Take two.
In this installment of GM Corner, we look at an important but often forgotten part of preparation: post session. This is the time to get feedback from players, assess how things went, and decide what to do next, which could include the important decision of whether or not to continue with the game.
We are without Wayne this week. What we lose in gaming insight by his absence, we gain in technical savvy (i.e., knowing that you have to press the record button to record).
Due to a technical error (that was entirely Wayne’s fault), almost all of the audio for this week’s episode was lost. Only Lyal’s track survived intact. We considered putting it up anyway, just to see how long it took people (and Lyal) to realize it was a one-sided conversation.
We’ll be back next week with a complete episode. Sorry for the wait.
GM: “You see four men carrying another man on a litter”
Player: “Ok, we go and talk to him.”
GM: “He’s 8 feet tall.”
Player: “Um, I draw my-“
GM: “Hold on. He’s on fire.”
Player: “Uh, we put him out?”
GM: “He doesn’t seem to mind being on fire.”
Much like a marriage, the key to any player-GM relationship is finding ways to keep things fresh. In this episode, we discuss how to choose and create interesting adversaries for your stories.
“I know I’m human. And if you were all these things, then you’d just attack me right now, so some of you are still human. This thing doesn’t want to show itself; it wants to hide inside an imitation. It’ll fight if it has to, but it’s vulnerable out in the open. If it takes us over, then it has no more enemies, nobody left to kill it. And then it’s won.”
-MacReady, The Thing
Our month of horror has been reduced to a week, so we give you a plus-sized episode about imposters: doppelgangers, pod people, jumpers, things, etc. Wayne didn’t know that we were allowed to read or see anything for people over eighteen, so be prepared for his tour of the young adult section of the library. We also discuss John Wick’s article “Chess is not an RPG: The Illusion of Game Balance.”
“Warriors, come out to play.”
-Cyrus, The Warriors
In the second part of our 13th Age campaign confessions, we focus on the story, which was inspired by the story of the Ten Thousand and the movie The Warriors. It was a story of heroism, with the leaders of a mercenary company leading their troops to safety (well, half of them). It was a story of camaraderie, except when the leaders complained how their troops were dead weight. It was a story of sacrifice, up until the point when one of the leaders abandoned the others to save his own skin.
We’re back in first non-interview episode since early September and are forced to talk to each other. In this installment of campaign confessions, we discuss 13th Age and Lyal’s adventure. In the first part, you’ll hear our advice on when to do Icon rolls, some examples of One Unique Thing (and an example of someone phoning his in), and our impressions of the game after playing.
We also review the 13th Age Bestiary, although it came out one week after we wrapped up our game. Timing.
Wolfgang: “It’s essentially the role-playing campaign for Pathfinder that Indiana Jones would run. Not the Indiana Jones of Raiders or Last Crusades, though: the Temple of Doom Indy. But this Indy didn’t escape and save the children. He failed. He was tortured and broken. Empty and haunted, he can’t numb the pain, but he can share it. Share it with a world of demonic cults, man-eating insect folk, fifty-foot snakes and ruined cities. Oh, and dinosaurs because everyone loves dinosaurs.
Us: “…”
-unedited elevator pitch
In this episode, we interview Wolfgang Baur from Kobold Press about his latest Kickstarter campaign, Southlands: Adventures Beneath Pitiless Sun, the game Steven Spielberg would have made.
Some combinations were never meant to be, such as Burger King body spray, Facebook privacy, and strip clubs buffets. Some were, such as cheese anything, free anything (except U2 albums), and 13th Age in Glorantha.
In this plus-sized episode, we interview Rob Heinsoo, the creative director of Fire Opal Media, and Jeff Richard, the creative director of Moon Design Publications, about their Kickstarter collaborations, 13th Age in Glorantha and The Glorantha Source Book. If you’re a devotee of Glorantha and wondering whether or not 13th Age can do it justice, then this episode is for you. If you’re a fan of 13th Age and wondering why Glorantha is the favorite setting of so many game designers, then this episode is for you too. We even get a few teasers about what we could expect after these two books.
“Now, look what we have here before us. We got the Dukes of Hazards sitting next to Foxy Brown. We’ve got Shaft right by the Six Million Dollar Man. Nobody is hard moving nobody. This … is an RPG. And this RPG is the way things ought to be.”
-Idlus, The Warriors
Dave from MonkeyFun Studios joins us to discuss their Powered-by-the-Apocalypse game, Spirit of 77, which is currently on Kickstarter. We don’t interview him so much as strap ourselves into his Dodge Charger as he takes us on a fuel-injected ride. Let’s get down to it, boppers.
In this episode, we interview Hamish Cameron, the author of The Sprawl, a Powered-by-the-Apocalypse cyberpunk game currently on Kickstarter. Since Hamish is from New Zealand, we’ve provided a Kiwi-English dictionary below.
Kiwi – English
sitting – setting
dick – deck
bin – been
pin – pen
pin – pin (We know.)
Didya git eyes for Chrissmas, bro? – Is there a reason why you’re looking at me, sir?
