Improvised Radio Theatre - With Dice

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This month, Mike and Roger answer David F. Chapman's RPG a Day questions, and consider GMing advice.

We mentioned LonCon 3, Unconventional Diplomacy, the latest issue of Pyramid, Empire of the Petal Throne, Pendragon, Superhero 2044, Blue Planet, Nobilis, Transhuman Space, Chessex Gemini Blue-Red dice, the original Torg die, Crystal Caste metal d6s, Battlelords of the Twenty-Third Century, The Book of Nod, The Fragile Path, Montsegur 1244, JAGS Wonderland, Dark Conspiracy, Everway, Shadowrun, Fiasco, In a Wicked Age, Microscope, A Taste for Murder, Dune, Continuum, Watch Academy VI: Hogswatchnight, Their First Patrol, Paranoia, Toon, The Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues, Rolemaster, Buffy RPG, Vorkosigan Saga RPG, Ars Magica, Nexus Life, Land of Adventure, Millennium's End GM's Companion, Nephilim, Exalted, Living Steel, HeroQuest, Victoriana, Lace & Steel, Unknown Armies, Dread, the Infinite Cabal campaign, Lords of Creation, How to Be a GURPS GM, GURPS for Dummies, Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering, Never Unprepared and Yog-Sothoth.com. Music by Kevin MacLeod at incompetech.com and other royalty-free sources.

Tags: a taste for murder, ars magica, battlelords of the twenty-third century, blue planet, buffy the vampire slayer, continuum, dark conspiracy, discworld, dread, dune, empire of the petal throne, everway, fiasco, gurps, heroquest, in a wicked age, jags wonderland, lace & steel, lords of creation, mage the ascension, microscope, millennium's end, montsegur 1244, nobilis, paranoia, pendragon, rolemaster, shadowrun, superhero 2044, the laundry files, transhuman space, unknown armies, vampire the masquerade, victoriana, werewolf the apocalypse.
 1st September 2014

Comments On This Entry

David Larkins
Submitted at 20:59:10 on 02 September 2014

Hello Mike and Roger!

I've been a fan of your podcast since discovering it sometime last year and look forward to a new episode dropping the 1st of every month. I just finished listening to the latest episode, and felt motivated to write, as you brought up both the Great Pendragon Campaign and "actual-play" recordings. I just wanted to let you know that I've been recording my own group's run-through of the GPC and posting the results at the following link, if you're at all inclined to listen:

http://esoteric-rp.blogspot.com/

I've been listening to actual-plays for some years now, ever since discovering the Bradford Players' recordings on yog-sothoth.com. Like Roger said, A-Ps are a great sort of "GM school" where I get to hear and privately critique a wide variety of different play styles, group dynamics, GM techniques, and even get a "dry run" on adventures I might want to someday use, taking diligent mental notes on what and what not to do. I can only hope folks out there are getting similar use out of my own posts. :)

Keep up the good work--already looking forward to the next episode!

RogerBW
Submitted at 21:04:12 on 02 September 2014

Thanks for that -- I'll give it a listen. I suspect we may talk more about actual play recordings in the future.

Dave Chapman
Submitted at 14:07:53 on 03 September 2014

Many thanks for joining in on #RPGaDAY, it was great to hear your choices for the month!!

Owen Smith
Submitted at 20:41:52 on 08 September 2014

In the vein of rarest RPG you own and/or RPG you have the most difficulty getting people to play, my answer is Skyrealms of Jorune. I have a complete set of 3rd Edition and supplements, and I think a complete set of 2nd Edition boxed set, published supplements, and unpublished Gen Con only short runs. But then I was online friends with the 3rd Edition line editor for a few years, I wonder how Joe Coleman is now? (his diabetes was always a problem).

Game I most wished I own: Skyrealms of Jorune 1st Edition, and the only published supplement for it Maustin Caji. Then my Jorune collection would be complete. But these are as rare as the proverbial hen's teeth, and it's at least 10 years since I was seriously looking so it just isn't going to happen.

And if you want to run Blue Planet, I'm interested Roger. But don't use it's game system, please, I beseech you. I've played under 3rd Edition (I think) and the system was awful. GURPS Blue Planet (which I have) does a much better job.

RogerBW
Submitted at 20:46:48 on 08 September 2014

As I said in the show in a different context, I really need a good reason to run a game in its own system rather than converting it to GURPS. Pendragon gives me a good reason. So does Toon. But with nearly any setting that's trying to be vaguely realistic rather than follow a narrative convention, converting it means a little more work up front (especially if there's magic) in return for much easier running later.

But what I really want to do with Blue Planet is what I want to do with Ars Magica: play a game run by someone who knows it well and is really good at it, to get a feeling for what it's meant to be about, because I really didn't get any impression of that from reading the books. This is why I'm somewhat sympathetic to people who similarly don't get what Transhuman Space is meant to be about.
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Tags 7th sea, a taste for murder, aces and eights, achtung cthulhu, amazing engine, amber, apocalypse world, arkham horror, ars magica, artesia, ashen stars, banestorm, battlelords of the 23rd century, battlelords of the twenty-third century, battletech, behind enemy lines, blue planet, brp, buffy the vampire slayer, cabal, call of cthulhu, castle falkenstein, chill, conan, continuum, cyberpunk, dark conspiracy, diaspora, different worlds, discworld, doctor who, dracula dossier, dragonmeet, dramasystem, dread, dreamhounds of paris, dune, dungeon world, dungeons, durance, eclipse phase, empire of the petal throne, everway, fallen london, fantasy, fate, fear itself, feng shui, fiasco, fief, for players, forgotten futures, forsooth!, freemarket, fringeworthy, fudge, gamma world, gangbusters, gear krieg, godlike, grey ranks, greyhawk, gumshoe, gurps, gurps time travel, harn, harnmaster, harp, hero system, heroquest, hillfolk, horror, in a wicked age, in nomine, in spaaace, infinite worlds, jags wonderland, lace & steel, lady blackbird, legend of the five rings, lords of creation, luftwaffe 1946, madness dossier, mage the ascension, masterbook, merp, microscope, millennium's end, modern day, monster hunters, monster of the week, montsegur 1244, necessary evil, nexus, nexus the infinite city, night's black agents, nobilis, numenera, ogre, over the edge, paranoia, pendragon, pre-written adventures, primetime adventures, reign, reign of steel, rifts, ringworld, rocket age, rolemaster, runequest, savage worlds, science fiction, shadowrun, sorcerer, space 1889, space master, space opera, story games, sufficiently advanced, superhero 2044, tales from the floating vagabond, tales of the floating vagabond, talislanta, technomancer, the arduin grimoire, the esoterrorists, the great dalmuti, the laundry files, the mountain witch, the price of freedom, the quiet year, time travel, timelords, timemaster, timeship, torg, trail of cthulhu, transhuman space, transhumanism, traveller, traveller 2300, twilight 2000, universe, unknown armies, vampire the masquerade, victoriana, warp, weird war ii, werewolf the apocalypse, world war ii, wraith the oblivion.

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