You'll find an interview with Jeff Richard on the french website Le Grog (http://www.legrog.org/article.jsp?id=200). Of course, it's about HeroQuest, Glorantha and Moon Design.
This is an english translation (the french version is a bit reorganized and augmented) :
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Q :Hello Jeff, who are you ?
A : Hi there ! I'm Jeff Richard, with Moon Design LLC. I've worn a lot of hats over the years, Government Policy Analyst, Prosecuting Attorney, Corporate Lawyer, and now... game publisher.
I've been playing roleplaying games since I first saw the 1st edition AD&D Monster Manual back in 1977 (ironically an old friend of mine wrote the new 4th edition Monster Manual). I started playing RuneQuest in 1980 when I moved to Seattle ; it was introduced to me as the game where you could even play a were-pig! My Lanbril thief stole from Duke Raus of Rone (and then ironically worked for him when Borderlands came out) until he finally met his end trying to steal from the Unicorn Riders. However, it was after I did an archeological study project some years later while in university that I really fell in love with Glorantha. Mycenae, the Acrocorinth, Dodona, Knossos, the Necromanteoin, and the Diktaean Caves – these places all color my Glorantha.
I started writing Gloranthan material with David Dunham in Enclosure. We wrote PenDragon Pass for Enclosure 1 and then went on to Enclosure 2. Wrote some stuff for Tales as well, if I remember. Then Greg Stafford roped me into helping me write his background book for the Jrusteli Empire, Middle Sea Empire, his history of Heortland, History of the Heortling People, and Esrolia, the Esrolia Book.
I love the new HeroQuest Core Rules – it is very close to what Robin Laws originally wrote some ten years ago. Without a doubt it is my current favorite RPG. Other favorites include Pendragon, which I still marvel at its elegance, and Call of Cthulhu. I occasionally play a little Ars Magica, D&D 4E or various White Wolf games.
Q : What - or who - is Moon Design Publication today ?
A : Moon Design publishes three product lines : Gloranthan HeroQuest (which are top-of-the-line campaign books like Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes and Pavis: Gateway to Adventure), Gloranthology (which is a line similar to Chaosium's monographs), and non-Gloranthan Heroquest books (such as RPGs for Kids, designed to get kids under the age of 15 into Roleplaying Games). We also will continue to publish the Stafford Library. Issaries Inc still owns the rights to Glorantha and the HeroQuest trademark – Moon Design is a licensee of Issaries Inc.
Rick Meints, Simon Bray, and I are the core of Moon Design. Ian Cooper, Michael O'Brien, David Dunham, Lawrence Whitacker and Neil Robinson form our « kitchen cabinet ». Greg Stafford is always around in an advisory position and a source of counsel and inspiration. Simon and I have the only paid positions at Moon Design (he's paid as art director, I'm paid as executive editor and as writer-in-chief). Small publishing companies work on small margins and can't afford to be paying a lot of outside people.
Q : What did you aim to do with the new HeroQuest Core Rules ?
A : We've known for a long time that the old HeroQuest rules needed a serious update. David Dunham and I found that the endless augment system meant that the Target Numbers provided in HeroQuest scenarios were hopelessly broken in long campaigns (one of David's rules of thumb: if the players couldn't augment a skill by at least 2W they just didn't care !). Rick hired Robin Laws to rewrite the rules as Robin thought best – to write what he thought HeroQuest really ought to be. And boy did he deliver! The new HeroQuest Core Rules fulfill the promise of Hero Wars and HeroQuest 1 and makes available for everyone the incredible game engine that Robin Laws developed.
