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FFG RantsThis is not the place to find press releases, news items, or the latest products. There is nothing important here. FFG Rants is where the Fantasy Flight employees rant and ramble about current projects, office news, gaming buzz, and unrelated tangents. This page will be updated a few times a week, depending on how busy we are here at FFG. Old rants can be found in the archive. 11/18/08 — Ansley 
From left to right… Front Row: Jeff as Jeffery "The Dude" Lebowski Second Row: Mark as a World of Warcraft Orc (check the awesome sword! - ed.), Jaffer as "Out of Character Suit Jaffer", Michelle as a pillowcase filled with Halloween candy, Pam as (half of) The Spanish Inquisition, Zoe as a Classical Vampire Third Row: Janinine as Kaley from Firefly Sally as The Bowler from Mystery Men, Ansley as "dressed normally but wanted to be in the photo" (like I said, resident goth-girl), Tony as Mario, John lookin' fancy, Erik as an Ingenious tile, and Esther mixed up Halloween and Prom. Back Row: Evan as a Tree, Dan as "The 700 Billion Dollar Bailout" 11/17/08 — Morgan  I haven’t been home to Georgia in over a year now. With the approaching holidays, I have decided to venture down to the place of no-snow and visit my friends and family for Christmas. I was so excited to tell everyone I was coming down — and they were excited too. They said they really couldn’t wait to That is a big problem now. Before, I could assume that my entire family would be perfectly satisfied with cheesy cards with gift cards attached, but not this year. Ingenious for mom, World of Warcraft: The Adventure Game for brother #1, and they’re lucky if I bring down my copy of Battlestar for us to play in between eating cookies, because there’s no way I’m buying 15 copies for gifts! All the best with the upcoming holidays — whether you're giving or receiving games this year! 11/7/08 – Cynthia My name is Cynthia Michaelson and I am in charge of Jinteki's Public Relations. Garrett is no Please feel free to contact me at cmichaelson@jintekicorp.com with any questions. I am under an NDA so I may not be able to answer all your questions. Best Wishes, 10/17/08 – Garrett Thanks, 10/16/08 – Thaadd As part of my job as Customer Service, I answer quite a few general questions about employment — many people would like to work here, and we don't advertise jobs too often. Fantasy Flight, like many other companies, has the high profile "namesake" sort of job — for us, game designer — but also a large support system. Sales, Marketing, Graphic Design, Editing, Media/IT, Accounting, Warehouse, Customer Service, and a handful of people who just do a bit of everything. We have one guy who has been with the company for 10 years now - on a given day he may mastermind our presence at an international game convention, pickup an international business partner at the airport, or help assemble a desk for a new employee. He has a theater degree. There are very few "Board Game Industry Professional" tailored school programs (I think Germany might sport a couple similar design programs) in the United States — most of the game design curricula are aimed at the financially much larger electronic game industry. The thing that gets most people hired is useful skills, some sort of educational background, and a passion for gaming. This is pretty handy for events like GenCon, where it really is an "all hands on deck" sort of show — our accountants demo games along side the warehouse staff and designers. The last time I did this rant, I walked around with a pad of paper in hand, and asked everyone for their background, promising a bit of anonymity. We have alot more people now, so that would be a LONG RANT! I asked instead for people to let me know their background, and how it helps them at their job. As an example in the email I sent, I gave this for myself: I have a B.S in Natural Resource Management specializing in Environmental Assessment of Swamps and Invasive Species, along with significant coursework in 'Scandinavian Studies' (Swedish, and Scand Lit). This mostly helps me at work in writing clear communication to customers, but it also means I'm the person that people bring strange bugs to that they find in their office. I roll the Swamp die in Runebound with a true sense of understanding of the underlying biological mechanisms in Terrinoth, and how they effect the local Flora and Fauna (Kobolds!) Here are some of the responses I got! As a Graphic Artist, my B.S. in English/Creative Writing doesn't really come into play very much in my day to day work. My ability to speak and present myself well -- which was aided greatly by my education -- helped me to get my job in the first place, so in that sense, my degree helps me every day by supplying me with money so my family and I can eat. When I have to take a break from staring at my screen, I enjoy wandering around the office and chipping in with various ideas by talking with developers and