Dump Stat Radio

Recorded on 1/21/2018 Tom and Paul catch you up on three recent goings-on in the game world: Posthuman Studios needs writers for an Eclipse Phase collective work, convention season planning and prep is upon us, and Goodman Games sends Michael Curtis to the University of Houston to plumb the depths of the Fritz Leiber Papers.

Recorded on 1/6/2018 Bill takes the boys through a crash course of the new RPG starter kit based on the setting and characters for Sentinels of the Multiverse.

The boys take a moment to reflect on the heights and horrors of gaming in 2017. Revelations are shared! Tom loathes boardgames, Mike D pronounces "discern" like a mooncalf, and Paul may be a secret Magpie Games shill!

Round Table - Player Attrition Recorded on 10/28/2017 Mike D leads the table in a discussion about player drop-off. Tom and Paul focus on the social contract of tabletop gaming.

Pillaging Reddit - 12/14/2017 Recorded on 12/9//2017 Bill, Paul, and Tom field nine questions freshly pulled from /DnD.

Recorded on 12/2/2017 Bill and the boys discuss the many moving parts in the spiritual successor to Unearthed Arcana.

Recorded on 11/11/2017 Bill and Paul discuss rpgs, boardgames, and more in their first ever trip to Madison, Wisconsin's Gamehole Con!

Recorded on 10/28/2017 Bill examines Coriolis: The Third Horizon from Free League Publishing.

Recorded on 10/28/2017 Paul and the boys chat about current projects on Kickstarter. Goodman Games is launching a sword and sorcery magazine titled Tales From the Magician's Skull, John Wick Presents is expanding 7th Sea with Khitai, Tasty Minstrel Games enters the arena of big box strategy games with Downfall, and Leder Games makes another quirky, asymmetrical board game with Root. Also, Swen Harder lives up to his awesome name with the fantasy game book Rider of the Black Sun!

Recorded on 10/21/2017 Tom and Paul discuss the recent partnership agreement between Games Workshop and WizKids over the production of Warhammer 40,000 based boardgames. They go on to discuss the recent release of the Beta edition rules for FFG's Legend of the Five Rings roleplaying game

Join Bill, Paul and Tom for a Special Report Episode of Dump Stat Radio. The DSR boys talk about their experience's at the sold out 50th Anniversary of GenCon. Enjoy!!!

Recorded on 4/22/2017The meatbags hear the machine's plot to besmirch and slander various contests and crowdfunded games.In the weekly gaming recap, Wednesday's public game switches to Thursday and takes a week off of RPGs to play the deckbuilding boardgame Clank! by Renegade Game Studios and Friday's 7th Sea game covers the descriptions and backgrounds of our individual characters as they fail at tackling the initial challenge of coming together as a group.We discuss the 200 Word RPG Challenge and all it entails. A few handpicked projects include a heavy metal magic word game, a tarot dungeon crawl card game that's as dry as the Gobi Desert, an ill-summarized fantasy Communist dystopia RPG, and a game that is very much not Delta Green.Bill's book report this week is on Ars Magica 5th Edition by Atlas Games. The summary starts off confusing but Bill sells us the game with the simple line "Medieval Fantasy Rogue Trader."Various skullduggery includes Bill introducing a contest for the Clown Baby Award, a prize that represents the silliest, goofiest, and/or strangest encounters we've had in gaming and Mike D names as many magicians as he can before time runs out.

Recorded on 4/15/2017 The boys listen to a tale of the yearly gathering held to remember the Great Creator. In the weekly gaming recap, Monday's Deadlands teaches the valuable lesson of solving Scooby Doo haunted mansion problems through violence, Wednesday's Dark Heresy wraps and switches to Iron Kingdoms Unleashed, and Friday pulls double duty with the group's first foray into a funnel dungeon in Dungeon Crawl Classics and utilizing Backstory Cards in the set up for the group's upcoming 7th Sea game. Paul gives an in-depth recap of his first experience with Gary Con, a yearly gaming convention held in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, in memory of Dungeons & Dragons creator Gary Gygax. Prepare for craft beer, friendly folks, gaming with legends, and a lot of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea! Bill's book report this week is on Monte Cook's 2013 rpg Numenera. In deconstructing the rules, the group reflects on the mechanical changes to the d20 rules set over time and the challenges with power-gaming fostered by more complex systems.

Recorded on 3/18/2017 We find our heroes ruminating about game mastering techniques, the power of friendship, and their shared contempt for Pathfinder. In the weekly gaming recap, Monday's Deadlands sees the departure of Tom as the game becomes Machine Gun Mansion A-go-go, Wednesday's Dark Heresy has the team unleashing the refrigerated assassin and contemplating switching to D&D to attract new players, and Friday's Dungeon World covers the end of Paul's Last Days of Anglekite campaign and discussion of meaningful deaths, narrative combat, and when it's okay to take control away from the players. Bill's book report targets the indie RPG/setting generation toolkit Spark by Jason Pitre, whose last name we butcher mercilessly. Bill stays on task with breaking down the many steps of the world building process despite Mike D's attempt to ambush him with some form sphinx's riddle. Random nonsense includes Mike D doing his best to name settings that combine technology and magic, Tom remembering his favorite Gen Con GM, and Paizo and Wizards of the Coast double dipping with D&D... IN SPACE!!!

Recorded on 2/18/2017 Our continuing adventure finds our heroes in a haze of delirium, basting in meat-sweats... In the weekly gaming recap, Monday's Deadlands finds Tom's viking in an LA street shootout directed by Michael Mann, Mike D's Wednesday Rogue Trader game implodes as predicted, only to be reborn as our weekly RPG at our local game store, and Friday's Dungeon World has Paul hitting the team with a big boss fight and discussing the different inspiration involved in creating the encounter. Bill's book report covers the Lone Wolf Adventure Game, the Cubicle 7 RPG from 2015. In a rare show of humanity, Bill waxes nostalgic about the choose your own adventure books of his childhood. He then doubles down on his emotions by grilling Mike D's report on John Wick's indie RPG Wield, a game about sentient magic objects. In the free form arena, we share our opinions on the optimal number of players in an RPG, games with great settings but lackluster mechanics, and end with a Takeshi Miike nightmare.

Recorded on 2/11/2017 We kick off our labor of love by spending Valentine's Day weekend professing our undying love for all things Krull. On the weekly gaming recap, Monday's Dark Tower Deadlands game takes Mike D's character to the childhood home of one of the other players and Friday pulls double duty as we discuss elements of Paul's Last Days of Anglekite game that's on its second week of hiatus, while Bill takes Dagon to small claims court in Tom's one-shot fill-in of Trail of Cthulhu. Bill's book report covers Grimm, a little known FFG RPG from 2007. Beyond sadistic Mother Goose and spider-filled Rapunzel, we look at roleplaying children and generally stepping out of your comfort zone to stretch some roleplaying muscles. Unstructured playtime has Tom coming to terms with his hatred of co-op games, John Wick's utter dislike of Tomb of Horrors, and Mike D naming as many magic items as he can.