Interviews: Game Designer Steve Jackson Answers Your Questions

A while ago you had the chance to ask Steve Jackson, founder and editor-in-chief of Steve Jackson Games, about the numerous games he's created, his efforts to digitize those games, and what to do when the Secret Service shows up at your office. Below you will find his answers to your questions. External influences
by Martin Blank

When I was young, I played games from SJG, TSR, Palladium, R. Talsorian, ICE, FASA, and a bunch of one-off studios I can't remember now. Some of the systems worked really well, some required some tweaking, and others were essentially unplayable. But it was easy to see links between systems. Despite the occasional legal threats, there seemed to be a lot of borrowing each other's ideas. Palladium clearly was influenced by TSR (and I think they've admitted that the first version of their rules was essentially heavily modified D&D rules), and R. Talsorian's old D10/D6-based system seemed to have some influences from FASA. When you're designing a game, what external influences help shape the game? How far can you adopt someone else's ideas before you have to start worrying about lawyers getting involved, and has that changed as the pen & paper RPG has waned in popularity?

Jackson: (1) External influences are much more likely to affect theme than they are mechanics. I might very well say "OMG, must do zombie game now." I am very unlikely to say "Oh, must do worker-placement game with octagon-square net map and triangular cards."

(2) I think that if you are "adopting" ideas, your own shame should kick in long before the lawyers get involved. Unless somebody out there thinks they own, say, the whole idea of "hexagons," or "robots." Which is to say IANAL.

(3) I don't know.



When will gurps be digitalized?
by Anonymous Coward

And where did you find a willing programmer?

Jackson: Good question. Willing for what? :)



GURPS 3d6 Mechanics (Balance)
by CrashNBrn

Have you ever considered officially rebalancing|changing the GURPs mechanics that rely on 3d6 rolls? It has been my experience over the years, when trying to use the GURPs ruleset directly (with no house-rules) that the way the skills/stats interact - at least as far as nearly automatic success is concerned... is quite broken (easily) for non-super players with attributes 14-15+. Compare to say, HERO, which doesn't have an automatic-success problem so much as an overly obtuse|complex modifier issue.

Jackson: Not really. Sorry it's not working out for you. Works for me, and apparently most players. Some GMs find that a degree of near-automatic success in routine tasks (routine for the PCs, that is) is important to get on with the game. GMs who think they are not supposed to use house-rules to customize the game to their exact wishes . . . those GMs are not following my authorial intent, which is Make It Yours.



Online Presence
by Catiline

As visible in your official company FAQ, you had run a ISP as well as other online services (I seem to recall there having been some manner of MOO/MUSH service for running online games), well in advance of most other RPG publishers. Furthermore, you run your own digital store (e23) rather than using through the DriveThruStuff platform used by the rest of the tabletop industry, and made PDF copies of your books available for purchase before the other "major" industry players (Fantasy Flight, Pinnacle, WhiteWolf, and WotC). How much of this decision was strategic—based on a firm belief this was "The Way of the Future"—and how much was it exploratory / risk-taking? In hindsight, what decisions for your online presence would you have made differently?

Jackson: A lot of it was both, and in hindsight, I would have done it more and hired more specialized help to help me do it more, better. Short answer to long question.



From Ideas to Products...
by Anonymous Coward

My son has "like 3000" ideas for new munchkin cards. Any advice for a budding young game designer about getting started/self-publishing/submitting ideas to existing publishers like SJG?

Jackson: Read our page here. A lot of the information on there is very general. Kickstarter is your friend, depending on how old you are. If your son is 12, it would be YOU doing the kickstarter. I suggest you not go there.



Car Wars MMORPG?
by Anonymous Coward

Would you ever consider creating a truly unique car wars video game as a 3D, first person shooter, MMO, RPG? I've thinking something with the open world and economy of Eve, but with the same kind of game play as GTA5, in a persistent MMO world, but using cars and trucks, in a post-apocalyptic world, where the players can live out their Max Mad fantasies, but still have to deal with the complexities of designing and building their cars with the flexibility that that board game had. I've been waiting my entire life since childhood to see a truly epic car wars game, and have been continuously disappointed. Only the original apple game inspired me, but with today's tech, I think it's now achievable.

Jackson: Love to do it. Could not do it with the team I have - we are a boardgame company.



OGRE Simulation Game?
by qeveren

Similar to the Car Wars question above, I've wondered if a multiplayer OGRE sim has ever been considered. First person combat where every gun is firing nukes... I mean, come on! Who wouldn't want that?

