After an opening reflection about character creation, Chris and Andy tackle the question that drives us all: what is THAC0, how does it work, and why do so many gamers point to it as a confusing stumbling block?
Episode 64 — Spaceship Dinosaurs, Mutant Crime-fighters, and More
Join Chris, Andy, and guest GM Joel Boonstra as they venture off-script and deep into the heart of 1980s children’s cartoons! With the help of the Gamma World roleplaying game, they create a team of barge-dwelling crime-fighters certain to dominate Reagan-era toy store shelves and Saturday morning TV.
Episode 63 — Sports Are Just Numerology Actual Play
For a change of pace, Chris and Andy take a break from talking about roleplaying games and actually play one! We play a short game of Sports Are Just Numerology, a fun one-page RPG for two players by Ben Roswell. Listen as your co-hosts stumble through the frightening world of sports!
Episode 62 — How Do You Use and Care For Your Game Books?
How are your physical game books a part of the experience of tabletop gaming? How do you handle, annotate, and use them at the table? Andy and Chris wade into questions about the beloved books that contain the games we play.
Episode 61 — How Do You Start a New Campaign? (with guest GM Murph)
Once you have an idea for a new campaign, how do you make it happen at the table? Guest GM Murph joins Andy and Chris to discuss different ways to approach the first days of a new roleplaying game.
Episode 60 – What campaign are you chickening out of running?
Andy and Chris get personal and share all about the campaigns they really want to run, but just can’t quite bring themselves to dive into. It’s a GM therapy session!
Appendix:
Episode 59 — How Do You Use Mazes in a Roleplaying Game?
Mazes and labyrinths are a fixture of fantasy roleplaying games, but are they actually fun? Chris and Andy talk about what goes into making mazes fun for your players to interact with.
Episode 59 appendix:
- Candlekeep Mysteries, a new D&D compilation of library-themed adventures that Chris hopes to run soon.
- The Descent, a 2005 horror movie about spelunkers lost in an underground maze of caverns.
- The Moria sourcebook for the 1980s Middle-Earth Roleplaying Game.
Episode 58 — Waterdeep Postmortem, Plus Digital Resources in Games (with Guest GM Tim Saucer)
Tim Saucer joins Andy and Chris to discuss his recently-completed Waterdeep: Dragon Heist campaign, before diving into this episode’s topic: how do you use PDFs and other digital game resources at your table?
Episode 57 — “Eternal Lies” Campaign Postmortem (with Guest GM Matt Wilson)
Guest GM Matt Wilson (@hypomodern) joins the show to discuss his recently-finished 18-month campaign of “Eternal Lies”! Matt talks about what worked and what didn’t, how he adjusted the campaign for his table, and what GM tricks he used to make the experience come alive for his players.
Episode 57 appendix:
- Eternal Lies, an epic campaign for Trail of Cthulhu, published by Pelgrane Press.
- Aviatrix’ Eternal Lies campaign, which was inspirational to Matt in running his own version.
- The Alexandrian blog’s “Eternal Lies remix,” where Matt found lots of practical help in tailoring the campaign for his table.
- Masks of Nyarlathotep, a famous published campaign for the Call of Cthulhu RPG.
- The Yellow King RPG, from which Matt adapted the Quickshock rules system for his game.
Episode 56 — How Do You Handle Luck and Divine Intervention? (with guest GM Kyle Latino)
Guest GM Kyle Latino joins Andy and Chris to discuss luck, fate points, divine intervention, and other ways that games equip players with get-out-of-jail-free cards! We hear from Kyle about his new Kickstarter project, and then chat about every type of deus ex machina we can think of.
Episode 56 appendix:
- Old Roads, Kyle’s map zine currently being funded on Kickstarter!