Interviews

How much was the story-writing process informed by the cards and the other pieces published by Fantasy Flight Games?

We used the Genesys Keyforge RPG sourcebook (due out in June) for reference – both for authors and for myself while editing, because it’s got a lot of background material. I know some of the authors drew inspiration from the cards, while some were more inspired by different aspects of pop-culture and genre. C L Werner’s story draws very much on kaiju movies, while David Guymer’s story is more of a love letter to LARPing. Sometimes it’s just a case of “what if?”, which M.K. Hutchins does when she imagines what might happen if a quiet librarian becomes the leader of a Brobnar clan!

However, life on the Crucible is so vast and varied, that it allowed our authors to create little pieces of their own and I loved seeing what they’d imagined.

How connected was this project with the game design team? Any chance we’ll see original ideas or characters from the stories show up on the cards?

We’re not connected to the game design team; we’re just inspired by what they’ve created. It would be cool to see some of these characters show up as cards though!

Did you have access to the Genesys: Secrets of the Crucible RPG sourcebook while writing to use as reference? If so, was that used as a tool to develop these stories?

We were very lucky to have early access to the sourcebook, which was very helpful for providing more in-depth details on some of the locations, houses and how life on the Crucible functions!

Huge thank you to Lottie and all the authors for taking the time to answer all these questions for us, and to Anjuli, the Marketing and Publicity Manager at Aconyte Books, for helping make these interviews happen!

With the opportunity to interview the authors also came the opportunity to preview the anthology. I often hear players say things about their matches like, "Woah this is why I love Keyforge." followed by, "That was such a Keyforge-y game!" or with, "This deck is is so Keyforge-y". We as a community (or at least with the folks in the Pacific Northwest I tend to have games with) use "Keyforge-y" to describe an interaction, board state, or really really weird situation that just feels right. It feels unique to Keyforge as a game and the crazy interactions that come with playing the game.

Tales From the Crucible captures the "Keyforge-y-ness" perfectly. Each story develops its characters well- with realistic and understandable stakes- and delivers an intriguing investigation to how things work on the Crucible. They capture the feeling of a Keyforge game in an Archon's battle in an exciting race to forge keys. They turn a boring day job or a school assignment into an adventure all the while weaving in references and creating new advancements the card game hasn't seen. The stories are fun and the characters have noticeable inspiration from the cards and factions in our game. It was easy to read through the anthology and picture the characters using references from the card game if you could take a moment from getting sucked in to the story.

I enjoyed hearing about characters from all different houses. From a prideful Saurian to a Svarr finding their place in the world to those crazy Martians- the authors delivered. It was particularly interesting to hear about species we don't know much about yet, like the Krxix and Sylicates, since these stories are able to breathe life into them before we get a chance to play games with them!

Whether you are a new player trying to get into the game or a player since Call of the Archons, I highly recommend you pick up a copy of Tales From the Crucible. The world of the Crucible is rich with crazy things at every turn and this anthology only begins to uncover them- but those it does, it uncovers well.

With our upcoming set, we'll learn more about our beloved Crucible. While I have no idea if the authors at Aconyte had any part in writing the lore for Mass Mutation, I hope this isn't the last we hear from them. Keyforge needs authors willing to dive in to the chaos and make it back from the adventure with stories to tell; and that's something they each do with skill.

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That wraps up our series focusing on the upcoming Tales From the Crucible Keyforge Anthology. What are you most excited to read about? Did one of the interviews inspire you to write a Keyforge short story of your own? (I sure hope so!)

I want to again thank the team behind this anthology for taking the time to respond to my questions about their stories. It has been fantastic reading the responses and hearing what everyone has to say! Thank YOU as well for following along with this series. Do you like having an article series? Or prefer more one-off articles? If you haven't caught up on all our Aconyte Books interviews, you can find all the other interviews below- right here on this page!

Why did you decide to work on a story for this project? What interested you in the world of Keyforge?

Keyforge had me with the cyborg demons, but the more I dove into the world of the Crucible, I fell in love with the incredible range of characters and settings. I was particularly interested in how beings who are so different from each other, with competing goals and concerns, can interact—and even work together.

Next up, we have some questions about your experience writing your story for the anthology.

