Carnagecast

In episode 60 of Carnagecast, Tyler flies solo: no co-host, no guest! News of Carnage 2015 is soon to come. This past weekend the Green Mountain Gamers held their Winter Weirdness game day in Barre, Vermont. Games were played, money was raised for the Vermont Center for Independent Living and fun was had. Tyler talks about the games he got to play: three favorites and a brand new one. Where else can you run into Carnage folks in New England: MEGA Spring Meltdown, TotalCon and PAX East, to name a few.

Tyler wraps up with some of his other tabletop interests at the moment, including a live play show on YouTube called Decked! and dabbling in Doomtown. Carnagecast now has a voice mail box. Call in and let us know what you think!

Subscribe to Carnagecast on iTunes! Like Carnage on Facebook. Follow Carnage on Twitter: @Carnagecon. Leave us a voice mail at (802) 448-2019. Go behind the jump for the show links.

In episode 59 of Carnagecast, it’s that slow time between Christmas and New Year’s when we are all sluggish with egg nog. Ray and Tyler discuss two of the most common modes of role-playing games: the long form campaign and the short form one-shot. Each mode has its relative strengths and weaknesses, so we discuss them for anyone who’s yet to try one or the other. Turns out that the two complement each other pretty well, and it’s not so surprising they’re possibly the two most common and well-known of role-playing modes.

If you have suggestions for topics or games you’d like us to cover, write to us: [email protected]!

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In episode 58 of Carnagecast, we talk about A Fistful of Carnage, the game convention Carnage held at Killington, Vermont last month. Yes, it’s been a month. We’ve recovered and are back, ready to talk about the fun we had and games in general in the coming year. Highlights of the weekend include, but are not limited to: the resurgence of interest in Dungeons & Dragons with the arrival of the fifth edition, Golden Goblin Press running Call of Cthulhu, Andre Kruppa’s own Lucid Dreams game, the pageantry of Miss Phoebe’s steampunk LARP and the metamorphosis of Gygax Magazine’s pub quiz into the less explicable pub calvinball.

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Ray flies solo this episode as he talks with Andrew Valkauskas, the designer behind Fate of the Norns: Ragnarok, about his new card game Gulveig, the future of the Fate of the Norns line, crowdfunding and more.

Gulveig is a quick, casual card game, featuring dynamic trick-taking and bluffing, with Viking clans gaining and losing supremacy over the course of the game. It’s designed to be family-friendly, with optional elements to increase the crunch factor.

The conversation turns to Pendelhaven’s success with the crowdfunding model of raising capital and future plans for the Fate of the Norns line. Depending on their success with titles like Gulveig and Vigridr, a crunchier card game now in beta testing, Fate of the Norns may expand beyond the role-playing market to become a genre-spanning game property.

Andrew and his crew will be at A Fistful of Carnage, demoing Gulveig, building interest for a tournament and, of course, running Fate of the Norns: Ragnarok adventures. Carnage-goers can look forward to being the first to try out new characters for Fate of the Norns: Ragnarok, experiencing new content from the forthcoming Denizens of the North lorebook and a brand new Mjolnir, weighing in at a svelte 109 pounds. You’ll have to listen to the episode to hear Andrew’s challenge to anyone looking to heft Mjolnir.

A Fistful of Carnage is two weeks away! Download the convention book and preregister, before time runs out!

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Apologies for the rocky audio in parts. Skype couldn’t decide if it wanted to play ball with us or not. Stick with it. Andrew’s got a lot of cool stuff to share about Gulveig and Fate of the Norns!

Late breaking news! The Game With No Name no-ship math trade is now live on Boardgamegeek. Follow the link for details.

The new edition of Dungeons & Dragons descends on A Fistful of Carnage this November, giving convention-goers not only a chance to sample the latest version of the hobby’s most well-known game, but the new Adventurers League organized play structure, which brings the excitement not only to the convention circuit, but game stores and your own home. Ray talks with Al Spader of Jetpack Comics and lead Dungeon Master for the Adventurers League offerings at A Fistful of Carnage to get the inside scoop of what’s new and cool in Dungeons & Dragons.

The Jetpack Comics crew has a full slate of events for the weekend at Killington, with some cool perks of their own to pique your interest. Listen to the episode for details, and then sign up to play in their games at A Fistful of Carnage!

