The Walking Eye Podcast

Discussion Episode 23: LARP Follow-up Part 1

Kevin Weiser — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:43:17 +0000

The madness of August has passed, so we’ve finally gotten the chance to edit and put up our follow-up discussion about Jen’s LARP experience. Kevin and Jen are joined by Clyde Rhoer of Theory from the Closet and Jim Ryan from The Great Debate to discuss some of the finer points of our previous episode. Clyde brings his experience running a large troupe (Non-Camarilla) game Back In The Day and Jim is a current Venue Storyteller in Charlotte, North Carolina. We discuss the Cam’s similarities to cults, as well as a few other behaviors and quirks of this particular brand of LARP.

Relevant Links

Crunchy Bits!

Discussion Episode 23: LARP Follow-up Part 1
Intro and Outro music by Oh Possum

Discussion Episode 22: GenCon 2010 Wrap Up

Kevin Weiser — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 23:54:39 +0000

Jen and Kevin regale Brandon and CJ with many the tales of drunken debauchery and gaming that was GenCon 2010. This was Jen’s first GenCon, Kevin’s second, and both had a pretty amazing time. Many cool people were met, and awesome games were played. If this doesn’t sell you on GenCon next year, I don’t know what will!

Relevant Links

Crunchy Bits!

Discussion Episode 22: GenCon 2010 Wrap Up 1 Hour
Intro Music by Oh Possum
Outro Music “I’ll Still Be a Geek After Nobody Thinks It’s Chic” by Marian Call

The Walking Eye Video Channel!

Kevin Weiser — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 16:59:53 +0000

Jen took a camera with her to GenCon this year, and boy howdy did she ever make use of it. We’ll be posting TONS of little videos over the next few weeks. The big release, though, was One Cool Thing I Saw At GenCon, a tradition started by Jason Morningstar.

Behold!

Here’s a link for the full channel. Keep an eye out for more videos to come!

GenCon 2010 Recordings: Luke Crane and Jared Sorensen: Game Design is Mind Control

Kevin Weiser — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 04:48:49 +0000

Kevin and Jen got the chance to hear Luke and Jared’s GenCon panel on the fundamentals of game design. It was a very interesting and entertaining discussion. Many thanks to Sorencrane for letting us record it for them! Hope you all enjoy it.

Relevant Links

Crunchy Bits!

GenCon 2010 Panels: Luke Crane and Jared Sorensen: Game Design is Mind Control 1 Hour 50 Minutes
Intro and Outro music provided by Oh Possum

Discussion Episode 21: Abandoning Games Round-table

Kevin Weiser — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 02:30:49 +0000

During our interview with Vincent Baker, he agreed to tell us about a secret project in exchange for a promise to have him back on to discuss the topic of abandoning games. With GenCon right around the corner, this seemed like a great time to hold up our end of the bargain. We grabbed two of Vincent’s good friends Joshua A.C. Newman and Robert Bohl to join us in this discussion since, well, none of us here at The Walking Eye have designed, let alone abandoned, a game before. Kevin moderated as these three discussed the different aspects of abandoning games: how difficult it can be, what you can learn from it, and how to know when to let an idea go.

Relevant Links

Crunchy Bits!

Discussion Episode 21: Abandoning Games Round-table: 53 Minutes
Intro and Outro music provided by Oh Possum

Comics Cast #8: June 2010

CJ — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 07:10:36 +0000

In a marathon session, CJ and Dan find the Heroic Age unfolding in a quartet of Avengers Books, while big numbers bring big changes to some of DC’s major characters.

Comics discussed:

Superman #700
Wonder Woman #600
SHIELD #2
Secret Warriors #17
Invincible #72, 73
Captain America #606
Legion of Super-Heroes #2
Adventure Comics #12
Booster Gold #33
Avengers Prime #1
Avengers #2
Secret Avengers #2
Brightest Day #3, 4
Green Lantern #55
The Flash #3
Action Comics #890
Return of Bruce Wayne #3
REBELS #17
New Avengers #1

Crunchy Bits!

The Walking Eye Comics Cast #7: May 2010: 1 hour 45 minutes
Intro and Outro music: Pixelguru by Subatomicglue.

Interview 14: Jared Sorensen

Kevin Weiser — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 03:06:50 +0000

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

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

Coming soon! A follow up LARP episode.

Kevin Weiser — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 03:45:31 +0000

There’s been quite a response to Jen’s LARP episode! We’d like to thank everybody for the exciting and informative conversation that’s going on in the comments. There’s been a lot of great feedback, and we certainly feel a follow up episode is in order. We’re not sure exactly what form that episode will take just yet, but rest assured we won’t just leave off right here. Thanks!

Discussion Episode 20: Jen’s LARP Experience

Kevin Weiser — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 00:17:47 +0000

It is with great pleasure that we welcome Jen back to the podcast! She’s been away due to a scheduling conflict, and for the past few months has been exploring the wild and woolly world of White Wolf Live Action Roleplay. She sits down with Kevin, Brandon, and CJ to discuss her feelings on the Camarilla LARP. Unfortunately, Jen’s experience was less than ideal. Listen in to hear about her experiences!

Relevant Notes

Special note:

Turns out you can’t just look up the FBI Cult Watch List. Funny that. Several people within the Camarilla have claimed that the LARP is on that list, but as far as we can tell, there’s no way to verify that information. It’s mostly likely a rumor. Update Jason Morningstar was kind enough to point us towards this article about the FBI’s stance on “cults”. Very informative, and makes it seem very likely the FBI is not watching the Cam at all.

Crunchy Bits!

Discussion Episode 20: Jen’s LARP Experience 1 Hour 36 Minutes
Intro music provided by Oh Possum
Outro Music Brand New Sucker by Jonathan Coulton

A brief note about our comments:

The comments section is closed for now. We got a lot of great feedback! From my experience with the Internets, I’m guessing most of what needed to be said has been said. From here on out we’ll just be getting repeats on these basic themes. If you’d like to discuss this episode more, I welcome you to head to our forum, which is much more loosely moderated.

Crane & Sorensen Interview Postponed

Kevin Weiser — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 12:44:04 +0000

We ran into some serious technical difficulties last night while trying to interview Luke & Jared. It was very frustrating. Worse still, this is Con season and there’s a major holiday coming up, we’re not sure when a reschedule will be possible. Follow us on Twitter or Facebook for updates.

Discussion Episode 19: FreeMarket Review

Kevin Weiser — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 22:53:10 +0000

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

Comics Cast #7: May 2010

CJ — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 09:31:04 +0000

The Heroic Age begins, and several years of Superman stories conclude! It’s a month so action-packed it destroys two entire worlds! Plus, CJ has his most expensive Free Comic Book Day ever!

Comics discussed:

FCBD Impulse Buy: Impulse
War of the Supermen #0-4
Adventure Comics #11
Siege #4
Dark Avengers #16
New Avengers Finale
Siege Epilogue: The Sentry: Fallen Sun
Legion of Super-Heroes V6 #1
Booster Gold #32
Secret Warriors #16
Iron Man / Thor FCBD
Avengers #1
Secret Avengers #1
Brightest Day #1-2
Green Lantern #54
Batman and Robin #12
The Return of Bruce Wayne #1-2

Crunchy Bits!

The Walking Eye Comics Cast #7: May 2010: 1 hour 24 minutes
Intro and Outro music: Pixelguru by Subatomicglue.

FreeMarket Actual Play Session 4 Finale

Kevin Weiser — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 03:44:54 +0000

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

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.

FreeMarket Actual Play Session 3

Kevin Weiser — Sun, 30 May 2010 17:59:24 +0000

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

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

Comics Cast #6: April 2010

CJ — Sun, 23 May 2010 05:18:57 +0000

Brainiac! Nick Fury! The Flash! Leonardo da Vinci! No, seriously, Leonardo da Vinci! April’s comics cast is full of endings and beginnings.

Comics discussed:

Last Stand of New Krypton #2
Adventure Comics #10
Supergirl #52
Superman #699
Last Stand of New Krypton #3
New Avengers #64
The Brave and the Bold #33
Siege: Secret Warriors #1
Secret Warriors #15
SHIELD #1
The Flash #1
Batman and Robin #11
Green Lantern #53
Brightest Day #0

Crunchy Bits!

The Walking Eye Comics Cast #6: April 2010: 1 hour 23 minutes
Intro and Outro music: Pixelguru by Subatomicglue.

FreeMarket Actual Play Session 2

Kevin Weiser — Fri, 14 May 2010 05:17:55 +0000

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

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.

FreeMarket Actual Play Session 1

Kevin Weiser — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 06:00:25 +0000

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

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.

Comics Cast #5: Blackest Night

CJ — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 06:42:12 +0000

DC’s Blackest Night is over, and Dan and CJ celebrate with a far-ranging discussion of the final issues. We also ponder the meaning of the series as a whole, and wonder what threads will go forward as we enter the Brightest Day.

Comics discussed:

Green Lantern #52
Blackest Night #8

Crunchy Bits!

The Walking Eye Comics Cast #5: Blackest Night: 53 minutes
Intro and Outro music: Pixelguru by Subatomicglue.

