Virtual Play

Bill and I spend 45 minutes or so talking about Classic Traveller.  The focus of the episode is on how players make sense of clues and other information provided by the GM and how this contributes both to an adventure as well as adding detail to the imaginary world of the characters. 

Here is a look at the data file we were trying to make sense of:

Welcome to the next episode!  Bill and I have been playing some Classic Traveller on Roll 20 so this episode is an excerpt of play of two from a recent game.  We talk about Bill's penchant for mini-games inside the game as well as the balance between quick improvisation versus more detailed decisions.  The episode clocks in at approximately 25 minutes.  Thanks for listening!

At Total Con 35, which had an espionage focus, I ran a hack of TSR's Top Secret:  New World Order.  My goal was to run it in the style of TV's Mission: Impossible.  I wanted to include the briefing scene, a preview of the mission, and then the mission itself.  This meant the characters should start the mission knowing what is going on and what they have to do.  It was a bit rough but Bill and I discuss how to make it better.  The episode runs at approximately 40 minutes.  If you're interested, here is the mission the characters received at the start of the game (you'll have to imagine the accompanying images):

Greetings, Agent. 

This man is Orest Doroshenko, a physicist with the Ukrainian National Academy of Science.  Doroshenko’s wife and two children were killed in the accidental downing of Ukrainian Airlines Flight 752 by Iranian air defense forces. 

We have learned that through the black market, Doroshenko has acquired a radiological thermal generator formerly used to power automated lighthouses on the northern coast of the erstwhile Soviet Union.  If removed from its lead casing, the strontium 90 powering the generator poses a hazard to any exposed to its radiation.  Reliable sources indicate that Doroshenko has smuggled the generator into Iran and intends to use the strontium 90 material as a component in a radiation dispersion device, or dirty bomb.  In addition to immediate and long-term casualties, such an act would almost certainly lead to retaliatory acts and war in the region and beyond.  We cannot let that happen.  We also cannot let the radiological material fall into Iranian hands because the head of Iranian secret intelligence, General Jamshid Rostami, has strong links to known terrorist organizations acting against our interests in the region. Your mission is to prevent Doroshenko from carrying out his plan and ensuring that the radiological material does not fall into Iranian hands.  As always, should you be caught or killed, the Secretariat will disavow any knowledge of your actions.  Good luck. 

Welcome back to Virtual Play!  Bill and I take a close look at an encounter in a Dungeon Crawl Classics game.  It involves an encounter with undead in a bath house that has since become a tomb!  It's a game I ran but Bill has some great insights into how I could have ran it better!  The episode clocks in at approximately 55 minutes.  Enjoy the show! 

Happy New Year!  I hope you are all as well as can be.  Thanks for sticking around for more episodes.  In our inaugural podcast of 2021, Bill and I talk about gaming from the last year or so.  It has been a while!  But we plan to get back regularly with more excerpts from games, whether played online or face-to-face.  This show is approximately 30 minutes.  In a deviation from our normal format, there are no excerpts in this episode but we'll have some next time!  Enjoy the show!

Mel

Bill and I are in the last night of Metatopia 2018.  We're excited about the result of our playtest of Dying is Easy.  In many ways, the evolution of Dying is Easy over the past two Metatopias and particularly this weekend shows how Metatopia helps designers finish their games.  Have a listen!  

Mel

Bill and are continue our Metatopia special episodes with a discussion about and excerpt from a game Bill wrote called "the Indie Scene".  The game will be a chapter in Bill's book on the Forge, which was an online discussion forum for RPG design, publication and play.  
Mel

Bill and I are at Day 1 of Metatopia, the Game Design Festival in Morristown NJ.  We briefly discuss the games we are here to playtest, including an excerpt from a moment of play in a game that inspired our thinking about the design of one of those games.  The excerpt is from a game in development by E. Tage Larsen called "Roughhouse", featuring the voices of dutiful listener Jim Crocker and Eric's friend, Dave.

Mel

Welcome to Virtual Play!  Bill and I discuss a GM workshop we conducted at Gencon.  The format was the participants played characters in an adventuring party, with rotating GM duties.  The workshops were planned by Will Hindmarch at Demystics but when Will couldn't make it, we were privileged to fill in for a couple of sessions.  Here's the result.  The episode clocks in at just under one hour. 
Mel 

We talk about Bill running his adventure for Pelgrane Press's Trail of Cthulhu, "The Big Hoodoo," where 1950s sci-fi writers like Bob Heinlein and Isaac Asimov confront a Mythos mystery in sun-drenched California. We try to figure out why the players seemed so bemused by the plethora of clues at their disposal. We identify adventure design and game-running issues that may help other GMs run their mystery games. The episode is about 45 minutes long.

