The Big Red Couch RPG Podcast

Craig went to Gen Con, and is forcing you to hear about it, Ben tries to moderate this audio equivalent of a “What I Did On My Holidays” slideshow, And we ask the audient how they like to do conventions. Tāmaki Makaurau Gen Con New York – New York Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas Episode One Hundred And Ten – Good news; I have solved the Fermi Paradox. Bad news: I have solved the...

The fifth day out of “the four best days of gaming”? Is this worst day of gaming? Or the day of worst gaming? Reminiscence, nostalgia, and unhinged grumbling trail in the wake of our hero’s journey, the pains of old wounds and faded glories herald the end of yet another lost era. Professional Game Master Matt Balogh Rapscallion Quickstart by Magpie Games

A tale ripped from the headlines, rude villainy abounds. When is checkout time again? Film – Lorenzo’s_Oil (1992) Gizmodo.com article on GenCon 2023 Card Theft Urban Shadows: Second Edition by Magpie Games – Kickstarter page in fulfillment phase. Rapscallion Quickstart also by Magpie Games Family Tettigoniidae – Kaydids from all over. (T. Jones – Pretty bog-standard l...

Despite the Southern chill these flames still burn brightly and while the Devil dances in the hearth, he may have bitten off more than he can chew. Orc Stomp XIII 5k Fun Run – (T. Jones ~ Enjoying the note “Tournament: No, this is not a tournament.”) Stealing Stories for the Devil Chew from Imagining Games KiwiRPG – Kēmu Whakatau O Aotearoa – KiwiRPG Week for 2023 was...

The promise of glorious perspiration hangs in the morning air. From waterborne villainy to a terrible hunger, a course is plotted. Hope, and sturdy footwear, may yet carry the day. Quickstart (Rapscallion) Avatar Legends by Magpie Games Chew from Imagining Games Stealing Stories for the Devil

An iron steed shies at the thunder of the Old Gods. The dawn of a new age, as life stirs on a blasted plane. At some point… breakfast. Well There’s Your Problem Podcast – A podcast (with slides) about engineering disasters and systemic fail. Precision_Railroading AKA precision scheduled railroading (PSR) What is the Correct Pronunciation of “Appalachian”? The Old Gods...

What’s this? A new episode? The land quakes and the seas roar, for they have returned like the heroes of old! Well, like old heroes anyway. People. Old people. Never meet your heroes, kids. Biding his time in the foetid swamp of Wah-Shing-Tun, the fearless traveler Craig set his sights on the “four and a bit” best days gaming in Indianapolis. Rapscallion – Magpie Games Urba...

Now GenCon is over for another year, it is a time for quiet reflection, sensations of creeping dread, and a commitment to doing more gaming. Better even! Yes, this is late. We are so, so tired. Tentacle Town Le Chat Noir Sinking of the  Rainbow Warrior The Underarm bowling incident of 1981 Dr Nick Holm: how New Zealand comedy embraces being a bit s**t The Devil Made Us Do It! The British Muse...

As the day dawns on the morning of the last day of GenCon for another year, Craig reminisces about this convention’s atmosphere and a strange sense of gamer melancholy. Wayfaring Strangers by Games from the Wild Wood Talismonger – Shadowrun slang Simple Simon (nursery rhyme) TV – Supernatural Alice Isn’t Dead TV – The Sandman Dark Matter by Mage Hand Press TV –...

With reality fraying around him, Craig relates the strange events of Friday and muses on what improbable futures Saturday might bring. Yazeba’s Bed & Breakfast by Possum Creek Games Bulldogs – Galileo Games Midnight Nation by J. Michael Straczynski TV – The Lost Room Avatar Legends RPG by Magpie Games

Craig’s at GenCon, the mad bastard, so we checked in on him yesterday to see what he’s been up to! He doesn’t appear to require medical evacuation yet, so we chatted about a few games and events. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jG7vScP-Ev4&ab_channel=FuturePhoto Put a huge fucking Q on the box! People who vilify Britain will be treated as extremists and referred to the Gover...

Activate The Goose-ducer! – Descendants of an end-of-days science experiment battle the descendants of a different end-of-days science experiment through the use of yet another end-of-days science experiment. The Dream Police Want To Make Sure That Nothing Is Inside Your Head – Dreaming is illegal, Science Rays ensure that nobody dreams, and Z-Leggers smuggle stolen dreams through slee...

