I first met Adam Hancock and VJ Harris through their work on “An Elf and an Orc Had a Little Baby”, a Dungeons and Dragons 5e compatible supplement. In said work, they took the races and the classes from the sourcebook and helped create a system where any player could be anything they wanted! I have personally used their works at several of my gaming tables, all with excellent results. Needless to say, I was excited at the opportunity to meet up with and reconnect with them on their latest work, Twelve Realms!
Berry (she/her): What can you tell us about Gnome Made Games?
Adam Hancock (he/they): Gnome Made Games is the label we’ve been publishing games since VJ and I collaborated on “Those Who Wander”, along with Amber Litke. The big three ideals of it are diversity, fair pay, and empowering imaginative people. Sometimes, it’s just me doing the writing/designing and sometimes I get to collaborate with amazing people like VJ and the rest of the Twelve Realms team.
VJ Harris (they/he): From a person who has both written for products under the banner and simply bought things as well, I can tell you quality is always guaranteed, along with what Adam has just mentioned. Adam has a deep passion for creating games and it’s shown through everything that has been created! I know that it might sound self serving to say that since I’ve worked on some stuff, but even things I’ve had no hand in I find myself not only loving, but being inspired to create more.
Adam: That means so much to me. Thanks, VJ!
Berry: That is excellent! As a previous customer myself, I love the care and quality that is put into things! I still use An Elf and an Orc at my tables!
Before I jump into 12 Realms specifically, I did want to ask you about your No AI logo on the project. Is there anything you would like to add to that?
Adam: Sure, I think it’s important to talk about since there’s been such a glut of AI slop all over the internet, and corporations trying to foist it on us almost non-stop.
Berry: It is everywhere!
Adam: We want to show people that we’re paying real artists and real writers. We won’t use AI in any way in the making of this game. It’s environmentally detrimental, was trained on creators’ work without permission or compensation, and has shown to provide misinformation and some art that really falls down when you look at the details.
Berry: I feel it is absolutely important to put that disclaimer on items. It makes me feel more confident about supporting a project.
In 3 sentences or less, what can you tell us about 12 Realms?
VJ: It’s another opportunity for me to work with my favorite race: Orcs. But specifically it is an opportunity to portray them (orcs and other races) in a new light for the TTRPG space. I think it’ll open up some people’s creative minds to the different possibilities of creating cultures with different races/ancestries, where as previously they might have been stuck in a very specific way of thinking about various races due to how they are portrayed historically.
Adam: Twelve Realms is an original fantasy tabletop RPG that has a core dice rolling/resolution rule that makes resolving challenges fast, while also leaving the tactical element in place. Twelve Realms gives all the tools for worlds-spanning campaigns filled with diverse fantasy peoples. And Twelve Realms rewards effort, not accomplishment, encouraging players to try and try again even when they might fail.
Berry: I like how you both focused on different aspects of the project! It leads into my next question:
What makes the world of Heru unique?
Adam: Heru is a planet, for sure, but it’s a ringed gas giant that would be lethal to visit. But twelve moons spin around Heru, and those are the twelve realms. As VJ alluded to, one of those realms is the ancestral home of orcs, and probably most orcs still live there, but they’ve spread out throughout the realms. Another realm is the ancestral home to the elves, another to humans, another to gnomes, and so on! We wanted to explain why each fantasy people is different, adapted to a different world of their own, but also why they’re related, because they can and do travel from realm to realm on a semi-regular basis.
Berry: A lot of your work has focused on different races, backgrounds, and ancestry. What inspires this in your projects?
Adam: We’re committed to ditching biological essentialism in this campaign setting as much as we can. Biological essentialism is the concept that your species or ancestry determines more than biology, like personality and morality and such. I love the idea that an orc can be anything and behave any way they put their mind to, just like any other sentient people with free will.
VJ: I don’t have anything extra to add to that but simply that I couldn’t say it better myself, and Adam’s had years of steadfast push back against biological essentialism.
Berry: I feel it helps make your worlds more approachable than others I have encountered. The care put into your character creations is felt in the games.
Adam: Thanks so much! We’ve had years and several projects that helped us think about the topic
Berry: When it comes to gameplay, can you explain a little about the dice rolls in 12 Realms?
Adam: Sure! Resolving any challenge in Twelve Realms starts with a simultaneous dice roll. The GM and each player involved picks up all relevant dice and roll them all at once. It’s loud, it’s exciting, and it’s all the rolling you need until all those dice are resolved. Turn order, attack, and damage are all already there with that one simultaneous roll. Turn order is determined by comparing highest die rolls. The lowest among them goes first. Then success (and damage if needed) is determined by pairing each of your rolled dice to each of your opponents’ rolled dice. Go until you want to end your turn or you’ve run out of rolled dice.
