The Drowned Earth Creator Interview With James Baldwin

"The Drowned Earth is a world where heroes and villains risk the hazards of the wild for glorious riches and ancient technologies!

For hundreds of years nature reclaimed the earth, pre-historic monsters ruled the wilds, while the survivors of the cataclysm known as "The Event" struggled to survive.

Now a New Enlightenment has dawned, and the fragile glimmer of civilisation has begun to shine. Now the fight is on for who will control this precious knowledge."

I first saw The Drowned Earth being demoed at Salute this year and I was drawn in by the jungle landscapes and the miniature range that features dinosaurs and animals holding weapons fighting along side humans out on the table top.

I had the chance to interview its creator James Baldwin of Olmec Games about the game as well as his thoughts on the gaming industry and what is in store for the future for the game.

 Can you tell me a bit about yourself and your company.

Well, my name is James, and I have a problem! Is it actually a problem? I’m quite pleased to be totally addicted to games! I live in London, and decided about six years ago that I wanted to be a game designer, and so slowly went through the process of a career change, developing TDE in my spare time before going full time after Kickstarter. 

What got you into Tabletop Gaming?

When I was in the latter part of Primary school we used to pass around a lot of nerdy books and magazines- boys stuff: skateboards, ninjas, guns… but also Fighting Fantasy novels (which were, I think, my first entry in to what I call “nerd-gaming”) and latterly a few White Dwarf magazines. I was totally blown away by the painted miniatures, and having had the Hobbit read to me as a child, and reading Lord of the Rings as a slightly older child, I was totally primed for the descent in to wargaming, roleplaying and all that good stuff. Back in the day it was mostly Games Workshop games, but also Diplomacy and Risk. 

What do you think about the recent boom in games being created and what do you think it's doing for the industry as a whole?

Well quite obviously I think it’s fantastic! There are a few different aspects of the hobby I’m more interested in than others, and now I develop a miniatures game (my first love) in my spare time I play more board and RPG games than I ever have. I think the increased competition and burgeoning of the marketplace hasn’t just increased the range and width of the gaming industry, but I think the quality of rules design and innovation of mechanics has seen an amazing rise. 

Of course one of the dangers of Kickstarter is that you don’t necessarily know if something is going to be great, and I’ve certainly had a few “meh” games turn up on the doorstep, but I’ve also had some outstanding stuff turn up as well, and there are a number of companies making truly great games (Scythe anyone!? Gloomhaven?!) that simply wouldn’t exist if Kickstarter didn’t provide young designers high on enthusiasm and low on resources to enter the marketplace in a way they would never have been able to before. 

As The Drowned Earth had a very successful Kickstarter campaign, can you explain a bit about the process from conception of the game to the Kickstarter campaign and then the final product getting to backers and to market. Has it been a smooth process? 

That’s a big topic- way too big to cover in detail here, but in short I would describe it as a reasonably smooth process with a number of bumps in the road which had to be dealt with. It’s difficult for a complete control freak like me to work on other people’s timescales! I think lots of planning is key, and having a complete roadmap planned out before you start. You really need to understand how big, and what shape the block is, before you start chipping away at it. In the end I delivered a month early, which was a month late on my personal schedule, so I’m glad I did the sensible thing and built in lots of contingency to my plan. 

I also decided to completely re-write the rulebook from the ground up, which wasn’t necessarily the smartest move from a planning perspective, but I’m pleased with the result and still scraped in ahead of that deadline, so it’s not all bad!

My advice to anyone thinking of doing something similar: measure twice and cut once, and assume everything will take 25% longer than you think it should. People WILL let you down, problems will occur, and you’ll have to take account of that in your planning. 

What were your influences when first creating The Drowned Earth? Are there any influences that people may not expect?

I think they’re pretty transparent! My starting point was the well known Science Fiction novel by J G Ballard “The Drowned World”. The influences there are a wet, jungle environment, informed by rising sea levels and temperatures, and a return to a more pre-historic landscape. However, beyond the environment itself there’s very little similarity between that world and my own. Predator, Planet of the Apes, Jurassic Park, David Brinn, even a bit of Star Wars here and there… Loads of things contributed to the world, and as any writer will tell you, after a certain amount of time the thing gains a character of its own and starts to grow in your mind exponentially, being an influence for itself. 

