Interview - David Chapman - Cubicle 7 - The Laundry RPG 2E

Today I chat with Cubicle 7's Game Producer and Game Designer - David F Chapman.

We discuss the Kickstarter for The Laundry RPG 2E which bring us an updated version of the TTRPG based on Charles Stross' books, the C7D6 dice system, Doctor Who, and much more.

You can find David and all of his associated content via the links below.

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/cubicle7

Website:
https://cubicle7games.com/
https://www.autocratik.com/

Other:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cubicle-7-games/the-laundry-roleplaying-game-second-edition?ref=7tzsgk

https://www.instagram.com/cubicle7/
https://www.instagram.com/autocratik/
https://youtu.be/qCMy2Zn5uBI?si=5FaI2j7LrZVD_I7t

Calibration Tools:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/114jRmhzBpdqkAlhmveis0nmW73qkAZCj

Please leave reviews on ITunes to help us to learn and grow as a Podcast

Yours Sincerely,

Adam 'Cosy' Powell

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CAST & CREW

Host: Adam Powell

Guest: David F Chapman

Sound Design: Adam Powell
Edited by: Adam Powell
Music: Epidemic Sound

Cover Art: Tim Cunningham - www.Wix.com

~~~~~~~~~~

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https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIoZ8iiYCp919UHXUYGghbw
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Visit https://www.patreon.com/snyders_return?fan_landing=true

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Transcript

Adam Powell (00:03.997)
Hello and welcome to Snyder's Return, A Table Top Role Play podcast. My guest today is broken from their work area to wash away the eldritch filth that has stained the very fabric of our existence. Knowing how things can add up to be both spectacular and truly unspeakable and not looking to be put through the wringer themselves is Cubicle 7 producer David Chapman. To discuss the latest Kickstarter, The Laundry RPG second edition. David, welcome to the show.

David Chapman (00:31.676)
Hi there, thank you for having me on and thank you for such a great intro that managed to get as many laundry and washing related puns in there as possible. That's great.

Adam Powell (00:40.989)
I do try, I do try. So before we go into a few of the things I've alluded to there in the introduction, David, how did you yourself get into tabletop role playing games, please?

David Chapman (00:51.132)
Personally, or professionally, personally, it kind of started, I was a massive nerd. I'm an old fart really. And I was very into Star Wars as a kid and playing video games. And one day a friend of mine just said, oh yeah, we're not.

programming light cycles on the ZX Spectrum today. We're going to go over to a friend of ours place and that's, they took me to this friend's place and we, I was first experienced the wonders of traveler. That was my first game, which I was immediately hooked because you know, sci -fi, it's almost Star Wars, but it wasn't quite. And from then onwards, I joined two different.

RPG groups in my little town and ended up playing D &D, Runequest, all that kind of business, a good four or five days a week. And then the groups gradually merged together because it's only a small place. And yeah, yeah, I haven't looked back since. When it comes to actual writing or working on them, I had the urge to write RPGs since...

like the late 80s. After first reading the Ghostbusters RPG, the West End Games one, it just kind of had that weird effect of you read it, and it's fun. And I thought, well, if somebody's having this much, if it's this much fun to read, somebody's obviously had a real blast writing it. Oh, my God, people actually get paid to write these things. I could do this. So I immediately tried to write.

for West End Games and this was the late 80s, it was typewriter photocopying the manuscript, send it to New York, wait three months. And they got back to me and said, well, you can write, but you know, you've dipped into a few copyright infringements because I added Bruce Willis and moonlighting into one of the adventures and Scooby -Doo.

David Chapman (03:09.468)
and at the time traveling DeLorean and yeah, lots of things like that. But ever since then, I've always wanted to get into game writing. And then I had a bit of a pause where I went off to uni and I had a career change where I went into comic publishing and writing and drawing comics and starting up a company and...

I got introduced to an RPG called Conspiracy X by a friend of mine who knew my complete obsession with the X -Files. And so I read Conspiracy X and got in touch with Eden Studios and said, hey, I'd like to do a comic based on Conspiracy X. And then that was just as the independent comic scene was.

