Talking about weather in role-playing games. After all, we live in Wisconsin and every bit of small talk is about the weather. “Oooh, it’s cold outside.” or “Ufda, it sher is humid out.” Many times we gloss over the thing that can really have an impact on the characters, and it’s something they can rarely...
Peeneel Testiclees! Yes, we’re talking about what’s in a player character’s name in this episode. How do you handle those players that insist on have a player character with a goofy name? It could be as easy as saying, “seriously? you want to name your character Peeneel Testiclees? No.” Or, you could roll with it...
The new year, 2017, is upon us and this is the last show of the year. We talk about what we’d like to accomplish, as it pertains to role-playing games, for 2017. Whether it’s playing new games or GM’ing ones we haven’t received yet, we’re looking forward to some great things. We even share some...
Race as class in role-playing games, it goes back to Basic, Expert, Companion, Master’s and Immortal’s (BECMI) sets of Dungeons and Dragons. It is also part of many other rpg’s like Dungeon Crawl Classics, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, and many, many, more. Like two guys sitting at the lunch table, we banter a bit about this...
We revisit urban adventuring. We had some good feedback on the original episode 116 that we wanted to fill in some blanks. We mention how some city-based prepublished supplements offer tables and encounter charts that may help GM an urban adventure. We talk about the interesting roles NPC’s play and how they can be resources...
Creative spell casting could be a synergy of spells. Casting grease down a hallway and then a flame-based spell to light it on fire. Brett mentions someone casting climb walls to better pick pocket an NPC. These are just a couple examples of how spell casters can get creative with their craft. How creative do...
Recorded at Gamehole Con 2016, a tabletop gaming convention held in Madison, Wisconsin, this bonus episode features Monte Cook and Shanna Germain from Monte Cook Games. This is the unedited seminar that they hosted.
What makes for a good urban adventures for our fantasy games? Well, it’s a city, but how does that change the adventure? The surroundings differ, and there are other obstacles to throw at the players. Announcements Evercon is coming up fast! Random Encounter Spenser Clark drops us a line at our G+ community Buckle in...
Gods in rpg’s, what role to they play in your game? Do they interact with the common player? We talk about whether we incorporate them and what effect it has on player characters that have a religious bend to them. You know, like taking powers away from clerics if the cleric falls out of favor...
Chain of command in rpg’s, it can allow a single player character to have authority over the rest of the pc’s in the group. It can also create drama and a different type of game. Announcements Evercon.org Patreon levels updated with new goals. Random Encounter Gabe emails us on aging characters. Graham comments on G+ on...
Recorded at Gamehole Con 2016, a tabletop gaming convention held in Madison, Wisconsin, this bonus episode features Mike Mearls, Christopher Perkins and Jeremy Crawford from Wizards of the Coast. This is the unedited seminar that they hosted. They discuss Volo’s Guide to Monsters, the differences in settings and the design approach to each one, field Q&A’s from...
Recorded at Gamehole Con 2016, this bonus episode features Marc Miller. Marc is the person behind the 40 year old role-playing game Traveller. We want to thank Marc for allowing us to record his seminar. [shadowbox]This show brought to you by fans of the show, like you. Support the show. Become a patron![/shadowbox]
Brett and Sean attended the popular tabletop gaming convention, Gamehole Con, in Madison, Wisconsin. A gaming convention that occurred the first weekend of November, the year was 2016. We talk about the games we ran and the crazy good fun we had, the best thing was the people we met. Thanks for stopping by the...
Time passes, and player characters are aging in your role-playing games. Or are they? First edition Dungeons & Dragons had the young be strong and dextrous, but as your pc aged you became weaker, wiser and smarter. How often we do find players role-playing age? Random Encounter Craig Huber comments on G+ James emails us OFTHEHILLPEOPLE corrects...
What does it mean to be heroic in tabletop rpg’s? Aside from sitting as a player in one of Brett’s games, some would argue that having a player character at full strength and rushing into battle is not as heroic as being down to one hit point and entering battle to slay the dragon and...
