Matthew J. Hanson is the creator of  The Fastest RPG I’ve Ever Played- The Abstract Dungeon.  Matthew took a few minutes of his time to answer some questions about his Kickstarter.

Tell us a little about yourself, Matthew.

I’ve been playing roleplaying games since my brother got the Mentzer Dungeons and Dragons Red Box for his birthday sometime in the 80s, and I’ve been hooked ever since.

I started designing for RPGs around 2004 and have written for Dragon Magazine, Kobold Press, Green Ronin, EN Publishing and others. Then in 2011 I decided I wanted to take the plunge and start my own company, so I launched Sneak Attack Press. We started by publishing supplements for Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, Mutants & Masterminds, and Savage Worlds. Now we’re excited to be producing our own system.

How did this game come about and could you give us a brief synopsis of the game?

Abstract Dungeon came about because one of my friends and I were discussing how we wanted a game that played much faster so that we could get through all the stories we wanted to tell. That’s where the impetus of Abstract Dungeon began. We succeeded in making a game that plays faster than anything I know of because it uses a dice-pool resource-management system rather than the traditional rolling to hit and deal damage. We started using it for the fantasy genre because that’s what we’re mostly playing; the system can be used with just about any genre, though.

Because of the dice-pool system, Abstract Dungeon is also extremely flexible and encourages creative story-telling over number crunching. I’ve seen people play everything from the traditional dwarven berserker to a skeletal tailor.

What do you see for the future of The Abstract Dungeon? 

After the Core Book, we plan to follow up with more support.  Some of this support is currently stretch goals for the Kickstarter project, like PDFs for additional character options and a print and PDF mega adventure where the PCs reclaim a ruined keep and explore monster infested territory beyond the edge of civilization.

After that we are exploring possibilities for other supplements like monster or treasure books, and other genre books like Abstract Space.

Thanks, Matthew, for you time.  AbstractDungeon’s Kickstarter is ending this Sunday, 9/15/13.  Please check it out and support it.

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About the author

Ron McClung (Ron McClung)

Gaming Coordinator for all MACE events. Former writer for GamingReport.com and Scrye Magazine.