Interview: Jason Morningstar with Bully Pulpit Games

Hey everyone! Today Jason Morningstar joins us from Bully Pulpit Games producers of Fiasco.  He’s stopping by to chat about what’s going on over at BPG, the process of making playsets, digital publication, and most importantly, games! 

• One has to always start with establishing their geek cred, so what is it that makes you a geek?

In the summer of 1977 I entered a grim race with my brother to see who could see Star Wars the most times in the theater (I won).

• If you could have any superhero name/identity/superpowers, what would they be?

I hate superheroes without reservation. If I were to be granted a special power I’d choose the ability to fly, I think.

• Agreed, flight is undoubtedly awesome, so what’s your role at Bully Pulpit Games?

I design games, occasionally illustrate them, lay them out, that sort of thing.

• How did you get involved working at BPG?

I was a co-founder of the company in 2005. We had a cool game (The Shab Al-Hiri Roach) and had recently discovered how straightforward it was to self publish thanks to The Forge, so we went ahead and did it.

• What are some of the projects you’ve been working on most recently?

We released the Fiasco Companion this summer, and now I’ve got a bunch of small games on my plate to refine, test, and finish. In addition I just wrapped a small writing project for Red Moon Medicine Show, designed a cover for Stone Skin Press, and I’m always commenting on somebody’s draft of something or other. I’m also working on more purposeful games for health care education, but that’s outside the scope of my hobby activities.

• My wife’s an ER nurse and a strong advocate of health education, so I appreciate that.  So let’s talk about your games!  What games do you guys make?

The games in BPG’s catalog include The Shab Al-Hiri Roach, Drowning and Falling, Grey Ranks, and Fiasco. I’ve written a ton of small, free games and collaborated on others, like Matthijs Holter and my Love in the Time of Seið.

• Are all the games GMless, storytelling style games?

Yes, I guess they are.

• So walk us through the differences between Fiasco, the Shab-al-Hiri Roach, Grey Ranks, and Drowning & Falling?

These are all GMless games, but each distributes authority differently. The Roach and Fiasco are structured freeform and set up adversity through a division between a particular player in the spotlight and everybody else. Grey Ranks assigns authority less discretely but remains highly collaborative. Drowning and falling is just silly.

In play Grey Ranks is pretty serious melodrama about the intersection of love and war. Fiasco can vary tonally from melancholy to gonzo, and the other two typically peg the meter at straight-up gonzo.

• My gaming group and I have enjoyed Fiasco a ton ever since our Chief Editor Darren introduced me to it at our annual Geekcentricity game night.  What have been some of your favorite playsets to date?

My A#1 favorite is Flyover, which I think is well written and well executed (not to pat myself on the back or anything). I also really like London 1593. Oh! And New York, 1913, an unappreciated little gem. And Dallas 1963. Can you tell I like history?

• What was the inspiration for developing Fiasco?

The design parameters came out of my common gaming situation – 2 hours, no prep, and full stop. I built it up from there and anything that conflicted with those goals was ruthlessly purged. In terms of theme, it sort of developed over time, starting out as a much more focused “town building” game.

• Why did you guys decide to go GMless?

GMless is not a great term, since it encompasses the entire universe of possibility outside the “one GM, many players” traditional model. I look at how to best divide up and parcel out authority at the table to meet the games needs best.

• How has player\non-BPG writers having a hand in developing your playsets been working out for you guys?

Great! The notion of user-generated content really hit me hard when I saw what people were doing with In A Wicked Age. I really enjoy seeing what people do with the playset format – writing 144 items is a little tricky but not a huge burden.

• How was the D6 mechanism developed for Fiasco?

I wanted to see how many ways I could use dice as tactile objects in Fiasco, to keep things simple and direct. So they are a pacing mechanism, a randomizer, and an outcome generator. I’m really happy with that. It’s a very simple solution. I’m not really anti-weird dice but six sided dice are ubiquitous and friendly.

• Was the decision to offer your stuff by PDF direct download a plan from the beginning?

It was more customer-driven. We don’t offer for sale games (See: The Roach) for which we can’t provide an excellent experience in electronic format.

• In an increasingly digital world, and with more and more publishers moving to both print and digital formats, how do you think this will effect the future of game publishing?

I’m torn – on one hand, there’s a real pleasure and utility in handling a physical book. On the other, production costs continue to rise and more and more people are developing preferences for electronic versions. I am currently a book guy myself but that could change.

• Okay last one and as a fellow gamer you can appreciate how important this is, if you could only take 3 things/party members into a dungeon with you what/who would they be?

As a natural thief my choice is obvious – I want the iconic four-person party, so I’d bring along a cleric, a wizard, and a fighter. That’d be my friends Steve, Clinton and Joel respectively!

For our readers, if you want to keep tabs on what’s up over at Bully Pulpit Games you can find Jason on twitter @jmstar or the company online at www.bullypulpitgames.com.  We want to send big thanks over to Jason and BPG for taking the time to hang out with us.  If you’re in the market for some disastrous and hilarious game nights, go over and check them out.