Story Shtick » RPG

The Burning Mice of Ludic Peripety

Scott — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 01:50:24 +0000

This is a small panel discussion, but I didn’t want to talk solo for as long as it would take to cover all the topics I had in mind. So Arpie was kind enough to help me out and we cover a lot of ground and even review a few games. Here’s what’s inside:

We review “Burning Empires” and discuss my failure to record it in great depth
We also review “Mouse Guard” from a very biased perspective
We’ll teach you all there is to know about Ludic Peripety
Are most Story Games “abandon-ware”?
Why I haven’t recorded “Committee for the Exploration of Mysteries”, “Zombie Cinema”, and other games
There’s almost too much praise for Adam W. in this episode, especially in the discussion of “My Life with Master”
GMing techniques for traditional games and why they don’t apply to Story Games (or Ludic Peripety)
Do Ludic Peripety (or Story Gamers) fail “casual” role-players? (I can hear the ice cream truck in the background during this part but didn’t notice it during recording. My wife was upstairs and got herself something but didn’t get anything for me.)
Shticky Love?!?
Join the growing Ludic Peripety movement today! Just email Arpie.
The best D&D 4^th Edition gaming story ever!
Arpie reveals far too much
The proper use of White Wolf games – run a Twilight based campaign and score with Cougars (If you think you’ve won the contest, email me!)

In A Wicked Age…part 3

Scott — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:00:38 +0000

This is third and final part of an “In A Wicked Age” session I recorded at home.

In A Wicked Age
“Webs of the Endangerment” Campaign Page
The next two chapters (after this one) – Four and Five
“Play Passionately” blog on the the dangers of using techniques from different Story Games
Abulafia – great source for Oracles for “In A Wicked Age”
Oracles I formatted for convention play

Come talk about this episode on the forum thread!

Here’s a pic of the regulars from this gaming group in faux-period costumes. No, we aren’t LARPing; why do you ask?

In A Wicked Age…part 2

Scott — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:15:54 +0000

This is part 2 of 3 of an “In A Wicked Age” session I recorded at home.

Come talk about this episode on the forum thread!

Part 3 next week!

In A Wicked Age…part 1

Scott — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:23:25 +0000

This is part 1 of 3 of an “In A Wicked Age” session I recorded at home.

In A Wicked Age
“Webs of the Endangerment” Campaign Page
Chapter 3 (this episode!) of “Webs of the Endangerment”
Previous chapters – One and Two
Story Games Names Project

Come talk about this episode on the forum thread!

Parts 2 and 3 will follow a week apart each.

Time Enough for GeekDo

Scott — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 21:16:31 +0000

Yes, it’s another opinion-blog-o-cast! I talk about rpg.geekdo.com, make a few updates/follow-ups to previous shows, and then talk about control of fiction in RPGs – a topic inspirted by Judd of Kryos on the Canon Puncture Show.

As always, please come discuss this episode on the forum!

<— See “Scott’s Campaigns” over on the left sidebar (when prompted!)

See “Recently Played” on the right sidebar for an example of GeekDo‘s terrific tools —>

Most Recent Participant on “Stabbing Contest”

Scott — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 04:02:36 +0000

I’m the most recent participant on “Stabbing Contest”. Don’t worry, it’s not as violent as it sounds! It’s a conversational podcast and the host, Orge, was nice enought to have me on. His show slants heavily towards Story Games, but it’s primarily about whatever the host and his guests are interested in. I listen to the show all the time, so I’d definitely recommend listening to other episodes – he has a lot of entertaining guests and friends (and his wife is entertaining too, and has her own show as well).

With Great Power…part 3

Scott — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:00:33 +0000

This episode is part 3 of 3 of a “With Great Power…” session from Genghis Con 09. Here are the show notes for this episode, some of which you may want to reference while listening (if possible):

Here’s the forum thread for this series of episodes.

With Great Power…part 2

Scott — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:00:14 +0000

This episode is part 2 of 3 of a “With Great Power…” session from Genghis Con 09.

Here’s my wife modeling the “thought balloon” referenced at the start of this episode

Here’s the forum thread for this series of episodes.

Part 3 next week!

