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Welcome to DEATHMATCH ISLAND. Enjoy the scones. https://www.deathmatchis.land/ https://www.patreon.com/bastardquest https://www.barrelandbondky.com/ https://www.norsefoundry.com/ https://linktr.ee/bastardquestpodcast
The hunters get way too involved in a breakup. https://evilhat.com/product/monster-of-the-week/ https://www.patreon.com/bastardquest https://www.barrelandbondky.com/ https://www.norsefoundry.com/ https://linktr.ee/bastardquestpodcast
Gamestop has decided crypto is the right investment, Stonemaier is investing in Disc Golf, and Battletech is going…Gothic? We've also got on Tom Lommel from Evil Hat Productions (https://evilhat.com/) to talk about all the “Evil” things they have coming up this year.
Gamestop has decided crypto is the right investment, Stonemaier is investing in Disc Golf, and Battletech is going…Gothic? We've also got on Tom Lommel from Evil Hat Productions (https://evilhat.com/) to talk about all the “Evil” things they have coming up this year.
The TCB sends Cheney, Curtis and Melvis to Idaho to investigate a series of grisly murders. https://evilhat.com/product/monster-of-the-week/ https://www.patreon.com/bastardquest https://www.barrelandbondky.com/ https://www.norsefoundry.com/ https://linktr.ee/bastardquestpodcast
You can support this show on Patreon!In this episode, I'm talking to Viditya Voleti, a game designer and interactive artist. He's a visiting instructor at the Pratt Institute in NYC. He's freelanced for Paizo, Possum Creek Games, Evil Hat, and RRD. His own tabletop designs include vampire cowboy game, Bloodbeam Badlands, GMless optimistic scifi game, Space Between Stars (forthcoming from Possible Worlds Games), and A Land Once Magic, a post fantasy worldbuilding game currently crowdfunding on Backerkit.Viditya's itch page: https://vidityavoleti.itch.io A Land Once Magic on Backerkit: https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/moreblueberries/a-land-once-magic?ref=yesindied Show Notes:Action Button Reviews Tokimeki Memorial (6 hour video essay)Kekkai Sensen // Blood Blockade Battlefront (anime)The original post coining the term Fruitful Void by Vincent Baker++ Here's a good Levi Kornelsen article about whether D&D has oneLudonarrative DissonanceGames MentionedIthaca in the Cards by Aaron Lim, crowdfunding on Kickstarter Free from the Yoke (Legacy) by Mina McJandaIf you liked this podcast, check out the weekly Indie RPG Newsletter
The team are back to scour the corners of the world for the best in Tabletop Gaming News. This episode we cover mergers, departures, destruction, and we have an interview with those Rascals. Headlines Steve Jackson merges with Possum Games https://www.rascal.news/possum-creek-games-wanders-to-a-new-home-with-steve-jackson-games/ https://www.sjgames.com/ill/archive/2025-02-11?ref=rascal.news Mythic crumbles https://boardgamewire.com/index.php/2025/02/06/end-looms-for-mythic-games-as-company-gives-up-trying-to-deliver-1-3m-monsterpocalypse-kickstarter-hands-files-over-to-ip-holder-privateer-press/ Thomas Interview https://www.rascal.news/ Updates BGA Awards update https://boardgamearena.com/news?id=873 News 6 out of 10 tabletop role-playing games campaigns were Gamefound. KS rattled? https://www.polygon.com/analysis/520142/gamefound-top-10-biggest-board-game-crowdfund-campaigns GTS cancels Splotter's Indonesia https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid03ThtQGdUZ2wfNsbLu9yL95kKShCaQv1aJFzUkUZWpHmzpKKPQCvEFJd9BKMquzetl&id=100057260687209 Snowbright Studio announces winners of the second annual Nonbinary Tabletop Award https://bsky.app/profile/snowbrightstudio.bsky.social/post/3liamf2lp2k2g https://www.snowbrightstudio.com/awards Swiss Game Awards https://boardgamewire.com/index.php/2025/02/17/harmonies-captain-flip-triumph-in-this-years-swiss-gamers-award-castle-combo-seals-two-finalist-spots/ https://swissgamersaward.ch/ Haba and Asmodee France https://www.spielwarenmesse.de/en/mag/toy-market-news/asmodee-france-chosen-as-official-distribution-partner-for-haba/ Roman discovery https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-discover-ancient-tokens-that-roman-soldiers-used-to-play-strategy-games-180985903/ Obituaries Carla Horger https://bsky.app/profile/gmtgames.bsky.social/post/3lha6racnoc26 Jobs, Opportunities, and Events https://www.facebook.com/groups/TabletopJobs Young Game Designers Scholarship Open for Applications Again https://www.spiel-des-jahres.de/nachwuchs-spieleautoren-stipendium-wieder-ausgeschrieben/ https://www.spieleautorenzunft.de/files/public/Veranstaltungen-Events/Stipendium%20Bewerbung%202025.pdf Evil Hat creator programme https://bsky.app/profile/evilhat.bsky.social/post/3lhh5uzbtts25 Patreon Shoutouts Kevin Bertram https://www.fortcircle.com/ James Naylor https://naylorgames.com/ Shaun Newman game-a-lot.fun/en facebook.com/gamealotboardgames Our Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thegiantbrain Support Us https://giantbrain.co.uk/support-us-new/ Fanroll https://fanrolldice.com/ref/2783/ Outro People of note: Cornelius O'Donovan https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgj29qly2dvo Our Links Thanks very much for listening. If you like what you've listened to then the best way to help us out is to share the podcast and drop us a review and rating on itunes. You can also follow us on Oliver: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/ Discord: https://discord.gg/3bMx2HK75r Blusky:https://bsky.app/profile/giantbrain.co.uk Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/giantbrainuk/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thegiantbrain Website: https://giantbrain.co.uk/ Email: giantbrainuk@gmail.com
Blinded by emotions, the KFC embark on a foolhardy assassination attempt that will either make or break them. https://evilhat.com/product/blades-in-the-dark/ https://www.patreon.com/bastardquest https://www.barrelandbondky.com/ https://www.norsefoundry.com/
The KFC learn important lessons on being small business owners in Doskvol. https://evilhat.com/product/blades-in-the-dark/ https://www.patreon.com/bastardquest https://www.barrelandbondky.com/ https://www.norsefoundry.com/
The KFC initiate a hostile takeover. https://evilhat.com/product/blades-in-the-dark/ https://www.patreon.com/bastardquest https://www.barrelandbondky.com/ https://www.norsefoundry.com/
Mitchum, Toebean and Uwe decide to enter the private sector. https://evilhat.com/product/blades-in-the-dark/ https://www.patreon.com/bastardquest https://www.barrelandbondky.com/ https://www.norsefoundry.com/
The KFC hunt down a dangerous gang to expand their turf. https://evilhat.com/product/blades-in-the-dark/ https://www.patreon.com/bastardquest https://www.barrelandbondky.com/ https://www.norsefoundry.com/
The KFC return to The Coop for some downtime. https://evilhat.com/product/blades-in-the-dark/ https://www.patreon.com/bastardquest https://www.barrelandbondky.com/ https://www.norsefoundry.com/
Mitchum, Toebean and Uwe follow their target into enemy territory. https://evilhat.com/product/blades-in-the-dark/ https://www.patreon.com/bastardquest https://www.barrelandbondky.com/ https://www.norsefoundry.com/
Meet our gang of assassins and follow them on their first mission. https://evilhat.com/product/blades-in-the-dark/ https://www.patreon.com/bastardquest https://www.barrelandbondky.com/ https://www.norsefoundry.com/
That's right, our friends at Evil Hat are going to be publishing Rangers of a Broken World, and you can get in on the open playtest by going to Evil Hat's Website
3 precocious household appliances embark on a journey to reunite with their beloved owner. https://www.exaltedfuneral.com/products/i-toaster-pdf https://www.patreon.com/bastardquest https://www.barrelandbondky.com/ https://www.norsefoundry.com/
Chaney, Curtis and Melvis enter the Condo of the Damned! https://evilhat.com/product/monster-of-the-week/ https://www.patreon.com/bastardquest https://www.barrelandbondky.com/ https://www.norsefoundry.com/
Chaney, Curtis and Melvis battle half of a vampire. https://evilhat.com/product/monster-of-the-week/ https://www.patreon.com/bastardquest https://www.barrelandbondky.com/ https://www.norsefoundry.com/
Meet the monster hunters. https://evilhat.com/product/monster-of-the-week/ https://www.patreon.com/bastardquest https://www.barrelandbondky.com/ https://www.norsefoundry.com/
This week we chat about Wizard of the Coast being more collaborative in partnerships and licensing deals after Hasbro losses in Q4 earnings call. D&D goes Off-Broadway*. EN World Morrus reveals the rise and fall of Evil Genius Games. Youtube brings Tabletop Roleplaying games mainstream. The Legend in the Mist crushes their crowdfunding goals. D&D is finally releasing a high level adventure. Marvel does their first actual play. Rascal.News a worker owned TTRPG news site launches.Evil Hat to launch a Tomb Raider TTRPG. Find the podcast here - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/10-minute-tabletop-news/id1668590562 If you'd like to support the podcast head over to our Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/totalpartychill Editing and Mixing - Viacheslav Zhiradkov Writer - Sergio Solorzano -------- For more actual plays, reviews, giveaways, and recommendations check out https://totalpartychill.com Tweet us: https://twitter.com/ttlprtychll Buy TPC merch: https://totalpartychill.com/
