Tag Archives: GM Techniques

Episode 45: Halloween OctOSR from the Highway of Madness

Summary

Published: October 31, 2023

Another of Runeslinger’s Reflections from the Road

This episode features a call-in from Jason Hobbs of podcast and conventioneering fame – particularly Random Screed, a recap of our current Call of Cthulhu campaign, and a suggestion for a creepy OSR dungeon experience that is PWYW: Murcanto’s Lair: ⁠DriveThruRPG – Samwise7RPG⁠

The current members of our sandbox Call of Cthulhu campaign are Ivan Podgwaite (a YouTuber), Joe Richter (A Podcaster), and Brian Courtemanche (a CoC scenario author).

LINKS:

Check out the @ivanmike1968 YouTube channel for lots of B/X, LotFP, Ubiquity, and other RPG goodness… plus BASS guitar stuff~

Check out the Hindsightless podcast for lots of RPG thoughts, recaps, ice cream, cereal taste tests, nature reports, and whatever else Joe has running around in his brain.

Check out the Down in a Heap podcast for thoughtful RPG musings on Old School games and Old School D&D from Rob C.

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CONTACT ME:

[1] ⁠Send a voice message to CastingShadowsPodcast (speakpipe.com)⁠

[2] Find me on Discord, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube @Runeslinger

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Ubiquity Roleplaying Games Discord

Episode 44: MESSAGES FOR RUNESLINGER ON THE ROAD

Summary

Published: September 24, 2023

Another of Runeslinger’s Reflections from the Road

Thanks to our callers, FreeThrall, DarkFluid, Che Webster, Eloy Cintron, Joe Richter, and Jason Connerly. We have messages pertaining to the current topic of Immersion and how it intersects with our cultures and procedures of play. We have a response from Umbramancer to a call from the last episode by Jason. Umbramancer, or Eloy Cintron, was featured in the episode before that. That response connects to our D&D example episode about story as product vs story as by-product. Finally, we have some messages about Ubiquity in general and our recent Hollow Earth Expedition episode in particular.

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CONTACT ME:

[1] ⁠Send a voice message to CastingShadowsPodcast (speakpipe.com)⁠

[2] Find me on Discord, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube @Runeslinger

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Ubiquity Roleplaying Games Discord

Episode 37: On Real and Imagined Sand – RPG Sandboxes

Summary

Published: July 8, 2023

Blame it on the rain. Yeah. Yeah.

With listener calls to spice things up, this reflection from the road by Runeslinger delves into the seemingly forgotten history of why RPGs refer to sandbox play, how that is not on a spectrum with Railroading, and shows how Grimaud’s Crowbar teams up with Chekhov’s Gun, as the kilometers fly by~

Guest voices appearing in this episode were Jason Connerly of the Nerds RPG Variety Cast, and Joe Richter of the Hindsightless podcast. Reference was made to Che Webster’s Roleplay Rescue podcast and Jason Hobbs’ Random Screed podcast.

RELEVANT LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:

For more on my corollary to Chekhov’s Gun obscurely titled Grimaud’s Crowbar please follow this link to my Casting Shadows blog:

Grimaud’s Crowbar

You can interact on these and other gaming topics by sending a voice message via ⁠SpeakPipe⁠ or contact me by e-mail at runescastshadows at gmail dot com

Joe Richer’s podcast – Hindsightless

Che Webster’s blog – Roleplay Rescue

Jason Hobbs’ – Random Screed Podcast.

Jason Connerley’s Podcast – Nerds RPG Variety Cast

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Episode 35: Recap, Reflections, and More on Corporia (Bonus)

Summary

Published: June 7, 2023

Please accept my apologies as this episode of the Casting Shadows Podcast was once again recorded on the road and the audio quality may suffer for it.

Our topic is the Corporia RPG by RPG renaissance man Mark Plemmons of Brabblemark Press. His new release, I am Furious (Pink), is due for general release on June 13th. Visit the link below for more information.

Guest voices appearing in this episode were Jason Connerley of the ⁠Nerds RPG Variety Cast⁠, Ivan Podgwaite of the ⁠ivanmike1968 YouTube channel⁠, Adrienne Edwards-Daugherty, and Douglas Lusby.

NOTICE: Be sure to check out Roleplay Rescue regularly, or if you are curious what kind of conversation I might have with its host, Che Webster, about roleplaying games and RPG experiences for students, check out the Roleplay Rescue episode due on June 10th, 2023.

RELEVANT LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:

⁠Podcast – Roleplay Rescue’s Blog⁠

⁠RPG Products – Brabblemark Press ⁠

Contact me by e-mail at runescastshadows at gmail dot com

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Episode 34: On the Corporia RPG (Bonus)

Summary

Published: December 14, 2022

We take a call from Jason of the Nerd’s RPG Variety Cast on Episode 32: On Multiple GMs, and then describe the launch of a new campaign using Corporia by Brabblemark Press. This play-by-post game for friends old and new, is intended to be mainly run on Discord with some side journeys into Zoom.

Relevant Links for this Episode:

Casting Shadows Podcast Episode 32

Episode 32: On Multiple GMs (and OctOSR)

Did you know that Jason Connerley also has a blog? Check it out and let him know that you dropped by~

Nerd’s RPG Variety Cast Blog

Corporia on DriveThruRPG

Corporia Quick Start on DriveThruRPG

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Episode 33: On Play Experiences (Bonus)

Summary

Published: December 11, 2022

Using an example from the Halloween Cerebrevore episode, we briefly suggest some ideas about playing for character experience versus playing a role in a story~

Links mentioned in the episode:

Nerd’s RPG Variety Cast

⁠Cerebrevore: On Serious Horror RPG play

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Episode 32: On Multiple GMs (and OctOSR)

Summary

This episode broaches another huge topic for potential discussion, touching on a few techniques, perspectives, and organizational principles of sharing the role of GM in a group. BJ Boyd of the Arcane Alienist podcast left us a message about episode 31 (Time Travel Techniques) and the new Star Trek series. The episode finishes with an exploration of what the OSR means to me as an outsider, and where I hope its many strengths can take it. 

Links mentioned in the episode:

⁠(1) One Campaign, Multiple GMs – YouTube⁠⁠

THE GM OF MANY PARTS blogpost from February 2011 on https://castingshadowsblog.com

⁠The GM of Many Parts | Casting Shadows (castingshadowsblog.com)⁠

The GM of Many Parts

All for One: Regime Diabolique “Lights in Darkness” campaign Actual Play videos playlist

Lights in Darkness Campaign Recaps and Reflections playlist

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Episode 31: On Temporal Techniques and Devouring Minds

Summary

Spinning off from an episode of the Cerebrevore Podcast on the topic of time travel in RPGs for which I was a panel guest, this episode looks at the notion of metagaming, player skill, and messing with the presentation of time – without resorting to brute force techniques such as the railroad or the quantum ogre.

Relevant Links:

Cerebrevore Podcast – Time Travel in RPGs Parts 1 to 4

1)   Concepts of Time part 1

2)   Concepts of Time part 2

3)   Time Travel Methods in RPGs

4)   RPG Time Travel Panel

Phantom Thoughts Podcast

1)    Episode 9: Call-ins, Player Skill, Metagaming, System Mastery

2)   Episode 10: Call-ins and more on Metagaming

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