* (0:29) Thanks to Eric Van Note for Swole Mole!
* (3:15) The value of terrible GMing.
* (8:42) Everyone is their own most inept critic. Sojourn Volume 2.
* (15:28) The worst possible outcome: something being forgettable.
* (22:20) Asking Doug to grade his own game.
* (25:35) The value of creating art, simply for the act of creation.
* (37:04) A few too many contacts in someone’s eyes.
Hosts: Dan, Doug, Mary, Wayne
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* (0:29) Dan prefers affiliated groups, Wayne does not.
* (2:15) Cohesion, identity, and help.
* (9:35) Affiliations you start with as opposed to those you pick up along the way.
* (11:56) The party’s direction and motivation. Affiliating with an ideal.
* (20:23) Affiliations create an obvious pool of NPC relationships.
* (25:40) External versus internal affiliations, and how they’re not mutually exclusive.
* (32:06) Taking extreme positions just to highlight the topic.
Hosts: Dan, Doug, Julia, Wayne
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* (0:28) An update on the Actual Play.
* (4:48) The InSpectres RPG (at least temporarily back in print!) and our AP interlude using its rules.
* (8:09) Why play InSpectres as an interlude to the main campaign? Apparently only Dan has heard of Michelle Jenneke.
* (12:58) Plus an extra player.
* (16:10) The, “yes and,” style of gaming.
* (21:31) Assisting new players when they’re stuck.
* (26:24) Seeing roleplaying games as a starting point, not a finished product.
* (33:43) It’s not just a game; it’s on the mics.
* (39:19) No takebacks!
Hosts: Dan, Mary, Wayne
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* (0:28) Things are getting set for Fear the Con! An intro to RPGs game is available for newcomers.
* (2:03) A shared Minecraft server. You can find more information on Discord.
* (5:52) Realigning your game with a mid-campaign session zero. Special thanks to Gaming with Gage.
* (8:46) Making the case to have one.
* (12:59) Remembering the times we did this during the Skies of Glass campaign.
* (16:38) Reusing or reviewing the exact same work you did in session zero.
* (23:15) Being too specific or too general.
Hosts: Dan, Mary, Wayne
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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* (0:29) Julia ruins everything.
* (1:35) Things are getting set for Fear the Con! An intro to RPGs game is available for newcomers. You can also announce your games on Discord.
* (9:03) Coming out of a period of deep fatigue. How one game still never missed a week.
* (16:18) Spoons and other finite resources.
* (20:06) Why it might be best to bite off a bit less. You may not be gaming as much as you think, anyway.
* (26:41) Does gaming with strangers help the problem?
* (31:37) Kids, you’re already in the real world.
* (34:32) Strange schedules and cascading cancellations.
* (37:42) Gambling with the eleventh dollar.
Hosts: Dan, Julia, Mary, Wayne
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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* (0:28) Running a game when someone else knows the setting a whole lot better than you do.
* (2:07) The lack of pronunciation guides in most games.
* (3:16) Narrowing down the task by asking what’s important about the setting to the players.
* (7:59) Getting the essence or feel of the setting right. We need a Thug Notes recap of BattleTech lore.
* (12:53) Start small and work outward, learning just what you need for each step along the way.
* (21:15) Tell your players you only know some canon and therefore will only use some canon.
* (24:01) Setting an ending to the canon so you can tell your own story. Breaking continuity early to get it over with.
* (28:35) Keeping a chunk of authentic setting. Otherwise, why run it at all?
* (33:56) Asking your setting experts to give you limited homework.
* (35:09) We look forward to seeing you at Fear the Con!
Hosts: Dan, Mary, Wayne
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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* (0:29) The Kickstarter for Fear the Con 2023 is live for one more week!
* (1:56) The wonderful confusion new players and GMs bring to a roleplaying game.
* (16:59) An imagined internal-consistency is sometimes more fun than an intended one.
* (22:17) The burden of your own expectations.
* (28:29) When contradictions aren’t actually contradictions. The Law of Non-Contradiction.
* (35:16) The emotion of Muscle March.
* (36:22) The ideas that mistakes allow us to explore.
Hosts: Dan, Julia, Mary, Wayne
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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* (0:31) The Kickstarter for Fear the Con 2023 is live!
* (1:04) The new fiction podcast, Bite Size Tales.
* (3:09) Game mechanics we’re particularly fond of.
* (4:54) Rerolls and other roll-modifying mechanics.
* (10:13) A close relationship between skills and attributes.
* (15:46) Life paths in character creation.
* (24:48) Using all the dice.
* (30:12) Injury instead of a simple health pool.
* (38:08) Lots of randomness.
* (40:31) Building something bigger than your character.
* (44:13) Double-edged character traits.
Hosts: Dan, Mary, Wayne
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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* (0:28) The Kickstarter for Fear the Con 2023 is live!
* (1:12) Things a Game Master has done to make a world seem a little more alive (with credit to JoshB for the topic).
* (5:46) Plot hooks, substories, and unanswered questions about my character.
* (9:16) Allowing characters to have goals, ambitions, and projects.
* (13:32) Giving me things I can trust that won’t betray me or become a vulnerability.
* (19:52) Investing the players in world-building that matters.
* (29:25) Don’t constantly veto your players.
* (31:55) Digging through enough specifics may reveal a general truth you can use.
Hosts: Dan, Mary, Wayne
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts |