Interview with Vincent Kingston (Kalan) and Joshuha Owen (joshuha) of Digital Adventures,
developers of the Savage Worlds ruleset for Fantasy Grounds II
developers of the Savage Worlds ruleset for Fantasy Grounds II
MB: What was your first RPG?
VK: Hmm...well like many - it was the old D&D "Red Box" back in 6th Grade, by 7th Grade I'd moved onto Hawkmoon and
MERP.
JO: My first RPG, like many, was Dungeons and Dragons. I was 11 years old when one night I found my uncle and a
bunch of his friends playing and got interested. At the time they were playing AD&D 1st edition but he handed my the
D&D Cyclopedia as well to get a feel for the rules in general and of course I fell in love and was soon playing in his
campaign.
MB: What is your favorite System and Setting?
VK: 7th Sea - but only because I like BOTH the system and setting - one of the few games in which the system
compliments the setting. For everything else - its Savage Worlds all the way!
JO: Well right now my current system of choice is of course Savage Worlds although I am a recent convert. My current
setting of choice is Ptolus by Monte Cook. The book is beautiful and organized in a great way that makes DM'ing the
setting a joy. My current Fantasy Grounds group I DM played 20 sessions in Ptolus using D&D 3.5 before we tested out
Savage Worlds and fell in love with the more cinematic feel and the Fast! Furious! Fun! mantra.
MB: What is your background in the RPG and/or Software industry?
VK: Actually none funny enough. I'm "technically" a Payroll Administrator. I approached Kevin a couple of years ago
when he was looking for help on the FG Boards for something...can't remember what exactly, then I was brought onto the
team to do up some Modern style adventures...after that, I ended up getting involved with the Savage Worlds project way
back when...and been doing that ever since.
I'm still hoping to "officially" break into the RPG industry as a writer - but I just don't think I'm any good. I've written three
One Sheets now for the Savage Worlds: Explorer's Society, two of which are available, still waiting to hear on the third
(knowing my luck it got lost in the internet somewhere). Almost everyone who knows me kicks me in the rear though
about how I get down about my abilities...ahh well.
JO: Well officially in the RPG industry not much of a background but I have been primarily a GM now for over 10 years.
So I hope to have contributed to the adoption of the hobby by many people. I have played and GM'd so many RPGs I
don't think I could list them all here.
In the software industry I have a degree in Software Engineering and by day I am an applications administrator for a very
large law firm in NYC. I have done small game programming/modification since my first foray into programming (modifying
the code in Gorillas in QBasic). Like most roleplayers I am also heavily into video games and play games on the Wii, 360,
and PC although with Fantasy Grounds I find more and more nights being taken up with roleplaying.
MB: What part did you play in the production of the Savage Worlds ruleset?
VK: I am the "Product Line" lead...or something like that anyways. I did all the Rules modules up - some parts were just
"reworked" from the original FGI ruleset, but I took the opportunity to improve and rework some sections. Basically - I
was the only one at DA who knew the rules for Savage Worlds - so I kept trying to get ideas into the system. Josh is the
one who did all the work - I was just the "ra ra" man :)
JO: I was the main developer of the ruleset code. All the game mechanics and XML were my responsibility including the
wild die, aces, character sheet, etc.
Jason Sandeman gets credit for all the graphics work and Vince Kingston crunched all the data for the modules and
generally kept the rest of us on task. Also want to thank all of those who helped me playtest the ruleset.
MB: Which part are you particularly proud of and which part (if any) do you think needs improvement?
VK: Well - there's always room for improvement. As for what I'm proud of - the combat tracker. I think that is perhaps the
slickest thing we have working in the ruleset. I also like how I redid the equipment tables in the modules. As for
improvements - there are some tweaks I'd like on the tracker - but nothing critical :)
JO: I think both the die mechanics and the card dealer rank about equally as far as what I am proud of. Getting the Aces
to roll graphically but spawn inline with the original roll so the total could be given took a bit of work. Not to mention the
wild die toggle that triggers off the rolls as well.
The card dealer built into the combat tracker though is what I think most other people are impressed with and also took a
good amount of time to get working right. We went through a lot of iterations and testing before we were able to get this
working right and looking good.
As far as improvements go we have received some good feedback since the ruleset went live and are trying to work in
some of the suggestions. Personally, while I like the final layout of the sheet I wanted to give more room for the first page
(Armor/Weapons/Powers) but size limitations prevented us from doing more. However, I think we have another solution in
line that we will be testing soon that might solve that problem but not make the sheet any bigger.
MB: Is there anything that isn't included that you have planned to include at a later date?
VK: Mostly stuff that's contingent on FGII - I'd like visual tracking for Shaken on tokens, same as Incapacitated.
JO: Besides bug fixes and some enhancement requests the only thing I can say is at some point in the future the card
engine outside of the combat tracker may get an update. Other awesome Savage Worlds things are planned like Rippers
and the Adventure Deck but these are seperate products (but will use this ruleset as its base).
MB: What are you working on now and what else is in the pipeline?
VK: Well - right now we have the Rippers conversion going on. And a few more adventure modules. As for what's goin
on after that - not sure yet, gotta see what happens :) I'd like to do up Necropolis or Necessary Evil out - but I have a
feeling Evernight or 50 Fathoms will come next after Rippers.
JO: Well my current project is still under NDA so I cannot discuss it quite yet but another big one I will be working on in
the future is Ptolus by Monte Cook. As I mentioned before my main campaign I run in Fantasy Grounds is one in this
setting and was the original reason I was brought onto the Digital Adventures team. The book of course is massive and is
650+ pages of material to bring in so you can imagine the scope of just the data input for something like that.
