Todd & Nathan are a Gateway drug.

Our Guests

+Nathan Panke

+Todd Bunn

Show Notes after the jump

Guest Notes

Todd Bunn

Show Notes

Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day 2015 - DSR Live Stream!

Drink

Spin

Read

Run

Thanks for joining us for this episode of Drink Spin Run. We'd love to read your comments on the show, suggestions, where exactly we can stick what and other thinly-veiled threats. Send us your thoughts at [email protected]. Once again, thanks for listening, you gorgeous listeners.

I rolled a Boost on my Podcast skill roll.

Our GM

+Nathan Panke

Our Players

+Adam Muszkiewicz

+Donn Stroud

+Edgar Johnson

Here's the conclusion of our "Nathan teaches these goofs how to play Fate Core" Actual Play session, finally available for your auditory consumption. For part one of the session, click here. Thanks go out to Nathan once again for providing us with such a damn good time. While we do wrap up the session with some early after-action thoughts on the matter, we may have a further post mortem session up our sleeves, with Donn & Adam getting back together with the good doctor to share their thoughts.

Thanks for joining us for this episode of Drink Spin Run. We'd love to read your comments on the show, suggestions, where exactly we can stick what and other thinly-veiled threats. Send us your thoughts at [email protected]. Once again, thanks for listening, you gorgeous listeners.

We talk about how to identify, prevent and repair GM Burnout

Our Guests

+Stacy Dellorfano

+Mike Evans

Guest Notes

Stacy Dellorfano

Mike Evans

Show Notes

Thanks for joining us for this episode of Drink Spin Run. We'd love to read your comments on the show, suggestions, where exactly we can stick what and other thinly-veiled threats. Send us your thoughts at [email protected]. Once again, thanks for listening, you gorgeous listeners.

WSG Stacy Dellorfano & Mike Evans

Our Guests

+Stacy Dellorfano

+Mike Evans

Guest Notes

Stacy Dellorfano

Mike Evans

Show Notes

Drink

Mike's Hard Lemonade

Crunkle Sam, Clown Shoes Brewery, Ipswitch, MA

Queen City Common, Red Clay Ciderworks, Charlotte, NC

Culinan's Revival Irish Red, Roc Brewery, Rochester, NY

Single Chair, Magic Hat, Burlington, VT

Spin

PJ Harvey

Nick Cave, Murder Ballads

Locrian

Sleater-Kinney

Bikini Kill

Reel Big Fish

Nirvana

Pearl Jam

King Crimson

Captain Beefheart

Louis Armstrong

Barrows, Imprecari Island

In the Company of Serpents, Merging In Light

Read

Swords Against Wizardry, Fritz Leiber

Red & Pleasant Land, Zak Smith

Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy RPG

Strange Stars, Trey Causey

Nova Express, William S. Burroughs

Run

Adam & Donn are playing in Stormbringer 1e with +Mark Donkers & +Shawn Gates

Donn is running D&D 5e for his family & friends

Stacy is running her developing RPG, Precious Dark

Mike is running the final playtest for his Hubris campaign setting 

Thanks for joining us for this episode of Drink Spin Run. We'd love to read your comments on the show, suggestions, where exactly we can stick what and other thinly-veiled threats. Send us your thoughts at [email protected]. Once again, thanks for listening, you gorgeous listeners.

Our Guest

+Rafael Chandler

Guest Notes

Rafael 

Show Notes

Email from +Pete Schwab:

Hey Adam/Donn,

I was just listening to the episode about running con games and I'm finding it very informative. If there's an opportunity, could you guys do a show covering how you approach developing material for campaign settings from scratch? 

What are the essential ingredients for getting started, and how much do you feel like you need to have on hand before you begin? Also, what are considerations in terms of rules sets and how much do you feel like you need to tailor aspects before hand based on player temperament/style?  

Thanks, I am really enjoying the show! Keep up the good work!

Rafael likes to do a brainstorming session with his players about what the campaign setting is going to be like.

Rafael: "I believe, as did Zuul, that the players should choose the implements of their own demise."

Adam uses the term "campaign sufficiency" to mean "enough detail to start a campaign."

Adam: "I give them the object then let them paint it."

Rafael on improvising creatures: "I roll 2d8 and multiply them for the monster's hit points. I take the higher die and add 10 to it to get its armor class. The lower number +1d6 is the amount of damage it does." Then he uses a chart for special details.

Adam: "Don't cheat yourself! Come up with a new way to do stuff every time."