Basically the approach that the new HeroQuest Core Rules takes is that all obstacles your players encounter can be handled with the same resolution mechanic. The players determine how they want to overcome an obstacle (defeat rival gladiators in the combat pit, hijack the speeding transport vehicle filled with Nazi soldiers, seduce the princess, overcome the temple's traps to get the gold icon, or persuade Marc Anthony to ally with you); the players determine what they are trying to do and how and the GM assigns a difficulty level to it. If the GM can decide the difficulty level based on his own judgment or experience, he should just do it. If he has no clue, he should assign it based on the pacing of the adventure to date (that's the Pass/Fail Cycle). The key to this is MGF (More Game Fun). Keep the session moving and interesting for the players. Pass/Fail resistance is an optional tool to do that - not a mandatory rule.
It is different from a lot of RPGs in that it does not try to create a SCA type combat re-creation ("I swing with my sword. He parries. He then stabs at you. I parry.") nor does it use attritional mechanics to create suspense ("You lose 3 hit points. You lose another seven hit points."). The HeroQuest system opens up much more room for the players to take control of the direction of the game. An example of altering the "resistance" based on the needs of the pacing would be: the players just got smacked hard by their last two obstacles and failed both times. The players come up with a new approach to move the story forward and you decide to make the contest fairly easy so that the adventure continues to move on. As a result, HeroQuest allows you to pace your game more like a film or book than a tactical miniatures game.
The new HeroQuest Core Rules are not Glorantha-specific; HeroQuest is a universal game engine. Although Glorantha is a HeroQuest setting, it is not the only one. HeroQuest works just as well for space opera, horror, renaissance espionage, historical fantasy, or criminal procedures. And Moon Design is allowing people to publish settings (except Glorantha) using the HeroQuest rules under an Open License. No licensing fees, no royalties. We want to encourage you to write the game you always wanted to write; if it meets our editorial standards (i.e., is really good), we'll happily publish it as Moon Design publication and cut you a share of the profits.
Q : You wrote (with Greg Stafford) the long-awaited "Sartar book", that MD will publish soon. Could you tell us more about this book ?
A : Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes is a book that has been in the works since the 1980s, combining a tremendous amount of brand new material written specific for the new HeroQuest rules with never-before published material about the Orlanthi of Sartar and some long out-of-print material. This is not Thunder Rebels or Storm Tribe updated (like River of Cradles was the original Pavis book updated) or for that matter King of Dragon Pass as a RPG; Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes is a completely brand new book. And it passed MOB's MGF approval test !
Character creation, clan creation, and Orlanthi rune magic is explained for the new HeroQuest rules; the major cults of the Orlanthi religion are given depth and detail ; copious background material on Sartar, its history, and the Lunar Occupation; and – most importantly - everything is designed to be gameable, so the book includes the epic Colymar Campaign. Unlike the previous books, Sartar is a stand-alone campaign book, more like a gigantic version of Dorastor, Sun County or Griffin Mountain. It contains everything you need in order to make Sartarite characters and run a big epic Sartarite campaign. Plus tons of new maps – including a proper elevation map of Dragon Pass.
The book has been playtested by various groups in Berlin and London, but owes a very large debt to the Seattle Farmers Collective gaming group who have played Orlanthi games every other week for more than ten years. The Colymar Campaign puts your characters in the hot seat as they woo a rich and powerful priestess and find themselves performing magical and mythic deeds, leading to conflict, war, heroic deeds, and, ultimately, a heroquest into Hell. By the time your characters finish this campaign, they will be heroes and destined to play a major role in the Hero Wars. Unlike in the Sartar Rising materials (which usually focused on the deeds of some NPC), the Colymar Campaign puts the spotlight on your players.
Q : Could you give us some details about the next planned books ?
A : Next on the schedule is Pavis : Gateway to Adventure, written by Lawrence Whitacker and myself. This is a major overhaul of the beloved Pavis setting for HeroQuest. We show how to run exciting dungeon crawls using the HeroQuest rules – and how to make your dungeon crawls feel more like Raider of the Lost Ark than a level-based computer game. Lots of new information on Pavis and the Big Rubble and large sections of the Rubble are finally described for narrators.
