Q&A with Jeffery Quinn

[JPQuinn]

Havard found me over on the WotC Blackmoor group and invited me to join over here. It's nice to see that the Blackmoor community is alive and kicking.

Feel free to ask me anything. I'd be happy to answer what I can.


Game on! 8)

[Havard]

Hello Jeff! It is a great pleasure to welcome you to our Forum! I have a lot of questions for you and I know the others to as well.

Just a few basic questions to start with:

1) For those of who don't know, you are the author of the Blackmoor adventure module the Redwood Scar and have also contributed to the D20 Dave Arneson Campaign Sourcebook and the Wizard's Cabal. You are also credited as part of the "original design team" in the 4E First Campaign Sourcebook. Outside of Blackmoor, you have worked for companies like Sword & Sorcery Studios, Goodman Games, Green Ronin Publishing, Bastion Press, Thunderhead Games and Mystic Eye Games. What did I miss?

2) Rumour had it that you had left the gaming industry. Are you back? Do you have any projects these days that you want to talk about?

I have more questions, but I will let others get a chance to ask as well.

Thanks again for registering at our site

-Havard

[Rafael]

Hey Jeff!

First of all, nice to have you with us! You're the author of my all-time favorite one-shot, "The Redwood Scar"!

And, I had the honor to have you as one of the charta members of what was previously known as "The Grim Winter", a PbP we started on the old ZGG page in 2005! This is what became of it:

http://blackmoor.mystara.us/forums/viewtopic.php?t=222

Hope you are well, and expect to be flooded by my questions once I return from this weekend!




BTW, if you want to rejoin us at the LFC, ANYTIME!

Yours,

Rafe

[Rafael]

...And I have a question, straightforward:

What WAS the Scar? - I mean, the technospider that killed all of my players, twice?

I always tended to connect it with the City of Gods, but I wasn't sure?

Were you involved in the whole MMRPG metaplot thing? Was this maybe part of it, and supposed to be revealed later?

[JPQuinn]

What did I miss?

Pretty good list there. You only missed a little imprint called Wizards of the Coast. :twisted:

Rumour had it that you had left the gaming industry. Are you back? Do you have any projects these days that you want to talk about?

The rumors of my "demise" have been greatly exaggerated. Truth be told, Blackmoor burned me out. I poured 3 years worth of my blood, sweet, and tears into those early books and helped Dave set the tone for what was to be a triumphant resurrection of a great setting. However, a labor of love doesn't pay the bills and at the time of the Cabal and Scar I was expecting my third child. I went back to work and just couldn't get the creative engines as hot as before.
As for projects now, I am working on a few. Two are monumentally HUGE. The others are smaller, but just as ground breaking. I'll keep this forum in mind when they start hitting the ground.
I know, you want a hint... OK. One of the HUGE projects has a little tagline for it, "Grognards unite! Your Destiny has arrived."

What WAS the Scar? - I mean, the technospider that killed all of my players, twice? I always tended to connect it with the City of Gods, but I wasn't sure?

Dave filled Blackmoor with little hidden nuggets of his life. Some things are "inn" jokes and stories from his various game groups over the years. Some refer to industry pioneers, others to the industry itself. Most of these are thinly veiled, tongue-in-cheek pokes. The Scar is my poke. The Scar is my Egg of Coot. hock:

Were you involved in the whole MMRPG metaplot thing? Was this maybe part of it, and supposed to be revealed later?

No. I was in the minority with the whole MMRPG thing. I was against it from the start. For those that played in the campaign, I'm glad you had fun with it. The idea of the MMRPG while 3e Blackmoor was in its infancy felt like too heavy a weight for the campaign to handle at the time. I'm glad I was wrong.

Thank you for the questions and praise. The Redwood Scar was one of my three favorite modules to write. Developing Blackmoor with Dave was the jewel in my torc and any other gaming-related experience (but one) will forever pale in comparison.



PS - Yes, Dave told me the true secret of the Egg. No, I won't tell anyone. Don't even ask.

[Rafael]

Dave filled Blackmoor with little hidden nuggets of his life. Some things are "inn" jokes and stories from his various game groups over the years. Some refer to industry pioneers, others to the industry itself. Most of these are thinly veiled, tongue-in-cheek pokes. The Scar is my poke. The Scar is my Egg of Coot. hock:

Thanks. However, did the Scar have its place in Blackmoor's contuinity, or was this just your addition to the mythos, for the different players and DMs to define?

And the magic book in the maze? - BTW, it has a function in my own campaign by now, but I wondered, what was your backstory?

Thank you for the questions and praise. The Redwood Scar was one of my three favorite modules to write. Developing Blackmoor with Dave was the jewel in my torc and any other gaming-related experience (but one) will forever pale in comparison.

...And the other two were? - I know you wrote and gave the ideas for the Rat King adventures, which I also liked a lot, but lamentably never had the chance to play.

What I would be most interested in, as sort of BM's unofficial chronicler: Was there ever a master script for BM's history, like a definite timeline made by Dave that was used for all the events? (I am thinking of the Mage Wars in WC, for example.) Or did Dave give you like a carte blanche to do whatever you liked, as long as he thought it would make sense to the setting?

:oops: So many questions.

[JPQuinn]

I apologize for being vague. But, I'm being purposefully cryptic on some points. After all, Blackmoor is what it is because there is no defined interpretations of its most pivotal plot hooks.

What "is" the Scar? As described, it is a choke point or eruption of the fabric of magic and reality caused by the huge release of energy during the Mage Wars, the "birth" of sorcerers, and the downfall of the Westrin princess. These events culminate in "festering wounds of malice and evil" on the land itself. To use a more modern 4e approach, the Scar is to Blackmoor as the spellplague is to the Realms.

