The Paid to Play Podcast

Rob Farquhar

The antidote to the "don't give up your day job" blues: Chats with career crazies and freelance fun-makers on how to turn what you love doing into income!

  1. 13/09/2017

    Chris Birch, Founder and Publisher at Modiphius – Episode 123

    Tabletop Gaming Company Founder and Publisher Chris Birch loves the tabletop gaming scene, from roleplaing games to wargames and boardgames; he grew up on Dungeons & Dragons, Steve Jackson’s Ogre and 15mm historical wargames. He loves it so much that he long harboured a dream of making and publishing games. Five years ago, Chris followed his dream to create and run a game company and founded founded Modiphius. The company used Kickstarter to enable their first project, Achtung! Cthulhu; since then Modiphius has become full-time employment for Chris and around twenty employees. Modiphius has created new games and secure the licenses for some of the biggest franchises around, including Infinity, Fallout, Conan and Star Trek. Join Chris and I for a great chat about headphone-stealing squirrels, what a major convention does to your work schedule, preparing for the tabletop gaming business through the music and fashion industries and making sure you choose projects based on whether you genuinely love them! Chris Birch and Modiphius Official Website of Modiphius Modiphius on Facebook Modiphius on Twitter Modiphius' Games Achtung! Cthulhu Fallout: Wasteland Warfare Star Trek Adventures Thunderbirds Games, People and Events Cubicle 7 (tabletop game company) David Grant (Wikipedia) Free League Publishing Gen Con The Lord of the Rings - 1981 BBC radio adaptation (Wikipedia) Matt Leacock Mike Pondsmith (Wikipedia) Ogre Starblazer - Space Fiction Adventure in Pictures (Wikipedia)

    1h 13m
  2. 16/08/2017

    Jared A. Sorensen, Roleplaying Game Designer – Episode 122

    Tabletop roleplaying and digital game designer Jared A. Sorensen has been a mainstay of the indie scene since the turn of the millennium. He's probably best know for his roleplaying game InSpectres, about busting ghosts while balancing the budget, but he's worked across projects across the gaming spectrum. Jared is one of my classic guests. I first spoke with him for Episode 8, all the way back in 2012, and I'm glad to have him back on to talk about his latest project, a hardcover compilation of his Parsely series of party games inspired by the text-based computer adventures of the seventies and eighties. As of this posting, the Kickstarter for the Parsely book has finished with over 300% of the requested target! Join us for a chat about nightclubbing spiders, the great screenwriter in the sky, running a game at a planetarium, adjectives and expletives in Australia and the United States and being a travelling mad scientist! Jared Sorensen Jared A. Sorensen's web site and RPG brand, Memento Mori Jared A. Sorensen on Twitter Jared Sorensen's chat for Episode 8 Jared's Games Parsely The Parsely Games Compilation on Kickstarter InSpectres Steve Darlington's RPGnet review octaNe FreeMarket Friends Luke Crane Sorensen/Crane Vincent Baker Games, Gamers and Gaming Atari 2600 game console (Wikipedia) Burning Wheel and Burning Empires Greg Costikyan The Forge Gen Con Gen Con 50 Retrospective Panels, including "Creative Millennium: RPGs at the turn of the century"  with Jared Sorensen, Jonathan Tweet, James Wallis, Vincent Baker and Ron Edwards; hosted by Luke Crane Ghostbusters roleplaying game (Wikipedia) Iello Games King of Tokyo Oceanos The Nerdist Podcast Nintendo Entertainment System (Wikipedia) Paranoia roleplaying game, published by Mongoose Publishing Pendragon, a.k.a. King Arthur Pendragon - Edition 5.1, roleplaying game published by Nocturnal Media Peter Adkison Greg Stafford Wargames West - article on Shut Up, Internet Other Links The Charles Hayden planetarium at the Boston Museum of Science Images sourced from the Memento Mori website.

    1h 15m
  3. Ian Livingstone, Games Workshop and Fighting Fantasy Co-Founder – Episode 121

