Thor: Greetings Ian. You have made it possible for countless Conan fans to experience the Hyborian Age in new and exciting ways, and have given them the means to share their passion with their friends. It is indeed an honor to be interviewing you!

Ian: Hail and well met, Thor. It’s you who does me the honor of giving me a chance to tell your fellow travelers about what I do. I have the greatest respect for anyone who makes their own path in this world, as you do, living by your own codes rather than worrying about what society at large thinks you should do.

Thor: When did you first fall under the spell of Robert E. Howard's Hyborian Age?

Ian: A lot later than one might expect, as it happens. As you doubtless know, Howard’s own texts were virtually unavailable and unknown until relatively recently. I read a few of the “Conan the…” titles as a teenager, and found them no worse nor better than the rest of the sword and sorcery I was reading at the time, but of course little to none of the “Conan the…” content was by Howard. I saw the movies, of course, and enjoyed them too – but it has only been in the past three or four years that I’ve become aware of the original Howard stories, and have started to read them. I was by no means a Howard or Conan expert when I was assigned the task of converting the stories to a tabletop RPG, though I had at least by that point read one of the Fantasy Masterworks volumes of Howard’s Hyborian Age stories. I quickly read the second one, then re-read them both, then started writing, then re-read and re-read and re-read again… but that’s shading into a later question!

Thor: When did you first discover gaming?

Ian: I’ve always loved games, and it’s a trait that males in my family seem to follow – my Dad and Uncle were big Risk and Chess players growing up, when those were the height of strategic gaming! I tried both, and enjoyed both, but wanted something more. I found it at the age of 11, when I walked into Games of Liverpool (then one of the UK’s best game stores) and discovered they had a “War and Fantasy Department” in the basement. That sounded just right for a boy who loved Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and 2000 AD. I went down the stairs and found a very friendly, welcoming environment not too different from that of the better game stores today. The cases upon cases of lead figures fascinated me, but not quite as much as the colorful boxes of the roleplaying games. I was somewhat more into fantasy than SF at the time, and asked about buying Gamma World (one of the first of the post-apocalypse RPGs). The shopkeeper recommended Traveller as a better introduction to SF gaming, but I wanted Gamma World, and about six months later I owned it. Within a year I had Basic D&D, then AD&D… and from then I’ve never looked back. After a further year I was doing live roleplay too.

Thor: What type of games did you enjoy?

Ian: For the most part it was AD&D, just because of the amount of adventures available at the time. Schoolkids can be some of the most voracious consumers of RPG adventures around – we would typically game every lunchtime for about 60 to 90 minutes, and soon finished every adventure we could get our hands on. I soon found though that AD&D was somewhat over-complex for my tastes. Then and now, my favorite game system for high fantasy was and is Dragon Warriors, a now somewhat obscure RPG that came in the format of six small paperback books. Only four character classes were presented in the two basic books, Barbarian, Knight, Mystic, and Sorcerer – which in fact would be a fairly good fit for typical Howard characters too.

I also played wargames and boardgames when I got a chance to. I’m naturally quite competitive. I do love playing games for their own sake, but I love it even more when I win. Still, I would rather play an RPG than a more competitive game most of the time, and I’d rather play a live roleplaying game than an RPG nine times out of ten too.

Thor: When did you decide to follow gaming as a vocation?

Ian: Hard to say really. I always wanted to be a writer, and I tried submitting my work to companies I liked a few times, but didn’t get anywhere. I’ve done the usual assortment of obscure jobs that most writers can lay claim to. Eventually though I was able to land a position at Hogshead Publishing. I was in charge of marketing and sales, but it got me a really good grounding in how an RPG company works, as well as introducing me to a number of useful contacts. Through those contacts I co-wrote the Skull & Bones pirate RPG (for Green Ronin), which I think helped get me noticed by Mongoose Publishing when they were looking for full-time staff writers.

Thor:You co-wrote the Conan RPG for Mongoose Publishing. How did that come about?

