After a month and a half of cons, vacations, natural disasters and technical difficulties, we finally get a chance to sit down and play us some Dresden Files RPG by Evil Hat. This first session is our second try at city creation. The first time we decided on Anchorage, AK, and this time around we go a very different direction with Washington, D.C. A few changes have happened since our last run though a game. We got Jen back on the show as a regular, we lost Dan due to Real Life (aka. work schedule conflicts, but he’ll still be doing the Comics Cast) and for this game we’ve got the return of Troll, whom you may remember from our Dread Halloween Special.

Relevant Links

• Dresden Files RPG
• Evil Hat
• Dresden Files TV Show
• Dresden Files Books, comic, and audiobooks, and short stories
• Jim Butcher’s Home Page
• Fables
• Dexter
• Burn Notice
• Miami Vice
• A-Team
• Deadlands
• Nightwatch
• Deadwood
• Spoine
• Yakov Smirnoff
• H.P. Lovecraft
• Freakanomics
• Roe vs. Wade lowering crime
• The Library of Alexandria
• The Centurion (Dr. Who)
• Gilgamesh
• Dolley Madison
• Indiana Jones
• Emeritus
• Ley Lines
• George Washington (7 Feet Tall…)
• Rifts
• Pierre Charles L’Enfant
• Chowda!
• Cheney and Google Maps
• Roanoke
• Sir Richard Grenville
• Hopping Vampires
• Legion of Superheroes

Crunchy Bits

• Intro music from “The Wizard” by of Idle Thumbs
• Outro Music “The Man With the Hex” by The Atomic Fireballs

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Jen and Kevin regale Brandon and CJ with many the tales of drunken debauchery and gaming that was GenCon 2010. This was Jen’s first GenCon, Kevin’s second, and both had a pretty amazing time. Many cool people were met, and awesome games were played. If this doesn’t sell you on GenCon next year, I don’t know what will!

Relevant Links

• Star Trek Episode with a shock collar
• NPR
• 500 Point Purity Test
• !
• Ryan Macklin
• Monte Cook
• Robin D. Laws
• Will Hindmarch
• Kenneth Hite
• Skol Vodka
• The Podge Cast
• Bear Swarm
• The Brilliant Gameologists
• Apocalypse World
• Graham Walmsley
• The Jank Cast
• Steal Away Jordan
• Remember Tomorrow
• Shock: Social Science Fiction
• Misspent Youth
• Not Roleplaying in Role Playing Episode
• Warhammer
• This Modern Death
• Skeptical Gamers
• Island Dwarfism
• Cargo Cults
• Cryptozoology
• EMF Detectors
• EVP Recording
• Indiana Ghost Hunting Society
• White Wolf
• TF2 Spy
• Eddy Webb
• Lords of Acid
• Magic: The Gathering
• Settlers of Catan
• Dominion
• Speed Dating
• Geek’s Dream Girl
• King Crimson
• Pen & Teller: Bullshit!
• Steve Kenson
• Daniel Solis
• SageFight!
• John Harper
• Robert Bohl

Crunchy Bits!

• Intro Music by
• Outro Music “I’ll Still Be a Geek After Nobody Thinks It’s Chic” by Marian Call

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We continue our adventures on FreeMarket Station after a one-week hiatus. Due to a pretty big flub on Kevin’s part, the previous session was not fit to air. We discuss a bit of what happened in that session, how that mistake affected play, and some of our thoughts on the card system of FreeMarket. This session is a bit short due to some technical difficulties, so we didn’t break it up into smaller chunks. Also, at one point Brandon makes references to some “notes” in our book. Luke and Jared sent us their proofread copy of the rules, which includes marginalia and design notes that will need to be implemented in the final text. So when Brandon brings up a rules clarification on upgrading and repairing tech, he’s referring to those notes in case you get confused.  Despite the technical hiccups, we had a lot of fun this session. We’ve got a pretty strong grasp of the challenge system, and look forward to our final session next week!

