We at Marooners Rock love talking about all sorts of games. So, when we were granted the opportunity to interview Skybound Entertainment’s Senior Director of Tabletop Games, James Hudson, we were so excited to hear all about this project BloodStone now live on Kickstarter.
While Skybound is well-known for Founder Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead and Invincible, it was great to learn about a whole different side of the company.
Marooners’ Rock: What was the genesis of this project?
James Hudson: I am a big Blizzard fanboy. I spent a lot of time in the worlds of Azeroth and New Tristam. This board game plays a lot like a video game, specifically a board game where you have PvP matches as one mode of play and fighting raid bosses as a team as another mode of play. I was watching an episode of Titansgrave (Wil Wheaton/Geek & Sundry) and got inspired by the AGE System they were using for that RPG.
MR: How involved was Mr. Kirkman and what was the collaboration process like?
JH: What’s nice about working for Robert’s company is he gives creators control over their property and story. So while Robert is enthusiastic about the tabletop titles I create, it’s really me creating them, and leaning on Skybound for promotion, execution, etc.
MR: What separates Bloodstone from other Skybound projects
JH: Game mechanics is one of the easiest differences. We have never tried an arena combat game. Next would be narrative. The world that we have built around this game is incredible. It really ramped up when we decided to publish a novel alongside the board game. It is signed with Simon & Schuster and we reached out to Ari Marmell to author it. We spend a lot of time building out a rich background and lore to support the book and a lot of that spilled over into the game design and character builds.
MR: How did you go about developing the backstory for Bloodstone?
JH: As any good story starts: a totally random idea on a walk. Ha! Seriously though, I knew when I started building the game mechanics that I wanted a dark high fantasy world to accompany this arena combat system. Then the idea of the Bloodstone formed and as I thought about the powers it had and the way it worked within this world, everything else started to fall in place.
As I said above, working with Ari and Ben Kepner (from my team) to flesh out the world bible for the novel really helped bring everything into focus. It was an incredibly enjoyable process.
MR: What made the tabletop game the perfect conduit to play out the stories of Bloodstone?
I am a recovering World of Warcraft addict. I spent quite a few years really wrapped up in that game. When some friends asked me to come play “board games” one night, I laughed at them. I had no interest in playing Monopoly or Scrabble with them. They quickly informed me they didn’t either and that they played hobby board games and wanted me to come hang out and give it a try. I am glad I did, that is where I fell in love with hobby board games. If someone is reading this and is like “what is a “hobby” board game?”, let me help… The difference between mass-market board games and hobby is a couple of things. 1) Player agency: in mass-market games, there is very little agency. Your choices rarely matter and what you are doing is more of an activity. In hobby games, agency is the main focus. Giving players meaningful choices. These choices give you a very gratifying experience whether you win or lose the game you are playing. 2) Depth: Mass market games have very little depth. Hobby games have a ruleset, that while a little more work is involved to read and prep to play the game, the result is an experience that is much more enjoyable. 3) Fun! Mass market games can be fun for a play or two and then they typically wear out their welcome. Hobby games can be played over and over. The deeper ruleset and mechanics give the games long-lasting enjoyment. And my last selling point is connection. Hobby games allow you to connect with the people you are playing within a more meaningful way, it’s a sort of magic really.
Ok, I am not even sure I answered your question with all of that, ha! The point is, board games are my preferred conduit for social interaction. Having a great outlet to put down my phone and engage with the people around me is essential in these times.
MR: What made Kickstarter the right platform for Bloodstone and why have you made this game exclusive to backers?
JH: Crowdfunding allows us to even make a project like this possible. This is not a game that could take a traditional retail/distribution route. The game scope is too big. The production is too grandiose to take straight to retail. Crowdfunding allows us to present our vision of this boutique product. It gives us the freedom to really create in our vision. The same reasons why it has to be a Kickstarter exclusive apply. Even once it is produced, there isn’t another version of this game that makes sense that would fit the retail model. So we decided to make this game Kickstarter Exclusive with very limited availability on our webstore afterwards, but it will never have a retail release.
MR: With the likes of Walking Dead and Invincible having immense success across various mediums are there any plans to turn Bloodstone into a multimedia IP?
JH: I hope so! There are so many factors to something like that which are out of my hands that you can only hope that you have built a world and narrative that is attractive to others. If they take interest in the project then we can pursue other mediums. The Kickstarter success is a great indicator to our partners as well about how much support and interest there is in an IP, so if you want to see some of your favorite IP’s go further, consider supporting them on crowdfunding!
MR: What are you working on next and where can people find out more information about Bloodstone?
Our next big project is Tidal Blades: The Rise of the Unfolders. This is a project we crowdfunded in 2018 and delivered the first game to backers a few months ago and the second installment is coming later this year to Kickstarter. This game will be an adventure-style “dungeon crawl” where our heroes venture into The Fold to discover its mysteries. We also partnered with Monte Cook Games to make an RPG in the Cypher System that will launch in addition to our board game with that campaign. So if you are a board gamer or an RPG player, we got something awesome for you with that campaign.
JH: You can go to www.bloodstonethegame.com to sign up for our promotional d20. It’s a custom clear dice with a bloodstone in the center. It looks so cool! We launch the campaign on February 16th and it will run for 24 days and after that, the pledge manager will be open for several months after that. I hope everyone gets a chance to check it out!
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We’d like to thank Mr. Hudson for his time and wish him well in his future endeavors. Stay tuned to Marooners Rock for more gaming news! You can check out the Kickstarter page for Bloodstone by clicking here.
