Gaming on the Frontier

This week we explore the possibility of adding Fringeworthy to a Call of Cthulu campaign.  Most of the specific points of what Fringeworthy adds to this game were covered as the general benefits in last weeks episode so please listen to that first before this one. The point of Fringeworthy to another game campaign is not to change that game into Fringeworthy.  Instead we suggest ways of using Frin...

This week we explore adding Fringeworthy to another RPG game system campaign world.  How would you add Fringeworthy to your Call of Cthulu game?  Your superhero game?  Your D&D game?  And not derail your game or change your game's distinctive tone? 02:30 - The tone of the game. 06:10 - Things that the Fringeworthy can bring to your game. High altitude maps, drones, lost tech/knowledge, advanced we...

What happens when there is no Earth for a prime or an alt.  What happens when the Earth is destroyed.  Our 5 hosts explore the possibilities on this week's Fringeworthy Podcast. 02:35 – No Earth. What happens to a portal where the earth has been destroyed? 07:30 – Will the portal jump to another nearby planet? 09:15 – Random generated no Earth portal. 09:40 – Black hole destruction. 14:40 – Hatche...

We continue to explore the possibility of adventuring in Japan in the 5th to 11th centuries.  We list a number of helpful reference books for this time.

Adventuring in the past:  Japan from 5th to 11th century.  Blix takes us on an journey to the beginnings of Japanese history and culture - before the samurai.  Here you will find powerful emperors, strong men of the mountains, ninja, and maybe a cappa or two. 02:20 - What no Samurai!? 02:40 - Shifting from tribes to cities. 04:19 - How to get along and fit in with the people of this time. 10:20 -...

We provide more information on our Dragon Con demos plus we continue to answer reader mail on how to handle where your team members are met with prejudice and what happens when a team goes missing. 01:20 – Fringeworthy novel release at GenCon. 02:20 – DragonCon Fringe Worthy Savage Worlds event by Blix. 03:50 – ConClave FW d20 adventure by Trav! 04:50 – TriTacGamer Forums. 05:17 – Ideas for improv...

This week Bruce talks about his Fringeworthy demos at Gencon Game Fair in Indianapolis.  He and Blix discuss their upcoming demos at Dragon Con in Atlanta.  Also mentioned are new demos by John Reiher and Trav. Then on to reader mail. What are essential skills for a character and how to make sure they have them? We will have more questions and answers next week.

John Reiher ran a demo and got a lot of feedback this time.  We discuss his design and execution for his demo and make suggestions for more successful demos.

This week we continue our discussion of adventuring in the Native American cultures of North, South, and Central America in the 5th to 11th Centuries.   We talk about how they conducted war and how the introduction of modern weapons might not have the expected effect.   01:50 - Mesoamerican ball games . 05:00 – You are a God King! Trading the “shiny” with the Mayans and the repercussions. 12:45 –...

A promo for the soon to be released Fringeworthy novel and an offer for a free proof edition at Gencon 2010.

Adventuring in the 5th to 11th centuries:  Americas This week John Reiher takes us on a tour of ancient americas.  Mayans and Mixtecs and Mound Builders, Oh my! 1:49: Exploring the New World 5th to 11th Centuries 2:03: The Mound Builders . 2:27: The Anasazi . 3:00: The Mound Builders: What we know about them. 4:00: The Mayans: the Classic period . They lived in city states, ruled by a God king . 5...

Bruce and Blix continue their discussion of how taking the time to understand how objects of huge or micro scale can greatly affect an adventure.  They continue on and add the meta discussion of how big or small to  make your campaign as well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSY42-QTfDM&NR=1

This week Blix and Bruce discuss how differences in scale can radically change the nature of an adventure and any solutions to problems presented in the adventure.  Why this is important in a science fiction game. 01:20 – Dealing with super fast speeds in space. Astronomical Unit , Speed of Light 04:10 – Saving an entire society and dealing with large scale problems. 06:30 – Dealing with the small...

We explore Persia and India from the 5th to the 11th century.  Hop a ride with sinbad and catch the belt of Vishnu. This one is a little fact heavy but we have provided plenty of links to everything disscussed so you can listen without taking notes. You can look everything up from the notes page later on. Persia 01:50 – Trade in Persia Caliphate , Sunni , Shi'ah , Caliph 03:30 – Missions 04:20 – H...

We continue our discussion of what adventure and play technique bring the awesome.  This week we concentrate on teams pooling their skills and backgrounds to provide better solutions than trying to create uber characters. 01:20 – The role of the essential skills. Giving free skills, allowing automatic successes, including NPCs. Ways to handle failed essential checks. 09:25 – Playing more than one...

Part 1 of our discussion of adventure design and play techniques that either worked well or were really terrible ideas.  We discuss good methods to motivate characters and how to make the game more fun for new and experienced players.  Sometimes both. Note: We now move to our summer format we announced 2 weeks ago.  Our episodes will only be 1/2 hour long instead of about an hour .  Episodes that...

We continue our adventuring in the past series with a set of podcasts on the 5th to 11th centuries.  We start off with Africa, ramrodded by our good friend Trav.   Essay on Africa Metallurgy in Africa Route of Lost Kingdoms Kingdoms in Pre-Colonial Africa Ancient African Kingdoms Swahili Language Black Like Me African Folklore Ark of the Covenant - Ethiopia Ark of the Covenant - Southern Africa Ta...

So you want to time travel and the time shifted worlds aren't enough.  Okay.  We tell you what works, what doesn't and how to not wreck your campaign and avoid screwing over your players with time travel.    Players take note:  This is the hardest kind of adventure to write and run so if the gm hands it to you, drink the Kool-aide.  It's yummy!

Hey fringers, We were are a little bit behind this week but we threw together a short segment about what's going on with Fringeworthy. John and Blix talk about Savage Worlds, convention appearances, and our summer schedule. Enjoy! We also threw in a promo at the end of the PodCast for the new Scott Sigler novel Ancestor. Let's help him reach number one this month by pre-ordering his book! Go to ww...

This week we discuss how to handle failure in a campaign.  This is a companion piece to the Jay Hailey interview.

This episode we talk about sea vessels and all of the adventure aspects of using them. This is part of our on-going series about vehicles on the Fringepath. Enjoy maties! Show notes to follow soon with lots-o-links.

In this episode we talk to Bruce about his new group running in the middle campaign. we then go on to discuss the middle campaign in general. We wrap it up with a little discussion about the upcoming Fringeworthy Savage Worlds edition. This was originally part of the water vehicles episode but this bit ran fairly long. Sooooo, I stripped it out into it's own short episode. Think of this past week...

Got behind in the next podcast so I'm editing a recent interview with Richard Tucholka and his crew in Tri Tac Central (Michigan).  He talks about his recent releases of WeirdZone and HardWired Hinterland and his game in development ElfWinds.  I'll have the audio file posted soon.  Please be patient.  And I'm trying to get back on schedule for next Sunday's release as well. Well, it is pretty obvi...

We are joined by Trav of the Trav cast for an interview of Jay Hailey.  Jay recently chronicled his attempt at running a variant Fringeworthy campaign with just one player.  He shares his successes and failures. There is some really good ideas about running what he calls a Meta Campaign.

This week we turn our eyes skyward as wondrous vehicles fill the heavens with explorers no doubt.  Join us as we discuss the best vehicles for exploration and travel.   0:00 types of vehicles --exploration --long distance --bad land or water access 3:30 surveillance -- drones -- balloons -- limits of drones and how to surmount them. 10:30 Powered Parasails and Powered Hang gliders . 16:30 The pers...