Jackson: Considered, OF COURSE. Negotiated, more than once. Finished, never.



Copyright
by jdavidb

Steve, I read that you consider yourself a "small-l libertarian." These days a lot of libertarians have come to oppose copyright law, or else favor severe reforms for it. As a publisher, game designer, and libertarian, how do you feel about the subject, and do you feel that these various roles are in tension with each other? On a related note, in junior high school I bought GURPS Cyberpunk from a friend, only to later find out that that friend had shoplifted it from a bookstore. I've always regretted that. Do I owe you guys some money?

Jackson: Sorry, that would be a looooong essay question. My short inflammatory answer is "Anyone who opposes all copyright protection is wrong." However, I don't agree with infinite protection. Let the writer, artist, musician, whoever, make a good living. Even a great living :) But indefinite corporate control of rights is not something I agree with.

No, we got paid. You owe the store some money.



Metagaming MicroGames
by zoward

While cleaning out my closet a few weeks ago, I came across a stack of Metagaming micro games. I played these with friends from high school over thirty years ago, and we really loved them (they actually got more playtime in our gaming group than some of the larger Avalon Hill titles of the time). While the well-known Ogre and GEV were in there, I still have some old lesser known titles like WarpWar, Invasion of the Air Eaters, Sticks and Stones, and Holy War. Have you considered re-releasing some of the better titles from the old Metagaming catalog?

Jackson: With the exception of Ogre and G.E.V., which I bought back from them, I have no rights in anything from the Metagaming catalog.



Steve Jackson Games, Inc. v. United States Secret
by puddingebola

Bruce Sterling's the Hacker Crackdown seems to indicate or imply that the reason for the Secret Service's raid on your business was that a hacker under investigation was also a fan of your cyberpunk role playing game. The agents involved didn't have a clear understanding of the line between his notes on actual computer hacking and his notes involving the role playing game. You must have been confused when Federal agents knocked on your door and confiscated the computers from your business. How long did it take you to piece together what had happened, and do you feel like you got adequate compensation for your time and trouble?

Jackson: I've told this story often, and the best place you can find material, with far more immediacy of expression, is in The Hacker Crackdown itself and in the documents here.



Munchkin Crossovers You'd Love To Do
by Jason Levine

My boys and I love playing Munchkin. Recently, my oldest got Munchkin Adventure Time. Being big fans of both, we loved playing it. This led me to wonder: Assuming you could get licensing for any ONE franchise (e.g. Star Wars, BTTF, LOTR, Harry Potter, etc), which would you make into a Munchkin game?

Jackson: Oh, wow. I am a geek, I'm sometimes a very typical geek, and I like all that stuff, and you're asking me to name ONE franchise. You are a mean person and the Gerbil of Regret will bite your toes. But then I don't have to answer the question you asked, muauaua. So here's a list.

• STAR WARS - awesome. Just awesome.
• BTTF - lacks obvious strong substitutes for classes and races.
• LOTR - I think I'd use the classic races and classes. I wonder if a "Bored of the Rings" license is available.
• Harry Potter - Four Houses, yay! Lots of magic foes! Lots of puns! Gender swapping! Death!
• Batman - No list of awesome franchises can be complete without Batman.
• Bacon - No list of awesome foods can be complete without bacon. But combining bacon and Batman is a challenge.
• Warcraft - duh, if only.

Comments

If you don't have time, just say "no".

[pla]

Wow. I say this as a huge fan of Jackson's work, but... Phone it in much, here?

Nothing but one liners, and mostly along the lines of "yeah, go fuck yourself, Slashdotters" at that. Disappointing.

Re:If you don't have time, just say "no".

[WoOS]

My feeling, too.
Either we have to work on the questions (some were probably not that new to him) or he had just a bad day.

Re:If you don't have time, just say "no".

[codepigeon]

I have to agree. I am a little let down by the seemingly lack of interest on Jackson's part. Still a big fan though.

Re:If you don't have time, just say "no".

[Qzukk]

we have to work on the questions (some were probably not that new to him)

Some of the questions were old enough to have webpages dedicated to them that have been there for over a decade (the authors' guidelines dates back to 2003 on the wayback machine).

or he had just a bad day

As interviews go, it's less conversational and significantly more bullet-point than what we usually get. He didn't use it as a platform to ham up some new project (let's talk about Rampart!) Just about every question was answered, some directly, some with links (eg to the massive amount of information that's been already published on the subject of the raid - which wayback has at that link since 1998). I don't know what his usual interview writing style is to compare it to, so I wouldn't call it "phoned in", just not what we're used to.

