Episode 14 of the podcast is here! In this one, we relate our experience with Jason Morningstar’s Night Witches, discuss the concept of trust at the gaming table, and read 5-star reviews in different “accents.”
Also, there is a listener contest in this one. This is the post you will use to participate in the contest. The deadline is April 13th.
Enjoy!
Rejoice!
Rejoice!
Night Witches, eh????? Gonna have to pop this in sometime and listen up.
Night Witches, eh????? Gonna have to pop this in sometime and listen up.
I remember a great game of In a Wicked Age where I was having a lot of fun playing a horrible person, think Spanish inquisition, but at a few points I was worried that some of the other players thought that I believed the things my character said or would have approved of his actions in the real world.
as long as I can talk about stuff out of character, and occasionally say “lets do that off screen”, I value the gauntlet a lot for expanding my horizons and tolerances. I trust that even the “awful” games are fun to talk about and leave good memories
I remember a great game of In a Wicked Age where I was having a lot of fun playing a horrible person, think Spanish inquisition, but at a few points I was worried that some of the other players thought that I believed the things my character said or would have approved of his actions in the real world.
as long as I can talk about stuff out of character, and occasionally say “lets do that off screen”, I value the gauntlet a lot for expanding my horizons and tolerances. I trust that even the “awful” games are fun to talk about and leave good memories
for the contest:
My first Roll playing game (glossing over an aborted Gurps attempt, more of a simulation game, also barely remember it): After a near TPK climbing a cliff we are charged by some sort of giant tiger that we manage to barely kill by firing off all of our best skills/abilities. My ranger and the Barbarian were half dead and we decided to camp out. I leave my rat companion instructions to wake me in case of danger and wake to find that the entire party is tied up, disarmed and being carried up the mountain by towering stone skinned giants. Apparently the cat thing was one of their pets. The DM asks if our lvl 1 unarmed, un-rested, bound, characters wished to put up a fight and we decided it would not be a good idea at the time.
They stashed us in a jail cell described as a solid rock cave with a big metal door. We have no equipment. The following scene involved no dice rolls:
“what do you do?”
“is there anything in here?”
“no”
“are there any cracks or interesting formations?”
“no”
“can I pick the lock?”
“no one is a thief and you have no equipment so no.”
“I look for secret passages”
“there are none”
“Maybe we should talk to the guard”
“they ignore you”
“Is there anyway to get the rat out?”
“no”
“well I guess we sit here until something happens”
…
eventual a giant comes. Stops our escape attempt (again without dice, “They just grab you”) and describes how the villagers have built there homes on the giants burial ground. Our face character agrees to ask the villagers to leave and they fly us down on griffon back and the villagers agree. The end, hurray! I made two actual checks on the cliff then we all sat around for the rest of the adventure that seemed to take 4 hours. I think the face character made a few more rolls which I guess he succeeded at. The DM seemed honestly surprised we didn’t try to fight the rock giants and that “threw him off”. He seemed to understand our complaints but not know how he could have handled it better. I don’t think this was a module but it was obviously a case of poor planning / improve ability. I avoided pen and paper RPGs for 2 years afterward.
for the contest:
My first Roll playing game (glossing over an aborted Gurps attempt, more of a simulation game, also barely remember it): After a near TPK climbing a cliff we are charged by some sort of giant tiger that we manage to barely kill by firing off all of our best skills/abilities. My ranger and the Barbarian were half dead and we decided to camp out. I leave my rat companion instructions to wake me in case of danger and wake to find that the entire party is tied up, disarmed and being carried up the mountain by towering stone skinned giants. Apparently the cat thing was one of their pets. The DM asks if our lvl 1 unarmed, un-rested, bound, characters wished to put up a fight and we decided it would not be a good idea at the time.
They stashed us in a jail cell described as a solid rock cave with a big metal door. We have no equipment. The following scene involved no dice rolls:
“what do you do?”
“is there anything in here?”
“no”
“are there any cracks or interesting formations?”
“no”
“can I pick the lock?”
