Plundergrounds

Tired of hearing crappy audio? Anyone want to help me with my mic issues? Contact me ... my gmail is just my name all run together, no caps.

This is a long one. Call-ins include: Karl of The GMologist Presents, Chris Shorb, BJ the Arcane Alienist, and Cody Mazza of No Save for You! Promised links: John Oak Dalton, my Itch.io Page, where you will find free games like The Oracle and Sorcerers & Sellswords, Lasers & Feelings, CRGE, Lester Dent's pulp fiction generator in the Thrilling Tales Omnibus. 

Through the Valley of the Manticore KS. Not a Place of Honor. La Planète Sauvage. Opening closing jingles by Alex Schroeder of Halberds & Helmets.

A review of Carcass Crawler issue 1, from Gavin Norman's Old School Essentials line. Opening jingle by Alex Schroeder of the Halberds & Helmets podcast

Karl of The GMologist Presents calls us about Rush. I talk about their Hemispheres and 2112 albums, as well as the songs Rivendell and The Trees. I talk about hermeneutics, and Noam Chomsky on extensibility, and definitions of role-playing that appear in Peterson's Playing at the World and Elusive Shift books. I also visited some sequoias recently! 

Cinema Strangiato (the Rush "movie" I mentioned), the Hindsightless podcast with Joe Richter, Robservations with Rob Liefeld.

This week I'm having a look at Codex R by Roque Romero and Eric K. Hill. Also mentioned: Fantastic Planet and Itras By. Chiptune by Alex Schroeder of the Halberds & Helmets podcast.

Looking at In the Shadow of Tower Silver Axe with Evil Jeff of the Minions and Musings podcast. Chiptune by Alex Schroeder of the Halberds & Helmets podcast.

Guest is Jason from the Nerd's RPG Variety Podcast. Chiptune by Alex Schroeder of the Halberds & Helmets podcast.

Hex Drive by Micah Anderson is available at Rook's Press or as a PDF through itch.io. Opening jingle by Alex Schroeder of the Halberds & Helmets podcast. 

• SIEGE: Pocket Warfare, a modular battle-defense system to use with your RPGs created by BiteSizedGaming

• Co-host Jason from the Nerd's RPG Variety Podcast.

• Chiptune by Alex Schroeder of the Halberds & Helmets podcast.

I talk about over and under "grounding" fiction in role-playing. I also shill two amazing podcast episodes, Daydreaming About Dragons 69 and Spikepit 333. 

I'm back after a hiatus, partly thanks to a challenge thrown out there by Judd Karlman of Daydreaming About Dragons. I'm rolling a d20 for topics this season. Today is #12, one submitted by (I think) Logan Howard of Swordbreaker: If you were tasked with training players for greatness, what steps would you take? In response I talk about developing self-awareness through a player inventory. (Partly inspired by Rob C's confessional on Down in a Heap.) I then talk about developing a table awareness and finally putting in the hours at the table.

This episode features some great call ins from Judd of Daydreaming About Dragons and Joe of the Hindsightless podcasts. I spend a bit of time talking about engaging with fiction and projecting one's self into fictional worlds. Then Barney of Loco Ludus calls in to talk Kriegsspiel and cultural stereotypes. I mention Playing At the World, an amazing Kriegsspiel table, David Wesley, the Bruanstein game, Strategos.

Part 1: thoughts on adjudicating in-game effects literally or adjusting them to the fiction. Part 2: thoughts on the Free Kriegspiel Revolution. Stuff mentioned: Old School Essentials, The Glatisant. 

Readings from the foreword to The Best of Science Fiction, an anthology from 1946. Edited by Groff Conklin, published by Crown.

JJ and I talk about character arcs from generation to transformation. The context is a 12 session campaign of the Marvel Superhero Adventure Game with 1 GM and 4 players. We cover topics like card-based mechanics, "comic book frame narrative," switching gears from physical to digital play, fictional positioning, super hero style transformations, etc.

I give an overview of Jack Kirby's Eternals as an RPG setting. Kirby's Kids, The Eternals by Jack Kirby, The Eternals by Neil Gaiman, New Gods by Jack Kirby, Chariots of the Gods by Erich Von Daniken.

