Side Passages

Summer is here, and that means reading! On this episode, it's all books, all the time as we talk about our Summer Reading Lists for 2023.

Need more inspiration? Check out these posts.

Overlord Emeritus Chris Miller runs down his Worthy Comic Books for Summer Reading

Ken's full Summer 2023 reading list is up on Nuketown.

Need even more books? Revisit our 2021 and 2022 reading lists.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3EiMVi3oDc

The Summer Reading Lists 2023

David’s Picks

Terry Pratchett

Small Gods

Moving Pictures

Jingo

Discworld Reading Guide

The Gods of HP Lovecraft

Collection of short stories by modern authors, without all of the racism in it

Legends II

Another short story collection

David's not sure of the overall theme/world, but understands it’s another shared setting

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Pretty heavy, David's wanted to read it for a while so he is taking this opportunity to put it on the pile

Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke

The Library Connection

David hasn’t lost access to the library and it’s apps, so he expects this list to swell

Ken’s Picks

Ken launched his 16th annual reading list

Dragons of Deceit by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

A return to Dragonlance after more years away then Ken can easily remember.

Destina Rosethorn seeks to travel back through time to save her father, who died in the War of the Lance.

Star Wars: Lesser Evil (Thrawn Ascendency, Book 3) by Timothy Zahn

The final book of the second Thrawn prequel series. Yes, this was on Ken’s list last year. Yes, he didn’t read it.

Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty

A murder mystery on a sentient space station.

Released in October 2022, so it wasn’t on last year’s reading list. 

The next book in the series, Chaos Terminal, drops in November 2023.

Dead Moon (Threshold Universe, Book 3) by Peter Cline

LOST meets Lovecraft meets weird science.

Began with “14”, in which people living in an apartment building discover something very strange is going on in their basement. Continued with The Fold, which involved visiting another realm … and dealing with the consequences of those visits

Implacable (The Lost Fleet: Outlands Book 3) by Jack Campbell

Admiral John “Black Jack” Geary has taken his fleet beyond the frontier and is battling the dangerous and cryptic Enigma aliens. If only he wasn’t also fighting Alliance politicians back home, who are concerned he’ll use his immense popularity to seize control of the government

Graphic Novels

Hellboy: The Bones of Giants

Need some new horror graphic novels. Open to suggestions - Ken’s read most of the Hellboy and BPRD books.

Atomic Robo?

Transmetropolitan?

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In this podcast episode, we look at Oracles for role-playing games. Oracles are a kind of random generator popularized by solo RPGs like Ironsworn and the Mythic Game Master Simulator. However the idea of oracles - in which you role some dice to determine a course of action or inspire some aspect of your game - have been around since the hobby's earliest days. We talk about those early inspirations, how you can leverage oracles in your own game, and how to create your own campaign-specific random tables.

We're joined on this podcast by Chris Miller, Former Overlord of the Secret Lair, coding guru, and man least likely to be eaten by a grue. Before talking Oracles, we discuss the various video and role-playing games we're playing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1CIucTeW1k

The Game Room

Back to Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is out. Ken’s still catching up on the last one.

Starting Shadows of Doubt

Created by British developer Colepowered Games

Savage Amber and Savage Dresden

Chris created Savage Worlds versions of Amber and the Dresden Files.

Not licensed; these are fan creations for your geeky enjoyment

Godsend Agenda 3rd edition

David got his copy of Godsend Agenda 3rd Edition

It's not your typical mythology. Learn more by checking out S2E7 Godsend Agenda

Guardians of the Galaxy video game

David finished the game ... and enjoyed it quite a lot.

The Library

Cory Doctorow Novel-o-Rama

Chris talks about his recent Doctorow readings.

Main Topic: Oracles for Role-Playing Games

What is an Oracle?

“In Ironsworn, an oracle is anything which generates random results to help determine the outcome of a move, a detail in your world, and NPC action, or a narrative event.” - Ironsworn, p. 165.

Dictionary.com: “(especially in ancient Greece) an utterance, often ambiguous or obscure, given by a priest or priestess at a shrine as the response of a god to an inquiry, also the agency or medium giving such responses.”