Traps in role-playing games, they’re used for a variety of reasons as a GM, but player characters can also setup traps to ensnare their foes. There is the popular mechanical trap as well as the social trap, “aha! We’ve got you now!” Brett shares a funny story about his son’s, AJ, approach to littering a dungeon with...
Organizations in RPG’s, inspired by community member Sgt Pemberfoot, we talk about the roles of cults, sects, clubs, fraternities, sacred orders and what you can do with them. Want to build your own? We talk about the elements that make up an organization in fantasy RPG setting. Announcements Evercon.org – Come and run games for...
Side quests, how do they fit in to the grand scheme of the story, or does it? What if the party is sent on a side quest, but it doesn’t serve a purpose? Announcements Evercon.org – Come and run games for us! Games on Demand! Gamehole! – you need the G&BS Uber? Rat Patrol Random Encounter...
We asked game masters, that are gracious enough to run games under the Gaming and BS banner at Gamehole Con 2016, to give us some insight into what they’re running. This is a segment of that series. In this bonus episode Gabe D. talks about running Cubicle 7’s Yggdrasill rpg, his first trip to a tabletop gaming convention...
Evil games, or allowing your players to play evil characters. According to Sean, all players are evil. Well, to some degree. Many people may say that alignment/good/evil are all relative. Have you ran an evil group of player characters through adventures? What pitfalls or triumphs have you experienced? Maybe you’re vehemently against being involved in...
We asked game masters, that are gracious enough to run games under the Gaming and BS banner at Gamehole Con 2016, to give us some insight into what they’re running. This is a segment of that series. In this bonus episode Forrest Aguirre talks about running his mashup of old school games to come up with just the...
Magic items, how do you convey the properties of these wondrous items to the player characters? A topic brought up by Kevin Lovecraft, he writes “I wonder how to reveal the properties of such items to players/characters when they discover them. Spout Lore seems like the obvious method, but what are some other ways to justify...
We asked game masters, that are gracious enough to run games under the Gaming and BS banner at Gamehole Con 2016, to give us some insight into what they’re running. This is a segment of that series. In this bonus episode Roger Brasslett talks about running Warhammer Fantasy Role Playing, 1st edition.
PC safe zones, inspired by Ed Nagy. He asks, “Do you allow your PCs somewhere where they can store items without fear, can heal and plot without worry? When do you break that tacit agreement and have robbers hit them at home?” We talk how we have encountered safe zones, either as a pc or game...
We asked game masters, that are gracious enough to run games under the Gaming and BS banner at Gamehole Con 2016, to give us some insight into what they’re running. This is a segment of that series. In this bonus episode Jason Raether talks about running Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition, the one edition that has changed the...
RPG a day is an internet meme done by BrigadeCon and Autocratik that outlines a question a day for the month of August that spurs conversation and talk about our favorite hobby, role-playing games. We go through all 31 questions in this episode. Announcements Ongoing, never ending, pimping of EverCon Gamehole Con ride offer from Sean...
Steal that plot. One of Brett’s favorite GM advice books is Stealing Cthulhu by Graham Walmsley (available at DRPG). Let’s dig into the book’s core idea and see how we can use it to really improve our genre emulation. Announcements Evercon.org – Come and run games for us! Gamehole! – you need the G&BS Uber?...
We asked game masters, that are gracious enough to run games under the Gaming and BS banner at Gamehole Con 2016, to give us some insight into what they’re running. This is a segment of that series. In this bonus episode Tim Virning talks about running Fiasco, a role-playing game by Jason Morningstar.
With the recent Kickstarter from Monte Cook Games where Monte talks about addressing absentee members of the game group yet still facilitate a method of play. We figured we’d want to elaborate on this. Be it a forum where you discuss what your player character does during down-time, or it’s a real life letter from one...
In this episode we field a question posed to us by Pure Mongrel’s G+ post … I have a pondering for you guys in regards to game tempo and quality over quantity… Understanding that each playing group is different, there is a general consensus that combat should be fast, prep time should be minimal and...
