Kevin and Clyde talk over skype about their recent gaming experiences at Forge Midwest. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of Lady Blackbird, and Clyde offers Kevin some constructive criticism about his GMing style. What follows is a pretty good discussion about how to use Bangs and how to identify when you are blocking another player’s desires.

Relevant Links

• Theory From The Closet
• Lady Blackbird
• Lady Blackbird AP on The Walking Eye
• Earthdawn
• Lady Blackbird Companion
• The Shadow of Yesterday
• Eero Tuovinen
• Judd Karlman
• “You Kick We Bang” RPG.net Thread
• In a Wicked Age
• Dogs in the Vineyard
• The Mountain Witch
• Sorcerer
• Prime Time Adventures
• 3:16
• Gregor Hutton
• Clyde’s (most recent) Vincent Baker Interview
• Willow’s Rules for The Mountain Witch
• The Adventure Burner
• Play Sorcerer

Crunchy bits!

• Intro and Outro music by 

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A while ago Kevin stumbled across Chris Chinn’s “Deeper in the Game” blog and quickly became a fan. Chris discusses a lot of interesting topics and puts a lot of thought into each post. One entry in particular caught his attention: The Same Page Tool. This was a tool RPG gamers can use before playing a game to make sure everyone is on the same page for what they expect out of this game, with these people. Kevin, Jen, and Troll had just been in a Mutants and Masterminds game with a new GM, and it became very obvious after just one session that we were not all on the same page. We go through the Same Page Tool question by question and discuss the implications of each question, using the aborted M&M game as an example of how it could help.

Relevant Links

• Deeper in the Game/Same Page Tool
• Mutants and Masterminds
• Tom Moldvay
• Competitive D&D
• Our Apocalypse World Coverage
• White Wolf
• Paranoia
• Weapons of the Gods
• Neverwinter Nights
• Gary Gygax
• Burning Wheel
• Deadlands
• Progress Quest
• “Stay A While, and Listen!”
• Zombie Cinema
• Traveller
• 3:16
• Arcana Evolved
• Mouse Guard
• GURPS
• Rifts
• Burning Empires

Crunchy Bits

• Intro and Outro music by 

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Kevin sits down with Willow Palecek, writer of Escape from Tentacle City, Winner of the 2008 Game Chef Golden Katana that Shoots Smaller Katanas Award for Game That Looks Like it Was the Most Fun to Write. We talk about the core mechanics of the game, as well as what message, or lessons, could be learned from play.

Relevant Links

• Escape from Tentacle City
• Willow’s Blog
• FreeMarket
• Kagematsu
• Ron Edwards
• Fiasco
• Legendary Lives
• Other Worlds
• 3:16
• Gen Con
• S/lay W/ Me
• Shab-al-Hiri Roach
• Zombie Cinema
• Game Chef
• Jason Morningstar
• Mark Adams
• Hentai (NSFW)
• Shaun of the Dead
• George A. Romero
• Poison’d
• Grey Ranks

Crunchy Bits!

• Intro and Outro music provided by 

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Kevin gathered up Shaun Hayworth from This Modern Death and Robert Bohl from the Independent Insurgency to talk about how much roleplaying is done in a usual session. Rob had recently been listening to some podcasts that seemed to at time discourage roleplaying in some situations, and that surprised and baffled him.  He started a thread on Story-games.com and this whole topic flowered forth from there.  I had a great time talking to these two, and look forward to many conversations in the future!

Relevant Links

• Robert Bohl – The Independent Insurgency
• Shaun Hayworth – This Modern Death
• Misspent Youth
• Greaser Ghouls from Outer Space
• System Does Matter
• White Wolf
• D&D
• Storygames Thread Robert Started
• Burning Wheel
• The Gamers/ The Gamers 2
• Prime Time Adventures
• Vincent Baker’s Blog
• 3:16
• In A Wicked Age
• Dogs in the Vineyard
• Millennium’s End
• GURPS Vehicles
• No Exit
• Zombie Cinema

Crunchy Bits!

• Intro and Outro music provided by

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Kevin sits down with CJ to regale him with tales of his exploits at GenCon. There are several games explained, and a fuzzy recollection of Kevin’s booze-soaked Saturday adventures at the Podcasters Meet and Greet.

