What's in a Name?

Something is bugging me.

Set the wayback machine to 1998, and a younger me (with hair) really wanted to write and draw comics. With the support of my wife-to-be, and some financial backing from the Prince's Youth Business Trust, I wrote and illustrated four issues of a comic called Missing under the name of "Autocratik Press". 

The old Autocratik Logo

The old logo had the slogan "Autocratik for the Masses", inspired by the REM album, Automatic for the People. I chose the name Autocratik for a couple of reasons – I was given the advice that, especially when it came to getting the comic listed in Diamond Comic Distributor's Previews catalog, to ensure that your company name was high up in the alphabet so it got noticed. You couldn't get any better than starting with A, other than it being at the start of the A's (which it wasn't). I went through the dictionary, looking at words that began with A and there was something about the word that stuck with me. In the dictionary it said that it referred to someone who did things their own way. Kinda rang true, I wanted to do comics, write and illustrate them, I did the layout, the design, almost everything with help from Debs and her graphic design skills, and constant advice. Together we were going to forge a new beginning in comics...

Three of the four issues of Missing, published in 1998-99

Of course, it didn't last. Sales were low. Too low for Diamond to keep distributing it, so after four issues Missing came to an early end. Shame... I had another 91 issues all planned out. Autocratik Press returned a year later for a single comic by the legendary Matt Brooker, called D'Adventures of Israeli: Consequences, continuing the story from Timulo from Deadline. It was amazing – hit nuns with rocket launchers, weirdness, giant haddock. So very cool. 

After that, Autocratik was no more.

When I got into game writing, I went freelance, declared myself self-employed, but I didn't really use the name Autocratik again until 2011. 

Something happened. It was messy, and I won't go into details, but let's just say there was a clash, I was angry. I was annoyed. And above all, I was determined to do things my way. To create, to make the crazy stuff that I wanted to make, and I was damn-well going to do it myself.

I started the blog, used Autocratik as my handle on social media, started specific pages for it on Facebook, it's the name of my Youtube channel, I had business cards done, bought the domain name, and it's been on all of those #RPGaDAY graphics for the last dozen years. 

However, over the last few years, I've heard the term autocratic and autocracy become more and more prevalent, as those with money and power throw their weight about and try to do whatever they want with little regard for anyone else. Now, if you look in the dictionary, the term autocratic is defined as a dictatorship. Sure, it still means someone doing things their way, but now it feels like it's more associated with someone doing things their way to the detriment of others.

Certainly not what I had in mind with the name. 

Which brings me to what's bugging me. I'm wondering if it's time to retire the name, and choose something else? If I did, I'd have to update all of my links, rename all of my social media thingies, get a new website domain, transfer this blog over (which I must admit, I don't know how to do, but I'll learn), destroy all of those business cards and start afresh.

Or do I keep it as it is, and hope that the world changes? Just hope that the term becomes less synonymous with rulers and domination.

Or maybe bring back the "For The Masses" bit, to really embrace the REM-ness of its origins. I may be making stuff and writing things my way, but I'm not forcing anything onto anyone. If you like what I make or write, that's great. I'm not a tyrant. 

If I did rename, what would I change it to? Would people still find me? Do I actually want to be found... maybe I should simply diminish, and go into the west... 

What do you think?

If it wasn't so comic it'd be tragic

 

The old Missing Comics from 1998-9

Many, many, many years ago, back in the very late 90's, I used to write, illustrate, and publish comics. This was back when Autocratik was "Autocratik for the Masses", a play on the REM album name, 'Automatic for the People'. 

My main comic was called Missing, a planned 90+ issue series about a hotel on the Scottish border, after England had become the 51st US State, and after global warming at raised the water levels to the point where cars needed to be amphibian, and highwaymen used surfboards to attack unsuspecting travellers. There were subplots of psycho boyfriends, the local sheriff department, kidnapping of the President's daughter, and weird metal bands. So much was planned, but alas it only lasted four issues and looking back at it now it's a little 90's and a bit cringey. 

After Missing was cancelled due to losing my distribution, I published one more comic for the legendary artist D'Israeli (Consequences) before pulling the plug on comics. I had ideas for a weird story involving a massive cathedral, motorcycling paladins, and an alien creature being worshipped as a god, but didn't get very far. 

Original sketch for I in the WILD major arcana

Since then, things have been very quiet with my drawing. I gave up completely, only really putting pencil to paper when I was storyboarding the webseries, or doing my initial sketches for the tarot cards for WILD. 

WILD was always going to be a square book, and I found a company making cool square sketchbooks for artists (so of course, I bought three, one of each size). 

However, I realised my art wasn't up to scratch for WILD, and Stoo and I recruited my old friend Gareth Sleightholme to do the Tarot deck, which came out brilliantly.

I thought about using these sketchbooks to do something different, something autobiographical, but I only really got a handful of pages into it before I gave up again, mostly due to the frustration of what was in my mind not making it onto the page.

