Interview with Paul Stefko, Creator of the Full Moon RPG

Commentary FATE Full Moon Funding Interview

Yesterday, I had a chance to catch up with game designer Paul Stefko of Pittsburgh. Like many of us, Paul got his start in game design in grade school—but unlike those among us who have kept our designs to spiral-bound notebooks, Paul has found ways to commercialize his talent! His latest endeavor is “Full Moon: An RPG of Life on the Lunar Frontier,” a FATE-based RPG which started from a simple inspiration: “Deadwood on the moon.”

“Full Moon” is Pauls’ first Kickstarter project . The project has reached its initial funding goals and is now just over $400 shy of reaching a stretch goal which unlocks an alternate setting for “Full Moon.”

Paul’s prime requisite is Charisma, and he reflects that when your character is “the guy everyone else wants to impress, [then] you have all their skills in your toolbox.” Paul joins my co-editors Chase and Bryan is pronouncing “Intwischa” incorrectly, which leaves me as the only person I’ve found on this lonely planet who says it correctly.

This interview is presented in an abbreviated format–the full text is linked at the end of the article.

Intwischa: What are some of your inspirations, both RPGs and otherwise, behind Full Moon? What drew you to the moon as a central focus?

Paul Stefko: Maybe a year ago, I had a brainwave at work, a campaign idea. I texted it to my wife: “Deadwood on the moon.”

Eventually, I struck on the idea of doing it with Fate after picking up Dresden Files. (Doesn’t seem like those two would gel, does it?) That urge only solidified when I found “Bulldogs” [another FATE-based product] on Kickstarter. Obviously, “Technoir” is another inspiration.

The film Moon is one of the primary inspirations for the core setting. Alien, too. Some other westerns besides Deadwood might have crept into my inspiration pool, mostly of the same town-politics vein. I would lose my geek card if I didn’t say Firefly.

IWC: What drew you to Kickstarter, and how has your experience been?

PS: My wife started looking into Kickstarter to run a project of her own, and I started poking around and dug into the gaming categories.

The first project I backed was Brennan Taylor’s “Bulldogs,” followed shortly by Jeremy Keller’s “Technoir.” (I actually just added up all of my pledges, and I was a little shocked at how much of my disposable income has been funneled through Kickstarter over the last year.)

As for my own project, it’s been going extremely well. I really appreciate the data that Kickstarter has been giving me, breaking down backer levels, where everyone’s coming from, and all of the activity such as comments and pledge adjustments. And that graph that shows the funding progress is a strong motivator.

IWC:How did you decide your price points for the various funding levels?

Paul's concept sketch for the Fudge dice offered to backers of Full Moon at certain levels

PS: I found what a reasonable price for [printing and shipping] the number of copies I would be looking to fulfill. Once I had a ballpark figure, I rounded up a bit to a nice point of $15.

After that, I knew it was a matter of figuring out a few deluxe options, and one of the things I really wanted to do was open the project up a bit to some community involvement. That’s where the “name a character” and “design a faction” levels came from.

I went through a similar process for the retailer levels and then when I decided to add dice.

IWC: The dice were a big draw for me–definitely what brought my pledge higher than what I’ve offered some other projects. What was your inspiration for adding dice, and did you see an impact on pledges right away?

PS: When I started designing Full Moon, I made a conscious decision to stick with Fudge dice, because I liked the sharp bell curve they provide. It highlights character abilities very strongly.

I announced the dice on March 30, though, and I saw a pretty big jump right after that (about 8% of the total, or $300). It was a pretty steady curve after that, but not a small number of backers upgraded to levels that offer dice.

IWC: Good strategy–and as someone who has “made do” with plain old d6’s, I’m eager to get my hands on some bona-fide Fudge dice. Last question on the topic of Kickstarter: Having one successful Kickstarter under your belt, what advice would you give to an aspiring game designer looking to follow your lead?

PS: Research. Get an idea of your costs and your fulfillment options. Fred Hicks of Evil Hat posted something right around the time I was getting started about “worst case success,” which is basically the situation where you have enough money to succeed, but it’s all being offered at the most expensive levels to fulfill. You could end up with no profit to show for the whole thing. I’ve been keenly aware of that scenario as Full Moon has progressed.

