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“So, what did you guys think”

If I’ve asked that question once at the end of a game session, I’ve asked it a hundred times.

Feedback, it’s all about feedback.

As a game master I want to know what worked, what didn’t work, and did I get my ideas across to the players. Where they surprised by anything, did the rules make sense, what do they want to see more of and most importantly, did they have a good time.

Recently we started a new game with our Thursday Night Game Group. Our core crew was present of course and we brought back some old players and added a few new players to the mix. We decided on playing Twilight 2000, a game from my past that Free League had picked up and made some significant changes by plugging their Year Zero engine into it.

I started by reading the rules and then ran the players through the lifepath system to help them create characters and finally we played the first session. As of this recording we have 2 sessions under our belt, and I wanted to take this episode to talk to the players and get their thoughts on the game.

We started this podcast to mimic those conversations we have after the games, and I can’t think of a better use for it then to actually have one of those conversations.

Let’s start with you Mike, what did you think?

[Kick to Mike]

Christina, I felt like you agreed to play the game, because you’ll never say no to a roleplaying game. That makes for a different view than some of the other players. What did you think about it.

[Kick to Christina]

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Welcome to You Heard it Here Last where we talk about news, you’ve already heard.

I evidently missed this announcement in November of 2025, so when I got the email from Backerkit about an upcoming launch I might be interested in, I was surprised. Traveller 5e from Mongoose Publishing was coming to Backerkit in March of 2026. 

https://www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/4bb4fe4f-753f-484d-8133-870c7c591797/landing?ref=home-page

My first thought was they were printing a new edition of Traveller, but then I remembered Marc Miller had produced Traveller 5th Edition in 2013. Of course, Mongoose has taken over publishing, but they are in the 2nd edition…then it hit me like a ton of bricks. It was Traveller for Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition.

I’m sure if I tried real hard, I could come up with something more useless, but I gotta tell you, right now I’m out of ideas. 

What a complete waste.

Traveller is an iconic roleplaying game with specific systems that work perfectly in that science fiction world it portrays. Rewriting the entire thing for D&D 5E … Stop it. Just Stop it. I know that 5E is the biggest selling game out there and I know this is just a money grab, but Damit people, open another roleplaying game book.

I typically cheer for anything that brings more eyes to our hobby, but this isn’t a rising tide, it’s a tsunami destroying what’s good about independent games and alternatives to D&D.

I’m tapping out on this one.

Christina, thoughts?

[Kick to Christina]

Mike

[Kick to Mike]

You might think after my lead in I would avoid all things Hasbro, but our next article from EN World is just too interesting to pass up. We’ve talked a lot about AI on our podcast and in Hasbro’s latest earnings call Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks addressed the company’s use of AI.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/hasbro-ceo-says-ai-integration-has-been-a-clear-success.717852/

“We're beyond experimentation. We're deploying AI across financial planning, forecasting, order management, supply chain operations, training and everyday productivity.” Cocks said. He also broke down how creatives use the tools.

Mike, AI has recently become a huge part of your life and after diving into it and embracing it in the workforce you got promoted to COO. Briefly breakdown why AI is the future, whether we like it or not.

[Kick to Mike]

Christina hit us with the ethical issues

[kick to Christina]

And there you have it, all the news, you’ve already heard.

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If I have read it once in an online forum I have read it a thousand times.

“I want to play game X but my players won’t play anything but D&D”

I always want to fire back with get new players, but that isn’t necessarily realistic and besides it’s not a good answer.

Over the years I’ve played a ton of different games and game systems. I personally have never hard a difficult time convincing people to try something different, but maybe that’s because I’m good at convincing people to try something different.

Taking a step back I can see where someone might struggle with pitching a new game idea. Or have to overcome the inherent biases of their players who just want to keep doing the thing that they like instead of trying new stuff.

So, for our last episode of Season 3 and 2025, Christina and I are going to talk about pitching a game idea to your players. We are going to give you some tips and tricks to help sell them on the idea, but first let’s start with Christina.

Christina, Pitch Mike and I a game idea to make us want to play.

[Kick to Christina]

It’s only fair that I give it a shot. Here goes.

[Steve’s Pitch]

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First up on You Heard It Here Last we have a very cool announcement. Modiphious games has picked up the license to create the Discworld Roleplaying game. We haven’t seen a Discworld rpg since the late 90’s with Steve Jackson Games. Christina, what do you think about Modiphious picking up Discworld?

https://www.polygon.com/tabletop-games/24084600/discworld-tabletop-rpg-board-game-modiphius

Next on our list is a new RPG news site called Rascal. Rascal is a brand-new RPG news site. It’s independent, a little alternative, and definitely rogue. Mike, have you had a chance to check this out and if so, what do you think?

https://www.rascal.news/

That’s it for this episode of You Heard It Here Last. Catch you next time.

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“[Sam] fell and came heavily on his hands, which sank deep into sticky ooze, so that his face was brought close to the surface of the dark mere. There was a faint hiss, and a noisome smell went up, the lights flickered and danced and swirled. For a moment the water below him looked like some window, glazed with grimy glass, through which he was peering. Wrenching his hands out of the bog, he sprang back with a cry. ‘There are dead things, dead faces in the water,’ he said with horror. ‘Dead faces!’”

This excerpt is from JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. I know that’s probably obvious to most of our listeners but what likely isn’t obvious is the above passages reference. While Tolkien might have been spinning a fantastical yarn about a fantasy conflict, what he was really writing about was his experiences in World War 1 and the above passage clearly refers to the Battle of the Somme one of the deadliest battles in all of human history.

Typical table top roleplaying leans heavily into the war and military genre, but over the years that DNA has been lost and today’s gamers miss some tremendous opportunities to bring to life amazing games by going back to the roots of roleplaying and really diving into those military and war tropes.

On this episode Mike and I are going talk about the military genre and ways to bring those roleplaying ideas into your games.

Mike, I know you are a massive Tolkien fan. Were you aware of the huge influence of World War 1 on his writings when you started reading Tolkien?

Typical War Tropes to add to your games.

1. Battle Scenes and Action:  Describe the bigger battles, what’s going on across the battlefield. Sweeping descriptions between rounds.
2. Historical Context: Strive to accurately depict the historical context, settings, and details of these wars. Draw from real world battles for your fantasy fights.
3. Character Portrayals: For an NPC death to be meaningful you have to get to know him first so that when a player puts their hand in a pile of goo that was once their comrades face it will mean something.
4. Camaraderie and Relationships: Down time should be special and allow for building relationships with NPCs and other players. Loners don’t last in war.
5. Anti-War Themes: There are great opportunities to dive into things like conscientious objectors and pacifists. Showing the horrors of war can make for great roleplaying opportunities.
6. Leadership and Command: You can play the hapless soldier forced to take orders or even the commanding general sending troops to their deaths. There is a lot of leeway here.
7. Home Front and Civilian Perspectives: focus on the experiences of civilians affected by war, including the challenges of living in war-torn areas, dealing with displacement, and the emotional toll on families. Down time at the village should reflect how a community runs during conflict. Business as usual can be very jarring to a solder or adventure fresh from the battle.
8. Post-War Consequences: Some war movies delve into the aftermath of conflict, depicting the challenges of rebuilding societies, addressing trauma, and reconciling the effects of war on a personal and societal level. Reconstruction era was one of the most contentious and heartbreaking times in American history. Tremendous opportunities in a long campaign.
9. Visual Realism: War movies often strive for visual realism, using detailed sets, accurate uniforms, weapons, and equipment to provide an authentic portrayal of the historical period and conflict. Do your research.
10. Patriotism and National Identity: Some war films highlight themes of patriotism, sacrifice, and national identity, exploring how individuals come together to defend their countries

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On this episode of you heard it here last we have a couple of tidbits to discuss.

