* (3:25) A big thanks to Wizards of the Coast columnist, Tracy Hurley, for mentioning us in an article on Gamer Resolutions!

* (4:56) At Fear the Con V, Chris Ings will be running a Bloodname tournament for the surname, Badass.

* (8:22) Announcing the contestants for the Power 16 III!  Voting will start in a few weeks.

* (14:05) Introducing an online game the hosts will be playing using Pathfinder rules and the Forgotten Realms setting.  We’ll be using this to help us understand each other’s game styles and (more importantly) try to apply our own ideas to build and maintain a game.  Whether this succeeds or fails, we hope it will serve as a great object lesson.

* (18:26) To start things off, Johann asks some questions about the intended level curve of the game, which leads Dan to ask why that’s important to his character.

* (34:28) Bringing together the cultures of different gaming groups and merging them into a new, mutually enjoyable culture.

* (37:10) An invitation to the audience to not only observe but also participate in our little experiment.

* (38:46) Lacking the time to develop our next topic, we spin down the episode.  However, we kept recording, so Chad’s question gets a thorough exploration in the episode coming next week!

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (1:36) Wayne will be posting his first game for Fear the Con V this Friday.  If you’re interested in passing out flyers or hanging them up in your local game store, you can download them here.

* (6:21) Our Old Republic guild, House Nachash, is still going strong.  You can find details on our forum.

* (7:33) Poop sock?

* (10:11) Pat and his peach cider.

* (12:28) Resuming an RPG campaign after a long break.  Using the break as an opportunity for taking stock of what’s working, revising where needed.  Easing back in.  Keeping the game alive through outside conversation, or at least keeping the group in contact through a filler game.  The pitfalls when coming back, including social distractions and forgetting what was going on.

* (36:09) How to get the most out of different GMing styles.  Appreciating the distinctions and adapting your play-style to get the most from your Game Master.  Evaluating your GM style.  How to get the most honest feedback from your players.

Hosts: Chris, John, Karla, Pat, Wayne

* (1:17) Introducing our new game, Naughty or Nice to Chris.  We setup the background topic, explain the rules, and have an tangent on “sentient” versus “sapient”.

* (7:42) Chris restarts the episode.  I’m not sure why, but he’s in control.

* (9:12) We discuss player contribution to the game.  To what extent should players be allowed to add things to the game — even if they seem out of place — for the sake of their own enjoyment?  We start by jumping back to the contributions that break immersion for each of us.  The show goes completely off the ranch from there, and I don’t think we ever answered the original question.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Johann, Pat, Wayne

* (4:44) Handling the logistics of a PC death.  We don’t debate whether characters ought to die but instead how to keep that person involved, manage the mood around the table, and minimize story disruption.

* (22:14) Taking advantage of the unexpected moments of great story and RP that happen during a game, without trying to squeeze them for too much.

* (28:45) Chad and modules.  Nature takes its course.

* (39:30) Managing player morale during the ebb and flow of a game.

* (45:34) The greatest game you’ve never played: Hot Lead!

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Johann, Pat, Wayne

Once we get coherent (16:33), the topic is things we’ve not been able to do yet in our gaming career but really want to someday.

Hosts: Beth, Chad, Dan, John, Pat

FAIR WARNING: This episodes is quite a bit more crass and directionless than our normal episodes.

* (3:52) Dan offers Chris some unsolicited PR advice.

* (5:10) Following a suggestion from forum user, Concise Locket, we discuss going outside of the game-provided mechanics to resolve actions within a game.  How other metaphors can enhance or distract from the game, and some tips for making them blend.

* (21:57) Giving life and meaning to social events — such as parties or banquets — in an RPG.  Revealing scene, making memorable NPCs, and progressing plot through the event.  The difference between social events triggered by player action versus GM decree.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, John, Pat, Wayne

(Wayne’s future sorcerer: STR 16, DEX 10, CON 13, INT 11, WIS 13, CHA 15)

* (1:10) Fear the Con 5 registration is still up and running quite nicely.

* (1:32) An invitation to our Old Republic guild.

* (2:18) Method 0.5 character creation meets John’s bard.

* (4:02) Pat goes for Husband of the Year with his (properly placed) priorities regarding Star Wars: The Old Republic.  Also featuring the car story and fish story!

* (15:37) Gaming with significant others.  How bringing that special someone into a game can greatly benefit or drag down the experience.  We also present some strategies for getting the most out of it while preparing for potential pitfalls.  This leads into the romance and drama of Battletech.

Hosts: Beth, Dan, John, Karla

(John’s future bard: STR 11, DEX 10, CON 15, INT 13, WIS 10, CHA 9)

* (3:34) jim must defend his name, Y, and W.

* (6:05) Pat goes for Father of the Year by taking a break from World of Warcraft to devastate his kid in a family game.

* (9:43) Giving games the right degree of substance and meaning, without making them overly poignant.

* (18:42) The role of the GM, specifically as it’s been taught (albeit unintentionally) by the legacy of D&D.  First-person versus third-person roleplayers.  On a side note, this episode was recorded when Penny Arcade’s series, The Conflux, was only a few strips in.

* (29:53) The “second Renaissance” of roleplaying games.  Also the relationship and perception driven model preferred by many newer games.

* (41:34) The seven types of gamers.

* (51:32) The important synergy between designers and marketers that’s often missing from game development.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

Guests: jim pinto

* (1:39) Chad and Pat’s horrifying idea for episode 300.

* (7:04) Yet  again, a “minor” topic unexpectedly dominates the show!  Wayne’s opportunity to defend his bard against the insults made in last episode turns into…

* (13:57) …a discussion on knowledge skills that reveal hidden or plot-important information.  We kick around whether to include them at all, how to let them be useful without breaking the game, and the open communication the GM and player ought to have during character creation.

* (38:43) The happy accidents of gaming, when unexpected actions of the player or rolls of the dice make the game better than the GM planned.  How to create room for such events and capitalize on them when they occur.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (3:12) Chris is writing Skies of Glass serial fiction.

* (4:37) We give Pat a chance to prep for Beth coming onto Fear the Boot.

* (6:23) John gives an update on Bloodmoon Goblins.  This leads to a discussion about collaborating with other people during system or setting design, and how that can apply even to Game Masters running a well-established game.

* (13:47) Handling shopping in an RPG.  Various approaches to handling it without interrupting the flow of the game.  How to handle shopkeeper inventory, character inventory, and item availability.  Information on the Booter calls Chad mentioned can be found here.

* (45:52) Why Chad feels his character won’t work in the absurd game we’re contemplating.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, John, Pat

* (1:27) Fear the Boot is co-sponsoring a cruise through Gamer Adventures on March 24 through April 1, 2012, and we hope you’ll join us.

* (2:51) How to approach bridge games, meaning the games that fall between major plot points or heavy action, in which character advancement, bookkeeping, or roleplaying dominate the session.  Some approaches for tuning them to your group’s taste and recognizing the opportunities they present.

* (18:43) Handling large scale games.  Determining what’s important to deal with in detail versus abstracting out, how to keep track of resources, divvy up paperwork, and make major NPCs memorable.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, John, Wayne

* (0:59) An extremely deep, philosophical, scholarly debate over the hottest chick on Star Trek.

* (13:07) Using Wheel of Time and Lord of the Rings as a jumping off point for a discussion on “upward” versus “downward” fantasy and which trope more accurately describes the average fantasy campaign.  Side topics include high and low fantasy, the role of equipment, and the absurdity of most settings’ economies.

* (26:12) A reflection on the ridiculousness of ‘Mechs as viable combat machines juxtaposed against how just plain awesome they are to use in a game.

* (30:32) Dealing with “caster supremacy”.  Specifically, the idea that certain types of casters are significantly more powerful than non-casting classes in D&D 3.0, D&D 3.5, and Pathfinder.  Suggestions for keeping them in balance through gentleman’s rules, power reductions to casters, or power increases to non-casters.

* (59:36) The website for Fear the Con 5 is up and ready for you to create and join games!  If you’re looking to split a ride or room, be sure to check the thread on our forums where people are working out those arrangements.

Hosts: Johann, John, Pat, Wayne

* (2:09) The website for Fear the Con 5 is up and ready for you to start creating and joining games!  If you’re looking to split a ride or room, be sure to check the thread on our forums where people are working out those arrangements.

* (7:44) Zingers.  What more can be said?  They also talk about Halloween candy, costumes, and trick-or-treating.

* (23:04) Advice for GMs that need to run rude, hateful, or bigoted NPCs.  How to keep such characters believable without crossing any lines your group can’t stomach.

* (38:47) Adding detail to the smaller parts of the game which often get ignored as the group focuses on the big picture.  In case you’re not familiar with it, here’s an explanation of Chekhov’s Gun.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, John, Pat

* (0:24) Introducing guest host, Willie.

* (0:49) Introducing Erik Mona.

* (1:34) The size, state, and explosive growth of the Pathfinder game and Pathfinder Society.

* (3:23) Erik’s more thorough introduction, including his resume in the gaming industry.

* (6:35) We ask Erik to explain exactly what the job title of “publisher” means and what specific roles he fills at Paizo.

* (9:10) How past experience with the RPGA and Living campaigns affected the formulation of the Pathfinder Society.

* (22:14) An after-school D&D club in 1983, how Erik’s parents fought to get him in, and how it affected the trajectory of his life.

* (30:44) Erik’s take on Pathfinder being called “D&D 3.75″.  We also talk about the possibility of a sequel edition.

* (36:09) The upcoming Pathfinder Beginner Box.  You can find details and see the unboxing video on their site.  We also talk about the market viability of box set products in general.

* (50:13) The history, purpose, and future intentions for the Paizo online store.

* (56:58) Future projects coming up at Paizo, including the Pathfinder Battles miniatures.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Johann, Wayne, Willie

Guests: Erik Mona

* (0:30) Welcoming Adam from Kicked in the Dicebags.

* (1:40) The March of Dimes charity auction — with prizes sponsored by Gnome Stew — is still in progress.  Be sure to get in your bids!

* (2:03) Show transcripts are still being made for our episodes.  Links will be given a few days after each episode releases.

* (2:21) The site for Fear the Con 5 is live!  Get signed up and join us in St. Louis in May of 2012!

* (5:28) Custom fangs have become too cheap for Wayne’s taste.

* (7:09) The loss of a dropship in our Battletech game serves as the catalyst for a discussion on defeat in a roleplaying game.  We talk about its capacity for adding drama, realism, and emotion to the game, while conversely being able to discourage or drain the players.

* (20:00) Wayne commenting on some old gaming notes leads into Dan describing the collection of documents he typically uses when running a game.  With our usual disclaimer for potentially offensive content, here is a link to the pimp’s prayer.

* (26:20) Getting a brand new player up to speed on the hobby of roleplaying, their first setting, and a system — without overwhelming them in the process.

* (52:16) The video game giveaway will be ending on October 23rd with the winners drawn on October 24th, so this is your last chance to get entered.

Hosts: Adam, Chad, Dan, John, Pat, Wayne

* (0:35) Wayne tries to hijack the show to talk about Superman.  You know what that means: we talk about Batman instead!  The blog post on the hosting arrangement can be found here.

* (3:07) Alex (aka Lizard Farmer) is creating transcripts of the show.  Check the show notes a few days after each episode releases for a link to the transcript.  An explanation of his idea can be found on our forums.

* (5:39) Our next March of Dimes charity auction has kicked off!  Prizes for this auction are being provided by the Gnome Stew website.  As with the previous auctions, 100% of the funds raised will go to the March of Dimes.

* (8:06) Introducing Joe Wetzel and Keith Curtis!  Joe has been developing Hexographer, Dungeonographer, and DungeonMorph Dice.  Keith’s work can be found on his portfolio site or Bloodmoon Goblins.

* (12:02) The importance of maps for creating scale, consistency, fairness, and depth.

* (26:34) How to build and fill in a map when you’re starting with nothing.  The title Joe mentions is Dawn of Worlds.

* (35:10) Filling in the details when you have a map with major locations already set but nothing in mind to occupy the gaps between.

* (40:06) A quick survey of climatology and how different climate zones form on a planet.  The factors that figure into such estimations and just how important they ought to be when designing your game world.

* (52:48) Understanding scale when designing an area, particularly when you’re contemplating volume as opposed to surface area.

* (57:20) The projects Joe and Keith are working on right now.  Joe’s work — including things not already linked in the show notes — can generally be found on Inkwell Ideas.

* (1:03:27) The video game giveaway is still on, so be sure to get entered if you haven’t already!

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Karla, Wayne

Guests: Joe Wetzel, Keith Curtis

* (0:37) Introducing Ken Hite.

* (1:39) Contrary to what I said in the episode, This Just In…From Gen Con! is still editing the show I guested on.  I’ll post a link here as soon as it’s ready to go.

* (1:54) Our video game giveaway is still in progress.  Be sure to get entered!

* (2:21) Wayne presents Dan with a gift from Brian.  A big “Thank you!” from Dan for taking the time to send us the note and chainmail dicebag!

* (3:42) We kick off the interview by asking Ken about his rather unusual education and how it affects his work in the game industry.

* (6:51) Ken gives us his observations on the state of RPGs.  He also answers some questions about the rise of story-driven games.

* (15:19) A question about how Ken got started in GURPS leads to a discussion of professionalism (or more accurately, the lack thereof) in the RPG industry.

* (23:05) Ken begins settling long-running FtB marital disputes.  Chris kicks this one off with the GM screen, and then Dan asks about social mechanics.  Fortunately, Chris gives this some genuine purpose by questioning whether the way a person runs games affects how they write them.

* (30:54) Dan asks Ken for some tips on running horror games.

