Fear the Boot

* (0:24) A joke to an AI becomes a show topic. * (2:48) Characters born in a cursed forest, without sunlight. * (7:48) Characters who compulsively collect…feathers…? * (13:18) Characters who accidentally caused a rebellion. * (19:29) Characters with an unusual knowledge of fungi. * (25:03) Characters who cannot stand the sight of open water. Hosts: Dan, Julia, Mary, Wayne

* (0:29) Switching to a bucket list of what we want to play. * (1:30) Wayne wants to play Dresden Files. * (4:13) Dan still wants to play an Injustice game. * (6:11) Mary wants to play a necromancer. * (9:05) Doug wants to play Stargate (or something like it). * (10:18) Wayne wants a settlement building game. Rebuild 3 demands  FTB-9000  compliance! * (14:38) Dan wants to play ourselves.  The End...

* (0:29) The bucket list of games we want to run. * (1:31) Doug's long-term campaign. * (3:10) Wayne's  Fallout : St. Louis game. * (7:03) Dan's Battletech: Silver Scorpions game. A  Fabian war . * (9:37) Mary's Castle Ravenloft / Curse of Strahd game. * (12:41) Doug's western game. * (14:58) Wayne's campaign based on  The Quiet Year .  Decuma  and  Home . * (18:57) Dan's Hunter game.  Dayshift ,...

* (0:30) An old Apple //c computer and early computer RPGs. * (4:16) Transitioning from video games into tabletop RPGs. * (9:44) The expectations players bring from a video game to pen-and-paper games. * (12:41) The tyranny of choice brought on by a lack of a character-driven path. * (18:05) A lack of clear and connected outcomes. * (19:50) Mixing new and veteran players. * (26:13) Expanding intra...

* (0:29) What is your goal for the first session of a game? * (2:10) Who are these characters  really ? * (6:08) When who you wanted to be isn't who you became. * (11:34) A buffet of NPCs. * (16:14) Keeping the first session low pressure and shorter length. * (20:33) The social leader of the group. * (25:30) The flexibility in session one. Using the first game as a test of session zero. * (33:43)...

* (0:23) Prompts and prepositions. The clockwork circus is coming to town! * (1:40) Wayne's circus in space. * (4:13) Mary's circus on the frontier. * (7:53) Doug's carnival of nightmares. * (8:41) Dan's carnival of hope. * (13:10) Celestial crystals that grant power. * (14:05) Mary's crystal preppers. * (16:08) Dan's crystal entanglement. * (19:45) Wayne's crystal invasion. * (24:57) Doug's cryst...

* (0:29) Fear the Con has funded and  the sign-up site is live ! We hope to see you Thursday, June 20th to Saturday, June 22nd. * (1:58) Getting back to what you love, inspired by Ray Bradbury's  Zen in the Art of Writing . * (5:16) The tyranny of compromise. * (9:54) Wanting the GM to build the world instead of "yes-and" player input. * (15:43) Why Wayne discarded some ideas he was excited about....

* (0:29) Wayne has a problem: the Wardens from Dresden Files. Coming up with too many excuses for why powerful organizations don't care about the characters' problems. * (7:14) Session Zero can help…or maybe not. * (10:29) There's always someone bigger, and maybe your allies lack what you need. * (14:42) What if the characters are the backup? Or maybe they're starting to get a reputation. * (17:41...

* (0:30) What steps do we take to bring a character to life? * (1:49) Ask what's important. * (6:53) Seeing the good and bad in a single trait. * (8:06) Doug's personality triangle model. * (10:54) Demonstrating character quirks. * (16:34) Making characters that both have and express personal growth. * (18:57) Taking a hobby, off-topic skill, or development path. Keeping your character in continui...

Today's ingredient: The dead are consuming the living. Why and how? Let's find out! Fear the Con 2024's Kickstarter  can be found here . Hosts: Dan, Doug, Mary, Wayne

* (0:29) In defense of technology at the gaming table. Caleb's setup with  Owlbear Rodeo . * (5:13) Dan's Lion King sing-a-long and Wayne's Ghostbusters game. * (6:27) The deeper pool of online players, including AIs. Remoting in a missing player for an in-person game. * (14:04) Working distance and distraction into the game. * (17:54) Digital storage and organization. The wonder of CTRL-F. * (25:...

I decided to skip over the Iron GM and go for a Tungsten GM. The ingredient? All broadcasts cease because something won't let them get through. What's the game plot? Also, the Fear the Con 2024 Kickstarter is  now live here ! Hosts: Dan, Doug, Mary, Wayne

* (0:30) Dan runs a game a bit too literally. * (4:12) The intersection of technology and roleplaying in a way that isn't required by the game. * (7:32) Why multimedia doesn't pay-off the way it does in other forms of storytelling. * (13:36) The prep time technology adds, and the stability it takes away. * (15:59) The time spent digging up the right asset on-the-spot. * (20:52) The physical space...