In this case, the agent is the dice, and the deity is … well…you decide. Let’s call it Fate.

The use of an oracle implies predestination, something is “supposed” to happen.

Interesting, then, that consulting an oracle in RPGs is exactly the opposite, a specific decision of “random” chance so that the player need not decide.

Oracles in Different Game Types

Why use Oracles?

Drawing inspiration from randomness

Oracles in Solo games

Solves for the blank page problem.

Gives a channel for creativity to flow into. “Your ship has a critical issue,” causes the creative mind to try to solve the issue, or at least define it.

Game specific mechanisms

Thousand Year Vampire - using playing cards and dice

Be Like a Crow - playing cards

Ironsworn - all dice

Converted games, MythicRPG, OracleRPG - oracles, tech tools, AI

Oracles in Co-op games

Oracles in Traditional, Game Master-driven games

You cannot plan everything

Two ways to use in GM games

Spur of the moment in game - implied common usage

Supplement planning, even wandering monsters. - This gives the GM’s brain a break, since wandering and random encounters are a staple of some games’ module writing.

Specifics

Oldest oracle we could find: D&D White Box Monsters and Treasures

DMs screens

Player-generated Tables! So many! The internet is amazing!

Random Generators

Random Tools we Have Known

Dungeons & Dragons Monster & Treasure Assortment

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide

Specifically, the random dungeon generator in the first edition

There have been oracles for D&D as long as there has been an internet. See textfiles.com/rpg/

Many online resources

Donjon

Perchance - create your own oracles

Katans and Trenchcoats - old school World of Darkness

Creating an Oracle

How to create your own oracles and not feel like you are cheating/lazy

ChaptGPT is helpful, but terrible at math

Understanding the Bell Curve and Probability – a deep rabbit hole indeed

Straight numbers lead to very random things

More dice can mean more of a theme

Oracles that remember

Weather Oracles

Wilderness Survival Guide. pp. 108-109

Winging it

Other Ideas

Bluebooking and Oracles

Combining oracles from different games

Oracle Resources

Resources

Oracle RPG

Solo DM Guide Part 3 – ChatGPT As Assistant AI Dungeon Master

Reddit: Some people prefer other tools for solo roleplaying over traditional oracles

Augmented Reality: The Holistic City Kit for cyberpunk games

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On this episode of the Lair of Secrets podcast we look at using different media in your role-playing game sessions. This includes tools like thematic artwork, background music, in-game fiction, and even props. We also look at the new Sentinels of Earth-Prime digital card game by Handelebra (based on the print game by Greater than Games), venture into the library to check out Warren Ellis' Transmetropolitan comic series, and offer our initial thoughts on the Cyberpunk RED role-playing game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KK_1-BrpoFQ

The Arcade

Sentinels of Earth-Prime (iOS, Android, Steam)

By the developers of Sentinels of the Multiverse … but with the heroes of Green Ronin’s Freedom City!

Enemies like:

Omega, Hades, Meta-Mind (Grue Mothership), Argo: The Ultimate Android

Heroes like:

Bowman, Captain Thunder, Doctor Metropolis, Daedalus, Lady Liberty, Siren

Greater Than Games (original developers)

Handelabra (video game developers)

The Library

Transmetropolitan comic series

Darick Robertson and Warren Ellis

Libraries are awesome

The Game Room

Cyberpunk RED Initial Thoughts

It’s crunchy.

It’s deadly.

Range matters. (really).

Netrunning works. And it’s fun! (really).

Black Chrome on Roll20?

Black Chrome

Black Chrome+

Monster of the Week

Ken's lunchtime gaming group is gearing up for Monster of the Week.

A Powered By the Apocalypse game inspired by shows like Supernatural and Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Main Topic: Using different media in your game

Music

Playlists

Used for background music during game and also a way to get into the game during planning a session

Elemental Apocalypse - Spotify

Heavily inspired by Willow. Music to do heroic things to.

Cyberpunk RED - Spotify

There’s a lot of The Matrix and Edgerunners in here.

