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Dark Quest Games E-ViewIn this month’s Echo we’re lucky enough to have an e-View of Dark Quest Games. As an extra bonus both Neal Levin (CEO of Dark Quest) and Darren Pearce (Fantasy Line Developer) will be answering questions for us. GameWyrd’s questions appear in strange blue and Dark Quest’s answers are in typical black.
1) Moon Elves was a great supplement from Dark Quest and now it's a great
supplement from Natural Press. What's going on there? What's in it for Dark
Quest?
Neal: Dark Quest has solely operated from the stance of a design outfit.
We are involved heavily in the game. Developing, writing, and utilizing our
own products. Much of the delay in releasing products has been by the fact
that I've been hampered by having to deal will most of the public business
aspects of marketing and promoting awareness of our products. Moon Elves is
a suppliment from Dark Quest and Natural Press. Dark Quest acts as the
design outfit, while Natural 20 Press handles all our marketing aspects.
Its advantage to me is that I get to have more time to write as well as can
spend more time to enhance the team interaction. What it means for Dark
Quest, is that we spend the time to enhance our products, and it means
better things for the public.
Darren: I deal with the actual development and discussion of the ideas of
the Fantasy line. While Chris Snook deals with Cyberstyle and as Tensen says
(Since he knows more about the business side after all) he deals with the
nitty gritty of the more hardcore aspects of the company. It frees me up to
write, write, design and write. Did I tell you I like to write? And I'm
commited to providing as much detail alongside our crunchy game mechanics
people as possible. I'm the psychotic genius behind the Death: Guardian of
the Gate for instance. And as Tensen says, having Natural 20 Press doing the
marketing frees us up to do more writing/detail.
2) A visit to your website reveals that Dark
Quest has as many articles of clothing and jewellery for sale as it has RPG
products. We can see you were solely a re-enactment company for over ten
years before turning your hand to producing gaming supplements. What brought
this about? Was it the arrival of the d20 system that brought this about?
Neal: The physical staff of Dark Quest are medieval re-enactors, we live
and breathe faire, you'll see Ren Mercs, Ren Wenches, and Ren Rogues amongst
our regular staff. To say we were long time gamers, would not be
emphasizing the fact enough. We've had staff writing material for their
local games for over 20 years. D20 definitely brought it about. For a long
time I had considered the possibility of finishing up one or more of the
game systems I have written over the years, but having a solid game system
with the marketing behind it, gave us the structure to evolve the gaming
aspect of the company around.
Darren: I joined Dark Quest a while ago, a good year ago to be honest, but
my background comes from gaming and I mean hardcore gaming. For a while I
ran my own RPG course in the UK which lasted 2 years and had the backing of
TSR and I've been in the hobby in one way or another for 23 out of my 33
years. I wrote my first world and unpublished book at 10 (My parents gave me
a healthy love of Fantasy at a very early age). For me the advent of d20 was
a blessing and a chance to put forwards ideas that I've always wanted to do.
And the scary thing is that I did lots of LARP and Re-enactment too, I'm
also a sword weilding nutter from the UK. *chuckles*
3) Looking at some of the authors who have worked on Dark Quest products I
can't help but get the feeling you're rather well networked in the industry.
Do you think this is true?
Neal: I'm surprised how many people think this. I guess perhaps we are
better acquainted with people then many of the other "small" PDF publishers
are, but I don't believe I am well networked. There are lots of people we
don't know. and would like to. We enjoy working with both well established
industry people as well as the unpublished but promising individuals. You
can find a nice mix of the two amid our products, and if you can't tell the
difference between the two.. then they are doing their jobs. And don't be
surprised if some of those new names you see, start showing up elsewhere.