Comics Cast #4: March

CJ — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 05:07:40 +0000

Siege continues and Last Stand of New Krypton stampedes across the month. CJ and Dan rant and rave about March’s comics. And watch out for our Blackest Night Grand Finale Special, coming soon!

Comics discussed:

Adventure Comics #8
Last Stand of New Krypton #1
Supergirl #51
Superman #698
Adventure Comics #9
Secret Warriors #14
Brave and the Bold #32
REBELS #14
Dark Avengers #15
New Avengers #63
Siege #3
First Wave #1

Crunchy Bits!

The Walking Eye Comics Cast #4: March: 1 Hour 8 minutes
Intro and Outro music: Pixelguru by Subatomicglue.

Interview 13: Vincent Baker

Kevin Weiser — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 18:44:09 +0000

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

Crunchy Bits!

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

Interview 12: Willow Palecek

Kevin Weiser — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 03:48:34 +0000

Kevin sits down with Willow Palecek, writer of Escape from Tentacle City, Winner of the 2008 Game Chef Golden Katana that Shoots Smaller Katanas Award for Game That Looks Like it Was the Most Fun to Write. We talk about the core mechanics of the game, as well as what message, or lessons, could be learned from play.

Relevant Links

Crunchy Bits!

Interview 12: Willow Palacek on Escape from Tentacle City: 30 Minutes
Intro and Outro music provided by Oh Possum.

Discussion Episode 18: Poison’d Review

Kevin Weiser — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 23:53:10 +0000

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

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

Poison’d Actual Play Session 3 Finale

Kevin Weiser — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 02:11:51 +0000

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

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:

Discussion Episode 17: Player & GM Authority

Kevin Weiser — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 20:50:07 +0000

The crew sits down to discuss the big issue we’ve been avoiding for the entire time this podcast has been around: Player and GM Authority. We break down the different kinds of authority and cite examples of how different games use them. Then we discuss how the traditional model of authority (most of it being in the hands of the GM) can cause problems.

Crunchy Bits!

Discussion Episode 17: Player and GM Authority 1 Hour
Intro and Outro music provided by Oh Possum.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/z4tynjcygxc/TWE_Discussion17_Authority.mp3

Comics Cast #3: February

CJ — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:52:24 +0000

The Walking Eye Comics Cast returns – and this time it’s almost current! CJ and Dan discuss Blackest Night, Siege, and other highlights of their comics reading.

Comics discussed:

Siege #2
New Avengers #62
Dark Avengers #14
Superman #697
Adventure Comics #7
Captain America #603
Secret Warriors #13
The Flash: Rebirth #6
Blackest Night: The Flash #3
Batman and Robin #8 and #9
Blackest Night JSA #3
Green Lantern #51
Blackest Night #7

Crunchy Bits!

The Walking Eye Comics Cast #3: February: 1 Hour 43 minutes
Intro and Outro music: Pixelguru by Subatomicglue.

Poison’d Actual Play Session 2

Kevin Weiser — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 22:17:30 +0000

The crew of the Pirate ship the Dagger beaches itself upon Isla Luna to gather much needed water and supplies. Murmurs of discontent can be heard rippling through the crew, as Isla Luna is well known for being the home of a powerful witch. What’s the worst that could happen? Word to the wise: this episode gets pretty rank. “Dirty Dick Wiggins” makes good on his name, among other atrocities.

Roles

Brandon: Dirty Dick Wiggins Ship’s Gunnery Master

CJ: Bloody John Parr Ship’s Surgeon

Kevin: Solomon Cruikshank Ship’s Captain

Relevant Links

Crunchy Bits!

Poison’d Actual Play Session 2: 2 Hours 11 minutes
Poison’d Actual Play Session 2 Part A: 1 Hour
Poison’d Actual Play Session 2 Part B: 1 Hour
Intro Music “Plunder” from Sid Meyer’s Pirates!
Outro Music “Strike The Bell” by Wylde Nept

Poison’d Actual Play Session 1

Kevin Weiser — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 11:00:10 +0000

Kevin, CJ, Dan, and Brandon sit down for our third and final D. Vincent Baker game: Poison’d: A Pirate RPG. This session covers the creation of our individual pirates, as well as the crew and specifics of our pirate ship. We do just a tad of roleplaying at the end to get a feel for how Success Rolls work, and set things up nicely for next session. So far we’re all enjoying it a lot!

Roles

Brandon: Dirty Dick Wiggins Ship’s Gunnery Master Soul: 4 Devil: 4 Brutality: 4 Ambition: 4 Brinkmanship: 4

CJ: Bloody John Parr Ship’s Surgeon Soul: 4 Devil: 4 Ambition: 4 Brutality: 3 Brinkmanship: 4

Kevin: Solomon Cruikshank Ship’s Quartermaster Soul: 4 Devil: 4 Ambition: 5 Brutality: 5 Brinkmanship: 5

Relevant Links

Crunchy Bits!

Poison’d Actual Play Session 1: 2 Hours
Poison’d Actual Play Session 1 Part A: 1 Hour
Poison’d Actual Play Session 1 Part B: 1 Hour
Intro Music “Plunder” from Sid Meyer’s Pirates!
Outro Music “You Are a Pirate” from Lazytown.

Comics Cast #2: January (part 2)

CJ — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:00:09 +0000

The Walking Eye Comics continues! Dan and CJ conclude their discussion of January releases with a focus on big event books from Marvel Comics.

Comics discussed:

Adventure Comics #6
Captain America Reborn #6
Captain America: Who Will Wield the Shield?
Captain America #602
The Brave and the Bold #31
Dark Avengers #13
New Avengers #61
Booster Gold #28
Siege #1

Relevant Links

Skeptoid podcast

Crunchy Bits!

The Walking Eye Comics Cast #2: January (part 2): 1 Hour 8 Minutes
Intro and Outro music: Pixelguru by Subatomicglue.

Comics Cast #1: January (part 1)

CJ — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 22:25:09 +0000

A new experiment from The Walking Eye! Since we usually record on Wednesday evenings, our warmup conversation usually focuses on the week’s new comic books. The Walking Eye Comics Cast features Dan and CJ discussing, and occasionally ranting, about January’s comic releases.

Comics discussed:

Blackest Night #6
Green Lantern #50
Blackest Night: The Flash #2
Blackest Night: JSA #2
Superman #696
Batman and Robin #7
R.E.B.E.L.S. #12
Secret Warriors #12

Crunchy Bits!

The Walking Eye Comics Cast #1: January (part 1): 1 Hour
Intro and Outro music: Pixelguru by Subatomicglue.

Interview 11: Ron Edwards (Part Two)

Kevin Weiser — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 23:30:27 +0000

Here’s the 2nd half of Kevin’s interview with Ron Edwards. In it we discuss the necessary skills and attitudes for approaching gaming, a breakdown of some of Kevin’s prior difficulties with Sorcerer, and finally some discussion on what The Forge is all about. Kevin does a fantastic job of sticking his foot in his mouth by comparing The Forge GenCon booth to a Scientology recruiting station. See how he backpedals! Awkward comparisons aside, I had a great time sitting down and talking with Ron. I look forward to seeing him again at Forge Midwest 2010!

Relevant Links

Crunchy Bits!

The Walking Eye Interview 11: Ron Edwards Part 2: 1 Hour 30 Minutes
Intro and Outro music provided by Oh Possum.

Interview 10: Ron Edwards (Part One)

Kevin Weiser — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 04:01:12 +0000

While Kevin was over in Chicago to hang out with the Jank Cast he got a chance to sit down with Ron Edwards for an hour or three. I’ve broken the interview down into two parts for ease of consumption. In this first part, we talk a bit about his inspirations for his new game S/Lay /w Me vis a vis early gaming history and the conservative crackdown on all things considered “obscene.” Then we move on to discuss how identity politics can interfere with system discussion, and then a bit about why and how he wrote Trollbabe. Stay tuned for part two!

Relevant Links

Adept Press
IPR
Monte Cook
Sorcerer
Skype
Code of Unaris
The Forge
Actor, Director, Writer stance
Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser
Henry Kuttner and CL Moore
H.P. Lovecraft
S/Lay W/ Me
Rob Bohl
Clyde Roher
Forge Midwest
Moral Majority
Scopes Monkey Trial
B.A.D.D. and The Pulling Report
Comics Code Authority
Zap Comics
Robert Crumb
S. Clay Wilson
Gilbert Sheldon
Meese Report
Tipper Gore
Frank Frazetta, Frazetta “Cat Woman” and Boris Vallejo, Vallejo Conan the Barbarian
Elmore (Red Box)
Elric of Melnibone
The Riddle of Steel
The Shadow of Yesterday
Dave Arneson
Blackmoor
Nine Worlds
GURPS
Champions
Heroes Unlimited
Vampire: The Masquerade
Over the Edge
Prince Valiant
Chivalry and Sorcery
The Jank Cast
The Infamous Five Threads
Spirit of the Century
Robert Jordan
Vincent Baker
Trollbabe
Andrea Dworkin (who apparently denies attribution for the quote Ron used, see the 6th question here)
Liz Danforth
The Fantasy Trip
Eastern Promises
Anna Kreider
Dragonlance
XDM
Jonathan Tweet

Crunchy Bits!

The Walking Eye Interview 10: Ron Edwards Part 1: 1 Hour 20 Minutes
Intro and Outro music provided by Oh Possum.

