Recently, John Foody from Warpstone Magazine contacted me, requesting a brief interview. I was happy to oblige. Here is the interview transcript, which you can also find in Legion Issue #8 over at the Warpstone website .

Could you give us some background on yourself? What is your past experience in games?
I think it's probably fair to say that I share an experience common with a lot of other people who are currently working full-time in the games industry - for a long time, I had a "Real World" job that afforded me the luxury of working as a freelancer or part-timer in the game industry.

My non-gaming background includes time spent as a technology consultant, a credentialed software trainer, a college instructor, a curriculum developer, a senior web developer, and a variety of other roles leveraging my attention to detail and communication skills.

I started gaming at a very, very young age. I'm fortunate to be from a family that saw value in gaming together, and we played board games and card games on a regular basis. Then my older brother introduced me to D&D (in the red box) when I was in about 4th or 5th grade, and I was hooked on fantasy gaming for good.

I started developing my own game designs in high school, and by college, I started hooking up with a few people in the industry at GenCon and online. It wasn't too long after college that I started to get some freelance work. Over the years I've been involved with projects for Escape Ventures, Eden Studios, Goodman Games, WizKids, and of course Fantasy Flight Games. I've also fostered friendships with a lot of great people in the game industry.

What attracted you to WFRP?
The grim setting was both familiar yet different from anything else I had seen. The setting's similarities to our own geography and history helped establish a certain comfort level, but then all the nuances and the infusion of fantastic elements, magic, and Chaos really shaped a unique experience.

Up until playing WFRP, I hadn't been involved in a roleplaying game with such a taut gameplay experience, where the characters were frail, flawed, and yet incredibly vibrant and dynamic. There's a certain atmosphere of hope when your lowly rat catcher and band of peasantfolk turn back an invading force of greenskins — even if no one else in the world ever hears of your deeds, or believes you if they do.

What is your role at FFG?
As the Senior RPG Developer in charge of the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay line, I have a variety of duties with the core responsibility of supporting the WFRP line and fulfilling both Games Workshop's and FFG's goals for the vitality of the licence.

It's impossible to provide a "typical" workday, but here are some of the things I'm responsible for: evaluating project submissions, researching and clarifying rules questions, developing a pool of talented freelance writers, managing projects, laying out books, reviewing and editing manuscripts, creating budgets, writing proposals for upcoming projects, setting project deadlines and expectations, securing contracts with writers and developers, shepherding a project from inception to the delivery of print-ready files, managing playtesters to assure projects are thoroughly tested, supporting the fan base with new materials and information, helping the web team develop content for the web site, and a variety of other tasks as they come up.

No two days are alike, and as you can imagine, these responsibilities keep me busy and on my toes!

How have your first few months in the job been?
It's gone very well. I feel very good about the direction WFRP is going in, and am very pleased with the quality of the freelance talent we're working with on upcoming projects. It's unfortunate that the fans only get to see the slimmest glimpse of what I work on and what's been going on behind the scenes — there is a lot of work being done!

How has the reaction from the fans been?
WFRP fans are active, vocal, demanding people. I've been impressed with how welcoming and receptive the online fanbase has been. There are a lot of intelligent, creative, and rabid fans out there.

As with anything new, there are supporters and detractors. I'm very pleased that there seem to be a lot more supporters than detractors.

GenCon was a great experience, as well. I got to meet a lot of enthusiastic freelance writers and fans who were excited to see WFRP being supported by Fantasy Flight Games.

How does the relationship between GW and FFG work?
Games Workshop is great to work with. We recently had a face-to-face meeting with Games Workshop, and I was incredibly pleased at how our goals, expectations and processes mesh.

Properly supporting and enhancing the storied Warhammer Fantasy license is a daunting task. Games Workshop provides invaluable support and feedback to ensure our content and projects accurately reflect the Warhammer intellectual property and provide a gameplay experience fans expect from a Warhammer product.

What are the strengths of WFRP that you want to build on? What weaknesses do you want to work on?
The setting is an obvious strength. I also really like the diversity and flavor found in the careers system. I think WFRP provides a lot of opportunities for variety in play - harrowing combat, taut political intrigue, exploration, mysteries and investigation.

I think some of the weaker parts may be some of the mechanics that support the setting and license. Sometimes mechanics can get in the way of telling a great story. I see opportunities to strengthen the ruleset so players and GMs can focus on creating a great story, rather than flipping through pages to resolve a rules question.

How much unpublished material came across from Green Ronin? Will it all be published?
One of our upcoming projects, Shades of Empire, is a sourcebook Green Ronin was heavily involved in. We worked closely with Green Ronin to leverage their experience with the setting and the system to develop this great product. We're still reviewing a lot of the other materials that came across in the transition of WFRP to Fantasy Flight Games.

What direction would you like take to take WFRP?
I'd like to see more support for GMs to develop their own campaigns. I'm looking at ways to provide tools so GMs can prepare exciting adventures for their groups using less time. I'd also like to make WFRP more accessible to a broader range of players - from new players who have never played a role- playing game to veteran gamers looking for a novel setting and experience.

What are the challenges in producing and promoting WFRP?
Despite its legacy, WFRP is still relatively new as a roleplaying product for a lot of people. A lot of people are familiar with the tabletop game, the wide range of computer titles, the Massively Multiplayer Online Game, or other titles in the Games Workshop line. There are some great opportunities to introduce these people to WFRP.

There are also other games, especially here in the United States, that have been around longer or have a stronger game store presence than WFRP has had in the past. I'm really excited about some of the marketing plans being discussed to competitively position WFRP in the roleplaying market. Once people try the game, I really think the setting and the experience can sell themselves.