This is the second post in a four part interview with Justin Jacobson of Blue Devil Games, co-author and original publisher of Akashic Nodes: Home of Memory a supplement for Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved. You can find the first part HERE
13. What do you feel was the most ingenious part of The Fading of All Things that you devised?
From a plot standpoint, I did like the idea that this arduous quest was for a long-forgotten piece of paper. And it wasn’t a world-ending spell or a massive treasure map, but a treaty between two small fishing villages. From a mechanic standpoint, I was proud of the idea to present three levels of difficulty for each encounter, which allows the DM to tweak on the fly based on how the party is doing.
14. What specific design choice are you most happy with, and why?
I really liked how we paired up each writer and each author. It gave the anthological feel that worked for me.
15. Which design element was the hardest to figure out, and why?
Well it wasn’t hard for me, but Bill Collins’s development of nodes for non-akashics was just brilliant. I know he put a lot of hard work into that chapter, and it shows.
16. What did you learn about design and especially setting specific supplements?
It made for a better finished product, but working with five different authors was little big like herding cats. Ironically, it did make the setting stuff easier to sort out. I know I had to make sure my adventure didn’t go against AE canon. Fortunately, there were several other sets of eyes to look out for that sort of thing.
17. What did you learn about The Fading of All Things during play-testing? (prototype, beta, or both) What did you change as a result?
Hah! I didn’t playtest Fading at all. A few of the other writers did some playtesting, and it went pretty well. The only thing I remember changing was giving Kraalis a few more resources to avoid hindering the party during combat and giving the DM a little more advice about how to play that. He’s incredibly easy to kill!
18. Did you make any other mistakes or miscalculations in the design process? How did you fix them?
I don’t recall any specifics. I know we went over the monster statblocks, like, twenty times to make sure we didn’t have any errors. Overall, that book is incredibly error free. In fact, I’m not aware of any errata for it.
19. We have a long history of dusty libraries and books in fantasy role-playing; do you have any recommendations to encourage DM's to use Akashic Nodes: A Home of Memory instead of these tropes?
You answered your own question. Akashic nodes can definitely slot into any fantasy setting. And they offer a new take on the typical fantasy tropes for information gathering. Notably, akashic nodes have personality, in the most literal sense of that word, that a traditional library lacks.
20. Are you happy with where Akashic Nodes is today?
Well, I’d love to have sold about a 1,000 more copies, but it’s about where I expected.
21. What makes a good AE product?
It has to be an AE product. Monte made that setting chock full of fresh ideas; run with them. Generic monsters and feats does it a disservice.
22. What is your favorite AE product (besides yours and the core book)?
Legacy of the Dragons is one of the best monster products out there for any setting. The monsters themselves are dripping with coolness. The addition of lair information—with maps!—was brilliant. Plus, one of my NPCs made it into the book!
23. What is your favorite Non-Monte AE (besides yours) product and why?
I’m partial to Plague of Dreams because it was the first third-party product for AE and it’s the bee’s knees.
24. What is your favorite Blue Devil games AE product and why?
Akashic Nodes for sure. But a close second is Dark Houses: The Guild Hive because it was an ambitious hybrid product, where we teamed up with Ed Bourelle of Skeleton Key to put out a unique little product.
Continues HERE.
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