Berry: That sounds like a lot of fun!
Adam: Thanks!
Berry: How many players do you recommend for 12 Realms?
Adam: First time anyone’s asked me that question! I think 3-5 players plus the GM would be ideal. A little more or less would still work.
Berry: You have both been on so many projects that I am aware of and probably even more!
What inspires your world building?
Adam: I’d love to hear VJ’s answer to that one! VJ and the rest of the writing team will be the world-builders on this project.
VJ: Hm, that is a really good question that at this point you’d think I’d have a ready made answer for! Partially, it’s history. Our world and history is a lot stranger than people realize, which I think the whole cowboys and samurai’s existing during the same time for a brief overlapping period in like the late 19th century highlights. Simply being curious about our own world can make us better creators for fictional ones. And of course there’s the “if we can imagine it, we can do it”. If we can imagine stories and places without systemic abuses in it we can make it a reality as well.
Berry: Philosophies like that give me hope. It is part of what keeps me playing games!
VJ: Me too.
Berry: Is this the largest writing group you had worked with?
Adam: Twelve realms, twelve writers! But no, actually, I’ve worked with bigger teams of more writers. This is the dream team, though. After deciding that Twelve Realms wouldn’t just be the rules for a game, but also a fantasy setting, I went down the list of writers I’ve worked with before and reached out to the people I most wanted on this project. And they all said yes! I was thrilled!
Berry: That really speaks to the type of cultures you help build. My next question was how did you connect with so many writers but you took thank one from me!
Adam: You wouldn’t believe the talent and just, like, the sheer number of awards and accolades this writing team has!
Berry: That’s a beautiful thing to see!
With several successful projects under your belts, what advice to you have for others looking to design games and worlds?
VJ: First, don’t get discouraged if the first thing you do is a flop, or the second, or the third, or anything in between success. No matter how talented you are, there is always going to be failure somewhere along the line, and failure as much as success can help make us great. Also, networking is so important; But in an honest way, not a way of just wanting to climb up the ladder. Connect with people in a genuine manner.
Adam: Make the weird stuff, the stuff you look forward to writing, that you find yourself daydreaming about, that you get most excited about. You’re going to kill your creativity and burn out if you try to think about “what the market wants”. And surround yourself with people who also want to make the weird stuff.
VJ: Oh, that’s a really good one! Oh, one more thing! Reach deep for whatever you want to make. “On Call” came from a graphic novel I wanted to make in college of a story I started writing in high school.
Adam: Yes!
Berry: What else do you want people to know about 12 Realms?
Adam: Any interview is only a glimpse of what you’re going to find in this game. It’s got unique ways a character can progress, it’s got rules about caravans that “level up” your rests and downtime, it’s got a mysterious Thirteenth Realm recently captured by Heru’s pull that is largely unexplored. I could go on! And I’m dying to know if there’s anything VJ has already dreamed up for the realm they’re writing!
VJ: Yeah, actually! Adam, I’m pretty sure you had to tell me to pump the breaks!
Berry: It is hard when you are passionate about the material!
Adam: Just because I want to make sure everyone gets paid before we write the thing!
Berry: That’s fair!
VJ- Anything else you want people to know about the project?
VJ: I know! But god, I love orcs. But as of right now and this might change, I’m giving orcs this culture of striving for perfection, pushing yourself to be the very best version of yourself, whatever that might look like, whether it’s a physical or mental pursuit. Orcs are often portrayed as just these huge brutes who want nothing but war, and still taking an aspect of that with the pride of being strong and spreading it around to other areas feels really good to me. I also just remembered I was taking some parts of Greek culture with the agora, which is a central place where people would gather for various civic, social, commercial, and religious events.
Adam: I can see orc parents now, telling their kids it doesn’t matter what they choose to do, but they better be the best damn thing they can be!
VJ: Exactly!
Berry: That’s great!
Where and when can people find 12 Realms?
Adam: It’s funding on Kickstarter, launching in April 2026. But everyone please consider being a prelaunch follower! You wouldn’t believe how important it is for the success of a campaign.
Berry: Can you provide the link?
Adam: Sure thing!
Berry: Excellent! really appreciate you two taking the time to speak with me. It is always exciting to see what you are up to!
Adam: Thank you so much for having us! It’s been lovely interviewing with you.
VJ: Thanks for having us! It’s always a pleasure!
I highly recommend checking out their Kickstarter and following along with the progress of the interactive new environment of Twelve Realms!