* (41:43) Following the suggestion of Ryan Dancey, we begin The Ken Hite Three Word Game!

* (48:49) Ken’s past, current, and upcoming work, including Night’s Black Agents and Star Trek.

Hosts: Chris, Dan, John, Pat, Wayne

Guest: Kenneth Hite

* (0:30) Happy birthday to Chris!

* (1:38) John announces the closing of Bloodmoon Goblins’ fundraiser and explains where things are headed next.

* (2:21) Quick updates on GAME convention and Fear the Con 5.

* (2:39) FlatCon is coming up on October 21-23, 2011 in Bloomington, IL.  All proceeds from the convention are donated to the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life.

* (3:15) Fear the Boot is giving away some free games, thanks to Tex!  If you’d like to enter for any of the titles mentioned, you can do so here.

* (7:31) The process of picking a system and setting when your group is starting a new campaign.  How to balance everyone’s interests.  Whether the GM should be able to make a take-it-or-leave-it pitch.

* (31:14) Collaboration in an established setting.  How to get the players involved and help them feel like they own a part of the game world without contradicting what’s in the books.

* (38:08) Revisiting the group template with some new and changed perspectives.  Explaining what it is, why it’s important, and how to build one.

Hosts: Dan, John, Pat, Wayne

* (0:00) A bonus episode disclaimer, followed by an explanation of why they don’t really work.

* (2:23) Explaining the so-called crimson (or scarlet) pumpkin.  You can find one here, in case you live near Chris.

* (4:47) Exhibit A: Chris’ first time out drinking.

* (12:09) Exhibit B: Chris and the character scars.

* (18:32) Exhibit C: Master Threeballs and the jocks’ junk.

Hosts: Chris, Dan, John, Pat, Wayne

* (2:05) Fear the Boot still plans on attending the GAME Convention in Springfield, Missouri, October 7 – 9, 2011.

* (2:42) If you’re interested in playing the Old Republic MMO, Fear the Boot has a guild already forming on the official game site.  You can see details and sign up to run with us here!

* (5:00) Why every roleplaying game should come with a pronunciation guide for all of its proper nouns.

* (10:42) Getting people in your gaming group to step up and take leadership roles in the party, particularly when they’re not naturally dominating.  The distinction between explicit and implicit leaders and how to work with both.

* (24:49) Chris reflects on his rant from the last episode and goes on to tell us a story about his childhood.

* (26:47) Rewarding players for doing extra prep or post-game work.

* (37:06) Helping someone create a character for a setting they’ve never played in.

Hosts: Chris, Dan, John, Pat, Wayne

* (3:22) Pat has a gift for Wayne’s birthday.  This leads to a conversation about comic collections, older comic storylines, and related tangents.

* (7:41) John’s Bloodmoon Goblins Kickstarter is still going strong and accepting donations, pre-orders, and other reward purchases!

* (8:35) With Wayne’s story concluded, Chris has launched a new series of serial fiction on the Skies of Glass website.

* (10:28) Revisiting invasion stories to pick up some discussion threads we either missed or didn’t explore sufficiently in the prior show.  We start off with invaders that lack depth because they’re more like a force of nature than a hostile culture.

* (14:34) When the invasion is a backdrop as opposed to the central plot.  The relationship between setting and story, and the inevitable bleed between the two.

* (17:09) Playing as the invader instead of the invaded.  Determining whether the characters agree with the invasion or oppose it, and keeping the game going either way.

* (33:27) Narrating the invasion event.  Working out the pacing in a way that makes sense for your campaign.  Educating your players about the two sides, particularly when the game is not based on a well-known setting or historical event.

Hosts: Chris, Dan, Johann, Pat, Wayne

* (1:55) Introducing (or reintroducing) Ryan Dancey.

* (7:16) Ryan has been writing a series of columns for EN World.  The links are provided at the end of the show notes.

* (7:44) Some information on the MMO he’s currently helping develop, including an explanation of what he means by a “sandbox game”, when used in the context of online play.

* (14:57) Chris harkens back to a promo item he received at the D&D Third Edition release party.  This leads into some questions about the overwhelming success of the OGL, even in the face of newer editions of D&D.

* (24:50) Revisiting Ryan’s previous list of predictions.  We also get a list of new predictions.

* (31:14) Some theories about the shifting demographics of gamers and their interests, using Gen Con 2011 as an anecdotal jumping-off point.

* (49:21) The lack of a WotC announcement at Gen Con raises some questions and also serves as a reminder of just how small the industry is.

Hosts: Chris, Dan, John, Pat

Guest: Ryan Dancey

http://www.enworld.org/forum/columns/299860-4-hours-w-rsd-who-am-i.html
http://www.enworld.org/forum/columns/301385-4-hours-w-rsd-who-sitting-your-table.html
http://www.enworld.org/forum/columns/302913-4-hours-w-rsd-realtime.html
http://www.enworld.org/forum/columns/304716-4-hours-w-rsd-take-note.html
http://www.enworld.org/forum/columns/306026-4-hours-w-rsd-lets-have-flamewar.html
http://www.enworld.org/forum/columns/308179-4-hours-w-rsd-get-some-feedback.html

* (7:28) If you’re playing Champions Online, consider joining the Fear the Boot guild, Awkward Confessors.  You can find out more on the forums.  My essay on MMOs can be found here.

* (11:17) Dan delivers a rant entitled, “Dammit, put that game down!”

* (16:57) Be sure to visit John’s Bloodmoon Goblins site, watch the promo video, and consider making a donation toward the effort.

* (17:51) Running a game where invasion is the primary plot line or setting feature.  Creating stories that are believable, yet still offer compelling opportunities for player success.  Starting the invasion, defining the invaders, and setting goals for the protagonists.  Drawing from real world history for inspiration.  Handling the pacing issues that can be caused by a resistance that builds momentum over a long period of time.

Hosts: Chris, Dan, Karla, Wayne

* (0:47) Why we’re doing a bonus episode, and Pat’s favorite (non-existent) Care Bears.

* (1:34) Introducing Bloodmoon Goblins, a Pathfinder supplement John is creating.  He needs our help funding it, so you can find the donation site, promo video, and reward options on his Kickstarter site!

* (7:58) Pat and Dan trade gifts (though Dan’s ends up with John).  This leads into a variety of stories that were probably best left untold.

* (19:10) Pat learns about the origin and history of the Bellamy salute.

* (22:08) The host division over the upcoming Rise of the Planet of the Apes movie.  (“Upcoming” when this was recorded, now in theaters.)

* (33:16) Conjecture about our weekly D&D campaign, whether it’s about to die, and (if that happens) what opportunities that presents for the show.

* (35:57) Two upcoming charity auctions.

Hosts: Dan, John, Pat, Wayne

* (4:48) Integrating a comedic character in a serious campaign, without that character disrupting the flow and feel of the game.  The actual play Wayne’s involved in is Knights of Reignsborough.

* (17:59) Kyle sends in a question related to the series we did on dungeon design (here’s part 1 and part 2, for those of you that missed them), asking how to take a dungeon you’ve already designed and bring it to life.  How do you make the place feel exciting and interesting as you describe the trek through countless rooms and corridors?

* (58:29) Be sure to keep up with This Just In…From Gen Con! for convention coverage and at least one episode that will feature Fear the Boot.

Hosts: Dan, Johann, Mikey, Pat, Wayne

* (3:03) Do geeks have an unusual habit of raging against the things they love the most, simply out of perfectionist zeal?

* (14:11) Being involved in multiple campaigns at once.  How to keep your characters and plots separate.  How similarities between the two campaigns can both help and hurt.

* (40:52) Some updates on Fear the Con 5.  It will occur in early May instead of March.  We’ll be moving to more conveniently located facilities.  And we’re also happy to welcome Danger Brewery as our new beer providers!

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (11:43) The guests pay more attention to the outline than the regular hosts do.

* (12:53) Art, layout, and page design.  How they help sell your product.  Some legal considerations you need to work out with an artist so it’s clear who owns what.  The best ways to compensate your artists, particularly when you’re on a tight budget.

* (24:45) Funding the project.  Using your own money, the patronage model, or websites such as Kickstarter.  How to get other people involved in supporting your work and rewarding them for their investment.  Building a budget for your product.

* (35:22) Marketing your game.  How to build it into the product right from the get-go.  Building and utilizing a fan base to help evangelize.  Keeping people excited and rewarding them for their effort.

* (53:34) Options for getting published, whether electronically or in print.

* (57:36) A final thanks to Ed and Derek.  You can hear more of Ed on Atomic Array or War Pig Radio.  You can hear more of Derek on his podcast, The Established Facts (referred to as Casting Robot during the show).  And be sure to take a look at the Palegain setting and consider helping out his Kickstarter project!

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Derek, Ed, Pat, Wayne

* (2:52) Chris gives a shoutout to his nephew who’s landed the leading role in Highlander: The Musical.  If you’re interested in learning more, you can check out their website.  The reason Split Second needs a musical (some NSFW language).

* (9:26) With Gen Con coming up soon, don’t forget to subscribe to This Just In…From Gen Con! for some great media coverage.  And if you’ll be in attendance, be sure to get signed up for the TOFTBCH network and join us throughout the con for meals and pick-up games.

* (10:15) The writing process.  Translating your ideas and notes into a usable, well-organized document that’s fit for publication.  Finding good editors — including those that have experience in the RPG industry — and building a community of people that can help you.

* (28:00) The importance of playtesting to shake out the problems in your game.  Also, the importance of getting playtesters outside of your usual circle of friends, and ways to find strangers that will test the game.

* (34:11) Getting proper licensing to use established systems or settings.

* (38:33) Additional legal concerns, including forming a company, figuring out your taxes, and protecting your work by copyright.  The government website I recommended can be found here.

* (49:48) Some final words of warning and encouragement before we close out part 1 of this series.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Derek, Ed, Pat, Wayne

* (1:06) Fear the Boot will be sponsoring This Just In…From Gen Con! during the 2011 convention.  Be sure to catch that show for some excellent convention coverage.

* (1:30) The Con Planner site is now ready to go for our activities at Gen Con.  Be sure to sign up if you want to be kept in the loop on the games and social activities we’ll be doing during the con.  All you need to do is visit this link, go to the Ticketing area to create an attendee, and make sure your profile includes a cell phone number for texting purposes.  If you have any questions, write to the email address listed on the site.

* (2:00) Fear the Boot is now a proud member of the Stitcher audio network.  Be sure to stop by their site, see if their app is something that interests you, and give us a positive review so others can find us!

* (3:52) Some background on Michael and the tabletop gaming scene in Japan.

* (6:36) The double-edged sword of D&D as the most recognizable title in our hobby.  Many of us play it and enjoy it, but it can also conjure up negative stereotypes among non-gamers, leading us to distance ourselves from the game.

* (22:03) Collaborative design of a roleplaying game’s antagonists.  Letting the players work together to build the villains, trading off some level of control for added buy-in.  How to keep the plot exciting despite the meta-game, player knowledge of the group’s enemies.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Michael, Pat, Wayne

* (5:27) Fear the Boot will be at Gen Con 2011 with more events organized through our illustrious TOFTBCH network.  Expect details to follow in the next episode!  We’re also sponsoring This Just In…From Gen Con! which will be providing onsite coverage throughout the con.

* (9:07) Dan versus restaurant birthday celebrations.

* (20:07) Taking over a roleplaying game when the original Game Master steps down or leaves the group.  Some techniques for making the transition work, and the adjusted expectations players need to have when someone else is running a pre-existing game.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (3:00) The upcoming reset and renumbering of DC comics.  Why we individually think it’s a good idea, bad idea, or mixed bag.

* (14:10) Rewarding the player characters in your RPG. We start by exploring the various ways of rewarding them such as roleplaying opportunities, personal goals, micro perks, gear, and stat advancement.

* (32:46) An intermission where we ponder why GMs don’t get rewards.

* (39:56) The best practices for handing out PC rewards, keeping them fair, and keeping them from later coming back to bite you in the butt.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (2:49) Dan’s first awkward confession, plus Unicron, Arcee, and a seven-inch Voltron.

* (6:51) Pat rages against 3D movies, and the rest of us pretty much agree.

* (12:51) After a brilliant segue, Pat gives his take on the movie incarnations of Mystique.

* (16:47) Gaming as your family expands.  Not gaming with children (as we discussed in episode 207), but rather gaming when children or spouses are around, require regular attention, and so forth.  We look at how we’ve managed to make gaming work as our lives mature by tweaking our expectations and game execution.

Hosts: Dan, Karla, Pat, Wayne

* (5:24) The start of the next March of Dimes charity auction.  You have 10 days to bid on a complete Dresden Files set with a GM book, several player books, and plenty of Fudge dice.  The books will all be signed by Fred Hicks, Rob Donoghue, and the Fear the Boot hosts.  If you wish to make a donation apart from the auction, you can do so here.

* (8:08) Themes we’d like to see more often — or never again — in roleplaying games.  Topics discussed include romance, evil, mercenaries, redemption, addiction, friendship, moral complexity, tragic endings, ambiguous endings, discovery, world context, and the single-dimension quest.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (5:10) Free RPG Day is coming up on June 18th.  Chris offers a bring-a-friend idea to help use this day to get new people into the hobby instead of just spreading products around people that already play RPGs.

* (11:26) A stage play within a game got us thinking a little more about narrative combat.

* (25:46) Willingly declaring failure during the course of narration, whether as the GM or a player.  The concern about negatively impacting the rest of the party.

* (33:37) A quick look at organized play.  What you can expect to get from it, and some tips on getting started.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (1:35) Using narration instead of rules to resolve combat.  Being fair without dice to serve as an arbiter.  How to make it work without the players feeling cheated by the outcome.