sales and marketing folks. I don't know if they take me up on a lot of my ideas, but, at the very least, I feel my English degree helps me communicate those ideas well. I've got a B.S. in Advertising and Spanish (not Advertising in Spanish). I studied Spanish, French, Russian and had signed up for Japanese and German with an eye toward becoming a cross-platform marketing linguist – but the workload was too high and I settled for the slam dunk "Communications Major" catchall. I'm also a credentialed medical software trainer and former college instructor. Basically all this comes down to being able to chew the fat, talk smack, wheedle my way into (and back out of) trouble and communicate clearly and effectively. I like to think I've earned an honorary PhD in Game Mastering and Conventioneering – two things I believe my education and skill sets match up extremely well for in my current position. I have a B.A. in Graphic Design, as well as a Associates in Communication Design. This helps me.... do... graphic design.... gooder.... As a college student I learned to live frugally. That has come in pretty handy. College is where I was exposed to the full spectrum of RPGs, computer games, and board games which fueled my descent into the hobby game world. And it led to me attending Gen Con for the first time in 1988, and I have been going ever since. Although I did go to school for graphic design (my current position), I graduated from college in 1991, before computers were used for graphics. So I am educated in all sorts of primitive paste-up, print, and photography skills I will never have a use for. I probably learned something useful in college but I have no idea what it was. I have a BA in Print Journalism, as well as the coursework (but not paperwork) for a minor in History. Of course, the most obvious benefit this has in my daily work is that my journalism courses taught me most of what I know about proper grammar use and sentence structure. However, it's a constant surprise to me how well a journalism degree prepares a person for a day of writing and editing fiction. I have a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature with enough film classes to constitute a Film Minor if such a thing had existed at the time. Between that and my geek upbringing and love of comics and RPGs, I spend a lot of time thinking about "new media" and nontraditional forms of storytelling, which is to say interactive storytelling, which is to say games. As that run-on sentence clearly demonstrates, I use my writing talents to write rules and flavor text. I use my study of literature (in the broadest possible sense) to inform my game design work, because (believe it or not) similar concepts apply. Every piece of the game should add up to one desired experience, just like a novel, comic book, play, or movie. B.A. Business Administration, emphasis Accounting along with extensive studies that almost turned into a Technical Theater degree where I focused on set design, construction, and sound design primarily. Although, my business writing professor was convinced I should change my major to some for of writing degree. So I guess I'm sort of a mish mash of odd and completely unrelated things that mostly don't help with my current position, well except for the first bit I suppose. [She's also a complete World of Warcraft geek, and very handy at demoing! - Thaadd] I have a BA in international business and marketing, with a minor is entertainment, media, and technology - I guess it helps slightly in that I think more towards a marketing perspective, but sadly all that stuff is about movies and tv doesn't apply here. MA in Communication, Bachelors in Theatre and History - The amount of former theatre people here is staggering, and it helps to get along with other people who know what it's like to make props and such plus the creativity behind theatre is helpful when brainstorming about the plots of new games. History is helpful too, Ancient Greece was my focus, but I also have some knowledge of Eastern Asian history, which comes up at the oddest times, usually during character development in games. One more thing: Learning voice projection in the theatre helps out when you're trying to explain the nuances of BSG:TBG over the noise of 8 hours of Rock Band 2. [Penny Arcade Expo is LOUD! - Thaadd] I've enriched the coffers of two Universities in exchange for a BA in English and MFA in Writing for Screen and Television, respectively. It may or may not be true what they say about undergraduate study – that it teaches you how to think as much or more than it teaches you anything about some field of study (and I do, in fact, make with the thinking on most days) – but the fact that being a student gave me enough free time to work on the side at Atlas Games for a year and a half before graduation was a compelling early education in the hobby games industry... which is something I put to use at FFG even on the days when I don't otherwise think. It will shock no one that an MFA in screenwriting constitutes a hard-core course in the way stories do and ought to function; the narrative nature of many Fantasy Flight releases surely makes the relevance of that training obvious. To boil it down, among my fellows at FFG, it appears as though my education is startlingly apropos to my work. So there you have it. Sorry if it's a bit of a long rant, perhaps I am compensating for a bit of a dearth of words lately! 