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Ashen Stars Chat: Genre Emulation Apr 11, 2015

Show notes

Special guests Keith Carberry of Run Button and Friends at the Table and Phil Kollar of Polygon join us to discuss a somewhat reversed method of design, genre emulation. Genres, created as an ends to categorize media, can also be a powerful tool to give your game the feel it needs; the key lies in breaking your favorite genre down into the criteria that define it, then analyzing just what it is about those individual criteria you like so much. We present our favorite examples and test the theory out on two game sure to be the next big thing: Where's Waldo & Kevin RPG and Noir Swimmingly.
This episode expands upon topics first discussed in our episodes on Designing from Influences, Show Wrestling & Mechanics, and Feats 101. We also discussed Law's Out (with which we put together a harrowing tale) and Monsterhearts (with which we surely will soon).
Six Feats Under Presents: Ashen Stars
GUMSHOE System

13th Age 63: A Networking Exercise Apr 04, 2015

Show notes

The CREAM failsafe lands the Elements and their until-just-now antagonists in a saferoom in the middle of nowhere. After taking the time to sort their thoughts on recent happenings and meeting a variety of... colorful people, the team hatches a daring escape plan to Necropolis-- Mako of the Longfin Empire is ready to wage war on the landfolk, and there's no time to wait for CREAM's bureaucratic safety measures. Besides, there's surely no need for safety measures-- until...
13th Age 63 TabletalkThe wonders of math and other behind-the-scenes treats.
Six Feats Under presents: 13th AgeSupport us on Patreon!

Lasers & Feelings 1-2: Grim Reputation? Dread Not! Apr 04, 2015

Show notes

Dr Hexagon, Lil B, and Autotarget 9000 of the Raptor continue a guerrilla assault, having successfully infiltrated the enemy ranks. At the center of deadly cannons, thick armor, and blazing ion storms lurks the nefarious perpetrator of this plot, Captain "Queen" Anne. How can one measly crew hope to compare to the ultimate weapon of Pirate Space's combined might?! When sacrifices must be made for the sake of the free galaxy, feelings flare and lasers lance-- just as advertised!
Tabletalk-- 45 minutes
If you've never listened to tabletalk before... now's the time.
Six Feats Under Presents: Lasers & Feelings Blastropodcast oddlookingbird
Our Fair City
Improvised Star Trek
Wreckboy

Lasers & Feelings 1-1: What's Mined is Mine Mar 29, 2015

Show notes

Guests Mark Soloff of Blastropodcast and Ashley Davis of Jailbird join the crew for a high-stakes mission in space.
The possibly irreputable Captain Darcy (Ikks)'s scout ship Raptor is hazardously staffed by podcast fanatic Dottore Baldoro (Mark), regular polygon Dr. Hexagon (Medibot), inexplicable canines Lil Bee (Ashley) and Lil Fly (Nate), and the state-of-the-art Autotarget 9000 (PoorWeather). When mines across the sector are targeted by pirates and the Fleet's first, second, and third choices of teams are unavailable, the Raptor is dispatched to track down the pirates and put a stop to their plunder.
Six Feats Under Presents: Lasers & Feelings

Blastropodcast oddlookingbird

Lasers & Feelings Chat: Feats 101 Mar 29, 2015

Show notes

Special guests and RPG beginners Mark Soloff and Ashley Davis join us to discuss just what to do when you've never played an RPG before.

----more----

Here are our recommendations for D&D4e's player types!
Actors

Golden Sky Stories: A focus on developing your character as a complete (and cute) individual
Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine, Nobilis - in both games, your character is literally center stage, and the world revolves around them. Advancing your character is based around developing the desires and the responsibilities they gain from their newfound powers.
Becoming - everyone plays as the same hero, and the goal of the game is to flesh them out and determine how they overcome challenges and why they are a hero.
FATE (Core and Accelerated Edition): A game engine based on playing to your character’s aspects, for good or ill.
WWWRPG: Of all the *World games, none gives you a stronger character role to play with.

Explorers

Eclipse Phase, Ashen Stars, Malifaux, and other games with strong established settings
Last Stand: All the GM advice is built around setting up unique fight scenarios and cool locations and big flashy one-time events

Instigators

DANGER PATROL: Leap into action, don’t bother thinking about it! That is the core mechanic of Danger Patrol: the more danger you are in, the better your dice rolls get.
Costume Fairy Adventures: Causing shenanigans is the goal of the game and how you win at being fairies.
Everyone is John: This is like Becoming, above, except extremely silly and the goal is to Kill John.

Power Gamers

D&D 4e: Fully customizable, robust character classes, with potential for fun synergies.
Double Cross: Probably the best point-buy supers game currently on the market!

