Tag Archives: Roleplaying Games

Episode 27: Putting the Pulp in our RPGs

Summary

Featuring calls from Menion aka Rob from Confessions of a Wee Tim’rous Bushi, Joe Richter of Hindsightless, and Jason of the Nerds RPG Variety Cast, we expand the conversation about pulps and pulp games to address the questions of how some example systems can affect pulp play, group size for fun and pulpiness, and PCs of unequal capabilities. I hope you will join in on the discussion as despite the length of this episode there is still more to dig into~

Links

Menion’s ⁠Confessions of a Wee Tim’rous Bushi

Joe’s ⁠Hindsightless

Jason’s ⁠Nerd’s RPG Variety Cast

Blog Articles Referenced in this Post or Relevant to it:

Imbalance Principle ⁠The Imbalance Principle | Casting Shadows (castingshadowsblog.com)⁠

The Imbalance Principle

⁠Snap, Crackle, and Pulp | Casting Shadows (castingshadowsblog.com)⁠

Snap, Crackle, and Pulp

⁠The 2-Hour Fuse: How NOT to run Pulp Adventures | Casting Shadows (castingshadowsblog.com)⁠

The 2-Hour Fuse: How NOT to run Pulp Adventures

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Episode 26: Pulps, Pulp RPGs, and Me

Summary

Inspired initially by discussions in my Saturday Alternators Book Club for RPG players, then finally and fruitfully inspired into actual production by Menion aka Rob of Confessions of a Wee Tim’rous Bushi and his callers and guests, this episode explores thoughts on pulp heroic characters and explores some of my connections with these stories in life and gaming.

What pulps were “my” pulps? Aren’t pulps problematic? Aren’t pulp characters set and unchanging (and by extension unrelatable, uninteresting, and unbelievable)? Can such characters be presented in RPG terms? What is the point of playing such characters? Sound interesting? Then please strap in: this turned out to be a long one… go figure.

PODCASTS mentioned in this episode:

Confessions of a Wee Tim’rous Bushi

LINKS:

Casting Shadows blog   

Runeslinger’s YouTube Channel

Nostalgia Ventures

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Episode 25: Alien, Encouragement, and Immersion ~ Oh My!

Summary

Please join me as I navigate three very different topics with the help of some kind callers. This episode features calls from hosts of The GMologist Presents, Hindsightless, Spikepit, and Nerd’s RPG Variety Cast podcasts. Karl, Joe, Colin, and Jason were kind enough to listen to one or more episodes of this podcast and have called in to give depth and meaning to the conversation. Links to those shows are below.

Topic One: Difference between Cinematic and Campaign Modes in Free League’s Alien RPG 

Topic Two: RPGaDay Call-ins 

Topic Three: Immersion, call-ins, and commentary 

LINKS:

Casting Shadows blog   

Runeslinger’s YouTube Channel

PODCASTS mentioned or calling in to this episode:

Spikepit  

Hindsightless  

Nerd’s RPG Variety Cast  

The GMologist Presents  

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Episode 24: Shipmans, Skorkowskys, and Nerds ~ Oh my!

Summary

Sections include notes on my guest appearance on Roundtable Roulette with host Craig Shipman and fellow guest Seth Skorkowsky, thoughts about the next ⁠RPGaDay⁠ (2022), more on our ongoing but sometimes interrupted Alien Campaign, and a special focus on the once-again recent and always interesting topic: immersion thanks to an interesting series of observations and call-ins appearing on the Nerds’ RPG Variety Cast.

Additional Links:

Alien Actual Play

Third Floor Wars

Modern Mythos

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Episode 21: Three Favored Systems – A Contest

Summary

Originally Published: February 23, 2022 at 8:27 PM

The blame for this episode rests squarely on the shoulders of Jason of the Nerd’s RPG Variety Cast. If you have not yet given him your thoughts on this matter, please do so now:

Contest Link

⁠Nerd’s RPG Variety Cast⁠ ⁠Voice Mail link to Nerd’s RPG Variety Cast⁠

Links from this Episode:

System 1   ⁠System Details⁠     ⁠Campaign Recap⁠       ⁠Actual Play Series⁠

System 2  ⁠System Details⁠      ⁠Numerous Actual Play Series⁠ (some with annotations)

System 3   ⁠Actual Play Series⁠ (with annotations)

Additional Links:

The Written Blog:  ⁠Casting Shadows⁠         

The tie-in post for this episode: ⁠Three Favored Systems? A Contest~⁠

The YouTube Channel: ⁠Runeslinger

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Episode 12: On Playing on Multiple Levels

Summary

Using Star Trek Adventures as a point of reference, this episode looks at stepping away from the skill of making judgement calls without oversight (using fiat) and toward the enjoyment which arises from the use of tools which challenge how and when you can interact with the objective truths of the campaign~

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Episode 10: On ‘Story’

Summary

What does it mean to participate in a roleplaying game? Is it ‘to play a character?’ or ‘to tell a story?’ or is it ‘to play a character in a story?’ Something else? This episode looks at that word ‘story’ and poses some questions on play, our intentions, and how our actions – intentional or not – shape the outcomes and limit what outcomes are even possible~

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Episode 7: On Facilitating Fear

Summary

Broaching the subject of roleplaying games focused on emotional reactions of self-protection, we take some broad examples such as Call of Cthulhu and FFG’s Star Wars Roleplaying to get things going. We look at two shades of this disquieting emotion: Horror and Fear. We look at how our two example games invoke it mechanically for the character, and what we as players can do to facilitate more than a hat tip to the reaction the character is experiencing. This episode covers a lot of ground, digs up a few graves, kicks in a few doors, and perhaps opens some old books that should stay closed, but all of that is being done in the spirit of sharing how we actually play~

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Episode 5: On “What is a Roleplaying Game?!”

Summary

Like the previous episodes so far, this was drawn from thoughts from the distant past, but which have not been shared widely and publicly until now. That’s right, the release date of both the article and podcast are the same – October 7th 2020 – but reaching back in time to the mid-eighties and a small town where playing an RPG was pretty much the only good thing. 

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Episode 4: On Cracking Open the Skull of Evil

Summary

This practical post of three specific tips for villains in an RPG was originally posted in response to a blog Carnival prompt on ‘How to think like a villain.’ Using examples from Actual Play which are accessible on the written blog, this post lays out simple means of getting into the heads of characters in your setting and seeing where that takes you in terms of villainy~

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