Interview with Rich from Dead Earth Games

Hello everyone. I've decided to try something new out on the blog. Since getting back into wargaming I've got chatting to lots of people in the hobby including people who have made their own games, so I decided it would be interesting to try and do a little interview with some. Never done anything like this before so bear with me.
In this post I spoke to Rich from   Dead Earth Games, creator of Across the Dead Earth and The Shattered Crown. Now I'm a bit of an Across the Dead Earth fan boy, as it was as I see it, the game that got me back into wargaming.  My friend was into old Necromunda and I found out my old necromunda miniatures with the aim of making up a few gangs.  Then I found Across the Dead Earth for the rule book and bam! My necromunda miniatures became gangs for the post apocalyptic version of my home town Smethwick  (Across the Dead Earth is set predominately in a post apocalyptic U.K. ). The chat was about the upcoming 2nd edition of the Across the Dead Earth and a few other things. Anyway here's the chat.

Mart: Congratulations on the latest kickstarter for Across the Dead Earth. The assassin models look amazing. When did Dead Earth games start up and what did you have in mind? 

Rich: Thanks. So, I wrote ATDE in 2013. It came about quite naturally, developing out of a skirmish ruleset I was playing with my friends in the loft. Originally their was a Napoleonic setting, but with only a handful of figures, then there was a very brief period where I tried to make a skirmish game set in Stalingrad 1942 which didn’t work because no one ever moved. To give myself more freedom around tech and classes, and avoid any sense of feeling tied to realism I chose a futuristic setting, but I really wanted to restrict technology too – it had to make sense as a skirmish game, rather than anything that could be resolved with planetary missile strikes. I started talking about the rules I had written and a publisher got in touch and we spoke and eventually they passed but really encouraged me to still try to get the rules out. That’s when I spoke to my brother Mike and he suggested a Kickstarter campaign. So as a company we basically existed as a result of that first Kickstarter campaign being successful in 2014. I don’t know what we had in mind – making some miniatures was a cool enough end in itself! 

Mart: Across the Dead Earth has been a solid success having been around for a few years. I think the rule set is great but what can we expect in the 2nd edition in terms of rule changes, New gangs and potentially vehicle rules?

Rich: I don’t have any urge at all to change the fundamentals of ATDE. We’re streamlining the rules and trying to make everything as easy to remember as possible – so, for example, Short, Medium and Long ranges will always be the same distance, but some weapons will only be able to fire “up to” Medium or even short. We’re reversing some stats so scoring higher on the dice is always better, which might seem like a big change but, honestly, it just makes more sense and people get used to it in minutes. We’ll also be expanding the rules a bit, yes, to bring in proper vehicle rules. I’m also varying factions and the stats that go along with them a lot – so the State will actually play completely differently to the Forest-Kin now, for example. 

Mart: I'm a huge fan of the Across the Dead Earth fluff. Will the original fluff from rulebook be kept and possibly expanded in the 2nd edition?

Rich: Yes. All of the faction detail from Origins has been included and expanded. The F-UK feels a lot more territorial now. We talk about larger factions more as well as just the individual roaming gangs. Things have moved on a tiny bit for some characters mentioned in the original fluff, and there is now an organised or semi-organised resistance to The State. 

Mart: Will the supplement that had been released (From Sea to Poisoned Sea) be integrated into the 2nd edition?

Rich: Some of it. I think the Sollus rules will remain pretty much intact. I don’t know if we’ll talk about The Disunited States this time. I want the book to feel complete and not like it has random appendices added in. So…some of it. Also, we never really finished FSTPS so in that sense the missing parts will be in the second edition.

Mart: I attended the Across the Dead Earth Tournament 'Murder in the Midlands' and had a great time as did everyone else. Is this and maybe wargaming shows something you would like to do more of in the future to push the game forward?

Rich: Shows, definitely. They’re the lifeblood of games. We haven’t been out much recently as we simply haven’t been able to put out new products to sell and we don’t have a rulebook available at the moment. That’s one of the main reasons for taking the opportunity to create a second edition. I very much want to get back out there. As for tournaments – as you know, Murder in the Midlands was all down to other people, and I had a great time there too and I hope it happens again. I suppose if Neil doesn’t do it again I could…but there’s always The To Do List.

