Tag Archives: Carnagecast

Carnagecast 29: Carnage Noir Update

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In episode 29 of Carnagecast, we bring news of Carnage Noir. The convention’s coming up the first weekend of November in Fairlee, Vermont. Game submissions are rolling in, but the deadline looms at the end of July for submissions to be included in the convention book.

Rod brings news of CCGs and board games, including special multi-table sessions of Battlestar Galactica and A Game of Thrones (second edition), plus the return of the kids’ gaming area for the younger set.

Griff’s got the miniatures pulse, with Centuries of Conflict covering the 20th century in historical miniatures — not the 19th, as Griff states in the recording — plus Warhammer Fantasy, Warhammer 40,000, Warmachine and maybe even some Flames of War.

Gaylord talks through the GM’s dilemma of fitting role-playing scenarios into noir and hits on a switcheroo solution that should pique the interest of no small number of players.

Update! The Winter Kotei has moved to allow for a Saturday Legend of the 5 Rings tournament at Carnage. Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:57 — 34.1MB)

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Carnagecast 28: Ben T. Matchstick and Library Gaming

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In episode 28 of Carnagecast, Ben T. Matchstick, Dungeon Master at large, comes on the show to tell us about founding a tradition of gaming in the local public library, and bringing the tabletop hobby to the next generation. At Montpelier, Vermont’s Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Ben brought comic books and tabletop games into the mix. In addition to running Dungeons & Dragons for children, he taught them to run it for their peers.

The motivations range from passing on a beloved hobby, to providing social encounters for a generation predisposed to video games, to bringing youth in general and boys in particular back into the library, to encouraging reading. As Ben points out, everything that happens at the table is life lessons: courtesy, cooperation, patience and more. With the advent of the fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons, young gamers have a great opportunity to learn that ultimately any game they run is belongs to them. If they’re having fun, they’re playing right. On the other hand, as for older gamers, a website like https://www.wsmcasino.com/ create a welcoming environment because it offers a user-friendly interface and engaging content that fosters a sense of community, ensuring everyone can enjoy the thrill of gaming.

Ben closes with a challenge to game masters to bring their gaming hobby to the public library, getting more people, children and their whole families, involved in the hobby. “It’s important that kids can be heroes again and create a game of their own.” Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:49 — 36.0MB)

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Carnagecast 27: Companions of the Firmament and Geek Industrial Complex

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In episode 27 of Carnagecast, we talk with Neil Carr of Geek Industrial Complex, based in Barre, Vermont. Neil’s raising funds via Kickstarter for his first role-playing publication, Companions of the Firmament, which brings flying characters, mount options and expanded aerial rules to the Pathfinder role-playing system.

Neil tells us about his goals for Companions of the Firmament: supporting a robust experience of flying in a Pathfinder-style role-playing game and using this book, along with previously published articles, to demonstrate to the role-playing community that Geek Industrial Complex can offer quality material. Neil also talks about his experiences with the crowdfunding model, including conducting a study of previous role-playing related funding campaigns and using that data as a guide to design his own crowdfunding effort.

We manage find time to ponder about the paradox of playing games of pretend that are structured to rule out certain modes of pretending. Why do people do that? Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 58:53 — 53.3MB)

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Carnagecast 26: Tales from the Fallen Empire

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In episode 26 of Carnagecast, James Carpio of Chapter 13 Press returns to tell us about his latest endeavor, Tales from the Fallen Empire, a sword and sorcery campaign setting for Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics role-playing game.

James tells about the world of Leviathan, formed from the carcass of a primordial dragon, and the people who scratch out a living after the fall of the Sorcerer Kings of old. It’s a world that samples from the buffet of history and fiction, where the elephant golem of Shesh carries a market on its back around the land of Kesh and the Draki people seek a way back to their home dimension. As a sandbox setting, James wanted Tales from the Fallen Empire to recapture the freeform nature of old school gaming, where the players’ choices kept the GM on his toes.

The conversation turns to the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG as well, and how it differs from its root sources, such as the character funnel leading up to a first level character, the hazardous, unpredictable nature of magic and the other alterations made to the core classes. Additionally, Tales from the Fallen Empire introduces its own variants, such as the sorcerer, drawing inspiration from the original pulp fantasy tales of Howard and Lieber, the pirate and the witch.

Since recording this interview, Tales from the Fallen Empire is now on Kickstarter! From now until the drive ends on July 18, 2012, backers can pledge money to fund the project and receive special rewards, which include the book itself, but extend to elements within the world of Leviathan. Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 58:23 — 51.2MB)

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Carnagecast 25: 7th Sea and Heroes of Altamira

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In episode 25 of Carnagecast, we switch up the format. Mark Edwards comes on the show to talk about the role-playing game of swashbuckling fantasy 7th Sea and the living campaign he runs in the game’s world of Theah, Heroes of Altamira. 7th Sea combines the tropes of swashbuckling adventure movies and European history’s greatest hits with fantasy role-playing. Nimble fencers and sorcerers square off in the palaces and plazas to save the day — or ruin it.

Heroes of Altamira is a living campaign, one in which the actions of players affect future events and characters created in the first episode can, if their players desire, carry on all the way through the twenty-four episode arc. Mark also talks a bit about his philosophy of bringing new players into existing living campaigns and gives a peek ahead to what comes after Heroes of Altamira.

Additionally, discover the truth of DOMINGO GIGANTE! Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:20 — 29.1MB)

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Carnagecast 24: David Cheng of the Schenectady Wargamers Association and Endeavor

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In episode 24 of Carnagecast, we catch up to David Cheng, then still basking in the hubbub of Carnage in Wonderland. David recaps his weekend spent participating in DipCon 2011, then tells us about the Schenectady Wargamers Association and their many events through the year, especially Council of 5 Nations, held every October in Schenectady, New York.

For Autopsy of a Game, Chuck, Robert and Rod gather round the table to talk about Endeavor, a semi-abstract colonization title from Z-Man Games in which players establish trade routes to other parts of the globe to build up the non-specific European powers they each represent. Robert makes no bones about his love for Endeavor as he frequently — though not today — puts the question: “Endeavor: great game or greatest game?” While initially enjoying it, Chuck found the appeal wore off as the dominant strategies emerged from repeated plays. Robert counters that the random mix makes it a game of opportunity. Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 16:50 — 21.7MB)

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Carnagecast 23: Betrayal at House on the Hill Actual Play, Part 2

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In episode 23 of Carnagecast, the Dan, a Dan, Hunter, Jake, Toby and Tyler wrap up their game of Betrayal at House on the Hill. Missy realizes deep in her gut that Madame Zostra has betrayed them all — and then stumbles upon a revolver and dynamite with which to resolve the problem. As the heroes race to exorcise the house of malign powers, Professor Longfellow finds himself scrambling for his life as basement rooms fall away into the inferno one by one. Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:53 — 31.9MB)

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Carnagecast Extrasode 6: Huzzah! 2012

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In extrasode 6 of Carnagecast, Andre Kruppa of Huzzah! comes on the show to tell us about the convention set for just next week in Portland, Maine. Put on the Maine Historical Wargamer’s Association, Huzzah! caters to the historical and wargaming aspects of the tabletop hobby. Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 12:43 — 10.3MB)

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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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