RPPR Episode 175: Itch.io

March 16, 2020 • 2 Comments

News: RPPR B-Sides Volume 5: Gaming Gains is now on sale! Get 20 exclusive actual play episodes featuring a Caleb mini-campaign, Red Markets, Delta Green, and more! Also, check out the trailer for our upcoming new podcast, Night Clerk Radio! Don’t forget to check out Best Pal Brigade as well.

Synopsis: Itch.io is an indie game storefront that has recently expanded to physical games like RPGs and card games. As a competitor to DrivethruRPG, Itch.io has attracted a variety of indie tabletop games, including ones that you can’t find on DrivethruRPG. Kyle from Best Pal Brigade, David, and I talk about the tabletop PDF marketplace and review a bunch of games:

Crash Pandas: A one page game about street racing raccoons
Beneath a Cursed Moon: A PbtA game inspired by Castlevania
Dusk to Midnight: A sad mecha RPG
Dead Halt: A 90s themed weird fantasy hotel dungeon crawling game
The Flux: A new playbook for Masks the RPG
Beam Saber: A Forged in the Dark mecha RPG

Shout Outs

Pop Team Epic: It’s on Netflix! Watch it!
Locke and Key: A weird mansion with magical keys that grant strange powers. A series on Netflix
Cells at Work: an anime about cells in a human body, at work
PAX South Raillery Special: Some of the RPPR crew play weird xbox games
False Knees: A funny webcomic about birds
Kipo and the Age of Wonder Beasts: a fantasy anime series on Netflix
Nos4A2: a horror series about vampires and a psychic on Hulu

Song: Nightfall Aboard by New Gaia

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:17:55 — 71.6MB)

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Skills in RPGs – Episode 174

February 18, 2020 • 5 Comments

News: We are working on a new podcast called Night Clerk Radio, where we review vaporwave, dark ambient, and other haunted genres of music. Our website is live with a trailer. We plan to launch soon!

Synopsis: Skills in RPGs are an important element but many games don’t get them right. Many games have too many skills while others have no skills at all. Caleb and I talk about good and bad skill systems in RPGs and how it has changed over the years. Caleb also brings up real life skills, like rhetoric, versus their in-game equivalents.

Shout Outs

Red Thread: A book about mazes and labyrinths. Excellent if meandering.
The Testaments: A sequel to the Handmaid’s Tale
Pagan Autogeny: An indie video game about exploring a dead MMO.
Oblivion Song: A comic about rescuing people from alien hellscapes
Japanese Video Game Obscurities: A book about weird video games
How To: The XKCD creator explains how to do various tasks
Medical Police: A sequel series to Children’s Hospital. Very funny!

Song: Harps and Dreams by Indreba

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:06:17 — 60.9MB)

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What is a Mega Game at PAX South 2020

January 22, 2020 • 1 Comment

News: The RPPR Patreon has a special offer. Back at the $10 level by February 3 and get RPPR B-Sides Volume 5! This new volume contains 20 actual play episodes featuring Zweihander, Red Markets, Delta Green, and some unique games in development! Learn all the details in this post.

Synopsis: What is a Mega Game? Mega Games are a mash-up of Traditional Roleplaying Games, Board Games, and LARP, with a bit of war-gaming thrown in to spice things up. They are large scale activities played in one session over several hours, involving as few as twenty and as many as hundreds of different players.

This panel was recorded at PAX South 2020 and hosted by Dallas Mega Games.

Panelists below the fold.