Questioner
One late night, Mercy and Dross gather everyone together to play a roleplaying tabletop game. What game do they play and how do they play it?
Will Wight
Alright, I'm probably not going to answer that in the spirit that it was asked. But I can tell you what everybody's- I can probably make up what everybody's D&D class would be. Like, which D&D class would they all pick. So, I can pretty comfortably say that Lindon would be a wizard and Yerin would be a fighter, like, that's pretty clear. Because wizards are just, you know, the best class. And fighters are, Yerin would be very happy.
Artificer would be good too, that's true. I haven't actually run an artificer, so I haven't tried it for myself. But thematically they fit. But I think he would go wizard because he'd be going with what's the class that's going to be the best later, and I think that's pretty undisputedly the wizard.
So, and then I think Yerin would really enjoy the idea of attacking four times when everybody is only attacking once or twice. That's kind of her jam, if you will. Let's see. Eithan, bard. Hands down. I think that's probably the easiest one. Mercy, probably cleric. Orthos would be eating the pieces, I think.
[very in-depth analysis on Will's Gaming Channel]
And then, who else? So Orthos eating the pieces, and then Dross is DMing, 100%.
Questioner
Was there any anime influence on Cradle.
Will Wight
Y...yeees, but I don't have any specifics for you. A lot of people are like, it's clearly inspired by Naruto. Which, in a way, I guess it's- the magic system was not, oddly enough, even though it seems like it should be. But specific elements, some of the elements work. But it was really more of a, I admire Naruto a lot, but it's not something I-
Questioner
Do you like Dark Souls?
Will Wight
I do. I do like Dark Souls. Dark Souls 1 made it into my game of the decade list out of personal enjoyment, I don't remember what number it was but Dark Souls 1 is my jam. And I played that game a million times. None of the other Dark Souls really did it for me, neither did any of the other Dark Souls versions that FromSoftware put out. But, number one, I just really love. Never, just, like I played through the others and they were fine. I don't even think I made it through any of the others. So, yeah, but I really loved Dark Souls 1. There's the answer.
Mountainking
How do Makiel and Gadrael bond as father and son?
Will Wight
They play catch. Just like you would imagine. Just like, kind of a stereotypical father and son relationship. Is Makiel literally Gadrael's father? No. But they definitely [portal decisions]
So they play catch. They play catch with moons. They just sort of- they have really big mitts. Just throw moons at one another. Kind of like, you guys seen Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann where they're just throwing galaxies like frisbees? I know you all have. I know you know exactly what I'm talking about. That's exactly what happens. It's like that, but with moons and giant baseball mitts.
Questioner
How far away are the nearest pair of scissors from you?
Will Wight
Did somebody put you up to asking that? Somebody asked, "How far away are the nearest pair of scissors from you?" They are in my hand. That is how far away they are. Who told that? Did people really, do you guys know this? Somebody told you, oh, Sam told you. Yeah, I always have scissors. And I did, indeed, have scissors right there. So, I do almost always have scissors within arm's length.
Mike
Do Ghosts control what magic system a new world has?
Will Wight
Sort of, yeah. Like, indirectly. They have input on it. As they're assembling a world they can sort of nudge it in one direction or another.
Questioner
Why does Naruto have the best shonen ending?
Will Wight
Don't do that to me. I know what you're doing. I see. Someone asked me why does Naruto have the best ending of any shonen series, and it's because the person in question knows that I could talk on that topic forever, because I do not like Naruto's ending at all. So, uh, trying to set me off.
Questioner
Does Mercy have a mental enhancement? Her Path seems to involve a great deal of multitasking.
Will Wight
Yes she does. She does. It's not as clear and dramatic as ghostwater.
Questioner
Is there an afterlife on Cradle, or is it just Remnants and spirits and nowhere else after death?
Will Wight
I will answer that with a question: is there an afterlife in real life? Hmmmm, who knows. I really don't go into the afterlife of what actually happens- the metaphysics of what happens in Cradle, or in the Willverse, or with the Abidan too much. Mainly because that tends to be a contentious topic among people that think I'm promoting something or selling them... something. So I don't really intend to go into that. So, death is the great mystery.
