Fear the Boot

* (0:28) Right place, wrong room. * (1:23) Playing the hatred between two player-characters. * (6:18) You aren't a victim of your character. * (10:04) Enemy Mine and Hell in the Pacific. * (14:34) Programming a path to peace. * (20:01) Giving the conflict boundaries without erasing its relevance. * (31:36) Not all wounds have to be healed. Metering conflict in the meta-game. * (39:57) Someone can'...

* (0:28) Recording at Julia's. * (1:36) Fear the Boot and Gamers Table Destiny 2 clan. * (2:58) A fond farewell to Don Dehm of Pulp Gamer. * (4:23) Wemic shoes, doo doo doo doo doo doo. * (11:02) Dividing the hobby in an implausible way. * (13:18) The value to the Game Master of players being in-character. * (20:42) Letting a game descend into total silliness. * (22:16) Flipping the narrative: The...

* (0:33) A bottle of bourbon and a letter from the Hellhounds. * (8:11) Brodeur wants to blossom, plus something about Jenna von Oÿ. * (9:13) Discord and the things we won't do for you. A big shout-out to David for joining the hobby. starting a group, and then starting his own podcast, Next Generation Game Masters. * (14:30) Chad is Gandhi. Eric from Gamers Table is running a Twitch...

* (0:28) Reaching a milestone episode. A topic picked by our Patreon backers. * (2:59) How the podcast started. Its first hosts and logo. The deep well of storytelling topics. * (14:57) The show's first major crisis. How the ebb and flow of our lives affects the quality of the show. A history of its hosting composition. * (26:38) Show planning, social tone, and getting older. A changing industry....

* (0:29) A topic inspired by a game of Bang. What it will take to make Dan stab someone in the back in a board game. The distinction between factions and a traitor mechanic. * (10:29) Hiding your intentions as a Game Master. * (15:54) The Simpsons, Family Guy, mailing pancakes, Russian manti, grilled cheese, Raddish Kids, and Uncle Dan cookies. * (20:27) Showing or hiding intention as a...

* (0:28) Fear the boot is now on iHeartRadio. You can get the regular show here and the actual play here. * (3:02) A player's response to an unintentional Game Master error. An example with a dragon. * (10:50) Some quick advice to Game Masters: consider a ret-con and be prepared to own your mistake.  Austin Powers speaking English English. * (12:59) As a player, have sympathy for the GM. * (1...

* (0:22) The trailer for Bumblebee. * (4:09) The two extremes of product placement. * (8:21) Resizing a robot. Or not. * (12:07) The evolution of an idea when someone can tell you, "No." * (17:34) Nostalgia in the hands of the wrong person. * (22:17) Nostalgia versus new creations. * (26:07) The sliding window of looking back. * (34:07) The Alexander Graham Bell commercial. Using superhero games t...

* (0:28) Dan was a guest on Gaming with Gage. You can find the episode here. * (1:22) Explaining game explainers. An example from a Dresden game. * (10:24) Describing options and risks without dictating an action. Helping the player achieve what they want. * (14:09) Teaching concepts. Don't play the character for them or give instruction without explanation. * (23:20) A courtroom metaphor. * (32:1...

* (1:00) Playing robots in a game, focusing on RP, not the stats. * (4:44) Who built you, why, and with what philosophical presuppositions? * (9:05) Some thought exercises to unpack a robot's mind. The Theory of Mind. * (14:27) Separating emotion, physiology, and mind. Emergent properties. * (20:44) Anthropopathism and assuming mind where it doesn't exist. * (22:55) The Turing Test and C...

* (0:23) Finding Caleb. Finding gaming. * (17:18) The historical inevitability of RPGs. * (22:15) The unusual mechanics of certain weapons. Khopesh. * (32:12) Distinguishing armor. * (36:12) Knowing the crunch. Counting references per action. * (40:26) The brand new player. Hosts: Caleb, Chad, Dan, Wayne

* (0:28) Fear the Boot is everywhere! The actual play site, Discord, Facebook, our forums, Patreon, and a whole lot of podcast aggregators. * (3:30) Handling player-characters that are being kept out of the action. * (7:56) Let some time pass. * (10:05) Play a different character. * (18:32) Hand-wave whatever is benching the character. * (23:04) The importance of player enjoyment over all else. *...

* (0:28) Creating life from lifelessness. Rapidly replacing a player-character that's died. * (10:35) Making a character that's already tied to the party. * (13:05) An introduction that helps the moment. * (14:28) Accepting the unanswered questions. * (18:48) Helping nurture the character concept into the game. * (21:19) Adjusting the plot to make the character meaningful in the moment. * (24:50)...

* (0:47) Derek Knutsen's Kickstarter for Flower of Heaven. * (0:57) The Kickstarter for GamersTable, Season 2. * (1:25) Explaining what we mean and don't mean by "recycling." * (5:51) Reasons not to recycle. * (9:17) How the What's Really Going On document helps. Separating the game from the experience. * (15:13) Embracing the passage of time. * (18:57) Dan's own Mandela Effect. * (24:31) Parallel...

