In this episode, Tom and I more or less interview each other about our habits as players. Find out what can truly surprise Tom in a game or what my favorite character type is. If you want to get an idea of how to improve your game, think about how you play, what works and what doesn’t work. Also, to make up for the recent lack of content, we’ve made this episode nearly 90 minutes long. Tom has an improvised Letter, plus two new anecdotes and more.

Our favorite RPPR forums threads:

Shout Outs

  • Kenzer Company: Congratulations on issue 150 of Knights of the Dinner Table!
  • T-Rex Cafe: A dinosaur themed restaurant in Kansas City.
  • Dungeon Crawl: I’ve mentioned it before, but the new version is even better. And more addicting if that’s possible.
  • A Wee Bit of Revolution: Craig Ferguson stand up comedy. It’s funny.
  • Rifftrax: The new Twilight Rifftrax is hysterical. You must watch it.
  • Zombietown USA: Zombies in small town America. Also dual statted for Autoduel!
  • Fans, Friends and Follwers: A great book with advice on how to use the Internet to build a creative career.
  • Friday Night Firefight: Cyberpunk combat system. No pansy roleplaying. Just hardcore 80s style combat rules.

Music: There is no I in team but there is a me by Western Civ.

The worst pain you can feel when running a game comes from min/maxing players, the jerks who love nothing more to make unstoppable killing machines that defy the laws of man, god, common sense, physics and the damn game itself. So, how do you deal with these min/maxers? We provide a few ways to dish out the pain or rather ways to sensibly negotiate and make reasonable compromises with the player…in hell.Tom has a slightly less disturbing letter this time and of course the New World ransom is still underway! Please contribute. There’s only 10 days left.

The New World 4E D&D Campaign Primer Ransom

Shout outs:

  • Gun Show: A new daily comic by KC Green
  • Xombie: An animated zombie action horror DVD
  • The Objective: Horror movie about special forces in Afghanistan investigating a mysterious region. Great fodder for modern horror rpgs.
  • Bad For You: A George Carlin comedy special
  • Van Richten’s Guide to the Lich: Great Ravenloft supplement describing the lich. Useful for any edition of D&D as it is mostly flavor text.
  • Found Footage Festival: Hilarious and insane compilations of public access shows, commercials, exercise videos and more.

Favorite Forum Threads: Some highlights from the RPPR forums

Music: WW Z by CSHC

The time of judgment is upon us. Tom and I judge a few games, a D&D mockumentary and several bad GM habits. The Assemblage of the Crystal Sphere is a indie comedy about a RPG group about to complete a 5 year campaign. Tom looks at Cthulhutech, a game of animu giant robots fighting monsters from the cthulhu mythos in the future! I talk about Paranoia XP, the newest version of the classic sci fi comedy RPG, where happiness is mandatory and commie mutant traitors lurk around every corner. We then judge a few bad GM habits, namely wasting the players’ time and hyper-adversarial GMing. Of course, there’s a new (horribly offensive) letter from Tom and a listener anecdote.

The New World Campaign Primer Ransom: For fans of the New World 4E D&D campaign, I’m starting up a ransom for the New World Campaign Primer. If the ransom is met, I will write it up and release it as a freely available PDF. Check out the page for more info on what will be contained in the Primer.

Motor Home from Hell: Buy a copy of my feature length horror comedy movie, Motor Home from Hell for only $12.50. Select Podcast Fan option when purchasing for an autographed RPPR postcard with a unique message from Tom and I or Mystery Grab Bag for an assortment of random goodies.

Shout outs:

  • Mount and Blade: A badass indie computer RPG. Archers. Mercenary swordsmen and calvary. Pillage the village and besiege the castles. That’s how you roll in Mount and Blade.
  • Silent Hunter 4: A submarine simulator that involves trigonometry. That’s a sure sign of FUN!
  • Red Rock West: A western noir movie with Dennis Hopper as a hitman with low self esteem and Nicholas Cage as a drifter looking for work. But don’t worry, Cage actually acts well! Worth a watch.


Also I have judged the old forums to be inadequate so I have created new forums. Check out these threads:

Music: The Judgment by David Cyr.