Author Archives: Tyler

Carnagecast Extrasode 5: A Dark and Stormy Night

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In extrasode 5 of Carnagecast, Munk, Rachel, Sarah and Tyler drive home in the driving rain from Spring Meltdown in Lyndonville, one of the Green Mountain Gamers’ game days held around Vermont. How do you pass the time during a two hour ride from Lyndonville to Burlington? Talk about what you did during the day, of course.

Conversation gets into some of the new games played — Nefarious, Power Grid: The First Sparks, Lords of Waterdeep and more — the subtleties of certain personalities in the local Battlestar Galactica cadre and whether it’s okay for caribou and mammoth meeples not to be scaled to each other. Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:07 — 44.4MB)

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Carnagecast 22: Brad Younie of Carnivore Games and The Day After Ragnarok

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In episode 22, Interview with the Gamer prowls the lonesome back roads of New England to find Brad Younie, president of Carnivore Games. Brad tells us about the games he ran at Carnage in Wonderland and goes a bit more into The Unexplained, his role-playing game of paranormal phenomena investigators. He even lets slip the name of a hard science fiction setting on which he’s working. Additionally, you can catch actual play recordings of one of Brad’s games from that weekend over on the New England Roleplayers Association’s feed — part 1 and part 2.

Autopsy of a Game takes on its biggest cadaver yet, the Midgard Serpent itself, tackling The Day After Ragnarok with our friend Joe. In the poisoned ruins of Earth after the end of a World War II in which the Germans summoned Jormangundr itself and the Allies destroyed it with atomic fire at the cost of a globe-shattering cataclysm, the remnants of civilization struggle to piece themselves together. Aside from the two-fisted alternate history of the 20th century leavened with sorcery and weird science, Joe relishes the open canvas of the world after the Midgard Serpent fell, which gives the players room to move and the GM space to invent. Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 43:55 — 45.0MB)

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Carnagecast 21: Betrayal at House on the Hill Actual Play, Part 1

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In episode 21 of Carnagecast, the players assemble to take on the new edition of Betrayal at House on the Hill, published by Wizards of the Coast’s Avalon Hill imprint, as discussed in episode 14‘s Autopsy of a Game. Toby recommends not blinking in the statuary corridor. The Dan realizes he’s really playing Short Round. Then he does something pretty spectacular.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 36:35 — 33.5MB)

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Carnagecast Extrasode 4: Escape from PAX East

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In extrasode 4 of Carnagecast, Sarah and Tyler talk about their PAX East 2012 experiences while heading north to Vermont. They talk about what they did and didn’t get to do, the games they played, the scale of PAX East and the thrill of that much energy and buzz filling a convention center.

It turns out that both Sarah and Tyler are getting to that stage in their lives where they’re more appreciative of handsome, well-made furniture than they are the latest game releases. Furthermore, Sarah was most interested by the Chevrolet display in the exhibition hall than anything else . . . Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:01 — 37.6MB)

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Carnagecast Extrasode 3: On the Road to PAX East

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In extrasode three of Carnagecast, Sarah and Tyler are on the road to PAX East 2012. Driving down Interstate 89 from Vermont to Boston the night before the convention, they talk about what they’re looking forward to check out this weekend. Aside from wanting to scope out the tabletop gaming area and pick-up play opportunities, Sarah is astonishingly well organized with a whopping four panels marked in her Guidebook app, while Tyler can’t remember the name of the single panel he’s interested in.

Conversational diversions include the comparative mental acuity of Euro- and Amerigamers, the inclusion of transgender individuals in video games and whether an audiologist can distinguish modern sculpture from giant stompy robots. Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:19 — 15.5MB)

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Carnagecast 20: Nonchalant Gnome Gaming Society and Android

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In episode 20 of Carnagecast, Interview with the Gamer travels west across Lake Champlain to talk with Chuck Henry of the Nonchalant Gnome Gaming Society in Plattsburgh, New York. Chuck tells us about founding the Nonchalant Gnome gaming society, some of the methods and techniques to making a public gaming group welcoming to newcomers, growing the gaming scene in upstate New York and their participation in the Play in Public campaign to make tabletop gaming more visible to the public eye through teaching moments.

In Autopsy of a Game, Alex and Dan discuss Android, the science fiction noir detective game from Fantasy Flight Games. Players take on characters investigating a crime in the city of San Angeles, as well as wrestle with their personal demons. Alex’s enjoyment of the game has led him to GM it at Carnage two years running with no plan to slow down. Dan is a fan of the game as well, citing in particular the deep world-building found in the rulebook and flavor text of the game’s components. Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:22:08 — 75.2MB)

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Carnagecast 19: Battlestar Galactica Actual Play, Part 4

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In episode 19 of Carnagecast, we conclude the Battlestar Galactica actual play series featuring the Battle-all-stars with the not entirely shocking revelation that ended part 3. It only gets tenser from there. After the game, the players chat a bit about how the game went and the variants in play, such as 2 Cylons for 7 players and the personal goal cards.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 51:03 — 46.7MB)

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Carnage Noir Now Accepting Game Submissions

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Listen up, youse mugs. There’s a new racket in town: Carnage Noir. This thing of theirs is a good, old-fashioned game convention. And they want a taste of your GMing action. Board games, miniatures, whatever your specialty is, there’s a place for you at the table.

Head over the GM Sign Up page to get your game’s details in. The deadline for getting entries in the convention book mailer is July 27th — and that’s a lead pipe cinch.

Carnagecast 18: Bethany Creaser and Conspiracy X 2.0

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In episode 18 of Carnagecast, Bethany Creaser of Border Board Games and Green Mountain Gamers tells the story of how she and her husband first came to Carnage and then talks about hosting game days and nights in Vermont for Interview with the Gamer.

To learn about Conspiracy X 2.0, Autopsy of a Game turns to the game’s own line developer, Dave Chapman. He peels back a few of the outer layers shrouding the aliens, paranormal experiences and conspiracies in the heart of the American government that agents of AEGIS may encounter. Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 42:11 — 38.6MB)

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Carnagecast 17: Battlestar Galactica Actual Play, Part 3

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In episode 17 of Carnagecast, “the real game” of Battlestar Galactica begins, as Carlo puts it. The sleeper phase doles out another set of loyalty cards to the not terribly hard-pressed Battle-all-stars. Now the mere prospect of Baltar employing his Cylon detector provokes strong reactions from all around.

The end of this installment’s a corker, too.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 41:04 — 37.6MB)

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