Ah, but see, that’s where the hipster backlash comes in. You’re going to have all these guys in fashionable haircuts and white belts who “used” to play EDADH but have moved on to the alternative to the alternative. I think the game is really pretty unusual all around and that makes me feel like it’s something different, particularly as a wargame…the mechanics are dice less but rather than turning the game into a deterministic bore it’s actually interesting because it plays in a pretty original way that requires some different ways of thinking about the game.

Lloyd: As our core mechanic doesn’t use dice it offers a different tactical playing style to resolve conflicts as opposed to the chance-based mechanic. This was one of the things Nigel and I decided at the outset, that the rules had to allow the player to rely on his choices rather than the throw of dice. The game isn’t out to replace dice based systems; it just offers a viable alternative.

There’s that word again. Maybe we’ll see board gamers shun the Hawaiian shirts in favor of flannel. I think the game world you’ve created is pretty alternative too. It’s nice to see a game that doesn’t once again get into all that ugly racial tension between orcs and elves.

Lloyd: Tolkienesque fantasy is great but it’s been done so it’s not worth us duplicating it. We just decided to create an alternative fantasy setting that hadn’t been seen before. Instead, new species and cultures, a setting with its own flavor and a new mythology that players could sink their teeth into and explore. I don’t think we really had much of a choice but the decision to run with what we created has had great feedback.

I’m really glad you didn’t just fall back on duplicating the Tolkien stuff…I think that’s one of the places where a game like BATTLELORE just completely falls down- more of the same. But that’s a big blockbuster production that had tons of marketing and internet hype behind it so it was destined to be successful regardless of the game itself. As a small publisher, what are some of your strategies to get Edadh noticed when it’s sharing retail shelves with games from publishers like Fantasy Flight Games? Is it hard to get taken seriously in the industry when you’re working at a different level of production?

Deb: Of course the big fish will always have the wherewithal to ensure maximum exposure for their games and we’ll do everything we can to get WFE known because the bottom line is the game is goooooood and it deserves shelf space alongside any of the big name publishers. For any independent the marketing strategy has to have consistency to bring about the long term plan. There are plenty of examples of indie mavericks who have built a strong and enduring brand.

When you really break it down, a lot of the best names in the business kind of started as indie mavericks. The game business is kind of unique like that since there’s such a wide gulf between a company like Hasbro and virtually anyone in the hobby business outside of Wizards of the Coast (which, incidentally, was once a maverick indie).

Deb: On the contrary, I don’t think it’s that hard to be taken seriously at all. It seems relative to the quality of your game and its potential longevity. If gamers have confidence that you’re here to stay - and we can confirm that we are in it for the long haul – then they will take you seriously, our sales bear that out. If you’re talking about other industry players then it’s not something we pay attention to - we can’t control what they think. We just want to do our thing and get on with it.

Do you have any plans for expanding your marketing and outreach?

Nigel: Our biggest plan for getting War for Edadh noticed on shelves is to undergo a worldwide tour of gaming stores and destroy all the other games in the whole world!

Deb: Hey, I thought that was the secret plan!

Nigel: Oops! Well, if we fail at that then one of the other things we want to accomplish is to work as closely as possible with store owners. We’ve proved that a demo of the game will sell it – at our last convention we sold copies of WFE to over 50% of the gamers who got a demonstration. So we’re willing to work with store owners to set up demonstration days and the like – whether it’s us or a gamer that does this depends on the location. If anyone is willing to demo War for Edadh in their local store then let us know – there could be something in it for you! Michael? I’m looking at you!

What store? Didn’t you read “There Will Be Games”? Demos definitely do sell games, there’s no doubt about it and in-store promotion is so incredibly critical, especially for smaller publishers. But, you’ve got to have a store to make that work!

Lloyd: Word of mouth is a big factor - we’ve found that people who’ve tried/bought the game inevitably end up talking about it to others. I also noticed that at our last convention we had a lot of people coming up and commenting how they’d heard good things about it and were there to try it for themselves, so the word is spreading!

The game is $22 US and I think it has pretty great production - decent cardstock, good printing, molded counters…I also think it is one of the best gaming values on the market. How is it you guys can put out such a nicely produced game at such a low cost and in low quantities while all the “majors” are increasing prices, cutting quality, and printing thousands of copies more than what you’re doing?

Nigel: Really this question should be turned around and asked to the “majors” – how come a small, independent, start up company can offer its game at such a competitive price compared to you?

It’s really refreshing to see a young company kind of throw down the gauntlet like that and say “hey, you wanna go?” You hear smaller publishers all the time making excuses for crappy production.

Nigel: That said, we’re only now contacting distributors which may (and I use that word reservedly) affect the retail price and I can promise that we would be very reluctant to implement a change in the RRP but we are adamant that it should stay affordable and good value for money especially in current economic climes.

Do you see Warrior Elite as an indie publisher working in a similar context as an indie record label, film studio, or comics publisher?

Nigel: No! That killed that question, didn’t it?

Hey, straightforward and to the point.

Nigel: To be honest I’ve never really considered it. We just created a game with our own vision of how that should be and with the plans we have for the game in the future we didn’t want an outside influence altering that vision. So we went it alone.

Lloyd: There’s a creator-owned streak running through those veins which I personally feel is necessary to maintaining the integrity of the work. By staying Indie and taking War for Edadh to market ourselves, we get to see the series of games released in the format we envisioned as well as see the game world realized and expanded upon the way we planned. A lot of what we’ve got planned is worked out ahead of time, but for the finer points, especially the visual look of the world, it’s yet to be fully fleshed out. And as gamers let us know what they want to see, later on down the line; we’re the best people for the job of providing that whilst keeping to the Edadh vision.

Deb: Yes, indie and proud to be it! There are so many successful indies – Dark Horse Comics, Crysalis Records, Simon & Schuster - that have done great things. Many of them started out with not even half of our budget! It’s not the rubbish marketing budget that makes an unsuccessful indie – it’s not really knowing your market.