With Great Power…part 1

Scott — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:59:53 +0000

This episode is part 1 of 3 of a “With Great Power…” session from Genghis Con 09. Here are the show notes for this episode, some of which you may want to reference while listening (if possible):

Spider-Man example character sheet
Hancock
Superheroes by Religion
I always thought Superman was Jewish, but he’s not. (His creators were though. And so is Stan Lee.)
Apparently the new Batwoman is Jewish…and a lesbian. (Hmmm…I wonder which will get more attention?)
Silver-Age Comics
“Florida’s Own” is a reference to Florida’s Natural brand orange juice – the best orange juice. Period.

Here’s the forum thread for this series of episodes. I’m also going to try and leave the comments on below. Hopefully we won’t get too much spam this time.

Parts 2 and 3 will follow a week apart each!

Roundtable #1 – The Rise of Arpie

Scott — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:00:08 +0000

This is a bit of departure from the normal format, it’s a roundtable discussion with a couple members of my Sunday gaming group. We talk a lot of theory and Story Games, so I decided to label it an Audio Blog as well as a Panel Discussion.

We briefly discuss a lot of different game systems on the show. Here are the links to those:

-    Spirit of the Century
-    Primetime Adventures
-    Dirty Secrets
-    Sons of Liberty
-    With Great Power…
-    A Flower For Mara
-    Dogs in the Vineyard
-    In A Wicked Age
-    Breaking the Ice
-    Shooting the Moon
-    Mortal Coil
-    Burning Empires

Here are some links to Arpie’s sites:

- Mostly Unfinished PTA Games
- The One We Did Finish: Relics of Earth

You can discuss this episode on the forums in this thread.

What I’ve Been Doin’

Scott — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:50:00 +0000

Some of you may be wondering what I’ve been doing. No? Okay, didn’t think so.

But here it is anyway. I recorded a podcast with three hosts from other Spooky Outhouse shows in something we’re calling the “Spooky Outhouse Showcase”. I’m putting it in the feed here as it’s generally entertaining and we do talk about Story Games quite a bit on it. I apologize if you download it twice as a result. Here’s a link to the episode’s blog post with links to the other shows and here’s on for the discussion thread on the forums.

I also did an analysis of the excellent Podcast Census I linked to below. You can find the results of that analysis here. Try to stay awake.

I plan to have a real Story Shtick episode out early next week, so stay tuned!

Podcast Census

Scott — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:34:57 +0000

Please take this anonymous survey of RPG podcast listeners. Hopefully you’ll see it on a bunch of other RPG podcast’s sites, but you should only take the survey once. This data should be useful in determining what kind of folks listen to RPG podcasts and, therefore, what RPG podcasters may want to gear their content towards. I don’t know if I’ll change anything based on the results, but I’m definitely curious!

EDIT: The survey is closed. You can see the results here.

Midnight Raid!

Scott — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 20:34:55 +0000

I wrote a short game for the “Little Game Chef” competition on the Story Games Forum. It’s only one page front and back – that was one of the constraints of the contest. Please let me know what you think!

Midnight Raid by Scott Dunphy

Along with the game chef theme of “Immersion” and ingredients of “Burn”, “Horse”, and “Midnight”, I was inspired by the Battlestar Galactica board game, Primetime Adventures, “Are You a Werewolf?”, and bad cop shows.

Women from the Planet Omac

Scott — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 03:59:31 +0000

I talk about two topics, somewhat related, in this audio blog episode: the importance of female characters in role-playing games and the “Fires Over Omac” scenario for Burning Empires.

Geek Girls Rule!: Attack of the Girl Gaming Podcasters

Fires Over Omac scenario for Burning Empires

Neroshima – the wonderful planet my Burning Empire group created!

D&D Panel from Genghis Con: Part 1 and Part 2

D&D Authors Panel on the Podge Cast Feed

Scott — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 18:35:35 +0000

I recorded a D&D Authors Panel at Genghis Con XXX (2009). The guys at the Podge Cast were kind enough to host it on their feed since it isn’t really relevant to this show. But in case you came here looking for it, or you just listen to Story Shtick because you love my voice, here are the links:

Part 1

Part 2

Forum Thread

A Penny For My Thoughts…part 3

Scott — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 13:00:44 +0000

“On a very special episode of Story Shtick…the story of Thomas…husband, father, cop…and mental patient.”