This week, Morrus, PJ, and Jessica talk about the Planestrider's Journal for Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition. In the news, Tomb Raider RPG from Evil Hat coming in 2025, Shadow of the Weird Wizard released, Free League announced a new edition of Coriolis, and more! Plus a brand new sketch about a bard with an unconventional instrument choice. -------------------- News Tomb Raider RPG Coming from Evil Hat in 2025 https://www.enworld.org/threads/tomb-raider-licensed-rpg-announced-by-evil-hat-publishing.702773/ Shadow of the Weird Wizard released https://www.enworld.org/threads/shadow-of-the-weird-wizard-is-finally-here.702747/ Not DnD – Shadow of the Weird Wizard https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hl_Rev4jtGs Sinuous Sentinels for A5E by Purple Martin Games https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/471852/sinuous-sentinels-a5e?affiliate_id=36142 Coriolis: The Great Dark from Free League https://www.enworld.org/threads/free-league-announces-coriolis-the-great-dark.702737/ Savage Worlds Science Fiction Companion on Kickstarter https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/545820095/savage-worlds-sci-fi-companion Secrets of the Selkies for A5E from Speaks & Spells Publishing https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/471746/secrets-of-the-selkies-a5e?affiliate_id=36142 Evil Genius Games: An Open Letter to the TTRPG Community https://evilgeniusgames.com/blog/letter-to-the-community-at-large/ MaricopaCon XI Tabletop Game Con in Phoenix, Arizona on Kickstarter https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jasony/maricopacon-xi-tabletop-game-con-family-friends-and-fun AireCon March 14-17, 2024 in Harrogate, UK https://www.airecon.co.uk/rpgs EN World Events and Releases https://www.enworld.org/events/ Rascal TTRPG news https://www.rascal.news/ -------------------- Planestrider's Guide for Level Up Advanced 5th Edition Sign up for notifications when the Kickstarter goes live https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/enworld/planestriders-journal Planestrider's Guide announcement on EN World https://www.enworld.org/threads/planestriders-journal-a-new-cosmology-for-5e-a5e.702613/ Preview of the introduction to Planestrider's Guide https://www.enworld.org/threads/looking-inside-the-planestrider%E2%80%99s-journal.702656/ The list of the new planes https://www.enworld.org/threads/a-list-of-planes-in-planestriders-journal.702707/ A look at the 17 new archetypes https://www.enworld.org/threads/list-of-planestrider-archetypes.702764/ Find more previews as they come on the official Level Up: Advanced 5e website https://www.levelup5e.com/ -------------------- Please support us on Patreon at http://patreon.com/morrus Don't forget to join the Morrus' Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1033145023517295/ and join us on Discord at https://discord.gg/VAuxX8M Ask your Listener Question on Twitter, email morruspodcast@gmail.com, or contact us on TikTok at TikTok -------------------- Hosts: Russ “Morrus” Morrissey, Peter Coffey, and Jessica Hancock Editing and post-production: Darryl Mott Theme Song: Steve Arnott Malach the Maleficent played by Darren Morrissey Check out all the media content from EN World at http://enliverpg.com
If you're a fan of the show, you'll know we love AGON, powered by the Paragon system. This time the lads are delighted to be joined by Sean Nittner, the co-author and independent game designer Tim Denee, who's done some great stuff with the game. Come on in for a deep dive on the game design process, what makes these sets of games great and how to squeeze more gaming juice from your sessions! Evil Hat have a ton of great games you can peruse for your delectation on their website.You can see more of Tim's great work on his website, Old Dog GamesIf you're in the US, or plan on travelling there for a convention, find out about Big Bad Con here. If you dig actual plays then check out the new Unconventional GMs for games played in about two hours!
If you're a fan of the show, you'll know we love AGON, powered by the Paragon system. This time the lads are delighted to be joined by Sean Nittner, the co-author and independent game designer Tim Denee, who's done some great stuff with the game. Come on in for a deep dive on the game design process, what makes these sets of games great and how to squeeze more gaming juice from your sessions! Evil Hat have a ton of great games you can peruse for your delectation on their website.You can see more of Tim's great work on his website, Old Dog GamesIf you're in the US, or plan on travelling there for a convention, find out about Big Bad Con here. If you dig actual plays then check out the new Unconventional GMs for games played in about two hours!
How does Evil Hat decide which games to publish? What happens from design to print, and why can it take years? Craig talks with Sean Nittner of Evil Hat Productions about how games are published. Evil Hat Website Abyssal Playtest Details on Stewpot Craig does a retrospective on the podcast episodes and actual plays released from The Third Floor in 2023. ********************* Support the show for as little as $1 month: https://www.patreon.com/Thirdfloorwars Add this to the end of your link on DriveThruRPG to support the show: ?affiliate_id=1044145 For example https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397612/Court-of-Blades--Scandal-Forged-in-the-Dark?affiliate_id=1044145 Check out our live-streaming content on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/thirdfloorwars Don't miss our RPG Actual Plays, tutorials, and gaming content on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thirdfloorwars Listen to an excellent boardgame podcast: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com/ Go to the Writer's Room for 7th Sea Adventures! https://linktr.ee/writersroom7thsea Check out the great games from A Couple of Drakes: https://acoupleofdrakes.com/ Listen to Thin Places Radio: https://thin.place/ Get a cool T-shirt or mug and help us bring you more content. The store is open! https://thirdfloorwars.com/shop/ Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thirdfloorwars/ Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThirdFloorWars Follow on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/thirdfloorwars.bsky.social --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thirdfloorwars/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thirdfloorwars/support
Welcome to Summerfield where everything is fine! … As long as you ignore the unexplained and mysterious disasters, the near-constant bad omens, and oddly antagonistic PTA. Everyone has their ups and downs but it's never the end of the world. Most of the time. System: Monster of the Week by Evil Hat (https://evilhat.com/product/monster-of-the-week/) CAST: ➜GM: Clara ➜Blythe - Bastian Goodnow (he/him), The Summoned ➜Emily - Rachel Goodnow (she/her), The Expert ➜Jason ➜Teri - Logan Julian (Zie/Zer/Zers), The Hex ◇ Visit https://www.happyjacks.org/worldendsthursday/ for a full list of this campaign's videos and podcasts. ◇ Follow Happy Jacks RPG on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or hang out with other tabletop roleplaying fans in our Discord community! ◇ Subscribe to our other podcast feeds! We have a weekly tabletop RPG talk show based on topics sent in from fans around the world, and a great collection of One-Shots if you prefer bite sized adventures. ◇ You can watch us on Youtube or Twitch! ◇ Keep us independent by becoming a Patreon! Our fantastic supporters let us play and say what we want instead of catering to companies for ad or sponsorship money. They are HEROES! https://patreon.com/happyjacksrpg Ⓒ2023 Happy Jacks RPG Network https://www.happyjacks.org
Support the show on PatreonThe is the second in a series of special episodes meant to teach some of my favourite indie RPGs. Tune in to hear Andrew Gillis, designer of the stunning Girl by Moonlight. In Girl by Moonlight, you play a group of magical girls resisting an oppressive society. It explores the heartbreak of denying who you really are, and the transcendent power of relationships and community. It's one of the best games to come out of the lineage of Blades in the Dark and will undoubtedly inspire a slew of games in its own right. You can learn more on the Evil Hat website or on the Backerkit page. Transcript of the entire episode can be found here.Chapter Markers:[00:05:32] Introduction to Girl by Moonlight, Series Creation, [00:11:12] Character Creation: Playbook, Roles, Backgrounds [00:18:24] Character Creation: Obligation, Actions, Attributes, Promises [00:35:29] Cycle of Plays, Obligation Phase [00:46:46] Downtime Phase [00:49:49] Mission Phase, Engagement Roll, Action Roll, Position/Effect, Resistance Roll [01:16:57] Fallout, Campaign TracksSupport the showThe Yes Indie'd Website // The Indie RPG Newsletter
Welcome to our third Halloween One-Shot, where the group plays Blades in the Dark by Evil Hat Productions!In the sunless streets of Duskvol, a group of scoundrels try and pull a dangerous job to earn enough money to eat a hot meal and keep themselves afloat just one more day. Join the crew of Limited Liability Purveyance--Junker, Pluck, Silk, Weaver, and XIII--as they seek profitable work in a haunted city without sunlight.Content Warning: Drug use; alcohol use; addiction; violence; sex; death; loss of bodily autonomy; sex work; poverty; prolonged hunger; gambling; tentacle sex; theft; criminal activity; language; CastGame Master: Erika WebbJunker: Tim DavisPluck: Rebecca SteigelfestSilk: Garrett GabbeyWeaver: Lex LopezXIII: Erika WebbBlades in the DarkDesigner: John HarperPublisher: Evil Hat ProductionsRecordingRebecca SteigelfestEditingRebecca SteigelfestMusicBehind the Curtain of Deceit by StudioKolomna, pixabay.comArtLogo: Rob MuirheadKo-Fi: ko-fi.com/pathofnightYouTube: YouTube.com/@pathofnightFacebook: Facebook.com/PathofNightPodcastTwitter: @PathofNightPodBluesky: pathofnight.bsky.socialEmail: pathofnightpodcast@gmail.com
