My Rules Are Better

Tom talks about the lead pile, game shops, miniature painters and other bits and pieces.

Chris Abbott returns to talk about the lead pile. They explore the Chechen-ification of the Palladium rules focusing on Ninjas and Superspies. What about points and leveling up in games? Useful or generally problematic. Tom raises the importance of HeroForge in creating characters for modern games. Igor Karpov is responsible for the characterful Chechen miniatures from Tiny Terrain. The Oath: The...

Tom welcomes back on Barney Dicker who produced a wonderful YouTube video with his son https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y2fV0uE4wk Tom misspoke when describing the current Kev Adams offerings. The best place for new Kev Adams is http://knightmareminiatures.com/ with shields of interest from Black Tree Design https://eoeorbis.com (you have to ask for them especially) Knightmare also has a selection...

Tom welcomes back Mathew Gibson who provides an update on his Dungeons and Dragons game including a named non-player miniature character. Mathew offers the topic of excess in gaming from which Tom frames a grim balance between commercial success and something important with a detour into psychedelia in gaming. Mathew raises a few more topics from prior podcasts concluding on home-brew rules: in a...

Tom talks about the lead pile, proposes a new card and dice game. He talks about considering playing Bolt Action (v2) and a little about the history of WW2 in film.

Tom is joined by listener Barney Dicker to talk about a wide variety of topics. They start talking about Inquisitor and Strontium Dog. The conversation takes a number of twists and turns but concludes with an affirmation that HeroQuest defined a good group of players. If you have questions or feedback please email barbalet at gmail dot com. Enjoy!

Tom discusses some history with a listener. What happened with the final Just Plain Chaos game? The Chechen rules will probably exist in the Palladium meta-verse.

A lead pile update and Tom introduces his simulation, Noble Warfare.

A very nice chat with Chris Abbott prefaced on getting out more lead to listeners.

Tom talks about unpainted lead and trying to tame this phenomenon. The listeners can take some of this lead off Tom's hands. Tom also talks about problems with the Just Plain Chaos rules update and painters.

Tom chats with Mathew Gibson about women in roleplaying. Going to be in London at the end of August? So is Tom. Questions from listener Mike King. Some future updates based on discovered miniatures.

Tom details some experiences from a recent game of Just Plain Chaos and it was impactful enough to promote some rules changes.

Tom asks about the importance of GM Mathew's son's game. Mathew starts talking about his early experiences playing and why he doesn't want his son to have the same experiences. They discuss what the experiences are of the players and what the mentoring older GM role should be here. Mathew gives an elevator pitch on his card game. They discuss cooperative gaming and political based games although M...

Chris asks why Tom needs his own rules. They explore the previously mentioned archetypes and how to counteract problems through games. How about the sheet grabber? There are some benefits in keeping a game in your head. Tom wants to talk about miniatures. Squares or hexs or neither. With stores it is either famine or feast.

Tom welcomes on Mathew Gibson. They discuss Mathew's early experiences and Tom tries to talk about the religion of ADnD with the sadness that RuneQuest did not stay with Mathew long after his evangelism. Is there a contrast between richness of environments and complexity of rules. Tom asks about miniatures and provides some discussion of miniatures in Australia in the 1980s. They discuss narrative...

Tom starts talking with Chris about Unearthed Arcana. They briefly touch on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle rules (circa 1985). Chris starts the discussion on house rules. This digresses quickly into a discussion of realism versus fun. Tom asks about Chris' house adventures. Magic seems to cause all kinds of problems. Tom raises the scarcity of weapons and the late-1980s idea of freeform role-play...

Tom covers a few topics solo with the promise of Chris' return.

Tom welcomes Chris Abbott onto the podcast and they discuss origins stories, ye olde games systems and favorite dynamics of Chris' in games. Tom asks about Chris' renaissance in role playing. Tom touches on the loss story and returns to the renaissance aspect. He then asks Chris to explore nurturing through role playing.

Tom revisits solo play testing for a listener, talks a little bit about attribution framed in Kev Adams addiction and welcomes the possibility of some dialog coming up.

Tom starts the exploration of board game rules in contrast to roleplaying games and war-games. He explores strategy, resources and diplomacy.

How do weapons impact gameplay? Are there interesting areas to explore when creating rules around weapons.

Tom explores the potential to create interesting rules around wounds or health in a game. What impact does the representation of these statistics have on gameplay.

One of the defining factors in any game is how movement is coordinated over turns. Tom looks at the many possibilities when creating rules of movement in games.

Tom discusses how he tested the rules for Just Plain Chaos by himself before he took the rules to a group to play. He also talks about reaching out to square-base fantasy rules authors and Oldhammer players.

Tom is recovering from a virus. It seems like the perfect time to tackle some dice mechanics.