The Open Design Podcast is taking the Winter off, but we wanted to wish you Happy Holidays and thank you for a wonderful 2009.

We also announce the winner of the custom sketch by Tony DiTerlizzi, which you can find at Kobold Quarterly.com, and on our Facebook Page.

If you’re looking for something to listen to over the Holidays, drop by Atomic Array. We’ll be releasing a special Christmas episode we hope you’ll enjoy.

Make sure you drop us a note on the Kobold Quarterly forums to let us know your podcasting wish list for 2010.

Ho ho Hlah!

Open Design 007: Kobold Army
Thanksgiving edition

Welcome to the Open Design Podcast, a discussion about game design and game mastery with hosts Wolfgang Baur, Ed Healy and Rone Barton.

Regular Features:
* ‘Ask the Kobold’ with Skip Williams

Tony DiTerlizzi is a fantasy artist, childrens’ book creator and motion picture producer. DiTerlizzi co-created The Spiderwick Chronicles, and was an executive producer on the 2008 film adaptation of the series. He won a Caldecott Honor Medal for his adaptation of The Spider and the Fly. In the gaming industry, he best known for his work in Magic: The Gathering and on the Planescape product line for Dungeons & Dragons.

For years, Mike Mearls was one of the most prolific freelance writers in the gaming industry. His name appears on numerous game products, including a variant Player’s Handbook entitled Iron Heroes. In 2005, he joined Wizards of the Coast as a staff designer. Most recently, he is Lead Developer for Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition.

Audience Halloween Costumes

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If you enjoyed this episode, consider subscribing so that you’ll be notified when the next one is released. Feel free to drop by the Kobold Quarterly forums to tell us what you think as well.

Open Design 006: Kobold Quarterly 11
Swine Flu edition

Welcome to the Open Design Podcast, a discussion about game design and game mastery with hosts Wolfgang Baur, Ed Healy and Rone Barton.

Regular Features:
* ‘Wicked Fantasy’ with John Wick

Robin Laws’s designs have brought us some of the most innovative games of the past two decades. From Over the Edge and Feng Shui, to Fear Itself and GUMSHOE, Robin’s been pushing the definitions of what roleplaying is.

Tim Connors is known for ‘Siege of the Spider Eaters‘ in Dungeon Magazine as well as for his articles in Kobold Quarterly, including the ‘Belphegor, the Baron of Laziness and Invention‘ and ‘Adriel, Angel of Hope‘. This year, Tim was honored with a Silver ENnie Award for his contribution to Open Design’s Tales of Zobeck.

Ryan Macklin is an ENnie Award-nominated podcaster and audio producer. Between three podcasts (Master Plan, This Just In… From GenCon and The Voice of the Revolution), Ryan has produced over 100 episodes totaling over 45 hours of audio. He is also the owner and organizer of RPGPodcasts.com, a directory of shows relating to role-playing games.

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If you enjoyed this episode, consider subscribing so that you’ll be notified when the next one is released. Feel free to drop by the Kobold Quarterly forums to tell us what you think as well.

Open Design 005: Feythulhu
Laying Down the Law edition

Welcome to the Open Design Podcast, a discussion about game design and game mastery with hosts Wolfgang Baur, Ed Healy and Rone Barton.

Regular Features:
* ‘Ask the Kobold’ with Skip Williams
* ‘Wicked Fantasy’ with John Wick

Chris Pramas began freelancing in the mid-90s, before becoming a staffer at Wizards of the Coast, where he worked on Chain Mail and Dark*Matter. In 2000, he founded Green Ronin Publishing, one of the first d20 publishers.

Also Mentioned: Dragon Age, George RR Martin, The Red Star, and The Whispering Vault.

Josh Stevens has been contributing to Open Design products for a long time. He has contributed four articles to Kobold Quarterly, and worked on Dwarves of the Ironcrags, Halls of the Mountain King, Kobold Ecologies, and Tales of Zobeck.

Josh’s Kobold Quarterly articles include ‘Gangs of Zobeck’ (Kobold Quarterly Issue #4), ‘Ecology of the Homunculus’ (Kobold Quarterly Issue #5), ‘Crab Diviners of Zobeck’ (Kobold Quarterly Issue #6), and ‘The Ecstasy of Ink’ (Kobold Quarterly Issue #8).

To learn more about Open Design, visit Wolfgang Baur’s homepage.

Nicolas Logue is a consummate freelancer, working on numerous products for Paizo Publishing and Wizards of the Coast. He also runs his own publishing company, Sinister Adventures.

Nick’s Open Design credits include Blood of the Gorgon, Kobold Ecologies, ‘Ecology of the Barghest’ (Kobold Quarterly Issue #2), and ‘Improving Your Improvisation’ (Kobold Quarterly Issue #5).

Also Mentioned: Marvel Super Heroes RPG and The Forge.

