CJ, Troll, and Kevin attempt (with some difficulty) to define tone, how it affects play at the table, and different systems that use a variety of tricks to reinforce their tone.

Relevant Links

• Paul of the Podgecast
• Weapons of the Gods
• Joss
• Don’t Rest Your Head
• Dogs in the Vineyard
• Vincent Baker
• In A Wicked Age
• Our Interview with Vincent about DitV and IAWA
• Apocalypse World
• Dungeon World
• Dread
• Lady Blackbird
• Planescape
• Dresden Files
• Fiasco
• HOL
• Shock: Human Contact
• Luke Crane
• Burning Wheel
• RPG.net Thread about Author’s Tone
• John Wick
• Houses of the Blooded
• Paranoia
• Rolemaster
• Grey Ranks
• FATAL
• Kill Puppies for Satan
• Ars Magica
• Dudes of Legend
• Hackmaster
• Baldur’s Gate
• SSI
• Shadow Run
• China Mielville
• Arcanum
• Call of Cthulhu
• RPGA
• World of Darkness
• GURPS
• GNS
• Arcana Evolved
• Burning Empires
• Mouse Guard
• Millennium’s End
• Rifts
• Captain Indigo

Crunchy Bits!

• Intro and Outro music by 

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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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Kevin, Jen, CJ, and Troll discuss their experiences with the Dresden Files RPG. All in all, we had a very positive time with this game.  We discuss our reactions to Aspects, the Fudge Dice, City and Character Creation, and how faithful the game is to the Dresdenverse.

Relevant Links

• Evil Hat
• Dresden Files RPG
• Jim Butcher
• Letter Jacket
• Perry, IA
• FUDGE
• D&D 3.5
• Urban Dictionary
• 4DFate probabilities
• Lighting Lad
• Cosmic Boy
• Shadowrun
• Twilight
• Smallville & it’s RPG
• Silverado
• Weapons of the Gods
• Ptolus
• Mutants and Masterminds
• Arcana Evolved
• Burning Empires
• Yojimbo
• Fringe
• X-files
• Eureka
• Diaspora
• Starblazer Adventures
• Flash Gordon
• Traveller
• Kurt Vonnegut
• Dean Koontz
• In A Wicked Age
• Penny for My Thoughts
• H.P. Lovecraft
• White Wolf
• LARP Episode
• Mage: The Awakening
• RPG Geek Thanks for the Nomination!

Crunchy Bits!

• Intro music from “The Wizard” by  of Idle Thumbs
• Outro Music “Magic Carpet Ride” by Steppenwolf remixed by Fatboy Slim

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Regular play begins in earnest! We cover a lot of basic ground this session: The Sight, Soul Gazing, a social conflict, and a few compels. The PC’s investigate a mysteriously exploding brothel and are manipulated by seen and unseen forces!

Relevant Links

• Dresden Files RPG Homepage
• Mutants and Masterminds
• Burning Empires
• The Crusades
• Dick Cheney
• Fallout 3
• The Smithsonian
• Dolley Madison
• The Archive (spoilers!)
• ’77 Dodge Charger
• Crocodile Tears
• Schadenfreude
• ““
• Burning Wheel
• In A Wicked Age
• Phlogiston
• Futurama
• Ghostrock

Crunchy Bits

• Intro music from “The Wizard” by  of Idle Thumbs
• Outro Music “I’m Your Late Night Evening Prostitute” by Tom Waits

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During our interview with Vincent Baker, he agreed to tell us about a secret project in exchange for a promise to have him back on to discuss the topic of abandoning games. With GenCon right around the corner, this seemed like a great time to hold up our end of the bargain. We grabbed two of Vincent’s good friends Joshua A.C. Newman and Robert Bohl to join us in this discussion since, well, none of us here at The Walking Eye have designed, let alone abandoned, a game before. Kevin moderated as these three discussed the different aspects of abandoning games: how difficult it can be, what you can learn from it, and how to know when to let an idea go.

Relevant Links

• Vincent’s Blog
• Joshua’s Blog
• The Dragon Killer
• Under The Bed
• Shock: Social Science Fiction
• The Dark Crystal
• Human Contact
• Prime Time Adventures
• Apocalypse World
• The 20×20 Room
• Misspent Youth
• Otherkind
• In A Wicked Age
• Psi-Run
• Jared Sorensen
• Key Parties
• Paul Czege
• Acts of Evil
• Night’s Master by Tannith Lee
• Ron Edwards
• Beowulf
• Fantasy Heartbreakers
• GameChef
• Myers-Briggs Personality Test
• PAX East
• Mike and Jerry
• Dreamnation

Crunchy Bits!

• Intro and Outro music provided by 

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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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Here’s the 2nd half of Kevin’s interview with Ron Edwards.  In it we discuss the necessary skills and attitudes for approaching gaming, a breakdown of some of Kevin’s prior difficulties with Sorcerer, and finally some discussion on what The Forge is all about. Kevin does a fantastic job of sticking his foot in his mouth by comparing The Forge GenCon booth to a Scientology recruiting station. See how he backpedals! Awkward comparisons aside, I had a great time sitting down and talking with Ron. I look forward to seeing him again at Forge Midwest 2010!

Relevant Links

• Adept Press
• Sorcerer
• Trollbabe
• Prime Time Adventures
• Dust Devils
• The Forge
• Burning Wheel
• Planescape
• Runequest
• The Moose in the City
• In A Wicked Age
• Dogs in the Vineyard
• 7th Sea
• Over the Edge
• Riddle of Steel
• Shadow of Yesterday
• Burning Empires
• Jared Sorensen
• Inspectres
• Ars Magica
• Mike Mearls
• Ed Healy
• RPG.net
• Paul Czege
• Vaughn Bode
• Mark Bode
• Cheech Wizard
• Richard Dawkins
• Rob Bohl
• The Last Supper

Crunchy Bits!