Or at least Bill is.  In this recap of a moment play from Dungeon Crawl Classics, Bill, playing a kitsune dog spirit, attempts to get something to eat.  Because that's what dogs do.  The episode is approximately 28 minutes.  
Mel

Hi!  Welcome back to Virtual Play.  Bill and I had a great conversation with Jim Crocker, Ben Forest and Dave Petroski at Dexcon 20 discussing a bunch of things such as comics, the retail industry, New Jersey politics and more.  But for Virtual Play, we talked about "Dying is Easy" a comedy game in development.  This show is our discussion, with excerpts of play!  The show clocks in at 27 minutes.  Enjoy!
Mel

Bill and I spent some time at the Hyatt bar talking to Ben Forest about running and playing in games. We mainly discuss the question is the role of the game-master to entertain or to be entertained?  Between the three of us, we likely had four or five opinions!
Please enjoy this 30 minute special episode of Virtual Play!
Mel

Here's some bonus content!  At Origins, Bill talked to Morgan Ellis and other folks about Fate and Nitrate City.  They agreed to let us listen in!  I feel like I'm actually there at the Big Bar on 2!  Morgan provides some advice on Fate gameplay, and then the conversation turns to Nitrate City.  Ten minutes of virtual Origins--now I am a little less grumpy about not being there live!

Welcome back!  In this episode, Bill and I talk about Nitrate City, a World of Adventure for Fate.  Bill co-wrote the game with Doselle Young--Doselle provided the vision, Bill provided the mechanics!  We've taken excerpts for a couple of games from Origins. Bill ran one and Nick Hopkins ran the other after playing it once!  So credits to Nick for pushing the envelope like that.  Our discussion focuses on what I think is the key technology of Nitrate City:  film genres as approaches.  We also talk about the setting, noir and a few digressions here and there.  But not too many, because the show clocks in at a brisk 45 minutes.  
Enjoy!
Mel

In this episode, Bill and I discuss the game "Fall of Magic".  It's described as a roleplaying game of profound fantasy.  I was attracted to it by the thematic link to Larry Niven's short story, "The Magic Goes Away" as well by the neat visual element within the game where gameplay is aided by actually unrolling a map scroll to move from place to place.  I backed it on Kickstarter, and once it came, loaned it to Bill to run.  Now we get to talk about it!
This show runs at approximately 33 minutes.  
Mel

In this episode, Bill and I get to talk about a game we have been excited about for a while.  Michael Miller has revised "With Great Power" his superhero roleplaying game.  Superheroes are one of our favorite genres. And low prep games are increasingly my preference.  With Great Power lives at that nexus!  Zero prep games can be different than traditional games in many ways, particularly in terms of shaping a common vision for the game at the start of and through play, in how the mechanics work, and in how typical GM actions are conducted--if at all.  With Great Power gives us a great tool to explore techniques for zero prep games.  So that's the focus of this episode!  The show runs at approximately 47 minutes.  I hope you enjoy it!
Mel

Bill wanted to call this episode "Mel And Bill fix Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition," but I think the game mastering advice we talk about in the show applies to any game. There is nothing D&D specific about the ideas we discuss.  The excerpts are from D&D but they could easily have been from many other games.  We talk about ways we think games are more fun:  getting to play faster; paying attention to player flags for the things players want to see in the game; using hooks that matter; making failure matter; and making characters awesome--among other topics.  The show runs just under 60 minutes.  Let me know what you think!
Mel

Lots of changes here at Virtual Play!  Bill and I are going to be trying shorter shows with greater frequency.  Thanks to a household move, we are a lot closer now so we'll give it our best shot.  
Today's show is about a Fate based game Bill is working on called Andromeda, as well as an upcoming project he will be working on for Evil Hat, the Fate Space toolkit!  The show clocks in at 35 minutes or so.  We hope you enjoy it!
Mel

Welcome back to Virtual Play!  In this episode Bill and I talk about some GM techniques using Torchbearer and Night's Black Agents for excerpts.  The games are a handful of games we played or ran at Gencon--I should say that either Bill ran or I played, since he ran a lot of games but I only played!  The episode runs a little long at approximately 75 minutes, and we are barely scratching the surface of Gencon games. So we'll get back to more Gencon games in future episodes, just as we have to get back to the backlog of games from Origins and Dexcon.  Enjoy the show!
Mel