Episode 42 - How to Campaign in 90 Seconds!

Greetings, Citizens!

First, to address the elephant in the room, no. We haven't disappeared. You know your coalition government far better than that. That real-life monster reared its ugly head again and prevented me from getting time to edit the podcast. But here we are! Hopefully we can get back on track.

So, we've been asked several times (hi, Dave.) if we could do some more actual roleplaying in our episodes. Naturally, being dumb, I (Jeff) thought that meant y'all wanted some actual play episodes. Now, don't worry; those aren't going anywhere. So if you like the CDAPS episodes, you'll still get those on an alternating basis. But in this episode, we took things in a different direction.

Random character generation, random scenario generation and go! You'll have to listen to the episode to get the full effect, but letting the GM run the scenario with a pair of percentile dice and the players using a d20 for everything? Yeah. It was hilarious. And awesome.



So enjoy this week's episode, How to Campaign in 90 Seconds!

Carry on, Citizens.

Episode 41 - Archetypes we Love, Part One of … Many

Greetings, Citizens!

This week's topic is a beefy one, and one we know we'll not get to the end of in just one episode. So, we're going to break it up into several different parts. The trick is that we don't know when those other parts will come (Click the "archetypes" tag for the others as they become available).

Thieves. Tanks. Gandalf-ey wizards. Luke Skywalker. What do they all have in common? They're all based on a sort of archetype. In this episode, we start to scratch the surface of what archetypes we like and why we like them. Also, Matt gives us a good idea of what O.C.C.s and R.C.C.s are great fits for the type of character you might want to play. Well, as long as you tend to play along the same lines as Maddy and Jeff…


Carry on, Citizens!

Episode 40 - The Savage Rifts in Our Broadcasting Schedule

Hi, Citizens.

We really blew it last month, didn't we? I suppose it was inevitable, what with the end of the school year and all, plus trying to coordinate the schedules of three very busy people. Fortunately, Matt gets to do the coordinating. I (Jeff) just bring the computer and recording equipment.

Regardless, I'm sure you heard the news about the Rifts for Savage Worlds Kickstarter, which successfully funded (with over 54 times what they were aiming for). To be sure, it's an amazing time to be a fan of Rifts or any Palladium Books game.



Basically, we just spend a good share of the time geeking out about the fun times we've had in Savage Worlds systems, and things like that. It's a total nerdfest. But hey, that's what makes us fun, right? And Maddy's here, so she keeps Matt and I under control. Mostly.

Carry on, citizens!

Episode 34 - Why Do We All Love Bad Guys So Much?

Greetings, Citizens!

Sorry about the little technical glitch last week. We still don't know what the problem was, and we don't expect to ever find out. So, you can sleep better at night knowing that the Coalition States have all the technology you need, we just don't always know how to fix it when things go wrong.

This weeks episode is a lot of fun. Think of a villain. Go ahead. Now think about why you like him or her so much. There are a lot of different reasons for each person, and Nate, Matt and Jeff flesh out some of their favorite villains and why they like each one of them. It's a great discussion, and one that you absolutely won't want to miss if you feel that your villains are two-dimensional or are falling flat.

Carry on, citizens.

Episode 31 - Four-Star General Crunch!

Greetings, citizens!

There is a lot to apologize for in this episode. The first thing is that it's so late. But don't worry. We'll have an episode of LOT16 up at the end of the week to make up for it. Promise. :) The second is the sound quality and continuity of this episode. Apparently, a computer shutting down as an audio project is saving can have harmful effects upon said audio file. I salvaged as much as I could. Most of the first third is okay-ish. The last two-thirds … well, let's just be thankful we have them.



Anyway, this is certainly our crunchiest episode yet--we really get into the details of stats, what bonuses they provide, and various examples of how a game might progress given certain scenarios. I really wish we hadn't lost that extra audio, because I think this was probably one of our best recordings ever, in terms of information.

But who knows? Maybe when we get Nate on the mic, we can revisit this subject and reach the ultimate five-star general rank. Now that's crunchy.

Carry on, citizens.

Episode 25 - Like an Over-Saturated Super-Sponge

Greetings, Citizens.

Has it been two weeks already? The time really goes by quickly here in the Deadboys Studios.

Anyway, in discussing what to talk about this week, we came up with an interesting topic: what is it with all the superhero stuff? There are good points on both sides of the argument about whether we've got too much or not enough. But for the sake of argument, let's take a deeper look at it.



It's interesting to look at how the culture has come to dominate the media in the last ten or so years, but we should also be asking ourselves whether we're setting ourselves up to just get burned out. Being careful about re-running the same campaign is a given, but sometimes campaigns (especially in a game with a long-standing group) need some spice to them. Take a listen for what we have to say about this, and some good storytelling ideas, as well. As always, this is an interesting topic.