Soundboards

Used during the game to give a timely thrill to players and evoke the scene

Syrinscape

Discord’s new soundboard feature

Atmospheric 

Movie and television soundtracks

Music that evokes a particular genre

Art

Pinterest

Cyberpunk RED

Arcologies

Battle maps for Cyberpunk Red

Elemental Apocalypse

Battlemaps for Elemental Apocalypse

Searching for Concept Art

Not super detailed, but leave a lot to the imagination

Google Image Search

Fiction

In game newspaper/newsletter

The Constant Sentinel (in-universe blog for Mutants & Masterminds)

Screamsheets

Screamsheet kit from R. Talsorian

Lair of Secrets' Screamsheet collection

Fantasy paper talking about news of the world

Your party’s exploits are also covered

Twisting stories you’ve read and heard into your own game plots

The World of Kong: A natural history of Skull Island

Props

Newspaper articles for Call of Cthulhu

Weathering your maps for handouts.

Cardboard kid puzzles

Spray paint so you’ve wiped out picture, then write the map on it, and break the puzzle appear to give them the pieces.

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Featured Image Meta

A collection of elemental-themed illustrations from Ken's Elemental Apocalypse board on Pinterest.

On this episode, we talking about changing gears - changing game systems, changing genres, changing roles, changing groups - as part of our May 2023 RPG Blog Carnival hosting duties. Before venturing into those tiny, switching passages, all different, we talk about Ken's return to backpacking, discuss new streaming series (Lockwood and Co., Picard, and The Last of Us) and venture back to the Game Room.

https://youtu.be/13btIC5zz0k

The Outdoors

Ken's heading back to the Pine Barrens for an introductory backpacking trip (and working on getting back into backpacking shape)

Streaming Theatre

Lockwood and Co.

Teenaged ghost hunters in an alternate world

The Problem started 50 years ago

Technology has stagnated - no cell phones, still using VCRs and cassette tapes

Star Trek: Picard, Season 3

A true send off for the Next Generation crew.

The Last Of Us

Really, really good zombie show (even if you never played the game).

Game Room

David ran a game for his younger nephews

Pinball FX3

Ken got this pinball simulator for Switch

Includes classics (Indiana Jones, Creature from the Black Lagoon) and originals (ALIENS).

Great to revisit these old friends.

The Cruise Ship

Who knew we had one of those?

Erin and David went on the JoCo Cruise!

David turned a passel of pens

New game: Psi*Run

Main Topic: Changing Gears

We're hosting the RPG Blog Carnival for May 2023! The topic is "Changing Gears"

Switching systems

Examples:

Dungeons & Dragons to Scum and Villainy

Scum & Villainy to Cyberpunk RED

What helps?

Read reviews

Read introductory blog posts

Actual play videos/podcasts

Playtesting the rules

Play the game at a convention

Switching genres

Examples:

Fantasy (D&D Greyhawk) to Science Fiction (Star Wars)

Traditional Fantasy to Apocalyptic over-the-top Fantasy

Science Fantasy to Cyberpunk

Preparing Your Players

Brainstorm the fiction inspiration (movies, TV, music, books, comic books)

Make sure you’ve agreed on what the genre means … and discuss if there’s anything problematic that you want to avoid.

Preparing Yourself

Read! Watch movies!

Find random tables / oracles for inspiration

Switching roles

Game master to player

Switching gaming groups

Look for gamers at conventions

Look for gamers at your local game shop

Game nights at Barnes & Noble

Looking for Group on Discord Servers for Your Games

Invite gamers out for a beer/soda/etc. to talk philosophy, gaming interests, etc.

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Featured Image Meta

Black and white picture of mainly the chain and gears of a bike. Credit: 5 Cent Dollar.  Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

Thumbnail art is from Adobe Firefly, an AI text to image generator.

On this episode of Lair of Secrets, Ken totally doesn't buy a new game he doesn't have time to play, while David fights the good fight against streaming technical difficulties. Our main topic is a look at our favorite card games, including Fluxx, Exploding Kittens, Morels, Race for the Galaxy, and more.

