Twilight Sector Campaign Setting and More
Mike Cross from Terra/Sol Games was gracious enough to answer a few questions. We learn more about Twilight Sector and other upcoming projects.
How were you introduced to role-playing games?
Well I actually got started pretty close to the beginning of the hobby in 1978 and it was in a round about way. I had a class in college called The History of World War II. You could get extra credit by participating in some simulations, i.e. war-games. Avalon Hill war-games no less! Before that I had played a lot of the more intricate sports sim games like Strat-o-matic baseball and such. But after playing that first Avalon Hill (Air Assault on Crete) game I went looking for more. At the shop that sold the Avalon Hill games I saw a little brown box that looked pretty amateurish for a game called Dungeons and Dragons. I remembered seeing a little piece in Time Magazine on Gary Gygax about this crazy game that went on forever with no end. So needless to say I had to buy it and that was the beginning of the long downhill slide that led to me owning an RPG game company.
What is Terra/Sol Games?
Terra/Sol is an RPG game company that came into existence to publish the Twilight Sector Setting. More about that below. We have a core belief that people don't play role-playing games because of rules or rules systems. I admit that looking at the hobby that seems counter-intuitive. But after running an playing in a plethora of games over the years we believe that ultimately what determines the success or failure of a role-playing campaign is the story.
Hence our motto; "Because the Campaigns the Thing".
Can you explain Twilight Sector? How did it come about?
The Twilight Sector Campaign Setting is a science fiction role playing game setting. It is the outgrowth of my decade long campaign. When that campaign came to an end I found myself with many notebooks full of background material (because I just can't help myself and there seems to be no 12 step program to help me). It seemed a waste to let all that material gather dust on a shelf. So to make an obscure reference to one of the settings primary influences, Larry Niven's "Known Space" universe; I was a Pak Protector (game master) without any breeders (players) to protect. I did the only thing a childless Protector can do. I created a monumental project to preserve Pak breeders (players) in general. I created a whole new world for them to inhabit! My own Ringworld if you will.
What are some of your thoughts on the hobby and business of RPGs?
The hobby thankfully seems to be alive and thriving. What those of us in the hobby's first generation had feared a decade or more ago was that we were not interesting younger players in joining the hobby. That fear seems to be largely addressed as more and more younger players have entered the tabletop end of the hobby. Many of whom are and probably still continue to be electronic gamers. They have discovered that tabletop RPGs are a great way to play games with other human beings. It satisfies a human need for social interaction. They can still play those electronic games between tabletop sessions (and the RPG experience of those electronic RPGs has gotten exponentially better over time). There seems to be enough of these crossover gamers along with pure tabletop gamers that it should keep our hobby going for the foreseeable future.
As for the business of RPGs, that's a difficult question. The tabletop RPG market by its nature is fragmented into many genres and play-styles. I have always described it as a cottage industry with a number of micro markets caused by the fragmentation. I think the industry functions best as a cottage industry even though we have larger companies involved. The problem with having large companies involved is like any large enterprise they seek economies of scale. This causes them to try and mass market to a fragmented market. As you can imagine that creates both good and bad effects. It squeezes the cottage industry players in the market and retards the expansion of genres and play-styles but it does provide well produced products and provides a point of entry for the broader "geek" culture to be introduced to tabletop role-playing.
Does Terra/Sol have more projects in the works?
My Lord yes. We of course are currently running a Kickstarter for the third and final installment of our Ancient Trails adventure series. Check out our latest Podcast episode for more information on that available at both DriveThruRPG and podcasts.com. We will be shortly running another Kickstarter for a comic we have that contains the origination story for Cybil Mar, an iconic character in the Twilight Sector Setting. We have a pair of rules sets coming out for the setting. A Savage Worlds version of the setting and a complete rule set based on 2D6 OGL material largely produced by Mongoose for the 1st edition of their version of the Traveller RPG. That will be called Terra/Core. We also have the ultimate guide to Terra/Sol, the earth clone planet that is at the heart of the Twilight Sector setting. No title on that yet but we're open to suggestions! Beyond that we have another dozen or so manuscripts in various stages of development. So yes, there's a lot in the works for folks to look forward to.
How can people learn more and show their support?
Our primary communications at the moment probably come via facebook. Look for our page by searching for Terra/Sol Games on facebook. We also have a couple of other options that haven't seen as much loving care as they deserve of late, I do hope to remedy that soon though! They are our website at terrasolgames.com. The Encyclopedia Galactica is hosted there and has a lot of useful information on the setting. Also check out our Amalgamated News Service website. It contains all kinds of useful news tidbits from the setting.