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I’m doing an interview today with Sig Trent, Lead Game Designer at Evil Genius Games and Designer of The Armory: The Ultimate Weapon Guide, now entering its final week on Gamefound.
In addition to writing and designing, Sig’s job—technically—is to help all the other designers with anything that they need to make great rules. But he’s pretty much a cornerstone of the company. Whenever something goes wrong, there’s a challenge to overcome, company lore to remember, a file to find, a difficult decision to be made, or the need for sage, practical advice, a call goes out to Sig on Discord.
Sig and Goober wrote Everyday Heroes together; since then, he has done Highlander, Escape From New York, Rambo, Kong: Skull Island, and The Vault. Prior to coming to Evil Genius Games, he wrote the Advanced Feats series for Kobold Press, and ran Netbook of Feats for many years, besides being a playtester on a number of board, card, and computer games over the years.
Besides being a designer, Sig is a lifelong gamer: playing and homebrewing RPGs since 1982, and gaming for as long as he can remember. He has had a few careers over the years, from managing movie theaters to leading software development teams, with lots of stuff in between. He spent three years traveling America in an Airstream trailer, two years teaching English in Japan, and has finally settled down with Anne, his wife, beside the Pacific Ocean in a “little shack,” where they “try to live a life of comfort, adventure, and creativity, while helping others do the same.” That’s a pretty awesome life goal. Let’s hear what he has to say.
Q: Thanks for agreeing to do an interview, Sig. So, tell us about The Armory.
Sure, The Armory is a big book of weapons and combat gear for Everyday Heroes and other 5e games. My personal goal is to make it the most expansive arms manual yet made for an RPG.
Q: That’s a big goal.
Yep, but I figure if you are going to do a thing that you may only do once, you should try to do it as well as you can. I feel like I owe it to arms manual designers of the past to learn from them, and try to take a step forward from there.
Q: How is it going to be published?
The Armory is going to be printed as a beautiful, hardback book with full color illustrations matching the quality of our Core Rulebook. There is also a PDF version, which you can purchase alone or together with the hardback on Gamefound. And, in the add-on section, we have versions for Roll20 and Foundry.
Q: Okay, so the big questions: What does it have in it? And what makes it special?
A lot. First off, there are over 700 entries for weapons, armor, ammunition, accessories, and gear, all carefully researched and designed for fun play, and all carefully organized for optimal hero-building and quick reference. Every entry has a description of the history and unique qualities of the item, and we try to set these in context with a concise guide to the history of arms and armor. And for near-future play, we also have some speculative technologies and a little world building to go with them.
Q: That is an impressive range. What else is there for GMs and players? I know that the book contains far more than a list of guns and equipment.
There are new game mechanics, of course, and a huge number of options to customize and personalize weapons. For Everyday Heroes players, we have a full game design guide on how to make weapons for Everyday Heroes. For others, we have a conversion guide and compatibility stats for any 5e system. And for everyone, we have a role-playing guide that teaches you how to role play a gun expert—even if you aren’t one.
Q: That’s going to be an incredible resource, both in breadth and depth, for the community. So, tell us about the Gamefound campaign for The Armory: How is it going?
It is going very well. We are funded and have hit the goal for 50% illustration, which means that every other weapon, and every page, will have a full color illustration. But we want to do more. Our dream is to have every weapon illustrated, so that every player can easily imagine the weapon that their hero is wielding.
Q: Over 700 illustrations? That’s what you’re aiming (no pun intended) for?
Yes! The illustrations are the most expensive element of making this a dream book, and that is why we decided to crowdfund The Armory. We need everyone’s help to fund more weapon illustrations. The more support we get, the more awesome we can make this book.
Q: That would be awesome! So, how can we help to achieve the goal of full illustration?
You can help by pledging to The Armory Gamefound during the campaign and by spreading the word about it. Pledging now, during the campaign, will make this a better book, so if you have been holding off, jumping in now is going to make a real difference in making The Armory not just the very best book it can be, but also the best of all time. And if you don’t have the cash right now, but know you want the book, Gamefound does offer the option to pay over time.
Q: Anything else that you want folks to know?
I want backers to know that, no matter what, The Armory will feature all my skills as a game designer and writer, and the wonderful talents of many other great EGG designers, our editing team, and our layout artists. We’re all committed to making The Armory a book that you will treasure and be proud to own and use.
And to the great many of you that have already pledged, thank you so much! You have already given us the ability to keep charging forward with art orders, which will make this project something special.
You heard it here, folks! Let’s help make The Armory the masterpiece that it was destined to be. Head over to Gamefound and get those pledges made today!