“no one is a thief and you have no equipment so no.”
“I look for secret passages”
“there are none”
“Maybe we should talk to the guard”
“they ignore you”
“Is there anyway to get the rat out?”
“no”
“well I guess we sit here until something happens”
…
eventual a giant comes. Stops our escape attempt (again without dice, “They just grab you”) and describes how the villagers have built there homes on the giants burial ground. Our face character agrees to ask the villagers to leave and they fly us down on griffon back and the villagers agree. The end, hurray! I made two actual checks on the cliff then we all sat around for the rest of the adventure that seemed to take 4 hours. I think the face character made a few more rolls which I guess he succeeded at. The DM seemed honestly surprised we didn’t try to fight the rock giants and that “threw him off”. He seemed to understand our complaints but not know how he could have handled it better. I don’t think this was a module but it was obviously a case of poor planning / improve ability. I avoided pen and paper RPGs for 2 years afterward.
This podcast became my absolute favorite pass time during my commute very quickly. I just wish you had a back catalog so I wouldn’t have to listen to the same casts over and over.
This podcast became my absolute favorite pass time during my commute very quickly. I just wish you had a back catalog so I wouldn’t have to listen to the same casts over and over.
Good start Daniel Fowler. I look forward to more “First Time” stories.
Good start Daniel Fowler. I look forward to more “First Time” stories.
Daniel Lewis, what was the name of that computer game you mentioned in this episode?
Daniel Lewis, what was the name of that computer game you mentioned in this episode?
Pillars of Eternity. I actually just finished it. The mechanics start to feel a little stale by the end of the game, but the story gets surprisingly good toward the end. Pretty solid over all.
Pillars of Eternity. I actually just finished it. The mechanics start to feel a little stale by the end of the game, but the story gets surprisingly good toward the end. Pretty solid over all.
Bloodborne 4 Life!
Bloodborne 4 Life!
Stephen Crawford I”m beginning to think the contest was too big of an ask.
Seriously, listeners, a very short anecdote about your first roleplaying game experience (even just a quick paragraph) is all that’s needed.
Stephen Crawford I”m beginning to think the contest was too big of an ask.
Seriously, listeners, a very short anecdote about your first roleplaying game experience (even just a quick paragraph) is all that’s needed.
Jason Cordova I didn’t get to that part yet in this episode, but I’d gladly contribute. Where do you need this to be sent to?
Jason Cordova I didn’t get to that part yet in this episode, but I’d gladly contribute. Where do you need this to be sent to?
jan w You can post it here or message me privately.
jan w You can post it here or message me privately.
For the contest:
Hmm, my memories are kinda foggy on my first RPG experience as it’s been quite a while, it would have been the summer of 1979 and one of my cousins had this cool new game he told me I just had to try called Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, so we spend about an hour rolling me up a 1st level human fighter (named Conan of course), he then proceeds to try and run me though G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, the adventure lasted a whole 10 minutes (i.e. not even past the first encounter) before my fighter got splatted by a giant’s club. So, I roll up a new character, this time a 1st level thief (named Shadowjack of course) and my cousin tells me has a much better adventure for a thief, and pulls out S1 Tomb of Horrors, needless to say that didn’t go any better than the first adventure. Anyway he was kind enough to let me borrow his AD&D Player’s Handbook to read, which is what I think really got me hooked on RPGs when I discovered that they’re supposed to be played with more than 2 people, so I soon purchased my own AD&D rulebooks and adventure modules and discovered other games that I found more interesting like Traveller and Gamma World.
For the contest:
Hmm, my memories are kinda foggy on my first RPG experience as it’s been quite a while, it would have been the summer of 1979 and one of my cousins had this cool new game he told me I just had to try called Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, so we spend about an hour rolling me up a 1st level human fighter (named Conan of course), he then proceeds to try and run me though G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, the adventure lasted a whole 10 minutes (i.e. not even past the first encounter) before my fighter got splatted by a giant’s club. So, I roll up a new character, this time a 1st level thief (named Shadowjack of course) and my cousin tells me has a much better adventure for a thief, and pulls out S1 Tomb of Horrors, needless to say that didn’t go any better than the first adventure. Anyway he was kind enough to let me borrow his AD&D Player’s Handbook to read, which is what I think really got me hooked on RPGs when I discovered that they’re supposed to be played with more than 2 people, so I soon purchased my own AD&D rulebooks and adventure modules and discovered other games that I found more interesting like Traveller and Gamma World.
