Miniatures, Adventures, Supplements, Maps, Artwork...

Are They Really Giving This Away?

An interview with Oliver Bollman, editor of Aurora

Aurora is a bi-monthly eZine, covering all of Dream Pod 9's game worlds, including the alternate WWII setting of Gear Krieg, the sci fi miniature wars of Heavy Gear Blitz!, and the tactical fleet space combat of Lightning Strike. This free eZine is packed with fiction, rules, scenarios, settings, and paper miniatures.

Take a cursory review of any Aurora issue and one thing becomes clear: When it comes to artwork, Dream Pod 9 does not mess around. That goes for their content, too.

The Miner: What's your gaming background? How did you start playing and end up working in the hobby game industry?

Oliver: It’s kinda funny, I got my start in RPGs almost by accident. Walking through a bookstore one day, I spotted a box labeled Top Secret that had this sort of superspy Bond-like motif on the cover. I guess I had a thing for the superspy genre because it really peaked my interest. I didn’t really know much about RPGs at the time, I mean I kinda knew about them and was a fan of “choose your own adventure”-type books, but the notion of an RPG game was still something mysterious. That box stayed in my mind though, and eventually I bought Top Secret and fell for gaming hook, line, and sinker. From there I played and gathered up a modest number of different games and game systems.

And oh, the game systems.  I loved the rules and the simulation and their intricacies as much as I loved playing in the game. It wasn’t really long before I began to tinker with rules and write up my own game systems. As I got into a few tactical wargames, that tinkering passion followed and I wrote plenty of rules for those. I sold some rules and alternate campaign ideas in the back of magazines, then moved onto the web when it took off and created e-books and mailing lists and websites (oh my!)... all culminating with getting to know some of the Pod people (an interesting aside: a friend of mine bought the loft in Montreal where the Pod used to have their offices, though it had nothing to do with how I got started with the Pod...) and things went on from there.

The Miner: You've been with Aurora since the eZine launched. What other positions have you held with DP9, if any?

Oliver: I’ve never held any other ‘official’ position within DP9, my work with them is as a writer and game developer on a per-project basis.

The Miner: In issue 1.1 of Aurora, you mention writing you have done for Heavy Gear. What have you written for DP9?

Oliver: I got my start working with DP9 as a playtester/designer during the development of the Silhouette CORE rulebook. From there I have worked on various projects, with writing and game development on a few products that have yet to see the light of day and a few others, such as the Heavy Gear Miniatures book, that have.

The Miner: How much of the publication comes from fan submissions?

Oliver: About ninety percent of each issue’s content is fan submissions. When we say fan-made for the fans, we mean it!

The Miner: What are some of the interesting and outrageous submissions that never made it into Aurora?

Oliver: Ha ha, fortunately (or unfortunately depending on your outlook) I’ve not had any real outrageous submissions that I think were actually intended for Aurora. I did receive a few that all arrived over the course of a couple of months and included a bit of poetry from one person and a rather violent and effacing vampire story from another. Not quite what we’re up to as a magazine... I think there was a crossed email address somewhere in there.

The Miner: The artwork in everything DP9 produces is consistently amazing. Who in your organization is the driving force behind the aesthetics?

Oliver: DP9 has had its eye on great artwork from day one. There were three things that attracted me to Heavy Gear when it first came out: the story and game world, the rules, and the astounding graphic design and artwork. The very fact that the book had graphic design was in of itself a departure compared to most gaming books of the time, and that DP9 pulled it off beautifully with good looking design was amazing. It’s pretty much in the culture of the company now so that there’s no one driving force. With all of the founders heavily into the aesthetics, the company has continued to ensure they find artists (and some are artists themselves) that can fulfill that ideal.
 
The Miner: Heavy Gear, Jovian Chronicles, Tribe 8, and Gear Krieg -- they're all popular, and I'm sure your slush pile is always growing. What process do you go through to decide what is published in Aurora? Is it formal or ad hoc?

Oliver: It is a pretty informal process. Our aim is to include as much material for each of the game worlds in each issue, and anything that expands the richness of the game world is considered a win. When I receive a submission I give it a ‘read check’ – if I can read it and it evokes something for me or the players, then it’s going in. Thus far there haven’t been any articles we’ve rejected – a few that have been sent back for tweaking, but none that have been rejected outright. Just between you and me, I think it’s because our players rock.

The Miner: Aurora 2.6 featured a 14-page pull-out section providing a detailed overview of the Rural Emirate of Gadiz on the world of Terra Nova (Heavy Gear universe). Can you tell us more about the authors, the Save the Asp Society? Are more regional source books forthcoming?

Oliver: That is a great example of just how much our players rock. In political parlance this was a grassroots effort, regulars on the DP9 forums who came together and formed the Save the Asp Society and who then took it upon themselves to craft that amazing article (along with earlier having organized a whack of articles on the OACS-04GD/SU Asp [Heavy Gear] for issue 2.1) and give it that DP9 production quality treatment. It just naturally came together in their excitement and interest in the game. That’s the level of detail and exploration of the universe(s) that is just a treat to see as the editor, when something like that gets sent in. Part two of their article is still forthcoming, and I can’t wait.

The Miner: Why did players form a society to save the Asp Heavy Gear?

Oliver: The Save the Asp Society... get any large grouping of mechanical equipment, and a few designs will endear themselves beyond what you might imagine. Just as with the Badger – a gear with a large ‘butt wheel’ – the ASP has its loyal following for its unique and amusing look and its spunky underdog status. In a game where absolute performance may determine what Gears are further developed, or included in a new set of rules, or sculpted for new minis, something like the ASP could well get lost behind the more, shall we say, capable gears. That would be unthinkable to the ASP’s fan base, hence the formation of the Save the Asp Society... I think I mentioned earlier how cool our players are? 

The Miner: What's your favorite gear and why? 

Oliver: The Black Mamba. That thing just looks mean, slick, designed for a purpose, with good performance to back it up. Mmm, that’s a good gear. But I’ve always had a soft spot for four-legged walkers too, so anything like the Fire Dragons, Thunderhammers, Red Bulls or Coyotes always catch my eye!

The Miner: What can we expect to see in Aurora throughout the rest of 2009?

Oliver: Just a tonne of more cool stuff. Oh, heh heh, not specific enough? That’s one of the nifty things is that even I don’t know usually in advance what we’ll be getting throughout the year! I’ve got a couple of ideas and directions I’d like to lead us down that I’ll be posting in the magazine in the coming months, and with the work being done on new Heavy Gear Blitz! products and the return to the Heavy Gear RPG, there will never be a dull moment.

The Miner: Are there any particular types of articles you'd like to see fans submit?

Oliver: Artwork, for sure. If there’s one thing I would love to receive more of it would be artwork, there’s nothing like gracing the pages (and the cover!) with fan produced quality artwork. More scenarios would be great to receive as well, with a battle report of the author playing the scenario written entirely in prose... that would be nifty. And really, I’d like to see a multitude of ‘first articles’ by fans – the bigger the body the more the richness in our magazine.

The Miner: Thank you for consistently publishing a quality publication and making it free.

Oliver: You are totally welcome. It’s really great, I get to solicit and see cool gaming material, I have fun putting it all together, and then I get to publish it and share it with the whole world. What could be better than that?