7/18/08 – Eric Knight As I was getting to work today, I was thinking about how most of us here at FFG are certainly going to see the film soon, but I wondered how many of my coworkers had already seen a late showing last night as I had. My unscientific poll results are as follows: We now have around 60 people here at FFG, but a few were out of the office and there were some slackers who didn't answer my email, resulting in a total of 47 responses. 8 have already seen it while 39 have not, so it seems that 17.02% of our employees who answered the poll were so excited about the film that they just had to see an opening midnight showing. This number is a little lower than I expected, given all the hype around the film I was thinking it would be between 25 and 50 percent, but I suppose it was a midnight show of a two and a half hour film. From some of the comments it seems that the vast majority will be seeing it this weekend, and I do feel like I should include some of the responses: "(sigh) no." "Not yet! (does seeing it tonight count??)" "My wife would kill me in my sleep if I saw DK without her. We have a baby sitter coming over Saturday to check out an early showing." "No but I watched Batman Begins again to get ready for it." "Haven't seen it. But I DID see Hellboy 2. (And it sucked) "No - I don't believe so." "I did not see it lastnight. I spent my last night lamenting that the new release of MST3K has no special features. Then and I had icecream. 6/12/08 – Ross / Jay When I'm not thinking about Space Marine Legions and the Golden Throne, I love to watch The Venture Brothers, catch up on cool new movies, or read some Jim Butcher novels. I moved to Minnesota from Maryland, so I came over 1,000 miles to work here — and I sure don't miss the DC-area traffic! Working at FFG is truly awesome and I look forward to more rants soon about the progress of Dark Heresy! Jay: Oh yeah? Well I'm Jay Little…The other Senior RPG Developer – I'm going to be "senior developing" Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. But Ross and I will be working closely together on these product lines to make sure we do these licenses justice. I've got a lot of passion for roleplaying in general, as well as the Warhammer Fantasy setting and WFRP, so all the blood, sweat, and tears will be put to good use (hopefully only virtual blood and figurative sweat; I fear the tears may be real). My family and I moved to Minnesota from St. Louis. The move has been bittersweet. I will miss my friends and gaming buddies, and the St. Louis Cardinals (the DH is an abomination, IMO)... but worst of all – I'm a diehard, lifelong Packers fan, so being in the heart of Vikings territory is painful; I feel like I'm a traitor to cheeseheads and Wisconsinites everywhere. [Don't worry, there are other Packers fans here, too… - ed.] If you frequent the online gaming community, you may have stumbled across me on some other site or forum before. I'm an avid boardgamer as well as roleplayer, and have been active on popular gaming forums and sites for a long time. In fact, more people probably know me by my online nic "ynnen" than by my actual name. 5/20/08 – JR You know the cool games? Yeah, I am the one in charge of creating scenarios, campaigns, updates, in house rules, and new strategies for the already fantastic lines from TannhŠuser to Arkham Horror to all the beautiful Blizzard board games. Keep your eyes glued to the web, I have big plans for all our adventure board games. This summer will rock! In my free time, I skateboard (poorly), play cello, 5 string bass, play mini games like a fiend, and cook greek and thai food (poorly but getting better). Most recently I have begun a Karman invasion (AT–43) and am collecting apes for a summer of total devastation. 5/16/08 – Tony I'm a homegrown Minnesotan with a super-cool lovely wife and a brand new 3-month old baby boy named "Logan" (Welcome to the world, son!) as well as several mind-reading cats. In my non-gaming time if such a thing even exists, I play soccer, ride bike, and watch cool shows like The Office or King of the Hill. I'm extremely excited to be working at this fantastic game company and I'm really looking forward to meeting all of our wonderful customers! Game on! 5/15/08 – Jeremy When you're involved in a playtest, and you make a suggestion, and the next time you playtest that game your suggestion has been incorporated into the next version? That's a really cool feeling. When your suggestion makes it into the final released product? That's awesome.