…and we also mentioned Emerson’s Bookshelf, the blog of Robert N. Emerson.

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If you enjoyed this episode, consider subscribing so that you’ll be notified when the next one is released. Feel free to drop by the Kobold Quarterly forums to tell us what you think as well.

Open Design 004: Dwarves of the Ironcrags
World Creation edition

Welcome to the Open Design Podcast, a discussion about game design and game mastery with hosts Wolfgang Baur, Ed Healy and Rone Barton.

Regular Features:
* ‘Ask the Kobold’ with Skip Williams
* ‘Game Theories’ with Monte Cook

Also Mentioned: ENnie Awards.

Steve Kenson’s gaming resume is long and distinguished, and includes contributions to Shadowrun, World of Darkness, Marvel Super-Heroes, GURPS, DragonLance, and more. In recent years, his innovative designs spawned Mutants & Masterminds, Blue Rose: the Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy, and True20 Fantasy Roleplay.

Also Mentioned: Hobby Games: The 100 Best (Green Ronin Publishing).

Stefen Styrsky joined Open Design with the Empire of the Ghouls project, and has been with us ever since. Not only has he started contributing great content to the projects themselves, you can also find his Bard articles in the pages of Kobold Quarterly.

Stefen’s Open Design credits include ‘Horn of Triumph: Magical Instruments’ (Kobold Quarterly Issue #5) and ‘The Bardic Road’ (Kobold Quarterly Issue #9).

To learn more about Open Design, visit Wolfgang Baur’s homepage.

Ed Greenwood is the creator of the Forgotten Realms, which grew out of his home D&D game in 1975. Ed has published over two hundred articles of Realmslore and has written over thirty books and modules for TSR and Wizards of the Coast. In addition, Ed has edited over a dozen small press magazines.

Ed’s Open Design credits include Tales of Zobeck, ‘On the Streets Where Heroes Live’ (Kobold Quarterly Issue #2), ‘Revering Ninkash’ (Kobold Quarterly Issue #10), and Kobold Guide to Game Design, Vol. 1.

Also Mentioned: Danielle Steel, Dr. Seuss, Julian May, Dying Earth, Skyrealms of Jorune, Blue Rose, and the Great God Zob-Lob.

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If you enjoyed this episode, consider subscribing so that you’ll be notified when the next one is released. Feel free to drop by the Kobold Quarterly forums to tell us what you think as well.

Open Design 003: Kobold Quarterly 10
Chaos and Creativity edition

Welcome to the Open Design Podcast, a discussion about game design and game mastery with hosts Wolfgang Baur, Ed Healy and Rone Barton.

Regular Features:
* ‘Ask the Kobold’ with Skip Williams
* ‘Game Theories’ with Monte Cook

John Wick created Legend of the Five Rings and 7th Sea for Alderac Entertainment Group, winning four Origins awards in the process, before moving on to start Wicked Dead Brewing Company with Jared Sorensen. Last year, John released the long-awaited Houses of the Blooded, which sold out in under a week. He’s a brilliant designer and he agreed to share some wisdom with us.

John’s Open Design credits include the Wicked Fantasy series - articles about classic fantasy races, but with a twist. The first installment is in the recently released Kobold Quarterly Issue #10.

Also Mentioned: Orkworld (Wicked Press), Greg Stafford, Houses of the Blooded (Wicked Dead Brewing Company), John Tynes, NeonCon, octaNe (from memento mori theatricks), Kenneth Hite, Curse of the Yellow Sign, Act I: Digging for a Dead God (Wicked Dead Brewing Company), RPG Countdown, My Monster (Wicked Dead Brewing Company).

Dan Voyce has been a patron on numerous Open Design projects, including Wrath of the River King, Tales of Zobeck, and both editions of Halls of the Mountain King. We asked him to come on and talk about patronage, and his journey from patron to contributing author.

To learn more about Open Design, visit Wolfgang Baur’s homepage.

Also Mentioned: ENnie Awards.

Tim and Eileen Connors have been collaborating on adventures and magazine articles for the last three years, first in Dragon and Dungeon magazines, and then for Kobold Quarterly. More recently, they have contributed to various Open Design projects, including the Tales of Zobeck anthology. We spoke with them about their work, and about working together.

The Connors’s Open Design credits include Halls of the Mountain King, ‘Belphegor, the Baron of Laziness and Invention’ (Kobold Quarterly Issue #2), Tales of Zobeck, ‘Adriel, Angel of Hope’ (Kobold Quarterly Issue #4), ‘Secret Messages’ (Kobold Quarterly Issue #6), ‘Horrors from the 5th Dimension’ (Kobold Quarterly Issue #8), and numerous articles on the Kobold Quarterly website.

Also Mentioned: ‘Siege of the Spider Eaters’ (Dungeon Magazine Issue #137), Kobold Quarterly 008 (Atomic Array 015).

