Inspired by our recent 4th edition D&D campaign, Tom and I discuss the usage of maps, miniatures and other props and gimmicks in tabletop games. While some games like Dungeons and Dragons nessecitate at least using some of these add-ons and others like Call of Cthulhu practically drown players in handouts, so where should you draw the line? How much is too much and when do they take away from the game instead of enhancing it? We also talk about our Gencon 09 plans and the New World Primer. Funny thing, we record this episode before the primer came out. Instead of a letter, Tom reads some stuff written by his friend Andy and we have the most insane anecdote ever…The Chaplin Incident as related to us by Adam Scott Glancy of Pagan Publishing.
Favorite RPPR Forums Threads:
- Games you would run if you didn’t have the players that you do
- rifts muthafuckas!
- Mega Shark Vs Giant Octopus
- Lessons Learned at RPPR
Shout Outs
- M-51 Engineer’s Bag – a neat bag suitable for hauling gaming materials like maps and minis
- Henry Rollins Show: Season One – Tom wuvs Henry Rollins.
- The Burrowers – a twisted western horror movie that asks the question: what’s worse – man eating predatory monsters or us?
- Black Adder Complete Collector’s Set – Nerd out to great brit comedy about war, politics and history.
- Splinter – another new and freaky horror movie with a horrific and original monster besieging 4 trapped survivors.
- Level Up Magazine – 4E gaming goodness for only 2 bucks an issue.
Music GooTube Conspiracy by Nalts
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:21:44 — 37.4MB)
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I’m still pissed that this link didn’t make it to the main page considering the nature of the latest episode: http://slangdesign.com/forums/index.php?topic=110.0
Can’t wait to hear the DG AP.
Just going to say that I almost pee-pee’d in my pants laughing at the features of the M-51 Engineer’s Bag. geez.
You should post the link to the creepy images site. Also the text of the schizophrenic woman- that would be awesomebeans.
Never, in my wildest dreams, could I ever possibly imagine a Charlie Chaplin reference (not to mention the man himself) appearing in a RPG. It just wasn’t conceivable to me! I LOL’d heartily. Can’t wait for the next podcast guys…
Hey Ross, is the bag really that good? I was gonna buy, but reviews are mixed. Lots of 5 star reviews on amazon, but lots of 1 star reviews citing shoddy workmanship. Is yours holding together?
So far so good. A tab on one of the zippers broke off but that didn’t damage the zipper.
“Wonder Twin Powers – Activate! Form of Catastrophe/Massacre!”
epic win!
I’ve been mining this episode for a project I’m doing for my professional writing class.
I’m making some handouts!
The Charlie Chaplin story did not disappoint. While I’d heard it mentioned once or twice, I did not expect how thorough the murder twins would be in their mayhem.
Since this episode is from years back, I wonder how well the bag held up. I did crack up when one of the zippers broke as Ross was talking it up.
One area that you touched on briefly was music or recordings – obviously RPPR doesn’t use music often since it messes with recordings and generally involves copyrights. I’ve been in some games that use music extremely well and some that suffered because the GM felt there should always be music going. Like other props, it seems to come down to – it’s great to improve the game, but it can be just distracting as well.