Well, hello again. Meet the Idle Red Hands for the second time. Even after two years, their stories on how they got started in gaming remain the same. From the drug-infested, Magic-playing ghettos of Philly to the cheese-eating, cheese-wearing wasteland of Wisconsin to the nuclear-fearing, sparkly-scarf-loving ground zero of West Germany, these three gamers found and fell in love with the hobby.

Listen for the answers to these questions:

Is Heroquest is an RPG?
Who was the “inspiration” for the Punisher?
How many stolen D&D products has Chris bought?

In our last installment of 2012’s Month of Horror, which we missed by six days, we discuss horror movies. Joining us for the discussion is horror movie aficionado (and massive movie spoiler) Josh.
For those hoping to have the first 90 minutes of the 95-minute The Cabin in the Woods explained to them, I’m afraid we cut it out. I guess you’ll have to learn the plot the old-fashioned way: watch it yourself. Fortunately, Lyal, Chris and Wayne don’t have to now. Thanks, Josh.

This is what happened.

We recorded an episode of Literature Lessons about the master of modern horror: Stephen King. We discussed themes common to many of his books and how to incorporate them into your games. Wayne bought up D&D Next (again), Lyal created a possible Cujo sequel, and Chris talked about that classic Stephen King character Achilles.

Should D&D be everyone’s gateway into RPGs?

After about ten minutes of listening to us talk about D&D, you may start to question the “Non-D&D” part of the title, but we do move on to other games. We look at Exalted, A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying, Runequest, and Dragon Age. We evaluate each game’s system, setting, and presentation. We also discuss which ones would be good gateway games. At the end, we talk about an out-of-print game that presented fantasy races in new and badass ways.

“O la vittoria, o tutti accoppati.”
– Arditi motto
We either win, or we all die, eh?”
– Canadian version (Often used by the Olympic hockey team)

In this installment of Warriors, we look at the original stormtroopers, the German Stosstruppen of World War I. But that’s not all! Download now and we’ll throw in the Italian Arditi. Wait! For a limited time, we’ll include the Canadian Expeditionary Force, arguably the even more original stormtroopers, with all listens of $0 or more. Beauty, eh?

Plus: Our first D&D Next Diary (DNDND) entry.

What’s the first thing you think of when you hear the word “slavery”? “Fun”? “Engaging”? No? Well, after this episode you just might. Probably not, though.

Plus: The Lord of the Rings: The Untold Story

Mae: The light that’s leaving that star right now will take a billion years to get down here. You want to know why you’ve never met a girl like me before?
Caleb: Yeah. Why?
Mae: Because I’ll still be here when the light from that star gets down here to earth in a billion years.
Near Dark

“We don’t cry at twilight. We don’t give interviews. We aren’t anyone’s children, day or night. We’re your fears, your desires, your taboos. We’re your worst nightmare and most delicious dream.” – Prince Idle the Red Hand

In this episode, we put the “red” in Idle Red Hands.

“Look, I get it. You guys thought that without Chris you could squeeze two topics into one episode. One less host means less talking. Does that sound about right?”
“Uh, yeah. Something like that.”
“There’s just one thing: you guys always knew it would run long! Chris wasn’t the reason episodes ran long in the past. If anything, his ability to kill a conversation kept the episode times down. So, when did you realize he wasn’t the problem, before or after you killed him?”
“Wu-what? We never thought he was a problem.”
“Oh, so you killed him for nothing.”

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.

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.