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.

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.

Relevant Links

• Renato Ramonda (who’s name I butchered, sorry!)
• DRYH Italian
• Forge Thread about Authority
• Weapons of the Gods
• Dungeon Master’s Guide
• Gygaxian Lexicography
• Rule Zero
• Knights of the Dinner Table
• Shadowrun
• Burning Wheel
• Burning Empires
• Moldvey Basic
• The Czege Principal
• Soggy Cracker
• Polaris
• Grey Ranks
• Zombie Cinema
• Capes
• Wild Talents
• DOOM
• Marathon
• GNS
• In Nomine
• Shared Fantasy
• Ron Edwards Brain Damage
• Arcana Evolved
• Mutants and Masterminds
• Massive hero lists for Mutants and Masterminds
• Batman/Superman: Public Enemies
• FreeMarket
• FATE
• Spirit of the Century
• Dresden Files RPG
• Diaspora
• Starblazer Adventures
• Traveller

Crunchy Bits!

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

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

• Vincent Baker’s Blog
• Poison’d
• Sgt. Hatred
• Cervantes
• A map of the Caribbean
• The Gunpowder history book Kevin mentioned.
• Burning Wheel
• Sid Meyer’s Pirates!
• The Count of Monte Cristo
• Dogs in the Vineyard
• In a Wicked Age
• 2-Masted Bermuda Sloop
• “That’s a REAL GHOST!”
• Misspent Youth
• Hardtack
• Rogue Trader
• Lego Tie Defender

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.

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

• Adept Press
• Sorcerer
• Trollbabe
• Prime Time Adventures
• Dust Devils
• The Forge
• Burning Wheel
• Planescape
• Runequest
• The Moose in the City
• In A Wicked Age
• Dogs in the Vineyard
• 7th Sea
• Over the Edge
• Riddle of Steel
• Shadow of Yesterday
• Burning Empires
• Jared Sorensen
• Inspectres
• Ars Magica
• Mike Mearls
• Ed Healy
• RPG.net
• Paul Czege
• Vaughn Bode
• Mark Bode
• Cheech Wizard
• Richard Dawkins
• Rob Bohl
• The Last Supper

Crunchy Bits!

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

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

• Dogs in the Vineyard
• Vincent Baker’s Blog
• Dogs in the Vineyards Forum
• Apocalypse World
• State of Deseret
• Burning Wheel
• Diagonally Through the Woods
• Mutants and Masterminds
• D&D
• Warhammer Fantasy RPG
• Mind Flayer
• Arcana Evolved
• Burning Empires
• Oregon Trail
• The Jank Cast
• Call of Cthulhu

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.

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

Relevant Links

• Lumpley Games
• In a Wicked Age…
• Sword And Sorcery
• Tanith Lee
• Jack Vance
• Robert E Howard
• Iron Age
• Marvel Comics Conan
• Lumpley Games Oracle Generator
• Misspent Youth
• Duel of Wits
• Emily Care Boss
• Mouse Guard
• Conflict Flow Chart
• The Dreaded D&D 3.5 Grapple Rules
• The Dreaded D&D 3.5 Attacks of Opportunity Rules
• Abulafia
• Silver Age Comics
• GURPS
• Grey Ranks
• Spirit of the Century

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.

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

• In A Wicked Age
• Lumpley Games
• Conflict Flowchart
• “YOU SHALL NOT PASS!”
• Plasma Ball
• Ramuh
• Confucius Hat
• Palpatine
• Fables
• Trail of Cthulhu
• Monster Burner

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.

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

• Robert Bohl – The Independent Insurgency
• Shaun Hayworth – This Modern Death
• Misspent Youth
• Greaser Ghouls from Outer Space
• System Does Matter
• White Wolf
• D&D
• Storygames Thread Robert Started
• Burning Wheel
• The Gamers/ The Gamers 2
• Prime Time Adventures
• Vincent Baker’s Blog
• 3:16
• In A Wicked Age
• Dogs in the Vineyard
• Millennium’s End
• GURPS Vehicles
• No Exit
• Zombie Cinema

Crunchy Bits!

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

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

• Blazing Rose Page/Sabe’s Blog
• Diagonally Through the Wood
• Grey Ranks
• Shab-al-hiri Roach
• Agon
• Czege Principle
• Weapons of the Gods
• Dynasty Warriors
• Burning Wheel
• Burning Empires
• Willow’s Blog post about Burning Empires
• Exalted
• In a Wicked Age
• Riviera the Promised Land
• Primetime Adventures
• Lulu

Crunchy Bits!

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

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

• Mouse Guard/Burning Wheel
• Mouse Guard Comic
• Burning Empires
• David Petersen
• Independent Insurgency Interview with Luke
• The Blossoms Are Falling
• Chris Moeller
• Dictionary of Mu
• Blood Stained Stars
• Iron Empires
• Archaia Press
• Clinton R Nixon
• Realm Guard
• Black Flag
• Burning THAC0
• UberCon
• Gotham Girls Roller Derby
• Adobe InDesign
• Quark
• Weapons of the Gods
• Name of the Rose
• Vincent Baker
• kill puppies for satan
• Ron Edwards

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