First, foundry VTT has officially partnered with Wizards of the Coast to offer D&D 5e. That’s interesting? Mike, you are a big Foundry fan…thoughts?

https://foundryvtt.com/article/dungeons-dragons-arrives/

The next piece of news is the canceling of Joe Mangenellos live action Dragon Lance series. He has been teasing it for over a year, but now it’s officially dead with Hasbros sale of dots One Entertainment arm to Lionsgate. Christina, were you a fan of Dragonlance?

https://www.polygon.com/24066458/dragonlance-tv-show-dead-joe-manganiello-margaret-weis

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S2 EA How to Manage your GM

“Dude, I am so sorry you gotta work for that guy. He is the worst.”

“It’s not that bad. Actually, we get along really well, and he’s the first boss who’s ever actually listened to my suggestions.”

I think we have all found ourselves at one time or another dealing with a boss or manager that for some reason things just didn’t click. We will often blame them and fail to see that it takes two to tango.

When you dig into it, usually the issues are combinations of personalities, motivations, communication styles, and sometimes luck.

Now we roleplay for fun, so we never find ourselves sitting down at a gaming table and quickly realizing that for some reason we just aren’t working well with the GM?

Sorry, I should have given you the sarcasm alert.

We have all found ourselves at a gaming table where we struggled getting along with other players and occasionally the GM. I have found this is especially likely when we are already friends with the GM.

Learning how to manage your game master is a critical skill for good gaming tables and it’s not nearly as difficult as you might think. Practicing good communication skills and a few of these simple tricks can go a long way to greatly improving your game sessions.

Christina, have you ever had to manage one of your GMs?

Points:

1. Show up ready to play (be on time, have equipment {pen, paper, dice, character sheet})
2. Know the basic rules (you don’t have to know them all, just the basics like dice mechanics)
3. Know the rules that apply to your character (very important in crunchy games)
4. Introduce yourself to other players, Don’t make the GM do all the social work.
5. Let the Good Job’s flow. Congratulate other players and the GM on good ideas and challenges
6. Don’t be sneaky. (Explain your complicated plan to the GM including the overall goals)
7. Don’t argue at the table. (Never argue at the table. Argue after the game session in private)
8. Support the GM Decisions and encourage the other players to support the decisions as well.
9. Take Notes!
10. Remember Rule 0 (The GM has final say)
11. Help the GM look up rules, but don’t read them out loud, use page numbers.
12. Pay attention to how the GM communicates. Don’t interrupt a speech!
13. Provide feedback (remember constructive criticism, always end on a positive)
14. Share the costs (books, snacks, software, etc)

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You Heard it Here Last

[Insert Intro]

Recently D&D Beyond released 2023 Unrolled: A Look Back at a Year of Adventure this article breaks down the stats from users of D&D Beyond in 2023. The results are interesting especially if you enjoy data. Mike and I love data.

https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1648-2023-unrolled-a-look-back-at-a-year-of-adventure#Species

Here are a few that jumped out at me. Average Age of Character Created = 28, Most Popular Species = Human (beating the elf by almost 200K), and the Most Popular Class = Fighter.

Let’s just say I would have lost the bet. This really surprised me. What about you Mike?

[Kick to Mike]

Wrapping up something Christina and I talked about a couple of weeks ago. Evil Genius Games settled their lawsuit with Netflix. But we are still not getting a Rebel Moon TTRPG. 

https://www.enworld.org/threads/evil-genius-games-and-netflix-settle-rebel-moon-ttrpg-lawsuit.702261/

The following is a joint statement prepared by us and Netflix relating to the recently resolved litigation between us.
 
 “The parties are pleased that they were able to amicably resolve this dispute. Netflix thanks Evil Genius for their hard work and professionalism.”
 
 We will not be releasing a Rebel Moon game, but stay tuned for more amazing Cinematic Adventures and an upcoming sci-fi project. And thank you again for your amazing support!

What’s that mean Mike?

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Pacing

My player characters entered the room and the Evil Wizard rose from the throne.

“How dare you interrupt my plans” he snarled.

Everyone roll for initiative.

This was supposed to be the crowning battle in the adventure. An incredible, nail-biting conflict where anything could happen.

It turned into a 6-hour slog and by the end, half of the players had bailed for a variety of reasons.

Or should I say one reason.

They got bored.

A challenge game masters face is keeping the game interesting, moving forward, and keeping players involved. It is more commonly referred by its movie and novel counterpart.

Pacing.

Narrative pacingis the speed at which a story unfolds. Pacing can be thought of as the tempo of a narrative. Narrative pacing may result in a story being called slow or fast-paced.

Just because a story is slow doesn’t mean it’s bad and just because a story is fast doesn’t mean it’s good. So, when we talk about good pacing you have to keep it in context.

Is the game designed to be an Action Adventure? If so, it better move along quickly.

Is the game designed as an Exploration story? We can take our time.

Is the game a Thriller with lots of roleplaying? Well then, turtles are going to win that race.

Since pacing is such a huge challenge for game masters Christina and I are going to talk about it’s importance and give you some tips and tricks to make sure your games a paced properly.

Christina have you ever had problems with pacing in one of your adventures?

Pacing Tips:

1.      Pacing should match the game style. Action = Fast Paced, Combat = Fast Paced, Thriller = slow paced, Investigation = slow paced, Horror = slow paced.

2.      Pacing is subjective and based on feeling. So use your body language to trick the players.

3.      Character interaction slows things down. Encourage that when appropriate and discourage when you need the pace to pick up.

4.      Know your session length and watch the clock. Each game session should have a bit of action, a bit of suspense, and a bit of character interaction.

5.      Watch your players. If they look bored, they are bored. Pick up the pace.

6.      Clocks are great for picking up the pace.

7.      Social events are perfect for slowing things down.

8.      Don’t be afraid to ditch the rules. Rules heavy games kill pace. Specifically Initiative. Initiative is the death of pace.

9.      Avoid 3rd act resolutions for every side plot. Resolutions bring the game to a halt and then you have to ramp up tension and momentum again. 

10.  The short and long rest mechanic in D&D is the worst thing to ever happen to a roleplaying game. The greatest pacing killer of all time.

11.  When the roleplaying gets repetitive it’s time to shake things up. 

12.  If you are running an action-oriented game then cut to the next scene quickly. Describe in less then a minute how the players have moved from one scene to the next and then turn it on again.

13.  In fast paced games avoid description and use tropes. In slow paced games like thriller and horror take the time to set the scene including in depth descriptions. Use all of the senses.

14.  All games should build throughout the episode. End on a high point, never a low point or it will feel like the game has fizzled out. We want them eager to come back next week and play. This is why the cliffhanger was developed.

15.  When creating an adventure make sure that each scene propels the plot in some way. 

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Latest news from around the world of table top roleplaying. On this episode, Mike and I talk WOTC and AI Art.

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I love historical roleplaying games.

Ok, maybe not straight up historical games, but I love games that take place in a world not too different from our own. I like to be able to use real pictures, real maps, real places, and in some instances real people to flesh out my games.

