Daggerheart as well as other new games.

Van Norman's full post can be found below:

As people have been reaching out, I wanted to let everyone know that I am no longer working at Critical Role.

I couldn't be happier to have worked with such an excellent group of people, who have worked so hard and passionately to create great things. While I am proud of everything the Darrington team has accomplished over the last four years, I am excited to move on to new opportunities.

In the meantime, I will be using this time to focus on the company I started 15 years ago, Hunters Entertainment, as well as pursue a few passion projects that I now have time to put effort into.

I have always enjoyed new ventures, and Darrington was the largest one by far. There is no greater joy than bringing talented folks together and making games worth participating in.

I wish everyone at Critical Role and Darrington Press team all the luck with Daggerheart. It is an amazing game, and everyone who worked on it should be proud of what they’ve accomplished.

Onto the next adventure!

 

[abazaba]

I like Monster of the Week as a good entry PbtA game, and while it's not high fantasy it's definitely fantasy, in the vein of Buffy and Supernatural.

Ok. So would that be (iirc, it's been a while) Buffy like 'the first few seasons, where there literally was a new monster every episode', or more Buffy like 'the last few seasons, where there was a single BBEG throughout the entire season' ?
Or in other words: Is 'Monster of the Week' designed to be played as a string of one-shots (one-and-done), or more as an entire campaign run over a few months (or longer, depending on how often you play) ? Or are no such assumptions made either way ? (but you did mention Buffy .)

 

[CandyLaser]

Ok. So would that be (iirc, it's been a while) Buffy like 'the first few seasons, where there literally was a new monster every episode', or more Buffy like 'the last few seasons, where there was a single BBEG throughout the entire season' ?
Or in other words: Is 'Monster of the Week' designed to be played as a string of one-shots (one-and-done), or more as an entire campaign run over a few months (or longer, depending on how often you play) ? Or are no such assumptions made either way ? (but you did mention Buffy .)

Closer to the former. As the name suggests, the basic expectation is for there to be a new monster every week. There are some alternate campaign frames that add more of a throughline, but by default you'll go up against a new beastie each time.

 

[SteveC]

Or in other words: Is 'Monster of the Week' designed to be played as a string of one-shots (one-and-done), or more as an entire campaign run over a few months (or longer, depending on how often you play) ? Or are no such assumptions made either way ? (but you did mention Buffy .)

I would say it's closest to early seasons of Supernatural, before the meta-plot really kicked in. Or the X-Files when the episode wasn't about the ongoing conspiracy.

 

[abazaba]

Got it. So although our group likes longer campaigns better than one-shots, I might still suggest 'Monster of the Week' to our group as a try out/introduction to the game engine (with the expectation that if we like it we would switch to something more campaign oriented.)

Thanks people, I think I now have got enough to suggest some things to my current group, and see what (or if) any of this sounds interesting enough to them to try it out.

 

[overgeeked]

Thanks for the info.

I guess that what I am looking for the most, is something 'high fantasy'-ish. So I took a look at the 'Powered by the Apocalypse' entry on Wikipedia, and 'Fantasy World' (or perhaps 'Dungeon World') seem to fit that genre the best ?

You’re looking for a rules lighter, fiction first, high fantasy, PbtA game? Man have you got good timing. Daggerheart is exactly that.

 

[abazaba]

You’re looking for a rules lighter, fiction first, high fantasy, PbtA game? Man have you got good timing. Daggerheart is exactly that.

Really ? Although it doesn't have to be PbtA, 'rules lighter, fiction first, high fantasy' sure seems to fit the bill. Guess I'll have to look into Daggerheart now as well.

And on a side-note: it now seems that perhaps I did not derail this thread as much as I thought I did.

 

[Old Dreamer]

You’re looking for a rules lighter, fiction first, high fantasy, PbtA game? Man have you got good timing. Daggerheart is exactly that.

Grumble, grumble, grumble... still looking for a physical copy of Daggerheart. Although I did see a copy at Origins, but not to purchase.

I would add Grimwild as well, seems like an improvement over the original Dungeon World take on PBTA.

 

[DEFCON 1]

My strongest memory of Ivan Van Norman is of the rather awesome Dread mini-campaign he ran on Geek and Sundry. I wish him well!

First time I saw him was when he competed on the first season of King of the Nerds.