* (39:01) Dealing with players that have the unusual, singular obsession of seeing their characters destroyed.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (4:18) Kicking off the March of Dimes charity auction with a chance to set the topic, request an interview, and guest on an episode of Fear the Boot.  You can find the auction here!  If you’d like to make a direct donation instead of participating in the auction, you can do so here.

* (5:55) The next Gamer Adventure cruise is coming up on March 24, 2012.  We’d love to have some of you join us!  You can find more information here.  And if you think you can’t afford this trip, please contact Kim and see if she can use her travel agent prowess to help you out.

* (8:29) Chad takes us back to the D&D hotline.

* (10:04) Why won’t our campaign roll over and die like every other campaign we play?  Using our current game as a case study on why campaigns tend to fall apart and the various factors that can keep them together.

* (32:31) We pick up our conversation on lying again.  This time we focus on player-to-player lying, including whether social skills should be usable on fellow players.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Johann, Pat, Wayne

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Mikey, Pat, Wayne

* (5:50) When a game, movie, novel, or TV show is taking a long time to get good, how long do you stick with it before giving up?

* (22:24) Deception at the gaming table.  We setup the topic, offer three categories of lying we’ll cover, and put a few boundaries on the discussion.

* (23:56) Game Masters lying to their players.  The complication caused by the many roles the Game Master fills.  The responsibility players have to not ask certain questions to avoid spoiling their own game experience.  The relationship between social deception done via roleplaying versus die mechanics.

* (45:50) The player lying to the Game Master as the Game Master, as opposed to a PC lying to an NPC simply played by the Game Master.

* (50:09) Last call for the charity auction!  Post your ideas on the blog or forum thread.

* (50:16) Also, a last call for Mikey Mason’s kickstarter project.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Johann, Pat, Wayne

* (0:57) Welcoming Chris Kluwe of the Minnesota Vikings.  Discussion about his history with Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and MMOs.  You can find his own band, Tripping Icarus, on their Facebook page.

* (13:34) Chris’ experience with roleplaying games.  Power-gaming and over-planning characters.  How tabletop gaming is affected by his career in professional sports.

* (20:10) Gamer shame and bullying (or the lack thereof) while being a successful athlete through high school, college, and professional athletics.

* (29:07) Wayne asks whether Chris has leveraged his position to meet famous people.  The possibility of a future career in the tabletop or video gaming industries, and also discussion of a combination board and card game he’s working on.

* (32:23) How Chris got into wargaming.  His experiences with Warhammer and Warmachine, including how he did in his first tournament.  Discussion about what makes a game store successful and the sort of shop he’d like to help open someday.

* (42:44) How often a punter appears in front of the media.  Chris’ checkered history with Twitter.  And if you’re interested in seeing his Twitter account, you can find it here.

* (49:38) Chris’ current game picks.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Pat, Wayne

Guest: Chris Kluwe

* (1:23) Mikey Mason needs your help to get his geek comedy album finished.  You can make a donation and collect a bounty of prizes from his Kickstarter site.  Just be sure to do so before May 5th!

* (4:13) Wayne’s impulse to create characters predictably transforms into him writing plots that may never even be run.

* (6:59) The Play Generated Map and Document Archive which allows Game Masters to share their maps, notes, and other game documents.  The mix of inspiration and reassurance the site provides.  And, of course, George the dolphin.

* (20:09) What Game Masters do with their old campaign notes.

* (31:05) Moving from a non-gamer to a gamer.  How to get a group to incorporate you into their game or consider your game ideas.  The forum thread by Kali can be found here.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (1:19) A coupon code good for 15% off any Arc Dream product purchased through their online store.  This code is good until May 1st.  Simply enter “feartheboot” (without any quotes) to get your discount!

* (3:08) Wayne encounters the irresistible urge to create characters.

* (20:07) Chad admits he was wrong and Wayne makes a sensible confession.  May wonders never cease.

* (25:18) Homebrewing games.  Not how to design your own games, but what motivates people to do it in an age when so many games are readily available.  The various approaches to homebrewing and the strengths and weaknesses of each.  When to homebrew versus heavily modifying an existing game.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (2:41) Some love for the many podcasts that came out to support Fear the Con through promotion, attendance, and on-site coverage!  Be sure to check their feeds for actual play recordings and other goodies.

Dice + Food + Lodging
Gaming Asylum
Ideology of Madness
Kicked in the Dicebags
Postcards from the Dungeon
Role Playing Public Radio
The Big Hairy Podcast
Thistledown Actual Play

* (4:33) The number of first time con-goers and first time gamers we met at Fear the Con 4.

* (6:32) The rediscovery of a long-lost fixture of the recording studio.  Pat promptly takes them from Chad to show him how it’s done.

* (7:28) Chad wrote and released rules for a game inspired by the movie, Inception, and the RPG, Dread.  You can find the rules on our blog. We talk about how the game plays and how it incorporates leading questionnaires in character creation.  Those same questionnaires are also used to build the game’s plot.

* (16:06) Using leading questionnaires in a role playing game.  How they can help build characters or steer the game in directions the GM would like it to go.  Why such exercises are easier for some players than others, simply based on whether they plan or “feel out” their characters.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (0:30) The St. Charles Fantasy Shop will be having a game day on April 9th from 12:00pm – 11:00pm.  You can find more details on the event calendar of their website.

* (1:41) Welcoming Shane Ivey of Arc Dream Publishing, the source of games such as Wild Talents, Delta Green, Godlike, and Monsters and Other Childish Things.

* (4:08) The difficulty of selling games where the play experience is difficult to describe in a cover blurb or elevator pitch.  Techniques for getting those titles out there, and the opportunities created by that struggle.

* (16:30) The relationship among independent publishers, specifically whether it’s more helpful or competitive.

* (19:09) The effectiveness of using samples, teasers, and other freebies to market a game.  The problems Free RPG Day present for a small publisher.

* (23:47) The innovative Bits and Mortar initiative which helps local gaming stores give you electronic copies of games along with the physical book, thus using digital publishing to help their sales instead of being competition.  The site also has a store locator to help you find participating shops.

* (31:41) Shane’s own tastes in gaming outside of Arc Dream titles.  We talk about historical gaming and some alternate methods of scene resolution.

* (44:14) How the games Shane plays impact the games he writes.

* (52:08) The new products Arc Dream currently has in development or has recently released.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

Guest: Shane Ivey

* (2:28) Welcoming the podcasts that joined us for the live recording: Kicked in the Dicebags, Role Playing Public Radio, Postcards from the Dungeon, Gaming Asylum, and Good Beer Show.

* (3:58) Introducing Bob Arens, our expert on artificial intelligence.  An AI he created was responsible for writing or helping write games for at least three people.  Bob explains the basics of how the AI works and how it helps in scene design.

* (11:23) Open discussion with the attendees about the morality and usefulness of artificial intelligence, where the technology is right now, where it’s headed in the future, and what it can (or can’t) contribute to the creative arts.  We also discuss how one defines true personhood.

* (41:27) Arlie and Tricia — with the help of many other attendees — present Dan with a map of Fear the Con 4.

* (47:41) We close out with a few more comments on artificial intelligence, focusing on their lack of a shared human experience.  A few remarks are made about Fear the Boot itself, and finally we find out what the AI itself has to say about becoming our overlord.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, John, Pat, Wayne, and a whole lot of booters

NOTE: There were other podcasts on premises, some of which were recording episodes at the same time as ours.  Once I have all of that info in, I’ll be giving links to their FtC4 related coverage, actual play recordings, etc, for your entertainment.  Expect that with episode 227.

* (3:28) Chad clarifies his views on character death.  This was recorded before the previous episode dropped, so this clarification is only in light of what he said on the show, not any discussion that occurred thereafter.

* (9:11) We discuss the pros and cons of non-linear games — specifically games that don’t follow a simple, chronological progression.  Instead such games might skip around in time, going backward and forward at varying speeds, or cover different epochs within the same continuity.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (8:48) A listener email announces the birth of a daughter, conceived and born to our show, and we just go further off the ranch from there.

* (14:10) Character death.  We try to bring together our past views, current views, and comments made by forum users as we explore the subject.  We debate when it’s right, whether it’s needed at all, and what a game might suffer if it’s missing.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, John, Pat

* (3:06) A minor change to the forum rules.  Starting soon, any account that has never made a single post and also not logged in within the past 60 days will be pruned.  If you do at least one of those two things, your account won’t be touched.

* (4:10) Wayne expresses his displeasure regarding the absurdities surrounding the Fantastic Four death.  We also take a quick poll on which character we would have killed.

* (10:30) We ask Wayne why he thinks the comic book industry is in decline.  We also inquire about what’s good right now and what’s on his pull list.  The new Wonder Woman actress.  And finally, the move by some comic companies to make their catalog available electronically.

* (17:24) The pure genius of Time Cube.  And apparently it has an RPG or two to go with it now.

* (20:23) Mary Sue characters.  We start with an explanation of what the phrase means and where it comes from.  Johann questions whether they’re genuinely a problem or not, after which we offer some advice on how to identify them, prevent them from occurring, and deal with them once they’re there.

Hosts: Dan, Johann, Pat, Wayne

* (6:49) Raina’s Wings charity auction. Post your ideas here or on the forums.

* (11:01) We begin talking about board games, starting with the divergence of RPG and board game culture.

* (24:22) Some advice to people trying a board game for the first time, and also some advice to the experienced players introducing newbies to a game.

* (27:10) Picking the right product to buy.  Finding out what game titles are available, understanding the nomenclature used to describe them, and using a variety of resources to help in your decision-making process.

* (47:52) We suggest a few of our favorite games, and Jeff tries to match at least one title to each of our tastes.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Jeff, Pat, Wayne

NOTE: You can find the list of resources and game titles we mentioned in this blog post.

* (1:45) Chris wishes a happy birthday to…St. Louis…?  And Wayne celebrates with a surprise gift for Dan.

* (3:25) Dan gets shutdown by being recognized too quickly.

* (4:56) Realizing we do a show, we stop to introduce our guest host, Jeff.  He’ll be joining us for two episodes.  If you enjoy hearing him on Fear the Boot, he’s also a host of his own podcast, Gaming Asylum, which you can find on iTunes or at their site.

* (6:18) Fear the Con 4 attendance is going wonderfully, which means we could use more GMs!  Also, there are folks looking to split the cost of attendance by carpooling and room-sharing.

* (7:56) Following up on how advice provided by the community helped us resolve the “tainted character” situation brought up in episode 217.  A big thanks to everyone that gave us such great insight!

* (13:33) What starts as a quick recap on our attempts to bring players-as-NPCs into our weekly game grows into a larger debate with new thoughts.  Topics include why Chris wouldn’t generally want it done in his games, “making” versus “taking” NPCs, letting players control enemies, and the joys of character growth.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Jeff, Pat, Wayne

* (3:07) RPG tropes we individually find annoying or overused.  Plus counterpoints on why each one may not be so bad.

* (27:59) Jumping into an NPC as a way of staying involved and adding color to a scene.  We focus on the implicit player-GM contract, when it’s appropriate (or not), what it can add to the game, and how much plot leverage you should grant yourself while doing it.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Johann, Pat, Wayne

NOTE: If you hear some clicking during a couple minutes in the middle of the show, that was an issue with our audio setup.  Nothing is wrong with your download or MP3 player, and it ends a few minutes after it starts.

* (6:44) Fear the Froot is back for Fear the Con 4!  You can find details on where to send donations on our forums.

* (8:14) Pre-con tourism and social events will begin the afternoon of Sunday, March 13th, 2011.  You can keep up with our location by PMing your cell phone number to ZeikeCopperEyes on the forums or following our Twitter feed.

* (10:48) Video game nostalgia.  Do old games still hold up, or was it just a matter of the playground being bigger when you’re young?  Whether it’s even possible to compare new and old games.  Also, the changing social dynamic brought about by newer match-making systems.

* (40:09) Changing roles from Game Master to player.  Using your GM skills to be the best player you can be while resisting the urge to take control or nitpick someone else’s GMing technique.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (2:26) The early numbers for Fear the Con 4 are shaping up quite nicely.  Dan is still trying to decide what he’ll run for his fourth game.  We still look forward to seeing all of you there!  Our forums contain threads for room sharing and ride sharing.

* (6:17) The movies, video games, TV shows, comics, and other geek things we’re looking forward to in 2011.

* (30:46) One-shot games within your regular gaming group (i.e. not run as a convention game).  Examining the opportunities, pitfalls, and some advice on picking the system and setting.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (2:59) Introducing Boots, the Pegasus I got from my Secret Santa on our forums.

* (5:43) Several Fear the Boot hosts have been guests on the new, improved, and re-imagined Kicked in the Dicebags.  It’s too many episodes for me to link individually, but you can find them all on their show feed.

* (8:11) Dan still dreams of a Muscle March tournament at Fear the Con.

* (9:27) Resolving conflict in an RPG without resorting to combat.  Tricks for avoiding combat when it doesn’t fit your character or the outcome you want.  When GMs seem to force combat as the only solution to a problem.

* (37:29) Deciding what to do with a character that has been reshaped by situations beyond your control.  Whether to keep, modify, or ditch a character that no longer feels like the one you created and wanted to play.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Johann, Pat

Hosts: Chris, Dan, Johann, John, Pat, Wayne

Guest: Jim

NOTE: This is the last of our holiday break bonus episodes.  If I have sufficient time to edit, I may release a regular episode later this week.  If not, expect things to be back to normal next week!

* (5:10) How we each got our start in roleplaying games.  What attracted us to the hobby and which titles we played first.  In case you’re curious, here are the rules to four-card golf.

