Code your own adventure, without code
Jordan Weisman has a lengthy entrepreneurial history in both tabletop gaming and video games. In the physical realm, he started FASA Corporation (Shadowrun and BattleTech) as well as Wizkids (MageKnight, HeroClix).
In video games, he started FASA Interactive (MechCommander, Crimson Skies), Virtual World Entertainment (BattleTech Center location-based entertainment), and Harebrained Schemes (Shadownrun Returns, The Lamplighters League).
Speaking with GamesIndustry.biz, Weisman says his latest endeavor, Endless Adventures, merges the two threads of his career in a different way than simply using brands from one in the other.
"In video games, I've always been the storyteller," Weisman says. "If you're leading the creation of a video game, you're leading a team to tell a story and you make that game and those arcs very carefully.
"In tabletop, I've been the platform for stories to be told. When we create Shadowrun, or BattleTech, or these other universes, we help create a setting that gets people excited. We help create characters and give examples of stories that are told in that world. But then really, we hand over the storytelling stick to the players and they create the stories that our meaningful to them."
With Adventure Forge, the first project from Endless Adventures, Weisman is bringing those two things together.
"We're stepping out of the role of storytellers, but we're using the technology to empower the audience to tell the stories," Weisman says.
Adventure Forge is a user-generated content platform for building narrative-focused games without needing to be able to code. It also will come with Tales of Fortunata, which Weisman likens to a sourcebook in a tabletop RPG as it's an IP and a setting filled with
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