Hello, and welcome to snows return a tabletop roleplay podcast. My guest today has bought us what some may think of as an alien notion, the terrors of deep space to our tabletop role playing game tables, landing with a blank to kickstart our role play in all manner of black, green and carbon grey. Although he is not here to gain mother us, his words can elite in Thrall enlist and entertain us, drawing from an adding his considerable talent to many popular franchises. His award winning game writer, content creator, franchise consultant, graphic novelist and author, Andrew ec gasca. Drew, it's such a pleasure to have you on the show. Welcome. No, thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Night. It's an absolute pleasure, before we go into your immense volume of work as varied as well. Would you mind just letting us know how you got into tabletop role playing games initially, please?
Drew Gaska:Sure. When I was kid, all the cool nerds, we're playing Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. And so I really wanted to I really wanted to play this. And my mom bought me the read basic box set when I was a kid. And I got all excited, made a character. And then finally the other guys were like, Alright, fine, come on over. And we'll play with us. And I got there. And they looked at my sheet and they're like, we play Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. This is basic. I'm like, what, so they make scribbled some stuff on my character sheet. And they just had to go with them on their, their mission, which happened to be the temple of elemental evil, which is not for a first play a first level, basic DMT they are in any way shape. So um, yeah, so they got really, they want to be in really kind of angry with each other about stupid things that were happening not in the game, you know, so they would take it out on each other in the game. And next thing I know, they were all killing each other. And I was like, Okay, this game master can control this people. I need to learn how to Game Master myself. And I just started game mastering for my other friends instead. And I did that a game master for like, 20 to 23 years. So like that, and only stopped because I didn't have time to anymore. I went into comics, I went into novels, I became franchise consultant at Fox, and I did a bunch of a whole bunch of video game work for Rockstar Games. And then the opportunity to write, the only role playing game was presented to me. And I took it and I was like, approaching it as a source book more than again, from my point of view, but I wasn't writing the rules. That was really was doing that. And I was just there to make sure the universe was right. And as I was already a consultant over at Fox, I, there was stuff that I was very well equipped to do. And someone who, I don't know who it was, I don't know why it was but we're we're supposed to write charity to the gods before it was called that bowed out. And they asked me if I want to take a stab at it. And I'm like, well, I've never done that. I've never written an adventure, you know, professionally, but I'm 22 years of doing it. So let's give it a shot. And it turns out that that wasn't my skill set, probably because when you think about it, I did it for 20 years, I kind of probably knew what I was doing at that point. But I was I was I was shocked that it was well received. And I'm glad it was all received. And that led to you know, doing all these other games stuff. And it's just it's all second nature to me. At this point. The Star Wars role playing game from the early 80s from Western games was very important to me. So magnet press play is doing a role playing game that's officially licenced from West End to use the real system and there and the logo and all that called carbon grey and it's on Kickstarter right now. And it's seems to be doing well but we need more backers obviously. But it's just it seems like I'm I'm now entrenched in this gaming world, which I was just a hobby for me before him.
Snyders Return:Yeah. Yeah. That went from what was your introduction to almost robbing me of all my questions, but that is not a problem. That is not just sorry about that. No, no, please don't apologise it just it just opens more questions and so to really unpack some of the things you We've gone into there and we'll we'll talk about carbon granite in a little while because, you know, like, I'm excited by it. And you've mentioned there it's it's licenced and all these other really good things. But staying with sort of moving into the, the alien IP said you came across from Fox and franchise consultant and things like that. Why is it? What's it been like to, to write within that that universe and bring it to life for a new generation of role playing game players?
