An Interview with
Unicycle Games'
Alan Tyson and Lex Lionfell
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| The cover of The Long Road Ahead. |
Introduction
Art, Layout & Graphic Design Questions
Eclectic Dragon: Why did you decide to use pixel art as the art style for the game? I must admit it took me a little while to get used to, but I found myself liking it a fair bit. Moreover, I think it worked well with the tone of the text.
Alan: I'm really pleased to hear that! I completely understand about it taking some getting used to, it's not at all the kind of thing you see in RPGs that aren't going for a very specific video game-inspired look and feel. Honestly, the choice to go with pixel art was kind of a happy accident. My original idea was to go with a very "warm dark" pen-and-ink look that was all dark browns and creams, something to evoke the illustrations you'd find in old fantasy paperbacks. I did one piece, and while I liked it, it just took far too long to produce, I've always been a very slow artist. At around the same time, I'd just started experimenting with pixel art as a hobby, and one night I just got inspired to see what it would look like in a more illustrative style rather than as imaginary "game assets." Lex and my partner (and our PR manager) Kitty really liked it, so we decided to go with that. I think the reason it works, aside from my ability to create it at a pretty decent speed, is the reason why any good pixel art works, which is it invites the viewer to fill in a lot of the "gaps" between the blocks of color. The viewer has to "finish" the piece with their eye, and that automatically makes it feel more fantastical and evocative.
Eclectic Dragon: As a follow up the tone I get from the sum of the text and art is very hopeful. Was this the intention and if not, what was the tone you were going for?
Lex: That was absolutely intentional, yes. Epic quest fantasy, TLRA's core genre, is inherently hopeful. The ultimate message of every epic quest fantasy I can think of is: yes, there is darkness, there is evil, but there is no such thing as a darkness so dark that hope can't be found within it.
Eclectic Dragon: The usage of separate boxes outside of the main text to present the examples seems to work rather well, I also liked the continuous narrative flow and consistency among the characters in the examples. They are, however, prolific throughout the text, was there a reason for breaking it out into some many individual examples vice having a longer standalone section as it sometimes is?
Lex: I'm a novelist and game designer by night but by day I'm a technical writer. The upside of that is that Alan and I could approach book layout with my expertise on how manuals and instructions and educational materials are written. Finding an example right next to the thing a person might be referencing, like a particular Basic Move, makes it more useful and usable as a resource. I don't think standalone sections of play examples are bad, to be clear! But when you ask a person to reference a second page just to learn something they need to know, you're adding friction. They won't remember to check the example section, or they'll get frustrated when they need to make a quick call at the table.
Alan: I grew up reading role-playing game books that have entire short stories as chapter lead-ins and prologues, and while those can be great for sparking the imagination, as I've gotten older I've more often found myself skipping past them, because it's such a harsh break from talking about how to actually play the game. Our goal with the shorter examples was to set up a kind of rhythm: explain the rule, give an example of it in use, add in a few clarifications or conclusions, rinse and repeat. Less exhausting for the reader and, we think, better at actually conveying information.
Rules / Design Questions
Eclectic Dragon: What were your overriding mechanical design goals for this project?
Alan: We knew we wanted to make "our" fantasy game, the one that gave us everything we love about the genre and the hobby in one neat package. Now, fantasy RPGs obviously are not exactly unique in the RPG market. We decided pretty early on that we wanted our game to be one that focused on a single long journey, and on how that journey changes the characters and what it costs them. That's the heart of some of the best fantasy stories, some of the best stories, period. We knew combat and magic would be present, because they're present in those stories, but compared to lots of other fantasy adventure games, we decided early on that in TLRA they'd be no more present than, and mechanically not much different from, rules for enduring a hard climb up a treacherous mountain, setting up the camp for the night, or talking your companion through a moment of emotional crisis. If the rules treat all these moments as equals, then the players will hopefully do the same, and they'll make the choice that further their journey, not just the choice that they unconsciously think the game wants them to make.
Eclectic Dragon: As a follow up; in your opinion did you achieve them?
Alan: The subtitle "A Game About Great Journeys and Great Sacrifices" came to us very early, and it was always our guiding star when making design choices. Every time we've played it ourselves, or had the privilege of watching others play it, the game has felt like it lived up to that subtitle.
Eclectic Dragon: A similar question to the first one, why did you decide to use the powered by the apocalypse (PbtA) engine and not a custom game engine or some other narrative focused system like Fate?