    02/08/2017

    Ian Livingstone, Games Workshop and Fighting Fantasy Co-Founder – Episode 121

    Game designer, writer, executive and philanthropist Ian Livingstone is one of the founding fathers of the UK games industry. He co-founded iconic games company Games Workshop in 1975 with Steve Jackson, creating hobby magazine White Dwarf and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, which soon after spawned the juggernaut tabletop miniatures games Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000. Ian also co-authored The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, the first interactive book in the Fighting Fantasy series, with Steve Jackson in 1982. Since, the series has sold 20 million copies worldwide. Ian has written 15 titles in the series, including Deathtrap Dungeon and City of Thieves. His new book, The Port of Peril, will be published by Scholastic in August 2017. In 1995 Ian oversaw a merger that created Eidos plc where he served as Executive Chairman until 2002, and later as Creative Director. At Eidos he launched global video games franchises including Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Ian co-authored the influential Livingstone-Hope Next Gen review published by NESTA in 2011, recommending changes in ICT education policy. He chaired the Next Gen Skills campaign, working with government to introduce the new Computing curriculum in schools in 2014. He is opening Livingstone Academies in 2019 in association with Aspirations Academies Trust, with a curriculum focused on problem-solving and digital creativity. Join us for a chat about saying "no" to partnering with the makers of Dungeons & Dragons, retaining control of your intellectual property, the Twittersphere posing a question Ian has never been asked before and Ian throwing a game mastering gauntlet down at the feet of your humble host! A huge thank you to guest for Episode 111, Neil Rennison of Tin Man Games, who are republishing the Fighting Fantasy series as digital gamebooks for computers, tablets and smartphones, for getting Ian and I in touch! Thanks also to Twitter fans MalcolmGarcia and furious george ☭‏ for your questions! Ian Livingstone Ian Livingstone on Twitter Official website of Fighting Fantasy The Fighting Fantasy section of Gamebook Adventures, app versions of game-books Fighting Fantasy Legends by Nomad Games Games Workshop Tabletop Gaming Dungeons & Dragons Video Gaming Eidos Interactive (Wikipedia) Tomb Raider (Wikipedia)

    1h 2m
  4. 07/06/2017

    Fon Davis, Movie Model Maker – Episode 118

    Miniature model maker Fon Davis has worked on over thirty feature films across a two decade career. He’s an alumnus of the Industrial Light and Magic Model Shop and Disney, having produced concept art and made models for Starship Troopers, Galaxy Quest, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline. Recently, he’s worked on Interstellar, Guardians of the Galaxy and Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium. Fon founded his own design and fabrication studio, Fonco Creative, in 1997 in San Francisco, and after setting up shop in the premises of Vanaheim Studios in Los Angeles, he bought the whole 16,000 square foot facility out at the end of first quarter 2017, renaming it Fonco Studios. Join us for a fantastic chat about the importance of a portfolio in the special effects industry (and why Fon didn't wind up needing one when he interviewed at ILM), the possibilities of virtual reality in entertainment, how special effects folks insert themselves into the movies they work on and the questions from the show's Patreon backers! Thanks again to my guest for episode 86, Lauren Matesic of Castle Corsetry, for getting Fon on the show, and thanks to Patreon backer Matt Dawson for your questions for Fon! Fon Davis, Fonco Creative and Fonco Studios Fon Davis on Facebook Fon Davis on Instagram Fon Davis on Twitter Fonco Studios / Fonco Creative Fonco Creative on Facebook Fonco Studios on Facebook Movies Coraline Galaxy Quest (Wikipedia) James and the Giant Peach (Wikipedia) The Nightmare Before Christmas (Wikipedia) Starship Troopers (Wikipedia) Fon's Projects and Loves Kaiju movies (Wikipedia) MORAV Movie and Effects Companies Colossal Pictures (Wikipedia) Henry Selick (Wikipedia) Disney Industrial Light and Magic Mark Anderson (IMDb) Lucasfilm Stan Winston School of Character Arts Tippett Studio (Wikipedia) Television BattleBots Other Projects Hyper-Reality MegaBots

    1h 18m
  5. 10/05/2017

    Saffron Bryant, Self-Published Science Fiction and Fantasy Author – Episode 116

    Australian science fiction and fantasy author Saffron Bryant has been writing since she could first hold a pencil but only started getting serious in 2011. Saffron's first book, The Fallen Star, was released in 2012 after Saffron was forced to take leave from her studies in biomedical science at uni while recovering from surgery to remove a brain tumour. Now, at the age of twenty-six, Saffron has fifteen novels available for sale on Amazon, a degree in Biomedical Science (with honours) and has just finished her PhD in chemistry at the University of Sydney. As of last year Saffron earned enough royalties to pay all her bills. In her spare time, Saffron is a huge fan of multiple fandoms, including The Lord of the Rings, Doctor Who, Game of Thrones and Stephen King (especially The Dark Tower). She also plays Massively Multiplayer Online RPGs and even tabletop ones like Dungeons & Dragons. Join Saffron and I as we get back together (after our chat for Episode 16) for a great chat about the first fiction you write, how writing is the perfect cure for the boredom of convalescence and the process of screening editors - not to mention a geek-out about Doctor Who! Saffron Bryant Official website of Saffron Bryant Saffron Bryant's author page on Amazon Self-Publishing Tools BookBub Science Fiction and Fantasy Black Mirror (Netflix) Doctor Who Game of Thrones The Lord of the Rings (movies) Patrick Rothfuss, author of The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear Stephen King, author of The Dark Tower series and many more Supernatural Games Dungeons & Dragons (tabletop roleplaying game) The Legend of Drizzt (board game) The Lord of the Rings Online (massively multiplayer online roleplaying game) Pathfinder (tabletop roleplaying game)

    40 min

About

The antidote to the "don't give up your day job" blues: Chats with career crazies and freelance fun-makers on how to turn what you love doing into income!