With a world as diverse, open-ended, and complex as the Crucible, how did you come to focus on the character(s) and story you chose?

The characters of Wibble and Pplimz came to me nearly fully-formed, and having them act as detectives seemed like a great way to show off their strange partnership while exploring the seamy side of Hub City.

In comparison to your past works, was there anything that felt different or special while working with the Keyforge world?

I tend to write science fiction that is on the harder side, so getting to play in a world where pretty much anything can happen was a fun challenge.

Was there a particular aspect of the Crucible you were hoping to encapsulate with your story? What was it?

Many of the beings of the Crucible can be seen as archetypal, and I wanted to explore how assumptions can be flawed. Looks can be deceiving, and it pays to remember that every being has their own agenda.

What advice do you have for authors in the Keyforge community looking to create their own stories based in the Crucible?

Start with the characters and settings that grab you the most, but don’t be afraid to think about how the other beings and places might affect your favourites. The interplay between all the different elements is what make the Crucible so interesting.

That about wraps up our questionnaire. Thank you so much for taking the time to share some insight with the Keyforge community! Since we are “The Epic Quest” blog, we have one last question for you:

What is your quest?

Exploring worlds real and imagined.

That concludes our interview with M. Darusha Wehm. Next up, we hear from David Guymer:

Why did you decide to work on a story for this project? What interested you in the world of Keyforge?

I’m accustomed to writing in settings so grimdark they are widely acknowledged to have coined the term. By comparison Keyforge is so zany and fun. You have all these alien races who, for all their differences, have little choice but to rub along and make the best of it and telling a story that had absolutely nothing to do with warfare was a big draw.

Next up, we have some questions about your experience writing your story for the anthology.

With a world as diverse, open-ended, and complex as the Crucible, how did you come to focus on the character(s) and story you chose?

Reading the various source books gave me a few ideas. Ok, a few more than a few. But the idea of a group of Hub City LARPers getting themselves mixed up with a pair of real life Archons just tickled me and I’m glad that was the story I got to write.

Without an established body of lore for Keyforge, what challenges did you encounter while writing your piece? What innovations did you make?

Working in a less established setting is as much an opportunity as a problem and a big part of my wanting to write stories for Keyforge. The mood and the flavor of the Crucible is all there in the available lore, and that’s really all you need to tell a story in a shared world. That said, I loved all the off-hand references to the Crucible’s people and places that I was able to work in. It’s the Tolkien nerd in me, I think!

Were there any cards in particular that inspired you? Or any aspects of the houses and world?

I’d like to say yes.

But no.

As I mentioned, I’ve not yet had the chance to try the game.

In comparison to your past works, was there anything that felt different or special while working with the Keyforge world?

The people of the Crucible, even the weird ones with two arms and two legs, feel quite similar and relatable to people in our world, and it was strangely enjoyable to write about a group of characters who have mundane jobs and drink in bars. It was also a chance to be humorous, which I’m coming to realize is where most of my meager talents lie.

Was there a particular aspect of the Crucible you were hoping to encapsulate with your story? What was it?

I was interested in the way that Vault Battles were perceived on the Crucible in the same way as major sporting events on Earth and the way fans will follow the fortunes of their favorite Archon in Vaultheads magazine as we do sports teams. Some of us, of course, take it more seriously than others (guilty…) and I wanted to explore the lives of a group of people who take their hobby very seriously indeed.

Describe your story in one word.

Fun

If you could explore the Crucible again, what story would you want to tell?

If not the aforementioned Dis then it would have to be something about Star Alliance. I’m such a massive Trekker, I wouldn’t be able to resist.

What advice do you have for authors in the Keyforge community looking to create their own stories based in the Crucible?

Keep it light, keep it fun, and remember to be creative – on the Crucible almost anything can happen.

Have you played the Keyforge card game? If so, do you have a favorite deck? Favorite card?

I have not! I do my research about any property I work with, however, and you’ll see a variety of things pop up that you might recognize. Ring of Invisibility might be my favorite for the art, but there’s another ‘card’ that could be said to be the key to the whole story… I won’t tell you which one though. Spoilers!

Why did you decide to work on a story for this project? What interested you in the world of Keyforge?

