* (0:29) The bucket list of games we want to run. * (1:31) Doug’s long-term campaign. * (3:10) Wayne’s Fallout: St. Louis game. * (7:03) Dan’s Battletech: Silver Scorpions game. A Fabian war. * (9:37) Mary’s Castle Ravenloft / Curse of Strahd game. * (12:41) Doug’s western game. * (14:58) Wayne’s campaign based on The […]

* (0:30) An old Apple //c computer and early computer RPGs. * (4:16) Transitioning from video games into tabletop RPGs. * (9:44) The expectations players bring from a video game to pen-and-paper games. * (12:41) The tyranny of choice brought on by a lack of a character-driven path. * (18:05) A lack of clear and […]

* (0:29) What is your goal for the first session of a game? * (2:10) Who are these characters really? * (6:08) When the person you wanted to be isn’t who you became. * (11:34) A buffet of NPCs. * (16:14) Keeping the first session low pressure and shorter length. * (20:33) The social leader […]

* (0:23) Prompts and prepositions. The clockwork circus is coming to town! * (1:40) Wayne’s circus in space. * (4:13) Mary’s circus on the frontier. * (7:53) Doug’s carnival of nightmares. * (8:41) Dan’s carnival of hope. * (13:10) Celestial crystals that grant power. * (14:05) Mary’s crystal preppers. * (16:08) Dan’s crystal entanglement. * […]

* (0:29) Fear the Con has funded and the sign-up site is live! We hope to see you Thursday, June 20th to Saturday, June 22nd. * (1:58) Getting back to what you love, inspired by Ray Bradbury’s Zen in the Art of Writing. * (5:16) The tyranny of compromise. * (9:54) Wanting the GM to […]

* (0:29) Wayne has a problem: the Wardens from Dresden Files. Coming up with too many excuses for why powerful organizations don’t care about the characters’ problems. * (7:14) Session Zero can help…or maybe not. * (10:29) There’s always someone bigger, and maybe your allies lack what you need. * (14:42) What if the characters […]

* (0:30) What steps do we take to bring a character to life? * (1:49) Ask what’s important. * (6:53) Seeing the good and bad in a single trait. * (8:06) Doug’s personality triangle model. * (10:54) Demonstrating character quirks. * (16:34) Making characters that both have and express personal growth. * (18:57) Taking a […]

Today’s ingredient: The dead are consuming the living. Why and how? Let’s find out! Fear the Con 2024’s Kickstarter can be found here. Hosts: Dan, Doug, Mary, Wayne

* (0:29) In defense of technology at the gaming table. Caleb’s setup with Owlbear Rodeo. * (5:13) Dan’s Lion King sing-a-long and Wayne’s Ghostbusters game. * (6:27) The deeper pool of online players, including AIs. Remoting in a missing player for an in-person game. * (14:04) Working distance and distraction into the game. * (17:54) […]

I decided to skip over the Iron GM and go for a Tungsten GM. The ingredient? All broadcasts cease because something won’t let them get through. What’s the game plot? Also, the Fear the Con 2024 Kickstarter is now live here! Hosts: Dan, Doug, Mary, Wayne

* (0:30) Dan runs a game a bit too literally. * (4:12) The intersection of technology and roleplaying in a way that isn’t required by the game. * (7:32) Why multimedia doesn’t pay-off the way it does in other forms of storytelling. * (13:36) The prep time technology adds, and the stability it takes away. […]

* (0:29) Why talk about intelligence? The Why Files episode about Cicada 3301. * (9:24) A game takes an unhelpfully long break, only to be replaced by another RPG. * (12:44) The lack of a bottomless “buffet of ideas” in a closed setting. * (14:24) Use minimal starting information to give you room to work. […]

* (0:22) Picking out the point we became curmudgeons and what exactly that means. * (4:48) Being too set in our ways. * (11:19) The self-destruction that comes with stagnation. * (21:32) Wii have a solution. * (24:32) Ducking new games while at a convention. Playing The Quiet Year on an airplane. * (32:57) The […]

* (0:29) Reintroducing Julia’s husband, Mike. * (2:24) Lowered expectations, inspired by a post-pandemic world. * (7:25) Being a bit more experimental. * (13:18) Playing online instead of returning to the table. * (19:18) Returning to the table instead of playing online. * (23:58) The commonality of not being able to find an active gaming […]