My fantasy games tend to be low magic with the Vandals facing the Romans. I love Call of Cthulhu for its basis on our own world. Sci-fi games just build on tech we have now.

And then there is age of sail. I love that period in time where swords and pistols share space. Where man has conquered the vast ocean and cultures collide. Where piracy is at its height.

That was running through my mind as I strolled the convention floor at Origins last year. I was looking for a pirate game, one that was more historically based then some of the fantastical stuff I was seeing. That’s when I stumbled upon it.

Pirate Borg. A pirate game based in the Caribbean, but taking all of the crazy horror elements of Mork Borg. It had a quick and easy game system, naval combat rules, and some really cool artwork. I picked up a copy and wasn’t disappointed.

Limithron is the company that created Pirate Borg and Luke Stratton is the man behind Limithron.

Luke has a fascinating background, from musician to event technician to artist and game designer he has brought that diverse background into Limithron and the results are truly fantastic. I had the pleasure of spending some time talking to Luke about Pirates, Pirate Borg, AI art, and his upcoming releases.

https://www.limithron.com/

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Welcome to Epic Adventure’s You Heard it Here Last.

We find ourselves talking about gaming news before we record the podcast. Who did what, Who is making what, who screwed what up, so we decided to start recording these little news discussions and sprinkling them in with our regular episodes.

So here we go, just chatting about gaming news that caught our attention. 

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/gamemaker-accuses-netflix-stealing-ideas-rebel-moon-franchise-1235603686/

https://www.dexerto.com/gaming/pathfinder-humble-bundle-offers-exciting-dd-alternative-for-2024-2452732/

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Anticipation is the excitement you feel waiting for something you know is going to happen.

As we kick off the new year, I thought it would be a great opportunity to talk about anticipation, and particularly those things that we are looking forward to in 2024.

Games, books, movies, events, conventions and really anything that gets us excited.

But before I put Mike and Christina on the spot lets take a quick look back at 2023. Oddfish Games launched Radiance though a very successful Kickstarter, GenCon Blew up, and the Epic Adventure Podcast went from discussions after gaming sessions to a real thing. I’m not sure any of us would have predicted those events, but sense we didn’t do a podcast to hold us accountable after the fact, we are safe to claim we saw it coming. This time it’s going to be a little different. This time you will be able to look back and see if we got anything right.

So, Mike, Looking ahead at 2024, what’s one thing you are excited about on the horizon?

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Welcome to You Heard it Here Last, where we talk about news, you’ve already heard.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/tolkien%E2%80%99s-writing-desk-on-auction-at-christies.716325/

Christie’s Action House is hosting a live auction in December, 2025 called Groundbreakers: Icons of our Time and in that auction, you will find a simple 19th Century Merton’s College Desk that just happened to be owned by JRR Tolkien. The desk is going for a deal at somewhere between 50 and 80 thousand Pounds.

Christina

You don’t strike me as much of a collector? Do these things interest you?

[Kick to Christina]

Along with the desk they also have the Winchcombe Meteorite, the Kenbak-1 First Personal Computer, and the original cover artwork for the first edition of Warhammer. Definitely some cools stuff for the collector out there.

Next up we have two of our favorite things; Netflix and D&D.

Yep, I read that in my sarcasm voice.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/shawn-levy-provides-update-on-netflix-d-d-show.716209/

Shawn Levy the producer for the upcoming live action D&D Show title Forgotten Realms gave a brief update on what’s been going on behind the scenes with the show and his answers are, well, Interesting. Levy said "I think that the reason it's taken so long and the reason why it is a challenging process is you're not adapting story IP, You're adapting a world and a lexicon and a spirit, but story needs to be invented largely from scratch. And it needs to be invented in a way that feels organic to everything that's great about DnD. So that one is in very active every day chipping-away-at-it development at Netflix."

Let me translate that for you…This show is going to suck.

Christina, what do you think?

[Kick to Christina]

And finally, from all of us to all of you. Whatever you believe in and however you believe it. Just be happy. 

And there you have it, all the news, you’ve already heard.

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Downtime is that nebulous period between game sessions where the characters have an opportunity to pursue long term goals or simply handle a little organization, rest, and repair before the next big adventure.

Players can use the downtime by announcing what their character will be doing over the next couple of weeks. Anything from buying equipment, crafting magic items, fighting in the arena, building a castle, or getting sloppy drunk at the local inn is possible. The game master rolls some dice and tells the players the outcomes of their characters actions. Weeks go by in minutes.

Everyone ready to get back to the adventure?

Cool.

And back into the dungeon we go.

Over the years downtime has evolved to a full set of rules in D&D 5e. But that wasn’t always the case.

In Gary Gygax’s original rules for dungeon and dragons everything happened in real time. Including the time between games. If your group got together on Sunday afternoon and began exploring the dungeon, they had better come to a good stopping point before calling it a night because if a week of real time passes before the gang can get back together again then a week of game time passes in the campaign world.

Minute for minute, hour for hour, day for day.

Personally, I love that idea. 

It’s often called persistent roleplaying and is most commonly found in Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games such as Everquest, Lord of the Rings Online, and Star Wars The Old Republic. But you can do the same thing with your table top games.

By utilizing concepts like play by post, emails, discord and other online tools the game doesn’t have to stop when the players call it a night. All of the traditional downtime activity can occur, but in a more fluid roleplaying sense. Instead of rolling a dice to see if the Paladin started his new church use discord to play out the relevant planning, conversations, and problems that arise during the week. When the players come back together for the game, they will have a rich history to share with each other, improving roleplaying all around.

Does this take work. Sure it does. The game master will have to be available to read the messages and respond in kind. The players will need to responsive to the questions and interaction created by the game master. But really you are only talking about an extra 20 minutes or so a day to have a persistent and ongoing world to adventure in. Instead of turning downtime into a series of random rolls we allow are characters to live and populate the adventure world we have created. This doesn’t eliminate the concept of downtime, on the contrary it elevates it to a whole new level.

Because everyone needs downtime.

As a matter of fact, Mike, Christina, and I need some Downtime ourselves. With the holiday season upon us it seems like a perfect opportunity for some downtime. We are going to take December off and level up.

In January we will be back with all new episodes for Season 2 of Epic Adventure.

And Mike, Christina, and I will be sporting new level 2 characters with a better THACO and maybe even a +1 quip here or there.

We look forward to seeing you in January.

Until then, Have an Epic Adventure.

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“When a man's partner is killed, he's supposed to do something about it. It doesn't make any difference what you thought of him. He was your partner and you're supposed to do something about it. Then it happens we were in the detective business. Well, when one of your organization gets killed it's bad business to let the killer get away with it. It's bad all around-bad for that one organization, bad for every detective everywhere.”

If you are familiar with that little snippet of dialogue then we can be friends.

That’s from the Maltese Falcon, a 1930’s detective novel by Dashell Hammett. I was first introduced to the genre by the movie of the same name staring Humphry Bogart. I was entranced with the dark setting, the smokey atmosphere and the snappy dialogue. To this day the movie poster of the Maltese Falcon hangs in my living room.

After that fateful meeting I devoured everything noir and mystery I could get my hands on. Dashell Hammett was always my first, and Sam Spade has always been my favorite detective but with one sentence Raymond Chandler won the prize.

“I'm killing time and it's dying hard.”

For some of you out there you don’t go for that tough guy writing. You might prefer John McDonalds Travis Mcgee, or Gregory McDonalds Fletch. You might love Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple, or maybe your go for the more modern detective like Micheal Connolly’s Bosch or Lee Child’s Reacher.