Ian: I’d written the Sláine RPG as one of my first projects at Mongoose, and it had been enormously well received critically (I believe it’s still joint top RPG supplement at the ENworld web community, having received six different reviews that all awarded it five marks out of five). I guess the idea was that with the Conan RPG, I could create a game that would be as critically acclaimed as Sláine had been, but with a more well-known setting. Sláine, though a superb comic and setting (full of mythic Celtic berserkers), is not all that well known in the US, which is the main RPG market.

So it was that I was given the task to write the Conan RPG, as well as to supervise the extensive playtesting of the game (I had well over 1000 comments back from various groups about the way I should create the game). My technique as a game designer and writer has always been to research everything as thoroughly as I can, and do my very best to emulate the genre and setting as well as I can while still ensuring it’s a fun game to play. The larger-than-life setting of the Hyborian Age was the perfect way to do that. Howard’s work lends itself extraordinarily well to gaming.

Thor: I hold your work on the Conan RPG in very high regard and am very excited by your new Hyborian Tales Live Action Role Playing Game. Can you tell me more about it?

Ian: The main aim with HT is to put a bit of vigor and intensity back into live roleplaying games. Again Howard’s setting of the Hyborian Age is just right. It allows for a huge amount of freedom in terms of character creation, since most of the Earth cultures from Ancient times right up to just pre-industrial times are represented with an analogue in the Hyborian Age. At the first event I fully expect to have swashbuckling Zingaran pirates, mighty Cimmerian and Nordheimer barbarians, effete Hyborian nobles, doughty Aquilonian knights, and even a few Stygian sorcerers and Khitan travelers. Somehow the emphasis on direct action in both the stories and the LRP game means that no-one worries too much about how all these cultures co-exist near each other. That suspension of disbelief is crucial to any live roleplaying game, where we try to create a complete “in-character” environment with nothing to mar that.

Thor: What inspired Hyborian Tales?

Ian: My frustration with other live roleplaying games! At the moment, there seem to be three main categories of games running in the UK:

a) Large fest-type systems. These have far more players than “monster crew”, with maybe 100 to 3000 players and half that or less in monsters. There’s little chance to play a real hero, because you’re competing with a huge number of other would-be heroes. These bigger systems can be a lot of fun if one accepts one’s role as one participant in a much larger event, particularly if the game is designed to be “player-led” so that the players shape the societies, communities, and conflicts of the event. For me, though, there’s nothing like a traditional “linear” adventure, in which one goes after a certain item or person in a relatively short, intense period of time, often against overwhelming odds.

b) Smaller “club” systems. These often run in much the same way as HT does, but they’re usually quite limited in terms of the resources available to them, often being university clubs. Their players will not usually be prepared to pay for the monster crew to have decent props and costumes. Suspension of disbelief suffers again. Often (but not always) these games emphasize the game over the roleplaying, so for example it’s more important to the players that their characters survive and prosper than that they remain fully in-character at all times.

c) Small to mid-sized commercial systems. These are often quite expensive, but rarely deliver a truly professional service in my experience. I’ve often played in these games and found that the players outnumber the monsters, and the latter are not armed or garbed any better than at a typical small club system. Plots and roleplaying are often of a higher standard than at club systems though.

All sounds a bit dire I suppose. Possibly I’ve overstated the case, being somewhat jaded about a lot of games. There are a lot of great games running out there, I play in them myself (and have linked to some of my favorites on the main HT site). None of them are quite offering what we are, though. Part of my frustration is that many aspects of the hobby just don’t seem to have moved on over the past 22 years. There have been some great developments in costuming, plotting, props, prosthetics, roleplaying, and player input, over those 22 years, but there don’t seem to be any small adventure-oriented games that have incorporated all of them (one or two of the bigger fest systems do, notably Maelstrom and Dumnonni). I wanted to include all those aspects but get the game back to its roots – a small band of protagonists (some heroic, some more pragmatic) going out for a specific goal. I wanted to ensure I could outnumber them with ease if I wanted to, in terms of the opposition they would face.

