Exclusive Interview - Keith Baker Talks to Apotheosis Studios
/We here at Apotheosis Studios have made some of the coolest friends, and some of the most seasoned gaming professionals working today. It’s only thanks to continued support of you, our fans and backers, that we’re able to have as big a sway in the community as we do.
It’s incredibly exciting to see such icons of the tabletop gaming world stand right alongside us for our upcoming events! One such name is Keith Baker, the mind behind the Eberron setting and award winning game designer for Gloom. We had a delightful conversation talking about his work in gaming and what we can look forward to in the future.
Exclusive Interview with Keith Baker
Keith Baker is a huge name in the world of Dungeons and Dragons. You've been designing games professionally for well over twenty years and many will know you as the original creator of the grand setting: Eberron. A true visionary in gaming, but few start at the top of the game. What's your (hopefully not too tragic) backstory? Where did your journey in game design and TTRPG building begin?
My mother gave me the white box when I was still too young to play it. I thought the original Monster Manual was the best coloring book in the world. I started running games for my friends in elementary school. By high school I realized that someone wrote these games—that this was a job I could do. At that time there wasn’t any concept of a game design major at college, but I studied history and creative writing and kept creating games. Part of my thesis was a sixty person, three day live roleplaying game! After college I ended up getting into the computer game industry, and worked as a designer for eight years while continuing to create freelance TTRPG content for various publishers. I finally quit my day job when it became clear that a game I’d been working on for three years was going to be cancelled, and I decided to try freelancing full time. That year I created Gloom and Wizards of the Coast announced the Fantasy Setting Search… and the rest is history.
Keith Baker, with the alternate cover of Eberron Rising from the last war
As a seasoned Game Master of multiple settings, coming up with the stories and lines of play your adventurers can follow is always a fun process. It's important to take sources of inspiration from many kinds of places that fit the world and what your characters are like. What are your main sources of inspiration when you're crafting an adventure for the table? What's a big thing that inspired you, that most people wouldn't know?
When I’m working on games at home, the main thing that inspires me are my players. What I love about TTRPGs is that it’s a collaborative process. Even when I’m working alone creating the story for the next session, I’m always thinking about the actions the players have taken in the past and the evolving stories of their characters.
On game night, I usually like to sit with my friends and make a day of it. We'd start with a few small box games, laugh at antics, have some snacks, and then dive into six or more hours of D&D. One of the smaller games that I always have close by in that instance is Gloom, which is one of your award winning pieces! What was the process like for developing one of the best games of the 2000's? How was managing the complexity of the infinite stories that can be told in that game, despite how simple it is to play? How much involvement did you have on the spin offs and expansions?
Gloom began when I saw a deck of transparent playing cards and thought if it’s possible to make transparent cards, there’s got to be something fun you can do with it! I made the first prototype in my basement using overhead projector film (do those even exist anymore?). Collaborative storytelling has always been my favorite thing, and as a fan of Edward Gorey, Charles Addams, Lemony Snickett and more, I loved the idea of a game where you wanted to tell the most miserable story—where your goal was to crush YOUR OWN family instead of your opponents. I’ve created all of the spinoffs and expansions except for the recent Gloom of Thrones—and I’ve actually just released two new products, The Gloom Chronicles and Gloomier: A Night At Hemlock Hall.
Gloom game cover - time to make your family miserable!
You've had your hand in designing content for many high fantasy tabletop RPGs. Pathfinder, 13th Age, Fantasy Age which created Titansgrave: the Ashes of Valkana. How has working on each of these different worlds and systems informed your game design and storytelling? Do you know these systems as well as D&D to give us a game there too?
It’s true, I’ve worked with a lot of different systems. My first paid, published TTRPG work was for the game Over The Edge, which I love—and I’ve also created content for Feng Shui, Ars Magica, and my own RPG Phoenix: Dawn Command. I’ve also written live-action roleplaying games and served as lead designer for two MMORPGs (neither of which made it to market, sadly). And then there’s Gloom and The Adventure Zone: Bureau of Balance. Aside from being a big list of things I’ve done, for me all of these things connect together in different ways—just as fencing and karate are very different, but there’s basic reflexes and instincts you develop that apply to both. Working with so many different systems and styles of storytelling games has helped me identify the aspects of collaborative storytelling I most enjoy. Beyond that, I’ll often pull in a mechanic from another system for a particular scene even when I’m running D&D, whether that’s Over The Edge or Phoenix.
