Interview: Nathan Hill

Nathan Hill: My name is Nathan Hill, and I am 21 years old, a computer science major at Cameron University in southwest Oklahoma, and an avid gamer. I also am the President of the virtual company Mystic Ages Online, which has been in existence for about 3 years now.

Mystic Ages Online can be found here

Dak: How did you find the Gaming Outpost?

NH: Graveyard Greg was making cheap plugs on the Deadlands list. I pitied him so I decided to play like I was interested in GO. Unfortunately, the GO forums turned out to be quite cool, and I've been hooked ever since.

Dak: We hear the term Grassroots all over the place. Music, Movies, Video Games, RPG's. What does the term Grassroots mean to you?

NH: Grassroots to me means breaking the rules. It's the stuff that you don't get to see normally. Its like underground bands and banned books. I guess also that part of it is the way you handle something. You go out of the boundaries to get something accomplished. Its like grassroots campaigns and advertising--its mouth to mouth, man to man.

Dak: How did you get into Gaming?

NH: My brother invited me to play with one of his friends when I was a mere 4th grader. We played Basic D&D, and I played a warrior named "Kahn". I was hooked ever since then. Eventually, I tried to write my own games and then taught myself how to play AD&D with my cousin. It was not long after that the addiction manifested itself into more gamer friends and a weekly regular game session.

Dak: What Games do you play that are Mainstream?

NH: I play several. Deadlands, Hell on Earth, Feng Shui, Call of Cthulhu, Star Wars (West End), AD&D, Aberrant, and a few others here and there.

Dak: Are there any companies whose games you will absolutely never ever play? Why?

NH: Well, I try to give everything an even shot. I am not a big fan of World of Darkness games. I own three, but they really don't seem to be my style. Unfortunately, I do like Aberrant. I don't think I ever will play Palladium games again, though my group did try Rifts for a couple of nights.

Dak: What games do you play that are outside the Mainstream? Besides your own of course.

NH: Outside the mainstream... Well, Over the Edge might count, as well as Talislanta. Those two games I adore greatly. I've play tested allot of my friends' games in the past few years. I've given Pumpkinland a shot. I hope to give Squeamers a shot soon, and Sorcerer by Ron Edwards looks mighty fun. I can't name any others besides that, but basically, I like to look at everything that is out there and give it a fair chance. Allot of it ends up in the trash though. I don't know how many sites holding indie games I visit a week, but I really enjoy breathing in all the different ideas out there.

One of the best sites for Independent Games is Hephestus Forge (http://www.indierpgs.com/).

Dak: Are there any new independent games that you would love to try?

NH: Squeamers by the fabulous Memento-Mori. I have a special project in the works for that game that I started today even. Most of Memento's work seems fun, and I have been toying with the idea of doing a GigantoCorp game sometime. The Window is a great system that I toy with. Also mix in with a little Fudge. If the idea is different or the game/system has a peculiar feel, I might give it a shot. I might get excited about it too.

Memento Mori Theatricks is an interesting website to say the least. You can get there by clicking here. (http://www.memento-mori.com/)

Dak: How often do you get to play?

NH: Lately, it has been about every other weekend. Soon, it may be every week and every other weekend. Things are looking up! I might also start doing an online campaign of some sort.

Dak: How did you begin designing role-playing games?

NH: Well, after Basic D&D, I really was into RPGs. I would reread the stuff over and over and game with my little sister. Eventually, I decided to try my own hand at designing an RPG for some odd reason. The game I put together was a fantasy RPG that was a terrible hack of D&D. I plunked away on that for a long time on my TRS-80. I still have the old floppy disks somewhere. Eventually, after I got into AD&D, I gave up on that for a while, then tried a rewrite. The game sucked so I never rewrote it. I still have it printed off somewhere. It's cute and actually had some decent mechanics and things.

In any event, that started me down this torturous path.

Dak: Most new game designers do not begin by creating new and unusual games. What were your biggest mistakes in game design?

