High Level Games Podcast

This is part twelve of an actual play from the table that VP Quinn and Assistant to the Assistant to the Regional Manager Joel play at. The game is run by Andrew, and the players are Quinn playing a murderous goblin, Joel playing an elven plant magician, Ryan playing a human bureaucrat and Anthony playing a human ex prince of the Hegemony and the ships captain.  This episode follows part 11 and sees the crew in an extremely dangerous fight with the ghost that they had tried to free, who is now far more powerful because of it. The Countess is trying to perform a ritual to restore the souls of Gril and Skraa Troll and the crew needs to defend her while staying alive themselves! After the Homeworld was ruined by magical warfare, dwarves, elves, goblins, humans and trolls have left it to seek their fortune among the stars.  We play a small crew of misfits just trying to keep their ship running and their mouths fed in the vast Aether Sea.  Our crew inhabits a rich, high-fantasy universe of magic-powered sailing sh

This is part eleven of an actual play from the table that VP Quinn and Assistant to the Assistant to the Regional Manager Joel play at. The game is run by Andrew, and the players are Quinn playing a murderous goblin, Joel playing an elven plant magician, Ryan playing a human bureaucrat and Anthony playing a human ex prince of the Hegemony and the ships captain.  This episode follows part 10 and sees the crew finally reaching their destination, where they promptly begin to haggle for a better reward. They also try to get the Countess to follow through on her promise and perform a ritual to return the souls of Gril and Skraa troll. After the Homeworld was ruined by magical warfare, dwarves, elves, goblins, humans and trolls have left it to seek their fortune among the stars.  We play a small crew of misfits just trying to keep their ship running and their mouths fed in the vast Aether Sea.  Our crew inhabits a rich, high-fantasy universe of magic-powered sailing ships, steampunk gadgets, interstellar travel, in

This is part ten of an actual play from the table that VP Quinn and Assistant to the Assistant to the Regional Manager Joel play at. The game is run by Andrew, and the players are Quinn playing a murderous goblin, Joel playing an elven plant magician, Ryan playing a human bureaucrat and Anthony playing a human ex prince of the Hegemony and the ships captain.  This episode follows part 9 and starts with some housekeeping for the table, including a discussion for a possible new rule and a minor milestone for character changes. It then jumps back into the story with the Countess being terrified of the newly freed and far more deadly ghost, and a recommendation that no one in the crew ever be alone. She also suggests that they try to get together all the magical weapons they have and even try to bless the non magical ones in the hopes that it can still harm the newly freed apparition. After the Homeworld was ruined by magical warfare, dwarves, elves, goblins, humans and trolls have left it to seek their fortune a

In this episode of our actual play Star Wars Black Squadron series the crew finally leaves Hoth, only to realize that the supplies provided by the rebels are not nearly enough to even keep them fed for the journey. They have to find another system with available supplies and try to acquire enough for not only themselves but the army they hope to raise. The process of getting the supplies and disagreements on the methods prove to be a major problem in the crew which leads to some serious strife before they even get to the system where they are supposed to foster a rebellion.

This is part nine of an actual play from the table that VP Quinn and Assistant to the Assistant to the Regional Manager Joel play at. The game is run by Andrew, and the players are Quinn playing a murderous goblin, Joel playing an elven plant magician, Ryan playing a human bureaucrat and Anthony playing a human diplomat and the ships captain.  This episode follows part 8 and shows how much worse the problems with haunting can get when you try to free bound spirits! The crew has to band together to deal with a far more substantial and deadly apparition than before, which puts them into a situation that leaves even the Countess rattled. After the Homeworld was ruined by magical warfare, dwarves, elves, goblins, humans and trolls have left it to seek their fortune among the stars.  We play a small crew of misfits just trying to keep their ship running and their mouths fed in the vast Aether Sea.  Our crew inhabits a rich, high-fantasy universe of magic-powered sailing ships, steampunk gadgets, interstellar trave

This is the fourth episode of Leveling Up, a fantastic podcast done by VP Quinn and our Blog Manager Josh. In this episode Quinn and Josh are joined by Alina Pete of the amazing Webcomic Weregeek. Alina is also a renowned writer for several RPG products, including Ohunkakan. In this episode our hosts dive deeply into the topic of respectful representation of Indigenous cultures within gaming. They discuss Werewolf:The Apocalypse, Shadowrun, and several other games with less than great native presentations, and then they talk about ways to do better in the future. This image is from Ohunkakan.

