Author: upturnedtable
“Crafting a mystery can be tricky. Too easy and your players get bored. Too hard and your players get frustrated and, yes, bored. When in doubt, err on the side of hard and turn a blind eye when the paladin starts torturing NPCs for clues.”
– Michael West(en), burned Rogue/Illusionist
In part 2, we discuss Chris’s story, “Best Served Cold”.
“Fighting a dragon is always a challenge. They are the kind of problem that calls for an A-10 Thunderbolt II and lots of rockets. Unfortunately, these things won’t be invented for another thousand years or so. In a pinch, you can get by with some household cleansers, rope, and magic, the duct tape of the fantasy world.”
-Michael West(en), Burned Rogue/Illusionist
In Part 1 of our latest Campaign Confessions, we give our thoughts on the Pathfinder system.
We’ve all been there. Your evening starts with such promise. Then, ten, fifteen, or twenty minutes into a movie, you realize that the movie is going to suck – hard. A crap movie hurts in so many ways: sadness, loss of time and money, boredom.
Idle Red Hands can help. Idle Red Hands is a prescription podcast that treats many symptoms of crap movies by showing you how elements of them can be turned into great games. Don’t let crap movies crap on you.
*Tell your doctor right away if your boredom worsens, you have unusual changes in behavior (besides better games), you have thoughts of suicide, or you find Wayne’s jokes funny. Side effects may include backache, earache, and nausea. If you have an allergic reaction, such as hives, rash, or swelling of the lips, stop listening and consult your doctor.
Chris: “Lyal, Can I play Batman in your DC game. Batman with a Scottish accent. ‘Ach. Ay’m the heerooo this city deserves, ya wee lass.'”
Lyal: “Wow. I’m not looking forward to that, but sure. Wayne?”
Wayne: “Hmm, maybe Sen … Sensible … Sensual … Sen … tence. Centennial. The Centennial.”
Lyal: “The Sentry. Wrong universe. How about Superman?”
Wayne: “No thanks. I do like Spee … Speeder … Speederma … Spice. Spicer … Spicerman …”
Lyal: “Spider-Man. Wrong universe, again.”
In this episode, we discuss the advantages of playing iconic characters as well as retelling classic or not so classic stories. Also, listen to find out what all the fuss about Sparks Nevada is.
Let the Games begin! In this episode, we discuss how to run a game in a game. Sorry. I mean how to run a game in an RPG. Originally inspired by The Hunger Games, we decided to expand the idea so that this wasn’t just an hour of grown men gushing about a book written for teenage girls (Team Peeta!). Therefore, we included such “all man” sources as The Running Man.
“Do you believe in magic in an enemy’s heart?
How the blood can free you, whenever it starts,
And it’s magic, if the blood is flowing.
It makes you feel fertile like a crop you’re sowing.
I’ll tell you about the magic, and it’ll free your soul,
But too many blood rituals can take their toll.
If you believe in magic, come along with me.
We’ll dance until morning ’til there’s just you and me.
And maybe, if the blood is right,
I’ll meet you tomorrow, sort of late at night.
And we’ll go dancing, baby, then you’ll see
How the magic’s in the blood and the blood’s in me.”
-The Bloody Spoonful
In our first Vampire: The Requiem game, one player found that his character didn’t feel like a vampire, which apparently meant being able to beat up random gangsters and using the promise of alcohol to “seduce” high school girls. (We were kind of creeped out by the second one as well in our pre-Twilight innocence.) The disappointment drove him to Savage Worlds.
Do we think that the rules in Blood and Smoke: The Strix Chronicle will help to avoid such a tragedy in the future? Listen to find out.
Before True Blood, Twilight, Underworld and Vampire Diaries (but a little after Dracula), there was Vampire: The Masquerade. It was a time when email was exotic and we didn’t really have a name yet for those kids that wished for more mall-friendly goth music. Years later, we got Vampire: The Requiem, a game that was lighter on mythology and tighter on rules. Now, in the post-Twilight era, Onyx Path Publishing, who Lyal insists on calling “Onyx Publishing”, gives us Blood and Smoke: The Strix Chronicle.
In Part 1, we focus on the setting. What clans are in it? Who are the Strix? Can you play Edward? All these questions and more will be answered.
Archaeologist #1: The inscription reads, “As for all men who shall enter this my tomb impure, there will be judgment. An end shall be made for him. I shall seize his neck like a bird. I shall cast the fear of myself into him.”
Archaeologist #2: Actually, I think the “bird” is silent in this case.
Archaeologist #1: Ah. I think you’re right. Still, not so good for us, is it?
Archaeologist #2: True.
In this installment of Creature Features, we discuss mummies, the triple threat.
“I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in.”
– First Edition
The God Machine. A powerful and mysterious entity that was only hinted at in a short story in the New World of Darkness book. It’s been spawning questions and rumors for over a decade. What is it? How does it relate to the World of Darkness? Now, with the release of this book, none of these questions are answered.
In this episode, Wayne and Lyal continue their review of The God-Machine Chronicle.