Interview: Stephan Michael Sechi

Graveyard Greg: Halt! Who are you?

Unknown Stranger: Stephan Michael Sechi - or SMS for short. Former full-time sax-player and occasional studio musician (believe it or not, that's me playing sax in the background during the "love scene" in Hulk Hogan's first movie), until I became a game designer, president of Bard Games, and RPG designer. I'm now back in the music biz again, this time as a freelance composer.

GG: Sweet!

Name your writing credits, past and present!

Sechi: Created, wrote, and/or co-wrote The Compleat Fantasy Series, Atlantean Trilogy (Arcanum, Lexicon, Bestiary), and the Talislanta RPG - all for Bard Games, a RPG company I started in 1983 and ran for about 7 years.

After Bard folded l wrote a couple of freelance adventures, one for Cyberpunk and another for Over the Edge. Both were really out there - lots of weird sex, violence, drugs, and general depravity. Sort of indicative of my mood at the time, I guess. I also wrote a few more Talislanta titles for WotC during the period when they were licensing the Talislanta RPG.

A few years later my old Bard partner, Joel Kaye, and I put together a spurious game company called MIB Productions, which was the entity responsible for the ill-fated PANDEMONIUM RPG - a.k.a. "the world's worst-selling game", as it had the misfortune to have been released during the same convention as Magic: The Gathering (oh well). Last I heard Atlas Games was giving away copies for free. Oh well...

The last game writing project I worked on was the Talislanta 4th Edition, which after many cruel and bizarre twists of fate is actually about to be published by the Seattle-based company, Shooting Iron. SI has done a great job putting together a top-knotch website for Talislanta (talislanta.com), and I'm really pleased with the way the book is being put together.

Currently, I have a small studio and write music for a living (when not otherwise occupied on that infamous project known as "the kitchen from Hell"). I wrote a couple of CDs of music for the Talislanta game, which was fun. In fact, I'd like to write more music for games, so if anyone out there has a gig, give me a call.

GG: On the subject of PANDEMONIUM, Atlas Games wasn't exactl "giving" them away, but that's enough of that.

Favorite food at 7pm?

Sechi: Dinner. We eat late.

GG: How did you get into this crazy career of gaming?

Sechi: Back in 1981 or so I had a younger cousin who came out to visit from Seattle. He kept perestering me to play this game called D&D, and I kept putting him off. Finally I gave in, and agreed to try a short game. Six hours later I was hooked, and wouldn't let the poor kid stop until he promised to run a second game the next morning. Two years later I started Bard Games with two partners and was writing for RPGs full-time.

GG: Didn't I see you at either Origins or GenCon?

Sechi: If you went to GenCon from 1985-1987, could be. Never been to an Origins, though.

GG: Too bad, Origins rocks!

Next Question! How about that Magic: The Gathering--bet you wish you still have that Black Lotus, eh? Were you surprised at its success?

GG: Who wasn't? WotC was nearly bankrupt before putting out MtG. But Jesper Myfors (WotC's art director at the time, and a pal of mine) told me before MtG was released that the game was going to be a huge hit, and he was right.

GG: What do you think of the state of the Gaming Industry? How would you improve it?

Sechi: To be honest, I don't keep very close tabs on it anymore. But from what my friends at the Compleat Strategist tell me, the distribution system that handles RPGs has basically been destroyed. Many of the distributors I dealt with when I was running Bard Games were driven out of business by the CCG thing.

As for how to improve the Gaming Industry, I wouldn't know. Maybe if everyone out there had bought a copy of PANDEMONIUM instead of MtG, none of this would have happened...

GG: Yeah, well you know what they say about "spilt milk"...

Time for Word Association. I'll name a word, and you tell me the first thing that comes to your mind: "Deadlands"

Sechi: Ummm...

GG: That was a strange response...I'll file it under "No comment".

Just what is your favorite game?

Sechi: I have a few. I love Madden Football, but haven't played it since I gave my old Sega machine to my step-son, Jesse. I like Civilization II, and I really want to try Civ Gold but I'm too cheap to pay out another $50 for what is basically the same game with a few new features (Mac-users still get a raw deal on CGs).

Since my "gaming son", John Harper, wrote the new game system for it, I guess it wouldn't be too crass to say that I really like the Talislanta 4th edition RPG. On the other hand, it would be pretty crass to mention PANDEMONIUM again, so I won't do it. It sure is aa funny game, though.

GG: Speaking of games, you just got the OK to revamp a pre-existing game that iscompletely dead! How would you revive this dead dinosaur?

Sechi: Turn it into a computer game and license it for as much money as you can get.

It's a brand new world out there.

GG: So does this mean I'm going to Hell for not playing D&D?

Sechi: Yes. No. I don't know.

GG: That sounds to me like a good time for the Celebrity Deathmatch Question!

Waiting in the wings are David William's of the Doomtown CCG, Richard Garfield of the Magic: The Gathering CCG, and Matt Forbeck, former creator of the Wildstorms CCG! Who would win, and how do they do it?

Sechi: Man, I don't even know who most of those guys are. Got any questions about the NY Giants? I'm a big Giants fan.

GG: Um...I'll file that under "Inconclusive"...

What is in the future for your writings?

Sechi: Mostly music, though I still mess around with game ideas from time to time. I keep thinking that I'd like to write a novel set in Talislanta, but aside from creating large, dust-gathering piles of notes, I haven't done so yet.

Maybe one of these days.

GG: Where is Area 51?

Sechi: I think I read about this in the PANDEMONIUM game, but I'm not sure.

GG: I'll file this under "Fnord"...

Time to say goodbye, but before we go, any final words for our readers?

Sechi: "Good-bye" works for me. Also, thanks.

GG: Wise words from the man who played the music in Hulk Hogan's firs love scene in a movie. G'night!