This is part eight of an actual play from the table that VP Quinn and Assistant to the Assistant to the Regional Manager Joel play at. The game is run by Andrew, and the players are Quinn playing a murderous goblin, Joel playing an elven plant magician, Ryan playing a human bureaucrat and Anthony playing a human diplomat and the ships captain.  This episode follows part 7 and begins with a discussion about where we as a group want to go in the future of this campaign and how we can try to make it better. It then continues on with how the crew is dealing with the Countess, including their plans to try to get the ship to no longer be haunted, and how to make some money in the meantime.  After the Homeworld was ruined by magical warfare, dwarves, elves, goblins, humans and trolls have left it to seek their fortune among the stars.  We play a small crew of misfits just trying to keep their ship running and their mouths fed in the vast Aether Sea.  Our crew inhabits a rich, high-fantasy universe of magic-powered s

In the second episode of Star Wars Black Squadron the squadron learns more about their mission and finds out what kind of a ship they have. They then meet some of the other crew, and decide what kind of equipment they need to request from the Rebellion to help bring the Rebellion to another system. They also learn that they may have to square off with a Victory Class Star Destroyer in the future and need to plan accordingly. 

This is part seven of an actual play from the table that VP Quinn and Assistant to the Assistant to the Regional Manager Joel play at. The game is run by Andrew, and the players are Quinn playing a murderous goblin, Joel playing an elven plant magician, Ryan playing a human bureaucrat and Anthony playing a human diplomat and the ships captain.  This episode follows part 6 and continues the story of Archibald's shame, including him trying to remove the power the Countess has over him by telling his shipmates about his secret that she knows. He figures that if it's out in the open, she won't be able to use it against him. What happens next makes things weird for the rest of the crew... all while still dealing with the persistent haunting problem. After the Homeworld was ruined by magical warfare, dwarves, elves, goblins, humans and trolls have left it to seek their fortune among the stars.  We play a small crew of misfits just trying to keep their ship running and their mouths fed in the vast Aether Sea.  Our c

This is part six of an actual play from the table that VP Quinn and Assistant to the Assistant to the Regional Manager Joel play at. The game is run by Andrew, and the players are Quinn playing a murderous goblin, Joel playing an elven plant magician, Ryan playing a human bureaucrat and Anthony playing a human diplomat and the ships captain.  This episode follows part 5 and covers how Archibald deals with his encounter with the Countess, and the schemes of Grill and the captain in how to turn this all around and make a profit. After the Homeworld was ruined by magical warfare, dwarves, elves, goblins, humans and trolls have left it to seek their fortune among the stars.  We play a small crew of misfits just trying to keep their ship running and their mouths fed in the vast Aether Sea.  Our crew inhabits a rich, high-fantasy universe of magic-powered sailing ships, steampunk gadgets, interstellar travel, intrigue, and good old piracy.  Aether Sea - A World of Adventure for Fate Core was written by Ed Turner.

This is part five of an actual play from the table that VP Quinn and Assistant to the Assistant to the Regional Manager Joel play at. The game is run by Andrew, and the players are Quinn playing a murderous goblin, Joel playing an elven plant magician, Ryan playing a human bureaucrat and Anthony playing a human diplomat and the ships captain.  This episode follows part 4 and is the first part that was recorded at a different gaming session. The Countess has been brought to the edge of the ships railing by Archibald, who has no good intentions. How will she deal with this? What will happen to her and the crew? Tune in to find out! After the Homeworld was ruined by magical warfare, dwarves, elves, goblins, humans and trolls have left it to seek their fortune among the stars.  We play a small crew of misfits just trying to keep their ship running and their mouths fed in the vast Aether Sea.  Our crew inhabits a rich, high-fantasy universe of magic-powered sailing ships, steampunk gadgets, interstellar travel, in

This is the first episode in a new series we here at High Level Games are releasing in our actual plays. In this new series the group plays the D6 Star Wars Roleplaying Game with a new game master and different group of players than our Aether Sea actual plays. In this episode we have an introduction to the players and characters in the game, and have the group start to form up and get ready for their first mission all while meeting with some famous rebel heroes on the planet of Hoth, about a month before the events of "The Empire Strikes Back".

This is the third episode in our "Leveling Up" podcast series, in which the hosts VP Quinn and our Blog Manager Josh discuss religion in gaming. In this episode they begin with how religion and gaming interact, as well as some history starting with the “Satanic Panic.” They then discuss how you can create and work with religion in a respectful way in your games without reducing it to a trope or just assuming that atheism is the natural order of things. Finally they talk about how to work with religious players in such a way that you are respectful of their beliefs while still allowing players to explore religion in the context of the gaming world.

