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Interview with Mark Rapson, Managing Director and Co-owner of Word Forge Games (the company behind the newly announced Role-playing Board Game Guardians of Eden) and Marketing Director and Co-owner of Prodos Games Ltd.

First of all Mark thanks for being back in the saddle of Q&A with us! Now on to the questions, we are all eager to know more about this new product!

Q. It’s said that Holly is covering Josh´s story, is he how they travel to this alternate present or what is the "story"?

A.When we describe Guardians of Eden as set in an ‘alternative present’, we don’t mean ‘parallel’, instead imagine that you and the whole population of the world don’t fully comprehend/understand/know this world. Hence alternative present, it’s our present but different. Josh does something extraordinary as a result of a certain death situation. That extraordinary thing draws media attention (including Holly), which in turn brings the unwanted focus on Josh of the Guardians and the ‘bad’ guys: the Principles

Q. What kind of things can we expect to run into in this alternate present except dinosaurs and werewolves? Necromancer, Skeletons or is it more of an animal kingdom?

A.Who said anything about Werewolves? The creature you see on the right of the artwork is not a werewolf. By the way the monster on the left is not a dinosaur either, instead it is from the genus: Crocodylidae. But to answer your question it’s more special powers and animal kingdom!

Q. The boxes come with a lot of things: dice, board, counters, rules and the storybook. What kind of minis will we see?

A.GoE will, likely not use miniatures, but instead card board cut outs. That said, it’s quite possible, that if it’s successful there is no reason why we won’t work with Prodos Games to bring out a range of models.

Q. Besides Josh and Holly, which other character can we see in the game?

A.Well, we have met one other already, the creature on the right of the art. He is a powerful and important part of the story. Apart from those 3, the game will include another six.

Q. How will the board setup work? Will we have a map and put out different things on it depending on mission? (Like Prodos Games has done with AvP)

A.Yes, but with GoE the tiles are placed as the players progress through the game.

Q. Is the game all about adventuring and discovering things or what is driving the story forward?

A.Yes, adventuring, problem solving, surviving, completing missions, collecting. Additionally there will be a combat aspect.

Q. Will it be a KS and if so when can we expect it?

A.To answer this I should probably give you some background to the story of Guardians of Eden and Forge World Games and our link with Prodos Games Ltd (the company behind Warzone Resurrection and the soon to be released Alien vs. Predator board game): Approximately 12 years ago, I was staying in yet another hotel room, (as a result of my job of a travelling salesman), when I had a spark of an idea about this boy who did something extraordinary as a result of a near miss that should have killed him. This extraordinary experience brought international media attention, which in turn brought the boy, Joshua Jenkins, to the focus of two powerful and opposing groups (who too are extraordinary). Over the years, and as I had time to think about it, these factions and the world they lived in solidified, the back story and reasons for their extraordinary nature became clear, loose ends were tied up and I came to care for the characters. To the point, that approximately 2 years ago, I had written a large chunk of the story. Then this chap came to see me, a friend that I had met through my local gaming club. He asked me to help him realise his dream, a dream that I soon shared. He (Jarek), I and our 3rd co-owner of Prodos Games, worked our socks off to make that dream a reality. Warzone Resurrection was launched via Kick Starter in early 2013, since then it is going from strength to strength. Then Prodos launched Alien vs. Predator, The Hunt Begins, which is in the very final stages of production. But in all this time, Josh and the Guardians, have always niggled at my brain. Now Prodos Games has a team looking after Warzone Resurrection and another working on AvP, to the point we have 20 or so employees across Europe and the Americas working away. My co-directors are, themselves, fully employed and doing a great job at the helm, and now it’s time for my dream (with the full blessings of my fellow co-owners of Prodos Games).... In the last couple of months, I have collated a perfect team of rules writers, facilitators, artists, comic book artists, photographers and novelists etc. to make Guardians become a reality. Each of these people, are shareholders in Word Forge Games, but this project has little investment financially. Kickstarter, to me, is the perfect conduit for making a game like GoE a reality, so to answer the question (after a very long preamble – sorry! ), yes Word Forge Games will use Kickstarter to kick start GoE and it will be likely Q2 2015.

Q. Will all players characters be from the "real present" or are some of them from the "alternate present"?

A.Most of the characters (apart from Holly and Josh), are from the ‘alternative’ or expanded present.

Q. Is this linked to the pictures Jarek (of Prodos Games) showed in the spanish interview on Youtube or do you have two amazing products planned in 2015?

A.The photos shared by Jarek are from a potential Prodos Games product (in other words not the Word Forge Games product Guardians of Eden).

Q. How will character development work in Guardians of Eden?

A.Characters will have the chance to collect things as the game progresses and also level up, becoming more powerful as the player learns how to play the game and meets more dangerous opponents.

Q. Are all characters prebuild or is it any character customization?

A.The main game will follow a mission progression with preset characters. Players will also be able to play as the ‘enemy’ characters or their own built characters, in a free play mode. Additionally, they will be able to construct their own rooms, missions and campaigns.

Q. Is the game more story driven or is it heavy on the dice rolling?

A.It is story driven for the set mission. The mode of role play and combat is D6 based

Q. Is there lots of fighting, lots of avoiding combat or is that up to the group and GM?

A.Very good question! As it is meant to be an introduction to role-playing and adventure style board games for those (including youngsters), it is intended to be a good balance of fighting and adventuring, but as you have rightly surmised its upto the GM to drive the style to reflex the wants of his players!

Thank you Mark always a pleasure hearing from you! Our best hopes for this really interesting project! 

And Mark gave us this amazing artwork of the Non-werewolf!