Live Freelance or Die is a twice monthly series on the often overlooked people whose work and writing for Paizo on the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game have probably made it to your table.
Meet Jesse Benner. Since his turn in RPG Superstar in 2010, he has been regularly contributing to just about every line Pathfinder produces. Not bad for the father of a young Jedi padawan.
PC: What got you into gaming, and Pathfinder specifically?
Well…we opened the “Red Box” when I was 8. I remember that because it said “ages 9 and up” on the box and I was worried I was doing something wrong. I got hooked on basic D&D, and then “AD&D” and even tried a few misc other RPGs of the late 80s and 90s like 2300 AD and Top Secret, but AD&D stuck. Until 2002? I was all first and second mix. I didn’t go beyond my friends and brothers for games, (like cons or gaming shops) but instead tried to rope others into the game.
In 2001 my older brother had gotten a hold of 3.0 and basically said “everything is different…and it’s incredible.”
I played some 3.0 but that was right when 3.5 was coming out so I waited and got only 3.5 books. I immersed myself as fully as I could but most of my gaming group was still friends, my older and younger brother and our extended group.
3.5 was where I saw my game living for, well, ever.
Then 4.0 got announced.
I was, in a word, pissed. It felt like an effort to fix something that wasn’t broken, and to do so under tenuous and even contradictory reasons (when I caught a WOTC website blurb that said “in 2006 it was clear that we needed to move on from 3rd edition to fix some of the bugs like polymorph and grapple” and then saw another article less than a week later that was ALSO a WOTC official blog post where they said “in 2004, we already knew 4th edition was coming,” I felt that, as a gamer, a loyal customer and an enthusiast, both my loyalty and my intelligence were being insulted.
I looked through my friend’s 4e books when they came out but it felt like a dumbing down of what didn’t need to be simplified. I relegated myself to obsolescence at that point, feeling that I would desperately be trying the rest of my days to play 3rd edition (3.5) while trying to convince other players it was the best without desperately sounding like a d20 hipster.
Then my most excellent friend David (combo best friend and best person) told me that Paizo was making Pathfinder. I knew Paizo through their periphery materials, and their involvement with Dungeon and Dragon magazines, but I was surprised by Jason’s undertaking with Pathfinder, well his and everyone’s as well. I downloaded the beta test I think? I didn’t have a group to play with but I was reading it very critically, and I liked a lot of the first changes, and some I didn’t. Notably, Power Attack. I still have the first copy somewhere that showed what it was, but then after the community roundly voiced concerns about it and similar feats like Combat Expertise, Paizo not only changed it but rolled in some of their fans’ and players’ suggestions. I had never seen a company solicit with any real genuine interest the opinions of its customers and have it make a difference.
That was when I decided that I not only wanted to support Pathfinder as a game, but Paizo as a company.
PC: How did you come to freelance?
Jesse demonstrates his technique for earning freelance work.
PC: What do you remember most about each round of your RPG Superstar experience?
Flop sweat terror. I felt very much in over my head. I remember thinking that people would find out that I hadn’t played Pathfinder yet but had only read it. I remember the joy of making it past round 1 but it seemed like every time I made it to a new round i came face to face with what I didn’t know. But it was great to just keep learning as each hurdle got passed
PC: Did you have much writing experience before RPG Superstar?
Depends on the kind of writing. I did two undergrad BAs concurrently in writing intensive fields (history and comp lit) and had always written fiction in my off time. None of it had been published however and I honestly didn’t think it ever would be. In my post 3.0 home games whenever I created a rule like a feat, a spell or a magic item I always tried to very specifically ape the language of the rulebooks so I felt like that had been a good prep exercise.
PC: To what do you contribute your first freelance work for Paizo?
The real reason I came to freelance was because of my brilliant and beautiful wife, Nikki.
I was interested in going to Paizocon in 2010 but she was out of work and as a one income and unemployment household with a 14 month old son I felt that me going was an indulgence, and something we couldn’t afford.
She, bluntly but politely…said “no.”
She said I had done well this year but since I hadn’t won I might not have any name recognition if I went in 2011. This was the year to go and to see if I could parlay my recent semi-notoriety into future work.