Relevant Links

• Bear Swarm
• Podgecast
• Trapcast
• Brilliant Gamologists
• Action Castle
• Do You Worship Cthulhu / Mafia/Are you a Werewolf
• Rob Bohl
• Siggraph
• Michael Stackpole / The Pulling Report
• Mechwarrior PC game / / Battletech Classic / Battletech Pods
• Storn A. Cook / Sons of Kryos
• Indie Press Revolution
• Paul Tevis: Voice of the Revolution / Have Games Will Travel
• All Games Considered Podcast
• Penny for My Thoughts
• Sean Nittner / Narrative Control Podcast
• Paul Czege / My Life with Master
• Tony Lower-Basch: Capes and Misery Bubblegum
• Games on Demand Games: Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies, In A Wicked Age, Houses of the Blooded, Spirit of the Century, Misspent Youth, Primetime Adventures, Escape from Tentacle City, Dogs in the Vineyard, Mouse Guard, Polaris, 3:16, Cold City, Hot War, Shock, Amber, Inspectres, Shab-Al-Hiri Roach, Carry, Shooting the Moon, Annalise, Penny for My Thoughts.
• Coma White (what Kevin actually meant was “Soma” from Brave New World. Oops)
• Burning Wheel / The Sword
• Christopher Moeller
• Games Workshop
• Heinlein’s Starship Troopers
• Forge Midwest
• Willow Palecek
• The Forge
• Ron Edwards / S/lay w/ Me / Spione
• Steve Long
• Theory from the Closet
• Ryan Macklin / Master Plan Podcast
• Pulp Gamer
• The Jank Cast
• Diagonally Through the Woods
• D&D “Moldvay Basic”
• Tony Dowler / How to Host a Dungeon
• Dungeon Keeper / Dwarf Fortress

Crunchy Bits!

• Intro and Outro music provided by

Promos and Bumpers:

• This Modern Death
• Have Games, Will Travel
• Spooky Outhouse

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After a few scheduling SNAFU’s, we finally get a chance to sit down with Gregor and discuss our experiences with his game 3:16: Carnage Amongst the Stars. The conversation hits a lot of topics, from his gaming history, to design decisions behind 3:16, to what to do with NFA, and finally, which of his games he would save from a drowning. Gregor was a real sport for taking the time out of his evening to talk to us, and we look forward to meeting him in person at GenCon this year!

Relevant Links

• Gregor Hutton’s Home Page – 3:16, Best Friends
• Ron Edwards – The Ronnies
• Traveller: 2300 AD
• 24 Hour RPG, Game Chef
• The Forge
• Malcom Craig – Hot War, Cold City, A|State
• Mayuran
• Pendragon
• Lord of the Rings BBC Radio Play
• Traveller
• Warhammer Fantasy
• RPG.net
• Andy Kitkowski
• Story-Games.com
• Open Roleplaying Community
• Left 4:16 Dead
• WWII 3:16 Hack () ()
• IPR (Indie Press Revolution)
• Mouse Guard
• Spirit of the Century
• Houses of the Blooded
• Epidiah Ravachol – Dread
• Kevin Allen Jr.
• Nathan Pallota: Carry, a game about war, Annilise
• Shreyas Sampa – Mist Robed Gate
• Joe Prince – Contenders, Piledrivers & Powerbombs, Labrynths & Lycenthropes
• AT 43
• Vincent Baker –  Arrows, Boxes, Clouds, and Smiley Faces, Kill Puppies for Satan
• The Right To Dream
• John Harper – Lady Blackbird
• Go Play Northwest

Crunchy Bits

• Intro Music Provided by Mark Morgan from the soundtrack to Planescape: Torment
• Outro Music Provided by Doyle W. Donehoo (released by Games Workshop for free) from the soundtrack to Dawn of War II

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The crew gathers ’round the baleful gaze of The Walking Eye to discuss their experiences with Gregor Hutton’s 3:16: Carnage Amongst the Stars.  For the most part, every had glowing praise for the game. Jen wasn’t feeling it as much as the rest, and a good chunk of the discussion is devoted to both what she felt was lacking as well as if these problems arise from our format. Are we not giving these games enough time to really gestate in the play space? Are two-hour sessions doing these games justice? Tune in to see what conclusions we come to!

Relevant Links

• 3:16 Home Page
• Bill Hicks
• Forge Midwest 2009
• Starship Troopers
• Grey Ranks
• Don’t Rest Your Head
• Mutants and Masterminds
• Dresden Files RPG (Sorry, I couldn’t find a link to that torrent of AP’s)
• D&D Podcast
• In A Wicked Age
• Misspent Youth
• Burning Empires
• First Person Shooters
• Creative Agenda

Crunchy Bits!

