Starting Equipment Podcast

Join the group for a Lets Play of one of our favorite games LANCER. Join us for awesome roleplay with giant awesome mechs!

Today the crew is Reviewing the cult classic TTRPG version of the Cult Classic move Alien. If you like fun rules systems, or great horror movies, or horror games than stop in and listen.

The locations in your games are characters every bit as important as any pc or villain. In this episode we give you the basics on creating exciting original locations to tell your stories in. Tune in as we use our guidelines to create a super cool space station.

Simulationism is the replication of any particular real world activity or moment as accurately as possible in your game. Today we talk about how to use it and when it is appropriate to do so.

In this episode the team reviews a game that is near and dear to all of our hearts, Lancer. This mech game is ideal for telling stories in space western or space opera styles. It is one of the few games we all love.

As DM's we try to make the gaming experience the most fun we can for our players and ourselves but sometimes we screw up and make an suboptimal choice. This episode is all about what comes next. How do you recover.

Join us this week as our crew plays one of our favorite Indy games, Monster Care Squad. A game all about taking care of supernatural animals and creating peace. A game with no combat at all. Join us as we solve problems in a magical world

Today we talk about games that we absolutely love but are hard to find other people to play with you. We explain why they might not be for everybody and how to convince your friends to play this really cool niche games with you

In this episode we review in detail They Came From the Sea and touch on its associated games. Listen to us review another game series from one of the Podcast's favorite developers, Onyx Path.

Worldbuilding is the art of creating the physical backdrop of your stories. There are many different ways to contribute to worldbuilding and today we discuss in detail how to use geography, both real and fantasy, to drive your narratives.

Our first Lets Play of our second season is one of our favorite short RPGs "You And Your Friends (Have Been Turned Into Bears And The Only Way To Turn Back Is To Do All These Odd Jobs About Town)". It is just as silly and fun as it sounds. Listen along as we stumble through a fictional small town as bears and try to regain our humanity.

Today we discuss some of our favorite games that are made by indie developers. If you want to learn about some of the best games that aren't made by the biggest names than this is the place for you.

Today we are reviewing Starfinder. If you have never heard of this game it is pathfinder in SPAAAACE.

Session zero sets the stage for your entire campaign. It is how your entire team gets on the same page and approaches the game ready to have fun, but if done poorly it can be tedious and boring. Today we tell you how to do it right.

Today two of our hosts talk about what to do when a game ends unexpectedly. Do you find a new group? A new game in your group? Hold a funeral for all your great schemes you never got to fulfill?

Two of our hosts talk today about RPGs you can play solo!

As a GM, when should you and a player or a small subset of players keep a secret from the rest of the group. Sometimes it can get really tedious and frustrating and sometimes it can create incredible storytelling opportunities. In this episode we give some rules of thumb on when and how to have secrets at the table.

Two of our hosts discuss rules and theories behind making and running short RPGs. This includes discussing one page RPGS as well as some that are a little longer. Enjoy.

Two of our hosts provide a beginner focused miniature episode that talks about some of the common RPG terms that we use regularly on the podcast as well as are common in the community. This will help you sound like a veteran in no time.

Two of our hosts talk about some of the character ideas they are just yearning to play and what worlds they fit in.

Two of our hosts talk about some of their favorite weird rules in various systems in this mini-episode

In this mini episode two of our hosts discuss action economy. What it is and why it matters. It is why your party working together can beat a stronger NPC and why multiple actions are so dangerous to include in gaming systems.

There are a handful of games that we talk about regularly on the podcast but have not yet reviewed in full. We promise that we will eventually review them all, but until we do this episode will at least tell you why we love them and why you should play them.

This mini episode is about fitness in gaming, and how the two aren't mutually exclusive

Two of our hosts discuss some of their favorite character Ideas for Lunars in the Exalted setting that they have not yet gotten the chance to use.

This weeks mini episode is to tell one of the great esoterica stories of table top RPGs. It is a story of one GM's game and it has since been told and retold and become a part of the fabric of RPGs. These stories we tell start at our tables and start small but that doesn't have to be where they end.

Season one is over. This is our first mini episode between seasons. Today is a bite sized look at options for ways to start your campaign that stretch beyond the cliché "you meet in a tavern and are greeted by a mysterious stranger..."

We end season one with a review of the new Warhammer 40K roleplaying game Wrath and Glory. We get into the gritty satirical setting as well as diving into the rules and how this game compares with the base lore.

In this episode we talk about all the things that cause trouble during your games. Sometimes they are weak points in a given setting or genre of game and sometimes they are the unavoidable side effects of playing a improvisational game with other people. In this episode we help you identify what could be going wrong and how to minimize it so you can maximize the fun.

The exciting conclusion of our lets play

The larcenous hijinks continue in our second portion of our first lets play.

The first part of our first let's play. Join our crew as they explore Duskvol and break into a facility during a fancy party to do their dastardly work.

A model session zero for our actual play of Blade in the Dark. We talk about the scenario we are running and give a practical example of what we believe makes a session zero while not skimping on the silly fun

The exciting conclusion of our series on Blades in the Dark

Part three of our Blades in the Dark review. More sneaky crime-filled dystopian heist fun!

Part two of our Blades in the Dark review. More sneaky crime-filled dystopian heist fun!

Blades in the Dark is a TTRPG that was first published in 2017 and has since widely spread in popularity as well as inspiring/enabling several other games using its ruleset. This is the first part of a multiple episode series we are doing giving a deep dive review on all aspects of Blades in the Dark. We talk about the setting, the rules, and running a game set in this universe. There is an incredible amount of fun to be had here and we tell you how we found it.

There is a lot of information that has to be handled while playing TTRPG's, both by players and especially by storytellers. In this episode we talk about how to manage and utilize all of the minutiae that makes up your game, from complex multi-year plots to keeping track of every spell and skill your character has. Most difficult and most importantly we discuss how to make that management streamlined and entertaining. As always, we show you how to find the fun

This episode is all about how to get and keep buy in from your group. Sometimes a new group isn't gelling well and someone feels like an outsider- bam we can help with that. Sometimes a veteran in your group suddenly is tuning out more than normal- bam we can help with that too. All good social activities are about finding the fun and in this episode we talk about how to manage all the book keeping and social aspects of your group so that you can find as much of that fun as possible.

There are thousands of RPGs on the market to choose from the simplest fantasy games to the most complicate alternate history political games. Maximizing the fun and engagement of your game group begins before you ever start playing by picking what game is right for you. In this episode we lay out a handful of metrics by which you can easily compare new games you come across and find the best fit for you and your friends.