HellcowKeith

Not at the moment. While a lawyer from the EFF has assured me that it's really "Fair Use Gloom," it still feels weird to me to share something so heavily based on other peoples' work. For those who've never seen it, Copyright Infringement Gloom is a sci-fi version of Gloom that uses characters and situations from Star Wars, Star Trek, Firefly, BSG and many more settings.

I am still tempted to make A Gloom Of Thrones, though. After all, GoT is basically the story of a bunch of families that suffer miserably until they finally die!

Technically, I'm part of a number of different industries (Computer game designer, RPG/card game designer, fantasy author). At presented, there are a number of schools that offer game design programs, but that wasn't an option when I got started. I studied English and Creative Writing at Bates College, with an interest in history.

For world designers, one of the most important things you can do is to study our world: history, folklore, geography. Learning what shapes our world and cultures is a great way to create new worlds that feel plausible, even if they are alien.

For game designers, a critical thing is to PLAY LOTS OF GAMES. Tinker with games - change rules and see what happens. It's like taking a watch apart and putting it back together... find things you enjoy and then figure out what makes them work that way.

Anyhow, I could go on at more length about ways to get started, but is there a particular subset of the field you're curious about (Computer, card, RPG)?

I'll but it together when I have time, but between Phoenix, Fairy Tale Gloom and Munchkin Gloom I've got quite a few irons in the fire!

Tough question! A while ago I would have said Planescape: Torment, but Mass Effect II is definitely competition for favorite CRPG. And I still have a sentimental spot for Archon, going way back to my childhood - I usually love games that follow that model.

Well, if you'd like to see my blueprint for how an aberrant-marked villain might cleanse Sharn - complete with aberrant army in the sewers - you might want to read my novel "The Son of Khyber" as that's the plot!

A critical question is whether you're trying to preserve the existing population, or whether you want to destroy and start fresh. The Dreaming Dark typically tries to preserve existing structures; their goal is to conquer you without ever realizing you've been conquered. Thus, in the Sundering of Sarlona they essentially spawn a civil war so that they can appear as the saviors who put everything back together. Rather than forcing their rule on a hostile populace, they convinced the people to welcome them to power.

Using that approach, the simplest thing is to create an enemy. In Sharn, this could be Daask, the Boromars, or any other convenient group.

But my personal path would be to expose the Dreaming Dark. Some charismatic figure convinces the populace that they have been infiltrated by alien creatures who have replaced their most trusted leaders. Whip the people into a frenzy and have a witch-hunt that wipes out all voices of reason and obstacles to ascension.

The funny thing? This is actually a very valid approach for the Dreaming Dark to use itself... which would thus make it extremely easy to place agents where they could be exposed. So it uses the threat of Inspired and Riedran aggression as the stalking horse, while its chosen saviors use a different identity (say, one of the Dragonmarked houses). At the end of the day, both Riedra and Sharn are ruled by the Quori - but even the populace doesn't realize they're being ruled by the same force.