The last five words of #RPGaDay2020: Favour, Close, Ride, Portal, Experience. Things mentioned: Old School Essentials, D&D 5e, Marvel Superhero Adventure Game, Rakka's Raiders (in the Plundergrounds Zine bundle), Lord of the Rings, Narnia, Dungeon World. 

An interesting idea I had, and a kind of fun mini-game, for generating old school D&D stats. Also a bit of life advice about not feeding negativity.

Stream-of-consciousness riffing on the words Rare, Edge, Humor, Lever, and Strange. Things mentioned: Ghosts of Saltmarsh, Over the Edge, The Great Slow Kings by Roger Zelazny.

Call-ins from Evil Jeff of Minions and Musings and Jason of the Nerd's RPG Variety Podcast. Milestone XP in Old School Essentials (episode, spreadsheet). Cultural touchstones; Judd on "knife fights in space." Sorcerers & Sellswords. Tiger and Del. Spikepit, Puddleglum, Innsmouth Look, Mike Myers' Canada. Polaris by Ben Lehman. 

The who, what, when, where, and why of framing scenes. Giving dramatic moments space. Finding comfort in rpg prep. Getting past the "meet at the inn" moment. The mythical nature of towers. Clues for investigation shouldn't be subtle, and sometimes it's fun to investigate without purpose. Push was a cool movie and I wrote a game about it that worked on the "loner" character problem. Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came! Librivox - etext. 

#RPGaDay2020 continues. Sorry about the audio issues! Shade - don't throw it! Light - Safer Fantasy Crafting says 'rules light is both Kindergarten and Ph.D. role-playing.' Want - to not want! Old School Essentials Advanced and Dicey Times. Stack - people like to stack things, designs should give gamers things to stack. Messages - leave your characters meaningful in-world messages! Rest - is unsatisfying if it is simply a reset mechanic. Make them into scenes? Banner - people love to show their allegiances, so characters/NPCs in game worlds should have lots of banners, badges of office, patches, etc. Gygax 75 challenge podcasts and booklet.  

I'm a big fat cheater when it comes to the #RPGaDay2020 challenge. Though I'm supposed to talk about one word each day, I instead lump them all together for the week. So here are the first seven words. I talk about "Beginning" a lot, and then do quick hits on the other six: change, thread, vision, tribute, forest, couple. Opening clip is from the movie Dune. Games mentioned: Ogre, Melee, Wizard, Death Test, D&D Holmes Basic, Traveller, Oracle, Prime Time Adventures, Microscope. Other stuff: Star Wars: A New Hope, Lord of the Rings, the Science Fiction Book Club, A Wizard of Earthsea, The Dragonriders of Pern, Midnight's Lair (defunct podcast), Merlin, Aladdin's Castle, Alien (movie), TI-994a. My free games are found at rayotus.itch.io. 

In this episode I talk about using milestone XP in OSE D&D without losing the particular feel of the different speeds of class progression. The referenced spreadsheet is available in the notes for this show. Call-ins are from Jason of the Nerds RPG Variety Podcast, John Alan Large of RDDRPG, Paul Unslaked of the OtakuGeneration podcast, and Lieren from Updates from the Middle of Nowhere. Call-in topics are spell books, Collaborative NPCs, GM crash, The Score - a WIP PbtA game about anime sports. Games mentioned Old School Essentials, Holmes Basic D&D, My Life with Master, Misspent Youth, The Score (not yet available).

I talk with Colin Green of the Spikepit podcast about Sorcerers & Sellswords (a hack of John Harper's Lasers & Feelings). Show notes at plundergrounds.com. 

Do you really know the rules, or do you just think you do? In this episode I talk about the value of revisiting rulebooks after actual play to focus one's understanding of the game you are playing. John Alan Large of the Red Dice Diaries podcast gets me started by calling in to talk Old School Essentials. 

I imagine the spell Fog Hammer and talk about The Ghost City, a setting-within-a-setting for my Old School Essentials game. I mention Ramanan's character generator for Ben Milton's Maze Rats, Jonathan Harper's Ghost/Echo, China Mieville's The City & The City, Fred Hicks' Don't Rest Your Head, Itras By, and H. G. Wells' The Door in the Wall. Encounter table at www.plundergrounds.com. 

