Hailing from Portsmouth, Virginia, Christopher R. Rice is constantly writing, tinkering with, and running GURPS. A frequent writer for Steve Jackson Games, if he's not writing for GURPS, he's blogging about it. His site “Ravens N' Pennies” is well-stocked with more GURPS goodies than you could shake a stick at. This one’s about GURPS Meta-Tech, his most recent book, but it’s about so much more. Even for those not into the GURPS system, there’s much to ponder and I hope you’ll listen in nonethele...
Jul 27, 2024•55 min•Season 14Ep. 4
Hello Rescuers! This episode is subtitled, "Tactical combat, wargaming, and RPGs". Although inspired by Snapshot, the thoughts are broader than any one particular set of rules. Opening with a quotation from Jamison's, "Gamemastering", this episode shares some thoughts about the place of wargaming in the roleplayer’s arsenal. The words of Brian Jamison tell us to be wary of such folk, but I am in disagreement. Big thank you to Jason, John, Simon, and Wiebe for contributing to the show with their ...
Jul 13, 2024•33 min•Season 14Ep. 3
This episode brings us back to the most important question in rediscovering our hobby: How do we best recapture the spirit of play and of deep engagement with these games? This episode reflects on a shift in my experience of gaming and talks about what I have been learning as I focused on running two Fellmyr games - that is two groups of players using the same world - on a regular basis over the past six months. I also share some messages I’ve received from listeners which express gratitude for ...
Jun 01, 2024•41 min•Season 14Ep. 2
Hello Rescuers! We’re back! Sort of. As I said a few weeks ago, I am changing the pace of Roleplay Rescue from a regular podcast to being a, well, irregular podcast - in other words, although this is the first episode of the resurrected show, it may be some time (or not) before I record another. But this episode couldn’t wait. I thought about holding it back but, frankly, it was such a great conversation that I couldn’t in good conscience hold it back. Today, I am honoured to welcome W. Michael ...
Apr 13, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Season 14Ep. 1
Here’s the short version: I’m going to take a break - once again - from podcasting. When I do return, whether it’s in a couple of weeks, two months, or a year, I’m going to take the approach of recording when I have something I’m interested in saying. No more weekly or bi-weekly schedule, just grabbing the mic whenever ideas are worth developing. And so this is the End. It’s also the beginning of something new. Big thanks to Jon for the call-in which inspired the episode. Tiny Prep, the book: ro...
Mar 23, 2024•18 min•Season 13Ep. 15
This is the last in a series of four conversations I’ve enjoyed with various guests over the tail end of 2023 and into January 2024. Joaquin Lippincott is the founder of RPGMatch, an application where you can register and meet other TTRPG players who like to play like you do. Following the call-in and my not-entirely positive feedback about the app in Episode 6, Seeking Face to Face, Joaquin reached out and we agreed to have a bit of a chat. Thanks to Joaquin for coming on the show! I hope you e...
Mar 09, 2024•57 min•Season 13Ep. 14
It has been a month since I last hopped on the mic and spoke. This episode is a GM Intrusion into the flow of the season to do two things: First, I wanted to share and respond to a few call-in messages I’ve received through January and February. Second, I thought I would update you on a couple of areas in my own hobby and thought - we just played a second face-to-face session at The Dice Cup, the School Club has shifted to playing Dungeon Fantasy RPG too, and I’ve even taken part as a player in ...
Feb 24, 2024•34 min•Season 13Ep. 13
This is the third in a series of four conversations I’ve enjoyed with various friends and new acquaintances within the Roleplay Rescue community over the tail end of 2023 and into January 2024. My guest today is Bob from the SAFCO podcast. Bob Loftin is co-host of SAFCOcast, a podcast about the Traveller roleplaying game and its derivatives. SAFCO stands for Super Adventure Friends Co., the tongue-in-cheek name the members of Bob’s group decided to give the company their characters formed for th...
Feb 10, 2024•53 min•Season 13Ep. 12
This is the second in a series of four conversations I’ve enjoyed with various friends and new acquaintances within the Roleplay Rescue community over the tail end of 2023 and into January 2024. My guest today is Mr_Sandman, aka Andrew from Long Island. Andrew is a long-time GURPS GM and the mind behind his blog, In The Sandbox, which contains lots of great advice for aspiring and new GURPS GMs. I particularly enjoyed his post entitled, “My Tips for GMs New to GURPS” from May 2023. Last time I l...
Jan 27, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Season 13Ep. 11
I got back to running a game face-to-face. More than that, it looks like this newly formed group of gamers wants to meet again in February. I don’t want to jinx it, but I’m so entirely made up about this event that I thought I’d share a few quick thoughts as an episode. Thanks right up front to all the new players in that session who absolutely made my day - James, Phil, Isa, Onur, and Adam. It was an absolute pleasure to make your acquaintance. Fellmyr Map via After Five Years – Roleplay Rescue...
