A few weeks ago, I sat down with the guys from RPG Haven — which is a completely different podcast than Gamer’s Haven last month — and lo, the interview has borne fruit!

RPG Haven episode 11 – Josh Roby on Smallville the RPG (57 minutes and 32 seconds)

The interview is reportedly “so long and informative that we didn’t do any intro discussion or preamble,” which I’m not sure is good or evidence that I ramble. However, if you’ve got an hour to spare, we go into detail on the Smallville RPG as well as some retrospective on Full Light, Full Steam and Sons of Liberty. We even chat a bit about my upcoming projects Coronets and Agora, not to mention Rooksbridge. Conan and Ryan were a blast to interview with, and it’s a fun hour.

Optional Drinking Game: Every time I say, “Absolutely,” take a drink.

My games are now available at DriveThruRPG!

Lin-Manuel Miranda raps about Alexander Hamilton at the White House. No, seriously.

He’s doing an entire album called the Hamilton Mixtape.

Mister Chris Perrin interviewed me a little while ago, and the result is now posted up in his new weekly article on RPG.net, “Small Press, Big Game.” The interview is actually about all my games, which was a bit of a departure from other interviews I’ve done before. It was interesting talking about how my games relate to one another — and interesting forming those thoughts as they spilled out of my mouth. In any case, I am Mr. Perrin’s second designer (somehow I’m supposed to follow Luke Crane and Mouseguard — no pressure there!), and I’m looking forward to seeing what other designers Chris lines up in the future.

Thanks to Saturday Morning Breakfast Comic

So there’s been a big thing over the internets recently, and a lot of people have become very angry over some really stupid things that some other people have said. Specifically, those things have been about race and the depictions thereof in science fiction and fantasy. At this point, so many stupid things have been said that it’s far beyond my ability to itemize them. Suffice to say: there’s a lot of white guys in sf/f — both in the fiction and in the publishing industry that produces the fiction — and there’s a lot of other folks who’d like to see themselves in sf/f — both in and out of the fiction. Which you’d think would be a pretty straightforward proposition with some immediate support, even from white guys. Apparently not so much.

So this is my very small contribution to the thing (which cannot even be said to be a debate at this point). This white guy would like to see some more diversity in sf/f, and when I write and publish, there will be (and has been) characters who are not white guys who are more than token color in the background. I’m not going to wade into the crazy that is the blood-orgy internet dogpile that is RaceFail ‘09, because I’m not equipped to do much good there, so I will, outside of this post, confine my efforts to what I produce. That is, I wager, the most effective thing that I can do.

So at our family International Americans Kicking Ass Day celebration, we played Sons of Liberty. My mother had watched us playtest way back when the game was still taking shape, and she was interested in giving it a go herself. So after the grandparents headed home, we broke out the game.

Our Objectives fell together rather nicely with a few overlapping results: we had “judge” show up twice, and had a preacher, some Quakers, and a good wife, which we decided were all related. We ended up with a British plot to incite the Quakers to abandon their faith and take up arms on the British side, which, in conjunction with a land dispute resolved by a corrupt judge, would swing the membership of the Salem militia from Patriot to Tory. Clearly, something must be done!

I elected to play Tory, even though I’m a terrible, terrible Tory player. Meghann picked up John Hancock (Meg: “I’m pretty much the colonial version of Batman.” Me: “…yes, yes you are.”). Then my dear, sainted mother selected her patriot. Of course, this lovely woman who raised me with tenderness and kindness, who does she pick? Sam Adams. And then picks “womanizing” as one of his circumstances, to boot.

The travel hand went well, with the usual slow and deliberate first plays followed by quicker and more spontaneous plays as the players get acquainted with the system. The traitor Benjamin Church was travelling with Sam and John, ostensibly one of the Sons of Liberty, but bombed their carriage and “misplaced” their powder and shot. However, the Sons of Liberty quickly regained their feet and headed to Salem. I was somewhat surprised when my Mom started threading bits of the objectives into the travel hand — not jumping the gun, but totally using foreshadowing and priming the pump for later action. This trend continued through the rest of the game, giving us a pretty tight narrative.

The objectives mostly consisted of the Sons of Liberty running around Salem, which we decided had a large Quaker population for convenience. They contacted who they needed to contact and informed who they needed to inform against a backdrop of Tories invading, causing Quaker scandals, and impressing boatloads of colonists into service. Their poor, beleaguered coach kept getting blown up, rebuilt, dragged through the country, and was finally fitted with a boot by the Tories (so it then got used as an anchor). I pulled the cutscene twice, which let me capture, arrest, and imprison the Sons between objectives, which is always a favorite tactic of mine.

My personal high point of the game, in the Primary Objective phase, is my Mom looking a little uncertain and saying, “I’m not sure if this is a valid play, but… Sam Adams is going to break the mold by revealing that he’s not just the Boston brewer that the redcoats think he is. He’s going to… um, use his tae kwon do kung fu martial arts powers and mind zap the redcoats.” To which we cheered in approval because hey, my Mom mind zapped redcoats. Hard to beat!

By order of the Second Continental Congress of the Thirteen Colonies Attending, by a vote of 8 to 4 (with one abstention):

Whereas, the fourth day of July is often remembered as the signing of the Declaration of Independence — when in fact the document was only adopted on that day and signed by various members of this legislature over the following weeks, but that’s just getting nitpicky, isn’t it?

Whereas, Sons of Liberty, the roleplaying game of Freedom and Badassery, is already in its second printing, which means there are over 100 copies of the damn game out there,

Whereas, many patriots therefore have both a three-day weekend and a copy of the game,

Whereas, some patriots might even wish to play a roleplaying game with their families, who they may be with on the aforementioned weekend, and are looking for a short, punchy, immediately-fun game that can be played in as little as two hours,

Whereas, other patriots may need a “palate cleanser” and an excuse to shout and laugh with friends after the family formalities have been dispensed with,

Whereas, heck, some patriots might like both,

Whereas, the movie Hancock will only take a few hours of one’s time that weekend, even if one sees it over and over like John is planning, the gloating little bastard,

Whereas, on July 4th, 1776, America pretty much invented democracy, right? Right?

Whereas, in Sam Adam’s words, “If D&D can do it, why the bloody hell can’t we?”

Resolved, that the first weekend of July shall be considered “International Americans Kicking Ass Day” and shall be celebrated across the nation and by patriots abroad by playing Sons of Liberty,

Resolved, that patriots may post Actual Plays to fora of their choice to further celebrate and spread the revolution.

Signed,
John Hancock

Intelligence from the Committees of Correspondence is in. The first weekend of July has been flagged. Contact the rest of your cell and prepare to take action. Something’s brewing, and it will happen that weekend.

If we do not hang together…