Discussion Episode 16: Dogs in the Vineyard Review

Kevin Weiser — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:33:56 +0000

Our review of “Vincent Baker’s Concentrated Awesome” aka Dogs in the Vineyard. We sit down to discuss the dice mechanics, moral ambiguity, and how advancement is inextricably tied into not only changes to your character, but also the damage model. Also, Brandon’s still not over his fear of cows.

Relevant Links

Crunchy Bits!

Discussion Episode 16: Dogs in the Vineyard 50 minutes
Intro Music from the soundtrack to The Proposition by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis (the composer, not the comic writer)
Outro Music “Palomino” by Tree Adams.

Interview 9: Ryan Macklin and Leonard Balsera on the Dresden Files RPG

Kevin Weiser — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 22:57:57 +0000

Due to some lucky circumstances, I managed to land an interview earlier this week with Ryan Macklin and Lenny Balsera. This was a serendipitous event, as Evil Hat had just released their official press release announcing the release date and info about the Dresden Files RPG. I sit down with these two and BS about the challenges of creating a game from the Dresden Files license, then we dive into some of the nitty gritty about how FATE was used to create the world of Harry Dresden.

Crunchy Bits!

The Walking Eye Interview 9: Dresden Files RPG with Ryan Macklin and Leonard Balsera 1 Hour 26 Minutes
Intro and Outro music provided by Oh Possum.

Dogs in the Vineyard Actual Play Session 3 Finale

Kevin Weiser — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 12:56:14 +0000

Dogs in the Vineyard wraps up with the small ranching town of King’s Crossing. The players experiment with taking on conflicts solo, and finds some pretty serious challenges facing their characters. The defeats culminate with a very tense final showdown!

Unfortunately this is our last session of Dogs. We had a pretty rough three months this winter and have only managed to record twice due to plague, work, weather, and holidays. It was very difficult to keep the momentum going, but we all feel this is a good session to end on. The conflicts were tough, the morality fuzzy, and the ending suitably tragic.

Relevant Links

Crunchy Bits!

Dogs in the Vineyard Session 3: 2 Hours, 34 Minutes
Dogs in the Vineyard Session 3 Part A: 65 Minutes
Dogs in the Vineyard Session 3 Part B: 1 Hour 28 Minutes
Intro Music from the soundtrack to The Proposition by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis (the composer, not the comic writer)
Outro music from “God’s Gonna Strike You Down” by Johnny Cash.

Dogs in the Vineyard Actual Play Session 2

Kevin Weiser — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 22:32:41 +0000

And here we have our first full town for D. Vincent Baker’s Dog’s in the Vineyard. The gang learns a few good lessons this session. Namely, there’s pretty much no stopping a group of Dogs when they team up, and no matter how bad you don’t want your cousin to be a Sorcerer, sometimes you just have to face facts. This town was created by Jason Morningstar, and is based on the true story of Olive Oatman. When Jason found out I was running his towns, he shot me an email warning that a few of his early town designs aren’t the most ideal. I thanked him for his concern, but went ahead anyway.

Since then, I’ve done a LOT of reading on the lumpley forums on The Forge about town design, and gotten a bit of play under my belt. I now know what Jason was concerned about. I’m not sure if it comes through in the recording, but this town lacked the tension of some later ones I’ve run, and I know exactly why: The situation was too clear, the antagonist too one-sided, and the problems of the town hadn’t escalated to Hate and Murder yet. Vincent recommends ALWAYS designing a town up to Hate and Murder. I learned a lot from running this town, and my second town is one I made myself, and I think really hits all the right spots for what a town should be. Stay tuned for that!

Relevant Links

Crunchy Bits!

Dogs in the Vineyard Session 2: 2 Hours, 51 Minutes
Dogs in the Vineyard Session 2 Part A: Minutes
Dogs in the Vineyard Session 2 Part B: Minutes
Dogs in the Vineyard Session 2 Part C: Minutes
Intro Music from the soundtrack to The Proposition by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis (the composer, not the comic writer)
Outro music from “When The Man Comes Around” by Johnny Cash.

Mutants and Masterminds Christmas Special

Kevin Weiser — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 19:13:47 +0000

Although we’ve had terrible luck getting people together for gaming these past couple months, we did manage to get some time to sit down for an awesome 1-shot of Mutants and Masterminds. Join Claws, Jaquelin Frost, and The Grinch as they save Christmas from a reanimated Hitler (from Mars!) and the vile Corporate Crusader.

Relevant Links

Crunchy Bits!

Mutants and Masterminds Christmas Special: 2 Hours
Mutants and Masterminds Christmas Special Part A: 53 Minutes
Mutants and Masterminds Christmas Special Part B: 60 Minutes
Intro and Outro Music from “Christmas is Interesting” by Jonathan Coulton.

Dogs in the Vineyard Actual Play Session 1

Kevin Weiser — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:53:09 +0000

Everyone here at The Walking Eye has been champing at the bit to finally get some sweet, sweet Dogs in the Vineyard action. It marks the half way point of or Vincent Baker Marathon (the final chapter will be Poison‘d) and it’s been an absolute blast. In this first session we handle character creation and establishing the basic facts about the world. It’s a good demonstration of how to pick Traits, and gives three different and interesting Initiation Conflicts. Check it out!

Relevant Links

Crunchy Bits!

Dogs in the Vineyard Session 1: 2 hours
Dogs in the Vineyard Session 1 Part A: 53 Minutes
Dogs in the Vineyard Session 1 Part B: 62 Minutes
Intro and Outro Music from the soundtrack to The Proposition by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis (the composer, not the comic writer)

Dread Actual Play

Kevin Weiser — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 22:18:49 +0000

Just in time for Halloween comes our actual play of one of my all time favorite horror RPG’s: Dread, by Epidiah Ravachol. Dread uses Jenga for all it’s conflict resolution, which really ramps up the tension. Joining us this session is our good buddy Troll, who’s right fond of horror RPGs.

Relevant Links

Dread
Epidiah’s Blog
More to come!

Crunchy Bits!

Dread Actual Play: 2 Hours 25 Minutes
Dread Actual Play Part A: 1 Hour, 10 Minutes
Dread Actual Play Part B: 1 Hour 15 Minutes
Intro Music “Metroid” by The Minibosses
Outro Music “Vampire Intro” from Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines soundtrack by Rik Schaffer of Womb Music.

Discussion Episode 15: In A Wicked Age… Review

Kevin Weiser — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 20:19:02 +0000

The gang spends a good 45 minutes ranting and raving about how awesome In A Wicked Age… is.

Relevant Links

Crunchy Bits!

Discussion Episode 15: In A Wicked Age… Review 50 minutes
Intro and Outro Music from The Prince of Persia by Inon Zur and Stuart Chatwood published by Ubisoft.

In a Wicked Age Actual Play Session 4

Kevin Weiser — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 21:09:17 +0000

Brandon takes over as GM for our final session of Vincent Baker’s In A Wicked Age… We made a distinct attempt at going for non-violent conflicts this time around, and it worked out pretty well. This session focused around a nomadic remnants of the Uesirans coming to a holy site for their coming of age rituals. Many perils awaited them, from without and within!

Oracle: Blood and Sex

Kevin Chose: The seizure of arcane powers by an arrogant and brutal wizard.
A spirit of the wilds, mercurial in form, sister to gazelles.
The celebration of local fertility or harvest rites.
An oasis of sweet water in a barren wilderness, haunted by the shadows of some vast atrocity committed centuries ago.

Roles

Kevin: Ekurzakir, reincarnated into a new, young body.
Best Interests: To Enthrall the fertility spirit and make her my consort.
I will win the heart of the Head Priestess.
Particular Strength: Spellfire

Dan: Aram, Bravest and Strongest of the Tribe
Best Interests: Prove that I am worthy to marry the Chieftain’s Daughter
I will protect our proving ground against outsiders.
Particular Strength: Strength and Bravery

CJ: Sithara, Fertility Spirit
Best Interests: Find the most worthy Youth and give him my “blessing.”
I must punish those who seek to abuse my power.
Particular Strength: Quicksilver Form (shapeshifting)

NPCs

Gemegishkirihallat High Priestess of the Uesiran Nomads
Best Interests: Protect the Young, for one of them is fated to save our dying tribe.
Particular Strength: Talismen and Rituals of Protection

Uesiran Youths
Best Interests: Complete the ritual ahead of their rivals and return to the tribe.
Particular Strength: Youth

Shadows in the ruins of Kal-Nirar
Best Interests: The city must not be disturbed. Remove outsiders before they become corrupted as well.
Particular Strength: Corporeal forms

Crunchy Bits!

In a Wicked Age Session 4: 2 Hours
In a Wicked Age Session 4 Part A: 57 Minutes
In a Wicked Age Session 4 Part B: 62 Minutes
Intro and Outro Music from The Prince of Persia by Inon Zur and Stuart Chatwood published by Ubisoft.

In a Wicked Age Actual Play Session 3

Kevin Weiser — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 20:30:55 +0000

CJ takes the reins as GM this round and much fun was had by all. By this session we’re all pretty comfortable with the rules and conflict flows quickly and freely. This session would prove to be Brandon’s day, as his now-corrupted character from last session wrecks an impressive swath of havoc and madness across two countries, laying low the armies of the Crimson Khan. Despite Dan, Kevin, and CJ all ganging up against him, his dice were too hot and the Maw of Madness consumed all.