Re:If you don't have time, just say "no".

[binarylarry]

That's exactly how I felt reading it.

Re:If you don't have time, just say "no".

[Creepy]

And nothing particularly deep. It would be like asking if the name Munchkin came from the old "Real Men" SJG BBS postings. Of course it did. If you're unfamiliar with these, see here

Re:If you don't have time, just say "no".

[Anonymous Coward]

All but one question reeked of fanboy, had been asked many times in the past, or were really quite basic. I'd say as much effort was expended on the answer as the questions deserved. The problem is with Slashdot's user base.

Re:If you don't have time, just say "no".

[Anonymous Coward]

It's pretty much par for the course for a Steve Jackson interview. He's a bit of a curmudgeon and is normally fairly terse.

Re:If you don't have time, just say "no".

[Art3x]

Part if it may be a emotional distance from dealing for 35 years with customers. Or from being a manager.

I can tell that I myself have got jaded after being alive for 35 years. I have had to deal with only dozens of customers. And I have been the boss of only one other person. And I have consciously tried not to get jaded, to remain open and welcoming. And yet I can see that I'm different than I was 10 or 20 years ago.

Re:If you don't have time, just say "no".

[Kyn]

Eh, Slashdot has been phoning it in since it was sold to Dice. I can't find any fault with SJ's responses.

World of Warcraft Munchkin???

[Rinikusu]

I wonder if they've been in contact with Blizzard. With falling subscribers, I can't help but think they'd love to get some folks playing an offshoot.

Re:World of Warcraft Munchkin???

[Anonymous Coward]

I think blizzard called that Hearthstone

Re:World of Warcraft Munchkin???

[Anonymous Coward]

Blizzard's already published a World of Warcraft board game so they might be up for the idea. Or they may have signed away the rights to whoever made the board game. Or they might just consider Hearthstone to be close enough and leave it at that.

Where's the rest of the questions?

[Cammi]

for instance, the one asking why Steve have chosen not to digitize the Munchkin brand. There have been literally tons of capable businesses and individuals who can do it and having gone several rounds of prototyping to prove it was easily achievable?

Re:Where's the rest of the questions?

[mark-t]

Well, there *IS* an official Munchkin app... and like everything else for Munchkin, comes with its own rule too.

This is just IMO, but I honestly expect the chief reason why Munchkin has not been digitized is that the diversity of rules with respect to all of the different cards, particularly as you add expansions or employ alternate or extended rules such as Epic Munchkin, and how all of these factors can potentially interact with eachother creates a search space that it so vast that attempting computerization is impractical with today's technology, and restricting the cards to only utilize some fixed and per-determined subset of the rules to offset this would quickly become boring.

Re:Where's the rest of the questions?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not just cards. The Munchkin T-shirts have rules (player an official tournament with a guy whose signed shirt meant he always drew one more treasure after defeating a monster than listed on the card). The bookmarks have rules. The level trackers have rules. The dice sometimes come with special rules.

Then there are cards like the Ray Gun. It's more powerful if used by a player named Ray, Raymond, or some other similar names.

So, no, you cannot digitize Munchkin. To even consider that possibility, you'd need to barcode or rfid every bit of rule-bearing Munchkin merchandise and have some form of real-name limitation on all players (with legal document enforced birthdate information, and probably more I'm not thinking of at the moment).

Re:Where's the rest of the questions?

[Jason Levine]

I'd look to the Adventure Time Card Wars app for a good example on how to translate a game to an app. For those who don't follow the show, Adventure Time had an episode where the main characters played a game called Card Wars. They would place cards down and creatures would appear for them to control. The episode and non-existent game were so popular that they released both a physical game and an app (for iOS and Android).

The rules between the two versions (digital and physical) are slightly different and there are advantages to both. Both manage to evoke a "Card Wars" feel while taking advantage of their medium.

A Munchkin app might ditch the custom rules but could add things like online play or collectible card packs (via both a "do X and get a free card" and via in-app purchases). Would the Munchkin app be different than the physical Munchkin? Sure, but they could both still be Munchkin. (The game has proven that it is extremely flexible.)

Re:Where's the rest of the questions?

[david_thornley]

There's other things. One card says to roll a die from the table or your pocket. IIRC, 1 is great, other odd numbers are good, even numbers are bad. A truly prepared player will be carrying a die with all 1s. How do you put that in a computer game?

Re:Where's the rest of the questions?

