This was a short episode I cut a while back when life got in the way of our regularly-scheduled recordings. I've got a full-length one we did a bit later, which I'll be releasing immediately after this one—meaning, in a matter of minutes or hours. * (1:06) Backing off my own ideas to let truths about the player-characters decide where the game will go. * (4:45) Reminding players about their characters. * (9:01) Who the PCs are as individuals. Hosts: Dan

* (0:28) 1d4Con on April 13th - 15th, 2018. * (2:16) Brodeur GTFO. * (4:42) Some comments on Salt in Wounds. Fear the Boot's Discord server. * (9:43) Keeping a game fresh during someone's hiatus, without moving the game forward or leaving it on pause. * (18:02) Converging story-lines. * (20:03) Exploring the same story and setting from other perspectives. * (22:49) The difficulty of integrating a new person midstream. * (26:12) Ending the new campaign in a place that dovetails with the original one. * (29:07) Muscling through the shift. Hosts: Brodeur, Chad, Dan

* (0:49) Fear the Con and its Con Planner site. All our love to Fred. * (2:47) The Salt in Wounds game setting, and why it intrigues Brodeur. * (14:40) Unpacking the human psychology of why we like dark things, starting with some examples from Dan's life. Resident Evil VII and Alien Isolation. Revenge stories. * (22:40) When these impulses manifest at the meta-game level. The traitor mechanic in many board games. * (28:09) Feeling bad for the Tarrasque. Butchering a dragon. * (38:36) The anatomy of what attracts us to evil, and why it can improve us morally. Midnight by Fantasy Flight. The Invitation. * (46:08) The banality of evil. Hosts: Brodeur, Chad, Dan, Wayne

* (0:41) A look back at the Big Board. * (3:37) Lesson prep for a church and how it demonstrates a social concept that applies to gaming. * (7:17) Performance by one versus content by all. * (15:14) Recognizing what's important to another person. * (25:01) Whose benefit is the game for? Setting the right level of control. Hosts: Brodeur, Chad, Dan

* (0:28) Fear the Con's site is ready. * (1:13) Our emails have been fixed, including the confirmation for forum signup. * (8:56) The planned ending for a session of the Actual Play goes awry. * (14:59) Being fair to your players. The song that inspired the intended scene. * (21:23) Reinventing the end. * (22:02) Giving your players the freedom to surprise you. * (32:16) Changing up instead of panicking or doubling-down. * (37:50) Planning for the unexpected by looking at what something brings to the game, not how an event might turn out. Hosts: Brodeur, Chad, Dan

* (0:37) Non-player characters that can be used to guide the party. * (2:04) Tying the NPC to the group while avoiding them becoming a GMPC. * (8:14) Needing them all the time is a sign something has gone wrong. Keeping them within their own character limits. * (15:36) The ways to avoid overshadowing the party with a guiding NPC. * (25:44) Not giving an NPC a planned future since the story isn't about them. * (31:19) Too far on the back-burner. * (34:12) Giving the NPCs consistency, usefulness, and the same depth as any other character. Hosts: Brodeur, Chad, Dan, Julia

* (1:16) Thanks to Sgt. Dan and Mumswear for the shirts. * (2:33) Thanks to Mark Larson for the Crown Royal bags. * (5:19) A shout-out to Andrew Martin. * (7:33) Brodeur's two episodes on running a game store can be found here and here. Miniature Market's website. * (12:49) A non-gamer opens a game store. * (19:01) Building an FLGS from scratch. * (26:17) Consolidating overhead expenses. * (30:34) Separate spaces for pay and play. * (33:38) The flow of the store. * (42:27) Integrating a store and website. * (45:38) The gateways to success no one thinks of. Hosts: Brodeur, Chad, Dan, Wayne

* (0:29) Brodeur thanks John Wells, Mark Lawson, and Sgt. Dan for help with Crown Royal bags. * (2:33) Dan gets a copy of Battletech's Alpha Strike rules. * (4:25) A shift—or new fad—in tabletop roleplaying games: consuming play instead of participating in it. * (12:32) New technologies allowing a new market, misinterpreted as a change in an existing market. Hosts: Brodeur, Chad, Dan

Caring Bridge Pancreatic Cancer Action Network Annie's Hope direct GoFundMe donations

* (0:18) The Caring Bridge site for Pat. * (1:50) An update on Pat. (As of the episode release, the information is a bit outdated. Pat is now home on hospice care.) * (2:47) Whether to continue a game when a player passes. * (7:31) Keeping mementos from those we've lost. * (13:10) Moving on after loss. * (19:18) More mementos we've kept. Hosts: Brodeur, Chad, Dan, Wayne