Donn brings up GM Burnout... we think that's such an important topic that we devoted Episode 10.2 to the whole topic.

Donn: "There isn't a 'doin' it right.'"

Donn: "World building adds confidence because I know the answers."

Rafael: (Great anecdote about campaign play) "Let your players' decisions count and help them add meaning to your campaign."

Adam: "Look for the opportunities your players give you and make them deal with the consequences of the things they do or don't do."

Rafael: "I don't want to make things that make people flip through a book."

Tables and Random Generators are pretty much the most useful thing you can have for improv.

Adam: "I only want enough to run the first session. Everything else comes out of that one session."

Donn: "How much do you give the players?"

Adam: "If you make a thing, why would you hide it from your players?"

Rafael: (Blind men & the elephant) "Failing at gathering information should never happen, that's not the risk of the game."

Rafael: "Part of your obligation as a DM is to take these random bits of data and interpret them and turn them into something meaningful."

Rafael: "Part of the job is figuring out 'What is the best way to turn this into a bad situation for the players?'"

Donn: "You want the game to flow, not to sit around anticipating the next 'story arc.'"

Rafael: "If I can't remember it, it doesn't matter."

Adam's session sheet is based on +Brendan S from the Necropraxis blog, which you should all be reading. [Brendan's session sheet]

MEAT DWARF!

Third Rail

Do the skills that a thief class brings to the game justify the existence of the thief within that game?

Rafael: "The game would be incomplete without a specialist in the environment. Fighters are combat specialist, wizards are magic specialist, why not a specialist in the dungeon itself?"

Donn: "It's in the source material, so it's not even a question for me."

Adam: "I'm more interested in the narrative that the players are telling, so I'm less worried about having to have skills and a class that does things that a player could just narrate, but it's fine to me if players want those elements. Is the Grey Mouser a thief or a fighter? Depends on how you look at it."

Thanks for joining us for this episode of Drink Spin Run. We'd love to read your comments on the show, suggestions, where exactly we can stick what and other thinly-veiled threats. Send us your thoughts at [email protected]. Once again, thanks for listening, you gorgeous listeners.

Invoke situational aspect: "Kickass Podcast"

Our GM

+Nathan Panke

Players

+Edgar Johnson

+Donn Stroud

+Adam Muszkiewicz

Several episodes ago, we put out a challenge to our listeners: teach Donn & Adam how to play Fate! We'd tried before, but didn't quite grasp key elements of the system. The excellent Mr. Nathan Panke stepped up to the plate and decided to take that challenge. We wrangled up the Reverand Doctor Edgar Johnson III to round out our team and proceeded down this particular rabbit hole.

In this first episode of our "actual play" session, Nathan gets us going on Fate Core, gives us a crash course on the system and Adam has a nearly existential crisis about the system's jargon.

Stay tuned for the next episode, where the system really "clicks" for the group as we take on General Tso himself!

Thanks for joining us for this episode of Drink Spin Run. We'd love to read your comments on the show, suggestions, where exactly we can stick what and other thinly-veiled threats. Send us your thoughts at [email protected]. Once again, thanks for listening, you gorgeous listeners.

1234 1234 POD-CAST, POD-CAST!

Our Guest:

+Rafael Chandler

(+Mike Evans was also supposed to be on, but he got a promotion and needed to celebrate. Congratz, Mike!)

Guest Notes

Rafael 

Show Notes

Drink

Spin

Read

Run

Thanks for joining us for this episode of Drink Spin Run. We'd love to read your comments on the show, suggestions, where exactly we can stick what and other thinly-veiled threats. Send us your thoughts at [email protected]. Once again, thanks for listening, you gorgeous listeners.

Something something something podcast

Our Guests

+Shane Harsch

+Andrew Lenox

Show Notes after the jump

Guest Notes

Shane

Andy

Show Notes

Andy started a conversation on the OSR...

The OSR doesn't matter, but it totally matters

Nostalgia can be a component but isn't the end all and be all of OSR gaming

The OSR isn't a monolith

Is OSRIC a disaster that adds nothing to the community or does it preserve a gaming legacy that might get relegated to the past?

Playing D&D vs. Gaming D&D?

The challenge of 5e (as Adam sees it): can 5e live up to its promise of bringing everybody back to the same table? Or will it fail and under-deliver like 3e did?

Narosia - Village of Gilkas (sp?)... watch for it!