[mark-t]

Have you ever really *played* munchkin? I would think if you have, you would realize that ditching what you call "custom rules" would be defeating most of what makes the game genuinely fun to play.

Re:Where's the rest of the questions?

[SuiteSisterMary]

Half the fun of Munchkin is specifically fucking with the other players. I don't know if that would translate over to the digital realm.

For example, you can feel free to cheat horrible, break all the rules, as long as nobody calls you on it. I'm not sure how you'd translate that to a digital format.

Disappointing

[LaurenCates]

I've played and enjoyed Munchkin, but this list seems blah.

Re:Disappointing

[david_thornley]

He answered most of the questions as asked. In some cases, he referred the questioners to stuff that's been on his site forever and is easy to find anyway. The only times he cut himself off was on copyright and on the on-line store. The only question he didn't address was on the digitization of GURPS.

The only way this could have been interesting would be if he'd had some agenda to push, regardless of the questions, or if he'd been asked interesting questions.

Steve Jackson is a board and role-playing game designer. That's where I'd expect to get interesting answers, and the questions simply weren't about anything like that. The closest was the question on what licenses he'd like for Munchkin, and that got the best answer.

Re:Disappointing

[LaurenCates]

Yeah, I was a little off center when I posted.

Generally speaking, I've had good times playing Munchkin. Not much familiar with any of his other stuff (I usually stick to Looney Labs, or Cards Against Humanity). It's just that I've heard all of this stuff before, so maybe it's the fault of the question-askers that nothing more interesting got asked.

Short answers

[Chuk]

I love SJG and Jackson's work, but I wish I'd seen this so I could have asked some questions. (Adventure Time is a pretty good version of Munchkin, too.)

Re:Short answers

[KatchooNJ]

Yeah, I wish I could have asked questions, as well. For one, why haven't they released Ogre in digital format again? The old computer (from the 80s) implementation of the game was quite fun. I also know that they are apparently rabid about people sharing it on abandonware sites and whatnot. I can understand them wanting to protect their license, but at least use it, then! (in the digital sense, I mean.) I wouldn't mind Ogre on my phone, for instance. :-)

Who?

[Anonymous Coward]

Who?

Steve Jackson Games

What?

Re:Who?

[Anonymous Coward]

Who?

Steve Jackson Games

What?

Look, I know that nobody reads the fantastic article, but you're allowed to read the summary. Steve Jackson is the founder and editor-in-chief of Steve Jackson Games. What's Steve Jackson Games? Well, since you're clearly new to this whole "internet" thing, that underlined text is what's called a hyperlink. You can click on it and it will take you to another web page with additional information. Or there's this marvelous invention called a 'search engine' (of which there are several) that will let you put in practically any series of characters you can think of, and it will generate a list of resources that contain additional information on your query.

I think people wanted long form, but Steve is not

[WillAffleckUW]

Seem to be a lot of comments from people wanting Steve to go into long form, but in the years I worked with him, he was always more of a short form kind of person.

If a question can be answered in a short way, that's what he does.

We used to fight to take complex game systems where combat would take 10 minutes to resolve for each action, and boil it down to "how can we simulate this so it takes less time than in real life, but is fairly accurate".

Short version: If you wanted long answers, you're asking the wrong guy.

Sadly

[Greyfox]

Steve Jackson was later fired by Nintendo for speaking with the public. When reached for comment, he said "WTF?! I don't even WORK THERE!"

Re:I think people wanted long form, but Steve is n

[alvinrod]

That works great for games where people don't care about the mundane details and just want to have a fun time and given his track record I think that approach is good. However, for an interview, people want more elongated answers that delve into details. He's not obligated to provide such a response, but I don't think anyone would disagree that it would have been a lot more fun if some of the answers were wrapped up in anecdotes or other yarns.

Re:I think people wanted long form, but Steve is n

[WillAffleckUW]

You have to buy him sushi if you want stories, IMHO.

Best. Slashdot. Interview. Evar!

[Anonymous Coward]

Best. Slashdot. Interview. Evar!

I think that if you are "adopting" ideas, your own shame should kick in long before the lawyers get involved. Unless somebody out there thinks they own, say, the whole idea of "hexagons," or "robots."

GMs who think they are not supposed to use house-rules to customize the game to their exact wishes . . . those GMs are not following my authorial intent, which is Make It Yours.

Considered, OF COURSE. Negotiated, more than once. Finished, never.

However, I don't agree with infinite protection. Let the writer, artist, musician, whoever, make a good living. Even a great living :) But indefinite corporate control of rights is not something I agree with.

I love you man!