Brace yourselves for a big episode! Chris talks about his experience running a Halloween scenario for two very different groups of players. And then, to cap off the first “season” of the podcast, Andy and Chris brainstorm a new Table of Topics!
All all GMs are wont to do, Chris and Andy continue to break their self-imposed rules and make yet another d6 table on air. This time it’s all about fixing broken control panels on space ships. After that they talk about Andy’s upcoming Aliens inspired game and recap Chris’ halloween one shot.
Chris and Andy break all the rules in a special episode centered around Halloween gaming. Listen as we create a d6 table you can roll on to see what scary things are happening in this warehouse (you needed one of those, right?), and then move on to discuss a unique Halloween game that Chris is cooking up.
Listen as Ryan Gough teaches Andy and Chris all about a game played by millions of people that they barely understand. For regular listeners this one is a bit far afield from what we normally do, but we thought it’d be fun to discuss on air. Hope you enjoy it!
Extra special thanks to Ryan for coming on and being a good sport about this!
Do you build encounters and adventures in such a way that players have lots of opportunity to show off their character’s abilities, powers, and personality? Andy and Chris discuss!
Tom Knauss of Frog God Games joins us to discuss the new Lost Lands: Tehuatl Kickstarter. We enjoy an in-depth talk about the process of creating a Mesoamerica-themed setting book, then launch into this episode’s topic: how you care for your physical game books.
Note: the sound quality for this episode isn’t up to our usual standards. Our sincerest apologies, and we’ll do better next time—and we hope you enjoy the episode anyway!
Episode 45 appendix (aka show notes):
This week Christopher Becker came on to talk about running set-piece encounters. Those points in your game where you take some special care to prepare.
Do you break out special terrain or miniatures? Do you prepare a big speech for the BBEG to deliver? Do you treat every moment as a set-piece lovingly created for your players?
Christopher works at the Ann Arbor District Library. The AADL has shifted most of their programming to video during the pandemic. In lieu of an in-person RPG Fest this year during the month of September they’ll have a series of videos aimed at GMs. You can view all of those videos at aadl.tv!
Do you share your GMing secrets with players after each adventure? Or do you hang on to them in hopes of re-purposing them? With Chris back at the helm as co-host, we follow this topic into some unexpected places, including the merits of re-running adventures and the importance of information asymmetry in RPGs.
What’s the key to making NPCs who are memorable, interesting, and possibly even beloved by the players? Chris, Andy, and John discuss. And as a bonus, Andy breaks out a brand-new GM challenge for his co-hosts. Listen and judge their on-the-spot GMing decisions!
Special guest (and former host) Chris joins Andy and John to talk about what you can do when you’re just not feeling very excited about your game.
