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News: The Know Evil Fan Creation contest is well underway and the deadline for entries has been extended. Tom has started a Pathfinder campaign, which will be recorded. I have a short story in The Unspeakable Oath 22 – read “Message in a Bottle.” Also, I want to thank every RPPR donor who helps keep this site up and going!

Synopsis: Murphy’s Rules were a long standing comic in Pyramid magazine that pointed out the quirks of various RPG systems. Recently, I found a hilarious thread on the SA forums carrying on that tradition by explaining how jumping really high in D&D 3.5E can make you really popular or how a priest wouldn’t be able to recognize his own god in the flesh. This episode deals with this disconnection between reality, game rules, and genre conventions and how to deal with them in games. Is this even a problem? What do you do when a player finds a way to break the game or its genre? After the main discussion, Tom has a letter for us and shout outs and anecdotes.

Shout outs

Song: I am the night by Perturbator

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:49:08 — 75.0MB)

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News: Base Raiders, the new RPPR Kickstarter is nearing completion. Help us meet a few more stretch goals!  Contribute now!

Learn more at the Base Raiders website.

Synopsis: Combat is the heart and soul of many RPGs but running exciting combat is harder to pull of than it seems. It often descends into tedious “I hit you you” dice rolling contests or incoherent arguments over stunting and other combat rules. How do you balance those extremes? Tom and I discuss how we keep fights interesting in a game and what players can do their part.

Instead of a letter from Tom, we read two listener letters, plus shout outs and an anecdote!

Shout outs:

  • Hotline Miami: Brutal, fast-paced combat and great music. Game of the Year 2012!
  • The Curse and Curse 2: Crazy 1980s horror movies with good special effects
  • Miami Connection: The best movie of the 198s0. Cocaine ninjas and Dragon Sound!
  • Drive: Brilliant neo-noir thriller about a driver who makes some poor life decisions.
  • Kicking It: Want to run a successful Kickstarter? Monte Cook has some good advice.
  • Godzilla the Half Century War: a Godzilla story about the poor saps in the tanks shooting at Godzilla.
  • Invasive Procedures: You’ve listened to the actual play. Now run it for your group!
  • Zombie Cinema: Fun little storytelling game of player conflicts and zombies.

Music: Le Combat by David Cyr

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:39:13 — 68.2MB)

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News: Base Raiders, the new RPPR Kickstarter is now online. Contribute now! Learn more at the Base Raiders website.

Take the Zombie Survival Quiz at Zombies of the World

Former RPPR regular Cody Walker has his own Kickstarter up for Noir City, a comic book. Check it out!

The RPPR crew is just terrible at Artemis Spaceship Simulator. Watch!

Synopsis: The newest RPPR Project, Base Raiders, is about dungeon crawling in a world of superheroes. But many players find that type of game boring. Dungeons are usually thought of as endless stone corridors, populated with traps and monsters but a dungeon can be so much more. You can use them in practically any genre, even modern ones. Tom and I discuss how modern ruins and abandoned places can be made into exciting dungeons for your games and what makes an evocative dungeon versus a boring one. We even design a modern dungeon on the fly for your use. Hopefully this episode will give you a new perspective on dungeons.

Tom has a letter of course, and I talk about my experiences playtesting the new Dungeons and Dragons system.

Shout outs:

Music: The Descent by Kevin MacLeod

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:24:52 — 58.3MB)

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