I’ve discussed 9th Level Games in some articles, but have yet to interview the crew behind Kobolds Ate My Baby!, Mazes, LEVEL 1 – The Free RPG Day Official Anthology, and The Excellents RPG. With their latest Kickstarter, I’m able to close that gap as we discuss the latest printing of The Excellents RPG, the special items this Kickstarter will include, and 2021’s Free RPG Day anthology plans.
EGG EMBRY (EGG): Adriel and Chris, thanks for talking to me about your latest project. What are you kickstarting?
CHRIS O’NEILL (Chris): We are Kickstarting a new book for The Excellents RPG, as well as a ton of new princess accessories.
ADRIEL WILSON (ADRIEL): You might be surprised that there aren’t a lot of glittery princess accessories for roleplaying games.
CHRIS: SHOCKING! Yeah. We are ready to do the third printing on The Excellents, and we felt it was time to do a bigger Kickstarter so that we could do the new Game Diary – which is like a character journal and sourcebook rolled into one. It also means that we could kickstart some other cool things.
ADRIEL: Like luxury dice from Level Up.
EGG: Making it to a third printing is impressive. What’s the premise of The Excellents?
ADRIEL: In The Excellents, we are all cartoon princesses – the Universe gives us powers to protect the world because we are super excellent at something. It’s a little Adventure Time, a little She-Ra, a little Disney Princesses – and a whole lot of 9th Level Games.
EGG: How does The Excellents’ engine, Polymorph, work?
CHRIS: Well, Polymorph is our core engine – The Excellents and Mazes are the first games that we put out (last year), and both were really well received. Both games use the core Polymorph system but are very different. At its core, Polymorph “feels” like a crunchy game – without any math or complicated rules. Each character is represented by a single polyhedral die – a d4, d6, d8, or a d10. When you want to do something, you roll your die (you only ever roll your die), and try to hit specific numbers that are listed on your character sheet. When you are good at something – so in The Excellents, for instance, you have a LIBRARY BOOK which determines what kind of “smarts” you’re good at. So, if you have something that you’re good at – you get to roll with advantage.
Polymorph itself was created as a framework for making games – so every game made with Polymorph feels unique and different – but they all have the same DNA. In fact, Mazes won the IGDN award and was nominated by the ENnies for BEST RULES – so that’s something.
EGG: The Excellents RPG is available now, but this Kickstarter offers a variety of extras. What are you offering?
ADRIEL: The big thing is the GAME DIARY. It’s a book where you can put your princesses, like a character sheet book. And draw pictures and keep stories of your adventures. It also has awesome premade princesses like Dungeons Princess, Dragons Princess and Ceral Princess.
We are also offering dice from the luxury dice makers Level Up. There is a colored aluminum set (16mm regular sized) etched with the 1 as a PAW PRINT and the highest number as a number in a crown (which are specifically tied to The Excellents game). There is also a Level Up set that are 25mm – big chunky resin dice – that will hopefully be glittery. I really want to roll these dice!
EGG: What’s in the Roll20 Pack?
CHRIS: We made a full integrated character sheet – so you can make a character on Roll20 and roll 3d dice right from the character sheet. There is also a play space – where you can have interactions, and cards for effects. There is a PDF version attached the playset – and some handout sheets preloaded. We’re working with Roll20 to do some cool stuff – were doing a show with them, and were part of their Roll20 CON (October 21-23).
EGG: 9th Level Games is known for several games such as Kobolds Ate My Baby!, Mazes, and LEVEL 1 – The Free RPG Day Official Anthology. Between those and The Excellents, there’s a solid range of subject matters. As a publisher, what makes an RPG a 9th Level Game? What makes you pick this game or that one out and publish it?
CHRIS: Most of our games are games that we design. But we’re starting to grow up and make other peoples’ games – and our focus is really on interesting, fun, diverse content. Polymorph is what we are really focused on right now – so any game that is using Polymorph could be a fit – we just released BUSINESS WIZARDS a Polymorph game about being wizards that work at soul sucking (often literally) corporate jobs.
EGG: LEVEL 1 – The Free RPG Day Official Anthology was a great addition to Free RPG Day 2020, thank you for creating it. What inspired you to take on that project?
ADRIEL: We really saw a need in the market – there was almost no representation from the Indie community as part of Free RPG Day, and when ownership changed to Gaming Days we pitched the idea to them and they were excited. We had worked on an anthology a few years ago – Tragedies of Middle School – and that was a project that we really enjoy working on.
EGG: How did Level 1 turn out? What lessons did you learn from that project that you plan to apply to future anthologies?
CHRIS: Well, the good news is that it was a real hit. Some people didn’t understand it – but a vast majority of stores reported that it went over really well. We had a great time working with publisher partners to fund the project – who got cool adverts in the book. We need to do a better job of getting the project in front of more publishers, as well as getting the store owners and Free RPG Day community excited about the next one. Out real hope is that Level 1 is here for the future.
EGG: Speaking of future anthologies, let’s talk about Level 1 2021 Designer Submission Form. What is that?
ADRIEL: So, we have opened the gates to the submissions process for LEVEL 1 Vol 2 (Free RPG Day 2021). This year there is a theme: Masks. So we are looking for short, self contained games that have to do with super heroes, and masquerades, and emotional masks, and sheeps clothing. We are excited to work with as many designers as possible – and will be putting out 10-15 games in the anthology next year.
Here is the link with all of the details.
EGG: Thanks, Adriel and Chris, for talking with me about The Excellents and 9th Level Games. For fans interested in learning more, where can they follow you online?
9TH LEVEL: Our website. You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @9thlevelgames. You can find our products at local game shops, Indie Press Revolution, DriveThruRPG, and of course – at our website.
The Excellents RPG & Princess Accessories from 9th Level Games
“Get the Princess roleplaying game and fun upgrades like a Princess diary, ROLL20 pack, LEVEL UP DICE & more!”
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