IWC: One of your project goals is “to present a version of Fate that is slimmed down and easy to run from, without sacrificing what makes the system versatile and engaging.” First question on this topic—what about FATE do you find most versatile and most engaging?

PS: It has a solid mechanical core that scratches my “game” itch well enough. Then it adds on those interesting narrative elements — Aspects, compels — that get people involved in the story. It’s not just, “How can my Aspect help me here?” You start to move into “Ooh, my Aspect can actually screw me right now, but that opens up this storyline or that beat of tension. Awesome!”

IWC: Speaking of the elements of FATE, I noticed that your core document (in update 1) makes use of invokes and compels, but eliminates tags. Is this intentional, and if so, can you speak to that?

PS: It’s an example of streamlining terms. There was talk on the FateRPG blog about whether “tag” is a useful term. I fall on the side of “less jargon is better,” so I just took out the word “tag.” In the full rules, when you discover or create an aspect (through assessments, declarations, or maneuvers), you get a free invoke (what other games may call a “tag”).

IWC: As you’re streamlining, are you are experiencing any tension between cutting down on rules/text and adding some of your interesting new concept like factions and communities?

PS: The tension I’m finding as I work on Full Moon actually comes from trying to clearly present the material without bulking up the text with examples. I’m actually looking to emulate something Jeremy Keller did in Technoir. He sequestered his rules text from his example text, so that you’d have a page of rules and then a page of examples. I won’t be following that format exactly, but I think I’ll have a lot fewer instances of examples breaking the flow of the rules material.

Still, I need examples to clarify some things, especially rules elements like Stunts. Stunts don’t have as big a role in Full Moon as Dresden or Bulldogs, but I want to have a few examples of what Stunts might look like for a given skill. That’s on top of a discussion of how to make your own Stunts.

IWC: It sounds like reducing and clarifying is quite a challenge. Is that the greatest challenge you’ve discovered in this process, or is there another surprise you’ve come across in designing this game?

PS: Sometimes I feel like  I’m paring it back too much. The conflict system really clicked for me when I read a post on the FateRPG blog about reversing consequences, such that instead of reducing stress, they added to the defense roll. That meant I could get rid of stress altogether, which would really slim down the conflict chapter.

BUT, once I’d eliminated stress, it gutted one of the biggest things about equipment, specifically the effects of weapons and armor. In other games, the two most important types of gear dealt directly with conflicts and stress. Now they had nothing to do. That eventually led to the current system where equipment is basically just a container for Aspects.

So, the solution to one problem leads to a new problem. It’s a cycle, but it’s very interesting.

IWC: So, here’s an oddball thing: I once played a great game at GenCon two years ago that used the Buffy the Vampire Slayer system, and focused on vampires who had colonized Mars. Did you by any chance ever come across that game—and whether the answer is yes or no, can you describe some of your influences behind “Blood Moon,” the stretch-goal supplement for “Full Moon?”

PS: Wow! I actually played in that game last year.

Blood Moon very much comes out of the World of Darkness. I played a lot of World of Darkness in college, still do a little now and then. So, vampires and other supernatural beings percolate a bit under a lot of my gaming thoughts.

Add to WoD that I’ve fallen in love with Ken Hite’s upcoming addition to the GUMSHOE system, his spies-vs-vampires thriller game Night’s Black Agents. As I was reading that, I started to think, what would this game look like in the cramped tunnels of a moon base?

IWC: Crazy that you played in that game. Last question: Once Full Moon (and hopefully Blood Moon) are done, what’s next?

PS: My wife wants me to work on another campaign idea that only coincidentally involves the moon. I’ve been kicking around an anime game for a few years called Beautiful Moon Maidens, that is a serious Sailor Moon rip-off. If I did it, I would probably start with the rules of Mutants & Masterminds as a base.

But more likely, my next project will be a very tiny one-on-one story game that burst fully formed from my forehead about a month ago. It’s called Revenant, and it is basically The Crow: The RPG. It would most likely end up as a ransom model, where if it gets funded, it would then be released on the internet for free. Patrons would get exclusive extras, but the core would be free, maybe even Creative Commons.

IWC: Sounds cool, Paul!

Thanks so much for taking the time to do this. I appreciate your responses, and am looking forward to the game (and the dice!) Best of luck hitting the stretch goals.

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