Darren: I know a couple of people but I'm only a long distance friend of
theirs. As Neal says, we have a mix in the company of very promising writers
and artists/designers you name it. I'm really pleased to be able to see a
fledgling like this take wing and fly. It gives me a special sense of pride
when I see people like the work that I did in some of the City Guides and
Moon Elves especially. And also it gives me a sense of pride to see the
other authors producing quality content that delights and impresses. I can
sit back and say, I was right, I knew X could do that. I tend to do a lot of
stories myself and concentrate on finding crunchy game mechanics people to
fill in the gaps. Moon Elves for instance was like this, I did a lot of the
writeups for the items.
4) In recent weeks we've seen quite a few layoffs in the industry. Is this
climate affecting Dark Quest? Is it time to tighten belts and review
production plans?
Neal: Whether it causes an effect in our operation in any way, is still to
be evaluated. We are rather small in the means of things, and sales levels
that can effect a corporation the size of Hasbro would still leave a sizable
market for us to operate in. Actually it is currently time to let out the
belts and ride the wave. I would love to work with some of the individuals
that WOTC has been letting go, they should contact us if they are looking
for freelance work. As for our production plans, we are currently
evaluating our release schedule for the Cyber Style product lines will be
going. But our fantasy lines we be expanding rapidly.
Darren: The effect I could see would be that we'd have to hire some of the
brightest stars who made the industry what it is, and give them a happy and
wonderful home. Either that or at least work with some of them freelance as
Neal says - So if you are reading this - the offers there *Wolfy Evil Grin*
5) Where do you see Dark Quest in five years time?
Neal: Where I want to see me in five years. is rolling around in piles of
gold pieces with a library of gaming books all around me.. But I'll settle
for a really large library of any sort.
I envision in 5 years you'll see Dark Quest releasing books in the fiction
line, as we are working with many wonderful writers who have great vision.
Darren: I want to be famous, and rich, but still writing and madly designing
things. I often don't see my writing as being any great shakes, and I tend
to be quite modest about it. So I'd be modestly rich and famous *grin*
But in 5 years, I want to be one of those writers that releases his book in
the fiction line and delights a whole new era of fans with stories that I
should have told a long time ago.
6) In five years time what state do you think traditional tabletop pen and
paper roleplaying will be in? Do you see it succumbing to computer
roleplaying games?
Neal: People have been saying this for years. I've played on online MU*
(Muds/Mushes/Muxes) and they've always wondered if the visual computer
gaming was going to kill them out, and there are still hundreds if not
thousands of those running, along with the handful of decent visual CRPG.
Online IRC gaming has occurred, and I've taken part in them. Some of the
fun is lost by not being there hanging out with the other players. And with
NeverWinterNights, I of course wanted to have a hand in that, but I don't
think it will ever completely kill the market. People want to visualize
their own things. Forcing a view on people will never be the only way to do
things. Just like movies did not kill the written market.
Darren: I see that tabletop RPGs will always win out over computer RPGs no
matter what bells, whistles and eyecandy you put on them. It's a social
thing, and for myself I'm a pack animal - I love the feeling of being around
other people, having a laugh and seeing that look on a players face when
their idea actually works and they get a kick out of being told - they did
right. So I agree with Neal on that, as long as imaginations are not
stagnated - we'll be fine.
7) Where did the inspiration for the City Guides come from? Is it holding up
well along side all things nautical and elven?
Neal: Inspiration for City Guides comes from what Dark Quest is all about.
We love D&D for what it has done in building the framework for gaming. We
pride ourselves in being people to help flesh out particular aspects of the
roleplaying. The City Guides in particular are fueled by the fact that we'
ve enjoyed the products from older editions, such as City State of the
Invicinsible Overlord and Waterdeep. The only problem I've had was that
they are wonderfully complete cities. But they are too detailed together,
such that as a DM I can't just grab a quick location for a town of my own.
They may never need the rest of the town. but I want to have a memorable
location they can travel to.
Our City Guides have held up rather well against the competition. As there
are likely just as many people in either the complete city market, as the
details locales. It is currently our strongest line, and will continue into
the future.
