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Q&A: Cakebread & WaltonFeb 17, 2016 | 2:36 pm
I recently interviewed Peter Cakebread and Ken Walton of Cakebread & Walton, the company behind games like Airship Pirates, Clockwork & Chivalry, and the OneDice series. I like their work and wanted to find out more about the duo. My thanks to them for indulging me.



1. Cakebread & Walton publishes a number of interesting stand-alone RPGs. Which was the first and what was your inspiration for it?

Pete: Our first actual setting was Clockwork & Chivalry, which is set in an alternate English Civil War, where the Roundheads have clockwork machines and the Royalists have magical alchemy. The initial idea was all Ken's - he'd already started on a short piece of fiction set in the world. It possibly came to him in a dream - a lot of his ideas do! We did a great big corebook and a stack of adventures. But originally it used the MRQ2 rules so wasn't standalone. I've failed to answer the very first question properly, haven't I? Anyhow, when Mongoose lost Runequest, we decided we needed our own set, so we designed Renaissance - it meant we could use it for all our D100 games, as well as tweak it to do exactly what we wanted. Clockwork & Chivalry was re-released as a standalone 2nd edition, and it is still doing rather well. But I might have gotten the order wrong - Ken, was Renaissance or Airship Pirates our first completely standalone game? I have a memory like a sieve when it comes to some things. If it was Airship Pirates, I'll leave it to Ken to answer...

Ken: I *think* C&C 2nd Edition came before Airship Pirates, but I wouldn't like to swear to it. I know the idea definitely *did* come to me in a dream -- I was doing a degree in the History, Philosophy and Sociology of Science at the time - not the most useful degree for most things, but great for role-playing writers as you get to study the history of magic :-)



2. A D100 system is used in most of your games. Is this an adaptation of the D100 RuneQuest or OpenQuest rules, or your own creation?

Pete: Newt's excellent OpenQuest formed the basis of the ruleset - though we tweaked it a bit and added quite a bit of our own material to make it fit how we wanted it.

Ken: We liked the streamlined approach of OQ, but wanted it a *bit* more gritty. We came up with a combat system that involved a lot less tracking of body parts than standard RQ but still allowed for those "ooo, you've caved in his chest" moments that you get with the original Warhammer FRP.



3. Which is your favorite of the D100 games and why?

Pete: Ooh, that's a tricky one - do you mean out of our own games? If so, they are all the favorite at the time of writing. It's like making me choose between my babies.

Ken: Ditto.



4. OneDice is your rules-light system, which includes a number of stand-alone genre books now. Are these geared for a particular audience or merely for a simpler experience?

Pete: Originally they were designed with a junior or newbie audience in mind. But it became clear pretty early on that a lot of older and more experienced players appreciated the stripped down ruleset and simplicity of the system. What started as an experiment in how much you could take out and still have a full on old school experience, and an attempt to get my junior group running as well as playing, has ended up as a go to game for GMs in a hurry, for one-offs, or simply for when you want to put the story front and center, not the mechanics.



5. Another favorite question. Which OneDice is your favorite?

Pete: OK, I'll risk offending my other babies and say World War One. I love running it, particularly behind-the-lines games; and I really enjoyed writing it, because I find the period fascinating. It'll probably never be the most popular, but it's a personal favorite.

Ken: I think my current favourite is Urban Fantasy (sorry Pete, I know it's not one you wrote! Nick Clements is responsible). I like the way it incorporates a lot of British faerie lore into the setting, and has suggestions on how to run the game in your own home town. One of these days, when I've got the time, I'll run a game set in Lancaster...



6. What does Peter Cakebread and Ken Walton each bring to the table when creating games? In other words, what are each of your strengths?

Pete: Ooh, I'll answer for Ken. Hopefully then he'll say nice things about me too.

Ken has a great handle on mechanics and all things gaming. He was also a professional proof reader. All of which means he is great at editing and proofing copy. He has also become increasingly involved with the production of our books - both from an aesthetic and technical point of view - I haven't a clue about such things. But probably the most important things he has brought to the table, from the beginning, are his ideas. Ken generates ideas for whole new games and settings at an incredible rate. And the ideas are usually fantastical, wonderful and always great gaming fodder. Many of our projects have started with a phonecall from Ken, starting "I had this idea last night for a game, what do you think of this? ... "

I'd add that working in partnership with Ken is great. I think we trust each other as writers and designers, but we're also not afraid to advise or challenge each other. Generally, if we don't both like something, we don't do it; and if we both like something, we get carried away and develop our ideas quickly, bouncing off each other as we go.

Ken: And Pete brings all the nitty-gritty to our games. I tend to come out with grand game world ideas, but Pete's the one who comes up with all the weird and wonderful characters that inhabit them, and the little details of the world, from strange customs to weapons stats. He's also got a head full of history, which a useful attribute when writing historical fantasy games.