During the pandemic I was inspired to do something, to finally get drawing and creating again. And again, my mind went to something autobiographical. Maybe it was the stresses of the pandemic, and the weird paranoia it brought on, but I really just wanted to get things on paper.

I went to the art department of our local department store where they had a great deal on A5 exercise books that had blank, sketchbook quality pages. I bought ten of them, inspired by artists I'd seen on Instagram, and thought this was going to be my next creative pursuit...

But once again, what I saw in my mind just wasn't what came out on the page. Frustrated, I gave up again, and those many sketchbooks seem to taunt me from the shelves next to my seat. 

I keep getting the urge to draw, but I just don't seem to be able to do what I want. Maybe I'm too impatient? I remember when I was working on Missing I used to work on that daily, determined to get it done, but looking at it now I kinda think it was pretty awful. 

Will I ever go back to comics? Will I get over my own self-doubt and hyper-critical self-depreciation? 

Who knows, but for now, I'll remain a lapsed comics artist...

[Roll Your Own Life] The Comics That Shaped Me (Part 1)

Over the last couple of weeks I've been challenged to a couple of those Facebook meme things. First it was 20 Albums That Had an Impact on Your Life, then it was D8+3 Tabletop RPGs, and most recently it was 10 TV Shows.

The weird thing is, during these times of crisis and panic when just reading the news can make me come out in a cold sweat, I've found doing these little blog posts every day to be calming, and to get me motivated into actually doing some normal writing every day - when most of the time I'd want to just lay on the floor and pray for everything to go back to normal.

Yesterday was the last day of the most recent challenge - 10 TV Shows That Had an Impact on me, and I didn't want to sink back into an unhealthy routine. So, I'm going to keep going...

With COMICS!

Randomly found a pic of the comic on
the internet. Weird.

I know there may be some of you who read this who only know me from writing tabletop RPGs, but for a long time I wanted to write and draw comics. Just after I left school, Pete decided to form a little comic publishing company called Swampland Comics, and I drew the first issue of Ninja Secretaries from Beyond Dimension X, that was based on Pete's script, and I wrote a drew a standalone comic of one of the characters (loosely based on me) called Drowning In Darkness. It was gloomy, introspective and self-aggrandising tale of a gun-toting vigilante facing a vampiric threat in his hometown.

Looking at it now it's horribly embarrassing, but it did get some interesting reviews and I remember one that called me the "Goth Hergé". I don't know if that's just because of the lead character's hairstyle...

I went to university wanting to specialise in comics, and ended up studying animation. I think the Illustration lecturer wasn't keen on comics at the time - I think he's since come around. After I graduated, I continued my desire to draw comics and, with the help of the Prince's Trust, launched my comic publishing company (Autocratik Press). I published four issues of my ongoing comic, Missing, before it was cancelled by the distributor - not selling enough to keep distributing me.

Missing, the comic I wrote and drew in the late 90's. Feels horribly dated now...

I also published a one-shot for the awesome Matt Brooker (aka D'Israeli) called Consequences, which continued his D'Adventures of I.S.R.A.E.L.I. that ran as Timulo in Deadline. That was particularly awesome, (mostly because I didn't draw it), but that was the entire of my attempt to get into comics...


But behind the scenes, I've been reading comics for years. So many comics. I read comics before I read books, and some of them had a huge impact on my writing and art.

So I thought I'd do another one of those "Things that have had an impact on my life" things but focus on the comics that shaped me. And, after discussing this with Debs, I've decided to do 14 rather than 10, so it's a round two-weeks of this nonsense you have to put up with.

Without further ado...

THE FOURTEEN COMICS THAT SHAPED ME





PART 1

SUPER SPIDER-MAN (AND THE TITANS / WITH THE SUPER-HEROES) (1976-1979)

I have a very distinct memory of Spider-Man. It's very weird. I think Spidey was the first real superhero comic I read, and certainly the first superhero I really got into. The only others I used to read about that time were the annuals I'd been given for Christmas which were usually Superman/Batman double bills.

However, I have a very distinct memory of my dad going to the newsagent to pay his monthly bill for the newspaper deliveries (two a day), and saying to me that I could pick a comic to get every week and we'd add it to the delivery. I picked Spider-Man.

Super Spider-Man was a British reprint of the American comics in a weird format. It was landscape, and had a double page spread from the US comic on each page, so as you read it each open spread contained four of the American comic pages. They were also completely in black and white except for the glossy cover. But, it meant you got a lot more comic and story every week in each issue. It wasn't just Spidey in there - each issue contained a complete issue from Spidey, as well as a complete issue of Thor, Captain America and Doctor Strange. The actual line-up of supporting strips varied from time to time, but I distinctly remember reading those ones.

The centre pages were a super-widescreen style bit of poster art (which I foolishly coloured in with felt tip pens on some issues - my desire to draw comics getting the better of me at that early age).