Alan: We had both played around with designing custom systems on other projects together, and while those are very fun for us to make, they take a long time. We felt early on that we had something cool here, and we wanted to make it into a playable, marketable product in a relatively short amount of time. Using a preexisting, tried and-true system, or framework really, like PbtA was the way to do that for us, and in the case of PbtA, it was something we were playing a lot of at the time and felt like we had a pretty good handle on it.
Eclectic Dragon: What drew you to the PbtA system?
Lex: To be blunt? The core of TLRA was born after I tried to run Dungeon World. In its defense, Dungeon World was one of the early hacks of PbtA, so it has weaknesses that got addressed in later generations of the "genre"... but I think Dungeon World fails at one of the things that PbtA does really well, which is presenting a particular genre. I was ranting to Alan about how badly the game went, and Alan asked a fateful question: "How would we fix it? How would we do epic quest fantasy in PbtA?"
Eclectic Dragon: I must admit I have not read the original Apocalypse World, but I have read UFO Presses’ Legacy: Life Among the Ruins. So, I have a small idea as to what is at the core of the of a PbtA game mechanically speaking. What tweaks did you have to do to underlying engine to fit your vision?
Alan: PbtA really is almost more of a design philosophy rather than a specific ruleset, and you can find examples of games that are really different when compared to the original Apocalypse World. We added some new things, like Party Moves and the Sacrifice mechanics, but the foundation is really not much different from other games that were out at the time we were designing TLRA.
Eclectic Dragon: The struggles mechanic is new to me as I have never heard of let alone played MASKS: A New Generation until I read The Long Road Ahead. Why did you decide to incorporate it into The Long Road Ahead?
Alan: We knew that we wanted a mechanic to help players track their character's emotional states and to drive them towards dramatic choices and interactions, because that's very present in all of the material that inspired TLRA. In MASKS — where they're called "conditions" instead of "struggles," but otherwise they work the same way — there was already a mechanic that did exactly that. We tweaked it to our needs, but we already knew it would work, because I had played a lot of MASKS up to that point and seen the effect it had on player decisions and character portrayal. It was just tailor-made for what we wanted.
Eclectic Dragon: Did you consider any other ancillary systems that did not make the cut? If so which ones and why?
Alan: Not in the same way as Struggles, certainly. A lot of mechanics we do use, like the Harm system for tracking health, tags for different weapons and magical effects, and gaining Experience on misses. These were, and are, very common in PbtA games, so they don't really feel ancillary to me, even though there are PbtA games that don't use them.
GM / Scrivener Questions
Eclectic Dragon: The system of having the Scrivener ‘moves’ as a way of organizing and breaking down common narrative elements of an adventure seems like an unusual choice. At least is not one I have seen before. The idea of further distilling them down into categories of ‘Hard’ and ‘Soft’ made it very easy for me to understand how they should be used – I liked it a lot! To the point I plan on printing them out and using them as a reference sheet during play. What was the reason for presenting the ‘moves’ the way you did?
Alan: If you want to watch an entertaining but ultimately frustrating argument, ask three people who've run PbtA games to define "Hard" vs. "Soft" GM moves. Depending on what games they've run, you'll get some pretty different answers! There are definitely some games whose GM sections do a very good job explaining the GM's tools and how, when, and why to use them, and then there are some games with really mushy or thin guidance for what is in many ways the hardest role at the table. We wanted to be one of the former, and that all came down to how Lex presents the job, tools, and goals of the Scrivener.
Lex: GM moves that represent narrative elements and the "Hard" vs "Soft" GM move are both central to the PbtA system. In fact both date back to the original Apocalypse World, so I'd hate to take credit for something that wasn't really ours! That said, it was very important to me in the writing process to help Scriveners understand what it actually means to make a hard vs a soft move, as well as things like explaining what a "golden opportunity" means and can look like at the table. I've played and run several different PbtA games, and some books are definitely better at explaining it than others. I really wanted for TLRA to be a guide not just for how to understand TLRA's "Scrivener" moves, but also something that would help teach what this component of the game is doing for people who then go on to play other PbtA games.
Eclectic Dragon: Was it inspired by anything in particular?
Lex: Alan and I are both storytellers and writers and GMs, so we pulled on our understanding of narrative and story beats to create the Scrivener move list and then distill it down into something that would be both usable and effective during play.
Alan: We mostly just did a lot of thinking about our inspirations, looking for common elements to the big dramatic moments. After that, it was really just a matter of naming and defining them.
Eclectic Dragon: Are there any world building / adventure design techniques that you use or recommend that did not make it into the book?
