Carol is another host of the award winning All Games Considered podcast (she joined the cast after Mark and Chris – and IIRC Glondar – but before Mags).
And she co-hosted the Secret Life of Girl Gamers, with other girl gamers. It ran for 9 episodes.
She's edited game books (I don't recall which ones, but she's mentioned them several times on AGC) and has a fondness for libraries.
She also loves Changeling: The Dreaming. It's the game Carol cut her GMing teeth on. A one-shot that was supposed to last one session lasted many, many years. She's mentioned it a lot on AGC.
Carol was kind enough to sit down with Otyugh Talk.
Of course I had to ask her what other genres she liked besides urban fantasy.....
Otyugh Talk: You've talked extensively on All Games Considered for your love of Changeling: The Dreaming, so we're well familiar with your favorite urban fantasy game. So let's switch genres: What is your favorite historical game and why?
Carol at AGC: Well, I'm rather fond of Victorian/Steampunk. Games like Victoriana, Victorian Lost, Space 1889, and Widening Gyre are all fun settings. Why? There's a lot of fiction that inspires my roleplay. Fiction that draws me in also gets my imagination going, thinking "what else could happen in that world?" That's where the RPGs come in.
Books like The Importance of Being Earnest, To Say Nothing of the Dog, Stardust, The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series are ones that I re-read all the time (I'm a backer of the upcoming RPG set in the Ministry world as well). I realize that Steampunk is pretty much period urban fantasy, so perhaps that is why I'm also drawn to it.
[Ed. I missed out on The Ministry Initiative Kickstarter. I hope we get one of Carol's famous AGC reviews on it.]
OT: Do you reuse special NPCs for your games and which ones stand out in your mind?
CAGC: Reuse NPCs? Hm. Not really. I have favorite NPCs from the games that I've run. Most recently a White Court Vampire Virgin from House Skavis who spent most of the Dresden game I ran trying very hard not to turn. The PCs were helping him with that. When his girlfriend was killed in front of him, he rounded on her killer and made him feel so much despair that he killed himself, thus becoming full vampire. He now tries to keep some distance between himself and the PCs in order to protect them from his Hunger, but at the same time knows that their friendship helps keep him from killing anyone else. He is studying to be a social worker. It's a perverse way to feed - as he draws the despair of his patients to the fore he tries to help them deal with it and eventually heal. His goal is to help them out of being a food source for him.
I try to create NPCs with the potential for depth and growth. If the PCs are interested in the NPCs, they will (hopefully) grow and develop together. I try to give them lives and stories that do not revolve around the PCs and their problems.
OT: What would be your "elevator pitch" for an Otyugh-themed adventure?
CAGC: I'm not very familiar with Otyugh, but from what I've read here it goes: The PCs come to a town that's pristine, very well kept, and yet no one seems to have a "dirty job." The populace is extremely well-behaved. No one dares start any kind of altercation. They're approached by one of the Otyugh who tell them he and his people have been enslaved as living waste dumps and corpse disposal, and beg their help in securing their freedom.
Carol also commented "Thanks again for choosing me for an interview - this was fun - and thanks for listening :)"
Thanks, Carol!
I've got more interviews in my queue, so keep checking back here!
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