* (1:53) Wayne ends a D&D campaign without a boss fight.
* (3:11) The mutual theft of ideas between video games and tabletop roleplaying games.
* (8:00) Considering all the ways a story can end.
* (13:18) Another example from a D&D game.
* (21:06) Post-campaign, no-boss epilogues. Player freedom in shaping the ending.
* (28:02) Redefining the game in a character-centric way.
* (32:33) Allowing other solutions to small problems and other endings to the game.
Hosts: Brodeur, Dan, Julia, Wayne
Episode 602 – personalizing a module
Sep 13, 2022
* (0:29) Brodeur’s post-Gen-Con review. (I know, we’re right on top of the latest news.) A shoutout to Imagining Games, Acheron Books, and RogueOperative.
* (8:02) Customizing modules for your players and characters.
* (11:48) Modules as a framework, not a full script.
* (18:26) Know the module well enough that you can deconstruct it into its components.
* (24:37) An imaginary scenario using a well-known story as a module, adjusted to an obviously unique character.
* (36:44) How the whole context of a pre-written scenario can be changed by just swapping proper nouns.
* (42:32) Separating story-writing from story-telling.
Episode 601 – leveraging PC backgrounds
Aug 17, 2022
* (0:29) A listener, James, gets us talking about integrating player-character backstories into your game. It starts with the players giving you something to work with.
* (3:01) Sitting for too long on too much information, or mining the backstory abusively.
* (7:43) Finding the possible connections between backstories.
* (11:08) Let’s do it live! Dan sets up a D&D game with Wayne as his player. Building story by eliminating coincidences and undefined areas.
* (19:22) Wayne sets up a Skies of Glass game with Brodeur as his player. Remembering that NPCs have their own lives that still go on, even when the PC isn’t around.
* (30:02) What’s the “therefore” there for? Continuing thoughts that seemed otherwise complete.
* (31:42) Integrating character backgrounds into a story that’s already written. Even the most fleshed-out plot still has gaps that can be filled with player-made content.
* (37:59) Too little, too much, or no background at all.
* (42:35) Punting Mary’s insight, because it deserves its own episode.
* (44:32) Paying attention to backgrounds for what should be important in your game, because it’s important to that player.
Hosts: Brodeur, Dan, Mary, Wayne
Episode 600 – passivity and dysfunction
Jul 29, 2022
* (0:29) How awful can a few years be? (Spoilers: Multiple things got worse since this recording!)
* (3:49) An experiment in unequal levels of preparation and participation.
* (8:34) Not all players will bring the same level of contribution, nor do all games encourage it.
* (14:32) Pattern versus incidence.
* (18:52) Reasons to not just sit it out.
* (20:43) Why using past experiences of what was to infer what ought to be may not be the best approach.
* (25:11) Setting expectations for the division of labor.
Hosts: Brodeur, Dan, Julia, Wayne
Bonus Episode 96 – Fear the Con 2022 report
Jul 05, 2022
* (0:24) Releasing episodes out of order.
* (1:24) The little convention that could, despite how hard life tried to stop it.
* (6:59) All of the hurdles that weren’t COVID.
* (14:00) The obstacles that came up during the convention.
* (24:24) In spite of everything arrayed against it, the con went really well.
* (31:42) Thanking Eric Van Note for the picture of Gnarl, which you can see here. You can contact him for your own commission at: vannoteillustration@gmail.com
* (33:50) Wishing we’d had more time to talk to people and paced ourselves better.
* (39:11) A request, an idea, and a placeholder. June 15th, 16th, and 17th are the tentative dates for Fear the Con 2023.
* (43:46) A big “thank you” to our community!
Hosts: Brodeur, Caleb, Dan, Wayne
Episode 599 – splitting the difference
Jun 14, 2022
* (0:29) Interrogating Mary on her gaming history.
* (25:07) Fear the Con on June 16th – 18th, 2022. The room block number is 2413940. You can place your room reservations at this link, which should prepopulate the con dates.
* (25:39) Food drama!
Hosts: Brodeur, Chad, Dan, Wayne
Episode 587 – rocking the afterlife
Jan 01, 2022
* (0:35) Brodeur’s syphi-list.
* (3:48) Continuing a game after mass-character-death by playing in the afterlife.
* (16:43) What happens to the characters that didn’t die?
* (20:15) When a player can’t attend their own afterlife.
* (26:17) Alternate options for science fiction games.
* (18:26) Having the right tool for the right story, and how too much freedom can become a problem.
* (20:33) An odd aversion to adding elements mid-game, even though it’s the crux of character creation and other pre-game activities. Our episode on finite choices.
* (32:58) The vast number of online tools for generating random content ideas. Mashing games together.
Hosts: Chad, Dan, Wayne
Episode 585 – cutscenes
Dec 10, 2021
* (0:28) Brodeur starts off a game session with a cutscene, which becomes its own pun.
* (5:02) Other media as a metaphor for how you structure your storytelling.
* (6:50) Not withholding player agency for too long.
* (13:26) Having to roleplay with yourself.
* (16:11) Revealing information to the players.
* (22:31) Read the table and manage the length of these scenes. Letting the players have an emotional response to truths their characters don’t know.
* (28:58) Using cutscenes to set the tone for the game.
* (33:32) How cutscenes can lock you into a particular truth.
* (38:44) The value of scenes that lack obvious utility.
* (50:46) Short attempts and immediate feedback are your friends.
Episode 584 – developing past in the present
Dec 07, 2021
* (0:44) When only the shell of a character gets made, for lack of knowledge about the world. The episode where we previously discussed this can be found here.
* (13:19) Using an opportunity in the present to expand the character’s past. The influence of other players on the process.
* (17:01) The person with no past. Creating memories.
* (26:07) Fixing on the fly instead of flushing.
* (33:11) Players helping players.
* (40:28) Your willingness to adjust, without allowing others to take unfair license. Never Going Home and the Christmas truce of World War I.
* (45:31) Potential problems and pitfalls.
* (51:17) The plot opportunity created by new or conflicting information.
Hosts: Brodeur, Chad, Dan
Episode 583 – does it bring you joy
Nov 24, 2021
* (0:33) Brodeur went to Gamehole Con, and Dan can’t take other people’s money.
* (8:08) How age changes what you care about.
* (10:02) The end-of-year blackhole that consumes our schedules (and, by extension, our games).
* (11:23) Brodeur loses his motivation to GM.
* (15:28) Player satisfaction does not necessarily equate to GM satisfaction.
* (21:49) Fighting the burnout that strips away your enjoyment of the hobby.
* (31:28) The buy-in of the whole group to relieve one person’s pain.
* (40:38) Letting go of the unneeded prep in order to get to the part that’s actually fun.
* (48:49) Time and the other finite currencies of life.