Epic Adventure

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In this episode of Epic Adventure we are going to use Radiance cards to build an adventure for our players.

Radiance Adventure Engine is a new game from Oddfish Games. These sets of cards and rules allow you to solo roleplay any of your favorite roleplaying games. The system is truly universal. It can also be used as an excellent GM tool to help you create campaigns, adventures, and ideas on the fly.

Steve is going to pull Radiance Adventure Cards randomly and present them to Christina who is going to use those cards to build an adventure for her players. The trick is she is going to do this in real time. This is a great episode to see how the Adventure Engine works as well as getting a feel for using the tool to help you with your own games.

https://oddfishgames.com/products/radiance

https://oddfishgames.com/

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In this episode of Epic Adventure Steve talks to Mike and Christina about the development of the Radiance Adventure Engine.

Mike shares how The Shine Storytelling Engine morphed into Luminous and eventually Radiance. Christina gives us a breakdown of how the system works. And I talk about my play-testing experience. 

Radiance is a new game from Oddfish Games, or should I say it's a new game tool. It allows you to solo roleplay any TTRPG system you can think of and, I believe it's the best new tool for game masters and players alike.

You can find more at the following links.

https://oddfishgames.com/

https://oddfishgames.com/products/the-radiance-adventure-engine-pre-order-wip

https://oddfishgames.com/products/shine-pre-order

https://oddfishgames.com/products/luminous-pre-order

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I was 9 years old when I finally talked my mother into taking me to see this new movie my friends had been talking about. I still remember how excited I was when the lights went down and the music swelled from the movie screen.

Star Wars

When Luke and Han got their awards at the end, I remember wanting to be Luke Skywalker.

Oh, sorry, I didn’t give you a spoiler alert.

Wait…

If I have to give you a spoiler alert for Star Wars you are not from this planet. Just for future reference this episode will likely be filled with spoilers so consider yourself warned.

Now, where was I…

That’s right, Luke Skywalker, I wanted to, no needed to be Luke Skywalker. I wondered if that new role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons would let you play Luke?

The short answer

Hell Yes.

In this episode Christina, another avid “B” movie fan, and I are going to talk about movies. 

Specifically, Why and How to use them as fodder for your roleplaying games. We will also give you a few of our favorites to add. But before we get to the specific movies lets answer the Why and How questions.

Star Wars: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_(film)

Ninja Hunter: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/39879-ren-zhe-da-jue-dou?language=en-US

Streets of Fire: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streets_of_Fire

Godzilla: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godzilla_(1954_film)

Prince of Darkness: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Darkness_(film)

The Last Dragon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Dragon

My Science Project: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Science_Project

Rollerblade 7: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Roller_Blade_Seven

Predators: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predators_(film)

The Warriors: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Warriors_(film)

Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Men_Don%27t_Wear_Plaid

The Dirty Dozen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dirty_Dozen

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My first campaign was Waterloo.

That’s right, I said I got into tabletop roleplaying through miniatures and my first campaign was Waterloo. I played the Coldstream Guards and went into the game pumped because I thought they were so cool.

It took us weeks to play, hours in my buddy’s garage, rearranging large sheets of plywood on sawhorses to set up the battle boards.

Late nights with measuring tapes, templates, and dice.

I loved it.

So, when I found out they had “Campaigns” in my new favorite hobby roleplaying I was a little confused. Because a campaign was a series of battles. How did that work in an open-ended fantasy game?

Well, it works, and it can be truly amazing.

On this episode Mike and I are going to talk about Campaigns. What they are, whey they are awesome, and how to go about creating one.

Mike, do you remember your first campaign?

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You were curious what this D&D thing was all about. You saw the shows, and heard a few podcasts, you even enjoyed the trailer for the new movie. 

So, you gave it a shot, and liked it. Now after a few games your eyes have been opened to the wonderful world of tabletop Roleplaying. What’s next? 

Don’t worry, we’ve got your back. 

On this episode of Epic Adventure Christina and I are going to break down our favorite Roleplaying games that aren’t D&D and why we love them so much. 

We are going to give you our three favorite games with a little background and description in case you are interested. They are not in any particular order, and we recommend checking them out, buying them, and using them to run Epic Adventures. 

Christina, start us off with one of your favorite games. 

