Role Playing Public Radio

News: Zombies of the World is being reprinted in hardcover! Get a copy today! Also, check the BPB Twitter for our Savage Tokusatsu livestream dates. It’s now Sunday May 31 at 6 pm CST (it was moved after we recorded this episode). Synopsis: Savage Worlds is a popular RPG system and it’s easy to see why. Low price, lots of settings and quick to play. Kyle Carty of Best Pal Brigade and I talk about the system and its strengths and weaknesses. Shout Outs Tonight We Riot: A crowd brawler about liberating society from an oppressive government Pokemon Showdown: A Pokemon battle simulator Maximum Action: an action movie simulator FPS Frostgrave: a fantasy skirmish system Xcom Chimera Squad: a new turn based tactical combat game in the XCOM series She-Ra: The Netflix series is complete and worth watching. Level 16: A dystopian thriller about a young woman raised in a bunker by a weird society. Promo: Thinking Too Hard About Anime podcast

We are adding weekly livestreams to the RPPR Patreon via our Discord! More info is available on the Discord so sign up today. I will be posting classic episodes of After Hours on this feed for the next few months but if you want to binge all of them, you can for only $2 a month. Synopsis: Did you know some people try to hypnotize themselves into believing they are ponies from My Little Pony? Well, I’m not going to link it. But it’s terrible and real. Aaron, Tom, Shaun, and I discuss better things those people should try to hypnotize themselves into being. We also review the following books: Secrets of Shadowaloo Time After Time (Part 2 of Aaron’s ongoing review) Amazing Engine and For Fairy, Queen, and Country Citadel of Fire Song: Guile Theme

News: Night Clerk Radio is now available! Birk and I have created a new music review podcast focusing on vaporwave, dark ambient, and other haunted genres of music. Listen today on your podcasting app of choice or on Youtube. Synopsis: Running and playing tabletop games online has become extremely popular lately so Birk, Kyle (from Best Pal Brigade featured in our episode art) and I discuss our experiences. There are many platforms to play games but choosing one is not the only challenge. Learning the differences between online and IRL games is essential to having a great time. Promo: Thinking Too Hard About Anime, a new podcast from friends of RPPR! Shout Outs Murderbot Diaries: Rogue Protocol – the third book in the Murderbot series and quite fun! The Bizarre Modern Reality of Sonic the Hedgehog: a cool video explainer about the weirdness of the fandom Hunt Showdown: An excellent multiplayer video game with an original horrific setting Song of Horror: A survival horror video game World of Horror: a pixel art investigative horror game In Praise of Shadows: a book on Japanese aesthetics Ironsworn: a new fantasy RPG with a lot of interesting mechanics One 2 One Gumshoe: Games for 1 player and 1 GM Ghosts of my Life: A book of essays about culture and hauntology Song: Miles to Midnight. Listen to our review of the album on Night Clerk Radio.  

RPPR’s most innovative GM, Bridget, and Fae have released the first chapter of their kinetic novel, Cry. It’s about “a road-tripping story about two cryptid-hunters. Follow the exploits of Lorelei Loveless, destitute witch, as she travels the countryside and comes face-to-face with the weird, the wild, and the forgotten.” I talked to them about how they came up with the idea, the challenges they faced making it, and what they have planned in the future. Support Cry on Sponsus to get regular updates about its development. Follow Crynovel on Twitter. Follow Bridget on Twitter.

News: RPPR B-Sides Volume 5: Gaming Gains is now on sale! Get 20 exclusive actual play episodes featuring a Caleb mini-campaign, Red Markets, Delta Green, and more! Also, check out the trailer for our upcoming new podcast, Night Clerk Radio! Don’t forget to check out Best Pal Brigade as well. Synopsis: Itch.io is an indie game storefront that has recently expanded to physical games like RPGs and card games. As a competitor to DrivethruRPG, Itch.io has attracted a variety of indie tabletop games, including ones that you can’t find on DrivethruRPG. Kyle from Best Pal Brigade, David, and I talk about the tabletop PDF marketplace and review a bunch of games: Crash Pandas: A one page game about street racing raccoons Beneath a Cursed Moon: A PbtA game inspired by Castlevania Dusk to Midnight: A sad mecha RPG Dead Halt: A 90s themed weird fantasy hotel dungeon crawling game The Flux: A new playbook for Masks the RPG Beam Saber: A Forged in the Dark mecha RPG Shout Outs Pop Team Epic: It’s on Netflix! Watch it! Locke and Key: A weird mansion with magical keys that grant strange powers. A series on Netflix Cells at Work: an anime about cells in a human body, at work PAX South Raillery Special: Some of the RPPR crew play weird xbox games False Knees: A funny webcomic about birds Kipo and the Age of Wonder Beasts: a fantasy anime series on Netflix Nos4A2: a horror series about vampires and a psychic on Hulu Song: Nightfall Aboard by New Gaia