NH: Biggest mistakes? I think I tried to do too much in my games. I may still try to do too much in my games.

Dak: What have been your greatest successes in RPG design?

NH: This is a toughie. If anything, my greatest success has been continuing. I can get allot of ideas, but I tend to carry very few to any sort of end. I don't think any of my games will ever be finished. I tend to feel I always have something more to add.

Dak: When you come up with a new concept for a game, how do you go about getting it down on paper? Are there any special techniques you use when you create your games?

NH: When I get an idea, I try to capsulate it in some sort of form first. Many ideas I have sound better as a plot or story rather than a game. Those that do remain usually sit around for a while before I look at them seriously. If they are good enough and interesting enough, they grow from that to something better. One game I am still working on -- Army of Judgment -- started as a plot idea I was going to use with the Window rules. I kept adding onto it, and before I knew it, I had like 10 chapters of material.

It's still growing.

I have no real special techniques. I just throw on some music that fits the mood and start typing. If I hit a block, I'll try to play some music or just lay around until I get a feel of what I am shooting for again.

Dak: Do you use any writing exercises to improve your writing?

NH: I write. I write allot of emails. I write allot of stuff. I think the key to getting better is just as simple as that. I probably don't write enough in the end, but I figure I'm decent.

Dak: How did Mystic Ages Online (http://www.mysticages.com/) get started?

NH: Back when I was a senior in high school, I got involved in chat gaming. Me and my friends would get on and just play AD&D to all hours of the night over IRC. There had to be like 50-100 gamers daily that played AD&D with us back then. It was wild.

Somehow, I got an idea to do a tournament/convention over IRC. I begin to spread my idea around and eventually got with three other great guys (McTurbo, Derring, and Chris Sapkowski of Sword & Staff Games). We put on the first Delve of Destiny, and we had a great time. I wanted to have some sort of company name for it, so I went with Mystic Ages Online.

Since then, we have done three others (at varying degrees of success). Of the four original founders, myself and one other still hang around. I still have hopes of doing a great big monstrous online con someday, but it is just too taxing at the moment. Because of that, I have been focusing on writing things and supporting other game lines.

Dak: Why do you make games for publication on the Internet for free?

NH: Because I'm not very selfish. :)

I don't think any of my stuff is good enough to sell, so distributing free means I have a small audience, mostly friends. It's better than none.

Dak: Have you considered charging for your games?

NH: Someday I may sell an electronic version of something I write, but that day is down the road.

Dak: What do you hope to gain through your games?

NH: Fun. Enjoyment. Entertainment. I write my games for myself first off. I think it would be too difficult to write for anyone else. If someone else gets some enjoyment off of it, then that's an extra bonus.

Dak: Where would you like to see Mystic Ages go in the future?

NH: I really have no idea. I would like to see Mystic Ages transform or at least form the base of something more substantial. Maybe a publisher of fine and exotic games. Maybe a dealer of online gaming content. Who knows? For the moment, it is merely a side project that I occasionally feed.

Dak: What is Mystic ages Online working on currently?

NH: Well, we are preparing to launch wasters.net, a site devoted to Deadlands: Hell on Earth. I also hope to launch a Deadlands version of that by mid-summer. I am continually reworking the Wild, Army of Judgment, and possession. Handrails & Halfpipes (aka sk8er) is also in the pipes. I also intend to possibly start an e-zine dedicated to weird/horror/abnormal games. The e-zine would be focused more on providing content to some of our favorite indie/weird games out there, rather than reviews and the such.

Dak: Would you recommend to any random Steve, that designing your own systemgame is a good idea?

NH: I would say "Yes!" The bottom line is this though -- Don't try to change the industry by attempting to write the greatest, god-awesome game. I hear that so much that it makes me sick. Write for yourself, for your group, or just for fun. Don't try to impress anyone. Write games that are meant to be played.

Dak: Final Thoughts?

NH: Go watch American Beauty.

Dak: After it won all of those awards. I think I may.