* (0:29) Thanks to Eric Van Note for Swole Mole! * (3:15) The value of terrible GMing. * (8:42) Everyone is their own most inept critic. Sojourn Volume 2. * (15:28) The worst possible outcome: something being forgettable. * (22:20) Asking Doug to grade his own game. * (25:35) The value of creating art, simply […]

* (0:29) Dan prefers affiliated groups, Wayne does not. * (2:15) Cohesion, identity, and help. * (9:35) Affiliations you start with as opposed to those you pick up along the way. * (11:56) The party’s direction and motivation. Affiliating with an ideal. * (20:23) Affiliations create an obvious pool of NPC relationships. * (25:40) External […]

* (0:28) An update on the Actual Play. * (4:48) The InSpectres RPG (at least temporarily back in print!) and our AP interlude using its rules. * (8:09) Why play InSpectres as an interlude to the main campaign? Apparently only Dan has heard of Michelle Jenneke. * (12:58) Plus an extra player. * (16:10) The, […]

* (0:28) Things are getting set for Fear the Con! An intro to RPGs game is available for newcomers. * (2:03) A shared Minecraft server. You can find more information on Discord. * (5:52) Realigning your game with a mid-campaign session zero. Special thanks to Gaming with Gage. * (8:46) Making the case to have one. * (12:59) […]

* (0:29) Julia ruins everything. * (1:35) Things are getting set for Fear the Con! An intro to RPGs game is available for newcomers. You can also announce your games on Discord. * (9:03) Coming out of a period of deep fatigue. How one game still never missed a week. * (16:18) Spoons and other […]

* (0:28) Running a game when someone else knows the setting a whole lot better than you do. * (2:07) The lack of pronunciation guides in most games. * (3:16) Narrowing down the task by asking what’s important about the setting to the players. * (7:59) Getting the essence or feel of the setting right. […]

Show links… * StartPlaying Games * Bite Size Tales * Gaming with Gage Hosts: Chris, DJ, Josh, Wayne

* (0:29) The Kickstarter for Fear the Con 2023 is live for one more week! * (1:56) The wonderful confusion new players and GMs bring to a roleplaying game. * (16:59) An imagined internal-consistency is sometimes more fun than an intended one. * (22:17) The burden of your own expectations. * (28:29) When contradictions aren’t actually contradictions. […]

* (0:31) The Kickstarter for Fear the Con 2023 is live! * (1:04) The new fiction podcast, Bite Size Tales. * (3:09) Game mechanics we’re particularly fond of. * (4:54) Rerolls and other roll-modifying mechanics. * (10:13) A close relationship between skills and attributes. * (15:46) Life paths in character creation. * (24:48) Using all the dice. * […]

* (0:28) The Kickstarter for Fear the Con 2023 is live! * (1:12) Things a Game Master has done to make a world seem a little more alive (with credit to JoshB for the topic). * (5:46) Plot hooks, substories, and unanswered questions about my character. * (9:16) Allowing characters to have goals, ambitions, and […]

* (0:28) The new fiction podcast, Bite Size Tales. * (1:43) Dan re-reads the D&D 2nd Edition Dungeon Master’s Guide. Wayne watches Secrets of Blackmoor. The inspiration D&D’s creators drew from Strategos. * (6:38) The rather disjointed rules of early RPGs. * (8:23) The heavy crunch of early RPGs that might be as much unearned […]

* (0:36) An odd tangent on names. * (3:39) A conversation about AI art. Some parameters we’re putting on this episode. AI art wins a fine arts competition. * (8:08) An admittedly non-technical overview of how AI generally creates its work. Syntax versus semantics. * (17:43) AI creations as a starting point instead of the […]

* (0:30) Giving a remote episode a try. We have a fix for Dan’s audio that should improve the quality on our next remote show. * (1:42) Catching up with Brodeur and DJ, who was on episode 466 to talk about BuJoRPG. * (4:43) Putting some parameters on the topic. * (9:42) Does Wizards of […]

* (0:44) Friday night chit-chat on Discord each week, starting at 8pm Central. * (2:18) Fear the Con 2023 dates have been reserved with the hotel for June 16th and 17th of 2023, with the Wing Night on June 15th. * (3:37) Wayne preps his players for a Savage Worlds: Alpha Flight game. * (8:18) […]

* (0:22) The villain as the dark inverse of the hero. * (9:20) A big CGI fight at the end that seems visually out of continuity. * (16:06) Zombies and Lovecraft. * (20:37) The freedom to like or dislike, and how little that says about you as a person. * (23:33) Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, […]

