Climbing the Gold Mountain with Rob and Tim

Arrggh! A Video Game Podcast from The Waffling Taylors

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Adventurers and world-builders alike will be thrilled as Gold Mountain Games joined us to talk through The Saltreach Isles. Rob and Tim joined us to discuss their upcoming campaign, the world-building behind it, and whether the recent changes to the OGL will affect it. We also talk about their personal opinions on the changes to the OGL.

Here's a sample of the full show notes - make sure to click through and check them out.

Content Warning

We talk about the recent (at the time of recording) changes to the Open Game License (or OGL) in this episode, and both Rob and Tim have very closely held opinions about those recent changes. They are two very passionate table-top gamers, and we wanted to keep their opinions on the matter in-tact. The only editorialising we did was bleep the odd swear word - of which there were only two or three.

Please listen responsibly.

Show Notes

Jay covered the intro in this episode:

From active timer battling to zombie slaying, Waffling Taylors covers all kinds of gaming and beyond.
This week we were joined bit Rob and Tim of Gold Mountain Gamers to talk about their new TTRG campaign "The Saltreach Isles" and how they went about creating it.
It's important to note that we recorded this episode during the height of the changes to the OGL (or Open Gaming License) from Wizards of the Coast. This is the backbone of Dungeons & Dragons and Dungeons and Dragons-like content, and the changes brought about by Wizards of the Coast brought about a LOT of backlash from the community; which we talked about.
Also, unfortunately Squidge was ill when we recorded episode, so he's not in this one. But I talked with both Rob and Tim afterwards, and they are more than happy to come back to the show and talk both Squidgey and myself through their updates as they continue their world building and production of "The Saltreach Isles"
- Jay

Gold Mountain Games

A discussion about Gold Mountain Games, their table-top RGPs and the personal thoughts of both Tim and Rob on the recent changes to the OGL couldn't have happened without first discussing what Gold Mountain Games are and what they do:

Yeah, absolutely cool. We've got a couple of one shots out and we've also got a settings book. We can go into a bit more detail about that later on, I think, but yeah table-top RPGs is what we do.
- Rob

But they're not just another TTRPG company, as Tim explained:

And we like to approach everything from a very professional mindset. Right. So as much as we're all still fans that are playing the games and really wanting to make this a fully realized company and everything else, we're still working with artists and writers on professional, contract level work in order to make certain that our visions are as clear and concise and as awe inspiring as possible for the end users once they get the products.
- Tim

But what about the people behind Gold Mountain Games? First Rob:

I'm Rob. I'm the owner and executive director of Gold Mountain Games.
I've been playing tabletop RPGs for about a decade. I've been - before that, I was massively into the boardgame scene. I set up one of the biggest boardgame clubs in the UK. I've got a boardgame tattooed on me. I've got my favourite fantasy author tattooed on me. I'm a mega geek and tabletop RPGs have been a large part of my life and kind of formed a lot of my friendships and helped me with lots of troubles in my life. And I just think they're great and I wanted to give back some of that awesomeness.
- Rob

And Tim:

So my name is Tim. I am one of the directors at Gold Mountain Games.
My primary function is the business and the sales. The marketing, the business side of it actually my day job, if you want to call it that. Heavy quotes there is. I work within the gaming industry during the day. I'm actually a sales representative at Cryptozoic Entertainment and I also do contract work for other companies.
So it's funny, when Rob actually reached out to me the first time, I was just like, "yeah, I want to do some writing." And then we got to talking, I was like, "oh wait, no, we need this slot filled more for a lot." So for folks out there, what I do is the boring corporate stuff, but it's also very necessary stuff for when we get to the point of getting the products out there, really letting them shine.
- Tim

What's The Saltreach Isles Isles All About?

Discussion turned to that of their new campaign (due out soon) called "The Saltreach Isles", and it's amazing just how much world-building the team at Gold Mountain Games has put into this campaign:

The Saltreach Isles is a massive archipelago world. We've got 24 islands ranging from kind of big central, kind of multiple kind of species and empires on them. We've got tiny little islands that have a one group may occupy more than one of them.
It came about really from there isn't really a setting for D&D - which is what it was written for - there isn't one that kind of takes in the scope and the differences that you get in kind of island nations and archipelagos. And I think it gave us this really interesting mechanism we could use with kind of over time, the islands breaking up from a - I forget the word now - a Pangaea, one big continent. So a lot of the world is tied into kind of the evolution of the planet as a whole.
We've got Gods that aren't really Gods. We've got real kind of unique takes on a lot of the species that people would be used to from DnD. And we've also added orcs, trolls and goblins because I love me a green skin. I think they're all great. My very first Warhammer were orcs back when I was like 12 or 13 and I've just loved them ever since.
But one of the things I really wanted to do is I wanted to bring them kind of into the modern age. I wanted to get rid of this idea that they are unintelligent roots who kill and maim for fun. That had its place. I think the Middle earth needed its bad guys and the orcs were amazing. However, I wanted to do something more interesting with them.
- Rob

Whilst the game uses the typical creatures and species you might find in most DnD fantasy campaigns, the team have spent the time to really think about why the creatures should exist:

And for me, I really wanted to do everything I could to make certain that they felt like there was a reason for them being in this world other than like, hey, I made a monster throw it against your players. Every creature I wrote has a reason for being there.
- Tim

And Rob went on to talk about how they are creating deep culture and lore around the histories of the different species, and the factions within them. The team behind the game have also thought very clearly about diversity and inclusion in creating this campaign.

..one of the other things we've tried to do, and I think we've been very successful with it, is we've tried to be very open and accepting and inclusive with our writing.
We have very many kind of NPCs named ch...