Part of the inspiration was my frustration with other LRPers, too. I think if one is running an action-oriented game, it’s reasonable to require a certain level of fitness and skill on the part of the players, not just the characters. I don’t want to hear someone trying to stop the game to explain that he can’t run away because he’s asthmatic, but that his character should be able to run away because the character isn’t. I suffer quite badly from asthma myself – I get around it by going out running five times a week, rather than trying to use it as an excuse not to ever do any exercise! A lot of games try to equalize characters by having them rely on character skills so as to minimize the benefits of the players’ real-world skills such as sword technique, strength, etc. Again this can work well in a large fest-type system, but I would far rather have people play to type in HT. It’s working so far – the people who are playing barbarian characters tend to be rugby players, or martial artists, or at least people who hit the gym a couple of times a week. There’s nothing that ruins my suspension of disbelief more than an entirely unbelievable “barbarian”, complete with flabby limbs and a complete lack of stamina. The players have generally been very good, as I say. We do have a few intellectual, academic types coming along too… most of whom are playing sorcerers or shamans.

Thor: How is it different from other LARPs?

Ian: Setting, system, and intensity. I do know of a few other games that have used the Hyborian Age setting in the UK (so far as I know, none are currently running, though that may change I guess). It’s a rich and vibrant one, full of potential adventure (even allowing for Conan having already stolen all the best treasure).

The system is designed very much to fit the setting. Almost all other LRP games use magical (or technological) healing, so that characters who are “injured” in-game can be brought back on their feet easily. This doesn’t fit the setting or genre at all; Howard’s stories are full of descriptions of heroes who fight on through dozens of foes, despite bleeding from multiple wounds. So, we’re assuming that although characters will still be bleeding from injuries sustained in earlier encounters, those injuries don’t significantly slow them down or impede them, at least if they’re not dead. I will be providing players with theatrical blood bottles so as to smear themselves accordingly at the ends of battles!

The magic system is very player-led, with the small number of sorcerers having sent me suggestions as to how they would like to operate their magical powers. For those with a formal magical education, such as most Stygian sorcerers, this will involve the players learning magical rituals off by heart; for those with a more shamanic approach, it will involve the players making up their magic in an impromptu manner. Roleplaying will always be the key here, as in everything else we do; a sorcerer who wants to mesmerize another character, for example, will need to roleplay doing so, rather than just calling “HYPNOTIZE” and tearing up a colored “spell card” (as might be the case in other games). If the roleplaying is inadequate, the target will not be hypnotized.

As for intensity, I’ve been to a fair few full weekend LRP events that seem to pause for 2 hours at a time so everyone can sit down for each meal, and to have other large periods of inaction while the monster crew set things up for the next encounter or occurrence. I want to cram more into each 6-hour adventure than most games would fit into a full weekend. I want every player to feel absolutely scared out of his or her wits for at least part of that six hours, and I want every player to feel like a hero for at least part of that six hours too – sometimes at the same time!

Thor: Tell us about your upcoming event...

Ian: We have three adventures, one on Friday night, one Saturday daytime, one Sunday daytime. I’ll tell you about all three, though I can’t say too much in case the players read this. We also have a “tavern evening” on the Saturday night.

The first one’s set in the Pictish wilderness, with the characters needing to rescue an Aquilonian noble – and maybe themselves – from certain elements that have corrupted the local Pict tribe. This is a night adventure, with the whole thing set in pitch blackness other than whatever in-character light sources the players have (there will be a waxing moon almost at the first quarter, but that can’t be relied on to shed a great deal of light, especially if it’s cloudy). That should enhance the tension enormously, with no-one every quite knowing when the next Pictish arrow or axe will strike.

The second looks at the aftermath of a small local conflict on the border between Argos and Zingara. Astute Howard fans will have an idea of what kind of potential threats inhabit those moon-dappled woods. Again we hope to have the climax of the adventure around dusk, when things become a little murkier and darker.