Welcome to Summerfield where everything is fine! … As long as you ignore the unexplained and mysterious disasters, the near-constant bad omens, and oddly antagonistic PTA. Everyone has their ups and downs but it's never the end of the world. Most of the time. System: Monster of the Week by Evil Hat (https://evilhat.com/product/monster-of-the-week/) CAST: ➜GM: Clara ➜Blythe - Bastian Goodnow (he/him), The Summoned ➜Emily - Rachel Goodnow (she/her), The Expert ➜Jason ➜Teri - Logan Julian (Zie/Zer/Zers), The Hex ◇ Visit https://www.happyjacks.org/worldendsthursday/ for a full list of this campaign's videos and podcasts. ◇ Follow Happy Jacks RPG on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or hang out with other tabletop roleplaying fans in our Discord community! ◇ Subscribe to our other podcast feeds! We have a weekly tabletop RPG talk show based on topics sent in from fans around the world, and a great collection of One-Shots if you prefer bite sized adventures. ◇ You can watch us on Youtube or Twitch! ◇ Keep us independent by becoming a Patreon! Our fantastic supporters let us play and say what we want instead of catering to companies for ad or sponsorship money. They are HEROES! https://patreon.com/happyjacksrpg Ⓒ2023 Happy Jacks RPG Network https://www.happyjacks.org
Thomas Manuel of the Indie RPG Newsletter and the Yes Indie'd podcast joins me to talk about Secondary Missions, a mechanic from Band of Blades by Off Guard Games.In Band of Blades, a grim military fantasy forged in the dark game, you and your party go off and do missions. Meanwhile, there's a whole other squad out there doing a whole other mission! What's up with them? This mechanic tells us. It's such a change in the mouthfeel of Band of Blades compare to other forged in the dark games.We get into how it supports the genre and themes of the game, all the tough choices it puts in front of players, and how mechanics like this one that couldn't exist in any other game are often our favorites.It's a classic Dice Exploder deep dive this week. Enjoy.Further reading:* Blades in the Dark* Malazan Book of the Fallen* Band of Brothers* Darkest Dungeon* The Watch* Dream Askew // Dream ApartSocials:Thomas on itch and Twitter.Sam on Bluesky, Twitter, dice.camp, and itch.Our logo was designed by sporgory, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!Transcript:Sam: Hello and welcome to another episode of Dice Exploder. Each week we take a tabletop RPG mechanic and have its back as we head behind enemy lines. My name is Sam Dunnewold, and my co host is Thomas Manuel. Oh, so exciting. Thomas is an Indian playwright, journalist, and game designer. He runs the Indie RPG Newsletter, for my money one of the best sources of IndyRPG news on the internet and an easy subscribe. Plus he's the current host of the excellent Yes Indeed podcast. He's also the designer of This Ship is No Mother, a card based take on the kind of Mothership genre that's very much worth your time. Thomas is great, And he brought on a mechanic from Band of Blades, a grim military fantasy forged in the dark game from Off Guard Games and Evil Hat. Specifically, Thomas brought secondary missions.In Band of Blades, while you and your party are off doing one mission, there's a whole other squad over there doing a whole other mission's worth of stuff. What's up with them? This mechanic tells us.Secondary missions, have a deceptively big impact on the mouthfeel of Band of Blades. We get into how it supports the genre and themes of the game, all the tough choices it puts in front of players, and how mechanics like this one, that couldn't exist in any other game, are often at least my favorites. It's a classic Dice Exploder this week, a deep dive at its very best. Here is Thomas Manuel with Secondary Missions.Thomas, thanks for being here.Thomas: Thank you for inviting me. I'm so excited to talk about Band of Blades.Sam: Hell yeah. What is Band Blades?Thomas: Band of Blades is a sort of dark fantasy military take on the forge in the dark framework. Sam: Yeah. A band of Blades kind of play on Band of Brothers is where the name is coming from. Right?Thomas: Yeah, I, I assume it is a play on that, but it is also different enough from that show that I don't think people should use it as a touchstone. The premise of the game is that you play The Legion, which is an army that has just lost the decisive battle for the fate of humanity.There is an undead horde that is an existential threat to humanity. And we fought that battle and we lost it. And now the legion is in retreat. And it ends up being a kind of a point crawl where you're retreating from the location of the battle to a fort where you hope you can hold up there and figure things out and, you know, other pockets of the legion might end up there as well and that could be the last stand.Sam: Yeah. So we, before we get into specifics of what mechanic you brought from this I just wanna say, first of all, this game has like six different mechanics in it that I would be excited to do episodes on. Like truly there's so much innovative design in this game.And also I. I, I think it's okay. Like, I think it's a great game that was like an okay experience for me. It was like a little dark, like parts of it didn't quite, quite fit with me. Like, my experience with Band of Blades was that I'd started running a campaign in January of 2020 and it was going okay. We were like, kind of getting a feel for it when you know uh, March happened of 2020 and we were all like, this might be a little crunchier and darker than like, we wanna play right now.And I, I never really felt like it was something I was super drawn back to because I prefer a little bit more at that like minimalism level and there's, there's just so much game in this game but I, I really love so much of, of the innovation that went into this game.Thomas: I, I also think that this game is extremely innovative, like has, really interesting design. I think Off Guard Games, uh, Stras and John kind of have done so many interesting things that I am constantly coming back to it and learning stuff about design and like getting inspired by it. I ran, I think this is probably 2021. I, I ran the whole campaign uh, sort of reskinned for Malazan: Book of the Fallen and kinda set in that world if that, which, you know, I'm a big fan of that series. It's also sort of military fantasy and we ran the whole campaign and I, I really enjoyed it. I think it is, yeah, it does have some crunch. It does have some darkness, but I think it kind of balances it out really well for me. And yeah. I'm, glad we picked this one because this is in the spirit of taking something small that is not particularly discussed in the text and then kind of exploding it like, this is a great choice. Sam: Yeah, totally. So let's get into it. So what mechanic specifically did you bring?Thomas: So, yeah, we are gonna talk about secondary missions which I think in the text might be, you know, a page at most. And the idea is that like Blades or other games, one of the phases of play is a mission phase where you are going to take your player character and go out and do a mission that is going to help the legion.And then you come back and there's a second mission. There's a second mission that is other members of the Legion people you aren't controlling, what they did while you were out. And that is resolved with one dice roll. It's basically just the engagement roll. It's the same procedure as the engagement roll for the primary mission. You're gonna roll that engagement role and then just based on the result of that, of that one role, you're going to narrate how the secondary mission went. And yeah, it often goes really badly.Sam: Yeah, I mean, you have to do really well for like many people to not die. And band of Blades like has troupe play, so you're constantly rotating between characters. So you're often like sending out some of your faves onto this secondary mission. And whether or not they fucking die is gonna be determined by a single die roll.It's, it's hardcore.Thomas: It is. It is. And you know, I think it brings in that... like a war game needs to have a certain level of gravitas. And I think that's what the secondary mission is, is bringing.Sam: Yeah, totally. So, yeah, why did you bring this? Like what is it specifically about this that really made you wanna bring it on the show to talk?Thomas: Okay. So I have not seen a mechanic like this in another game. That isn't to say that it doesn't exist, but my experience of the secondary mission was that we would go on this primary mission ,and because this is a forged in the dark game, like our characters are awesome. We are going to go up against impossible odds and we are going to somehow, pull success out of the jaws of victory. And we are going to come home battered and bruised, but triumphant.And then we come back. And then we'd roll the secondary mission and we'd be like, fuck. War is hell. War is hell, and we can't save everybody. And it was often really powerful moments that led to things like, people like talking about like mourning and like how, you know, a character just died. Like how do we, how do we respond to that? Like what are the traditions around that stuff? Like in the Legion, it led to some really great moments. Yeah.Sam: Yeah. Another thing that it