I'm having trouble getting this posted as an article (some kind of error), so I thought I'd just bring it to you as a thread. (taken from my blog).

Tim Willard, a professional game designer and author of the d20 zombie game "Year of the Zombie" took a few minutes from his hectic schedule to drop in and talk shop.

Tell me a little bit about yourself. Where do you live, what do you do?

Well, I live in Medford, Oregon, and I’m currently a househusband. Living with me is my wife, our girlfriend, and our three kids. Believe me, breakfast time is hectic while I get all of them out the door.

Beyond YOTZ, what gaming projects have you been involved with, and in what capacity?

I cowrote Crimson Contracts: Assassin’s Manifesto and Arcane Strife (both from ENPublishing), I wrote Quickshots Mission File: Alpha for ENPublishing, and wrote/published Quickshots Mission File: Bravo and Charlie under my production company’s banner (The Brood). I detailed the NPC’s for a fantasy village product for UKG Publishing, wrote a module for a spaceship deckplan for both Modernized! and UKG Publishing, and a few projects that I worked on under NDA’s, so I can’t really talk about. A lot of times I ask not to be credited publically on something I’ve only contributed to.

I’ve had my thumb in a lot of stuff.

Tell me a bit about the world of YOTZ.

Well, the world of Year of the Zombie is basically our own after civilization and governments have collapsed. It’s a brutal landscape full of flesh eating zombies, the remnants of the old world, and full of the best and worst humanity has to offer.

Basically, instead of the apocalypse being years or generations ago, the characters experience it. From the initial Rising (when the dead begin to walk) for as long as they survive. It’s survival horror, really. Funny thing is, eventually the zombies are just an environmental hazard, other people, nature, and the wreckage of the old civilization are the worst hazards.

It’s a rough and brutal world, but fun.

How did you become involved in the game?

I was hanging out on the psionics.net mIRC server while drinking Wild Turkey, and someone was talking about how hard it was to run an mIRC RPG game, and I started making fun of him. In another channel I was complaining about how D&D/d20 Modern zombies really didn’t fit the Romero bit, and was saying I could probably do it better. Well, the guy I was making fun of, and one of the people listening to me bitch told me to put up or shut up.

I came up with the scenario, modded the zombies, and gathered up some test players in about a half hour and kicked off the game. We played about 3 months, and their exploits become the Diaries of Becka, while I took my rules and the way I changed the world and made the core rules.

In other words: Year of the Zombie started as a drunken bet.

All Flesh Must be Eaten is awfully popular among fans. Was there any hesitation on your part to launch YOTZ?

I really had no experience with All Flesh May Be Eaten, and to be honest, I don’t own a single one of their products. I had no hesitation releasing YotZ.

What distinguishes YOTZ from other similar products?

I wrote it. No, seriously, I haven’t seen anyone else’s products, although I wouldn’t mind checking out All Flesh May Be Eaten someday.

There's some pretty heavy subject matter addressed in YOTZ, from slavery to prostitution. What led to your decision to address these in the game, and how would you describe your approach?

I knew this question was coming.

I took various authors approaches to what was left over after the apocalypse in their novels, looked at how during disasters it seems like the predators survive the collapse, and decided that I was going to do a dark vision of an apocalypse. That meant tackling issues that appear in only a few novel series, and looking at real world parallels.

I contacted several organizations that deal with collapsed nations in Africa, and asked a lot of questions regarding modern day slavery and the behavior of people in those nations. I did research on the collapse of many Soviet Satellite nations after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact. The hardest was the research I did on North Korea and what’s been coined “invisible children” in Africa. The testimony of North Korean refugees who’d been sentenced to or worked at the internment camps was brutal, to say the least. I even looked at Department of Justice records for areas hit by disasters, interviewed people in law enforcement and government about just how bad Katrina was as far as human predators, and even managed to get some information from FEMA about the old Continuity of Government projections on how things would pan out.

My approach was matter-of-fact, not glorifying any of it, going into lurid detail on stuff, or softening it. I did back off on the Nuclear/Biological/Chemical weapon data, which was originally a chapter for each weapon. That stuff’s pretty bad, and there wasn’t any need to wallow in it.

And that was the big choice. Addressing it without wallowing in it. I just went in matter-of-factly, explained it, and got the hell away from it.

But, no matter what you read in Year of the Zombie, reality is much, much worse.

How has the fan response been?

Either people love it, or hate it. I’ve had a lot of negative press due to the fact that I didn’t just blithely wave away prostitution, torture, slavery, rape, child abuse, and other cruelties.

Still, there’s a lot of people who like it, but I still think some of it may shock people.

The game uses the d20 system. What led you to choose it?

My familiarity with the system. It was out there, for free, and already had an existing fan base. I saw no reason to reinvent the wheel, even though I did have to make small tweaks to the system.

Tell me about UKG Publishing. Who is behind it, and what are some of the other products in its catalog?

Well, UKG Publishing is based out of England, and the brains behind the operation are Kevin Scott and John Milner. They’ve produced artwork packs, spaceship deck plans, the spin off product Dead Future, and quite a few other products, from d20 Future to D&D.

Can you tell me about any future plans for YOTZ?

I’m going to get the basic setting toolbooks out, which is basically Havens and Traders, finish up the Hold At All Costs series, and go to work on locations and more power groups. There’s quite a bit being worked on, I’m just bogged with one product.

What's next for you after YOTZ?

If, and when, I get the time, I’ll go back to working on Nova Wars, which is a space opera sci-fi setting. It’s a lot of fun, but like YotZ, it won’t be for everyone.

Interesting interviews mattormeg, keep em' coming.

Regards,
David R