Questioner
You've mentioned in the past the possibility of hardback books at some point, but nothing definitive. With the more recent (presumably good) sales numbers for Wintersteel and Bloodline, have you given any more thought to this idea? Do you think there's enough interest to justify some kind of limited Collector's Edition through Kickstarter or something once you conclude the Cradle series?
Will Wight
The sales numbers are indeed good, no more need to presume, I can confirm that the sales numbers have been very good. We did hit #1 in the Kindle Store for Wintersteel and Bloodline, already, so yes they have been good.
About the hardcover thing. Yes, I have considered doing hardcovers. We actually recently did a test run- a very limited number of copies, fifteen copies or something like that, of a test hardcover. We did that, and then I have the only existing Traveler's Gate- House of Blades hardcover. So we've considered that, it really has to do with getting printings- doing printings, getting enough people. There's kind of some concern over whether or not anyone would want that, whether we'd sell enough to justify the cost of doing a printing. Since we have to do limited print as opposed to print on demand, which is what we do with the paperbacks, it would probably be paired with a Kickstarter or something. So, you do at a certain tier, then we would have hardback copies of the book, I don't know.
Yeah, like a Collector's Edition kind of thing. And then we'd probably do new covers and- probably. But that's really all, completely up in the air. So I can't be held to anything about that. But that's most likely what would happen, is we'd probably do some sort of special edition.
Questioner
Are you still thinking about writing some LITRPG? Also do you like crawfish?
Will Wight
I do like crawfish. We as kids, in a creek, when we were camping as a family. We would cook them on the grill and eat them in drawn butter and they were delicious. Big fan of crawfish.
As for the first half of your question, are you still thinking of writing a LITRPG, yeah, I'm thinking of writing a crawfish LITRPG. I think a crawfish that levels up. It goes around killing smaller fish gaining levels in Crawfish until eventually it rises to the shore and becomes a crawfish mage. Something like that.
Will Wight
As for the actual question, am I still considering writing a LITRPG. Sort of. What I mentioned before is that I'm not a big fan of LITRPG. I know there's a lot of LITRPG that appeals to fans. I'm not dissing on any LITRPG authors or even works. If people love LITRPG and love the books that's great. It's just not my preferred subgenre. I've read a lot of LITRPG and it just isn't something that appeals to me.
I've read Legendary Moonlight Sculptor, Overgeared (aka Legendary Moonlight Sculptor 2). I read a lot of the American LITRPG stuff and it just doesn't work for me and I don't know why. I've considered it a challenge. Theoretically it really works for me, but in practice it doesn't. A lot these authors are really good. They're really good writers. There's got to be something about the formula that doesn't work for me. So I have thought "it's gotta be the formula itself, so can I figure out a formula that I can enjoy, and would people like that?"
I've sorta worked on that a little bit, but I don't know if I will. There's so many people writing LITRPG and they're clearly hitting a large audience. It's already a crowded room and they're already into something I'm not into. So it feels like a party I'm not welcome to. Why don't I just do something else. If I figure out an idea I think I would work for me and that I think I would like, I'd try it.
Commenter
Everyone knows Will's love for math.
Will Wight
Any LITRPG I did would be minimal numbers. If I did anything it would be more based on a table top game than a computer game. More like a roleplaying game than a CRPG, for instance.
Questioner
So the main character dies to a bad roll.
Will Wight
You know, this would be very gimmicky, but something I've always wanted to do is a narrative, maybe short story, maybe a novella, maybe a series of short stories where I am actually rolling the dice to see what happens to the the character for random events. Now, of course, the character still makes all of his character based decisions, but to see what happens, I roll the dice to see what sort of random events happen and where I'm open about that with the audience. So, I show them what roll I get and I go "Uh oh, he rolled a 1, this fight is gonna go badly." I always thought that would be fun, so it's kind of like a narrative of a one player table top game, basically. And, I think that'd be fun, it'd be kind of like those choose you're own adventure things where the author is like "pick A, B or C" and the Patreon supporters vote, or whatever it is. I just thought it would be neat, I just thought it'd be kind of fun. I don't have any plans for that or anything. It'd just be fun.
