Epic Adventure

Send us Fan Mail

I know this isn’t table top roleplaying, but stay with me for a moment.

When I was a senior in high school the guy who ran our gaming and miniatures sessions invited us all to a Murder Mystery Party.

We received an elaborate invitation with information about the “character” we were to play for the party. It also had suggestions for what to wear.

When we showed up, his place was completely decorated. Lights, soft music, drinks and appetizers. He even had a waiter and waitress serving guests.

When I made my way into his house it was like I was on another planet. I felt like an actor in a movie and even though I had never done anything like this before and I was a little scared about it, I got into it very quickly.

By the end of the night, we had solved the murder…the waiter did it by the way, and I walked away having one of the greatest gaming experiences of my life.

That night has always stuck with me, because it was more than the plot and more then the game. It was even more than hanging out with a lot of my friends and making new ones. It was really about the experience of the game and that was all created by the little things he did that often go overlooked.

The lights, the music, the costumes, the food and the drink.

On this episode we are going to talk about setting the stage for your games and how you can turn that dial up to 11 to really make an impact.

Christina, have you ever had one of those fully immersive games?

[Kick to Christina]

Send us Fan Mail

Welcome to you heard it here last where we talk about news, you’ve already heard.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06spb8w

Several years ago, I stumbled across one of the greatest podcasts I have ever listened to. It was called the Lovecraft Investigations and it started with the Case of Charles Dexter Ward. I’m a huge fan of Call of Cthulhu and I’ve pretty much read all of Lovecraft over the years. Some good, some bad, but all of it steeped in the myth and mythos. Lovecraft was very good at atmosphere.

This podcast was perfect. It felt like a real investigative podcast and with BBC 4 backing it the production quality was incredible. Over the next several years the Lovecraft Investigation podcast continued to slowly put out some fantastic episodes that really felt like you were in a Call of Cthulhu game. Then in 2023 it just stopped.

Not a big surprise because podcasts stop all the time. But I was generally bummed.

But good news does come to those that wait.

https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/julian-simpson/lovecraft-investigations-the-call-of-cthulhu?ref=bk-ads-ga-p-20&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23860975866&gclid=Cj0KCQjwz9_QBhD_ARIsADnSCfDc7zHCkZjWINm47NNyZOau7v-un5Z63IHEX0AHXiH66Pn_noXAb-AaAokFEALw_wcB

Lovecraft Investigations is coming out with Season 5. The Call of Cthulhu. This time they are going through Backerkit and all the original audio cast is joining the new season. They are offering digital downloads of the entire audio play as well as physical copies and extra books and items to make the entire thing special. If you haven’t listened to the original BBC4 podcast do yourself a favor and do it, right now, then come back to the episode. But even if you don’t want to go back and dive in you don’t have to because the new Season 5 is designed for people who haven’t heard any of the old episodes. I am stoked and yes I’ve already pledged.

Christina, what do you think of audio plays like this? Is there a place for them in today’s CGI world?

[Kick to Christina]

What about you Mike, did you ever listen to the original Lovecraft Investigations?

[Kick to Mike]

Up next, we have more Conan!

https://ttrpgfans.com/new-conan-the-barbarian-rpg-books/

That’s right, our favorite…at least for now…roleplaying game Conan the Hyborian age has new sourcebooks coming to Kickstarter. The campaign hasn’t launched yet, but it looks like we will get source books for Tortage which is a haven for pirates, thieves and smugglers in the Baracha Isles and Zamora the ancient land of dark sorcery and the home to the City of Thieves. Both of these settings I managed to avoid in our first campaign of Conan so as soon as I get my hands on these source books, we will visit Heliope, Drebu and the rest of our Hyborian friends again.

Christina, what do you think about Monolith putting out sourcebooks for Conan?

[Kick to Christina]

Mike, this has always been your issue with new games, not enough lore. Does this new sourcebook get you pumped for more Conan?

[Kick to Mike]

And there you have it, all the news, you’ve already heard.

Send us Fan Mail

It started with a simple text to the Thursday Night Gaming Group.

“Hey, Free League’s Twilight 2000 has a life path character creation system. Anybody interested in playing it?”

And I have to say, of all the texts and emails I have sent to the group over the years that one got a lot of attention and the answer was an overwhelming yes.

I had played the original Twilight 2000 as a teenager and I liked it. Our group had basically tried to recreate the movie “Red Dawn” with it and it had been fun, but we didn’t dive heavily into the post-apocalyptic version of the game. We stayed mostly to the cinematic and war genre so as teen’s it was perfect.

Put this time I wanted to dive into some of those basic questions I find myself playing around with in roleplaying. 

“What does it mean to be human?” 