* (36:27) Christmas traditions in each of our families and how we’re trying to keep them alive in a time of increasing commercial and social pressure.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (2:07) If you’re interested in helping promote Fear the Con 4 around your town, we have two different fliers available here and here.

* (2:54) Fear the Con 4 will be the site for a regional tournament of the Ultimate Fighting System card game.  If you’re interested in joining, be sure to check the activity list for details!  You can also learn more about UFS or its rules on Jasco’s website.

* (5:16) Responding to Matt’s question about player interference.  How do you let players help each other when it’s appropriate without having them unfairly influence a situation or lock-up a new player with advice-overload?

* (17:04) When a player takes on the role of multiple characters.  Some thoughts on keeping the characters distinct, handling their interactions, and managing the paperwork.  The great opportunities it offers and the problems it can present.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (21:07) How to keep players caught up on a campaign when they have to miss some games.  Whether that’s best done by the other players or the GM.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (4:40) Be sure to get signed up for Fear the Con 4!  We look forward to seeing you all there.

* (5:09 If you’re looking to rejoin World of Warcraft as Cataclysm drops, you might want to check out the listener-sponsored guild.

* (5:51) Expounding on some useful ideas brought up by Hal in response to episode 211′s discussion on building dramatic tension.

* (18:51) Creating a real sense of temptation in a game.  Providing your players with choices that are difficult for purely personal reasons through moral quandaries, game mechanics, and occasionally breaking the fourth wall.

Hosts: Chris, Dan, Johann, John, Pat, Wayne

* (3:48) RPG Toolkit for the iPhone has just received a significant series of improvements and upgrades.  If you’re interested in checking that out, visit the app’s site for more information on the trial and paid versions.

* (6:05) Keeping movies, etc, accurate to their source material.  A discussion on when it’s appropriate and whether it’s necessary to telling the story right.

* (42:01) Rethinking our approach to interviewing new players.  Some new ideas on how to find out if someone is a good fit for your gaming group.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (5:18) Tracy makes an announcement about an unexpected work-in-progress.  I won’t spoil it for you, but it has nothing to do with dragons.  If you’re interested in Pat’s tangential comment, you can find a relevant article here.

* (16:48) Following up with Tracy on his foray into new media.  Seeing what portents his situation may have for the broader prose and RPG publishing industries.  Getting noticed — even as a well established author — in a saturated marketplace.  If you’re interested in the Dragon’s Bard holiday special, apply the discount code (feartheelf) when ordering at the holiday URL.

* (31:00) Building vibrant, interesting towns for your RPG setting.  You can check out Medieval Demographics Made Easy for some inspiration.  In case you’re wondering, you can find an explanation online of the Checkov’s Gun trope.

* (1:11:06) Tracy’s holiday board game.  You can find the free download or purchase a printed copy at Reindeer Gamer.  There’s also a short video trailer you can watch.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Tracy, Wayne

Topics for this recording (which was unintentionally thick with irony) include:

* Blogging about late blogging.

* What we’ve been up to.

* Podfading and the right way to end an endeavor.

* (2:11) A decent chance Chris will be returning to the show in the near future.

* (2:57) Chris Mais is looking for new hosts to help with a rebirthing of Kicked in the Dicebags.  If you’re interested in trying your hand at podcasting and shaping the future of that show, you can reach him at chris@kickedinthedicebags.com.  Also, thanks to Okeefe for the shirt!

* (5:27) Wayne wishes everyone doing NaNoWriMo well!  If you’re trying this out: stick with it and believe in what you’re doing.

* (6:55) Creating dramatic tension in a roleplaying game.  We present some ideas for building a visceral experience without overdoing it.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (0:55) The unpleasantness of audio editing.

* (3:40) If you could relocate yourself to a fictional setting, which one would it be?

* (15:34) A discussion regarding the believability of the Cursed With Awesome trope.

* (23:54) Vampires, otherkin, and otakukin.

Hosts: Dan, Johann, Pat, Wayne

* (2:22) Separating a character from the player.   Why it’s natural — and sometimes correct — to draw your impressions about a person from the characters they play.

* (21:57) Playing in an established setting.  The balance of enjoying what’s already there versus making it your own.  How to deal with existing canon, particularly when it comes into conflict with the story or characters you want to use.

Hosts: Dan, Johann, Pat, Wayne

* (1:45) Wayne has passed the 20,000 word mark on his serial fiction over on the Skies of Glass site.

* (3:05) Providing examples of Dan’s GMing notes.  Check the Resources page for samples of the What’s Really Going On document, NPC reference, and two session outlines.

* (10:56) The issue of pacing within a game, as inspired by our own foibles.  For the sake of discussion, we break pacing down into two types: the immediate engagement of the player as opposed to the overall arc of storytelling.  We start by describing the first kind and offering some ideas for players and GMs to keep everyone engaged and deal with the moments when people have to get drawn away from the table.

* (28:49) The pacing of storytelling within a game.  Deciding how long a specific plot within the campaign should last, and the importance of the breaks that occur between those plots.  We outline some options available to Game Masters and thoughts on picking the right one.

Hosts: Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (2:12) If you want to test your GMing mettle, check out the Iron GM competition at Neon Con in Las Vegas.

* (4:04) Building legacy for a character.  Just as characters have background leading up to a story, we consider leaving the game with a sense that the character’s life goes on in the context of the world.

* (18:41) Building player misdirection into your plot.  Ways to keep them guessing about what’s really going on without utterly confusing them or taking cheap shots as a GM.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (2:39) Using game mechanics as the basis for a plot, encounter, or player character.  How rules can serve as a great inspiration for many aspects of your game.

* (19:51) Gaming with kids.  We start by setting some boundaries on the conversation regarding the type of game and age group we’re talking about.  We also discuss why this topic is important even to people that don’t have kids of their own.

* (26:22) The problems and opportunities presented by limited literacy and math skills.  Ways of simplifying the concepts and teaching kids new skills as you go.

* (38:29) How gender can affect the game.  Is it helpful to setup a plot for boys a little differently than girls?

* (48:40) Dealing with controversial subject matter in a game with kids.  Determining what’s appropriate, particularly when not all of the children present are your own.  Is it appropriate to use games to educate children on moral themes?

* (58:15) How a lack of life experience can make conveying setting or theme more difficult when dealing with younger players.

Hosts: Chris, Dan, Johann, Pat, Wayne

NOTE: You can find the blog post with suggested titles for kids here.

* (2:42) New roleplayers and their lack of baggage.  How they can offer wonderful surprises and GMing difficulty all at once.

* (16:10) Have we over-complicated gaming for ourselves?  Why it’s sometimes tempting to look back at simpler days, and whether it’s possible to actually go back.

* (25:20) The common reasons people leave the hobby.  Separating the good reasons from the bad ones, and offering some encouragement to people that want to keep roleplaying but are struggling to make it work in their life.  The Penny Arcade comic on adult gamers can be found here.  Anyone dealing with moral objections to RPGs may want to check out the Christian Gamers Guild’s FAQ.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (5:46) The ubiquity of English in entertainment and how that affects RPGs.  Whether language can serve as a barrier to getting into the hobby.  Titles published in other languages that English speakers may be missing out on.

* (14:02) How national culture impacts the types of games that people consume.  The ways various nations are represented in roleplaying games that provide a speculative world based on the real one.

* (22:39) The nature of social and religious prejudice regarding tabletop roleplaying games.  The presence or absence of gamer shame.

* (33:28) America as the default setting for roleplaying games.  How other countries are portrayed in games and whether portraying them in better detail would help them gain traction abroad.

* (47:15) Drawing together our similarities as gamers, regardless of where we live.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Itamar, Jenny, Shane

Itamar is a regular host of the Hamishakia podcast, which has a feed dedicated to their English language episodes.

Jenny is an artist with an online gallery of her work.

Shane is a host of The Adventuring Party podcast.

* (4:24) A discussion about LARPing in Europe quickly shifts into a conversation about gaming organizations, governmental support for hobbies, and the diverse levels of trust regarding such things.  You can find pictures of the Russian Fallout LARP here.  You can find out more about Sverok here.

* (16:29) Differing cultural views on alcohol, conventions, cosplayers, and the party aspect of some segments of gaming.  Also how our views of authority and government affect our gaming culture.

* (19:38) Back to the original topic of LARPing!  Shane did some recordings on their airsoft LARP in Sweden which you can find on their show’s feed.  Social organization in game organizations proves itself inextricable once again.

* (27:27) The gaming scene in our respective countries.  How people learn about games, find community, and stay tapped into news or events.  What gamer shame looks like (or if it exists at all) across the pond.  Included is a brief discussion of the story from a few years ago about the Israeli army allegedly discriminating against roleplayers and the effect compulsory military service has on the gaming populace.

* (39:34) Is the gaming hobby in decline?  Or is it just the industry?  How new gamers are being brought into the hobby and old ones being retained.  You can find out more about Read an RPG Book in Public Week on The Escapist.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Itamar, Jenny, Shane

In part two, we talk about the impact of local religion on gaming, the titles that are popular in various countries, English as a barrier to gaming, and more!  We hope you’ll join us then.

In closing, I’d like to provide some additional information on our guests:

Itamar is a regular host of the Hamishakia podcast, which has a feed dedicated to their English language episodes.

Jenny is an artist with an online gallery of her work.

Shane is a host of The Adventuring Party podcast.

* (4:37) Our community has started an Alliance guild on the Argent Dawn server of World of Warcraft.  Details can be found on the forum.

* (5:39) Pondering RP in an MMO.  Maybe it’s a bad idea, or maybe we just don’t know how to approach it.

* (11:25) Homebrews and house rules.  Why we love making homebrews, the role of house rules, and finding the line between the two.  A challenge to write your own homebrew if you never have before.  And yes, the Midna group is real.

* (30:05) Using group collaboration to design character, setting, and even a rules system.  We discuss the pros and cons, offer some approaches for trying this out, and debate whether this is a good idea for various styles of GMing.  Just how hard should someone be willing to work to improve a hobby?

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (1:40) Be sure to check out the two Gen Con podcasts we participated in: Chris and Wayne on the Pulp Gamer Media Network live recording and Dan’s talk with the Amorphous Blobcast.

* (3:07) Cape Rust did a very kind review of our show in addition to great articles he’s written on gaming in the military (part 1 and part 2), LARPing (part 1 and part 2), and other subjects for Geek Life.

* (4:04) The Gamer Image Game.  Does your geek self-image line up with how you actually spend your time and money?  And if not, why not?

* (18:07) Why Pat and Dan have no sympathy for people with hard to pronounce names.

* (19:10) Puzzles and riddles in roleplaying games.  How to design, integrate, and present them to the players while avoiding the common sources of frustration.

Hosts: Dan, Johann, Pat, Wayne

* (3:44) The value of art, entertainment, and ideas on the internet.  Why free may not always be the best price.  Tracy’s plan for nurturing new authors in this environment.  As a side note, Wayne’s serial fiction is being released weekly on the Skies of Glass website.

* (14:34) Tracy’s experience of co-authoring with his wife.  The importance of a continual feedback loop in the creative process.  The struggles of writing and the joys of having written.

* (19:43) The Dragonlance movie.  Watching other people take over your creative properties, and the “original bad deal” that gets you published.

* (25:17) Whether Tracy ever plans to do anything more that’s directly in the RPG market.  His new book series, starting with Song of the Dragon.

* (29:20) What’s up with the dragons?  That question leads into a discussion on the monomyth, cognitive dissonance, and the human penchant for narrative.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Pat, Wayne

Guest: Tracy Hickman

Don’t forget to get signed up for the special offer of Dragon’s Bard using the discount code found here!  This offer is only open through September 15th.

* (3:41) The story of how Tracy’s wife and a missed ride got him into gaming.

* (8:25) The current trend in complexity and execution of roleplaying games.  Be sure to check out both X-treme Dungeon Mastery and Killer Breakfast.

* (27:41) Raising his son in the hobby, and the experience of co-writing X-treme Dungeon Mastery with him.

* (30:56) The strangest places he’s seen his own material, and the unique relationship between an author and reader.

* (36:52) The impact of social networking and new media on the publishing industry.  Be sure to check out Dragon’s Bard, and if you want the discount he’s offering our listeners, you’ll need to take the coupon code from here and place your order right here.  The revised deadline for orders is September 15th, so be sure to get yours in soon!

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Pat, Wayne

Guest: Tracy Hickman

We hope you’ll join us for the second half of the interview next week in which we talk more about new media, Dragonlance (including the movie), community building, Tracy’s upcoming projects, and more!

* (1:48) Gen Con coverage is available on our blog.  Quite a few videos are already out, and more are still being prepped for release over the coming days.

* (2:29) Dealing with unexpected player actions that aren’t covered by the rules.  Designing a meaningful outcome that’s fair to the player without breaking the game.

* (18:00) Handling travel in a roleplaying game.  Taking advantage of time and distance to keep the game interesting without bogging down the pace.  Whether to use random encounter charts, and if so, how to get the most out of them.  We’d like to thank Josheva for sending this one in!

Hosts: Chris, Dan, Johann, Pat, Wayne

* (1:53) Canadian police cracking down on G20 protesters bust an Amtgard LARPer and give us a new idea for a weapon.  You can read the article on The Globe and Mail.

* (9:02) Chris has the opportunity to do a news story on gaming and finds out he just might be a LARPophobe. You can watch the bit he did for D&D’s 30th anniversary here.

* (18:56) Playing characters that are socially excluded from the game’s setting due to race, species, religion, legal status, etc.  How to use them to make a game feel more believable without letting them completely gum up the narrative.

