Pulp Gamer Inside Track

Derek talks to Sean Preston (http://www.peginc.com/) at Gen Con 2009.

Derek Rex interviews Zev Shlasinger of Z-Man Games (http://www.zmangames.com) at Gen Con, 2009. Z-Man Games, Inc. is a publisher of games. The company was formed by New Yorker, Zev Shlasinger, in 1999 to bring back Shadowfist, one of the best multiplayer Collectable Card Games ever made. With the success of Shadowfist, Z-Man Games published its first B-Movie card game, Grave Robbers from Outer Space, and from that point on it was decided to continue to make fun, innovative games. (http://images.pulpgamer.com/webart/zev.jpg)

Derek Rex interviews Russel Bailey at Gen Con, 2009. Russell Bailey is a writer and game designer at White Wolf Publishing (http://www.white-wolf.com), where he develops the Vampire product line. His interests include computer programming and lying about the sex lives of dead people, both of which he has done for a living. Like all writers, he lives with cats. (http://images.pulpgamer.com/webart/rbailey.jpg)

Marcelo A. Figueroa is one of few individuals who have participated in every tier of the hobby games industry, first as a consumer, then in Retail (All Star Games), in Distribution (ACD Distribution (http://www.acdd.com/)), as Media (Space Gamer/Fantasy Gamer Magazine (http://www.spacegamer.com/spacegamer/default.asp), Shadis Magazine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadis), Games Quarterly Magazine), and Publishing (Alderac Entertainment Group (http://www.alderac.com/), Avalanche Press (http://www.avalanchepress.com/), Playroom Entertainment (http://www.playrooment.com)). And somewhere in there he found time to be a published writer & game designer. His years of experience have made him a respected industry expert in Customer Service, Marketing, Product Demonstration & Sales, including an Origins Award. (http://images.pulpgamer.com/webart/marcelo.jpg) Commonly referred to as the "someone you need to know" in hobby games, Marcelo currently works with Sorvent, Inc. (http://www.sorvent.com/) as a Talent Manager, helping undiscovered game inventors find publishers for their games, as well as being the Sales Manager for Dan Verssen Games (http://www.dvg.com/), Warpath Games Distribution (http://www.warpathgames.com/wholesale/warpath.php), and the Greater Games Industry Catalog (http://www.greatergamesindustry.com/default.aspx).

Derek visits with Leah Osterhaus of Out of the Box Publishing (http://otb-games.com/), touching on a number of great titles and learning a little more about the founding and growth of the company. Leah Osterhaus began working with Out of the Box Publishing 11 years ago test playing games and demoing at trade shows. Since then she earned her Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Marketing from the University of Wisconsin- Madison and worked for several years as an inventory specialist at Target Corporation. Several years ago, Out of the Box offered Leah an ownership position in the company as Vice President of Sales. She now works as the Vice President of Marketing and International Sales. (http://images.pulpgamer.com/webart/leah.jpg)

