City Of Heroes: City of Heroes Novel #2 Interview: Robin Laws

WarCry: I'm sure our readers would like to know a little about your background. Would you mind telling us a little bit about yourself and where we might have seen your work?

Freedom Phalanx will be my sixth published novel. I've written three novels set in Games Workshop's Warhammer world, for their fiction imprint, the Black Library. These all feature the team of cynical corpse-looter Angelika Fleischer and her good-hearted but naive sidekick Franziskus. In order, the series consists of Honour Of the Grave, Sacred Flesh, and Liar's Peak.

My first novel was also a game tie-in, Pierced Heart, based on the Over the Edge roleplaying game and published by Atlas/ Trident. Atlas also published a standalone fantasy novel, the Rough and the Smooth, which follows the travails of a pair of anthropomorphic naked mole rats as they foment political unrest in a human kingdom. That one's available in ebook format from RPGNow.com.

The biggest computer game project I've been involved with so far is King Of Dragon Pass, which you're familiar with. It's illustration-style graphics never go out of date, so I urge players interested in an immersive and unconventional resource-building game to give it a look. It's still available from www.a-sharp.com for a shockingly low 20 bucks. (Editor's Note: King of Dragon pass is incredibly cool.)

Comics-wise, I did a brief stint as the writer of Iron Man and wrote the limited series Hulk: Nightmerica.

That said, I'm probably best known for my work in the pencil- and-paper roleplaying field, having designed the games Feng Shui, the Dying Earth RPG, Hero Wars/Heroquest, Rune, and a host of supplements for many of the major roleplaying companies. Search for me in Wikipedia and you'll get a fuller resume.

WarCry: Where does your book fit with the first book (The Web of Arachnos)? Is it continuing the same story or is this an entirely new tale?

It's a standalone story with a few nods to the first book.

You don't have to have read The Web Of Arachnos (or for that matter even know the City of Heroes world) to follow the action.

Freedom Phalanx picks up the Paragon City story fifty years later, in the mid-80s, at a low point for the city and for Statesman.

WarCry: What can you tell us about The Freedom Phalanx (the book) in terms of plot, characters, etc.?

The book features Positron, Synapse, Manticore, Sister Psyche, and Statesman, battling either their arch-enemies, or precursors thereof. At this point the Phalanx exists in name only, and, Positron tries to reassemble it, as a multi-faceted conspiracy threatens to engulf Paragon City.

Unfortunately the other heroes have their own reasons for turning him down, as the crisis grows ever worse...

WarCry: A multifacted conspiracy threatens to engulf Paragon City? Oooh, can you tell us any more?

If I did, you'd know more than the characters do at the beginning of the story. And we can't have that, can we?

WarCry: How familiar with the game (City of Heroes and/or City of Villians) were you before you were approached to write it? And did you play it a lot while you were writing it? Would anyone recognize you from around Paragon City?

I started work on this project over a year ago, when City Of Heroes mania was really kicking into high gear. I was well aware of the threat that this fabulously addictive game posed to my productivity, having snared a bunch of my pals in the gaming biz. The temptation with an assignment like this is that you spend so much time playing the game that you have nothing left to write the book about it!

So I was boringly well-behaved and disciplined about it, and as a result I don't have a character hanging around Paragon City for everyone's City of Villains character to hunt down and beat up on.

WarCry: What are some of the challenges you faced writing about an MMORPG compared to some of the other work you've done? How much freedom did you have working with the lore of the games, books, etc.?

When you're writing fiction based on any kind of property from another medium, you have to set aside its origins and make it a novel first and foremost. Even the most dedicated fan of the game will be disappointed by the book if it reads like a transcription of an MMORPG session instead of a compelling narrative about people you care about.

Every medium has its own particular strengths and you have to play to whatever those happen to be. The novel, for example, allows you to get inside the characters' heads,gives you space for dramatic scenes to play, and permits you a complexity of structure you don't get in, say, comic books. So the game should feel like a game, the comics should feel like comics, and I've worked hard at writing a novel that reads like a novel. My hope is that readers feel a greater understanding of, and connection to, the game's iconic heroes, by the time they reach the end.

WarCry: How much freedom did you have working with the lore of the games, books, etc.?

