Dice of Doom

This week we discuss our new project Play A New RPG Month, our initial impressions of Gamma World and Using All Five Senses in GM'ing.

Play a New RPG is an idea that has been kicking around in our head for a while now is to start a campaign to get as many gaming groups as possible to try a new rpg for a month, to break the mould and experience something new. We've been doing the extreme version of this for the last 4 months and we have found it to be extremely rewarding. For this reason we have started Play a New RPG Month to be held in October. You can visit the website at playanewrpg.com for suggestions of what games to try, tips on running the month and to let us know what your group is trying out.

In this episode of the Dice of Doom podcast we discuss the recent news that James Cameron is planning to make the H.P. Lovecraft novella At the Mountains of Madness into a movie, we review Zombie Dice and Cthulhu Dice and we debate the value of balancing encounters or leaving them more realistic.

One of the key components to a lot of Roleplaying Games is the inclusion of a mechanic to balance encounters, or in other words, make sure that the players will always have a chance of winning a combat. This leads to a situation where players may feel that they are always in a position to win a combat and will likely behave as such. It also does not reflect the real world (well, in-as-much as a Fantasy RPG could be considered 'real'). We discuss the relative merits of each methodology and look at examples of games that handle it differently.

This episode of the podcast we discuss our experiences with playing Rolemaster Roleplaying (MERP) by Iron Crown Enterprises. We recently finished our Rolemaster campaign as part of our Grand Gaming Experiment. It's one of those classics that has been around since 1980 in one form or another, and while many gamers have heard of it, few, it seems, have tried playing it. Rolemaster has formed the basis for other systems - most notably Middle Earth Roleplaying Game amongst others. It is famously complicated and descriptive using multiple books of tables to resolve combat and develop characters and intricate methods of creating characters.

We have been making fun of Rolemaster for its complexity as a gaming group for years, and we figured it was time to put our money where our mouth is and give it a run through.

In this interesting and exciting (and completely 'yorp' free) episode of the podcast we debate the virtues of Mincecraft vs Dwarf Fortress, we look at Speeding up D&D4e Combat by using Morale and we review the Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Saga Edition.

Over the course of the year we are testing out 12 different games run by 6 members of our gaming group. The latest of these was Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Saga Edition. In our review of the game we look at character generation, how the d20 rules were adapted to suit the game and the benefits and problems associated with playing in the Star Wars Universe.

In this episode we discuss our New Years Gaming Resolutions, and we do a review of the iPhone game 100 Rogues. Our main topic of discussion is titled 'GM'ing: Rotating the Pain, or, Advice for Beginning GM's'. As part of our Grand Gaming Experiment many of our players are picking up the Games Mastering mantle for the first time. We thought we'd take the opportunity to discuss some strategies that can help a new GM run a successful game. The discussion covers the basics of character generation, world creation and when and how to use the rules from a Games Master's perspective.

This special episode of the podcast is in response to the Powergaming in Roleplaying games episode. When we recorded the Powergaming topic, one of our writers and podcaster, Cuchulain (Paul) was unable to attend as he was sipping cocktails on a beach somewhere. On his return he made it quite clear that he disagreed with a lot of what was said and we decided it might be a good idea to record his opinions for posterity. Once again I try valiantly to act as Devil's Advocate (hopefully with minimal bias). If you have not heard the first part of the discussion, we strongly recommend listening to Podcast 010: Powergaming in Roleplaying Games to put everything into context.

This episode we discuss our early forays into the exciting world of Rolemaster and we debate the merits of powergaming in roleplaying games. Ellisthion has made a number of posts on the topic (which you can find on the site) explaining how to get the most out of the rules for creating Dungeons & Dragons characters. The topic of powergaming is a contentious one, with even the term frequently having negative connotations. We look at both sides of the argument and see if there is a place for it in your everyday campaign.

This week we discuss the move of D&D Insider's Character Generator to the web which allows Mac users and Linux users to access this excellent tool. We also discuss our experiences playing Dragon Age and our thoughts on the system. For our main discussion we look at dealing with absent players. Frequently groups will experience missing players from the gaming table. How the party deals with this can have a significant impact on the campaign, the game and the players involved. We look at ways to handle this often common situation.

This week we discuss the ad for the new Dungeons & Dragons Red Box, the release of the new version of The Masks of Nyarlathotep for Call of Cthulhu, the new web-series from Dead Gentlemen Productions called Journey Quest and Using Weather in Roleplaying Games. Often weather takes a back seat in RPG's when in reality it would frequently affect how the player characters would be interacting with their environment. Weather would also form significant challenges in most fantasy settings, yet is rarely used to good effect. We discuss strategies for implementing the use of weather in your campaigns.

In this week's episode we discuss the iPhone game Epic Citadel and the epic horror roleplaying game the Call of Cthulhu. Creating an atmosphere that is true to the principles of H.P. Lovecraft's writings can be a bit tricky to those who have not read a lot of his works, or have only been exposed to the mythos through secondary works. We talk about resources for getting involved, how to capture the essence of the mythology and tips and tricks for players and GM's alike.