imploding and and I folded the comic publishing business but I kept in touch with Eden and said hey well back in olden days I really wanted to write RPGs and is there anything that I can work on and they said well you know write something and we'll see what your writing's like so I did a supplement for All Flesh Must Be Eaten that never saw light of day.

thankfully, which was, which was all summer camp stalkers and unstoppable evil, I think, because it's titled which was like turning turning all flesh must be eaten into like 70s and 80s slasher movies. But that opened the door from they said, well, we you proven that you can do this stuff. How about working on this? And then they handed me.

Terror Primate, which was their Planet of the Apes style All Flush Must Be Eaten style thing. And from there went on to working on Buffy and more All Flush Must Be Eaten stuff and then managed to convince them to do a second edition of Conspiracy X, which I was line developer and lead writer on. And yeah, from there it kind of...

David Chapman (05:37.884)
just escalated.

Adam Powell (05:41.789)
I mean, wow, that's quite a journey and quite a sort of shift and change. And barring your IP infringements and copyright infringement sounds like you wrote a hell of a game to start with. So I mentioned in the introduction, you are a Cubicle 7's producer or a producer for Cubicle 7. So how did you get involved with Cubicle 7 to start with? Where was that sort of, where did that journey begin? And.

David Chapman (05:42.844)
Ha ha ha ha!

David Chapman (05:50.012)
Ha ha ha!

David Chapman (05:53.916)
You

David Chapman (06:01.628)
Mmm.

Adam Powell (06:10.493)
How has that led to where you are?

David Chapman (06:13.404)
It's a strange one because it was right at the beginning, but when cubicle seven was hardly even a thing, really. It's, I, conspiracy X second edition had just come out and I got an email from somebody just randomly just saying, Hey, just checked out conspiracy X and really, really liked it. And we started chatting over an email and saying, Oh yeah, it'd be good if we.

could do something that could get more people playing takes of RPGs, sort of expose them to maybe kids, sort of your teens or something like that. So it would start a new generation interested. So maybe what we needed was a license that would be, that would get people sucked in. And we started thinking, well, what would be the things that would be like, well, we're British, so it would either be.

Um, James Bond or Dr. Who or something like that. Uh, and the person who was emailing was Chris Birch, who is now head of Modiphius. Um, and he said, Oh yeah, well, Dr. Who, I know somebody who works at BBC licensing. We should, we should look into that. Um, and then things went quiet for a couple of weeks or, and then suddenly I was.

in a pub in a back row row in London with Chris Birch, Angus Branson and Dominic McDowell, who had just formed cubicle seven. And we thought, hey, let's go for Doctor Who. It won't work with nobody. They won't go for it at all. We're a new company. Nobody has managed to get the license since like Virgin Books did it back in the.

80s. Yeah, we don't stand a chance, but it'll be good experience. So we clubbed together, I sort of wrote the first chapter and a pitch. And we got Fred Hicks, who's head of Evil Hat now. He did all the graphic design for us. And we put together this like 36 page booklet.

David Chapman (08:42.14)
which was basically, here's what we want to do with Doctor Who and here's our pitch for it. And we laid it out like the rule book would look. And we got like, I think about 10 printed and sent it to the BBC and not expecting to hear anything more of that. And then the next thing we're in BBC offices, talking to them, saying, well, yeah, we're not going to get this. This is, this is, this is all way above our heads.

but we'll give it a go. And yeah, one thing led to another, a few changes to the way that the format, it was going to be published due to licensing and book licensing. But yeah, we ended up with the Doctor Who license. And so Dom basically said, well, go on then, you go off and write it and kind of left me to it for three months.

Adam Powell (09:22.045)
Hmm.

David Chapman (09:38.748)
And yeah, that's how I started with C7.

Adam Powell (09:44.253)
Amazing. Amazing. And so you came across with the Doctor Who IP and joined the Cugal 7 creative team and have sort of worked your way through. So you are now a game producer and we'll move on to the crux of the interview as it were. The main topic here. One of the games you have produced and is available now on Kickstarter is the Laundry RPG 2nd edition.

So what's it been like to take such a popular Eldritch slash supernatural book series and turn it into a secondary game through the cubicle seven process?

David Chapman (10:32.54)
It's been an odd one really, because Cupid the Seven did a first edition and that was 2010. I think the last book in the line came out about 2015. And that was using the Call of Cthulhu system, the BRP D100 one.

