Improvised Radio Theatre - With Dice

Improvised Radio Theatre - With Dice! is a podcast by Roger Bell_West and Michael Cule, in which we pontificate on role-playing games.

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Carry On Up the UNIT HQ 01 June 2016

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This month, Roger and Mike finish our talk with John Dallman and Dr Bob, promote a new game book, and talk about cliffhangers.

We mentioned

Game Chef (running from 4-12 June), Forgotten Futures, Continuum (the successor to Convulsion, Blue Planet) (also at this month's Bundle of Holding), Ashen Stars, Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space, Thou Art But a Warrior, Maschine Zeit, GURPS Disasters: Meltdown and Fallout, the Warehouse 23 wish list, GURPS Reign of Steel: Will to Live, GURPS Cliffhangers, The Dracula Dossier, and The Good Friends of Jackson Elias.

Music by Kevin MacLeod at incompetech.com.


  1. Posted by Doug Sundseth at 01:40am on 02 June 2016

    The disdain for capitalism you evince in your first segment might make sense if you had never actually seen an enterprise run by a government department. What, pray tell, is your excuse?

    I mean, admittedly the product selection of G.U.M., the customer service of the DMV (MoT?), the politeness of the TSA (or the British equivalent), and the efficiency of the DoD/MoD are indeed legendary, but not every government interaction will go as well as those.

  2. Posted by RogerBW at 08:45am on 02 June 2016

    Capitalism is great when what you want to do is promote competition and make money.

    When what you want to achieve is not a side-effect of making money it's less effective, because the goals of the individuals aren't aligned with the overall objective: for examples, see the history of elixir sulfanilamide, Lash Lure, The Jungle, etc.

    The more different profit-seeking organisations are involved in something like reactor security, the more opportunities there are for someone to cut corners and fake the work to make more money. If ReactorCo employs guards directly, it is unlikely to discover one day that half the guards it's paying for exist only on paper - which has happened with external contractors.

  3. Posted by Michael Cule at 03:03pm on 02 June 2016

    I worked for the MoD in my last two years in the Civil Service. A more noble bunch of people than the Families Housing department, struggling to make bricks without straw, you could not find. And all the while being lashed for alleged inefficiency by the politicians who kept cutting the budget.

    I'm deeply suspicious of the arguments that always point at the worst examples of a class as proof of anything about the class. Would it be fair to condemn all capitalism by pointing at Donald Trump's business practices?

  4. Posted by Allan Prewett at 01:15pm on 05 June 2016

    If I could ask, how old are you fella's and your players? I am 51 and obviously find it hard to find players. I have been thinking of late, what will happen for me as I get older. Will I be able to find gamers in the retirement home!!! I would like to hear some discussion on this, if possible. Darwin Australia

  5. Posted by Michael Cule at 08:18pm on 05 June 2016

    I'm sixty one and I too have thought the investment in a retirement home for gamers might be worthwhile.

    (Roger is but a mere young slip of a thing in comparison.)

    I'm lucky in that I have two long standing groups. My Monday night group is held in the homes of members: they are all my age or older. We have kept going since the 1980s with a few members leaving, some losing interest and some going to jobs elsewhere. We still have a regular 5 players plus GM.

    The second is my Wednesday night game which is at a club where I am now the Oldest Member, though it was around (mostly as a wargaming club) before I joined in the early 80s. That group has six players plus GM. They are all somewhat younger than me by about ten years or so.

    In both groups we don't stick to the same game, the same genre or system or the same GM (though I am the default GM).

    My advice would be to start a gaming club. Find a hall and offer people a place where they can play what they like in return for just enough money to cover the hire of the location and some basic insurance cover.

    It may be around long after you are!

    I'd point you at the following website, whether you go the route of games in your own home or founding a club:

    http://nearbygamers.com/

    I'm sure there are other ways to do that nowadays. Meetup? Is that a thing? People have (I think) mentioned it to me.

  6. Posted by Owen Smith at 06:24pm on 24 June 2016

    I'm in another Wednesday evening group that Roger alternately GMs, and a Friday evening group that Roger and Michael have nothing to do with. I'm 50, and that makes me about the same age as everyone else in those groups give or take 5 years.

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