* (51:22)  What we have in mind for episode 200 and why it may take a while to produce.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (1:11) The TOFTBCH network is still open for sign-ups and available for anyone with some free time during the con.

* (2:49) Getting Pat to talk.

* (8:38) Pat on GM favoritism.

* (18:15) Adaptions into roleplaying games.

* (31:00) Getting cheated out of results.

* (41:34) No one takes Wayne’s characters seriously.

* (52:08) Mispronouncing words and other geek hypocrisy.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (1:11) Wayne’s Skies of Glass fiction.

* (5:06) There’s no point without progress?

* (22:20) Revitalizing your old ideas.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (5:49) Where’s my support group?

* (11:21) Gen Con 2010 draws near.  Be sure to get signed up for the TOFTBCH network and join in on the fun!

* (14:00) Cigars and the Kellums that send them.

* (15:47) Class-based versus class-less RPG systems.

* (35:16) Familiars, pets, and other animal NPCs.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (1:47) A big thanks to the companies that supported Raina’s Wings with prizes.  You can find the list of those folks here.

* (3:08) Hat day on Fear the Boot…?

* (5:05) Chris finds a gaming group using a flyer and a website.

* (20:33) Representing characters with epic backgrounds within a balanced party or rules system.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (1:42) Using models on the cheap.

* (4:55) RPGs make failure fun!

* (12:31) The difficulty of telling a good gaming story.

* (22:39) An exercise in applying our own advice by adapting characters to keep the party together.  Dave’s picture summary can be found here.

* (48:46) The joys of playing an evil group.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Dave, Pat, Wayne

* (1:16) Wayne visits the Superman festival.

* (6:25) Adventure Week, as brought to you by Dice, Food, and Lodging.

* (12:12) This versus that.

* (13:53) The benefits and problems of remote gaming.  You can find the tools we mentioned here: MapTool, Skype, Ventrilo.  The play-by-post section of our forum can be found here.

* (49:01) Using remote play to supplement a face-to-face game.

* (57:33) The answer to life’s most pressing question.  If you’re interested in following our Twitter nonsense, you can do so here.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, John, Pat, Wayne

20:20

* (1:48) The FtB: Night of Carnage.

* (6:54) Planning for Gen Con 2010.  If you want to join the TOFTBCH network, be sure to sign up here.

* (9:30) Chad was using what…?

* (11:42) Setting your game up for success.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (0:07) Chad’s dad and 24.

* (12:16) The TOFTBCH network is back for Gen Con 2010!  If you want to be involved (and believe me, you do) be sure to sign up here.

* (16:41) Con Planner is now open for use by other conventions!  You can see the list of features in development on the About page.

* (19:10) A bunch of stuff about Dr. Who.  For anyone that’s interested, here’s Haunted St. Louis and Haunted Missouri.

* (41:40) A near miss on an actual RPG topic leads to a discussion about pets and their rare involvement in RPG sessions.  The website I mentioned is Dog Breed Info.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (1:18) Some minor changes to our website.

* (4:52) Board game meetups.

* (18:03) Why our RPG campaigns keep dying.

* (20:53) Chad’s bravery with D&D, the discrete tasks of GMing, and implied setting.  You can find the d20 SRD here.

* (30:22) The process of selecting the setting, system, and length for a new role playing campaign.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (1:21) Innovation vs evolution, growing the hobby, and trying new things.  The article mentioned is located here.

* (31:51) Keeping the game alive between sittings, using the principles of an alternate reality game.

Hosts: Chris, Dan, Ed, Pat, Wayne

* (4:10) Raina’s Wings is still going on with prize support provided by Arc Dream, DriveThru, and Polymancer.  Make your donations here, and be sure to either leave a comment with your donation or let Necronomitron know who you are.

* (5:20) Last call on the Blood Bowl league!  You have about 24 hours to get signed up on our forums!

* (5:35) You can find details about FtB: Night of Carnage here.

* (6:40) The state of Fear the Boot’s creative projects.

* (8:36) When the playground is weirder than you remember.  You can find the plot synopsis for The Tin Woodman of Oz here.

* (25:03) Throwing down the gauntlet to Postcards from the Dungeon.

* (25:16) Applying subtlety, peculiarity, and horror to a roleplaying game.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Johann, Pat, Wayne

* (9:00) We’re delaying the start of the Blood Bowl league by two weeks.  You can still get signed up here.

* (9:35) Fear the Boot is teaming up with Postcards from the Dungeon.

* (11:45) Chris vs the sprinkler.

* (17:35) TOFTBCHes will be back at Gen Con 2010!  More information coming soon.

* (18:18) A placeholder for future debate on indie games.

* (30:35) Keeping your Game Master energized.

Hosts: Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

Guest: Fred Hicks

* (3:15) Raina’s Wings is continuing as a contest with prize support provided by Arc Dream, DriveThru, and Polymancer.  Make your donations here, and be sure to either leave a comment with your donation or let Necronomitron know who you are.

* (4:24) The Blood Bowl league is still forming, and you can find details on our forums.

* (4:49) Mikey Mason coming soon to a YouTube near you…tube.

* (5:40) Thanking Derek.

* (7:33) Movie trailers, comic book adaptations, and The Prisoner remake.

* (11:26) Fear the Boot’s 2010 film picks.  If you’re interest in the trailers, here are the links: Iron Man 2, Kick-Ass, The Losers, The Expendables, Toy Story 3, The Last Airbender, Voyage of the Dawntreader (no trailer yet), Inception, and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

* (31:07) Lying to your players.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Pat, Wayne

Guest: Eddy Webb

* (3:39) If you’re interested in joining our Blood Bowl leagues, you can find details on our forums.

* (6:31) Jonathan and the gamer cop.

* (12:53) RPG holidays.

* (25:27) Developing relationships between PCs and NPCs.

* (53:05) Developing relationships between NPCs and NPCs.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (3:48) You can still donate to Raina’s Wings!

* (4:37) Decorating your ultimate geek house.  You can see the mentioned dungeon house here.

* (19:04) Building meaningful PC romance and other relationships in an RPG.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (0:30) Introducing Dave.

* (2:26) A restaurant run by firefighters.

* (7:04) How Dave is the unnamed topic of so many Fear the Boot episodes.

* (14:14) Gaming with your boss.

* (18:06) The relationship between war-gaming and roleplaying.

* (21:44) Adding roleplaying to a war-game.

* (37:42) Using war-games to resolve elements of a roleplaying game.

* (44:22) Managing expectations when approaching a new game.

* (46:58) The subconscious creep of roleplaying into a war-game.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dave, Pat, Wayne

* (4:18) If you’re coming in on the Wednesday before Fear the Con, we’ll be having an impromptu social gathering at Maryland Yards at 7:00pm, just down the street from the hotel.

* (6:30) Chris and the scooter store.

* (7:22) Keeping emotions in check during a game.

* (31:38) A brief review of Pat and Chris’ “storytelling”.

* (33:00) Preparing to attend and survive a convention.

Hosts: Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (4:04) The new emotion: Muscle March.

* (7:14) Fear the Fruit is still going strong.

* (9:22) The sorts of dice you own and how you carry them.

* (30:13) Doom has been wrought upon our household.

* (31:13) Character creation tips from our newer hosts.

* (49:45) Techniques to help ensure you won’t hate your character later.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Pat, Wayne

Guest: Matt Vancil

* (2:13) When passing notes during the game goes too far.

* (12:44) Controlling the temptation to eat.

* (23:40) Fear the Fruit reminder!

* (23:57) Losing weight when you already exercise and can’t control what food is around.

* (36:31) Portion control and finding diet food with flavor.

* (49:24) Exercising with a minor physical disability.

* (51:23) The importance of a social support structure.

* (52:47) Reiterating our disclaimer.

* (53:31) How gaming itself can be good for your health.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (2:17) Ira Glass on overcoming creative perfectionism.

* (5:06) Keeping dice in the roleplaying continuity.

* (9:21) Pat’s pickled pigs feet…?

* (10:44) Health advice disclaimer.  You can find the organization Chris is certified with here.

* (15:26) Improving what you eat at the gaming table, with tangents on peer support, calorie counting, and making sustainable changes.

* (39:10) Picking the right exercises for you and integrating them into your life.

* (48:49) Chad’s pep talk and a story about Tex.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (1:35) Get your health questions to Chris for episode 180!

* (2:09) A big thanks to Totten for the pizza.

* (3:10) DriveThruRPG is running a charity through Doctors Without Borders for medical relief in Haiti.  You can make the donation here and see what RPG products that donation will get you here.

* (6:59) D&D gets banned from prisons.

* (15:02) Fear the Boot fans in prison…?

* (17:17) You are wrong to enjoy certain things.

* (20:26) Overcoming perfectionism as a GM or player.

* (42:12) Fear the Con 3.

* (43:23) Why don’t players trust their GMs more?

Hosts: Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (4:07) Fear the Con 3!

* (4:43) Soliciting questions for the upcoming episode on gamer health.

* (7:05) How Chad keeps his incidental GM decisions straight without notes.

* (17:08) Preparing the right amount of notes.

* (18:12) Notes and improv for a game’s opening scene.

* (24:02) Using the conclusion of one session to help kick off the next one.

* (26:18) How notes (or improv) affect the GM’s game style.

* (28:38) Crossing styles.

* (31:52) Getting back to the structure of game notes.

* (35:51) Notes don’t need to be a script.

* (42:10) The notes you take during the game.  You can create a free Wiki here.

* (48:52) The “what’s really going on” document.

* (50:55) An example from our current game.

* (54:45) Notes kept by the players.

* (57:59) Background notes on your own character.

* (1:00:03) Noticing your ruts.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (1:15) Dan’s rant on impassible terrain.

* (7:13) How Pat made Chad and Dan proud with his first MMO.

* (9:19) The GM and player toolbox.

* (11:29) The moment of zen.

* (15:56) Taking a week off.

* (17:47) Useful lists.

* (19:50) The double-edged sword of an internet-ready laptop.

* (22:06) The role of the toolbox in the game.

* (23:35) The players don’t know what you don’t know.

* (27:36) Taking on-going notes.

* (28:23) Preparation prior to the game.

* (30:25) Player character motivations, observations, and side projects.

* (31:47) Borrowing ideas from fiction and real life.

* (34:28) Internal roleplay and contingency plans.

* (38:13) Drawing from the larger community of roleplayers.

* (39:23) Putting yourself in the spotlight and carrying the right attitude.

* (41:22) The cheap and simple supplies.

* (44:05) Tracking the scene.

* (48:20) Tools for helping you get in character and stay in character.

* (53:36) Tracking initiative.

* (56:11) A cheat sheet of player character names.

* (57:13) Players taking notes.

* (1:01:17) Podcasts, blogs, and gaming magazines.

* (1:04:04) A rules cheat sheet.

* (1:07:41) Robertson Games’ dungeon room design contest.

* Dan’s surprise can be found here.  And just in case they changed it, I archived a screenshot of it here.  Journalist + Google image search = pure win.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (1:56) Why you don’t want to miss the Wing Night beforehand.

* (2:40) Some highlights for people that aren’t going to the con.  If you want to help promote the con, you can find a Fear the Con 3 flyer here.

* (5:08) Sign-up and find information at http://www.fearthecon.com or http://www.conplanner.com.

* (8:05) Con Planner’s privacy policy.

* (9:15) We’re at a new hotel this year.

* (9:50) Ticketing details.

* (11:57) Fear the Fruit.

* (12:48) A call for Game Masters!

* (15:03) The roommate thread and carpooling thread.

* (16:01) Mikey Mason and the game lending library.

* (17:32) Our vendor will be back.  You can post requests for him here.  You can find Geeky Clean here.

* (19:05) A call to our fellow podcasters.

* (21:38) Come for the con, stay for the caves.

* (1:44) Thanking our secret Santas.  Legos, Confessions of a Part-time Sorceress, Master of the Game, and SPANC.

* (8:40) Swapping games to expose people to new material.

* (10:53) The original Fear the Boot logo.

* (11:36) Setting up this episode and the next one.

* (12:04) Leadership and structure in a roleplaying game party.

* (13:59) How leadership helps the Game Master.

* (14:59) Players that reject any form of authority.

* (19:30) Picking the right player to be in charge.

* (23:42) Keeping leadership from becoming a railroad.

* (27:32) Making an ever-present NPC leader work.

* (35:26) Dealing with the guy that will not tolerate any structure in the party.

* (38:41) When having a boss is too close to real life.

* (42:13) The role of a GM when players are doing sidebar RP.

* (44:34) The GM shouldn’t kill the moment.

* (47:17) How the GM can profit from what he overhears.

* (48:18) Dealing with bored players outside of the RP sidebar.

* (50:55) GMs not being overly helpful.

* (55:35) Intrusion by other player characters.

* (59:53) Player etiquette.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (2:22) Fear the Boot made it to 175.

* (3:19) Fear the Con 3 online ticketing and sign-up will be live on January 1st.

* (6:06) Chad has a sexy voice?

* (7:16) John’s current gaming situation.  You can find MapTools here.

* (9:48) Why John hates player characters.

* (11:25) A quick gaming story to explain an example.

* (13:32) Why GMs often make better players.

* (18:01) People that refuse to GM even once.

* (25:49) Players that lobby for power without conceding anything to the GM.

* (32:35) TPKs, challenge, and losing characters.

* (36:33) Why John loves PCs, starting with those that latch onto plot elements.

* (39:46) PCs who roleplaying in a meaningful manner.

* (45:53) PCs with connection to the setting help make the game more engaging.

* (48:54) Dan bitches about Chris.

* (57:05) When Dan loves his players most.

* (1:01:36) Upcoming topics for the next couple of shows.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, John, Pat, Wayne

* (4:57) The additional costs associated with LARP.

