Day 3 in Sydney quarantine- dark, dreary, and rainy outside.  Bit of a delay in uploading this one - some talk of resuming our 5e adventures and call-ins.

Thanks to call-ins from:

Joe - Hindsightless

Jason - Nerd's RPG Variety Cast

Che - Role Play Rescue

Spencer/Free Thrall - Keep off the Borderlands

Book recommendations:

The Poppy War (series) - R. F. Kuang

It's morning in Quarantine... downtown Sydney, quiet due to the current lockdown.  A few more thoughts on quarantine, an "unboxing," and discussion about Star Frontiers and Top Secret New World Order.

Short update from the "temporary home" in quarantine in Sydney and a few ideas for gaming.

Podcast to check out:

Jewels from NZ

Short update on what I am doing and a bit of Froth-tribute for this Tuesday - some links to free stuff and a nice underground labyrinth path random table from Le Chaudron Chromatique:

Links:

Hodag RPG: https://hodagrpg.itch.io/

War! FOR THE PLANET KARRAVAN

Dag's Summer Tour

Underground Land Bridges Labyrinth: https://chaudronchromatique.blogspot.com/2021/05/labyrinth-underground-bridges.html

Wands and Wizards ("Harry Potter and the Fight for 5e" by GMBinder: Source book

Review of Wands and Wizard on Geek Native: https://www.geeknative.com/129433/wands-wizards-is-an-impressive-harry-potter-to-dd-5e-adaptation/

Short discussion of a few thoughts for the week and some call-ins.

Podcast to check out: Mad Jay's discussion with Kira Magrann: Talking NextPunk with Kira Magrann - Diceology 39, and Diceology 

Thanks to the calls from BJ (Arcane Alienist), Jason (Nerd's RPG Variety Cast), and Colin (Spikepit).

A short discussion of some resources to use, either for inspiration or for gaming:

Fantastic Lairs: Boss Battles and Climactic Encounters for 5e (https://fantasticlairs.com)

A free Star Wars RPG using D&D 5e: https://www.sw5e.com/

Random Table for mega dungeon hooks: https://hackslashmaster.blogspot.com/2021/06/on-megadungeon-hooks.html

Tool to help you give XP in a different way ("Bingo-style"): https://githyankidiaspora.wordpress.com/2021/06/04/bingo-style-experience-points-after-a-few-months-of-leveling-up/

Free map - a great dungeon to challenge your players: https://acornafloat.blogspot.com/2021/05/my-daughters-dungeon.html

"Five" minute Friday focus on a few great science-fiction RPG resources:

Talking about Star Frontiers... Joel Priddy at Abominable Fancy published a wonderful "FKR" Landshut variant of Star Frontiers, available for free here: https://abominablefancy.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-starshut-rules.html

I've probably mentioned the FKR Star Wars game "Galaxy Far Away," found at https://d66kobolds.blogspot.com/2020/09/galaxy-far-away-star-wars-this-is-fkr.html.  It's a great little game to play in the Star Wars universe- perhaps even the Mandalorian-era post "Return of the Jedi" setting.  There is an actual play of this game on the ggnore podcast: https://ggnorecast.com/2021/02/02/204/

We should have a random table - so here's a great one for your sci-fi/Star Wars game to help generate some sci-fi villain crime enterprises: https://triumphdespair.wordpress.com/2013/08/28/h-is-for-hutt/

Discussion about my experience with Star Frontiers and then some discussion about about science fiction and science fantasy games, following the talk on the recent Nerd's RPG Variety Cast shows.  Longer than I thought it would be. 

Resources to check:

"Protect the Frontier" on Black Gate - a review of Star Frontiers

Frontier Explorer - free pdf magazines on Star Frontiers and other material for science fiction RPGs

Podcast Recommendations:

Dead Games Society discussion of Star Frontiers

N.K. Jemisin on the Ezra Klein Show - a master class in world-building (please note that this is the "old" Ezra Klein Show on Vox, now called "Vox Conversations" as Ezra moved to The NY Times)

Great call-ins from:

Jason (Nerd's RPG Variety)

Che (Roleplay Rescue)

Spencer/Free Thrall (Keep off the Borderlands)

Short tribute to Froth and the "Five-Minute Friday" - it's definitely not as good as the real thing and runs a bit long, but hopefully this gives folks something interesting to check out this weekend.  Specifically - Dungeon Con, if only for the virtual village and inn:

Link to visit the Dungeon Con Virtual Village and Inn (and see the convention line-up):

https://goodman-games.com/blog/2021/05/28/friday-lineup-for-dungeon-con-online/

Dungeon Con sign-up and events page:

https://tabletop.events/conventions/dungeon-con-online 

Talking about what a minimal rpg (or DM) set would be, after first rambling about approaches to "minimalism" and trying to see what sparks more joy - 5e or DCC.  

References: The inspiration for a minimal rpg set came from Kelsey at the Arcane Library (website: https://www.thearcanelibrary.com) and her fantastic minimal DM set video

If you are interested in minimalism more broadly, please check out:

The Minimalists

Marie Kondo

"Youtube" channels to explore:

Kelsey's Arcane Library

Dael Kingsmill's Monarchs Factory (making Australia proud)

The introduction music is sampled from the start of Belly's "Now They'll Sleep."  They can be found at https://bellyofficial.com, where they are very excited about the bees...