Drew Gaska:Well, I mean, I have this philosophy about licenced properties. And this is probably what led to me being considered as a consultant, by Fox in the first place, where I don't, there's so much there to build on. I feel like the job of someone working on a licenced product is to fill in the blanks, and embrace what is there. So a lot of people, you'll, you'll see a movie come out and you're like, wait, what does this have to do with the rest of that franchise? And that's because the directors like Oh, I can't stand that franchise, I'll but I it's a job. So I'm gonna make it my thing, and they make it wrong. Um, there's, you get, you have to look at the core of what makes these things what they are. And that's something that I figured out significantly on predator. Because when I was over at Fox, I was writing the they asked me to write the Bible for their predator franchise. And you think, okay, predator. Yeah, he's alien click cloaks, and he's going to kill people. It's unfair trophies. Again, you think that's that's it. But when you pour over over 40 comic miniseries, and you know, 13 novels and six video games, I can't remember how many video games but you go through all this stuff. And you start to see patterns emerge that people who didn't know what the other guys were doing, or didn't even read what the other guys were doing, or any any kind of connection. But it's like, you start to see predator always means this, it will always have that. And you start to see Well, okay, I know, it always needs to be that. But what if it has that with a blue paint job? But if it has that, that lead that? Well, clearly that thing that it always has that other thing that it clearly has implied something that we've never seen before? So why haven't they done anything with that implication? So it's all about filling in the blanks, as far as I'm concerned. People feel people say things like cannon feel confining. But I see it as a challenge. How can I make this story work within the established camp? And, and there's something I've mentioned before that there's a lot of really good alien stuff, and other things as well, for other franchises as well, that just can't be canon anymore, because of whatever film has come out since then. Or just maybe the the writer, the writing the right, the creative team went off the rails when they did it. And even though they created something really good, it's not quite right. And that's what I use as barroom cannon. So something in that event actually happened. But you overheard a guy, a drunk guy in a bar, telling his friend that he heard someone else say it. And that's the version you write in the book. So there's some truth in there somewhere. So this allows almost anything to become partially canon, you know. And it helps people not to feel like they got rubbed the wrong way. Because that story that I always loved, no longer counts, you know? So, yeah, all over the place. I, I've always been a fan alien. Well, I mean, not always. But since I first saw the movie, and was horrified because my mother made me go to bed early. It was on TV. And I got up to go to bathroom. And I walked in on the TV just when the chestburster scene happened, which was not a good thing. But, you know, by the time aliens came around, I was very much into it. And I just felt that there's, I wanted to I wanted to do it. I wanted to be respectful to the property. So I dove in and found ways to not only build on what was there but to advance the timeline on things into a new direction, which allows in the game, you're part of big events that are happening all over the universe. These unit these are part of the alien universe that you will probably see pop up in other alien media. I'm not going to explain which media yet because other companies to say, Hmm, but it's, it's part of a bigger universe now. So when someone mentions, you know, someone mentions in another potential video game, I'm just making that up. Someone in a video game mentions that thing that happened on the frontier war. Anyone who's played the role playing games, like they're talking about what I did, you know, so it's immerses you and I'm probably all over the place for my answers. Again,
Snyders Return:I'm sorry, I did not No, not tune. As you said that there's so much canonical non canonical bairam canonical It's, it's all over the taking and going from using some of the locations that are featured in the role playing book. So there's this hadleys hope at the back of the core rulebook, there's the mon Taro from chariot of the gods, there's, you know, so you've taken it with the alien sort of theme and, and, you know, with the ruleset backing up your writing, whichever way you choose to look at it, have sort of followed that and then destroyer of worlds, the frontier. And the new the latest supplement that's come come out, which I also own because I'm, I have not enough money and, and and want to buy everything, that's a personal problem. But yes, so that the Colonial Marines supplement taking it into the sort of the aliens sort of side of things with with the troops, the armoured marine so it's, it's, as you say, there's so much to draw from but the any answer is, is a good answer. What has been your, your favourite bit to sort of draw on and honestly, canonise but but sort of bring, bring to the fore maybe be in one of the supplements or in the core books or or, or something that maybe hasn't hasn't been put into the books but you found as an interesting tidbit, or or piece of, of law information from the alien, overarching alien thread.
Drew Gaska:The thing that I the things that I'm probably the proudest of is the silliest of things. And that's, and I know I've mentioned this on other things before but the Kenner vehicles from the 90s I I wanted to reverse engineer those toys into real vehicles and put them in the game. So the example I usually use is, uh, the x wing fighter toy from Kenner. When it came out in 79. It says goofy truncated version of the fighter you see in the in the movie, you know, you hold a picture of Superman looks like oh, that's cockpit is too big. It's too stubby blah, blah, blah. Because they made a toy yet they had to make it so that a kid can play with it. And so I looked at the alien vehicles, the the evac fighter and the Jeep that they had and a hover trend. And I looked at that I was like, Alright, so if these are toy attic versions of a real vehicle, how do we reverse that into what the real vehicle would be? And, and I worked with the artists to make sure that we got there. And I'm very happy with the results. Because, you know, if you're a kid in the 90s, you were playing with that evac fighter and if you're role playing la now it's kind of like a kind of gives me the feels to have to be have that fighter again, you know? So I like I like finding ways to work little things like that, in that it's definitely my, probably the least important of the things that I've written on this, but it's the one that that makes me smile every time I think I
Snyders Return:can argue with a good feeling. And if promotion to do more of your fantastic writing and work for this IPO and others, then I'm all for it. Definitely. Thank you. So working on on alien, your lead writer, lead setting writer, lead to your description from the front of the book, because I have it open next to me, lead writer for The newest supplement and you know your fingerprints, not the word I was gonna use, but your fingerprints are sort of all over this. And all your other work. What What do you do outside of, of working with free leave for this particular project? What Blam ventures?