“What does it mean to be a hero?”

“What does sacrifice look like?”

So, I grab some ideas and we created characters and in January of 2026 we started playing.

Fast Forward 5 months and I think we have played it enough to get a good feel for the game, the mechanics, and the setting.

So, on this episode we are going to do a review of Twilight 2000 4th Edition by Free League.

Let’s start with general overall feelings about the game?

Christina what are your overall thoughts?

Send us Fan Mail

Welcome to you heard it here last where we talk about news, you’ve already heard.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/d-d-beyond-executives-explain-why-subscribers-cant-share-drops-content.719058/

Recently D&D Beyond has started providing Drops for their online subscriber-based system for releasing Dungeons and Dragons Material. The problem is, the new Drops, which include maps, characters, and premade encounters are not shareable. So even though D&D Beyond members have paid for Master Tier Access which runs around 55 bucks a year and is designed to allow you to share material…you can’t.

D&D Beyond says they are doing this to ensure that creators get paid, but isn’t that the companies job? And if you tell people they are paying for a service like the Master Tier that allows sharing and then turn around and don’t allow sharing that seems a little shady to me…but it is Hasbro so it tracks.

I think the real question I have here for the gang is this. In the digital age where everything is sold online and no one owns books anymore…how are creators going to get paid.

Christina, let’s start with you.

Kick to Christina

Mike, put your business and tech hat on. What are the options?

Kick to Mike

Next up we have another Elric TTRPG on the horizon.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/theres-another-official-elric-rpg-in-the-works-this-one-from-free-league.719041/

It’s cool to see Elric get some love lately. I mean the Witcher straight up stole most of it’s esthetic and even some of its story from the Elric saga so it’s not like he’s been out of the public consciousness…but I like seeing companies turn back to a foundational fantasy character like that. The fact that he’s a very complex character is just all the more appealing to me.

But just like my last article, Elric isn’t what I want to talk about.

What I want to ask you is Free League becoming the new Asmodee?

Let’s start with you Mike

Kick to Mike

Christina, I know you are a fan of Free League, is it good or bad that they are grabbing up all the IPs right now?

Kick to Christina

And there you have it, all the news you’ve already heard.

Send us Fan Mail

On this episode Mike, Christina and I talk about Romance. What it is, what it means to roleplaying games, and why you should try and incorporate elements of romance into your roleplaying.

Send us Fan Mail

Welcome to You Heard it Here Last where we talk about news you’ve already heard.

We are starting this episode off with one of Mike’s favorite settings; Fallout. (You thought I was going to say Star Wars)

https://ttrpgfans.com/fallout-rpg-new-vegas-setting-guide/

Fallout is getting a new setting guide. 

Modiphius is launching the “New Vegas Setting Guide” and is hoping to cash in on the Amazon TV series. What’s interesting about it is that it looks like we are getting more than just descriptions. The book looks to be chock full of NPCs, Locations, Character Options, and even Equipment.

This could be a solid addition to the Fallout game and looks to drop in August…I bet you they will have copies at GenCon.

Mike, we start with you, thoughts?

Kick to Mike

Christina, what about you, are you tempted by this setting guide?

Kick to Christina

Next up we’ve got a fun one…well at least I think it’s fun.

https://www.rascal.news/magic-the-gathering-arena-developers-unionize-alleging-forced-ai-use-and-return-to-office-mandates/

Workers developing Magic: The Gathering Arena are forming a union called United Wizards of the Coast. They announced their formation under Communications Workers of America on Monday, April 27 and notified Wizards of the Coast and parent company Hasbro of their intent in a public letter.

The new union asks to be recognized in their letter, which is strange because WOTC is based out of Renton Washington and the State of Washington requires them to recognize the new union. It also requires them to engage in collective bargaining. Finally, it allows the union to automatically draw funds from employees of the company even if the employees don’t want to be a member of the union…

The public letter demands protections from layoffs, the ability to keep working from home and not having to come into the office, protections from generative AI use, just to name a few.

I’m pretty sure Norma Rae would be rolling over in her fictional grave right now, but I thought this would be a very interesting topic for our segment, mostly because I am betting we have some disagreement on this one.

Mike, let’s start with you. Thoughts?

Kick to Mike

Christina, I am expecting fire and brimstone…am I getting flamed here.

Kick to Christina

And there you have it, all the news that you’ve already heard.

Send us Fan Mail

I thought it was pretty simple. A distracted force with a brutal and possibly insane leader is holding an old mill. They have a machinegun nest and the guards frequently wander around the site.

