Episode 368 – Ken Franklin and Flash Point: Legacy Of Flame
We are no longer restricting our interviews to just odd-numbered episodes. We couldn’t wait any longer to have Ken Franklin on the show again!
368 Fact
We learn about Studio 368, doing very cool stuff for creators and media (like Greta Gerwig, Lena Dunham, and the Safdie brothers).
Sponsor Message
Are you doing your taxes? Some states offer a tax break for residents who invest in their state’s 529 college savings plan. If you want help planning for your kid’s college education you can go to firstmovefinancial.com/familygamers. There’s a link there to set up a 15-minute call to see if First Move can help you.
What We’ve Been Playing
Daybreak – A cooperative game where you try to reverse global warming. Ken also calls it “Terraforming Earth”
First in Flight – review coming soon from Anitra
Explosion in the Laboratory – 27-card game about mixing “vials” in progressively more dangerous environment. An interesting take on push-your-luck with no dice and limited card draws.
Tir na Nog – You’re sending storytellers into fairyland to get experiences to turn into a saga. (Claim cards and try to arrange them.) Scoop: Ken is designing an 18-card escape game based on this one! There will also be mini-escape rooms based on Roll Camera and The Artemis Odyssey.
Mind Map
Monthly Report – February
Anitra: 30 unique games 48 times. H-index 3, with ArcheOlogic, Redwood, Unmatched, At the Helm, Skyrockets, and Pocket Paragons having at least 3 plays.
Andrew: 14 unique games 20 times. ArcheOlogic 4 times! Unmatched 3 times, Picky Pixie twice. H-index 2
Welcome New Members
SNAP Review – Get Bit!
Outrace your buddies so they get bitten by the shark and you don’t! This new version of Get Bit! works with 2-7 players, but is still best at 4 or more.
Watch the video or read the transcript for Get Bit!
Ken Franklin
Ken is back in clinical practice as a medical doctor three days a week, which makes him pretty busy.
He’s looking forward to facilitating giant Mansky Caper again at GrandCon.
But that’s not the main reason we asked him on the podcast…
Flash Point: Legacy of Flame
Ken designed this legacy game with Chris Leder and Kevin Rodgers.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ibcgames/flash-point-legacy-of-flame
What kicked off the design for a Flash Point legacy game?
Indie Boards & Cards had talking about it for a long time, but pushed to the back burner.
But in 2021, Ken found this out, and asked Chris and Kevin – “do you want to make a legacy version of Flash Point?” “YES, of course!”
Figured out the outline of the first third within a week, then pitched it to Indie Boards & Cards and signed a contract.
Then spent three years meeting virtually every week “and we played the snot out of it”.
Each designer brings their own strengths.
Kevin has a gift for narrative design. He wrote the “screenplay” of the campaign.
Chris is an incredible rulebook editor, and a gift for spotting what brings fun and what drains fun.
Ken put his prototyping skills to work and was spreadsheet master, mapping out the different paths the campaign could take.
The game was pretty much done after 14 months of solid work.
There’s a ton of expansions already for Flash Point. How does that work with the legacy game?
There are already so many expansions, you can’t play with all of them together. It just doesn’t work.
They looked at what elements in the expansions make sense for a story where cadet firefighters are going through their careers. So some expansion elements carried over to the legacy game, and some pieces are new. For example, they pulled the “Fire deck / event deck” from the Tragic Events expansion, replacing hot spots.
More about Flash Point: Legacy of Flame
You’ll be working through a sort of ensemble story, with many character arcs and events.
When you’re done with the campaign, you’ll have 12 new maps to play with any Flash Point module or expansion, and every character you’ve created can be used again.
Instead of making different terrain-styled boards, this game uses two spiral-bound books for the 12 maps.
Announcement: there will be a recharge pack, if you want to replay the campaign fresh.
When characters are knocked down, you are incentivized to sit them out and end up using all the characters.
Instead of using tons of envelopes, they’re using scratch-off elements in many places.
You don’t need anything extra, and you don’t even need to have played Flash Point before!
Check out the Kickstarter campaign!
Find Ken online:
Instagram: @kenplays2grin
X: @kenplays2grin
Facebook: drkenfp and Franklin Farms Game Nights
Email him at drkenfp @ mac.com
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