Episode 34: FW Demo postmortem
John Reiher ran a demo and got a lot of feedback this time. We discuss his design and execution for his demo and make suggestions for more successful demos.
Aug 09, 2010•32 min
Gaming on the Frontier
Gaming on the Frontier - Our podcast covers the gamut of roleplaying topics from how to handle time travel in your game, playing extreme characters, to topics that every GM ought to know.
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Episodes
Episode 33.5 Adventuring in the Past: Americas part 2
This week we continue our discussion of adventuring in the Native American cultures of North, South, and Central America in the 5th to 11th Centuries. We talk about how they conducted war and how the introduction of modern weapons might not have the expected effect. 01:50 - Mesoamerican ball games . 05:00 – You are a God King! Trading the “shiny” with the Mayans and the repercussions. 12:45 – Other uses for gun powder. 13:35 – What adventures can you run? 14:40 – Holiest of Holy’s in Mesoamerica...
Aug 01, 2010•33 min
Fringeworthy: The Ed Powers Story
A promo for the soon to be released Fringeworthy novel and an offer for a free proof edition at Gencon 2010.
Jul 29, 2010•42 sec
Episode 33 Adventuring in the Past: Americas
Adventuring in the 5th to 11th centuries: Americas This week John Reiher takes us on a tour of ancient americas. Mayans and Mixtecs and Mound Builders, Oh my! 1:49: Exploring the New World 5th to 11th Centuries 2:03: The Mound Builders . 2:27: The Anasazi . 3:00: The Mound Builders: What we know about them. 4:00: The Mayans: the Classic period . They lived in city states, ruled by a God king . 5:02: Combat with the Meso American peoples : Combat is for the taking of prisoners. 5:45: Your place i...
Jul 25, 2010•35 hr 26 min
Episode 32.5 How big is BIG? Pt 2
Bruce and Blix continue their discussion of how taking the time to understand how objects of huge or micro scale can greatly affect an adventure. They continue on and add the meta discussion of how big or small to make your campaign as well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSY42-QTfDM&NR=1
Jul 19, 2010•31 min
Episode 32: How big is BIG?
This week Blix and Bruce discuss how differences in scale can radically change the nature of an adventure and any solutions to problems presented in the adventure. Why this is important in a science fiction game. 01:20 – Dealing with super fast speeds in space. Astronomical Unit , Speed of Light 04:10 – Saving an entire society and dealing with large scale problems. 06:30 – Dealing with the small scale. 13:20 – The scope of the adventures and campaigns. Little game time requires a small scope. L...
Jul 12, 2010•35 min
Episode 31: Adventuring in the Past - Persia and India
We explore Persia and India from the 5th to the 11th century. Hop a ride with sinbad and catch the belt of Vishnu. This one is a little fact heavy but we have provided plenty of links to everything disscussed so you can listen without taking notes. You can look everything up from the notes page later on. Persia 01:50 – Trade in Persia Caliphate , Sunni , Shi'ah , Caliph 03:30 – Missions 04:20 – Historically accurate – the “real” ugly dirty past vs. “movie style” pristine romantic past. Sinbad , ...
Jul 05, 2010•40 min
Episode 30.5 Plots that Worked Part 2
We continue our discussion of what adventure and play technique bring the awesome. This week we concentrate on teams pooling their skills and backgrounds to provide better solutions than trying to create uber characters. 01:20 – The role of the essential skills. Giving free skills, allowing automatic successes, including NPCs. Ways to handle failed essential checks. 09:25 – Playing more than one character at a time. 10:30 – Skill checks. Puzzles, the GM’s bane. 16:40 – Knowing your PC’s and play...
Jun 28, 2010•32 min
Episode 30: Plots that worked
Part 1 of our discussion of adventure design and play techniques that either worked well or were really terrible ideas. We discuss good methods to motivate characters and how to make the game more fun for new and experienced players. Sometimes both. Note: We now move to our summer format we announced 2 weeks ago. Our episodes will only be 1/2 hour long instead of about an hour . Episodes that are split will have the rest published the next week. We will be returning to our normal format in the f...
Jun 21, 2010•26 min
Episode 29: Adventuring in the past: Africa
We continue our adventuring in the past series with a set of podcasts on the 5th to 11th centuries. We start off with Africa, ramrodded by our good friend Trav. Essay on Africa Metallurgy in Africa Route of Lost Kingdoms Kingdoms in Pre-Colonial Africa Ancient African Kingdoms Swahili Language Black Like Me African Folklore Ark of the Covenant - Ethiopia Ark of the Covenant - Southern Africa Tarzan and the Lost Empire Roman Empire...
