Role Playing Public Radio

Based loosely on Kinji Fukusaku’s Battle Without Honor or Humanity film series and the Akira Kurosawa film Stray Dog , this game takes placed in Hiroshima Japan, 1946. The players are members of the Yamagata Yakuza clan, the newest and smallest family in the city, vulnerable to foreign gangs and larger Yakuza families. A confrontation with a rival gang turns deadly and an American .45 automa...

I have launched a second podcast: Raillery . I plan to release one new video a week, each as hilarious as this one: Oregon Trail 13. Don’t worry, Tom and I will continue RPPR and I will not put every raillery podcast on this feed. However, since Oregon Trail 13 started here, I thought all of you might enjoy it here. Written by Ross Payton Voiced by Ross Payton and Chris Farmer Mixed by Chris...

Just like the Scooby Doo gang, players tend to split up during a game and ike it or not and unless you know what to do, your game can suffer. Most players get bored when they have nothing to do, a divided game can mean the end of your campaign. We discuss how to deal with a split game and keep everything running smooth. There’s also a letter from Tom and of course, shout outs. Cave Story : A...

Tarn Adams Interviewer: Ross Payton Synopsis: Dwarf Fortress is a one of a kind computer game. Part roguelike, part RTS, part fantasy world simulator, this game has to be played to be believed. With no graphics (everything is represented by ASCII symbols), the player is charged with building a mighty fortress with only seven dwarves and a wagon load of supplies. Murderous monsters and animals, tem...

Music: Can’t Judge a Book by Robin Sylar Promos: Bearswarm Podcast, Nuketown Radio and the Game Traveler Hosted by Ross Payton and Tom Church New: RPPR Donations We now accept donations to cover the cost of hosting and equipment for our podcast. If you’re a fan of RPPR, contribute. You can set up a $2 monthly subscription fee or donate a one time fee. Contact us if you’re interes...

Song: Just Like Bruce Campbell Did by Joe Hero Promo: Sinister Adventures Hosted by Ross Payton and Tom Church Special Guest: Aaron Carsten Check out our new Forums and Twitter Feed ! Synopsis: After discussing some listener feedback, with a special defense of the Sluggy Freelance web comic by Aaron Carstein, we decided to challenge each other’s game design skills with a 24 hour contest, sim...

Guests: Jaime Paglia – Creator/Executive Producers of Eureka Bruce Miller – Co-Executive Producer of Eureka Eric Wallace – Staff writer Nick Wauters – Staff writer Hosted and moderated by Diana Botsford Synopsis: I was lucky enough to attend a special voice chat interview with several of the minds behind the sci-fi TV show Eureka . My screenwriting professor, Diana Botsford...

Opening music: I’m Dungeons You’re Dragons by the Alligators Hosted by Ross Payton and Tom Church Promos: Rpgpodcasts.com and The Tome Podcast Brand new: Join the RPPR Facebook group! Synopsis: Sooner or later, your favorite game is going to become old and tired. The players will read every sourcebook, the GM will run every written adventure for it and what was once new and exciting be...

Hosted by Ross Payton and Tom Church Music: A tribute to Mozart by Steffe Coonan Promo: The Escapist Podcast Synopsis: Gary Gygax passed away on March 4 2008. His legacy is the foundation of role playing games as we know them. While we are not old school players who were there in the golden age of D&D, we both felt Mr. Gygax’s hand in our games. The adversarial competition between DM and...

Sean Jaffe Interview by Ross Payton Synopsis: Back in Episode 4 , we gave a shout out to Blood Dimmed Tides, an excellent Old World of Darkness sourcebook for the oceans. One of the book’s writers, Sean Jaffe, popped in to thank us. From there, I contacted him to find out more about the creation of the book and Sean’s other adventures in the gaming industry. This is our first Interview...

Hosted by Ross Payton and Tom Church Music by Ghosts I-IV by Nine Inch Nails released under a Creative Commons license Synopsis: Creating adventures for your group can be a pain in the but but we’re here to help. The players can be heartless jerks who stomp all over your plot, massacre your poor NPCs or generally wreck mayhem on your plans. Improvisation is the hallmark of a good gamemaster...

Hosted by Ross Payton and Tom Church Music by Sabrepulse Synopsis: Death is a fact of life in gaming. A thread I started on rpg.net about PC death generated a bit of discussion about how people handle player characters dying in a game. So, Tom and I discuss how to best plan and deal with characters getting shot, stabbed, poisoned, mangled, maimed, disemboweled, defenestrated, disintegrated and oth...

