Anson Tran was kind enough to pull back the curtain on the development of his new RPG, Untiy. You will definitely want to keep this game on your radar.

How did you stumble upon the wondrous hobby of role-playing games?

My very first time I had anything to do with RPGs was when I was really young -- about 9 years old. I stumbled on the AD&D Monster Manual and the Deities and Demigods book at a garage sale. Instantly taken in by the art I forked over the 25 cents for both of them and simply got lost in the lore and black and white sketch drawings. I had no idea what Armor Class, or Psionic Ability and all these shorthand stats meant but I didn’t care, I loved every moment of reading through those books. I only had a vague understanding that these books weren’t “normal” books and possibly alluded to something much greater than just a leisurely read. I never had a chance to actually play until a bit later in life.

A little over a decade ago one of my friends invited me out to play a “new boardgame”. He didn’t tell me it was Dungeons and Dragons. After about half an hour leafing through the Player’s Handbook all those familiar feelings came back from when I was a 9 year old kid reading my Monster Manual. I think any RPG fan knows how the rest of the story goes from here 🙂

Why did you create Zensara Studios?

I’ve always been a hugely creative person. I love reading stories, I love telling stories. I’ve also been deeply passionate about game design. I always wanted to blend these proclivities and create something. But as human nature goes, there’s a lot of things we dream of and want to do but we keep putting it on the back burner or we just keep it locked up in our heads as a fantasy we like to visit for some good feelings now and then. That was me. It’s absolutely daunting to take that step forward and say hey I’m going to do this.

In my case I was both unlucky and lucky. I had a near death incident while on vacation a couple of years ago. My life was turned upside down by the lasting repercussions of that event but it gave me a whole new outlook on living and part of that was finding the courage to just go out there and do the things we keep saying we’re going to do but deep down we know we probably won’t. It’s very cliché but truly, tomorrow isn’t promised to us. Zensara Studios was born from me not just understanding this but from living it.

Tell us about Unity.

Unity is an epic fantasy RPG infused with a flavourful dose of magic-tech. It is my attempt to blend all the things I’ve loved in tabletop RPGs in the right ratio for my personal tastes and hoping that there are others out there that will enjoy this type of RPG flavour too.

Unity was built to facilitate spectacular story telling while still having a robust framework to provide a deep tactical combat experience. At the forefront of my design goals, I wanted to remove any impediments to player engagement and implement mechanics that would encourage players to constantly work together and be active participants in the conversation at the table. I was finding in more traditional tabletop systems, a lot of interaction can boil down to sometimes long moments between the GM and an individual player and it could simply be because of the way the rules and resolution mechanics are written. During these moments, the rest of the table would most likely not have anything to do and engagement would drop.

To this end I’ve pushed hard to have a system that frees up mental resources for the GM to narrate, adjudicate and be able to focus on painting a cinematic scene for the players. I’ve streamlined initiative, removed individual turns and grids, and painstakingly designed classes and powers that interact with each other and allow a group of players to synergize and create powerful combos. The combat engine was built with this in mind and completely facilitates the process to promote more satisfying clutch plays and high-five moments around the table.

Outside of combat, the system encourages storytelling through mechanics that reward creativity and character development. I champion a fail-forward mentality with Unity but am cognizant not to force it where it doesn’t make sense. The system encourages players to keep moving forward and into interesting situations – the types that are more likely to become memorable because they were so unexpected yet delightful in their own “I can’t believe that happened, I just wanted to steal a pie” way.

Underneath Unity’s engine is a rich setting that’s there to provide storytelling fodder for GMs and players who want something out of the box to sink their teeth into. The lore is emotional and immersive and touches upon familiar tropes while reaching into deeper themes of cultural tension, morality, tragedy, and the hero’s journey. I’ve worked hard to try and recapture the magic I felt when I dove into those AD&D books as a kid.

What sets Unity apart from other fantasy RPGs?

I think the significant thing that makes Unity a unique contender in the RPG market is the approach I’ve taken to combat and how a lot of my design rotates around being able to work together and chaining powers. The blend of storytelling and deep tactical combat might be a fairly unique mix itself but the way the combat engine is structured takes it to another level for me. The removal of individual turns, grids and dice-tossing from the GM help streamline gameplay and elevate player engagement. The more I work on beefing up the classes and their powers, the more possibilities and combinations I begin to see open up. It gets me very excited at the idea of players experiencing the joy of discovery as they really sink their teeth into the game.

Unity’s been featured here and there on the net recently and one of the articles said that it took parts from Dungeon World, D&D 4e and Pathfinder. I think it’s safe to say that’s how I feel about Unity if I was asked to give a comparison to what’s out there. It’s a blend of those games with some innovations tossed into the mix. I wanted to capture the freeform narrative love Dungeon World promotes. I loved the deeply tactical battles of 4e but not how long they can take. I enjoyed building characters in Pathfinder, the anticipation of creating one was almost a game in itself. I asked myself if I could replicate that feeling of anticipation for character building without having so many crunchy bits and minutiae to keep track of.

But I want to just put a disclaimer that there are so many RPGs out there I could be totally wrong about Unity being a unique snowflake and that’s ok. My goal is to make an awesome game to the best of my ability that I hope others will be able to enjoy and create memories with. I also understand that when I draw comparisons to the big hitters above that it’s a comparison from my subjective emotional experiences with those games and other people might interpret things differently when they think of them.

Who does the art?

Unity’s artwork comes from 8+ artists that have worked on this project. With these types of books, a lot of illustrations are usually required. I’ve been pretty blessed that I’ve found folks that can maintain the style and tone consistent across the book. For the unique pieces I’ve shared with you Matt, the artists that crafted them are Ahmad Hilmi and Zulkarnaen Hasan Basri. Please check out their portfolios, some pieces are absolutely breathtaking.

When the Kickstarter launches, I would love to do Artist Spotlights for each of my illustrators as updates.

What stage of development is Unity at currently?

Unity is quite deep into the development cycle at this point.

Unity is currently undergoing heavy internal testing with multiple playtest groups. The core rules are about 70-80% of the way there. The main thing that’s taking time is careful iteration of the class powers. Testing how they work together or if there are combinations that are hugely game breaking is the bulk of the work right now. We’re also working on the rules for piloting Titan Rigs (large magi-tech mechas) as a party.

I’ve been discussing logistics for printing and shipping and just trying to get all my ducks in a row. I have some hardcover test prints of Unity in its beta form coming in just to examine the quality of certain print houses, and ok maybe also to relieve me of hauling hundreds of poorly bound pages to the table for testing 🙂

Are you going to be launching a Kickstarter at some point?

Absolutely. The Kickstarter will launch sometime in mid-2016. It could be anywhere between 1-4 months from now. It’s totally dependent on me nailing down all the logistical factors like securing printing and shipping quotes, understanding the process of fulfillment on a finer level, finding an editor and possibly graphic designer for layout. I won’t launch until I know I have everything I need in place and redundancies for all those things just in case as well.

If you don’t want to miss the Kickstarter announcement AND also pounce on some early subscriber exclusive perks please sign up for the mailing list here: http://eepurl.com/bO8QRj

We will only email you about the Kickstarter launch.

How can readers learn more about Unity and stay up to date on your progress?

Because our mailing list is only used to notify you about the Kickstarter Launch, we provide exclusive updates and artwork previews on our social media platforms. For more constant coverage please follow us on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.

If you want an even deeper look into the thought process that’s going into making Unity, you can check out my design blog on the main website: http://www.unity-rpg.com