Virtual Play

Hi,Welcome to a longer than usual episode of Virtual Play, clocking in at approximately 75 minutes.  Bill and I talk about games from Origins and Dexcon, as well as some local games.  The main lesson for me from listening to the games is to think about the effect of the game's mechanics on the flow of an adventure and vice versa.  The example we talk about involves a Night's Black Agents game where I used some modified rules that I thought would make the characters more successful in their actions.  And they were, but because the setup for the adventure involved the PCs as part of an international, intergovernmental law enforcement task force, the adventure played out more like a police procedural than a spy thriller.  Other highlights include looks at Infinite Galaxies, a "Powered by the Apocalypse" science fiction setting that reminded me of seeing Star Wars for the first time, and a game Bill is co-authoring called Nitrate City, which uses Fate Accelerated  in a noiresque setting of film characters come to

Bill and I are once again joined by Hannah to talk about games from Camp Nerdly.  This show contains excerpts from Star Wars d6, Little Wizards, a Hellboy themed RPG, Night's Black Agents and Action Park, a parsely style game.  Duration is just under an hour.  Thanks for listening!Mel

Bill and I talk about some of our recent experiences with games using cards for conflict resolution.  I recently played God-KIng, a game by Daniel Cruz Chan, that uses a normal deck of playing cards in places of dice for conflict resolution.  Basically, in each conflict, players are dealt four cards and add one card from two that they already are holding.  Red suits are successes in mental conflicts; black suits are successes in physical conflicts.  Jokers indicate an outomatic loss, while aces indicate an automatic win--and aces trump jokers. I thoroughly enoyed the game and could see porting the card-based resolution mechanic for other uses.  Bill talks about using the Deck of Fate in Fate Core. The deck replaces fudge diceand also includes aspects written on the card that can be used to shape the fiction, invoked as aspects, and other ways.  This episode is approximately 55 minutes long.  Thanks for listening!Mel

Hi,  In this episode Bill and I are joined by Ben Forest to talk about immersion in roleplaying games.  We'll use a couple of excerpts from Traveller games.  Ben ran one of the games; in the other the GM was Adam D.  Unsurprisingly, our conclusion on immersion is that it means different things to different people!Mel

Bill and I had a great time at the Dreamation RPG convention last week in Morristown.  I was able to play or run seven games and all of them were a blast.  This show is about a Dungeon World adventure I ran.  Bill pointed out that he runs split parties differently than I do, and I think his method is better!  Rather than run scenes sequentially, as I have been doing, he runs them simultaneously.  This is our discussion about that.  The episode runs at approximately 56 minutes.  Enjoy the show!Mel

At Gencon, Bill played in a game of Timewatch ran by Kevin Kulp, the game's author!  Timewatch is a new game being released by Pelgrane Press.  In Timewatch, the player characters are part of an organization whose mission is to preserve the legitimate time stream of history.  Kevin ran an adventure titled "A Thief in the Night", which saw the characters travel in time from spaceships of the future, to pre-Revolutionary France, to the American West in the 19th century.  Bill and I talk about the game in terms of how time is used in Timewatch, as well as some things for a GM to think about while running Timewatch or perhaps any time travel game.  The episode clocks in at just under an hour.  Enjoy the show!

Welcome back!  In this episode, Bill and I talk about the game of Night's Black Agents he ran at Gencon 2014.  The adventure was named "the Lazarus Sanction" and it involved the agents reconnecting with an asset from the past located in the Transcaucas region.  We discuss some GMing techniques and some rule modifications for NBA.  It was a fun game to listen to and to talk about.  I should mention as well that I mistakenly refer to the "preparedness" skill as "preparation"--it's close, but not exactly right!  This episode clocks in at approximately 61 minutes.  

