The CDAPS: LOT16, Episode 13 a

Lovingly titled "The Gang's all here. LET'S DO THIS!" Hmmm.... I wonder what's going to happen?

The CDAPS: LOT16, Episode 8c

Hello, Citizens.

Sorry it's been a while since we updated the CDAP series, but things have been a little crazy on this end. No excuse, to be sure, but still…

Regardless, we hope you enjoy this week's installment, entitled We Who are About to Die, We Kill You First!!

The CDAPS: LOT16, Episode 8b

Greetings, Citizens!

Sorry about the delay in getting this to you. I (Jeff) have noticed that I've been doing an increasingly crappy job putting stuff out as the summer has dragged on (and on, and on and on…).

Nevertheless, here is the second half of LOT16, session 8. "Fixed Dirty Fighting."



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 39 - Cliques and You!

Greetings, Citizens!

So, first things first. Let's set the record straight. There are perfectly good explanations as to why we've not posted anything for such a long time. So the first: two weeks ago, I (Jeff) was going to post another CDAPS episode, but I had a seizure, and that threw pretty much everything off for me. It sucks, but they happen. Then in the middle of last week, I was planning to buckle down and get this episode ready and posted, I had a niece. She's cute as a bug, too.

Anyway, here we are again. We have the wonderful Maddy, the tolerable Matt and the insufferable Jeff in the CS broadcasting studio to discuss various aspects of cliques within roleplaying games and why they tend to pop up. Along with that, you'll get a taste of some of the epic fails we've seen as gamers and GMs in the past, too.

Again, I'm sorry about the delays. As fans of Palladium, we shouldn't be strangers to it, but it's still no fun when it happens. I'll try to do better in the future. (Kevin, please don't take that the wrong way. Love your stuff, keep it coming :) )

Carry on, Citizens!

The CDAPS: LOT16, Episode 6b

Greetings, Citizens!

Welcome to another CDAPS episode! This week, we're proud to bring you a story entitled "Red Ed's Redemption." Also, there's an epic epilogue … of sorts. The story ain't over, but you can see things starting to come together.

Episode 36 - We Suck, and That's Okay!

Greetings, Citizens!

The title kind of says it all, right? Everyone sucks at something (except for us--it's not like we're ever late putting out episodes…), and Matt brings a novel idea to the table this week: it's okay if you don't have mad skills in everything! We can all improve at something, even if we think we're perfect. Maybe especially then…

Except us. We're perfect.

So sit back and enjoy as we discuss some solid advice from Brandon Sanderson about … well, letting yourself suck.

Carry on, citizens!

The CDAPS: LOT16, Episode 5b

Again, sorry for the delay in this week's release. I've been getting increasingly sick, and getting better has been consuming most of my time.

Regardless, we hope you enjoy this installment of LOT16, titled "United … Against the Llama." You can probably piece together what's about to go down...

Episode 35 - Reiterating, Chauvinism is NOT Cool

Greetings, Citizens!

Now, you may have read the title and read  a little snark into it. I'd be lying if I (Jeff) said I didn't intend any, especially with the chosen intro and outro music this episode. That being said, it isn't our intention to downplay or justify the overt (and sometimes not so overt) chauvinism and objectification of women within nerd culture. A Chainmail Bikini is NOT equal to an actual suit of armor!!  Recently, with such projects as The Hawkeye Initiative, this issue has gained a wider audience, but there's still a lot of ground to make up.

The Coalition States have long been held up as the standard for bigotry and inequality. But this podcast is going to make that leap and take a stand against the objectification of women, especially in "nerd culture," where it seems to be so pervasive. Another article you can take a look at is this one on the Artifice. Don't be intimidated by how long it seems--most of the page is made up of comments.

Please comment on this post. I know we didn't ask for any responses on this topic within the recording, but this is an issue that affects each and every one of us in the hobby. Whether you love or hate the scantily-clad images of post-apocalyptic females, your opinion on this matter is one that really can make a difference in the way people see our subculture.

Carry on, citizens.

The CDAPS: LOT16, Episode 4a

Greetings, Citizens!

My sincerest apologies for the late release this week. From this point on, I think we're going to try and release episodes on Mondays so we can do all the post-production over the weekend, but there shouldn't be much of a change beyond that. Besides, everything's coming out at the beginning of the week anyway, right?

REGARDLESS, here is the next section of the adventure, LOT16. As clues and action continues to pile upon itself, there's a continuing risk of the entire thing spinning out of control ... which it nearly does!

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.

The CDAPS: LOT16, Episode 3a

Greetings, Citizens.

It brings us great pleasure on this fine holiday to bring you the next installment of LOT16.



As always, you'll get a little bit of a refresher on what happened last time, and then you're off to the proverbial races with more mutated martial artist animals than you can (or should) shake a stick at.

