by Brian Durkin
Later this week Gary Games will release Storm of Souls, the third installment to the hit deck building game Ascension. Storm of Souls adds a new card type and new mechanics to the game. Visit the Ascension Official Website for more details about product information, and how you can receive a copy.
Justin Gary is the lead designer and creator of Ascension. I was lucky enough to ask him several questions about Storm or Souls, game design, organized play, and much more. Below is a copy of our conversation through e-mail.
Interview with Justin Gary
What was you and your design team’s inspiration for the new mechanics featured in Storm of Souls?
What do you hope Storm of Souls will add to the gaming experience that was lacking in previous sets of Ascension?
What criteria do you and your design team use to gauge and balance the two basic ways a player may build his or her deck (Runes versus Power)?
It took approximately a year to release an expansion to Chronicle of the Fallen. With two new sets out this calendar year, what kind of release schedule should players expect from Gary Games as far as new content for Ascension? How many promos, base sets, and expansions will Gary Games produce each year?
Gary Games recently announced Organized Play events with top finishers receiving electronics. This type of marketing contains many parallels to the OP of a trading card game. Will the future of organized events and marketing of Ascension model itself like a trading card game? Are these types of events something players should expect on a regular basis, similar to the Magic: the Gathering Pro Tour? Does this type of marketing aim to capture TCG players or provide a service that your company feels is missing from the board gaming community?
Is there any official guidelines for players to build their own custom center decks? Do you have any rules you would like to share with us? What type of conventions should players follow if they want to play with cards from every set, but limit the amount of cards in the center deck? What do you feel the maximum amount of cards players should play with in the center deck?
One could argue that Lionheart is a almost strictly better version of Nairi, Hedge Queen. How do existing cards affect your team’s ability to design new content? When do previous cards inspire new card designs? Have preexisting cards hampered new content, and if so, what is the solution to fix that problem?

Final Thoughts
Storm of Souls will add a lot of great dimension and new levels of strategy to the game. Adding more decision making to power heavy decks is a step in the right direction. Gary Games’ focus on quality versus quantity really shows in the new content in Storm of Souls. Ascension should demonstrate positive growth over the next year or so given the company’s point of view on organized play. The fact that Gary Games organizes events show great initiative to build interest in the product; however, keeping the goal of organized play limited to building interest as oppose to competition for prizes allows the gaming atmosphere to stay friendly and minimizes sharks. So many trading card games have failed in the last several years in part because their OP efforts gave away too many prizes. It shaped a player base that cared about winning stuff as oppose to the product, the actual game players were playing. If players are not already excited about Storm of Souls and Ascension, they should be. The product looks great and the company possess great values for producing quality products and programs.
Special Thanks to Justin for taking time out of his busy schedule to answer my questions.
Special Thanks to Shari for organizing this interview.
How do you feel about Storm of Souls? What kind of organized play would you like to see? Let us know what you think