Roleplay Rescue

Hello Rescuers! Here's a bonus! I have this vague idea that if I can produce a few episodes then I might release them on their own podcast feed, Roleplay Rescue's Solo Tales.

This episode follows on from the main Roleplay Rescue Season 12, Episode 2 entitled “Crag’s Ruin”. I began wanting to explore the roots of my own hobby by revisiting my first imaginary game-world.

This episode picks up where that one left off. Because this is a personal solo game, I’m going to be using a variety of tools and methods to create a game that I enjoy. In other words, while I am sharing the game in the hope of inspiring others to try solo play, I am also very much playing the game for my own enjoyment.

Thanks to Barry, Jason, Jonathan, and Runeslinger for the call-ins.

Thanks to Jon from Tale of the Manticore and Simon from Legend of the Bones for their inspiration.

Thanks also to Tabletop Audio for the additional music and ambient sounds:

Tabletop Audio - Ambiences and Music for Tabletop Role Playing Games

OR

https://tabletopaudio.com/

Game on!

Roleplay Rescue Solo Tales Details:

Voice Message:

speakpipe.com/roleplayrescue

Patreon:

patreon.com/rpgrescue 

Email:

[email protected]

Blog:

roleplayrescue.com 

Mastodon:

@[email protected]

Roleplay Rescue Theme by TJ Drennon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today I have another of my conversations with a friend within the roleplaying games community. This episode we dipped into talking about characterisation in our RPGs, especially around NPCs. My guest, Simon Williams, is a British artist and illustrator as well as being the creator of the Legend of The Bones podcast, a hybrid Solo Old School Dungeons and Dragons actual play and dark fantasy audio drama. 

Big thanks to Simon for coming back to the show!

Legend of The Bones Podcast:

https://legendofthebones.podbean.com/

Game on!

Roleplay Rescue Details:

Voice Message:

speakpipe.com/roleplayrescue

Patreon:

patreon.com/rpgrescue 

Email:

[email protected]

Blog:

roleplayrescue.com 

Mastodon:

@[email protected]

Roleplay Rescue Theme by Jon Cohen from Tale of the Manticore:

https://taleofthemanticore.podbean.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Following the release of Episode 5 to the RPR Patreon, Patron Brian called in with a long series of seven questions about GURPS which I felt were worthy of a full episode to respond to. Not only are they truly excellent questions, they were also deeply insightful and are perhaps the kinds of questions that many listeners unfamiliar with GURPS would find interesting. I also think that, putting aside the specifics of GURPS, these are useful questions to ask of any game system.

Because the questions relate to my chat with GMShadow, Barry from Shadow of the GM podcast, I decided to invite Barry to record his own response to Brian’s message. What follows is, then, a mash-up in the following sequence: first we’ll hear Brian’s message, then we’ll hear Barry’s reply, and then I’ll tackle the seven questions in sequence and give my own answers. I hope you find this useful.

Thanks to Brian for the call-in and to Barry for replying too.

Game on!

Roleplay Rescue Details:

Voice Message:

speakpipe.com/roleplayrescue

Patreon:

patreon.com/rpgrescue 

Email:

[email protected]

Blog:

roleplayrescue.com 

Mastodon:

@[email protected]

Roleplay Rescue Theme by Jon Cohen from Tale of the Manticore:

https://taleofthemanticore.podbean.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Episode 5, Barry aka GMShadow chatted with me about the need for a simple introduction to GURPS. Since then, we’ve been collaborating - along with other interested folk from the RPR Discord - to create Simple Dungeon GURPS. We have a working draft of Simple Dungeon GURPS and the playtesting is underway. In this episode, I wanted to share the progress made and the basic shape of that set of methodological guidelines which leverage the GURPS rules system. 

Massive thanks to Frank for calling-in!

The Simple Dungeon GURPS Draft is here: Simple Dungeon GURPS – Roleplay Rescue’s Blog

OR

https://roleplayrescue.com/2023/03/18/simple-dungeon-gurps/

Game on!

Roleplay Rescue Details:

Voice Message:

speakpipe.com/roleplayrescue

Patreon:

patreon.com/rpgrescue 

Email:

[email protected]

Blog:

roleplayrescue.com 

Mastodon:

@[email protected]

Roleplay Rescue Theme by Jon Cohen from Tale of the Manticore:

https://taleofthemanticore.podbean.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do you ever find yourself not physically starting something but instead spending inordinate amounts of time and effort reading, researching, and trying to decide where to start? If not, I envy you. It's a particular problem I have and been struggling with again. In simple terms, this is the Resistance in a pretty unsubtle form.

Thanks to Matt for the call-in at the top of the show, giving me a nudge on a topic I blogged about some weeks ago: The Fear of Starting.

This episode, I aim to share that original post and then develop some answers to the problem I was facing only a few weeks ago… but which has plagued me for the past 50 years.

It turns out that the answer may lie in a shift in thought.

Massive thanks to Matt, Jason, Frank, Jonathan, and Anthony for calling-in today!

Game on!

Find out more about "The War Of Art" and "Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants To Be" via https://stevenpressfield.com/home

OR

Steven Pressfield Online | Steven Pressfield

Roleplay Rescue Details:

Voice Message:

speakpipe.com/roleplayrescue

Patreon:

patreon.com/rpgrescue 

Email:

[email protected]

Blog:

roleplayrescue.com 

Mastodon:

@[email protected]

Roleplay Rescue Theme by Jon Cohen from Tale of the Manticore:

https://taleofthemanticore.podbean.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Following my recent conversation with GMShadow, my good friend Barry from The Shadow of the GM podcast - which you can listen to in Episode 5 - I’ve been delving back into both the Great Library of GURPS and rekindling my love of the megadungeon. This episode, I want to talk about the reasons why I’ve returned to the Dungeons of Thaarl - my own megadungeon - for a return to the classic fantasy Open Table format. 