Truthfully, as a Baby Writer™ I am largely eager to get my name out there and work with any property. That said, I love the old pulp stories and adventure stories and a sense of fun, and Keyforge melds all those things together.

Next up, we have some questions about your experience writing your story for the anthology.

With a world as diverse, open-ended, and complex as the Crucible, how did you come to focus on the character(s) and story you chose?

I actually tend to build stories from the opposite direction. I don’t worry about all the vastness of the setting -- the character is what matters. In this case, Nalea, notorious thief! Once I knew I wanted to tell a ‘thief’ story, I worried about the where (Hub City) and the what (top sekrit).

Without an established body of lore for Keyforge, what challenges did you encounter while writing your piece? What innovations did you make?

We were provided with a certain amount of information, but it was definitely interesting working with such a relatively blank slate. In this case, I largely had the shape of my setting given to me, I just had to breathe life into the particulars. What is a Councilor of Hub City like? How do people get around the city? How do people live here? That kind of thing.

Were there any cards in particular that inspired you? Or any aspects of the houses and world?

Oh man! Tons of ‘em. Key of Darkness. Masterplan. Safe Place. The aforementioned Ring of Invisiblity. And I definitely let the ‘creatures’ of the Shadows faction inspire some of my characters.

In comparison to your past works, was there anything that felt different or special while working with the Keyforge world?

Absolutely. My previous works are very grim and dark. KeyForge is fun. Even when things get dangerous, it’s an adventure at the heart of it.

Was there a particular aspect of the Crucible you were hoping to encapsulate with your story? What was it?

I just wanted to take all this wild variety, and show a snapshot of how it fits together. Just a juncture point of some of the zaniness.

Describe your story in one word.

Intrigue.

If you could explore the Crucible again, what story would you want to tell?

Mum’s the word! It’s like magicians explaining their tricks. Never waste a good pitch when you might still get to tell it!

What advice do you have for authors in the Keyforge community looking to create their own stories based in the Crucible?

The Crucible is a wild, expansive place. Don’t try to capture all of it in one story. Pick a spot, pick a character. Focus. What matters to this one person? What is this one place like? That’s the heart of your story.

That about wraps up our questionnaire. Thank you so much for taking the time to share some insight with the Keyforge community! Since we are “The Epic Quest” blog, we have one last question for you:

What is your quest?

To write damn good stories.

That concludes our interview with Thomas Parrott. Next up, we hear from C. L. Werner:

What is your favorite Keyforge House? Why?

Has to be the Martians. They just really hit that old-fashioned pulp sci-fi itch. If I had to pick a favorite genre of movie, it would be Japanese kaiju eiga. But if I had to pick a second... well that would be the golden age of horror with the likes of King Kong and the Universal Monsters, but my third focus is certainly 1950s sci-fi movies. The Martians in Keyforge are really an amalgamation of all the great parts of things like Earth vs the Flying Saucers and The Angry Red Planet. They also evoke things like the old EC comic books, like Weird Science and all the bug-eyed monsters that infested the pop culture of that era.

Have you played the Keyforge card game? If so, do you have a favorite deck? Favorite card?

Sadly I haven't played Keyforge, so I fear on this subject I have to confess ignorance. I like the setting and the wide variety of the assorted houses, but I think I stray more into the miniature-gaming side of things than I do CCGs.

Why did you decide to work on a story for this project? What interested you in the world of Keyforge?

I'd say it really comes down to the absolute scope of the setting. Anything can and could appear on the Crucible. That level of mystery and unknown is always fascinating. Now, when I really came to grips with the Martians, I knew they'd lend themselves to a good story. Often times that's the deciding factor for me: can I tell a good story. I'll be arrogant enough to presume I did, but that's up to the reader to decide on their own.

With a world as diverse, open-ended, and complex as the Crucible, how did you come to focus on the character(s) and story you chose?

I probably already answered this, but the Martians just really appealed to me. The more I delved into the facets of their culture and society the more I was hooked. Again, that 1950s alien invaders feel was too tempting to let go of.

Without an established body of lore for Keyforge, what challenges did you encounter while writing your piece? What innovations did you make?

