From late 2006 to mid 2010, I had a lot of fun producing a podcast focused entirely on roleplaying game design: Master Plan: the People’s Podcast about Game Design. I did some amazing interviews with game designers like Fred Hicks, Kenneth Hite, Luke Crane, Patrick Kapera, Jason Morningstar, Daniel Solis, Emily Care Boss, and many others focusing on moments and elements of crafting roleplaying games. I had some excellent discussions on setting creation, text design, tension in mechanics, the various roles a game master has in design, all sorts of topics.

You might know me from other podcasts: The Voice of the Revolution and This Just In...From Gen Con! I'm also an award-winning game designer & one of the minds behind various Evil Hat Productions projects, including The Dresden Files RPG and the upcoming Fate Core and Don't Hack This Game.

Master Plan was one of the original (if not the first) RPG design-centric shows. You can check out the current 54 episodes: MasterPlanPodcast.net (And once funded, that's where you'll find the next season.)

Now it's time to bring this show back...

The Next Season of Master Plan

Quite a few of you have said you’d like my show to come back. And I’ve been talking with some game designers about if they’d like to be on the show...if it came back. But I can’t do it alone. Good audio production takes time & resources, thus this Kickstarter campaign!

If this Kickstarter is funded, my crack team of audiophiles (me and Jason Pitre of Genesis of Legend Publishing) will get underway, interviewing and producing the next season of Master Plan.

If funded, Master Plan will get ten more episodes:

• Two interviews from the “basement tapes”—old interviews that never got to see the light of day
• Eight new shows

These episodes will be free & available to the world, just as podcasting should be.

The show's format will expand to 45 minutes (from the original 30 minute limit), enough time to get deeper into topics and shine some light on ideas that don’t get enough illumination. Starting in August, these will come out once every two weeks (barring health issues & conventions screwing up scheduling).

Check this space in the coming days, and I'll share confirmed guests and topics!

Funded!

Master Plan hit $1500! Onto stretch goals...

Stretch Goal #1: Master Plan Live at $2250, three live video episodes of Master Plan, via G+ Hangouts on the Air! Funded!

Stretch Goals #2 & 3: At $2750, a second half-season of Master Plan (four episodes and one Live episodes). At $3250, that becomes a full season!

The Rewards!

I’m doing this funding in two ways: NPR-style rewards and individual episode sponsorship.

At $5, you have my thanks, which will be displayed on the website.

At $15, you have my thanks, and you’ll get cool kitsch! A “What’s your Master Plan” button and “This machine realizes Master Plans” sticker, perfect for pasting on computers!

At $25, you’ll have my thanks, the button & sticker, and you'll be a part of the Inside Scoop during the season, getting exclusive previews and stuff that I work on. Things like previews of indie games, hilarious outtakes from the show, stuff like that! Sweet stuffs that'll high your email, and also your brain!

At $50, you’ll have my thanks, the button & sticker, the inside scoop, and an awesome limited edition dice bag from Lyndsay Peters of Dragon Chow that I hope will be a font for inspiration, as well as a kick-ass bag for your sweet, sweet goods.

At $100, you can sponsor one of the eight new episodes: you’ll get thanks at the front & back, and I’ll drop in an audio spot you provide (up to 30 seconds) in the middle. (If you don’t have such a spot, we can talk.) [Edit: this level will get you for two episodes, not one!]

At $150, you'll have my thanks, the button, sticker, dice bag, and...a commemorative hip flask! You'll rock the Night Macklin vibe with this. 

At $500, you'll get all the swag, and you'll get me! Well, you'll get some time with me over Skype or G+ for a personal design conference, where we'll talk about your game & text design questions and struggles. You'll get an evening of you & I (and up to three friends, if you like) waxing on design, just as if we were at a convention! And if you'd rather make this about playing a game I've worked on, we can do that instead. (Naturally, we'll have to hash out scheduling. Ping me if you have questions.)

Stretch Goals!

We've funded! Sweet! But I have more broadcasting love to give, so let's keep going, starting with:

At 150%, Master Plan Live! When we reach $2250, I'll add to this season three episodes of what I'm calling Master Plan Live -- an hour of live-streaming video, either an interview or solo episode over G+ Hangouts On the Air. This format lets me take questions & comments from a live audience, and it's automatically recorded and available after we're done.

At $2750, another half-season funded! That's four more podcast episodes and one Master Plan Live show.

At $3000, that turns into a full season! Eight podcast episodes and two Master Plan Live shows!

Thank you!

I thank all you Masterminds for your time in reading this, and hope you'll help me realize a few more Master Plans!

- Ryan