This is part four of an actual play from the table that VP Quinn and Assistant to the Assistant to the Regional Manager Joel play at. The game is run by Andrew, and the players are Quinn playing a murderous goblin, Joel playing an elven plant magician, Ryan playing a human bureaucrat and Anthony playing a human diplomat and the ships captain.  This episode picks up directly after part 3, and continues the story. The crew is still being attacked by ghosts, and is struggling to agree on what to do about the Countess and her artifact the Soul Bubble, as well as her zombie servants. Below is a brief introduction to our campaign as written by our Game Master Andrew. After the Homeworld was ruined by magical warfare, dwarves, elves, goblins, humans and trolls have left it to seek their fortune among the stars.  We play a small crew of misfits just trying to keep their ship running and their mouths fed in the vast Aether Sea.  Our crew inhabits a rich, high-fantasy universe of magic-powered sailing ships, steampunk

In episode 7 of the High Level Games podcast we begin by talking about the concept of a "geek off" as a way of playing and then move on to talking about our play through of "Greyhawk Ruins." This module was originally from AD&D and was converted to 3.5e by VP Quinn for our table.  We discuss how the play style differed from our usual games, and what we liked about the module and a few of the issues that we had with it. We also cover ways to help make this module more interesting for your group with ways to add on to the content in the published book. 

This is part three of an actual play from the table that VP Quinn and Assistant to the Assistant to the Regional Manager Joel play at. The game is run by Andrew, and the players are Quinn playing a murderous goblin, Joel playing an elven plant magician, Ryan playing a human bureaucrat and Anthony playing a human diplomat and the ships captain.  This episode picks up directly after part 2, and continues the story. The crew of the free ship Liberty tries to find a way to deal with their ship being haunted, and struggles against each other on the decision of what to do with the Countess, who obviously knows more about the haunting than she lets on. Below is a brief introduction to our campaign as written by our Game Master Andrew. After the Homeworld was ruined by magical warfare, dwarves, elves, goblins, humans and trolls have left it to seek their fortune among the stars.  We play a small crew of misfits just trying to keep their ship running and their mouths fed in the vast Aether Sea.  Our crew inhabits a ri

This is part two of an actual play from the table that VP Quinn and Assistant to the Assistant to the Regional Manager Joel play at. The game is run by Andrew, and the players are Quinn playing a murderous goblin, Joel playing an elven plant magician, Ryan playing a human bureaucrat and Anthony playing a human diplomat and the ships captain.  This episode is a direct continuation of Part 1, so if you missed that we would recommend that you listen to it first to catch up to where the story is now. Below is a brief introduction to our campaign as written by our Game Master Andrew. After the Homeworld was ruined by magical warfare, dwarves, elves, goblins, humans and trolls have left it to seek their fortune among the stars.  We play a small crew of misfits just trying to keep their ship running and their mouths fed in the vast Aether Sea.  Our crew inhabits a rich, high-fantasy universe of magic-powered sailing ships, steampunk gadgets, interstellar travel, intrigue, and good old piracy.  Aether Sea - A World o

This is the second episode in our "Leveling Up" podcast series, in which the hosts VP Quinn and our Blog Manager Josh discuss various methods of table management. Proper table management can help to either make or break a group in the long term, and this episode focuses on how to improve it for the good of everyone at your table.

This is part one of an actual play from the table that VP Quinn and Assistant to the Assistant to the Regional Manager Joel play at. The game is run by Andrew, and the players are Quinn playing a murderous goblin, Joel playing an elven plant magician, Ryan playing a human bureaucrat and Anthony playing a human diplomat and the ships captain. Listen along to get a taste of how the Aether Sea setting in the FATE rules system plays. Below is a description of our campaign as written by Andrew, our Game Master. After the Homeworld was ruined by magical warfare, dwarves, elves, goblins, humans and trolls have left it to seek their fortune among the stars.  We play a small crew of misfits just trying to keep their ship running and their mouths fed in the vast Aether Sea.  Our crew inhabits a rich, high-fantasy universe of magic-powered sailing ships, steampunk gadgets, interstellar travel, intrigue, and good old piracy.  Aether Sea - A World of Adventure for Fate Core was written by Ed Turner.  

This is the first episode of our new podcast at High Level Games called "Leveling Up" as hosted by VP Quinn and Josh. This episode has an introduction to the hosts and their gaming history, and then moves on to talk about empathy in gaming and how gaming can foster empathy in players.