Game Room

Ironsworn: Starforged

Yeah, Ken got it too. He blames David.

Getting Started with TaleSpire

Building out the maps from Cyberpunk RED Easy Mode.

Ken’s documenting as he goes for a post on the Lair.

Truly amazing what others have done with the cyberpunk tool kit (we’ll steal some of it).

Main Topic: Our Favorite Card Games and Why

Fluxx

Family friendly card game with a ton of themed sets.

Basic set up:

Every game starts with a basic rule governing how many cards you can draw and play.

Keeper Cards - Represent different objects or concepts (e.g. Sun, Chocolate, Love)

Objective Cards - Tell you to win the game (e.g. you could have “Hot Chocolate”, which requires a player to have the “Sun” and “Chocolate” keepers in play at the same time.

Rule Cards - Augment or break the basic rule in some way. Change how many cards you draw or play a turn. Set how many Keepers a player Exploding Kittenscan have in front of them. Set a hand limit.

Action Cards - Lets you draw additional cards, steal cards from someone else, trade cards, steal keepers, and generally mess with the rules.

Sets can be combined for crazy combinations, but will always lead to longer games.

Exploding Kittens

An elimination-based, mess-with-your friends card game.

Basic set up:

A number of “exploding kittens” - exact number depends on how many people are playing - are shuffled into a communal deck.

Players play a card and draw a card.

Other cards include different kinds of kittens; if you get doubles or triples of particular kittens, you can use them to steal cards from someone else.

Other action cards let you take a specific card, ask for cards from someone else, or defuse (and then shuffle back into the deck) an exploding kitten.

Goal is to be the last person standing.

Fun, raucous game. Not great for people who don’t like elimination games. 

Kids played it at Pax Unplugged.

Morels

A two-person mushroom gathering card game

Basic set-up:

There is a forest path which consists of a number of game cards laid out next to each other.

Players draw cards, which causes the path to advance.

The goal is to collect sets of mushrooms, and then cook them.

Bonuses for using butter, cider, and other ingredients in your meals.

Always makes us hungry for mushrooms.

Race for the Galaxy

Build a galactic empire before anyone else.

Basic set-up:

Game is divided into phases.

Which phases happen depend on what kind of cards people play (e.g. develop, colonize, produce/trade, ship).

Goal is to build a tableau of 12 cards OR gain the most victory points before everyone else.

Tableaus can have themes built around top-level cards (e.g. military themed builds, mining themed builds, terraforming

If you enjoy the feel of Mass Effect and space opera in general, you’ll enjoy this game.

6 Nimmt

Suggested to David by our former Overlord Johnson

Basic set-up

Players get a hand of 10 cards, each card has a different point value

Each round they must place into one of four columns, each card is placed in the row that ends with the highest number that's below the card's number.

If a placement happens to be the sixth card in that row, the owner of that card claims the other five cards, off to the side, and their card becomes the new first card in the row

Play continues until all cards in your hand are played

Then everyone tallies up their score

If no one hits 66 points, then another hand is played.  The first person to get to 66 points ends the game and the person with the lowest total score loses.

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Featured Image Meta

Cover art from the Exploding Kittens card game. Credit: Exploding Kittens LLC

On this episode of the Lair of Secrets we venture deep into the Role-Playing Game Vault to uncover a host of games that aren't Dungeons & Dragons. We also talk about the new games we didn't buy, ZineQuest 5, and the launch of the Leon Library Book Club, and The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin.

The Neon Library Book Club

Announcing The Neon Library, a Cyberpunk book discussion group!

Lair of Secrets Discord + Neon Library Book Club

https://discord.gg/5DfN2ztDPZ

The Library

The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin

Follow up to the Fifth Season - post apocalyptic setting with a very cool magic mechanic.

Much faster read than The Fifth Season.

Settled into the 2nd person perspective much more easily, and there are fewer time jumps this time.

And the mystery of the Earth and its seasons is being revealed, which has me looking forward to Book 3.

The Game Room

GoldenEye is out for Switch and Xbox One. Ken didn’t buy it.

Yet.

