Game Mastery

Favorite LARPing stories and how they promote inclusion. GMing tips and learning to let everyone have time int he spotlight. How to handle interpersonal conflict in-game and between players. Conflicts of personality, just between players liking each other, independent of anything egregious. There are personal GM rules of intervention, but also organization-based. Plus, favorite vampire stories!

We talk about how Jessica got into the world of Vampire.

How often can you expect to have games available as a player? How much time does Jessica put in to administering the history, logs, characters, GMing and everything? GMs are responsible for more than just showing up each week and running a module. Vampire GMs might be more hands-on with the actual player’s characters than a D&Der is used to. The more the GM knows about the people and characters, the better the story.

How does Jessica run her games? How many separate story groups are there in the organization? How are the groups broken up into stories (chronicles, in Vampire parlance), and characters? Which clan makes the best murder hobos? How do you interact with others in-game? How is the story collected and stored as a living world? How to find a group.

The basics of LARPing, how conflicts are resolved, and what kind of organizations exist for organized play. How do these local and regional, national and international storylines work for organized play?

We 're joined in a 5-part episode by Jessica, an experienced Vampire: The Masquerade GM.

New year, new ideas, new formats!

Thank you for your support this past year!

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(transcript by Descript)

So we left it in. And welcome to year two of gay mastery. Thank you for listening. And don't forget to rate, review and share. It's how we grow to create better content for you.

In a world... where cartoons are not cartoons, and Andrew is flummoxed by inappropriately managed emotion, we take a journey into a role playing game made for children... and talk (maybe too much) about why a certain gaming mechanic bugged us.

Magpie Games is Kickstartering an rpg based on the Last Airbender and Legend of Korra series, and we tried it out in a one-shot GM'd by the wonderful Lili Sparx!

We meant to talk about the experience of gameplay as the focus, but we ended up spending most of the time talking about the merits of one of the game's key mechanics. If you're into behavioral therapy, Stoicism, and developmental psychology in real-world situations, you might get a bigger kick out of this than our other episodes [laughs].

The takeaways?

- Our GM was GREAT. Highly recommended! We hope Lili will join us for a follow-up one day.

- If you love Avatar, GET THIS GAME!

- If you are a mental health professional rpg'r, get this game, but be prepared to want take Mark's hack-your-game brush to it. Otherwise, the interpersonal mechanics will bug ye!

Avatar kickstarter https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/magpiegames/avatar-legends-the-roleplaying-game?ref=1ajf7r&gclid=Cj0KCQjwg7KJBhDyARIsAHrAXaHX9bdSwS6AXSGM8pT1z385-cYHFXAILY7bcNFXIzYBzlXkIzRarecaAiX2EALw_wcB

LIli's Magpie Games' page https://magpiegames.com/lili-sparx/

Steve(n) let's Mark help guide him on whether or not to sell his few remaining higher-dollar Magic cards. Car payment on one hand, Reserve List items on the other...

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Steve(n)'s nostalgic Urza's Deck: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/big-green-bauble-crunch/

Just what is a Gaea's Cradle, anyway: https://tinyurl.com/y7tbaa4j

Article on investing in Magic from 2019: https://strategy.channelfireball.com/all-strategy/mtg/channelmagic-articles/now-you-can-literally-invest-in-magic-cards/

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Magic: The Gathering is a collectible card game created by Richard Garfield. For the past 27 years, it has grown in popularity unlike any peer game or competitor in the world. It was recently named the world's most complex game we know of- in all of known human history. And now, single cards on what is called the Reserve List have shot up in value like crazy. These are cards that will never be reprinted, and their rarity and power make them highly sought after for both competitive and casual play, plus collectability. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic:_The_Gathering

The fiend is revealed!

On this episode, we talk to Rosie, Corey, Jon, and Shylah about this amazing campaign.

Was there drama? Should there have been drama? How many people do they think Lucius had a hand in killing? Did anyone suspect?

And is everyone still friends...

If you haven't listened to the first episode in this series, check out https://anchor.fm/dashboard/episode/etavft

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How do players handle discovering that a murderer was in their midsts? Does having a close-knit group mean you can take gaming risks that you couldn't with strangers? What makes a good gaming group? And is talen-tuh-ted a word?