* (8:27) Setting and time periods.

* (12:08) Where someone looking to join the hobby should start.

* (21:55) LARP as an educational tool.

* (22:40) Rule 7.

* (24:03) Trying new systems and more thoughts on finding a group.

* (25:01) Character death.

Hosts: Dan, James, Michael, Nathanael, Wayne

* (1:45) Fear the Con 3 sign-up is coming very soon.

* (2:20) Introducing our guests.

* (5:05) What separates LARP from tabletop RPGs?

* (10:32) The negative image of LARPers.  The infamous Lightningt Bolt video.

* (17:07) The seemingly insular nature of the LARP community.

* (28:03) Flirting, physical contact, and other boundaries.

* (31:38) The flow of LARP as compared to a tabletop RPG.  You can see the Oak Island Mystery videos here: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4.

* (36:08) The role of NPCs in LARP.

* (39:45) Character advancement and player attachment.

* (43:48) Representing magic.

* (45:11) Honor and honesty in sparring.

Our guests were also kind enough to provide links to the Amtgard and Insurrection LARP systems.

Hosts: Dan, James, Michael, Nathanael, Wayne

* (2:13) A childhood full of toys.

* (11:51) The limited release of The Road.

* (14:36) Predictions on the future of  media distribution.

* (28:55) Picking the right resources for a brand new GM and gaming group.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* Dan is answering his Fear the Boot email account again. Let’s see how long that lasts.

* Fear the Fruit is back at Fear the Con 3. You can find information on how to make a donation here.

* Revisiting old campaigns.

* Mikey Mason’s beer sites are Good Beer Show and Beer Safari. The two non-bitter beers we took to are New Glarus Belgian Red and Schlafly #15.

* Where theater practices and roleplaying overlap (and don’t).

Hosts: Chad, Dan, John, Mikey, Pat, Wayne

* Checking in on how Wayne’s Mutants & Masterminds game went.

* Getting your players unstuck.

* Bickering about bards.  If you don’t have a 3.5 rulebook handy, you can follow along here.  If you’re interested in entering Critical Press Media’s bard contest, you can find details on their site.

* The reciprocal relationship between tabletop roleplaying games and video games.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* 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

* Keeping your players focused on the game and stopping the table talk.

* Getting your players to be more proactive about roleplaying.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* Our struggles with miniature war games.

* Keeping roleplaying alive in combat.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* The odd obscurity of (or at least our ignorance regarding) LARPing rulebooks.  You can find the Fallout LARP pictures here.

* The effect of minis on tabletop roleplaying games.  In case you’re not familiar with the annoying Wilhelm Scream, here’s a compilation of them.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* Fear the Con 3 has dates!  March 11, 2010 for Wing Night, March 12 – 13 for the con, March 14 – 17 for additional social events.

* The City of Villains supergroup on Pinnacle server is still going strong.  Free account reactivation and double XP this weekend.

* What makes a game system a LARP?

* Why we won’t try to define the terms RPG or LARP.

* Recovering momentum in a dying campaign.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* Why the website has been coming and going.

* Fear the Con 3. After recording this episode, we got the location reserved and dates locked down.

* The history and meaning of names.

* Video game length.

* Superstition and mythology in fantasy roleplaying games.

* Psychoanalyzing Pat.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Wayne

Guests: Jim Pinto

* Happy birthday to Chris!

* Pat finds Devil Cremes.

* Sherlock Holmes, the upcoming movie, and reimagining popular stories.

* Old games that we miss…!?

* The creep of roleplaying elements into non-roleplaying games.

* Failures of outreach in geekdom.

* Bringing roleplaying games into the mainstream.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* Nerd d**k waving.

* The soda map.

* Chad’s Fear the Con 3 blog.

* Bookstores and bookstoring.

* Character advancement and atrophy.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* What is your favorite word?  Super Troopers meow clip.

* This is Chris’ 50th episode!

* Pocket gaming books.

* One-shot roleplaying games.

* Special thanks to Zircher for the Baron’s reply tagged at the end of the episode!

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* Comic books, trade paperbacks, and graphic novels. Wayne provided links to The Boys and an online “pull” service.

* An apology to Rhiannon.

* Acclimating a new player to the roleplaying hobby.

* Julie Hussey’s Power 16 II acceptance speech.

Hosts: Chris, Dan, Pat, Wayne

We dined on chili concocted by Martian Bob himself, and tasted a variety of micro brews scrounged up (and some brewed by) Killercheesewedge. Plenty of gamer talk abounded, as ‘Return of the Jedi’ played on Spike TV in the background. Of course, we paused to listen to Admiral Ackbar shout, “It’s a trap!”

Photos below, as well as a brief audio commentary by Chad & John on their journey up (Dan will be uploading this).

Tomorrow the coverage begins in earnest, so keep checking back for more updates daily.

Some photos of the gathering here. Expect more tomorrow.

* Gencon is upon us!  If you haven’t already, get signed up for the guerrilla events.

* Be sure to subscribe to the Fear the Boot and TOFtBCH Twitter feeds.

* Rolling dice versus roleplaying social skills.

* Could there be a future without mainstream gaming?

* City of Villains guild.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, John, Pat

* Battletech’s 25th anniversary and the unseen ‘Mechs.

* Sign-up continues for our Gencon guerrilla event network!

* A big thanks to Kellum.

* Midnight RPG movie.

* The Ghostbusters video game and never-made movie sequel.

* Overall balance in a roleplaying game.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, John, Pat

* Power 16 II final battle this week!

* Numbering churches and banks.  (Note from Dan: I checked the ending credits of Contra and realized I had games mixed up.  It was from the credits of Mega Man 3.  It’s around 2:20 on that clip.)

* Urban legends.

* City of Villains guild on the Pinnacle server.  It’s NOT a FtB sponsored guild, but a lot of us have joined it.  We have a dedicated forum area, and you can find the client download here.

* Players that refuse to learn the rules of an RPG.

* Game completionism.

* Questioning magic user balance in RPGs and video games.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, John

* The new Mechwarrior game.  After watching the trailer, seeing the restored “unseen” ‘Mechs and flavor they’re going for, Dan retracts his initial disdain.

* Our hope for a new Crimson Skies video game.

* Deciding what’s worth tracking in a roleplaying game.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, John, Pat

* This week, the Power 16 II enters the finals for the Denny’s League.

* If you’ve enjoyed Skullossus’ bracketology art, check out his comic, The Princess Planet.

* Sign-up continues for our Gencon guerrilla event network!

* Chris wins an Edward R. Murrow award!  You can watch his entry here.

* A debate on the usefulness of utility spells.

* Pocket Tanks.

* Dealing with the first game in a campaign.

* Melodies of Life.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, John, Pat

* Be sure to get signed up for our Gencon guerilla event list.

* Chad’s random aside on industrial music.

* Five upcoming movies we’re looking forward to: Surrogates, 9, District 9, Zombieland, Where the Wild Things Are.

* Epic player quests.

Hosts: Chris, Chad, Dan, John, Pat

* Power 16 II rolls on!  This week is the second round of the Denny’s League.

* Can’t Stop the Serenity charity.

* Some mathematical facts about 153.

* Reverse picture-preview episode.  The 10 pictures forum users submitted to inspire this episode can be found here.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, John, Pat

* Power 16 II, round 2 of the Shadowrun League. Get your votes in! You can find the on-going bracketology thread here.

* When is it too soon?

* Handling failure as a Game Master.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, John, Pat

* Wii Fit.

* Chad gets screwed by another video game.

* Breaking the fourth wall of electronic games.  You can see Project NATAL here and Milo here.

* Player Character failure in roleplaying games.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, John, Pat

* The Power 16 2 begins today!  The first round of competition within the Shadowrun League will run for a week or two.  Get your votes in here! Remember that we’re giving away Catalyst gift cards, so if you want to enter for those, be sure to leave your name and email address at the end of the poll.

* Aliens in television and movies.

* Humans and colonization in science fiction.

* Changing character traits mid-game.

* Over-discussing your game.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, John, Pat

* Fear the Boot TOFtBCHes at Gencon!  If you want to be a part of the action, get signed up!

* Power 16 II, starting next episode!

* Television ratings, cancellations, and DVRs.

* Adding depth to your player character.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat

* Fear the Boot float trip and camping trip June 5th – 7th.  You can find the Facebook event page here and forum thread here.

* Fear the Boot TOFtBCHes at Gencon!  If you want to be a part of the action, get signed up!

* Mistrust at the gaming table.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat

* If you register for the forums and don’t get your confirmation email, send a message to the General Mailbox with your forum user name.  Don’t expect a confirmation email from us, since that will probably be blocked as well!  Just keep checking back over the next day or two.

* Fear the Boot float trip and camping trip June 5th – 7th.  You can find the Facebook event page here and forum thread here.

* Fear the Boot TOFtBCHes at Gencon!  If you want to be a part of the action, get signed up!

* The things being a long-time gamer have taught us.

* Dungeon building part 2.  We mentioned a few resources I’ll provide links to…

• dungeon tile sets
• How to Host a Dungeon
• Dwarven Forge
• Dundjinni
• Dwarf Fortress map archive
• Reaper minis
• World Works

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat

* “Dan’s not quite long enough” is in its last week!  To make your donation to March of Dimes’ Raina’s Wings charity, do so here.  You can see Chad bald on our forums.

* Skies of Glass comic artist search!   The character document is here.  Send submissions or questions to skiesofglass@gmail.com.

* Discerning when it’s close-mindedness versus the right time to say, “No.”

* Dungeon building (first half of discussion).  Next week we’ll be back to talk about history, ecology, traps, tools, and tricks!

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat

* Skies of Glass comic artist search!   The character document is here.  Send submissions or questions to skiesofglass@gmail.com.

* Concepts we all understand but can’t quite define.

* Broadening Dan’s horizons.

* How to overcome the roadblocks to running a super hero game.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat

* Fear the Boot community’s Neverwinter Nights mod.

* We discuss a commentary by Isaac Asimov on whether “true” science fiction can ever sell in a mass market.

* Why Dan struggles constructing super hero campaigns.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat

* Things that wouldn’t work as roleplaying games.  Apparently clips of The Letter People aren’t hard to find.

* Playing animals or anthropomorphic animals in a roleplaying game.  You can see a picture of the guy that inspired this show on our forums.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat

* Chris introduces his son’s friends to D&D.

* We ponder why video games aren’t held to the same product standards common to every other industry.

* Roleplaying with your kids.  The toy company Pat mentions is Schleich (WARNING: this site plays music when you open it).  The roleplaying game Chad keeps referring to is QAGS.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat

* Fear the Boot will soon be joining the Pulp Gamer network.

* Introducing Darren Lacoste, winner of Mayfair’s Catan tournament.

* Gamers as an underserved demographic.

* Expanding the appeal of gaming.

* Areas we’d like to see focus on the gaming demographic, and what we can do to help make that happen.

* A look at what’s coming up at Mayfair Games.

Hosts: Dan, Derek, Don, Larry, Kim

NOTE: While I was on this trip, I also guest hosted episodes on some other shows you might want to check out:

• Kore News – Episode 75
• Kore News – Episode 76
• Pulp Gamer, Out of Character – Episode 72

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Pat

Guests: Trampas Whiteman

* Playing villainous characters.

* Adding cults to your roleplaying game.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat

* Preparing a con game.  Really good advice, presented with really questionable sound quality.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, John, Pat…and a whole lot of con attendees

* You can find addresses and maps for the convention center, wing night location, hotel, and (I hope) Watchmen theater in this DOC or PDF.

* If you’re looking for rides, car pooling, or hotel roommates,  go here.

* You can find details on the con shirts in this thread.

* World Wide Wing Night will be at Syberg’s on Dorsett, 7:00pm – Midnight on Thursday, March 5th.

* We’ll keep you guys posted on the Watchmen viewing.

* You can find information on Chad’s cigar even on the forums.

* Remembering the importance of player contribution to an RPG’s unfolding story.

* Fear the Con!  You can see Dave’s account of the pirate ship building on his blog.

* Getting over the GM jitters.

* Handling a group where the players have mixed RPG experience levels.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Pat

* RPGs in a bad economy.

* Shepherding your off-topic players.

* Know when it’s time to end your campaign.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat

* The real reason we play MMOs and the lack of innovation in the industry.

* Media companies don’t realize what year it is.

* Are RPG companies adapating to meet changing consumption patterns?

* War Pig Radio.  You can find the update on its status here.

* RPG Countdown.

Hosts: Dan, Ed, John, Pat

* Heroes of Lesser Earth.

* Fear the Boot’s Twitter feed can be found here.

* Game Master handouts and other visual aids for players.

* Tangible goodies that sometimes ship with video games and roleplaying games.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat

* Some events going on outside of Fear the Con: a wing night on Thursday, March 5th and a Watchmen viewing on Friday, March 6th.

* A possible Rifts movie?  If you want to join the letter campaign, you can find details here.  If you hadn’t heard about the Uwe Boll / Blizzard conversation, read on.

* Gryphcon in Ontario, Canada.

* From RPG magazines to the internet: how gamer interactions have changed.

* Running roleplaying games on holidays.

* Revealing information in your RPG without feeding your players the plot.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan

* What the small RPG publishers have (and don’t have) in common with small movie studios.

* What art form are RPGs most like to you?

* Getting your players to roleplay.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat

* Pirates of the Cursed Sea.  I found some pictures of a play area similar to the one I saw at Gencon.

* Fear the Con 2.  You can buy your ticket, see the games, and sign up to play on the website.  The comedian Chad mentioned is Mikey Mason.