does with that sort of, you go off and like kick ass, then you come back to camp, is it gives you that feeling of you can't be everywhere at once. Like the Legion is bigger than just your playgroup. Like what? Any four of you, they're out on a mission or whatever. That there's all of these other people, like both doing their best and succeeding at times away from you and coming back victorious, but also often failing without you, and you just have to... it, it makes you feel small in this way that I think is really appropriate to that war setting.Thomas: Yeah. Yeah. I think through play is again, one of those other things that we could have been talking about today. And this is, yeah, it, it slots into troupe play like really well. And what it does and what true play really does is it makes this the story of the Legion.Sam: Yeah,Thomas: Like every individual character is, their own saga, living and dying. They have all the humanity that we associate, you know, that we want to inject into them and all of that stuff. But the story is the story of this Legion, which is, something greater than any individual.Sam: Yeah. You know, I was just in the Dice Exploder discord, hashtag Dice Exploder discord, this afternoon. We were having this like long conversation about the crew sheet in Blades and whether or not it's effective at what it's doing. Because a lot of people I think feel like the idea of the cruise sheet is really great and also people get attached to their own characters and don't want to... like you're focused on your character. You're not focused on the crew in the way that like Blades, I think, wants you to focus more on the crew at least according to my reading of the text.And I think Band of Blades really succeeds through troupe play explicitly and through mechanics like secondary missions at really doing the thing you're saying at, at foregrounding the story of the legion of the crew more than any individual in it.And that's really impressive.Thomas: Yeah, absolutely. I think that sort of gentle confusion about Blades as priorities is a part of the text. I think John Harper leaves the door open for troupe play but is also like, you know, people like to play their characters. So I'm gonna, I'm not gonna take a strong stance on that.But Band of Blades is like, there's a role called the Marshall, and they decide who goes on the mission, and they decide who's playing who.And I'm like, amazing.Sam: Well, it's, another thread from this conversation from this afternoon was like, a lot of people feeling like a lot of the mechanics on the Blades crew sheet are a bit unnecessary or just like not their favorite or a little bit more like paperwork like, as opposed to the mechanics on the playbooks. And band of Blades actually, like this is another mechanic from this game we could have spent a whole episode on like it's dividing up like the GM role in some ways and like all of this paperwork stuff among different roles at camp that all the players get to play like the Marshall, like you're saying. But somehow like bringing in even more crunch to that the, that crew role basically it, instead of feeling like, oh my God, I'm like drowning in the crunch, it, it really does pull you up into that Marshall level, that bird's eye view of the legion as a whole, as opposed to being down with your individual guy or, or whoever.Thomas: Yeah. Yeah. I think, you know, in terms of GM load, Band of Blades is doing something amazing with that restructuring that we're talking about. And in that sense, the secondary mission roll is also a part of that because what, what the secondary mission does, it takes the pressure off you as the GM to drive home a kind of misery in the primary mission.Like if you as the GM are like, I'm playing a war story. I need to bring these elements of tragedy into it, like the primary mission, players should and can succeed. And because the secondary mission and the design of the game is going to help you hit those notes and that is such a huge relief that the game allows you to simultaneously be a generous and a fan of the players while still still able to experience those themes, you know.Sam: yeah, yeah. Yeah. Another thing I like about it is how the choice of what mission is going to be the primary mission, what mission is going to be the secondary mission. And sometimes you have like a third mission that you just can't do because you don't have the people and you automatically fail it.And that choice of which of these are we gonna prioritize is a really interesting choice every time. I think a lot of that theme that we've been talking about of this being a game of is clearly a game about war and making almost like resource choices almost that like the kind of cold math you have to do in war with human life, I think it, is really highlighted every time you have to choose what mission is gonna be primary and what's gonna be secondary.Thomas: Yeah, I think there are a series of games, especially video games that have this trend of what you're actually doing is you're playing the world's worst HR manager. You know what I mean? Like, like Darkest Dungeon is a good example, right? Like, you are just sending these folks into a bad situation and then you're like, putting them in a, in a bar a church and saying, deal with your stress and come out and then you go back in.And there is a certain kind of inhumanity in that, that that cold calculating thing that you're doing. And I think Band of Blades for me specifically does a better job of that than those games. Like there is in some sense because it's a role playing game. Like you are never really treating anybody as a pawn, like you're feeling their feelings. And it is always like this hard choice to be like, Um, the most common result of the secondary mission roll is the four to five, right? Like that is, you know, it's very common to get one to three, but maybe six. And the critical result is the only result in which nothing bad happens. So, on the four to five, you are given this difficult choice of saying either fail the mission and all the troops return unharmed, or you succeed the mission, two squad members die and all the specialists take some harm. Which are wounds.And what is interesting is while so much of the game is very clear about who makes what call - Commander, you decide whether the Legion moves. Marshall, you decide who goes on the mission - the question of how the table decides this call is not explicit. The only way for us to decide, you know, it isn't the Marsh's decision, it's we all sit and we go like, oh my God, if we succeed, who is dying? And everyone has to kind of like have that thing of like, I don't, I, I don't know. And sometimes it's fine. Like it's a really important mission. You're like, we have to succeed. But sometimes you are like, nah, let's, let's fail this. Like we can eat the failure, but you know, we can't lose people.Sam: I will not have my wonderful bug man die. Like I'm too in love. Like... and no, that's, that's a great observation about Not having a specific person make this choice, unlike a lot of the rest of the game. It almost feels like you all have to get your hands bloody in this choice. Like, it's not letting anyone off the hook. You all have to put your stab into the murder victim's back, like,Thomas: Oh, that is so good. Yeah.Sam: It's, yeah, no one gets to sit this one out.Thomas: Yeah. And yeah, often you fail and then you just feel that failure. And that's, in some sense, that's easier. It's, it's simpler. It's simpler than the four to five, likeSam: If everyone is just sad, at least they're alive. But like sometimes, sometimes also the mission is like save a small town from being eaten by zombies and you're like I mean, they're probably gonna die when the zombies get here anyway. We'll save our two guys. Let's, let's move on. Let's move on. And it's, it's like, it's hard. It's hard choices.Thomas: Yeah, it is. It is. I think that is... a lot of this game is supposed to be hard choices, but I think there are various kinds of hard choices. There's the tactical choices, which is, you know, a lot of the crunch of the game is like, let's make cool tactical decisions about, you know, setting us up for success when we reach our, our destination, which is Skydagger Keep.But a lot of the, the decisions are also just emotional you know, just in terms of like what narrative we want and we've talked about like not letting people die. There's also this moment of your like, I think it's this character dies and I think that is appropriate. I think there's a moment in the Band of Blades actual play on the Actual Play channel where I think they fail a secondary roll or they get a four, five or whatever and they, two, two characters just had a fight in the, in the previous session, in, in the downtime phase or whatever, and they're like one of them died and the other person is going to have to live with the fact that the last thing that they interacted with this person was a fight. Sam: Yeah. Thomas: You know, and I'm like, awesome.Sam: We touched on this, but I really wanna highlight explicitly how this mechanic forces you into the position of doing the math with human life, but it does it without dehumanizing people. That the exact moment you just described is always the thing that you're thinking about as you make this decision that largely comes down to numbers.I, I also wanna say like, I think fundamentally the most interesting part of roleplaying games, oh, story games for me is characters making hard decisions. And not just this mechanic, but this game is absolutely riddled