Jun 15, 2010•53 min
Episode 28: Time Travel
So you want to time travel and the time shifted worlds aren't enough. Okay. We tell you what works, what doesn't and how to not wreck your campaign and avoid screwing over your players with time travel. Players take note: This is the hardest kind of adventure to write and run so if the gm hands it to you, drink the Kool-aide. It's yummy!
Jun 08, 2010•58 min
What's News
Hey fringers, We were are a little bit behind this week but we threw together a short segment about what's going on with Fringeworthy. John and Blix talk about Savage Worlds, convention appearances, and our summer schedule. Enjoy! We also threw in a promo at the end of the PodCast for the new Scott Sigler novel Ancestor. Let's help him reach number one this month by pre-ordering his book! Go to www.scottsigler.com/ancestor right now and get your copy today!
Jun 07, 2010•20 min
Episode 27: Failure
This week we discuss how to handle failure in a campaign. This is a companion piece to the Jay Hailey interview.
May 31, 2010•1 hr 7 min
Episode 26: Sea Vessels
This episode we talk about sea vessels and all of the adventure aspects of using them. This is part of our on-going series about vehicles on the Fringepath. Enjoy maties! Show notes to follow soon with lots-o-links.
May 25, 2010•1 hr 3 min
Episode 25.5: The Middle Campaign
In this episode we talk to Bruce about his new group running in the middle campaign. we then go on to discuss the middle campaign in general. We wrap it up with a little discussion about the upcoming Fringeworthy Savage Worlds edition. This was originally part of the water vehicles episode but this bit ran fairly long. Sooooo, I stripped it out into it's own short episode. Think of this past week as two mini-episodes rather than one long one. The water vehicle episode will be posted in the next ...
May 17, 2010•14 min
Episode 25: New Tri Tac Products
Got behind in the next podcast so I'm editing a recent interview with Richard Tucholka and his crew in Tri Tac Central (Michigan). He talks about his recent releases of WeirdZone and HardWired Hinterland and his game in development ElfWinds. I'll have the audio file posted soon. Please be patient. And I'm trying to get back on schedule for next Sunday's release as well. Well, it is pretty obvious I didn't get it posted soon. So this one will replace the one normally published this coming Sunday....
May 12, 2010•13 min
Episode 24: Jay Hailey Interview
We are joined by Trav of the Trav cast for an interview of Jay Hailey. Jay recently chronicled his attempt at running a variant Fringeworthy campaign with just one player. He shares his successes and failures. There is some really good ideas about running what he calls a Meta Campaign.
May 03, 2010•40 min
Episode 23: Air vehicles
This week we turn our eyes skyward as wondrous vehicles fill the heavens with explorers no doubt. Join us as we discuss the best vehicles for exploration and travel. 0:00 types of vehicles --exploration --long distance --bad land or water access 3:30 surveillance -- drones -- balloons -- limits of drones and how to surmount them. 10:30 Powered Parasails and Powered Hang gliders . 16:30 The personal Jet wing - Yves Rossy : Rocket Man 17:15 Jet packs historically , earlier FW editions, and possibl...
Apr 25, 2010•1 hr 16 min
HardWired Hinterland Promo
here is a promo for Tri Tac Games latest RPG - Hard Wired Hinterland. A wonderful place for pulpish action and high flying fun.
Apr 19, 2010•39 sec
Fringeworthy Everywhere
In this short broadcast we discuss putting 01:15 Fringeworthy Facebook Page 02:11 Fringeworthy can be in any game or adventure you play 03:45 Fringeworthy tools in Rogue 417 06:00 Calling all listeners for podcast topics you want to hear 06:25 We need someone to post a review of Fringeworthy on the various rpg discussion sites. RPGNet The Forge 07:30 We will provide convention support for anyone who wants to demo any Tri Tac game, especially Fringeworthy. 15:45 Here is the list of tools we use t...
Apr 19, 2010•19 min
Episode 22 Compensation
Being a fringeworthy explorer is a great honor but it gets old after the mellor are chewing at your boot. We discuss monetary and intangible rewards that can be given to the characters to keep them and their players interested in the campaign. Also we discuss how a detailed backstory or player created character motivations helps the gm and the other players to trigger events that interest the characters. 02:00 – Characters that are Fringeworthy but don’t travel the pathways. 03:15 – The early ad...
