After a month and a half of cons, vacations, natural disasters and technical difficulties, we finally get a chance to sit down and play us some Dresden Files RPG by Evil Hat. This first session is our second try at city creation. The first time we decided on Anchorage, AK, and this time around we go a very different direction with Washington, D.C. A few changes have happened since our last run though a game. We got Jen back on the show as a regular, we lost Dan due to Real Life (aka. work schedule conflicts, but he’ll still be doing the Comics Cast) and for this game we’ve got the return of Troll, whom you may remember from our Dread Halloween Special.

Relevant Links

• Dresden Files RPG
• Evil Hat
• Dr. Demento D&D skit
• Dresden Files TV Show
• Dresden Files Books, comic, and audiobooks, and short stories
• Jim Butcher’s Home Page
• Fables
• Dexter
• Burn Notice
• Miami Vice
• A-Team
• Deadlands
• Nightwatch
• Deadwood
• Spoine
• Yakov Smirnoff
• I Shot a Man in Reno
• H.P. Lovecraft
• Freakanomics
• Roe vs. Wade lowering crime
• ThreeDog
• The Library of Alexandria
• The Amazing Screw-on Head
• The Centurion (Dr. Who)
• Gilgamesh
• Dolley Madison
• Indiana Jones
• Emeritus
• Ley Lines
• George Washington (7 Feet Tall…)
• Rifts
• Pierre Charles L’Enfant
• Chowda!
• Cheney and Google Maps
• Roanoke
• Sir Richard Grenville
• Hopping Vampires
• Legion of Superheroes

Crunchy Bits

• Dresden Files RPG Session 1: City Creation: 1 hour, 30 minutes
• Intro music from “The Wizard” by Chris Remo of Idle Thumbs
• Outro Music “The Man With the Hex” by The Atomic Fireballs

After a few speedbumps we were finally able to get together with Jared Sorensen to discuss our experiences with FreeMarket. The original plan was to interview both Jared and Luke, but sadly  due to some technical difficulties Luke could not join us. Things ended up working out really well, though, as CJ and Kevin got a chance to dig pretty deep into some of their concerns and questions about FreeMarket.

Relevant Links

• FreeMarket
• Our FreeMarket Review
• Jared Sorensen
• Luke Crane
• Burning Empires
• Mutants and Masterminds
• System Matters
• Robert A. Heinlein
• Game Design is Mind Control GenCon Panel
• Beta Software / Feature Complete
• Peter Adkison
• Ron Edwards
• Project Donut Facebook Group
• Project Donut Twitter Page
• CHOIRS Project
• Rob Bohl
• Wikis
• Jason Morningstar
• Blade Runner
• The Coen Brothers
• Joshua Bell
• Existentialism
• Boing Boing
• Osprey VTOL
• Inside the Donut GenCon Panel
• Jared’s Events
• Inspectres Movie
• Parsley

Crunchy Bits!

• The Walking Eye Interview 14: Jared Sorensen
• Intro Music “Inner Universe” from the Ghost In the Shell: Stand Alone Complex OST
• Outro Music “More Human Than Human (Meet Bambi in the King’s Harem Mix)” by White Zombie

Turns out we had a lot to say about Jared Sorensen and Luke Crane’s FreeMarket. This is our longest review yet, clocking in at a full 90 minutes.  This game was certainly a challenge for us, and we spend quite a bit of time breaking down our impressions and problems we had with the game. We’re all looking forward to our interview with Luke and Jared coming up next week!

Relevant Links

Crunchy Bits!

• Discussion Episode 19: FreeMarket Review 1 Hour 34 Minutes
• Intro Music “Inner Universe” from the Ghost In the Shell: Stand Alone Complex OST
• Outro Music “Rocket Man” by Elton John, performed by Jon Langford and the One Day Band

Our time on the Cassini-Huygens Orbital Intrasystem Relay Station comes to a close. We wrap up our contract with People’s Energy Corporation, discover some interesting tidbits about Syntax_Error’s family. Derek Blaze re-establishes his reputation in a rather unorthodox way, and Muse gets creeped out.  To cap things off, we demonstrate a Tier Challenge, and put The Report up for review by the whole station.

Relevant Links

• Active Camouflage
• Ninja Gaiden jumping
• Carrie Anne Moss
• Karen from HomeWorld
• ePeen
• The Trench Run
• Legion
• Toner Wars – Diamond Age
• Are you Gellin’?
• The Old Ones
• Shoggoth
• “All of it, Mollari!” (Dust to Dust)
• Biomechanical
• H.R. Geiger
• Doublemint Commercials

Crunchy Bits!

