In this episode, we have an extended interview with game designer extraordinaire Riley Daniels (As The Sun Forever Sets, Ghoul Boys, Into The Blind), talking about starting out as a game designer in the pandemic, developing a Forged in the Dark game utterly unlike Blades, and finally, their experience working with Evil Hat Productions!
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Anyway, Cole’s been reaching The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin (0:05:34), which is a magical realist novel with vibes of Neverwhere and Dimension 20’s The Sleeping City. Cole is just beginning to make their way through it and Marley unintentionally spoils an early plot beat (so be warned…).
And despite our mutual dislike of D&D, we’ve also both been playing Baldur’s Gate III a bunch (0:10:33). We talk about how it’s probably the best way to experience D&D, the characters we made, the way the game responded to… certain choices, and the kind of racist plotlines we know are waiting ahead of us.
Then, onto TTRPGs!
Cole did a big read through of Band of Blades (0:22:59), a game we’ve wanted to check out for a good while, and has found quite substantial changes to the core FitD ruleset. It’s no longer a game about daring rogues in a sunless city, instead focusing on grimdark soldiers retreating from an undying army stuck in an endless war. It has infamous chosen heroes who are helpful most of the time, a Crusader Kings-like management game, classes of soldiers who graduate into other playbooks, and a particularly grim ending…
Meanwhile, Marley checked out an early version of Planet Fist by Jess Levine (1:10:27). It’s a hack of FIST made for the recent FIST ULTRA Jam focusing on… undying soldiers stuck in an endless war?? However, unlike the grimdark fantasy of Band of Blades, Planet Fist feels like a game that you might have played on the original xbox. It features space soldiers with nanomachines and respawn points, killing enemies two, three times in a single mission, and even has bond mechanics which permit you to fight alongside your ex...
Then, onto an extended interview with game designer extraordinaire Riley Daniels (1:26:52), as we talk about her experience starting out as a game designer in the pandemic, her design inspirations for As The Sun Forever Sets, making a queer historical TTRPG, and what it was like pitching to (and getting accepted by) Evil Hat Productions.
(Also, you can join in with the As The Sun Forever Sets playtests by clicking here!)
Featuring Marley (@Mynar_Lenahan), Cole (@IceColeBrew), and Riley Daniels (@msmcnevertweet).
Produced by Marley, as well.
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