I think the big challenge was wrapping my head around exactly how the Crucible itself works. Now I will say that I cheated in my story by keeping the action pretty localized. That way I was able to fixate entirely on Nova Hellas and how this transplanted chunk of Mars functions. I did play with things like how the low gravity and thin atmosphere work and the way the red dust of Mars buffers the region. I think for those looking at Nova Hellas from the outside, the place must appear like a permanent haboob.

Were there any cards in particular that inspired you? Or any aspects of the houses and world?

I'd say that it was the Martian aspect of on the one hand these obsessive efforts to prove themselves important to their society on an individual level while at the same time this kind of total capitualtion of the self to the demands and discipline of said society. That made a wild contrast, Martians striving their utmost to advance their own prestige and worrying about the failures that could bring them crashing down, while at the same time utterly resigned to the consequences of such failure. They're complex, and I liked that. It was fun digging around in their heads and really trying to express what makes them tick.

In comparison to your past works, was there anything that felt different or special while working with the Keyforge world?

There's a certain light-heartedness to Keyforge that is widely at odds with the other settings I write in, so that was a very nice change of pace for me. You can get a little bit overwhelmed by 'grimdark' all the time, as it were.

Was there a particular aspect of the Crucible you were hoping to encapsulate with your story? What was it?

In 'The Perfect Organism' I was really trying to draw out the feel of Nova Hellas. How not only the Martians but this chunk of abducted Red Planet works. If I was able to bring that out in a way that's vivid and engaging, then that's how I know I succeeded.

Describe your story in one word.

Monstrous.

If you could explore the Crucible again, what story would you want to tell?

For another story, I think I'd like to either look into how the Martains fare when away from their home turf, or maybe look into how some other faction reacts to the challenges of sneaking into Nova Hellas. Either would really be a neat story to tell.

What advice do you have for authors in the Keyforge community looking to create their own stories based in the Crucible?

Largely it would depend if they're looking at a novel or a short story. If you're looking at a short story, I'd say plot out exactly what aspects of the Crucible you're going to explore. The setting is so broad and has so much going on that you really have to narrow your scope. When you look at your plot and it seems to have too much going on or you're explaining too much to the reader, then step back and see if you might benefit from going for a less expansive narrative.

That about wraps up our questionnaire. Thank you so much for taking the time to share some insight with the Keyforge community! Since we are “The Epic Quest” blog, we have one last question for you:

What is your quest?

I'd say to tell people stories that they enjoy and if possible help nudge others to write stories of their own.

Have you played the Keyforge card game? If so, do you have a favorite deck? Favorite card?

I haven’t unfortunately, though I knew of it prior to writing Extermination Examination. I do intend to start at some point, it looks like one of the best card games going at the moment, the sheer scope of it is incredible.

Why did you decide to work on a story for this project? What interested you in the world of Keyforge?

I actually caught wind of the formation of Aconyte Books via Twitter. Authors today always need to be on the lookout for new work, and it seemed like they were setting up something really special. I discussed the various IPs they were hoping to write for, and KeyForge was one of the ones that instantly leapt out at me. The contrast with what I was working on at the time was huge – from gritty grimdark to humorous, bonkers sci-fantasy. The world of KeyForge is painted with big, vibrant (possibly neon) brushstrokes, and that came as a welcome change.

With a world as diverse, open-ended, and complex as the Crucible, how did you come to focus on the character(s) and story you chose?

It was really tricky! I pared it right down to the first thing that really grabbed my attention – the Martians – and the sort of story I’d wanted to tell for a while, namely some University high jinx. I’m currently just in the process of finishing a PhD at Edinburgh Uni, and I’ve been in higher education for over nine years. I guess I’m writing what I know! Splicing some of those experiences from what has been a very enjoyable decade into a sci-fi setting was a lot of fun.

Without an established body of lore for Keyforge, what challenges did you encounter while writing your piece? What innovations did you make?

I was lucky enough to get a sneak peak of the new Fantasy Flight KeyForge RPG, which is absolutely rammed full of great material. There’s so, so much lore potential in there that it could take decades of writing just to flesh out what’s been mentioned so far! I focused in on specific aspects that interested me, most of them Martian-related. For example, I was intrigued by mention of the Martian rogue elements outside of the control of Nova Hellas – how did such a famously xenophobic species interact with outsiders once they’re no longer part of the formal Martian hierarchy. In that sense, beyond all the fun and games, there’s a lot of serious worldbuilding to be done within the KeyForge setting. I feel like we’ve only just scraped the surface.