Um, and it was, it's just been kind of sitting in the background. Um, I know the bosses have been keeping in touch with Charles Dross in the meantime, and it's always been kind of intended to, to do a second edition. Um, and I, I kind of, I was familiar with the books because I used to work with, I've only really been, uh, full time at cubicle seven for about three years now. Um,

And my proper day job was the wonders of retail. And part of that was I used to work for an amazing book chain called Otikas. I used to look after their science fiction fantasy sections and look after it for the company used to advise what used to go into all the shops. And I got sent sample copies of the atrocity archives when that first was published by Orbit.

Um, and remember reading that and thinking, but this is just bonkers. Um, and so I was, I was kind of familiar with the books as well. And, um, yeah. And the boss just kind of said, you know, I think it's time that we brought back the laundry RPG, but we'll, we'll do it with our own system this time. So there's no problems with any, uh, anybody trying to take the game system away from us. And, um, and yeah.

And it's kind of escalated from there. And it's been a while in development. But yeah, it's on Kickstarter at the moment and doing really well, which is, yeah, quite surprised actually. It's really good.

Adam Powell (12:40.605)
Yeah. So touch on a few of the other bits. So before we sort of dive too much deeper into the Kickstarter itself and what is within it, where can we find Cubicle 7 or yourself if you want people to follow you personally? They're the words I'm going for. Where can we find Cubicle 7 and all the amazing things that you and the company are associated with, please, David?

David Chapman (12:48.924)
Mmm.

David Chapman (12:58.619)
Yeah.

David Chapman (13:06.652)
Well, cubicle seven's website is probably the best bet to go for it's having a major revamp at the moment So it's gonna be all singing all dancing bells and whistles once it's once it's fully finished But yeah, if their website is cubicle seven games calm For me personally, I have a website which is autocratic calm It's that the last C is a K instead the name comes from

my old comic publishing days, because my comic publishing company was Autocratic for the masses, which was my take on Automatic for the People, the REM. But yeah, on there, there's me just rambling about what films I've seen, what games I'm working on, and also where I host RPG a day, because I run that every August.

Adam Powell (13:50.365)
Love it.

David Chapman (14:05.052)
and have done for the last 10 years, which is just basically trying to spread a bit of positivity about how good games are worldwide, which seems to do pretty well.

Adam Powell (14:15.773)
Yeah, absolutely. And so I will make sure there are links to your good self, cubicle seven, the Kickstarter all down in the description below. So please go down, follow those links, support David, support cubicle seven and the Kickstarter and the other amazing IPs that are under the cubicle seven banner. Scroll down, follow those links and follow them and support them. So the laundry RPG second edition, you said it.

It uses a new system, the C7D6 system. So how does that work with the Laundry RPG as a game in that respect?

David Chapman (14:55.868)
It's quite radically different. The C7D6 system is the one that was originally developed for... I have to get the title right in the right order. So it's Warhammer Age of Sigmar Soulbound. Or is it the other way around? Is that it?

Adam Powell (15:15.805)
No, no, that's it. That's it. I've got, I've got pretty much all the books just over my shoulder. That is definitely the right title.

David Chapman (15:22.236)
So yeah, it's the soulbound system basically, which is slightly tricky because it's very combat heavy and anybody who's read the laundry will know combat is not the focus of the game. But it's been adapted and refined and changed to be investigative as well as, but also to reflect when

as they always say in the books, when the tentacle hits the pentacle and things start going really bad, then it can certainly accommodate the combat rules. And we also went for this system because it scales quite nicely because Soulbound's got was kind of designed for epic battles with really powered characters. And the more recent release,

Adam Powell (16:18.589)
Yeah. Yeah.

David Chapman (16:21.884)
like Ulfenkarn kind of brings it back to like the gritty realism and more dangerous street level, basically. And we're taking some of the inspiration for the Ulfenkarn sort of street level bits for how you start as a laundry operative. So you're, let's face it, you're an IT nerd or...

