Malhavoc Press

The Book of Eldritch Might II: Songs and Souls of Power Chat Transcript

Interview With Monte Cook at GamingReport.com
February 22, 2002 -- 7 p.m. PST

Monte joined folks in the chat room at GamingReport.com to discuss his new release, Book of Eldritch Might II: Songs and Souls of Power, as well as the state of the d20 industry, playing preferences, and other topics. Participants submitted questions in advance and live during the chat. (Look for a special guest appearance by Open Gaming Foundation chief Ryan Dancey!) Thanks to moderator Damon White and GamingReport.com for sharing this transcript* with us.

Damon White: Okay, we'll get started. What is your take on people's remakes of spellcasting classes to try to make them tougher... like increased Hit Dice, free use of armor, and bonus feats?

Monte Cook: Well, I've done my own remake of the sorcerer, balancing a few extra bonuses with fewer spells. I'm leery of just giving spellcasters more HD or armor for nothing.

Damon: I agree. Let's talk a bit about Eldritch.

Monte: Okay.

Damon: What was the inspiration for your creation of soul magic?

Monte: I wanted something that was ancient and strange, for magic that was really different than what people had seen or used before. I like the idea of sentient magic items, so why not a sentient spell? I also really like the idea of spells that cost you to cast them, like soul magic does.

Damon: To someone that hasn't purchased Eldritch Might II, is it similar to the first book in that it outlines classes and spells, or does it deal with something more, or an adventure?

Monte: It's similar to the first book in that it has new feats, spells, items, prestige classes, and so on. It's different in that it's got two variant PC classes -- the bard and the sorcerer -- and a new subsystem for magic (soul magic). It's also about twice as long as the first one.

Damon: That's always good.

Monte: I think people will find it chock full o' arcane goodness.

Damon: Excellent. Arcane is always good. Does the idea of spells "costing" the magic-user come at all from the how magic is used in Call of Cthulhu?

Monte: A little bit, actually. I like how you're a little leery of casting spells in Call of Cthulhu. You don't use your power until you really have to. I like making players think before they act.

Damon: What is the main balance factor for the cost of the soul magic spells?

Monte: Well, soul magic spells are easy to cast. You can simply cast one that normally would be far too high-level for you, because the spell actually helps you cast it. The drawback is that they cost you ability score points. They are also very difficult to make (they are sort of like scrolls, in that they must be written -- you can't prepare them like a normal spell).

Damon: This reminds me of a few ideas from Mongoose on Chaos Magic.

Monte: Really? I haven't seen that one yet.

Damon: Similar approach.

Monte: Cool.

Damon: Where did you get idea for Malhavoc? Old character?

Monte: Yes, Malhavoc is a character I had back when I was a teenager, in the first long-term campaign that I played in (I was usually the DM).

Damon: Malhavoc, is he going to have further adventures? Is he as high-level as someone like Elminster?

Monte: Well, I don't really want to make him into an Elminster, if you see what I mean. He's pretty high-level, but not godlike. I don't know if I'll ever put him in an adventure or anything. Having NPCs in adventures that the PCs are always clearly below on the totem pole can be unfun. That's what I mean by making him an "Elminster."

Damon: Agreed. Are you looking at an adventure related to him or Eldritch [Might], similar to Demon God's Fane?

Monte: I'm working on a big adventure right now called The Banewarrens. It uses stuff from the Books of Eldritch Might. Malhavoc isn't in it, though.

Damon: He seems to be of interest to many.

Monte: Well, I suppose you name a company after someone... :)

Damon: Do you feel you solved any issues with the arguable usefulness of the bard?

Monte: I don't think the original bard is all that bad. He's a jack of all trades -- he's second best, but second best at everything. The problem was that bard fans didn't seem to find him very "bardlike." My attempt was to make him much more music-oriented and unique, rather than just a second-class sorcerer. I think in the process, I made him a little tougher, but that's probably for the best.

Damon: Do you use your variant bard and sorcerer in your own campaigns?

Monte: Yes. There's a very important NPC companion that's a bard and a PC sorcerer. And now a player wants to play the new bard (which no one really did before).

Damon: That could present some interesting DM scenarios.

Monte: I always like players who want to try something new.

Damon: What was the reason for the bard having such a small spell selection, as printed in the Player's Handbook?

Monte: Well, it's that jack-of-all-trades thing. He's a little bit spellcaster, a little bit rogue, a little bit fighter, etc.

Damon: Where did the entire "Eldritch" idea come from?"

Monte: Well, the first book was just a bunch of stuff I was using in my home campaign. I make a lot of new spells and items and stuff for that. The first product was really just an experiment, to see if anyone would want the stuff. Happily, they did. ;)

Damon: Yes, they did. There was a recent discussion on a forum board about .PDF versus retail books. You were mentioned. What are your thoughts?

Monte: Well, it appears that we have found two audiences. There are people who enjoy the low price and ease of PDFs, and there are people who would much prefer to have a book that they can hold in their hand. With our printing deal with Sword & Sorcery, we deliver to both audiences.

Damon: Seems that, in addition, you can correct errors for the print release.