Oracle: The God Kings of War

Dan chose: A staff of white wood, summoner of lightnings and the War Magus who wields it.

The very first time that a certain young soldier, impressed against his choice and wanting nothing more than to return to his home, has killed.

A flock of hunterbirds, sharpbeaked, clever, and dreadful, and their master.

A token indicating that its bearer speaks for the high general.

Roles

Dan: Rafa Ban, Genius of flame.
Particular Strength: The complete metaphysical understanding of all forms of fire. (Double Potent)
Best Interests: To persuade the Mouth of the Abyss to consume the lands of the Crimson Khan, my sworn enemy, and burn the enemy army to cinders and scatter their ashes.

Brandon: Zaheil, the Maw of Madness
Particular Strength: Touch of the Abyss (reality bending powers) (Potent) (Far Reaching)
Best Interests: To eat the Storm Magus and release the Old One residing in his Staff. A descendant of an old enemy is near, he will be consumed like his ancestors finally were.

Kevin: Ekurzakir War Mage of the Crimson Khan, Master of the Stormcrows.
Particular Strength: Staff of Lightning (Potent) Stormcrows (Far Reaching)
Best Interests: Steal the secret of fire from Rafa Ban, Direct the wrath of the Abyss unto the heretical Uesirans.

NPCs

Adar, Descendant of the mighty Ninja Dervish Darius.
Particular Strength: Wakizashi (Potent)
Best Interests: Complete my duty and find my way home. Preserve my homeland.

Relevant Links

Crunchy Bits

In a Wicked Age Session 3: 1 Hour 50 Minutes
In a Wicked Age Session 3 Part A: 50 Minutes
In a Wicked Age Session 3 Part B: 55 Minutes
Intro and Outro Music from The Prince of Persia by Inon Zur and Stuart Chatwood published by Ubisoft.

In a Wicked Age Actual Play Session 2

Kevin Weiser — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 04:59:37 +0000

Unfortunately we had a bit of a technical failure when we recorded our “real” session 2. Only an hour or so was saved, so in actuality this is session 3. Fortunately the serial nature of In a Wicked Age stories gave us some considerable leeway. There shouldn’t be any problem picking up with the narrative here. Dan picks up the GMing mantle this time around, and we start off in the city of Kal-Nirar, where Demon Lord Nirar has been ruling for many generations. Nirar was Kevin’s character in the previous session, he started off as a Merchant Prince who made some sorcerous deals in the name of vengeance. Little is left of his humanity now as unseen forces move against him…

Oracle: The Unquiet Past

Kevin chose:The son of a great tyrant, born crippled and denied his inheritance.

A scholar and antiquarian, unmindful of danger.

A thick gold ring, torn by a powerful sage from a demon’s ear.

The captain of a foreign troop, sent to collect tribute.

Roles

Kevin: The Demon-King Nirar, formerly a merchant prince of the city now called Kal-Nirar.
Special Strength: Minions of the Pit (far-reaching)
Best Interests: To retrieve the ring containing my soul; To send the Red Horde screaming back to their cowardly masters.

CJ: General Darius of the Red Horde
Special Strength: The Ninja dervishes of the Red Horde (potent).
Best Interests: To survive my negotiations with Nirar and convince him I’m only there for the tribute; To find some weakness in the demon-king’s armor (such as any random phylactery or disloyal heir that might be sitting around).

Brandon: Zaheil
Special Strength: The demon ring, which makes him invisible and silent.
Best Interests: To learn the secrets that power the gate – so other uses may be found for it; To make a blunder out of the Red Horde’s envoy, just like I did 20 years ago when I stole their ring.

NPCs:

Dem Ashur, blind and disowned son of Nirar.
Special Strength: The power to jump through shadows, and see shadows for what they really are (far reaching).
Best Interests: To banish my father and claim my throne; To steal the ring and seal the gate.

Crunchy Bits

In a Wicked Age Session 2: 1 Hour 50 Minutes
In a Wicked Age Session 2 Part A: 54 Minutes
In a Wicked Age Session 2 Part B: 1 Hour 10 Minutes
Intro and Outro Music from The Prince of Persia by Inon Zur and Stuart Chatwood published by Ubisoft.

In a Wicked Age Actual Play Session 1

Kevin Weiser — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:14:50 +0000

We’ve all been champing at the bit to dig into Vincent Baker’s games, and due to its popularity as a one-shot party game, the crew decided to go with In a Wicked Age first. These sessions were an absolute blast, and everyone came away a pretty big fan. For IAWA, we changed up our format a bit: we all GM’d one session each, starting with Kevin. Check it out!

Oracle: God Kings of War

A cask of honey wine, tribute to a fierce bandit queen.

The arrival of unexpected and improbable allies, in darkness.

A genius of flame, imprisoned within a brass mirror.

The campsite of a traveling army, not long deserted.

Roles

Dan: Rafa Ban, Genius of flame.
Forms: Covertly d4, Directly d12, For Myself d6, For Others d6, With Love d8, With Violence d10
Particular Strength: The complete metaphysical understanding of all forms of fire.
Best Interests: To get free of the mirror. To burn Eric’s twisted soul to ash.

Brandon: Kadashman-Enlil, leader of a destroyed army, holder of the brass mirror.
Forms: Covertly d6, Directly d10, For Myself d4, For Others d8, With Love d6, With Violence d12
Particular Strength: The last of the divinely infused royal bloodline, who can draw from the strength of the people to Inspire, Lead, and Overcome the worst odds.
Best Interests: To remove Eric the Bitter from the land. The bandits will take advantage of my defeat; I must end the bandit-queen’s tyranny when she shows her face.

CJ: Zahir the Blade, the Bandit-Queen’s Champion and lover.
Forms: Covertly d6, Directly d6, For Myself d8, For Others d4, With Love d10, With Violence d12
Particular Strength: The Training of the southern assassins. A series of complex meditations culminating in a single strike.
Best Interests: To convince Kadashman-Enlil that we will help him. To steal the mirror and trade it to Eric for our safety.

NPCs:

Ku-aya, the Bandit Queen
Best Interests: Kill Kadashman-Enlil while he is still weak. Use the foolish noble remnants to drive Eric from the land.

Eric the Bitter, icy warlord, with his warhammer Gutar-Mag
Best Interests: To smash the prison of Rafa Ban, sundering his spirit.

Relevant Links

Crunchy Bits!

In a Wicked Age Session 1: 2 Hours 26 Minutes
In a Wicked Age Session 1 Part A: 1 Hour 10 Minutes
In a Wicked Age Session 1 Part B: 1 Hour 15 Minutes
Intro and Outro Music from The Prince of Persia by Inon Zur and Stuart Chatwood published by Ubisoft.

The Walking Eye Episode 14: Not Roleplaying in Roleplaying Games

Kevin Weiser — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 18:14:24 +0000

Kevin gathered up Shaun Hayworth from This Modern Death and Robert Bohl from the Independent Insurgency to talk about how much roleplaying is done in a usual session. Rob had recently been listening to some podcasts that seemed to at time discourage roleplaying in some situations, and that surprised and baffled him. He started a thread on Story-games.com and this whole topic flowered forth from there. I had a great time talking to these two, and look forward to many conversations in the future!

Relevant Links

Crunchy Bits!

Discussion Episode 14: 45 minutes
Intro and Outro music provided by Oh Possum.

The Walking Eye Episode 13: GenCon Recap

Kevin Weiser — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 21:49:02 +0000

Kevin sits down with CJ to regale him with tales of his exploits at GenCon. There are several games explained, and a fuzzy recollection of Kevin’s booze-soaked Saturday adventures at the Podcasters Meet and Greet.

Relevant Links

Crunchy Bits!

Discussion Episode 13: 1 Hour
Intro and Outro music provided by Oh Possum.

Promos and Bumpers:

The Walking Eye Episode 12: Post Blazing Rose Discussion

Kevin Weiser — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:36:35 +0000

Kevin, Misha, Sabe and Jason talk about their experiences with Blazing Rose. It was the first GMless game for Misha and Jason, and we discuss how it resulted in a different play experience for them. The conversation then continues on to many differences between traditional and story games, and wraps with a bit of talk with Sabe about his inspirations for Blazing Rose.

Relevant Links

Crunchy Bits!

Discussion 12: Post Blazing Rose 44 Minutes
Intro and Outro music provided by Oh Possum.

Blazing Rose Actual Play

Kevin Weiser — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:33:31 +0000

I met Edward “Sabe” Jones at Forge Midwest 2009, and we’ve kept in touch ever since. A few weeks back he was in town and we sat down to play his game Blazing Rose: A game of romantic rivalry. Joining us is Sabe’s girlfriend Misha and fellow local podcaster Jason Grabau from Diagonally Through the Woods. This was Jason’s first experience with a GMless storygame, and he had a great time with it. This is a full session of BR, covering setting, beloved, and character creation and then one round of narration. After a bit of discussion, we decided on a Fables/American Gods “mythical creatures in the modern day”. After the session we talked about how Blazing Rose was different from games Jason had been playing (mostly 4E). Stay tuned for that next week!

