{"id":988,"date":"2019-02-20T10:00:42","date_gmt":"2019-02-20T10:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/?p=988"},"modified":"2021-11-16T00:39:07","modified_gmt":"2021-11-16T05:39:07","slug":"five-or-so-questions-on-comrades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2019\/02\/five-or-so-questions-on-comrades\/","title":{"rendered":"Five or So Questions on Comrades"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today I have an interview with W.M. Akers about Comrades, a tabletop RPG currently on Kickstarter<\/a>! W.M. Akers is also author of Westside, a mystery novel you can find on preorder<\/a>. Check out the interview below!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tell\nme about Comrades. What excites you about it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comrades\nis a new RPG about life in the revolutionary underground. I’ve been working on\nit off and on since 2017 and I am just in love<\/em> with it. I created\nit because I wanted to give people who fall anywhere on the left of the\npolitical spectrum a chance to engage with their history and remember how it\nfeels to fight, body and soul, for a cause. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The game is based on the Apocalypse World engine, which I love both because it’s so perfectly designed for depicting the dynamics of tightly-knit groups of adventurers and because it’s jaw-droppingly easy to teach. I designed this game for hardcore gamers and novices alike, and the Apocalypse World system is the best I’ve found for welcoming new players to the table.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How\nhave you altered the AW engine to suit Comrades as a system?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\ntinkered with a lot of different changes to the AW engine, and found during\nplaytesting that the simpler I kept things, the better the game played. There\nare a few basic moves deliberately crafted to evoke the revolutionary\natmosphere of Comrades\u2014”Start Something,” for instance, which gives\nplayers a way to incite a crowd to riot, protest, or strike. Any other changes\nI made were designed to make the system easier to teach and understand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve\nalso created an optional system for structuring the campaign, Pathways to\nRevolution, which allows parties to advance along one or more of five tracks,\neach of which represents a different approach to making a revolution. Each\nlevel offers advantages, culminating in an opportunity to seize power in the\nmethod best suited to the group. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\ngave you the idea for Comrades, and what are some steps you\u2019ve taken in design\nto make it happen?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve been obsessed with leftist history since I was in high school. The Russian Revoluton, the Spanish Civil War, the guerrilla movements of the ’60s and ’70s\u2026 I am fascinated by the way that the ideals of those on the left collide with reality, and the endless tragedies that result when their dreams are destroyed by infighting, cynicism, or simple bad luck. I wanted to make a game that dramatized the infighting and quixotic daring common to revolutionary movements throughout history, and to give players the chance to express their own frustrations with modern politics in a fun, constructive way. Because of its emphasis on the dynamics of tightly-knit groups, the AW engine was a natural fit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tell\nme more about Pathways to Revolution. It sounds fascinating! What sort of\nexperiences do players have in these tracks, and what kinds of tracks are\nthere?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\nare five tracks: Force, Organization, Zealotry, Mayhem, and Fellowship. Each\none correlates to one of the game’s five stats, and each is designed to give\nplayers the opportunity to make a revolution in their own way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If\nthe party is interested in forging a legitimate path to power, they may pursue\nOrganization, which provides logistical bonuses while making the party more\nacceptable to the mainstream. At the fifth rank of that Pathway, they can call\nfor elections and attempt to win power democratically. If they prefer to rely\non the support of the mob, they’ll rise through Zealotry, which eventually\ngives them the opportunity to win power via a series of massive, wild\ndemonstrations. In most campaigns, of course, different factions within each\nparty will want to pursue different pathways\u2014creating the tensions inherent in\nany revolutionary movement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\ndesigned these both to reflect the wide variety of real-life revolutions, and\nto give players more than one way to “win” the game. Because there\nare bloodless ways to gain power, players who choose to pursue a more violent\nPathway\u2014like Force or Mayhem\u2014must reckon with the consequences of that choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How have you elected to handle and\nframe violence as a part of the game, and what do you feel is important about\nthat?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Violence is a part of Comrades,\njust as it is for nearly every roleplaying game. Because this game takes place\nin a more realistic setting than most RPGs, it was intensely important to me\nthat it be presented in a responsible way. Players are free to do whatever\nthink necessary to achieve their goals, but the GM is instructed to make this\n“a game of consequences, in which violence solves little and no death\u2014even\nthat of a villain\u2014goes unmourned.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe that all violence is\nabhorrent and all life is sacred, and while I think it’s okay to act out\nviolent situations in gameplay, it has to be done with thought and care. I hope\nthat the rules I’ve written will empower GM and players to do just that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks so much to W.M. Akers for the interview! I hope you all enjoyed the interview and that you’ll check out Comrades on Kickstarter today<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today I have an interview with W.M. Akers about Comrades, a tabletop RPG currently on Kickstarter! W.M. Akers is also author of Westside, a mystery novel you can find on preorder. Check out the interview below! — Tell me about Comrades. What excites you about it? Comrades is a new RPG about life in the … Continue reading “Five or So Questions on Comrades”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[390],"tags":[20,10,4,17,57,25,73,8,15,12,26,23,18],"class_list":["post-988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","tag-five-or-so","tag-game-design","tag-games","tag-gaming","tag-history","tag-interviews","tag-politics","tag-roleplaying-games","tag-rpg","tag-rpgs","tag-story-games","tag-tabletop-games","tag-tabletop-rpgs"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paHOcG-fW","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":80,"url":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2018\/06\/five-or-so-questions-on-champions-now\/","url_meta":{"origin":988,"position":0},"title":"Five or So Questions on Champions Now","author":"Beau J\u00e1gr Sheldon","date":"June 2, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Hi all!I did an interview with Ron Edwards on his Kickstarter project, Champions Now! Ron prepared our audio recordings and edited everything into a video, so you get to hear the interview on the following video. 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It's also important to me to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Archive"","block_context":{"text":"Archive","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":200,"url":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2017\/02\/thoughty-talking-companions-tale-with-laura-simpson\/","url_meta":{"origin":988,"position":3},"title":"Thoughty: Talking Companions Tale with Laura Simpson","author":"Beau J\u00e1gr Sheldon","date":"February 25, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Check out my interview with Laura Simpson on Companions' Tale, currently on Kickstarter!This post was supported by the community on patreon.com\/briecs. Tell your friends!To leave some cash in the tip jar, go to http:\/\/paypal.me\/thoughty.If you'd like to be interviewed for Thoughty, or have a project featured, email contactbriecs@gmail.com.","rel":"","context":"In "Archive"","block_context":{"text":"Archive","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1860,"url":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2020\/04\/behold-products-ultimate-micro-rpg-book-pre-orders\/","url_meta":{"origin":988,"position":4},"title":"Behold, Products! Ultimate Micro-RPG Book Pre-Orders!","author":"Beau J\u00e1gr Sheldon","date":"April 2, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Hello all! I've been honored to be a part of the Ultimate Micro-RPG Book, edited by James D'Amato, which is currently on PREORDER! Preorders are a great way to support the product and the idea if you like it, because it lets big box stores know that there's demand, so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Archive"","block_context":{"text":"Archive","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1435,"url":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2019\/07\/friday-hi-day-youtube-post-live\/","url_meta":{"origin":988,"position":5},"title":"Friday Hi-Day YouTube Post Live!","author":"Beau J\u00e1gr Sheldon","date":"July 12, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Tfn7OHqQ_HQ","rel":"","context":"In "Archive"","block_context":{"text":"Archive","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/Tfn7OHqQ_HQ\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/988\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}