Relevant notes

• ARG
• Tomacco
• Zemeckis
• Tits or GTFO
• WoW Auction House
• William Gibson
• There Will Be Brawl
• Super Smash Brothers
• There Will Be Blood
• Kirby
• Hannibal Lecter
• Portal
• Open-Source Software
• Kindle
• Bot-voting
• Malware
• Low-Frequency Fear Effects
• “Head in the Jar” people

Crunchy Bits!

• Intro Music “Inner Universe” from the Ghost In the Shell: Stand Alone Complex OST
• Outro Music “Can’t You Trip Like I Do?” by Filter and The Crystal Method

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Session two kicks off with a Thin Slicing challenge to rid the group’s MRCZ area of an annoying rock band, and from there CJ, Dan, and Brandon launch into a negotiation with a local MRCZ to test out some new technology for them.  We spend some time getting used to the nuances of the challenge system, and set things up nicely for some exciting challenges next session. Stay tuned!

Relevant Links

• RPG Podcast Poll Please take it!
• Project Donut Homepage
• Luke Crane
• Jared Sorensen
• The Walking Eye Comics
• Hal Jordan
• Mad Men
• Hong Kong
• Welch Ave Station
• Ronald D. Moore
• The 5th Element
• Lexx
• Japanese Capsule Hotels
• Biting the head off a bat
• Grand Theft Auto IV
• The Independent Insurgency
• Malcom Gladwell/ Blink
• Marilyn-Manson.net
• Twiggy Ramirez
• Mashup
• DRM
• Peter Steele/Type O Negative
• Lemmy420
• Putting things you like (Such as Elder Scrolls: Oblivion) in your pants
• Edward James Olmos – The Adama Glare
• The Segway GOB Bluth
• The Gambler’s Fallacy
• Valve and Bungie Stats

Crunchy Bits!

• FreeMarket Actual Play Session 1 Part A 59 Minutes
• FreeMarket Actual Play Session 1 Part B  52 Minutes
• Intro Music “Inner Universe” from the Ghost In the Shell: Stand Alone Complex OST
• Outro Music “Still Alive” by Jonathan Coulton.

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Dan, CJ, Kevin, and Brandon sit around for a bit and discuss their thoughts on the most piratey of RPG’s: D. Vincent Baker’s Poison’d. We discuss the basics of character creation, conflict mechanics, and how play works out. To be succinct, it’s nasty, brutish, and short. Good stuff!

Relevant Links

• Vincent Baker’s Blog
• Poison’d
• D&D Word Cloud
• Poison’d Word Cloud (Thanks, Joe!)
• F.A.T.A.L

Crunchy Bits!

• Intro Music “Plunder” from Sid Meyer’s Pirates!
• Outro Music “Seven Deadly Sins” by Flogging Molly

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Things were looking up for our nefarious crew of the Dagger when we left off last session. That doesn’t last long. This session is an impressive display of bad rolls making the situation worse with every turn. Give a listen and see how Poison’d lives up to it’s moniker of “Reservoir Dogs on a Boat.”

Relevant Links

• Vincent Baker’s Blog
• Poison’d
• Wookie LifeDay / Life debt
• Chewbacca’s Death via Moonfall
• Ninja’s Vs. Pirates Vincent Baker Interview
• Graham Walmsley – Play Unsafe – The Dying of St. Margaret’s
• PedoBear
• Poison’d Q&A page

Crunchy Bits!

• Poison’d Actual Play Session 2 Part B: 52 Minutes
• Intro Music “Plunder” from Sid Meyer’s Pirates!
• Outro Music “Drunken Sailor” by Wylde Nept

Promos:

• Thursday Knights
• Spooky Outhouse Productions

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The crew of the Pirate ship the Dagger beaches itself upon Isla Luna to gather much needed water and supplies. Murmurs of discontent can be heard rippling through the crew, as Isla Luna is well known for being the home of a powerful witch. What’s the worst that could happen? Word to the wise: this episode gets pretty rank. “Dirty Dick Wiggins” makes good on his name, among other atrocities.