like an accountant or you work in archives or something like that and you're sent out on this ridiculous mission where you could die any second armed with like a phone with some occult apps in or a hand of glory that can turn you invisible and a gun that's got some banishment rounds in it and you're basically sent out to do these to stop cosmic horror with a good dash of bureaucratic humor.

in there as well, of course. But the so you're kind of low level to begin with. But as anybody who's read the laundry books will know that the later ones, you start getting things like vampires and people start getting weird powers due to accidentally unlocking gateways to other dimensions and strange creatures possessing them. So the super

heroic levels that will come later in the laundry timeline are perfectly scalable thanks to the game system and initially accommodating the more powered characters.

Adam Powell (17:57.597)
Yeah, I love the idea that the grim dark of Ulfenkahn somehow meets with the damp and dreary of Milton Keynes. But, you know, to take from that what you will. For anyone who's maybe unfamiliar with the Laundry Files, the book series by Charles Druss, would you mind just giving a brief overview that sort of sells the books and therefore sells the RPG in that respect?

David Chapman (18:01.244)
Hahaha

Heheheheh.

David Chapman (18:16.636)
Of course. Yeah. Okay. So getting the preparing the voice for that. So the basic premise of the laundry is that there's a secret British government organization. Nobody really knows its name. It was it's kind of a leftover from the special operations executive type thing from from the war. But

It's kind of got its nickname from its headquarters being above Chinese laundry in Soho. And the laundry basically deals with supernatural and occult threats. And you kind of think, oh, this is just sounds a bit like Delta Green or Basic Call of Cthulhu. But then you add in the weirdness that is the magic, because magic is basically...

computational and mathematics. So the right application of maths and all that kind of business, creating a donor curve will open a portal to let Lovecraftian horrors in basically. And due to, it's all down to Alan Turing basically. And due to everybody having access to computers now,

everybody has one basically in their pocket. It means that a lot more people have access to the computational power that they can usually accidentally do supernatural magical things and open portals and let things with a capital T in basically. So in the books, you follow initially, Bob Howard, who's an IT

help desk person and his soon to be wife, Mo Dominic, Dominique, Mo O 'Brien, who are operatives for the laundry and they send off on ridiculous missions to try and stop cultists or investigate supernatural things or in one case, go through a complete Bondian like plot with a

David Chapman (20:43.004)
Bond -like villain on a super boat and try and try and stop evil things coming in. But it's all written with a level of tech nerdery and bureaucratic humor that you'd probably find in something like Douglas Adams. It's all it's got its little weird levels of humor in there as well. So it's not all horrific bleakness.

Adam Powell (21:04.477)
Hmm.

David Chapman (21:12.86)
But everything in the books is kind of building up to what they call Case Nightmare Green, which is technically happens in 2016. So the books and the game are all kind of set around the 2005 to 2010 sort of era initially, and then will gradually progress as we get closer. But Case Nightmare Green is basically when...

stars come alight are right, as they say in Cthulhu terms. And also, there are so many people who have access to computers and magic becomes known to the public. And basically the whole thing goes to shit. I think that's the best way to put it.

Adam Powell (22:02.845)
Hahaha!

Yeah, yeah, fair enough.

David Chapman (22:07.804)
Charles Tross has written some books set after Case Nightmare Green, the tales of the new management, where basically Nihal Akhatep is prime minister and the laundry's been disbanded and it's all gone to hell, which he's going to be continuing with as well. But yes, that's what you got to look forward to in the timeline.

Adam Powell (22:31.485)
So that all influences the RPG, the second edition. So currently we'll sort of lean back into the Kickstarter because that sort of picks up on what is available to us when we go there and back it. But the raise currently over a hundred thousand pounds to convert that to dollars as you wish with over 900 backers, including myself. So not a problem. So the...

David Chapman (22:34.876)
Mm -hmm.

David Chapman (22:51.26)
Woohoo!

David Chapman (22:55.132)
Hey, thank you.

Adam Powell (22:59.005)
The Kickstarter is ongoing at the moment, at the time of recording. What's the current end date for that for those that want to sort of get involved with the Kickstarter in this stage?

David Chapman (23:07.804)