Mart: What new miniatures would you like to be released at the same time as the 2nd edition rules? 

Rich: Oooh. So many. Hopefully we’ll get a Trade Guild gang out and someone for them to go up against. Probably a faction from the new fluff. I’ve always really wanted to get a gang called The Gentleman Adventurers done – tweed jackets, hunting rifles, monacles etc based out of the nuclear bunker of a stately home…Maybe one day.

Mart: When roughly will we see the 2nd edition be released?

Rich: The 1th of Nocemburary.

Mart: Any other plans or teasers you would like to tell us about Across the Dead Earth v2? 

Rich: Well, I can’t tell you too much more because I haven’t finished writing it. And I’ll be influenced by player feedback from alpha and beta testing yet – after all – there’s no point releasing a version of the game that I like but no one else does. So I guess I would say to people to keep their ideas coming in. 

Mart: Now onto another game you guys are developing 'Pirates of the Undead' where did the idea for this game come from? 

Rich: I love pirates! Who doesn’t? And whilst there are some rulesets out there, really I wanted to bring the speed and simplicity of ATDE to a pirate setting, and then as soon as I thought about it it just made so much sense. ATDE is actually largely about finding and fighting for treasure (Loot tokens), and the event cards really allow you to impart themes and flavour, so there is a LOT of that in the Pirate versions of the cards. 

Mart: Will this be a skirmish game also and what do you feel is unique about it?

Rich: Yes, it’s absolutely a skirmish game. I think the character and sense of fun and adventure is the uniqueness. It doesn’t take itself too seriously whilst still being a proper, tactical game. The whole point of it is to make it feel like a Pirate game, not just a skirmish game with swords and ships.

Mart: How big a table does the game need and how long would a game last? 

Rich: This will take more playtesting, but I would imagine we’ll end up recommending 3x3” when ships aren’t involved and bigger if they are, and a similar period of time to ATDE. Although I am writing some deliberately quick scenarios for this one too. 

Mart: What miniatures would you like to see released for the game?

Rich: Again, I have loads I’d like to get done. Everything from dwarves with peg-legs to parrots, to giants with rowing boats for hats to mermaids and sirens. We’re starting with Dwarves. 

Mart: Is there a timeline for the game or is or slightly on the back burner with Across the Dead Earth v2?

Rich: In all honesty I don’t know which will get finished first! Writing a new game is much easier. There’s nothing to compare and contrast to. With 2nd Edition ATDE everything needs to be better than it was, otherwise there’s no point doing it. With Pirates of the Undead Seas I’m just playing. 

Mart: Dead Earth games also have the fantasy game The Shattered Crown but whenever we had a a discussion on Facebook post I always imagine you are having new game ideas all the time. Is this the case? If so no details needed but how many game ideas are in the back of your mind right now? 

Rich: Hmm…I think there are four others that have names, put it that way. If only thinking of the ideas was the tricky part! As we saw with The Shattered Crown, it takes a lot of support to get a game made and we overstretched ourselves with that one. We needed to be much more firmly established to try to get a game of that scale out. So everything else in my head now is probably in the realm of skirmish, or smaller starter size anyway. I have ideas all the time, you’re right, but a lot of the time 2 days later I’ll realise that either there’s a problem, or that someone else is doing something similar, or that whilst the ideas is fine, if I don’t LOVE the setting and the fluff and won’t enjoy writing it, I’ll never be able to push it in the right way. I wrote a fair amount around some rules for a 1920’s gangster game based on ATDE, and then abandoned it because I realised I didn’t particularly want to write about that period and I had no desire to write about real people…so it just got forgotten about. It would have probably worked, but I wouldn’t have been as into it as ATDE, TSC or Pirates of the Undead Seas and as such someone who really IS into that setting will make a better game for people to play.

Mart: Thank you for answering my questions and I can't wait to see what Dead Earth Games has planned.