• FreeMarket Actual Play Session 4: 2 Hours 7 Minutes
• FreeMarket Actual Play Session 4 Part A: 1 Hour 12 Minutes
• FreeMarket Actual Play Session 4 Part B: 57 Minutes
• Intro Music “Inner Universe” from the Ghost In the Shell: Stand Alone Complex OST
• Outro Music “Better” by Jonathan Coulton.

We continue our adventures on FreeMarket Station after a one-week hiatus. Due to a pretty big flub on Kevin’s part, the previous session was not fit to air. We discuss a bit of what happened in that session, how that mistake affected play, and some of our thoughts on the card system of FreeMarket. This session is a bit short due to some technical difficulties, so we didn’t break it up into smaller chunks. Also, at one point Brandon makes references to some “notes” in our book. Luke and Jared sent us their proofread copy of the rules, which includes marginalia and design notes that will need to be implemented in the final text. So when Brandon brings up a rules clarification on upgrading and repairing tech, he’s referring to those notes in case you get confused.  Despite the technical hiccups, we had a lot of fun this session. We’ve got a pretty strong grasp of the challenge system, and look forward to our final session next week!

Relevant notes

• ARG
• Tomacco
• Zemeckis
• Tits or GTFO
• WoW Auction House
• William Gibson
• There Will Be Brawl
• Super Smash Brothers
• There Will Be Blood
• Kirby
• Hannibal Lecter
• Portal
• Open-Source Software
• Kindle
• Bot-voting
• Malware
• Low-Frequency Fear Effects
• “Head in the Jar” people

Crunchy Bits!

• FreeMarket Actual Play Session 3: 1 Hour 37 Minutes
• Intro Music “Inner Universe” from the Ghost In the Shell: Stand Alone Complex OST
• Outro Music “Can’t You Trip Like I Do?” by Filter and The Crystal Method

Session two kicks off with a Thin Slicing challenge to rid the group’s MRCZ area of an annoying rock band, and from there CJ, Dan, and Brandon launch into a negotiation with a local MRCZ to test out some new technology for them.  We spend some time getting used to the nuances of the challenge system, and set things up nicely for some exciting challenges next session. Stay tuned!

Relevant Links

• RPG Podcast Poll Please take it!
• Project Donut Homepage
• Luke Crane
• Jared Sorensen
• The Walking Eye Comics
• Hal Jordan
• Mad Men
• Hong Kong
• Welch Ave Station
• Ronald D. Moore
• The 5th Element
• Lexx
• Japanese Capsule Hotels
• Biting the head off a bat
• Playing at 11
• Jump 225 Trilogy
• Grand Theft Auto IV
• The Independent Insurgency
• Malcom Gladwell/ Blink
• Marilyn-Manson.net
• Twiggy Ramirez
• Smoke on the Water
• Mashup
• DRM
• Peter Steele/Type O Negative
• Lemmy420
• Putting things you like (Such as Elder Scrolls: Oblivion) in your pants
• ChatRoulette Batman/Spiderman
• Edward James Olmos – The Adama Glare
• The Segway GOB Bluth
• The Gambler’s Fallacy
• Valve and Bungie Stats

Crunchy Bits!

• FreeMarket Actual Play Session 2: 1 Hour 52 Minutes
• FreeMarket Actual Play Session 1 Part A 59 Minutes
• FreeMarket Actual Play Session 1 Part B  52 Minutes
• Intro Music “Inner Universe” from the Ghost In the Shell: Stand Alone Complex OST
• Outro Music “Still Alive” by Jonathan Coulton.

Transhumanism has been an interest of mine for quite some time, so I was pretty excited to get a chance to run through Luke Crane and Jared Sorenson’s FreeMarket. This session covers a the basic themes and focus of the game, and character creation.

Relevant Links

• FreeMarket Home Page
• Rapture – Bioshock
• LaGrange Point
• Clade
• Space Hippies
• MCP
• Friend Computer
• Ad Hocracy
• Alvin Toffler
• Diamond Age
• Cosplay
• Adopt a Highway
• Stephen Colbert
• Anonymous
• Cyberdeck
• All Your Base Are Belong To Us
• Singularity
• Furries
• Malcom Gladwell – Blink
• Mt. Dew WhiteOut
• Kusanagi
• Mera
• Lebowski
• Draper
• Hal Jordan
• Rutger Hauer
• “I’ve Seen Things”
• Gesture Clusters
• Kinesics
• ARG’s
• Cybermen
• Improv Everywhere
• HAL
• DARPA
• Sneakers
• The Wolf
• Voight-Kampff
• Gleaming the Cube
• Panther Moderns – Neuromancer

Crunchy Bits!

