Violet Ballard aka Dr. Violet runs RV Games, a queer publisher of auteur tabletop games. I first learned about her publishing work through Hammer City Games Graveyard of the Gods but have enjoyed reading her newsletter for The Adventure Gaming Periodical for almost as long as I’ve been a part of the Mothership RPG Discord.
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Violet and I are working together with over 18 other TTRPG creators on Devil’s Due, a space pirate themed collaborative Mothership RPG anthology as part of Backerkit’s Mothership Month. Additionally she is making Orgy of the Blood Leeches also as part of Mothership Month.
Columbary TTRPG: You describe working with Amanda Lee Franck using an “art first” approach with your forthcoming adventure Orgy of the Blood Leeches. “Art first” is a way of developing games you use where commissioned art inspires your writing rather than the reverse. Does it ever feel like this kind of back-and-forth between art and writing is a kind of worldbuilding gameplay in itself? Does it scratch the same itch as actually playing a game in any way for you?
Violet Ballard: The creative back and forth is what I live for. I strive to have a collaborative partnership with artists, editors, and other writers. I don’t like working where it’s a purely transactional business relationship. It’s not the same as playing a game, it takes a level of trust and intimacy to create anything together with somebody. So that is where it’s the same as playing a game, it’s about human connection and relationships. When everyone involved feels ownership of the work and feels connected, the work is better. I’ve done multiple works with Amanda now and most other collaborators, I tend to keep a small crew of deep relationships for publishing work and in my life in general. I know what’s going on in the lives of the small group of RV Games affiliated folks at a level that most people don’t know their collaborators. This can make things difficult since friendships take work, but I’ll take that work and messiness to have a culture of care.
Friendships take work and can be messy. An Illustration by Amanda Lee Franck for Orgy of the Blood Leeches.
Columbary TTRPG: How does it feel switching from creative RPG writing to management work for TTRPG projects? Was there a certain project that necessitated that switch, or was it something you just wanted to try which you then found to -in your words- “fill your bucket?”
Violet Ballard: I come from a background of designing programs and initiatives in education, and I already had a consulting business on top of my day job, so project management and accounting are in my wheelhouse. I actually enjoy that kind of work. When I started to take publishing seriously as a business, I knew that product development and business infrastructure were just as important as the creative side. The legendary producer Roger Corman called movies a “corrupted art form” because they are art and commercial products at the same time, and I’ve always taken this approach and view of tabletop games. I absolutely enjoy being the producer for other people where I act as developmental editor, put together a project team, act as project manager, work through product development, run crowdfunding campaigns, get things into physical production, fulfill directly to backers, and act as a distribution broker. I am a writer and designer, so I know how to interface with creators and operate a creator friendly business model. I only have one project of my own in me at a time, but I can support around four people as a producer at any given time, and I can distribute a large number of independently developed projects. I’m a slow, expensive writer, so my business can’t be dependent on only my own work.
Columbary TTRPG: In a recent blog post on AGP (Issue #15) you wrote about releasing another TTRPG creator’s long delayed and partially finished work. I think lots of people can relate to having a project they’re really passionate about but can’t quite polish in a way they are happy with. I know I can! What do you feel makes it worthwhile to push through that to finish something (even imperfectly)? …And what do you take as a sign to just leave a project behind, or be content with an endeavor even if it remains incomplete?
Violet Ballard: I never throw away any work. I have over 20 project channels on my personal Discord where I save notes and ideas for an entire back log of modules and games. Sometimes you need to set something aside until the solution to that product emerges, and sometimes the ideas from something else find a better home in a different project. It really depends on the project as well, how in love am I with it? Like literally in love. Orgy of the Blood Leeches is something that has been stewing deep inside me for two years, it's a piece of art that has to find its way out, and I can't stop thinking about it. Until it is done at the level of my vision for it, I will not have peace. When I was younger in college, I wrote and attempted to direct a film that was stuck inside of me like this, and that fell apart in mid production. I learned a lot then, and I hadn't come back to creative work until I was in my mid-30s with a lot more experience and maturity in the world, so I have better understanding of how to approach projects and when is the right time for them and waiting for solutions to emerge from my subconscious. I will literally wake up with ideas on how to complete a module or games with no conscious thinking on my part. So, intuition is the answer as to what projects need to happen and when they need to happen, I don't have any good heuristic or advice other than going with your gut, your gut will tell you when to keep moving or when to throw in the towel. Sunk cost fallacy is real, and you just get that feeling when something is escaping you and needs to be set aside for a little while.
