My Solo RPG Journey: An Interview with Castle Grief, Creator of Kal Arath

We talking to Castle Grief today!

Good day to all my readers, imaginary or otherwise! Today I get the privilege of talking to and asking questions of Castle Grief, the creator of Kal Arath and the Grief Engine! Let’s get right into it.

Let’s start with an easy question. If you would be so kind, please introduce yourself to those who might not know who you are!

Sure thing - I’m Castle Grief: I have fun drawing, painting, writing, designing and anything and everything else I can try my hand at in relation to old school fantasy and fantasy tabletop roleplaying games.

What got you into game creation / game design?

I’m one of those forever DM’s they talk about that maybe gets to play once in a thousand or so years when the black stars align.

As such, I’ve always been interested in making adventures, handouts, maps and other physical artifacts for the games I run.

Combined with this, I have an extremely finicky taste. Ultimately when I started making stuff it was because there wasn’t anything *exactly* like it out there, and also - it’s fun to make stuff.

Mix these things all up with my enduring love for analog games and zines and here we are.

Was there any game that made you sit down and just go “I want to do this!”? Or was it more a general feeling?

Mörk Borg was my first game after a long layoff where I was out of the hobby - not by choice, but a combo of no friends in the area that played and a too-demanding job schedule - and was given to me as a gift.

I was always into the DIY aesthetics even as a kid playing in punk bands and making zines and flyers, and that book grabbed me with its simplicity of ruleset and boldness of design.

I want my stuff a bit more readable and usable at the table if possible, but it was a great thing to look at and say “I could do this.”

I’d only been dabbling in art at the time, and that was one of the things that made me start practicing again on a routine.

I knew I wanted to improve enough to do the art for my own stuff.

What inspires you to create? What sort of books or movies or music help you create?

Everything!! Seeing a cool metal pin from the 80s with a skull on it, or hearing a great black metal album for the first time. Paging through someone else’s neat zine, or flipping back through Frazetta or old 2nd edition D&D books.

Home print and staple copies of BX!

Anything can trigger that creative urge.

Books - I love the classic Appendix N stuff, but also new shit like Abercrombie, Martin…I like stuff on castles and medieval life, heraldry, military history.

I also enjoy looking at stuff from the weird world around us. Monasteries on pinnacles of rock. Kowloon Walled City. Psychedelic rings on a geyser. All of it.

Movies - Excalibur. Fire and Ice. Conan. The obvious stuff but I love crime movies like Goodfellas, Heat, Chopper, Bronson, Pusher, Drive etc.

Documentaries on whatever I’m into at the moment.

What kind of music inspires you? Got any favorite bands or tracks that you like to use to get into the groove?

Doom and black metal.

Skepticism, Darkthrone, Ahab, Bathory, Motorhead, Mgła, Conan, Electric Wizard. Sabbath of course. Electronic stuff and dungeon synth.

I’m drawn to classical a lot. Nothing specific just broad, dark and sad stuff.

What was the first game you wrote?

Lots of house rules for Ad&D 2e as a kid but I guess that doesn’t count as something complete.

I guess Kal-Arath is the first actual fully realized game I’ve put out.

I think the world has plenty of games but not as much good material as it could use. Settings. Adventures. Good dungeons. Interesting ideas.

What is your favorite game that you have written?

Like I said up there I really just have the one!

So let’s talk about Kal Arath. What specifically inspired you to make this game?

It’s pretty much a love letter to the bands I like (there’s a ton of music references in there for those who look), the original Barbarian Prince board game from whence my game gets its own name, and the art of Frank Frazetta and Arik Roper.

I was playing Barbarian Prince using the BX ruleset and just exploring the board, and thought - what if the board wasn’t filled in and the system felt a little more epic?

From there it was watercolors of doom and babes and dinosaurs and all that.

What prompted you to create a licence for the “Grief Engine”, the sort of core system that runs Kal Arath?

A lot of people wanted to make stuff for it, and still do.

I didn’t want to stifle anyone’s creativity, seeing as how there’s nothing new under the sun and the rules were already based on taking the Mork Borg stats and classless characters and marrying them with an old school 2d6 kind of ODND chassis.

It’s been cool seeing people put out their own stuff with it, even if it doesn’t line up with the world in my head.

That’s the neat thing. Everyone sees it differently.

This was a question I got told to ask when I mentioned I would be interviewing ya. You created a Kal Arath White Box which is chock full of goodies, but released it just after your last Kickstarter. Was there any reason as to why it was not part of that Kickstarter? Logistics or just timing?

I mean…I just didn’t have the idea until later.

I’ll do other collections and box set styles with it down the road.

I’ll combine it together and reformat at some point and revise.

Everything inside the White Box was something everyone backing the Kickstarter already got for cheaper.

Other than the box, which I folded and stickered with new art etc. I’d be happy to make that available to Kickstarter backers if they’re interested. They’ve got the rest of it.

