Episode 169 – running a system or setting for the first time
by Dan Repperger
* The top 10 reasons we miss having Chris on Fear the Boot.
* Chad makes a special presentation. You can find the RPG swap thread on our forum. Be sure to check out Atomic Robo! The story of Steve Jackson getting in trouble with the government can be read here.
* Running a roleplaying game system or setting for the first time,
Hosts: Chad, Dan, Pat, Wayne
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
November 11th, 2009 in
Podcasts, Regular Episodes
Ooooh, Stealth-Update!
Amazing, sometimes, my rss-feeder actually DOES feed me some rss!
To the Download-Mobile!
Good luck Chris!
Very fun episode, good job guys. I’ll comment more on the forums after a couple run-throughs.
Work blocks the forums so I’ll post there tonight, but Chad – you have the almost wrong guy.
The FBI raided Steve Jackson Games and seized GURPS Cyberpunk (written by Lloyd Blankenship), not Cyberpunk 2020 by R. Talsorian (written by Mike Pondsmith).
Lloyd was also the SysOp for the SJG BBS and actually was running illegal things in some of the restricted access areas, which is what the FBI was targeting. The fact that the FBI could not tell the difference between a game book and reality is what got them laughed at. Steve Jackson Games was nearly taken out of business by the raid as the FBI took all their computers, including the ones with the electronic print masters for all their products at the time.
As affable as Lloyd might seem now, he’s an idiot who should have gotten prison time.
CORRECTION: Read “Secret Service” where I wrote “FBI” and Loyd’s name apparently only has one “L”. Plus, where I said “all their products at the time” I meant “everything they were about to release”.
Apologies.
Loyd’s still an idiot and should have gone to jail.
I just listen to the episode today, and was going to comment about the errors about Cyberpunk, Hackers, Steve jackson Games, etc. Although I was going to add that while it was the Secret Service that raided SJG, The FBI did raid Tri-Tac Games, although that ended in laughter eventually.
I also wanted to commented on the “having the most love for Out of Print Games in the World”. My collection is about 1000 books, and I know people who’s collection dwarfs mine. My current GM has about 10,000 book/games in his collection.
I realize our comments were a bit short-handed (since we referred to the game company by Steve’s name, without specifying we meant the company and not the person), and also we said “FBI” instead of “Secret Service”. That’s why I linked the story from the show notes. If anyone wants the full story, it’s a pretty good article with some citations from other articles.
Hey folks,
Thanks for the episode. It was good. I enjoyed the section on Atomic Robo. That is a good comic.
The running a system for the first time discussion was great. I’ve run into this recently with Savage Worlds and Spirit of the Century. It is difficult to keep things straight. I agree that being thoroughly familiar with the material is key. The interruption of thumbing through the book(s) can kill a game if too long. I will use some of your suggestions the next time I run a new game. I like the show.
Go Forth and Game,
tomg