If I remember rightly, I think last day is the 1st of May.

Adam Powell (23:12.157)
So to be sure, if you're listening to this before this before then to follow the links and support that. So through the Kickstarter, what is initially available? What sort of the baseline available to those that want to pick up the game? And then what are the stretch goals and things that people can sort of look to get back?

David Chapman (23:32.028)
Hmm. Well, initially, there's the core, which is split into two a bit like Delta Green. So there's a operatives handbook, which is like the players guide, which has got all the character creation, the rules, and magic and the sort of the basic things that everything that you need to refer to. And alongside that is a supervisors guide, which is for the GM, which has a

a lot more in -depth details of what the laundry is and departments of the laundry that you might, that players might not know about because the laundry is quite labyrinthine, I think is the best way to put it. And also details, things like the threats, like all the weird Cthulhuid things, which will have cool code names like Anning Blue Skull or Deep Seven and...

Um, and yeah, and loads of the bad guys and some of the things that you might encounter, like other countries, equivalents of the laundry, um, like the black chamber, which are the American equivalent who, um, operate in a very similar way to the laundry, if a little bit more ruthless, uh, and, uh, 13th directorate, which are the Russian equivalent of the laundry as well. Um, they're all covered in the supervisor's guide.

And then on if you want to go any further than that, there's another two books, one of which is basically a starter, which is a gets is a campaign set all in Milton Keynes, because if you read the first novel, there's a short story at the back of it called Concrete Jungle, which is all set in Milton Keynes about the basilisk cameras, which are

have the ability to turn people to stone or disintegrate them, which is being integrated into CCTV cameras, which is part of the Laundries Plan, a project called Scorpion Stair, which is when Case Nightmare Green happens, they can turn all their CCTVs into weapons basically, so to help protect the population. So the starter book called Introduction to Applied Occult Computing,

David Chapman (26:00.924)
is all set in Milton Keynes as well. And it gives you a rundown of what Milton Keynes is like, what occult things are happening in Milton Keynes, and gives you a starter adventure to introduce you to the location and set that up as an ongoing campaign setting for you if you like. And then the fourth book that's included in the Kickstarter is Revisiting

Adam Powell (26:21.277)
Hmm.

David Chapman (26:30.684)
a first edition book called Black Bag Jobs, which was a series of adventures all about supernatural incursions into our reality.

David Chapman (26:48.444)
Thank you. So the new version is called Black Bag Jobs Reopened. We're taking a load of the adventures from the original one and converting to second edition. But we're also adding, hopefully, as the stretch goals continue, one or two new adventures in there as well. So that's at the basic level. We've also got a Collectors

of the core books, which are going to be rather lovely cloth pound foiling and kind of mirroring the keep calm posters that were all the rage in the early 2000s. And they also come in a slip case, which is going to be really fancy. And then the top tier of that is those super fancy additions are going to be signed by Charles Stross.

But that's quite limited because we've only got him for a short period over to do a signing for us and he can only sign so many in a day.

Adam Powell (27:46.525)
Very nice tune.

Adam Powell (27:58.493)
I mean, that's fair. I mean, on the Kickstarter page, Charles Stross does introduce the launch RPG Kickstarter. So it must have been a real boon to have his direct involvement with the project in that respect, not just as a as a name and a bankable IP, but to have the creator himself involved.

David Chapman (28:08.124)
Mm.

David Chapman (28:20.828)
Yes, yeah, and he said himself that due to personal reasons, he wasn't as involved with the first edition as he'd like to have been. And so this time around, he's very keen to be as involved as possible and certainly to check all our text, make sure it's all in canon and he's certainly quite behind it, which is great. It's just nice to have such great support for...

from the person who's created the universe, basically.

Adam Powell (28:54.269)
Absolutely. So if someone has sort of taken interest, the Eldritch and Milton Keynes has really sung to them and the laundry files, maybe Charles Stross's writing style has engaged with someone or maybe the Dice system, I want to understand, is there somewhere they can go to sort of see an actual play in process or sort of demonstrate in the game system and the game itself?