Show notes at https://plundergrounds.blogspot.com.

Show notes at https://plundergrounds.blogspot.com. Theme song by Logan Howard, the Sword Breaker.  Joe from Hindsightless, Cards in RPGs, Space Kings, Lonely Adventurer, Gygax 75 challenge, Matterguffins, Moorcock's Swords Trilogy (Corum), OSE GM Screen and Player's Rules Tome, Gaming & BS + Jason Hobbs on Low Fantasy Gaming, Judd Karlman's Daydreaming About Dragons, D&D Ability Questions, Jeff Collyer's Tome of All Dooms, Ironsworn the RPG.

Show notes at https://plundergrounds.blogspot.com. Theme song by Logan Howard, the Sword Breaker. 

Shout out to Angus of Kirby's Kids for the topic suggestion! Show notes at https://plundergrounds.blogspot.com. 

Show notes at https://plundergrounds.blogspot.com. Editing by Aonghais of the Kirby's Kids podcast. Show them by Logan Howard.

Show notes at http://www.plundergrounds.com. Games at https://rayotus.itch.io. Theme song by Logan Howard.

Show notes at http://plundergrounds.blogspot.com. Theme song by Logan Howard, performed by Lu Quade.

Show notes at http://plundergrounds.blogspot.com. Theme song by Logan Howard, performed by Lu Quade.

Show notes at http://plundergrounds.blogspot.com. Editing help from Angus of the Kirby's Kids podcast!

Show notes at https://plundergrounds.blogspot.com.

Great show notes and a few visuals at https://www.kirbyskids.com/2020/04/rays-rarities-eerie-presents-el-cid.html. 

Show notes at http://www.plundergrounds.com. Did you know you can leave a voice message? Theme song by Logan Howard of the Sword Breaker podcast! Tags: Science Fiction, Movie, Mars, Monsters, Martians, Session Design, Dungeon Crawl Classics. Daniel Fowler call about stealing from bad movies. Conan the Destroyer. Alien Resurrection. Matt Covil on genius. The Angry Red Planet, 1959. Cast: Gerald Mohr: Ace Pilot, Man's Man; Nora Hayden: Biologist, Femme Fatale; Les Treymane: Professorial Dude; Jack Krushen: Grease Monkey/Security; Directed by Ib Melchior and Sidney Pink. Reptilicus, 1961. Applying the "red filter."

Show notes at http://www.plundergrounds.blogspot.com. Did you know you can leave a voice message? Theme song by Logan Howard of the Sword Breaker podcast!

Show notes at http://www.plundergrounds.blogspot.com. Did you know you can leave a voice message? Theme song by Logan Howard of the Sword Breaker podcast!

Show notes at http://www.plundergrounds.com. Did you know you can leave a voice message? Theme song by Logan Howard of the Sword Breaker podcast!

Show notes at http://www.plundergrounds.com. Did you know you can leave a voice message? Theme song by Logan Howard of the Sword Breaker podcast! Arneson theme by T. J. Drennon.

Show notes at http://www.plundergrounds.com. Did you know you can leave a voice message? Theme song by Logan Howard of the Sword Breaker podcast!

Show notes at http://www.plundergrounds.com. Did you know you can leave a voice message? Theme song by Logan Howard of the Sword Breaker podcast!

Show notes at http://www.plundergrounds.com. Did you know you can leave a voice message?

Show notes at http://www.plundergrounds.com. Did you know you can leave a voice message?

Show notes at http://www.plundergrounds.com. Did you know you can leave a voice message?

PART TWO at the No Save For You podcast: https://anchor.fm/nosaveforyou. Show notes: http://plundergrounds.blogspot.com.  Leave a voice message: https://anchor.fm/plundergrounds/message.

If you are coming to this episode without having first listened to part 1 on the No Save For You podcast, you should go do that. Show notes at https://plundergrounds.blogspot.com. Leave a voice message: https://anchor.fm/plundergrounds/message. 

