Tag Archives: Role-Playing Games

Carnagecast 35: 24 Hour Charity Gaming Marathon at Quarterstaff Games

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In episode thirty-five of Carnagecast, Jeff Durochia and Brennan Martin tell us about the charity gaming event Extra Life and the 24 gaming marathon they’re hosting at Quarterstaff Games in Burlington, Vermont to raise money for the local Children’s Miracle Network hospital, Fletcher Allen Health Care.

This October, Quarterstaff opens its doors from 8:00am Saturday the 20th to 8:00am Sunday the 21st to host 24 hours of tabletop gaming to raise money. Highlights include midnight Draft ‘Til You Drop for Magic: the Gathering, A Game of Thrones utilizing the Dance with Dragons scenario, a warlord rumble for Warhammer 40,000, many more board games, role-playing games including Pathfinder, Dungeons & Dragons, Legend of the 5 Rings and more — Brennan is crafting three dimensional tiles for Settlers of Catan. One twist for Extra Life players that Quarterstaff offers: a $5 entry donation gains players tokens they can use to bend rules of the games they play. Those tokens translate into more donations for the Team Quarterstaff fundraising efforts.

Whether people come for the full 24 hours or drop in as their schedule allows, Jeff hopes to provide a mini-convention atmosphere, allowing people to try games and experiment with new and untried games. And, of course, people can contribute whatever they’re able to the fundraising efforts. Donations are just as important as pledges.  With his perspective analyzing birth statistics for the health department, Brennan reminds us there are living, breathing people who will benefit directly from the money raised through Extra Life. Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:16 — 31.5MB)

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Download the 2012 Carnage Noir Convention Book

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Carnage Noir book cover.

Click to download the convention book.

Note: this is the 2012 convention book! For the current year’s convention book, which traditionally publishes in early fall, visit the news page.

All right, you mugs. The big score’s less than two months away. It’s a three day job and I don’t want anything to go wrong. So we’ve got it all planned out, see? Right here in these pages is how the whole weekend goes down.

You can now download the Carnage Noir convention book, along with a preregistration form and a schedule grid in variety of formats to assist in planning out your greatest gaming weekend since Carnage in Wonderland.

These documents reflect the schedule as it stood at the time of printing. For updates, alterations, amendments and new arrivals, check the Convention Book Addendum regularly.

  • Carnage Noir Convention Book [PDF, 890kb]
  • Carnage Noir Pre-reg Form [PDF, 17kb]
  • Carnage Noir Schedule Grid [PDF, 60kb]
  • Carnage Noir Schedule Grid [ODS, 31kb]
  • Carnage Noir Schedule Grid [XLSX, 13kb]

Carnagecast 33: Council of 5 Nations XXXV

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In episode thirty-three of Carnagecast, Dave Cheng of the Schenectady Wargamers Association brings news of Council of 5 Nations XXXV, coming up this October 5-7 at Proctors Theatre in Schenectady, New York.

Historical miniatures are a showcase of gaming and craft at Council. Among other miniatures is a stellar Starfleet Battles tournament that outdraws Origins and attendant player base that welcomes newcomers and lapsed captains. Further gaming tracks include Boardgamegeek Top 35, train games, living campaigns from Pathfinder and the RPGA and games friendly and/or intended for younger players.

Council of 5 Nations boasts a friendly, welcoming group of conventioneers for newcomers looking to sample the convention scene or get their preferred flavor of gaming. Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:25 — 26.2MB)

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Carnagecast Extrasode 8: Fate of the Norns: Ragnarok

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In extrasode 8 of Carnagecast, Andrew Valkauskas joins us to share his role-playing game Fate of the Norns: Ragnarok, now celebrating its twentieth anniversary with a third edition on Kickstarter. In Fate of the Norns: Ragnarok, players delve into the grim fantasy of a world without the sun or moon, when Fimbulwinter lays heavy on the nine worlds.

Hear about the rune-based resolution system Andrew developed, where a character’s essence and destiny play a hand in their success or failure, as well as how outside the traditional character progression, a meta progression provides a mechanical kick for hearty warriors not only to relish every battle that may be their last, but enhances the social aspects of role-playing, even in traditionally asocial aspects.

We also talk about the history of Fate of the Norns, from its conception as a computer game to the iterative development it goes through today from player feedback, and the success of the Kickstarter campaign, in how that process has informed the publishing of the game, particularly showing the need to reach a worldwide market.

Fate of the Norns: Ragnarok has currently reached its funding goal on Kickstarter, but the project doesn’t end until Sunday, September 16th. Visit the Kickstarter page to learn more and see the physical components of the game. Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 51:29 — 50.8MB)

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Carnagecast 32: Nik Palmer and Iron GM 2012

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In episode 32 of Carnagecast, Dr. Nik joins us, fresh from his travels to GenCon 2012. Nik tells us about Iron GM, an event which turns gamemastering into a competitive sport, and his experiences competing on the regional level — having become an Iron Contender at TotalCon — and the national at GenCon. Iron GM pushes Nik to stretch outside his usual GM style to develop his skills at “play[ing] without plan,” following the will of the players and facilitating epic action, as the competition demands that one “go big or go home.”

Find out what GMing muscles Iron GM stretches, what Nik stocks in his GMing toolbox and his most consulted tables in the AD&D Dungeon Master’s Guide. Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:07 — 34.9MB)

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Carnagecast 31: Carrion Crown: The Haunting of Harrowstone

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In episode 31 of Carnagecast, Dan, Hunter, Toby and Tyler talk about their experiences playing the Pathfinder role-playing module The Haunting of Harrowstone, first part of the overarching Carrion Crown adventure path. Filled with horror tropes, from the Gothic to the Hammeresque, Carrion Crown kicks off a tour of the Pathfinder campaign world’s Transylvania analogue, Ustalav, with the charred remains of a prison teeming with ghosts and supernatural phenomena.

Prospective players beware, this is spoil-all episode as Hunter pulls back the GM curtain to give a peek at how he chose to use and modify the written adventure. Dan, Toby and Tyler share their perspectives as players in the campaign, as well as some insight into their characters. Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 56:02 — 86.9MB)

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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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