OK, I am a Tabletop designer also, though mainly a blogger I often get my hands dirty.
Tell us who you are and what you have designed?
I am Mark Knights and I have been a role player for longer than I can remember. I used to design games at home when I was young that were RPG’s and board games alike. My most complete RPG when I was a teenager was a system I developed for Raymond E Feist’s Midkemia novels. We played that setting a few times and I was quite proud of it.
More recently I came back to gaming seriously. I had just moved all my gaming into a light and easy place but I decided to apply some serious worek in the industry after having met many interesting and inspiring people. It was around that time that I started The Pathfinder Chronicles on blogspot. Finding myself with a limited audience due to the title after about a year I expanded that into RPG Knights blog which I have the web space for (no longer blogger) and I have expanded into a strong blog with several writers, though I still do most of the writing there.
Part of writing that blog has been me creating things for industry and for direct supply to blog readers. I am not prolific and for everything I have finished I have another 6 that go unfinished, cursing me in the heart of some notebook – or the hard drive of my computer.
What is it that makes you want to design games?
There are two answers for this and it really depends on the day you ask me which I will give. So in no particular order…
I like to be in control. It is why I am almost exclusively a games master, plus at times I can be a bit prickly so I drive myself into the making and creating of things that involve topics that I would like to explore through my RPG’s.
I like to see people use what I make. I am highly creative and constantly having ideas about this, that and the other so I develop a lot and spitball with people (collaborate) and really get a kick out of it when people use it and tell me about it. The amount of time that I spend at a keyboard making things or giving advice via the blog is all worth it for every comment from any source about how people will use it – or even if they think I am wrong.
What are the games that inspire you most?
Board game wise I love Mage Knight (not the hero clix thing), Betrayal at House on the Hill, Catan, Scotland Yard and Carcassone. RPG wise is such a broad scale and it varies a lot. Era the Consortium is brilliant, I am reading the Fragged Empire at the moment and that has some cool stuff. I play Pathfinder and Dungeon Crawl Classics a lot but I miss FATE, love the Cypher System and Lords of Gossamer and Shadow. The list goes on but I am sure you can see that, like my motto for RPG Knights, design, play and love games.
What makes Australian games different from others?
Well, I was a bit ignorant to all of this until all the other game designers opened my eyes to it. If you had asked me a little while ago if there were Australian Game Designers I would have laughed and said not any more. But my ignorance has been cleansed and I am now proud to say that I not only know some of you from these posts now, but I will be selling your products in store. They will have Australian Made on them, but not because that is the selling point, because most products I have now seen are among the best in the world.
I would say that I missed all of the Australian designers because I always assumed that they were not Australian, so slick is the product.
Where can we get your games from?
Well! So glad you asked 🙂
There is on this very website many of the adventures and encounters I have created for free if you follow this link. Most of it is mine, some of it isn’t but I am fairly good in labelling it if it is not.
If you want my Lords of Gossamer and Shadow Character Options then you can go to the Rite Publishing store and buy it there.
Finally, I have one of my free adventures up at my web store (games-onboard.com) and I intend to be adding future materials there as Pay What You Want products.
Are you working on anything at the moment?
What aren’t I working on is probably a better question. I am currently working to get the web store running as well as getting in physical products (Fragged Empire will be up in the next couple of days) and starting up a steam punk themed board/card/role playing store in my local area. The web store is hopefully going to fill a need in the Australian market as I have found the stores that I have used in the past are getting less and less reliable with stock and I want to fix that problem.
Game wise, well I have lots on the go. I have a Pathfinder module called Crossroads that is almost at completion and will be available from the store. It will probably be released in DCC and DnD 5E formats as well. I have the sequel to my Tomb of the Ghast Queen module which was released for free for Pathfinder, DnD 5E and DCC almost ready. The sequel is called the Throne of the Ghast Queen and has only a small amount left to be completed.
Beyond those I am keen to finish off more of my own Holy Grail, an RPG called Detritus which got to an almost complete stage but then got pared back and its mechanics are being treated to an overhaul. There are other things, for example I am working on a series of games that I may actually release if it works out well based on Traveller, the Pink Floyd albu A Momentary Lapse of Reason and the Cypher system! I am always busy!
Anything else you would like to mention?
Sign up to games-onboard.com as there is plenty of good RPG stuff there at the moment but this will also expand out into board games and card games in the near future. The success of the site is really reliant on you as customers and I am trying to keep everything at reasonable prices and in stock so it means immediate delivery!
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Wow you do so much. Wish I had time for more games and maybe even write. My business pretty much eats all my time though sadly.
So where is this steampunk store going to be? Hopefully not Burnie now? Two stores in one small area will likely end both. I am hoping Devonport lol. I at least get there once a month from Hobart and they have a great tabletop club that would support it.
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Hi Tara. Unfortunately for one of us it will be in Burnie though at this stage the concepts of each store are quite different. We held off building our store because we thought they would be the same but as it turns out his focus is kind of different to ours – there will be crossover but that is unavoidable.
Unfortunately it is my current work that is forcing this move as they are seeking to completely change the conditions of my work so much that I cannot face the changes that they want to make and so I need to grow wings and move on it seems. This is likely to be a drawn out progress and the store will be the refuge from that storm.
Thanks for your interest, I hope to meet you one day!
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Ok well from what you described as a board/rpg/card game focus I assumed it was the same as the mind games store and what they are doing. Which I couldn’t see two working. Not really sure what you would be doing different. And not trying to put a damper on your bravery. Kinda worried two games focused stores will see both fold and the gamers will miss out again. For example Hobart where I live has two games stores and neither doing great since the second one started. Hate to see Burnie lose out now they finally have somewhere to buy and play games. So please make very sure you can do this and it doesn’t fail. I almost lost my home two years ago in similar circumstances. Albeit not games lol. I understand wanting/needing a change but in hindsight I wish someone had warned me of all the unseen traps in business.