[TII] Episode 21: Luke Crane and Jared Sorensen on FreeMarket (aka Project Donut)

[Robert Bohl]

In this episode (http://media.libsyn.com/media/independentinsurgency/independent-insurgency-021.mp3), I talk to Luke Crane (http://www.burningwheel.org/wiki/index.php?title=Category:BWHQ#Luke) and Jared Sorensen (http://www.memento-mori.com/) about the game they've designed for Peter Adkinson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Adkison) at Hidden City Games (http://www.hiddencitygames.com/), FreeMarket (http://www.projectdonut.com/) (previously known as "Project Donut"). FreeMarket is a transhumanist science fiction game in which you try to gain prestige ("flow") on a Utopian space station.

Also, I had a cold.

Also, big news on the music front (scan down).

WARNING: The Independent Insurgency is an "explicit" podcast.

This episode is 64.8 MB big and 01:10:46 long.

00:01:08: The origin of the "Project Donut" working title
00:04:00: What's it about?
00:06:20: The primacy of cooperation
00:07:17: Transhumanism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism)
00:07:54: Blade Runner (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner) (in case you didn't know)
00:10:13: Jared claims FreeMarket is one of the first real science fiction games (and his explanation for what that means for shock: social science fiction (http://www.glyphpress.com/shock/) by Joshua A.C. Newman (http://www.glyphpress.com/))
00:10:58: What is science fiction?
00:11:13: J.G. Ballard (http://www.jgballard.com/)'s three pillars of science fiction
00:13:45: How the game works
00:15:30: The game's concept of Flow reminds me of face rank in Extras (http://www.amazon.com/Extras-Uglies-Scott-Westerfeld/dp/1416951172/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231801737&sr=8-1) by Scott Westerfeld (http://www.scottwesterfeld.com/)
00:15:43: Cory Doctorow (http://craphound.com/)
00:17:17: "Deathing" people
00:19:35: Setting is built into the skills, and characters use the same game terms players do
00:20:34: Division of labor
00:21:29: Oldboy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldboy)
00:23:16: When I played FM, I created a Y.T. gene line for my character (from the book Snow Crash (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Crash))
00:24:08: Luke ran a game of Jared's game Lacuna (http://www.memento-mori.com/lacuna/) for he and Peter
00:25:36: Luke and Jared would have liked to have done the Bella Sara (http://www.bellasara.com) RPG
00:27:28: The influence (or lack thereof) of other games
00:32:07: Rebekah "Spyder" Bennington (http://www.geocities.com/year_of_the_fish/home.html) has done art for FreeMarket
00:33:22: Difficult things to fix
00:37:42: Things they couldn't make work
00:40:17: The fascinating role of death(ing) in the game
00:42:16: Sengoku (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sengoku_(role-playing_game))
00:42:47: The GM is called the "Superuser" and the other players are the "users"
00:44:33: FreeMarket is a no-prep game
00:45:45: How to get playtesters and get them to give you feedback
00:47:30: A RadioLab episode (http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2008/11/14) on choice that I babble on about
00:49:17: Blink (http://www.gladwell.com/blink/index.html) by Malcolm Gladwell (http://www.gladwell.com/)
00:51:03: Darcy Burgess (http://achtung-spiel.com/)
00:51:54: Playstorming (http://imaginationsweatshop.com/?page_id=10)
00:52:03: The purpose and use of art
00:53:49: Pictures (http://projectdonut.com/images/whitebook_3.jpg) of the "white book" for the game are on its site
00:55:46: Slugfest Games (http://www.slugfestgames.com/) put them in touch with their printer
00:56:28: The PDF of the game will be given out for free
00:57:23: Skekses (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeksis)
00:57:32: You'll be able to register as a "colonist" and choose the number of the game you want
00:58:37: The contents of the boxed set
00:59:28: Empire of Dust by KNRPG Productions (http://www.knrpg.com/) is another boxed set
00:59:34: Marketing
01:02:50: Jim Munroe (http://nomediakings.org/), author of Everyone in Silico (http://nomediakings.org/IMadeMain.htm) and the movie Infest Wisely (http://nomediakings.org/category/infest_wisely), which were inspirations for FreeMarket
01:03:27: Jared has visions of one day playing the game with Doctorow, William Gibson (http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/), Munroe, and Bruce Sterling (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Sterling)
01:05:00: George W. Bush as the Manichean (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manichaeism) president
01:05:09: When will it be out?
01:06:45: The Farm (http://www.chimera.info/daedalus/articles/halloween2004/thefarm.html) is not happy

I'm super-lucky that Righteous Babe Records (http://www.righteousbabe.com/) gave me permission to play music by Ani DiFranco (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ani_DiFranco). I'm going to start doing so for a while, since she's my favorite musician. We're going to start with a song about a corporate entity trying to get you to sell yourself out, a song called The Next Big Thing (http://www.danah.org/Ani/NotSoSoft/NextBigThing.html).

Logo courtesy of Daniel Solis: http://danielsolis.com/

[Clyde Rhoer]

Dammit... no more podcasters spamming their BW shows, that's for me to do, and you screw up my titles. This one should be called: Rob Bohl insults both Crane and Sorenson.

I changed my signature for this post.

[Aramis]

It was quite interesting... viral marketing at its finest.

[luke]

Huh?

[Clyde Rhoer]

Heh. Don't read it too straight, Crane. I'm referring to your "rut," and Sorensons unhappy games.

[Aramis]

Huh?

The podcast make me want it even more, Luke. Makes me want to blog about it.

[Dwight]

Huh?
What he means is "how much and when, so I know when to stop eating so I have enough money saved up to pre-order".

Or I'm projecting.

[Aramis]

What he means is "how much and when, so I know when to stop eating so I have enough money saved up to pre-order".

Or I'm projecting.

That, too.

[xenomouse]

Only 1,000 physical copies? :confused:

(I'm hoping I can get a copy, but a little worried I might not.)

[Dwight]

Only 1,000 physical copies? :confused:

(I'm hoping I can get a copy, but a little worried I might not.)
Of the Deluxe boxed set. Judging from the website it looks like there is going to be a book too. But it took 6.5 hours to sell out the numbered series of the Magic Burner and that was only 200 units (and only priced higher when you counted shipping). A 1000 unit run should give a few day window at least. ;)

[luke]

Well, I'm not going to lie to you.

1) There's a lot of materials in the game. This will be the only time we provide them as a single package. We may be able to reprint some elements and sell them individually, but it's doubtful.

2) It's going to be expensive.

We'll have more news soon.

[Dwight]

Well, I'm not going to lie to you.

1) There's a lot of materials in the game. This will be the only time we provide them as a single package. We may be able to reprint some elements and sell them individually, but it's doubtful.

2) It's going to be expensive.

We'll have more news soon.
No worries. I just came across my Ptolus, still shrink-wrapped. Had forgot about it. Hopefully that'll cover it.

EDIT: Whoa, I had no idea even used Ptolus books were selling for that kind of cash. So yeah, it better cover it. :)

[xenomouse]

I've got an extra kidney just sitting there not doing anything for me.