Russell Collins Tears of a Machine Interview Ep. 29

Content Warning: Mental Health

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Snagged an interview with Russell Collins, creator of the Tears of a Machine (Affiliate) RPG. Granted Tears of a Machine isn’t a Fudge RPG, but the second edition will feature Fudge/Fate derived mechanics with a unique way of utilizing Fudge dice I hadn’t thought of before. This mechanic will not be suitable for all games, but it could lead to some really clever subsystems for otherwise traditional Fudge games.

Tears of a Machine is a game about teenagers piloting giant robots and fighting aliens, while trying to deal with all the normal teenage issues. Does that girl in your class like you, are your friends spreading rumors behind your back, will the giant angel your fighting bite its way through the cockpit and obliterate you? Its a pretty clever idea, explored with pretty clever mechanics. 

We also discuss Accessibility and I’d like to take a chance to plug Jacob Woods Accessible Gaming Quarterly, a Quarterly Zine that explores issues of accessibility in gaming, Russell Collins has taken steps to make his homepage at Robotclaw.info as accessible as possible, and is doing the same with his products so it feels like a natural fit.

Just a quick note that we do discuss modeling mental health in this interview, both exploring the psychological aspects of his game, and exploring ways mental health could be explored in games. It doesn’t get too dark, but I‌ do bring up the fact that some mechanics might be interesting to explore even though I wouldn’t necessarily want to see an actual game run with them. 

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