April 22nd, 2012
In this episode of Virtual Play, Bill and I talk about Dungeon World. Bill ran a two-session one-shot adventure with his friends in Pennsylvania, and I had to join in to give Dungeon World a try! I was only able to attend the first session, so I am just scratching the surface of my interest in the game. I had a lot of fun with the game. It definitely resonates with some of the old-time dungeon crawls, without resorting to old school mechanics. There were many similarities with older games in terms of color, perhaps, (levels, spell names, polyhedral dice, etc.) but at the table the mechanics are very different. The adventure still felt like an old school dungeon crawl and wilderness adventure, which I think stands as a success! This episode is just under 50 minutes in length.
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April 1st, 2012
This episode concludes our recap of Dreamation games. In this show, Bill and I discuss with Don Corcoran the Ashen Stars game Bill ran. In addition to Don, the other players were Frank, Terry, Adam, Erik, and Wilt…if I missed anyone, let me know! The discussion focused on four issues. The first is the theme of justice versus commerce, which seems implicit in the Ashen Stars setting where the player characters are basically lawmen-for-hire. Second, we talked about a key role for the GM is to pass information to the players, regardless of the method to do so. Third, Bill highlights a point in the game he would have liked to have done differently, in order to demonstrate more clearly to the players the link between character actions and events in the narrative. And finally, we discuss the Vas Mal ability ‘Timesight’, which is basically precognition, in order to identify ways the ability can be used in the game to make it more relevant and more interesting, without being overpowering. I’ve tried to match each of these points with a relevant excerpt from the game. Let me know what you think!
The episode clocks in at just over 60 minutes.
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March 28th, 2012
Our Dreamation Recap continues! Bill and I are joined by Don Corcoran, with a cameo from Seraphina, to discuss the Burning Wheel game I ran at the convention. Although the focus is on the Burning Wheel adventure, it’s more as a focal point for a conversation about ideas for running Burning Wheel at conventions and for talking about player -to-player relationships at the gaming table. This is the first of two shows with Don. Our next episode will continue the conversation as we transition from talking about Burning Wheel to talking about the Ashen Stars game Bill ran. Don played in both, so he has an interesting perspective on the games. Based on this show, I’ve added two links. The first is for the ‘Story Games for Everyone’ website Bill and Don mention, as well as the ‘Deeper in the Game’ blog. I want to thank the players, Nancy, Dan, Tony, Emily and Greg–as well as Don–for playing! The show clocks in at just over 60 minutes.
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Posted in Burning Wheel, Don Corcoran, Dreamation, Episodes, Podcast | 6 Comments »
March 16th, 2012
Hi! Today’s episode is the next in the Dreamation Recap series. This show is about Bill’s Trail of Cthulhu adventure, Castle Bravo. He ran it for us at Dreamation. Along with me, the players were Dave Petroski, Larry Wickman, Dave Cole, Joe, and Marcus. This was an interesting show to discuss. As we talk about in the audio, Bill did a great job running it, and it was very entertaining. What was lacking for me, though, was a sense of impacting the story–although that perspective may be unique to me. In retrospect, it’s clear that the actions of the player characters did matter. In our game, the action was driven by the characters of Chief Walton and Lt Davis, played by Larry and Dave C., respectively. The realization I have coming away from this game is that maybe I should not be trying to drive the adventure in a ToC game. Instead, I should be (or could be) portraying the reactions of my character to the madness that is being revealed. The Gumshoe system ensures the player characters are going to get the clues–all we have to do as players is react. In any event, the game was fantastic fun and I look forward to any comments from people who have played Castle Bravo, either at Dreamation or elsewhere–elsewhen!–or comments on ToC in general.
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March 10th, 2012
Welcome back! Today’s show marks Episode #50! I think that is a landmark of sorts. I am going to break out the champagne as a matter of fact to commemorate the event. I’m very pleased that this episode includes a sampling of Bill’s new game, ‘The New World’, which he is developing for Pelgrane Press. Bill ran ‘the New World’ at Dreamation and so it’s included here as part of the Dreamation Recap series of episodes. Our discussion on the New World begins at 37:05 in the episode. The other players in the game were Kat, Michelle, and Sam and we had a good time and provided Bill some useful feedback as he finishes the game write-up. The other game we discuss is the Sorcerer (& Sword) adventure I ran with Bill, Dan, Julian, and Joe. Although that game had some rough patches, I think we wound up with a fun story set in the world of Minaria from the old TSR game Divine Right! I look forward to hearing from you if you have comments about the show. This episode is a little long at 1:17 but I hope you will indulge me!