Were there any cards in particular that inspired you? Or any aspects of the houses and world?

Besides the War of the Worlds vibes the Martians give off (my fav card was the Martian Hounds) I love the Pinhead aesthetics of Dis. I also enjoy that they fulfill the roles of demons in the setting, but they’re not portrayed as out-and-out unknowable evil. They’re their own fully-fledged culture, with generally similar nuances of the good and bad present in all groups. But they’re also a spooky bunch, and I like that.

In comparison to your past works, was there anything that felt different or special while working with the Keyforge world?

Cutting loose with the zany, colorful setting made the whole project feel pretty special. It isn’t often you get a setting to work in where you can have a spider-girl and her space-elf roommate being set on an assignment by a cyborg professor to study a group of rogue Martians!

Was there a particular aspect of the Crucible you were hoping to encapsulate with your story? What was it?

Martian culture – just how ridiculous it can seem to outsiders, but serious it is when you get caught on the inside. That and a little hint of life in Hub City, a place that really seems to encapsulate all the diversity of the setting.

Describe your story in one word.

Banter.

If you could explore the Crucible again, what story would you want to tell?

One of my earlier pitches was about the driver of a hover-taxi in Hub City getting wrapped up in an Archon’s adventures. If I don’t revisit that though, I’d certainly like to carry on the academic misadventures of Nal’ai and Kolli – I feel like I’ve only just begun to tell their story.

What advice do you have for authors in the Keyforge community looking to create their own stories based in the Crucible?

Write what you enjoy. That will shine through in your work, and also help you get it over the finishing line! Don’t lose sight of the fun involved in writing, and don’t be disheartened if you don’t receive instant recognition. Above all, tell your stories, because the Crucible is crying out for them!

That about wraps up our questionnaire. Thank you so much for taking the time to share some insight with the Keyforge community! Since we are “The Epic Quest” blog, we have one last question for you:

What is your quest?

To keep telling stories that I enjoy, that people enjoy, and hopefully keep making a living from it!

That concludes our interview with Robbie MacNiven. Next up, we hear from M.K. Hutchins:

Why did you decide to work on a story for this project? What interested you in the world of Keyforge?

The genre-mashing in Keyforge is immensely fun, and I was also drawn by the dynamic, eye-popping, color-saturated art. Art is definitely something that gets me thinking about stories I want to write.

Next up, we have some questions about your experience writing your story for the anthology.

With a world as diverse, open-ended, and complex as the Crucible, how did you come to focus on the character(s) and story you chose?

I actually didn’t have to. I pitched a bunch of stories to Lottie, the fantastic editor for the anthology, and she came back and told me, “write these two.” I have a document somewhere that’s just a long list of Keyforge story ideas.

How much was the story-writing process informed by the cards and the other pieces published by Fantasy Flight Games?

I read all the cards, the Genesys sourcebook, the Inka the Spider Stories, etc. Some things in my stories I invented, some I took from these sources, but I always wanted to make sure that I was keeping my writing in line with the feel of the Keyforge world.

Without an established body of lore for Keyforge, what challenges did you encounter while writing your piece? What innovations did you make?

Oh, this was tricky. I kept wondering what other writers were doing, if I was inadvertently going to contradict someone, etc. With “Useful Parasites”, I needed more plants and animals than exist in the Genesys sourcebook, and with “The Librarian’s Duel”, I needed to invent districts in Hub City. Then again, it’s Keyforge, and just about anything goes.

My favorite thing I added were aemberflowers -- flowers that turn towards the nearest source of aember in the same way sunflowers turn toward the sun. I think that’s the only thing I put in both stories.

Did you have access to the Genesys: Secrets of the Crucible RPG sourcebook while writing to use as reference? If so, was that used as a tool to develop these stories?

I pitched and outlined “Useful Parasites” based on the cards alone, and then got access to the sourcebook, which I absolutely used to help flesh out the story -- picking the Lesser Uncanny Forest specifically as the setting, adding creatures from the book, etc.

