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.

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.

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.

Relevant Links

• In A Wicked Age
• Lumpley Games
• Conflict Flowchart
• Ptolus: City by the Spire
• Hardcore History Podcast
• Radiolab Podcast about Genghis Khan
• Marvel GI Joe comics
• Vincent’s rules hack to play Conan in a Wicked Age.
• Tom Bombadil
• Prince of Persia again – but Sands of Time this time.
• Sword +5, Holy Avenger
• The Mouth of Sauron
• The Wizaaaaaard

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.

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.

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

• Willow’s Blog
• FATE RPG
• Awesome Adventures
• Voight-Kampff test
• Spirit of the Century
• Lenny Balsera
• Starblazer Adventures
• John Woo
• Carolyn Burg
• Escape from Tentacle City
• Houses of the Blooded
• Legend of the Five Rings
• Hero Quest
• Dust Devils
• Champions
• The Forge
• Ron Edwards
• Dungeons and Dragons
• RPGA
• Blazing Rose
• Mouse Guard
• Storming the Wizard’s Castle
• The Mountain Witch

Crunchy Bits!

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

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 Century
• 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

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:

• Dungeon-A-Day
• Wizards of the Coast
• Malhavoc Press
• Monte Cook’s World of Darkness
• Call of Cthulhu
• Call of Cthulhu (D20)
• Trail of Cthulhu
• Pagan Publlishing’s new Mysteries of Mesoamerica
• Burning Wheel
• Burning Empires
• Paul Tevis
• Inside The Game Designer Studio
• Bruce R. Cordell
• Stephen R. Donaldson / Thomas Covenant

Bumpers and Promos

• Spooky Outhouse Productions
• Have Games Will Travel

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.

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.