* Pacing a game so it doesn’t drag on too long or conclude too quickly.

* A round-robin game idea.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Pat

* Fear the Con 2!  You can find more information on the forum or the con’s website.

* Getting more in-character and how it helps or hurts a game.  You can find the movie of James Earl Jones counting to 10 here.

* People you would love to LARP with.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, John, Pat

We promise episode 131 will be full of ponies and rainbows.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, John, Pat

* Fear the Con’s hotel block is now ready for reservations.  You can find details on the con’s website.  If you’re looking to share rooms or rides, you can find classifieds on our forum.  We’re also pleased to welcome comedian Mikey Mason as an addition to this year’s offerings.

* Julie (that’s Mrs. Hussey) comes on to talk about the Battletech love letters.

* The size and shape of roleplaying game books.

* PDFs as a revenue stream and publishing method.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, David, Ed, Julie

* If you’re interested in playing Warhammer Online, join us on the Order side, Monolith server.  You can find more information on the forums.

* Tuning your GameDAR to find your fellow nerds.  The song Chris referenced is Hail to the Geek by Deaf Pedestrians.

* The virtues and follies of the DM screen.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan

(FIXED!  The right episode is up now.)

* Voting on the GM profile entries has ended.  Congratulations to Keith for winning!

* Fear the Con 2 is ready for your sign-up!

* Some tips for cheating the game, which leads into a discussion about how we would each deal with such antics at our own gaming tables.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat

* Keep on emailing your game-breaking tips to Dan.  Next episode, we’ll read off the schemes everyone has for screwing with various systems.

* Fear the Con 2 registration is now up!  Be sure to get a ticket, and if you’re interested in running a game, send an email to Chad.  It’s two days of gaming you don’t want to miss.

* Allowing only the GM to possess and roll dice.

* Playing an RPG with only one or two players.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, John, Pat

* Introducicng our guest hosts, Andy and Arthur.  If you can’t remember their forum titles, here’s a little mnemonic: Andy sounds like “sandy,” and he’s SandPunk.  Arthur is the name of a king, and he’s Noble Bear.

* A preview of the forum card game, made entirely by listeners and forum users.  If you want to learn more or offer your own contributions, be sure to visit the forum thread!  If you can help these guys get this printed as a playing card game, please send a PM on the forum to SandPunk and NobleBear, or send an email to Dan.

* Last week of voting for the GM profiles!  Be sure to cast your vote.

* The start of our new endeavor: Help Your Fellow Players Screw the Game!  Keep the tips short, tell us the game it’s for, and tell me how to pronounce your name.  In case you’re curious, the monster we couldn’t remember is the Bodak.

* Keeping your players immersed in the game, even when they catch you off guard.  If you’ve never heard the gazebo story, you can find the anecdote of Eric & the Dread Gazebo reprinted online.

Hosts: Andy, Arthur, Chad, Chris, Dan, John, Pat

* Kobold Quarterly’s place among gaming magazines.

* Game days versus major cons.  You can find information on the Emerald City Game Fest here.

* A shout-out to Heath White and Shawn (or Sean or however you spell his name).

* Marketing and promoting a roleplaying game.  If you’ve never heard of the Pareto Principle, you can learn more here.  And you can find Marketing Over Coffee here.

Hosts: Dan, Ed, Tex

* Chris and his photon torpedo.

* John’s confession.

* Tom Bombadil and other things regarding Lord of the Rings.

* Chris gets a gaming date.

* Playing music while you game.

* Player-characters as adversaries.  You can learn about the etymology of MacGuffin here and here.  Searching around more, I learned the original term for this sort of plot device: weenie.   I’m not sure I want an RPG plot about chasing the bad guy’s weenie.

* Strange things we’ve seen kill games.

* Coming soon to Fear the Boot: WIN CHRIS’ BATTLETECH ROMANCE LETTER!!!

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, John, Pat

* You can find the thread on the forum card game here.

* If you send us email from a Yahoo address, be sure to watch your Bulk folder!

* Chris Engler’s show, Wapcaplets, can be found here.

* Pat’s Blow Pop as an object lesson for RPG mechanics.

* Having players use temporary characters in a roleplaying game.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat

* World Wide Wing Night 5!  You can find information about the St. Louis and other locations here!

* Fear the Con 2 information can be found at http://www.fearthecon.com or http://www.warhorn.net/fearthecon.  If you’re looking for a ride to Fear the Con 2, check out the carpool thread here.

* Be sure to check out our new blog here!

* Reasons for and against updating your gaming library.  We present both sides of the argument, so if you think we’re only for or against, be sure to listen through the end of the episode!

* Shout-out to the d21 Gaming site regarding World Wide Wing Night!

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat

* Fear the Con 2 on March 6th and 7th!  What details we have can be found on the Warhorn site or our forums.

* Our new blog is up at http://www.feartheboot.com/ftb.  Or just click the “Fear the Boot” link on our homepage.

* Upcoming Skies of Glass web comic.

* Selecting and managing leaders in your roleplaying game party.

* Why John is so old and Pat is so quiet.

* How education affects your roleplaying.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, John, Pat

* The Warhammer Online guild is going strong.  You can find the details here.

* World Wide Wing Night 5.  You can find details here.

* Email addresses for all hosts are back.

* This is the last week for the GM profiles!  Be sure to get yours in!

* Why is self-destruction a constant in all of John’s characters?

* Fear the Con 2 is set to go!  It’s on for March 6th and 7th.  Same location.  Expect the sign-up site and other details in the near future. If you want to volunteer or just sound-off on the con planning, visit the forums here.

* Why we create characters the way we do.

* How the visual element of a movie can affect your experience of a book.  I managed to track down the Harry Potter audio spoof John was talking about.  WARNING!!! This is extremely not safe for work!!!  Click here at your own risk.  The Harry Potter 6 trailer, however, is perfectly safe.

* GM-assigned roles or character concepts

Hosts: Chad, Dan, John, Pat

* The Seinfeld/Microsoft commercials.

* Our Warhammer Online guild is doing unexpectedly well!  Join us on
the Order side of the Thorgrim server.  More information can be found here.

* Character, role, and personality archetypes.

* Implied archetypes we’ve only seen once.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat

* World Wide Wing Night 5 on Saturday, November 8th is coming up soon.  You can find details here.

* Our Warhammer Online guild is doing unexpectedly well!  Join us on the Order side of the Thorgrim server.  More information can be found here.

* What percentage of roleplaying books you own have you actually read?

* Should players be familiar with the games they’re playing or expected to do any work outside of the game?

* Getting out of your character ruts and separating your own traits from those of your character.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat

* Will we outgrow roleplaying games?

* The episode 115 tutorials are NOT available on CD.  We’re having problems getting CafePress to process the sound files properly.  However, if you want to create your own CD, we’ve compiled the MP3 files in a CD-ready format (intro music removed, etc) in a zip file that you can download here.

* World Wide Wing Night 5 on Saturday, November 8th (not 18th) is coming up soon.  You can find details here.

* We’ve started a Warhammer Online guild, Order side, on the Thorgrim server.  You can find details on our forums.

* Chris pulls out Pulp Dungeons from the gamer closet.

* GM profile for Dan.

* Don’t forget to send in your GM profiles!

* Easing new players into the hobby.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat

* GM profile for Chris.

* Introducing non-gamers to the RPG hobby.  The FAQ we mention for dealing with religious objections to roleplaying games can be found here.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, Pat

* A big thanks to our Gencon TOFTBCHes!

* GM profile for Pat.

* Send us your GM profile!  If you need to convert your recording format, you can do it here.

* Upcoming episodes for non-gamer outreach.

* Running world campaigns in your roleplaying game.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Pat

* What we’ll do differently next year.  You can find information on True Dungeon here.

* We answer audience questions live.  Questions came from…

Ethan
Itamar from Hamishakia
Andrew
Andy from Amorphous Blob
Bill from Dragonlance Canticle
Dave from The 2 Half-Squads
Dick (?) (I couldn’t quite make out his name on the recording.)
Will (The “gaming group” picutre in Shadowrun 2nd Edition is on page 194.)
Jason
Mack from Dice Like Thunder
Kyle from Animalcast
Jeremiah
Ed

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, and about 60 of our listeners.

I’d also like to give a big thanks to ZeikeCopperEyes for all of his hard work in making this happen!

* Shout-outs to Cigar_smkr and Jlhburnett of Hex Games.

* Check out the new forums here.

* One last time: here’s our schedule for Gencon 2008!  And our social gathering details have been fixed here.

* The page Chris will be using to blog his Gencon experience is this one.

* GM profile for John.  If you’re interested in reading The Monkey’s Paw, you can find it here.

* A call for your GM profiles.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, John, Pat

* Our events at Gencon.  You can still find the link for the FtB social gathering here and the general list of all podcasting events here.

* Why a horse swarm is far scarier than a bear swarm.

* GM profiles for Matt and Rob.

* Setting and knowing the goals of player characters in your roleplaying game.

* Conducting a revolt against a player in your RPG.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Matt, Rob

* Back Seat Producers can be found here.

Hosts: Dan, John, Luke, Matt

* We’ll be doing several panels and a live recording at Gencon.  Be sure to check out the schedule here.

* We’re still planning our social gathering for the Thursday of Gencon.  Details here.

* A brief introduction of Pat.

* A profile of Chad’s GMing techniques.

* Conducting a player revolt against the Game Master.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, John, Pat

* Don’t forget to let us know if you’ll be stopping by our gathering at Gencon!

* A copy of Earthshaker! gets us talking about anachronism and genre-mixing in RPGs.

* Identifying and remedying boring Game Masters.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, John

* The new portal is still on its way and should be up soon.

* If you’re going to be at Gencon, there’s a get-together for FtB listeners being planned.  Be sure to stop by the forum thread and be counted so we can get a venue of the appropriate size.

* John’s acceptance speech from the Robin D. Laws award can be found here.

* Back into the gamer’s closet.  This time around we discuss Run out the Guns, the Battletech Centers, and Star Ace.

* How to draw out shy players and get them more involved in your roleplaying game.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, John

* The dark history of Dan, Tex, and Chris.

* Crappy Kahlua and high quality water.

* If you’re playing Age of Conan, stop by and check out our guild!  You can find details here.

* A big thanks to forum user, CigarSmoker, for the cigars he’s been sending us!

* How do you handle permanent character death in a roleplaying game that allows for so many ways to come back from the dead?

* OBJECTION!

* How should the availability of resurrections affect an RPG setting and its population?

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, John

* A shout-out to Halbert for giving Dan a code for an item in Age of Conan!

* How our review show won’t be a review show.  If you want to start getting ready for that show, the first two topics we’ll be discussing are Frank Miller’s graphic novel, Dark Knight Returns, and the RPG, Justifiers.  (Our forum user, JamsTheHobbit, provided us with a link to a Savage Worlds conversion you can find here.)

* Running a roleplaying game with young children present.  The foam dice Dan describes are item #10966 in this catalog.

* Introducing older children to the RPG hobby.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, John

* Join Phil in developing his sci-fi setting, Red Earth Saga.

* An in-depth explanation of Fear the Boot’s future.

* BATMAN!

* Dan and the great Lord of the Rings movie marathon escape.

* Incorporating side games into a roleplaying game.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, John, Phil

* Some changes coming to Fear the Boot.

* John’s first brush with D&D 4th edition.  You can find the Reaper Mini site Dan mentioned here.

* Roleplaying games that are old, obscure, or simply never played.

* How to create conflict amongst your player-characters in an RPG.  Yes, you read that right!

Hosts: Chris, Dan, John

* “Choose your own adventure” books that play like RPGs.

* The rational place for gamer shame.  (For anyone that’s confused by Chad’s use of the word, “hoosier,” it’s local slang that has nothing to do with Indiana University athletics.)

* If you’re interested in joining our Age of Conan guild, you can find all of the information here.

* Deciding on — and handling — the amount of party in-fighting you want in your roleplaying game.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan

* Fear the Boot has started an Age of Conan guild, House Nachash, on the Stormrage server.  You can find more information here.

* This episode brought to you by Gorkamorka!  The forum user, that is, not the game.

* Can you change power-gamers into roleplayers?

* What we hate about higher education.

* Adding spice to the backstory of an RPG’s setting.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, John, Matt

Hosts: Dan, John, Luke, Matt

Guests: Luke Crane

Hosts: Dan, John, Luke, Matt

Guests: Luke Crane

WARNING: This version of the interview contains uncensored language.  If you wish to get a “clean” version of the interview, it is available on the feed.

* Don’t forget Diecon, particularly if you’re into Warmachine.

* The end of Living Greyhawk and start of Living Forgotten Realms.

* Playing a robot in a roleplaying game.

* Comparing point-buy and random rolling for RPG character creation.

* What gets us to keep playing a video game.

* Balancing adversity and challenge in a game.

Hosts: Dan, John, Luke, Matt

* A big thanks to James, Christopher, and all the folks at I-Con!  Also, congratulations to Christopher for his impending fatherhood.

* Converting Adam into the gaming fold, and what kept him from trying out gaming sooner.

* A shout-out from Matt to the folks of MidSouthCon.

* Players that are a destructive influence to your roleplaying game.

* Game Masters that control their players by simply blocking their progress in an RPG.

* Fear the Boot’s Age of Conan guild.

* Don’t forget to send your episode 100 questions to Dan or Luke!

Hosts: Chris, Dan, John, Luke, Matt

* If you’re in the St. Louis area or interested in Warmachine, don’t miss Diecon at the end of May!

* This past week, Dan was a guest host on two shows.  The first is the Gamer Traveler episode in which Dan discusses his cruise.  The second is Kore News with Walt Snider.  If you’d like to discuss the topics on Walt’s show, be sure to visit his forum!

