Ok, I’m just gonna out and say it, consider this a formal request for Julie the Necrolord to be a contender for the next Power 16. Instant classic, guys. This episode was fantastic!

I agree this is up there as one of the most influential fear the boot episodes in the past year. Also +1 to Oalin for Julie the Necrolord as a contentender in the next power 16.

This episode was awesome, love the way you guy actually demonstrated it on the show. I also agree, Julie the Nocrolord should totally be in the next power 16

Awww.. thanks you made me blush! :D As for the episode, I haven’t gotten to listen to it yet! I didn’t think it was going to be as good as everyone thought, so that is a plus!

Only about half an hour in but all that keeps popping into my head is “They’re describing the first session for Apocalypse World”.

Loved, loved, loved this episode.
Got me to rethink actually doing more improv gaming. Best episode so far. And add me on as a me to for voting for Julie the Necrolord to be a contender in the next Power 16!

I’m a very new GM but I don’t think I’m very good at pre-planned GMing, I don’t have the dedication, experience or the inspiration on my own to put something together that will work. That said, I found that I did best when I ran with whatever my player was doing; I’d hit a wall eventually and then I’d pause the game. Normally after an hour of gaming or so. This method might give me the ability to run it a bit longer; I think this questioning probably also helps get both parties mutually invested in the game before its even started which can only be good.

Absolutely brilliant episode, you guys clearly need to get drunk more often.

Excellent episode!
As a player who is dancing around with the idea of being a GM, this gives me a lot of inspiration.
I wanted to know when Julia the Necrolord was living among the villagers, what or who did they know her to be in the town? Was she posing as an apothecary, the town undertaker perhaps, or just a reclusive villager who kept to herself except to buy goods from the merchants?

Allow me to pile on. Wow… I discovered you guys around episode 100 and the bar is already set very high – but this one has to be one of your best results ever. It was both inspiring and educational. I congratulate everyone involved, thank you.

nice episode, very nice to read can’t even wait for next ep!! gonna be epic

This comes down to different play styles: character-driven or world-driven.

Character-driven games revolve around creating and interesting plot or story for them. A world-driven game revolves around an internally consistent milieu that doesn’t directly cater or react to the decisions of the players.

You can call the difference a plot game or a sandbox game. D&D was originally meant to be run as a sandbox style game, but most modern games today build RPGs around character plots and/or scenarios. “Campaign” today has a far different meaning than it did in the 1e DMG that Gygax laid out. Today it implys “plot”, but it used to imply a “setting”.

A couple links proving my point:
http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2008/10/changing-meaning-of-campaign.html
http://jrients.blogspot.com/2007/08/what-is-campaign.html

Plot-driven games strike at the heart of what RP is all about. If your campaign is simply set on a railroad, carrying your player characters to the destination of what makes them have the most “fun”, then you’re really just running a movie, book or play around a table with dice. If that’s your idea of fun, good for you.

I believe, however, that a true RPG campaign plays an even hand to all of its inhabitants, not just the player characters. That goblin has just as much right to live and succeed as your character. Just because your character is played by a human being from Earth, doesn’t make him more important or “real” than the so-called “NPCs” of the campaign world. If you disagree with that, then your characters are simply marionettes, being pulled along and manipulated by some imaginary super force to create a “drama”.

Love the show and have listened for a while now.

This is the style of game I try to run and already do the things you have discussed in this epidsoe but the issue I really need answered is “how then do you run the game?” Having an underlying theme in a sandbox world is one thing but how do you translate that session by session at the game table? Does this only work for non-combat heavy rules? My group play a map-&-miniatures heavy RPG (no prizes) and if they start combat early on in the session its very, very VERY hard to make a balanced and interesting encounter on the fly. If it happens later I just call time and get it ready for next session but that’s not really improv now, is it…