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- Tell us a little about yourself, what have you accomplished in life?
I grew up near Vancouver BC Canada. I got into gaming in the late 1970s, playing D&D. I was first published in Dragon Magazine in 1981 and continued to write for Dragon and TSR throughout the 1980s, while getting my degree in education.
In 1990, Brian Fargo at Interplay called me and offered me a job producing and designing their Lord of the Rings series. Given a choice between substitute teaching in Canada and designing computer games in California, I chose computer games. I produced and co-designed the Lord of the Rings series, Castles, and was one of the designers on the Star Trek games as well as lot of other titles.
I left Interplay in 1998, and returned to writing paper and pencil games. Most recently, I wrote Testament: Roleplaying in the Biblical Era for Green Ronin, and the award-winning Villainy Amok for Hero. My current project is a self-produced superhero campaign called Gestalt: The Hero Within. I started that campaign while working at Interplay in 1993, so the supplement's literally fourteen years in the making.
- What are your favourite computer games/board games and why?
That's always a hard question. My oldest favorites are probably MULE (for tAtari 800) and Sid Meier's Civilization in the old days, and more recently I've been playing a lot of World of Warcraft. I play a lot of role-playing games, everything from classic RPGs like D&D to more modern games like The Mountain Witch and Agon. Favorite boardgames range from old favorites like WEG's Tales of the Arabian Knights and Talismam. To more modern fare like Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride.
- What hobbies do you have besides computer games?
I write, dabbling in plays and short stories, and I lead a bible study with members of a local church.
- What are your favourite bands/artists (music)?
I grew up as a Beatles fan, and drifted into prog-rock (U2, Supertramp, Genesis, Zepellin). These days I'm into their Christian cousins like Jars of Clay (Good Monsters is a great album) and Sanctus Real. But I appreciate everything from punk to classical to jazz. When talent, sincerity, and ambition come together, I can usually bring myself to hop onboard.
- Tell us a little about your role in the making of Fallout 1/2/3 (Van Buren)/Tactics?
I came into the project (the original Fallout) at the 2/3rd point. I had been designing a game called Realmswar (a Forgotten Realms strategy title that went nowhere) and Tim Cain invited me onto the team to help out designing Hub and Children of the Cathedral quests. By this time, it was already obvious that it was going to be a special game, the team had a definite magic to it, and it was an honor and (mostly) a pleasure to work with them.
- What's your favourite Fallout memory?
The first time I fought a deathclaw in the game during playtest. I was getting my butt kicked and getting frustrated when Dogmeat suddenly lunged up and knocked the creature down. I shouted out loud "Good boy, Dogmeat!" and did a called shot with my laser rifle between the deathclaw's eyes. Unfortunately. I fumbled the shot, ended up hitting Dogmeat, and incinerated the poor animal in one shot.
- What specifically inspired Fallout for you? What were the biggest influences?
Hard to say. 70s sci-fi like Soylent Green and Planet of the Apes, And I think growing up in 60s, just after the Cuban Missile Crisis, made its mark. Today's generation is growing up under the shadow of 9/11 and the War on Terror. My generation grew up under the shadow of The Bomb. We may parody them now, but the attitudes that were satirized in Dr. Strangelove cast a very real shadow on the world for close to forty years.
- Pop Culture played a big role in Fallout, what pop culture influences you?
I'm a geek, and offer no apologies about it. I think we all know the movies, comic books and novels that shaped geekdom. I liked most of them too.
- How was it to be a part of the Fallout team?
Great! One of the side-effects of coming into a project relatively late in the process is that I felt like I was a guest on the team and not a real member -- you miss those sleeve-rolling early sessions -- but Tim and Chris made me feel welcome. Except when I screwed up the formatting on the weapon default text messages and made Tim do some extra work to write a format checking program. The wrath of a programmer who's been forced to do more work is a terrible thing.
I'd been on projects that had floundered (Realmswar), or which seemed to take forever (Starfleet Academy) or which had been effectively torpedoed by the incompetence of a few team members (Descent to Undermountain). It was a major pleasure to be part of a team that was firing on all cylinders.
- Were there things that you wished you had added to either Fallouts?
There are always things you wish you could add. I think the biggest regret is not finishing up the blackmail plot with Iguana Bob's. You should have been able to go to the police and ratted on the Soylent Green operation. Chris and I put in support for the quest, but Dave Hendee was so swamped with his quests that he never had time to put the finishing touches on that one.
I was proud of that quest. Up to that time, so few RPGs really had a "dark side" that giving the player an opportunity to indulge in what would normally be considered villainous felt like a breakthrough.
- What were you favourite places in fallout and why?
Junktown is where I fell in love with the game, where I realized just what a beautiful game that Chris and Tim were putting together. That's where my heart lies.
- What is your hope for future Fallout games? Would you like to be a part of a future Fo team?
I'd like to see more games, preferably single player games that capture the spirit of the original, and a companion MMORG.
And yeah, I'd join in a heartbeat, provided I sensed that the others in the team respected the original.
- Who would you bring with you in a future Fallout team and why?
Tim Cain as producer, Chris Avellone, Chris Taylor, Colin McComb, Mark O'Green and Liz Danforth for designers, and maybe Ken Hite (because you can't have enough cool on a design team). I'd bring Leonard Boyarsky onboard as art director. In other words, I'd try to put together the best of the Fallout and Wasteland teams, and get some good young blood on the programmer/art side.
- In your opinion, what are the key ingredients that every RPG should have?
Fun!
Good diversity in quests, well-written NPCs, a believable world and good support for various playstyles. The true beauty of Fallout was that, despite the violence in it, you could win the game without firing a shot or slashing someone with a blade.
- Where do you see computer RPGs going?
MMORGs is where the money is at the present time. RPGs, like all games, will follow the money. And since MMORGs cost a lot, we'll see a few, very pricy, successful RPGs.
I think a good design kit like Neverwinter Nights could challenge the MMORGs, but only when someone finds the right balance between power and ease of use.
- How does the fan base hinder/help the projects that you've worked on?
It's a two-edged sword; fan criticism and excesses can be infuriating. But the attention's flattering, good criticism is immensely useful, and they pay the bills.
- When planning the story how do you go through the process of integrating themes and story with the constraints on software?
It's a case of knowing the technical constraints of the system, when to say no, and when an ambitious programmer and artist can push the boundaries. I think most stories can work in games, but you don't want to include bits which push the limits of the machine (particularly if it costs rendering or motion-capture time) without good reasons.
- If you could make any computer game that you wanted, which would it be and why?
I'd love to make a detailed medieval kingship strategy game. I'd like to go back to Castles II, but push the envelop with arranged marriages, alliances, bastards, attempted poisonings, and all the truly fun stuff of the middle ages, It doesn't have to be historically based; imagine playing the role of a family head in a Song of Ice and Fire game.
- Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
I don't. The older I get, the more I see that the future belongs to other people. I do the best I can with the present, and let the future take care of itself.
- Any last word to the Fallout fan base?
Nope. It's a privilege to talk with you folks.