Apr 12, 2010•53 min
Episode 21 Land Vehicles
This week we talk about all the different kinds of vehicles you can use for your land explorations from trucks to assault vehicles and more. 02:00 vehicles have to match the look of vehicles on the world or it will raise notice. 03:00 first recon use dirt bike 05:00 keeping motorcycles quiet (mufflers or electric engine) Issues with air powered bikes? http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/03/zero-motorcycles-cranks-out-whisper-quiet-electric-bike/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIJ1MrYjB5c http://www....
Apr 05, 2010•1 hr 3 min
Episode 20: Fringe in Space
For this episode we talk about Fringe in Space! What takes to get into space, where you can go once you're there, and what sort of adventures you can have in space! Oh the places you can go to in space, and you can bike there with ease! If you really want to get into the nitty gritty of space travel, we recommend the renown web site: The Atomic Rocket Page ! Put together by Winchell Chung, also renown as the man who first drew an Ogre Mk V and the artist for that other Metagaming favorite, Warpw...
Mar 28, 2010•1 hr 2 min
Episode 19: Transhumanism
Welcome to James P. Buchanan. He is our guest this week, the best expert on transhumanism I know. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism
Mar 22, 2010•49 min
Episode 18 Fringe Vehicles 2
We showed you which vehicles could work with the standard technology of Earth Prime. Now we go with the workhouse engine for most fringe exploration before we jump off to the really high tech with gravity powered vehicles, fringe trains, and the fringeworthy people mover. 02:30 – Diesel Engines: The most common and useful type of fringe vehicle. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_engine 12:50 – RV that can carry a car. http://www.volkner-mobil.de/Home/english/home_en.html 13:10 – The diesel mot...
Mar 15, 2010•1 hr 1 min
Episode 17: Fringe enabled vehicles
This week we do part 1 of our study of what options for vehicles that actually can work on the Fringepaths. (Links will be added soon!) 1:09 Introduction: Fringe enabled vehicles. The problems and pitfalls. 2:09 In the beginning, we talk about the history of vehicles on the pathways. 2.31 Bicycles: Mountain, Touring bikes. Why bikes are easy to use on the pathways. You can carry much more and tow trailers. We mention Modular bikes and custom built bikes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touring_bicy...
Mar 08, 2010•1 hr
Episode 16: Mix Mash
This week we mix it up. We had three segments that came up on three different shows. None of these segments were relative to the topic of the show and none of them were long enough to run as their own show. Sooooo.... we decided to put them together into one "mix mash" show. 01:02 Topic 1: Listener Mail Billion6 asks "Does IDET hire alien fringewalkers?" 12:00 Topic 2: Fringeworthy Bible We talk about the little know Fringeworthy Bible. This is the ruleset that the designers have agreed to work ...
Mar 01, 2010•37 min
Episode 15: Protection - Packing for Success
This week our hosts discuss how wearing the right protective gear can make all the difference in an encounter. Straight armor and differences between systems is noted plus protective gear vrs hazards such as fire, noxious fumes, and nerve gas. We also discuss the best defense: a good offense - Weapons. Each host lists his favorite weapon loadouts and why for both general exploration and mellor hunting. 00:01:30 – Equipment as feats that you can buy. 00:02:30 – How body armor works. Chainmail sha...
Feb 22, 2010•1 hr 12 min
Episode 14: Magic and Psionics
Do you want magic and psionics in your SF game? How does it work from universe to universe? What happens when you bring Stormbringer to a non-magic world? All this and more on the only Interdimensional exploration game: Fringeworthy. 01:56 – Consequences of adding magic. 03:00 – Is magic appropriate for your game? 03:50 – What does the Fringeworthy Bible say about magic? 06:00 – The first question is… “Do you want magic in your Sci-fi game?” 06:40 – Psionics are part of the cannon. 08:00 – Magic...
Feb 15, 2010•57 min
Episode 13: Less Than Lethal
Less than Lethal. This week we discuss less than lethal deterrants and attack methods. Some good basic less than lethal links (LTL): USAF Summary , BZ Gas , Cs Gas , Tear Gas , Pepper Spray , Pole Capture , Electric Fence , Sound Deterrent , Net Gun , Bola , Concussion Grenade , Sticky Foam , Dart Gun , Flash Bang , Sting Ball , Water Cannon , Vortex Gun , LRAD , Smoke Grenade , Stink Bombs , Pepper Ammo , Taser Rounds , EMP Grenades 00:01:30 – The purpose for using LTL. 00:02:20 – What kinds of...
Feb 07, 2010•1 hr 20 min
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