Relevant Links

Crunchy Bits!

Blazing Rose Actual Play: 3 and a half hours.
Intro music by Oh Possum, Outro Music by Chitlins, Whiskey, and Skirt: “Increased Chances”

Broken down into 3 parts:

New RSS Feeds

Kevin Weiser — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:13:27 +0000

A couple weeks ago we switched from wordpress.com to wordpress.org. This means we have a lot more flexibility with what kinds of features we can have on the site. Behold our new on-site media player! Marvel at our multiple RSS feeds! On that note, some of you may need to change your RSS feed in iTunes or your reader of choice.

Full Feed of every episode:

http://www.thewalkingeye.com/?feed=rss2

Non-AP feed (discussions, interviews, reviews only):

http://www.thewalkingeye.com/?feed=rss2&cat=10

Feel free to drop a comment on this entry for request of other features you’d like to see on the site.

Forge Midwest 2009: Interview with Willow Palacek

Kevin Weiser — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:26:02 +0000

Our final interview from the heady days of Forge Midwest 2009 is a brief interview with Willow Palecek, Forge Midwest organizer and designer of the FATE-based RPG Awesome Adventures. We talk with Willow about why she made Awesome Adventures, how she got into roleplaying, and how Forge Midwest came to be in Madison instead of Chicago. It was nice talking to Willow and I can’t wait for next year’s Forge Midwest!

Relevant Links

Crunchy Bits!

Interview 8: Willow Palacek 25 minutes
Intro and Outro music provided by Oh Possum.

The Walking Eye Episode 11: Secrets

Kevin Weiser — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 07:00:58 +0000

Kevin, Dan, and CJ discuss how secrets can be used in a game. We discuss the different kinds of secrets: Short Term, Long Term, Open, and Closed, as well as how each can be a boon or a bane to your game.

Relevant Links

Guy Fawkes
Monte Cook’s Arcana Evolved (referred to as “The AE Game” several times in this episode)
D6 Star Wars
Cold City
Diplomacy
The Mountain Witch
Vincent Baker’s example of a player-generated closed secret in The Mountain Witch
Trapcast Forum Discussion about collaborative setting creation
Trapcast thread about secrets
The WAAAGH!
Dogs in the Vineyard
Mutants and Masterminds

Crunchy Bits!

Discussion 11: Secrets 35 Minutes
Intro and Outro music provided by Oh Possum.

The Walking Eye Interview 7: Luke Crane

Kevin Weiser — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:45:29 +0000

The Walking Eye crew has a sit-down with the illustrious Luke Crane to discuss his games and gaming habits. We cover a fair bit of ground: a bit of rules theory, production strategy and the “unique challenges” that come with working with a licensed franchise. All in all this interview was a total blast and we look forward to a chance to do it again!

Relevant Links

Crunchy Bits!

Interview 7: Luke Crane 1 Hour
Intro music is from “The Ballad of Ivory Lass”, Lyrics by David Petersen Music & Performance by Jesse Glenn
Outro Music is from “The Plouescal Races” by Gaelic Storm.

Bumpers and Promos

Spooky Outhouse

Discussion Episode 10: Mouse Guard Review

Kevin Weiser — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 03:47:50 +0000

Brandon, Dan, CJ, and Kevin talk about our very enjoyable experience with Mouse Guard by Luke Crane and David Peterson. Be warned, we’re all pretty die-hard Burning Wheel fanboys, so there’s a fair amount of gushing in this review. We break down the basic structure of the game, how it differs from previous Burning games, and discuss it’s feasability for new players. Stay tuned, coming up next is our interview with Luke Crane!

Relevant Links

Mouse Guard/Burning Wheel
Mouse Guard Comic
Burning Empires
Macbeth Trait: Macbeth is doomed. His doom is, in fact, foretold and inescapable. The player is encouraged to write his doom into one of his Beliefs. It always ends in his death. Please be as gory and descriptive as possible. The trick is to ensnare other people in his doom. Each character who changes a Belief to fall in line with Macbeth’s doom earns Macbeth one persona point. As he nears his fate, Macbeth’s options dwindle. Once the climax of his story has been reached—it’s time to confront his wife, the enemy has returned from abroad, etc.—Macbeth may only use actions in the Duel of Wits, Psychic Duel, Firefight or even the Infection mechanics once each. After he’s played that action into his doom, he may not use that action again—ever. If he should survive his fate, which is unlikely, Macbeth should count himself quite unlucky, as he’ll now live out the rest of his days dwelling on the horrors he’s committed, waiting for some other young Macbeth to happen upon him and push him toward his grisly end.
In A Wicked Age
Dogs in the Vineyard

Crunchy Bits!

Discussion Episode 10: Mouse Guard Review 45 minutes
Intro music is from “The Ballad of Ivory Lass”, Lyrics by David Petersen Music & Performance by Jesse Glenn
Outro Music is from “The Plouescal Races” by Gaelic Storm.

Bumpers and Promos

Spooky Outhouse

Mouse Guard Actual Play Session 4 Finale

Kevin Weiser — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 16:22:51 +0000

The bright and beautiful days of summer come and go in the Mouse Territories, and our Patrol finds itself in a warm and dry Autumn. It seems as if it’s going to be a relatively quiet year when a tenderpaw brings dire news from Sprucetuck. The great city of sciencemice is besieged by ants! Our heroes rush to the city’s aid, and one brave Guardmouse makes the ultimate sacrifice!

Roles

Kevin is the GM.
Dan plays Conner Greenleaf.
- Rank: Guard Mouse.
- Belief: Bold action is the way of the Guard
- Instinct: Check the weather every time we stop.
- Goal: Retrieve the formula for the Scent Boarder at all costs.
- Highest Skills: Fighter 5 Weather-Watcher 5
- Traits: Tough II
CJ plays Thom.
- Rank: Tenderpaw.
- Belief : I’m ready to be a GuardMouse, and this is my chance to prove it to Tander!
- Instinct:Meet the enemy Head-On.
- Goal: I will prove that I can stand up to my weight in ants.
- Highest Skills: Fighter 4 Cartographer 3
- Traits: Independent I, Sharp Eyed I, Short I
Brandon Plays Tander Fizzcup
- Rank: Patrol Leader
- Belief : Our strength comes from the bonds of fellowship amongst the Guard; not the individual.
- Instinct: Never let a young one go alone.
- Goal: I will fall before I fail Sprucetuck.
- Highest Skills: Healer 6 Survivalist 4
- Traits: Rational I, Old Fur I, Leader I
Jen plays Josephine Wanderwing
- Rank: Patrol Guard
- Belief: Knowledge is Power. There is always time to research.
- Instinct: Trust but verify.
- Goal: Find out why the ants are acting so strangely.
- Highest Skills: Pathfinder 6 Survivalist 5
- Traits: Inquisitive I Curious I

Relevant Links

Crunchy Bits!

Mouse Guard Session 4 2 hours

Session 4 Broken down into smaller chunks:

Intro music is from “The Ballad of Ivory Lass”, Lyrics by David Petersen Music & Performance by Jesse Glenn
Outro Music is from “The Plouescal Races” by Gaelic Storm.

Bumpers and Promos

Spooky Outhouse

Mouse Guard Actual Play Session 3

Kevin Weiser — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:08:29 +0000

CJ, Jen, Dan, and Brandon now have a dozen outcast bandit widows and children to deal with. Jonathan, Daewn’s fiance knows of friends and family back in Copperwood and humbly asks the Guardmice to escort the outcasts there. Along the way the simmering resentment from the recently widowed mice comes to a boil!

Roles

Kevin is the GM.
Dan plays Conner Greenleaf.
- Rank: Guard Mouse.
- Belief: Bold action is the way of the Guard
- Instinct: Check the weather every time we stop.
- Goal: Convince the Outcast mothers to give their children to the Guard.
- Highest Skills: Fighter 5 Weather-Watcher 5
- Traits: Tough II
CJ plays Thom.
- Rank: Tenderpaw.
- Belief : I’m ready to be a GuardMouse, and this is my chance to prove it to Tander!
- Instinct:Meet the enemy Head-On.
- Goal: I feel responsible for what happened to these people, and I’ll do whatever it takes to keep them safe.
- Highest Skills: Fighter 4 Cartographer 3
- Traits: Independent I, Sharp Eyed I, Short I
Brandon Plays Tander Fizzcup
- Rank: Patrol Leader
- Belief : Our strength comes from the bonds of fellowship amongst the Guard; not the individual.
- Instinct: Never let a young one go alone.
- Goal: It is too late to teach Conner, but Thom must learn the law may be black and white, but a Guardsmouse can and if possible, should look for the gray.
- Highest Skills: Healer 6 Survivalist 4
- Traits: Rational I, Old Fur I, Leader I
Jen plays Josephine Wanderwing
- Rank: Patrol Guard
- Belief: Knowledge is Power. There is always time to research.
- Instinct: Trust but verify.
- Goal: Find a home for the Outcasts.
- Highest Skills: Pathfinder 6 Survivalist 5
- Traits: Inquisitive I Curious I

Relevant Links

Crunchy Bits!

Mouse Guard Session 3 1 Hour 50 Minutes

Session 3 Broken down into smaller chunks:

Intro music is from “The Ballad of Ivory Lass”, Lyrics by David Petersen Music & Performance by Jesse Glenn
Outro Music is from “The Plouescal Races” by Gaelic Storm.