Carry on, Citizens.

Episode 23 - Metahumans Rising and Other Strangeness

Greetings, subjects!

And yes, you read that right. The Coalition has reorganized slightly, and you've all lost your citizenship. the best way to get it back is to back the Metahumans Rising Kickstarter, as it's the fastest and lets the CS know your information. Or we could get it the old-fashioned way. But that involves a lot more bullets, so it's better for all of us if you go look at the Kickstarter.

But today, you're in for a treat. We have with us the creator of said project, and he answers questions and gives insight into what makes Metahumans Rising such a great and unique game. (Spoilers: the mechanics are different than most games out there!) There are a lot of reasons to be interested in this game, and we were pleased to have him on the show.



After letting Dave get back to his normal life, the three of us (again, you read that right. Jeff and Matt are joined today by Matt's player, Lee) discuss different systems that we'd be interested in playing, the various reasons we'd like to play them, etc. In all, I think this is our best episode yet, and I hope you enjoy it!

Also, by way of housekeeping, we're planning on using this episode as this week's release, and resuming two weeks from Friday. That means you can look for a new episode on or very close to July 31.

Carry on, Subjects!

Episode 21 - In Which We All Meet at Space-Arby's

Greetings, Citizens!

And is this the normal font? It looks weird this time around for some reason...



Anyway, we have a very special treat for you today, and not just for the simple fact that the episode is about half the length of a normal one. This week, we have two, count 'em, two guests to discuss the creation process of a RPG. If you've never really considered what goes into a system or setting, this will be a big eye-opener.

Carry on, Citizens!

Episode 20 - Palladium Open House Redux, then Bob Walks Into a Bar

Greetings again, Citizens!

It's been far too long, I know. However, I hope we'll make up for it this time because we have the Magnificent Maddie along with us!



Anyway, Matt was at the Palladium Open House; and if you were there, odds are you saw him passing out cards with our information on them. Feel free to pass those cards along, and spread the love of Palladium's games. The system may not be the most popular, but hey, they sure know how to create an immersive environment for players, right?

Finally, after an overview of the fun Maddie and Jeff missed, the conversation moved toward a slightly different track: how do you get your players together in the first place? You could have them all get together in a bar, but how cliche is that? Really! Each of us take it in turns to offer ideas as to what can be a good solution to this, but as you know, we're not the ultimate authority on things of this nature. . . . yet. Please offer feedback on g+, Facebook, Twitter, on our email address, or anywhere else you might be able to find us. Seriously, we love doing this show, but we realize it's not just for us, it's for you--so we can share our passion for these games with you.

Also, I want to do two things here. I want to apologize for the terrible sound quality. As I've mentioned many times before, the recording equipment I have is twitchy at the best of times, and downright unusable at the worst. But that also segues wonderfully into the other thing I wanted to mention, and that is a gigantic shout-out to friend of the show, Gilstam, A.K.A. Dave. I also gave you a special mention before the episode started. That's irony for you! You realize that your recording quality is far below where you'd like it to be, then UPS brings you new equipment (and a new book to burn through!

Anyway, I think I've taken enough of your time tonight. Have a relatively safe night, citizens.

Episode 19 - The Ears of a Roleplaying Game

Greetings, Citizens!

It's been fairly busy at Deadboys HQ, what with all the public executions normal things and all. Sorry for getting this to you a little later in the day than normal as a result, but hopefully you like it all the more!



Today, we're pleased to bring you our first Double Feature in a while. For the first topic, we discussed something that is destined to be in every roleplaying game, no matter what the topic, setting, time period or even game designer—if you guessed dice, you're wrong, and we'll invite you to the next round of executions barbecues we have. Naturally, we're talking about the NPC; which, like the ears are often some of the most overlooked parts of the body. Palladium or not, the NPC is going to be a mainstay in any RPG. In our first part of the double feature, we look at things to do and things to avoid when using an NPC. Naturally, if you have suggestions or comments or things we just forgot, please let us know on g+ or in the comments below.

Our second feature is one that we're sure every Palladium player—regardless of how long you've been playing—will love. Ever wonder how to make a workable character in about 15 minutes when the average is three to four hours? Well, Matt is willing and able to give you all the information you need to get that character cranked out. Now, instead of spending those four hours making a single character, you can toss out 16 of them.

In the meantime, behave yourselves, citizens. Take a trip over to Kickstarter and support our friend Howard Tayler. Also, if you haven't checked out his site, go over and read some Schlock Mercenary and get a feel for what it's all about.

Lastly, we're planning on beginning to release Actual Play episodes on the podcast feed next week, so if you've been looking for a place to listen to these adventures you've heard so much about, you'll soon be in luck!

Carry on, citizens.