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 Ryan Macklin, John Wick, and Eddy Webb to discuss the pros and cons of drifting the rules in RPG’s. It’s a good discussion, and fair warning, the last 10 minutes or so are actually a tangent on the realities of being an internet microcelebrity, and how people act vastly differently to said celebrities when they meet them in person rather than how they talk about them on internet forums. Still  a pretty interesting conversation, but if you’re here just to hear about drifting, you might wanna skip the last 10 minutes.

Relevant Links

• Ryan Macklin
• John Wick
• Eddy Webb
• AEG
• White Wolf
• “Dick Fingers“
• Game Design is Mind Control
• Hoyle
• Star Wars Live Action Adventures
• Elder Scrolls: Oblivion
• Mods
• Race for the Galaxy
• Gloom
• Apocalypse World
• Mage
• Camarilla Fan Club
• FATE
• Houses of the Blooded
• GURPS
• Wilderness of Mirrors
• The Farm
• Champions
• The Wheel of Time
• Chuck Wendig
• Dudes of Legend
• Pendragon
• Spirit of the Century
• Mage Noir
• Russel Bailey
• D&D Encounters
• Thirty
• Joseph Campbell
• GDC
• Montsegur 1244
• Burning Wheel (what, you thought we’d get through an entire episode without mentioning it?)
• Eddy’s Camarilla LARP Theory
• Will Hindmarch
• 7th Sea
• RPG.net Thread about writers tone getting in the way

Crunchy Bits!

• Intro and Outro music by 

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When Ron Edwards announced posted on The Forge that the site would be entering it’s “winter phase” there was a bit of a hullabaloo about just what exactly that would mean for the site. I quickly shot Ron an email asking if he’d like to take some time to discuss what this all meant, and the general perception of The Forge on the internet as a whole. What followed was a fascinating conversation about identity politics, the economics of small-press gaming, and the difficulties of communication on the Internet. Enjoy!

Relevant Links

• Ron Edwards
• The Forge
• Winter Phase Post
• Pendragon
• Houses of the Blooded
• GNS
• Apocalypse World Forums
• Essays on The Forge
• RPG.net Thread about the Winter Phase
• The Gaming Outpost
• Greg Stolze
• Story Games Forum
• Indie Press Revolution
• Brennan Taylor
• Bliss Stage
• Universalis
• Burning Wheel
• Des Moines Social Club
• Metagaming Concepts
• Steve Jackson
• Wizard
• Champions
• GURPS
• Hero System
• White Wolf
• Lion Rampant
• Rifts
• Deadlands
• Legend of the Five Rings
• Chicagoland Games
• 3rd Coast Comics
• Games Workshop
• Diana Jones Awards
• Irish Charity Auctions
• Origins Award
• Shadowrun
• FAFSA
• Peter Atkinson
• Ryan Dancey
• The Podgecast
• Iron Tyrants
• Battletech
• Dogs in the Vineyard AP
• Burning Empires AP
• Complexity Round-Table
• Jason Morningstar
• Jonathan Tweet
• Robin D. Laws
• Over the Edge
• Naked Went the Gamer
• Kevin Siembieda
• The Meese Comission

Crunchy Bits!

• Intro and Outro music provided 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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The madness of August has passed, so we’ve finally gotten the chance to edit and put up our follow-up discussion about Jen’s LARP experience. Kevin and Jen are joined by Clyde Rhoer of Theory from the Closet and Jim Ryan from The Great Debate to discuss some of the finer points of our previous episode. Clyde brings his experience running a large troupe (Non-Camarilla) game Back In The Day and Jim is a current Venue Storyteller in Charlotte, North Carolina. We discuss the Cam’s similarities to cults, as well as a few other behaviors and quirks of this particular brand of LARP.

Relevant Links

Crunchy Bits!

• Intro and Outro music by 

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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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It is with great pleasure that we welcome Jen back to the podcast! She’s been away due to a scheduling conflict, and for the past few months has been exploring the wild and woolly world of White Wolf Live Action Roleplay. She sits down with Kevin, Brandon, and CJ to discuss her feelings on the Camarilla LARP.  Unfortunately, Jen’s experience was less than ideal. Listen in to hear about her experiences!

Relevant Notes

Special note:

Turns out you can’t just look up the FBI Cult Watch List. Funny that. Several people within the Camarilla have claimed that the LARP is on that list, but as far as we can tell, there’s no way to verify that information. It’s mostly likely a rumor. Update Jason Morningstar was kind enough to point us towards . Very informative, and makes it seem very likely the FBI is not watching the Cam at all.

Crunchy Bits!

• Intro music provided by
• Outro Music Brand New Sucker by Jonathan Coulton

A brief note about our comments:

The comments section is closed for now. We got a lot of great feedback! From my experience with the Internets, I’m guessing most of what needed to be said has been said. From here on out we’ll just be getting repeats on these basic themes. If you’d like to discuss this episode more, I welcome you to head to our forum, which is much more loosely moderated.

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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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