I went, and I made a point to introduce myself to Sean Reynolds, Eric Mona, Clark Peterson (who sadly wasn’t there) and Wes Schneider. I thanked them for the feedback and criticism throughout the competition which really had helped a lot, and I said I’d really like a chance to work with them further if they could see their way clear to giving me a shot.
Wes bit.
He said I should follow up with him after the convention and he’d give me a “test balloon.”
I did.
It, to my eternal joy, went okay.
PC: What was your first freelance work for Paizo?
I got to do 2 monsters for the bestiary of volume 3 of the Serpent’s Skull adventure path. One was a race of cursed jungle humanoids that could prolong life by grafting portions of others onto themselves, and the other was a size large or huge carnivorous dinosaur like a creature that is rumored by cryptozoologists to exist in Africa. You were kind enough to look that one over for me, Ryan.
PC: Describe your experience working freelance for Paizo.
I don’t have a lot to really compare it to, freelance wise, but even if I can’t comment on it as industry standard, I can say that it’s great. The developers, designers and editors are open and communicative. I think that fixes all kinds of potential problems. When you know with the proper lead time you can ask for an extension or a clarification, it allows a give and take with the process that’s great. Sean Reynolds is also very good about facilitating and encouraging sharing among large groups of freelancers on a project, which I really like since having people to bounce things off of is the way I love to really flesh out ideas.
PC: What are some of the products you’ve worked on for Paizo, and of what in each are you specifically proud?
The Advance Race Guide: I got to do half-elves and was able to reinsert some rules, or at least mention, of half-drow elves as a subset of half-elves. I thought they always made for interesting character hooks and was glad they got traction to return.
Bestiary 3: The Boogeyman!, and Imperial Dragons.
Bestiary 4: That’s Classified.
NPC Codex: Being able to step in and help Sean and the rest of the Paizo team. I initially was only supposed to do monks, but then they needed someone to do both rangers and wizards as well. It felt really, really good to help.
Ultimate Equipment: Not as much my own work here as it was just great to be part of the collaboration of writers on this and to see what they were able to come up with. It was like getting a fly-on-the-wall perspective for everyone’s homebrew games over the years and the choice items that had risen out of them.
Ultimate Campaign: I love trying to give people moments that hint at something more but then leave it open for a player or GM to take things further. I got to work on both traits and plot hooks on this one that really tapped into that, and I hope they strike chords with people.
Ultimate Combat: Yeah…this one was super special to me. I’ve been studying a Vietnamese style of Animal Kung Fu since 2004. When Sean 
said that they wanted feats to approximate the animal styles of kung fu I said DIBS! DIBS! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DIBS!
I had a great time trying to dissect what the specific styles were meant to encapsulate and capture in their techniques and then find a way to translate that into the game. Tiger style, particularly, came out well I felt. It was simply awesome to be able to merge two passions in my life together, and in a way where I felt like I had done justice to them both.
Inner Sea Magic: Two words: BLADED. DASH. Also, this was great experience doing spells, which was somewhat new territory for me, and my first collaboration with James Jacobs, who was great to work for.
Mythic Monsters Revisited: I got to do the Phoenix for this, which was another project with James. I like being able to take on good creatures in bestiaries and give them some depth, hoping that it can allow GMs to add personae that are more than just opposition for their games.
Giants Revisited
Mythic Adventures: I was once paid a compliment by Jim Groves, a great freelancer in his own right that has gone on to do great things and that was a co-competitor in RPG Superstar in my top 8 year (he went to the final 4 himself). Jim said I was shaping up to be “the cinematic coolness guy.”
I felt like I really got to work on that for Mythic Adventures, but also add some of those hooks and adventure ideas I loved most about being part of the Ultimate Campaign team.
Jade Regent, Skull and Shackles, and Serpents Skull: For all of the adventure paths, there was a throughline of what I liked best. In my past life (RE: college and grad school) I studied history and comparative literature. I particularly liked when the two disciplines overlapped. With most of the adventure paths I was tasked with taking some creature concept from cryptozoology or folklore and then translating/reverse engineering them to fit the rules of the game. This was HUGELY rewarding for me since I got to use a lot of the sources and skills(?) I guess, from when my life was more academic.
