“Forever young, I want to be forever young.
Do you really want to live forever, forever, forever?”

– “Forever Young”, Alphaville

Assail your opponent from behind, only fire at close range, and always, always keep the sun behind you. In this installment of Warriors, we talk about l’as, the star-turn, der uberkanonen, the flying ace.

“More choices, more problems.”
– game designer

In this episode, we look at whether it’s best to play a jack-of-all-trades or a master of one. We also compare how to build generalists in different systems: level, point buy, and life path.

Because our listeners demanded it: condottieri! Actually, it was only was one listener, and he really just casually mentioned it.

In this edition of Warriors, we talk about mercenaries and free companies. Money can’t buy happiness, but it sure buys everything else worth having. Live free and die hard.

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.

Lyal knew a guy who gave his girlfriend a picture of himself for Christmas. In that spirit, here’s our gift to you: an episode of us talking about what we want for Christmas. We discuss what games we’d like to receive, what games we’d like to see made and what games we’d like to actually play next. So, listen to find out what RPGs and board games you need to get this Christmas.

Merry Christmas! (We had to talk Chris out of dropping the t.)

Correction: The new expansion for the Privateer Press miniatures game Hordes is “Hordes: Domination“, not Dominion as incorrectly stated by Wayne. Let’s hope Santa puts the correct thing under his tree anyway.

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.

Everything you always wanted to know about pen-and-paper role-playing games but were afraid (or couldn’t be bothered) to ask.

The Idle Red Hands are blessed with some great friends who, despite having no clue about RPGs, listen to our podcast. One recommended that we record an episode that explains some of the basic concepts to help him follow along, so we did. This is for him and all those who have ever wondered why some people choose to spend their Saturday nights rolling dice.

If you’re an experienced gamer, have a listen to see if you agree with our descriptions, definitions, and recommendations.

To start a lifetime of adventure, download these free rules for GURPS 4th Edition from the good people at Steve Jackson Games (or visit your local army recruiting center).

Special note: We debut our new microphone this episode.