It was our great pleasure to sit down with Fred Hicks of Evil Hat and Jim Butcher, author of The Dresden Files.  It’s a rare treat when Fred and Jim, longtime friends, are actually on the same side of the mic together. Troll, Kevin, and Jen talk with them about their gaming history, their friendship, and what dealing with the Dresden Files has taught them about themselves and their friendship. Enjoy.

Relevant Links

• Fred Hicks’  blog
• Evil Hat
• Jim Butcher
• Dresden Files RPG
• Jim’s Livejournal
• (More Notes coming soon!)

Crunchy Bits!

• Intro music from “The Wizard” by  of Idle Thumbs
• Outro music is dedicated to Jen’s PC in our DFRPG run: Danny, and his almost-girlfriend, Valerie. “Don’t Try” by Marian Call.

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Due to some lucky circumstances, I managed to land an interview earlier this week with Ryan Macklin and Lenny Balsera. This was a serendipitous event, as Evil Hat had just released their official press release announcing the release date and info about the Dresden Files RPG. I sit down with these two and BS about the challenges of creating a game from the Dresden Files license, then we dive into some of the nitty gritty about how FATE was used to create the world of Harry Dresden.

Relevant Links

• Dresden Files RPG
• Evil Hat
• Lenny’s Blog
• Ryan’s Blog
• The Sunless Citadel
• Duke Nukem Forever
• Urban Fantasy
• Perdido Street Station
• Endgame Oakland
• Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies
• Ptolus
• Chris Hanrahan’s Blog
• Scribd
• bittorrent
• GURPS
• Hero
• D20
• Starblazer Adventures
• Diaspora
• Spirit of the Century
• Jared Sorenson’s 3 Questions
• The Wire
• Clark and Amanda Valentine
• Caine  (Kung Fu)
• Las Vegas: The Strip, Sumerlin, Henderson
• Steve Wynn
• Burning Empires
• The Bracelet Problem
• Mage (The Awakening and the older Ascension)
• In Nomine
• In Nomine Fate Fan Conversion
• Robert Bohl (and our interview with him)

Crunchy Bits!

• Intro and Outro music provided by .

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Keeping with our format of play, discuss and interview, Kevin and Jen Interview Clyde Rhoer the creator of Silence Keeps Me a Victim.

Crunchy Bits

• Music by

Relevant Links

• Theory from the Closet, Clyde Rhoer’s Website
• Sam Weber
• Cover of Silence Keeps Me a Victim
• Painting of Little Girl Carried Away by Monster
• 3:16 by Gregor Hutton
• Clyde’s thoughts on 3:16 & Storygames “baggage” (with commentary/corrections from Gregor)
• Fred Hicks and Evil Hat Productions
• Don’t Rest Your Head
• Mike Holmes
• Thor Olavsrud
• Lacuna Part 1: The Creation of the Mystery and the Girl from Blue City (second attempt) by Jared Sorensen
• Paul Czege
• Amber Diceless
• Ralph Maza
• Ron Edwards
• Luke Crane
• Nobilis by R. Sean Borgstrom
• Grey Ranks by Jason Morningstar
• Misspent Youth by Robert Bohl
• In a Wicked Age by Vincent Baker
• Spooky Outhouse Productions
• Monte Cook

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Our exploration of Misspent Youth comes to a close as we sit down to discuss the game with it’s designer Rob Bohl. We learned a lot from playing MY and had a great time talking about it with Rob. The conversation meanders through a variety of topics, from a basic overview of the game, to difficulties we had, changes that will be in the final version, and a very entertaining debate between Brandon and Rob about the role of The Authority. We extend our thanks to Rob for  giving us the opportunity to play his game and discuss it with us.

Crunchy Bits:

• Intro and Outro music “21st Century Digital Boy” by Bad Religion provided by Epitaph Records.
• Bumpers: Spooky Outhouse Productions, RPG Podcasts, and Narrative Control.

Other Relevant Links:

• System Does Matter
• The Ashcan Front
• Joe Strummer
• Round Robin Scene Framing Rules Post

Names Rob Dropped:

• Joshua AC Newman
• Vincent Baker
• Meguey Baker
• Paul Czege
• Emily Care Boss
• Judd Karlman (The Sons of Kryos)
• Michael Miller
• Tony Lower-Basch
• Andrew Morris
• Thor Olavsrud
• Jennifer Rodgers
• Rob Donahough
• Fred Hicks
• Mickey (Geek Girls Rule)
• Jason Morningstar

Names Brandon Dropped:

• Monte Cook

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Dan, CJ, and Kevin sit down with Fred Hicks, chief bearer of the Evil Hat. Our talk runs the gamut from our experiences with Don’t Rest Your Head, to how things are at the Indie Press Revolution, and then finally a bit of talk about the Dresden Files. We had a great time talking to Mr. Hicks and look forward to doing it again!

A few relevant links:

• Evil Hat
• Don’t Rest Your Head
• Indie Press Revolution
• Dresden Files RPG
• Mythender
• Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple

Crunchy Bits!

• Intro and Outro music provided by .

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After a rough holiday season we finally managed to get together enough times to finish our run of Don’t Rest Your Head by Fred Hicks. Dan, Kevin, Jen, CJ, and Brandon sit down to work out our likes (which were many) and dislikes (which were few).

A few relevant links:

• John Hagee
• Dread
• Trail of Cthulu
• Kickers, Flags, Bangs, and Actor Stance
• Sorcerer

Crunchy Bits!

Intro and Outro music provided by

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This Episode was inspired by a rather heated argument I got into on the gaming news website Shacknews. It exemplifies the clash between traditional and hippy philosophies of game design. Kevin, Dan, CJ, and Brandon gather round to discuss the role of Social Conflict Mechanics in a game, how their views of it have changed, and address some of the arguments against a strong Mechanic that were posted in the forum thread that started this whole debacle.

Crunchy Bits!

• Link to the original Shacknews Thread
• Intro and Outro music provided by

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