Drew Gaska:Oh, what's planned ventures okay. So I went to the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan as college, it's an art school. I have a degree in comics, if that means anything. And when I graduated, I started working in what at the time was the Photoshop copy lab. There is some dating myself how old I am. Because by the time I left there, it was the computer lab instead. But I started working there and I was wanting to do that I wanted to do stuff in comics, I wanted to do stuff in creative creatively. And I, I just couldn't get an anywhere yet, which is typical, you know. So I was working, I want to become a weekend manager of that photocopy lab and eventually the computer, the graphic computer graphic design lab by the time I left, but that was on the weekends. So during the week, I was a limo driver, and I was falling asleep behind the wheel. Because they were working around the clock. It's like, Hey, here's the job and here's an hour to sleep in the car before you go to your next job. And so I was like I can't I can't be doing this anymore. So I asked my my boss at the school. Can you call me on full time or something? And he's like, no, but you know, do you know Photoshop, and I'm like, I kind of taught myself, I didn't really take a class. And he's like, Oh, I have this this job that I do for Rockstar Games, and I don't want to do it anymore. So I'll give him given it to you and like six other guys pick up the work. And I was like, Okay, I probably gonna suck at this, but okay. And they went up, firing the other guys and make giving me all the accounts. And that was GTA three. So when that came out, it blew up everywhere. And then they basically hired they gave me all their accounts. And I had to create a studio, where I trained people to do it, the work that we I was doing it. So we would take so we could take on all their accounts at the same time. And that's where Blam got it start. The idea was always the plan was going to be a book packager. And I like to help people that doesn't mean we put books in boxes. We either come up with an idea in house or we get the rights to something, create a book, get about maybe 75% done, and then bring it to publishers and say, Hey, who's gonna publish this and put it out there and you know, get the best deal for it. So a studio was bringing in money doing that doing stuff for Rockstar, and I went to a comic shop, and I thought it was new planet age comic out. And I was like, Oh, this is great. What does this Marvel DC and it was somebody called Mr. Comics. My first reaction was, if Mr. bleep and comics can get a licence, why can't I? So Blam, wind up getting space 1999 Buck Rogers in the 21st century, and ironically planet apes. So we got those licences, and we were going to put together books for that. And I was not I did not consider myself a prose writer in any way, shape, or form. I knew comics. My partner at the time was going to be the prose writer, but that didn't work out. And we had negotiated the deal with Fox from playing the age as if it was comics, because Mr. Comics had their licence had run out, and we were making it up. But when we went to the do the actual final negotiations and then get a contract out of that, Fox was like, Oh, no, we don't we this is for comics. We don't want to do comics, we weren't happy with the results with the last thing. We don't want to do that again. I was like, when I say comics, I kind of mean like, you know, text with picture. Or like illustrated novel, you know, what I said, Jeremy see that book, aliens tribes. And the woman who was in charge of licencing said that aliens tribes is my favourite book I've ever worked on with anyone, you're you have your licence, do that for planning. And that's, that's how we got that. And that's my first point apes, which is called conspiracy. The planet, the apes. I wasn't supposed to write it. But the people that were supposed to read it dropped out. And I'm like, I paid all this money for it. I've been creative directing it, I guess I got to try and write it. Luckily, it turned out not to suck. And that got the attention of the new person who took over Fox as a witch, Josh is Oh, at that time as a franchise consultant, because he contacted me a few years later, and said, I read your book, which was weird, weird that the franchise consultant actually read the book, that consultant director actually read the book, because usually they have someone else do it for them. And to add, tell them what happens in it, you know, he says, I read your book, and you clearly know this property better than we do. Do you want to come on as a consultant? And of course I said yes. So everything bleeds into itself what Blam in the process of all this nonsense. We did that. We put together the planning book, we put together a few other books, and they all came out through a company called Arcadia. But Blam is pretty much it's my studio. It's what I use to work on a project. I go there carbon grading is a perfect example. They they're like, okay, we'll be creative director of this. Here's the budget for the for the art. Do you want to handle it? I was like, yeah, so now it's a bland project, because I'm bringing in people and I'm managing them for that so planned as part of the carbon grade thing. That's not the way it is with alien. And I gotta say with alien, I'm so happy with the way it is. I one of the reasons why I'm so happy that I created Blam in the first place was because every time I did something for people that I wasn't in charge of putting it together, I was disappointed. I'd be like, Oh, why did they make that font choice? What what are they doing there? Why is this so close to the edge, yada, yada, yada? You know, pretentious nonsense, I guess. But alien is the first time where I don't have control over that stuff. And I see the finished product and I'm like, Oh my god, these guys are better than anything I could ever get. It's so beautiful. You know, the art that they they the artists that they hired. Why? But now there's there's new guys as well. They're also really good. But the rules from Thomas and and the, the layout of the book and the factory is so dark and everything they know exactly what they're doing with this property, they clearly care about the property. And I mean so much. So it was one of those few times where I was like, Well, I'm glad I didn't do this because I think they did a better job than I was.
