Epic Adventure

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode of Epic Adventure Mike and Steve talk about Computer Roleplaying Games and are they ready to take over the Table Top Roleplaying Market. We specifically talk about Baldur's Gate, Star Citizen, and Starfield.

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode we are taking a deep dive into creating and running a campaign. Specifically the Pirates of Drinax from Mongoose Traveller. But to do this, we have decided to flip the script.

For these episodes Christina will be our host and she will interview Steve about the campaign. How decisions were made, what type of preparation went into the game, how characters and plot developed and how the actual games deviated from the written material.

This is the first in a series of episodes and beware, there are spoilers ahead.

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode Mike, Christina and I talk about the busiest month in gaming. Origins and GenCon are the two biggest table top gaming conventions in the United States and they happen roughly one month apart.

Oddfish Games had a vendor booth at both conventions and we discuss our experiences with the events and dig into the good, bad, and even ugly.

Send us Fan Mail

On this episode Christina and I are going to dive into Fantasy movies and talk about their impact on roleplaying games. We are going to point out a few of our favorites and how they have either leaned into the tropes of roleplaying or in many cases created those tropes.

Now, before we dive to far into this topic, we have a caveat. We have decided that Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Conan the Barbarian, and The Princess Bride are perfect films so we won’t be talking about those. Besides you’ve all seen those right?

Right?

Ok, so here we go.

Send us Fan Mail

Gamma World, the 1978 Post Apocalyptic roleplaying game from TSR. It was my very first TTRPG.

I can still fondly remember picking the boxed set up from this hole in the wall gaming store. At the time, the store focused on selling model railroad accessories and miniatures for wargames, but they had one book shelf in the corner that held roleplaying books.  The cover of the box had an image of a destroyed and overgrown city with men carrying laser rifles approaching it.

I bought it immediately and read it cover to cover as soon as I got home.

I wanted to play so badly, but no one I knew played roleplaying games, much less ran roleplaying games. So, I started prepping, making characters, and coming up with ideas. Then I wrangled a few friends and started running my very first roleplaying game.

It was a glorious disaster.

Over the years I became the forever Game Master or Dungeon Master or Keeper or Referee or … well the names for the role varies as much as the styles and that’s what Mike and I will be discussing in this episode. We are talking about Game Masters, what it is and what types of styles and skill you should develop or avoid to make your games epic.

Mike, do you remember the very first game you ever ran? What is the role of the Game Master?

Send us Fan Mail

It was my freshman year of high school and my buddy had gotten very excited about a new module. He wouldn’t tell me what it was, but for months all I heard about was how awesome it was going to be. He was reading it over and over again, making lists of items, writing down enemies and NPCs. It was going to be his first game as a GM. 

I was getting stoked for it.

We gathered at his house; I had brought the Mt. Dew. Pizza was in the oven.

That is when he revealed our new campaign with a flourish.

Tomb of the Lizard King!

I had read it last year.

At that point I could have made a big deal about already reading the module, but it would have crushed him. So, I kept my mouth shut and just played. It did not take long before I came to my first problem. The PCs needed to go a certain way, but the party was leaning towards an entirely different path. I could see my buddy was struggling to get everyone headed in the right direction for the encounter. So that is when I used my knowledge of the module to get the game back on track. A brief impassioned speech later and the rest of the PCs were back in the game.

My buddy was so happy after the first session and everyone had a ball. The game went perfectly.

That was Metagaming and to hear people talk about it, I was a monster for doing it.

But all metagaming is not considered equal and in this episode Christina and I are going to talk about metagaming. What it is, why it is bad, why it is good, and why it is just another tool to make your games Epic.

Christina, what is metagaming?

Send us Fan Mail

In February of this year, we kicked off the Epic Adventure Podcast with D&D. Specifically we got together and talked about the D&D OGL Debacle. By now you are all familiar with that, but if you need a refresher go back and listen to episode 1. Mike does a great job breaking down the history of that mess.

When Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast threw in the towel on the OGL everyone breathed a sigh of relief. But it was pretty clear based on the sort of apologizing and the obfuscating coming out of the house that dragons-built things weren’t cool in the pacific northwest.

Then Wizards of the Coast sent Pinkerton agents after a YouTuber who got his hands on some magic cards. Next, they announced that their new Virtual Table Top was going to be using a massive graphics system, additionally they said they were going to roll out a new “Not Version 6” edition of D&D, and finally they raised their book prices, by a lot.

To me, the nail in the coffin was Critical Role announcing they are releasing their own TTRPG System. You know, Critical Role, the streaming live play through that I feel single-handedly resurrected the TTRPG community. They were bailing on D&D and it made me ask Mike?

Mike is D&D Dead?

Send us Fan Mail

Origins Game Fair is one of the largest tabletop gaming conventions in the United States. And Oddfish Games is going to be there.

If you are into roleplaying games, board games, miniatures, wargaming or any other tabletop game then you have likely heard of Origins. And if you haven’t then, well, now you have.

Origins started in 1975 and since 1996 It’s been held in Columbus Ohio. It’s arguably the second largest gaming convention in the United States behind GenCon (by the way Oddfish Games will be at GenCon too) and this year Oddfish Games will have a booth.

If you visit Origins then stop by and say hi. We will be at booth 544 under the Adventure Scents/Oddfish Games name and we will have a bunch of things for you to check out;

Send us Fan Mail

Over the last several episodes we have been showing you how you can use radiance as a GM tool to help you design adventures for your players. First, I put Christina on the spot by presenting her with some randomly drawn cards from Radiance and she did a great job coming up with a neat little adventure. Then, I used those same cards with Mike to showcase how versatile the cards are and how much replay ability Radiance has built into the system.

Today we though it would be fun to show you how players can use Radiance cards to help them create characters. To do this Christina is going to use the Radiance cards to help me create a character for the game she created 2 episodes ago.

I’ve got a feeling she is looking forward to putting me on the hot seat.

Send us Fan Mail

These episode builds on our last one. This time Mike takes over and builds an Adventure using the same Radiance Cards used by Christina. It's amazing to see the similarities and differences. It also highlights the replay-ability of the game.

https://oddfishgames.com/

https://oddfishgames.com/products/radiance