To My Esteemed Undersea Colleague – Beneath the ice of Europa, isolated Mecha Pilots on long patrols stay in touch by writing letters back & forth Aquapastoral – Flooding can be expected after a storm, but nobody expected the water to be 30 feet above the farmhouse roof, and they certainly didn’t expect the water to politely stay outside of the house itself. Jousting ‘N...

Donuts & Crullers – Ben starts to make a game about a TV Genre he hates, and ends up inventing a card mechanic for cooking competitions. 24/7 Coffee & Questions – Craig tries to come up with an explanation for the “high-level adventurer running a tavern” trope, and ends up with a mystery hiding in plain sight. The Bangers & Mash Are Coming! – The Internati...

Presley Event Overload – The timeline is fracturing under a cascade of divergence events, splitting faster than they can be investigated, let alone dealt with. There’s no clear pattern to what’s happening, though a certain 20th Century musician seems to be affected by more of the changes than mere coincidence would permit. The Mystery Of The King Beyond The Stars – In the f...

Be Our Guest? – Ever since the actual apocalypse, the Hosts at the Apocalypse World park really haven’t had a lot to do. Now that some Guests in dire need of help have arrived, a group of ‘wasteland marauders’ and ‘besieged remnants of civilization’ have to figure out how to bypass their own programmed scripts so that they can keep those Guests alive & get t...

The Heroes are defeated, ground down by a controlling society. As the last remaining bastion of ‘otherness’, Mad Scientists reach out to children through the medium of educational television, trying to spark a sense of rebellion in the only people who can still hear them. Educational Television in a world of Science Heroes, Supergenius Villains, and Pulp Adventurer-Explorers! For any p...

A safe but dull utopia has an unexpected need for people who can go outside of the norm and venture into dangerous situations. They’re a bit light on those, as a society, but by relaxing the constraints a bit on the psych profiles, they’ve got some candidates who are within a few standard deviations of ‘Adventurous’. Oneironauts journey into a patient’s psyche to guid...

Craig tries to combine A Christmas Carol with Solo Shifts on a Spaceship, and fails, but Ben recovers the idea Ben pitches the idea of a Clip Show Holiday Episode of an RPG campaign, as a way to look back on the game so far & a sneaky way to see which bits the players remember the most The regulars at a dive bar are called upon, at Christmas Eve, to make a Christmas Miracle occur. It’s n...

Ben, Craig, & Special Guest Terry attempt to get to grips with the “pastoral fantasy” RPG Wanderhome, and probably succeed, in our first approximate actual play episode. Wanderhome, by Jay Dragon, can be purchased from Possum Creek Games . Wanderhome is a pastoral fantasy role-playing game about traveling animal-folk, the world they inhabit, and the way the seasons change. It is a...

But Mister Darcy, Who Will Play The Cleric? The Best Four Days Of Gaming, Terror, and Existential Dread! No, We’re Not With Those Bad Guys, We’re A Completely Separate Group Of Bad Guys. Also, We’re Not Bad Guys, Stop Calling Us That. Sydney Sydney Airport Battlefleet Gothic Gen Con Origins E3 Metatopia Warhammer Games Workshop 4k Explorer (YouTube) South Shields Smuggler’s...

The Potstickers of Dorian Gray – When unexplained events occur, when there’s no rational explanation, and when you desperately need to keep things quiet so that the FBI doesn’t notice what you’re up to, your only hope is Those Meddling Kids. Cultural Misappropriation: The RPG – To protect our culture from the Humans, we will put in place a layer of memes to distract t...

The Greatest Kingdom In History is facing certain destruction, and while they can’t save the place, they can save the people. Of course, to do so, someone has to stay behind to close the doors after everyone else has left. A society living on the endless sloping face of a Megastructure, where heading downhill is a matter of balance and a platform with wheels on it, and where they have no ide...

The World Is Over, You Survived – The world ended, society, civilization, and the basic fabric of the land have shattered, and an enormous amount has been lost, including the knowledge of what actually happened. Figuring it out will involve traveling to the scattered fragments of the world, each of which has its own soundtrack. We’re All Lost In The Fog, And We’re Not Alone &#821...

Action-Packed Bagel Delivery – They’re the best bagels in the known universe, and your job is to deliver them. Anywhere. Any time. No matter the odds, the bagels will get through. Pot-Luck RPG – You’re not the great big heroes, you’re having to do the heroic stuff anyway, and the goal really IS to play with your food. The Bagel Is Everything – For some reason, b...