{"id":418,"date":"2015-04-01T20:52:06","date_gmt":"2015-04-01T20:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/we-re-all-in-this-together-an-interview-with-carter-newton-part-1\/"},"modified":"2024-01-26T16:44:34","modified_gmt":"2024-01-26T22:44:34","slug":"we-re-all-in-this-together-an-interview-with-carter-newton-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/we-re-all-in-this-together-an-interview-with-carter-newton-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"We\u2019re All In This Together: An Interview with Carter Newton, Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Conducted by Leighton Connor<\/strong><\/p>\n

Carter Newton is not only a co-creator of the award-winning RPG Hobomancer<\/a> but also the author of Suicide\u2019s Run: A Tale of the Hobomancers<\/a>. Suicide\u2019s Run is the first novel Hex Games has published, and it is on sale now.<\/p>\n

I was Carter\u2019s editor on Suicide\u2019s Run, but, more importantly, I\u2019m a big fan of the book. When I sat down to interview Carter we had plenty to talk about. I\u2019ve split the interview up into three parts. In Part One, we talk about the inspiration for the novel, going beyond the character sheets, malefactors of great wealth, and more.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Leighton Connor:<\/strong> Hex has released supplements for games before, but this is the first time we\u2019ve published a novel based on one of our games. Carter, what was it that inspired you to write a novel about hobomancers?<\/p>\n

Carter Newton:<\/strong> The setting for Hobomancer is so rich, and so big, it just seemed to call out for a deeper exploration. I picked this one particular corner, but there are so many corners! I mean, I started this novel in November of 2012, which predates the publication of Hobomancer, because at some point in writing the RPG I realized that there was just so much I wanted to do with this world that wouldn\u2019t fit in the core book. I\u2019ve been between regular gaming groups since about 2010. I didn\u2019t have anyone to play with to explore this world with me. We talk about RPGs being shared storytelling; being alone I had no option but to do it myself!<\/p>\n

Having said that, I still got a little of that shared storytelling element. So many things have been done with Hobomancer since then that were inspiring. Best example of that is the Rail Dragon. Steve created that creature in response to a challenge on Reddit to reinvent dragons. I read the post and emailed Steve, \u201cYeah, I\u2019m going to need to use that, if it\u2019s okay by you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also, I was hoping to cash in on some of that sweet Dragonlance ™ money. I have since been informed by experts in the publishing industry that perhaps I should revel in the joy of my art.<\/p>\n

LC:<\/strong> What you say about \u201cso many corners\u201d is a good point. When I read the book, I was impressed that it definitely felt like a Hobomancer story–the setting, tone, and types of characters are all straight out of the game–and yet it was completely different from what I expected in a Hobomancer novel. You managed to find that balance between bringing the game to life and, at the same time, telling your own story. Did you have any problems with that? Were you ever concerned that you weren\u2019t sticking close enough to the game or, like some of those Dragonlance novels you mentioned, you were too close to the source material?<\/p>\n

CN:<\/strong> Particularly early on, I had terrible problems with that, particularly with the characters. I don\u2019t want to get boring with a bunch of process stuff, but I started by writing the first couple of thousand words, and then went back and made character sheets for the characters. I looked at them last week and laughed at how far some of the characters had diverged – or evolved, maybe – from their original concepts. But yeah, there were a couple of moments that were really frustrating where I found myself torn between what was on the character sheet and what the story needed. Then I had this breakthrough: \u201cJust write the story. Think of the stuff that doesn\u2019t fit the rulebook as \u2018house rules.\u2019\u201d That was a tremendous help. Suddenly I felt free to go beyond the character sheets I\u2019d drawn up. Which explains the gap between the 2012 character sheets and the 2015 novel.<\/p>\n

But it caused some challenges, yeah. The editors were both like, \u201cI don\u2019t understand this one character\u2019s power. He sounds like a Train Whisperer, but then he does all this crazy stuff with dreams, and I don\u2019t get it.\u201d And I sort of had to say, \u201cWow, you\u2019re really right. It works in the confines of the story, though, and we won\u2019t include a character sheet for him in the appendix, and if anyone asks, we can say that\u2019s for a future supplement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately Hobomancer is a really good setting with rules that are built for fiction.<\/p>\n