David Chapman (29:02.076)
You

David Chapman (29:18.108)
Yeah, we've, we've, um, we've just had a video go up, uh, the beginning of this week. Um, the people at glass cannon have done an actual play. It's about two and a half hours long and it's running through, um, uh, a short introductory adventure called the man of the people. Um, which is kind of covers a group of fairly new ish.

recruits at the laundry, getting into trouble, having to go onto a training course to, cause that is a staple of the books as well. It's like you do anything wrong. You get sent on another training course. It's very business bureaucratic nonsense. And then through the course of that, you uncover some mysterious goings on in parliament where somebody is trying to use occult means to overturn the current, current government.

And so that adventure is played through by the glass cannon people, although I think the British names might be a little bit tricky for some of them. But yeah, it's been great. They've been they were really enthusiastic and they they they had. Yeah, they put their all into it and it was it was great fun. And yeah, it's a great way to.

see the level of ridiculous bureaucratic humor meets eldritch horror and basic yeah and yeah spies and computers and all that kind of business all get merged into one massive chaotic mess of fun so yeah it's a great way to get to get a good look at it.

Adam Powell (31:12.957)
So if you are a fan of the Glass Cannon Network, friends of the pod, so Jared Logan and...

such as Josephine McAlpine, sorry Josephine McAdam then follow the link on the Kickstarter page or follow the link down below to the YouTube page and enjoy it's an interesting in the nicest most yeah the nicest possible way it's an interesting adventure.

David Chapman (31:42.684)
Yeah, the wonders of getting some awesome Americans to take the piss out of the British is basically the funniest thing of it.

Adam Powell (31:59.869)
Yeah, absolutely. So follow the links to the Kickstarter, to Cubicle 7, and to David himself. Again, they're all down in the blurb below this podcast. So David, you've joined the Cubicle 7 creative team, and the laundry files, sorry, the laundry RPG is not the only IP you've worked on. You come under the banner for a lot of the Warhammer stuff that...

David Chapman (32:01.148)
Ha ha ha!

Adam Powell (32:29.213)
Cupical Seven are pushing. What's it like sort of working with all these high profile IPs that are very dear to people's hearts? So the laundry files for some, Warhammer and Warhammer 40k for others and other IPs like Doctor Who, as we've mentioned. What's it like taking on those IPs?

David Chapman (32:49.628)
Oh, thanks. Thankfully, I don't really get very involved with the Warhammer site because I know very, very little about Warhammer. When they when they talk, when they start talking about Warhammer in some of the meetings, I kind of glaze over. I've played I've joined in some of the play tests and I'm certain that some of the names, but I there's only so much brain space and a lot of it is taken up with unfortunately having to memorize 60 years of

Doctor Who. But, but, but yeah, it's, it's quite intimidating, but I

Adam Powell (33:21.117)
I mean, that's fair. That's fair.

David Chapman (33:32.38)
I thought full disclaimer, I am a massive fan of licensed games. There's something weird about about it. Ever since I was like a teenager, as I said, I always wanted to play Star Wars. And I think it was something about reading a setting that somebody has created for a game system. Maybe it was just that it was easier to picture.

setting that I was familiar with, like Star Wars. And so working with in licensed IPs is a bit easier for me to get my head around because it's like, well, I've seen it all on TV. I know what things look like. I don't have to try and imagine them for myself because I'm, you know, not not that bright. But but when it comes to things like Doctor Who, we've got a great

Adam Powell (34:19.741)
Yeah.

David Chapman (34:31.036)
contact with the BBC, they sent that we got access to a wide database of cool images. And yeah, they've been very supportive about things. You do have to be very careful about how somebody else's IP is presented and make sure it's very on brand. But if you have a passion for the IP itself,

then you're going to be respectful anyway. And if you have a real understanding of what the IP is about, or you can get behind its core messages, then it's not too tricky to produce something along those lines. I mean, one of the big things that was quite cool when I was working on the first version of Doctor Who was to try and accommodate

Adam Powell (35:01.309)
Absolutely.

Adam Powell (35:26.749)
Hmm.

David Chapman (35:29.596)