7. All of your D100 settings are pretty fantastical and seemingly dark. Is this by design or just a natural byproduct of the settings?

Pete: Both. It is a byproduct of the settings, in as much as Abney Park's Airship Pirates, for instance, is set in a dystopia which occurred due to a screwed up timeline; Clockwork & Chivalry in a bloody civil war with fantastical elements; Dark Streets on the grim streets of eighteenth century London, a stinking hell-hole if ever there was one, but with the addition of Cthulhu Mythos creatures and plots, etc. But I guess we chose to run with those ideas, and not with lighter or more mundane ones. That said, most of our games hopefully strike the right balance between dark (and often gently satirical) and heroic; and while fantastical, a lot of our stuff is set in a slightly twisted version of our own world, rather than on a completely alien one. When I think on it, Ken is more into epic fantasy and sci-fi, and I probably veer towards the dark and satirical.

Ken: Our games do tend to be dark and gritty, but we generally try to steer the Player Characters toward being the good guys. In the Kingdom & Commonweath adventures for Clockwork & Chivalry, we could have had the PCs be fighting for one of the two main sides, but instead we have them fighting the extremists on both sides, trying to put an end to the war.



8. Most people want to design games, but actually producing them is another story. What got you to actually pick up and do it?

Pete: Ken had already written RPG books and numerous RPG articles. He co-wrote GURPS Celtic Myth and Realms of Sorcery for Warhammer. When we got together, I think we both thought we could write some cool games - and I think from quite near the start, we had the idea that we could write a fair few of them. At the beginning we had the support of Angus at Cubicle 7, which meant we could get on with the writing and didn't have to worry about the publishing or distribution. Nevertheless, they wanted a finished and set book - luckily Ken knew what he was doing. Since then, we (well, I say we, but like I mentioned, Ken does all the technical stuff) have worked out how to self publish; and, more recently still, we've linked up with Studio 2, who deal with our distribution into stores and at conventions. All our books are available print on demand from us, and over the coming months they will also be available in stores through Studio 2 - the first few are out already.



9. What's next for Cakebread & Walton? I assume more OneDice games.

Pete: We have a very long list. Yes, more OneDice games - Winter of the World RPG, based on the fantastic series by Michael Scott Rohan (which is going to be a big spectacular production, also compatible with D&D 5th edition); OneDice World War 2 is just finished, and OneDice B Movies, OneDice Supers and OneDice Martinis & Masterminds are on their way; and we've been promising Space, Wild West, Rome, Toys and various other titles which are at various stages of completion. We are lucky to have some great writers joining us on the OneDice range - Nick, David and Talon all deserve a mention - as do Bob (our first artist who worked on the line, and who came up with the initial pitch for Twisted Tomorrow) and David (another one) our current artist - aside from OneDice Airship Pirates and OneDice Pirates & Dragons, they are responsible for the art style in the line. I should also mention Vicki - who came up with the idea for OneDice Raptors and contributed to that book. Vicki won an auction in which I promised to write someone's dream game - probably the weirdest way one of our books has come about!

But we do have other things on the horizon. We have some more stuff we'd like to do with Pirates & Dragons (we have an adventure book to finish writing); more Dark Streets adventures; we have a couple of folk writing new Renaissance material; more Airship Pirates supplements; and we have the Kingdom & Commonwealth series that we'd like to finish. Personally I'd also like to find time to write sequels to the two novels I've written too. Whether we get round to everything, who knows? We are a small company, but we'll give it a bloody good go!

Oh - and we're about to dip our toes into producing a neat little series of story card games. Ken was involved with writing and distributing a series of card games years ago (photocopied and distributed at conventions), and we'd like to resurrect them. I've played them and they're very good!



10. Do you have a favorite old school RPG (2005 or older)?

Pete: It's a tough one. I started playing D&D in about 1980/1 (yes, I'm getting wretchedly old, not as old as Ken though!) - so it probably wins on nostalgia. That said, Warhammer wins when it comes to my favorite old school campaign (The Enemy Within). But I love Cthulhu too - I'm introducing my junior gaming group to the delights of Horror on the Orient Express - and they seem to be having as much fun with it now as I did all those years ago.

Ken: I'd have to say Warhammer FRP too. My first published article was a WFRP location for White Dwarf, and I've run the Enemy Within campaign at least twice. I'm very fond of HarnWorld too - I ran a campaign there that lasted six and a half years, and I know the geography of that island better than I know the geography of Britain! I mostly ran it with GURPS, which was my go-to rules set for many years, though I tend to like my rules a bit simpler these days - I tend to think of OneDice as GURPS for lazy GMs
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