* (0:24) Brodeur recommends a manicure and pedicure to Dan. * (5:58) Dan, Wayne, and their muscle tension. * (11:24) A straight-razor shave and the thrill of death. * (15:56) Fandoms that (at least temporarily) put people off from the product they love. * (28:08) On anime. * (31:37) The need to be inviting within […]

* (0:28) Brodeur flees to Oregon. * (4:08) Failure comes to East Texas University. * (7:26) Dividing the blame between the players and Game Master. * (11:40) Player silence and passivity. * (17:30) Things lost for lack of time. * (19:34) Substance use, depression, and the option of just narrating the ending. * (26:32) Was […]

* (0:33) Wayne gives a shoutout to Gaming with Gage + Friends (but not Brodeur). * (1:53) Wayne ends a D&D campaign without a boss fight. * (3:11) The mutual theft of ideas between video games and tabletop roleplaying games. * (8:00) Considering all the ways a story can end. * (13:18) Another example from […]

* (0:29) Brodeur’s post-Gen-Con review. (I know, we’re right on top of the latest news.) A shoutout to Imagining Games, Acheron Books, and RogueOperative. * (8:02) Customizing modules for your players and characters. * (11:48) Modules as a framework, not a full script. * (18:26) Know the module well enough that you can deconstruct it […]

* (0:29) A listener, James, gets us talking about integrating player-character backstories into your game. It starts with the players giving you something to work with. * (3:01) Sitting for too long on too much information, or mining the backstory abusively. * (7:43) Finding the possible connections between backstories. * (11:08) Let’s do it live! […]

* (0:29) How awful can a few years be? (Spoilers: Multiple things got worse since this recording!) * (3:49) An experiment in unequal levels of preparation and participation. * (8:34) Not all players will bring the same level of contribution, nor do all games encourage it. * (14:32) Pattern versus incidence. * (18:52) Reasons to […]

* (0:24) Releasing episodes out of order. * (1:24) The little convention that could, despite how hard life tried to stop it. * (6:59) All of the hurdles that weren’t COVID. * (14:00) The obstacles that came up during the convention. * (24:24) In spite of everything arrayed against it, the con went really well. […]

* (0:29) Interrogating Mary on her gaming history. * (1:33) The last few days before Fear the Con! * (4:54) The distinct moral perspective of a child. * (7:39) Leif responds to our show on vertical creativity. * (13:58) A thought exercise on who should win the 51/49 preference: players or GMs. * (15:41) Wayne […]

* (0:29) A difficult GM learns a lesson from an Uno game. * (4:10) Navigating the internal conflict between “roleplaying” and “game”. * (11:20) The need for control that ultimately comes from fear. * (16:45) Giving the players their wins. * (23:34) The ugly math about how many people aren’t that good at a given […]

* (0:29) Fear the Con appears to have catering, but we could still use more GMs! * (5:21) Laundering identities. * (7:03) Game Masters getting fixated on things that aren’t important to the game they’re running. * (12:00) A lack of flexibility. The three clue rule. * (19:36) GM distress when the party solves something […]

* (0:29) A new show type on the horizon: phone the Boot, or something similarly clever. * (2:04) Kids’ games at Fear the Con. Our episode on gaming with children can be found here. * (4:15) Brodeur goes on Safest Family on the Block and My 10th Level Paladin. * (6:17) Brodeur gets invited to […]

* (0:29) A shoutout and thanks to WashingCon! * (1:09) Fear the Con is coming up in mid-June. * (2:25) Wayne annihilates his player-characters in a Legion of Liberty game, and they love it. Our episode on action economy. * (10:22) The perspective that comes from getting your butt kicked. * (13:52) The difference between […]

* (0:29) June 16th, 17th, and 18th for Fear the Con! You can see Mikey Mason’s material on BandCamp. * (2:40) Reviewing the idea of horizontal and vertical creativity. * (4:56) Horizontal creativity doesn’t mean the player has to get lazy. In fact, it may mean the GM is getting lazy. * (12:35) How horizontal […]

* (0:29) – Bordeur, Dan, and Julia will be at Washingcon this weekend: March 26th and 27th, 2022. * (2:23) – Defining how we’ll be using “vertical” and “horizontal” creativity over the next two shows. * (5:45) – The laziness that often accompanies horizontal thinking. * (8:08) – Creativity within seemingly narrow (i.e. “vertical”) ideas. […]

