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Interview with the creators of Protodimension Magazine
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Courtesy Protodimension Magazine
Protodimension Magazine is a fanzine devoted to the wonderfully creative world of conspiracy horror role playing. It is created and managed by Norm Fenlason (starman) Managing Editor, Lee Williams (morthrai) Editor-in-Chief, and Tad Kelson (tadk) Senior Editor.
MT: Tell us a little about the team that brings us Protodimension Magazine.
Lee Williams (LW): Well, I started out wargaming as a young lad, mainly WW2 skirmish as it gave me the chance to use all the Airfix and Revell models that I had built. The club I joined also had a few students who introduced me to RPGs, so that got my interest. The first game I ever owned was the original Traveller box with the three little black books, which I had when I was about 13 or 14. I have never really looked back since. My penchant for horror stems back to my first Cthulhu game, which was a few years later with the 3rd edition Games Workshop hardcover with all the wonderful color illustrations. I still have that too.
Tad Kelson (TK): My gaming background stretches back to Christmas of 1977 which is when I was first introduced to the White Box edition at the High School Debate Team Christmas Party. From that point on I was hooked on RPGs and gaming, making this the longest hobby / interest I have had besides reading. With this duration comes a tendency to know a bit about a lot of different systems, but I am not the in-depth rules curmudgeon I might appear to be. I have way too many interests, from gaming and writing, to reading, soap making, low end SEO work, desktop and layout interests, creativity in general, making loop based music, getting into learning how to use GIMP to make simple graphics, along with a fascination on Peak Oil and Green Issues. A very eclectic mixture going on here.
Norm Fenlason (NF): I am an overly experienced engineer in the Capitol Beltway studying for a PhD. I was raised on the now-banned EC and other horror comics; and my preference is for subtle plots with poignant irony. I started role playing a couple of years after D&D LWB and Traveller LBB first came out. I was reading Lovecraft before CoC, being vectored in from reading fantasy by Robert E. Howard. So when Chaosium published CoC, it was a no-brainer for me. I collected the whole set. I liked the procedural aspects to CoC play. But at the time I was really into war games, boardgames mostly and in a big way. I was into the paper maps, rule books that read like law, and thousands of paper chiclets. From there I moved into miniatures gaming. That interest took me to central Illinois where Frank Chadwick, et al, were actively supporting the hobby. It was at a miniatures con in Champaign-Urbana that I pick up Dark Conspiracy (I think the ink wasn't dry yet). I was instantly attracted to the conspiracy potential, especially since I was a second leiutenant in the US Air Force assigned to the Foreign Technology Division in Dayton, OH at the time. Note that the introductory scenario included with Dark Conspiracy featured a USAF 2Lt in Dayton. Talk about identifying with the material...
MT: What gave you the idea for a modern conspiracy magazine?
NF: Simple: the idea was a shameful rip-off of Demonground, even to the point of using Dark Conspiracy jargon as the title. I wrote some minor pieces for DG, which they kindly printed. A few years ago I offered to take over the sleeping (as in dragon sleeping) Demonground IP from Mike Marchi. He, of course, turned me down. I was being a bit unrealistic. He loves his prize and should. So, in order to keep interest in the genre, provide outlets for writer's in training and old pros alike, and to explore some cool plot lines, ta da, Protodimension Magazine. I can only aspire to the professional quality that DG came to express. I think we got some work to do, but the direction we are headed is right.
LW: My original arrival on the internet coincided with the release of Demonground issue 2. I had a campaign setting for Dark Conspiracy which I submitted to them, and it was so well received that eventually the editorial team signed me up. Moving up to date, at the beginning of 2009 Norm put forward the idea of something to fill the niche left by Demonground's lengthy hiatus. As I had already left the team (an RPG project I was on a couple of years back meant I had to have separation from any other game-related material), he asked me and naturally I said yes. I think it is important to get ideas shared with others, and in general gamers seem to be some of the most idea-prone people. Our ideas happen to focus on conspiracy-horror.
TK: In my gaming outlet I tend to make up what I call Gaming Productions. Inspired by APAs I solicit contributions and put together a large product to share with friends and other gamers. Norm and Lee have both contributed to my products (Lee did layout for my first one, the quality has slipped since then), and when Lee mentioned that Norm was looking to start up a magazine, I said I was interested in helping out. This led to here, helping out with submissions and editorial support work.
MT: Have you ever had a brush with a conspiracy in real life?