After Pavis, the following Gloranthan HeroQuest books are already in progress:
Whitewall: The Last Rebel King which will deal with the Lunar invasion of Heortland, the siege of Whitewall, and the start of the Hero Wars. This book directly follows the events in the Colymar Campaign and is the continuation of that campaign (although it can be run independently as well).
The Glorantha Book. This is the Third Age setting book for Gloranthan HeroQuest. Gloranthan magic, cosmology, geography, history, major human cultures, Elder Races, and tips for Narrators and Players for playing in Glorantha.
Prax. Chris Lemens is writing the Prax sourcebook which describes Praxian spirit magic, Praxian history and culture, and contains a Praxian scenario arc set in the Wastes.
Tarsh. Simon Bray, Ian Cooper and I will be updating and expanding on the Unspoken Word's classic, Tarsh in Flames.
Nochet. Simon Bray, Ian Cooper and I will be writing a setting and campaign book set in the great city of Nochet. Esrolia and the Holy Country will be described, but the centerpiece is Nochet, the largest, richest city in Glorantha.
Coming Storm. Ian Cooper's campaign book set in the post-Whitewall Cinsina tribe during the thick of the Hero Wars.
Finally, Rick is working on the Gloranthology line. This will feature various authors exploring areas and aspects of Glorantha outside of the core setting books.
Q : What about the new gloranthan "scope" ? It has been said that gloranthan publications (Blood over Gold, "Western Glorantha books"...) which try to explore new cultural areas, far from the first era RQ-lands (Dragon Pass, Prax...), didn't or could hardly find their public. Is there any "gloranthan curse" there?
A : Dragon Pass has been the center stage for Glorantha since the days of White Bear, Red Moon. Sartar, Prax, the Lunar Empire, the Holy Country... these are the core settings of Third Age Glorantha and the central battleground of the Hero Wars. They are very much the heart and soul of Glorantha as a fictional setting. However, Moon Design will explore more of Glorantha than just Dragon Pass and Prax and our Gloranthology line will feature various authors exploring areas of Glorantha other than the core settings.
However, I think that a setting book set outside of the core Third Age settings can sell just fine – if it is gameable. Books that describe a new cultural area far from the core setting but don't contain scenarios and other material that let the book be played off the shelf are always going to be problematic. Men of the Sea is a cool book, but it is not immediately gameable – and you don't need it to play in the core setting area.
Q : What would you say to people who bought the 1st HeroQuest books (Thunder rebels, Storm tribe...) ?
A : I'd say to anyone who bought the 1st edition HQ books: buy the new books! The old books are still useable as sources of inspiration (just like the old RQ 2 and 3 books are still useable as sources of inspiration). However, the new books and the new rules system does a much better job of modeling Greg Stafford's Glorantha than the 1st edition books. The goal for the new line of HeroQuest Glorantha is to give narrators and players the tools and information they need to be able to bring the magic of Greg's stories into their RPG sessions.
Q : In your mind, is HQ2 a game for beginners ?
A : Absolutely! I think beginners exploit the possibilities of the new HeroQuest rules better than us veterans who have convinced themselves that a RPG rules system has to have certain clunky features. It is a great rules system for bringing in people who are new to roleplaying games. It is also a great rules system for experienced gamers who want to emphasize roleplaying and story.
Q : What kind of online support is planned ? What do you want "Glorantha.com" to be ?
A : Glorantha.com is our main marketplace and a clearing house for information about Glorantha and HeroQuest. Ideally we want you to buy our books and/or pdfs from the website. That means we keep more of your money and have more money to spend on making new books.
We will be expanding what is available on Glorantha.com over the next few months. We will be making available pdfs of long out-of-print material, freeforms, free pdfs of game support material (character sheets, introductory scenarios) and much much more.
A lot of what we are doing is trying to take advantage of the possibilities that eCommerce makes available to us. Selling books and other materials directly to the customers means more resources for new books, and ultimately will mean a lot more product for you !
Interviewed by Gregory Molle for Le GROG (http://www.legrog.org/home.jsp)
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