On:
In: Podcast Episode
With: 6 Comments

We’ve received a lot of messages from listeners so we thought we discuss a few of them. This show covers a lot of topics, from our personal favorite RPGs, the indie RPG Dread, to dealing with out of control house rules and other issues. We also got our first donation, so if you like the show, help us pay for the hosting and Gencon this year. Plus Tom has some gaming New Year’s Resolutions in his letter and of course shout outs and an anecdote.

Shout outs:

  • 221 Films and The Assemblage of the Crystal Sphere: A D&D Story: A mockumentary about the culmination of a 5 year D&D campaign, in a very wry manner. We will have a full review in the next episod.
  • Wild Country: A Scottish werewolf movie.  It has gore and nearly indecipherable Scottish brogue.
  • Crossover  Comic Archives: As listener Tadonari Oyama writes “A very silly sprite comic series” If you want to read comics where Chun Li teams up Sonic the Hedgehog to fight illiteracy and mutant badgers.
  • Poultrygeist: A Troma movie about chicken spirits, Indian burial grounds and zombies. Also, blood and gore.
  • Saving Stone: A prequel to the hilarious novel, Game Night and it’s a free pdf to boot! Read it already.
  • Spelunky: A roguelike platformer with randomly generated levels. Get the treasure before you die a horrible death.

Music: Mailing it in by Allied Radio

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:16:23 — 43.7MB)

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On:
In: Actual Play
With: 7 Comments

The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus is a delightful story by L. Frank Baum with an intriguing mythos. Rankin-Bass produced a claymation adaptation, which is where Katie and Jonny first discovered it. There have been a few other incarnations as well, including a Japanese anime.

Jonny always thought it would serve pretty well as a fantasy RPG setting, so when Katie suggested a one-shot game based on it, he heartily agreed. There will be two “adventuring parties” if you will- the immortals of the forest of Burzee, and the children of the laughing valley of Hohaho. Katie will act as a storyteller for the children, and Jonny for the immortals. The two groups will have separate adventures leading up to a unified finale. We will have pre-generated characters. We’ll be using the Reign system, which is based on the One-Roll Engine.

(Note from Ross: I was a player in this game but I forgot the names of all of the players. If you were there, post in the comments and I’ll update it.)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:45:04 — 130.5MB)

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On:
In: Podcast Episode
With: 10 Comments

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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