At AndoCon 2018, I played Derek A. Kamal’s Heavy Metal Thunder Mouse. Playing as a mouse on a motorcycle turned out to be a lot of fun. I wasn’t the only one to think so as the project won an award. Now it’s back with an amazing creative team offering an anthology of settings for the game. Derek was kind enough to answer my questions about the game, the creators, and why they make this project a bit of a reunion.
EGG EMBRY (EGG): It’s good to talk to you again, Derek! You’re back with more Heavy Metal Thunder Mouse! What have you got for us this time?
DEREK A. KAMAL (DEREK): Well this go round we’re loading up our bikes and moving away from the original setting of Thunder City. One could say that we are taking things beyond! The current Kickstarter is for Beyond Thunder City, that being a setting book of five new worlds for folks to take their mice to and I think rules.
EGG: For those that don’t know, what is Heavy Metal Thunder Mouse (HMTM)?
DEREK: HMTM is a Fate RPG in which mice and their motorcycle clubs get into tremendous adventures. It is The Mouse and the Motorcycle casually shaking hands with Sons of Anarchy, while maintaining its cute demeanor. Maybe it would be better if I start saying it’s The Mouse and the Motorcycle meets Easy Rider…
Anyway, players create their very own mouse, customize their bikes, then found their club together. From then on it’s high speed, pint sized, Saturday morning cartoon action!
EGG: HMTM is an award winning game, correct?
DEREK: Correct! We released the game back in 2018 and that year HMTM won the Silver ENnie for Best Family Product. I’m still very proud of that! I often wear the medal to work.
EGG: For this anthology, you brought back original HMTM artist, Jacob Hunt. Who is he joined by?
DEREK: Jacob remains the sole visual artist on Beyond Thunder City. In fact, I held off on this project until his schedule freed up because I absolutely love what he did with the core book and wanted to make sure he brought the same sensibility to this book. Jacob worked with great intensity and personal grit in order to nail down an original style for HMTM; our mice are anthropomorphic but still look natural, unlike weird Biker Mice from Mars He-men. It’s very important in achieving the vibe. I’m glad he’s around to do the same here!
Our crew of writer’s includes those brave four who joined me as stretch goal writers during the initial campaign: Elizabeth Chaipraditkul, Todd Crapper, Steve Radabaugh, and our friend Craig Campbell. In addition, Jonathan Lavallee was conned into joining the squad. I’m particularly happy about that because he pitched me “Call the Midmouse” all those years ago but we weren’t able to include him in the Kickstarter, so I’m 100% thrilled to get that setting in the new book. He shall also be running “Call the Midmouse” as part of the campaign on September 24!
Finally, we’ve got Alan Barnes, who did some spectacular work for the project’s animated trailer.
EGG: That trailer looks great! Elizabeth Chaipraditkul is one of the most in-demand creators in RPG right now. She’s the project manager of Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game, which is huge! It’s awesome that she’s a part of this anthology. How did you bring that about?
DEREK: Really it’s all about being able to see into the future and subsequently produce good timing! It goes back to the initial campaign: when I put out the call for writers she was one of the first to respond. I reached out to her, as well as Craig, earlier this year about the new book and they were both very generous. In spite of her busy schedule, which includes producing the massive game you just mentioned, Liz did a little “dev diary” for one of the campaign updates which was kind of her.
EGG: What’s her setting about?
DEREK: “Metal Mouse/Furry Trail” is about your motorcycle gang blasting through space while being pursued by the hamsterous (just made that word up) War Horde. You rock out, visit space stations, investigate strange new worlds like Catplanet, and generally have a good time as you avoid being taken captive by Immortal Lim.
EGG: That will be fun! I’m going to pick one more setting to discuss. Since I talk to Craig Campbell so much, let’s look at his. What’s it about?
DEREK: Craig has given us the wonderful “Rock n Roll Sock Hop Mouse.” I love this one because it’s almost like a prequel to HMTM. Set in the 1950s, your mice and their motorcycle clubs go to sock hops, sing about teenage angst, do the twist, and doge the fuzz. It is truly delightful for anyone who likes Grease or Happy Days.
EGG: This project runs on FATE. Why is that the right system for this game?
DEREK: Fate is just a very malleable system. The core of it works so well, the gears are so well oiled, and everything is so easily adaptable, that whatever your game needs can be plugged in in some fashion. Take our gang rules, for example: I thankfully had Mark Diaz Truman’s Factions rules to draw upon, but tossing them into the game using the central mechanics would have been a walk in the proverbial park. It’s far more open and less constrictive than Powered by the Apocalypse or a more traditional d20 system and, while that has its drawbacks, it’s correct for something like HMTM because mice on motorcycles don’t need perfect abstractions or a lot of direction. Fate gives you the rules required to bring the world to life while allowing the setting the space it needs to breathe.
EGG: Beyond Heavy Metal Thunder Mouse: Beyond Thunder City, what else are you working on?
DEREK: I will be working on resting for the duration of 2020s ugly sequel, I hope! The Broken Cask, my solo RPG about running a fantasy inn, just launched publicly a few weeks ago. I hope to continue to drum up interest for that if I can. Nerdburger Con is coming up next month and I’ve got some new music, the demo for which should be released by year’s end. Short of that, I’ve got my usual creative endeavors which will keep me quite busy. So it seems there will be little time to rest after all!
EGG: Thanks for talking with me. Where can fans learn more about this project?
DEREK: Thank you, Egg! It’s great talking to you. Beyond Thunder City is live on Kickstarter right now! You can also visit [my website] for more on HMTM and various other books. From there one can find links to my various social media outlets for more fun.
Heavy Metal Thunder Mouse: Beyond Thunder City from Shoreless Skies Publishing
“New worlds for mice and their motorcycle clubs.”
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