News: We are working on a new podcast called Night Clerk Radio, where we review vaporwave, dark ambient, and other haunted genres of music. Our website is live with a trailer. We plan to launch soon! Synopsis: Skills in RPGs are an important element but many games don’t get them right. Many games have too many skills while others have no skills at all. Caleb and I talk about good and bad skill systems in RPGs and how it has changed over the years. Caleb also brings up real life skills, like rhetoric, versus their in-game equivalents. Shout Outs Red Thread: A book about mazes and labyrinths. Excellent if meandering. The Testaments: A sequel to the Handmaid’s Tale Pagan Autogeny: An indie video game about exploring a dead MMO. Oblivion Song: A comic about rescuing people from alien hellscapes Japanese Video Game Obscurities: A book about weird video games How To: The XKCD creator explains how to do various tasks Medical Police: A sequel series to Children’s Hospital. Very funny! Song: Harps and Dreams by Indreba

News: The RPPR Patreon has a special offer. Back at the $10 level by February 3 and get RPPR B-Sides Volume 5! This new volume contains 20 actual play episodes featuring Zweihander, Red Markets, Delta Green, and some unique games in development! Learn all the details in this post. Synopsis: What is a Mega Game? Mega Games are a mash-up of Traditional Roleplaying Games, Board Games, and LARP, with a bit of war-gaming thrown in to spice things up. They are large scale activities played in one session over several hours, involving as few as twenty and as many as hundreds of different players. This panel was recorded at PAX South 2020 and hosted by Dallas Mega Games. Panelists below the fold. Lee Yancy [Co-Founder, Dallas Mega Games], Logan Doty [Co-Founder, Dallas Mega Games], Jason Cook [Lead Control, Dallas Mega Games], Brian Parker [Lead Control, Dallas Mega Games], Joanna Yancy [Designer, Dallas Mega Games], Nick Alqhuist [Control, Dallas Mega Games]

News: Birk and I are working on a new podcast called Night Clerk Radio. We have a Twitter account set up to make future announcements. We plan to launch it early next year. Stay tuned! Synopsis: Alien the Role Playing Game is out, based on the long-standing franchise. So how does it stack up? Birk and I have read through the rules and I’ve run a scenario (Chariot of the Gods, soon to be on RPPR Actual Play) so we have some thoughts on it. Find out what we have to say about it and whether its’ worth playing. Music: Selections from the Music d20 Patreon.

Many listeners have asked me for advice on running their first game. After the most recent question, I realized we didn’t have an episode explicitly focused on this topic. Special guest Kory Bing, Tom, and I discuss how to prepare for your first game, from session zero, to the social contract, and designing your first adventure. We also talk about Kory’s comic, Skin Deep, and its rich lore. Shout Outs Skin Deep: A webcomic about supernatural beings living in human society Sea Salt: Control Dagon’s monster horde to punish the villagers Kory Bing’s store: Get enamel pins and other merch Satanic Panic: a book about the 1980s moral panic over fears of secret Satanic cults Ramen Heads: A documentary about ramen chefs and styles in Japan Evil Bank Manager: A game about banking Music: Above the Southern Rim by Music D20. Back the Patreon to get access to more music to use with your games!

The SCP Foundation is a subgenre of speculative fiction, covering horror, fantasy, and sci-fi, all contained in a very specialized writing style, meant to reflect the internal documentation of a mysterious organization that secures, contains, and protects weird objects and entities. I talked to a volunteer of the SCP Wiki, Vivax, to discuss how SCP fiction can inspire GMs and players. Check out the following resources on the wiki: The SCP Canon Hub Groups of Interest SCP 93 – Red Sea Object SCP 2845 – The Deer Music: The SCP Foundation main theme by Ajoura