No matter your favorite there is no denying the pull and allure of the mystery genre and there is no denying the impact bringing elements of the mystery genre into your roleplaying games.

In this episode Christina and I are going to talk about the mystery genre and how to include it into your games. 

Christina, who is your favorite detective and why?

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Good tools are everything.

What’s interesting is that the same concept applies to your table top roleplaying games. Without the proper tools it’s much harder. Sure, the only real things you need is an imagination, but trust me. If you have the right tools for the job everything just got easier.

In this episode of Epic Adventure Mike and I are going to talk about tools, specifically the tools that can help you make your games epic. 

Mike, this is a topic that is near and dear to your heart. You are always playing around with new tools for gaming. It’s like you are searching for the holy grail of game tools. Why is that?

https://www.chessex.com/ For Dice

https://campaigncoins.com/collections/rpg-coins Metal Coins

https://oddfishgames.com/collections/adventure-scents Adventure Scents

https://syrinscape.com/ Sounds for your RPG

https://www.heroforge.com/ Miniatures

https://zoom.us/

https://roll20.net/

https://foundryvtt.com/

https://app.demiplane.com/home

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/home.php

https://www.playrole.com/

https://www.owlbear.rodeo/

https://alchemyrpg.com/

https://www.dndbeyond.com/

https://shadowdarklings.net/

https://cyberpunkred.com/#/

https://discord.com/

https://kanka.io/

https://www.legendkeeper.com/

https://www.chroniarpg.com/

https://www.scabard.com/pbs/

https://www.worldanvil.com/

https://obsidian.md/

https://www.youtube.com/@JoshPlunkett

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In 1981 Chaosium Publishing released Call of Cthulhu written by Sandy Peterson and it has dominated Horror and Mystery Table Top Roleplaying ever since. Today it is on its 7th edition and it has spawned spinoffs like Delta Green, Board Games like Arkham Horror, as well as collectible card games, video games, animated shows and even television shows such as Lovecraft Country. 

Today we are joined by

Mike and Jen Howlet, the owners of Oddfish games to talk about one of my favorite ttrpg’s. But it is not must my favorite. It’s Jen’s favorite as well.

Jen, why do you love Call of Cthulhu?

https://www.chaosium.com/

https://oddfishgames.com/

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As I have said before Moldvay D&D was my gateway to roleplaying. Traveller, GURPS and Call of Cthulhu came shortly thereafter. Those 4 games heavily shaped the way I felt about roleplaying, from the settings to the mechanics. They were so different from one to the next. Fantasy, Sci-Fi, historical and horror roleplaying, what more could you ask for. D20’s, 2D6’s, 3D6’s, and percentile dice rounded out the mechanics. Seriously everything had been tried, everything had been discovered.

Or so I thought.

By 2010 I had hit that lull in roleplaying that I think everyone does in their lifetime. Family, work, and life had taken up what little free time I had so the extent of my gaming was glancing at the bookshelves filled with rule systems as I passed by for other things.

What that meant was that I missed it. A sea change in the roleplaying community. Something truly new and exciting had shaken up the RPG world.

It was a little game called Apocalypse World.

The post-apocalyptic setting wasn’t anything new, but what was new was the dice mechanics, and more specifically the dice results. In every game prior to Apocalypse World when you rolled the dice you either succeeded or failed. There were only 2 options, but Apocalypse World added a third possibility. 

Success with consequences.

So now when you rolled the dice you could fail, succeed, or have a success at some cost to the character. What cost you might ask? Well, that was up to the GM and the Player to decide.

This idea created an explosion in the roleplaying world. A big bang of creativity. Hundreds of new independent roleplaying games were launched by this single idea. Today it is known as Powered by the Apocalypse and Christina and I are going to take a deep dive into the concepts, mechanics, and settings of the PbtA craze.

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Steve and Christina pick right up from where they left off with the Pirates of the Drinax campaign.

In this episode we get to see how the crew was introduced to life in the Traveller Universe from earning a living to paying a ship mortgage. We also discuss their introduction to combat and we end on some major plot points starting to develop.

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In this episode of Epic Adventure Mike and Steve talk about Computer Roleplaying Games and are they ready to take over the Table Top Roleplaying Market. We specifically talk about Baldur's Gate, Star Citizen, and Starfield.

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In this episode we are taking a deep dive into creating and running a campaign. Specifically the Pirates of Drinax from Mongoose Traveller. But to do this, we have decided to flip the script.

For these episodes Christina will be our host and she will interview Steve about the campaign. How decisions were made, what type of preparation went into the game, how characters and plot developed and how the actual games deviated from the written material.

This is the first in a series of episodes and beware, there are spoilers ahead.

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In this episode Mike, Christina and I talk about the busiest month in gaming. Origins and GenCon are the two biggest table top gaming conventions in the United States and they happen roughly one month apart.

Oddfish Games had a vendor booth at both conventions and we discuss our experiences with the events and dig into the good, bad, and even ugly.

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On this episode Christina and I are going to dive into Fantasy movies and talk about their impact on roleplaying games. We are going to point out a few of our favorites and how they have either leaned into the tropes of roleplaying or in many cases created those tropes.

Now, before we dive to far into this topic, we have a caveat. We have decided that Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Conan the Barbarian, and The Princess Bride are perfect films so we won’t be talking about those. Besides you’ve all seen those right?

Right?

Ok, so here we go.

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I remember being a young roleplayer diving into my first rpg’s. Character creation was similar in most of the games on the market. Make a very basic character, adventure with them, kill monsters, find treasure, gain experience points, gain levels, get more skills, rinse, repeat. Back in the day we would memorize the XP charts so we would know when our characters would level up.

Those old TTRPG’s were bad enough, but when computer programmers took their favorite table top games and ported them into the computer world the character advancement concept of “leveling up” started to look like heroine dealers giving their junkie friends the first taste for free.

Over the years character advancement has been closely tied to the leveling up concept, but I’ve noticed something interesting as I’ve become an older and more mature gamer.

I don’t care about leveling up.

It’s not the character advancement I’m looking for. I think I first became aware of the anti-leveling up faction when I first started playing Traveller all of those years ago. In Traveller you create a seasoned, experienced character. After character creation nothing really changes. And then there was Call of Cthulhu a game in which your character is more likely to get worse as you play and not better.

Funny enough, those are my two favorite roleplaying games.

In this episode Christina, and I are going to talk about character advancement. The traditional methods and why it was innovative and important at the time and the current ideas of character advancement and how they have changed over the years.

First let’s start with the Doc.

Christina, what are you personal thoughts on character advancement, before we get into all the scientific nitty gritty?

Kick to Christina

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Gamma World, the 1978 Post Apocalyptic roleplaying game from TSR. It was my very first TTRPG.

I can still fondly remember picking the boxed set up from this hole in the wall gaming store. At the time, the store focused on selling model railroad accessories and miniatures for wargames, but they had one book shelf in the corner that held roleplaying books.  The cover of the box had an image of a destroyed and overgrown city with men carrying laser rifles approaching it.

I bought it immediately and read it cover to cover as soon as I got home.

I wanted to play so badly, but no one I knew played roleplaying games, much less ran roleplaying games. So, I started prepping, making characters, and coming up with ideas. Then I wrangled a few friends and started running my very first roleplaying game.

It was a glorious disaster.