Bumpers and Promos

Mouse Guard Actual Play Session 2

Kevin Weiser — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 18:47:27 +0000

CJ, Jen, Dan, and Brandon set out from Lockhaven with their first mission of the season: Deliver the mail to Wildseed, Darkwater, Port Sumac, and finally Wolfpointe. Things go fairly well for the Patrol, but near the end some challenging ethical decisions spring up.

Roles

Kevin is the GM.
Dan plays Conner Greenleaf.
- Rank: Guard Mouse.
- Belief: Bold action is the way of the Guard
- Instinct: Check the weather every time we stop.
- Goal: Mail delivery is boring, I will find a suitable challenge for a Guard Mouse.
- Highest Skills: Fighter 5 Weather-Watcher 5
- Traits: Tough II
CJ plays Thom.
- Rank: Tenderpaw.
- Belief : I’m ready to be a GuardMouse, and this is my chance to prove it to Tander!
- Instinct:Meet the enemy Head-On.
- Goal: Be the first to map a path between Wildseed and Darkwater
- Highest Skills: Fighter 4 Cartographer 3
- Traits: Independent I, Sharp Eyed I, Short I
Brandon Plays Tander Fizzcup
- Rank: Patrol Leader
- Belief : Our strength comes from the bonds of fellowship amongst the Guard; not the individual.
- Instinct: Never let a young one go alone.
- Goal: Tend the sick and wounded at every town along the way.
- Highest Skills: Healer 6 Survivalist 4
- Traits: Rational I, Old Fur I, Leader I
Jen plays Josephine Wanderwing
- Rank: Patrol Guard
- Belief: Knowledge is Power. There is always time to research.
- Instinct: Trust but verify.
- Goal: Collect the wisdom gathered during the Winter at each town.
- Highest Skills: Pathfinder 6 Survivalist 5
- Traits: Inquisitive I Curious I

Relevant Links

Crunchy Bits!

Mouse Guard Session 2 2 Hours 10 Minutes

Session 2 Broken down into smaller chunks:

Intro music is from “The Ballad of Ivory Lass”, Lyrics by David Petersen Music & Performance by Jesse Glenn
Outro Music is from “The Plouescal Races” by Gaelic Storm.

Bumpers and Promos

Spooky Outhouse

Mouse Guard Actual Play Session 1

Kevin Weiser — Sat, 30 May 2009 22:24:33 +0000

I distinctly remember sending out an email to Dan, CJ, Brandon, and Jen a bit before Christmas that after reading the Luke Crane and David Peterson’s Mouse Guard PDF, we needed to bump it into the schedule as soon as possible. “As soon as possible” ended up being May, but we were no less eager to delve into the world of David Peterson’s seminal comic. This first session covers character creation, a fairly brisk and entertaining process.

Roles

Kevin is the GM.
Dan plays Conner Greenleaf.
- Rank: Guard Mouse.
- Belief: Bold action is the way of the Guard
- Instinct: Check the weather every time we stop.
- Highest Skills: Fighter 5 Weather-Watcher 5
- Traits: Tough II
CJ plays Thom.
- Rank: Tenderpaw.
- Belief : I’m ready to be a GuardMouse, and this is my chance to prove it to Tander!
- Instinct:Meet the enemy Head-On.
- Highest Skills: Fighter 4 Cartographer 3
- Traits: Independent I, Sharp Eyed I, Short I
Brandon Plays Tander Fizzcup
- Rank: Patrol Leader
- Belief : Our strength comes from the bonds of fellowship amongst the Guard; not the individual.
- Instinct: Never let a young one go alone.
- Highest Skills: Healer 6 Survivalist 4
- Traits: Rational I, Old Fur I, Leader I
Jen plays Josephine Wanderwing
- Rank: Patrol Guard
- Belief: Knowledge is Power. There is always time to research.
- Instinct: Trust but verify.
- Highest Skills: Pathfinder 6 Survivalist 5
- Traits: Inquisitive I Curious I

Relevant Links

Crunchy Bits!

Mouse Guard Session 1 1 Hour 42 Minutes

By popular demand, Session 1 Broken down into smaller chunks:

Intro music is from “The Ballad of Ivory Lass”, Lyrics by David Petersen Music & Performance by Jesse Glenn
Outro Music is from “The Plouescal Races” by Gaelic Storm.

Bumpers and Promos

The Walking Eye Interview 6: Gregor Hutton

Kevin Weiser — Tue, 26 May 2009 02:53:41 +0000

After a few scheduling SNAFU’s, we finally get a chance to sit down with Gregor and discuss our experiences with his game 3:16: Carnage Amongst the Stars. The conversation hits a lot of topics, from his gaming history, to design decisions behind 3:16, to what to do with NFA, and finally, which of his games he would save from a drowning. Gregor was a real sport for taking the time out of his evening to talk to us, and we look forward to meeting him in person at GenCon this year!

Relevant Links

Gregor Hutton’s Home Page - 3:16, Best Friends
Ron Edwards – The Ronnies
Traveller: 2300 AD
24 Hour RPG, Game Chef
The Forge
Malcom Craig – Hot War, Cold City, A|State
Mayuran
Pendragon
Lord of the Rings BBC Radio Play
Traveller
Warhammer Fantasy
RPG.net
Andy Kitkowski
Story-Games.com
Open Roleplaying Community
Left 4:16 Dead
WWII 3:16 Hack (weapons) (character sheet and range map)
IPR (Indie Press Revolution)
Mouse Guard
Spirit of the Centur y
Houses of the Blooded
Epidiah Ravachol – Dread
Kevin Allen Jr.
Nathan Pallota: Carry, a game about war, Annilise
Shreyas Sampa – Mist Robed Gate
Joe Prince – Contenders, Piledrivers & Powerbombs, Labrynths & Lycenthropes
AT 43
Fantasy Flight Games
Vincent Baker - Arrows, Boxes, Clouds, and Smiley Faces, Kill Puppies for Satan
The Right To Dream
John Harper – Lady Blackbird
Go Play Northwest

Crunchy Bits

Interview 6: Gregor Hutton 1 Hour
Intro Music Provided by Mark Morgan from the soundtrack to Planescape: Torment
Outro Music Provided by Doyle W. Donehoo (released by Games Workshop for free) from the soundtrack to Dawn of War II

Discussion Episode 9: 3:16 Review

Kevin Weiser — Sat, 16 May 2009 23:34:07 +0000

The crew gathers ’round the baleful gaze of The Walking Eye to discuss their experiences with Gregor Hutton’s 3:16: Carnage Amongst the Stars. For the most part, every had glowing praise for the game. Jen wasn’t feeling it as much as the rest, and a good chunk of the discussion is devoted to both what she felt was lacking as well as if these problems arise from our format. Are we not giving these games enough time to really gestate in the play space? Are two-hour sessions doing these games justice? Tune in to see what conclusions we come to!

Relevant Links

3:16 Home Page
Bill Hicks
Forge Midwest 2009
Starship Troopers
Grey Ranks
Don’t Rest Your Head
Mutants and Masterminds
Dresden Files RPG (Sorry, I couldn’t find a link to that torrent of AP’s)
D&D Podcast
In A Wicked Age
Misspent Youth
Burning Empires
First Person Shooters
Creative Agenda

Crunchy Bits!

Discussion Episode 9: 3:16 Review: 45 Minutes
Intro Music Provided by Mark Morgan from the soundtrack to Planescape: Torment
Outro Music Provided by Doyle W. Donehoo (released by Games Workshop for free) from the soundtrack to Dawn of War II

Bumpers and Promos

3:16 Actual Play Session 3 Finale

Kevin Weiser — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:15:01 +0000

Session 3 of 3:16 brings our campaign to a close with a daring assault on the villainous alien home world of Goya. Brutal urban fighting culminates with Miller calling down an orbital bombardment for a whopping 949 kills! This session was an absolute blast and is probably the best example of what 3:16 play should be like. By now everyone was comfortable with what kinds of narrative powers they had and used them to great effect. As you can tell from the show notes, the video-gamey feel of 3:16 really came out this session, which is something we all enjoyed.

Roles

Kevin was GM

Jen played Tucker
Rank: Trooper Rep: Seen the face of God FA: 8 NFA: 3

Brandon played Miller
Rank: Lieutenant Rep: Wet Blanket FA: 3 NFA: 7

Dan Played Murphy
Rank: Sergeant Rep: Badass Motherfucker FA: 8 NFA: 4

CJ Played Carson
Rank: Trooper Rep: It’s Only A Matter of Time (before he gets killed) FA: 7 NFA: 4

Relevant Links

Crunchy Bits!

3:16 Session 3: 1 Hour 30 Minutes
Intro Music Provided by Mark Morgan from the soundtrack to Planescape: Torment
Bonus Outro Song in honor of our mighty warship: The Mandelbrot Set by Jonathan Coulton

Bumpers and Promos

Forge Midwest 2009 After-Action Report

Kevin Weiser — Sat, 09 May 2009 02:22:31 +0000

Before our third session of 3:16: Carnage Amongst the Stars, Jen and Kevin regale the rest of the group with their experiences at Forge Midwest 2009. We met a lot of cool people and played a lot of great games. This episode has a fair amount of info about a few of the games we got a chance to play: Zombie Cinema, Prime Time Adventures, Sorcerer, and Mouse Guard. If you’re a little curious about how those games play out, this might be helpful.

