Interview With Chris Baylis

The Game

Chris Baylis is a well known game designer. He recently created games like Station Master and Space Shuffle. He is also the editor and reviewer of Games Gazette, a games review magazine. I have been fortunate enough to chat with him on December 9 and 10, 2008. Below is the transcript of our conversation. Buxeria: Chris, I understand that you were the game designer of DARK BLADES as well as its expansion. I would have a few questions to ask you about the background of this game and your memories of this time.

Chris Baylis: If I can answer your questions I would be happy to do so. But it is a long while since I have played DARK BLADES and I may have to go dig it out if there are any rules queries.

B.: My questions actually don't have anything to do with the game itself but more your experience as a designer. So let’s start: Who came up with the original concept of Dark Blades? Was it somebody at Standard Games who commissioned you on the job, or your own initiative?

C.B. : I approached Standard Games because the rules for CRY HAVOC Man-to-Man didn't work - the man attacking cannot kill the defender unless he backs him up until he cannot go back further. Andy McKay was a former Games Workshop employee and was a salesman for SG. He is the one who set up their metal miniatures division and he actually spun the mini's himself. He asked me to design DARK BLADES after my initial contact with SG.

B. : Who is to be credited for the artwork of the counters and the maps? C.B. : The map of Labrynthia was of my own D&D world which I used for campaigns and games here at home. Standard Games had one of their designers draw and colour it. B. : What did you like/didn't like in the CRY HAVOC game concept? What did you improve in the concept?

C.B. : I loved the CRY HAVOC idea and game mechanic - although it didnt work totally as I mentioned above. I changed the man-to-man fighting table and introduced magic and dragons, etc. CRY HAVOC is medieval, I made it fantasy. I also, in my games, limited the range of the crossbow, which Standard Games had capable of firing any distance in a straight line - with their crossbow rules, you could fire at the moon and hit it ! The CRY HAVOC, and indeed most of the entire series, of play-maps were far superior to anything available at the time, and probably are as good as anything published now or since. Unfortunately, if I remember correctly, the author of VIKING RAIDERS, which was the game that came out immediately after DARK BLADES, reverted to the old CRY HAVOC rules, taking no note of the fact that I had changed the combat system for one-on-one fighting so that it actually worked. This wasn't through any desire for the original rules, it was because Standard Games (and maybe the author also) simply wanted to reprint parts of their old booklet of rules instead of creating an entirely new one for each new game in the series.

B. : There were no strategic rules to make use of the map of Labrynthia. Was this an omission, or just due to a very tight release date?

C.B. : The map was meant to be a poster map not played on. There were terrain rules and the map terrain was pretty obvious. The idea was that if you played the game as a campaign - Dark Blades v the Black Fox - then you chose an area and used game map boards as appropriate to that area as possible. Remember it is a board game, not a role-playing game even though it has an RPG feel to it.

B. : What about the expansion set? C.B. : The scenario book (expansion) was supposed to have 25 different adventures but having strained my brain to reach 20, I sold them on the idea of 20 adventures and a whole load of new tiles etc. which I personally think worked a lot better. B. : Would you know who designed Outremer, the fourth installment in the Cry Havoc franchise? This information is nowhere to be found and even "experts" like Alan Paull who initially worked on that game has not been able to tell me. C.B. : No, sorry, no idea. I didn't much care for Outremer as although it may have been somewhat correct historically it didn't work for me and I thought the map was plain and boring - personal opinion only.

B. : How did you come up with these weird names for the characters of DARK BLADES? Many of the characters had special meanings. Ceebey for example is CB (Chris Baylis). The region of Franmere is named after my wife Fran who had just had our first son, Grant (who become Grast) and thus as Fran was his mother and mere is French for mum you get Franmere. One of the characters (I really cannot remember them all now) is called Davrich. This is made up of the names of the two guys who owned Standard Games. Most of my friends and family became names in one way or another either as characters or regions/places of interest on the map. Andy McKay also has a character in the game (MacKandy). Although I suggested the fantasy version to Standard Games it was they who decided the name Dark Blades and the Mon Ogers. These were to go with a range of figures (25mm metal miniatures) they produced to go with the game. I gave Dark Blades his background story and his actual name. Standard Games named Black Fox so I put him in Wyly Castle (as foxes are known to be cunning or wily). B . : Do you know who owns the rights to the game today?

C.B. : About 6-7 years ago I wrote to the founders of Standard Games, even though the company is no longer trading, asking if I could have the copyright back on DARK BLADES and they didn't reply. Then 3-4 years ago a guy I know who has published a few games decided he would like to republish the whole CRY HAVOC range. But he told me that the amount asked for was horrendous and he quickly shelved then buried the idea.

B. : Chris, it was a real pleasure interviewing you, and your insights were really awesome. Thank you so much!