* Karla talks about how many chairs have been destroyed in this house, and Luke recants.

* Drawing your players into the start of a roleplaying game campaign.

* Designing races for your RPG.  And don’t miss this segment’s objection!

Hosts: Dan, John, Karla (briefly), Luke, Matt, Tex

Hosts: Dan, Luke, Matt

Guests: Erik Mona

* Dan and John will be in New York this weekend for I-Con 27!  While there, Fear the Boot will be receiving the Robin D. Laws Award for Excellence in Gaming.

* If you’re in the St. Louis area or a big WarMachine fan, please stop by Diecon in late May.

* If you’re interested in helping start a con in or around Richmond, VA, please check out this site!

* Trampas reviewed Fear the Con in episode 13 of Dragonlance Canticle.

* Be sure to check out Chris Engler’s new podcast, Wapcaplets!

* How to handle uncomfortable social situations when hosting a game.

* Tips for running an epic-level roleplaying game.

Hosts: Dan, Luke, Matt

* If you sent Dan any emails between March 17th and March 20th, please send them again.

* If you’d like to see our first Skies of Glass review, you can find it on RPG Realms in their entry for March 19, 2008.

* We’re working on a dedicated host to improve website performance.

* White Wolf’s Graduate Your Game initiative.

* Settings that have been designed to work with a variety of RPG systems.

* Using external inspiration to assist with character creation.

Hosts: Dan, John, Luke, Tex

* Skies of Glass, Tier 1, is now available in the Resources section of our site.

* Kerrigan, Conan, and Luke’s crappy gaming PC.  You can find Tara Strong’s credits on IMDB.

* Do people take gaming too seriously?

* A more detailed look at board games.  You can find more info on Atomic Earth here.

Hosts: Dan, John, Luke, Matt

* Skies of Glass, Tier 1, will be released as a PDF document when the next episode drops.

* Ah, the Dragonlance episode.  Be sure to check out Trampas’ podcast, Dragonlance Canticle.

* We would like to thank the following folks for supporting Fear the Con…

* Our Flickr account can be found at http://www.flickr.com/groups/feartheboot/.

* What we learned from running this con.  We think this information could help out anyone that’s interested in running a con or just curious what goes on behind the scenes.

Hosts: Dan, John, Luke, Matt

* An FtB commentary track you can play along with Dragonlance: Dragons of the Autumn Twilight.

* Fear the Con on March 8th!  Don’t forget World Wide Wing Night at Side Pockets the Friday before, eye exams from Luke the Sunday after, and Fear the Froot during the event.

* D&D isn’t an RPG…?

* Yet another game derailed by a failure of the group template.  We also offer some advice on meshing subplots with your main plot.

* Converting settings across or into rules systems.  If you want to see the picture of Chad we mention, the original (potentially not safe for work) is here.  The modified picture (safe for work) is here.

Hosts: Dan, Luke, Matt

* BJ’s Liquo store…?

* How Valentine’s Day has destroyed this episode.

* Fear the Con on March 8th!  Don’t forget World Wide Wing Night at Side Pockets the Friday before, eye exams from Luke the Sunday after, and Fear the Froot during the event.

* The Hobbit and other classic books.

* The evolution of arcade games and how that got us thinking about the evolution of roleplaying games.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, John, Matt

* Contrary to what Luke thinks, Furreals are not sexual.

* Fear the Boot PSA #2.  Here is the relevant link.

* Join us for Fear the Con on March 8th!  Don’t forget to donate to Tony Mast’s Fear the Froot.  And we hope you’ll join us for World Wide Wing Night the Friday night before the con and the eye exams at Meyer Eye Care the Sunday after the con.

* The Warhammer 40,000 RPG.

* Joseph Campbell’s “hero’s journey” and its relevance to running a roleplaying game.  Since Tex did so much research, we’ll provide a short bibliography of his sources…

http://library.thinkquest.org/03oct/00800/journey.htm
http://www.jcf.org/about_jc.php
https://www.mauiwriters.com/mwconline/transcripts/SW_Vogler_Writers_Journey.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero’s_Journey#.22The_Hero.27s_Journey.22
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell
http://www.clickok.co.uk/index4.html

Hosts: Dan, Luke, Matt, Tex

* Skyrocket reminds us of a major perk of the FLGS: the dice bin.

* Is it possible to cheat in dice rolling with pure physics?

* Fear the Con is still coming up on March 8th, and don’t forget Tony Mast’s Fear the Froot effort!  Please send an email to Luke if you’re interested in volunteering to help out at the con.

* A shout-out to Lee.

* The Fear the Boot hoodies from Geeklabel.

* Is gaming without gaming still enjoyable?

* Roleplaying games where character creation is more interesting than the game itself.  The Hero Game 5th Edition ballistic test can be found here.

* RPGs that use GM fiat to make decisions instead of dice.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Luke, Matt, Tex

* Skiing.
* Luke’s musical aspirations.
* Fear the Con.
* Fear the Froot, sponsored by Tony Mast.
* Cartoons.
* Comic books.
* A little bit on the future of Fear the Boot.

Hosts: Chad, Luke, Tex

* D&D 4th edition modules.

* Historical accuracy in gaming.

* Dialog in your roleplaying game.  The accent CDs from Pulp Gamer can be found here and here.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, John, Luke, Tex

* If you want a Fear the Boot hoodie, you can find them here.  Be sure to type “feartheboot” (without the quotes) in the coupon field.  This offer may be for a limited time only, so if you want it, get it fast!

* Luke’s Chromehounds group, Iron Tyrants.  Friends lists for PS3, Xbox Live, and Wii.

* Dealing with “that one player” in your roleplaying game.

* Dan’s bad gaming story…finally.

* Fear the Boot on Fanboy Smackdown doing an episode about Top Gun.  FAIR WARNING!  This episode was done at Gencon before we made our promise to lay off certain kinds of language and insulting certain people groups.

* Friendly local gaming stores.

Hosts: Adam, Dan, John, Luke, Tex

* Who the girls love in the sci-fi/fantasy world.

* Conventions, Renaissance Fairs, etc.

* Ice-O-Hedron gaming con in Toronto.

* Fear the Con‘s masquerade.

* Movies they’d love to see made.

Hosts: Becky, Katie, Karla, Melina…and Phil

* Dan’s New Years resolution.

* Christmas stories.

* Animals, familiars, and mounts in a roleplaying game.

* Designing and running factions in your RPG.

* Phil’s podcast at http://www.insert-coinlive.com.

Hosts: Adam, Dan, John, Luke

* Adam loses his World of Warcraft account.

* A Fear the Con update.

* December is out to destroy your games.

* Running a holiday-themed game. And, sadly, I found the Christmas in the Stars song John alluded to.  After that, go listen to Chewbacca sing Silent Night.

* The list of top 10 aphrodisiacs.

* Adam tries to defend Sliders and Dragonball Z.

* Our experiences with Magic: The Gathering.

* Our favorite ladies from science fiction TV and movies, followed by our favorites from video games.

* My Enormous Penis by Da Vinci’s Notebook.

Hosts: Adam, Dan, John, Luke

* Fear the Con.

* When Game Masters try to cover subject areas they don’t know much about.

* Designing roleplaying game modules for use at a convention.

Hosts: Adam, Dan, Joe, Luke

Details and registration can be found at: http://www.warhorn.net/fearthecon

* Fear the Con now has an official website at http://www.warhorn.net/fearthecon.

* Gaming in distracting environments.

* Designing maps for your roleplaying game.

Hosts: Adam, Dan, John, Keith, Luke

* The Summoning convention coming up for anyone in the Florida area.

* Reserve March 8th, 2008 for Fear the Con!  Details can be found here.

* What the heck is wrong with the Kessel Run?

* Karla’s newbie gaming experiences.

* Explaining the roleplaying game hobby to those that don’t play.

Hosts: Adam, Dan, John, Karla, Luke

* A shout-out to Phil’s podcast, Insert Coin Live, and a look forward to our joint Conan MMO guild.

* Dan’s bad gaming experiences.

* Introducing new players to roleplaying games.

Hosts: Adam, Dan, Luke

* A shout-out to Shawn Willet, the drunk wookie trucker!

* Luke’s reviews: Colonial Gothic and Eschalon: Book I.

* Weapons, axes, etc.  Flight of the Conchords Lord of the Rings video can be found here.

* Games gone horribly wrong.

Hosts: Adam, John, Karla, Luke, Tex

* Skies of Glass play-test results.  The “developers” thing John was talking about can be found here.

* Players finishing the campaign too quickly, with a tangent on computer adventure games.  And, yes, exfiltrate really is a word.

Hosts: Adam, Dan, John, Luke

* Fear the Boot sponsored convention on March 8th, 2008.

* See Luke for your eye care needs!

* Luke asks Dan about why Battletech’s flavor doesn’t come out well in many of its sourcebooks.

* The newest weapon in Dan’s arsenal.

* Comparisons, advice, and and information regarding the old and new World of Darkness.

Hosts: Adam, Dan, John, Luke

* World Wide Wing Night 3.  The St. Louis group will be meeting at the Syberg’s on Dorsett.

* Donating your old game books to your local library.

* Luke gets outed.

* Dan’s view on capital ship combat!  Ok, just kidding.  We actually talk about house rules.  Here’s the command-prompt Portal game John was talking about.

* Since it’s Halloween, we get Luke’s insight on running a horror game.  We talked him up during episode 45, so now we get it straight from the source.

* Spoof winner #1: Meg, Josh, and Zeke from Brilliant Gameologists.  Meg doesn’t have any speaking parts since we don’t currently have a female on the cast.

* Spoof winner #2: Forum user, Tim White, who is also the composer of our current theme music.

Hosts: Adam, Dan, John, Luke

Hosts: Dan, John, Luke

Guests: Shane Hensley

* Congratulations to Tony Mast on the birth of his daughter!

* Fear the Boot spoof contest.

* World Wide Wing Night 3!  St. Louis now has a reserved location at Sybergs.

* Bringing a campaign to a proper end.

Hosts: Adam, Dan, John, Luke

* Fear the Boot EVE guild.

* Spoof Fear the Boot podcast contest.

* Tex’s dating update.

* A review of Catalyst Game’s new Battletech products.

* Festivuscon recap.

* Campaign rules.

Hosts: Adam, Dan, Luke, Tex

* Our EVE guild is thriving.  We hope you’ll join us!

* Spoof Fear the Boot podcast contest.

* The relationship between the number of modules and the success of an RPG.

* Ryan and Tim offer a rebuttal to episode 67 in which they defend organized play events.

Hosts: Adam, Dan, John, Luke, Tex
Guest Hosts: Ryan Dancey, Tim White

* Keeping track of your GM notes.

* Roleplaying game modules.

* Our favorite RPG game mechanics.

Hosts: Adam, Dan, John, Luke

* Spoof contest reminder.

* World Wide Wing Night 3 on Saturday, November 10th.

* Gaming pet peeves.

* Dan’s Ennies speech on YouTube.

* Drinking and gaming.

* Dealing with the loss of a “hub” character.

Hosts: Dan, John, Luke

* A possible St. Louis con early in 2008, sponsored by Fear the Boot.

* Spoof Fear the Boot podcast contest.

* The disappearance of FASA Studios.

* Making good villains for your roleplaying game.

* Designing urban settings for an RPG.

Hosts: Dan, John, Luke

* Shout-out to Carpe GM and Theory From the Closet podcasts.

* See Adam as a furry!

* How do you stop your players from over-planning how to handle a plot point?

* At what point should a PC become an NPC?

* Immediately drawing the players into a first game.

Hosts: Adam, Dan, John, Karla, Luke

* Flatcon October 5th – 7th in Bloomington, IL.

* The revival of the Fear the Boot World of Warcraft guild.  Sort of.

* D&D 4th edition.

* CDs to help Americans learn accents, courtesy of Pulp Gamer.

* GNS theory.

* Introducing players to new, complex settings without boring them.

Hosts: Adam, Dan, John, Luke, Tex, Shamus

* Where did Tex get his nickname?

* What makes a roleplaying game “mature”?

* Organized/persistent/living/etc RPG events.

* Sleeping arrangements and other nonsense at Gencon.

Hosts: Dan, Dan, Daniel, Eric, John, Scott, Tex, Tony (no, that isn’t a typo)

* Light liquor versus dark liquor.

* Our tour of the dealer room, including our hands-on with Conan.

* Returning to gaming after a long hiatus.  Or why people take long breaks in the first place.

* Etiquette for gaming at a con.

* Phil arrives to talk about Great War of Magellan.

* The conclusion of the Power 16.  You can see the final results here!

Hosts: Adam, Chris, John, Paul, Tony…and eventually Phil

* A shout-out to Accidental Survivors and Gamer Traveler podcasts.

* Why we’re a bit slow in responding to email right now.

* Gencon podcasting meet and greet reminder.

* Festivus Con.

* Starcraft Night of Carnage.

* What’s up with Spirit of the Century?

* Running a military game.

* Adding RP to a wargame.

Hosts: Adam, Dan, Luke, Phil, Tex

As for the episode, the title says it all!  This show is about the pitfalls and success stories of internet dating!

* We spent the weekend at Archon, so we record a round-up of the con.  Excuse the sound quality as we’re in a hotel meeting room, and Dan is losing his voice from speaking so much at panels.

* What we did at Archon.

* Phil’s annoyance with 10-year-olds in the gaming room and us feeling old.

* Our failed furry panel crashing.

* How cons change over time.

* A chance meeting with Richard Hatch.

* Cherry-picking what you care about at a con.

Hosts: Adam, Dan, John, Luke, Phil