It was just at the awesome era of classic Spider-Man. The art was gorgeous (Gil Kane, John Romita Sr.), and I was stunned at The Night Gwen Stacy Died. I remember the Spider-mobile, the death of the Green Goblin, the Jackal cloning Gwen and Peter, the first appearance of The Punisher. Oh man, that was all great.

The "back up" stories weren't holding back with their punches either. I read The Invaders, saw them dredge Captain America's bullet ridden cowl out of the river, and was completely freaked out by Gene Colan's amazing and spooky art for Doctor Strange.

Just thinking of them makes me want to reread them.

I do have a load of them still, but they're not in great condition (felt tip, remember). I have a weird memory of a strange centrespread poster of weird bird-like aliens invading, riding spacecraft-like bikes... It didn't have anything to do with any comic within the pages, but I remember being fascinated by that image and wondering if they were ever going to appear.

Many, many, many years later, the old nostalgia feeling brought me back to those Spider-Man comics, and when Marvel did the very economical Essential Collections, they started from the first issue reprinting Spider-Man in black and white, just how I remember it, in massive and fairly cheap books the size of phonebooks. The black and white really showed off the awesome art, and reading them again was brilliant and I felt like I was eight years old again.

It's a real shame Marvel stopped doing those Essential Collections. I bought all of the Amazing Spider-Man collections, and the Peter Parker: The Sensational Spider-Man, ones. I even bought the first Doctor Strange collection, and Howard the Duck, but they came to a halt as the reprints got up to the 80's and I guess they wanted you to get the more expensive colour collections.

Loved those comics. But, by 1977 something else came along and I was only allowed one comic per week... SciFi took priority, sorry Spidey...

A World of Infinite Possibilities

I had this moment of revelation over the Christmas holidays, and it was all about Disney. Playing Disney Infinity 2.0 with the lovely wifey, I was struck by how similar the skill trees for the characters, gaining extra "feats" when they "levelled up", looked to the skill trees for the Fantasy Flight Star Wars RPGs... in fact, like most RPGs that use skill trees dating right back to the first one I can think of, which was the old Games Workshop UK reprint of Paranoia.

It got me thinking of the reverse too... how a tabletop RPG based on Disney as a whole could work, with supplements that would allow you to play in all of the Disney properties, from Frozen and Brave, to Pirates of the Caribbean, to Tron, to Marvel and even Star Wars...

I made a video talking about my theories... please watch, share and comment!!

Until next time, stay multi-classy!!

TOP 5 - RPGs I've Not Played (but want to)...

First in a few "Top 5" videos - the first looking at tabletop roleplaying games that I'd really like to play but ever have... Upcoming ones include Top 5 Bond Movies, and Top 5 Video Games I've Not Finished!

If you have a suggestion for a Top 5 video, post it in the comments below!

Share and enjoy.

Stay Multi-classy!

Autocratik Broadcast 2 - A Land Down Under

In a bid to catch up with things, here's the first of two videos that tell of my exploits in Australia. Hope you enjoy!

Now, I must get back to writing for #NaNoWriMo!!!

Autocratik Broadcast Treks onto Youtube

Last week I posted the first of my little vid-blogs about RPGs that wasn't connected to #RPGaDAY. It was really just a test for the new microphone (so hopefully gone is the background hiss) and to dig out the old studio lights that I haven't used since the dawn of time and making sure they still worked.

Unfortunately, I really couldn't think of anything to talk about, but I'd just received my copy of The Whispering Road RPG that I'd backed on Kickstarter a while ago. Really nice little storytelling game in the style of a Studio Ghibli movie.

Whispering Road RPG page

It got me thinking about the size of books. I really like a big, glossy hardcover that I can put on the shelves, take down from time to time and marvel at its loveliness. Nobilis immediately comes to mind.

But these huge books are not entirely practical when it comes to being used for gaming. They're not very portable. I remember lugging 10+ Vampire: The Masquerade books about with me for the various games I used to play and run. Not so easy.

Thinking back to the first RPG I played, which was original "little black books" Traveller, I wondered if the small book format is a way to go? FATE certainly seems to be joining the trend for smaller, more portable rulebooks. A bit like the cool smaller Unisystem books that Eden have produced, like WitchCraft and Conspiracy X 2.0.

What do you prefer for your gaming needs? A big, glossy, shiny (but heavy) book, or lots of little ones?

I put the theory into practice and created mock-ups of the Star Trek RPG I'd do if I had the chance. Yes, I know, another displacement from writing WILD...

Let me know what you think of the big vs small book argument. And if you get chance, please subscribe to my Youtube channel. It'd be greatly appreciated. Maybe even click "like" on the video if you liked it. (I already have a dislike... does this mean I've really made it on the interwebs?)

Until next time, Stay Multi-classy!!