I'm the new product line coordinator for the board and card game lines here at FFG. I will be doing marketing and promotion for such beloved games as Citadels, Tide of Iron, Wings of War, LotR: Deluxe Confrontation, War of the Ring, Ingenious, and a good deal more. There are also a few upcoming game titles which promise to be so awesome that your human minds might not be able to comprehend the full spectrum of their awesomeness. With the utmost of pride, I also be promoting the incredible games Twilight Imperium and StarCraft. Though these two titles are not historically accurate, they provide unparalleled and refreshing insight into interstellar battle tactics. My interests include harvesting glucose, knitting, costume design, and listening to your human rock music. I look forward to a settling into the new office and getting the word out on all of FFG's fantastic board and card games. Thank you for reading up on my rant, and please keep in mind that I am in no way a hyper-evolved creature of pure energy from a galaxy somewhere in what you call the Gama quadrant. 5/2/08 – Jeff Tidball We've started to receive samples of the final, painted plastic figures for the Mutant Chronicles CMG in the last week or so. They're fantastic. The only problem is that my status as the guy with the most anal-retentively crafted playtest figures is about to go out the window. Good-bye, playtest figures. It's been fun.
4/25/08 – Eric H I am a Minnesota native and previously worked for the University of Minnesota and United Healthcare. My background is in web development, with a smattering of end user support. My interests are typical gamer stuff; ccgs, board games, video games, miniture painting, terrain making, movies, books, anime, and music. Its been busy the first two weeks, dealing with various IT issues. Its been nice to be able to jump in and contribute right away though. Its great being able to see how a game company works from the inside and to see the passion that everyone has for the products. 4/8/08 – Morgan On a personal basis, I love dinosaurs, robots, and long walks on the beach with dinosaurs and robots (but not robot dinosaurs). I'm from Atlanta, GA, making this absolutely freezing weather difficult to deal with. For the past year or so, I've lived in Cincinnati, OH, but it was not good enough prep for the arctic I now call home. I'm in marketing at the office, specifically I'm the 'product line coordinator' for the LCG line. Basically, it's my responsibility to make sure that everything runs smoothly for my games (Call of Cthlulhu and A Game of Thrones LCGs). I'm in charge of keeping the communities excited and informed (I'm going to… PUMP! You! Up!) while also keeping a focus on the FFG side of things. 4/4/08 – Nick (from the road) Day 8 Luke and I now enter Indiana. The weather is getting a little colder (not that I mind, I ♥ the cold). The skies are a clear blue and the sun feels good on my face. A gorgeous day for a drive through South-East Indiana, if I do say so myself. Last night, day 7, brought us to ACME Comics and Games in Cincinnati, OH. It was an excellent store. Very clean and they represented Fantasy Flight Games product very well. I was impressed by their fantastic collection of AT-43 on the shelf. We actually arrived at the store when ACME got their shipment of the newest A Game of Thrones Chapter Pack, Ancient Enemies. It was cool to see the local Game of Thrones folk come in for the chapter pack and open up their packs to inspect what lay inside. I seem to recall hearing "Dragon Bite! Dragon Bite! Dragon Bite!" I was amused. Demos went well. Micro Mutants was a good time. There were a few regulars in the store playing AT-43. It looked like the Red Blok took the win. Everyone loved Bexley's modular terrain pieces and were asking how much it would cost to get some made for them. Questions about Confrontation and AT-43 were numerous. The staff were really fired up about AT-43 and I can see ACME being the hub of Rackham products in the very near future. As to our and the van's health, we are all well. I am starting to drag a little bit, but still holding onto what energy I have. The FFG Love Van keeps gathering steam. I am looking forward to OddCon in a few days. George R. R. Martin will be in attendance and so will we. Tonight is Games 2 Die 4 in Indianapolis, IN. More updates to follow. Best Wishes to Everyone of you Crazy Rant Readers. …End of Line. 4/3/08 – Nick (from the road) Rain? Really? I get so disillusioned by living in Minnesota. I'm not supposed to feel rain on my face this early in the year. I'm supposed to have to wear a coat and worry that it's going to snow 3 or more inches. The rain just kept on rolling all weekend (not that I'm complaining). It's still overcast as we leave Memphis and the site of Mid-South Con as I reflect on a fantastic weekend of gaming and demos. Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Because I didn't get the opportunity to thank all of those people publicly that helped us out and make us feel at home, I will take this opportunity to do my thank you's... Thank you to: Beverely Eldred who coordinated our tables and tended to our thirsts for caffeine; Carlin, Kendal, Wes, Bob and Bill who kept us company with great conversation after the demos were done; Scott and the other shopkeeps we met in the dealer room; the folks in charge of the board game room; and most of all, the attendees of MSC who took the time to check out what Fantasy Flight Games has to offer. Thats all for now. One week down. One more to go. …End of line. 3/31/08 – Jason Steinhurst Well, sorta… It's time to develop the next Descent expansion. So, I get write the new rules, create the new monsters, new heros, new special abilities, new scenarios, new map tiles, and the new miscellaneous-unmentionable-top-secret bits, mix them all together (stirring until well blended), and then throw the whole concoction onto one of the big tables in the FFG break room. (After designing, printing out, cutting and mounting all the new bits, of course.) And then, play-testing that sucker until something explodes. (Which always happens way sooner then you expected it would.) Then I analyze why it exploded. You know — the postmortem. Monsters too strong? Hero abilities out of whack? Where does the tweaking need to happen? Does it feel right? Does it look right? Is it balanced? What needs re-balanced? Then, adjust the abilities. Design the improved bits. Fix and the rewrite the broken rules. Print out, cut out, and mount all the modified stuff… Play-test. Run a game with the new changes. Cringe when one of the play-testers finds the exploitable rules loop hole you missed. Review and rewrite the rules. New bits. Play-test. Adjust the special abilities. Nerf that uber monster. Agonize over the adjustments. Knowing that changing this over here, will affect that thing over there. And, for that matter, it'll probably affect that third thing, too. Rewrite. New bits. Play-test. New scenario. Move the tiles around. New tile shapes. How are the sight lines? Obstacles? Monster placement? Play-test. Oh, #@$%! Too much treasure — that one was too easy for the heros. Crank up the final monster boss. Ouch, that hurt! That new boss was too painful, the heros had no chance, that's no good. *Sigh* Rewrite. Adjust. Play-test. Second chorus, same as the first. Rinse and repeat. And repeat… LOL. And then, suddenly… it all works, it's all fallen into place. The dungeons rock. The new, unmentionable, top secret, [CENSORED] monster, feels and acts like a [CENSORED] monster. The heros are fun, each has its own unique flavor, and each feels different from all the other heros. Everything has a nitch and a place, and everything belongs. All the bits fit. Everything is working the way you want it to. Nirvana. A universe has been born, been set right, and is now working smoothly. And then, that's when I'm one of the lucky schmucks who gets to play Descent for a living. 3/28/08 – Nick (from the road) Day 4: A State of Games Hello again everyone. Luke and I continue Truckin' gratefully (brain) dead (Get it? Grateful Dead reference? Anyone? Ok I was stretching for that one) as we enter the realm of Arkansas. We are slightly sleep-deprived yet extremely excited to continue our tour of the Midwest. The past two days have been quite fruitful meeting new acquaintances and having fun with some old friends. Day 2, Luke and I headed over to Metagames 2 in Springfield, MO for our official demo night. The store was fantastic! Everyone who worked there was super nice and very knowledgeable about the Fantasy Flight Games product lines. This was my first opportunity to see just what our "terrain guru" Bexley had provided for us to show off AT-43 and Confrontation. At this point I really shouldn't be surprised by the excellent work that he does, but the 2 ft. by 1 ft. modular terrain pieces he made blew me away. We drew a decent crowd of patrons and employees to participate in some demos of AT-43. I ran into a couple of guys from the Springfield area who play Kingdom Hearts TCG. They were really excited to get some rules clarifications and to get a chance to play against me (suussshhhh! Quiet, ego… Ok… Sorry). I challenged them to a game under the condition that if they beat my aggro/control deck they could get themselves some promo cards. I ended up winning the games (if I remember correctly) and they still got their promo cards. I guess I'm just a big softy. Micro Mutants was also a smash hit with the crew at Metagames. Will "Kennon" Lentz, an A Game of Thrones LCG player and consummate nice guy, stopped by to hang out with us and get a few games in. After Luke and I were done packing the van back up, Will followed us back to the motel to play a multiplayer game of Thrones. A late night due to the fact that we got out of Metagames 2 at 12:15 AM and the multiplayer game took about an hour for me to win, but I dare say a great time. Day 3 saw us through