Pulp Gamer Out of Character

PGOC 091: The Quest Continues

The Pulp Gamer Crew — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:31:11 -0500

We had a blast at RinCon (be sure to see One Cool Thing) and are now looking forward to TusCon, MACE, and sailing around Mexico and the Caribbean with Gamer Adventures. We were able to enjoy the cooperative game, Witch of Salem several times over RinCon. We also shamelessly plug one of our co-hosts game stores, Hat's Games.

PGOC 090: The Bribe and Dollar Value

The Pulp Gamer Crew — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:01:00 -0400

Our main topic today is about value and what happens when a game changes edition or goes out of print. The game that started this discussion was Tales of the Arabian Nights. Many more are also referenced.

Jess Hartley talks about her appearances on The Gearheart and The Game's the Thing. Don recently appeared in The Tome Show and The Game's the Thing.

PGOC 089: Full Disclosure

The Pulp Gamer Crew — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:00:51 -0400

We congratulate Jason for winning a writing contest with Alpha Omega. We plug Jess Hartley's book, Conventions for the Aspiring Game Professional. The Federal Trade Commission reminds bloggers to disclose their relationship with advertisers. Equinox Roads kicks off our final discussion of ending campaigns.

PGOC 088: Fanticiful Games

The Pulp Gamer Crew — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:42:00 -0400

Its all about the games today - games such as:

PGOC 087: Elder Pronunciation Gods

The Pulp Gamer Crew — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:01:47 -0400

We have another great set of conversations today, most of them centering around your comments and emails. Before getting to that, however, we kick off the day by talking to Jess Hartley about her e-book, Conventions for the Aspiring Game Professional. Our conversations then take us into some about the various versions of Dungeons & Dragons.

Uncle Bear gives us some notes about The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets, a rock band dedicated to promoting the literature of H.P. Lovecraft. Then catches us up on his new adventures in New Mexico with FandomNM.

We bring up some more discussion on the Adventures in Oz and a corresponding blog.

Also find out how you may be able to get a free digital copy of your choice of Accent Your Character somewhere in today's show.

PGOC 086: Player Investment

The Pulp Gamer Crew — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:29:01 -0400

Our crew talks today about encouraging your players to become more invested into your roleplaying campaign world. There are several tips and tricks to increasing their involvement, thus increasing their emotional connection, the richness of the story, and the degree of fun everyone will have.

PGOC 085: Awkward

The Pulp Gamer Crew — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:14:00 -0400

Today, like about every other day, we play games. These games include Le Boomb, Loot, Mesopotamia, A House Divided, Adventures in Oz, Trailblazer, Letter Roll, Bannanagrams, Space Hulk, Terror Thirteen, and Alpha Omega.

RinCon is just coming around the corner. Be sure to join us October 9-11 at the Tucson Convention Center.

PGOC 084: Exclamation Points

The Pulp Gamer Crew — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:27:18 -0400

We are going over your thoughts today. We had a great time with a full studio. Interest in the Gen Con panels were brought up, and we are pleased to announce the first of those have been released.

Kirt brought up some LARP links, such as as the LARPA web site, Mike's Microgames and other freely downloadable LARPS, and Interactive Literature.

Some other games that got brought up include Twilight 2013, Mousegaurd, Battlefleet Gothic, Pandemic, FBI, Geist, Grimm, and Duck Duck Go.

Be sure to check out Accent Your Character, dialect training for roleplayers, storytellers, and other casual pretenders.

RinCon is just coming around the corner. Be sure to join us October 9-11 at the Tucson Convention Center.

PGOC 083: Gen Con and RinCon 2009

The Pulp Gamer Crew — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:17:19 -0400

Today we reflect on Gen Con and start looking forward to RinCon. There is an impressive list of guests as you can tell by the RinCon web site and listening to today's show. We are joined by RinCon director and game designer, Boyan Radakovich. We also welcome Jess Hartley to the crew for a few episodes. More blog support is provided by Uncle Bear.

Some entertaining bits we discovered at Gen Con include Mind Flex, Geek Chic, some paper and the cool GM screen by Fat Dragon Games. Some notable games that get brought up in today's show include Innocents, Pathfinder, and some titles by Atarashi Games.

Both Derek and Jess make an appearance on This Just In from Gen Con! Also take a listen to your favorite bloggers and podcasters through the gradual release of the Gen Con Panels.