Over the years I became the forever Game Master or Dungeon Master or Keeper or Referee or … well the names for the role varies as much as the styles and that’s what Mike and I will be discussing in this episode. We are talking about Game Masters, what it is and what types of styles and skill you should develop or avoid to make your games epic.

Mike, do you remember the very first game you ever ran? What is the role of the Game Master?

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It was my freshman year of high school and my buddy had gotten very excited about a new module. He wouldn’t tell me what it was, but for months all I heard about was how awesome it was going to be. He was reading it over and over again, making lists of items, writing down enemies and NPCs. It was going to be his first game as a GM. 

I was getting stoked for it.

We gathered at his house; I had brought the Mt. Dew. Pizza was in the oven.

That is when he revealed our new campaign with a flourish.

Tomb of the Lizard King!

I had read it last year.

At that point I could have made a big deal about already reading the module, but it would have crushed him. So, I kept my mouth shut and just played. It did not take long before I came to my first problem. The PCs needed to go a certain way, but the party was leaning towards an entirely different path. I could see my buddy was struggling to get everyone headed in the right direction for the encounter. So that is when I used my knowledge of the module to get the game back on track. A brief impassioned speech later and the rest of the PCs were back in the game.

My buddy was so happy after the first session and everyone had a ball. The game went perfectly.

That was Metagaming and to hear people talk about it, I was a monster for doing it.

But all metagaming is not considered equal and in this episode Christina and I are going to talk about metagaming. What it is, why it is bad, why it is good, and why it is just another tool to make your games Epic.

Christina, what is metagaming?

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In February of this year, we kicked off the Epic Adventure Podcast with D&D. Specifically we got together and talked about the D&D OGL Debacle. By now you are all familiar with that, but if you need a refresher go back and listen to episode 1. Mike does a great job breaking down the history of that mess.

When Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast threw in the towel on the OGL everyone breathed a sigh of relief. But it was pretty clear based on the sort of apologizing and the obfuscating coming out of the house that dragons-built things weren’t cool in the pacific northwest.

Then Wizards of the Coast sent Pinkerton agents after a YouTuber who got his hands on some magic cards. Next, they announced that their new Virtual Table Top was going to be using a massive graphics system, additionally they said they were going to roll out a new “Not Version 6” edition of D&D, and finally they raised their book prices, by a lot.

To me, the nail in the coffin was Critical Role announcing they are releasing their own TTRPG System. You know, Critical Role, the streaming live play through that I feel single-handedly resurrected the TTRPG community. They were bailing on D&D and it made me ask Mike?

Mike is D&D Dead?

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Origins Game Fair is one of the largest tabletop gaming conventions in the United States. And Oddfish Games is going to be there.

If you are into roleplaying games, board games, miniatures, wargaming or any other tabletop game then you have likely heard of Origins. And if you haven’t then, well, now you have.

Origins started in 1975 and since 1996 It’s been held in Columbus Ohio. It’s arguably the second largest gaming convention in the United States behind GenCon (by the way Oddfish Games will be at GenCon too) and this year Oddfish Games will have a booth.

If you visit Origins then stop by and say hi. We will be at booth 544 under the Adventure Scents/Oddfish Games name and we will have a bunch of things for you to check out;

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Over the last several episodes we have been showing you how you can use radiance as a GM tool to help you design adventures for your players. First, I put Christina on the spot by presenting her with some randomly drawn cards from Radiance and she did a great job coming up with a neat little adventure. Then, I used those same cards with Mike to showcase how versatile the cards are and how much replay ability Radiance has built into the system.

Today we though it would be fun to show you how players can use Radiance cards to help them create characters. To do this Christina is going to use the Radiance cards to help me create a character for the game she created 2 episodes ago.

I’ve got a feeling she is looking forward to putting me on the hot seat.

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These episode builds on our last one. This time Mike takes over and builds an Adventure using the same Radiance Cards used by Christina. It's amazing to see the similarities and differences. It also highlights the replay-ability of the game.

https://oddfishgames.com/

https://oddfishgames.com/products/radiance

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In this episode of Epic Adventure we are going to use Radiance cards to build an adventure for our players.

Radiance Adventure Engine is a new game from Oddfish Games. These sets of cards and rules allow you to solo roleplay any of your favorite roleplaying games. The system is truly universal. It can also be used as an excellent GM tool to help you create campaigns, adventures, and ideas on the fly.

Steve is going to pull Radiance Adventure Cards randomly and present them to Christina who is going to use those cards to build an adventure for her players. The trick is she is going to do this in real time. This is a great episode to see how the Adventure Engine works as well as getting a feel for using the tool to help you with your own games.

https://oddfishgames.com/products/radiance

https://oddfishgames.com/

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In this episode of Epic Adventure Steve talks to Mike and Christina about the development of the Radiance Adventure Engine.

Mike shares how The Shine Storytelling Engine morphed into Luminous and eventually Radiance. Christina gives us a breakdown of how the system works. And I talk about my play-testing experience. 

Radiance is a new game from Oddfish Games, or should I say it's a new game tool. It allows you to solo roleplay any TTRPG system you can think of and, I believe it's the best new tool for game masters and players alike.

You can find more at the following links.

https://oddfishgames.com/

https://oddfishgames.com/products/the-radiance-adventure-engine-pre-order-wip

https://oddfishgames.com/products/shine-pre-order

https://oddfishgames.com/products/luminous-pre-order

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I was 9 years old when I finally talked my mother into taking me to see this new movie my friends had been talking about. I still remember how excited I was when the lights went down and the music swelled from the movie screen.

Star Wars

When Luke and Han got their awards at the end, I remember wanting to be Luke Skywalker.

Oh, sorry, I didn’t give you a spoiler alert.

Wait…

If I have to give you a spoiler alert for Star Wars you are not from this planet. Just for future reference this episode will likely be filled with spoilers so consider yourself warned.

Now, where was I…

That’s right, Luke Skywalker, I wanted to, no needed to be Luke Skywalker. I wondered if that new role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons would let you play Luke?

The short answer

Hell Yes.

In this episode Christina, another avid “B” movie fan, and I are going to talk about movies. 

Specifically, Why and How to use them as fodder for your roleplaying games. We will also give you a few of our favorites to add. But before we get to the specific movies lets answer the Why and How questions.

Star Wars: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_(film)

Ninja Hunter: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/39879-ren-zhe-da-jue-dou?language=en-US

Streets of Fire: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streets_of_Fire

Godzilla: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godzilla_(1954_film)

Prince of Darkness: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Darkness_(film)

The Last Dragon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Dragon

My Science Project: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Science_Project

Rollerblade 7: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Roller_Blade_Seven

Predators: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predators_(film)

The Warriors: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Warriors_(film)

Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Men_Don%27t_Wear_Plaid

The Dirty Dozen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dirty_Dozen

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My first campaign was Waterloo.

That’s right, I said I got into tabletop roleplaying through miniatures and my first campaign was Waterloo. I played the Coldstream Guards and went into the game pumped because I thought they were so cool.

It took us weeks to play, hours in my buddy’s garage, rearranging large sheets of plywood on sawhorses to set up the battle boards.

Late nights with measuring tapes, templates, and dice.

I loved it.

So, when I found out they had “Campaigns” in my new favorite hobby roleplaying I was a little confused. Because a campaign was a series of battles. How did that work in an open-ended fantasy game?

Well, it works, and it can be truly amazing.