For both Skull and Shackles and Jade Regent, I really got to delve into those areas because I was trying to develop either the pirate’s life piece (which really did come down to a sort of historical sketch of piracy in the 18th century, but on Golarion) and the piece on the ninja clans of Minkai. I felt like I was in my element and it also–as a side note–made those student loan payments hurt a little less because “hey, usin’ it for SOMEthing!!!”
PC: What line do you prefer to work on? What mechanics? Why?
Is it awful if I cop out and say both? I like the adventure paths and world specific books because I get to help shape the golarion world and its mythology, which really feels important in terms of contributing to the overall universe we enjoy and that many of our characters call home, which kind of satisfies my GM fix. The ultimate books and world neutral projects satisfy the player in me that wants a lot of options to build whatever kind of character I’d want.
Feats and spells are great because for me they’re a chance to steal (I’ll admit it) something from another media like video games, tv or movies and then translate that into game terms. And I know I’m not that original. If I’M thinking about doing it, someone else is too.
Monsters and gazetteers are great too for the above referenced reason that they allow me to draw on or expand upon mythology. Also on a far away vindictive level, I tend not to be a vicious GM at my own table, but I can be as mean as I want when I’m making monsters for other people’s.
It is quite likely that I have made something that has mauled, clawed or gnawed one of your characters to death…and I’m fine with that <insert maniacal laughter>
PC: Ending a sentence with a proposition, what do you think of that?
“That is the sort of tedious nonsense up with which, I will NOT put!”
PC: How do you cope with criticism?
By having a good memory. Most of the criticism I’ve received from Wes, Sean, James or Stephen has been right on and has helped me get better. I think that remembering that always (that it’s not a personal attack but rather input from someone that is working WITH you to achieve something you’re both responsible for) helps a lot.
I also then try not to make the same mistake twice, but remembering to go back and do a find and replace to make all of my post period double spaces single spaces CONTINUALLY eludes me.
PC: Tell us about some of your earliest design work, whether professional or for your home game, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Welp…I spent a lot of my earlier days gaming with friends and relatives, the kind of people who were not necessarily an impartial and neutral audience. I came up with ideas that were not TOOO tough, (like I thought wouldn’t it be great if 1st and 2nd Ed had weapon properties that did an extra 1d4 points of elemental damage per hit) but I worried that it was TOO much extra damage. I knew I wasn’t the only one at that rodeo when 3.0 came out. I also would create things my friends would think funny but that kind of broke the 4th wall, or winked at the audience more in hindsight than I would have liked, like gray metal cylinders that when opened allowed you to make a blistering number of attacks on an enemy because I thought giving my friends the ability to “pop open a can of butt-kick” on someone would be funny.
It was.
It was also incredibly poor design for anything outside of a home game. I guess that would be the ugly.
I’d say the thing I’m proudest about was the way we solved in my home game, the 3.5 conundrum of polymorph. We tied it to the Knowledge skill appropriate to the creature type you wanted to take the form of as a caster. If you could make a certain DC Knowledge check you could take the form. In ensuing adventures multiple successful checks made it easier for a caster to assume a sort of “preferred form,” while someone just sitting down with our group for a one off could have a mechanic that let them take forms that were viable for gameplay. In addition, it made us feel like someone who wanted to adopt a certain creature form had–in game terms–done some studying of the kinds of creatures, physiologically, zoologically, magically, that they wished to emulate. We found that it was a good balancer. That’s probably the homebrew design solution I was most pleased with when we members of the “brain trust” were done
PC: How did you balance your home life, day job, and gaming group with your freelance work?