Monte: That's true, but with electronic patches, we can correct those in the PDF as well. It is a benefit for the print release, but I don't want people to think that we look at the PDF as a beta version. We take both releases very seriously.

Ryan Dancey: Greetings, Monte!

Damon: Ahh, Ryan has spoken....

Monte: Hi Ryan!

Damon: [I] think [I] saw you say once that you thought the bard should have more original spells.... How far have you taken that in your own campaigns?

Monte: Well, the bard in Book of Eldritch Might II has a complete list of entirely unique spellsongs.

Ryan: Here's my question: Do you think that the RPG business is more fun, less fun, or about the same amount of fun as it was when you started?

Damon: Well, just take over why don't you. :)

Ryan: 8)

Monte: More fun. I started back in the very late eighties. Things were sort of grim for RPGs throughout the nineties.

Damon: True.

Monte: TSR was putting out less than stellar projects and most games were in a bit of the doldrums. Now, there's such an infusion of "new blood" that I think things are a lot better now. That outweighs the "newbie" feelings I had back then -- which made everything more fun, of course.

Damon: I agree, the d20 movement has picked up a lot of designers that wouldn't have produced anything otherwise.

Monte: What do you think, Ryan?

Ryan: I think the RPG business is more fun than it's been since the early days of 1st Edition. I can sense the shift toward putting DMs and players back in the focus of the game product. That makes me happy.

Monte: It has that same feel, back in the days of Arduin and Judges Guild.

Damon: Everyone smile....

Ryan: :)

Damon: Okay, in Demon God's Fane, did anyone during [the] playtest you describe in the intro die, and if so, how?

Monte: Yes, we had some deaths. I particularly remember that Bruce Cordell's character died in the room with all the bodaks.

Damon: Ewww good stuff....

Monte: Bruce had a halfling thief that dropped dead -- too many saves.

Damon: What other type dropped?

Monte: I think Sean Reynolds' sorcerer died, smashed by a fire giant.

Damon: Gotta love that. How many hours of your life would you guess you have actually spent playing RPGs?

Monte: Well, on average, about five hours a week (sometimes a lot more, but sometimes none), every week, for the last 23 years. Someone have a calculator? That's about 250 days -- almost a year.

Damon: 5,980 hours.

Monte: Well, 2/3 of a year. Lately, it's more like 10 hours a week, because I run two games.

Damon: Okay, [I] was just about to say something about Judges Guild. They once printed poems that would be included as the somatic portion of a spell... any chance of seeing something like that in future Book of Eldritch Might books?"

Monte: Cool idea, but poetry is not my bailiwick! Keith Strohm is your man. He's a poet.

Ryan: The diplomat from Bhagdad.

Monte: Keith was the business manager of RPGs at Wizards of the Coast. Now he's the Pokemon guy. And he's a player in my campaign.

Ryan: For those who don't know, there are people at Wizards who have turned down lucrative gigs elsewhere because they refuse to move away from Monte's home game.

Monte: Well...

Damon: A poet and Pokémon -- strange, I didn't think they went together.

Monte: Poké-poems!

Damon: Monte, are there any computer-based d20 projects planned?

Monte: Well, that's not my forte, but I know that Neverwinter Nights is coming soon, and that promises to be very cool.

Damon: Yes, could be a great addition to the game world. What project never saw the light of day that you wish would be given a second chance? This could be in gaming, comics, whatever.

Monte: Well, I wrote a ton of stuff for the old Marvel RPG back in the nineties, and then they canceled the game. That was over a year's worth of my work that never saw the light of day. Of course, now it would be all out of date. There was also, speaking of comics, supposed to have been a comic to go along with my Planescape adventure, Dead Gods. I was really proud of the script, but the comic got canceled before it got off the ground.

Damon: Monte, we can convert the Marvel stuff to SAGA easy.

Monte: It's true, but the thing is, I don't own the material. Wizards does. Or perhaps, at this point, Marvel does.

Damon: So where is that material now? Legally can it ever see the light of day?

Monte: Well, it's in Wizards' hands. I doubt it will ever see the light of day. Last time I checked, the comic script was nowhere that I could even get hold of it. I've got the Marvel stuff on some disks, but it's all for a game two versions too late.

Damon: This sounds like a fan: Who was the evil bastard who canceled Monte's comic? What was the reason for canceling it?

Monte: It was cut for cost issues. If anyone out there remembers the comic that went with the Hellbound (Planescape) product, it was beautiful, but expensive. Full color and everything.

Damon: Monte, how often are you a PC? Do you have any preferences as a PC?

Monte: I like to play spellcasters and paladins. Spellcasters for the versatility and paladins for the attitude. Most recently, I played a druid in Chris Perkins' campaign. That was a lot of fun. But honestly, I'm usually the DM.

Damon: At least you get some chances to play....

Monte: Yeah, and Chris Perkins (of Dungeon Magazine, now creative director for the Star Wars RPG) is a GREAT DM.

Damon: How has the quicker level progression [of 3rd Edition] affected your gaming experiences? Do you try to slow down the level progression in your campaigns?

