Role Playing Public Radio

Jonny Nexus is one of the net’s funniest established gaming humorists. He’s behind the long standing RPG site, Critical Miss and the author of a new novel, Game Night. It’s about a group of gods who role play eternity away, using real mortals and a real universe as their campaign setting. I caught up with him at Gencon and talked about gaming, writing comedy, and the meaning of life. (He was a bit jet lagged on that last question).

Character creation is the glue of role playing games. A game can’t be that good unless everyone has a player character suitable for the game. A crazed psychopath slasher appropriate for a Bunnies and Burrows campaign while a cute talking bunny isn’t going to last long in a call of cthulhu game. In this episode, Tom, special guest Cody Walker and I talk about the best and the worst player characters we’ve encountered both as players and when running a game. No letter from Tom, but there’s a good ass anecdote. Hosted by Ross Payton, Tom Church and Cody Walker. Music: Into the Night by Time Warrior Shout Outs: Grant Morrison: The chaos magician comic book writer has a new website. Gumshoe: A new RPG system by Robin Laws. Perfect for investigation games. Wild cards: Mutants and Masterminds supplement. Aaron Sorkin: Go bitch at him about Facebook or something.

Trench warfare in World War 1 was horrific. Millions died from disease, chemical weapons, barbed wire, machine guns and other forms of industrialized death. However, the British tunnelers dug massive underground systems to support the soldiers and to undermine German trenches. In this scenario, a few men from the 117th tunneling company found themselves tunneling to something far more dangerous than the Germans. Content warning: descriptions of racist terms This is a playtest for an upcoming book by Pagan Publishing and was run at Gencon 2008. Keeper: Adam Scott Glancy Players: Greg Stolze Ross Payton Tom Church Allan Goddall Kevin Pezzano

We’re back from the best four days of gaming! We talk about everything from the new games premiering at Gencon to the awesome people we met to the games we played or ran. It was a blast and we look forward to next year. Some of the highlights this year include meeting Dave Arneson and getting a first edition of Blackmoor autographed, interviewing quite a few game designers and writers, playtesting a new Call of Cthulhu scenario from Pagan Press (which we recorded and will post to the podcast! stay tuned for that) hanging out with gamers and podcasters, sleeping very little and eating less and running Monsters and Other Childish Things. We will post our interviews on a regular basis for the next month or so. Games and books mentioned: Monsterpocalypse Monsters and Other Childish Things and my supplement for it: A Curriculum of Conspiracy now in print! Mutant City Blues GUMSHOE/Trail of Cthulhu/Esoterrorists/Fear Itself Freaky Creatures Pirates of the Burning Sea Hunter the Vigil Goodman Games’ new 4E modules Beneath Flanders Field: The Tunnelers of WW1 1914-1918 Music: The Sword of Fire by Studiomig.

Gencon is upon us! We have a brief preview of what we aim to do.  Check out the full schedule if you’re going. I’m running Monsters and Other Childish Things. We’re also part of a panel discussion on podcasting. See you there!

We’ve finally gotten around to looking at the monster RPG of the summer, the fourth edition of Dungeons and Dragons.  We cover the good, the bad and the ugly of the system. Special thanks to the Bear Swarm podcast for joining in on our first game of 4E. We also talk about Gencon, scuba diving and of course, a very entertaining letter from Tom. Song: Journey by Excellent Adventure Shout Outs: Elona: A graphical roguelike with all kinds of neat features like random quests, companions, pets, and housing. The Kids In the Hall: The best comedy out of Canada in the 90s. The Demon Rush: MMMMMMMM. Watch the trailer. Spore Creature Creator: Make wang monsters or something. I don’t know.

Every year, hundreds of adventurers die horrible deaths, all competing for treasure, glory and points to move on to the next round. This isn’t a weird reality TV series, it’s the DCC tourney at Gencon.   Adrian Pommier is the man in charge of this year’s Dungeon Crawl Classic Tournament. He’s also the co-author of the mega module Castle Whiterock and several other dungeon crawls. In this interview, we talk about how the DCC module is designed, the creation of Castle Whiterock and Palace of the Wastes, (stories from the module are here) what the dungeon crawl really is and the differences between 3E and 4E.