PGOC 082: Campaign Metamorphoses

The Pulp Gamer Crew — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0400

We wrap up the month with a discussion on the evolution of campaigns. They evolve and change as the times change with technology, or rules just get updated. This spawns a lot of fun discussion and many campaign settings are brought up.

We do want to share at least a couple of links with you because we are just so pleased to have Uncle Bear back with us again – oh, and don't forget to follow him on Twitter. The girls say he's pretty hot when he is in character.

PGOC 081: The World's First Gamemaster's Conference

The Pulp Gamer Crew — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0400

So far as we can tell, we held the world's first gamemaster's conference, at least of our kind, with the Southern Arizona Gamers Association (SAGA). If you are in improving your game, this is a must-listen episode. We touch on a number of tips given by the presenters. Our keynote speaker was John Wick of Play Dirty and RPG fame. He and everyone else gave some great advise we were all able to grow on.

PGOC 080: 109 degrees

The Pulp Gamer Crew — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0400

It's hot in the desert, so we stay in and play games, like we need an excuse. Today's discussion includes Geist: The Sin Eaters, Pathfiner, Arcane Legions, City in the Sands, The Chain game, Station Master, Express, and the National Security Decision Making Game.

PGOC 079: Screwing Up

The Pulp Gamer Crew — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 19:30:09 -0400

This one is driven by you and made up almost entirely by your feedback. We start the show by announcing the winner of our Trivathon contest who was awarded digital copies of Accent Your Character and The Game's the Thing style chips.

We had a number of links come up in todays show to share. These include Tasty Minstrel Games, some information about a D&D summer camp, and MACE.

PGOC 078: Memorable Characters

The Pulp Gamer Crew — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Our main topic of which we spend a great deal of time on is how to bring characters to life, both as a GM/Storyteller and as a player character.

The games referenced in today's show include Night Horrors, FBI, Innocents, Duck Duck Go, and Forgotten Realms.

PGOC 077: Origins 2009

The Pulp Gamer Crew — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:51:00 -0400

The bulk of today's show is about the games released and the events around Origins, and there were plenty. We were therefore only able to cover handful of highlights.

Games today include Triviathon, Penny for My Thoughts, Steam, Say Anything, Pandemic, Mouseguard, Dominion, Arcane Legions, and Are you the Traitor?

We also mentioned the awesome gaming tables by Geek Chic, and the d-total.

Cody and John released the board game panel. Dan and Sara released the Origins Awards.

We also mentioned Eddy Webb's White Wolf podcast and welcome him to the mix of podcasters.

We add Sierra Madre Games to the list of Tucson game companies we started last month.

In other news, Don was elected to the GAMA board of directors.

And, we make one last plug as you hope you will join us for the Southern Arizona Game Master's Conference.

We have also heard from Liz Danforth about games in libraries who shares some great gems for us in her blog.

Look for a surprise contest in today's show.

PGOC 076: Gaming in the Old Pueblo

The Pulp Gamer Crew — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:19:20 -0400

We couldn't help but notice the mini-mecca of gaming that Tucson has become and decided to spend a few minutes on the topic. Aside from the grand Pulp Gamer Media Network and all of its glory, we have several stores, publishers, and other outlets. The Games the Thing is an independent podcast that includes Ron Blessing, with several credits now to his name. Other media outlets include Uncle Bear and Cerise. Publishers in town include Good Company Games, Tasty Minstrel, Shifting Skies, Ship of Fools, and Master Pieces. Dice manufacturer, Crystal Caste calls Tucson home. Some game stores include Nemesis Games, Hat's Games, and 3 Game Daze stores. The Southern Arizona Gamers Association keeps a calendar on meetup.com, and holds the highlight event of the year, RinCon.

A handful of other topics in today's show includes Hasbro teaming up with Discovery for some new television. The Dead Matter winds up post-production. Dialect training presentations, Accent Your Character is increasing its reach. Evil Hat has a pdf guarantee. Uncle Bear makes Wired Magazine's top 100 geeks to follow on twitter. White Glove Movies by Mayfair Games is soon to launch.

Origins Game Fair is just around the corner - several of us will be there.

Games covered in today's show include Alpha Omega (also covered by Uncle Bear at examiner.com), Armory Reloaded, PS238, Cornerstone, Candamir, Elasund, The Day After Ragnarok, and Age of Conan.

Be sure to join in on the discussion by emailing us, commenting, or joining our facebook group.

We talked about a number of other podcasts including a special episode of Yog Sothoth, a special episode of The Game's the Thing, Grammar Girl, Fear the Boot, 2d6 Feet in a Random Direction, Have Games Will Travel, and Game On!

