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.

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 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 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

• Bear Swarm
• Podgecast
• Trapcast
• Brilliant Gamologists
• Action Castle
• Do You Worship Cthulhu / Mafia/Are you a Werewolf
• Rob Bohl
• Kevin’s twitpic
• Siggraph
• Michael Stackpole / The Pulling Report
• Mechwarrior PC game / intro cinematic / Battletech Classic / Battletech Pods
• Storn A. Cook / Sons of Kryos
• Indie Press Revolution
• Paul Tevis: Voice of the Revolution / Have Games Will Travel
• All Games Considered Podcast
• Penny for My Thoughts
• Sean Nittner / Narrative Control Podcast
• Paul Czege / My Life with Master
• Tony Lower-Basch: Capes and Misery Bubblegum
• Games on Demand Games: Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies, In A Wicked Age, Houses of the Blooded, Spirit of the Century, Misspent Youth, Primetime Adventures, Escape from Tentacle City, Dogs in the Vineyard, Mouse Guard, Polaris, 3:16, Cold City, Hot War, Shock, Amber, Inspectres, Shab-Al-Hiri Roach, Carry, Shooting the Moon, Annalise, Penny for My Thoughts.
• Coma White (what Kevin actually meant was “Soma” from Brave New World. Oops)
• Burning Wheel / The Sword
• Christopher Moeller
• Games Workshop
• Heinlein’s Starship Troopers
• Forge Midwest
• Willow Palecek
• The Forge
• Ron Edwards / S/lay w/ Me / Spione
• Steve Long
• Theory from the Closet
• Ryan Macklin / Master Plan Podcast
• Pulp Gamer
• The Jank Cast
• Diagonally Through the Woods
• D&D “Moldvay Basic”
• Tony Dowler / How to Host a Dungeon
• Dungeon Keeper / Dwarf Fortress

Crunchy Bits!

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

Promos and Bumpers:

• This Modern Death
• Have Games, Will Travel
• Spooky Outhouse

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

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 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.

Other Relevant Links:

• System Does Matter
• The Ashcan Front
• Joe Strummer
• Round Robin Scene Framing Rules Post
• Misspent Youth Ashcan PDF

Names Rob Dropped:

• Joshua AC Newman
• Vincent Baker
• Meguey Baker
• Paul Czege
• Emily Care Boss
• Judd Karlman (The Sons of Kryos)
• Michael Miller
• Tony Lower-Basch
• Andrew Morris
• Thor Olavsrud
• Jennifer Rodgers
• Rob Donahough
• Fred Hicks
• Mickey (Geek Girls Rule)
• Jason Morningstar

Names Brandon Dropped:

• Monte Cook

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:

• Have Games Will Travel: For A Few Games More
• Spooky Outhouse Productions

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:

• Spooky Outhouse Productions
• RPG Podcasts.com