A Free RPG for All, Plus Some Killer Robots
Rob Lang is a passionate RPG creator and it was pleasure to interview him.
Why roleplaying games? What sparked your interest?
Back in the late 80s, I joined a local games club that did everything from tabletop to roleplaying games. I was a little young to join the roleplayers, but could see what they were up to from a distance. I wanted to do that, it looked like fun. I watched what they did and created my own game (Icar), convincing some friends from school to play. I love that you can go anywhere, do anything and live through a story rather than being passively sat in front of the TV,
You have made it your mission to create and champion free RPGs. Why?
No-one else was! I was frustrated that the indie community was progressively moving away from sharing great things for the love of it and onto monetising everything. The goal of most conversations moved away from what was fun and onto what would make money. The wacky ideas seemed to be ignored by the general conversation and I found that sad.
You even wrote a guide to help others create free RPGs, tell us about it.
How to Write a Free RPG will take you step-by-step through creating your own free roleplaying game. It doesn't worry about the commercial aspects of selling your game, but instead creating and finishing something personal. I use examples to help explain the steps and it is free on the blog. The guide came from a huge number of email discussions I had with authors who needed help getting finished and from reading lots and lots of free games!
Icar is a free RPG you created. Can you give us a rundown? What inspired you?
Icar is a free science fiction roleplaying game set in the distant future. It binds together all the standard Sci Fi tropes: killer robots, space travel, evil corporations, but twists with a benevolent empire and no alien species. The core rules contain a campaign setting for playing a scavenger crew and I am about to release the military source book. I was inspired by growing up with the wealth of sci fi punk films of the 80s and 90s. You don't have to look too hard to see traces of Star Wars and Star Trek, which are baked so deeply into my bones, I find it difficult to distinguish between my creations and my influences.
You can find out everything about Icar here: http://www.icar.co.uk on twitter @IcarRPG, Facebook and Google+.
Where can people find your musings on roleplaying games?
The Free RPG Blog is where I keep reviews, advice posts and run my competitions. I like to chat on 1000 Monkeys, 1000 Typewriters (1KM1KT) as the community there are very friendly and helpful.
Are you planning to design any more games in the future?
I'm going to turn to the community to see what I should do next. I have an update to do for the Icar core rules and three unfinished source books for Icar. I also have some other little games that are playable, but need some more attention, they can be found on the blog here: http://www.thefreerpgblog.com/p/my-games.html.