The Alexandrian blog post, “Game Structures Part 3: Dungeoncrawl”:

https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/15140/roleplaying-games/game-structures-part-3-dungeoncrawl

Dungeons & Dragons Red Box (1983):

http://www.dmsguild.com/product/116578/DD-Basic-Set--Players-Manual-BECMI-ed-Basic

http://www.dmsguild.com/product/116619/DD-Basic-Set--DMs-Rulebook-BECMI-ed-Basic

Peter Dell’Orto’s “Dungeon Fantastic” Megadungeon Mapping Best Practices Part I:

http://dungeonfantastic.blogspot.com/2011/12/my-megadungeon-mapping-best-practices.html

Big thanks to Jason for the call-in!

Roleplay Rescue Details:

Voice Message:

speakpipe.com/roleplayrescue

Patreon:

patreon.com/rpgrescue 

Email:

[email protected]

Blog:

roleplayrescue.com 

Mastodon:

@[email protected]

Roleplay Rescue Theme by Jon Cohen from Tale of the Manticore:

https://taleofthemanticore.podbean.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today, I want to talk about the most durable, long-serving, and under-rated game structure in roleplaying games. Most GMs use some form of it in most sessions - anytime they come to a location in their world where the Player Characters need to explore. I want to talk about the humble Dungeoncrawl which has become tarnished over the years by people who totally fail to understand that the “crawl” is a fundamental and sturdy structure for any moment when the characters enter a location they want to explore. I prefer to call them Locationcrawls and, honestly, this is the second big tool in the Gamemaster’s methodological toolkit.

Big thanks to The Alexandrian for his blog post quoted in the episode (without permission): The Alexandrian » Game Structures – Part 3: Dungeoncrawl

OR

https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/15140/roleplaying-games/game-structures-part-3-dungeoncrawl

Thanks also to Barry and Jason for the call-ins!

Roleplay Rescue Details:

Voice Message:

speakpipe.com/roleplayrescue

Patreon:

patreon.com/rpgrescue 

Email:

[email protected]

Blog:

roleplayrescue.com 

Mastodon:

@[email protected]

Roleplay Rescue Theme by Jon Cohen from Tale of the Manticore:

https://taleofthemanticore.podbean.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is another one of the conversations I’ve been having with various friends within the roleplaying community. This episode is a chat about how to introduce new players to GURPS by making the whole thing simpler and more familiar. 

One thing to say is that I got my timeframes all wrong: I began monkeying around with GURPS around 5 years ago or so ago. Dungeons of Thaarl was happening in 2019, which is 4 years ago. Doesn’t time fly?

My guest, Barry aka GMShadow, is the host of Shadow of the GM podcast which, among other things, discusses his experiences with GURPS over the past few years. Like me, Barry is a GM returning to GURPS and we have much in common.

Big thanks up front to Barry for coming on to the show. I hope you’ll find it as inspiring as I did - he’s got me thinking about getting something GURPS up and running again.

Game on!

Shadow of the GM podcast: Anchor - The easiest way to make a podcast

OR

https://anchor.fm/gmsshadow

Roleplay Rescue Details:

Voice Message:

speakpipe.com/roleplayrescue

Patreon:

patreon.com/rpgrescue 

Email:

[email protected]

Blog:

roleplayrescue.com 

Mastodon:

@[email protected]

Roleplay Rescue Theme by Jon Cohen from Tale of the Manticore:

https://taleofthemanticore.podbean.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ever since I first began roleplaying, I have always been engaged by a good fight scene. Combat has been the way in which I almost always begin to learn a new game and you can bet your bottom-dollar that any scenario I run with open with a fight.

Why is that? Is it because, as I alluded to back in Season 9, I am at heart a Munchkin? One of those kids who came into the hobby in the late 70’s and 80’s as a pre-teen adventurer with a predilection for violence? Or is it a little more nuanced, having to do with a variety of factors - not least being that every example of play I began with included combat as a key focus?

Thanks for Frank for calling-in!

Game on!

Roleplay Rescue Details:

Voice Message:

speakpipe.com/roleplayrescue

Patreon:

patreon.com/rpgrescue 

Email:

[email protected]

Blog:

roleplayrescue.com 

Mastodon:

@[email protected]

Roleplay Rescue Theme by Jon Cohen from Tale of the Manticore:

https://taleofthemanticore.podbean.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the first in a fresh sequence of conversations I’ve been having with various friends within the roleplaying community. This episode features a chat about how to move from beer and pretzels style gaming towards something a little deeper, richer, and longer lived.

My guest, Arlen Walker, is the host of Live From Pellam’s Wasteland which you can find both as a podcast and on YouTube in video form. Arlen does most of his recent work on YouTube and his thoughts can range wildly, but include a lot of good solo play examples as well as discussions about RPG theory that I love.

Big thank you, once again, to Arlen for coming and sharing his thoughts!

Game on!

Live From Pellam's Wasteland Podcast:

Anchor - The easiest way to make a podcast

OR

https://anchor.fm/pellamswasteland

Live From Pellam's Wasteland YouTube:

Live from Pellam's Wasteland - YouTube

OR

https://www.youtube.com/c/LivefromPellamsWasteland/playlists

Roleplay Rescue Details:

Voice Message:

speakpipe.com/roleplayrescue

Patreon:

patreon.com/rpgrescue 

Email:

[email protected]

Blog:

roleplayrescue.com 

Mastodon:

@[email protected]

Roleplay Rescue Theme by Jon Cohen from Tale of the Manticore:

https://taleofthemanticore.podbean.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.