Ciao a tutti
procede il mio viaggio a ritroso nel recupero delle interviste fatte per www.boardgamenews.com. Ed e' giunto il momento di Marco Maggi e Francesco Nepitello, autori tra l'altro del La Guerra dell'Anello. In questa intervista il "duo di autori part-time" (come si definiscono loro) ci racconta del loro impegno attuale quasi totale su Marvel Heroes, della loro voglia di dare nuova linfa a X-Bugs e Lex Arcana (giochi che li hanno resi famosi). Nella loro lista di giochi preferiti grandi classici come History of the World o Space Hulk che ci mostrano come Marco e Francesco siano prima di tutto giocatori!
Buon divertimento, buon gioco a tutti e alla prossima
Liga
[Liga] Hi Francesco and Marco. I'm really happy to interview you! The last time we met was at the IGA in Essen and you both was quite nervous ... now, please, give us a short introduction about yourself
[Marco and Francesco] Let's see... me and Marco Maggi form a two-man design venture that produces for one man. This is because we consider ourselves to be part-time game designers, and to form a duo was the only way to accomplish work for one in a reasonable time!
We united our efforts because in our 38 years of life we showed the same tendency to 'own' games in many ways, buying a lot of stuff, tweaking existing games and designing new ones. We debuted on a professional level in the early nineties, first working inStudiogiochi (the design studio that gave birth to Venice Connection), then publishing Lex Arcana, a role-playing game co-written with LeoColovini and Dario De Toffoli.
Working in Studiogiochi provided us with an invaluable look at the gaming market and its workings, and we were lucky to attend our first Nurnberg game fairs in company of individuals like Leo Colovini and his mentor Alex Randolph. Since at the time we were very much into role-playing games and wargame (AH, SPI, etc.), we filtered the experience through our personal tastes, in the end accepting the German formula without leaving aside our need for a strong theme. I think most of our games show in some ways this perspective, and certainly our future designs will.
[Liga] You find me in perfect agreement. I always look for strong theme and probably that is the reason why I like so much your games! Anyway, nowCosa Bolle in Pentola ?
[Marco and Francesco] We're knee-deep in Marvel comicdom at the moment, struggling with superpowers and evil masterminds' agendas. We can't say much, apart that Marvel Heroes is late! Jokes aside, our first deadline was highly unrealistic (October 2005) and we're working hard to avoid horrendous delays. On the bright side, we're very happy with what we have in our hands.
[Liga] I'm really curious about this product and also I think most of the Americans! And after that, which are your projects for the future ?
[Marco and Francesco] We're preparing ourselves for the new edition of X-bugs, trying to decide what will be used and what not. We worked on that game for so long that we actually have many different versions of it. We must decide what will be the best version for the new incarnation. And sooner or later we're going to use what we created for Lex Arcana in a new way...
[Liga] It seems all really foggy! I hope you can give me soon some news! My last question is which are the 10 games you like to play most ?
[Marco and Francesco] I think we generally don't like to play the same game too many times. So variety is our preference, and we try many new games each year.
Moreover, I still regularly play role-playing games as a game master (thanks to my gaming group that can't play competitive games!) and Marco is an avid collector of horror games (unfortunately, most of those games are horrendous in different ways than theme...).
To give you some names, Memoir '44 is the absolute winner regarding frequency of play for us recently (leaving our own designs aside, of course), and I'm looking forward to get the expansions.
We certainly still like to play from time to time titles like History of the World, Space Hulk and TwilightImperium . I play a few two-player card games with my wife, with Lost Cities and Dracula being the favourites (actually, the first is my wife's favourite!). Games that saw our gaming table recently were Dungeon Twister and Shadows Over Camelot. I'm very eager to get the new Fury of Dracula, a title we remember fondly, and to try 7 Ages. Finally, me and Marco always keep two eyes open for any card-drivenwargame, hoping to find a new one with an engaging theme (for us) that plays in a reasonable time.
[Liga] Great! If I was living close to Venice I think I'll join most of your game session! Thank you very much for this nice interview and good luck and good play to both
Next week I'll go to reach Carlo A. Rossi