* (0:44) Get signed up for Fear the Con! * (1:02) Brodeur is now on TikTok for some reason. Here’s the link. Do what you will. * (5:45) Welcoming Jason back to the show. * (6:31) There I Was…When Nothing Happened. The Kickstarter can be found here. * (11:26) Why “winning the fight” may not be […]

* (0:28) The teeth on the dog go click, click, click. * (1:30) Brodeur discovers New Game+ mode in video games. * (10:23) Weather and environmental effects in an RPG. * (13:09) Weather as a reflection of some other truth in the setting. * (14:53) Setting the mood and adding immersion. * (19:21) Does the […]

* (0:18) Time to set the mood for bedtime. * (5:06) Wayne, Boxman, and the latex room. * (14:32) Watching sports for all the wrong reasons. Brodeur joins TikTok. God forgive us all. * (16:57) Wayne pulls a plane, and Brodeur brings the pain. * (26:22) Kids versus bikes. Bikes win. * (28:54) Kids versus […]

* (0:28) The site for Fear the Con is now live! * (2:07) Monday Morning Quarterbacking your own games (the definition for anyone that doesn’t know that phrase). * (3:36) Getting past being your own worst critic. * (8:17) Speech disfluency and filler words. * (12:57) Using game recordings to prepare for the next session. […]

* (0:29) A fond farewell to Chad. * (4:50) Keeping the perspective that we all started somewhere. * (7:34) The amount of good advice every human being ignores; sometimes experience is the only effective teacher. * (12:49) The less you’re willing to step up, the more you ought to be patient. * (16:24) Don’t confuse […]

* (0:29) Ghost of Tsushima, Red Dead Redemption 2, and archery in schools. * (8:51) Starting up new games as old ones end. Fear the Boot’s Patreon. * (14:34) East Texas University. Preliminary questions and contagious enthusiasm. * (20:56) Wayne passes the GMing torch to Chad. * (28:12) Building a game around a set of […]

* (0:23) Brodeur’s interview of Jim Pinto. * (4:10) The Fairview RPG. * (7:29) A descriptive and contextual character sheet. * (15:35) The game’s replayability. * (19:01) The art book. * (23:09) WashingCon on March 26th – 27th, 2022. * (25:07) Fear the Con on June 16th – 18th, 2022. The room block number is […]

* (0:35) Brodeur’s syphi-list. * (3:48) Continuing a game after mass-character-death by playing in the afterlife. * (16:43) What happens to the characters that didn’t die? * (20:15) When a player can’t attend their own afterlife. * (26:17) Alternate options for science fiction games. * (29:00) The price of coming back. Hosts: Brodeur, Dan, Wayne

* (0:36) Press or entertainment? The Influence Foundation. * (2:41) Asmodee, Embracer Group, and Miniature Market. * (9:57) The consolidation of our hobby. * (16:30) Shareholder vs stakeholder economy. * (21:48) An important disclaimer. * (23:03) Some possible bad news for the current iteration of OGL products. * (27:48) The disparity between RPGs and everything […]

* (0:28) The scheduling crush of Christmas, and some love for Pete Petrusha. * (7:06) The many stories you can get from a single game idea, as demonstrated by For the Queen. * (11:14) The greater number of outcomes possible in story versus crunch. The Quiet Year. * (12:54) How prompts give you the framework […]

* (0:28) Brodeur starts off a game session with a cutscene, which becomes its own pun. * (5:02) Other media as a metaphor for how you structure your storytelling. * (6:50) Not withholding player agency for too long. * (13:26) Having to roleplay with yourself. * (16:11) Revealing information to the players. * (22:31) Read […]

* (0:44) When only the shell of a character gets made, for lack of knowledge about the world. The episode where we previously discussed this can be found here. * (13:19) Using an opportunity in the present to expand the character’s past. The influence of other players on the process. * (17:01) The person with […]

* (0:33) Brodeur went to Gamehole Con, and Dan can’t take other people’s money. * (8:08) How age changes what you care about. * (10:02) The end-of-year blackhole that consumes our schedules (and, by extension, our games). * (11:23) Brodeur loses his motivation to GM. * (15:28) Player satisfaction does not necessarily equate to GM […]

* (0:32) Fear the Con’s room block number is 2413940. You can place your room reservations at this link, which should prepopulate the con dates. * (1:08) Brodeur’s second product pick from the con circuit: Never Going Home. * (6:13) The “World of Darkness” problem, when games sit too close to real-world ideas people hold […]