* (0:29) Why talk about intelligence?  The Why Files  episode about Cicada 3301. * (9:24) A game takes an unhelpfully long break, only to be replaced by another RPG. * (12:44) The lack of a bottomless "buffet of ideas" in a closed setting. * (14:24) Use minimal starting information to give you room to work. * (18:12) How to run a school (everyone go play Persona 5). * (24:48) Create a wide variety...

* (0:22) Picking out the point we became curmudgeons and what exactly that means. * (4:48) Being too set in our ways. * (11:19) The self-destruction that comes with stagnation. * (21:32) Wii have a solution. * (24:32) Ducking new games while at a convention. Playing  The Quiet Year  on an airplane. * (32:57) The role of pragmatism. Why expand your horizons when no one lets you go there, anyway? *...

* (0:29) Reintroducing Julia's husband, Mike. * (2:24) Lowered expectations, inspired by a post-pandemic world. * (7:25) Being a bit more experimental. * (13:18) Playing online instead of returning to the table. * (19:18) Returning to the table instead of playing online. * (23:58) The commonality of not being able to find an active gaming group. * (31:54) Not lower expectations—just different ones...

* (0:29) Thanks to Eric Van Note for Swole Mole! * (3:15) The value of terrible GMing. * (8:42) Everyone is their own most inept critic.  Sojourn Volume 2 . * (15:28) The worst possible outcome: something being forgettable. * (22:20) Asking Doug to grade his own game. * (25:35) The value of creating art, simply for the act of creation. * (37:04) A few  too many contacts  in someone's eyes. Hosts:...

* (0:29) Dan prefers affiliated groups, Wayne does not. * (2:15) Cohesion, identity, and help. * (9:35) Affiliations you start with as opposed to those you pick up along the way. * (11:56) The party's direction and motivation. Affiliating with an ideal. * (20:23) Affiliations create an obvious pool of NPC relationships. * (25:40) External versus internal affiliations, and how they're not mutually...

* (0:28) An update on the  Actual Play . * (4:48) The  InSpectres RPG  (at least temporarily back in print!) and our  AP interlude using its rules . * (8:09) Why play InSpectres as an interlude to the main campaign? Apparently only Dan has heard of  Michelle Jenneke . * (12:58) Plus an extra player. * (16:10) The, "yes and," style of gaming. * (21:31) Assisting new players when they're stuck. * (2...

* (0:28) Things are getting set for  Fear the Con ! An intro to RPGs game is  available for newcomers . * (2:03) A shared Minecraft server. You can find more information  on Discord . * (5:52) Realigning your game with a mid-campaign session zero. Special thanks to  Gaming with Gage . * (8:46) Making the case to have one. * (12:59) Remembering the times we did this during the Skies of Glass campai...

* (0:29) Julia ruins everything. * (1:35) Things are getting set for  Fear the Con ! An intro to RPGs game is  available for newcomers . You can also announce your games  on Discord . * (9:03) Coming out of a period of deep fatigue. How one game still never missed a week. * (16:18) Spoons and other finite resources. * (20:06) Why it might be best to bite off a bit less. You may not be gaming as mu...

* (0:28) Running a game when someone else knows the setting a whole lot better than you do. * (2:07) The lack of pronunciation guides in most games. * (3:16) Narrowing down the task by asking what's important about the setting to the players. * (7:59) Getting the essence or feel of the setting right. We need a  Thug Notes  recap of BattleTech lore. * (12:53) Start small and work outward, learning...

Show links… *  StartPlaying Games *  Bite Size Tales *  Gaming with Gage Hosts: Chris, DJ, Josh, Wayne

* (0:29) The  Kickstarter for Fear the Con 2023  is live for one more week! * (1:56) The wonderful confusion new players and GMs bring to a roleplaying game. * (16:59) An imagined internal-consistency is sometimes more fun than an intended one. * (22:17) The burden of your own expectations. * (28:29) When contradictions aren't actually contradictions. The  Law of Non-Contradiction . * (35:16) The...

* (0:31) The  Kickstarter for Fear the Con 2023  is live! * (1:04) The new fiction podcast,  Bite Size Tales . * (3:09) Game mechanics we're particularly fond of. * (4:54) Rerolls and other roll-modifying mechanics. * (10:13) A close relationship between skills and attributes. * (15:46) Life paths in character creation. * (24:48) Using all the dice. * (30:12) Injury instead of a simple health pool...