Roleplay Rescue

Admitting my discomfort with the Old-School label and talking about my own relationship with the OSR as a movement appears to have touched a couple of people in a helpful and powerful way. Two listeners have taken the time to send me not one but several messages on the topic and I am every keen to share their thoughts with you. But that’s not all. Today I also want to reflect on the journey that returning to the Old-School primer and listening to some interviews has sent me out to experience. I’ve made some surprising discoveries and perhaps begun to open a new chapter in my hobby.

Thanks to Karl from the GMologist Presents, to Brian from I’ll Have To Look That Up, and to Jason from the Nerd’s RPG Variety Cast for the call-ins today. 

Game on!

Roleplay Rescue Details:

Voice Message:

speakpipe.com/roleplayrescue

Patreon:

patreon.com/rpgrescue 

Email:

[email protected]

Blog:

roleplayrescue.com 

MeWe Group:

mewe.com/join/roleplayrescue

or search "Roleplay Rescue"

Twitter:

@ubiquitousrat

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.

Special moments come along but rarely and today is a special moment for me. Sometimes we meet people with whom we share seemingly little in common and then we discover they play D&D too. My guest today is someone from a very different background and experience of roleplaying games whom I thoroughly enjoyed speaking with. While our conversation was focused around the topic of Pantheons in D&D, the conversation roamed far and wide giving me much to think about.

Ron Ogden is the CEO of The Dungeon Society, a tabletop RPG company seeking to “give every GM a creative toolset to make the storytelling process convenient and unique.” Ron has been worldbuilding and creating homebrewed D&D campaigns for over two decades. His latest endeavors include being co-DM on The Dungeon Run (a popular live-play D&D show on Twitch) as well as "The Chronicle" for Heroic Story (a creator-led community that unites artists, writers, and gamers who love fantasy stories and RPGs).

Big thanks to Ron for coming onto the show!

Ron Ogden can be found on:

TikTok: 

Ron Ogden (@therealrogden) TikTok

OR

https://www.tiktok.com/@therealrogden

The Dungeon Run: 

The Dungeon Run - YouTube

OR

https://www.youtube.com/c/TheDungeonRun

Twitter: 

Ron Ogden (@therealrogden) / Twitter

OR

https://twitter.com/therealrogden

The Dungeon Society can be found at:

Home | The Dungeon Society

OR

https://thedungeonsociety.com/

Game on!

Roleplay Rescue Details:

Voice Message:

speakpipe.com/roleplayrescue

Patreon:

patreon.com/rpgrescue 

Email:

[email protected]

Blog:

roleplayrescue.com 

MeWe Group:

mewe.com/join/roleplayrescue

or search "Roleplay Rescue"

Twitter:

@ubiquitousrat

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.

One of the most overlooked aspects of running a roleplaying games campaign is the question of what you and your players want from such a game. We tend to assume that other people come to the table for the same reasons that we do. We also tend towards diving in head-first to getting a game up and running, keen to play, without considering how we want to the game to feel. There’s also a tendency to not consider the outcomes we might seek from a new campaign - and I’m not talking about the inevitable defeat of the Big Bad or returning home victorious from the quest. Over the past few years, I’ve had many conversations with fellow gamers and thought deeply about what it is that I want to offer at the table. I think these issues are important and ultimately play the largest factor in whether a game can stand the test of time. 

Thanks to Hobbs from Hobbs and Friends plus Random Screed, to Brian from I’ll Have To Look That Up, to Kevin from The Redcaps Podcast, and to Jason from the Nerd’s RPG Variety Cast for the call-ins today..

Game on!

Roleplay Rescue Details:

Voice Message:

speakpipe.com/roleplayrescue

Patreon:

patreon.com/rpgrescue 

Email:

[email protected]

Blog:

roleplayrescue.com 

MeWe Group:

mewe.com/join/roleplayrescue

or search "Roleplay Rescue"

Twitter:

@ubiquitousrat

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 episode follows on from Choosing Fantasy Worlds, which was episode 13. Brian’s question was about recommending worlds that are well-done and while I have some personal favourites which fit that description, I also want to talk about why it’s so hard to find well-done modern and SF worlds for games.