* (0:41) Derek Knutsen's Kickstarter for Flower of Heaven. * (1:27) The Kickstarter for GamersTable, Season 2. * (2:51) Defining C.A.R. NPCs with a few examples. * (11:42) Why GMs accept unacceptable behavior. * (21:34) Minding how an NPC is setup and used. * (27:35) Advice for players. * (35:24) Advice for GMs. * (45:39) Being cognizant of your character's nature. * (50:56) Good versus good. * (5...

* (0:27) Never old news! A club eats a mammoth. Or not. * (3:13) Unintentionally scaring your players out of a course of action. * (8:50) Players scaring themselves. * (20:23) The distinction between railroading and GM expectations. * (22:33) Determining why the players are reticent and addressing that. * (36:13) Motivation to overcome fear. * (42:37) Hiding the source of danger. Richard Pryor gam...

* (0:28) The wonderful, illusory door. * (5:21) A warning to stop here. Hijacking Lasers and Feelings. * (10:50) Dark improv on a minimal pitch. * (15:20) The role of the alternates. * (18:39) The start of the game. * (25:02) Hijacking the party and hijacking the game. * (39:06) An NPC becomes the real game. * (43:55) Counting down. * (48:08) The missing Ruben. Significance and urgency. Hosts: Cha...

* (0:17) Thanking the people that made the convention happen. * (3:35) Mikey Mason's performance can be picked up here. * (4:37) Our thanks to St. Charles Nissan. * (5:29) Heather Phillips does an awesome job on a Masakari for Dan (pic 1, pic 2, pic 3). You can find her portfolio and contact info on Facebook. * (7:46) Brodeur figures out how to defeat Wayne's dice magic. * (11:25) Scooby Doo meets...

* (0:30) Setting a boundary on the topic. * (2:16) Keeping an NPC fair. * (6:07) Tactical vs compassionate vs in-character. * (14:01) Enemy fear and greed. * (33:30) When the enemy's reality changes. The shock of success. * (40:24) Playing favorites. Hosts: Aisha, Chad, Dan, Wayne

* (0:29) Fear the Boot's Patreon site. * (2:05) Dan's dream comes true! * (4:49) Relationships between characters. Some examples to set it up. * (10:07) The difficulty of engineering relationships. * (17:51) Build common ground. Remember what really matters. Accept reality. * (23:59) Experiencing the backgrounds—not just writing them. * (26:05) The relevance of the players. * (44:39) Show me your...

* (0:28) Welcoming Stu and Kimi from Happy Jack's family of podcasts. * (0:49) Fear the Boot tries to pick out a sponsor. * (3:03) Playing yourself in a roleplaying game. Stu did it in college. * (8:22) The "show me" test and its relationship to the dice. * (16:01) Creating the character stats. Overestimating and underestimating. Level-setting. * (19:56) Avoiding the outliers. Why point-buy system...

* (0:23) A love letter to an under-served demographic. * (1:43) Surviving without a gaming group. * (11:59) What if podcasting had existed earlier? * (16:39) Wayne and his apes. Monkeys in outer space. * (22:33) Things we never needed to know about Star Trek. * (29:19) Back to the love letter. Sorta. Nope, we're talking about Drow and Wemics. * (33:16) The love letter for real this time. Koko the...

* (0:28) Fear the Con and its Con Planner site. * (1:08) A D&D game gets us talking about pets. * (3:45) How animals affect storytelling and group dynamics. * (9:02) Pets as PCs versus NPCs. Picking two thematic traits. * (21:19) Passing the pet to the right. * (31:19) Adding a third trait. * (36:10) The animal adventure. * (45:27) Finding the animal's voice through gameplay wit...

* (0:28) Fear the Con and its Con Planner site. The mixer is on June 21st, with the con itself on June 22nd and 23rd. * (1:12) Chad is running a D&D 5th Edition game. The shorthand version of spell components. * (6:46) Introducing a new player to RPGs. * (13:39) The group template (and its longer form) versus the pregame questionnaire. The Sword of Damocles. * (25:04) An Ep...

* (0:52) Google searches on some podcasts, and a prank with Brandi that didn't happen. * (3:26) Letting players develop parts of the setting mid-game, including the NPCs. * (8:04) Fat Tony and Lovin'. * (16:59) How players can decide when it's appropriate to mess with something. * (24:30) Letting player investment drive truth. Tommy Wiseau tries out for the Joker. * (28:04) Walking back contradict...

* (0:52) Wayne visits Brodeur at Miniature Market (their Facebook page). * (5:21) Prologue games. Taking them seriously while recognizing their disposability. * (15:20) A shared history that's played instead of just written. * (18:57) How a prologue identifies issues, and what to do when one is found. * (24:46) The value of the missing middle. * (31:22) Finding your voice. * (35:49) Expecting too...