PGIT 067: Loren Coleman of Catalyst Game Labs

PGIT 066: Aaron Witten and Game Science

While on the Caribbean cruise with Gamer Adventures (http://gameradventures.com/), Don had the opportunity to sit and visit with Larry Roznai, president of Mayfair Games (http://mayfairgames.com/). Games brought up during today's show include Empire Builder (http://www.mayfairgames.com/shop/product/4500-4699/pages/4500.htm), Sutter's Mill (http://www.mayfairgames.com/shop/product/phalanx/pages/pha6028.htm), Silverton (http://www.mayfairgames.com/shop/product/0450-0479/pages/0469.htm), Settlers of Catan (http://www.mayfairgames.com/shop/product/3000-3299/pages/3061.htm), and Family Business (http://www.mayfairgames.com/shop/product/3300-4499/pages/4401.htm). Larry Roznai is a German-speaking native of Chicago, and a U.S. Navy veteran. An avid gamer, he hosted weekly game nights for many years before discovering the new generation of fine parlor games. When he brought home Darwin Bromley's Empire Builder game in 1989, his whole family became great fans of Mayfair Games. Larry became informally associated with Mayfair Games when his younger brother Joe--Mayfair's accountant since 1988--brought him to Mayfair's offices in 1989. There, they played or play-tested a host of Mayfair's games. Their first development work was on Eurorails in 1989-90. Both Joe and Larry became fans of the game system and began working on projects in the early 1990s. They later co-designed Nippon Rails. Larry has since designed Australian Rails and developed Lunar Rails and Russian Rails. (http://images.pulpgamer.com/webart/lroznai.jpg) Larry became a part of Mayfair Games' extended family when he attended Gencon as a company guest in 1990. He began working game shows in his off-hours. Meanwhile, he worked for Honeywell. An electronics specialist, he worked on or oversaw major HVAC projects. His strong operations and management skills impressed the new Mayfair Games ownership team, and in 1999 he left the forced air industry and joined Mayfair Games as a board member, President, and COO. Larry moonlights as the bass player for the highly semi-legendary rock band "Byte," which he co-founded uncounted decades ago. He likes rock-n-roll. It is almost as dear to him as his great family. His wife Bridget and daughter Loren both work for Mayfair Games, while his son Karl attends school and helps play-test Mayfair products. (Of course, having worked for Mayfair Games since 1997, Bridget has longer tenure than her Johnny-come-lately spouse.)

GAMA (http://gama.org/) welcomes John Ward as its new Executive Director. Don welcomes John to the Inside Track. John holds a Master¹s degree in public administration with an emphasis in fiscal and policy management. His bachelor¹s degree is in criminology, with both degrees from Ohio University. Professionally, Ward has extensive experience in the military and in state government. Ward is a retired Army officer with over 23 years of combined service in the military police and engineer corps. His military experience has provided him opportunities to deploy to Europe, Central America, Korea, and the Persian Gulf for the first Gulf War. Ward also has over 20 years of government service in the criminal justice field, most recently in the juvenile system as the state of Ohio's Bureau Chief of Parole and then Bureau Chief of Community Facilities. In this last role, he supervised 12 small correctional facilities and managed revenue generation for Ohio¹s juvenile corrections agency, as well as working with 12 governing boards in a variety of endeavors. He enhanced volunteer programs, developed data and outcome measures, and was able to assist them in operationalizing both economic and procedural efficiencies. He still serves on a national level working and consulting in the criminal justice arena. (http://images.pulpgamer.com/webart/ward.jpg) Ward is also a small business owner, running his own martial arts studio for more than 16 years. His part-time business/hobby gives him first-hand knowledge of the challenges facing small businesses. In his personal life, Ward is blessed with a loving and supportive wife Angela, their young son Johnathon, and his teenage daughter Nikki, who is with them part-time. They live in the Columbus, Ohio metro area.

We are extremely excited to be joining Gamer Adventures (http://www.gameradventures.com/index.htm) for a gamer cruise to the Caribbean this spring. To learn more about this and other cruises, we called Kim Maita. Kim just got back from a LARP cruise and was eager to tell us all about it. We then taked about the coming Magic cruise, and our Caribbean Cruise. I hope you will be able to join us in March of 2008 for this cruise for gamers and significant others. Kim was kind enough to share links to some of the activities we can partake in when we hit port. Once the new year rolls around, be sure to check with Kim to get the best rates on these events. We will be hitting Key West (http://www.carnival.com/ShoreExcursionsSearchResults.aspx?region=CW&portcode=KEY&portname=Key+West%2c+FL), the Cayman Islands (http://www.carnival.com/ShoreExcursionsSearchResults.aspx?region=CW&portcode=CAY&portname=Grand+Cayman%2c+Cayman+Islands), and Jamaica (http://www.carnival.com/ShoreExcursionsSearchResults.aspx?region=CW&portcode=OCJ&portname=Ocho+Rios%2c+Jamaica). Mayfair Games (http://mayfairgames.com/) will be on board and hosting a Settlers of Catan Tournament. The winner will get a full ride to Gen Con (http://gencon.com/) 2009 to compete in the North American finals.