On this episode Mike and I are going to talk about Campaigns. What they are, whey they are awesome, and how to go about creating one.

Mike, do you remember your first campaign?

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Welcome to You Heard it Here Last where we talk about news, you’ve already heard.

We have a little D&D announcement coming out of Wizards of the Coast that I’m actually kind of interested in.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/wizards-of-the-coast-re-registers-dark-sun-with-uspto.716113/

Wizards of the Coast recently filed an application to register Dark Sun in the US, a sign that D&D could be bringing back the campaign setting in the near future. That’s the opening sentence to the article about the move on EN world. The article goes on to point out that the trademark on Dark Suns lapsed a year ago and that this might be basic paperwork, but I’m kinda holding out hope.

Dark Sun was an original campaign world set on a post-apocalyptic desert planet and in my opinion the only interesting setting D&D has ever had. It was dark, gritty, and at the time of it’s release in 1991 genre-bending. It was also a little controversial at the time and I think it would be even more so today. The setting had slavery, genocide, and leaned into racial themes such as the “muls” a half human half dwarf created for forced labor. I’m not sure those would fly today.

Chirstina, this seems like a setting just dripping with ethical issues and your our ethical expert…thoughts?

[Kick to Christina]

Next on our list is a cultural mile marker. One of those things that can really tell you where you are at in the great timeline. If you doubted that roleplaying had become a common hobby then this is the final piece of information you have been waiting for to change your mind.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/review-of-how-to-dungeon-master-parenting.716272/

This new book, designed for expecting families breaks down parenting in a way that gamers will understand. Move over Dr. Spock, we have How to Dungeon Master Parenting. While I haven’t read the book, the article on EN World is enough to sell me on it.

Christina, from a cultural standpoint, how important is a book like this that mergers our favorite hobby with raising kids?

[Kick to Christina]

And there you have it, all the news that you’ve already heard.

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You were curious what this D&D thing was all about. You saw the shows, and heard a few podcasts, you even enjoyed the trailer for the new movie. 

So, you gave it a shot, and liked it. Now after a few games your eyes have been opened to the wonderful world of tabletop Roleplaying. What’s next? 

Don’t worry, we’ve got your back. 

On this episode of Epic Adventure Christina and I are going to break down our favorite Roleplaying games that aren’t D&D and why we love them so much. 

We are going to give you our three favorite games with a little background and description in case you are interested. They are not in any particular order, and we recommend checking them out, buying them, and using them to run Epic Adventures. 

Christina, start us off with one of your favorite games. 

Here are links to Christina’s Games

Apocalypse World: http://apocalypse-world.com/

Night Witches: https://bullypulpitgames.com/products/night-witches

Pasion De Las Pasiones: https://magpiegames.com/pages/pasion

Cortex Prime: https://www.cortexrpg.com/

Savage Worlds: https://peginc.com/savage-settings/savage-worlds/

Fate: https://fate-srd.com/

Here are links to Steve’s Games

GURPS: http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/

Call of Cthulhu: https://www.chaosium.com/call-of-cthulhu-rpg/

Feng Shui: https://www.atlas-games.com/fengshui/ 

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Christina and I had such a great time with our last podcast we couldn’t wait to get back at it… 

But what should we talk about next? 

“What do you think, world building? Campaign creation? Game design?” I said…. 

“Why don’t we start basic with how to Roleplay” Christina responded 

Wait, what…you mean like How to Roleplay, sure that should be easy…not. 

Welcome to the most difficult easy topic we could cover How to Roleplay and because it was Christina’s brilliant idea, she gets to start us off, 

It’s all yours Christina… 

Steve and Christina chat about what roleplaying is, and how to get started. We also address common mistakes new players make and some ideas for taking your games to the next level.

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I’ll never forget one of the first games I played with Mike Howlett. I was a forever GM, and I really enjoyed running things, but I had just met Mike through a mutual friend, and he was firing up a Cyberpunk Red game.

Color me intrigued…pun intended.

Session Zero rolled around and Mike got us started.

“If you click on the following link, it will take you to a website that has some information you might want about the game we are starting” he said.

So, I clicked the link.

The link took me to Legend Keeper.Com and that’s where I was introduced to how Mike plans for his games. Hundreds of pages of lore and information, images, links, locations, it was…a lot.

But that’s how Mike rolls. So today Mike and I are going to talk about World-building, how we go about putting things together and give you a few tips and tricks that might work for you.

Mike Howlett is the co-founder of Odd Fish Games. He is a longtime gamer, writer, designer, and one of my partners on this podcast.

Mike, You and I go about world-building very differently. How do you got started?

Mike and Steve talk about important steps in world-building, thought process, and how to get things moving. We also discuss two very different strategies and how they both have their strengths and weaknesses.

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Players who are new to Tabletop Role Playing Games make the fatal mistake of thinking that class and race equal character.  

Nothing could be further from the truth.  

In this episode we are going to explore creating compelling characters and give you some things to think about the next time you put pen to paper and start making that Half Dragonborn Half Tiefling Ranger Barbarian Warlock Noble. 

The rulebooks for RPG’s love to talk about character classes, character races, character archetypes...with that many characters being thrown around you would think we are in a Monty Python sketch.  

Players often fail to understand that characters are made up of personality traits…not stat blocks. 

Joining me today to talk about creating compelling characters is Christina Stiso one of my partners in crime on this podcast Christina is a long-time gamer and Creative Designer for Oddfish Games. She is a PhD student studying game-based learning and on the board of directors of the nonprofit organization “Tabletop Gaymers.”

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You may have heard a little something about Wizards of the Coast updating, changing, and/or deleting their Open Gaming License that has been a part D&D for 23 years.

Everyone, and I mean everyone in the business is talking about this. So, it only seemed proper that we kick off our new podcast “Epic Adventure” doing what everyone else is.

Talking about D&D’s OGL.

But we are going to take that one step further. We are going to give some ideas of how to move forward and talk about other gaming systems that we recommend.

But first who are we.

My name is Steve Kellams and I am just a fan with a radio voice. I started tabletop gaming in the late 70’s with Napoleonic miniatures. In 1981 I dove headfirst into Tom Moldvay version of D&D and since then roleplaying and tabletop gaming has been a passion of mine. I’ve been lucky enough to get the opportunity to host this podcast with a few amazing people who are going to join me on this Epic Adventure.

Mike Howlett is the co-founder of Odd Fish Games, a great independent game company with some fun little systems and a phenomenal universal solo roleplaying system you should check out. He is a longtime gamer, writer, game designer with more irons in the fire than hours on the clock.

Christina Stiso is a gamer and Creative Designer for Odd Fish Games. She is a PhD student studying game-based learning and on the board of directors of the nonprofit organization Tabletop Gaymers.

Both Christina and Mike are joining me today to kick of the Epic Adventure Podcast

We are definitely starting with a bang.

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In 2023 I was already neck deep into my Kickstarter obsession when I saw an advertisement for a brand new OSR style roleplaying game called Shadowdark. It was the creation of Kelsey Dionne and it looked very cool. The book was large and black with silver script and silver artwork of what I thought was a beholder.

I immediately backed it. But to be fair I was immediately backing a lot of things back then. When I turned on my YouTubes I got blasted with a social media blitz unlike any I had seen before. All of the TTRPG sites that covered anything even remotely different than D&D were all over this game. The superlatives seemed to match the online excitement and soon it had garnered 1.4 million dollars on Kickstarter.