Relevant Links

Bumpers and Promos

Crunchy Bits!

Discussion Episode 8: Forge Midwest 2009 After-Action Report: 38 Minutes
Intro and Outro music provided by Oh Possum.

3:16 Actual Play Session 2

Kevin Weiser — Tue, 05 May 2009 20:03:37 +0000

Session 2 of 3:16 has the troopers assaulting the ice planet of Bosch to investigate the mysterious alien virus defeated last session. Their search leads them to the icy ruins of an ancient civilization and the terrifying creatures who now inhabit the ominous city. This session moves at a good clip, we all had fun slaughtering Spiderbears. There was a bit of confusion near the end of the session as I tried to pull some weirdness with a remotely controlled suit of armor, but we got it worked out pretty quickly. All in all, this session was a marked improvement from next session, and energy was high.

Roles

Kevin was GM

Jen played Tucker
Rank: Trooper Rep: Seen the face of God FA: 7 NFA: 3

Brandon played Miller
Rank: Sergeant Rep: First time out. FA: 3 NFA: 7

Dan Played Murphy
Rank: Corporal Rep: Lawbringer (as in, Murphy’s Law) FA: 8 NFA: 3

CJ Played Carson
Rank: Trooper Rep: Easily Spooked FA: 7 NFA: 4

Relevant Links

Promos and Bumpers

Crunchy Bits!

3:16 Session 2: 2 Hours
Intro Music Provided by Mark Morgan from the soundtrack to Planescape: Torment
Outro Music Provided by Doyle W. Donehoo (released by Games Workshop for free) from the soundtrack to Dawn of War II

Burning Empires – Fires Over Omac Actual Play

Kevin Weiser — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 11:28:50 +0000

A little while back Jen invited her old DM from back in the day to come up and join us. He was curious to see what all these newfangled storygames were all about, so we decided to run the con scenario for Burning Empires: Fires Over Omac. Kevin was GM, and the players were Jen, Brandon, and Brian. Pardon us if we sound a bit preachy, we were trying pretty hard to show Brian how different these games were, from the design to the philosophy behind the design. We may come off as frothing evangelists from time to time. I (Kevin) had tried to run Fires Over Omac a couple times before with varied degrees of success, but this time I think I did pretty well. Our original plan was simply to record this for personal reference later, but upon further listening it came out as a pretty strong example of Burning Empires play. Because of this, our noise discipline was not as good as it usually is, so please excuse the background clutter.

Relevant Links

Crunchy Bits

Burning Empires – Fires Over Omac: 2 Hours, 30 Minutes
Intro music from Nine Inch Nails: Ghosts
Outro music from Oh Possum

Forge Midwest 2009: Tim Koppang Interview

Kevin Weiser — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 02:04:20 +0000

In early April Jen and I took a road trip up to Forge Midwest 2009 in beautiful Madison, Wisconsin. We played a lot of games and met a lot of cool people, expect a fair amount of content related to that in the upcoming weeks. One of the high points was a chance to play Hero’s Banner with it’s creator Tim Koppang. After running it for myself and two others (Edward “Sabe” Jones and a dude named Tim who’s contact info I didn’t get) I grabbed Tim (Koppang, not the player) and did a short interview with him. We discuss his inspirations for the game, the term “Storygames” (he’s not a fan), his gaming history, and whether free will actually exists or not. It was a real pleasure to meet and interview him.

Relevant Links:

Crunchy Bits!

Interview 5: Tim Koppang 30 Minutes
Intro and Outro Music Provided by Oh Possum

3:16 Actual Play Session 1

Kevin Weiser — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:13:01 +0000

Things kick off for 3:16: Carnage Amongst The Stars by Gregor Hutton with an attack on the Terran Asteroid Belt. The 3rd Army of the 16th Brigade sprung into action and quickly purged the mysterious alien virus from the computer core. In fact, pretty much everything was purged in a 5,000 mile radius. The whole crew enjoyed the setting aside from a few minor grumbles (“Mining robots? Really?” -Jen) and energy was high; everyone walked away with considerable excitement for next session.

Roles:

Kevin was GM

Jen played Tucker
Rank: Trooper Rep: Seen the face of God FA: 7 NFA: 3

Brandon played Miller
Rank: Sergeant Rep: First time out. FA: 3 NFA: 7

Dan Played Murphy
Rank: Corporal Rep: Lawbringer (as in, Murphy’s Law) FA: 8 NFA: 2

CJ Played Carson
Rank: Trooper Rep: Easily Spooked FA: 6 NFA: 4

Relevant Links

Crunchy Bits!

3:16 AP Session 1: 1 Hour 38 Minutes
Music by Mark Morgan from the soundtrack to Planescape: Torment

The Walking Eye Interview 4: Clyde Rhoer

Kevin Weiser — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 12:39:16 +0000

Note:The first post of the interview didn’t get picked up on iTunes properly and was linking to the Discussion instead of the interview so I am reposting in an attempt to correct the issue.

Keeping with our format of play, discuss and interview, Kevin and Jen Interview Clyde Rhoer the creator of Silence Keeps Me a Victim.

Crunchy Bits

Interview with Clyde Rhoer: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes
Music by Oh Possum

Relevant Links

Silence Keeps Me a Victim, Discussion

Kevin Weiser — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 14:48:09 +0000

After playing Silence Keeps Me a Victim, Kevin and Jen have a somewhat heated conversation about the game and the topics is deals with.

Crunchy Bits!

Discussion: 34 Minutes
Music by Oh Possum

Silence Keeps Me a Victim, Actual Play

Kevin Weiser — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 14:47:40 +0000

Kevin and Jen play Silence Keeps me a Victim by Theory from the Closet‘s Clyde Rhoer. It’s a pretty intense two person game designed by Clyde as a way to work through a history of childhood molestation. In the game the players assume the roles of “Advocate” and “Guide” for the child in the story; the Guide designs surreal landscapes that are often dark and disturbing (I likened them to Alice in Wonderland or The Adventures of Mark Twain), through which the child travels to discover their voice, remove their mask and retrieve their heart.

This game is designed to allow for the players to speak in some voice about trauma felt deeply but otherwise unexpressed due to social restrictions. What drew me to this game is not the subject matter specifically but the reactions that I see in society to it. One does not have to be a victim of abuse to play this game, I stress this because several asked me just that. The fact is, I like digging into the human psyche and this game is the closest I’ve seen one come to allowing for that view into the mind.

I really enjoyed play testing Silence Keeps Me a Victim and am looking forward to Clyde putting together a finished copy some day soon.

If you or anyone you know is being abused please seek help, HelpGuide.org has resources available that may help.

Crunchy Bits

Bumpers and Promos

The Independent Insurgency

The Walking Eye Interview 3: Monte Cook

Kevin Weiser — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:48:20 +0000

Our normal format is play game, review game, interview designer. But when we heard Monte Cook had posted on his blog asking about RPG related podcasts, we knew this was too good a chance to pass up. Besides, we’d played 3.0 D&D for years, followed by a full campaign of Arcana Evolved, and our final hurrah of D20 fantasy gaming was a run through Ptolus. So while we didn’t record any of that, we’re pretty sure we got the “play game” part covered pretty well.

It was a real pleasure to talk to Mr. Cook about his new foray: Dungeon-a-day.com, and we’re all very glad to see him back in the gaming industry. We discuss his masterfully diplomatic opinion on D&D 4E, what style of play he expects at his table, how he feels about player vs. player conflict, what games he’s looking forward to playing, and his use of Gygaxian Lexicography. We wish him luck on all his future endeavors!

Crunchy Bits!

Interview 3: 1 Hour
Music by Mark Morgan from the soundtrack to Planescape: Torment

Relevant Links:

Bumpers and Promos

The Walking Eye Interview 2: Robert Bohl

Kevin Weiser — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 23:21:48 +0000

Our exploration of Misspent Youth comes to a close as we sit down to discuss the game with it’s designer Rob Bohl. We learned a lot from playing MY and had a great time talking about it with Rob. The conversation meanders through a variety of topics, from a basic overview of the game, to difficulties we had, changes that will be in the final version, and a very entertaining debate between Brandon and Rob about the role of The Authority. We extend our thanks to Rob for giving us the opportunity to play his game and discuss it with us.

Crunchy Bits:

Interview 2: 1 Hour 10 Minutes
Intro and Outro music “21st Century Digital Boy” by Bad Religion provided by Epitaph Records.
Bumpers: Spooky Outhouse Productions, RPG Podcasts, and Narrative Control.

Names Rob Dropped:

Names Brandon Dropped:

Monte Cook

Discussion Episode 6: Misspent Youth Review

Kevin Weiser — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 21:04:51 +0000

Kevin, CJ, Dan, Jen, and Brandon discuss their recently completed run of Rob Bohl’s Misspent Youth. We break down the basic mechanics of the game, debate on a few of the changes planned for the final version, and deliver a final verdict; irrevocably shattering Rob’s fragile ego. Just kidding! We loved it and think everybody should play it. Up next is an interview with Mr. Bohl himself, one we’re all looking forward to!

