Fear the Boot

* (0:29) Fear the Con 2020's  Kickstarter is live ! * (4:50) When the party is split, it can make it easier to talk to an NPC. * (8:21) A split party creating a game of telephone. * (13:02) Giving characters their own chance to shine. * (21:55) Team-building and RP in the party's reunion. * (23:12) The countdown to problems when the party separates. * (29:54) Two approaches for how the GM can reso...

* (0:32) The Kickstarter for Gamers Table's  Season of the Glitch . * (1:16) Fear the Con 2020 on June 18th – 20th, with the Kickstarter coming very soon. You can follow our progress  in the Facebook group . The episode where we talked about  Pat killing us all . * (5:35) Merging two questions from Facebook to talk about how we build settings with an eye for stories that can be told there. * (7:39...

* (0:33) Fear the Con 2020 on June 18th – 20th! The Kickstarter is coming very soon. In the meantime, you can follow our progress  in the Facebook group . * (2:09) Explaining who Brad is. * (2:59) The Kickstarter for Gamers Table's  Season of the Glitch . * (6:05) Laura decides to run a Halloween game for more experienced players. * (10:47) Intentionally and accidentally difficult players. * (14:2...

* (0:54) All that matters is the d-o-g. * (3:18) Answering part of Dustin's question, and why it's not getting a full answer just yet. * (5:13) Illustrations from No Man's Sky, Baldur's Gate, Mass Effect, and Freelancer. * (13:24) Slowing things down in the game versus the meta-game. * (19:04) Getting what you've earned. * (25:16) The slow flow of information in other forms of storytelling. * (32:...

* (0:23) Chad talks a whole lot about not talking. Also,  cattywampus . * (4:32) Wayne is playing Dragon Quest Builders 2. * (7:39) Chad is playing Assassin's Creed Origins. * (16:31) Dale is playing Medieval II: Total War. * (23:39) Dan is playing No Man's Sky. * (30:14) Dan is reading War Before Civilization. * (33:30) Wayne is reading They Called Us Enemy. * (35:36) Chad is reading Hardluck Iro...

* (0:28) Jonathan Belina asks about rules for dice. * (4:45) Cocked dice. Not rolling off the floor. * (8:31) Dice must be legible and visible. * (9:36) Don't "play" with the dice. * (12:42) Dice bowling. * (18:48) Testing your rolls. * (20:41) Tenser's Floating Disk at work…? * (28:18) An unexpected break in Chad's Blades in the Dark game. * (36:02) Juxtaposing Chad's situation against the break...

* (0:28) Dan's voice. A look back at older episodes. * (2:54) The double-standard of how social skills are handled versus any other check. * (8:00) When players cheat around their dump stats. * (12:47) The plausibility of  counterfactuals . * (32:04) Having no awareness of the game you're in. * (37:42) Holding me responsible for the things you didn't tell me. * (41:28) Revisiting other topics. Hos...

* (0:30) Introducing Dale of  Jon Brazer Enterprises . * (7:11) The story of Jon Brazer, the character. * (9:07) How the degree of crunch changes your options for creating material. The OGL and similar licenses. * (24:26) Half of your money?! * (33:09) Revisiting the relationship between crunch (or the lack thereof) and what that lets you create. * (43:37) The positive role of more stuff. * (49:40...

* (0:32) Dan is having throat issues. * (1:01) A huge "thank you" to Zylo for doing so much for Fear the Con-Line! * (2:18) Wayne created a template to help with game pitches. You can find  a blank version here . * (5:26) A sample  for D&D 5th Edition . * (8:24) Every game starts somewhere. * (11:03) Structuring without restricting. A sample  for Dresden Files . * (19:42) Pitches in-person versus...

* (0:28) This studio is hot. * (2:55) The conundrum of character suicide. How Frankenstein's monster was actually made. * (16:10) Not being a victim of your own creations. * (31:28) Explaining the idea of a swan song and how it manifests in an RPG. * (39:17) Deconstructing a swan song that occurred in one of our games. * (40:56) Extra camera time. * (47:30) Letting a character arc run its full cou...

Excuse the intro. I've lost my voice, so that was the best I could do. * (0:28) We are living in the future. We're at the  threshold of hell . * (12:39) An after-action report on bringing in a pair of new players. Planning versus problem-solving. * (32:52) Constant pressure squeezing out roleplaying. * (37:02) Failing to give the players a break. * (41:37) Shifting between modes of gaming and degr...

* (0:28) Charlie goes on a rampage. A tangent on  Cluster-B personality disorders . * (6:51) Incorporating new people into the social context of your group. * (11:16) Revising our advice on how to meet someone. * (13:36) Using the  pregame questionnaire  as a loose guide. Dale's  publishing website . * (19:28) Observing and adjusting during session zero. * (22:07) Considering their worldview. * (2...