Hi,Welcome to Virtual Play!  In this oversize episode (71 minutes) Bill and I recap the games we played at Dexcon 2014.  The games are Cthulhu Dark, Trail of Cthulhu, the new game Bill is working on called 'The New World', a game by Waking Dreams Games--although I am not sure of the exact name of the game--Singularity System, classic Traveller, and Fate Core.  We had a great time at Dexcon and I think you can hear it in the excerpts of these games.  I hope you enjoy them!Mel 

Welcome to Virtual Play!  Bill was in Virginia last week at Camp Nerdly, along with his daughter, Hannah.  They stopped by after the weekend to talk about the games they played.  Among them were the games Little Wizards, Stars Without Number, and, of course, Classic Traveller.  Bill noted how much Camp Nerdly is 'family-friendly' and talks a little bit about gaming with kids!  This episode runs approximately 50 minutes.  Enjoy the show!Mel

Hi!  This is the first episode here at the new site!  I am excited to be publishing these podcasts again after a long hiatus.  Thanks to all who have been waiting for Virtual Play to resume--as I've said before--both of you!  In this episode, Bill and I talk about a few of the games we played at Dreamation 2014.  The show includes excerpts from Dungeon Crawl Classics, Ashen Stars, and Trail of Cthulhu.  The focus of the show is on the use of flashbacks and other time manipulation as a technique for adventure design.  Our discussion also includes a few minutes on a Traveller adventure I ran, but we have no excerpt because I lost the SD card.  Drat!  The episode clocks in at 75 minute--a little longer than usualI think it's worth it.  Enjoy the show!  Mel 

While Mel is away, he’s entrusted me with keeping the Virtual Play flame burning, a task to which I have not applied myself as assiduously as I ought. But now that summer’s here and my teaching duties in the real world are not as onerous, I’ve managed to pull together an episode that discusses Kevin […]

This episode of Virtual Play is a quick look at Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics.  A fantasy RPG in the old-school tradition, DCC was a lot of fun to run.  The recommended method to start play is to take 2-4 randomly generated 0-level characters per player into a gauntlet of some kind as an initial […]

I am making up for some lost ground in November with a quick turn on another show this month.  I’m excited to be talking about Black Seven because I had a great time playing the game.  Joe ran the game for us several weeks ago and it was a blast.  Black Seven is billed as […]

Welcome to Virtual Play!  Today’s episode is about Tenra Bansho Zero.  This is a Japanese game from 1997 that is being translated into English.  I believe the English version will be available within the next six months or so.  I played the game a few years ago with Andy Kitowski, who is doing the translation, […]

In this episode of Virtual Play, Bill and I talk about the Chronica Feudalis game he is running.  Set during the First Crusade, Bill’s campaign is a great opportunity to intermix history with roleplaying.  The campaign has run about 4 sessions or so; I’ve had the opportunity to play  one evening so I can share […]

Hi!  Welcome to Virtual Play.  This episode is a bit different than normal.  Rather than playing several short excerpts intermixed with discussion, I am going to play the more or less complete actual play of a practice game Bill and I played of Marvel Heroic Roleplaying.  We were getting ready for a Marvel Launch Party […]

Bill and I are back with the final episode recounting our games from Dexcon 2012.  Today’s episode is about Cthulhu Dark, a rules-light game of Lovecraftian Horror by Graham Walmsley.  The adventure is titled ‘A Head of His Time’, and it involves Andrew Mellon and his family gathering the artwork that Mellon intends to use […]

Welcome to Virtual Play!  In this episode, Bill and I discuss Ashen Stars and Night’s Black Agents.  Bill ran both these games at Dexcon.  They are both based on the Gumshoe system, by Pelgrane Press, and so share the same basic mechanics.  Ashen Stars includes rules to give it a science fiction feel: space combat, […]

As promised, this episode is a recap of the two Classic Traveller games Bill ran at Dexcon.  I find these games very entertaining to listen to.  They make me want to play!  Both these games were essentially pick-up games, with characters and the adventure more or less determined on the fly using the Traveller rules […]

Our Dexcon wrap-up episodes continue with this look at Skulduggery.  It’s an adventure pitting heroes of Mankara against a giant automaton built centuries earlier that has awoken once more to threaten the city.  Bill points out a key thing about players that I have been overlooking–sometimes it’s important for a player to  solve whatever mystery […]