They Might Be Heroes

Erik here, and I just wanted to make an announcement! We're back! We told you we would be!

I know there were those, even among our cast, who doubted it. Things ended poorly last season, and I personally will take responsibility for a lot of that. However, we're starting fresh and kicking things in to gear. We have our first session scheduled for April 13th, and are hoping to play bi-monthly. We've changed around when we're sitting down to play, so we won't be inflicting our tired exhausted selves upon our listeners.

Also, we've decided to branch out game wise. Last season, They Might Be Heroes had a subtitle of A Dungeons and Dragons podcast. Well, no longer! We're stepping outside the box. I personally own a number of different game systems that I've been itching to try, and we've all been wanting to step outside of the fantasy genre and in to something new. So for the near future we'll be playing short mini-campaigns of each system. We'll put some effort in to explaining the rules as we go, our goal is to put together an episode explaining the rules, and then after the story has played itself out we'll have a review of the system. We'll sit down and get everyone's thoughts on the mini-campaign, and the system as a whole.

First up on the chopping block is the Cortex Roleplaying Game, by Margaret Weis Productions. The Cortex system has the beauty of being a universal system. It's been incorporated by its parent company into games such as Serenity (which is no longer in print), Smallville, Leverage and others. It's received a fair amount of praise, and we're excited to give it a try. We'll be headed into a space opera setting, in an adventure that I've entitled "Recovering the Nefertiti."

Since each of these systems is going to be a new experience for us there will likely be some hiccups. We'll probably screw up some of the rules, but that's all part of the fun in learning a new game! We've also decided to throw another couple twists in this season. First off, Brandon is going to be taking a turn behind the GM's screen in a future game. This means I'll get a chance to sit down and assume the role of a player character. (Brandon can exact revenge for all those hard encounters!)

Our biggest twist, however, is how we're doing characters. At least for the first mini campaign (using the Cortex system) I'll be creating the characters. This will give them a chance to be instantly incorporated into the story. For Cortex I made them all gender neutral, and then we pulled names out of a hat. So each of the players got a random character to play. This will provide a fun and exciting challenge for them as role-players, and will likely bring about hilarity for our audience!

As we begin the campaign I'll post a link to our Obsidian Portal page so that you can take a look at character sheets and the like.

I think I speak for us all when I say that we're excited to be returning to gaming, and to the podcast. We hope that you as listeners will enjoy our adventures. As mentioned above, our first play session is scheduled for April 13, 2013. The first episode should be available not too long afterwards. We invite you to subscribe on iTunes, subscribe to the blog page, and follow us on Twitter (@tmbhpodcast)!

We plan to post a few more blogs between now and the first episode of the new season. Until then, stay safe, and be well, and remember you've always got a seat at our table.

Machee Crickmore

Brandon Matthews

Welcome to the They Might Be Heroes podcast website!

They Might Be Heroes is the recorded adventures of a group of six friends who are playing in a Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition campaign. The adventure takes place in the land of Miraval which is "home brewed" by our Dungeon Master, and several of the races have been renamed for the story world. Our podcast will follow the story that he weaves for our 5 misfit adventurers on.

They Might Be Heroes is picking up not too long into a campaign that our gaming group has been running semi weekly for a little over a month at the time of this post. We play completely over the internet as we all live fairly far apart. Our group has interesting chemistry because we have two husband and wife teams! We utilize RPG Table Online for our combat map needs, and rely on Skype or Google+ for our communication.

At one point during a session one of our players spit balled the idea of podcasting our adventures. So, inspired by fantastic other podcasts such as Critical Hit, our group of players decided that they'd record and publish their antics for others to listen to. We hope you have as much fun listening to us as we have playing the game itself!

Our gaming group is made up of 6 players, all of whom have differing levels of game experience. Here is a brief overview of them all, stay tuned for player and character spotlights to come!

1. Erik: Erik is our dungeon master and the creative lunatic behind the primary story. He comes to the game with the broadest variety of table top roleplaying experience, with more than two decades of tabletop rpg games beneath his belt. He's spent far more time behind the DM screen than behind a character sheet, but is looking to change that in the future. The land of Miraval is his creation, and he leads us through the story in a style all his own. He's been accused more than once of crafting encounters that are too difficult for the players, and 
2. Machee: Machee is playing Zeverai, our warforged runepriest. She come to the group with the second most experience, having been playing role-playing games since she was quite young.
3. Brigham: Brigham, your intrepid host and the technical workhorse for They Might Be Heroes. He had no table top role-playing experience before joining the BoM campaign. He is currently playing Ssskather, our Ssthra (dragonborn) Paladin.
4. Holly: Holly, like her husband Brigham, had very little experience with Dungeons and Dragons prior to being enlisted in this campaign. She played with a very large and vocal group in 2007, however she admits to spending  most of that time as a wall flower, only making herself known for combat. She started out as very tentative about the role-playing aspect with our crew, but now she brings a bright enthusiasm to her character and has really taken to it. Currently she is playing Rose, a ranger. She briefly played Enna, a tielfing bard, but changed for story reasons.
5. Karen: With a few D&D games under her belt, Karen is one of the three women who play with our group. She's playing the half-elven invoker named Ravenne. She and her husband Brandon play from the greatest distance from the rest of the group.
6. Brandon: Like many people, Brandon was introduced to D&D during college in about 2004. He is currently playing Thom, the resident warlock of the group.