It All Started...

by Tonya Foust


An exclusive interview with artist and game designer – Susan Van Camp.


Susan Van Camp is one of my favorite artists. She is also a very good friend, even though I don't get to see her as often as I would like. Even though I have known Susan for quite some time now, I have to admit that there are times when I still dissolve into quivering fan-girl geekiness. And for that, I ask her forgiveness. The weekend of November 19, 2004 we were both at the Midwest FurFest convention in Schaumburg, Illinois. So, I had the immense honor of getting her views on gaming, GMing and game design.

Susan started gaming in the late 1970's. She quickly became a fan of the RPG (Role Playing Game) style of gaming. She even met her husband in one of her gaming groups. Susan grew up in and around Flint, Michigan and continues to reside in the area today. Through the years, Susan discovered that often more than playing, she loved to run the games, be the director in the series of events the other characters got to interact with. She said her favorite thing is winding up the players and getting them excited about the scene. She compared it to taking a small snowball and pushing it down a steep snow-covered hill. Just watching where the momentum takes it... The one thing that is sure to be a turn off for a gaming session for her though is rules lawyering. She said it is not the people but the behavior that irks her so. Thusly she tries to avoid gaming systems that, for one reason or another, seem to encourage rules lawyers.

It was this dislike that helped her decide to build her own game. She had been working on a background for some time with no real way to implement it. She wanted to avoid a system where arguing over the rules was an almost constant. Then she noticed the preponderance of CCGs (Collectable Card Games) and saw how easy it was to just sit down, play a game and be done. She said to herself, "Why couldn't that mentality be applied to an RPG?"

The game was developed using a standard deck of 52 playing cards. The pre-beta version of this new game was created solely on their home computer and printed on yellow card-stock. My fan-girl side gets to show through here, as I STILL have my copies of these cards! When I told Susan that, she just laughed and reminded me that we have known each other a long time.

Then she added some of her art to the first beta version of the game. She decided on the name by taking elements of the game world. What had significance to the players and would aptly describe this to others? Dragon Storm became the answer and a gaming phenomenon was born.

But Susan didn't stop there. She continues to expand the Dragon Storm universe with more cards for a more varied and diverse setting. She has even started developing another game. ShadowFire is currently in beta and available on their website.

After talking about her games specifically, I asked her about her impression of women in gaming. It is a common misconception that the reason RPGs are so visually oriented is to appeal to the typical male psyche. Susan feels that the visual aspect of gaming is more unisex than anything. She does see women influencing the gaming industry. In her opinion, anime and online gaming are especially popular with women gamers. She said she is also seeing more women at the large gaming conventions.

Finally I wanted to talk with Susan about what advice she has for other Game Masters to get their players more involved with the scenes. I asked her which type of gamer she was: a puzzle solver or a hack/slash/kill character? She said that she REALLY enjoys A LOT of action in her games. She will give them issues to solve as well, but she loves a scene that has strains similar to classic story telling. A beginning, an adventurous middle and a climactic, action packed ending. Susan said that to get her players involved and to get them to interact with each other, she has a couple different methods to use. Mostly, though, she will let them go their own way and steer them only when needed. Sounds like good advice no matter what genre you play in!

I want to thank Susan for taking the time out of her busy schedule to talk with me and also for allowing me to share our conversation with our readers.



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