with hard decisions. You also were just saying that, but I, I just think it's so cool to see a mechanic that is so explicitly and reliably, that's the other thing, reliably putting a hard decision in front of people.Thomas: Yeah. You can play Band of Blades and you will have the experience that this game wants if you're willing to engage with the game on its terms and like treat these characters like as people and all this stuff, which most people playing this game will do.But that hard decision stuff, like, yeah, I think it's perfectly fine to flag that that can become grinding down. Like I know some people, Paul Beakley, I think on the Indie Game Reading Club has an article about Band of Blades. He describes how at the end of the campaign, everyone was kind of tired. And that was not my experience, but I, I get it. Like, I guess, you know, that is something that can happen both thematically and mechanically Sam: Yeah, of course. Yeah. Yeah. That's like in a lot of ways that exhaustion I think is part of what the game is about.Thomas: But I, I mean, I think it's still supposed to be fun.Sam: Yeah. Yeah. It is. It is. And we did a whole episode in season one on The Watch. Right? Which is also, I think a lot about not like, can you win the war. But what is the cost of war? How do you live with the cost of war? And, and this is another game that is even more explicit about that, I think, than The Watch is, which is already pretty explicit about it.Like, you, you're not winning. You lost, like, what, cost are you gonna pay?Thomas: Yeah, I think if you are making a war game, you have to be really conscious about, you know, what you're saying about war. And yeah, both of these games, I think The Watch is, kind of using war as, as metaphor and Band of Blades is again, sort of like, very consciously stripping the glory out of this.Like, this is not that game. Which Band of brothers to some extent does have, right? It's, it's a show that it know, you know, war is awful, but like these characters are, are noble and brave and righteous and all of that to some extent. And this game is like, if we focus on the fact that it's a retreat, we can tell an interesting and sometimes under explored facet of war stories.Sam: Yeah, I should state for the record, I've never actually seen Band of Brothers, so I, I, I cannot actually speak to it, but but the, the other thing I wanted to just touch on in all that is just how brutal this game can be and like, very clearly and, and intentionally. And this particular mechanic as we've kind of discussed, I think is especially about brutality. Like when you fail, just three people die. And like several more are like critically wounded. Like you could just wipe out and every person who dies like Thomas: half a squad. Sam: And like the morale is hard to keep up in this game. And you fail one secondary mission and you're just, the whole legion is in so much trouble.It's a hard game. There's a, but you know what? You know what rule we really should have done a whole episode on is the single sentence in Band of Blades "this is a game you can lose." Like it's, yeah, it's a lot.Thomas: Again, like why is that sentence there? Why is this game that you can lose when role playing games usually aren't? And I think, again, that all flows from the decision to make a game about war. And you touched upon this adjacent mechanic, which is morale, which we should clarify that. Like, anytime a member of the legion dies, the legion loses morale and, you lose enough morale, you lose the game.Sam: Yeah. Yeah.Thomas: And other things also, but like yeah. Worse situation. Yeah. The game's over. And yeah, one failure can demoralize the squad in a huge way. And also like if you lose three squad members, a, a squad is like five people. They've lost more than half your squad. All your specialists are, you know, who went on the mission are beaten up. Yeah, it is. It is awful. And so what usually happens is that people will look at the primary mission and say, okay, we are going on this, so we failed the resource here. The fact that we are awesome and we can do stuff, let's load out the secondary mission with the best, best, you know, assets we can give it like Quartermaster, can we send them with like extra supplies? Like, you know what, what do we have to like, increase the odds there? And, and I think that is also like a kind of fun and meaningful choice. Yeah.Sam: There's something really nice in that, about how this mechanic is sort of indirectly encouraging you to be empathetic to that secondary squad. It's like, don't you love them? Don't you like feel for what they're about to go through? Like you should care about them, you should give them the extra ammo.Yeah, Is there anything about this mechanic that you have trouble with or that bumps you?Thomas: It can, if your primary mission has gone badly, it can be a second punch in the face. Like, I think, I think that is that is a thing. But otherwise nothing specifically that I can, that I can think of that is like an issue I have with it or I will change the design or something. Sam: Yeah. Thomas: Yeah. Sam: Another thing, look, one of the first things you said on this episode was that you've never seen another mechanic like this one. And I think that's a testament to how specific to the setting and genre and story that Band of Blades is telling this mechanic is.And I always love it. I love it when I see mechanics like that because I literally just before this recording, moments before this recording, wrapped up a forged in the dark Pirates campaign with one of my home groups where we just weren't using an established setting. We just like have played a lot of Blades and we were like, eh, I'll make up some special abilities and go. And it worked totally fine and for a lot of ideas I can just do that.But it, it takes. Like the new systems, the new games that are really interesting to me are the games that have mechanics like this one that are so bespoke, so tailor made to what this game is doing. And I really love that. I really really respect mechanics like that.Thomas: Yeah, and it is again a testament to band Blades, good design, and why I want to talk about, 'cause I think it's completely like under-discussed. I think we should all be talking about it all the time, is the fact that all of this is so like, enmeshed together. Right? In some sense the secondary roll is necessitated because forged in the dark is such an empowering framework for players.Right. Like, how do I tell a war story with this? And you, and you started that question and then something like this is almost, almost required. I would, I wouldn't have thought of it, but it does, it does like something like this is needed once you decide to go with this framework. And I think, yeah, it is, It does feel like something bespoke and tailor made that has then through play testing kind of integrated into everything smoothly and perfectly.Sam: Yeah. So after you've made the secondary mission roll and you've kind of determined the results of it, there's then this moment that the book encourages of you to sit at the table and sort of flesh out the story of what happened on that secondary mission. Like, you know what the goal of the mission was and you know how many people got fucked up and or died on the mission.But there's a lot between point A and point B there. So it kind of sets you up to devise this short story together of what happened on this secondary mission.And I think it does a good job of giving you enough handholds of what was the beginning and what was the end of that story, to kind of flesh it out such that it doesn't really need a framework of doing that in between. And that in itself is like pretty impressive to me.Sometimes you'll be given a mechanic as you're playing a game, like the game will present you with a mechanic where it, it has a little bit of that, like now draw the rest of the owl feeling to it. Where, where it's asking you to, fill in the blanks on something that it has not set you up well enough to fill in the blanks on. And this moment of fleshing out what happened on the secondary mission in some ways feels like drawing the rest of the owl, but in a way where like I feel empowered to draw the rest of the owl. And that's, that's cool.Thomas: And you know, one reason is that as a GM, before the Commander makes the decision of which is the primary and secondary mission, you fleshed out both equally, right? Like you have as much information on one than the other. So you're starting off in a good place, you're not taking it lightly.And then, yeah, when we get to the result, like there is this question like immediately that comes to mind of like, how did this happen? Like, you know we chose that as a secondary mission 'cause maybe we thought it was safer. And you know, we have to now, now sort of at the table discuss and figure it out because also we might be in the next primary mission playing the people who went on this mission, right?Like, we want to, we want to reflect the fact that, you know, I just broke my shoulder like last time and I'm coming like half patched up into this one. Stuff like that, like, yeah.Sam: Maybe we encountered like a new type of zombie for the first time. And so Thomas: Mm. Sam: that specialist is the only one who's seen that type of zombie before and that's gonna come up next time. They can be the person who's like Uhoh on the next mission and, and do that foreshadowing, but all that, all that.And they can also be like the person telling the horrible war story, like around the campfire, like the ghost story almost of what happened. That can be in itself, a cool downtime scene.Thomas: Yeah, I think that is actually a thing that comes up regularly often where you want to contextualize what happened on a mission to the other characters, not necessarily the players. So you wanna see it through one character's eye, like what they experienced and stuff like that. 