Questioner
Since Cradle was meant to be your side project series originally, what aspect of the story do you think expanded the most as it became arguably your flagship series?
Will Wight
Not really arguably, it's definitely my flagship series. That's a great question. So Unsouled and Soulsmith are the ones I wrote when it was just a side series and not my flagship series. And Blackflame was when I was like, "Hey! Wait a second, this is the number one thing." So, I guess there was more to it - I expanded further into the world. Lindon and Yerin's adventures would've been way narrower, they would've been way smaller in scope. A lot more limited. So I think that's probably the main difference. Instead of seeing all this stuff about Cradle as a whole and getting into that, it probably- [back to game]
Questioner
As the author, who is your favorite character to write about?
Will Wight
Hmm, I don't know. I like writing about a lot of different characters. Some of the characters are easier to write than others, some of the characters are more fun to write.
Questioner
What is the goldsteel thing for?
Will Wight
I assume you mean this on the hat. And this is the logo for Bloodline. It's the cover of Bloodline without the Dreadgods on it. So there you go.
Lil' Blue
Would the characters from Kung Fu Panda be considered Sacred Beasts?
Will Wight
Absolutely.
Questioner
In Bamfious's interview you said you changed Lindon's love interest because of Bamfious's bet. Were you telling the truth when you answered that or were you teasing Bamf?
Will Wight
I think it's pretty clear that I never joke around, ever. And that every answer I provide is absolutely serious and you should take me seriously at all times.
Questioner
Is it in anyway disappointing that Cradle has been more successful than Elder Empire?
Will Wight
It's hard to say that Cradle has been disappointing in any way. Cradle has vastly exceeded my expectations. So, I can't in good conscience say that Cradle has disappointed me at all. But, I mean, I guess, sort of, I do wish Elder Empire had been more successful, but isn't that kind of like of course I do, it'd be great if everybody loved every series I write. But, I didn't have any real expectations of that, there's no blame or anything like that. The only thing that I feel a little bit disappointed in, I guess, is I put a lot more work in Elder Empire than I initially did into Cradle. Now at this point in Cradle, I'm trying hard. But, it was a lot harder to write Elder Empire. The minimum standard of Elder Empire is a lot higher, it's just difficult to write. So, when you put that much effort into something and people enjoy it less than they do the thing you put less effort into, that is difficult. But, nowadays there's not that difference. Now writing Cradle, after basically Soulsmith, I put just as much effort into Cradle, but it's a lot more straightforward, it's a lot easier to write, basically. It's easier and people like it more. It feels better when you're effort is proportional to the response, but that's not always the case. So, there you go.
Questioner
Will we ever hear more about the Weeping Dragon and the Silent King?
Will Wight
Nope. They're never coming out. Those two Dreadgods will remain forever anonymous.
Questioner
Do you put things into the series knowing full well they will become memes?
Will Wight
Not necessarily. I mean I do the bloopers that way. So, of course the bloopers are memes in and of themselves. Other than that, they only things I do, are I include memes that are currently in the fandom, reference them in series. So, there were a couple of people that didn't like that the Winter Sage referenced "Blerin", which was the fan name for Yerin's blood shadow and so there was people that didn't like that because that was a fandom meme and it brought them out of the story. And I'm going "I'm sorry, I understand not liking that, I get that. I understand having that opinion. I'm not gonna stop doing stuff like that though, because I enjoy it." And it's not something that she necessarily wouldn't have suggested. It was something that wasn't out of character for the character to suggest and it was something that only makes sense, you only get it if you understand the fandom. For people that didn't know that was a nickname, it wouldn't seem out of place, it would just be a joke. So, I don't mind that kind of thing at all, I'll write that kind of thing in. And that's never going away, that's just gonna be part of my writing style.