Snyders Return:So you mentioned sort of working with Rockstar for GTA three and then planet did your relationship with Rockstar and GTA three just out of interest, or
Drew Gaska:I worked for them for 17 years. Yeah, from 2000 to 2017. I'm very, very grateful for the work that I got from them. And it gave me the money I needed to launch the other things like glam and whatnot. But it's not what I wanted to do with my life, you know? And so, there comes a point when you're like, Okay, do I stay in the safe zone? Or do I take the next step. And I had already put out the plan Eve's the first plan apes book, and space 99 bucks and Buck Rogers and all that stuff, while I was still working with with rock star. And then I was like, if I don't devote all of everything to this, I'm never going to be this is my writing and art career is going to be the hobby. My career, my real career is, is doing what I'm doing for rock star. And I didn't want that I wanted the I wanted, I want what I wanted, I wanted to be a creator. So I, I left Rockstar, and I moved down to Florida. And I was down there for a year, completely unemployed, completely trying to you know, living off of the money that I had already, and trying to make things work. And in that time, I wound up connecting with Fox for the predator Bible. And I went, I met lion Forge, and one of doing series Bibles for them, which, you know, changed a lot, because that led to me getting the senior development editor position over there. And they, they got that in The Hollywood Reporter, which made a huge difference. It's funny, it's like you, you go into offices, and it's like, people look you up five minutes before you go into the office. And if they don't find anything, they're just sort of like, Oh, hey, nice, nice to meet you. But if they find this Hollywood Reporter article, they're like, Oh, I'm Fanny work of xenu. I've seen your stuff from this, this and you're like, you hear it, you hear them? Like quoting from the, from the article, and you're like, Oh, thank God for that article. You know? Yeah, yeah. So it's funny how these things work out because that like something as silly as just getting that article changed a lot about how I was perceived, walking into offices for licencing deals, you know. But I was just as I was the same guy who had that deal with Fox before I had that article. But now because I had that article, other companies are interested in using me for the same thing, you know, so yeah, it changes everything.
Snyders Return:Yeah, definitely. And sort of looping back to an earlier point on about sort of taking risks and changes everything and bringing something new to us. Should we say carbon carbon grey, which is available on Kickstarter now should still be running when this interview goes out. Tell us about your involvement with that and what is carbon grey?