Darren: My first work was on City Guide 1, I did the Blue Flame Tavern and
Inn, along with the story that introduced the book. That really snowballed
things with my relationship with Dark Quest and Tensen. He found out that
he'd got himself a writer who could crank out written work at an incredible
pace and produce it to good quality. The City Guide line is still selling
well, and I predict it will continue to do so. I have a few ideas for new
books to that line and a couple of free downloads but I can't say any more
because it would spoil my air of wolfish aloof mystery.
8) The fantasy of the City Guides and cyber punk of Cyber Style make strange
bedfellows. Do you think this range of product pushes Dark Quest forward or
do you find it can be quite a battle to keep both sets of fans happy?
Neal: The two products lines actually have a different set of writers and
developers. A few of the writers cross the line bwteen the two, but for the
most part we have the staff to keep both sets of fans happy. We recently
promoted Chris Snook to the role of Whisper City and Cyber Style Line
Developer. You will see hear more about the Whisper City line in the near
future.
Darren: Chris is a great guy, and CStyle is in good hands, I was very
pleased to along with Tensen, promote him to the Line Developer of that
line. Plus he's got my other baby in his paws - Whisper City, but I can't
say much more about Whisper since we're keeping a tight lid on it.
9) Do you think Dark Quest Games products are better than others from
companies of a similar size? Why?
Neal: I would say we are different. One of the things that I've seen in the
d20 market, is a lot of comradery. We aren't so much as competiting with
the other companies as complementing them. While we may cover the same
topics as some other companies, it has always been my intension to keep our
products covering slightly different aspects, and enhancing upon them. D20
didn't create a horde of slobbering game orges out to grab the glory, it
gave us the opportunity to really help spur the imagination of the readers.
If you are a DM or a player that is interested in providing better
roleplaying aspects for your character, as opposed to just more umph to your
powers, then you will probably want to look at our products. We add flesh
to the skeleton, and not a small bit of muscle to it as well.
Darren: Interesting question, my ego would say, YES they are. But there are
many reasons why I'd not say that. I don't want to come across as one of the
industries big head egos - or create that kind of image. I just want to do
my job and entertain people. So I'd say our products are an interesting
synergy of detail and game mechanics with the emphasis on detail. We have a
habit of trying to take an established idea and turn it around 180, or 360
from itself. For instance, and I can say no more at this time. I decided I
would put my dark elves (note I say dark elves and not drow) from my own
game world Ashirion (Which should be a Dark Quest game system/world sometime
in the future) out for other people to play with. But I won't spoil it, but
I can say with clarity you might not have seen dark elves like these ever. I
think the reason we're good is that we have a lot of talented writers who
are just as commited as myself and Neal to providing quality entertainment
at a reasonable price and trying to alter the mould of traditional Fantasy.
10) Dark Quest isn't known for producing dungeon crawls and prestige
classes. Is this a marketing decision or perhaps a matter of taste or
chance?
Neal: We don't want to be neglecting in that we do create prestige classes.
People expect us to, and we do believe prestige classes should be there. We
try to tailor our classes to the particular product, so unless you want to
see a Guild Master, of which there are probably dozens of variations, you
likely won't see prestige classes in the standard City Guide product line
anytime soon. You will see a few prestige classes in the Cultures product
line, and some of the other ones.
As for dungeon crawls. That is currently a marketing decision. At the
present time, we currently have enough projects in the works to last us into
2004 without covering any adventures. Whether we produce city based
adventures in the future is one a matter of chance (whether a writer
contacts with a plan in place), or one of our staff writers goes completely
bonkers and decides he absolutely must write one or he will go postal. [no
offense to any postal workers or ones who play one on TV]
Darren: Dungeon crawls, perhaps I might do one, but it would be again -
totally different compared to the others out there. I don't like copying
anything, even slightly. Though in my world there's a few ideas that were
inspired by certain things as a child from life, film, and books (especially
Lord of the Rings) As for PrC's well for me it's a matter of choice, I'd
rather be writing flavour text and detail/design than scrawling over
mechanics and the like. For instance I've been told the Sword Singer from
the Moon Elves is like the Blade Singer from D&D. I'd more likely say that
it's based on a corruption of the Wardancers from WHFRP than D&D because I
always loved those elves - something about song and swordwork just struck me
as cool. But you never can tell with me. I might wake up tomorrow and
decide - today is a day for a city adventure and spend two weeks cranking
out 7,000 words/day to create something totally off the wall.