* (0:28) Play and life skills in higher animals. * (3:25) Vote for  Reading Radio  in the  Columbus Podcast Awards . They're listed in both the  art category and  podcast of the year . * (6:28) Introducing new concepts to established roleplayers. * (9:43) Limited material for character creation and game play. * (21:32) Making characters together. * (25:07) An example from Star Trek and Solaris VII...

* (0:42) Dan's phone betrays him. Spoilers and thpoilerth. * (14:10) Chopin makes you a superior person. * (14:52) Premises that are meant for one character but invite storytelling for many characters. * (18:17) Wayne tries one-to-many, and it doesn't quite work out. * (22:15) Distilling a premise down to what really matters. * (27:03) The chosen one. * (33:39) Subdivide the premise so it works fo...

* (1:07) The glory and horror of self-insert. * (3:37) Dan does Shadowrun. * (16:45) Wayne does D&D. * (26:43) Chad does Star Wars. Sort of. * (40:31) Julia does Narnia. * (48:17) Dan does Battletech. * (56:42) A bit of gaming advice. Hosts: Chad, Dan, Julia, Wayne

* (0:31) Brodeur and the broken finger. * (2:57) Fear the Conline is set for June 21st and 22nd. You can sign up for games here and ask questions on Discord here . * (6:55) Explaining what B-plots are. * (10:00) How B-plots spread the spotlight, build investment, and strengthen the game. * (15:00) Building the marketplace of ideas. * (19:41) Don't punish the players for shopping. * (25:15) Likenin...

* (0:30) The distinction between GM exposition and NPC voice. * (7:12) Confusion borne from seeing the same person say everything. * (11:14) Distinguishing the source and type of information. * (12:51) All parties being flexible. * (15:57) The nuance of truthful—but misleading—communication. * (25:20) When the player disbelieves. * (33:07) Earning the right to deceive. * (53:13) Summarizing the ga...

* (0:28) Dan's chewing monster. * (0:51) Making a lot of money on motion sickness medications. * (11:11) Creating a world where order remains in spite of the players being agents of chaos. Dan's magic trick . * (20:01) An example of competing freedoms. * (27:33) Counterfactuals as a tool in RPGs. * (35:22) Soft concepts versus hard fact. * (38:04) The finite reach of the player characters. * (41:2...

* (0:28) A possible online convention in place of this year's Fear the Con. You can place your vote and find out more on Discord . * (1:04) Cell phone jammers. * (4:13) Accept creative solutions. * (12:36) Control the table. * (20:53) Don't confuse delay with plot. * (23:02) Don't always make the players roll. * (27:22) Get me back in the action. * (36:24) Love the PCs more than your NPCs. * (42:1...

* (0:54) A possible online convention in place of this year's Fear the Con. You can place your vote and find out more on Discord . * (5:07) An episode of Gamers Table inspires a topic (special thanks to Gaming with Gage) . * (15:17) Whether to keep an NPC or remove them. * (20:35) Keeping the NPC in the periphery * (26:53) Leveraging an NPC's ties to other characters. * (34:10) Camp followers. * (...

* (0:28) Secretary Chad brings a glorious gift. * (3:50) Give a backstory the GM can use. * (5:47) Be open to the GM's input on your character. * (12:06) Learn something about the rules. * (17:18) Bring something to the table. * (22:30) Put away your electronics and don't make me repeat myself. * (27:44) Try to engage. * (39:20) Humor me. * (42:10) Don't be a speed bump. * (49:31) Be creative. Hos...

* (0:29) Wayne learns object permanence. * (2:14) A player gets voted off the island. * (9:12) Not invested in the game or not invested in the group? * (12:16) Picking the kicker. * (22:40) Evaluating how the person responds to getting kicked. * (35:29) Along came an X-card. * (58:07) Final judgment. Hosts: Brodeur, Chad, Dan, Wayne

* (0:28) The Itty Bitty Writing Space Kickstarter . * (3:47) A topic from Wendell on our Discord server . * (4:49) Playing to genre, themes, and moods. * (12:59) Hijacking the experience everyone signed up for. * (18:54) The distinction between assenting to a social contract and losing agency. The Richard Pryor game . * (23:26) Why one person may be playing out of sync. * (31:06) When the contract...

* (0:22) Catching up with how Chad's campaign ended. * (1:43) The steps taken to set the mood. * (11:08) Pacing of the game. * (15:36) Resolving the prophecies. * (19:37) How the players helped the Game Master. * (24:32) The things that went wrong. What Dan called "anticlimax" is more accurately "dénouement." * (31:33) A brick-wall ending. * (40:38) What went right. Hosts: Chad, Dan, Wayne

* (0:28) Let's hear it for Devastator! * (1:23) An update on Fear the Con. * (3:30) Game scheduling falls apart one session before the finale. * (12:35) Recovering the game by bringing immediate intensity. * (17:12) Shaping the real-world environment to set a mood. * (22:46) Playing side content. * (36:43) Controlling the recap. * (47:27) The players' role in helping. * (1:02:47) Fear the Boot and...