'cause if you're going to limp home limp back to camp, you know, half your squad gone, people know it went horribly wrong. And you know, there is like, there is just this sense of like, you know, at some point we need to know why. And often it's at like the Commander Marshall level where, you know, you might role play like having a character debrief the senior officers going like, this is, this is what happened. And the senior officers had to sit around going, Yeah, it's our fault, you know, like, we made that call and we have to settle with it. Yeah.Sam: Yeah. Or like maybe you decide that one person who came back alive really was at fault and you hold a disciplinary meeting for them. Right? Like Thomas: Oh, wow. Yeah. Sam: Um, a specialist who comes back injured and carrying tons of guilt, like, yikes, I, let's do it.There's another line at the end of the procedure here that is, if any squad members died, ask someone what they remember most about one of them, which is really just like sticking a finger in the wound. Right. It, it, it's making sure if it wasn't clear enough already, like you are supposed to feel these deaths.Thomas: Yeah. Yeah. It is again, just and, and if people are sort of hearing this and going, oh, this is a bit, this is a bit much like I cannot overstate how much the primary missions can be just a joy, like a complete, like you can, you can be in this dark fantasy world of zombies. And you know, the humanity has lost the war.But like when you start a primary mission, like when I was playing it very often my players would absolutely flub the engagement roll. And they would start in like a desperate position and I'd really kind of revel in like, how screwed they were. And then they would just go, okay, flashback, this was the plan all along, this is the diversion. I'd be like, shut the.Sam: Flashback this, resist that. Yeah. I've got some explosives in my back pocket. It's all fine. There's, you, you say there's a broken themselves, one of the head zombies coming in to kill us? Like that's fine. We'll just collapse a church on their head. It'll be fine.Um, Thomas: We prepared for this all along.Sam: Yeah. Yeah. It's cool to have both of those dualities in the game, like to have the wild successes. 'cause that also feels like a part of war is like sometimes you do get those miraculous victories too.Thomas: Yeah, I will say that, and this is something that I'm still unpacking, but it can't be overstated how much culturally we have this fantasy, especially for young men of like the greatest destiny being that you gave your life on the battlefield, right? Like that you took a bullet for your comrade.Like that is such a powerful you know, cultural feeling, I think. So And it is hard to sort of have that feeling in games that don't, at the end of it, make you go, okay, yeah, I think we might have glorified war there.Sam: Yeah.Thomas: and it is this game this game lets you do that.So I am, I am going to unrelentingly recommend this to folks even though it can be dark. Like I think you have control of that dial to a huge extent. And you can You can make sure that this is a fun and pleasurable experience.Sam: All right. What mechanic from Band of Blades should I do an episode about next?Thomas: I mean, I think the immediate one that comes to mind is the idea of roles. That the one thing that players have continuity on is that they're either the Commander or the Marshal or the Quartermaster or optionally the spy or, and the Lorekeeper, I think.And yeah, they just, they just divide the GM role in a nice way. Primarily because like, those are now player responsibilities, right? It's the Marshal's responsibility to name every member in the squad as in when they need a name. It's not the GM's job, you know. And that you know, you might think that a small thing, but it's, it's a big thing.So I, I think that's an obvious other thing to kind of discuss all the ways in which Band of Blades gently and, sophisticatedly kind of divides that, GM experience.Sam: Yeah. It both distributes all the paperwork and bookkeeping that the GM or someone would have to be doing among several people so that no one person is fully responsible, and by doing so, it puts more hard choices into the hands of each player.Thomas: Yeah, and it also facilitates their mutual cooperation, right? Like when, when you have a sense of like, whose final call this is, like that doesn't mean you're not gonna discuss it. You're gonna discuss it and then someone has final call and you're going to respect that. And that does a lot for having straightforward and fluid like conversations.Sam: Yeah. Well maybe I'll have you back in a year or two uh, to do that one. Um, But uh, this was excellent. This was great. Thanks for for being here and talking about secondary missions with me.Thomas: Thanks so much. I am thinking about Band of Blades like all the time, you've just given me an opportunity to like talk about it, but if you had it, it'd just be me in my head thinking about it.Sam: Thanks again to Thomas for being here. You can find him on socials at chaibypost, C H A I B Y P O S T, but in my opinion, you're better off just subscribing to the Indie RPG Newsletter and the Yes Indie'd podcast. Links for all that in the show notes. As always, you can find me on socials at sdunnewold, bluesky, and itch preferred, and there's a Dice Exploder Discord! Come on by, talk about the show, and if you've backed the Kickstarter, claim your fancy pants roll. Our logo was designed by sporgory, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Gray.Thanks, as always, to you for listening. See ya next time. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit diceexploder.substack.com
Hi this is Meghan Griffin, the Creative Director over at Welcomed to Reddington. Reddington is a fictional town in New Hampshire where the citizens all think they've been in town for awhile, if not their entire lives. Various folks have been tasked with mandatory community service by the shadowy, secretive Town Council. Guided by the Council's mysterious spokesperson known only as "Wendy,"who I also play, the citizens start to realize their small town is not quite as normal or safe as they originally believed. Using new found coworkers, or dare I say friends?, can anyone see past the distractions to the bigger mystery, before it's too late? Welcome to Reddington is a multi-narrative, audio improv podcast uniquely using Evil Hat's Monster of the Week's gaming system as guided improv. While we do roll dice, we edit to focus more on storytelling. In other words, you won't find dice rolls or game system talk here. The episode you're about to listen to is Mystery 8.5, Part III, The He-Man Prophecies - Tendril, Love, and Care. Normal male human werewolf CiCi Stratos is putting together a team of fighters to go save their friend Flergie, the three eyed psychic green tiger who they've recently learned is still alive, though trapped in a laboratory. The last episode of this mystery ended with CiCi eating a magical rice krispy treat made by Nilus that's having some strange side effects. Enjoy! cw: Frequent swearing and some light horror https://feathered-frequency.com/welcome-to-reddington/ Socials: Tumblr: https://ouamotw.tumblr.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ouamotw/
Support the show on PatreonThe first episode in a series of special episodes meant to teach some of my favourite indie RPGs. Listen in to hear Rae Nedjadi, designer of Apocalypse Keys, teach you how to play his game. In Apocalypse Keys, you play OMEN-class monsters working for an organisation named DIVISION tasked with holding back the apocalypse. Inspired by Hellboy and BPRD, the players struggle to find Keys before the villainous Harbingers unlock the Doors of Power and bring doom on the world. You can learn more on the Evil Hat website or on the itch page. Transcript of the entire episode can be found here.Timestamps:[00:05:36] Part One - Introduction[00:12:46] Part Two - Character Creation: Name, Origins, Prophecy[00:24:19] Part Three - Darkness Tokens, Powers of Darkness, What the Darkness Demands[00:35:28] Part Four - Basic Moves, Conditions[01:00:00] Part Five - Ruin, Ruin Moves, Bonds, End of Session[01:13:53] Part Six - Building out DIVISION, Running A MysterySupport the showThe Yes Indie'd Website // The Indie RPG Newsletter
Welcome to Summerfield where everything is fine! … As long as you ignore the unexplained and mysterious disasters, the near-constant bad omens, and oddly antagonistic PTA. Everyone has their ups and downs but it's never the end of the world. Most of the time. System: Monster of the Week by Evil Hat (https://evilhat.com/product/monster-of-the-week/) CAST: ➜GM: Clara ➜Blythe - Bastian Goodnow (he/him), The Summoned ➜Emily - Rachel Goodnow (she/her), The Expert ➜Sloan - Michael (She/They), The Divine ➜Teri - Logan Julian (Zie/Zer/Zers), The Hex ◇ Visit https://www.happyjacks.org/worldendsthursday/ for a full list of this campaign's videos and podcasts. ◇ Follow Happy Jacks RPG on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or hang out with other tabletop roleplaying fans in our Discord community! ◇ Subscribe to our other podcast feeds! We have a weekly tabletop RPG talk show based on topics sent in from fans around the world, and a great collection of One-Shots if you prefer bite sized adventures. ◇ You can watch us on Youtube or Twitch! ◇ Keep us independent by becoming a Patreon! Our fantastic supporters let us play and say what we want instead of catering to companies for ad or sponsorship money. They are HEROES! https://patreon.com/happyjacksrpg Ⓒ2023 Happy Jacks RPG Network https://www.happyjacks.org
