Posts
Over the past year or so I’ve gotten to know Stephanie
McAlea through her design work on one Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate project.
Miss McAlea now has a Kickstarter project out called Distant Realms and it
looks very interesting. She was kind enough to do a brief interview with me
about it.
The Distant Realms Kickstarter can be found HERE.
Brendan Davis: Can you tell us a little about yourself and
your experience with RPGs?
Stephanie McAlea: I've been drawing maps since the age of 7
when my aunt bought me a copy of RISK and I became fascinated with places I
could hardly pronounce like 'Kamchatka'. I discovered D&D with my friends
about 1980 (I was 12) and we then moved to RuneQuest and Call of Cthulhu
(primarily because of its grown up content and dark horror). I worked in
numerous jobs including design studios but started drawing maps professionally
again (taking a leap from my gaming table to my work station) about 10 years
ago. Since then my art has vastly improved and I have worked for Miskatonic
River Press, Golden Goblin Press, Chaosium, Mongoose, Cubicle7, Cakebread &
Walton, and others.
Just over a year ago I came out as a transwoman and I've
found the gaming community to be overwhelmingly supportive. Don't believe all
the negative hype about the gamer community. It is the internet that can seem
like its full of meanness, not gamers in particular. Currently, I'm drawing a
fantasy map for client, drawing for my patrons on Patreon (who have been
awesome!), running Delta Green at my local club in the daytime and then
switching to playing Pathfinder in the evening.
BD: What is Distant Realms?
SM: Distant Realms is the gazetteer for my own fantasy world
of Atuannu, but most people refer to it as Leviathan, the name of the main
continent. I’ve been running games of RuneQuest in the setting for 20+ years
and it has evolved somewhat from what was originally the world of Orb from the
Avenger books (the map started me off, it’s amazing) and is now a fully fledged
setting with some of the most popular races but also some new ones and some
twists on the usual tropes. I decided to release the gazetteer before any core
book to gauge desire for the setting and also to give GMs the chance to use the
setting without being tied to a core rules system they might not want.
BD: What is the aim of the kickstarter?
SM: The aim is really to get an initial product out there
for the setting. If it does well we'll move onto the core book, adventures,
sourcebooks, and campaigns. If it just clears the target or fails then we'll
end it with the gazetteer. Kickstarter is a great way to get your product out
there but we'll see if there's a desire for it.
BD: This is a systemless setting but it sounds like there
will be guidelines for scaling NPCs and other details to peoples’ preferred
systems. How is this achieved?
SM: I chose systemless because I can never decide between
RQ6 or BRP when I run it! Also, many gamers are at the point in their hobby
where they have enough rules. They know and trust 1 or 2 rules sets and don’t
need another... Setting fluff however, that’s another matter. Of course, no
sooner had I launched the KS than backers started asking if there was going to
be a rules system attached. With that in mind, we have a stretch goal that
attaches 5 of the most respected rules settings out there; Pathfinder, Legend
(D100), D&D5e, Fate, and Chivalry & Sorcery. It's looking like we'll
keep the setting book separate (due to the sheer number of pages required to
support 5 systems) and we'll release a free PDF booklet with all the stats etc
in. The PDF will be available to everyone, even if they didn’t back the
kickstarter, but only 3 months after the backers have theirs.
BD: The setting has connections to our own world and
history. I like that it’s fantasy but has gates that can bring in modern
characters from our world. What impact does this have on the game?
SM: Not as much as you think. The initial scenario is a
camera crew that gets lost while looking for Bigfoot for a trashy TV show. They
stumble through a gate and are captured (that's all I'm saying on that!). Yes,
they have camera flashes, technical equipment, spectacles, but they soon find
that batteries run dry, and things break. A week or two after arriving they're
no different than the average Leviathan except without the knowledge to farm,
fish, or support themselves (unless they generate a Bear Grylls type character,
of course). A small marine squad could, conceivably, take over a town but 5.56
ammo is great against a sword but isn't that good against magic. And ammo runs
out of course.
Leviathans seem to have a much better time coping with our
world where everything is on tap as long you don’t mind all the flashy lights.
Take a good long look at your postal worker next time he calls...
BD: What literary and film influences helped inspire Distant
Realms?
SM: I'm a life long Arthuriana enthusiast. I live a few
miles from the worlds biggest Arthurian collection, situated in Mold (Yr
Wyddgrug in Welsh) in Flintshire, UK. I grew up reading not the tales of
knights in shining armour (a French subversion of the stories) but of
Percival/Peredur, Gawain/Gwalchmai, Arddur/Owain, Mordred/Medrod,
Myrddin/Emrys/Merlin and others from Welsh history. Sword battles against an
enemy just seemed natural to me. Tolkien and roleplaying just seemed to cement
that. I'd say my most direct influences are King Arthur, Tolkien (particularly
the Silmarillion), RuneQuest, The history of the Twentieth legion Valeria
Victrix (based in my home town of Chester/Caer), and Tacitus.
BD: What RPGs most influenced you and this project?
SM: Definitely RuneQuest (thank you Glorantha-daddy Greg
Stafford!). Glorantha is an extremely rich world and more detailed than middle
earth. It’s only a matter of time before someone wants to set a television show
there, surely. Leviathan as a concept is more based in fiction than RPGs but
Glorantha showed me Leviathan was possible, D&D gave me the key to the
door, and Call of Cthulhu gave me the atmosphere. I'm hoping that visitors to
Leviathan can experience lighter moments that remind them of D&D, nasty
combat, terrible choices that need to be made, and the loss of friends that
remind them of RuneQuest, and, very rarely, the dark and sickening horror they
might encounter reminds them of Call of Cthulhu.
BD: The video preview is amazing. How was that put together?
SM: Ah, it was stock footage, Adobe After Effects templates,
and a lot of sweat and tears. :)
About Stephanie McAlea
Stephanie McAlea is a Welsh cartographer and has been involved
in the RPG hobby as a gamer for 35 years and as a professional in the industry
for 10. Her previous work includes commissions for Chaosium, Mongoose, Golden
Goblin Press and many more with her maps in titles such as The Horror on the
Orient Express, Call of Cthulhu 7th edition, 2300AD, The Legacy of Arrius
Lurco, World War Cthulhu, and Cthulhu by Gaslight (many under her
pre-transition name of Steffon Worthington). Being from North Wales she has
rainwater for blood, slate for bones,and the heart of a dragon forged in the
mountains of the north (yet is surprisingly approachable).
Nice work, Brendan. Like RQ system as well.
ReplyDelete