Role Playing Public Radio

Taking a tour in an established setting like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings can be a highlight of your gaming experience or the vacation from hell. Crossing lightsabers with Vader, flying with the crew of the Serenity or taking down a Terminator with pipe bombs and Mack trucks is the stuff of gaming legend. But on the other hand, being smacked down by Drizzt, begging Elminister for help or watching Harry Potter save the day (again) is slightly worse than being dragged naked across broken glass. We discuss how to run fun games with established settings, including settings that lack published gaming sourcebooks. Plus, a new letter from Tom, a listener anecdotes and a new segment-The World of Synnibar Character Creation Spotlight! RPPR Forums Highlights Rehabilitating the Bad GM (and why I now hate KOTOR) Project 15 CREEPY THREAD OF DOOM Shout Outs Me of Little Faith – new book from Lewis Black The World of Synnibarr -The Ultimate in Transgenre Gaming! Battle Dragons – a rpg of dragons that battle Freeman’s Mind – now we know why Gordon never talked in the games Music: Tourist Trap by the White Rabbits

A new dawn breaks for our intrepid heroes, the Water Barons. They finally decide to explore the Lemurian ruins near the colony. Will they survive the deadly traps and deadlier denizens of this dungeon? Find out in game 8 of the New World Campaign!

Inspired by our recent 4th edition D&D campaign, Tom and I discuss the usage of maps, miniatures and other props and gimmicks in tabletop games. While some games like Dungeons and Dragons nessecitate at least using some of these add-ons and others like Call of Cthulhu practically drown players in handouts, so where should you draw the line? How much is too much and when do they take away from the game instead of enhancing it? We also talk about our Gencon 09 plans and the New World Primer. Funny thing, we record this episode before the primer came out. Instead of a letter, Tom reads some stuff written by his friend Andy and we have the most insane anecdote ever…The Chaplin Incident as related to us by Adam Scott Glancy of Pagan Publishing. Favorite RPPR Forums Threads: Games you would run if you didn’t have the players that you do rifts muthafuckas! Mega Shark Vs Giant Octopus Lessons Learned at RPPR Shout Outs M-51 Engineer’s Bag – a neat bag suitable for hauling gaming materials like maps and minis Henry Rollins Show: Season One – Tom wuvs Henry Rollins. The Burrowers – a twisted western horror movie that asks the question: what’s worse – man eating predatory monsters or us? Black Adder Complete Collector’s Set – Nerd out to great brit comedy about war, politics and history. Splinter – another new and freaky horror movie with a horrific and original monster besieging 4 trapped survivors. Level Up Magazine – 4E gaming goodness for only 2 bucks an issue. Music GooTube Conspiracy by Nalts

In this session, the Water Barons confront a dangerous beast that stalks the colony. It has killed and terrorized the simple workers of the colony and no one dares to venture outside the protective walls of the colony. Find out who pays the ultimate price to stop the beast!

In this episode, Tom and I more or less interview each other about our habits as players. Find out what can truly surprise Tom in a game or what my favorite character type is. If you want to get an idea of how to improve your game, think about how you play, what works and what doesn’t work. Also, to make up for the recent lack of content, we’ve made this episode nearly 90 minutes long. Tom has an improvised Letter, plus two new anecdotes and more. Our favorite RPPR forums threads: One of Tom’s characters comes to life: Oh the humanity! A Tribute to Sir Redgar Orphanbane: Find out more about the origins of the NPC adventurer from the New World Campaign The Cody Fan Club: We have some dedicated fans… Omegle – For All your random chat trolling: Talk to random strangers on the Internet? Why nothing could possibly go wrong! Shout Outs Kenzer Company: Congratulations on issue 150 of Knights of the Dinner Table! T-Rex Cafe: A dinosaur themed restaurant in Kansas City. Dungeon Crawl: I’ve mentioned it before, but the new version is even better. And more addicting if that’s possible. A Wee Bit of Revolution: Craig Ferguson stand up comedy. It’s funny. Rifftrax: The new Twilight Rifftrax is hysterical. You must watch it. Zombietown USA: Zombies in small town America. Also dual statted for Autoduel! Fans, Friends and Follwers: A great book with advice on how to use the Internet to build a creative career. Friday Night Firefight: Cyberpunk combat system. No pansy roleplaying. Just hardcore 80s style combat rules. Music: There is no I in team but there is a me by Western Civ.