Our players have a wooded and elevated overwatch position only a few hundred yards away. They also clearly have surprise on their side. The Sniper can get into position and wait until sunrise. As soon as he can see the enemy machine-gunner he can take him out. Then then the players can use their machinegun and half of the soldiers to lay down a base fire. Meanwhile a small group can hit the back door to the Mill when they hear the shots and toss in a few grenades. Game over.

Simple tactics.

I forgot two things though.

My players don’t really know small unit tactics.

And roleplaying games aren’t real life.

Today we are going to talk tactics. Why they can be so difficult in gaming and how to help your players out when they have no idea what they should be doing.

Christina, what kind of personal background do you have with tactics?

Kick to Christina

Mike, what about you?

Kick to Mike.

Send us Fan Mail

Welcome to You heard it hear last where we talk about news, you’ve already heard.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/dice-pioneer-louis-zocchi-passes-away.718828/

Lou ZahKey, the father of dice passed away at 91 recently. If you’ve ever played a table top roleplaying game then odds are you’ve rolled some of Lou’s dice. He and his company Gamescience were the first in the United States to manufacture polyhedral dice. He is also the inventor of the 100-sided "Zocchihedron."

In addition to dice, Zocchi worked on many games and magazines, including a number of wargames including Star Fleet Battles and The Battle of Britain. He was inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming's Hall of Fame in 1987 and was presented with the E. Gary Gygax Lifetime Achievement Award at Gary Con in 2022.

I am not only a fan of dice, but I loved The Battle of Britain game and likely still have the original box floating around the house somewhere.

Thanks for all the dice and the hours of great gaming Lou.

Christina, I know you are a massive dice nerd. This news had to strike a chord.

Kick to Christina

What about you Mike. I have a feeling you were into the Battle of Britain as well.

Kick to Mike

Next up we have another Backerkit release that is tapping into the zeitgeist and personally I find it very Meta.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/rpg-crowdfunding-news-%E2%80%93-dungeon-crawler-carl-rpg-historica-arcanum-lairs-legends-3-and-more.718847/

Renegade Game Studios is crowdfunding a Dungeon Crawler Carl TTRPG and Card Game. Dungeon Crawler Carl is a LitRPG book series by author Matt Dinniman that has become very popular. It involves Carl a regular guy and his ex-girlfriends cat that get sucked into a world spanning dungeon created by aliens. It’s a book that uses gaming tropes and plays out like a roleplaying game. So we have a company making a roleplaying game about a book that is based on a world that is a roleplaying game…Yep, that tracks.

I have read the first book and it’s fun. Nothing earth-shattering or amazing, but it does what it set out to do. I have even used the idea from the book in my first Shadowdark adventure, because I couldn’t figure out how to make Shadowdark work for roleplaying.

Christina, Any experience with Dungeon Crawler Carl or thoughts on the Meta of the moment?

Kick to Christina

Mike, what about you?

Kick to Mike

And there you have it, all the news you’ve already heard.

Send us Fan Mail

On this episode Rob from Sidequests and Malcolm from Finding Atoria join us to create some villains on the fly. the process is fascinating. 

Send us Fan Mail

Welcome to you heard it here last where we talk about news, you’ve already heard. 

https://www.enworld.org/threads/neopets-terminates-geekifys-license-ttrpg-in-jeopardy.718325/

Let’s start with some interesting and maybe concerning news that can Kickstart a deeper discussion. You’ll get that pun in a minute. Neopets, the free virtual-pet website launched in 1999 where users can adopt, customize, and care for virtual creatures has terminated it’s IP license agreement with Geekify for a tabletop roleplaying game. Geekify is a custom marketing, creative design, and manufacturing company out of Colorado that has worked with Neopets in the past bringing out a number of products. In 2024 a Kickstarter was launched for Geekify to bring out a Neopets tabletop roleplaying game and it raised over 427,000 dollars.

Recently a playtest was released that showed the game was a combat focus 5e variant and to say Neopets wasn’t happy was an understatement. The immediately withdrew the licensing from Geekify for the product.

And the big question is, now what.

Let’s start Mike. What does this mean for the people who funded the Kickstarter? Do they get their money back?

[Kick to Mike]

Christina. What ethical responsibility does Neopets have to the people who kickstarted the roleplaying game?

[Kick to Christina]

Mike, where do you think the communication broke down and who’s responsibility is it, Neopets or Geekify?

[Kick to Mike]

Christina, why did Neopets let a company that doesn’t design games, design a game?

[Kick to Christina]

To anyone, what does this mean going forward with game designers wanting to work with IPs. As far as I can tell this might be the first time the IP has been withdrawn after a game was basically “sold” Is this just another hit to the model of big companies using crowdfunding instead of traditional publishing methods?

To anyone, is this going to hurt Kickstarter and Backerkit in the future.

And there you have it, all the news, you’ve already heard.