HEY….WHERE’S THE DOWNLOAD BUTTON?

Just so you know. I don’t see any download link or play in window link on any of the episodes.

On the mobile portion of the site

Appears to be there for the PC version. Merhaps a new type of player for the site; seems a different color.

They just updated the PowerPress plugin and swapped out all of the MP3 players. I didn’t realize it took away the link on the mobile site. Looking into it now.

FYI Chad was off the mark about White Day.

In Japan on Valentine’s Day girls give chocolate to boys they like and friends and family and all that. So White Day, on March 14, is where people who got chocolate give something in return.

Also it’s called White Day because it was started by a company trying to hustle marshmallows.

P.S. Gnarl’s Twitter is great.

@Sgt Dan – It looks like the PowerPress player isn’t compatible with the mobile plugin we’re using. I’ve temporarily disabled the mobile version of the site while I search for another one. In the meantime, you’ll see the regular website on your browser.

@Jeremy – Thanks for the info on White Day! That’s pretty cool.

Hey there! The Angry took issue with one of your recent podcasts and went on one of his rants about it…after reading it, I was wondering what your take on his beef with your definition of Roleplaying was. He makes some interesting points.

Here’s the link: http://www.madadventurers.com/angry-rants-role-playing/

“Role-playing is the art of making choices. That is all it is.”

I completely agree with his definition. If you split the word back into its parts, roleplaying is literally playing a role, or pretending to exist in a way other than you actually do. I also think he’s right that some people are better at acting and writing than others, so you need to be careful about refusing rewards to someone that’s simply not as good at it.

I’ve roleplayed in video games that involve no other people and indeed no dialog trees.

However, I disagree with the point he’s working toward, because he dropped the third part of the phrase: roleplaying GAME. That game part exists in the form of rules, numbers, random decision makers, etc, all of which are motivating factors to the player but nonexistent to the character.

Yes, a good roleplayer will make the decisions their character would. However, players are going to inevitably contemplate the game (and even metagame) when making those choices, sometimes coming to conclusions they wouldn’t have in the absence of math and table-side social pressure.

Point being: roleplaying can and should pervade every part of the game and, as he described, is indeed just the act of estimating what another person would do. However, because of the influence of the game and metagame, that tends to be expressed more frequently in the events that are most detached from the rules. In other words, the talking parts.

I also agree that roleplaying can occur purely in the head of the roleplayer and does not necessitate conversation. Heck, choosing not to speak might be exactly what a character would do. But you got together with a bunch of friends for a reason. If your character just thinks cool things and stays silent…well, I guess if your group is cool with that, it’s all good. As for me, I want to enjoy the characters my friends have come up with, not just sit there and ponder what they might be like if they ever spoke.

@DanielR Thank you, sir. Fleas Navy Dad.

Thanks for the reply. Fear The Boot and The Angry DM are my top favorite game-related blogs and podcasts, so it’s interesting when the two of you have very different opinions on things.

Do is partially an Avatar homage, but it has something else important in its DNA: The Little Prince.

In-world holidays in your games, oh wow, have we been doing that in this campaign.
The world we’re running this game in is my homebrewed setting; I’m hoping to get it illustrated and published sometime. It has holidays; each of the major races has its own, sometimes overlapping, and as we keep track of where in the world’s year the party has gotten to, and get to the holidays, we write them into the action. Sometimes the players have added a holiday. So far we have celebrated:

Worm Day (mid-July in our world) — gnomes
Midsummer (June 21 — elves celebrate the shortest night with particular foods and wearing white, humans celebrate the shortest day mostly with games and sports)
Sulphur Week (just after midsummer) — dwarves camp out, fumigate their dwellings, and let off fireworks
The equinoxes are mostly religious meditative occasions
Torodnovadaeg is celebrated by dwarves on a floating schedule known only to them, never described to non-dwarves, and the story of Queen Torodnova is retold, never the same way twice. If you aren’t a dwarf you aren’t allowed to know that.

We like putting holidays in our game especially because one of our players, for religious reasons, does not celebrate holidays. However, he feels his character is entitled to because the character does not follow the same faith as the player does.

@TheStray Interesting link. The stressing of making choices that actually matter is one of those concepts that one can love about rpg’s apart from other games.

Playing the part and making choices, in character, is part of roleplaying. I don’t know that one would say that such a definition of roleplay or good roleplay could be limited to just that though. Description of which words or how they do something is an equal part in my eyes.

The other issue is the golden rule of gaming: is it making it fun for everyone at the table? The quiet, brooding character can be fun to player but is often invisible to everyone else at the table. An option, depending on the character of course, would be to pull another character aside and discuss the conflict with him. Naturally it would be unlikely that your character and him would have the same morality, but it would give a window to that conflict. It could be a dud; it could be a great scene. One won’t know until they try.

Skills at descriptions and talking, it just comes with practice.

Thanks a bunch for this episode, guys! Y’all have been a huge help in building my own RPG podcast for the Hc Svnt Dracones furry/scifi game. This week’s episode focused on holidays, with thanks to Fear the Boot. So much appreciated!
http://www.radiofreedeimos.com/2016/12/e8-holidays/