Eberron, for myself and many others in the community, is a strong favourite in terms of the big and official settings. It's the perfect union of steampunk, science fantasy, western fiction, high fantasy, political drama, and war narratives. That depth of worldbuilding is something many Game Masters aspire to create. We all know it was a success when it was chosen by Wizards, but where did it begin? What inspired you to join the Fantasy Setting Search? Despite how beloved it is, is there anything you'd change or amend?
Why wouldn’t I join the Fantasy Setting Search? When Wizards of the Coast said that ANYONE could pitch an idea for a new D&D setting, it was an amazing opportunity… and as I mentioned earlier, I’d just quit my day job to freelance full time! I sent in seven submissions to the Fantasy Setting Search, and Eberron was actually the last one I came up with. The MMORPG I’d been designing beforehand was called Lost Continents, and it was inspired by pulp adventure. While it’s not directly related to Eberron, it meant that I’d been immersed in the pulps for three years. Eberron blended three central ideas: over the top pulp adventure; the shades-of-grey depth of film noir; and the basic question of since arcane magic behaves like a form of science, why isn’t it part of civilization in the same way as science? If I could change one thing, it would be the scale of the timeline. One of the things I like is that Eberron generally feels like it could be real—that it’s internally logical and consistent. However, the history of the last 7,000 years is just too long for the amount of things that happen in it; I’d compress the timeline and really highlight the key discoveries and developments.
A stratified map of Sharn, the City of towers - the biggest and wildest city of Eberron
Eberron has come a long way in the twenty years since it won then Fantasy Setting Search. It was one of the saving graces of Fourth Edition, and Eberron: Rising from the Last War felt like the arrival for the promised land. In 2020, you released Exploring Eberron, to delve into themes you had yet to explore in past Eberron releases. How was compiling the list of new details you wanted to look at in Exploring Eberron? Was there any themes you want to explore still?
Most of the topics covered in Exploring Eberron are things I’ve wanted to cover since the setting came out. The planes, Dhakaani civilization, Droaam, aquatic civilizations. Eberron was introduced with a unique cosmology, but we never explored the planes of Eberron the way the Great Wheel has been developed; as someone who loves planar adventures, that’s one point I always wanted to expand upon. But there’s no shortage of other topics I’d like to explore!
With all this history in the world of gaming, you're bringing all that experience to Satine's Quest! The one week cruise is already something that sounds incredibly luxurious, but to wrap up the all-inclusive experience, you will be among legendary game masters telling the guests grand gaming stories. What was your preparation going into this event? What can players expect from your place in Satine's Quest?
As I say at the start, one of the things that I enjoy most about TTRPGs is the collaborative aspect of storytelling. I’ll certainly work to get to know all of the players I have at my table and to draw them into the story, challenging players to help establish details within the adventure and to go beyond the dice and numbers. I can’t wait to see how it turns out!
As well as the cruise, it appears that there's much to look forward to this year. What are your upcoming projects in 2022? What can you tell us about Frontiers of Eberron?
Oh, I’ve got no shortage of projects in 2022. As I mentioned before, I’ve just released Gloomier: A Night At Hemlock Hall with Atlas Games. I’ve got an expansion coming out for The Adventure Zone: Bureau of Balance through my own company, Twogether Studios (https://www.twogetherstudios.com/). I’m continuing to run an online ongoing campaign for my Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/keithbaker) supporters. And I have two Eberron releases planned for 2022! Frontiers of Eberron: Threshold embraces the idea of the Western in Eberron, delving deep into the contested lands between Breland and Droaam and exploring rules for wandslinging, monstrous PCs, and much more. That will hopefully come out by the end of summer. In the meantime, I’m also working on a project codenamed Chronicle, which collects some of my best online content from the last decade and revises and expands upon it.
Fascinating stuff indeed. It’s great to hear a storied career direct from a veteran of tabletop gaming design. The things Keith has been a part of will be celebrated by gamers like us for a very long time indeed.
We have a lot to look forward to from Keith over the coming year, including the one week cruise as part of Satine’s Quest. Book your spot right now, and look out for more of Keith’s work, and even more spotlights on members of the TTRPG community right here on the Apotheosis Studios blog!
Now we want to hear from you. How did you first hear about the gaming works of Keith Baker? Which creator or collaborator in the world of TTRPG would you like to hear more about? Let us know in our discord server or in the comments below.
Adam Ray contributes much for adventurers here on Apotheosis Studios. As co-founder of fantasticuniverses.com, they write all kinds of gaming press, while they write news about the League of Legends Card Game on RuneterraCCG. On Youtube, they can be found game mastering for No Ordinary Heroes, or editing the antics on The Hostile Atmosphere. Find where they dwell by climbing their Linktree.