* (0:28) Dan is the new Brodeur. * (4:51) Fear the Con coming up June 16th – 18th, 2022. * (5:52) Brodeur hits a few conventions. We start by talking attendance numbers. * (15:33) The companies that were conspicuously absent, and those that filled the void. * (18:45) Was the change for the better? * […]

* (0:28) Fear the Con coming up June 16th – 18th, 2022. * (2:54) Making a plot that’s personal to the characters, without falling back to cheap shots. * (9:42) If you don’t want purely violent responses, don’t rely on purely violent hooks. * (15:43) An example about a Firbolg. Our two episodes on West […]

* (0:29) Introducing Vece. You can find the Skies of Glass playtest on our Patreon. * (1:35) Brodeur continues hurting himself. You can find his podcast here. * (11:35) What got us thinking about playtesting a roleplaying game. Gage’s playtest survey. * (14:43) Why you may not know what you need to ask. * (18:35) […]

* (0:30) Let the bodies hit the floor! * (5:24) Defining the “action economy”. The video of three master fencers versus 50 random people can be found here. * (14:57) Consider not using a lone enemy. * (17:48) Using objectives instead of enemies. * (27:37) The erosion of the Game Master’s enjoyment. The idea of […]

* (0:28) Dan’s situation with his Blades in the Dark character. * (2:21) The “play cycle” of an RPG. * (6:06) Designing a character that works in the play cycle, but not very well outside of it. * (24:54) Why not just play another character or revise the existing character traits? * (32:55) “That’s not […]

* (0:33) Brodeur’s ongoing work to blind himself. * (2:40) Gaming when down a person. Putting some parameters on the discussion. * (7:53) Avoiding cliffhangers that hinge on a single character. * (11:58) Subtly reframing the scene to obscure the unknowns. * (16:31) Get a few what-if tips from the missing player to help you […]

* (0:24) Maybe combat shouldn’t be played to the point of annihilation. Violence as part of the human experience. * (5:50) The social contract of a fight. Jason Brick’s Safest Family on the Block show. * (9:43) Playing the enemies sub-optimally, or managing combat according to your strengths as a GM. * (21:18) The “soft” […]

* (0:29) Wayne gives a shoutout to Old Man Hussey. (Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be a link to the AP he ran.) * (3:15) Brodeur gets us started on the joys of combat in roleplaying games. How initiative balances the spotlight. * (7:05) Why fight at all? * (11:31) Intermixing roleplaying and combat. * […]

* (0:52) A love that makes Brodeur and Wayne uncomfortable. * (4:37) Actor has a seat at Brodeur’s table but doesn’t seem to enjoy it. * (10:14) The importance of looking for context and motive to understand a behavior. * (18:50) Someone else’s struggles don’t invalidate your boundaries. * (26:33) Getting perspective, possibly with the […]

* (0:27) Where’s Brodeur? * (2:00) Fear the Con Online, June 25th – 27th. You can create and sign up for games on the website. * (4:04) Having patience for people, whether in discomfort or just struggling with old habits dying hard. * (6:42) Neglected gaming spaces and snack stashes. * (13:01) Change up your gaming […]

* (0:28) And the cat came back…! * (1:13) Fear the Con Online, June 25th – 27th. You can create and sign up for games on the website. * (4:00) As we get close to gaming face-to-face again, we look back at over a year of online gaming. * (5:43) It’s better than not gaming […]

* (0:39) Silver milk. * (7:54) Spotlight vs. validation. * (12:40) Being a fan of the players. * (18:27) Evaluating whether the idea is genuinely bad, or you’re just being judgmental. * (23:39) Asking players why they think their ideas would work. * (27:25) Picking the hills that are worth dying on. * (36:36) Not […]

* (0:40) Delusions of Reference (or not) in a Mexican restaurant. * (21:16) Wayne’s weird skill of making eating interesting. * (23:45) A Dresden game gets a bit depressing, but not all entertainment needs the same tone to succeed. * (30:47) An engaging story, that’s true to your creative vision, is worth more than cheap […]

* (0:22) Hating on Zoom, and welcoming Tex and Old Man Hussey. * (1:48) Welcoming author and former Assistant BattleTech Line Developer Ben Rome, and other/new Tex from Tex Talks BattleTech (his recommended episodes for BattleTech veterans and the one for non-players). * (6:21) BattleTech in the 80s, including the greatest piece of art it […]