In this episode, I talk to Judd Karlman, about his game The Dictionary of Mu. We talk a lot about the purpose of setting books, what constitutes game design, and even discuss the possibility of Mu for FATE. I'm really proud of the quality of this conversation, and I want Judd to design more fucking games so I can do more interviews with him.

This episode is 60 MB big and 1 hour and 5 minutes long.

01:17: Dictionary of Mu: A supplement for Ron Edwards's Sorcerer
01:36: A combination of Conan, Kull, Barsoom and the Bible
02:25: The Kim Stanley Robinson Mars trilogy inspired me to want to do a parkour game set on Mars
03:29: Mako of the Conan movie and Avatar: The Last Airbender
06:31: Settings that do what Judd likes settings to do include: Legend of the Five Rings (1st Edition), Midnight (original hardcover), and Exalted
07:12: Rules differences between Mu and Sorcerer
08:19: Judd's dad made a kill puppies for satan character with Mu
11:19: In a lot of ways, Mu is really a supplement for Sorcerer & Sword
13:11: Luke Crane and Ron encouraged Judd to bring the game to print.
13:54: Charnel Gods also came out of the Sorcerer mini-supplement project
16:35: Giving money to Joshua A.C. Newman for layout consultancy was a big impetus to me to complete
16:49: Rich Forest was Judd's editor for Mu and Jennifer Rodgers did the art.
17:10: Why did you make Mu?
21:55: The shock: solar system game we want to play some day
25:37: Don Corchran played Mu with Judd
27:38: The most useful feedback
30:07: The editing process
31:34: Thor Olavsrud talked about editing on an episode of the Theory from the Closet podcast
34:05: Use of art in the book
35:56: Keith Senkowski nearly called Judd a pussy
39:09: Choosing a printer (he uses Lightning Source now).
41:21: The economics of a print run and the sales flow
44:20: Marketing (having a podcast like Sons of Kryos "doesn't hurt")
47:14: "If I could change ANYthing...."
50:20: Defining success
57:33: The big announcement: Dictionary of Mu and FATE?

Closing song is Leave Me the Fuck Alone by the Hub City Stompers
Logo courtesy of Daniel Solis: http://danielsolis.com/

PS: Thanks to Rich Rodgers of The Canon Puncture show for help with a niggling Audacity problem.