On:
In: Podcast Episode
With: 9 Comments

AUTODUEL!?!?! >:ONews: Base Raiders is in layout! Hooray! Raillery is on hiatus until Base Raiders is complete. Boo!

Synopsis: Tom and I once again dive into the “Pile of Broken Dreams“to look at two old modules, Zombietown USA for GURPS and All Fall Down for Cyberpunk. Adventure design was quite different back then. For example, a brutal dungeon crawl was apparently required for every scenario, regardless of genre. Railroading was very popular as well. Regardless, there are useful elements from each scenario. Also, Tom does not care for the needless inclusion of Autoduel stats for a horror scenario. Oh and Tom has a letter too. Plus, shout outs and anecdotes!

Shout Outs

  • Channel A: A truly fun game for anime fans AND haters. Listen to our special Actual Play!
  • Fate Core: The new edition of the Fate RPG system and it comes in a handsome book.
  • Boss Monster: A new 8-bit video game inspired card game. Kill the heroes before the other monsters do.
  • Nazi Occult: A fictional recounting of the Nazi’s experiments with the occult. Werewolves and djinn, oh my!
  • The Curse: A modern retelling of the Colour out of Space.
  • VHS 2: The third segment is creepy as hell. I enjoyed the second segment. The first and fourth ones…eehhhhhhhh.

Song: Zombietown by the Midnight Peacocks

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:32:45 — 63.7MB)

Subscribe: RSS

On:
In: Podcast Episode
With: 17 Comments

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)

Subscribe: RSS

On:
In: Podcast Episode
With: 11 Comments

Oh Rifts-chan, never change ^_^ News: Check out the newest Story Bundle! My book, Zombies of the World, is one of the bonus ebooks you can get if you pay the average of $8 or more. The bundle also features F. Paul Wilson and other great authors!

I also wrote up a detailed post-mortem of my recent Call of Cthulhu one shot based on the indie video game, Hotline Miami.

Synopsis: I asked Tom what he wanted to do an episode on and he chose the Palladium game system. So here we are. After going over our history with the system, we go over the game, from its mechanics to the setting of Rifts. It’s not pretty, but hopefully entertaining. Tom’s letter is about Rifts of course, and we have shout outs, a listener letter, and an anecdote.

Shout outs:

  • Story Bundle: Buy these ebooks! They make great Christmas gifts 😀
  • SSSSSSS: A 1970s horror movie about people being turned into giant snakes because of reasons.
  • The Drift: New SG-1 Stargate novel. Interesting plot, characterization, and excellent attention to detail.
  • A Monster in Paris: CGI animated film about a monster (in Paris).
  • Miskatonic River Press and Punktown Kickstarter: Get Lovecraftian games and fiction!
  • HP Lovecraft books Skyrim mod: Reading Lovecraft books in real life get you down? There’s got to be a better way!
  • Dead Pixels: A new indie game on Steam about shooting zombies, so you know I dig it.
  • Legend of Grimrock: Indie CRPG modeled after old school games like Eye of the Beholder. Clever puzzles and fun combat.

Song: Multidimensional Consciousness by the Flavor Foundation

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:43:34 — 71.1MB)

Subscribe: RSS