My other two favorites are: Idylls of the Rat King and Interludes: Brief Expeditions to Bluffside.

Dave had a master idea. No, it was more like a master philosophy and vision. Something greater than any major campaign arc. He and Bob Bledsaw said it to me at the GenCon booth, "in the end, did you have fun?" We had carte blanche (within limits), and the darker, grittier, wartorn, and bloodstained Blackmoor was forged from this.

[Rafael]

I apologize for being vague. But, I'm being purposefully cryptic on some points. After all, Blackmoor is what it is because there is no defined interpretations of its most pivotal plot hooks.

Sure. BM is a setting with a narrow enough plot, there is no need to limit it even more by adding more constraints.

We have discussed a few times already that the plot of BM, with the Egg, the Afridhi etc is pointing too much into one single direction. The real differences between the campaign really come on how people flesh things out.

What "is" the Scar? As described, it is a choke point or eruption of the fabric of magic and reality caused by the huge release of energy during the Mage Wars, the "birth" of sorcerers, and the downfall of the Westrin princess. These events culminate in "festering wounds of malice and evil" on the land itself. To use a more modern 4e approach, the Scar is to Blackmoor as the spellplague is to the Realms.

I don't have the booklet before me, being away from home, but in fact, this is more info than what was stated in the module itself. Thanks a lot!

Fits in pretty well with BM, IMO!

- I for my part always linked the mechaspider to the City of the Gods IMC, and I would guess that's what most people did.

My other two favorites are: Idylls of the Rat King and Interludes: Brief Expeditions to Bluffside.

:twisted: Where would you set those two in Blackmoor?

Dave had a master idea. No, it was more like a master philosophy and vision. Something greater than any major campaign arc. He and Bob Bledsaw said it to me at the GenCon booth, "in the end, did you have fun?" We had carte blanche (within limits), and the darker, grittier, wartorn, and bloodstained Blackmoor was forged from this.

That sounds as I expected. Are the Mage Wars Dave's creation then, or the work of the ZGG team? - IRRC, there was no mention of them in any d20-publications.

Hehe, and even with running the risk to ask something you maybe don't want to answer: What was that master idea Dave had, of course?

Since we here are de facto taking up the mantle of continuing the setting for now, and effectively try to write an epilogue, it would be interesting to know how close we get to Mr Arneson's own ideas.

[JPQuinn]

Where would I put those two modules? Hmmm... Interludes would go well near Jackport (Interludes: Brief Expeditions to Jackport?). Idylls could be set pretty much any where, but the Iron Hills would be a good spot or somewhere along the east border of the Dutchy of Tehn.

As for the Mage Wars, that was mostly all Dustin Clingman's idea. It was a good way to explain the edition change and the schism in magic and class systems. Many of the little core ideas were there to help explain gaps in the original world design, edition changes, design team preferences, and Dave's whim.

Dave's master idea was to have fun. Our "design meetings" took place in a number of emails and online chats where he'd tell us stories. The stories had very little to do with the topic at hand, if at all. But a month down the road you'd suddenly realize that the stories he was telling were helping to shape your perception of the world Blackmoor belonged to. I swear he was psychic. He knew what you needed before you knew it yourself. He even knew about my third child 2 months before her conception with this line that he wrote on the inside cover of my Blackmoor book, "may all your treasures be tripled."

"Dave's Ideas" - there is really no way of knowing what else he had in store for Blackmoor. The 3e design teams were given a pretty free hand after the main campaign book. Other than some hand written campaign notes (some over 30 years old), our major references were the modules and setting material that wass already printed.

I hope this answers some questions for ya.

[Havard]

What did I miss?

Pretty good list there. You only missed a little imprint called Wizards of the Coast. :twisted:

:oops: little imprint indeed! Sorry Jeff!

The rumors of my "demise" have been greatly exaggerated. Truth be told, Blackmoor burned me out. I poured 3 years worth of my blood, sweet, and tears into those early books and helped Dave set the tone for what was to be a triumphant resurrection of a great setting. However, a labor of love doesn't pay the bills and at the time of the Cabal and Scar I was expecting my third child. I went back to work and just couldn't get the creative engines as hot as before.

I'm glad to hear you are back! As I remember you were were communicative with us fans back on the original ZGG board. It was great having someone on the "inside" who took the time to talk to us and I think ZGG benefited alot from that as well.

As for projects now, I am working on a few. Two are monumentally HUGE. The others are smaller, but just as ground breaking. I'll keep this forum in mind when they start hitting the ground.
I know, you want a hint... OK. One of the HUGE projects has a little tagline for it, "Grognards unite! Your Destiny has arrived."

Very interesting! Make sure you do remember to keep us posted on this!

Dave filled Blackmoor with little hidden nuggets of his life. Some things are "inn" jokes and stories from his various game groups over the years. Some refer to industry pioneers, others to the industry itself. Most of these are thinly veiled, tongue-in-cheek pokes. The Scar is my poke. The Scar is my Egg of Coot. hock:

"Inn" jokes, lol
Although its not what you are saying here, I always associated the Scar with the Egg of Coot myself.

No. I was in the minority with the whole MMRPG thing. I was against it from the start. For those that played in the campaign, I'm glad you had fun with it. The idea of the MMRPG while 3e Blackmoor was in its infancy felt like too heavy a weight for the campaign to handle at the time. I'm glad I was wrong.

Its interesting to hear that you were discussing it in-house. From what I heard from people heavily involved in the MMRPG it was a great thing. Still, I wonder what things may have been different if ZGG had not spread their attention out towards so many different projects and focused more on getting books published...

PS - Yes, Dave told me the true secret of the Egg. No, I won't tell anyone. Don't even ask.

You tease!

Havard