Galactus has challenged the people of Earth to a tournament of dodgeball. Only an unlikely team of misfits stands in the way of Earth’s total destruction. Sound like the new Bruckheimer movie? Naw. It’s our Actual Play one shot using the free action RPG Wushu. The Player: Tom: A sapient raptor/actor tired of being stereotyped as a vicious man eating dinosaur Drew: Henry from the TV Show Eureka, a NASA engineer turned auto mechanic. Linton: The fat guy from Hot Fuzz and he’s a cylon. Jason: Ahnuld the Governator Cody: Former President Martin Van Buren – with electricity, liquid and portal powers. No, I’m not kidding. That’s what they played.

“Just being in here is a humbling experience for me, because you’re looking through all these records and it’s sort of like a big pile of broken dreams…Whether you want to admit it or not, 10 years down the line you’ll be in here. So keep that in mind when you start thinking like, ‘I’m invincible and I’m the world’s best,’ or whatever. Because that’s what all these cats thought.” DJ Shadow In this episode, we focus on looting the pile of broken dreams that is the bargain bin of your friendly local game store. Many times you can find a hidden diamond in the rough or at least something you can exploit for a game in the system of your choice. By going over some of the bargain we’ve enjoyed like Little Fears, Waste World, Mutazoid, Teenagers from Outer Space, and Hunter the Reckoning, you can begin to see what lurks in the used game shelf. Plus, a letter from Tom and anecdotes! Oh and you must watch Common Law Wife. As always, post your comments on our forum and we appreciate donations. Also, if you are an artist, Tom wants a werewolf drawing or something like that. I think. He’ll pay like five bucks for it. Listen to the episode if you want the details. Also, this thread in the Something Awful forums is hilarious and disturbing. NEWS: Some of our listeners love the actual play sessions. Some don’t. IF you do NOT want to get Actual Play sessions in your RSS feed, then please switch your feed to this new one. http://slangdesign.com/rppr/feed?cat=-12 It has everything EXCEPT Actual Play sessions. The main feed still has everything. If you like the Actual Play sessions you are fine. Nothing needs to be changed. Shout Outs: Wushu: A free and open RPG of fast action-Great for a one shot game when you have no time to prep. Operation Darkness: A crazy alternate history WW2 RPG for the Xbox 360 where you fight Nazi vampires with Allied Werewolves. Seriously. George Carlin: All My Stuff. A big ole collection of Carlin’s work. If you’re a fan, you need this box set. Well, you don’t but it is a goddamn lot of stuff. The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra: If you like Mystery Science Theater 3000, cheesy movies from the 50s and 60s or B movies in general, then you must watch this movie. Tom used the Skeleton as a villain in a Mutants and Masterminds game because his players demanded it after seeing the movie. Music: Nuclear War by Los Podankos – a Russian street punk band with no homepage and this is all I could find. Oi!

In a world..Our world…Everything is true. Every story you’ve read, every movie you’ve seen, every game you’ve played actually happened. At least those that take place in the here and now. This is the first session of a GURPS 4th edition campaign premised on taking the Alan Moore comic The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and making the concept contemporary. Anything that takes place in the ‘here and now’ is true. James Bond, Half-Life, Ghostbusters, Hannibal Lector, the X-Files, annoying sitcoms and Freddy Krueger all co-exist in the same world. In this first adventure, the PCs must break into the HQ of Ghostbusters Inc. to retrieve the data of Project Miskatonic before it is too late… Players: Jason – Dean Winchester from the TV Show Supernatural Tom – Basically a pre-med student version of the Lizard Bob – A Highlander French aristocrat Drew – Kabuki the ninja assassin babe RJ – Firestarter age 25 Aaron – An employee of Ghostbusters Inc.