NF: Well, I saw two documented incidents of UFOs, both when Project Bluebook was still active. One in central California that caused a 3rd page forest fire (right. I lived at the time next to a National Guard base and they scrambled fighters that night) and the other on desert back roads down by Death Valley (we now know what goes on there, right?) But the best: while at the Foreign Technology Division, I actually got into Warehouse 18. The FTD, not the flower people, was where they took the Roswell crash debris in the 40s. Warehouse 18 was where the debris was supposed to have been examined. I can't tell you what I saw there, because they would hunt you down and kill you, and kill me to for that matter, and kill anyone reading this and they know who you are too! And your dog's name. Clear your cache...and maybe move away.
MT: Do you have any particular favorite game systems for running modern conspiracies?
TK: My main genre of gaming is Cyberpunk/Steampunk/Super Heroes. In those there is always hidden agendas, mysterious entities, as well as behind the scenes operators. My go to system for planning and development has been The Hero System for decades. But the dedication for it is sometime lacking, in which case I would likely default to the d20 / OGL ruleset, where I can pull in anything I want to, which also appeals to my mixed genre sensibilities. Dark Conspiracy however is one of my absolute favorite settings, this is what brings me back to the genre, besides more straight up horror.
LW: If I had to pick just one game for both refereeing and playing, it would most likely be Dark Conspiracy simply because I know it so well. As a player, I love Delta Green and as a GM I would probably pick Conspiracy X, or maybe Alternity Dark*Matter. Actually, when I GM games in this genre I mix and match all of those and more, until it ends up as "Call of Beyond The Delta Conspiracy X Dark Green Chill Matter"!
MT: The gaming conspiracy genre seems woefully underserved these days even though conspiracy theories abound on the Internet. Why do you think that is?
TK: There are some out there. Over on Modus Operandi website a year some ago was a design competition for new Spy games, which dovetails in nicely with the conspiracy genre. Also some of the other design competitions such as Game Chef end up with some interesting Indie Games. When there are 70 some games being created all at once, there is bound to be at least one conspiracy oriented game. I think it is because gaming genres wax and wane. Right now Fantasy, the perennial favorite, is on a strong upsurge.
NF: 1) Fantasy role playing -- now don't get me wrong, I love FRP, I play a dwarven character and am one at heart. But IMHO there is no foundational system that remotely compares to what the wizards have for pure escapism. Figure stuff out, deduction, research? Heck a sharp axe will do the trick, just point me. But the wizards, the industry leading wizards, have time and again given a lower priority to modern or realistic systems. Dark Matter, with some of the best conspiracy gaming content you will find, dances on the treacherous tightrope of Unsupported/Out Of Print. After all, their main line IS fantasy and their economic model uses a fix pool of demand. Also their modern system does not even rate a real name, it is like an add-on to the Core D&D. (As my producer/writer brother used to say, "We'll get letters.") 2) The conspiracy genre that is based on real world settings is limited. Most of the conspiracies are the same. I have the complete X-Files on DVD. Watching them sequentially, gets pretty predictable. Bad science, evil organization, cover-up. That is why I prefer Dark Conspiracy, ConX, and these days, Esoterrorist / Fear Itself. Modern fantasy with conspiracy plots. It is one thing to fight against a hostile government, but quite another to fight against a Dark Lord and his minions. Now put the Dark Lord in bed with the hostile government and then toss in a competing Dark Lord...now we're talking.
LW: My theory is simply that it is based on popularity. ConX and the others all came out in the 1990s originally, which was the X-Files decade which coincided with the rise of the 'net and suddenly conspiracy theory was all over the place. Nowadays it's not seen as "hard and cool", having become part of the mainstream. There is still a lot to be drawn from it for gaming purposes though.
MT: How can someone contribute to the magazine?
LW: Simply contact us and let us know what you have in mind. We will accept almost anything that has to do with horror, conspiracy or general weirdness in modern-era gaming! Email us at: submissions@protodimension.com Submissions guidelines are available from our website if you are uncertain about formats and so forth.
NF: I would like to point out that the PM team have contacted all the publishers that are listed on our website. They have agreed to allow us to publish free material supporting their systems. Publishers that are missing from our list are either too restrictive or just down right disapproved us. So, if one wants to publish for any of those systems, we have a place for them. Contact us at our submissions email if you want to contribute for an unlisted system. Maybe we overlooked one or two.
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