Now, I have my own White Box question. While I do not have one due to financial responsibility (adulthood, yay) I was curious as to why you went with a Cassette of all things for the OST? Is it nostalgia or were you trying to get a specific sound?

Both. I like cassettes and at the end of the day, I make what I like - that’s the bonus of doing this as a passion project and not a job.

I like the feel of them, the texture of popping them in and pushing the play button.

That they feel more real to me somehow than a CD, which is one of my most disliked technologies!

And they’re cheaper to produce than vinyls!

Are there any plans for a “Kal Arath 2nd Edition” that combines several of your books? Or do you prefer to work in the Zine format, releasing smaller books?

I have an omnibus spiral bound on Lulu of the first three.

I plan to do a fresh layout of those “core” booklets and possibly collect the “sutras” down the line.

But largely yes I prefer to work in zines and booklets.

What are you currently working on overall? More Kal Arath or a new game? Can you share a bit about your current project?

I’m working on a few things at the same time all the time!

Currently, Lordes, which is not a game but a setting for the original Chainmail and 1974 ODND.

It will act as a supplement for that game and give a ton of useful tools for domain play, economics, encounters, factions and lots of other stuff including a cool world to play in.

Will work with any ODND clone, but assumes Chainmail use also. Talk about a niche release!

I’ve got a few other things in the works. Mini setting and adventure zine for my Hardrun Valley BX campaign, all done in watercolors.

A zine of all undead art and themes for OSR.

Some other stuff.

How do you manage your workload? Do you have a process or is it more fly by the seat of your pants / work on whatever hits your mood?

I would love to be able to work whenever it hits my mood! Unfortunately, I work a demanding day job that also keeps me on the road often.

The positive is I have lots of late nights of insomnia in hotel rooms, airports, etc and lots of long and tedious calls during which I can draw and work on stuff (don’t tell my coworkers!)

Basically I work on whatever I can when I can and what I can remember about it, since I don’t often take a bunch of stuff on the road with me.

This creates a pretty sporadic release style, which is not my favorite thing, but I didn’t get into indie niche game design because I thought I’d get to quit my day job!!!

What would you say is your best skill when writing / designing games?

I think I have a good ability to create texture that feels more than skin deep.

Connecting many elements of something together to build a richness and congruent or coherent feeling world or area.

Knowing what I want something to feel like can be a frustrating part of the work if I am having trouble articulating that in my drawings or writing, but I think it’s a good skill overall.

I can get a really clear idea of that kind of thing and already have colors, fonts, images, clothing, and cultural or linguistic vibes right there in my minds eye.

So - imagination, I guess, haha.

But I think right now it’s worth being proud of, since lots of people are trading their own away for digital and AI tools to do things for them!

Keep it analog and keep it human!

What do you wish you were better at when writing /designing games?

Maps. Architectural stuff like dungeons. Being able to focus all my attention on one thing until I was finished with it!

Do you ever have time to play games? If so, what are some you are playing now? Any game at all.

I have a semi regular D&D table where I live. We get together whenever life hasn’t gotten in the way which is often - usually these days it’s ODND and Chainmail but we often still play BX as well.

Sometimes we will try something else out, like Shadowdark, but we always go back to what we are used to!

Lots of hack and slash and dumb decisions.

How do you currently view the Solo RPG scene, and the Tabletop RPG in general? What do you wish there was more of?

It’s definitely blown up a lot!

I don’t really know much about the scene, beyond what some of the creators that I interact with are building or doing.

I’m always amazed at the amount of infighting in the hobby. It seems there’s some people who just want to complain endlessly about something trivial when it comes to games.

I always wish there was more analog art and good modules or settings as opposed to new games and rules.

The solo thing is here to stay, it’s been around a long time - probably the very beginning of the hobby in one way or another, and it’s catching on very quickly with a large number of new people.

Are there any designers / companies out there that impress you? Any you have not worked with but want to?

Chaoclypse is always doing cool art and fun stuff. Great mind for design and cool things.

Pickpocket is doing good things with their Tales of Argosa.

Odinson Games is one of the most impressive author/artist/designer combos out there at the moment - wanna see them do some classic module stuff.

I’d love to work with Kelsey from Shadowdark on something official - she was kind enough to shout me out in one or two of their official products and I’d like to get in on something for them.

Finally, any words of wisdom for aspiring game creators?

Do stuff that excites you rather than stuff you just think will do well.

Niche is good - find a corner and own space there with consistent content. Don’t neglect articles, or consistent art posts or whatever other stuff you don’t like cause it’s “self promotion.”

You can have the best game in the world, but if no one knows about it, they can’t know that.

Playtest a lot. It’ll show.

Under promise and overdeliver.

Where can people find your work and find you to follow what you are up to?

I’m on X, Instagram, Substack and Itch.io all as CASTLE GRIEF

Find me in the crypts, caves and dungeons!!

Keep your blades sharp!

Till next time!