…but the picture of the gnoll ain’t one of them.
In this episode, we discuss the latest playtest material. We talk about what we like and don’t like, and Wayne makes a case for elves of colour. We also come up with a winning business strategy for Wizards of the Coast to follow for D&D Next.*
*We recorded this episode before WotC announced their plan to emphasize campaign settings and adventures, which bears a striking similarity to our strategy.
Should D&D be everyone’s gateway into RPGs?
After about ten minutes of listening to us talk about D&D, you may start to question the “Non-D&D” part of the title, but we do move on to other games. We look at Exalted, A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying, Runequest, and Dragon Age. We evaluate each game’s system, setting, and presentation. We also discuss which ones would be good gateway games. At the end, we talk about an out-of-print game that presented fantasy races in new and badass ways.
Let’s look 100 years into the future to see what 2012 will bring!
A pneumatic tube messaging craze will sweep the country!
Science will find the cure for racism: all babies born in 2012 will be white!
Automatons will do all domestic chores! Women will stay in the kitchen for the fun of it!
Man will teach dogs and cats to talk! Will learn that they never really had much to say!
The Idle Red Hands, a radio program about Marxism, will win best show of the year!
In this Literature Lesson, we look at the science fiction of Verne, Wells, and Burroughs. Despite having an outline that includes colonialism, eugenics and xenophobia, we’re actually surprised when the show gets dark.
“In the criminal Idle Red Hands system, Rogues will be separated into two separate yet equally important groups: the crimes and the people who commit them. These are their stories.”
The month of debuts gets another debut! This time, it’s Rogues, a look at criminals and the crimes they commit. We look at the proud noble tradition of deal dealers, gunrunners and pimps (and those guys that sold jeans and Beatles records in the Soviet Union). Believe it or not, we actually suggest how to play black marketeers. Chris tries to cheat by recommending a “black” marketeer who provides food to the starving, but Wayne and Lyal put a stop to that nonsense.
The month of series debuts continues with Locales, a look at how to use different settings in your games. In this episode, we also look at ships, from submarines to starships (not the band, although Lyal does talk about the band), with the added bonus of how to use them as antagonists and protagonists.
Also, Chris talks about the virtues of booth babes, Wayne talks about the benefits of emphasizing the monotony in games, and Lyal talks about how drowning and suffocation aren’t so bad. Oh, and we had some opinions that weren’t completely wrong as well.
No one knows how it happened. To understand, you’d have to go back to a time before D&D Next or Monsterhearts. In a blaze of madness and surrounded by the hum of computers, we tried Apocalypse World. It was a world and there had been an apocalypse. I guess it was too much to ask for a more creative name.
In this episode, we talk about Apocalypse World. We played it over Skype, so we share our experiences with that as well.
Plus: Our next entry in our D&D Next Diary
“O la vittoria, o tutti accoppati.”
– Arditi motto
“We either win, or we all die, eh?”
– Canadian version (Often used by the Olympic hockey team)
In this installment of Warriors, we look at the original stormtroopers, the German Stosstruppen of World War I. But that’s not all! Download now and we’ll throw in the Italian Arditi. Wait! For a limited time, we’ll include the Canadian Expeditionary Force, arguably the even more original stormtroopers, with all listens of $0 or more. Beauty, eh?
Plus: Our first D&D Next Diary (DNDND) entry.
“Clear eyes. Full hearts. Can’t lose!”
– Dillon Panthers’ motto
It’s Sunday night, folks, and the Idle Red Hands are without one of their star players, Chris “Flesh Wall” Idle. They’ve faced this situation before, but they are also looking at a strict no spoiler policy with this episode. It’s going to be tough talking about one of the best TV series of all time without ruining storylines. I hear that Coach Taylor is going to have them discuss how to use certain key elements and characters types in your games. Are you ready for some football?