*Expletive* sleep! It’s kind of true. I can get by on 5 to 5.5 a night, so I burn a lot of midnight oil. My job is interesting, but most importantly its one I can leave at work at the end of the day. I guess for me the secret is finding little pockets here and there and making the best of them. When I go to the gym I’ll use the stair climber or the treadmill and cycle through instrumental music and soundtracks with the express purpose of trying to come up with ideas. If an idea occurs to me while I’m at my desk, I’ll jot it down on paper and then stuff that into my messenger bag for when I get home, and pick up where I’ve left off. And long car rides usually have me driving, so when everyone else falls asleep, I run gaming scenarios, or try to develop some aspect of what I’m working on in my head. Also, having my laptop somewhere where I can see what’s going on while my son plays in the living room, and where I can get up when he wants to play a quick duel of lightsabers (he’s starting to roll force push in their now too, it’s great), let’s me feel like I’m not sacrificing anything in my life for the sake of another.
PC: Which colour light sabre do you use?
I prefer green myself, as some of my favorite Jedi (return of the Jedi Luke, Qui-gon Jinn and Kit Fisto) all wielded the green, but Jack likes when I use the double bladed red because I can snap out both ends with the same twirl which never seems to get old for him.
I’m okay with that though because then he uses the blue or green which is putting him on the right path which, as a father, kinda supposed to be my thing.
PC: What are the greatest challenges you face as a freelancer?
Saying no. I’ve been fortunate and I love getting to do this work, but a lot of the time I still feel like the guy who just got the shot and doesn’t want to say no. I hate to turn down an assignment. I’ve done it once, a last minute favor from a designer over the weekend of my best friend and hetero-life-mate’s bachelor party. I had to say no and I STILL feel bad about it.
Also, I sometimes don’t always budget my time well which leads to some last minute scramble.
PC: How has being a freelancer impacted your home game and other design work?
I have more confidence in my abilities, and when I need to make a GM judgment call. I don’t feel as nervous about whether or not I’m making a bad call. I am also, I’d hope, more approachable about new ideas and items and have allowed them from my friends with less reservation and more knowledgeable feedback now that I’ve seen behind the curtain 🙂
PC: Any other ways being behind the curtain has changed the hobby for you?
He got to meet an iconic.
PC: If you could change one thing about Pathfinder, what would it be?
I think that Pathfinder is a phenomenal system. It is fluid instead of rigid, and Paizo’s connection with their players, who are enthusiasts and peers first and customers second, in my opinion, leaves me very little room for criticism. My personal nitpicky things are stuff like I would have liked the broad spectrum of forms available in 3.5 D&D’s polymorph, shapechange and associated spells, but that’s a personal thing, really.
I think my change isn’t really a change so much as a concern that I don’t know how to change. Namely: what’s the tipping point? We keep producing more and more material, all of which seems smartly and thoughtfully designed, for the system, but will a time come when the system is too big for itself?
Will we reach a point where the available archetypes and traits any character can take blur or completely erase the things that make some classes, or even races unique in game terms? Are we heading towards a more blended approach and if not, how do we continue to produce content that keeps the players happy and–lets face it–the freelancers lancing while preserving the structure of the game we love?
PC: What is a highlight of your experience as a freelancer?
Let’s face it… nobody wants to be this guy.
But it is great to be recognized and to feel that you’ve enriched someone else’s time at the table. I think that my highlights fall into 2 categories, ones where I feel I’ve faithfully designed something for the game according to its “real world” equivalent or perhaps comparable mechanics, and when I find out from friends like Brian Darnell, Elizabeth Jo Miller or Mike Azzalino that something of mine was either a show stopper or a game changer in a player’s hands.
My professor/mentor at Penn State once said about teaching that at its heart, teaching is a love of people, of sharing ideas with people and seeing people turn on with ideas. That to me is where the freelance pays off, when I see something I’ve done really get someone else as excited about playing as I was about creating it.
PC: One day you wake up and all your design goals have been met. What does that day look like, and where do you go from there?
More of the same. I really do feel like this ride is starting, starting well and there’s no need for it to end soon. My design goals would branch off into video game content if feasible, and I’d love to get my name out there for prose as well as rules and design content. I think that the day where all of my design goals are met looks great, but not final if that makes sense. I think if I get to the point where I can write my own “ticket” so to speak, I’d like to be a part of an immediate group of developers and designers, with an in-person element since I really do enjoy being collaborative in person with people.
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