D&D 5e Starter Set - Lost Mines of Phandelver

Free "Basic D&D" is a good idea

Adam talks about WinterCon over here.

And then talked about Marmalade Dog con over here.

Advantage: roll 2d20, take the higher

Disadvantage: roll 2d20, take the lower

DCC Dice Chain: If things are harder, reduce the die you're rolling one or two steps on the dice; if easier, improve the die one or more steps. A d20 can become a d16 or d14 if unfavorable, d24 or d30 if favorable.

Backgrounds - How much depth do narrative mechanics like this add within the game? Is it a crutch? A straightjacket? A useful tool?

5e DMG - pretty damn great

5e PHB - pretty damn awful

Adam's going to get up on a soapbox for a moment: All of this stuff is fantasy. If you're going to hide behind a veil of "historical accuracy," you're in the wrong place. The big point of fantasy is that we're making this shit up anyway, so why not take the opportunity to make things more open and accepting? What's the point of not making things more inclusive? What does that gain you? Nothing whatsoever. 

Player Skill vs. Character Skill?

Adventure Arcs/Seasons - Tyranny of Dragons, etc.

Glass Door rating of Wizards of the Coast

Thanks for joining us for this episode of Drink Spin Run. We'd love to read your comments on the show, suggestions, where exactly we can stick what and other thinly-veiled threats. Send us your thoughts at [email protected]. Once again, thanks for listening, you gorgeous listeners.

Here come the podcast

Our Guests

+Shane Harsch

+Andrew Lenox

Show Notes after the jump!

Guest Notes

Shane

Andy

Show Notes

Drink

Black Rye, Founders' Brewery, Grand Rapids, MI

Dirty Bastard, Founders' Brewery, Grand Rapids, MI

Dragon's Milk, New Holland Brewery, Holland, MI

Buffalo Trace

Anderson Valley Bourbon Barrel Stout, Anderson Valley Brewing Co., Boonville, CA

Allagash Curieux, Allagash Brewery, Portland, Maine 

Spin

4skins - [Edit: thanks to +Jobe Bittman for setting Adam straight on the spelling of "4skins"]

Sham 69

Cocksparrer

Spotify - duh

Hawkwind

Stray

Flower Travellin' Band, Satori

Pallbearer

Kvelertak

Ghost BC

Ancient Warlocks

Django Reinhardt

Read

The King in Yellow, Robert Chalmers

5e books - Donn phoned this one in

Bossy Pants, Tina Fey

George Washington's Secret Six, Kilmeade & Yaeger

Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe

A Whack on the Side of the Head, Roger van Oech

Run

World of Dungeons x Delving Deeper

Donn was Hubbsed

D&D 5e playtesting of Narosia

Lost Mines of Phandelver... plus kids!

Storyteller Cards

Thanks for joining us for this episode of Drink Spin Run. We'd love to read your comments on the show, suggestions, where exactly we can stick what and other thinly-veiled threats. Send us your thoughts at [email protected]. Once again, thanks for listening, you gorgeous listeners.

Is that a brief pause while the podcast loads in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

Our Guests:

+Noah Stevens

+James Spahn

Show Notes after the jump

This episode was recorded on 01/05/15

Guest Links

Noah Stevens

James Spahn

Show Notes

BSOLO: Ghost of Lion Castle

I1: Dwellers in the Forbidden City

I6: Ravenloft

Escape From Innsmouth

B4: The Lost City

B10: Night's Dark Terror

B2: Keep on the Borderlands

Dead Man Stomp - Adam seriously couldn't find a better link. How lame!

B3: Palace of the Silver Princess

The Enemy Within

Tatooine Manhunt

Barrowmaze Complete

Master Dungeons M1: Dragora's Dungeon

Tomb of the Iron God

Death Frost Doom

Third Rail

James - "Actually game!"

Noah - "Spend less money, write more!" - Later "Try 5e!"

Donn - "Reboot the campaign! Finish writing some things!"

Adam - "3 issues of Metal Gods! 1st adventure from KMT Publications! Draw a bit every day!"

Adam decided to keep Donn in the dark, so he didn't provide links for the stuff that Noah was referencing.

The "Edgar & Tim talk about gaming and education" episode is still forthcoming.

Thanks for joining us for this episode of Drink Spin Run. We'd love to read your comments on the show, suggestions, where exactly we can stick what and other thinly-veiled threats. Send us your thoughts at [email protected]. Once again, thanks for listening, you gorgeous listeners.