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If you enjoyed this episode, consider subscribing so that you’ll be notified when the next one is released. Feel free to drop by the Kobold Quarterly forums to tell us what you think as well.

Welcome to the Open Design Podcast, a discussion about game design and game mastery with hosts Wolfgang Baur, Ed Healy and Rone Barton.

Regular Features:
* ‘Ask the Kobold’ with Skip Williams (Pinning in Combat)
* ‘Game Theories’ with Monte Cook (Do Overs)

We took a trip to The Far Realm with 4th Edition designer Bruce Cordell. Bruce recounts his journey from lab tech to game designer and novelist, and discusses the horror genre from the perspective of a game master and game designer.

Also Mentioned: Elendor MUSH

For some time, Wolfgang has been going back and forth with his nemesis, Phil Menard, about a number of topics - from the differences between the editions to the value of crunch vs. fluff. We invited the Chatty DM come on and continue their conversation, live.

Also Mentioned: Dungeon Crawl Classics (Goodman Games)

Paizo Publishing, former publisher of Dragon and Dungeon magazines, changed the rules of adventure publishing when it introduced the concept of the Adventure Path. Over the past two years, Paizo’s Pathfinder series has been taking that concept to a new level. Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief James Jacobs joins us to talk about the editorial side and how game mastery informs game design. Wolfgang also holds James’ feet to the fire about something that would be awesome!

James’s Open Design credits include ‘Jezebal, Princess of Poison Winters’ (Kobold Quarterly 5).

If you enjoyed this episode, consider subscribing so that you’ll be notified when the next one is released. Feel free to drop by the Kobold Quarterly forums to tell us what you think as well.

Open Design 001: Kobold Ecologies

Welcome to the Open Design Podcast, a discussion about game design and game mastery with hosts Wolfgang Baur, Ed Healy and Rone Barton.

Regular Features:
* ‘Ask the Kobold’ with Skip Williams
* ‘Game Theories’ with Monte Cook

What do Dragonlance, the Forgotten Realms, Al-Qadim, Spelljammer and Planescape all have in common? The answer: veteran author, designer and developer Jeff Grubb, who joins us to talk about world building and the joys of collaborative design.

Jeff’s Open Design credits include ‘Joining the Noble Classes’ (Kobold Quarterly 2), ‘Secret Adventure Naming Tables’ (Kobold Quarterly 4), ‘Courtiers of Zobeck’ (Kobold Quarterly 9), ‘The Blood Oasis’ (Six Arabian Nights).

Also Mentioned: BOZ’s Critter Bits and Magic Recipes!

Halls of the Mountain King is the current, ongoing, Open Design project. Senior Patron Brandon Hodge gave his perspective on patronage, his contributions to the development on Halls, and what he’s learned about game design.

Also Mentioned: Big Top Candy Shop & Monkey See, Monkey Do!

Clinton J. Boomer is known for his contributions to Paizo’s Pathfinder books. We spoke with him about monster design, and how he goes about bringing new critters to life for our gaming enjoyment.

Boomer’s Open Design credits include ‘The Ecology of the Half-Giant’ & ‘The Ecology of the Retriever’ (Kobold Ecologies), as well as numerous articles on the Kobold Quarterly website.

Also Mentioned: CreativeJuices7 (YouTube)

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If you enjoyed this episode, consider subscribing so that you’ll be notified when the next one is released. Feel free to drop by the Kobold Quarterly forums to tell us what you think as well.

Kobold Quarterly was featured on Atomic Array 021. As part of the show, Open Design offered to give away a free copy of Kobold Ecologies to the person with the funniest story about an encounter with a wild animal. The winning entry was announced on the first episode of the Open Design Podcast.

We present here, for your listening pleasure, Craig Johnston’s simian encounter. Enjoy. (May not be safe for some work environments.)

The first episode airs May 28th and features talks with guests Jeff Grubb and Clinton Boomer.

Every episode of the Open Design Podcast will be available on the Kobold Quarterly website, via your favorite RSS reader, iTunes and on War Pig Radio.

Subscribe Now!

And with that, I think we’ve run the course of audio snippets with R.A. Salvatore (maybe one more, we’ll see). Who else would you want to hear from? Let us know in the Kobold Quarterly forum.

We await a response from Ed Greenwood.

Got a favorite Salvatore book? Got a Friday Funny of your own? Tell us in the Kobold Quarterly forums.

As evidence, we offer this audio bit called the “Wubba Wubba Story”, as told by R.A. Salvatore himself.

A true classic of gaming humor, give it a listen and tell us your favorite wand of wonder story in the Kobold Quarterly Forums.

They discuss humor, character origins, collaboration, and much more. Let us know if you’d like more audio interviews, or whether Kobold Diplomacy should stick to print!