Drew Gaska:Carbon grade was a graphic novel series that came out in the in the early 2000s through 2012 i think i think i think the last book came out in 2013 I'm not sure about that. But it's a wine Oregon from image did it and it's um, it's a diesel punk or alternative World War One setting with you know, so there's and there's reality shifting stuff. So, basically, reality is unravelling. Things are being devolved and evolved because of it. So it's got a it's definitely a fantasy setting in there because you have weird, weird creatures and people turning into things and whatnot. And the setting for it is really interesting to me. I've always been a fan of stuff for war one because everybody always focuses on World War Two, as you know, for fiction. World War One doesn't get that treatment as much for some reason. And then but you know, probably probably because actually now think about probably because it all starts with comics coming back from World War Two times, superhero comics. So people probably just always went to that for the what went to the well for that, you know, but one was terrible. It's trench warfare. warfare is awful. And there's lots of, there's lots of like, uniqueness to that awfulness that could work really interesting in a role playing setting. And when magnetic was talking about expanding into doing gaming, I had actually negotiated the rights for the West End games licence for lion forge a few years before that, and then Western, I'm sorry, Lion Forge, magnetic is a subsidiary of line four. So, you know, I told I told my dad, I was like, you know, we've got this thing sitting here that I negotiated for you guys, we can make use of it. And it just seemed like, there's all this beautiful art for this book, from this book that we can use, it's got a rich, crazy setting, it just seems like it'd be a natural for a role playing. So I want to become a creative director of it, and bring on bringing on a bunch of writers and my writing partner, yield Thomas, who created world untold, he's, he's the game designer, over there. So it's him and me working together, he's taking care of all the real stuff. And it's, it's not the only it's magnetic for press plays first book that we're doing with the West End stuff, but we have a they have a lot more planned. And so it's, it's really more of launching a line than anything else. And, and, to magnetics credit, they like, they're like, Hey, we want to be all in on this, we want to we don't want to just do books, we want to let's do minis, you know, let's let's let's let's let's, let's go out with the the handouts, and you know, interactive hands on experience. So there's a lot of a lot of things that are being tested with this. There's a range of 2626. Yeah, I think it's 26 managers that come with the box and the deluxe box at version of this game. And there's, there's trench maps, and there's counters that you can use to alter the terrain on the map. And there's encounter cards, as all this all this, all these bells and whistles type stuff. I mean, all you really need to play is the core game, the core book, just like any role playing game, but you know, there's lots of cool stuff that goes with it. So it's, it's really interesting thing to look at the art is beautiful. And I'm, it's the first game I've been creative director on. So I, I'm, I'm excited about that. But I think I think it's just when you take the you take the time honoured Western game system, and you take a book that already exists with beautiful art, it's kind of hard to go wrong with it. The only thing that we've done with the Western system is we've done it what we've what we're using is what we call the magnetic variant of the of the system. And we went back to the original core rules that were used for D six, like in the original Star Wars game, not the second edition one not further additions. And we just saw we started with that. And we made some modernization. upgrades to that. So there's there's things there's things added on that are definitely when you read them, you're like, Oh, that's that's clearly from something that would be in a game today, but not in the 90s. You know, so the whole the whole idea was to bring it forward. So yeah, that's carbon grey. It's on Kickstarter right now. So please go check it out. The the alien colonial marine book was just released in the stores. Was it this week or last? I don't, it's not yet. It's gonna be a few weeks ago, by the time this airs. I take it is that correct?
Snyders Return:Potentially, yeah. So but yeah, a time of recording is about a week out a week or a week from release. I won't say a week all that sounds really unfair a week from since release.
Drew Gaska:So the, you know, the colonial marine book is out now. And I'm very excited about that. It's, that was that was a COVID project. That industrial worlds were, were held up severely by what happened during COVID with COVID. And it's, it's a relief to finally see that book coming out because it's a lot a lot of work went into that it's a very different animal than say, destroyer or chariot, because those were cinematic adventures. And this is built as a campaign. So it's not necessarily designed to murder you the minute you walk in the room. That can still happen. But that's the challenge. It's like, people said, Oh, it's not gonna work for campaign and all I could think was hold my beer, I'll make it work. It's the challenge is not to make it easier so that you survive. The challenge is to make the challenges different so that you survive, and you definitely don't want the alien to be in every oh look. It's an alien again. Although although the The Frontier war campaign that's in the corner Green Book definitely does hinge on the fact of what's being what's happening with the alien at this time. And that ties into destroyer of worlds and I'm not gonna give spoilers out. But destroyer of worlds is pretty much the opening shot in the campaign of the colonial marine operations. So he was a very interesting challenge and very different way of looking at alien. And now that that's figured out, I feel like I feel like things are gonna be, I was afraid that getting getting past certain hurdles, an alien was going to close doors like okay, we've done that now. So that's it, but instead of when it's like, oh, now that I know this format, we know what to do for campaign book. How about a campaign like this? How about that. It's, it's amazing how living and breathing this universes just because it has 30 years of ancillary material. And and while not all of it is you know, amazing, there's, there's something good in every single one of those things that come out, that you can look at, and if you squint, you're like, Hey, I can use that.
