Ronin Round Table: Will Hindmarch

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So, here I am, neck deep in manuscripts for the Dragon Age RPG’s third boxed set. We affectionately call it, simply, “Set 3.” Wherever I look, I see new spells and monsters, new player character options, and the shadow cast by still-in-development new mechanics.
I can hardly wait to get all this new material into your hands, but I have to wait. We need to hone these things, need to sharpen them to finer points, before we can put them out in the field for this set’s upcoming open-beta playtest. Truth be told, though, I can’t wait that long. The new year is right around the corner and the open-beta playtest looms in January.
This part still makes me anxious–I love that it makes me anxious–even after years of developing RPGs and print products. Set 3 burgeons, taking on the clear and distinct shape of a Dragon Age RPG boxed set, and as it does the truth starts to sink in for me: I’m not just playing with the Dragon Age RPG anymore. I’m working on it. I’m a ronin now.
In last week’s Ronin Round Table, Chris shared some details from behind the scenes at Green Ronin HQ. It’s true that Green Ronin doesn’t have a dedicated loft space somewhere where we gather for lunch-time gaming sessions, miles be damned, but the Green Ronin HQ and the culture that infuses it do reflect the dedication and the joy of the company.
It was clear the first time I visited GR HQ, as a friend and a fan. Inspirations for Green Ronin work and play were on every shelf: familiar games, classic games, history books, more. Awards earned for earlier projects were displayed on a stairwell landing, just as they’re displayed in the foyer of dedicated office spaces. We played a session of the Dragon Age RPG at a kitchen table packed with friends both local and out of town, crowded with character sheets and glass tumblers, the room alive with laughter and rich descriptions of fantastic heroics.
I knew these were people I wanted to work with. We didn’t just share a love of good food and great games in common, we shared something that sometimes feels rare in creative workplaces.
I saw it on my first visit to HQ, I saw it at my first Green Ronin summit, earlier this year, and I saw it in a flurry of emails last week. Hal Mangold sent around a quick photo of prerelease copies of the Mutants & Masterminds Gamemaster’s Guide that the printer had sent him. Another email popped up from another ronin admiring the look of the book. Another email popped up from another ronin, eager to get the book in hand. Even after all the books Green Ronin has produced, all the games and all the worlds, enthusiasm still shines when new works come out. The people of Green Ronin still love the moment when books become real, when our projects reach the audience, when our work becomes your play.
It’s easy to be jaded. We’re all sort of jaded, here and there, about this or that. We all have calluses where we’ve been burned before. But the enthusiasm of my fellow ronins is undeniable.
This is why I still get anxious–and why I love getting anxious–as projects become ever more real. It means I’m invested. As the files become a book or a box, my anxiety becomes joy. I love that transition.
Now, though, it’s time for me to run. New files have come in for Set 3 and I can’t wait to read them.