I couldn’t wait to get the book. But while I was reading the .pdf and waiting for the hardback to arrive I had the chance to watch Kelsey Dionne herself walk backers through her creation process of the ranger class. I also got to see a number of interviews with her regarding the product. Again, I just kept getting more and more excited.

When the book finally came it sat on my bookshelf. Now don’t be sad for the game, that’s what tends to happen to most of the stuff I grab off of Kickstarter. But, it was on a short list of games to be played.

Finally, my Masks of Nyrlethotep came to a shuddering, bumbling halt and I wanted something fast, easy, and different as a palette cleanser. Enter Shadowdark. I quickly brushed up on the rules and set the date for my group. This was about the same time that the Glass Cannon Podcast announced they were going to be using Shadowdark as the rules for their next big live play. Yep, stoked again.

We dove head first into Shadowdark.

And it was … Ok … I guess.

Not the resounding plug you thought I was going to give.

If you are fans of the game, stick around because we are diving deeper than that. There are some really good things about this game. Some really bad things about this game. And a lot of mehh things about this game. In this episode Mike, Christina, and I are going to walk you through all of that and give you our honest review of the game.

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Welcome to You Heard it Here Last where we talk about news, you’ve already heard.

Let’s start with my favorite Vin Diagram. Roleplayers and Cat Owners. It’s a perfect circle. And to prove it we are going to start with the King of Crits, 2025 Dice Advent Calendar.

https://dnddice.com/products/dice-advent-calendar-2025?variant=46949401395426&country=US&currency=USD&utm_source=chatgpt.com

The dice are cute as hell and if you or someone you know is into advent calendar’s then this is perfect.

Mike, what do you think about the King of Crits 2025 Dice Advent Calendar.

[Kick to Mike]

Christina, you love dice are you in on this one?

[Kick to Christina]

The King of Crits isn’t the only dice advent calendar on the market this year.

https://diceenvy.com/products/advent-calendar?currency=USD&variant=47074082324723&stkn=1f01dd7311e3&utm_source=chatgpt.com

Dice Envy has gotten into the game with their 2025 dice advent calendar. The twist on this one is you get to decide if you want the Nice version with Santa and all the traditional happiness that comes with that or the Naughty version based on Krampas with the darker side of Christmas dice. They also have an option to let the Christmas goblin decide which one you get when you order, which I think is pretty cool.

Christina, the more dice the merry I assume, but which one of this do you like better? And I’m not Christmas shopping, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

[Kick to Christina]

Mike, I’m going to assume you like the cat dice, but which one is it for you?

[Kick to Mike]

Next up we have the Glass Staff Player Journal.

https://forgedgaming.com/products/glassstaff-player-journal?variant=47958671098087&country=US&currency=USD&utm_source=chatgpt.com

I love these player journals. They are faux leather bound with gold foil and premium paper. They look great and inside they have almost 200 pages to keep track of your character. From pages with all of the little boxes for character stuff to open pages to write about your adventures. The only problem for me is that they all seem to be made for D&D5e and since I don’t play that…oh well.

Finally, how about a little fantasy glass ware. Nobody can have enough glass ware and if you settling down with your friends after storming the duke’s castle and sharing some of your favorite adult beverage then you need something cool to put it in.

https://www.fantasyglassworks.com/

Fantasy Glass Works can pretty much custom make whatever you want from beer mugs to coffee cups and most things in between. And they are family owned out of Rockford Illinois so that’s a bonus. I think I would get a Tankard Beer Mug with the Sigil from our Conan Campaign.

Mike, how about this as a Christmas gift?

[Kick to Mike]

Christina, any favorites?

[Kick to Christina]

And there you have it, all the news, you’ve already heard.

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The internet is filled with hobby advice. From podcasts, to YouTube channels, you can probably find what you’re are looking for very quickly. Or not. That’s part of the problem. With so much out there it’s hard to figure out what’s good, what’s bad, and what’s really bad.

Our friend Jen and Oddfish Games hooked me up with John Glavin. John is the creator of Two-Gun Pixie a Youtube channel that focuses on board games and roleplaying game reviews and he’s been at it for a while. And by awhile, I mean over 8 years. John is also jumping into the professional GM world with his new Adventurers Union: Local 218.

I had a chance to chat with John about roleplaying, Two-Gun Pixie, and his personal style.

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Let’s start off with one of my favorite things…D&D Licensing.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/d-ds-beer-collaboration-continues-with-special-edition-beer-dice-tower-combo.715575/

We have talked about D&D’s collaboration with Mythical Meats a jerky company, I can remember one of Nabisco’s breakfast cereals having a D&D tie in. And, I think one of my friends had a D&D wood burning set. You know the thing that got hot and you could burn designs into wood. Yea D&D did that. And let’s not forget they licensed D&D to a predatory online gambling site.

This time we are talking beer. I like beer. New Holland Brewing has announced it’s bringing back it’s popular D20 Brew and this time it’s going to come with a dice tower and special edition dice.

Doc, what do you think about D20 Brew

[Kick to Christina]

Mike, New Holland is also bringing back their Mead Cask Bourbon. Is that more up your ally?

[Kick to Mike]

If you were in charge of D&D Licensing and you were looking for something weird to license, what would it be?

[Kick to Mike]

[Kick to Christina]

Gary Gygax, the creator of Dungeons and Dragons passed away in 2008. His widow Gail Gygax has been working to create a memorial for Gary in his hometown of Lake Geneva Wisconsin.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/theyre-building-a-memorial-game-table-sculpture-in-honor-of-gary-gygax.715511/

The memorial will be set in Library Park, and it will be a stone table with benches, and a statue of Gary Gygax himself seated at the table. The table will feature a bronze map of Gygax's first ever D&D dungeon level, scaled for use with miniatures.

What a cool thing that you could sit down and play with Gary, long after he has passed.

Doc, what are your thoughts on this one?

[Kick to Christina]

How about you Mike

[Kick to Mike]

This one made me think of all the new spaces going up that are roleplaying friendly. Coffee shops offer not only coffee, but roleplaying games for sale and tables where patrons can sit and play their favorite game. There are several here in Indiana and if you do a search, you will be blown away by how many exist across the US. Coffee shops aren’t the only venue. Bars are getting into the scene with some even offering game masters, table rentals, and weekly events with prizes. I mean this is really cool. I always said I wanted to open a vinyl record store, but now maybe I could open a vinyl record store and gaming space. I could call it Critical Spin!

Mike, what would your public games space look like?

[Kick to Mike]

What about you Doc?

[Kick to Christina]

And there you have it. All the news, you’ve already heard.

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I can still remember the first time I stood in front of a classroom filled with my peers. I had spent the time researching and learning, writing and organizing, and now it was time to teach. A dozen of my co-workers, people that I spent hours with, ate lunches with, and worked with every day. But this was something different. Standing in front of the classroom. All eyes on me, the looks on their faces were somewhere between anticipation and boredom. I could almost see their thoughts, “Why do I have to be here?” “Why should I listen to this guy?” “This is going to suck.”

I remember telling myself, It’s no different than running a game, Steve. Grab their attention, make your point, and give them what they came for.

I’ve been doing that now for over 25 years.

I wasn’t born a good communicator. I stuttered as a child, and because of that I was not outgoing in the classroom. I rarely asked questions and would damn near run away screaming when it came to making any kind of public statement. But when I would sit down and roleplay with my friends, that changed. It was like I was a different person. I was able to communicate and I wasn’t scared. I actually enjoyed it. Soon I would become the forever game master and that just meant more practice. Because that was what it was, practice.