(GameWyrd notes -
We’re in the Out of the Box section now. A couple of unusual questions
for
which we expect unusual answers!)
11) Imagine a strangely accented man with oddly coloured eyes thrust a
battered and torn scroll at you, explained that it was of utmost importance
that you read the words of the scroll from the top of the nearby hill during
tomorrow's dawn and then he then ran off before you could ask him anything
else. Would you read the scroll on the hill at dawn?
Neal:
As one of my standard characters I would boldly and blindly read the scroll
on the hilltop.. and probably wait for the whole hill to explode.
As for myself, I'd scan over the scroll before I got up to the hill, hoping
it wasn't someone's grocery list. If I liked what I read, I'd happily chant
the scroll. Of course I'd be hoping it was a full moon, so I could
punctuate it with a good howl. Otherwise, I'd be sitting with someone
holding a flashlight over my shoulder so I could read, because I've always
found it extremely difficult to read scrolls in the dark by candlelight.
(Don't ask)
On second thought. I'd probably be standing there wondering if I knew the
person from someplace, because he was strangely familiar. I would probably
then head over to the hilltop and take a nap. When the gawd-aweful yellow
thing started rising way too early in the morning. I'd take out a bottle of
Dr. Pepper, take a good swing. Blink a few times, and then belt out
whatever was written on the scroll. And then try and quiet down the dogs in
the neighborhood that were barking.
Darren: Oooh estoeric question, this requires some thought. Yeah, I'm nuts
enough to go and read the scroll at dawn on the hill. Knowing me it'd be a
shopping list or some ritual that blew the world up. But you live and learn,
as long as I looked good doing it, I wouldn't mind. I'd have to wear a long
black cloak and a hood though just for that extra effect. If it were one of
my other characters, he'd probably steal off with the scroll and go and read
it at his leisure, decide if it were worth doing and then if not find a
brothel and spend the night/day/night there with the scroll in his pocket
just out of spite. Yeah, I play some evil swines sometimes.
Neal: *chuckle*
You know this is the weird thing of working with Darren. We do think a lot
alike. I was thinking the two exact things he was.. about the shopping
list or blowing up the world.
12) If you were to find yourselves in a world entirely like this one except
that there was no concept at all of roleplaying games and yet you had a
magical and endless supply of core d20 rule books how would you go about
making a living from them?
Neal: I would find the best marketing team I could buy and be the new TSR of
this world. I would then find a memorable slanderous term for my own
product, and start slandering it so badly, that people started buying the
product just to spite their parents. Okay, maybe I'm not quite that evil.
Darren: I'd be there with Neal, and we'd take over the world. It'd be like
Pinky and the Brain only a thousand more times terrifying since we'd
actually set out to accomplish something and do it. I'd have to corrupt
people into playing them, of course we'd probably get some religious furvour
going as well behind the scenes so that it would be considered cool to be
one of the rebels who owned the books. If there were no Satan I'd invent a
demon and call it Tensen, and then a whole religion to oppose it. Then we
could sell books based on the 'rebel' factor. Sorry I'm being a little
caustic there, since I get sick of seeing those self same religious fanatics
now, decrying a harmless hobby (watch out folks he's really an agent of the
dark one Bob) Anyways - we'd try and enrich the lives of many people as we
could. And just as one big smile to those who are bothered about Dungeons
and Dragons. I ran my course for 2 years and all my students went off -
found respectable jobs and none of them fell to the powers of the dark lord
of the abyss. So roleplaying can have a positive effect on people's lives.
Apart from Damien, that kid just wouldn't stop spinning his head around.
Neal: Oh, there I am... stuck in the naughty demon role again. My I’m type
cast.
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