Vincent Baker returns to the show to talk about his game Mechaton! Mechaton is an awesome tactical combat game where you build your giant flighty robots out of Lego.
We discuss with Vincent his inspiration for the game and what he thinks Mechaton adds to the well charted genre.
A Penny For My Thoughts is an innovative game that sits somewhere between a role playing game and and a board game. Players take on the persona of an amnesia patient and tell story's about their forgotten lives using suggestions from the other players.
We discuss with Paul the inspiration of the game and how he came up with many of the mechanics.
Mitch and Mike discuss Minimus with Ken Burnside after they had a chance to play the game. We also talk about the upcoming Council of 5 Nations convention.
Ken Burnside is the creative director at Ad Astra Games.
Minimus is a 4 page role playing game (RPG) that is a complete generic roleplaying system. Mitch and Mike talk to Ken again about Minimus after we had a chance to play the game. We also talk about the Council of 5 Nations convention that we will all be attending the weekend of Oct. 8-11.
Andrew Looney is owner and sole designer for Looney Labs (yes its his real name!)
Fluxx is a card game with constantly changing rules. It has gone though many versions and flavors. The current iteration is version 4.0 and some flavors are Monty Python and Zombie Fluxx.
We ask Andy about the aesthetics of his game. We also talk about the design principle of "active on all turns" vs "only active on your turn". Andy drops some info about the new Martian Fluxx!
Mike is still on tour, listen if you can hear the hotel staff in the background!
Battelstar Galactia The Board Game is inspired by the reimagined TV show of the same name. The game play mirrors the kinds of events and paranoia prevalent in seasons 1 & 2 of the show.
We discuss with Corey the dynamics of the game. The dynamics match so precisly the tone and feeling of the first two seasons of the TV show. We ask him how the design process changes when you are using a licenced property.
Mike is still on tour during this interview, so he called in from the road, can you hear the trucks?
James Ernest is a owner and lead designer for Cheapass Games. You can purchase the game he designed for Cheapass at Paizo.com.
Kill Doctor Lucky is a murder mastery board game, where you are the potential murderer. The problem is Doctor Lucky is... well... lucky!
Our conversation with James centers on game tuning. We ask him many questions about how once the ideas for the dynamics and mechanics were in place, how he arrived at the final values for card, board layout, deck composition, etc.
Mike was on tour during the recording of this interview. Sam Handelmen graciously filled in for him. Thank you Sam!
Vincent Baker is the owner of and designer for Lumpley Games
Dogs in the Vineyard is an Inde RPG aka "Story Game". In the words of the designer "it's about teenage Mormons with guns". Dogs is an innovative RPG that has garnered much acclaim for its story centric mechanics.
We discuss with Vincent the inspiration behind the game along with the design process he followed. We talk about the Dynamics he wanted to foster and how he engendered that with his mechanics.
Vincent Baker is the owner of and designer for Lumpley Games
Dogs in the Vineyard is an Inde RPG aka "Story Game". In the words of the designer "it's about teenage Mormons with guns". Dogs is an innovative RPG that has garnered much acclaim for its story centric mechanics.
We discuss with Vincent the inspiration behind the game along with the design process he followed. We talk about the Dynamics he wanted to foster and how he engendered that with his mechanics.
This episode is sponsored by Atomic Array you can listen to there talk with Vincent in episode 26. Want to learn more about Dogs in the Vineyard? Read on…
Jay Ziebarth is the owner of and designer at Zeebarf.com
The Several Journeys of Remus is a series of point and click adventure games. You take on the persona of Remus and his side kick Liam in a surreal magical world. You must point and click your way to the end of the story in true Lucas Arts fashion.
We heavily discuss feedback with Jay. Adventure games are a genre where balancing feedback is of utmost importance. Too much and the key aesthetic of challenge disappears, too little and frustration sets in. We ask Jay about how he tackles this key design challenge.
This episode is sponsored by The Spiel, a podcast about games and the people who love them.
Ken Burnside is the creative director at Ad Astra Games.
Minimus is a 4 page role playing game (RPG) that is a complete generic roleplaying system. It has everything to cover all the standard DnD situations, minus the spell lists and etc. The interesting thing is the collaborative character creation system and the goal driven reward system.
We focus our discussion with Ken on the way he used his mechanics to foster the dynamics he considers to be key to a good role play session.
On the Ninja Vs Pirates Podcast we discuss game design with game designers. Each episode we interview a designer of Card Games, Board Games, RPGs or Video Games. We have both main stream and independent developers as guests.
Vincent Baker returns to the show to talk about his game 
Mitch and Mike discuss Minimus with Ken Burnside after they had a chance to play the game. We also talk about the upcoming Council of 5 Nations convention.
Ken Burnside is the creative director at 
Andrew Looney is owner and sole designer for 
Corey Konieczka is a game designer at 
James Ernest is a owner and lead designer for 
This is part 2 of a 2 part interview 
This is part 1 of a 2 part interview 
Jay Ziebarth is the owner of and designer at 
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