If someone is completely new to table top gaming or is interested in playing The Drowned Earth, how would you describe the gameplay and where should they start?

Well the best way to start is to throw down three models a side on a coffee table- a 2x2 or 2x3 is ideal, with a bunch of books and household stuff as scenery, and just roll dice! Ignore the model and weapon special rules, and just use raw mechanics: move, shoot, dodge, close combat, etc. 

As far as first purchases are concerned, the rules are free on our website (http://www.thedrownedearth.com/download/) but a Faction Starter box and a dice pack will get you everything you need to play a 100 point game. Tournament games vary between 95 and 120 points. 

Gameplay: fast placed, streamlined, cinematic, reacting to your opponent, always involved in the game (no “it’s your turn” downtime) lots of dynamic movement: It’s great fun! I made a conscious effort to keep the cognitive load of the game to the minimum I felt was necessary to encourage a deep and rich game experience. It’s not a simple “beer and pretzels” dice chucker, but you don’t need to take a degree in it or spend your game with your nose in the rulebook either! I’ve tried to ensure that the special rules are reasonably few in number, and variations on a theme, so that they’re easy to remember. For me, applying an intuitive design methodology is key: players remember how something works, because we use the same design methodology to solve several problems. 

 
 

Organised play for The Drowned Earth has been announced for the summer. How do you see this evolving over the next few years?

Well I think organised play is really key to the ecosystem of a game: people love to compete! We’re going to track league standings and people’s game records over time, but I wanted to do something a little bit different, without compromising the competitive nature of Organised Play. I’m huge on narrative, and so the Organised Play pack is story based: each game is part of an overall narrative which each player journeys through during the tournament, with a satisfying resolution in the last game. Effectively, each table has a “winners envelope”, and on the conclusion of the last game the winner gets to read the envelope and follow the story in a “choose your own adventure” style way, eventually choosing a resolution. These choices are recorded by the Tournament Organiser and given back to us. At the end of the tournament season that information will feed back in to the meta-plot of the world, and inform not just story development but new releases, rules and all that good stuff. 

Engaging community is very important for a company. You've released some short stories on your website expanding on the world of The Drowned Earth. Are there plans for any more?

I also wrote a bunch for the rulebook as well. Yes, I will definitely be writing more, and we’ll be inviting some contributions from the community as well. I’m determined to make The Drowned Earth as rich and interesting a setting as possible, and am very happy for players to make contributions to it! 

You also have engaged the community with a painting companion. Will there be any more and how else do you plan on engaging the community?

Last time was single miniatures, and we’re currently running a Dino painting competition. So yes, there will definitely be more painting, scenery and model making, and even creative writing and scenario designing competitions in the future. This was a big feature of the Kickstarter, and I plan on keeping that sort of involvement going- I love to see the community’s contributions! 

 

How important do you think YouTube video demos are compared to physical gameplay demos at conventions, such as Salute, to advertise the game? Do you find one better then the other?

The obvious difference is that youtube has way more reach, and acts as a reference library. However, there’s nothing like teaching (and learning) face to face, but also learning by doing rather than learning by watching. 

Deep cut studios are going to be producing some official game play mats, have you got any more news on designs and are there plans for any official terrain?

There are plans for official terrain but, like anything involving a third party, it’s something I don’t have total control over in terms of timescale. We’re trying to get it organised before the end of the year because I think both aesthetically and in terms of gameplay TDE benefits hugely from atmospheric terrain! There are lots of good solutions out there though, and so I am planning a youtube video discussing terrain and how to build a suitable table very soon. 

 

Finally in a few words describe the feeling playing The Drowned Earth.

Oooo, that’s such a hard one for the person who designed the game! It’s really hard for me to gain perspective! Most people I speak to though, say that the game is cinematic and fast paced, full of dramatic moments and choices, and a unique freedom of movement and possibility of planning which gives the game a very "parkour adventure” atmosphere. Also… DINOS!!! 

As you can see there is a lot in the pipe line for this game which looks like its going to go from strength to strength. 
It has some really buitiful minatures so the painters out there will really enjoy these.

Thanks to James for taking the time for the interview.

If you would like more information about The Drowned Earth and want to give it a try download the rules at

www.thedrownedearth.com