Jan 20, 2024•21 min•Season 13Ep. 10
This is the first in a series of four new conversations I’ve enjoyed with various friends and new acquaintances within the Roleplay Rescue community over the tail end of 2023 and into January 2024. My guest today is Daniel Jones of the Primaeval Fantasy YouTube and podcast channels, plus the Eudaimonic Geekery blog. I ask him to outline the nature of what he means by the term, “Primaeval Fantasy” as a sub-genre of fantasy world making. Daniel is the originator of the term Otherworld-immersion an...
Jan 13, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Season 13Ep. 9
As the New Year for 2024 arrives, where am I at with table top roleplaying games? What are my plans for the year ahead and what lessons am I carrying forward? Happy New Year! Welcome to 2024 and I wish you all the very best for the 50th anniversay of the publication of Dungeons & Dragons - that funny old boxed set that sparked this whole roleplaying games phenomenon in 1974! This episode is - predictably enough - all about me, my hobby, and my thoughts as I begin the 53rd year of my life. I ...
Jan 06, 2024•34 min•Season 13Ep. 8
I’ve sat on the conversation that you’re about to hear for far too long. Back in late September, I hopped online for a conversation with Augury Ignored - the voice behind the Augury Ignored blog. Thomas - for that is his actual name - reached out across Mastodon and we hopped online to chat. It was a first time conversation between gaming strangers but it was a hugely influential chat for me. Without this conversation, I don’t think Roleplay Rescue Season 13 would have started. Big thanks to Tho...
Dec 23, 2023•1 hr 17 min•Season 13Ep. 7
The barriers to finding face-to-face community are many. But this was the very problem I began the whole podcast to resolve and, weirdly, find myself right back where I began. I want to face this challenge full on and see what actions I can take. This is pretty personal but I hope you'll find it useful nonetheless. Thank you to all the callers this week - to Infinity Devil for helping inspire the episode, and to Jamie, Jason and Jon. Nottingham Roleplaying Games (RPGs) Meetup Group : https://www...
Dec 09, 2023•31 min•Season 13Ep. 6
On the 28th November 2018, the eight minute and 14 second episode zero of Roleplay Rescue was aired. Now, as we reach the 5th anniversary of that fateful episode, I’m wondering… has it been worth it? What have I learned? And is it mission accomplished? I mean… has anyone’s roleplaying been rescued? Big thanks to the callers today - Jason, Hobbs, Spencer, Jean-Francois, Carl, Matt, and Jon. Please consider donating for Men's Health during Movember! Thanks to everyone who has already donated for t...
Nov 25, 2023•23 min•Season 13Ep. 5
Draw a quick regional map on hexed paper. Grab the rules from an old roleplaying game. Sit down with some friends and begin to play. Is it really that simple to start a fantasy roleplaying campaign? Today, I want to share some of the things I’ve experienced and what these moments have taught me about being a fantasy RPG GM. Big thanks to the callers today - Andrew, Jason, Anthony aka Runeslinger, and Wiebe! Game on! Roleplay Rescue Details: Voice Message: speakpipe.com/roleplayrescue Patreon: pa...
Nov 11, 2023•25 min•Season 13Ep. 4
YUMDM is the creator of the d12 Monthly ‘zine which started in mid-2021 and has grown from a humble 8-pages to - in September 2023 - 27 issues at a whopping 28-pages! Hailing from Australia, Russ has been roleplaying for 30+ years and allegedly played his first game as Tasslehoff in a Dragonlance module. He has been creating his own campaign world since 2019 and has seen it grow and develop in each new campaign he runs. Russ is an avid solo roleplayer having done so as far back as 1986. This con...
Oct 28, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Season 13Ep. 3
Alex Macris is the lead designer for the Adventurer, Conqueror, King System, an old-school fantasy RPG designed to support campaign play. He’s the founder of Autarch LLC, a game design studio from Durham in North Carolina, USA which publishes ACKS and several other titles. Alex is also an entrepreneur and the author of “Arbiter of Worlds”, a primer for Gamemasters - as well as having made a host of other achievements. Massive thank you to Alex for coming on the show. Thank you to Matthew for sug...
Oct 22, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Season 13Ep. 2
What’s going on with the school Roleplay Club? Why would you even run such a thing? What are the best steps in getting started? Today, I want to take you through the story of the first two weeks of the School Club project and outline the progress, but also the pains, of getting myself back in front of teens gamers. I’ve even grabbed two short clips from the GM’s Journal - recorded immediately after the students left on two consecutive sessions - to give you a sense of how the play has been going...
Oct 14, 2023•37 min•Season 13Ep. 2
What do you do when you know you used to enjoy playing RPGs but the whole thing has, frankly, become a chore? How do you move forward when the reality is that you are anxious about GMing the next session and you have bailed more times than you run the game? This season is shifting to a bi-weekly format and I hope that listeners will understand. This season I’m going to work on presenting the experiments I’m testing in my own actually played RPG sessions. The goal is to track a route back to the ...
