Dice towers, gaming furniture, GM screens, bone, metal and stone dice, chainmail backpacks and movies based on game properties. Are gamers really suckers?
We discuss how willing gamers are to throw their money on extravagant game accessories, RPG movies, and nostalgia. What gaming related purchase left you feeling the most ripped off?
We unbox the latest RPG from Free League published in English by Modiphius, Forbidden Lands. A new take on fantasy where players are rogues and raiders, in it only for themselves, in a magically cursed land. The game is a sandbox style adventure played over a hex-based map. This is the core box and the Kickstarter extras.
Spoilers: It’s excellent!
https://www.youtube.com/c/idleredhands
Robots, androids, replicants. They are called by many names and have a variety of origins and motivations. How can they best be used in your TTRPGs? Find out in our discussion about using robots in your tabletop campaigns, both as antagonists and protagonists. For additional inspiration, we also give you a list of possible campaign ideas (thank you, GURPS!).
In the tradition of our Creature Features, we watched the 1980 scifi film Saturn 3, starring Kirk Douglas, Harvey Keitel, and Farrah Fawcett. It includes some interesting examples of how to use a robot as an RPG character, even if it failed in its use of the robot as a movie character.
[powerpress]
Following up on our top 5 horror settings, we discuss ideas for new and fresh fantasy settings inspired by books, movies, and television. These are not necessarily our favorites, but they were definitely the most inspiring. Have we played it too safe or our choices a reach? Let us know what you think.
Understand that we deliberately didn’t include settings that are currently being used for existing games. Which means this list doesn’t include Lord of the Rings or A Song of Ice and Fire for obvious reasons. (Well, maybe not so obvious since A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying doesn’t get near enough love.)
To hear what didn’t make the list and also what inspired us to make our choices, listen to our full list of choices in this episode. If you would like to skip the full discussion and go right to the final top 5, please visit our YouTube channel and let us know what we got wrong in the comments.
We discuss Paizo changing the word “race” to “ancestry” in Pathfinder 2.0. What does that mean for Dungeons and Dragons? Will WotC follow Paizo’s lead? Now that “ancestry” is taken, what would be some other alternatives? Is this a case of modern sensibilities triumphing over tradition? Enjoy our lukewarm hot take!
In the second part of our discussion of Dungeons and Dragons 5e and our pirate campaign, we talk about how to play pirates in a fantasy roleplaying setting. We also discuss our collaborative world-building session.
Avast ye! Here be piratey accents. Yuv bin warrn’d. Arrrrrr!
Continuing our Campaign Confessions series, we look at our recent pirate-themed Dungeons and Dragons 5e campaign. Part one focuses on 5e itself and the reasons why this edition has become so successful. We try to put our finger, and maybe some blame, on who dragged D&D kicking and screaming out of the basement and made it appealing to a whole new generation of players. Is it the system itself or is it social media savvy?
First comic books have become cool and now D&D. There’s hope for you toy collectors yet.
“We do not hate the alien because he is different, we hate the alien because he had naught but hate in his heart for us.”
What do you do when an IP you love is released as an RPG with a system you hate?
Wayne discusses his conversion of the Deathwatch RPG to the Cortex Prime system., the latest version of Cortex Plus that powered Marvel Heroics Roleplaying. We also talk about the mechanics of Cortex Prime and how he was inspired to use it to power Space Marines.
SPOILER: His motivations rely heavily on his hatred of the d20
The Emperor Protects!
“If you build it, they will come.”- Field of Dreams
“If you build it and provide snacks, they will come.”
– Gaming Table of Dreams
In this episode, we talk to Jools Thomas* and Ryan Thomas* about the Japan International Gamers Guild (JIGG). Jools is the unofficial JIGG historian (he made a T-shirt with that on it, so…), whose blog sparked the idea for this interview. Ryan is one half of the duo, Linda Thomas being the other, that brought gaming to Kansai. If you’re interested in the history of the best gaming community in the world, or if you’re interested in how to start up a gaming community or group, this is the episode for you.
*No relation. Did we run out of last names?
“Akeyo offers moi a kazi. Tres facile, she says. Cho lucrative, she says. Faces always lie. Tatemae, hombre. Allez, my brain says. OK, my boca says. Weil she with Sergei. His gun is ookii. His ‘tude is zverskiy. Samurai always punish. Sergei no hablo Angelo. He hablo Gewalt.
The paise is gooood. The crew is prooo. The kazi is faciiile. In and out, bra. You win, bra.
But the street don’t lie: THE SYSTEM ALWAYS WINS!”
– Neff Jacks, hardboi runner
In this episode, we present a list of questions that define cyberpunk. If a game, book, or movie checks these boxes, it’s cyberpunk. If not, sorry, bra. Is Shadowrun cyberpunk? Is The Matrix? Listen for the definitive answers.