VK: Hmm...well like many - it was the old D&D "Red Box" back in 6th Grade, by 7th Grade I'd moved onto Hawkmoon and
MERP.
JO: My first RPG, like many, was Dungeons and Dragons. I was 11 years old when one night I found my uncle and a
bunch of his friends playing and got interested. At the time they were playing AD&D 1st edition but he handed my the
D&D Cyclopedia as well to get a feel for the rules in general and of course I fell in love and was soon playing in his
campaign.
MB: What is your favorite System and Setting?
VK: 7th Sea - but only because I like BOTH the system and setting - one of the few games in which the system
compliments the setting. For everything else - its Savage Worlds all the way!
JO: Well right now my current system of choice is of course Savage Worlds although I am a recent convert. My current
setting of choice is Ptolus by Monte Cook. The book is beautiful and organized in a great way that makes DM'ing the
setting a joy. My current Fantasy Grounds group I DM played 20 sessions in Ptolus using D&D 3.5 before we tested out
Savage Worlds and fell in love with the more cinematic feel and the Fast! Furious! Fun! mantra.
MB: What is your background in the RPG and/or Software industry?
VK: Actually none funny enough. I'm "technically" a Payroll Administrator. I approached Kevin a couple of years ago
when he was looking for help on the FG Boards for something...can't remember what exactly, then I was brought onto the
team to do up some Modern style adventures...after that, I ended up getting involved with the Savage Worlds project way
back when...and been doing that ever since.
I'm still hoping to "officially" break into the RPG industry as a writer - but I just don't think I'm any good. I've written three
One Sheets now for the Savage Worlds: Explorer's Society, two of which are available, still waiting to hear on the third
(knowing my luck it got lost in the internet somewhere). Almost everyone who knows me kicks me in the rear though
about how I get down about my abilities...ahh well.
JO: Well officially in the RPG industry not much of a background but I have been primarily a GM now for over 10 years.
So I hope to have contributed to the adoption of the hobby by many people. I have played and GM'd so many RPGs I
don't think I could list them all here.
In the software industry I have a degree in Software Engineering and by day I am an applications administrator for a very
large law firm in NYC. I have done small game programming/modification since my first foray into programming (modifying
the code in Gorillas in QBasic). Like most roleplayers I am also heavily into video games and play games on the Wii, 360,
and PC although with Fantasy Grounds I find more and more nights being taken up with roleplaying.
MB: What part did you play in the production of the Savage Worlds ruleset?
VK: I am the "Product Line" lead...or something like that anyways. I did all the Rules modules up - some parts were just
"reworked" from the original FGI ruleset, but I took the opportunity to improve and rework some sections. Basically - I
was the only one at DA who knew the rules for Savage Worlds - so I kept trying to get ideas into the system. Josh is the
one who did all the work - I was just the "ra ra" man :)
JO: I was the main developer of the ruleset code. All the game mechanics and XML were my responsibility including the
wild die, aces, character sheet, etc.
Jason Sandeman gets credit for all the graphics work and Vince Kingston crunched all the data for the modules and
generally kept the rest of us on task. Also want to thank all of those who helped me playtest the ruleset.
MB: Which part are you particularly proud of and which part (if any) do you think needs improvement?
VK: Well - there's always room for improvement. As for what I'm proud of - the combat tracker. I think that is perhaps the
slickest thing we have working in the ruleset. I also like how I redid the equipment tables in the modules. As for
improvements - there are some tweaks I'd like on the tracker - but nothing critical :)
JO: I think both the die mechanics and the card dealer rank about equally as far as what I am proud of. Getting the Aces
to roll graphically but spawn inline with the original roll so the total could be given took a bit of work. Not to mention the
wild die toggle that triggers off the rolls as well.
The card dealer built into the combat tracker though is what I think most other people are impressed with and also took a
good amount of time to get working right. We went through a lot of iterations and testing before we were able to get this
working right and looking good.
As far as improvements go we have received some good feedback since the ruleset went live and are trying to work in
some of the suggestions. Personally, while I like the final layout of the sheet I wanted to give more room for the first page
(Armor/Weapons/Powers) but size limitations prevented us from doing more. However, I think we have another solution in
line that we will be testing soon that might solve that problem but not make the sheet any bigger.
MB: Is there anything that isn't included that you have planned to include at a later date?
VK: Mostly stuff that's contingent on FGII - I'd like visual tracking for Shaken on tokens, same as Incapacitated.
JO: Besides bug fixes and some enhancement requests the only thing I can say is at some point in the future the card
engine outside of the combat tracker may get an update. Other awesome Savage Worlds things are planned like Rippers
and the Adventure Deck but these are seperate products (but will use this ruleset as its base).
MB: What are you working on now and what else is in the pipeline?
VK: Well - right now we have the Rippers conversion going on. And a few more adventure modules. As for what's goin
on after that - not sure yet, gotta see what happens :) I'd like to do up Necropolis or Necessary Evil out - but I have a
feeling Evernight or 50 Fathoms will come next after Rippers.
JO: Well my current project is still under NDA so I cannot discuss it quite yet but another big one I will be working on in
the future is Ptolus by Monte Cook. As I mentioned before my main campaign I run in Fantasy Grounds is one in this
setting and was the original reason I was brought onto the Digital Adventures team. The book of course is massive and is
650+ pages of material to bring in so you can imagine the scope of just the data input for something like that.
Murgh Bpurn 25/10/07
RPG Virtual Tabletop
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