Snyders Return:Some some require more squinting than others, I'm sure. But sticking with the Colonial Marines, the rubbish now we're gonna get spoilers, but I like the fact that the missions provided the back can be played effectively in order they can be played out a sink, they can be played as as individual sort of ISO one shots, but but small story arcs if if gay mothers want to run, run the line after their groups, there is that overarching narrative, as you mentioned, it ties into or can given gay mothers discretion to tie into the destroyer of worlds and how things play out there. Again, spoiler free. And the this is sort of campaign book, toolkit, inspiration. And just just a great read the amount of more available in here, even if you were to take it out and put it in a cinematic play of, I don't know, Hadley's had these lost hope or cheer at the gods or something you can draw so much from this. There's just so much more to draw from going but yeah, loads, of course, and going back to carbon grave quickly, because I wanted to throw in a tagline you're making. You're using the Great War to make a great role playing game, which is currently and continuing to be a great success at approaching $85,000 pledged over 1000 backers, those such as myself have just had an A new update, there's a actual play are going to be on Twitch, I believe, to help sort of drive some of the interest on that. So all sorts of things.
Drew Gaska:Yeah. The the we, we we've launched on the worst day possible. We we launched the same day that the avatar or playing game launched and the same day that and I can't believe that I mean, I was so very things I didn't realise, but freely also launched their Kickstarter.
Snyders Return:Yeah, so so launching on the same day as avatar, free league. And, you know, a couple of other IPS, that I mean, avatar, I think is smashed. So many Kickstarter records. It's untrue. I also back to that game. Yeah, no, it's my way too much.
Drew Gaska:It's a fantastic what is done, but it's like, it's so like, oh, okay, good. We couldn't have picked a better day to launch right. So we had a slow launch. And for a little bit there, it was, like, there was no question we were gonna make our what are what is it funding goal? that was gonna happen no matter what, okay, we don't have a huge funding goal. Because the game was coming. The game was gonna come anyway, it wasn't like it's not done. And it's sitting there. And hopefully, we'll get the money from the Kickstarter. It wasn't like that. If that's not why we did the Kickstarter. It was. So we knew it was going to happen was going to come, but it was like, Whoa, what does this make it look like? And there was some thought about should we cancel it? And I said, I mean, the publisher and I were like, No, no, we should have shouldn't because, let let let it let it let it let it pick up and it will. Because the only reason it's got the slow start is we did not have the Quickstart right away. And these giants came out on the same day. And so we decided, you know what, no, let's let's let's get this thing done. We just got to do and we learned moving forward, magnetic and learning moving forward. The best way to handle gaming Kickstarters and whatnot. And it's it's I'm glad that that's what was decided because it's clearly doing a really good now. So
Snyders Return:definitely, definitely, it's
Drew Gaska:it's interesting because so many people are like, Oh, it didn't it didn't it didn't fund in the first 15 minutes. You You should just cancel it. And I'm like, Yeah, but is there a way to turn that around? So and I guess they can be because now that the more people seeing it, the more orders we're getting. It's great.
Snyders Return:Yeah, yeah. As I say, I'm one of those people something I possibly should have done earlier on. And just before I forget, because we've mentioned Kickstarter things, where is it that we can find yourself and everything that you're putting out into the world? Where can we find you on online and other places?
Drew Gaska:Well, I'm I'm very active on Facebook. My personal Facebook is Andrew e gasca. I answer questions of fans a lot I also hang out in the freely on Facebook, I hang out in the free league alien group there for the role playing game and so people can find me there if you have any questions about the game. I have a blog called rogue reviewer dot WordPress calm and it is I put stuff related to the properties I'm working on there. There's a there's a Canon article about alien there, which just breaks down what is barroom cannon? What has a list of everything that's come out and where that right lays in tears as far as cam tears? So people might want to check that out. I can also give you the link to that if you want to put it up when you put the put this this interview up. What do you call it? That's, that's where I usually am on Facebook and and on that blog? I don't I don't really hang out on Twitter that much. I need to change that. Because I hear I hear it's a place to be.
Snyders Return:It is a place to be is one of those places.
