News: Base Raiders, the new RPPR Kickstarter is nearing completion. Help us meet a few more stretch goals!  Contribute now!

Learn more at the Base Raiders website.

Synopsis: Combat is the heart and soul of many RPGs but running exciting combat is harder to pull of than it seems. It often descends into tedious “I hit you you” dice rolling contests or incoherent arguments over stunting and other combat rules. How do you balance those extremes? Tom and I discuss how we keep fights interesting in a game and what players can do their part.

Instead of a letter from Tom, we read two listener letters, plus shout outs and an anecdote!

Shout outs:

  • Hotline Miami: Brutal, fast-paced combat and great music. Game of the Year 2012!
  • The Curse and Curse 2: Crazy 1980s horror movies with good special effects
  • Miami Connection: The best movie of the 198s0. Cocaine ninjas and Dragon Sound!
  • Drive: Brilliant neo-noir thriller about a driver who makes some poor life decisions.
  • Kicking It: Want to run a successful Kickstarter? Monte Cook has some good advice.
  • Godzilla the Half Century War: a Godzilla story about the poor saps in the tanks shooting at Godzilla.
  • Invasive Procedures: You’ve listened to the actual play. Now run it for your group!
  • Zombie Cinema: Fun little storytelling game of player conflicts and zombies.

Music: Le Combat by David Cyr

Progenitor is a great setting for Wild TalentsNews: Check out the new RPPR Kickstarter for Base Raiders, a standalone RPG about superpowered dungeon crawling!

Synopsis: This seminar with Dennis Detwiller, Kenneth Hite, Shane Ivey and Greg Stolze is about historical superhero games. Arc Dream has two games along those lines: Godlike and the Progenitor setting for Wild Talents, so they have some background in the topic. If you’ve ever wanted to run an alternate history game, even without superheroes, this panel would be a must listen!

With this, our blood, it is the Hanged King’s. From SCP 701News: Support RPPR by contributing to the Base Raiders Kickstarter.Get at least the PDF and you’ll gain access to 10 preview RPPR Actual Play episodes upon the conclusion of the campaign.

RPPR friend Cody Walker has his own Kickstarter up for Noir City. Help bring his comic to life!

Synopsis: It wouldn’t be October without at least one horror themed episode of RPPR. Tom and I discuss what makes a horror story set in the here and now unique (2012). Isolation is no longer geographic thanks to smartphones with GPS but it is still possible to isolate players in different ways. Furthermore, we have new trends in horror storytelling, like the emergence of the creepypasta subgenre. Marble Hornets and the SCP Wiki are great material for your next horror game. Of course the real horror comes from real life. Aside from isolation, we have a growing panopticon, the ongoing global economic crisis, the rise of fascism, and online stalking/bullying. This makes the year of the Mayan Apocalypse a great place for a horror story. Plus Tom reads a letter and we have shout outs an anecdote.

Read the SCP Wiki. The image on the left is from SCP 701.

Shout outs:

Song: Crush from the Hotline Miami Soundtrack.