I know for a fact if I didn’t roleplay I wouldn’t be a national instructor today. That class with 12 people in 1999 was only the beginning. I have done 2-hour presentations to auditoriums with over 1200 people. All of those hours of gaming and communicating gave me the skills and confidence I needed for my future.

We can learn a lot from roleplaying.

Last time, Mike and I talked about the Satanic Panic and all the things the haters said was wrong with roleplaying so today, Mike, Dr. Christina and I are going to talk about all of the good things you get by table top roleplaying.

Let’s start with you Mike, What’s one thing that you can do today because of roleplaying?

[Kick to Mike]

Christina, you literally got your doctorate in this stuff so when we talk about the things we can learn from table top roleplaying, where should we start?

[Kick to Christina]

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Let’s start off with one of my favorite things…D&D Licensing.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/d-ds-beer-collaboration-continues-with-special-edition-beer-dice-tower-combo.715575/

We have talked about D&D’s collaboration with Mythical Meats a jerky company, I can remember one of Nabisco’s breakfast cereals having a D&D tie in. And, I think one of my friends had a D&D wood burning set. You know the thing that got hot and you could burn designs into wood. Yea D&D did that. And let’s not forget they licensed D&D to a predatory online gambling site.

This time we are talking beer. I like beer. New Holland Brewing has announced it’s bringing back it’s popular D20 Brew and this time it’s going to come with a dice tower and special edition dice.

Doc, what do you think about D20 Brew

[Kick to Christina]

Mike, New Holland is also bringing back their Mead Cask Bourbon. Is that more up your ally?

[Kick to Mike]

If you were in charge of D&D Licensing and you were looking for something weird to license, what would it be?

[Kick to Mike]

[Kick to Christina]

Gary Gygax, the creator of Dungeons and Dragons passed away in 2008. His widow Gail Gygax has been working to create a memorial for Gary in his hometown of Lake Geneva Wisconsin.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/theyre-building-a-memorial-game-table-sculpture-in-honor-of-gary-gygax.715511/

The memorial will be set in Library Park, and it will be a stone table with benches, and a statue of Gary Gygax himself seated at the table. The table will feature a bronze map of Gygax's first ever D&D dungeon level, scaled for use with miniatures.

What a cool thing that you could sit down and play with Gary, long after he has passed.

Doc, what are your thoughts on this one?

[Kick to Christina]

How about you Mike

[Kick to Mike]

This one made me think of all the new spaces going up that are roleplaying friendly. Coffee shops offer not only coffee, but roleplaying games for sale and tables where patrons can sit and play their favorite game. There are several here in Indiana and if you do a search, you will be blown away by how many exist across the US. Coffee shops aren’t the only venue. Bars are getting into the scene with some even offering game masters, table rentals, and weekly events with prizes. I mean this is really cool. I always said I wanted to open a vinyl record store, but now maybe I could open a vinyl record store and gaming space. I could call it Critical Spin!

Mike, what would your public games space look like?

[Kick to Mike]

What about you Doc?

[Kick to Christina]

And there you have it. All the news, you’ve already heard.

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“As the four of you move into the open cavern you see a large Goblin on the far side. He turns and raises a club banging his crusty and broken shield. Three more goblins step from the shadows, their bows raised.”

Bob who was playing a first level fighter smiled. “This is perfect. Four Goblins against our Four 1st level characters. Let’s Do This! I charge forward with a war cry.”

20 minutes later as the players all sit in disbelief, their characters dead or dying with no possibility of survival. “What the hell just happened” they mumble as they start working on new characters.

What happened is that no matter what the book says about Challenge Ratings, there is no such thing as a balanced encounter.

On this episode Mike, Christina and I are going to talk about Balancing Encounters in your games. Why there is no such thing as a balanced encounter and the difference between a Roleplaying and Gaming at the table.

Mike, this is your favorite thing to say, so why don’t you kick us off.

[Kick to Mike]

Christina, you are heavy on the story telling side or what I like to call Roleplaying. I know you believe that the only way to balance encounters is between your ears.

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It’s weird just how much of my life can be traced through television. As much time as I spent as a kid riding my bike down the gravel roads to friends houses and playing in the woods, I spent at least that much time watching TV. From the early years of Sunday Morning Cartoons and The Wonderful World of Disney to my teenage years, cruising North Park in Evansville Indiana and going to the movie theater every Friday and Saturday night. I guess it’s no surprise that I can remember the first time I watched a movie about Dungeons and Dragons.

It was Christmas Break, no school, Rainy but mild weather and based on the newspaper it looked like CBS was going to have a movie about roleplaying. This was going to be pretty cool. I was into roleplaying, but didn’t get a chance to play much. For some reason nobody wanted to talk about roleplaying and if you ever brought it up you got funny looks. I was really looking forward to it.

It was called Mazes and Monsters and it stared that funny guy from Bosum Buddies…That was a great show.

I remember settling in with Orvil Redenbacher Popcorn.

And Wow, that didn’t go the way I thought it would.

For you younger folks out there, roleplaying is cool. ComiCon draws in well over 100,000 people, all dressed up in crazy costumes. GenCon brings in over 70,000 people and that’s a convention designed for roleplayers and gamers.

Being a roleplayer is cool. Movie stars talk about doing it. Rock Stars play D&D. Jocks at your school play D&D. I mean it blows my mind.

Growing up in the 70’s and 80’s if you played D&D you were a Satan worshiper.

Mike and I lived through those days and on this episode, we are going to talk about the Satanic Panic, walk you through some of the low points and generally make you all realize that you don’t know how good you got it.

Mike, did you watch Mazes and Monsters?

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I swear they are listening to us?

Who is “They”? 

You now, “Them”! 

On Season 3 Episode 16 of You Heard It Here Last, Christina and I talked about the fact that somebody at EN World really loved Deathstalker.

I just found out that by the time you hear this episode Deathstalker will once again be in movie theaters. That’s right they are remaking the campy Conan rip-off, and it looks like they are doing it the proper way…with another “B” Movie version.

But that’s not what this one is about. In our episode I said that if we were going to have a Roger Corman TTRPG it should have been Death Race 2000 and look what EN World did. They have written another 2 part piece about Death Race 2000 as a TTRPG. 

https://www.enworld.org/threads/where%E2%80%99s-the-death-race-2000-roleplaying-game-part-one.715287/

Mike, I know you are not a big “B” Movie fan like Christina and I, but I can’t help but feel like we are starting to see some throwback themes in roll playing to the 80’s and even 70’s. The 80’s makes sense with Stranger Things, but what’s your take on roleplaying games starting to mine our childhoods for inspiration?

[Kick to Mike]

Since I’ve got Mike here, we might as well dive into his favorite genre.

Cyberpunk Legends: Into the Night is a solo or cooperative card game set in the world of R. Talsorian’s Cyberpunk. It’s an officially licensed game and just premiered on Kickstarter…and it blew past it’s funding goal in 19 minutes.

https://www.rascal.news/cyberpunk-legends-hacks-the-system-500k-raised-in-under-a-day/

At the time of recording this it is at 3 quarters of a million dollars and it doesn’t look like it’s going to slow down much.

Mike, why do you think Cyberpunk in general is so popular and is this just an example of a game riding the coattails of other games or is it something else?

[Kick to Mike]

And there you have it…all the news, you’ve already heard.