Fear the Boot

* (0:29) Dan can't operate a mixer.

* (2:21) 1d4Con in Martisburg, WV from April 15th - 17th.

* (4:07) Upcoming crossovers with Happy Jacks.

* (4:29) Noah the Destroyer.

* (11:00) A Twitter poll we ran about whether it's best for game designers (or GMs running a game) to err on the side of too many or too few rules.

* (14:21) The value of crunch in settling disputes, enshrining character traits, and maintaining fairness. Rules can be ignored more easily than written.

* (24:47) Our own preferences in balancing the quantity and complexity of rules.

* (27:30) The value of a rules light approach. The games are less intimidating, easier to learn, and allow for greater creative freedom. Weird West, the PocketMod game by Stuart Robertson.

Hosts: Brodeur, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (0:41) Chris' short film, It Figures.

* (6:30) Wayne takes a turn at moderating the show.

* (7:18) Leaving a gaming group. Wayne sets some ground rules for the discussion.

* (14:26) The parallels between breaking up with a gaming group and breaking up with a significant other. Getting out of a game by ghosting.

* (17:19) When the problem really is on you, but the rest of the people involved may not accept that.

* (22:41) How the nature and history of the group affects the decision. A metaphor from MMOs.

* (28:34) Evaluating the overall state of the gaming group.

* (30:46) Gritting your teeth until a reasonable stopping point.

* (32:41) Living authentically.

* (38:11) The best time to drop out.

Hosts: Chad, Chris, Dan, John, Wayne

* (0:26) Introducing Bob and offering a fair warning.

* (2:24) Eva Amurri, the nanny incident, and Dan's cynicism.

* (5:21) Bob sets the record straight on the drywall incident.

* (8:35) Green bean casserole.

* (16:51) Bob saves Brodeur from drowning.

* (20:00) How Bob got into gaming.

* (29:33) How Bob got Brodeur into gaming.

* (33:36) The value of gaming as a mental health aid.

* (36:51) Brodeur's real friends.

* (38:45) The subjectivity of suffering.

* (47:45) DGS Games and their Kickstarter for Traazorite Crusaders.

* (48:10) A shout-out to TableTop Game and Hobby in Overland Park, Kansas.

* (50:16) The Alex Jones conspiracy that Johnny G made his ringtone.

Hosts: Bob, Brodeur, Chad, Dan

* (0:36) The new XCOM Saga has started. You can watch it on Twitch here or keep up with the RP and after-action reports here. The next stream will be on Wednesday, February 10th, at 7:00pm Central time.

* (3:20) Some more information on DruCon. You can find out more on the Facebook group and sign up for events on Con Planner.

* (6:21) The Battletech dice contest is indeed over, but you can still see the plot ideas here.

* (6:50) A conversation about how to get started with Battletech (see our episode on that topic for more info) led to a novel approach for GM-driven character creation.

* (18:06) Reasons to consider using this approach.

* (32:33) The potential drawbacks to GM character creation.

* (35:52) Three rules for making this work.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Wayne

* (1:09) Pat and the nuclear football can be found in Bedtime Stories 5.

* (1:34) Giving life to a location. Making it feel like more than just a stopping-off point in the plot. Our episodes on dungeon building (part 1 and part 2).

* (7:07) Reasons to avoid getting too caught up in the minutiae of the setting. Cityographer by Inkwell Ideas.

* (18:05) The six questions to flesh out a location. You can find a sample questionnaire in the resource documents.

* (25:18) Letting the players answer the questions through their RP.

* (34:19) Locations that lack heart.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Pat, Wayne

* (0:35) Preparing a fallback game for one that has yet to die.

* (4:36) Brodeur is asked to pass his game notes off to another GM who wants to continue his campaign.

* (10:42) The positive reasons to share your game notes. Dan's sample game notes (explained in episode 209) can be found here, here, here, and here.

* (12:20) The practical problems with sharing your game notes.

* (28:26) Making your notes available to the general public.

* (36:04) Passing off the entire game to a new GM.

Hosts: Brodeur, Dan, John, Julia

* (0:29) The Battletech contest is complete! You can find the list of winning game ideas here. I'll be emailing the winners within the next week to get their mailing addresses.

* (1:51) Blades in the Dark, digital edition early access with upgrade support through the finished product. You can grab your copy here.

* (3:05) Wayne was trying to figure out what he wants to run at DruCon and decided on a Power Rangers game. The gritty fan film.

* (9:24) Writing down the dirty dozen: roughly twelve ideas the game needs to portray in order to really capture the original intellectual property.

* (17:26) Either adapting an existing product in whole or cherry-picking ideas from multiple sources.

* (20:07) Handling a situation where multiple players are controlling a single, combined character in a game.

* (28:22) Using the dirty dozen to prioritize design choices.

* (38:46) The dated economics of Back to the Future.

Hosts: Brodeur, Dan, John, Wayne

* (0:28) A pregnant pause. Dan hates Skype. Dan hates Norton even more.

* (1:11) Voting for the science fiction plot hooks is ending on Sunday, January 10th, at 11:59:59pm Central Time. You can get your votes in here.

* (2:07) Brodeur the Elder wants to hear about ABBA. That hate for disco. N-Trace's hip hop remix of Stayin' Alive. The mashups of Max Tannone.

* (8:46) Fear the Boot's spoiler policy.

* (11:05) The long bomb plot of Nier.

* (18:27) Tying this back to tabletop RPGs. Creating games where the most obvious explanation of events isn't the most accurate one.

* (21:11) Don't lie to the players or invalidate their actions.

* (28:57) When the villain just might have a point. Gnarl's Twitter feed. Fable 3.

* (44:58) The relationship between the long bomb and a more traditional mystery. L.A. Noire.

* (59:15) Brodeur and the Case of the Brand Comparison.

Hosts: Brodeur, Chad, Dan

* (0:28) The amount of bleeping in the prior episode.

* (2:13) Voting for the science fiction plot hooks is still going on. You can get your votes in here.

* (3:32) The flooding in Missouri.

* (8:08) Natural disasters in roleplaying games. The eruption of Krakatoa. The radioactive fire at the West Lake Landfill.

* (12:13) The mundane aspects of life that get represented in a character's background but not during play.

* (14:04) Aspects that are excluded because they're too boring.

* (17:52) Aspects that are excluded because they're done alone.

* (20:43) Aspects that are excluded because we'd prefer not to think about them.

* (23:37) Aspects that are excluded because they create unwanted vulnerabilities.

* (28:23) Erasing the separation between items that are interesting enough to be in backstory but don't seem to make it into the game.

* (39:20) Turn around, don't drown.

Hosts: Chad, Dan, Wayne

* (0:23) Voting for the science fiction plot hooks has begun. You can get your votes in here.

* (1:38) Wayne has creative block while trying to make a character for an online game of Wield.

* (5:55) Generic-Man to the rescue! Pat is always rich.

* (14:55) Welcome to Fanfiction.net! (and Wattpad).

* (16:26) Being too distracted by life to contribute to a game.

* (17:31) Not knowing enough about the game to contribute.

* (19:34) Building the parts you know. Using random generators. Inkwell Ideas' card decks.

* (22:59) Mixing and matching. Play Doh and LEGOs.

* (29:43) Finding the character mid-stride.

* (33:45) OCD in video games. The house that's a museum.

* (39:08) Roleplaying in MMOs. Ralph Pootawn (link contains some NSFW material).

Hosts: Dan, John, Pat, Wayne