My first experience:
As a board gamer I had always been aware of D&D, but never gotten interested in it. The bulky books looked like too much to get into and I wasn’t going to convince anyone to join in, nor did I know where to look for others. I didn’t look into RPG’s because of that.
Somehow at some point though, I found myself in possession of a copy of Fiasco. I was interested in story centred card/board games, and stumbled upon it. Where card based story games had their limitations, Fiasco seemed to offer so much more.
It took a while, but I found some expats to get it to the table with. Our first game was incredible. We played two rival video stores in a small town. The one rented out Beta Max tapes, the other was part of a chain renting VHS. This was taking place at the height of the betamax/Vhs showdown. The Betamax guy’s store was running like shit, because he had only 10 movies or so. So he sold VHS under the counter. The guy running the chain wasn’t doing much better though, and had an inspection coming up. Led to believe that the betamax store was doing well, he wanted to steal the paperwork of that store to present to his superiors. Somehow people got killed and the vhs chain store CEO came down to the little town, bodies were buried in abandoned quarries and we actually got away with it all.
The other players were seasoned roleplayers but hadn’t played GM-less before. I must’ve gotten lucky to find them cause they had no problem doing some improv at the table, and a world just opened up for me. The most memorable part, for me, was the montage where someone said “and this is the quarry, which is being reinstated”, which meant that the bodies were going to be found, and our characters, who thought they were going to get away with it all, had a nasty surprise waiting for them…
I was completely won over. The cinematic feel of the ending felt awesome and I was, quite literally, flabbergasted by the potential of story games. This was exactly what I had been looking for in card game-based story games, but it surpassed my expectations by a mile.
Ever since: I’m a believer. I don’t think D&D will ever be for me, but a different story showed me that there’s more to the hobby than slaying dragons and collecting loot.
My first experience:
As a board gamer I had always been aware of D&D, but never gotten interested in it. The bulky books looked like too much to get into and I wasn’t going to convince anyone to join in, nor did I know where to look for others. I didn’t look into RPG’s because of that.
Somehow at some point though, I found myself in possession of a copy of Fiasco. I was interested in story centred card/board games, and stumbled upon it. Where card based story games had their limitations, Fiasco seemed to offer so much more.
It took a while, but I found some expats to get it to the table with. Our first game was incredible. We played two rival video stores in a small town. The one rented out Beta Max tapes, the other was part of a chain renting VHS. This was taking place at the height of the betamax/Vhs showdown. The Betamax guy’s store was running like shit, because he had only 10 movies or so. So he sold VHS under the counter. The guy running the chain wasn’t doing much better though, and had an inspection coming up. Led to believe that the betamax store was doing well, he wanted to steal the paperwork of that store to present to his superiors. Somehow people got killed and the vhs chain store CEO came down to the little town, bodies were buried in abandoned quarries and we actually got away with it all.
The other players were seasoned roleplayers but hadn’t played GM-less before. I must’ve gotten lucky to find them cause they had no problem doing some improv at the table, and a world just opened up for me. The most memorable part, for me, was the montage where someone said “and this is the quarry, which is being reinstated”, which meant that the bodies were going to be found, and our characters, who thought they were going to get away with it all, had a nasty surprise waiting for them…
I was completely won over. The cinematic feel of the ending felt awesome and I was, quite literally, flabbergasted by the potential of story games. This was exactly what I had been looking for in card game-based story games, but it surpassed my expectations by a mile.
Ever since: I’m a believer. I don’t think D&D will ever be for me, but a different story showed me that there’s more to the hobby than slaying dragons and collecting loot.