“The Librarian’s Duel” was sparked by reading the sourcebook. There’s a line in there about how leadership in a Brobnar clan is often determined by a duel in the Champion’s Ring. I immediately began thinking of who’d be more inconvenienced by a raucous clan of Brobnar following them.

Were there any cards in particular that inspired you? Or any aspects of the houses and world?

With “Useful Parasites”, absolutely that Ember Imp. I kept thinking about how Dis can suck away emotions. How could that be helpful? How could that go wrong?

For “The Librarian’s Duel”, I spent a lot of time looking at the art on the Brobnar cards to create my own motley crew.

In comparison to your past works, was there anything that felt different or special while working with the Keyforge world?

No one story could encapsulate all of the strange things happening on the Crucible. I love that. I had immense fun looking at interesting ways two different aspects of this world could intersect. For “Useful Parasites”, that was a Untamed healer and a Dis imp. In “The Librarian’s Duel”, that’s a librarian, her phase-shifted daughter, and a clan of Brobnar.

If you could explore the Crucible again, what story would you want to tell?

Did I mention I have a whole long list? Off the top of my head, I’d love to do a Skyborn adventure, an Inspired quest, write about Saurians (because dinosaurs!), and any kind of archaeological dig.

That about wraps up our questionnaire. Thank you so much for taking the time to share some insight with the Keyforge community! Since we are “The Epic Quest” blog, we have one last question for you:

What is your quest?

To live without regrets.

Have you played the Keyforge card game? If so, do you have a favorite deck? Favorite card?

I have a handful of decks, but no one in my area to play against. Yet.

Star Alliance may be my favorite house, but the Crucible wouldn’t be the same without the demons of Dis. The house of nightmares. And the house that’s most allowed to break the rules. The flavor text on the Lash of Broken Dreams* - combined with that art - is a masterclass in flavor text writing, and how to communicate a lot with very little.

*“‘At first, I thought that nothing could harm an Archon.’ - Captain Val Jericho.” Combined with the art of the lash whipping toward the view, almost out of the card frame.

Why did you decide to work on a story for this project? What interested you in the world of Keyforge?

The expansiveness of the setting. I love enormous, wide-open worlds - the bigger, the better. The first tabletop gaming setting I fell in love with was D&D’s Planescape, a place of infinite worlds and variety and creatures and philosophies stacked up atop each other, and the Crucible replicates that feeling in a way that absolutely delights me. The only constant on the Crucible is that you will come into contact with something new to you, every day.

With a world as diverse, open-ended, and complex as the Crucible, how did you come to focus on the character(s) and story you chose?

I knew right away that I wanted both the demons of Dis and the Archons to play a role in my first KeyForge story. They’re both deeply enigmatic, unknowable forces that figure a great deal into day-to-day life on the Crucible. Everybody is affected by them, directly or otherwise, but nobody understands them. How do you live so near something you don’t understand?

Then came my question: If you’re new to the Crucible, how do you decide what your place in it is going to be? How does your society survive? Does it survive?

Mash those two ideas together, and Contract emerges.

Without an established body of lore for Keyforge, what challenges did you encounter while writing your piece? What innovations did you make?

The Crucible is such a wide-open, diverse world that I felt that the best way to capture it was to cram as many wild, off-beat worldbuilding details into every nook and cranny of my story as I could. Everywhere I could fit something new or thought-provoking about the Crucible, I got it in. Constructing those details was the funnest part of writing this story (though writing the action scenes was a close second). Finding places to put all of them was a significant pacing challenge.

Were there any cards in particular that inspired you? Or any aspects of the houses and world?

The aforementioned Lash of Broken Dreams communicates the menace of the Dis very effectively. It’s hard to look away from the demons.

The biggest influence on my rendering of the world was Fantasy Flight Games’s forthcoming RPG sourcebook Secrets of the Crucible. It has a wealth of information on the tools, technologies, peoples, and civilizations of the Crucible, and I recommend it not only for people with an interested tabletop group, but also as casual reading.

In comparison to your past works, was there anything that felt different or special while working with the Keyforge world?

The chance to go off on mad tangents. In my debut novels, I was trying to write a historically real-feeling novel set during a well-studied moment of history. While the Crucible runs by rules and has set personalities and factions, it’s also a wide-open invitation to make things up in the margins. The Crucible is beyond mortal reckoning, and an invitation to be inventive. I loved stuffing whatever new details I could into whatever places would hold them.