The third involves a battle or raid between two rival Nordheimer tribes, one of which is allied to a more deadly and powerful threat. I want to make this very atmospheric, with smoke emitters to simulate the “fog of war” aspects that come from one of the forces burning the crops and farms of the other.

Each adventure will have at least one special, deadly monster or sorcerer to deal with at the climax, much like most of Howard’s sword-and-sorcery stories.

For the tavern evening, I was hoping to get a chance to make up a batch of sugar-glass bottles, so we could do a traditional tavern brawl! As it stands this looks unlikely, as we don’t quite have the number of players (and hence influx of cash) for me to afford the materials, nor do I have a lot of time between now and then anyway. So, we may still do a tavern brawl, but it will use either LRP-safe weaponry or “stage fighting” style unarmed combat. We also have at least a couple of singers among our crew who will hopefully provide some evening entertainment, and of course there will be a great deal of eating and drinking to do!

Thor: How can I get involved?

Ian: You are already somewhat involved through your interest and promotion of what we’re doing, and that is very much appreciated! Here are a couple of ways that you, and other people outside the UK, could get more involved though:

a) Come to the UK for a holiday, and ensure it happens at the same time as an HT event. There are lots of castles and museums here too that should interest anyone who likes history and medieval warfare. We’ve already said a few times that we will offer crash space before or after the event to anyone who travels from outside the UK to an HT event, which could reduce the cost of one’s holiday.

b) Start up an LRP game elsewhere that uses the HT rules. At present you can’t use them for profit, but there’s nothing to stop a group of friends getting together in the woods and running adventures for one another – that is in many respects the foundation of the LRP hobby!

Thor: I wish I lived in the UK! What are your future plans for Hyborian Tales? Do you see it going global?

Ian: For the moment we are happy to keep things relatively modest, running probably 3 small-scale events per year (each involving 3 adventures). In the future we would love to run a larger “player led” style event, with maybe 100 or so players taking on the roles of the various factions that run Zamboula. Zamboula is perfect for a player-led, player-vs-player game, given the sheer number of different agendas and cultures its denizens have.

As for going global, we would certainly consider a NERO-style franchise if anyone especially wanted to do that – we could provide the rules (for commercial use this time), adventure plots, web space, and guidelines on prop/costume construction. That’s not really a long-term goal of ours, though, it’s just something that occurred to me because of the sheer amount of non-UK interest in the game.

Thor: What other games have you created?

Ian: There’s Sláine: The RPG of Celtic Heroes, which I mentioned above. It won a Silver ENnie award for Best RPG. I still have a huge soft spot for Celtic myth and legend, and Sláine is one of the games we still play regularly in my home game group. That was my first published RPG.

The first one I was involved with writing, though, was Skull & Bones, which is another d20 game set in a somewhat fantastical version of the Caribbean around 1700. There’s pirates, buccaneers, voodoo, zombis, sea monsters, naval combat, and a load of Renaissance fencing prestige classes (Diestro, based on the Spanish style of La Destreza; Master of Fence, based on the English style fencing of George Silver and others; and Master of Scrimia, based on the more general European style and customizable for Spanish, French, Italian etc. sword schools). We were heavily inspired by a Tim Powers book, _On Stranger Tides_, as well as by the history of real-world pirates and others. We were lucky enough to release this book just as Pirates of the Caribbean hit the cinemas, too, though we’d been in development for around 2 years at that point! I’ve always been a big fan of pirates. For me, the best of them were the natural heirs of the warrior tradition in their time – valuing individual bravery and prowess over following orders to the letter, wearing uniforms, and drilling on the parade-ground, which seemed to be the way regular armies were heading at the time.

Armageddon 2089 was another Mongoose Publishing game, an attempt to do a gritty, hard-science, near future Mecha game. I’m very pleased with the background and the heavily researched technology of this one, though the game system is perhaps a little slow and complex for my personal tastes (I find that with most d20 based games though).