What's so WILD about it? (part 2)

I'd been having some problems writing WILD, my RPG of dreamsharing. I have the system, I know how to write the slightly different take on character generation, and I had the way the game works written, but I'd come to a grinding halt when it came to the second chapter. The Setting.

I knew what I wanted for the setting, and the events that created the dreamshare device that is used in the game (after all, that was all written as a short novel for NaNoWriMo last year). It was really how to put the information across to the players of the game.

The world isn't so different to begin with. Think Inception.

Still from Inception (c) Warner Bros

The dreamshare device was created by a big tech company whose "Steve Jobs / Bill Gates" had a family tragedy that lead to the device's creation.

I had a couple of ways of approaching it. I could do a normal history, starting with the beginning of dream research, through Freud and Jung, to the discovery of REM sleep, adding in fictionalised bits about Soviet psi-research during the Cold War, how the tech went onto the black market, and so on.

Or, I could do it as a journal of the device's creation, presenting chunks of the fiction I'd written before from his point of view. But that lead to another problem - the guy was the designer of so much new tech, developer of computer Apps, that having him write a physical journal with notes and drawings would be tricky.

I was so hung up with this chapter, I'd come to a grinding halt. Stupid, I know...

But last week, I had an epiphany. A moment of clarity. I suddenly knew how to do chapter two. It just needed to introduce the players to the concept of dreamshare and how the tech worked. The history behind it can be revealed later for the GM.

And that was it. I was writing again. The chapter is done in its new style. Neither normal history or fictionalised fluff. It's something very different... that's all I can say.

Now, I'm back on Chapter Three. The character generation chapter. It's about half done, so I'd best get on with it while I'm on a roll.

Proper blogpost to come soon!!!

Lights, Camera, Inaction

Just a few updates this week, as I'm still trying to get back up to speed with the various projects. Let's have a look at what's been going on!

AUTOCRATIK

I haven't really touched the video camera for over a year. It was a nice one, on offer online, that I bought when we were convinced we were going to take over the world - be the new "The Guild" and make us the next big thing. When I left, I hadn't had the heart to even take the camera out of the case. I thought about selling it, I'd thought about new ideas for webseries comedies that involved tabletop gamers, but I just didn't manage it. The camera stayed in its case, the script for the pilot episode came to a grinding halt, just sitting on the harddrive...

Then I started thinking about the games. How I was concerned that people were reluctant to purchase some games because they couldn't see what was inside the boxes. After all, the 11th Doctor Core Set for the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space RPG is awesome - I was blown away by the presentation and the quality of it, and I thought about making an unboxing video so you could see what it's like.

But there was that video camera, just sitting there. And who wants to sit through five to ten mins of some boring bald guy opening stuff?

This week I felt determined to have a go, but first I needed to work on some titles. Rather than cheat and use stock footage, I wanted everything to be original. Music, titles, everything. So I bought some red fabric, and bingo - red flag.

Well, it's a start. The "Green Screen" effect on iMovie isn't great, so it cut the gold trim off of the logo, and I couldn't flip the "K", but it's a start. For a first attempt I'm happy with it. So, I need to perfect the superimposition of the logo, change the title test, and come up with some music. Something military, like Prokofiev... Soviet sounding... 

--

On the downside, when I loaded up iMovie for the first time in months, an older upload from my phone appeared. I forgot I'd shot a video of myself, a guided tour of my mum's house, about two weeks before she died last year, as a reminder of what it was like. 

WILD

It's been a little while since I looked at WILD. The madness of Christmas working in retail had delayed a lot of work on it, so I thought I'd print out what I had done so far to remind myself where I was. It's strange how it can look like there's both more and less than I'd expected of it. I really should get back to it.

I should also reread the WILD novel I did for NaNoWriMo, and do a second draft... 

CONSPIRACY X

However, I have been proofing the fourth book of Conspiracy X (the Conspiracies Sourcebook). A mammoth read, and a huge book when it hits the printers. Should be awesome.

OTHER PROJECTS

Besides that, there are other things I've been working on - pitches, proposals, and other assignments. I can't talk about those, but you never know. Strange things may be afoot at the Circle K. (No, it's not a Bill and Ted license).

--

Well, that's about it. I'll do something a bit more interesting next week, honest.

Until then, stay multi-classy!!

RPGnet Chat with Dan Davenport

Last night I did a late night Q&A on the RPGnet Chat with Dan Davenport and others in the chatroom, discussing all things Conspiracy X, Doctor Who and WILD. Below is an edited and formatted transcript of the chat. Enjoy! (You can read the full unedited transcript over at Dan's site - gmshoe.blogspot.com)

--

Dan Davenport: Alright! Dave, when you're ready, please introduce yourself and your games. The floor is yours!

Dave Chapman: Hi, I'm Dave Chapman. I've worked on lots of games for Eden Studios, including Buffy, AFMBE, Ghosts of Albion, Terra Primate and most notably I'm line developer for Conspiracy X 2.0. I was also system designer and lead writer on Cubicle 7's Doctor Who Adventures in Time and Space and now I'm working on my own project called WILD for my little publishing name Autocratik.

Dan: Any questions so far, or shall I get things rolling?

nick3: Well  I guess I should ask if more Conspiracy X 2.0 stuff is coming out

Dave: Yes, there's the Paranormal Sourcebook (thanks to Kickstarter) which is hitting shops this week, the Conspiracies Sourcebook which is in layout at the moment, and Extinction (the future of Conspiracy X) is in the works at the moment too... There's been talk of another sourcebook (The Operations Sourcebook) as well, and there are other books on my harddrive from the classic game that never saw print, so there's plenty of scope for the future.

nick3: The Conspiracies Sourcebook? Mind giving us a bit of information about it .

Dave: Sure. Like the other books, it takes existing classic ConX stuff and updates it (in this case, Sub Rosa, Aegis and Hand Unseen) but it also includes a lot of unseen material from the fabled Area 51 sourcebook... There's also some new stuff in there that builds to the future of the line (Extinction) and takes the game in a new direction. It's been Kickstarted, busted through its goals, and should be finished in the next couple of months. It's all written, it just needs layout, proofing and printing. 

Dan: And do I recall correctly that the Paranormal Sourcebook includes info from the 1st edition magic, psychic, and cryptid supplements?

Dave: Oh yes, only updated and converted to Unisystem. Kickstarter backers could get Zener cards with it, they'll be available to retail soon as well hopefully.

nick3: Are you guys going to aid some more stuff about CAPS?  That was a curious omission in the Paranormal Sourcebook

Dan: CAPS?

nick3: Dan, they are Aegis agency that studies the directly supernatural elements of the Conspiracy X world.

Dan: Ah, thanks.

Dave: CAPS is Center for Advanced Phenomenological Studies. Try saying that with a mouthful of marbles as my dad would say... As they're part of Aegis, I do believe they're covered in more detail in the Conspiracies Sourcebook's Aegis section. I'll check... I did write it five years ago, but I have been doing some additional updates recently.

Dan: Without giving too much away, the supernatural has a unified explanation in the ConX universe... How (or do) the cryptids fit in?

Dave: No problem. The book gives multiple explanations for each cryptozoological phenomena. Maybe it's seepage, maybe it's Atlantean constructs, it's up to the GM to decide what fits the campaign best.

Dan: Ah, I see.

Le_Squide: So, is seepage no longer the assumed truth behind all the weirdness?

Dave: Seepage is the cause of 99% of it, but weird things like the Loch Ness Monster, or Yeti, have very different origins... just to keep agents on their toes...

Dan: I spoke a bit about this to George regarding Extinction, but how do you plan on keeping it interesting and not just a matter of "Oh, great, more lizard guys"?

Dave: It all sounds a bit epic, but CJ Carella (creator of Unisystem) wrote Extinction before he became a recluse and vanished (hoping to avoid government agents I think). It's a huge game, but I see it like TV's "Falling Skies" meets "Halo", on a near future Earth. The Greys and the Atlanteans are about, but have very different parts to play in the battle against the Saurians. Lots of cyberware, nano tech, body modification, and magic has become recognised and public. It's gonna be interesting.

Dan: Really? I didn't realize it was that far in the future. Or is the high-tech stuff a result of interaction with the aliens?

Dave: Not too far, but with the way technology is developing at the moment, and with the Atlanteans predicting the return of the Saurian fleet they're stepping up the game and encouraging technological advances.

Dan: Aha. Gotcha. Are there any supernatural aspects to the enemy, or is that a purely human thing?

Dave: It's more of a human thing. Saurians are (*spoilers*) assumed to be Voids (except for the Dreamspeakers), so they haven't really gone into magic... but the idea of a corrupted Gna-Tall is a scary thought...

Dan: As I mentioned earlier, we discussed Doctor Who quite a bit with Nathaniel a while back, but I would just like to say that the system is awesome... and bears a more than passing resemblance to Cinematic Unisystem. Any thoughts on the subject? (Nat ran a demo game for me. He's local.)

Dave: Cinematic Unisystem was a great influence, one of the first games I'd played that really balanced a powerful lead (Slayer) and a group of White Hats (Scoobies).  When approaching Doctor Who, you had the same problem with The Doctor, and Companions, though in the more recent series, the companions have just as much to offer the story as The Doctor most of the time. Ensuring the poor player lumbered with K-9 has just as much to do and is just as capable in their own way during an adventure is tricky, but hopefully the game balances that.

Dan: How robust do you see the system as being? Obviously, it's been adapted to a more action-oriented setting in Primeval... Can you see it getting as much use as CineUni in various games? (And just because my regulars will be surprised if I don't ask this... could you see it handling pulp?)