to the Fantasy Shop Comics & Games in St. Charles, MO. I was really glad to have met Mike, Scott, Rob, Dawn and anyone else I forgot to mention who make up the Fantasy Shop crew while Luke and I demoed away last night. Again Micro Mutants was a big hit with some of the staff and patrons. Bexley's terrain, AT-43 and Confrontation got some great face time with everyone in the demo area (which is one of the largest I've ever seen). I also got to see a couple of our top tier UFS players from Illinois and show them the ropes for Kingdom Hearts TCG. Another Game of Thrones cameo appearance from a heck of a nice guy who I just met recently, Eric "silverej" Silverman. Pizza was ordered and fun was had by all. Missouri is a great state of gaming and I dare say they are growing! Only after Luke and I crossed the border into Arkansas did I really understand how strong MO is with their gaming community. Today is day 4 and we are still on the road nearing Mid-South Con in Memphis, TN. I'll get you all an update on our time spent there in the near future. But for now… It's my nap time. Sniff you crazy rant readers later. …End of line. 3/26/08 – Nick (from the road) Day 1: From Frozen to Thawed. And so it begins... Luke and I have left the frozen wastes of Minnesota heading for the warm welcome of Missouri. The Avenue of Saints seems to stretch on ffffoooorrrrr eeeevvvveeerrrrrr (hurray for a Sandlot reference). This drive has been 100% caffeinated thus far and full of missed photo opportunities, but no disasters have besieged us or the van as of yet. The FFG Mobile Van is on target with no sign of stopping. The weather has been good thus far. The one thing working against us seems to be the wind. The open plains/empty corn fields of Iowa in addition to the strong winds have been buffeting the FFG van all over the road. I have a new found appreciation for all of those out there driving big rigs on days like this. It is hard enough for me to keep a economy sized van on the road with the wind, I don't even want to imagine how hard it is to keep a semi with a full load in tow from playing pinball with all of the surrounding vehicles. I'd score at least 200,000 points (I don't mean to brag, but I am a pinball wizard though I can see, hear and talk reasonably well). We arrived at MetaGames 2 in Springfield, MO at about 7:30 PM. I realize all too suddenly that my blood is too thick to go this far South so early in the year. The cold is still in my veins and the sudden change in temperature is thawing me too quickly. Luke and I hang out at Metagames 2 until they kick us out at 9 PM, enjoying the company of former A Game of Thrones CCG World Champion Greg "Dobbler" Atkinson and a few of his Thrones mates from the area. After a Melee (multiplayer) game of Thrones at our hotel lasting until about 2 AM, I turned in for the night. You know you want to tune in tomorrow for the continuing saga of Luke and Nick as we drive and chronicle our way through the central US. (Well maybe you don't want to, but humor us, would you?)... End of Line. 3/7/08 – Thaadd
2/26/08 – Jeremy He could also be quiet and introspective, content with sitting in his backyard, sipping on a bottle of Newcastle and enjoying a good cigar. He was a great friend of FFG. He played games with us, he made some neat props for Midnight Chronicles, he worked tirelessly on local conventions. He was hard to get along with at times, stubborn and opinionated, but as fiercely loyal as you could ever wish for in a friend. When he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor last fall, The Source Comics and Games raised over $11,000 for him from customer donations to send him and his wife Susan on an extended road trip. It just went to show how generous gamers can be, and how well-loved he was in the community. Bob "Roadkill" Aiken passed away last night, and we're going to miss him terribly. Our thoughts are with Susan and the rest of his big, extended family. 1/24/08 – Rogers To answer a few questions I've seen go by:
Now, for the curious, a post-mortem of the old train wreck. Ah, YABB, our old forum software, how I loathe thee!
This is an old and well-known problem, with widely deployed solutions, which didn't make me any happier about dealing with it. Adding a few file-lock blocks here and there helped, but the problems didn't go away. So, rather than rewrite YABB, we looked around for some hopefully less buggy software. Eventually we settled on jforum to try, and used it for the Kingdom Hearts Trading Card Game boards. I added a couple of (mostly invisible) features we needed, and it's been performing well for months. So, we've decided to unleash it upon you all, and vice versa. I hope you all enjoy the new software. I make no promises that I'll have time to follow the boards, but if there are desperately needed features it doesn't have, I may be able to add them. Now, on to getting those Confrontation product pages together… — R. |
5/14/08 – Sally (Critical Miss)