Welcome to Summerfield where everything is fine! … As long as you ignore the unexplained and mysterious disasters, the near-constant bad omens, and oddly antagonistic PTA. Everyone has their ups and downs but it's never the end of the world. Most of the time. System: Monster of the Week by Evil Hat (https://evilhat.com/product/monster-of-the-week/) CAST: ➜GM: Clara ➜Blythe - Bastian Goodnow (he/him), The Summoned ➜Emily - Rachel Goodnow (she/her), The Expert ➜Sloan - Michael (She/They), The Divine ➜Teri - Logan Julian (Zie/Zer/Zers), The Hex ◇ Visit https://www.happyjacks.org/worldendsthursday/ for a full list of this campaign's videos and podcasts. ◇ Follow Happy Jacks RPG on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or hang out with other tabletop roleplaying fans in our Discord community! ◇ Subscribe to our other podcast feeds! We have a weekly tabletop RPG talk show based on topics sent in from fans around the world, and a great collection of One-Shots if you prefer bite sized adventures. ◇ You can watch us on Youtube or Twitch! ◇ Keep us independent by becoming a Patreon! Our fantastic supporters let us play and say what we want instead of catering to companies for ad or sponsorship money. They are HEROES! https://patreon.com/happyjacksrpg Ⓒ2023 Happy Jacks RPG Network https://www.happyjacks.org
This week, Morrus, Peter, and Jessica talk about pay rates for writers in the RPG industry. In the news, free Baldur's Gate Gazetteer from D&D Beyond, Matthew Lillard launches D&D-themed bourbon, details released for Assassin's Creed RPG from CMON, and more! Plus a brand new sketch about what makes an appropriate battlecry. -------------------- News Baldur's Gate Gazetteer Free on D&D Beyond https://www.enworld.org/threads/d-d-beyond-offers-a-free-baldurs-gate-gazetteer.699423/ Matthew Lillard launches D&D-themed bourbon https://www.enworld.org/threads/beadle-grimms-matthew-lillard-launches-d-d-themed-bourbon.699454/ The Merry Mushmen https://www.themerrymushmen.com Sneak Peak of Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk https://www.enworld.org/threads/sneak-peak-of-phandelver-and-below-the-shattered-obelisk.699396/ Beth Rimmels reviews The Practically complete Guide to Dragons https://www.enworld.org/threads/the-practically-complete-guide-to-dragons-review.699385/ Assassin's Creed TTRPG https://www.enworld.org/threads/cmon-releases-details-on-assassins-creed-ttrpg.699453/ Witcher RPG hiatus https://www.enworld.org/threads/r-talsorian-updates-on-cyberpunk-red-the-witcher-and-a-new-secret-project.699452/ Play Renegade public event promotional program https://www.enworld.org/threads/renegade-game-studios-announces-new-public-event-support-program.699458/ Meal Train fundraiser for Meguey Baker and family https://www.mealtrain.com/trains/lk908w/ SOE Sourcebook from Russell Phillips Kickstarter pre-launch page https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/russellphillips/soe-sourcebook The Codex of Worlds for Monster of the Week from Evil Hat https://www.enworld.org/threads/the-codex-of-worlds-sourcebook-released-for-evil-hats-monster-of-the-week.699459/ Puzzling Encounters for 5e from EN Publishing on Kickstarter now https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/enworld/puzzling-encounters EN Publishing August 2023 Update https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIzqxPwHk0E&t=613s Munchkin Paranoia https://www.enworld.org/threads/steve-jackson-games-announces-munchkin-paranoia.699457/ -------------------- RPG Freelance Rates What Are The Current Freelance Writing Rates in the TTRPG Industry? https://www.enworld.org/threads/what-are-the-current-freelance-writing-rates-in-the-ttrpg-industry.699085/ 2015 article “What's a Freelance RPG Writer Worth?” https://www.enworld.org/threads/whats-a-freelance-rpg-writer-worth.662811/ -------------------- Please support us on Patreon at http://patreon.com/morrus Don't forget to join the Morrus' Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1033145023517295/ and join us on Discord at https://discord.gg/VAuxX8M Ask your Listener Question on Twitter, email morruspodcast@gmail.com, or contact us on TikTok at TikTok -------------------- Hosts: Russ “Morrus” Morrissey, Peter Coffey, and Jessica Hancock Editing and post-production: Darryl Mott Theme Song: Steve Arnott Malach the Maleficent played by Darren Morrissey Check out all the media content from EN World at http://enliverpg.com
Welcome to Summerfield where everything is fine! … As long as you ignore the unexplained and mysterious disasters, the near-constant bad omens, and oddly antagonistic PTA. Everyone has their ups and downs but it's never the end of the world. Most of the time. System: Monster of the Week by Evil Hat (https://evilhat.com/product/monster-of-the-week/) CAST: ➜GM: Clara ➜Blythe - Bastian Goodnow (he/him), The Summoned ➜Emily - Rachel Goodnow (she/her), The Expert ➜Sloan - Michael (She/They), The Divine ➜Teri - Logan Julian (Zie/Zer/Zers), The Hex ◇ Visit https://www.happyjacks.org/worldendsthursday/ for a full list of this campaign's videos and podcasts. ◇ Follow Happy Jacks RPG on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or hang out with other tabletop roleplaying fans in our Discord community! ◇ Subscribe to our other podcast feeds! We have a weekly tabletop RPG talk show based on topics sent in from fans around the world, and a great collection of One-Shots if you prefer bite sized adventures. ◇ You can watch us on Youtube or Twitch! ◇ Keep us independent by becoming a Patreon! Our fantastic supporters let us play and say what we want instead of catering to companies for ad or sponsorship money. They are HEROES! https://patreon.com/happyjacksrpg Ⓒ2023 Happy Jacks RPG Network https://www.happyjacks.org
This week, Sam talks with wendi yu about the Fate Point economy, a meta currency system from Fate by Fred Hicks and Rob Donoghue and published by Evil Hat. Some topics discussed include:* Getting into storygames* “Generic” RPGs* When crunch kills the vibe* The Hero's Journey* The (lack of) difference between rules and flavor* Writing good aspects: it's hard!* wendi's game here, there, be monsters!You can find wendi on Twitter @wen_di_yu, and you can buy here, there, be monsters! digitally on itch or physically from SoulMuppet.You can find Sam @sdunnewold on Bluesky, Twitter, dice.camp, and itch.io, and by subscribing to the Dice Exploder newsletter.You can find Fate at Evil Hat.The Dice Exploder logo is by sporgory, and the theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit diceexploder.substack.com
Welcome to Summerfield where everything is fine! … As long as you ignore the unexplained and mysterious disasters, the near-constant bad omens, and oddly antagonistic PTA. Everyone has their ups and downs but it's never the end of the world. Most of the time. System: Monster of the Week by Evil Hat (https://evilhat.com/product/monster-of-the-week/) CAST: ➜GM: Clara ➜Blythe - Bastian Goodnow (he/him), The Summoned ➜Emily - Rachel Goodnow (she/her), The Expert ➜Sloan - Michael (She/They), The Divine ➜Teri - Logan Julian (Zie/Zer/Zers), The Hex ◇ Visit https://www.happyjacks.org/worldendsthursday/ for a full list of this campaign's videos and podcasts. ◇ Follow Happy Jacks RPG on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or hang out with other tabletop roleplaying fans in our Discord community! ◇ Subscribe to our other podcast feeds! We have a weekly tabletop RPG talk show based on topics sent in from fans around the world, and a great collection of One-Shots if you prefer bite sized adventures. ◇ You can watch us on Youtube or Twitch! ◇ Keep us independent by becoming a Patreon! Our fantastic supporters let us play and say what we want instead of catering to companies for ad or sponsorship money. They are HEROES! https://patreon.com/happyjacksrpg Ⓒ2023 Happy Jacks RPG Network https://www.happyjacks.org
Welcome to Summerfield where everything is fine! … As long as you ignore the unexplained and mysterious disasters, the near-constant bad omens, and oddly antagonistic PTA. Everyone has their ups and downs but it's never the end of the world. Most of the time. System: Monster of the Week by Evil Hat (https://evilhat.com/product/monster-of-the-week/) CAST: ➜GM: Clara ➜Blythe - Bastian Goodnow (he/him), The Summoned ➜Emily - Rachel Goodnow (she/her), The Expert ➜Sloan - Michael (She/They), The Divine ➜Teri - Logan Julian (Zie/Zer/Zers), The Hex ◇ Visit https://www.happyjacks.org/worldendsthursday/ for a full list of this campaign's videos and podcasts. ◇ Follow Happy Jacks RPG on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or hang out with other tabletop roleplaying fans in our Discord community! ◇ Subscribe to our other podcast feeds! We have a weekly tabletop RPG talk show based on topics sent in from fans around the world, and a great collection of One-Shots if you prefer bite sized adventures. ◇ You can watch us on Youtube or Twitch! ◇ Keep us independent by becoming a Patreon! Our fantastic supporters let us play and say what we want instead of catering to companies for ad or sponsorship money. They are HEROES! https://patreon.com/happyjacksrpg Ⓒ2023 Happy Jacks RPG Network https://www.happyjacks.org