Drew Gaska:Yeah, so I I don't know if you're aware. But I I'm also the lead writer on the Terminator role playing game. Hmm. That's, that's coming out early, late, late this year, early next year. It's a they had a very successful Kickstarter in the in the spring. I'm looking forward to what we're doing with that, to see how people react to that. Because it's it's nice for games has really been really cool. With listening to what I say, Hey, I think we should do this because this is a good way to hook into the fans that aren't gamers yet. And I think I think that's what the biggest thing. One of the biggest things for the game of the early game is an amazing game. They they keep incredible rules for that. But I didn't know that that was what it was going to be. I had no idea because I'm like, Okay, I'm writing this thing. So I'm going to write the most amazing source book so that people who are just alien fans will be like, Oh, well this is a Canon source book because it's written by the guy who was a franchise consultant. So let me just buy that to have it on my shelf because that's exactly why a lot of people I know bought the Star Wars Western game books when they came out. A lot of my friends weren't star when were huge Star Wars fans but weren't world players. And so a lot of my friends who did never intended to play at all had the Star Wars source book sitting on their shelf Anyway, you know, once once Timothy's on use those as a reference for the heir to the Empire novels, the sales on that source but went up like crazy because people just were using it as a eight but plastic dl 44 is what the guy that got that Han uses. Where did that come from? That's a Disney canon now even and that came from the western games role playing game, you know, they made it up there. And I when I when I approached alien, I was like, I really want to do that. I really want to create a book that future writers for alien can have on their shelf and pull out and have this source material just like what happened with the West End Game stuff with Star Wars. So it's funny when you think about it, everything between what I'm doing with aliens want to do with Terminator, and clearly carbon grey. It all comes back down to Western games.
Snyders Return:Thank you very much Western games. But,
Drew Gaska:but yeah, that the nightbot guys have been awesome about listening to me. Tell them what we need to not craft a cool, just a cool game. We need to craft a book that is a gateway drug for gamers. Someone who loves Terminator. Maybe he's unhappy with a lot of the confusion that's been in the sequels. Hmm, I want to see a source book that makes that make sense. Oh, buy that book. Oh, it's actually this is a game. Oh, it's kind of cool. You know, so have we just made a gamers because I know alien has made a tonne of new games. Mm hmm. I'm contacted constantly on Facebook by people saying I saw the book on the shelf. I picked it up and the art was beautiful. So I started looking at it and I decided okay, I'll buy it because it's beautiful. They get it home. They're like, Oh, this is a source book. I always hoped it would be and then they're just staring at those statistics and they're like, Well what happens if I play this and mixing you know, their game.
Snyders Return:So it's, it's such a, an easy system to pick up. Play with so full credit as you say to Thomas and the other Members of the free league team bringing
Drew Gaska:together the stress mechanic and the agendas are what make that game system soulmate. There are similar things out there, but I very few things that work quite as well as those two mechanics, I think,
Snyders Return:yeah, I would tend to agree with that statement. Absolutely. So you know, you have this Kickstarter, the work on other Kickstarter is the work on various other projects, books, titles, and so on and so forth. Are you still getting to run games at all of any shape for description,
Drew Gaska:I kind of don't really want to run games anymore. It's funny, because when I started working at, I started working for Rockstar, right? I was huge video game guy. Okay, but not ever intend to do anything with it, just as this is my relaxation was video games, okay. And then the more I worked on video games, the less I wanted to play the video. With this, the more write this stuff, the less I want to gain mastered. But the more I want to play it, I want someone else to put me through the hell on putting
Snyders Return:sure we can arrange that.
Drew Gaska:I'm going to be going to I'm against gamehole con. And I will actually be hosting a game for charity there, which is a little bit terrifying because it's the first game that I've actually gained mastered for people that I don't know in any way shape or form in like 20 some years. So it's, it's it's daunting, but as like, you know what, this is cool, I have had some cool alien things that I want to test out that we could put in a future book. This sounds like a fun place to put it. So people, people people pay money for charity to be able to sit at the table and be embarrassed by my game mastering skills.
Snyders Return:Sure, you'll be fine.
Drew Gaska:I'm sure we might be fine, just just teasing about it. But it's interesting, because I haven't done it in such a long time. And this seems like the right opportunity to do it. And so, but I, I will love the idea of being invited to play. Because I like seeing what other people do with the material that I've presented. Like, I wouldn't want to play charity Gods because I mean, I know what's going to happen, you know, but, but I I have played and played a couple of games online as part of convention stuff of, of Game of adventures that other people have have created. And it's been fun each time. It's interesting. It's relaxing. While game mastering has become part of the job and not a job. I don't like I love it. But it comes a point where I don't want to flex those muscles when I'm relaxing, if that makes sense.