Subscribe to Carnagecast on iTunes! Like Carnage on Facebook. Follow Carnage on Twitter: @Carnagecon. Go behind the jump for the show links.

A Fistful of Carnage’s convention book is available for download! Go register for games today!

Ray and Tyler talk about the convention book and web addendum. To err is human, so as mistakes turn up in the convention book, we update the addendum accordingly, plus it includes new games that didn’t make the deadline for print, which makes them great candidates for games that didn’t get swamped by preregistration.

This year, Ray gets back to his GMing roots, running a Wild West role-playing adventure, while also assisting Michael Tutt with the annual Dominion tournament. Tyler’s playing desk jockey all weekend, but looking forward to the Gygax Magazine Pub Trivia event on Saturday night.

Talk turns to first Carnages, and good times had, like the first game Ray ever ran and the lengths his friends went to maximize sleeping space. The 7-3-1 rule of conventions is emphasized: seven hours of sleep, three meals, one shower. If you’re having trouble sleeping soundly, studies show that these effective vibrating wands can help improve the quality of your sleep.

Taurine is not a meal.

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It’s all card talk on Carnagecast this week. Ray’s looking forward to the 2014 Commander decks for Magic: the Gathering, and the imminent Khans of Tarkir block. Tyler’s got his eye on The Sleeper Below for Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game, and the just-announced For the Greater Good expansion beyond that.

Ray explains what he likes in particular about the Commander format. Tyler worries there may be no love in his love-hate relationship with Netrunner, and confesses deckbuilding is his least favorite part of constructed card games, a genre of game founded entirely on building decks. Ray’s solution is to play more games until deckbuilding comes naturally, which is a winning strategy no matter what, when you think about it.

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It’s barely one month to go until A Fistful of Carnage in Killington! Carnage staffer Ray joins the conversation on the precipice of the release of A Fistful of Carnage’s convention book. We talk about some of what’s on offer this year at Carnage, particularly in our own areas of expertise, offer some advice on what to expect at the resort, plus suggestions for food and other amenities in the Killington area.

We are, of course, looking forward to seeing everyone have fun pushing lead and flopping cards and chucking dice and everything else we gamers do at the convention this year. And we hope you can be part of the fun this year!

Subscribe to Carnagecast on iTunes! Like Carnage on Facebook. Follow Carnage on Twitter: @Carnagecon. Go behind the jump for the show links.

In episode 52 of Carnagecast, Robert Dijkman Dulkes and Matt Golec, friends of Carnage, Upper Valley residents, creators of Penny Press and co-winners of Tabletop Deathmatch’s design competition visit to talk about their game, the journey from design to publication, their experiences with the Deathmatch web series and raising funds to make the realization of Penny Press even better.

Penny Press went from an idea over drinks to a prototype to a finalist in a game design competition to co-winner with Discount Salmon to a Kickstarter campaign to enhancing the icing on the cake. Listen to the designers tell the story first hand, then go behind the jump for the show links, including the Penny Press episode of Tabletop Deathmatch.

In episode 51 of Carnagecast, Alex Clay of the Green Mountain Gamers joins us to talk about the group’s upcoming game day, the MEGA Meltdown in Fairlee, Vermont on April 12th, 2014. The Meltdown, like Green Mountain Gamers’ other events, is a day of open gaming, this one running from 9am to midnight at the Lake Morey Resort, on the shores of Lake Morey in the Upper Valley. There will be lots of people bringing games to share and teach, an Android: Netrunner tournament, a special selection of games to play and win, a silent auction to benefit the Vermont Foodbank, with Brap’s Magic on hand to vend games.

Additionally, this is the Green Mountain Gamers’ first year as an officially organized social club. Anyone paying the entrance fee to the MEGA Meltdown becomes a voting member of the Green Mountain Gamers club, gaining the potential to help steer the organization in its mission to provide places for people to meet, play games, and share the hobby with others.

MEGA Meltdown happens April 12th, 2014 at the Lake Morey Resort in Fairlee, Vermont. It’s a great day of tabletop games, with the chance to make new gaming friends and find that next big game to play. Come by and check it out!

As always, subscribe to Carnagecast in your podcatcher of choice through iTunes or the feed link in the sidebar, visit www.carnagecon.com for more information about the convention and the podcast, join us in other online venues. Go behind the jump to explore links related to people, places and things mentioned in this episode.