PGOC 075: D-Day

The Pulp Gamer Crew — Mon, 25 May 2009 16:59:37 -0400

We are still reminiscing about the trip to Las Vegas and shout out to one of our friends we seem to only be seeing on that trip, Alan Sugarbaker of Ogre Cave and now doing a lot of work for RPG.net. Uncle Bear has released a couple of interviews with Don Dehm and Ron Blessing that you may enjoy. We also call back to the passing of Dave Arneson and pointed out an interview we did with him last year.

A lot of things are coming up to include Origins and Gen Con. At Gen Con, we have put together an entire list of events to include our Saturday Night Meet & Greet at The House.

We have now taken audio production in a new direction with our first audio fiction release, Smoky Mountain Horrors with Weston Ochse. These are available from your favorite audiobook provider, along with our dialect training series, Accent Your Character.

Games in today's show includes Exalted, Barbarossa, Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies, Stone Age, Detroit-Cleveland Grand Prix, Traveler, the Scion Companion.

Our main topic is with World War II and started from a discussion on our facebook group. Additional games brought up on this include Weird Wars, Flames of War, Dark Heresy, Gurps WWII, Hollow Earth Expedition, Cold City, and Grey Ranks.

PGOC 074: Haunted Encounters

The Pulp Gamer Crew — Wed, 06 May 2009 13:52:40 -0400

Our main topic today is ghosts – where to find them and how to use them in your game.

We returned home from the GAMA trade show with a whole list of games to explore. Others are more related to our main topic. Some of these include Arcane Legions, Are you the Traitor, Battle Spirits, Pack & Stack, Amazonas, Spirit Slayers, 10 Commandments, Bill of Rights, Savage Worlds, Inspectres, Green's Guides to Ghosts. and Houses of the Blooded, Lost Souls, and Ghostwalk.

We also mention several sources in and out of the Pulp Gamer Network. We welcome Game On! to the network. We also mentioned the fundraiser by Fear the Boot. Be sure to take the survey that Podgecast has put together. The Games the Thing has entered into the Ennies. The D6 Generation had an awesome interview with Curt Covert. Don appeared on an episode of Myriad Games. We also referenced the Small World parody.

We also gave mention to our facebook group. Be sure to hop on over there for additional discussions. We'll see you at Random Con!

PGOC 073: Controversial Games

The Pulp Gamer Crew — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:44:46 -0400

We just returned from the Caribbean and are headed out to the GAMA Trade show in Las Vegas. Our main topic is controversial games. We touch on a number of heated titles such as War on Terror, Fishing for Terrorists, Suicide Bomber, Killing Puppies for Satan, Stoner Flux, Playing Gods, Ghettopoly, Blasphemy, Kablamo, the Ouija Board, Hot Chicks, Choice and Blood, and Juden Raus. During the discussion, reference was also made to the move, Paradise Now. Of course we can't help but to bring up the ignorance of Jack Chick.

We cover a number of great games and supplements in today's show. These include Paranoia, Night Stalkers of Hunter the Vigil, Pillars of the Earth, Dominion, 10 days in Europe, Mortal Coil, Gemstones, Dino Dice, Silverton, Ptolus, Arcana Evolved, Savage Worlds, and Hey! That's My Fish!

We welcome a number of shows to the network. These include Myriad Games, Fear the Boot, and The D6 Generation. We also shout out to our friends at Brilliant Gameologists and All Games Considered. In other news, we talk about Monte Cook and dungeonaday.com.

PGOC 072: Jamaican Rum

The Pulp Gamer Crew — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:06:00 -0400

We are sailing the open seas with Gamer Adventures, Mayfair Games, Fear the Boot, and 4500 of our closest friends. Forty-one of us signed up with Gamer Adventures to cruise the Caribbean, play some board games to include a qualifying Settlers of Catan tournament, drink rum, explore Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, Key West, and of course our originating port, Fort Lauderdale. Listen in on our experience and be sure to join us next time. Our discussion continues on this episode of Fear the Boot.

We are joined by Larry Roznai of Mayfair Games, Kim Maita of Gamer Adventures, Dan Repperger of Fear the Boot, and the winner of the latest Settler's of Catan qualifying tournament, Darren Lacoste.

PGOC 071: Bon Voyage!

The Pulp Gamer Crew — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 17:16:35 -0400

We are now headed of to the Caribbean with Gamer Adventures and Mayfair Games! We'll do some recording on the boat so you can share it at least some of the fun.