Sep 30, 2023•25 min•Season 13Ep. 1
This episode is the final one for this season - no, really - and it’s my pleasure to bring you a conversation about a significant new book for the RPG scene. Justin Alexander is a freelance writer and the author of the grand repository of ideas that is The Alexandrian. This is an interview with Justin about his forthcoming book, released in November 2023, "So You Want To Be A Game Master". Big thanks up front to Justin for agreeing to come and talk about his new book - it truly was another joyou...
Sep 02, 2023•47 min•Ep. 28
The last episode was supposed to be the final one for this season but, well, then I got a whole barrage of messages and call-ins from you, the listeners. It seems a shame not to share them in one last hurrah of community positivity and thoughtfulness. So… here we are. Big thank you, once again, to Frank, Brian, Anthony, Jason, John, Barry, Jean-Francois, Hobbs, and James for all of their call-ins! I’m not really sure if and when I’ll be back for more episodes so… thank you for showing up and lis...
Aug 26, 2023•45 min•Season 12Ep. 27
This episode is the final one for this season, another of the extended conversations I’ve shared with gaming friends over recent weeks. It was largely unplanned as I hopped online to talk and discuss some key ideas with my guest. Jason Connerley is the voice behind the Nerd’s RPG Variety Cast podcast and a regular caller to several Anchorite shows, including this one. Jason started gaming around 1983 with the Dungeon! board game by David Megarry. His first RPGs were the Mentzer Red Box D&D B...
Aug 19, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 12Ep. 26
This one’s a chat about FKR - Free Kreigspiel Roleplaying - with someone I am only beginning to get to know but who has also been so generous with their time that I feel deeply appreciative of and in debt to. The episode is the penultimate one for this season, another of the extended conversations I’ve shared with gaming friends over recent weeks. It was largely unplanned and is really just that - hopping online to talk and discuss some key ideas with my guest. We did have a few moments of spott...
Aug 12, 2023•56 min•Season 12Ep. 25
So, yes, I want to be a Game Master. And I want to become a good Game Master. I’m ready to learn and I’m willing to put myself into the space of running a game for my friends. Where do I start? This episode is being put together on Day One of my Apprenticeship as a GM. I’m sharing it partly so that I can externalise and understand where I am going - it helps to explain my rationale and direction. But I’m also sharing because I hope that it might inspire one or two others who’ve been sitting on t...
Aug 05, 2023•30 min•Season 12Ep. 24
This episode is basically a call-in show with lots of messages interspersed with my thoughts in response. It’s unscripted and probably a little rougher around the edges… but I would encourage you to stick around and listen because this collection of messages from the community has been some of the most insightful stuff in all my years of podcasting. Big thanks up front to the callers - Simon, Wiebe, Matt, Barry, Matthew, and Jason. I hope you enjoy it. Game on! Roleplay Rescue Details: Voice Mes...
Jul 29, 2023•35 min•Season 12Ep. 23
What does the phrase “Game Master” mean? It is simply a synonym for other labels we stick on the poor soul who organises and runs a traditional tabletop roleplaying game, or might it have deeper meaning? And if we wanted to master our craft, how would we begin? This episode is about the idea of mastery and the fear which arises whenever one speaks about attaining such status. Of the sense of inadequacy and foolishness which leads me to feel as though it is preposterous to suggest such an outrage...
Jul 22, 2023•30 min•Season 12Ep. 22
This episode is the third extended conversation I’ve shared with some gaming friends over recent weeks. The conversation was unplanned and is really just that - hopping online to talk and discuss some key ideas with my guest. Daniel Jones is the originator of the term Otherworld-immersion and a published author, game designer, philosopher, podcaster, and the man behind the Eudaimonic Geekery blog. In this episode, Daniel wanted to talk to me about his struggles with writing his own roleplaying g...
Jul 15, 2023•50 min•Season 12Ep. 21
Today’s episode is a Transition - a shift from one place towards another, the ending of one chapter and the opening of another. In part, this is a reflection upon the journey so far. It’s also a reorientation towards what I want for my future with roleplaying games. But the episode is also a sharing, both of my own thoughts and ideas but also those from the community which have gathered over the past few weeks. Big thank you to Hobbs from Random Screed for inspiring this episode and giving me hi...
Jul 08, 2023•30 min•Season 12Ep. 20
Hello Rescuers! Here's a early-access bonus for the Swordbearers which will become open to all Patrons prior to general release as a bonus episode on Roleplay Rescue. Roleplay Rescue’s Solo Tales is a podcast recounting the solo tabletop roleplaying adventures played by me. The core of the game is being played with Basic Roleplaying by the Chaosium and the Mythic GM Emulator Deck. There are adult themes and some pretty gory moments of combat, so listener discretion is advised. Thanks to Jon from...
Jul 05, 2023•23 min
