Author: upturnedtable

Episode 217: Warriors: Pirates

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“The Code is more what you call guidelines than actual rules.”
–Pirates of the Caribbean

In our latest installment in our Warriors series, we give you guidelines on how to play pirates or give your non-pirate characters a dash of piracy. Our discussion focuses on the Golden Age of Piracy in the Caribbean, including privateers, survival and injuries, the pirate’s code, and punishment.

The subject of pirate ships was too much to cram into this episode, so we cover it in our next one.

 

All of these topics can apply to any RPG setting, whether you are sailing the sevens seas or your ships battle among the stars. So get inspired for your next tabletop session and try to avoid scurvy. Or space scurvy, if that is a thing.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 47:53 — 66.2MB) | Embed

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Video: Unboxing Village Attacks

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We unbox Village Attacks, the latest game from Grimlord Games, makers of channel favorite, Endure the Stars. This tower defense style, cooperative, miniatures boardgame pits you the “monsters” against waves of angry villagers supported by their town heroes, which take the form of RPG character classes of humans. See what they did there?

What do you get in the standard core game box? What extras did their Kickstarter deliver? You know you need to find out!

Video: Unboxing The Other Side

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Absent our faithful expert in all things Malifaux, Nick, we unbox the Dual Commander pledge for Wyrd Miniatures’ The Other Side game. We chose The Cult of the Burning Man and Abyssinia as our two allegiances. Are the pre-assembled miniatures as good as Malifaux? What do you get in an allegiance box? Watch and find out!

Apologies in advance for the never quite in focus overhead camera.

Video: Unboxing Forbidden Lands

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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!

Episode 216: Creature Feature : Robots

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Also check out our shorter video discussion of robots in TTRPGs on our YouTube channel:

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.

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Video: Creature Feature: Robots

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Using robots in your TTRPG campaigns? What questions should you ask yourself when you include them? We have a list of campaign ideas using robots to help you out, and we discuss how to play them both as antagonists and protagonists.

Also in the tradition of our Creature Features, we watched the 1980 scifi film Saturn 3, starring Kirk Douglas, Harvey Keitel and Farrah Fawcett. Regardless of its failings as a scifi horror film, it does include some interesting examples of how to use a robot as a character. And Farrah Fawcett. She is in the film. Did I mention that?

Episode 215: Top 5 Fantasy Settings

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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.

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Episode 214: Race vs. Ancestry in Fantasy RPGs

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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!

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Episode 213: Campaign Confessions: D&D 5E Part 2: Pirates

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Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me
We pillage, we plunder, we rifle, and loot
Drink up, me ‘earties, yo ho
We kidnap and ravage and don’t give a hoot
We definitely give a hoot about our players’ comfort levels at the table
Drink up me ‘earties, yo ho (If you want to drink. No pressure.)
– “Yo Ho (A 21st-century Pirate’s Life for Me)”

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!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:36 — 47.6MB) | Embed

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