Thanks to Brian from I’ll Have To Look That Up for the call in that inspired the episode. Thanks also to Jason from the Nerd’s RPG Variety Cast for the call-ins today.  

There's also some news about my antics in creating a new school-based D&D club.

Game on!

Roleplay Rescue Details:

Voice Message:

speakpipe.com/roleplayrescue

Patreon:

patreon.com/rpgrescue 

Email:

[email protected]

Blog:

roleplayrescue.com 

MeWe Group:

mewe.com/join/roleplayrescue

or search "Roleplay Rescue"

Twitter:

@ubiquitousrat

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.

I am uncomfortably Old-School. While I don’t self-identify as being part of the so-called Old-School Renaissance, my habits and sensibilities have much in common with the early days of that Movement. But I am not truly part of the OSR because the games I enjoy are too complex and detailed for the members of that Movement. So where do I fit? I suspect I have fallen between the cracks of the roleplaying games community.

Thanks to Jason and Evil Jeff for the call-ins!

Game on!

Roleplay Rescue Details:

Voice Message: 

speakpipe.com/roleplayrescue

Patreon: 

patreon.com/rpgrescue 

Email:

[email protected]

Blog: 

roleplayrescue.com 

MeWe Group:

mewe.com/join/roleplayrescue 

or search "Roleplay Rescue"

Twitter:

@ubiquitousrat

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.

There are many, many worlds that I would love to explore and play in. But if we specify worlds that are well-done then that list is much shorter. I’ve thought about it a great deal and I am going to suggest three worlds - or settings - that I consider to be well done. To keep things sane, I’m going to begin by focusing on Fantasy worlds. If you want my thoughts about modern-era or science-fiction worlds, let me know and I’ll do a follow-up episode. We begin with this: if I could sit down and run any pre-designed fantasy world and wanted to choose one that was well-done, there are three worlds I would choose: Harn, Glorantha, and Ptolus.

Thanks to Brian, Jason, Wiebe, Barry, and Simon for the call-ins!

Link to Ptolus:

https://www.montecookgames.com/welcome-to-ptolus/

Link to Glorantha:

https://www.glorantha.com/

Link to Harn:

http://columbiagames.com/harn/index.html

Roleplay Rescue Details:

Voice Message:

speakpipe.com/roleplayrescue

Patreon:

patreon.com/rpgrescue 

Email:

[email protected]

Blog:

roleplayrescue.com 

MeWe Group:

mewe.com/join/roleplayrescue

or search "Roleplay Rescue"

Twitter:

@ubiquitousrat

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.

A big part of what makes this show special is the community of discovery that has grown up around it - through the blog comments, emails, Discord messaging, Patreon support, and podcast call-ins. You, the listeners, are what make working on the show a joy and about 80% of the reason that I keep recording and editing episodes.

Every call-in gets saved but not every call-in has space in the regular episodes, so every now and again I like to scoop up the messages and present them back as a special Call-in Collective show. Many thanks to Evil Jeff from Minions and Musings for both the idea and name of the Call-in Collective.

Thanks to Brian from I’ll Have To Look That Up, Jason from the Nerd’s RPG Variety Cast, Jason Wiebe, Arlen Walker of Live From Pellam’s Wasteland, and Frank Turfler for the call-ins today. 

Game on!

Roleplay Rescue Details:

Voice Message: 

speakpipe.com/roleplayrescue

Patreon: 

patreon.com/rpgrescue 

Email:

[email protected]

Blog: 

roleplayrescue.com 

MeWe Group:

mewe.com/join/roleplayrescue 

or search "Roleplay Rescue"

Twitter:

@ubiquitousrat

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’s episode is a quick overview of an approach to GM preparation that I call Tiny Prep. It was inspired by the work of BJ Fogg, the Director of the Stanford Behavioural Lab and discussed at length in his highly-recommended book “Tiny Habits”. Tiny Prep is the simple idea of doing your GM game preparations in very small increments daily or, in my case, six days a week. I utilise the science of human behaviour revealed by BJ Fogg to leverage the natural habit-forming processes of the human brain to increase my output of prep before games. The great benefit is that I now prep more material and better quality material for my games than I did before. For my anxiety, this has helped me hugely.

