Lucas Rolim is a South American game designer and author. You can find his work on itch and Drivethrurpg.
Question: I first became aware of you as being part of the Brazilian OSR scene, or BROSR. Can you talk a little bit about this movement? I don't think most people are aware of the vibrant Brazilian gaming scene.
Answer: Yes, the Brazilian scene of OSR is very strong, headed by friends like Diogo Nogueira and Guilherme Gontijo, it was spread in Brazilian facebook groups for a long time. With people still active only in the local scene, we have a daily podcast focused primarily on OSR called dungeon with coffee.
We had a giant project of a national west marches exploring mega dungeons in hundreds of coordinated sessions.
At the beginning of 2020 we really started with this acronym BROSR, but there were already people using it, people unfortunately linked to the alt right movement of OSR and we decided to change it to simply LATAMRPG, following the example of the wonderful people at RPGSEA.
People are extremely creative and productive in the Brazilian scene, in addition to being complete artists, such as fantastic designers, graphic artists and writers. I'm really a big fan of my friends around here.
Q: Your itch page mentions you started making games in 2019. You've got quite the catalog for someone who has been doing this for such a short time. Can you talk a little about your creative process? Not only do you have a lot of titles, but they cover a diverse group of subjects.
A: Driven by this vibrant scene of friends around me, with very good ideas and games, it made me have this intense process. We talk about, think about and push each other. I currently have very close companions (those Brazilian friends from the indie-osr scene and friends from the proto-movement that emerged as a joke: Sword-dream), that I talk about several ideas, some don't see the light of itch and several are polished there. I unfortunately lost someone last year who helped me a lot, my brother (author of NUMA) and I think my production could be even a little bigger.
On top of all that I have ADHD, so I change my tastes and interests often and I've learned to use that as inspiration for new projects.
My creative process is pretty simple, it usually starts with sketches in this group of friends, playtests, rough drafts, editing and art.
Q: You're best known for Pacts and Blades, a minimalist Moorcockian game, and MiniBX, which just came out. Do you have any upcoming projects you'd like to share with us?
A: Yea! I will try to be brief in the answer, because in fact there is a lot on my mind and to come. lol
I recently launched a Zine Month project (Lost Oath), a game book along the lines of the old fighting fantasy, using my one page solo dungeon crawl system: dungeon gig.
There are several things in production for MiniBX, Alex Damasceno is completing the bestiary drawings that I will write and make the final layout. We are very close to hitting the hollow earth setting, which I will write together with a friend, Wayne Canepa, the editor of Pacts and Blades.
The second version of Zine with content for Pacts and Blades Salamandur Household #2 is already being written. It will have a solo mode, new generators, an adventure and two alternative paths.
A very raw prototype of a skirmish game is being discussed with Matheus Guax and Prosaiko.
I still have a scenario that I was writing with Tiago and I want to release NUMA's SRD, with his family's permission, in the near future.
Q: What sort of games do you like playing yourself? How did you get into gaming?
A: I've played D&D B/X for a long time, I love DCC, Fighting Fantasy, White Hack, SS&SP and I've been testing a lot of unreleased friends games. I've been playing solo games a lot, in addition to the game books, I've tested Guilherme Gontijo's game The Blurredd Lines and it's wonderful.
I started playing at the end of the 90's, with my brother in what we call the xerox generation (photocopied generation), there weren't many RPG books here where I live at that time and we played with photocopies, these games were the simulationists ones from the 90s in addition to AD&D 2e.
I switched to 3e, and played for years. I took a break in early 2010 and discovered the OSR movement and started playing OSR and Old School (OS) games. This is actually a common path with several friends here.