Last Stand: It is a save-the-world fightgame where you rip apart giant monsters!
Strike! RPG: A simplified battle system designed for quick fights and lots of ‘em

Storytellers

13th Age: Encourages characters to have relationships with the established setting
Breakfast Cult: Cooperative and competitive; each player has a secret objective for plenty of intrigue
Fiasco: The perfect game for telling a story where everything goes wrong. GM-less.
Final Bid: For the exact same reasons as Fiasco.
Monster Hearts: If you want to play Buffy the Vampire Slayer: the RPG, this is where it is, and it hits the sense of drama perfectly.

Thinkers

Retrocausality: This game is all about time travel, and the core mechanic is messing with the time stream in a way that gets you what you want out of it, but without causing unintended consequences
The GUMSHOE line: Various games all about finding information and piecing it together to solve a mystery.
The Quiet Year: This is a game where everyone has to spend a year preparing for a horrible disaster that they don't know what it is, and do what they think is best to save their community from the coming disaster. Problem solving is the name of the game.
Microscope: Microscope is a game you play before another game. Microscope is a collaborative worldbuilding game where everyone works together to figure out what elements of the setting everyone cares about and wants to explore, and building a setting around those ideas.

Watchers

Apocalypse World: no turn order, meaning players can play whenever they feel comfortable
Dungeon World: Same reasons as Apocalypse World, except for people who want the classic D&D feel. DW also has probably the best handouts of any *World game out there, which are nice for beginners.
Law’s Out: the players are actors on the set of an Old West movie-- games are as fun to watch as they are to play, and the auction mechanic is good for beginners or those uncomfortable with number-crunching.

Six Feats Under Presents: Lasers & Feelings

Blastropodcast oddlookingbird

13th Age 62-2: Duplicates Under Pressure to Eliminate the Dragonborn Mar 28, 2015

Show notes

Easily caught in Laurette Stone's illusionary plot, the Elements are drafted to test the foul experiments that they inspired-- clones of Scarlett dispatched to take down the genuine article! However, even with Mint's sudden revelation of the Moon's true powers, it would appear that the elements will at long last taste defeat at CREAM's hands. Cut, print.
Interactive Radio: Click here when you hear Mint turn and face everyone in the room. Click early at your own peril.
13th Age 62 TabletalkBehind the scenes of a mean trick
Six Feats Under presents: 13th AgeSupport us on Patreon!

13th Age 62-1: Lessons in Intentionally Engineered Shennanigans Mar 21, 2015

Show notes

The Elements at last make their move, splitting up to do what they do best in CREAM's Omen base: ruin everyone's day. Between a tantalizing plan in the cafeteria and the havoc wreaked by Manuél and the snake-people, CREAM cannot continue. Continue. Continue. REDO > END
Six Feats Under presents: 13th AgeSupport us on Patreon!

Last Stand 1-2: Operation 01B ZILLA Mar 21, 2015

Show notes

The Last Stand foundation establishes a foothold in Dubai's peninsulas, and pushes onward into the city proper. The routine mop-up goes sideways, however, when waves crash, the earth rumbles, and a behemoth rises from the ocean behind them in a spreading pool of radioactive waste...
Last Stand Tabletalk
40 minutes. Beware the Un-Nerver.
Six Feats Under presents: Last Stand
PublicOpinion's first 6FU appearance: 13th Age Session 24
Part 1 Part 2
PublicOpinion's Twitter
PublicOpinion's Tumblr

Last Stand 1-1: Operation 01A TOAD Mar 14, 2015

Show notes

In the near future, something terrible has happened. Enormous, hostile creatures spring from nowhere and threaten cities all over the world-- and the agents of the Last Stand foundation are the only ones who can stop them. Veteran Darius Polipsky (Ironicus) leads Sam "Birdie" Valentine (PublicOpinion), "The Bug" (Ambisagrus), Arthur Hawke of "It's Tuesday Morning! with Arthur Hawke" (Medibot), Jasper Waterworth (Gharbad), and the latecomer Rookie (PoorWeather) in a retaliatory strike against the beasts invading Dubai. If Dubai falls, Last Stand's final weapon falls with it-- this truly is humanity's-- well, you know.
Six Feats Under presents: Last Stand
PublicOpinion's first 6FU appearance: 13th Age Session 24
Part 1 Part 2
PublicOpinion's Twitter
PublicOpinion's Tumblr

Last Stand Chat: Risk/Reward Mechanics Mar 14, 2015

Show notes

Medibot, Gnome, Ambisagrus, Ironicus, and Gharbad are joined by special guest PublicOpinion to discuss risk and reward design. These elements appear organically in all sorts of games, but are rarely designed as a core part of a roleplaying experience-- rather, these elements are much more common in directly competitive games. Our panel discusses this phenomenon in preparation for Last Stand, a Fortune engine game just dripping with risks and rewards.
Six Feats Under presents: Last Stand
Games discussed: World of Darkness, Stone Age, Argent: The Consortium, Retro-Causality
PublicOpinion's Twitter
PublicOpinion's Tumblr

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