Olympus Fluxx is out. David did buy it, but hasn’t played it.

Yet

The Zine Rack

ZineQuest 5

Main Topic: Games other than Dungeons & Dragons

We haven’t thrown in our two cents about Wizards of the Coast, the OGL, and Dungeons & Dragons until now because, honestly, it doesn’t really affect us. We don’t just play D&D and we haven’t streamed it. The more we see about it though, the more we would like to help those of you out there for whom D&D is their core game or are looking for something other than DnD.

And before we jump in, if you still want to play DnD that’s cool too. It’s a fun game, even if WotC did some pretty bad missteps lately. You aren’t WotC or Hasbro, you are blameless and should enjoy yourselves!

If you wantthen playbecausebut bewareHigh action, high-risk gamesSavage WorldsExploding dice mechanic creates unexpected results.Bennies encourage players to take risks.  Bad for nuance and subtlety.Collaborative world building with a variety of conflictsFATE (Spirit of the Century, Dresden Files, Fate of Cthulhu)Aspects encourage players and game master to tag the world with descriptors.Lots of dials to make the setting and genre you want.Not great for crunchy, mechanically complex characters.Traditional, fantasy-inspired role-playing with lots of complexityPathfinder, Pathfinder 2E1E is an offshoot of D&D 3rd Edition, and retains its mechanical complexity (with a few streamlining efforts, like combat maneuvers)2E continues the streamlining … but still crunchyComplexity may be too much for players looking for a simpler game. Gonzo fantasy role-playing game inspired by the classics of fantasy literature.Dungeon Crawl Classics, Mutant Crawl ClassicsYou want to roll funky dice.You want to start with 0-level characters, don’t mind a high body count among players, and want magic to be dangerous.May be too brutal for some players.Conflates species with class.Investigation-based, horror-themed game with a straightforward rule setCall of CthulhuYou want to explore the themes of cosmic horror and humanity’s desire to learn things it shouldn’t.You enjoy playing in a variety of modern or near-modern eras (e.g. late 1800s, 1920s, 2000s)Lethal with a high chance of mental incapacitation. No mechanic to ensure the players find all the necessary clues.An investigation game in which players are sure to progress through the mystery.GUMSHOE (Night's Black Agents, The Fall of Delta Green)You want zero chance that the players won’t find the clue that prevents the Great Old One from rising.Prefer traditional mysteries with a chance of failure.Player-centric games focused on world building where the game master adjudicates, but rarely rolls dice.Powered by the Apocalypse (Apocalypse World, Dungeon World, Thirsty Sword Lesbians, Monster of the Week)Players drive the world, build connections amongst themselves, and work with the game master to build out the setting.Character playbooks provide a framework and rules for what each character type can do.Playbooks, with their limited number of moves that players can take, may be off-putting to some gamers.The Game Master’s role requires a major mental shift.Not as crunchy as other systems, but more than FATE.The current hotness, which can either be a plus or minus.You want to play a game without a gamemasterIronsworn, Ironsworn: StarforgedGreat for solo or collaborative play in both fantasy and science fiction genres.There are a lot of moves. We mean a lot of moves.A crew-based, non-linear game that encourages flashbacks and mechanics that incentivize storytelling and risk taking.Forged in the Dark (Blades in the Dark, Scum and Villainy)The games provided a baked in reason for players to be together (e.g. a gang, a crew).Focused on the action, not the hours of planning to get to the action.Not sure how you got here? Do a flashback.Descended from Powered by the ApocalypsePeople who like planning heists/capers/missions may be turned off by these games.The current hotness, which can either be a plus or minus.Stunt-based fantasy adventures.Fantasy AGELooking for that old-school feel, but with a modern mechanical hook.Students give your character the ability to do something amazing (think Legolas in Lord of the Rings)Stunts can get a little stale after a while, so be prepared to change up the narrative you’re using to describe them.Commit high heresy and don’t use any dice. At all.Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game, Lords of Gossamer & ShadowScheme for control of a multiverse spawned by your player’s will and imagination.Resolve conflicts with fixed stats. If you like to roll dice, this game isn’t for you.Superheroes, aliens posing as gods, where your characters are world changersGodsend AgendaPlayers craft their own Agendas as they make their superheroes. As they play, they are a powerful force in the world, striving to achieve the goals of that Agenda.People who like superheroes with a purpose.David knows the designer and likes concept of the game, but hasn’t played the newest edition yet.Not your typical superhero setting, if that is what you were looking for.Table: An index of games, their advantages, and disadvantages.

