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Zombies of the World is on sale during October! Save $5 off the print edition or $2 off the ebook edition.

Synopsis: Adventure design for long term campaigns is different than designing for a one shot scenario. Keeping up with the entirety of a complex ruleset is impossible for a campaign so you must determine what rules to keep track of and what to ignore. Adventures have to be geared to specific player characters. You can’t keep adding on new elements into the campaign. Instead, you must provide closure for the plot elements you do introduce. We discuss all of these topics and more. Furthermore, Tom has a new letter, shout outs and more.

Shout outs:

Song: League of Extraordinary Adventurers by Sounda

Ad: Critical Miss magazine edited by Jonny Nexus.

Synopsis: Adventure design is a complex topic so we’d thought we would delve into it once again. In this episode, Tom and I discuss the difference between good design choices and style choices. While good design is applicable to any genre of RPG scenario, it is possible to make choices in creating an adventure that only work under certain circumstances. The choice to emphasize one aspect of a game over another isn’t necessarily right or wrong. It’s a style choice. Hack and slash versus political intrigue? Style. Dungeon crawling versus mass battles? Style. Tom also has a new letter entailing the virtues of various cinematic firearms.

Shout outs:

Song: PonPonPon De Floor mashup (special request from Caleb)

News: Check out Raillery Redux, my new video game focused podcast.

Synopsis: In this episode, we bring in Aaron and David to discuss their experiences at Gencon 2011. Aaron ran three sessions of a Monsters and Other Childish Things game based on the Secrets of NIMH while this was David’s first Gencon. David cosplayed as an anime character, so he had a different experience. We also go over our purchases at Gencon and share more anecdotes from con games.

Shout outs:

Song: Comedians by Cossbysweater

This year’s Gencon was so great, we will have to do two episodes to cover it all. In this episode, we bring RPPR regular Caleb to discuss his first impressions of the con and the games he ran and played in. We all talk about the newest games we picked up and Tom discusses the game he ran and other things he did.

I also interviewed George Strayton, creator of The Secret Fire, a new fantasy RPG. It’s a short interview but I added in place of Tom’s letter. He discusses the design philosophy behind the game, his background as a screenwriter and more.

Shout outs

Panopticon: The newest Eclipse Phase supplement.

Song: Zombie by Anssi 8000 and Maria Stereo

I recorded a panel discussion of Eclipse Phase designers Rob Boyle and Adam Jury as they discussed their current plans for the transhuman sci-fi horror RPG. In this discussion, they go over planned releases, their business model and the themes behind Eclipse Phase. If you’re curious about what’s in store for Firewall and the rest of transhumanity, this would be a good listen.

News: Vote for Monsters and Other Childish Things: Road Trip (Cubicle 7/Arc Dream Publishing) in the best adventure category. Be sure to vote it as #1!

Zombies of the World products now have free US shipping. Order your copy today.

Synopsis: THIS IS A NSFW EPISODE. Tom remembered a horribly boring dungeon crawl campaign he suffered from in his youth. He wanted to take the cliches he saw in that game and make them actually fun. So, we discuss how to take cliches like traps, prisoners and treasure in dungeons and make them new and exciting. Also, because we are horrible, horrible monsters we read another excerpt from the rpg.net FATAL review. Also, Tom was too busy to write a letter. Be sure to let him know that you like his letters. Maybe he’ll grace us with a letter again. Maybe.

Shout outs:

Song: Good Days and Cliches by Nevernoodz

The New World is the grave of Lemuria, the greatest of all nations. The barbaric tribes that live in the New World now walk upon its bones, the ruins of temples and palaces, ignorant of the wisdom and power buried beneath their feet. When a colony from the kingdom of a distant continent settles on the shores of the New World, whispers of Lemuria flutter through the winds. Adventurers from the colony find the ruins and marvel at their beauty. Scholars listen to the legends told by tribal elders and connect them to ancient stories of a lost empire. Native warriors and mystics commune with spirits awoken by the colony’s arrival. The Ruins of Lemuria stir the blood of the ambitious and curious. Soon expeditions will be mounted to crack open the dusty tombs leading into the Stygian depths to learn their secrets and plunder their treasures. Little do these adventurers know that the doom that befall mighty Lemuria waits to greet them.

Zombies of the World is now available in print, PDF and Kindle format!

My book, Road Trip, has been nominated for an Ennie!

Synopsis: Bildungsroman is a fancy way of describing the ‘youth to adulthood’ genre – stories like “to Kill a Mockingbird” where the character grows from a child to become an adult or closer to an adult. Role playing games are often like these stories – characters grow from being relatively weak and naive to eventually becoming epic badasses of destiny. However, many game systems do not encourage character growth – advancement is slow, ponderous and mechanically difficult. Furthermore, most campaigns are relatively short – interrupted or abandoned for myriad reasons. If you want players to grow at a faster pace, what should you do? How is mechanical growth different from role playing growth? Tom and I discuss these issues and more. Plus, instead of a letter, Tom and I read an excerpt from the infamous rpg.net review of FATAL. It’s definitely NSFW.

Promo: Explodey File podcast. 

Song: Growing up and Getting out by Adam Boucher.

Synopsis: Science fiction is an under appreciated genre in role playing games. Fantasy (Dungeons and Dragons) and horror (World of Darkness) dominate RPGs and most of the popular sci-fi games out there aren’t really science fiction or are horribly anachronistic. Tom and I discuss the state of science fiction and how it is different than fantasy or horror. As the literature of ideas, sci-fi should play differently than other genres. Everything from thematic content to the design of the game should be affected. We also have a letter from Tom, shout outs, an anecdote and reader letters.

Shout outs:

Music: Science Fiction by the Cobra Dukes.

Watch Zombies of the World episode 1: Migration and learn how it was made on the ZOTW blog.

If you want to contribute art for the Lemurian Ruins – email [email protected].

Synopsis: Game balance is a tricky thing. While in some cases, it’s easy to spot an unbalanced system like Palladium or Synnibarr but other times, a game’s imbalances won’t be revealed until you’ve played it for a while. So what do you when you find out that the game you’re playing is unbalanced? We discuss how to deal with these situations. It’s possible to change systems, house rule it so that it’s balanced or use the social contract to keep things fair. Also instead of a letter, Tom talks about having a cyst cut out of him. It’s really gross (NSFW link do not click this)

Shout outs:

Music: Our Life Our Rules by Moral Decline