LC:<\/strong> Let\u2019s talk about the characters. First, your main character, who goes by the name \u201cSuicide,\u201d is not even a hobomancer. He\u2019s the kind of guy who enjoys a life of luxury and looks down on hobos. Why did you decide you wanted that sort of character as your lead?<\/p>\n

CN:<\/strong> Some of it was Creative Writing 101 – what can I do make this character feel the most uncomfortable? Suicide going from being this very cushy, middle-class social climber to surrounded by this cast of characters that he would have considered on his good days to be beneath his notice. On a bad day, he\u2019d probably think of these hobos as vaguely subhuman, and now he\u2019s dropped into a world where not only does his life literally depend on them, but they\u2019re infinitely more powerful than he is. That makes him a character whose entire worldview is broken. That\u2019s a character who can have all kinds of revelations about what society means, and the value of his own work, and can see very immediately the consequences of his behaviors – where previously he was protected by his social status, now he\u2019s seeing the people who lived with those consequences.<\/p>\n

Another thing I decided very early was that I didn\u2019t want this to be the story of Suicide learning to be a hobomancer. I was much more interested in telling a story where the main character never got comfortable with the weird stuff going on around him. Let\u2019s be honest, Suicide would rather be at a Rotary Club meeting than off fighting monsters. Even so, we also get to follow along while this character learns to be a – well, maybe not a hero, but at least a stand up guy.<\/p>\n

LC:<\/strong> Would I be correct in thinking that Suicide\u2019s characterization also contains an element of social criticism? I mean, call me crazy, but it seemed like you may have some points to make about wealth and power.<\/p>\n

CN<\/strong>: So, it wasn\u2019t as subtle as I hoped, huh?<\/p>\n

Well, look, here\u2019s the thing… I\u2019d like to be wealthy. Lots of us would like to be wealthy. But I\u2019m from the \u201cUncle Ben\u201d school of \u201cwith great power comes great responsibility.\u201d Suicide starts as Ebenezer Scrooge; he could not care less about his fellow man, unless his fellow man is useful to him in some way. Suicide is basically abusive to anyone beneath him on the social ladder – essentially all power and no responsibility. The time period the story takes place in is the hangover of one of our most notorious gilded ages, and is literally a tale of resisting the kind of men Theodore Roosevelt called \u201cmalefactors of great wealth,\u201d men willing to slag anyone and anything in their quest to build larger empires and bigger piles of hoarded wealth. Here we are a generation later, with a different Roosevelt in the White House, and we still have rich men deciding that wealth makes them moral, regardless of who may get hurt. All power, no responsibility.<\/p>\n

The lesson Suicide learns through all of his experiences is \u201cwe\u2019re all in this together.\u201d Also, maybe, to live by the sweat of his own brow. I don\u2019t want to fetishize manual labor – I\u2019ve done my share, and it\u2019s not awesome. But there is a certain honesty that Suicide has to learn to say, \u201cI achieved this by skill, not by saying I was clever and letting someone else take the heat.\u201d<\/p>\n

LC:<\/strong> I\u2019m just thankful we don\u2019t have to deal with those \u201cmalefactors of great wealth\u201d in our modern world.<\/p>\n

CN:<\/strong> Yeah. Systemic racism, classism, and patriarchy: fully disassembled.<\/p>\n

And on that sarcastic note, the first part of our interview draws to a close. Be sure to check back tomorrow for Part 2, in which we talk about research, racism and sexism, Carter\u2019s favorite character, and Wikipedia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Conducted by Leighton Connor Carter Newton is not only a co-creator of the award-winning RPG Hobomancer but also the author of Suicide\u2019s Run: A Tale of the Hobomancers. Suicide\u2019s Run is the first novel Hex Games has published, and it is on sale now. I was Carter\u2019s editor on Suicide\u2019s Run, but, more importantly, I\u2019m…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3494,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2052,2093,2006],"tags":[43,69,872,1137,1563,1633,1674,1677,2286,2302,2304,2305],"class_list":["post-418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-hex-ficton","category-hobomancer","category-interviews","tag-qags","tag-magic","tag-hobomancer","tag-dragonlance","tag-leighton-connor","tag-fiction","tag-sucides-run","tag-carter-newton","tag-fdr","tag-wikipedia","tag-teddy-roosevelt","tag-ebenezer-scrooge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3868,"href":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418\/revisions\/3868"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}