Feedback

Thanks for listening. If you have feedback, we love feedback. You can send it to us at [email protected] or via Twitter @lairofsecrets. We stream this live on Twitch if you want to get your fix of things early and unedited. You can also visit lairofsecrets.com and leave us some feedback, topic ideas, or your own thoughts on what we’ve talked about. We’re also @[email protected] on Mastodon.

On this episode of the Lair of Secrets we talk about pacing your game, including techniques you can use and techniques baked into some of our favorite RPGs. First though, we’re venturing back into the Game Room to catch up on new games and new campaigns.

The Game Room

Ironsworn: Starforged

Evolved from Powered by the Apocalypse games

Can be played traditionally, but also has solo and co-op modes

Has extras to help you keep track of things in a novel way

Tiny Tina’s Wonderland

a fun reskin and improvement on the Borderlands franchise (Ken & David)

Atari VCS to PC conversion failure

It works, but not as well as they say without significant upgrade.

New Year, New Campaign

Ken's Elemental Apocalypse campaign

Answers the question … What If the Temple of Elemental Evil rose … and the heroes couldn’t stop it?

Flips the classic Keep on the Borderlands scenario - the heroes are hiding out in the “Caverns of Hope” (as opposed to the Caves of Chaos), while the bad guys control the keep.

Inspiration?

B/X Blackrazor’s post: The Secret of Keep on the Borderlands, which points out that if you’re in it for the loot … your target should be Kendall Keep

The Willow TV series: The next generation rises to deal with an ancient evil .. and kicks ass doing it.

Red Dawn: Fight the invaders!

Independence Day: The apocalypse happened. Now what?

Mechanics

PCs start at 3rd level.

They’re getting bonus feats (1st, 3rd, 6th, 12th level) and we’re swapping out the Inspiration die for Liberation dice. Liberation dice have the following effects:

Re-roll any result

Double damage

Change a story aspect

Ken wants players to take risks - yeah, go ahead, jump off that castle wall while being chased by a dozen elemental goblins. You’ll figure it out on your way down.

Main Topic: Pacing Your Game

Why should you pace your game? Why does pacing matter?

Time-boxed sessions - how to fit the game in the amount of time you have

Keeping everyone enthusiastic

Reinforcing the game’s themes

Types of pacing:

Ad Hoc and Organic

The Way Games Were

Different Levels of Pacing vs. Gamer Skill

Cyberpunk RED and pacing - p. 395

Cyberpunk RED uses Beat Charts to script the game and set the pace.

Games are broken up into Beats. Each Beat takes about 30 minutes.

A typical adventure consists of:

Hook

Development

Cliffhanger

Climax

Resolution

Adventures have only one Hook, Climax, and Resolution.

The rest of the adventure is made up of Developments (which move the story along) and Cliffhangers (which provide tension/excitement).

Scripting the Game: A Few Good Beats [PDF]

Blades in the Dark

Clocks help drive tension while providing an indicator to the PCs about how much time/effort they have left.

Can be used to track progress toward completing a project, setting off an alarm, or other time-based or resource-based progressions.

ALIEN

Cinematic vs. Ongoing

In their Cinematic scenarios (Chariot of the Gods, Destroyer of Worlds, Heart of Darkness), the action is divided up into Acts.

Acts consist of an overall arc, and may conclude with a particular revelation (e.g. character development cards are flipped to reveal how that character deal switch the situation; e.g. Ash’s betrayal in the original Alien).

FATE

From the Fate Adversary Toolkit

“As we talk about adversaries in this book, keep in mind the Fate Fractal: everything is a character (Fate Core, page 270). An adversary is not necessarily a person, monster, or other kind of creature you can punch. Rather, it’s a thing that exists to hinder, challenge, or oppose the players. There are three main types of adversaries: enemies, obstacles, and constraints.

