Episode 36: Time for War

War. Huh. Yeah.
What is it good for?

-”War” Edwin Starr

Well, a plus-sized podcast episode for a start.
In this episode, we look at the three stages of war, the buildup, during and the aftermath, and the kinds of stories you can play in them. We also discuss how a focus on technology can make for some pretty intriguing games no matter which era you play in.

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Episode 35: Secrets and Lies

In this episode, we talk about how to best use lying and secrecy in your games.

The secrets of this episode:

  • Wayne’s d100 joke was originally Lyal’s. It was also originally funny.
  • Wayne has never seen Goodfellas, and Lyal has never seen Family Guy. This actually won’t seem like much of a secret after you listen to the episode.
  • Chris initially had a joke where he said the episode was about fantasy. Get it? It was a lie. It’s no secret why this “joke” never made it in.
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Episode 34: Pantheon Pandemonium: Norse Play

Praise not the day until evening has come; praise not a woman until she is burnt; praise not a sword until it is tried; praise not a maiden until she is married; praise not ice until it is crossed; praise not beer until it is drunk; praise a podcast any time. -Norse proverb (well, most of it)

In this episode, we discuss the Norse pantheon. We also uncover startling parallels between the Aesir and a certain American subculture.

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Episode 33: Addicted to Hands

Get your Idle Red Hands fix here. The first taste is free and so is the second taste. Hold on, all tastes are free. We would make really bad drug dealers.

In this episode, we look at addiction. Since we live in a country with extremely harsh drug laws (and darn glad of it, officer), we don’t have a lot of advice for the method role players out there. Instead, we discuss different types of addiction and how to include them in your game.

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Episode 32: Creature Feature: Cyborgs

LIST CREATURE FEATURE: CYBORG PRIME DIRECTIVES

1: DISCUSS CYBORGS, REAL AND FICTIONAL
2: DISCUSS HOW TO USE CYBORGS AS PROTAGONISTS
3: DISCUSS HOW TO USE CYBORGS AS ANTAGONISTS
4: [CLASSIFIED] (I think it has something to do with anime or transsexuals.)

Special Note: The Medal of Honor recipient mentioned in the episode is Leroy Petry. He received the award for his actions during a firefight in Afghanistan.

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Episode 30: Hardboiled

Good evening, hepcats, greasers and squares. We got the skinny on playing hardboiled in La La Land in the early ’60s, a land of queens, dreams and inbetweens. Dig Lyal laying on some heavy RPG experiments. Dig Wayne going talk, talk, talk (over Lyal). Dig Chris offering some funky advice.

So, tune in and dig the baaaad vibe we lay down. It’ll be a gas. From the podcast that’s on the record, off the QT and never very hush-hush.

Correction: Elfenland is actually like the travelling salesman problem, not “dilemma”.

Special Note 1: The Ryan and Matt mentioned in the podcast are the forum’s very own Ryan and Matt.

Special Note 2: It’s not mentioned in the episode, but we used the World of Darkness system.

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Episode 29: It’s About Time!

In this episode, we discuss time travel and what makes for a good time travel story. We have a mechanic suggestion that can be used in any time travel game and with any system. It’s quite possibly the greatest time travel RPG idea of all time.

We apologize for the sound quality. We messed up the microphone setting, so Wayne and Lyal sound a bit distant. We’ve figured out the problem, so it won’t be problem in future episodes. If only we could go back in time and put it to the correct setting before recording this episode.

Correction: The Adam Sandler movie Chris talks about is called Click, not The Remote. And this is the host you can hear clearly.

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Episode 28: Giving Props to Props

In this episode, we look at props. Do they help to propel a story or just dress up a table? Does the use of props encourage metagaming? Should the gamemaster get the players involved in creating props? Why did Wayne choose a purple horse to represent his Vampire character? All these questions and more will be answered over the next hour.

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Episode 27: Pantheon Pandemonium: We Do Voodoo

In this episode, we debut Pantheon Pandemonium, where we look at a specific pantheon and discuss how to incorporate it into your games. For our first installment, we talk about the spirits of the voodoo religion, the Loa.

Also in this episode, Wayne reveals a shocking secret about his dad.

At a certain point, it may sound like we’re joined by a surprise guest host. It’s just Lyal’s spot-on Haitian accent. The man has a gift.

Warning: Chris returns from the dead. (This joke would probably work better in a episode about Romero zombies.)

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Episode 24: Campaign Confessions: You Gotta Have FATE

“What separates the winners from the losers is how a person reacts to each new twist of FATE.” – Donald Trump

Out of the mouths of real estate moguls authors presidential candidates reality TV stars.

In this addition to Campaign Confessions, we discuss the FATE RPG system and Chris’s weird war campaign. What made it so weird? Listen to the episode.

As an added bonus, we also review the Dominion card game.

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