Snyders Return:Absolutely. For dollar problems. So which kind of leads his own question. So, you know, computer games kind of fell away while you're working within that industry. You don't want to sort of work for your hobby kind of thing. So how do you relax?
Drew Gaska:So my I love I love the ocean. I love beaches. I want to move back to Florida because of it. Right now. I'm in St. Louis. And because of the pandemic I don't see myself being able to move for probably another year which is unfortunate. But But yeah, that the ocean has always been my relaxation I I have a kayak which I don't use it all up here in St. Louis. It sits in my backyard. But when I was in Florida, I was using that all the time, snorkelling all that type of stuff that's, I like I like to, I like to do that. I love to read comics, I have tonnes of Marvel and DC omnibuses that I just, you know, they say this giant stack here and of ones that I had read in the pandemic came along, and suddenly they're all red. So and I absolutely love. Good, good, good television and good films. And when I say good televisions, I think that the future of entertainment is not feature films so much as it is streaming. Because I think I think the longer format that you're getting with something like a show like Stranger Things, or you know, discovery or or the Mandalorian or you know, that you're getting getting so much more you're getting, you get to get that you're still getting that big budget, special effects and looks so it doesn't look cheap, like TV. TV that used to do for sci fi and a lot of places look cheap, you know? So you got the budget so it doesn't look cheap, but because they're trying to stretch that budget, there's all this room for character development and actually getting to know the characters and feel their struggle instead of having to be rushed like this because hey, we got an hour and a half till story. So I really I really love. I really love that. So, is that Netflix and chill. I don't know.
Snyders Return:Something, something like that. That was an invitation. And yeah, no relaxation, by any way is important. self care and all those other good things. Is there is there anything that we haven't touched on before we sort of close out this interview anything that we've not mentioned that you would like to maybe bring to the fore. Now, Drew,
Drew Gaska:I'm just I actually literally found out today that the the first choose your own adventure graphic novel that I adapted is just came out today.
Snyders Return:Okay, congratulations,
Drew Gaska:thank you. Suddenly, I started seeing seeing remarks about it online. And then my, my Echo Dot said that I have a package downstairs and I went downstairs and there was very, very excited about that. It's, I love choose your adventure when I was a kid. And the opportunity to adapt some of those classic books into graphic novels was just too good of an opportunity to not take, and I'm very happy about the result, because the artists that only press picked for that really fantastic. I've been, I've been very lucky in the past few years to be involved in a lot of good projects. And I'm just hoping that that just continues because it's been I I'm not I'm not a kid, I'm in my late 40s. And so it's like, it's, this is a, this has been a lifelong thing to get to this point, you know. And it's great to see that I didn't waste my time, because I'm getting to do the things that I want to do. And I'm very happy about it.
Snyders Return:Absolutely. Would you like to plug your Choose Your Own Adventure book? Yes. And find out what it's called?
Drew Gaska:Yeah, it's a it's eighth grade, which is, you can it's from Ollie press, and you can get it on Amazon or in your local comic shop. It's, it's a graphic novel, it's about I think it's 125 pages on like that. But it's it's, you get to a certain point, and it says, Hey, if you want to do this, go to this page, you want to do that go to that page. So it's your classic choose your own adventure. I also wrote a couple more than one of them was coming out next year. But yeah, a grid, which is out now, the colonial marine operation manual is out now. And carbon grey is on Kickstarter right now. So those
Snyders Return:are the three current projects. I will put links to those and links to your social media locations and internet locales in the description below this podcast, please go down, go and support Drew's many endeavours, all of them. Fantastic. Because I own most of them, it seems. JOHN, I can't argue with quality. Thank you. Drew. It's been it's been such a pleasure to get the chance to speak to you today. I'd love to have you back on the show in the future for future releases projects or or maybe do ever an alien one shot or something like that. Sure. Yeah. No, I'd love to. Let's do it. Perfect. I'm sure we can sort that out after we finish this interview. So yeah, thank you so so much. It's been an absolute pleasure having you on the show. Thank you. Thank you for listening. If you'd like to learn more about the show, then go to WWW dot Snow's return.squarespace.com Alternatively, you can find us over on Twitter. At Return Snyder, you have a link tree link in the description of this episode. And if you want to support us, come and join us over on Patreon. And we also have a Discord server. Please leave us a review because we'd love to learn how to improve the channel and provide better content alpha for those who are listening until we until we speak again. Thank you