Includes a number of spreads showing how to build out adversaries for a FATE campaign, focusing on low-threat challenges that build toward the confrontation with the boss.

It’s a conventional storytelling progression, but the focus on obstacles (a bus full of innocents is about to go off a cliff even as the villain is about to get away; a sophisticated AI counter-hacking measure and constraints (e.g. a bomb counting down, a ritual nearing its conclusions) changes things.

Everyone should play FATE at least once to change up your view of how the game world can be transformed to engage with the players.

Tales from the Loop

Something weird happens, something normal happens

The Mystery - p. 81

Introducing the Kids – Each Kid gets a scene of her own from Everyday Life, with or without Trouble.

Introducing the Mystery – The Kids encounter or discover something that they start to investigate.

Solving the Mystery – The Kids visit Locations, discover Clues, and overcome Trouble while at the same time having to manage Everyday Life. This is the core of the Mystery, where most scenes take place.

Showdown – The Kids have solved the Mystery, and must now try to stop what’s happening, often in a dramatic scene where everything is at stake.

Aftermath – The Mystery has been solved, and even if the Kids are successful, their lives are mostly the same as before. Each Kid gets one scene from Everyday Life.

Change – The players may, if they like, change their Kids’ Problems, Iconic Items, Prides, and Relationships. The Kids get experience points which can be used to increase skills levels.

Dungeons & Dragons

Historically suffered from pacing the most.

Reddit - Defeating the 5-minute work day

3rd edition - use all your powers at once, teleport away, rest for a day, do it again.

4th edition - at will powers, encounter powers, daily powers

5th edition - allowing players to slowly expend resources

Mythic d6 - p. 199

Who

What

Where

Hook

Conflict

Resolution

Spirit of the Century  - p. 278Pulp plot framework

Feedback

Thanks for listening. If you have feedback, we love feedback. You can send it to us at [email protected] or via Twitter @lairofsecrets. We stream this live on Twitch if you want to get your fix of things early and unedited. You can also visit lairofsecrets.com and leave us some feedback, topic ideas, or your own thoughts on what we’ve talked about. We’re also @[email protected] on Mastodon.

On this episode of the Lair of Secrets, we take a look at our favorite board games, including Catan, Carcassone, Pandemic, and Space Hulk. We also venture back to the game room to check out the very modern PlayStation 5, the very retro Atari 50 video game museum/collection, and two newer video games: Sexy Brutale and Tick Tock. We also talk #dungeon23, the mega project that's winning 2023.

Game Room

Ken’s family finally got a PlayStation 5

Currently playing … Cyberpunk 2077, because it was cheap and Ken’s bad at keyboard/mouse inputs in first person shooters.

Atari 50

Atari 50 is a virtual museum dedicated to Atari’s various game lines and history. Heavy focus on Atari 2600, but there Lynx and Jaguar are there too.

And it has a functional version of Starmaster, a remastered Yar’s Revenge, and a completed version of the legendary vapourware Airworld.

Sexy Brutale

A groundhog day style murder mystery puzzle game

Tick Tock - A tale for two

A co-op game that is a little unusual

The Kennel

Forest, Ken's sixth Seeing Eye puppy, is here.

Dungeon Cartography

#dungeon23

The challenge is to make one dungeon room a day, one level a month, and at the end of the year you have a megadungeon!

We are using the #dungeon23 challenge to map out our Lair

We’ll be posting them on lairofsecrets.com

We’re bound to get a little lost, so we’ll see how many rooms we actually get to.

We’re already behind.

Main Topic: Board Games We Love

Settlers of Catan

The first Eurogame Ken ever played.

Great gateway drug to more interesting board games

Carcassone

Excellent combination of short and long game.

Puzzle-like design makes it easy to play with little kids (Ken’s kids “helped” when they were toddlers).

Arkham Horror

American-style modern board game based on H.P. Lovecraft's works of horror.

So … many … fiddly bits.