Here are links to Christina’s Games

Apocalypse World: http://apocalypse-world.com/

Night Witches: https://bullypulpitgames.com/products/night-witches

Pasion De Las Pasiones: https://magpiegames.com/pages/pasion

Cortex Prime: https://www.cortexrpg.com/

Savage Worlds: https://peginc.com/savage-settings/savage-worlds/

Fate: https://fate-srd.com/

Here are links to Steve’s Games

GURPS: http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/

Call of Cthulhu: https://www.chaosium.com/call-of-cthulhu-rpg/

Feng Shui: https://www.atlas-games.com/fengshui/ 

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Christina and I had such a great time with our last podcast we couldn’t wait to get back at it… 

But what should we talk about next? 

“What do you think, world building? Campaign creation? Game design?” I said…. 

“Why don’t we start basic with how to Roleplay” Christina responded 

Wait, what…you mean like How to Roleplay, sure that should be easy…not. 

Welcome to the most difficult easy topic we could cover How to Roleplay and because it was Christina’s brilliant idea, she gets to start us off, 

It’s all yours Christina… 

Steve and Christina chat about what roleplaying is, and how to get started. We also address common mistakes new players make and some ideas for taking your games to the next level.

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I’ll never forget one of the first games I played with Mike Howlett. I was a forever GM, and I really enjoyed running things, but I had just met Mike through a mutual friend, and he was firing up a Cyberpunk Red game.

Color me intrigued…pun intended.

Session Zero rolled around and Mike got us started.

“If you click on the following link, it will take you to a website that has some information you might want about the game we are starting” he said.

So, I clicked the link.

The link took me to Legend Keeper.Com and that’s where I was introduced to how Mike plans for his games. Hundreds of pages of lore and information, images, links, locations, it was…a lot.

But that’s how Mike rolls. So today Mike and I are going to talk about World-building, how we go about putting things together and give you a few tips and tricks that might work for you.

Mike Howlett is the co-founder of Odd Fish Games. He is a longtime gamer, writer, designer, and one of my partners on this podcast.

Mike, You and I go about world-building very differently. How do you got started?

Mike and Steve talk about important steps in world-building, thought process, and how to get things moving. We also discuss two very different strategies and how they both have their strengths and weaknesses.

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Players who are new to Tabletop Role Playing Games make the fatal mistake of thinking that class and race equal character.  

Nothing could be further from the truth.  

In this episode we are going to explore creating compelling characters and give you some things to think about the next time you put pen to paper and start making that Half Dragonborn Half Tiefling Ranger Barbarian Warlock Noble. 

The rulebooks for RPG’s love to talk about character classes, character races, character archetypes...with that many characters being thrown around you would think we are in a Monty Python sketch.  

Players often fail to understand that characters are made up of personality traits…not stat blocks. 

Joining me today to talk about creating compelling characters is Christina Stiso one of my partners in crime on this podcast Christina is a long-time gamer and Creative Designer for Oddfish Games. She is a PhD student studying game-based learning and on the board of directors of the nonprofit organization “Tabletop Gaymers.”

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You may have heard a little something about Wizards of the Coast updating, changing, and/or deleting their Open Gaming License that has been a part D&D for 23 years.

Everyone, and I mean everyone in the business is talking about this. So, it only seemed proper that we kick off our new podcast “Epic Adventure” doing what everyone else is.

Talking about D&D’s OGL.

But we are going to take that one step further. We are going to give some ideas of how to move forward and talk about other gaming systems that we recommend.

But first who are we.

My name is Steve Kellams and I am just a fan with a radio voice. I started tabletop gaming in the late 70’s with Napoleonic miniatures. In 1981 I dove headfirst into Tom Moldvay version of D&D and since then roleplaying and tabletop gaming has been a passion of mine. I’ve been lucky enough to get the opportunity to host this podcast with a few amazing people who are going to join me on this Epic Adventure.

Mike Howlett is the co-founder of Odd Fish Games, a great independent game company with some fun little systems and a phenomenal universal solo roleplaying system you should check out. He is a longtime gamer, writer, game designer with more irons in the fire than hours on the clock.

Christina Stiso is a gamer and Creative Designer for Odd Fish Games. She is a PhD student studying game-based learning and on the board of directors of the nonprofit organization Tabletop Gaymers.

Both Christina and Mike are joining me today to kick of the Epic Adventure Podcast

We are definitely starting with a bang.