Call of Cthulhu One Shot: The End of the World as we know it? Game run by Ross Payton Players: Tom, Jason and Paul Synopsis: This is a bit of an experimental game. Instead of the PCs being heroic investigators trying to save the world from evil, they are the leaders of a Midwestern city as the Apocalypse starts. Can they save civilization from rampaging cultists, ghouls, and other disasters? Will...

Written by Ab3 Mixed by Ross Payton Me: “OK you walk into the room and see a group of Hobgoblins sharpening their weapons.” Psycho Dave: “I flash my talisman of the Dark Gods and order them to bow down to the might of Azathoth.” Me: “They bow before you.” Psycho Dave: “Then I behead them.” Performed by the RPPR crew Chris Farmer Tom Church Patrick &#...

Music by The Old Ones – a Lovecraftian inspired metal band. Brutal! Intro song: Alone in the Mountains Segue for Letter from Tom: Rise! Ending music: Spirits Hosted by Ross Payton, Tom Church and Dan McDowell Synopsis: Rules, the foundation of our hobby. How many rules are enough? When do you follow them and when do you ignore them? We go over our philosophy for rules interpretation in role...

Hosted by Ross Payton and Tom Church Ending music: Warning Forever by Sabrepulse Synopsis: Eventually every gamer encounters an adult theme in gaming. However, it can be hard to handle these topics, given the lack of maturity in many gamers. We discuss past games with mature themes, how to run a game with these topics and what to avoid. If you’ve ever wondered how to make your game more dram...

Keeper: Ross Payton Players: Tom Church, Jon and Katie Carter, Matt Howell, Meriam, and Paul You are cordially invited to a night at the opera. “A Night on Owlshead Mountain is a Delta Green adventure that pits investigators against the deadly, lingering aftereffects of Mi-Go activity in rural Vermont. The long awaited Delta Green supplement, Eyes Only is finally out. The RPPR crew tries out...

A round table discussion with Ross Payton, Tom Church, Cody Walker and Samantha Harrel. Synopsis: Every gamer has been touched by a very special kind of player. The bad player wrecks campaigns, breaks up relationships and causes madness with their inept munchkinism, selfish attitude, and infuriating personal habits. Two guests, Sam and Cody, join us to discuss one such player, Jessica. Her paladin...

By Ross Payton and Tom Church Synopsis: Since the holidays are around the corner, we turn our attention to that most treasured aspect of gaming: loot. Whether it’s a shiny +5 vorpal longsword or a slightly used bionic arm, every player looks forward to getting more loot. But is that the point of gaming? After all, MMORPGs thrive on the grind of leveling up to get better loot, so should pen a...

By Ross Payton and Tom Church Synopsis: Sometimes a game just screws up because of trivial issues. Shopping for magic items, chasing red herrings, and arguing about guns. Why does this happen? How can it be fixed? We take a look at these quirks in gaming and provide a few solutions. Also, a letter from Tom and a few shout outs. We end with two gaming anecdotes, one from each of us. Find out who Er...

RPPR is always expanding, so we are proud to present our first Actual Play. In the future, we’ll bring you a wide variety of games. Please let us know what kind of games you want to hear. Bear in mind this recording was made in 2005 with a simple voice recorder. However is is perfectly understandable. Synopsis: Little Fears is essentially a horror game about kids for adults. It can be very d...

By Ross Payton and Tom Church BONUS: The notes of the successful Hunter the Reckoning campaign mentioned this episode . If you like modern horror, there are numerous plot hooks and ideas to steal from these notes. Enjoy Synopsis: Horror is a staple of role playing games, but actually making the game scary is harder than it seems. Between creating a suspenseful mood and dealing with players who don...

Performed by Ross Payton and Tom Church Synopsis: Every gamer has been in a game that has imploded. Why do some games fall apart? We look at how bad GMing can cause a game to not only fail but implode by looking at some of the games we’ve been in. Also, a new Letter from Tom in regards to the beloved mother of evil dragons, Tiamat and Ross talks about his new webcomic project, an adaptation...

RPPR Episode 01 Written and voiced by Ross Payton and Tom Church Our first episode of second edition RPPRm with a wrapup of Gencon and two new segments for the show: Letters from Tom and Gaming Stories. At Gencon, we played in a Call of Cthulhu game run by Scott Glancy of Pagan Publishing, saw the sights, attended some great workshops like How to Write Adventures that Don’t Suck and loaded u...

RPPR has an exciting line up of new shows this spring, such as the Elitist Fuck and GM & DM. Get the preview and send us your feedback. Written by Tom Church and performed by the RPPR staff.