Thanks to Brian, Jason, and Wiebe for the call-ins!

Tiny Habits: BJ Fogg | Tiny Habits OR https://tinyhabits.com/

Fogg Behaviour Model: Behavior Model OR https://behaviormodel.org/

Game on!

Roleplay Rescue Details:

Voice Message: speakpipe.com/roleplayrescue

Patreon: patreon.com/rpgrescue 

Email: [email protected]

Blog: roleplayrescue.com 

MeWe Group: mewe.com/join/roleplayrescue (or search "Roleplay Rescue")

Twitter: @ubiquitousrat

Roleplay Rescue Theme by Jon Cohen from Tale of the Manticore: Tale of The Manticore, a Dark Fantasy Dungeons & Dragons Audiodrama (podbean.com) or https://taleofthemanticore.podbean.com/

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

This one is a bit of a rant. It arises from repeated comments from players about GURPS which irk me. It begins with this: “Sure,” says the player when I suggest we play a game using GURPS, “I’d be happy to play… as long as I don’t have to build a character.”

GURPS is not a complex or difficult game. But it is a generic and universal game. It doesn’t come with a pre-packaged world nor with a bunch of genre conventions because it can handle any world and any genre. Or, more precisely, GURPS can handle all worlds, genres, and approaches. The problem is with building a character and with making choices as a player. Making choices is hard and that players are increasingly in too much of a hurry to be bothered with making the effort.

Thanks to the Jason Connerly and Barry (GMShadow) for the call-ins today.

Game on!

Roleplay Rescue Details:

Voice Message: speakpipe.com/roleplayrescue

Patreon: patreon.com/rpgrescue 

Email: [email protected]

Blog: roleplayrescue.com 

MeWe Group: mewe.com/join/roleplayrescue (or search "Roleplay Rescue")

Twitter: @ubiquitousrat

Roleplay Rescue Theme by Jon Cohen from Tale of the Manticore: Tale of The Manticore, a Dark Fantasy Dungeons & Dragons Audiodrama (podbean.com) or https://taleofthemanticore.podbean.com/

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

Today is the last in a series of conversations I shared over the period between the seasons, with some of the most creative gamers I know.

My guest today is a fellow podcaster and perhaps one of the nicest and most mellow souls I have had the privilege to meet. We sat down to talk a little about the Classic Traveller roleplaying game - especially since, at the time, I was re-approaching the old Black Box set for a possible SF campaign I am still desperate to create. This conversation inspired many elements in the project that has arisen from it and I thank Bob hugely for making me think about Traveller in fresh ways.

Bob Loftin is co-host of SAFCOcast, a podcast about the Traveller roleplaying game and its derivatives. SAFCO stands for Super Adventure Friends Co., the tongue-in-cheek name the members of Bob’s group decided to give the company their characters formed for their Classic Traveller campaign, “Into The Void”.

SAFCO podcast: SAFCOcast.com – a Traveller RPG Podcast – a podcast about the Traveller RPG and its derivatives OR http://www.safcocast.com/

Big thank you to Bob for onto the show!

Roleplay Rescue Details:

Voice Message: speakpipe.com/roleplayrescue

Patreon: patreon.com/rpgrescue 

Email: [email protected]

Blog: roleplayrescue.com 

MeWe Group: mewe.com/join/roleplayrescue (or search "Roleplay Rescue")

Twitter: @ubiquitousrat

Roleplay Rescue Theme by Jon Cohen from Tale of the Manticore: Tale of The Manticore, a Dark Fantasy Dungeons & Dragons Audiodrama (podbean.com) or https://taleofthemanticore.podbean.com/

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