Talking Game Design with Joseph A McCullough - Creator of Frostgrave and Stargrave. 

Joe is a living legend in our gaming group. When GW killed Warhammer Classic, I picked up Frostgrave on a whim. We played the hell out of it and every expansion since. Not to mention Rangers of Shadow Deep, which is equally amazing.

Huge fan of The Silver Bayonet and Shadow Deep, great interview.

As someone who grew up in North Carolina, the UNC cap did not go unnoticed Great interview

As someone releasing a game this year I really really appreciate this video. Excellent interview

Thanks for this. Really enjoyed. Aspiring games designer so this was motivational

We don't get enough interviews with actual game designers! Thanks for this video!

Cheers for a great interview. Big fan of Frostgrave. We ran a campaign but most matches were 4-ways as opposed to 2 player as there were quite a few of us and limited tablespace. Utter madness at times but a tonne of fun. Even added an element of diplomacy to the game. The game itself has always reminded me of the old Spectrum game Chaos. Speaking of chaos, that mutation book sounds like a riot. I remember spending hours with the original GW Realm of Chaos books making mutated warbands.

Very nice interview with a great designer! 👍

Thanks guys!

Just discovered your channel and it simply is GREAT, thanks for being a real alternative to listen about miniatures that are not "mainstream".

Joe seems like a great guy. I’ve kept an eye on his releases but never bought into them. Watching this vid has made me wanna pick up a bunch of his stuff, particularly RoSD and Silver Bayonet.

Nice one, Andy! Jo McCullough is a great designer, and a thoroughly sound bloke!

What a really nice guy (and Joe too 😉). Great interview Andy and thanks Joe for sharing your thought process, we need more McCulloughs in the industry

Great interview! As someone who would like to design their own system some day, he brings up some valid points. It's interesting to hear his experiences and how he got where he is today. Appreciate this video!

Love all of Joe's games, and really enjoyed the interview. Thanks!

What an interesting interview. You asked all the questions I wanted to know the answers to and both had thought provoking answers. Thanks!

Terrific interview Andy. Going to have to take a look at the games (I obviously know of them but didn’t really have a hankering to go into them, so thanks!

Great interview! I know I personally would love to see a Ghost Archipelago 2.0, its one of my favourites!

Fantastic interview, thanks Andy and Joseph!

Fatastic! I've loved everything Joe has done- Oathmark is my favourite- the campaign/army list system is amazing.

Joe is such a classy bloke. Always seems very down to earth.

Yay!!! Love his games. Frostgrave was my first non GW game. Rangers of Shadow Deep was my Covid Pandemic game. I've been buying and putting together a couple of Silver Bayonet warbands to give the game a go. Can't wait for that new book!!!

Thank you both for this interview!

Finally got round to listen to this, great interview, really interesting, good answers and really good moderation! Love this format and can't wait for it to return with the same people in the (near) future to get even more in depth :)

I am a big fan of the games of Joseph, Especially Oathmark

I quite love these interviews. Very well done.

Great interview. Really like joes work and his outlook on life! Very refreshing!!

Great interview. Thanks Andy.

Great interview, very insightful 👍

The old Realm of chaos books from GW had d1000 tables for mutations and creatures, didn't have 1000 entries though. Some mutations where more common

Great interview! Cool insights into game creation.

Oathmark is great! I also own Frostgrave and Rangers.

Great conversation, not really seen much of Joe's work but will definitely be looking at them in future, wondering if silver bayonet could be used with French Indian war's hmmm

Really good interview, love me a bit of Joe!

great chat mate

I can understand where you're coming from when you say all games are model-agnostic at the end of the day, but there is definitely a difference in hostility towards alternative models in certain rulesets. A game using True Line of Sight, for instance, would invite the dreaded "Modelling for advantage" discussion whenever somebody uses a model that is a little taller, or a little shorter, or a little wider, or a little thinner, or crouching, or has a banner, or has its arms out, or its arms in, or any other change. Compare that to a game that only focuses on bases, like Warmachine or The Ninth Age, where you could have everything or nothing on the base and the rules interact all the same.

Could you ask him next time to make rules for modular mechas/vehicles to stargrave?

This was great, do more interviews! (Authors always want to talk when they've just published something) That said, I don't get the people who just spew hate. All games are not for you, no one's forcing you to play. But there's the case where you really want to like a game, but it has something that makes it just not work for you. Unfortunately for me, the Frostgrave family of games is like this: I just hate hit point tracking, especially for identical models. Was it guard A, B or C who got dinged for 2 points last turn? Can't recall... and if you put counters for everything it's huge table clutter. Plus trying to remember all the powers, especially in solo play... I applaud the effort and the success, I think they're quality games... but just not for me.

Top job 😁👍😎