Mel
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March 4th, 2012
Bill and I were at Dreamation in late February and we had a great time playing games and catching up with friends. Dreamation is definitely worth attending if you have an interest in indie type games. And there are boardgames, miniatures, traditional RPGs and LARPs if those interest you. Following the convention, Bill and I discussed the games we played. The next few episodes of Virtual Play will be our discussions about the games we played at Dreamation. This first recap episode focuses on Skulduggery, by Robin Laws and published by Pelgrane Press. This game was huge fun. My thanks to Bill, Frank, Rich, and Nick for playing. Enjoy the show!
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February 5th, 2012
Today’s episode is about The One Ring: Adventures Over the Edge of the Wild. The setting is J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth, between the events of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. I really enjoyed this game, particularly because of the chance to play in the world of Middle Earth. The One Ring does a good job at including rules that reinforce the ‘feeling’ of Tolkien’s books: Corruption, Fellowship, and rules for Journeys, among others. This first game did not get into those rules in depth, but I see the potential!
Mel
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January 16th, 2012
Hi,
I’m taking advantage of the long weekend to knock out another episode. This is a snapshot of a single Labyrinth Lord (LL) session. LL is a retro-clone of original Dungeons & Dragons or Advanced D&D, depending on which options you select. Playing LL was a fun walk down memory lane, although my version of AD&D growing up was quite different from the game we played earlier this month. In AD&D, we used miniatures and battlemaps, and things like movement rates and weapon speed were important…we even had a nascent rule about attacks of opportunity and interrupt attacks. LL may have these things–we are just scratching the surface of the game–but we did not use them in the recent game. Where my old school AD&D and LL are similar, though, is that dice only mattered in combat. For me, that is a real disincentive to play a game these days. I like game mechanics that provide rules for resolving social conflicts, whether between player characters or between PCs and NPCs. Without such rules, in-game arguments and debates can only be resolved through the capitulation of one player or the other. Then, it’s no longer an RPG–it’s life!
Mel
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January 11th, 2012
Happy New Year!
The first Virtual Play episode of 2012 uses Burning Wheel to look at one of the many roles of the game master in roleplaying games–that of the audience for player and player character actions. One of the best parts of being in a roleplaying game is getting to watch play happen. I’m a little bit sorry that the mini campaign of Burning Wheel we played at the local game store has wrapped up. It provided quite a few sessions where my role as the GM was as much part of the audience as it was a participant. And I enjoyed it! This show talks about a few of those scenes. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.
Mel
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December 24th, 2011
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
This latest episode is just in time for the holidays! In it, Bill White and I discuss an essay published by Ron Edwards entitled “Setting and Emergent Stories”. We use our experiences with Classic Traveller to contrast Edwards’ terms of ‘Story Before’ and ‘Story Now’. At the TravellerCon convention in October 2011, I ran a Classic Traveller game with a pre-determined plot–Story Before–entitled ‘Shuttle Shuffle’. Bill ran Traveller games as well, but in his, the plot was made up on the spot–Story Now. The name of the adventure was ‘Mustering Out Blues’, but each of the three or four times he ran it the story was different. Our discussion highlights the steps Ron lays out for Story Now play, as well as where we diverge from the steps. This session is light on game excerpts. I think we will revisit this subject in the future with some more specific examples of Story Now play. Story Before and Story Now games sound very similar in play. The difference occurs when the GM, in a Story Before game, chooses to accept or reject a player’s solution to a problem based on how closely that solution adheres to the pre-determined plot. In a Story Now game, where there is no predetermined solution, the GM’s reaction to a player’s idea is not based on adhering to a plan but has different causes. In any case, I think an interesting line of inquiry will be to see if there are telltale difference in Story Before versus Story Now games that players can identify and, more importantly, does it matter and does it affect ‘player satisfaction,’ a point Bill brings up later in the episode.
Let us know what you think!
Ron Edwards’ essay “Setting and Emergent Stories” (Oct 2011) is located here: Setting and Emergent Stories
Mel
P.S. Freelance Traveller published my essay expanding the Express Boat Network Protocols I mention in the podcast. The article can be found here: Options for the X-Boat Network
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