We touched on a handful of board games, to include Catan Geographies Germany, Hey! That's my fish!, Monuments, The Dutch Golden Age, and Formula D.

Asmodee has a new customer service email, contact_us@asmodee.com.

On the topic of RPGs, we discuss White Wolf's, Seers of the Throne for Mage the Awakening. That ended up launching an entire discussion about designing good antagonists for your roleplaying game.

Berin gives us a good look at Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook II and gave us links to all sorts of blogs on the topic.

Atomic Array: Episode 018: Player's Handbook 2
Game Cryer: Player's Handbook 2 Review
Gnome Stew: A Veteran GM's Take on GMing and the PHB2
Critical Hits: The Avenger
Campaign Mastery: The Barbarian
Uncle Bear: The Bard
Critical Ankle Bites: The Druid
Kobold Quarterly: Review: Player's Handbook 2
The Core Mechanic: The Invoker
Flames Rising: The Shaman
Stupid Ranger: The Sorcerer
Musings of the Chatty DM: The Warden

PGOC 070: More On Mechanics

The Pulp Gamer Crew — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 14:09:00 -0500

We add Berin Kinsman, AKA Uncle Bear, to our group today and continue our discussion on Game Mechanics. Berin helped us trace the discussion even farther back to an article by Ron Edwards. Berin also references the RPG Blogger's Network, Musings of the Chatty DM, and The Core Mechanic. He also talks about his Get Your Dice Off My Lawn contest.

Jeremiah had a list of news notes to share around a board game resurgence, Hasbro's cash flow, Nerds at Heart, and Con of the North.

Of course a number of games came up today. Those of note include Mouse Guard, Tigris & Euphrates, and Pandemic. Jason has been editing Verge Recharged. Its still in playtest mode and all feedback is welcome.

Feedback included a link to Brilliant Gameologists about gaming environments from a previous episode.

We also want to welcome The Game's the Thing to the Pulp Gamer Media Network!

PGOC 069: Mechanics Matter

The Pulp Gamer Crew — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 19:53:54 -0500

We have a studio full and a great time. We talked about the gaming environment and finally closed the show with our discussion of mechanics and how much of an impact they have on the roleplaying game. We were also very excited to find from CNN a singles venue around games called Play Date.

We touched on a few games today, but some of those most notable include Empire Builder, EABAnywhere, and what is now called The Sales Activator shown to me by my sales friend from New View Group.

We almost got Uncle Bear to join us today and expect him soon. He was the inspiration for our main topic. Be sure to visit his blog and perhaps you will find your muse as well.

Peter contacted us about coldwars by hmgs. I look forward to hearing more about it!

PGOC 068: Coordinated Campaigns

The Pulp Gamer Crew — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 20:59:29 -0500

We have a new guest we hope will continue to join us. Jason has been accused of being the best GM in Tucson and certainly had a lot to contribute to our discussion on coordinated campaigns. We talked about how to get 20+ people together to play in the same cohesive story and have a good time doing it.

We started with a good story from NPR, Interactive Games Make Museums a Place to Play. Making education fun is always something we have stood by and it makes us happy every time we hear of it.

We touched on several games in todays show. Those that received the most attention included Shear Panic, Shogun, and Silverton. Don also spent an evening playing CashFlow by Robert Kiyosaki. The game night was run by a really great group of people from Nouveau Riche.

We are pleased to be included on War Pig Radio with Atomic Array and Fear the Boot. This is a great streaming project that will be of interest to a lot of folks.

Derek took at look at Lovecraftian Tales from the Table. This DVD is chalked full of goodies that Derek went on about for quite some time. Its an exciting packet of Yog Radio and other Cthuloid goodies.

PGCO 067: Tear Down the Lights

The Pulp Gamer Crew — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:52:28 -0500

The year begins anew and we start off having a great time with a bunch of games. Today's discussion included Bella Sara, Sutter's Mill, Monuments, Express, Lunar Rails, Galaxy Trucker, Silverton, Tabogans of Doom, Say Anything, Battleship, The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Prime Time Adventures, Call of Cthulhu's Mountains of Madness, Titan, To Court the King, Hive, Big Big Battles, and the new credit card version of Monopoly.

We also talked some about the new Dungeons & Dragons character generator that is available online for beta testing.

The online sources we touched on was Gleemax, Game Table Online, Yog Sothoth, and The Master Plan.