Virtual Play

Or at least Bill is. In this recap of a moment play from Dungeon Crawl Classics, Bill, playing a kitsune dog spirit, attempts to get something to eat. Because that's what dogs do. The episode is approximately 28 minutes. Mel

Hi! Welcome back to Virtual Play. Bill and I had a great conversation with Jim Crocker, Ben Forest and Dave Petroski at Dexcon 20 discussing a bunch of things such as comics, the retail industry, New Jersey politics and more. But for Virtual Play, we talked about "Dying is Easy" a comedy game in development. This show is our discussion, with excerpts of play! The show clocks in at 27 minutes. Enjoy! Mel

Bill and I spent some time at the Hyatt bar talking to Ben Forest about running and playing in games. We mainly discuss the question is the role of the game-master to entertain or to be entertained? Between the three of us, we likely had four or five opinions! Please enjoy this 30 minute special episode of Virtual Play! Mel

Here's some bonus content! At Origins, Bill talked to Morgan Ellis and other folks about Fate and Nitrate City. They agreed to let us listen in! I feel like I'm actually there at the Big Bar on 2! Morgan provides some advice on Fate gameplay, and then the conversation turns to Nitrate City. Ten minutes of virtual Origins--now I am a little less grumpy about not being there live!

Welcome back! In this episode, Bill and I talk about Nitrate City, a World of Adventure for Fate. Bill co-wrote the game with Doselle Young--Doselle provided the vision, Bill provided the mechanics! We've taken excerpts for a couple of games from Origins. Bill ran one and Nick Hopkins ran the other after playing it once! So credits to Nick for pushing the envelope like that. Our discussion focuses on what I think is the key technology of Nitrate City: film genres as approaches. We also talk about the setting, noir and a few digressions here and there. But not too many, because the show clocks in at a brisk 45 minutes. Enjoy! Mel

In this episode, Bill and I discuss the game "Fall of Magic". It's described as a roleplaying game of profound fantasy. I was attracted to it by the thematic link to Larry Niven's short story, "The Magic Goes Away" as well by the neat visual element within the game where gameplay is aided by actually unrolling a map scroll to move from place to place. I backed it on Kickstarter, and once it came, loaned it to Bill to run. Now we get to talk about it! This show runs at approximately 33 minutes. Mel

In this episode, Bill and I get to talk about a game we have been excited about for a while. Michael Miller has revised "With Great Power" his superhero roleplaying game. Superheroes are one of our favorite genres. And low prep games are increasingly my preference. With Great Power lives at that nexus! Zero prep games can be different than traditional games in many ways, particularly in terms of shaping a common vision for the game at the start of and through play, in how the mechanics work, and in how typical GM actions are conducted--if at all. With Great Power gives us a great tool to explore techniques for zero prep games. So that's the focus of this episode! The show runs at approximately 47 minutes. I hope you enjoy it!Mel

Bill wanted to call this episode "Mel And Bill fix Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition," but I think the game mastering advice we talk about in the show applies to any game. There is nothing D&D specific about the ideas we discuss. The excerpts are from D&D but they could easily have been from many other games. We talk about ways we think games are more fun: getting to play faster; paying attention to player flags for the things players want to see in the game; using hooks that matter; making failure matter; and making characters awesome--among other topics. The show runs just under 60 minutes. Let me know what you think!Mel

Lots of changes here at Virtual Play! Bill and I are going to be trying shorter shows with greater frequency. Thanks to a household move, we are a lot closer now so we'll give it our best shot. Today's show is about a Fate based game Bill is working on called Andromeda, as well as an upcoming project he will be working on for Evil Hat, the Fate Space toolkit! The show clocks in at 35 minutes or so. We hope you enjoy it!Mel

Welcome back to Virtual Play! In this episode Bill and I talk about some GM techniques using Torchbearer and Night's Black Agents for excerpts. The games are a handful of games we played or ran at Gencon--I should say that either Bill ran or I played, since he ran a lot of games but I only played! The episode runs a little long at approximately 75 minutes, and we are barely scratching the surface of Gencon games. So we'll get back to more Gencon games in future episodes, just as we have to get back to the backlog of games from Origins and Dexcon. Enjoy the show!Mel