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

• Escape from Tentacle City
• Willow’s Blog
• FreeMarket
• Kagematsu
• Ron Edwards
• Fiasco
• Legendary Lives
• Other Worlds
• 3:16
• Gen Con
• S/lay W/ Me
• Shab-al-Hiri Roach
• Zombie Cinema
• Game Chef
• Jason Morningstar
• Mark Adams
• Hentai (NSFW)
• Shaun of the Dead
• George A. Romero
• Poison’d
• Grey Ranks

Crunchy Bits!

• Interview 12: Willow Palacek on Escape from Tentacle City: 30 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.

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.

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 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

• Monte Cook
• RPG Podcasts.com
• Spooky Outhouse

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

• Theory from the Closet, Clyde Rhoer’s Website
• Sam Weber
• Cover of Silence Keeps Me a Victim
• Painting of Little Girl Carried Away by Monster
• 3:16 by Gregor Hutton
• Clyde’s thoughts on 3:16 & Storygames “baggage” (with commentary/corrections from Gregor)
• Fred Hicks and Evil Hat Productions
• Don’t Rest Your Head
• Mike Holmes
• Thor Olavsrud
• Lacuna Part 1: The Creation of the Mystery and the Girl from Blue City (second attempt) by Jared Sorensen
• Paul Czege
• Amber Diceless
• Ralph Maza
• Ron Edwards
• Luke Crane
• Nobilis by R. Sean Borgstrom
• Kurt Wiegel Game Geeks review of Burning Empires
• Grey Ranks by Jason Morningstar
• Misspent Youth by Robert Bohl
• In a Wicked Age by Vincent Baker
• Spooky Outhouse Productions
• Monte Cook

Our first discussion episode! Kevin, Dan, Jen, and CJ gather ’round The Walking Eye to discuss our recently completed run of The Grey Ranks by Jason Morningstar. It was an interesting and educational experience, one that we’d recommend to anyone.

Crunchy Bits!

• Download Episode 1: 55 Minutes
• Intro and Outro music provided by Oh Possum.

I managed to put some serious editing time in this weekend and have a lot of content to put out there.

First off we have Session 3 of our Grey Ranks game. In this session, things really pick up the pace as two characters (Yankee and Xero played by Brandon and Dan respectively) are written out. I think this was probably our best session, the energy was high and the final results heartbreaking.

Crunchy Bits!

• Full Session 3 1 Hour 43 Minutes

Session 4 wraps up our Grey Ranks game. This session went pretty well also, these last two you can definitely tell we were more comfortable with the scene framing aspects of the game. If you’re curious to find out what happens to Skaut and Diana, check it out:

Crunchy Bits!

• Full Session 4 1 Hour 18 Minutes

Session 2 Covers chapters 3 through 5. The end of Chapter 3 hums along quite nicely, and we were having fun throughout. Just one more session and we’ll have this tragic tale of tumultuous teenaged trama tied together! I make no apologies for my alliteration!

Crunchy Bits!

• Full file (2 Hours 42 Min)

We start things of with a bang: Grey Ranks by Jason Morningstar. Overall I think the session went really well! My only real concern is we might not have framed appropriate scenes for the chapters we were on. As one player said “We’re somewhere right between Schindler’s List and Indiana Jones”. A game with this serious of a tone makes me sensitive to if we’re “doing it right.” Still, the last hour and a half really hums and I think we got a strong grasp on how things work. Next session should be great!

Here’s who’s at the table:

• Dan playing the 15 year old Xero
• Brandon playing the 17 year old Yankee
• CJ playing the 16 year old Diana
• Kevin playing the 15 year old Skaut
• Jordon playing the 15 year old Granat

One minor hiccup we had was with how to handle the creation of reputation. We were slightly confused if they evolved version of the reputation always had to be the exact opposite of it’s predecessor. I posted on story-games.com about that and got a pretty succinct answer from the creator: [Recorded AP] Grey Ranks # 4

“Yeah, I chose very obvious/binary transformations as a teaching tool, but there’s nothing requiring that. I’ve seen people go from ‘clumsy” to “respectful”, or other non-intuitive changes, and as long as they are motivated by what’s happened or what they want to happen (or both) it’s fine.”

In retrospect this makes perfect sense but at the time I think our hesistation came from our concerns about making sure we were playing it “right”.

Crunchy Bits!

Session 1 Recorded Sept 10 2008:

• Full file (2 Hours 41 Min)