Was there a particular aspect of the Crucible you were hoping to encapsulate with your story? What was it?

The size, scope, and scale of it. There’s more going on in any one slice of the Crucible than we could understand in a lifetime of study. The diversity and wildly divergent philosophies of the Crucible’s inhabitants touch on every part of it.

Describe your story in one word.

Transformation.

If you could explore the Crucible again, what story would you want to tell?

I would love to write the novel of Captain Val Jericho and the Star Alliance’s arrival on the Crucible. Theirs would be an amazing perspective from which to explore the world of Crucible, perfect for bringing new players into it, and I love space exploration tropes.

What advice do you have for authors in the Keyforge community looking to create their own stories based in the Crucible?

Make it your own. The Crucible is a universe into itself - and maybe even more than one universe. There’s more land, beings, and civilizations there than even the largest sourcebook can list. Chase your wild thoughts, because there’s almost certainly room for them in the Crucible.

That wraps up our interview with Tristan Palmgren. Next up, we hear from Cath Lauria:

Have you played the Keyforge card game? If so, do you have a favorite deck? Favorite card?

Not yet!

Why did you decide to work on a story for this project? What interested you in the world of Keyforge?

I loved the idea of writing science fiction that could be fun and lighthearted while still intriguing. To quote my favorite doctor: “Space is disease and death wrapped in darkness and silence,” but with Keyforge it doesn’t have to be.

Next up, we have some questions about your experience writing your story for the anthology.

With a world as diverse, open-ended, and complex as the Crucible, how did you come to focus on the character(s) and story you chose?

There are so many epic options in the world of Keyforge, with creatures of immense power or intelligence who can figure out how to do almost anything. Figuring that route would be popular, I decided to go the opposite direction and focus on an apprentice mechanic, someone small with comparatively small concerns that are nevertheless matters of life and death to her. That’s part of the beauty of Keyforge—anybody can be interesting because there’s so much world to play with.

Without an established body of lore for Keyforge, what challenges did you encounter while writing your piece? What innovations did you make?

I actually loved that there wasn’t a lot of established lore for Keyforge—it’s nice to get the chance to be part of the establishment, in that way, and I didn’t have to do a lot of catch-up reading to make sure I was canon compliant. I researched locations that I thought were interesting and narrowed down the sort of character and plot dynamics I wanted, then put together a pitch. I had to make some adjustments to ensure my characters weren’t OOC with regards to their species, but that was the only real challenge I encountered.

Were there any cards in particular that inspired you? Or any aspects of the houses and world?

Here I’ve gone and said my favorite houses are Untamed and Shadows, but I ended up honing in on Brobnar for casting some of my heroine’s enemies. I mean, who but a Looter Goblin is going to live in a giant, mysterious, incredibly dangerous trash heap? You know, apart from the cyber rats.

In comparison to your past works, was there anything that felt different or special while working with the Keyforge world?

I loved getting a little guidance as far as setting and character, actually. This is my first time writing for an established world, but I definitely hope it isn’t my last.

Was there a particular aspect of the Crucible you were hoping to encapsulate with your story? What was it?

I wanted to show an echelon of the Keyforge world that most players wouldn’t see. Archons, vault battles, aember, adventurers—all of that is amazing, but there’s potential for drama in everything, and with The Apprentice, I wanted to focus on the drama of a girl on the cusp of independence, who has that independence suddenly threatened.

Describe your story in one word.

Self-reliance!

If you could explore the Crucible again, what story would you want to tell?

How am I supposed to pick just one? I’d love to take a person or group of people on an adventure to some of the more remote areas of Keyforge, searching for knowledge or treasure—or both! Both is good!

What advice do you have for authors in the Keyforge community looking to create their own stories based in the Crucible?

The sky is the limit! There are so many fascinating options in the Keyforge world, no matter what dynamic you want to create, there’s the background and worldbuilding there to back you up.

That about wraps up our questionnaire. Thank you so much for taking the time to share some insight with the Keyforge community! Since we are “The Epic Quest” blog, we have one last question for you:

What is your quest?

I seek to create, to entertain, and to keep up with a toddler!