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.
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.
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.
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.)
In part 2 of our review of HBO’s Game of Thrones, we continue with our picks for best and worst scenes. We also give our general impressions and predictions, and we share our tips on how to add a little Westeros to your fantasy game.
Despite Richard Madden having a bit of a fan club in Japan, we still don’t mention Robb Stark. (Don’t get your hopes up, Mr. Madden; they’re all dudes.)
Warning: Chris was unavailable for the recording of this episode, so it’s a touch more engaging and entertaining than usual.
“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.
There are three things you don’t bring up at the Idle Red Hands dinner table: religion, politics, and the definition of a sandbox game. (Actually, you could probably bring up the first two.)
In this episode, we compare sandbox games to ball of twine games, and the analogies and metaphors fly. (Hey! Another metaphor.) I think we even manage to work in a snowclone. We talk about what these types of games are (and, boy, does that get heated, metaphorically speaking) and the pitfalls (metaphor) to avoid.
In a land very much like your own, but with more Sailor Moon uniforms, three podcasters did an episode on Changeling: The Lost. Lyal thought it was too dark. Wayne thought it wasn’t dark enough. Chris thought, well, that was never quite clear.
So, the three podcasters decided to look for gaming inspiration from real fairy tales. Chris collected ladies’ shoes until his wife caught him. Wayne looked for his sleeping beauty until hospital security barred him from the coma ward. Lyal ordered a “living doll” from the Internet, but he never actually said what happened with that.
Then, the three little trolls found the comic Fables and a podcast episode took shape.
One Vampire: The Requiem episode! AH AH AH! Two Vampire: The Requiem episodes! AH AH AH! I love it!
In Part 2, we look at Lyal’s Detroit campaign. Lyal is thin-skinned, which explains why Wayne, Chris, and Yujiro aren’t so hard on his campaign. Lyal also loves to complain, which explains why he has some choice words for that “Lyal guy”.
We cover flashforwards, intraparty conflict, working in new players, and playing in real time.
Yujiro guest hosts again (we don’t seem to understand the concept of a guest host). Chris’s soon-to-be-wife, Saori, does the opening for this episode.