Most recently I worked on two more licensed games, The Red Star (for Green Ronin), and the Tékumel d20 adaptation (for Guardians of Order). These were both a lot of fun for various different reasons. The Red Star is probably the best comic book around today, for both art and story. I love the larger-than-life heroism and tragedy of it. It’s set in a kind of alternate-history Russia, where sorcery works and telekinesis is a standard military weapon. Tékumel was the setting for the first ever licensed RPG, back in the 1970s. It’s an incredibly rich, deep, and detailed science fantasy setting created by Professor M. A. R. Barker. So it was a real honor to be given the chance to work on that.

Thor: What do you do when you're not designing games?

Ian: I’m a dad, which is one of the most important aspects of my life. My son Kyle is, like any child, more demanding and rewarding than any job of work! Still we get on well, and with my wife’s work also being somewhat flexible by nature the three of us can work things out pretty well together, with either myself or my wife being the main earner at any one time depending on the amount of work available for both of us.

I do still design games, but more commonly these days I edit them. Design is very satisfying, but also a lot harder work than editing. I do have a couple of my own design projects on the go at the moment though.

I also plan to branch out somewhat and write novels. I’ve started a couple that need a fair bit of work to finish.

As far as leisure activities go, I don’t have a lot of free time for them. Still I game quite often – we have a (theoretically) once-a-week gaming session for RPGs, and I also play German-style board games. Occasionally I’ll play a computer game, mostly turn-based strategy – my favorite being Laser Squad Nemesis. Like most 21st century people I spend an inordinate amount of time doing very little with the internet. I read a lot, fiction, graphic novels, research, New Scientist magazine, almost anything in fact. I also make some attempt to keep fit and train, but that’s shading onto the next question…

Thor: I understand that you 'live the life' fully and are an accomplished warrior...

Ian: For me, in the 21st century, being a warrior is more about honesty, honor, and personal integrity than it is about martial skills. I’m not saying we should neglect our martial skills, just that they are no longer the most important aspect (if they ever were).

I do find it useful and character-building to acquire the skills and fitness of historical warriors as much as possible. One of the tenets of the old Scandinavian religions that shaped my own neo-pagan religious beliefs is that a rune-magician should be physically as well as magically impressive. So, I find it very important to keep fit – I go running around five times a week, have a daily exercise routine based on the old Canadian Airforce “5BX” programme, lift weights, practice fencing and Filipino martial arts, and learn kickboxing. When I get a chance to, I learn WWII and modern combatives, though there is no regular class near me so I have to travel to seminars for this. I also do medieval re-enactment and of course live roleplay. I’m not sure any of this makes me “an accomplished warrior” though! I work hard and practice at these things because I’m not naturally that good at most of them – martial arts tend to bewilder me. The only martial area in which I can be reasonably sure of my own abilities is in live roleplay combat, at which I will beat the majority of people, largely due to that 22 years of experience.

As for living the life, I try to live all aspects of my life in the same manner, as fully and honorably as possible.

Thor: You are obviously someone who follows their own path. Do you have any advice for others seeking to actualize their dreams?

Ian: I guess it’s all about balancing integrity and practicality. It’s crucial to have dreams and ambitions, and it’s equally crucial to devise a plan to actualize those dreams. Yet this cannot be at the expense of day-to-day life, personal relationships, friendships, and responsibilities. I have done temporary work in all manner of low-paid jobs if it’s been necessary to pay the bills and feed my family, and will doubtless do so again when times are hard. I don’t lose sight of my goals though.

Devising a plan, then, is the first task. The plan has to be a step-by-step one. Define the current situation, identify the eventual goal, and work out which stages must be passed through to reach the goal. Then get to work on Stage 1. If at any point money, time, or other things get in the way of the plan, devise a contingency plan!

Thor: What is ahead on your horizon?

Ian: Hopefully becoming a best-selling novelist, extremely fit, accomplished with a variety of weapons and empty hands. We’ll see. I just have to come up with a plan…

Thor: Thank you Ian. I look forward to speaking with you again and wish you great success with Hyborian Tales and all your other endeavors.

For more information on Hyborian Tales, visit: www.hyboriantales.com