Roles

Brandon: Dirty Dick Wiggins Ship’s Gunnery Master

CJ: Bloody John Parr Ship’s Surgeon

Kevin: Solomon Cruikshank Ship’s Captain

Relevant Links

• Vincent Baker’s Blog
• Poison’d
• Forum Post About 2x Wear and Breakage
• Last Exile
• Germ Theory of Disease

Crunchy Bits!

• Intro Music “Plunder” from Sid Meyer’s Pirates!
• Outro Music “Strike The Bell” by Wylde Nept

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Kevin, CJ, Dan, and Brandon sit down for our third and final D. Vincent Baker game: Poison’d: A Pirate RPG. This session covers the creation of our individual pirates, as well as the crew and specifics of our pirate ship. We do just a tad of roleplaying at the end to get a feel for how Success Rolls work, and set things up nicely for next session. So far we’re all enjoying it a lot!

Roles

Brandon: Dirty Dick Wiggins Ship’s Gunnery Master Soul: 4 Devil: 4 Brutality: 4 Ambition: 4 Brinkmanship: 4

CJ: Bloody John Parr Ship’s Surgeon Soul: 4 Devil: 4 Ambition: 4 Brutality: 3 Brinkmanship: 4

Kevin: Solomon Cruikshank Ship’s Quartermaster Soul: 4 Devil: 4 Ambition: 5 Brutality: 5 Brinkmanship: 5

Relevant Links

• Vincent Baker’s Blog
• Poison’d
• Sgt. Hatred
• Cervantes
• A map of the Caribbean
• Burning Wheel
• Sid Meyer’s Pirates!
• The Count of Monte Cristo
• Dogs in the Vineyard
• In a Wicked Age
• 2-Masted Bermuda Sloop
• “That’s a REAL GHOST!”
• Misspent Youth
• Hardtack
• Rogue Trader
• Lego Tie Defender

Crunchy Bits!

• Intro Music “Plunder” from Sid Meyer’s Pirates!
• Outro Music “” from Lazytown.

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Our review of “Vincent Baker’s Concentrated Awesome” aka Dogs in the Vineyard. We sit down to discuss the dice mechanics, moral ambiguity, and how advancement is inextricably tied into not only changes to your character, but also the damage model. Also, Brandon’s still not over his fear of cows.

Relevant Links

• Dogs in the Vineyard
• Vincent Baker’s Blog
• Dogs in the Vineyards Forum
• Apocalypse World
• State of Deseret
• Burning Wheel
• Diagonally Through the Woods
• Mutants and Masterminds
• D&D
• Warhammer Fantasy RPG
• Mind Flayer
• Arcana Evolved
• Burning Empires
• Oregon Trail
• The Jank Cast
• Call of Cthulhu

Crunchy Bits!

• Intro Music from the soundtrack to The Proposition by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis (the composer, not the comic writer)
• Outro Music “Palomino” by Tree Adams.

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Dogs in the Vineyard wraps up with the small ranching town of King’s Crossing. The players experiment with taking on conflicts solo, and finds some pretty serious challenges facing their characters. The defeats culminate with a very tense final showdown!

Unfortunately this is our last session of Dogs. We had a pretty rough three months this winter and have only managed to record twice due to plague, work, weather, and holidays. It was very difficult to keep the momentum going, but we all feel this is a good session to end on. The conflicts were tough, the morality fuzzy, and the ending suitably tragic.

Relevant Links

• Clancy Brown
• Deadlands: Los Diablos
• Wolf Brother
• Conner from Angel

Crunchy Bits!

• Intro Music from the soundtrack to The Proposition by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis (the composer, not the comic writer)
• Outro music from “God’s Gonna Strike You Down” by Johnny Cash.

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