Columbary TTRPG: I feel like other interests help make thinking about games easier and sometimes lead to surprising inspirations. I like learning about foraging for wild plants like Service Berry and Dandelion where I live in Chicago Illinois- sometimes just reading plant guides and exploring the parks feels like something straight out of a D&D adventure. Have you experienced any moments of serendipity where an interest outside of table top games unexpectedly inspires your games work… or vice versa?
Violet Ballard: Most of my interests are outside of ttrpgs, I don't play and read ttrpgs nearly as much as many other designers and publishers. I love the art form, but it is a business I run now, it's work. And I find I do better work when I'm outside of the ttrpg bubble. I’m super into music and pinball. I'm huge film fan, specifically horror and Camp and art film. I was also an English major, so I have an extensive knowledge of the literary canon, existential philosophy, French New Wave, and ancient greek literature in addition to science fiction, which is my original literary passion. I think of the director Werner Herzog who only watches a couple films a year, he reads books and listens to classical music and watches wrestling and kung fu movies. The world is better exposure than being in an insulated bubble, quite often fans make the worst work because of missing outside perspective. Other types of work just set me off, I just saw the movie The Substance, and it will sustain me in creative work for a long time, it combines horror, Lynchian surrealism, and comedy for a sublime work of High Camp that is much more than the some of its parts. And by High Camp, I'm using the original definition by Susan Sontag, High Camp is when you take something absolutely ridiculous that is a heightened theatrical reality, and you approach it with straight earnestness and craft, taking the ridiculous seriously. This is the work in The Substance, early David Cronenberg, David Lynch, John Waters, and Quentin Tarantino (who is an exception to fans not necessarily being the best creators). They are all different. This is in opposition to Low Camp, which only happens inadvertently, it can't be manufactured, since Low Camp is when someone takes something seriously, and it turns out ridiculous. Coming back to my point, The Substance reminded me that I can go bigger and louder and more audacious since I do consider myself a High Camp artist, whose work takes the form of tabletop games.
This might be the most pretentious interview I've ever given, and I'm okay with that😅
Columbary TTRPG: Orgy of the Blood Leeches […] is your adventure for Mothership Month and you mention you’ve been working on it for a while- two years! How do you manage to keep focused on a project over such a long term? Is it something you pick up and put down over time or steadily whittle away at every day?
Violet Ballard: I am very up and down with my creative work. I work in sprints. I’ll always be stewing over the time, and then the work will erupt for me. I just recently wrote 60 area descriptions for Blood Leeches in the space of a week when I hadn’t directly touched the manuscript for months. Once I make it through a writing sprint, I then go through 3-5 rounds of dev editing. I work with my editor on a flat fee + equity basis, so we aren’t worrying about hours, we can edit until it’s ready.
Columbary TTRPG: BONUS QUESTION to tamp down any illusions of pretension: I got leeches as a kid swimming in our local reservoir with family. They were weird, but having spent a childhood picking off ticks while swatting mosquitos in the woods, leeches didn’t make any particular impression on me. Have YOU ever gotten leeches, and now that you know I have… do you still trust me?
Violet Ballard: I trust you! Orgy of the Blood Leeches was the shooting title of Cronenberg’s Shivers, and this adventure originally started as Shivers but in space. And Cronenberg has stated multiple times that in Shivers, you should be rooting for the leeches, when the building full of yuppies is overtaken, it’s actually a happy ending.
A promotional poster for Shivers (1975) from IMDB
Through working with Amanda and two different editors and putting in my own influences and Queer perspective, it’s really a piece of art about the beauty in what appears grotesque because people don’t understand it. As a polyamorous trans woman with a trans child, some people do unfortunately view us as grotesque less than humans, and Blood Leeches is a work about empathy that’s ultimately about how we build a better world for Queer folks like myself and my son. Leeches are beautiful!
