RPPR Episode 25: Save vs. Warm Fuzzies
Synopsis: Because of the holidays, we’ve decided to take a look at the most neglected of subjects in gaming: happiness and joy. Given that the average RPG is a angst ridden world of grim and gritty darkness populated by hideous monsters and slightly less monstrous player characters where the typical encounter is a savage bloodsoaked battle to the death, what place does happiness or optimism have? Using examples from our own games, we talk about how adding even a lone bright spot in a game can add great value and provide awesome emotional payoffs for the players.
Shout Outs:
The Adventure of Lucky Pip and the Incomparable Ithamar Conchie: a $1 game of storytelling and fortune cookies.
Left 4 Dead: I like zombies. They are kawaii :3
The Majesty of Colors: A brilliant little flash game about a giant sea monster.
Night of the Cephalopods! An awesome and free PC game about evil octopi and procedural Lovecraftian narration.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:36 — 31.8MB)
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RPPR Actual Play: Call of Cthulhu – A Murder of Crows
There is trouble in Bethlehem….
Thousands of crows have taken roost in the woods surrounding Bethlehem, NH, mercilessly attacking anyone who tries to enter the forest. The human population is outnumbered more than ten-to-one, and the birds are growing more bold every day. Can the investigators solve the mystery behind this unnatural infestation? Can they save the town of Bethlehem from a disaster of biblical proportions?
Murder of Crows contains everything a Call of Cthulhu group needs for an evening’s worth of Mythos-inspired fun, including pregenerated characters. It is the first in an innovative new series of Call of Cthulhu scenarios and supplements from Super Genius Games.
This scenario was recorded at ShaunCon, so it’s a bit noisy. Fortunately our Zoom H2 recorder managed to get most of the voices of the players fialry well.
Keeper: Jon Hook
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:12:40 — 144.6MB)
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RPPR Episode 24: GO GO GO! and other Action Movie Cliches
When we role play, we almost always imagine an action scene, whether it’s kicking down dungeon doors and slitting the throats of whatever lies beyond them or kicking open vampire coffins and staking whatever lies inside them or kicking down giant metal doors with giant robot legs and stomping whatever lies beyond them. So no matter what genre you prefer, action is part of it. But how do you run a great scene or fight or base an entire scenario or campaign in an action adventure genre? Of course there’s also a letter from Tom, an anecdote from our listener Captain Scraps and some shout outs:
- Fallout 3: A most worthy post apocalypse interactive saga. Play the damn game already.
- The Something Awful Traditional Games Discussion Forum: lotsa good discussions here.
- Punisher vidya game: Punisher shoots bad guys. Virtually!
- Shauncon: We went there. It was neat.
Music: Various by The Inkspots courtesy of Archive.org. These are public domain. Horray!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 59:34 — 34.1MB)
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