News: Base Raiders, the new RPPR Kickstarter is nearing completion. Help us meet a few more stretch goals!  Contribute now!

Learn more at the Base Raiders website.

Synopsis: Combat is the heart and soul of many RPGs but running exciting combat is harder to pull of than it seems. It often descends into tedious “I hit you you” dice rolling contests or incoherent arguments over stunting and other combat rules. How do you balance those extremes? Tom and I discuss how we keep fights interesting in a game and what players can do their part.

Instead of a letter from Tom, we read two listener letters, plus shout outs and an anecdote!

Shout outs:

Music: Le Combat by David Cyr

News: Check out the new RPPR Kickstarter for Base Raiders, a standalone RPG about superpowered dungeon crawling!

Synopsis: This seminar with Dennis Detwiller, Kenneth Hite, Shane Ivey and Greg Stolze is about historical superhero games. Arc Dream has two games along those lines: Godlike and the Progenitor setting for Wild Talents, so they have some background in the topic. If you’ve ever wanted to run an alternate history game, even without superheroes, this panel would be a must listen!

News: Support RPPR by contributing to the Base Raiders Kickstarter.Get at least the PDF and you’ll gain access to 10 preview RPPR Actual Play episodes upon the conclusion of the campaign.

RPPR friend Cody Walker has his own Kickstarter up for Noir City. Help bring his comic to life!

Synopsis: It wouldn’t be October without at least one horror themed episode of RPPR. Tom and I discuss what makes a horror story set in the here and now unique (2012). Isolation is no longer geographic thanks to smartphones with GPS but it is still possible to isolate players in different ways. Furthermore, we have new trends in horror storytelling, like the emergence of the creepypasta subgenre. Marble Hornets and the SCP Wiki are great material for your next horror game. Of course the real horror comes from real life. Aside from isolation, we have a growing panopticon, the ongoing global economic crisis, the rise of fascism, and online stalking/bullying. This makes the year of the Mayan Apocalypse a great place for a horror story. Plus Tom reads a letter and we have shout outs an anecdote.

Read the SCP Wiki. The image on the left is from SCP 701.

Shout outs:

Song: Crush from the Hotline Miami Soundtrack.

News: Base Raiders, the new RPPR Kickstarter is now online. Contribute now! Learn more at the Base Raiders website.

Take the Zombie Survival Quiz at Zombies of the World

Former RPPR regular Cody Walker has his own Kickstarter up for Noir City, a comic book. Check it out!

The RPPR crew is just terrible at Artemis Spaceship Simulator. Watch!

Synopsis: The newest RPPR Project, Base Raiders, is about dungeon crawling in a world of superheroes. But many players find that type of game boring. Dungeons are usually thought of as endless stone corridors, populated with traps and monsters but a dungeon can be so much more. You can use them in practically any genre, even modern ones. Tom and I discuss how modern ruins and abandoned places can be made into exciting dungeons for your games and what makes an evocative dungeon versus a boring one. We even design a modern dungeon on the fly for your use. Hopefully this episode will give you a new perspective on dungeons.

Tom has a letter of course, and I talk about my experiences playtesting the new Dungeons and Dragons system.

Shout outs:

Music: The Descent by Kevin MacLeod

At Gencon this year, I was part of a panel with Kenneth Hite, Dennis Detwiller, and George Vasilakos to discuss zombies in gaming. We talked about many topics, from favorite films, to the symbolism of zombies and how to use them in games. If you’re a zombie fan, you should give it a listen!

In other news, check out the new Zombie Survival and Risk Analysis Quiz on Zombies of the World. Find out how well you would do in a zombie attack!

Sponsor: For the latest news covering the entire tabletop role-playing industry, turn to Roleplayers Chronicle at roleplayerschronicle.com!

Synopsis: This was our best Gencon ever and we have a lot to show for it. We won best podcast at the Ennies this year! A very special thanks goes out to every fan that voted for us. This podcast wouldn’t be anything without the support of our fans. Thanks!  I also shot some video at Gencon this year, a special four part series called The Oregon Trail Question. All four episodes are online now and feature the following game designers and writers:

Part 1: Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy from Pagan Publishing, and Jack Graham.

Tom, Aaron, and I discuss the highlights of Gencon for us this year including new games we tried, events we attended and what loot we got from the trip. Plus, Tom has a letter and we have anecdotes of course.

Shout outs:

Song: Take a guess

We had a blast at Gencon 2012 and we have a ton of new material for you, starting with this interview with Kenneth Hite about his new game, Night’s Black Agents. It’s a horror/spy thriller game that Mr. Hite designed more or less to give players an excuse to slay the undead while being total badass secret agents. It’s based on the GUMSHOE game engine but has new rules appropriate for the spy thriller genre.

It’s out now, so if you think you might want to try the game out, check it out here.

Sponsor: For the latest news covering the entire tabletop role-playing industry, turn to Roleplayers Chronicle at roleplayerschronicle.com!

Synopsis: We’ve talked a lot about campaign structure in the past but in this episode we discuss a new way to think about your campaigns. Namely, how to make a character-focused campaign as opposed to a sandbox or central plot focused game. We use long standing TV series to illustrate the differences and use our own personal experiences to provide helpful advice about it. We also have special guest, Thad from the AP podcast, show up. No letter from Tom, but we do have three letters from listeners and shout outs!

Shout outs:

Music: Hyrule’s Angel The Sleeping Beauty – Zelda cover by Game Over

News: Check out the new Raillery episodes, where the RPPR crew dusts off the Xbox version of the Warriors for hobo gang fights on the rooftops of 1970s New York. Not to be missed!

Also make sure you subscribe to the blog at Hebanon Games for access to the scenarios from the No Security Kickstarter.

Synopsis: Role playing games cannot simulate everything perfectly nor should they. Yet when a particular campaign or scenario visits a conflict not well handled by the rules, what should happen? How fair is it to run a game where the rules are ill-defined at best? Is it better to run a well-polished but simple game or a complex yet clunky game? Tom and I try to strike a balance between plot and polish. We also have a unique letter from Tom and a letter from a listener, plus shout outs of course.

Shout outs:

Music: The Plot by the White Rabbits.

News: Caleb’s added a stretch goal for his No Security Kickstarter. Check it out.

We’ve also added a few guest games on RPPR Actual Play. What do you think of them?

Synopsis: Kickstarter, the new crowdfunding platform and social network, has taken the gaming world by storm. Both video and tabletop game developers have used Kickstarter to fund games like a sequel to the classic CRPG Wasteland to a tabletop RPG based on Meso-American mythology. Also, Dolphin based RPGs. Of course, this has led to criticism of the site, as some believe that it’s only a fad or that backers or project creators are being ripped off by Kickstarter. So in this episode, we talk about our views on this recent wave of crowdfunding games. No letter from Tom but we do have anecdotes and shout outs.

Shout outs

Music: three guesses man.