• Intro and Outro music provided by .

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The gang spends a good 45 minutes ranting and raving about how awesome In A Wicked Age… is.

Relevant Links

• Lumpley Games
• In a Wicked Age…
• Sword And Sorcery
• Tanith Lee
• Jack Vance
• Robert E Howard
• Iron Age
• Marvel Comics Conan
• Lumpley Games Oracle Generator
• Misspent Youth
• Duel of Wits
• Emily Care Boss
• Mouse Guard
• The Dreaded D&D 3.5 Grapple Rules
• The Dreaded D&D 3.5 Attacks of Opportunity Rules
• Abulafia
• Silver Age Comics
• GURPS
• Grey Ranks
• Spirit of the Century

Crunchy Bits!

• Intro and Outro Music from The Prince of Persia by Inon Zur and Stuart Chatwood published by Ubisoft.

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CJ takes the reins as GM this round and much fun was had by all. By this session we’re all pretty comfortable with the rules and conflict flows quickly and freely. This session would prove to be Brandon’s day, as his now-corrupted character from last session wrecks an impressive swath of havoc and madness across two countries, laying low the armies of the Crimson Khan. Despite Dan, Kevin, and CJ all ganging up against him, his dice were too hot and the Maw of Madness consumed all.

Oracle:  The God Kings of War

Dan chose: A staff of white wood, summoner of lightnings and the War Magus who wields it.

The very first time that a certain young soldier, impressed against his choice and wanting nothing more than to return to his home, has killed.

A flock of hunterbirds, sharpbeaked, clever, and dreadful, and their master.

A token indicating that its bearer speaks for the high general.

Roles

Dan: Rafa Ban, Genius of flame.
Particular Strength: The complete metaphysical understanding of all forms of fire. (Double Potent)
Best Interests: To persuade the Mouth of the Abyss to consume the lands of the Crimson Khan, my sworn enemy, and burn the enemy army to cinders and scatter their ashes.

Brandon: Zaheil, the Maw of Madness
Particular Strength: Touch of the Abyss (reality bending powers) (Potent) (Far Reaching)
Best Interests: To eat the Storm Magus and release the Old One residing in his Staff. A descendant of an old enemy is near, he will be consumed like his ancestors finally were.

Kevin: Ekurzakir War Mage of the Crimson Khan, Master of the Stormcrows.
Particular Strength:  Staff of Lightning (Potent) Stormcrows (Far Reaching)
Best Interests:  Steal the secret of fire from Rafa Ban, Direct the wrath of the Abyss unto the heretical Uesirans.

NPCs

Adar, Descendant of the mighty Ninja Dervish Darius.
Particular Strength: Wakizashi (Potent)
Best Interests:  Complete my duty and find my way home. Preserve my homeland.

Relevant Links

• In A Wicked Age
• Lumpley Games
• Ramuh
• Confucius Hat
• Palpatine
• Fables
• Trail of Cthulhu
• Monster Burner

Crunchy Bits

• Intro and Outro Music from The Prince of Persia by Inon Zur and Stuart Chatwood published by Ubisoft.

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Unfortunately we had a bit of a technical failure when we recorded our “real” session 2. Only an hour or so was saved, so in actuality this is session 3. Fortunately the serial nature of In a Wicked Age stories gave us some considerable leeway. There shouldn’t be any problem picking up with the narrative here. Dan picks up the GMing mantle this time around, and we  start off in the city of Kal-Nirar, where Demon Lord Nirar has been ruling for many generations. Nirar was Kevin’s character in the previous session, he started off as a Merchant Prince who made some sorcerous deals in the name of vengeance. Little is left of his humanity now as unseen forces move against him…

Oracle:  The Unquiet Past

Kevin chose:The son of a great tyrant, born crippled and denied his inheritance.

A scholar and antiquarian, unmindful of danger.

A thick gold ring, torn by a powerful sage from a demon’s ear.

The captain of a foreign troop, sent to collect tribute.

Roles

Kevin: The Demon-King Nirar, formerly a merchant prince of the city now called Kal-Nirar.
Special Strength: Minions of the Pit (far-reaching)
Best Interests: To retrieve the ring containing my soul; To send the Red Horde screaming back to their cowardly masters.

CJ: General Darius of the Red Horde
Special Strength: The Ninja dervishes of the Red Horde (potent).
Best Interests: To survive my negotiations with Nirar and convince him I’m only there for the tribute; To find some weakness in the demon-king’s armor (such as any random phylactery or disloyal heir that might be sitting around).

Brandon: Zaheil
Special Strength: The demon ring, which makes him invisible and silent.
Best Interests: To learn the secrets that power the gate – so other uses may be found for it; To make a blunder out of the Red Horde’s envoy, just like I did 20 years ago when I stole their ring.

NPCs:

Dem Ashur, blind and disowned son of Nirar.
Special Strength: The power to jump through shadows, and see shadows for what they really are (far reaching).
Best Interests: To banish my father and claim my throne; To steal the ring and seal the gate.

Relevant Links

• In A Wicked Age
• Lumpley Games
• Ptolus: City by the Spire
• Hardcore History Podcast
• Radiolab Podcast about Genghis Khan
• Marvel GI Joe comics
• Vincent’s rules hack to play Conan in a Wicked Age.
• Tom Bombadil
• Prince of Persia again – but Sands of Time this time.
• Sword +5, Holy Avenger
• The Wizaaaaaard

Crunchy Bits

• Intro and Outro Music from The Prince of Persia by Inon Zur and Stuart Chatwood published by Ubisoft.

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