Unlike the previous game tie-ins I've written, where I was creating my own characters and situations within an existing world, here the task was to deal with the property's signature characters, and to present key aspects of its history, as established in Cryptic's story bible materials. So the challenge was to bring dimension and excitement to characters and situations that were core to Cryptic's world. Cryptic quite rightfully kept a close eye on the materials so that they matched their overall conception of these people and the world they operate in. Given that the world is still quite new and under development, we encountered a few brain-teasers along the way, trying to keep the material consistent with their evolving ideas for the game and other works, like the comics. Fortunately we put on our thinking caps and found solutions to the few thorny dilemmas we did run into, so I'm very happy with the results.

WarCry: What kind of outside influences did you draw from in putting together this novel?

Without drawing specifically on particular characters or existing mythos, you have to draw on a general love of classic super-comics lore to write a book like this.

The trick is to know which archetypal situations to embrace, and which hoary old cliches to avoid.

I tend to draw on a pretty eclectic mix of influences, many of them far afield from the genre world. I don't know how many of them surface recognizably in this book.

WarCry: What would you say was your favorite part of writing this book?

To write a book you have to develop an affection for the characters, so in a way you're getting paid to hang around with your imaginary friends. I particularly enjoyed writing the buddy dynamic between Ray and Steve (Positron and Synapse) and the dramatic scenes with Statesman and his family. And bad guys are always a blast to write, because they're so unrestrained. Dr. Null, who is Positron's nemesis, was a ton of fun.

WarCry: And what was the most challenging part?

Keeping a suspenseful storyline moving ahead while serving five main protagonists, a villain for each of them, plus key supporting characters, is a pretty tall order. I'm proud of the results, just in terms of the book's construction.

WarCry: Is there anything you'd like to say to the fans of City of Heroes that are waiting for your book?

I'm anxiously anticipating your reactions to it. The book is for the fans, and I hope you dig it. It's also written for the general fan of super fiction, so if your friends like capes and costumes but aren't into the MMORPG scene, this is something you can turn them onto. Judging by George Perez's fabulous cover roughs, this is a product you'll want to buy and bag just for that image alone.

WarCry: I apologize in advance, but I have to ask...It'd be a shame to have such an accomplished tabletop author here and not ask what the many aspiring designers/game writers in the audience are wondering, which is: How do you break into writing for games, tabletop or otherwise?

Start by getting to know people. Get your work out in front of folks who might want to hire you. I did it, lo these many moons ago, by contributing to a print fanzine called Alarums and Excursions, through which I got an offer to write a book from Steve Jackson Games and wound up in a very fruitful collaboration with Jonathan Tweet.

Today the Internet, especially mailing lists and forums dedicated to particular game lines, gives you an easy route to get your name in front of potential clients. Volunteering to run games or work a booth at conventions is also a great way to put yourself out there.

Once you get a gig, there are three crucial rules:

1) Be on time. Never miss a deadline. If you must miss a deadline, warn your developer way in advance. But really, never, ever miss a deadline.

2) Be on spec. Write according to the instructions given you by your developer. Don't write a bunch of other stuff because you it makes you geek out. Don't use your assignment as an opportunity to imprint your favorite game line with material from your in-house campaign or otherwise scent-mark it with your personal gaming hobby-horses.

3) Be very talented.

These rules are in order of importance. You'd be amazed how often the developers even at the very top companies face the problem of freelancers who crap out on them and deliver material late, or not at all.

Though it's not as small as it used to be, the tabletop gaming biz is still very small and word travels fast if there's somebody professional and talented out there. Even if you're looking more for the computer gaming end of things, many of the stalwarts of that field either started as gaming pros themselves, or know tabletop RPGs as players. As I'm sure you know, Cryptic is chock full of guys who cut their teeth in tabletop.

I should also warn would-be freelancers, though, that times are currently tough in the tabletop market. We're currently on the downside of one of our perennial boom-bust cycles. Retailers are going out of business, wholesalers are cutting back orders, and publishers are cutting back, retrenching, or going into hibernation.

We at WarCry would like to thank Mr. Laws for doing this interview for us (and for tolerating the question from the tabletop geeks in the office). Here's the info on the book:

The Freedom Phalanx

by Robin Laws

Perseus Publishing/CDS Books

ISBN: 1593152213

384 pages, mass market paperback

cover by George Pérez

Release date: May 2006

Make sure to check out his blog and, of course, make sure to buy City of Heroes #2: The Freedom Phalanx![/p]