Dave: I know the adaptation to Primeval was certainly more combat orientated, and it seems to work really well. I know it's also being used for a number of upcoming games that Cubicle 7 have coming out, but I don't know if I'm allowed to discuss what they are. As River Song would say... "Spoilers!"

Dan: Really? Cool. :)

Dave: I know one of the up coming games is certainly "Pulp-y" so hopefully that'll please your regulars!

Dan: DWPearce mentioned that it's a bit on the deadly side, Story Points aside.  What's your take?

Dave: It can be dangerous. It was a problem that initially came from Doctor Who - most of the weapons in the series are one-shot-kills. Hopefully, the Story Points keep people alive, and if you're running out of them, you're not doing enough dramatic and cool stuff to get them back!! Do something exciting!! There's also systems in play to exchange Story Points with other characters, and to keep you alive and healthy, but the best way to tackle combat in any game is to plan ahead, avoid conflict if possible, and take cover!

Dan: I saw that damage tops out at 1.5x in Doctor Who... Does that stay the same in Primeval? I tend to like rewarding sharpshooters/swashbucklers.

Dave: AFAIK, though you'd have to ask Gareth R-H about that, I haven't seen the final printed copy yet. Keep meaning to buy it!

Dan: Ah, understood. He's currently negotiating with the wife for a Q&A of his own. 

Dave: Yeah, must admit, he's the go-to guy for info on Primeval and Who at the moment, I had to take a step back from it all for a bit this year.

Dan: Okay, so can you tell us about WILD?

Dave: Ah, WILD... well, it stands for Wake Initiated Lucid Dreaming. It's an RPG that takes place in various levels of consciousness - from the waking world to many levels of dreaming. I like to think of it like Inception meets SuckerPunch.

Dan: What's the system like, and how does it handle what would have to be a wildly crossgenre setting?

Dave: It's even looser than anything I've worked on before. It's a new system, I've called "Rapid Die Movement". It's very fast and easy, and should handle anything. There's also an element of Tarot cards, and mandalas... Jung would be proud. 

Dan: How does the system work?

Dave: I can't give too much away, it's early days. There's only four stats, and five "skills", fairly simple dice pool. The depth comes from how dreams work, who's in control of the dream, how much you can alter them, and what happens when you lose control. In the real world there's a technology that allows dreamshare, built for medical and psychotherapy use but, then the military gets hold of it, there's black market copies for underground fight-clubs, dream recording, weirdness like that. Hopefully it should be good. And it may help with your real world problems and induce Lucidity too!

Dan: Are dreams potentially dangerous in the setting?

Dave: Dan, yes... think Nightmare on Elm St. And there's always an element that the dreams may escape. Just watch Paprika! 

Dan: (Oh, that's right... I do need to watch that. I bought it a while back...)

Snake_Eyes: Hello DaveChapman! what is your favorite Dungeons and Dragons module?

Dan: (Snake loves that question. :) )

Dave: Snake! Haven't played D&D since 1st Edition! Demonweb pits is the one that sticks in my mind. Dangerous!!!

Snake_Eyes: Awesome!!!

Dan: Yeah, I love that one. Even had a steampunk spider before steampunk was cool. :)

Dave: Oh, I may have played a 3.5 demo of Eberron about 3 years ago... Looking forward to seeing where 5th Ed goes though!

Snake_Eyes: What would you say is the best advice to give to an aspiring RPG writer?

Dave: Know the system, email the company, and WRITE! Write for free! Prove you can do it! My blog covers my attempts at getting into game writing since 1986, but I think the supplement I wrote for AFMBE is what convinced Eden to give me work. I wrote it on-spec, and it's never been used, but proved I could write for them... I became developer for Terra Primate from it, and the rest is history.

Snake_Eyes: :) Cool, nice to know.

Dan: Terra Primate is awesome, by the way. But you know that, because I reviewed it. ;)

Dave: Many thanks for that, dude. I didn't do much, just plugged the system into existing text, but it's a very underrated game.

Snake_Eyes: What is your favorite personal design you have created for rpgs, as a in rule mechanism?

Dave: Hmmm - I think the Initiative system for Doctor Who. That seems to go down well... allowing the Doctor to talk people out of a fight... I'm hoping the new system for WILD will surprise people too.

Dan: Would you mind saying a bit more about the initiative system, Dave? I've read and played it, but I'm not sure if Snake (or everyone reading the log of this chat) is familiar with it.

Snake_Eyes: Oh, yes I am a little familiar with the system, it allows the protagonist that wishes to engage in diplomacy a chance to act before violence begins?

Dave: Yes... basically, it breaks down into 4 phases. Talkers, Movers, Doers and Fighters. In that order. Gives people chance to talk their way out of a fight, to run away, to do something cool like open a door or trigger an alarm... anything rather than fight. You can fight, especially if you're in a UNIT style game. But in Doctor Who, the Doctor usually slides into a fight and gets them to lower their weapons - giving everyone a chance before the blasting and exterminating starts. I think it's that order... (it's been a while)

Dan: I'm told that there will be an alternate system for the UNIT supplement?