This is a "false episode" to tell you to go listen to part 1 of my Delving Deeper discussion with Cody of the No Save for You podcast! Show notes: http://plundergrounds.blogspot.com. Leave a voice message: https://anchor.fm/plundergrounds/message

Show notes at http://plundergrounds.blogspot.com

Show notes at plundergrounds.blogspot.com.

Show notes at plundergrounds.blogspot.com.

Show notes at plundergrounds.blogspot.com. 

Show notes at www.plundergrounds.blogspot.com.

I talk about my play experience with Troika! and try to achieve some closure. Click HERE for show notes. (Troika!, Fighting Fantasy, Prog Rock, Silent Titans, Keep Off the Borderlands)

(Oft delayed) show notes at www.jellysaw.com. 

Notes at www.jellysaw.com.

Show notes will be available at www.jellysaw.com. 

Show notes at www.jellysaw.com.

Show notes at www.jellysaw.com.

Notes at http://www.jellysaw.com.

Full show notes at www.jellysaw.com

Full show notes at www.jellysaw.com

10 books that every adventure game fan should read in their lifetime! Notes to follow at www.jellysaw.com.

Show notes at www.jellysaw.com. 

www.jellysaw.com

www.jellysaw.com

www.jellysaw.com

www.jellysaw.com

www.jellysaw.com

I hold forth on using Magic the Gathering cards as creative inspiration for RPGs. Both baseline ideas here were stolen from WotC's mobile app/magazine, Dragon+. It's free; check it out. The referenced card images and full show notes can be found at ww.jellysaw.com. 

Random topics including encounter tables, timers, avoiding rust monsters, Dune, Barsoom, bronze age gaming, OGRE, illusions, Revolt on Antares, Tetsuo, the Tripod Trilogy, and establishing questions. Full show notes at http://www.jellysaw.com. 

A quick rant about encounter tables that are too repetitive/thin. Full show notes at http://www.jellysaw.com. 

Angus and I wrap up the week, even though we then hung around for another 4+ hours talking to people, buying stuff, and generally basking in the gamer glow. Topics include world building at TSR, Zeb Cook, Planescape, writing for yourself vs. for the mob, making jump from TTRPGs to computer games, Interplanar Melee, and gaming at Gary Gygax's house. Full show notes at http://www.jellysaw.com.

Angus and I talk Bob Meyer's Blackmoor game and the experience of "Arneson's D&D," Traveller character generation seminar with Marc Miller and his Traveller novels, Steve Jackson's vintage Kickstarters, Elric the AH board game, and the day ahead. Later I cast with Cody M of No Save for You and Larry Hamilton of Follow Me and Die! Then I recap my day gaming with Brett of Gaming and BS and playing at Gary Gygax's house. Full show notes at http://www.jellysaw.com.

Angus recaps his day, we talk about B/X Essentials, sourcing the table, play culture at Gary Con, and I debrief on my two events (Goblintown and Dungeon World). Full show notes at http://www.jellysaw.com.

I talk with Angus of Kirby's Kids about our upcoming day and drop con guest names. Then I joust with Cody M of No Save for You. The day ends with a tired ramble about the day's games. Full show notes at http://www.jellysaw.com.

I talk about doing creative things as a way of avoiding doing other creative things. Squirrel! Full show notes at http://www.jellysaw.com. 

Topics include: time spent on the toilet, self-doubt, the book Annihilation, relating the old to the new/mundane to exotic, Valentine's Day, history books on Audible, Gobekli Tepe, crocodile erections, Melee/Wizard/Fantasy Trip, Delving Deeper, Quintessential and Essential BX... Full show notes at http://www.jellysaw.com. 

I talk about GMs and players crossing boundaries in play, kaiju movies, the Goblintown design challenge, and Peter Jackson's They Shall Not Grow Old. Full show notes at www.jellysaw.com.

Talking about Roadside Picnic, Stalker, Into the Odd, Annihilation. Full show notes at http://www.jellysaw.com.

Celebrating my last day of braces! Listing of ideas for future podcasts, talking about The Monster Brothers podcast, my supportive wife, Delving Deeper, Warriors of the Red Planet, future Plundergrounds zines, Fantastic Planet, etc. Full show notes at www.jellysaw.com.