Crunchy Bits!

Episode 6: 40 Minutes
Intro and Outro music “21^st Century Digital Boy” by Bad Religion provided by Epitaph Records.

Promos:

Misspent Youth Session 4 Finale

Kevin Weiser — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 19:18:38 +0000

Kevin, Jen, CJ, Dan, and Brandon bring the Misspent Youth story arc to a thrilling conclusion! The cat is out of the bag now that we’ve organized a world-wide school riot and The Company isn’t pulling punches anymore. This session is structured slightly different then the previous ones, as we used the designer Rob Bohl’s newly developed round-robin scene framing mechanic. This took a lot of the plot control out of Brandon’s hands, but he adjusted to it pretty quickly. We were still able to come together with a coherent plot and a satisfying ending. Stay tuned next week for our review!

Crunchy Bits!

Session 4: 2 Hours
Intro and Outro music “21^st Century Digital Boy” by Bad Religion provided by Epitaph Records.

Promos:

Misspent Youth Actual Play Session 3

Kevin Weiser — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 18:12:27 +0000

Kevin, CJ, Dan, Jen, and Brandon gather for or second play session of Misspent Youth. This session was a TON of fun, and we definitely have a much stronger grasp of the 7 scene structure. My only wish is we could have gotten Another Brick In The Wall by Pink Floyd as our theme song. We don’t need no education!

Crunchy Bits!

Session 3: 2 Hours
Intro and Outro music “21^st Century Digital Boy” by Bad Religion provided by Epitaph Records.
Bumpers: Spooky Outhouse Productions, RPG Podcasts, and Have Games Will Travel: For a Few Games More

Misspent Youth Actual Play Session 2

Kevin Weiser — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 18:17:49 +0000

CJ, Dan, Kevin, Jen, and Brandon sit down for session 2 of the Misspent Youth ashcan. This is actually our second attempt, as last week we came together but due to time constraints and bad moods, not much was accomplished. This time things went swimmingly, however. We had a lot of fun once things got rolling, though there was a small hiccup about halfway though the session. We used this hiccup as an excuse to call Rob, and hilarity ensued.

Crunchy Bits!

Session 2: 2 Hours

The Walking Eye Podcast Interview 1: Fred Hicks

Kevin Weiser — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 20:21:15 +0000

Dan, CJ, and Kevin sit down with Fred Hicks, chief bearer of the Evil Hat. Our talk runs the gamut from our experiences with Don’t Rest Your Head, to how things are at the Indie Press Revolution, and then finally a bit of talk about the Dresden Files. We had a great time talking to Mr. Hicks and look forward to doing it again!

A few relevant links:

Crunchy Bits!

Interview 1: 1 Hour
Intro and Outro music provided by Oh Possum.

Misspent Youth Actual Play Session 1

Kevin Weiser — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 04:46:39 +0000

Kevin, Brandon, Dan, CJ, and Jen sink their teeth into the ashcan of Misspent Youth by Rob Bohl. This session covers character creation, setting creation, and Authority creation. It’s our first real attempt at collaborative setting creation, though a few of us have some experience with Burning Empires‘ World Burner. I’m pretty pleased with the results. Here’s a basic rundown of our setting and characters:

Theme: Violence, Class, Innocence

Clique: History club. “Hardcore Historians” (Nerdy Athletic Miscreants) “To preserve and promote the glories of our civilization through understanding of our history”

Characters:

Jen Somber Naital 15yr old Loud and Angry, naive and pretty, stern leader

Mistreatment: Abused Motivation: Thrills Means: Bad

Schtick: Fast Talkin’ Hard Brawlin’ Party Girl Glitch: “Cares too much”

CJ Nix Ranz 15yr old Silly But Serious, sex crazed teen

Mistreatment: Spoiled Motivation: Optimism Means: Cool

Schtick: Can Hot Wire Anything Glitch: Virgin

Dan Valla 12yr old small kid with big attitude, gratuitously emo

Mistreatment: Neglected Thrills: Pride Means: Tough

Schtick: Sherlock Holmes wannabe Glitch: Little Man Syndrome

Kevin Celedor 17yr old shy and bookish, wandering dreamer

Mistreatment: Sheltered Thrills: Altruism Means: Smart

Schtick: “Catch me if you can” Glitch: Caught up in the Details.

Notes and relevant links:

Music provided with permission from Epitaph Records for 21^st Century Digital Boy by Bad Religion and from Nine Inch Nails: Ghosts
Promos played for: Spooky Outhouse, This Modern Death, RPGPodcasts.com and The Independent Insurgency.

Crunchy Bits!

Misspent Youth Actual Play Session 1 2 Hours 30 Minutes

The Walking Eye Podcast Episode 5: Don't Rest Your Head Review

Kevin Weiser — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:56:57 +0000

After a rough holiday season we finally managed to get together enough times to finish our run of Don’t Rest Your Head by Fred Hicks. Dan, Kevin, Jen, CJ, and Brandon sit down to work out our likes (which were many) and dislikes (which were few).

A few relevant links:

Crunchy Bits!

Episode 5: 50 Minutes
Intro and Outro music provided by Oh Possum.

Don't Rest Your Head Actual Play Session 3 Finale

Kevin Weiser — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:36:57 +0000

The 3rd session wraps up our run of Don’t Rest Your Head, and we had a great time with it. We manage to wrap the story up pretty nicely and everyone was definitely “on” this night. We decided to stop breaking up the audio files into chunks that can fit onto CD’s. If that annoys you, drop us a line and we’ll split ‘em back up for you!

Dan is the GM.
Jen plays Samantha Hopkins, a stoner searching for The Perfect Drug.
Kevin plays Trevor Anderson, the closeted douchebag frat guy running from a Craigslist stalker.
CJ Plays Jason Standish, a Doctor doing his residency at the local hospital when a corpse gets up and runs out the front door.
Brandon plays Justin Hiedsick a soldier trying to return home, haunted by the loss of his friends.

Crunchy Bits!

Session 3: 2 Hours 45 Minutes
Intro and Outro music provided by Oh Possum.

Don't Rest Your Head Actual Play Session 2

Kevin Weiser — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 01:47:22 +0000

Our second session of Don’t Rest Your Head really hums. By now we had a strong grasp of the mechanics and started seeing some of the very intense situations that can result.

Dan is the GM.
Jen plays Samantha Hopkins, a stoner searching for The Perfect Drug.
Kevin plays Trevor Anderson, the closeted douchebag frat guy running from a Craigslist stalker.
CJ Plays Jason Standish, a Doctor doing his residency at the local hospital when a corpse gets up and runs out the front door.
Brandon plays Justin Hiedsick a soldier trying to return home, haunted by the loss of his friends.

Crunchy Bits!

Full Session 2: 2 Hours
Intro and Outro music provided by Oh Possum.

The Walking Eye Podcast Episode 4: Metagaming: Then and Now

Kevin Weiser — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 01:42:30 +0000

Kevin, CJ, and Dan (with a special summary by Brandon) sit down to discuss the age old problem of Metagaming. Specifically, how it doesn’t seem to be near the problem it once was, and in fact is a necessary component of many games. We break down many time honored claims leveled against the Metagame and pontificate about how recent evolutions in in game design have rendered many of them moot.

Crunchy Bits!

Episode 4: 35 Minutes
Intro and Outro music provided by Oh Possum.

Don't Rest Your Head Actual Play Session 1

Kevin Weiser — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 01:43:51 +0000

Real Life(tm) reared it’s ugly head the past few weeks and really put a cramp on our gaming schedules. Don’t Rest Your Head was supposed to be a two session Halloween Special. We did character creation the week before Halloween, and then couldn’t play again until the last week in November! Complications aside, DRYH is going pretty well for us. We enjoy the system and got into our characters pretty quickly. Presented here is our second session. We skipped the first session because it was mostly character creation and rules explanation. Actually, it was mostly drunken bullshitting interspersed with the occasional rules explanation or idea for a background. Here’s a quick rundown of the players and characters:

Dan is the GM.
Jen plays Samantha Hopkins, a stoner searching for The Perfect Drug.
Kevin plays Trevor Anderson, the closeted douchebag frat guy running from a Craigslist stalker.
CJ Plays Jason Standish, a Doctor doing his residency at the local hospital when a corpse gets up and runs out the front door.
Brandon plays Justin Hiedsick a soldier trying to return home, haunted by the loss of his friends.

Crunchy Bits!

Full Session 1: 2 Hours 30 Minutes
Broken into Discrete Packets of Insomnolence
- Part A 75 Minutes
- Part B 75 Minutes

The Walking Eye Podcast Episode 3: Social Conflict Mechanics or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Mind Control

Kevin Weiser — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 01:39:59 +0000

This Episode was inspired by a rather heated argument I got into on the gaming news website Shacknews. It exemplifies the clash between traditional and hippy philosophies of game design. Kevin, Dan, CJ, and Brandon gather round to discuss the role of Social Conflict Mechanics in a game, how their views of it have changed, and address some of the arguments against a strong Mechanic that were posted in the forum thread that started this whole debacle.

Crunchy Bits!

Episode 3: 60 Minutes
Link to the original Shacknews Thread
Intro and Outro music provided by Oh Possum.