Dave: There's certainly mass combat rules in UNIT for when the troops are called in to fight armies of Cybermen, etc.

Dan: How would you describe the work of a line developer as it relates to the authors of individual game books?

Dave: It's not too different from just being an author, except when there's a line of books coming out, you're not expected to do them all yourself. So you call upon the people you know and ask them to help. Then you take their cool text, merge it into the format you need, and ensure the books have the same "voice"...

Snake_Eyes: What RPG books are you enjoying reading atm?

Dave: Just reading Nobilis (3rd) at the mo, as I loved (2nd) and wanted to see the difference. Leverage is amazing and highly underrated, and I'm looking forward to the Star Wars Beta making it to the UK... Speaking of being in the UK, it's 2:10am here and I've a dull day job tomorrow, I'll need to sleep soon!

Snake_Eyes: cool :)

Dan: So as line developer, is it your decision what comes out, and when?

Dave: Not really, it's usually when it's done, it's ready! Most of that's down to the publisher and the line developer's boss. They set the deadlines (if any)!

Snake_Eyes: well thank you very much DaveChapman, I hope you have pleasant dreams!!

Dan: No problem, Dave! We can call it a night if you need to hit the sack.

Dave: Thank you! I consider all dreams research - I'm cataloging some of them here for the game - http://wilddreaming.blogspot.com

Dan: Cool. :)

Dave: Thanks guys, it's been a blast. Anytime!

Dan: Thanks very much for staying up late to talk to us!

Roll Your Own Life (10) - Like My Father Before Me

After a tense couple of weeks, my wife has returned and I am once again able to write. There was something about her being the other side of the planet that meant that I just couldn't concentrate. I don't know whether it was the lack of sleep from sitting up to video-Skype with her, or just that fidgety restlessness you get when something isn't right with the world, but in the two weeks she was away, I hardly wrote anything.

I chatted with friends about WILD though, and some absolutely genius ideas came up. There are times when I'm describing what I have in mind for the game, and one of them replies with a simple "why don't you do this?" And I'm left wondering why I didn't think of that genius solution before? Maybe I'm just too close to it sometimes. I needed that break to "catch the big fish" as Lynch would say.

Before I continue with my bizarre history of the world as seen through my life in gaming, I just wanted to point people in the direction of a particularly wacky podcast called Bros and Cons, hosted by Bret and Tim (who, once again, I met through gaming). I recently appeared on Episode 5 - The Poo Poo Wizard episode, and it was a blast. Have a listen, the language is a little colourful, and there are in-depth discussions ranging from genetically grown organs, the legalisation of prostitute assassins, to catching Pokemon. Enjoy.

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Back to the tales of yore!

The West End Games STAR WARS RPG

After a brief stint of trying to write Price of Freedom adventures, I discovered an advert for the forthcoming Star Wars RPG in a magazine and I was immediately sold.

Star Wars was a life defining moment for me. I may get a little sad for a bit, but bear with me. The local cinema was 15 miles away from my home town, and Hull made a big deal about the release of the first real blockbuster. This movie was big, the reception in the States proved it, so Hull reopened one of its old cinemas, The Dorchester, especially for one film, and one film only. Star Wars was the only film shown in the big one screen cinema, and it showed it for about six months. The demand was so high that I remember my dad bringing home the tickets for the film and the earliest we could go and see it was at least two months away.

I have even earlier memories of Star Wars. I remember the page in British comic 2000AD that had some stills from it, saying "This film is going to be big, you should like it." Hell, if 2000AD told you something was going to be good, in the late 70's you darn well listened.

After that (and before seeing the film), I remember my dad had to go away for conferences/training maybe once or twice a year. He went away on one of these trips and when he returned he had a couple of presents for me - two Star Wars figures - Chewbacca and R2-D2. I had no idea who or what they were, but I remembered the 2000AD feature and those were the coolest toys I'd ever had.

When the fateful day of the cinema trip arrived, it was early 1978. I'd seen a couple of trailers on TV, but knew only parts of the story. There was a Marvel comics adaptation (which I still have) that was in two parts, but published HUGE, almost A3, but I'd only read the first half. But there we were, on our way to Hull in the car, with my mum and dad, about to go and see Star Wars.

We'd had a couple of cinema trips before. I remember vaguely the trip to see Michael York in The Three Musketeers, but I have a better memory of going to see The Man with the Golden Gun, and The Spy Who Loved Me (which obviously influenced my love of James Bond movies from an early age), but Star Wars would change my life.

We sat quite near the back on the ground floor as it was near the door and easier to get my mum's wheelchair into the cinema, but it meant that the balcony seating overhung above us, cutting a fraction of the top of the screen off from view. Not much, but enough to mean that when the rebel blockade runner and the star destroyer first appeared on screen in those opening seconds, my mum was convinced they'd flown out from the balcony.