Show your support for RPPR by donating to the New World Campaign Primer Ransom! There’s less than a week to go. The Water Barons (I.E. our intrepid heroes) face many new threats and dangers this session. The thieves guild has its own designs on the New World. A rival adventuring company becomes popular in the colony. The grippli must gain legal protection so they won’t be enslaved by the slave trader Axgore. Find out how Tom, Cody and Jason deal with these threats and more!

The worst pain you can feel when running a game comes from min/maxing players, the jerks who love nothing more to make unstoppable killing machines that defy the laws of man, god, common sense, physics and the damn game itself. So, how do you deal with these min/maxers? We provide a few ways to dish out the pain or rather ways to sensibly negotiate and make reasonable compromises with the player…in hell.Tom has a slightly less disturbing letter this time and of course the New World ransom is still underway! Please contribute. There’s only 10 days left. The New World 4E D&D Campaign Primer Ransom Shout outs: Gun Show: A new daily comic by KC Green Xombie: An animated zombie action horror DVD The Objective: Horror movie about special forces in Afghanistan investigating a mysterious region. Great fodder for modern horror rpgs. Bad For You: A George Carlin comedy special Van Richten’s Guide to the Lich: Great Ravenloft supplement describing the lich. Useful for any edition of D&D as it is mostly flavor text. Found Footage Festival: Hilarious and insane compilations of public access shows, commercials, exercise videos and more. Favorite Forum Threads: Some highlights from the RPPR forums Tom in the DBZ game: A discussion about Tom’s letter in the last episode. Introduction: Meet some of the RPPR fans and introduce yourself to the forums. A study in the logic of gaming: Player logic is quite funny to say the least. Music: WW Z by CSHC

For the last year, I have been writing and running a massive Call of Cthulhu campaign. I have not breathed a word about it so I could unleash it to the world in one massive release. However, everything fell apart in the last session. I will post this as a warning to never give the players what they want. I deleted all of my notes and game recordings in a fit of rage so don’t bother asking about them either. P.S. Check out the New World Campaign Primer Ransom if you haven’t already.

In this session, the players continue their struggles against the goblins massing in the New World. Theolonius the merchant lord tries to manipulate the players but will it pay off? How will Cody’s romantic exploits be used against him? Will the grippli be rescued? Find out in session 5! If you enjoy the New World Campaign, please consider contributing a few bucks to the New World Campaign Primer Ransom. If the collection goal is met, I will write and publish a free PDF primer of the New World Campaign on the RPPR website, with a new adventure, 5 new feats, 5 new monsters and more!

The time of judgment is upon us. Tom and I judge a few games, a D&D mockumentary and several bad GM habits. The Assemblage of the Crystal Sphere is a indie comedy about a RPG group about to complete a 5 year campaign. Tom looks at Cthulhutech, a game of animu giant robots fighting monsters from the cthulhu mythos in the future! I talk about Paranoia XP, the newest version of the classic sci fi comedy RPG, where happiness is mandatory and commie mutant traitors lurk around every corner. We then judge a few bad GM habits, namely wasting the players’ time and hyper-adversarial GMing. Of course, there’s a new (horribly offensive) letter from Tom and a listener anecdote. The New World Campaign Primer Ransom: For fans of the New World 4E D&D campaign, I’m starting up a ransom for the New World Campaign Primer. If the ransom is met, I will write it up and release it as a freely available PDF. Check out the page for more info on what will be contained in the Primer. Motor Home from Hell: Buy a copy of my feature length horror comedy movie, Motor Home from Hell for only $12.50. Select Podcast Fan option when purchasing for an autographed RPPR postcard with a unique message from Tom and I or Mystery Grab Bag for an assortment of random goodies. Shout outs: Mount and Blade: A badass indie computer RPG. Archers. Mercenary swordsmen and calvary. Pillage the village and besiege the castles. That’s how you roll in Mount and Blade. Silent Hunter 4: A submarine simulator that involves trigonometry. That’s a sure sign of FUN! Red Rock West: A western noir movie with Dennis Hopper as a hitman with low self esteem and Nicholas Cage as a drifter looking for work. But don’t worry, Cage actually acts well! Worth a watch. Also I have judged the old forums to be inadequate so I have created new forums. Check out these threads: Watchmen Inspired Campaign: Some material I wrote up for a dark 1980s mutants and masterminds game. Post the best fight and/or death scenes you can find: Awesomeness contained within. Unusual Items in Games: Weird magic items suitable for any fantasy or horror game. Recruitment thread – Law & Orcdom Special Villager Unit – Risus: A play by post game I am starting up. Dark Heresy Play by Post: A recruitment thread for a WH40k Play by Post game. Music: The Judgment by David Cyr.