um, such a non -combative setting for a tabletop RPG. Uh, and that kind of came around, uh, and kind of developed into the initiative system that the Doctor Who RPG uses, where it allows people who want to talk to go first. Um, so instead of it being who's faster, it's like talkers, movers, doers, and shooters, basically.

Adam Powell (35:59.229)
Yeah.

David Chapman (35:59.836)
So the talk has always get the opportunity to go first in around to try and convince people out of actually starting the fight to begin with, which is a very Dr. Who type of thing. Cause so, so yeah, when, when was first working on that, it was, that was the big challenge to try and keep that core ideal of the, of the setting and the IP for the, for the game. Oh, which of course,

Adam Powell (36:12.925)
Absolutely.

David Chapman (36:27.996)
became even more difficult when we decided to convert it to 5e, which is a notoriously combat heavy system. But yeah, that's a good challenge and it kind of worked.

Adam Powell (36:34.717)
Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. Amazing. There's something, there's more I want to touch on there about current projects, future projects and things like that. But I'll come back to that question in just a short while. Staying within the laundry RPG. So you mentioned about, there about the talkers and the movers and things like that. What kind of roles can we embody within?

David Chapman (36:49.372)
Mm -hmm.

Adam Powell (37:03.389)
the laundry RPG and how do we sort of put that across? There's obviously the actual play from the glass cannon network that people can watch, but say if we just picked up the PDF or the hard copy when it's released, but today, for example, what sort of roles can we embody and how can we sort of play that at our tables?

David Chapman (37:28.508)
Well, a bit like the way Soulbound has archetypes. The laundry has assignments. So your assignment is that each department of the laundry has a number of assignments within it. And that's basically a job role. And there's quite a wide variety. As I mentioned, you could work in archives and look after like,

the filing or looking after the weird occult items and cataloging them a bit like the End of Raids of the Lost Ark. Or there's the working in IT, which kind of leads you into computational demonology. You could work in the legal side of things, because there's a lot of taking care of the legalities and the problems that can occur when...

You send a squad of people in with guns into any location to try and stop a tentacled beast from coming through, basically. You can imagine what the legal ramifications of those are. And then it gradually escalates up to things like plumbers and cleaners who make sure that scenes are decontaminated of supernatural threats.

Adam Powell (38:34.685)
Yeah.

David Chapman (38:55.676)
And people who witnessed these supernatural events have their memories wiped, at least that part of their memory wiped, not completely. And then you get people like Oculus who are like the basically occult commandos who go in to try and sort things out. So that there's a wide variety from desk jockey nerd up to gun -toting troop.

But those are what your day jobs are. They're a bit like in the actual novels themselves. Bob is basically IT help desk. So while you're working at a desk most of the time, filling in reports and doing Gantt charts and nonsense like that, the wonders of matrix management means that you have more than one boss and you can be called upon.

Adam Powell (39:25.821)
Yeah.

David Chapman (39:55.484)
to join a team of people who, from other assignments, put together into this little team for a specific project. Like, go over to the Bahamas and infiltrate this base and try and work out whether this TV evangelist is actually worshiping the Black Pharaoh or something like that. And then you come back, fill in all the paperwork.

Adam Powell (40:20.349)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

David Chapman (40:25.308)
Make sure that you've got receipts for all of your expenses and make sure you filled in your R70 variants to your nine to five working timetable form, otherwise you won't get paid. And then, yeah, then you go back to your day job if you have all your limbs.

Adam Powell (40:45.981)
Amazing. The Bahamas is very different to Milton Keynes, from what I understand. So with, definitely myself, but with people excited for this content, with a Kickstarter ending in the 1st of May, when can we expect the PDFs and the hard copies to start coming out to backers in that respect?

David Chapman (40:50.62)
Yes, oh yes.

David Chapman (41:13.212)
Hopefully should get PDFs out sort of July time, fingers crossed, otherwise the boss will be shouting at me and that means that once the PDFs are released they'll go off to print so we're expecting them back from the printer sort of just after Christmas early next year.

Adam Powell (41:35.485)