It was like nothing I'd ever seen. I was glued to the screen. It was the most amazing thing in the world. I'd seen movies before, witnessed the way the stories worked, but when they escaped the Death Star I thought the film would end... but no, there was the whole attack on the Death Star which was the most jaw-dropping spectacle my young eyes had ever seen. I could feel Star Wars seeping into my very existence, and from that day there was nothing like it.

I saved up for the toys, my dad dressed up as Darth Vader at the town carnival (with me as Luke, and my friend Jinx as Han Solo). Even my mum loved the movie - sad to think that her last birthday this year, she asked me to get her the original trilogy of Star Wars on DVD (even though they're no longer available) because they didn't have a VHS player in the home where they were trying to nurse her back to health. She never did get to see it again.

Anyway, the Star Wars RPG was a work of genius in my eyes. It took the basic system of Ghostbusters which I already loved, and made it Star Wars-y. It was epic, you could do heroic and cinematic things, you could duel with lightsabers and use the Force. It was fantastic.

My GM's eye view of running Star Wars, with
Pete peering over the screen (1989)

The presentation was a revelation as well, with its fake adverts for the Imperial Navy and tourist guide to the planets. There was a humour there, and it brought Star Wars to life for me again, just in the cold times when there was no Star Wars to light the way.

I GM'd Star Wars for a while. A group of rebels lead by Deeko Smiggins, scoundrel and pilot of the Ballistic Wombat, who would roll 30D6 to out-fly those stupid TIE Fighter pilots. And for a while, it was great.

But my gaming group was mostly away at University. The few of The Eight left behind were busy having real lives, and I just kinda festered. My only real social life besides the Eight when they returned was hanging around with the people I knew from the Council job (and then the Archaeology Unit when I was transferred over to them).

There were a few gaming highlights (mostly Pete's creation called "Odyssey" which we played as a RuneQuest-y type thing, a superhero game and in its finest incarnation, recreating the worlds of James Cameron's Aliens and beyond), but things started to go quiet on the gaming (and the writing) front.

Looking back, now, I still have very fond memories of Star Wars, and I still have the RPG books (and I've bought the more recent incarnations, and eagerly await looking at the new Fantasy Flight Star Wars game), but Star Wars itself has become tarnished by endless recuts, remasters, re-edits, and a series of prequels that try to make you sympathetic to the stormtroopers and reduces Darth Vader to a sulky teen who didn't get his own way. To me, it'll never be as cool as it was that first time, sitting in the cinema with my parents, where all three of us were transported for the first time to a galaxy far, far away.

What's in a Name?

When I first started this blog, I had a couple of people ask, "Why 'Autocratik'?" But when I added the header to the blog, with the red flag, it prompted even more questions, "Why the flag, dude?"

So, here's a quick answer to both of those questions.

Set the way-back machine to 1998. Since school I've kinda only really wanted to do one of two things. Write RPGs and draw comics. Well, in 1998 I had a go at the latter. I was unemployed, living off of the wifey's meager income from her job in graphic design, and I set up a company to publish comics. It was just at the tail end of the boom in black and white independent comics, and after going to a couple of comic conventions and talking to the indie guys who were actually getting their stuff out there, I thought I should give it a go.

And so Autocratik Press was born.


I created this comic series called "Missing", an epic drama set in an alternate (then) future at the turn of the millennium, in a vast hotel on the border between Scotland and an England under American rule. It was my "Twin Peaks", a soap opera like cast of dozens - the suicidal runaway, the local sheriff, suited criminals, dandy highwaymen on powered surfboards who held up the traffic on the flooded roads north, and the psychotic boyfriend seeking revenge. I had about 90 issues planned, but the indie comic scene was fading a little, and I had my distribution pulled.

Debs published a few little microzines, deeply moving stories of love and haunting, and groups of goths, under the Autocratik imprint, and I published a very cool one-shot by the legendary D'Israeli D'Emon Draughtsman, artist of Batman, Sandman, and more. A sequel to his awesome Timulo strip that used to run in British magazine "Deadline", "Consequences" was an epic and beautifully illustrated tale of hit-nuns and giant fish. You can read it in this excellent collection along with the original Timulo strip by purchasing the Timularo (The Complete Timulo) Collection.

In the top left corner of every issue of Missing, and Consequences, was the Autocratik Press logo. Inspired by Soviet propaganda, it was Debs and me with the red flag, leading the revolution in publishing. It was fun while it lasted, and Autocratik closed its publishing doors late 1999.

However, if I hadn't been working on comics, I'd have never contacted a certain game company about doing a comic for their RPG, which lead to writing books, and... well, that's another story.

When pondering the idea of going solo and doing my own game, there was only one name that came to mind - Autocratik.