Chaosium Interview: Expect To See More Board Games In Near Future, Says Creative Director

Jeff: Hi! I’m Jeff Richard, Creative Director and Chairman of the Board at Chaosium. I’m involved in a lot of the creative and strategic vision of the company, as well as writing, editing, and art wrangling on various projects.

Jeff: Gosh, I am pretty sure I first got interested in role-playing games back in 1978 with the Holmes edition of the D&D Basic Set. That led to Metamorphosis Alpha, Gamma World, and AD&D. Then, a year or two later, one of my friends discovered RuneQuest. With that, we were hooked, and that was it. Chaosium all the way.

I’d been collaborating with Greg Stafford since the late 1990s and founded Moon Design with Rick Meints. Greg invited Moon Design to take over the management of Chaosium in 2015, and I’ve been here since!

Jeff: I have been incredibly confident in both the design of this game and in the talent of our team. Nonetheless, the amount of support this campaign received was overwhelming and definitely surprised me!

Jeff: A board game experience is different from a tabletop RPG, and this is, in the end, a great board game that emulates elements of the RPG. Action is faster, the gameplay is far more balanced, and it doesn’t require a Keeper to narrate what’s going on. With a board game, tension can be continuously ratcheted up until the very climax of the game.

Jeff: It’s important to remember that board games and RPGs are very different. So, what matters is to keep the themes and the “feel” of the RPG without worrying about the specific mechanics.

Additionally, the RPG campaign takes months to play, while this is a game designed to be played in 90-120 minutes. So the board game can only deal with a slice of what is in the RPG – in this case, the Orient Express’s harrowing journey through the Dreamlands and the threat posed by sinister vampire Count Fenalik.

Jeff: This is not a legacy-style board game – you play the game in 90-120 minutes and then can play it again and again with very different results.

Jeff: Chaosium was actually founded to make board games, and this is something that we intend to do a lot more with while still publishing the best roleplaying games out there. We’ve also worked with computer game publishers, including Focus Home Entertainment and Bethesda, so expect to see more of that in the near future!

Jeff: Our experience is that the market for TTRPGs has grown tremendously in the last decade. Although much of that growth was associated with D&D 5e, Chaosium has contributed as well and enjoyed great growth as well. We think the future for the next decade will be even brighter.

Jeff: I personally am a big fan of Robert E. Howard’s contributions to the Mythos, especially his story “The Black Stone” and his crossovers with Conan, Kull, and Bran Mak Morn.

Jeff: We are super excited to be working with Adam and Gołąb and the new possibilities this project opens up for us.