Have you ever sat down with someone who just seemed to “get it”? In my professional career as a podcast host, TTRPG reporter, game writer, designer and small independent publisher (hey, small outfits wear a lot of hats, okay?) I clearly remember three individuals who not only get it, but are absolutely crushing it.
On Saturday In the midst of GenCon chaos, I got to sit down with one of those people. Dave Scott of Evil Genius Games carved out some time to sit down with me and I am pleased to report that while we reviewed Everyday Heroes on our podcast SOdeQuests! earlier in the season, our thirty minute meeting was phenomenal.
I’m an incredibly easy-to-please but hard-to-impress gamer. I love the surface, and I love the polish, but lose interest when the patina sets in and crave more. That’s why when Eli and I reviewed EdH, we praised it so deeply; using 5e as the initial engine and actually picking up the loose ends to button up the system WHILE adding more to it (chase mechanics for example) was an improvement to speak so highly of. EdH took a system and made it better. Actually the best rendition we can think of.
But want to know something even better? That improved and finely tuned engine IS ABSOLUTELY compatible with fifth edition. But now that we have caught you up on Everyday Heroes I want to talk a bit about the man behind the company. Dave Scott, CEO of Evil Genius Games. Dave was telling me (which needs to paraphrased due to turning of the mic for other top secret information) that when he approached “cornered and offered a beer,” to Jeff Grub, one of the original writers of d20 modern he was excited for a yes, and things have changed after twenty years. Dave says, “you know Jeff, we should reboot it,” but his first response was ultimately turned down with a “Hell no!”
But perseverance has won and we’re better for it – A lot of asks, and eventually moved from hell no to maybe, and maybe to ok and then the company Evil Genius Games was founded.
And the reason this is so important to me is because the EdH rules are built on modern settings and most of the published adventures are some of my favorite films when I was younger. I mean, there may not be a princess bride or goonies (could that change??) but there is total recall, the crow, escape from New York, and soon Rambo.
I’m fanboy-ing, I know. I’m sure Dave knew too. He was telling me about his origins story and at 11 years old at summer camp a group was playing the old school “magical game called dungeons and dragons. In fact it was return to white plum mountain and I was hooked from that moment.”
But more so, Dave also explains he was always the kid who was asking to try something new. “Campions,” “gurps,” anything outside of high fantasy. “So when modern d20 came out in 2002, I was hooked. I loved the all the expressions the whole thing.”
Once we got past our top secret topics, the conversation with Dave flew so naturally that I never turned on our mic, but will say that I needed to ask about a press release from the company about Urban Arcana being updated to Everyday Arcana (which is an awesome setting to be updating) and the press release mentioned multiple books: the question was why, and I felt so nervous about this question because I didn’t want to question business decisions.
But Dave took it in strides, didn’t sweat it when he answered. The original idea for the books was always to be multiple, and when the idea first went to publishing they made it more affordable to publish a single volume. So now, Dave and his team over at Evil Genius Games is making a wish come true by presenting the material in four separate volumes as always intended.
If you remember at the start of the article, I said Dave is one of those guys who just gets it? This is one of those reasons.
I had a blast talking with the Evil Genius behind Evil Genius Games, and as the Epic Mastermind behind epic table games, will we ever square off? No. But maybe I promised a compatible adventure with EdH by Christmas, and maybe I’ll be in over my head.