Okay, so while that's all in the future, what else is in the future for yourself and Cubicle 7 that you're allowed to discuss?

David Chapman (41:39.804)
Mmm.

David Chapman (41:45.436)
I haven't a clue. It's all it's all it's all very, very quiet at the moment. I'm sure that the Warhammer team are working on loads and loads of things that they haven't told me about, mostly because I don't understand it. We're also working on some more 5e content a bit along the lines of the A Life Well Lived and Hammer of Anvil.

that we've kickstarted recently. So building on your D &D experience basically, so to add to what like backstories and add more artifacts and things like that. And then probably in the next sort of mid between now and Christmas will be kickstarting Victoriana for its.

which will be a 5e version as well, which is convenient. I've seen a lot of the artwork for Victoriana and it is flipping gorgeous. It's really, really lovely. And so that's all in the very near future. Should be fairly exciting, but yeah, you know, lots. And of course, thanks to the success of this so far for the laundry, I'm sure there's plenty of laundry stuff to be working on.

once this is all out and ready in people's hands.

Adam Powell (43:16.509)
with that. So you mentioned all these things going on with the Kickstarter currently ongoing at time of recording. What about yourself? Do you get time to still play games outside of play tests or do you get sort of downtime and things like that? How do you relax away from the gaming table or do you go to the gaming table to...

David Chapman (43:28.348)
Mmm.

David Chapman (43:32.54)
Oh blimey! Well, yeah, still got a couple of ongoing games. We've just finished playing the second case file for Blade Runner, which was absolutely mind blowing. Friary Angels, that was the one. Yeah, really, really good. A couple of real rug pull moments there, especially for my character.

Adam Powell (43:53.373)
Angel.

David Chapman (44:02.236)
I'd never thought I'd be taken in for a Voightkampff test. So yeah, that was really good. And then I think we're moving back into our Aegean game, which is up there, which is a game of mythical ancient Greece. But the GM has changed it to mythical Vikings.

So it's all, it's all on those. He's allowed to do that. He wrote it. So.

Adam Powell (44:37.469)
Anyone's allowed to do that. It's a game at your respective tables. So it's fair enough. So we have covered your good self, your introduction into tabletop role -playing games as a personal and professional sort of avenues. We discussed the Kickstarter for the Laundry RPG second edition. And keep in mind folks, the time of recording that is coming to an end on the 1st of May, 2024. I will get the year correct.

David Chapman (44:42.588)
the end.

David Chapman (44:51.324)
Hmm.

David Chapman (44:58.684)
Mm -hmm.

Adam Powell (45:06.237)
Save any confusion. And we've gone through some other activities you're involved with and all that sort of good stuff. Is there anything that we haven't covered that you want to bring up now at this time of the interview, David?

David Chapman (45:12.956)
Mmm.

David Chapman (45:18.652)
Oh blimey. No, I don't think so. I think the only thing that I always plug whenever I get onto one of these things, they'll say, is there anything else? Is to hopefully keep an eye open in August for RPG a day. It's a global thing where we have a daily prompt just to get people talking in a positive way about RPGs online. Hopefully that will be again this year, although I might be in the middle of...

writing something intense and might get sidetracked in which case I will hand over to my RPG a day partner, Anthony Boyd, who can help run it again. Other than that, no, I don't think so. No, all good.

Adam Powell (46:03.261)
All right, well, thank you so much for coming. I'd love to get you back on when there's more things for us to discuss, maybe future Laundry RPG releases or other projects, Victoriano or whatever it may be. I'd love to get you back on the show. It's been such a pleasure to get this chat and learn about the Laundry RPG, the Laundry Files and the Laundry RPG, second edition.

David Chapman (46:08.348)
Oh, at any time.

David Chapman (46:23.388)
No problem at all, there any time.

Adam Powell (46:25.917)
Thank you very much. So one last time, where can we find your good self, cubicle seven and all the things you're associated with, please, David.

David Chapman (46:34.3)
If it's me, then probably the easiest bet is to search for Autocratic. So that's A U T O C R A T I K Autocratic .com. That's me. Otherwise, anything because I'm related head over to cubicles7games .com.

Adam Powell (46:56.285)
All right, well, thank you so much. I will make sure there are links down in the description. That's the word I was trying to find earlier, the description below this podcast. Thank you so much once again, David.

David Chapman (47:06.076)
Thank you very much.