I lifted out one player character’s story to see what it would be like to hear it in sequence. Please let me know what you think.

Also on this episode I give some opinions on the game and issues surrounding it. Not really a review or commentary as I did with “Dirty Secrets” or “Primetime Adventures” – that wouldn’t be fair since the game has been in development a full year since this playtest. But it raised some issue I wanted to discuss. Here’s more of my thoughts on one of those issues.

Oh yeah, I also shoved a promo for these guys in there just to break things up a bit.

A Penny For My Thoughts…part 2

Scott — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:38:34 +0000

This is part two of “A Penny For My Thoughts”. See part 1 or the Game Systems page for more links.

“Debra” from this episode is actually Jenn Tatroe. She blogged about this very game last year, but I failed to mention than on this episode. Also, she ran the latest version of APFMT at Genghis Con 2009.

Genghis Con XXX Recordings

Scott — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 14:00:06 +0000

All of the Actual Play shows thus far have been recordings from Genghis Con 08. I’m pretty much through those (at least the ones I wanted to use) right on the money as this weekend I recorded some games at Genghis Con XXX (yep, it’s been going since 1979). I have some recordings from games played at my house in between, but none I was really happy with. There’s something in the water at conventions that pumps up the energy that makes for better short games and thereby better recordings.

I haven’t had a chance to go through my files, but I recorded a bunch of Role-Playing Poems in action and a few full games. The one I’m most jazzed about is a “With Great Power” (WGP) game that went really well. I didn’t feel any of my Genghis 08 WGP sessions were great examples by themselves as I was still learning how to teach the system within the time constraints of a convention slot last year. I took a completely different approach this time and I had the advantage of three Story Games veterans, one with WGP experience, at my table to speed things along and help with the conceptual stuff.

I meant to do some interviews of gamers and I brought my good mics to the hotel along with carrying my portable recorder with me everywhere, but I just never got the opportunity to do this. The role-playing side of Genghis is very focused on playing games and between slots most folks are running to get food or get something from the dealer’s room (myself included) and they don’t have a lot of time to chat.

But I did put that extra equipment to use. It turns out there was a panel discussion with three D&D designers/authors featuring Andy Collins. I didn’t know about it until I was at the con and I already had a game planned in that slot, but I set up my equipment, started the recording, ran to my table, came back to tear down the equipment 2 hours later when they finished, and ran back to my table. So I haven’t even listened to it! But assuming what I recorded was usable, I’ll put it up somewhere. Probably not on the Story Shtick feed as it doesn’t really fit there, but I’ll work with Spooky Outhouse to figure out where it should go and post a link here.

A Penny For My Thoughts…part 1

Scott — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:05:21 +0000

Here’s the first actual play episode here on the new site. The game being played is “A Penny For My Thoughts” by Paul Tevis. I’ll be airing it in three parts over three weeks with lots of commentary within and throughout. In fact, I think there’s as much or more commentary on these three episodes than on the PTA episodes. There’s even some generally applicable gaming/GMing advice sprinkled in.

WARNING: This is a recording of a playtest version of the game. The final game may be substantially different than what you hear here.

Thanks to Meg from Brilliant Gameologists for the cool promo!

Return of the Shtick

Scott — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 14:48:40 +0000

Here’s the first new one in a long time. It’s real short, but it’s just me talking. Basically this is my first “audio blog”. I’ll be doing this from time to time rather than making written idea/theory blog posts.

Please comment on this episode here!

Back in ’08…

Scott — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 19:53:21 +0000

Here are all the episodes of the show from 2008. I don’t know if the old site is going to blow away someday, but I plan to keep them up there as long as possible (i.e. without spending money over there).

I’m not going to copy over all the show notes from the old site, but you can get them here.

(Had to split this into two posts; see the PTA episodes below.)

Back in ’08…part 2

Scott — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 19:48:40 +0000

Here are the PTA episodes that wouldn’t fit in the post above.