• FreeMarket Actual Play Session 1: 2 Hours 11 Minutes
• FreeMarket Actual Play Session 1 Part A 64 Minutes
• FreeMarket Actual Play Session 1 Part B  67 Minutes
• Intro Music “Inner Universe” from the Ghost In the Shell: Stand Alone Complex OST
• Outro Music “Future Soon” by Jonathan Coulton.

After running three of his games back-to-back-to-back, we were pretty excited to sit down with D. Vincent Baker to chat about our experiences. We spend some time talking about aspects of Dogs in the Vineyard, In a Wicked Age…, and Poison’d, as well as cover some of his basic design philosophies. Unfortunately our first attempt to conduct this interview met with some nasty technical difficulties. There are a couple references to the fact that this is the 2nd attempt, but we only got about 10 minutes in, so no worries, you didn’t miss anything. This interview was great fun, and we can’t wait to have Vincent on again to talk about abandoning games!

Relevant Links

• Vincent’s Blog (RSS Feed)
• Vincent’s Twitter
• Lumpley Games Forum
• Kill Puppies for Satan
• Dogs in the Vineyard
• In A Wicked Age
• Mechaton
• Poison’d
• Storming The Wizard’s Tower
• Apocalypse World
• GTAIV
• ZORK
• Traveller
• Dragon Magazine
• Dungeons and Dragons Cartoon
• rec.games.frp.advocacy
• The Forge
• Drew Baker
• The Gaming Outpost
• Ron Edwards
• Clinton R. Nixon
• Ed Healy
• Jared Sorenson
• Universalis
• FreeMarket
• The Cheap and Cheesy Fantasy Game
• Graham Walmsley
• No Country for Old Men
• Matt Snyder
• Brigham City
• Burning Wheel
• Tanith Lee
• Jack Vance
• Willow Palecek
• Wicked Nights (Vampire Oracle)
• True Blood
• Judd Karlman
• Matt Wilson
• DexCon
• GenCon
• Dread
• Oo! Let’s make a Game!
• ROCK OF TAHAMAAT, SPACE TYRANT
• The Dragon Killer

Crunchy Bits!

• The Walking Eye Interview 13: Vincent Baker: 1 Hour, 12 Minutes
• Intro and Outro music provided by Oh Possum.

Dan, CJ, Kevin, and Brandon sit around for a bit and discuss their thoughts on the most piratey of RPG’s: D. Vincent Baker’s Poison’d. We discuss the basics of character creation, conflict mechanics, and how play works out. To be succinct, it’s nasty, brutish, and short. Good stuff!

Relevant Links

• Vincent Baker’s Blog
• Poison’d
• D&D Word Cloud
• Poison’d Word Cloud (Thanks, Joe!)
• F.A.T.A.L

Crunchy Bits!

• Discussion Episode 18: Poison’d Review. 36 Minutes
• Intro Music “Plunder” from Sid Meyer’s Pirates!
• Outro Music “Seven Deadly Sins” by Flogging Molly

Things were looking up for our nefarious crew of the Dagger when we left off last session. That doesn’t last long. This session is an impressive display of bad rolls making the situation worse with every turn. Give a listen and see how Poison’d lives up to it’s moniker of “Reservoir Dogs on a Boat.”

Relevant Links

• Vincent Baker’s Blog
• Poison’d
• Wookie LifeDay / Life debt
• Chewbacca’s Death via Moonfall
• Ninja’s Vs. Pirates Vincent Baker Interview
• Graham Walmsley – Play Unsafe – The Dying of St. Margaret’s
• PedoBear
• Poison’d Q&A page

Crunchy Bits!

• Poison’d Actual Play Session 3: 1 Hour 45  minutes
• Poison’d Actual Play Session 2 Part A: 55 Minutes
• Poison’d Actual Play Session 2 Part B: 52 Minutes
• Intro Music “Plunder” from Sid Meyer’s Pirates!
• Outro Music “Drunken Sailor” by Wylde Nept

Promos:

• Thursday Knights
• Spooky Outhouse Productions