RPPR Episode 122: It Takes a Village to Carry My Inventory
News: Please get your Red Markets playtest reports in by December 20. Thanks for supporting the game!
Synopsis: The new Fallout game has a settlement leadership feature that allows the player to design and run small communities. It’s impressive but tabletop RPGs can capture more complexity and sophisticated narratives than any video game. Games about community leadership should be different than the standard murderhobo dungeon crawl/investigation campaign model. Tom, Aaron, Caleb, and I discuss how they should be different and what players and GMs can do to make them more interesting. Tom also has a letter, plus shout outs and anecdotes!
Shout Outs and Reviews:
- She Walks in Shadows: A Cthulhu mythos fiction anthology of talented women writers. Highly recommended!
- HC SVNT Dracones: Transhuman talking animal peope. In Spaaacce!
- R23X – SOUND_TRACK ~ [MP3?]?.?torrent. A vaporwave album inspired by video game music. Very chill and has a great music video!
- Spotlight: a brilliant film about the Catholic church sex scandal and the reporters who uncovered it.
- Bone Tomahawk: A weird western film starring Kurt Russell, Kurt Russelling the shit out of things. Great if you can stand extreme gore.
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans: Just what space opera anime needs, child soldiers!
- Ash Vs. Evil Dead: A cinematic murderhobo of legend is now on TV. Hail to the King baby.
- Spectrum: Look at all that pretty art.
Music: Various tracks from SOUND_TRACK ~ [MP3?]?.?torrent by R23X
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:27:39 — 60.4MB)
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Game Designer Workshop Episode 10: Game Changers
Even though Fallout 4 is out, Caleb is still hard at work on Red Markets. Playtest feedback is trickling in, so the next step is deciding how to change the game based on this feedback. Some changes will be easier than others, but not every bit of feedback will be used to make these changes. After all, not all feedback is equal. Giving and receiving feedback is a crucial skill for a game designer, yet it is often an undeveloped skill. Fred Hicks about his experiences at Metatopia about feedback skills and is mentioned during out discussion.
Even after receiving valuable feedback, changing the game will not be easy. Caleb discusses some of the changes he is considering and I provide some analysis of Red Markets in its current state.
Music: Footbeats by Admiral of the Red.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:16:07 — 52.4MB)
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Interview with Kenneth Hite on the Dracula Dossier
Dracula is not a novel. It’s the censored version of Bram Stoker’s after-action report of the failed British Intelligence attempt to recruit a vampire in 1894. Kenneth Hite has restored the deleted sections, inserting annotations and clues left by three generations of MI6 analysts. This is Dracula Unredacted.
Follow those clues to The Director’s Handbook, containing hundreds of encounters: shady NPCs, dangerous locations, conspiratorial nodes, and mysterious objects. Together they comprise The Dracula Dossier — an epic improvised, collaborative campaign for Night’s Black Agents, our award-winning vampire spy thriller RPG. The mission: Hunt and kill Dracula now, once and for all, before Britain falls to him forever.
I interviewed Kenneth Hite about the creation of the Dossier, advice on running it, and other topics. It’s coming to stores this week and the PDF is already out! Check out the free resources available for running Dracula Dossier.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 53:18 — 24.6MB)
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