Don spent some time with John Wick (http://wicked-dead.com/) at RinCon (http://rincongames.com/) in Tucson Arizona. The new Houses of the Blooded (http://housesoftheblooded.net/) was a large part of the conversation, but significant talk was also given to Seventh Sea (http://www.swashbucklingadv.com/) and Legend of the Five Rings (http://l5r.alderac.com/). John is currently a co-owner of the Wicked Dead Brewing Company (http://wicked-dead.com/).

While at Gen Con (http://gencon.com/), Jeremiah was able to get some time with Richard Borg. He is in more places in the game industry than his name appears and his design ranges from Yatzee Free for All (http://www.hasbro.com/default.cfm?page=browse&product_id=22514) and Liars Dice (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/45) to BattleLore (http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/battlelore/) and Memoir 44 (http://www.daysofwonder.com/memoir44/en/). We also mentioned Wyatt Earp (http://www.riograndegames.com/games.html?id=213), and Stonehenge (http://paizo.com/titanicGames/v5748btpy7vq5) in today's show. Richard was a blast to visit with and is full of good information. Richard’s professional game credits cover a broad spectrum, which includes over 50 titles. Milton Bradley published his first game, ‘Liars Dice’ a family dice game, in 1988. Following up this initial success were AD&D games (TSR), X-Men games (Pressman Toy) and another hit for Milton Bradley ‘Times to Remember’. In 1993 ‘Liars Dice’ went to Europe as ‘Bluff’ and won the German Prize ‘Spiel des Jahres’. Richard was part of the ‘Star Wars’ customizable card game design team and involved with a number of other collectible card games. Some of his recent designs, that are currently available, include: Hera & Zeus (Rio Grande Games), Memoir ’44 (Days of Wonder), Commands & Colors: Ancients (GMT Games), BattleLore (Fantasy Flight) and Stonehenge Anthology (Paizo Publishing). Richard's newest family game design, Yahtzee Free For All (Parker Brothers) is already receiving acclaim from the game community. Because his body of work does encompass so many age groups and genres, you just may have one or more of Richard’s designs in your personal game collection. (http://images.pulpgamer.com/webart/rborg.jpg)

Jeremiah has the opportunity to visit with Jean Vanaise at Gen Con (http://gencon.com/) to talk about music, the economy, and of course, games. Jean has been producing games with his own company Flying Turtle for years but has also produced for such companies as West End Games, Iron Crown Enterprises, Ravensburger, and Mayfiar Games. Some of his titles you may be familiar with, to include Shark (http://www.mayfairgames.com/shop/product/50551-50579/pages/50552.htm), Dicemaster (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/4799), the Hobbit Adventure Boardgame (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/1586), and the most recent Egyptian themed tile game, Horus (http://www.mayfairgames.com/shop/product/3300-4499/pages/4101.htm). (http://images.pulpgamer.com/webart/jean.jpg)

Jeremiah catches Ethan Skemp at Gen Con (http://gencon.com/). Ethan has a long list of credits with White Wolf (http://white-wolf.com/). There is a lot of talk given to the contrast between the new and the old versions of the many White Wolf roleplaying games, such as Vampire, Werewolf, and Changeling.

Jeremiah had the pleasure of visiting one of the biggest and baddest men in gaming, Erik Yaple. Erik has taken over the Monsterpocalypse (http://www.monsterpocalypsegame.com/) project with Privateer Press (http://privateerpress.com/). This is a very appealing game of monstrous combat. He caught him between games at Gen Con (http://gencon.com/) where he spent a lot of his weekend showing the game with a horde of fans.