So huge it will threaten your sanity, but that’s part of the fun.

Pandemic

Awesome collaborative game in which you truly work together to save the world from rampant viruses

Hunt-A-Killer mysteries

From the website: "Hunt A Killer’s immersive murder mystery games throw you into the center of brutal murders, eerie disappearances, suspicious poisonings, and even supernatural horrors. And it’s up to you to examine the clues, evaluate the suspects, and find the thread that ties the case together."

Mystery of the Abbey

A modern take the murder-solving mystery game CLUE.

Sentinels of the Multiverse

A collaborative card game in which each deck represents a hero, a villain, or an environment.

Available in a digital version as well.

Space Hulk

Set in the Warhammer 40K universe.

Play as either Space Marines investigating a derelict ship ... or as gene stealers trying to slaughter them.

oldie and probably hard to get now, but it was lots of fun

Feedback

Thanks for listening. If you have feedback, we love feedback. You can send it to us at [email protected] or via Twitter @lairofsecrets. We stream this live on Twitch if you want to get your fix of things early and unedited. You can also visit lairofsecrets.com and leave us some feedback, topic ideas, or your own thoughts on what we’ve talked about. We’re also @[email protected] on Mastodon.

The Game Master's Toolbox - a physical tool for organizing your gaming supplies - is the focus of this episode of Radio Active. Before delving into our repurposed Plano boxes though, we explore the St. Louis Science Center and take an extensive detour through the Game Room to talk about the Atari VCS, Portal Companion Edition, gaming at work, and consider the benefits of a gamer journal. We also geek out about the new Willow streaming series on Disney+.

On Episode 8, the holidays of the real world inspire a discussion of bringing holidays and special events to our game worlds. We also talk about geek Christmas trees, Seeing Eye puppies, our continued exploration of cyberpunk, and Netflix's new Wednesday series.

The Geek Tree

This year, it’s all about Star Wars.

The All-Seeing Eye

Ken's sixth Seeing Eye puppy is coming.

He arrives December 27.

We're taking guesses for the name.

The Library

David really want to read Count Zero, the follow up to Neuromancer and Book 2 in William Gibson's Sprawl trilogy but it’s on hold at the library.

The Streaming Theatre

Wednesday series on Netflix

A fun horror/comedy series that expands the Addams Family.

Main topic: Bringing Holidays to RPGs

Why?

A reason to bring your fantasy community together.

Builds out the history (on this day, we remember the heroic sacrifices of X, the founding of y)

Gives a way for players to learn about the history of the world without it being a lore dump

Provides a dramatic backdrop for the adventure (the heist occurred during the 6th Day of Yuletide)

If you are running a West Marches style game, it’s a good excuse to get everyone together and have a good time outside of the game, but with the pretext of the game.

World of Greyhawk Holidays

Greyhawk’s calendar has four holiday weeks (Brewfest, Growfest, Needfest, Richfest)

Various holy days for deities happen throughout the gear

Midsummer’s Day, at the mid point of Richfest, is holy to Pelor, a god of sun and healing.

The Greyhawk Calendar

Book of the Righteous

Green Ronin - The Book of the Righteous (5E Hardback) - Green Ronin Online Store

It’s not just fantasy…

Cyberpunk RED

Still have the normal Earth holidays

Commemorating days such as the nuclear detonation of Arasaka Tower

Marketing events that happen on made-up holidays

Secular Holidays

The Big Game

NASCAR Races

Tools we like

Campaign Calendar generator

Weather Generators + Holidays

Greyhawk

Forgotten Realms

Godchecker

An index of 4,000+ deities and spirts

Night City weather (PDF) for Cyberpunk RED

Feedback

Thanks for listening. If you have feedback, we love feedback. You can send it to us at [email protected] or via Twitter @lairofsecrets. We stream this live on Twitch if you want to get your fix of things early and unedited. You can also visit lairofsecrets.com and leave us some feedback, topic ideas, or your own thoughts on what we’ve talked about. We’re also @[email protected] on Mastodon.

Featured Image Meta

Cover art for Green Ronin's Book of Righteousness.