Monte: I like it, to be honest. It keeps things really moving. In my game, people gain levels about every four to six sessions. That's about right for me. It's super easy to slow it down, though. Just figure out the rewards and reduce them all by 50 percent, or whatever.

Damon: Gaze into your crystal ball. Where do you think gaming will be in five years? I'm thinking both in general and on the d20 scene. Do you think there will be a "shakedown" of d20 manufacturers?

Monte: I think there will be a "shakedown." I think people will realize that it's hard to make money doing this. However, I think the OGL will make it so that, as people "fall away," others will come along and take their place. In five years, I think there will be a new edition of D&D (that's a guess, I don't KNOW that). What effect, if any, that will have on the d20 market, depends entirely on what Wizards does with it. It's possible that people won't like it, and that people will continue to put out d20 stuff for 3rd Edition. It's possible that it will be great, and then it will depend on how the license applies to the new material. That is to say, if it's open at all.

Damon: Ominous, statement for some out there...

Monte: It's going to be distributors who make the decision: Will they continue to stock everything, or just some things?

Damon: Similar to what Alliance did with OtherWorld recently.

Monte: There might be more of that, I would expect. Again -- I don't know, though.

Damon: Of the non-Wizards and non-Malhavoc Press stuff, what is the d20 supplement of yours that you get the most use of?

Monte: Relics & Rituals, followed closely by Traps & Treachery and Creature Collection II.

Damon: Do you like the old GrimTooth stuff?

Monte: I do. Some of it was a little on the "too silly for me" side, particularly the later stuff, but I used a lot of those traps.

Damon: Good stuff.... A lot of people feel that the material you create tends to be overpowered (such as the variant ranger). Did this affect in any way the way you designed this sourcebook?

Monte: Well, I do try to keep my stuff balanced. On the other hand, I create things that seem to make people think they are overpowered at first, and then when they play with them, they see that they're fine. That's the case 90 percent of the time when someone says something about a spell or item that I create being overpowered. That said, sometimes I might err on the side of being too overpowered once in a while. Perhaps it's a reaction to what I see as Wizards' over-conservative attitude with new material.

Damon: True. When my DM allows it I have found what was [thought] to be overpowered wasn't at all in game play. Like DragonKin. :)

Monte: Yeah, the play's the thing. It's really hard to judge balance without using it.

Damon: Should a 1 always fail and a 20 always succeed? In combat, on saves, with skills?

Monte: I use the variant in the DMG regarding 1s and 20s. But the general rule is that with saves and attacks, it is auto success or failure, but skill checks are not.

Damon: Did you use heavy mathematical analysis when designing 3rd Edition and your Malhavoc products?

Monte: I learned a lot from Jonathan Tweet while working on 3rd Edition. He taught me a lot about mathematical analysis. I try to use that on everything I design. Probability of success given all the factors, average damage, etc. I think that separates real game design from "this looks good" designs.

Ryan: Amen.

Damon: A few more questions, and we'll wrap it up. With such a tight "profit margin" (nod to Ryan), is print on demand a likely direction for noncore products (or even core products)?

Monte: Could be. I'm actually pretty distant from that aspect of the industry. I've always had someone else doing my print buying and whatnot for me. Right now, for example, our products are PDF (no printing) and print -- but Sword & Sorcery handles all those headaches. God bless them.

Damon: Why do you think so many people have difficulty playing paladins?

Monte: I suppose the code is hard to wrap your brain around. But really the problem isn't playing a paladin, it's playing a paladin alongside a rogue and a barbarian and a bunch of people who don't think like you. You want to join in on the fun with your friends, but they don't care about your code.

Damon: I agree, being good is hard when all around you people are not.

Monte: Although I like paladins, it's not always great to design a class that stands out so much from everyone else. It's no fun to play a loner in a group activity like roleplaying.

Damon: Don't you ever see something in a movie or something that makes you say "that looks good" and try to put it into the game?

Monte: Absolutely. I am -- and I think this goes for most designers -- influenced by everything around me. I just saw Brotherhood of the Wolf a few weeks back, and suddenly I wanted to design a bunch of cool new feats.

Damon: I thought the sword in that movie was similar to the one you designed in the first Eldritch Might book. Excellent idea.

Monte: :)

Damon: Last question. Does your wife help to inspire and encourage you as you create your wonderful products for Malhavoc Press?

Monte: She's sitting right here next to me giggling. She is the biggest encouragement that I have. She edits everything I write and continually keeps me from looking like (more of) an idiot. Malhavoc Press wouldn't -- couldn't -- exist without her. (Sue says that your check is in the mail.)

Monte: ;)

Damon: :) Well, it looks like we have come to the end of the chat. I want to thank you for taking the time to participate, Monte. We look forward to what you bring us in the future. We will be posting the transcript to this chat on GamingReport, and we will be sending one to Monte as well for posting. Thanks all! And don't forget, Ryan Dancey will be here (back) on Monday for Q&A!

Monte: Thanks so much for letting me come here. And thanks to everyone for coming. It's been fun.

Damon: Thanks again!!!

Monte: Bye.

Damon: Great questions folks! Thanks to all.

* Transcript edited for style and clarity.