Soldak Entertainment Interview

The folks at RPGFrance have interviewed Soldak Entertainment’s Steven Peeler on the indie company’s previous titles, their upcoming Drox Operative, their opinion on Kickstarter and digital distribution and more. Here’s an excerpt from the English version of the interview:

In terms of RPG, what does Drox Operative bring as new elements?

I think the biggest difference between Drox Operative and other space RPGs is that everything takes place in a dynamic sector of the galaxy where multiple races are exploring, colonizing, and fighting for supremacy. This works out differently in every game played depending on which races are present, what planets they colonize, how the monsters react, how diplomacy works out between the various races, and especially what the players decide to do about everything. Let’s go over an actual sequence of events that happened in one of my play tests a few days ago.

Things were going well. The most powerful race in the game, at least that I knew of, was the Lithosoid. I had solved all of their local problems: civil unrest, a plague or two, and some pesky monsters. They liked me so much we agreed to an alliance. That apparently went straight to their heads, because they soon got themselves into a two front war with the Drakk and the Overlords. I struggled to keep them in the lead and finally helped destroy their two enemies. I was sure I had secured the sector for them.

Then I received a message that they had failed sabotaging a Dryad planet. I didn’t even know that the Dryads were present in the sector. This was also a huge sign of the dangers coming my way. You see, the Dryads are pretty peaceful and yet really dangerous. What happens is they usually cultivate many alliances, which is great until you end up on the wrong side of all of those alliances. I decided to break off my alliance with the Lithosoid right then and there. Soon after, I located the Dryad and bought contacts with their two allies. All three of them were more powerful than my ex-ally! A short while after that, the Dryad and their allies declared war on the poor Lithosoid. The Lithosoid didn’t stand much of a chance without an Operative backing them.

The cool thing about all of this is that it is completely dynamic, you aren’t likely to see the same exact scenario again, I had the freedom to make real choices to navigate the diplomatic landscape, and there were probably many viable alternatives that I could have taken.