Soooooooooooo WWII Lady Blackbird sounds amazing. I would like to subscribe to this.
I really dig all the stuff about trust: I see a lot of social safety nets discussed in the RPG community, and they do a lot of good, but I think they ultimately can’t replace that trust.
“It’s a relationship, it goes back and forth…” Man, so true. I love this discussion of gaming group dynamics.
Scott’s accents are THE BEST. …and I’m not exactly sure what was going on there with the last accent there. Not sure I want to know. 😉
~~~
Now, for the contest story!
If we’re counting actual rules-based RPGs, that would be a single session of D&D 3.5, where I dropped into a longer-running campaign for a single session: the climactic fight against Kyuss, the Worm That Walks. It was my freshman year of college.
I’d hung around for a session, and my roommate (the DM) asked me to join in, and I said yes. So off I went with one of the two resident munchkins of the group (both awesome guys, and they regularly made the DM’s life an unholy nightmare, but in the “I can’t believe I’m friends with you assholes” way, so it was funny) to make a character. He didn’t uber-optimize it, just suggested some cool stuff–so I was a Dragonborn Ranger with dual-wielded rapiers. Then we spent a lot of time kitting my guy out with awesome gear. I started working on the character at night. I left his dorm room, and it was light. I think that was my first all-nighter ever.
I gave the sheet to the DM, and then when it came time for the session…he lost the sheet.
So instead, I got to play the Scout which the two munchkins had uber-tweaked, because the player who was going to be using the Scout was a no-show. Through some unholy combination of multishot, arrows that split into other arrows, and boots of super-speed, I basically was able to unleash a rain of arrows upon the creature.
We added everything up, and I grabbed two handfuls of d6es for damage. Like, 20-30 dice. Which we were using as an average roll and then multiplying out. Eat your heart out, Mythender.
I felt dirty. In hindsight, this session was amazingly ridiculous.
Years later, and (thanks to me), said DM is now a strong devotee of Burning Wheel. It’s the most hilarious turnaround ever.
Soooooooooooo WWII Lady Blackbird sounds amazing. I would like to subscribe to this.
I really dig all the stuff about trust: I see a lot of social safety nets discussed in the RPG community, and they do a lot of good, but I think they ultimately can’t replace that trust.
“It’s a relationship, it goes back and forth…” Man, so true. I love this discussion of gaming group dynamics.
Scott’s accents are THE BEST. …and I’m not exactly sure what was going on there with the last accent there. Not sure I want to know. 😉
~~~
Now, for the contest story!
If we’re counting actual rules-based RPGs, that would be a single session of D&D 3.5, where I dropped into a longer-running campaign for a single session: the climactic fight against Kyuss, the Worm That Walks. It was my freshman year of college.
I’d hung around for a session, and my roommate (the DM) asked me to join in, and I said yes. So off I went with one of the two resident munchkins of the group (both awesome guys, and they regularly made the DM’s life an unholy nightmare, but in the “I can’t believe I’m friends with you assholes” way, so it was funny) to make a character. He didn’t uber-optimize it, just suggested some cool stuff–so I was a Dragonborn Ranger with dual-wielded rapiers. Then we spent a lot of time kitting my guy out with awesome gear. I started working on the character at night. I left his dorm room, and it was light. I think that was my first all-nighter ever.
I gave the sheet to the DM, and then when it came time for the session…he lost the sheet.
So instead, I got to play the Scout which the two munchkins had uber-tweaked, because the player who was going to be using the Scout was a no-show. Through some unholy combination of multishot, arrows that split into other arrows, and boots of super-speed, I basically was able to unleash a rain of arrows upon the creature.
We added everything up, and I grabbed two handfuls of d6es for damage. Like, 20-30 dice. Which we were using as an average roll and then multiplying out. Eat your heart out, Mythender.
I felt dirty. In hindsight, this session was amazingly ridiculous.
Years later, and (thanks to me), said DM is now a strong devotee of Burning Wheel. It’s the most hilarious turnaround ever.