GMS Magazine Podcast - RPGs, Board Games reviews, interviews, advice. Mostly Asian and Indie games.

Lone Wolf Development has been going for a number of years and Hero

Lab has become the go-to application for a lot of people when is about

character creation and campaign management.

A hugely comprehensive set of stats and data, it makes the task of managing

your character, campaign or adventure easier and with less things to

remember.

It has been a while since they released the Pathfinder Adventure Path to help you run your campaigns and

now they are releasing modules, smaller adventures with everything you need to

keep track of encounters, locations, treasure, NPCs…

I thought a few questions were in order and Colen McAlister was the perfect

person for that. Because he knows pretty much everything about Hero Lab and the

company.

You can download a free trial for Windows and Mac here.

So here it goes… hope you enjoy the show!

The last podcast Jim and I discussed a lot about bad graphic design in RPGs

and some of the very many reasons for it.

But we didn’t really get to discuss everything (maybe because we can’t really

discuss everything without spending the rest of our lives talking about it) so

we decided to have another go at it and this time we got help.

Help from someone who is one of the best in the industry, Jonny Hodgson.

As creative director for Cubicle 7, he is the person who has the

responsibility to get the company products and games to be the best they can be.

And, let’s face it, they are pretty excellent, so I guess he knows a thing or

two about his craft.

This podcast is a bit (as in even more) chaotic than usual, but then it

is also a lot funnier and rather informative, so I hope you will enjoy it.

Let us know!

The last podcast Jim and I discussed a lot about bad graphic design in RPGs

and some of the very many reasons for it.

But we didn’t really get to discuss everything (maybe because we can’t really

discuss everything without spending the rest of our lives talking about it) so

we decided to have another go at it and this time we got help.

Help from someone who is one of the best in the industry, Jonny Hodgson.

As creative director for Cubicle 7, he is the person who has the

responsibility to get the company products and games to be the best they can be.

And, let’s face it, they are pretty excellent, so I guess he knows a thing or

two about his craft.

This podcast is a bit (as in even more) chaotic than usual, but then it

is also a lot funnier and rather informative, so I hope you will enjoy it.

Let us know!

 

Graphic Design is a massive part of any visual product, in fact is totally

paramount. With bad Graphic Design, the product will never be good, no matter

how many qualities it has.

In this impromptu podcast, Jim and I talk about this precise topic and we try

to figure out why there are so many bad products out there.

This podcast was recorded at 2am in Spain and I was a bit on the tired side,

so it seems I ramble a bit. But don’t worry.. it is on topic rambling and I can

ramble rather well, so it won’t be too boring. I promise!

Hope you enjoy the show and let us know what you think.

You can find us in:

https://www.facebook.com/paco.jaen

www.gmsmagazine.com

https://postworldgames.com/

Graphic Design is a massive part of any visual product, in fact is totally

paramount. With bad Graphic Design, the product will never be good, no matter

how many qualities it has.

In this impromptu podcast, Jim and I talk about this precise topic and we try

to figure out why there are so many bad products out there.

This podcast was recorded at 2am in Spain and I was a bit on the tired side,

so it seems I ramble a bit. But don’t worry.. it is on topic rambling and I can

ramble rather well, so it won’t be too boring. I promise!

Hope you enjoy the show and let us know what you think.

You can find us in:

https://www.facebook.com/paco.jaen

www.gmsmagazine.com

https://postworldgames.com/

Should Authors pander to what the gaming crowd want and produce what sells,

or should they produce what they want and get stuck with poor sales?

This is a very real question and a very real situation that many RPG authors

out there have to face every day. And it is not an easy decision to make.

Sometimes making creative and truly new games and games mechanics means

people will look at the product and choose to spend their money on something a

lot safer, a lot better known. Oftentimes people miss out on amazing games just

because of that.

But the truth of the matter is that authors miss out on earnings that could

keep them ticking and helping them make more money to help them make more

games.

This is a conversation I have had with Jim many times in private. Now we have

it in public.

Tell us what you think!

Should Authors pander to what the gaming crowd want and produce what sells,

or should they produce what they want and get stuck with poor sales?

This is a very real question and a very real situation that many RPG authors

out there have to face every day. And it is not an easy decision to make.

Sometimes making creative and truly new games and games mechanics means

people will look at the product and choose to spend their money on something a

lot safer, a lot better known. Oftentimes people miss out on amazing games just

because of that.

But the truth of the matter is that authors miss out on earnings that could

keep them ticking and helping them make more money to help them make more

games.

This is a conversation I have had with Jim many times in private. Now we have

it in public.

Tell us what you think!

For the last few years the discussion on equality in games, both in and out

of the fantasies, have been raging with arguments being made on both camps that

make you wonder sometimes if we have learned anything in the last two hundred

years.

Some of us do want to see more diversity in games, both in the creative

environment – that is, the people who create the games – and in the created

environment, inside the games themselves.

Some other people consider that inclusion of diversity and the added richness

it provides a burden on their creative juices. Which is bullshit.

However there is an aspect of all this inclusion that makes people nervous

because on the one hand they fee they *must* include minorities and, on the

other hand, if they make a mistake in the representation, they will be scorned

mercilessly by members of those minorities.

Is there a balance to be striken here? Do we truly need equality in

games?

Jim Pinto and I

discuss this at length.

Lots of cursing!

For the last few years the discussion on equality in games, both in and out

of the fantasies, have been raging with arguments being made on both camps that

make you wonder sometimes if we have learned anything in the last two hundred

years.

Some of us do want to see more diversity in games, both in the creative

environment – that is, the people who create the games – and in the created

environment, inside the games themselves.

Some other people consider that inclusion of diversity and the added richness

it provides a burden on their creative juices. Which is bullshit.

However there is an aspect of all this inclusion that makes people nervous

because on the one hand they fee they *must* include minorities and, on the

other hand, if they make a mistake in the representation, they will be scorned

mercilessly by members of those minorities.

Is there a balance to be striken here? Do we truly need equality in

games?

Jim Pinto and I

discuss this at length.

Lots of cursing!

Most people believe that we are into a very inclusive hobby that helps people come together and bind us into friendships and a community that is supportive and welcoming.

Yet, during the last few years I have seen that community fragmenting and becoming very, very toxic in many areas.

So, have games lost their ability to unite the geeks? Have we lost whatever common element we used to have that made us a cohesive community?

Because I think we have lost something along the way...