• Intro Music Provided by Mark Morgan from the soundtrack to Planescape: Torment
• Outro Music Provided by Doyle W. Donehoo (released by Games Workshop for free) from the soundtrack to Dawn of War II

Bumpers and Promos

• Monte Cook
• RPG Podcasts.com
• Spooky Outhouse

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Session 3 of 3:16 brings our campaign to a close with a daring assault on the villainous alien home world of Goya. Brutal urban fighting culminates with Miller calling down an orbital bombardment for a whopping 949 kills!  This session was an absolute blast and is probably the best example of what 3:16 play should be like. By now everyone was comfortable with what kinds of narrative powers they had and used them to great effect. As you can tell from the show notes, the video-gamey feel of 3:16 really came out this session, which is something we all enjoyed.

Roles

• Kevin was GM

• Jen played Tucker
• Rank: Trooper Rep: Seen the face of God FA: 8 NFA: 3

• Brandon played Miller
• Rank: Lieutenant Rep: Wet Blanket FA: 3 NFA: 7

• Dan Played Murphy
• Rank: Sergeant Rep: Badass Motherfucker FA: 8 NFA: 4

• CJ Played Carson
• Rank: Trooper Rep: It’s Only A Matter of Time (before he gets killed) FA: 7 NFA: 4

Relevant Links

• Doom Novels
• Coruscant
• Protoss
• Fusillade
• Alternate Rules for playing Pilots

Crunchy Bits!

• Intro Music Provided by Mark Morgan from the soundtrack to Planescape: Torment
• Bonus Outro Song in honor of our mighty warship: The Mandelbrot Set by Jonathan Coulton

Bumpers and Promos

• The Independent Insurgency
• Spooky Outhouse Productions

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Session 2 of 3:16 has the troopers assaulting the ice planet of Bosch to investigate the mysterious alien virus defeated last session. Their search leads them to the icy ruins of an ancient civilization and the terrifying creatures who now inhabit the ominous city. This session moves at a good clip, we all had fun slaughtering Spiderbears. There was a bit of confusion near the end of the session as I tried to pull some weirdness with a remotely controlled suit of armor, but we got it worked out pretty quickly. All in all, this session was a marked improvement from next session, and energy was high.

Roles

• Kevin was GM

• Jen played Tucker
• Rank: Trooper Rep: Seen the face of God FA: 7 NFA: 3

• Brandon played Miller
• Rank: Sergeant Rep: First time out. FA: 3 NFA: 7

• Dan Played Murphy
• Rank: Corporal Rep: Lawbringer (as in, Murphy’s Law) FA: 8 NFA: 3

• CJ Played Carson
• Rank: Trooper Rep: Easily Spooked FA: 7 NFA: 4

Relevant Links

• 3:16 Home Page
• Tranquilizer Dart Addiction
• Max Planck
• Niels Bohr
• Fires Over Omac
• Starcraft Terran Marine
• Vagina Doors
• Bear Spider
• Last Exile
• Starship Troopers
• Starcraft Protoss Templar

Promos and Bumpers

• RPG Podcasts.com
• Narrative Control
• Spooky Outhouse

Crunchy Bits!

• Intro Music Provided by Mark Morgan from the soundtrack to Planescape: Torment
• Outro Music Provided by Doyle W. Donehoo (released by Games Workshop for free) from the soundtrack to Dawn of War II

Podcast: |

Things kick off for 3:16: Carnage Amongst The Stars by Gregor Hutton with an attack on the Terran Asteroid Belt. The 3rd Army of the 16th Brigade sprung into action and quickly purged the mysterious alien virus from the computer core. In fact, pretty much everything was purged in a 5,000 mile radius. The whole crew enjoyed the setting aside from a few minor grumbles (“Mining robots? Really?” -Jen) and energy was high; everyone walked away with considerable excitement for next session.

Roles:

• Kevin was GM

• Jen played Tucker
• Rank: Trooper Rep: Seen the face of God FA: 7 NFA: 3

• Brandon played Miller
• Rank: Sergeant Rep: First time out. FA: 3 NFA: 7

• Dan Played Murphy
• Rank: Corporal Rep: Lawbringer (as in, Murphy’s Law) FA: 8 NFA: 2

• CJ Played Carson
• Rank: Trooper Rep: Easily Spooked FA: 6 NFA: 4

Relevant Links

• Mandelbrot
• “Mars” Asteroid Belt
• Johnny 5
• Deadspace
• Spooky Outhouse Survey

Crunchy Bits!

• Music by Mark Morgan from the soundtrack to Planescape: Torment

Podcast: |