From Baseball Bats to Broadswords

At GDC 2011, I had the pleasure of sitting down with legendary Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling to talk to him about his upcoming action RPG Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. Yup, Schilling is an RPG geek with an ironclad pedigree, his own development studio and a stable of all-star talent. He is also a gracious fellow – after my recorder devoured the original interview, he happily consented to a second chat at PAX East 2011. Here’s a sample:

How many of us have sat down with a game and said, “Wow, This really sucks. Why didn’t they do this? Why didn’t they do that?” I’m the guy that took the next step of investing everything I’ve ever made into actually making a game. Call it lunacy, stupidity, whatever you want, but I have a deep-seated passion for it.

You can read the Curt Schilling interview at Complex. But before you go, I would like to share a brief outtake. I asked Schilling who his favorite R.A. Salvatore character was and he said without a second’s hesitation, “Drizzt, clearly.” He then paused and contemplated a moment.

“I think Bruenor Battlehammer. And actually Catti-brie as well. I know R.A.’s family and he characterized Catti-brie after his daughter and I’ve met Caitlin [Salvatore’s daughter]. It’s kind of a cheat because I have some personal insight into the character.”