Welcome to Summerfield where everything is fine! … As long as you ignore the unexplained and mysterious disasters, the near-constant bad omens, and oddly antagonistic PTA. Everyone has their ups and downs but it's never the end of the world. Most of the time. System: Monster of the Week by Evil Hat (https://evilhat.com/product/monster-of-the-week/) CAST: ➜GM: Clara ➜Blythe - Bastian Goodnow (he/him), The Summoned ➜Emily - Rachel Goodnow (she/her), The Expert ➜Sloan - Michael (She/They), The Divine ➜Teri - Logan Julian (Zie/Zer/Zers), The Hex ◇ Visit https://www.happyjacks.org/worldendsthursday/ for a full list of this campaign's videos and podcasts. ◇ Follow Happy Jacks RPG on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or hang out with other tabletop roleplaying fans in our Discord community! ◇ Subscribe to our other podcast feeds! We have a weekly tabletop RPG talk show based on topics sent in from fans around the world, and a great collection of One-Shots if you prefer bite sized adventures. ◇ You can watch us on Youtube or Twitch! ◇ Keep us independent by becoming a Patreon! Our fantastic supporters let us play and say what we want instead of catering to companies for ad or sponsorship money. They are HEROES! https://patreon.com/happyjacksrpg Ⓒ2023 Happy Jacks RPG Network https://www.happyjacks.org
Welcome to Summerfield where everything is fine! … As long as you ignore the unexplained and mysterious disasters, the near-constant bad omens, and oddly antagonistic PTA. Everyone has their ups and downs but it's never the end of the world. Most of the time. System: Monster of the Week by Evil Hat (https://evilhat.com/product/monster-of-the-week/) CAST: ➜GM: Clara ➜Blythe - Bastian Goodnow (he/him), The Summoned ➜Emily - Rachel Goodnow (she/her), The Expert ➜Sloan - Michael (She/They), The Divine ➜Teri - Logan Julian (Zie/Zer/Zers), The Hex ◇ Visit https://www.happyjacks.org/worldendsthursday/ for a full list of this campaign's videos and podcasts. ◇ Follow Happy Jacks RPG on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or hang out with other tabletop roleplaying fans in our Discord community! ◇ Subscribe to our other podcast feeds! We have a weekly tabletop RPG talk show based on topics sent in from fans around the world, and a great collection of One-Shots if you prefer bite sized adventures. ◇ You can watch us on Youtube or Twitch! ◇ Keep us independent by becoming a Patreon! Our fantastic supporters let us play and say what we want instead of catering to companies for ad or sponsorship money. They are HEROES! https://patreon.com/happyjacksrpg Ⓒ2023 Happy Jacks RPG Network https://www.happyjacks.org
Welcome to Summerfield where everything is fine! … As long as you ignore the unexplained and mysterious disasters, the near-constant bad omens, and oddly antagonistic PTA. Everyone has their ups and downs but it's never the end of the world. Most of the time. System: Monster of the Week by Evil Hat (https://evilhat.com/product/monster-of-the-week/) CAST: ➜GM: Clara ➜Blythe - Bastian Goodnow (he/him), The Summoned ➜Emily - Rachel Goodnow (she/her), The Expert ➜Sloan - Michael (She/They), The Divine ➜Teri - Logan Julian (Zie/Zer/Zers), The Hex ◇ Visit https://www.happyjacks.org/worldendsthursday/ for a full list of this campaign's videos and podcasts. ◇ Follow Happy Jacks RPG on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or hang out with other tabletop roleplaying fans in our Discord community! ◇ Subscribe to our other podcast feeds! We have a weekly tabletop RPG talk show based on topics sent in from fans around the world, and a great collection of One-Shots if you prefer bite sized adventures. ◇ You can watch us on Youtube or Twitch! ◇ Keep us independent by becoming a Patreon! Our fantastic supporters let us play and say what we want instead of catering to companies for ad or sponsorship money. They are HEROES! https://patreon.com/happyjacksrpg Ⓒ2023 Happy Jacks RPG Network https://www.happyjacks.org
We're back, for a limited time to share a game we really enjoyed playing. You can find Girl By Moonlight on Backerkit right now! We love seeing more games using Forged in the Dark, and especially games from Evil Hat. The crowd funding ends on June 22, 2023 so make sure to check it out now! A group of ordinary people with an extraordinary identity enter the Maze of Dreams GM: Aser Players: Jonn, Lillie, Lorelai, Megan, Phae System: Forged in the Dark Steampunk by Denis Sivtsev Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/5956-steampunk License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ You can find us on Discord! Want to hear more from us? Check out our other shows! The Amber Clave- a Numenera Actual Play Podcast Gold Wings, Black Skies- a streamed Tachyon Squadron show Firefly Podcast - a Firefly AP podcast
Episode 175 - Paragon System with Sean Nittner and Tim Denee If you're a fan of the show, you'll know we love AGON, powered by the Paragon system. This time the lads are delighted to be joined by Sean Nittner, the co-author and independent game designer Tim Denee, who's done some great stuff with the game. Come on in for a deep dive on the game design process, what makes these sets of games great and how to squeeze more gaming juice from your sessions! Evil Hat have a ton of great games you can peruse for your delectation on their website. You can see more of Tim's great work on his website, Old Dog Games If you're in the US, or plan on travelling there for a convention, find out about Big Bad Con here. If you dig actual plays and reviews of played modules, check out the new YouTube channel. Get in touch, the lads love to hear from you!Twitters: twitter.com/the_smart_partyEmail: thesmartparty@hotmail.comKo-Fi: ko-fi.com/thesmartpartyPatreons: patreon.com/thesmartparty We always welcome lovely reviews on iTunes or elsewhere too. If you're less keen, give us a shout, we'd are open to development opportunities! :)
This episode carries a content note for transformation, violence, body horror, magical waste, and tentaclesAt the brink of disaster, Nina faces her moment of truth. When the dust settles, the Dream Knights deal with the fallout as Cloud Harbor reels from the activation of the Eye.Fractal Spire is a joint production with Greg's Twitch channel, playing Girl by Moonlight by Andrew Gillis (forthcoming from Evil Hat Productions). We are grateful for the sponsorship and support provided by Evil Hat in helping us make this show.Brandon O'Brien (@therisingtithes) is the Stage Manager for the cast of Valerie Valdes (@valerievaldes), Iori Kusano (@iorikusano), Jeoi Gawain Lin (@thisismydasein), and Michael R. Underwood (@mikerunderwood).Check out our new Court of Blades series “Valloward” at https://bit.ly/3yh6BxhWatch our completed series “Splendour and Shadow” and “The Case of the Cindered Seal” at Youtube.com/ArvanEleron.Help us make the show the best it can be by becoming a subscriber to our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/speculate – You'll also get even more content (including Fractal Spire extras, bonus episodes, access to behind-the-scenes material like GM streams and session zero recordings, and more!)This episode was edited by the amazing Rudy Basso (find him at https://twitter.com/RudyBasso). As always, thanks for listening!
This episode carries a content note for transformation, violence, body horror, magical waste, and tentaclesThe Host of the Conspiracy reveals themself. Rüstem has a rough time. Ruthless and Deed join the fray.Fractal Spire is a joint production with Greg's Twitch channel, playing Girl by Moonlight by Andrew Gillis (forthcoming from Evil Hat Productions). We are grateful for the sponsorship and support provided by Evil Hat in helping us make this show.Brandon O'Brien (@therisingtithes) is the Stage Manager for the cast of Valerie Valdes (@valerievaldes), Iori Kusano (@iorikusano), Jeoi Gawain Lin (@thisismydasein), and Michael R. Underwood (@mikerunderwood).Check out our new Court of Blades series “Valloward” at https://bit.ly/3yh6BxhWatch our completed series “Splendour and Shadow” and “The Case of the Cindered Seal” at Youtube.com/ArvanEleron.Help us make the show the best it can be by becoming a subscriber to our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/speculate – You'll also get even more content (including Fractal Spire extras, bonus episodes, access to behind-the-scenes material like GM streams and session zero recordings, and more!)This episode was edited by the amazing Rudy Basso (find him at https://twitter.com/RudyBasso). As always, thanks for listening!
Ingela and Mattias goes out on a monster hunt a few days before Christmas in present day Stockholm...We're an award winning actual play podcast where professional actors in Sweden play the best of Swedish RPGs! Led by one of Swedens most experienced and appreciated podcast Game Masters we play Monster of the Week by Evil Hat.Starring: Ingela Lundh and Mattias Redbo.Game master: Andreas LundströmMusic by: Andreas Lundström, check him out at https://soundcloud.com/rpgpodcaster
Hello and Welcome to The Sample Adventures. For this series we are playing Damn Dirty Apes from the revised core book of the Monster of the Week RPG from Evil Hat.
Hello and Welcome to The Sample Adventures. For this series we are playing Damn Dirty Apes from the revised core book of the Monster of the Week RPG from Evil Hat.
Hello and Welcome to The Sample Adventures. For this series we are playing Damn Dirty Apes from the revised core book of the Monster of the Week RPG from Evil Hat.