While most of our shows so far have focused on running a great game, we thought we would give some advice for the other side of the GM Screen. In other words, the players. Of course, we talk about D&D 4th Edition, the death of Erick Wujcik, recent games we played, Raillery, my awesome new comedy video podcast and more. Tom was too lazy to write a letter, so instead we review The Happening and Machine Girl and tell a few anecdotes. I have a brand spanking new anecdote from playing D&D 4E and listener Eternal Green sent in a few. Don’t forget to check out our new forums!

Shout Outs:

  • Colonial Gothic: A new horror RPG set in colonial America. Great research into the period and it’s a fresh idea for a horror setting. The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, anyone?
  • Let’s Play: An archive of playthroughs of video games, both old and new. This video from the Darkseed 2 is all you need to understand how great this is.
  • Iron Age Sourcebook for Mutants and Masterminds: In the 80s and 90s, superheroes fought crime to the MAXX and by Maxx I meant that they murdered their enemies. It was pretty cool although Rob Liefield can’t draw a human body worth a shit.

Hosted by Ross Payton and Tom Church
Music: A new song from Vitamins and Minerals of Death that I will use in the next Raillery video.

Ethan Haas was right, at least according to David Carter, Earl Fischl and Tom McLaughlin, the team behind Alpha Omega the new post apocalyptic science fantasy RPG from Mind Storm Labs. In the future, the world is ravaged by war and disasters while alien races wage war. Of course, dumb old humanity mistook these aliens for angels and demons thousands of years ago. Plus, there are robots. What more could you want in a game? Magic? There’s that. Mutants? But of course. Ninjas? The ninjas are so sneaky in this game, they aren’t even mentioned. But they’re there. And they will kill you in the night if you doubt their existence. That’s how bad ass they are.

In the interview, we discuss how Alpha Omega was created, the Ethan Haas Alternate Reality Game viral marketing campaign and its connection to Cloverfield, upcoming products for the game, the art of Alpha Omega, game design and more. Be sure to check out the New World Science and Engineering Commission site, mentioned in the interview.

Based loosely on Kinji Fukusaku’s Battle Without Honor or Humanity film series and the Akira Kurosawa film Stray Dog, this game takes placed in Hiroshima Japan, 1946. The players are members of the Yamagata Yakuza clan, the newest and smallest family in the city, vulnerable to foreign gangs and larger Yakuza families. A confrontation with a rival gang turns deadly and an American .45 automatic is the key to a deadly mystery…

GM: Ross Payton
System: GURPS 4th edition, 50 point characters.

Players: Tom Church and Jason Ariciu