Enjoy! And happy holidays!

Carry on, citizens.

Episode 33 - The Deadboys' Top Ten RIFTS World Books

Season's greetings, citizens!

Yes, I know we're a bit behind schedule, but fear not! With that slight delay comes (what we hope) is one of our best episodes yet!

The three of us were all excited to discuss our top three RIFTS world books (although we didn't set out to focus on RIFTS…), and that excitement shows through in a big way. This episode is certainly one where we want your input and feedback.

PLEASE comment below and tell us what your favorite world book(s) are and why. There have to be more opinions out there than just ours. Alternatively, you can send us an email at coalitiondeadboys@gmail.com and let us know. You can also send hate mail/flame mail/feedback to that address, too.

Again, thank you for your patience, and have a happy holiday!

Carry on, citizens.

The CDAPS: LOT16, Episode 2c

Greetings, citizens!

We rejoin our group today for the final episode of the second session in LOT16.



So prepare, teams Walrus and Llama. Your characters are about to get sucked into this thing together--for better or worse.

Carry on, citizens!

Episode 32 - Deutchland, Deutchland, Uber Alles!

Greetings, Citizens!

Today, we managed to make a trip across the Atlantic Ocean, and we're now in the beautiful New German Republic! And although they treat D-Bees with a little more respect than we do back home, it's almost like being back in Chi-Town! What with all the power armor … the three of us have been in mecha heaven!



Anyway, while recording this, the folks we hitched a ride with got a little tanked on the local brews and  are now in the hands of the Splugorth. Can't really say I'm upset about it -- those guys were jerks. But still… I'm not sure how we're going to get back to the CS now. We'll check in again in about two weeks.

Until then, 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 30 - Getting Back Together with Nate

Hello, Citizens!

Well, Nate is fresh back from the gaming show in Vegas, and he's here to tell us all about it. 

Unfortunately, I wasn't in on this one, so that's all I can say. I'll be just as surprised as you while I listen.

Carry on, citizens!

Episode 27 - The Deadboys are Going Rogue!

Hello again, Citizens!

First off, I (Jeff) want to apologize for this post being late. I've been having some technical difficulties and haven't been able to get it up until now.

So, here's the question of the day. How useful is a rogue, really? When you've got a barbarian that has an absurd amount of M.D.C., how big a role does a rogue character play within a party?



As Matt points out, Palladium makes a huge rules distinction between fighting classes like a barbarian and a roguish/thief class: one of the main ones is that if you want to play a roguish character, one thing you can't really do is get hit. Palladium is good about limiting the power of a rogue, but what about a barbarian? Listen as we chat about how other players can work with a combat-heavy character that can "discover" all the traps within a dungeon for themselves and contribute to the story.

Carry on, citizens.

The CDAPS: LOT 16, Episode 2

Greetings, citizens and my most sincere apologies.

I know I've not been very good to get these episodes out on time--I try to have everything posted early each Friday morning, but that rarely seems to happen nowadays. No, it isn't intended to be a satire of Palladium Books and the delays that seem to plague a lot of its projects. It's just that . . . well, I (Jeff) kinda forget about stuff until very late Thursday night. That being said, I'm going to try doing better in the future (knocking on wood).

That being said, we hope you enjoy the second part of LOT 16, the first campaign brought to you by the Coalition Deadboys Actual Play Series.



We live for feedback, so if you feel so inclined, please give us a rating on iTunes, leave comments here or get involved in the community on g+. We're also on Facebook, Obsidian Portal and RPG.net. You can also send us an email directly at coalitiondeadboys@gmail.com.

Until next time, keep clear of the mutagenic goo and keep your heads down.

Carry on, citizens.

Episode 26 - Board Games!

Greetings, Citizens!

Every once in a while, there comes a time when RPGs just don't work within a group for some reason. Maybe one or two people in the group are self-conscious about playing in character. Maybe they're just not keen on the idea of role playing. Whatever the case is, board games are a great go-to for a lot of gamers looking for a self-contained experience.



Today's special guest, Kelly has created a multiplayer game called Realm Warfare. Although it may have been inspired by chess initially, this game takes all the chess-like concepts and turns them up to eleven. And puts them in a fantasy setting. We also talk about various games that we like and why we like them, but the meat of the episode focuses on Realm Warfare.

Kelly is looking to get a Kickstarter going when he knows he has some support behind the idea, so go to the Facebook group and join so he can know how many people are interested in getting this off the ground.

Again, here is the link to the Realm Warfare group on Facebook. Once he gets enough people in the group, he'll launch the Kickstarter. Until then, you can go to the Realm Warfare website to learn more about the game.

Until next time, carry on, citizens.