How We Play

This month we talk about casting choices, in particular in this month's game, The Tribunal. When should a GM consider assigning roles to players instead of letting them pick? When mustn't a GM do that? How can we cast players in a responsible way?

The game: The Tribunal, a Nordic LARP by J. Tuomas Harviainen

Hosts: Angela, Dave and Mikael

Episode links:

• Hammer Games.
• Hammer Games on Facebook.
• Hamilton LARP on Facebook.
• The Association for the advancement of rights for Fairytale Creatures.

Music by Jason Pfaff, released under the CC BY-SA license.

This month we talk about our playtest of Do: Fate of the Flying temple, and discuss young gamers. How are their needs addressed by the industry? How is RPGing different when there are kids in the group? And much more.

The game: Do: Fate of the Flying Temple by Sean Nittner (beta playtest version), a new adaptation of the excellent slapstick fantasy game Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple by Daniel Solis.

Hosts:Dave, and Mikael

Guests:Derek, Elise, Mike and Noa

Episode links:

• YA fiction: Sally Slick and the Steel Syndicate.
• Role Blocks.
• Dave's custom Do:FotFT character sheet

Music by Jason Pfaff, released under the CC BY-SA license.

This month we played Fate Accelerated Edition and explore the consequences of having lots of leeway in character and plot development. We discuss character immersion and on-the-fly gaming.

The game: Fate Accelerated Edition, in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire

Hosts: Dave, Mikael

Guests: Courtney, Emily, Marcus, Susie

Episode links:

• Fate Accelerated Edition
• Campaign website (if you're curious)
• Apocalypse World

Music by Jason Pfaff, released under the CC BY-SA license.

This episode we play Psi*Run, and look at its narrative structure. How does the structure of the game affect the story? How does narrative structure affect the experience of gaming, and how is this different for one-shot, short-run and campaign-length games?

The game: Psi*Run

Hosts:Angela, Dave, and Mikael

Guests:Cats, Jake and Kona the dog

Sound effects:Kona (scratching, begging), Cats (doggie treat bag noises), Mikael (cell phone)

Episode links:

• Psi*Run at Night Sky Games.
• The Walking Eye: actual play part 1, actual play part 2, review, interview with Meguey Baker.
• Fiasco
• Kriegszeppelin Valkyrie may be found in Worlds on Fire, an expansion for Fate Core.
• Escape: The Curse of the Temple

Music by Jason Pfaff, released under the CC BY-SA license.

This episode we play Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, and examine how well this system models the feel of a comic book story. This leads into a discussion of game content: when the subject matter is gory, sexual, disturbing or otherwise potentially objectionable, how do we handle this?

The game: Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, from Margaret Weis Productions. As of this post there is no link on the publisher's page, but see the RPGGeek page.

Hosts:Dave and Mikael

Guests:Hans and Kel (plus Jake very briefly)

Episode links:

• Marvel Heroic on RPGGeek
• Making Superman Truly Invulnerable In Fate Core, by Ryan M. Danks
• Super-mathematics

Music by Jason Pfaff, released under the CC BY-SA license.

This episode: we play a Nordic LARP. We discuss this game and LARPs in general: rules, GMing challenges, immersion, and what does "high-bleed" mean?

The game: The Hirelings, a Nordic LARP about D&D-ish treasure hunters

Hosts:Angela, Dave, Leanne and Mikael

Guests: Jake and Mark

Episode links:

• Johanna Koljonen introduces Nordic larp.
• Nordic Larp for Noobs
• Despite being suspiciously similar to our show name, we'll assume that Why We Play – An introduction to Nordic Larp is not intentionally copying us.

Music by Jason Pfaff, released under the CC BY-SA license.