Lex: Not really. The Scrivener chapter was kind of my baby on the project and I tried to include all the things I find helpful when planning out an adventure or a campaign. If anything maybe I would stress the value of a couple things that are referenced in the book: planning what would happen if the party doesn't intervene and making sure to think about how the bad guys are achieving their goals. The former helps you know what NPCs are doing while the party are poking around or investigating, and the latter makes it easier to present opportunities for the party to interrupt the bad guys' "supply lines" as it were.
Alan: We do kind of touch on this a little bit, but if I were to give Scriveners in general a piece of advice, it's to not let the Adversary become a punching bag that never hits back. Players want wins, and they should get them when they earn them, but showing off the Adversary's power, influence, and ruthlessness at the right times will make those wins have value and meaning. The Uruk-hai kill Boromir and abduct Merry and Pippin, the Empire chases the Rebel Alliance off of Hoth, Ba Sing Se falls to the Fire Nation; these are moments that are just as memorable in great fantasy epics as the big wins — don't neglect them!
Eclectic Dragon: As a follow up, how much preparation do you recommend for GMs running this system?
Lex: As with any PbtA game, and like we say in the book, the overall prep load for TLRA should be low. You want a sense of where the story is going, what you're trying to do with the current story beats, and any information about places or people the party might meet that can help you improvise in the moment. But the game is meant to be really loose and flexible. In PbtA a player is not only allowed but encouraged to make up things on the fly, and sometimes that completely changes the course of a session or a story arc. If you prep too much, it's so much harder to let go of your own ideas and see where the player's idea takes you.
Alan: I'd recommend planning one, maybe two sessions ahead, but doing so very loosely: know what kind of Arc you want to offer to the players, which elements of the wanderers' backstory you want to highlight, write down a cool location and sketch out the important figures there. But there's very little you need to do in terms of "encounter design" or mapmaking or anything like that. Give the players a destination, but let them decide how they get there.
Other Questions
Eclectic Dragon: The book seems to have a very clear vision for the sort of game it wants to be. It is focused and written with clear intent. In that vein: How would you describe your vision for the game? How did it change over time, to its current state? Do you think you achieved it satisfactorily?
Alan: We really did kind of lock it in during that first discussion, or maybe those first two. Our vision was primarily inspired by the epic quest stories that we loved the most: obviously, Tolkien's Middle Earth stories were at the heart of that. I brought in some of the darker, maybe weirder 80s fantasy stuff, like The Dark Tower Cycle, Ralph Bakshi's Wizards, and other influences that blended fantasy, sci-fi, and horror. I, at least, envisioned a game that was kind of dark and unsettling around the edges, but bright and mythic at the center. I like to think that still comes across, even if players have never read or watched any of my favorite weird, hard-to-pin-down 80s crap, hahaha.
Eclectic Dragon: By the time I got to the back of the book I was pretty sold on Unicycle Games as a developer, and I got excited when I saw the advertisements for The Long Road Ahead: New Horizons and Super Teenage Ultra Fightin’ Force. Do you have a timeline for when they might come out? Also is there anything you can share about them?
Lex: No concrete timeline presently, but we're currently beginning playtesting for Super Teenage Ultra Fightin' Force. It's a fully original game engine, so we anticipate it'll be a little while longer before we're ready to open it for a public playtest. As for New Horizons, it's a TLRA splatbook! It'll include some new, more niche playbooks and other goodies.
Alan: Super Teenage Ultra Fightin' Force is kind of a palate-cleanser for us, design wise: totally different genre, totally different approach to narrative gaming. What it has in common with TLRA is that it's a genre that Lex and I both really love, and we're putting that same love into this game.
Eclectic Dragon: Finally, was anything cut from the core game book that you wish you could have been included? What was it? And can we expect to see it in The Long Road Ahead: New Horizons?
Lex: I wouldn't say this was "cut" from the game but I wish we'd discovered it early enough for us to include it in the main book. Toward the end of my first TLRA campaign I built a multi-stage custom move that covered multiple steps for the party to retake a city controlled by the Adversary. It worked really well, but the book had come out by then so we couldn't add it. But! It inspired a section in New Horizons for us to share tips and tricks for how to build more complex custom moves for bigger sequences like that one, so keep a sharp eye!
Alan: One of the reasons we settled on the visual theme of New Horizons was because I started noticing a lot of people asking about how things like sea travel and even space travel would work, and maybe if we'd thought of that earlier on, that might have been something we'd included.
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