Episode 45
Hey everyone, we are back with more of the Chris and Brian show! We get into a variety of topics as usual…and we will have liner notes up here in the near soon. Until then, get ta listening!
Origins Meet-Up! - June 26, 2pm
Hey everyone, a quick departure from the normal updates you see on our site. I thought it would be fun to hold a small Meet-up during Origins…so let’s do this thing!
Where:
Jeni’s Ice Creams
714 N High St.
Right on the corner of Lincoln and High, you can’t miss it (look for the American Gothic mural on the side).
About a 10-minute walk north — a half-mile or so.
Smack dab in the middle of the Short North.
Chris Ruggiero and Chris Hanrahan will be there to say “hi!” Fred and Brian can’t make it, but team Chris has it covered. All fans of EndGame, That’s How We Roll, and of course 2d6 in a Random Direction should stop by. See ya there!
Episode 44 - Part B
Here we are. The second part of Episode 44, and a WHOLE lotta madness.
We wanna thank David Steiger once again for some SUPEr spiff liner notes!
01:47 — Brian reviews Swashbucklers of the Seven Skies by Chad Underkoffler.
19:14 — Brian reviews another PDQ game, Jaws of the Six Sepents by Tim Gray.
22:33 — Chris R talks about playing Mouseguard for the first time.
26:01 — Chris R discusses playing an ongoing Godlike campaign, and GM Mike Montessa’s insane preparedness.
32:58 — Chris screams “WHOAAAAAA!” loudly.
33:03 — Godlike discussion continues.
36:07 — Chris talks about running and playing lots of D&D4e, mentioning his 5yr old son’s character “Hitterman”.
38:18 — The Eberron setting is coming out for D&D4e in June-August, a Players Guide and a Campaign Guide.
38:47 — Chris played the War of the Ring miniatures game.
41:48 — Chris played Dominion, mentioning a full-set expansion coming in June.
42:28 — Brian mentions played a game of Wild Talents at the Endgame Minicon.
42:34 — Brian and Chris realize they didn’t do a recorded Minicon episode.
43:16 — Talk about the March Minicon.
43:53 — Mention of Paul Tevis and his upcoming Penny For Your Thoughts game.
44:16 — Next Minicon is July 18th, run by the Good Omens guys as a food drive.
45:26 — Chris and Chris R are going to Origins.
46:00 — Brian is off to Randomcon, a new con in Pheonix.
46:32 — He signed up for Hellfrost using Savage Worlds.
46:42 — Brian explains how Randomcon’s online registration beats all other major regional cons in the Bay area.
LINKS IN ORDER OF REFERENCE
Swashbuckers of the Seven Skies — Atomic Sock Monkey / Evil Hat
Jaws of the Six Sepents — Silver Branch Games
Mouse Guard — Burning Wheel
Godlike — Arc Dream Publishing
Dungeons & Dragons 4e — Wizards of the Coast
Eberron D&D campaign setting — Wizards of the Coast
War of the Ring miniatures game — Games Workshop
Dominion – Rio Grande Games
Wild Talents — Arc Dream Publishing
Good Omens
Origins Game Fair
RandomCon 2009
Hellfrost — Triple Ace Games
Savage Worlds — Pinnacle Entetainment Group
Episode 44 - Part A
Hey everyone, we are back, with our good friend and total Grognard, Chris Ruggerio. This one went long, so we broke it up into two parts. A super special shout-out to David Steiger for doing these fine liner notes you see here!
Enjoy the show!
0:58 Hosts Chris Hanrahan and Brian Isikoff welcome non-Chris-Bennet guest Chris Ruggerio
1:33 The guys discuss Wizards of the Coast’s controversial halting of all PDF sales of all of their products.
2:47 Brian’s diplomatic and tactful opinion as a consumer.
4:00 Chris’ theory
5:39 Evil Hat’s PDF philosophy
6:49 Discussion on how PDFs aren’t lost retail opportunities, they are potential marketing opportunities.
17:03 GAMA Trade Show
17:13 Chris didn’t hear much news from the show aside from…
17:44 Arcane Legions, a semi-collectible miniatures game from Wells Expeditions, the founders of WizKids.
20:05 The guys discuss the lack of GAMA reporting or news.
21:52 But it’s all Brians’s fault, somehow.
22:45 GAMA news on Flames of War by Battlefront: a new prototype-tank supplement called Mid War Monsters.
25:48 Brian goes grognard over Lock and Load Publishing’s products, particularly the World at War series.
42:55 Brian and Chris R return to Flames of War products with an in-depth discussion.
LINKS IN ORDER OF REFERENCE
Evil Hat’s PDF guarantee
Arcane Legions
Catalyst Game Labs
Ogrecave’s coverage of the GAMA
Boots and Saddles
Flames of War:
– Mid War Monsters
– Afrika book
– River of Heroes
– Partisans and Polizei
– Wargames Illustrated
Lock and Load Publishing:
– Blood and Bridges
– Eisenbach Gap
– Death of the 1st Panzer
– Operation Garbo
– Untold Stories
– Gamers Guide
– Line of Fire magazine
– Corps Command: Totensonntag
– White Star Rising
– Forgotten Heroes Viet Nam
– All Things Zombie
Episode 43 - Part B
We finish out our Dundracon coverage with the back half of our discussion with Ken Hite and Bruce Harlick. In this half, we discuss Ken’s Adventures into Darkness, super heroes of the Golden Age, Ken’s Day After Ragnarok, Wild Talents, Dresden Files Chicago, Summerland and more.
Episode 43 - Part A
More DundraCon podcasting madness … recorded on 2/15/09, Brian and Chris sit down - post dinner - with world famous returning guests Kenneth Hite and Bruce Harlick. Discussion ran about an hour and a half, so we’re posting it in two parts. In the first half, we chat DDC experiences, large format games, and Mutant City Blues.
Episode 42
Live (or not) from DundraCon 33 - we sat down with Stephen Chenault of Troll Lord Games and returning guest Bruce Harlick. We talk about some of TLG’s upcoming products, the Castles & Crusades line, the upcoming children’s game The Harvesters, boxed set madness, and a good bit of old school gaming.
Episode 41
We return in a post Minicon / pre DundraCon frenzy with press-ganged guests Ryan Macklin (of the Master Plan podcast, and The Internet) and Bruce Harlick. No game designers were hurt (much) in the recording. We chat recent play experiences, D&D / gaming with kids, Dresden Files playtest, and more.
Liner Notes (written by, uh, guest writer Adam Jury. Feel the love, friends …) :
0-30 seconds-ish: Man, they play this song every time, don’t they?
30 seconds to 1:30: Holy crap, it’s Ryan Macklin and Bruce Harlick! Brian and Chris are around, too.
1:30-10:00: They jump right into the most recent EndGame MiniCon, and the next one is on 3/28! Chris played Solipsist, enjoyed it, but wasn’t really sure he grokked it. Is Chris ever going to let the special guests talk?
10:00-17:00: Spirit of the Century talk, with a crazy-fun mad science game. Brian ran another SotC at the MiniCon, too, the second one a more straight-up pulp game. Straight up? Nevermind, there were raptors and a dragon/pterodactyl-thing, too. At about 14:00, Brian talks some good stuff about GMing SotC and similar games that are more player-driven than other RPGs
17:00-24:00: D&D. Bruce talks about why he’s playing D&D4, Dragon, Dungeon, and the new D&D Character Generator. Chris jumps in with his experiences from his current undead campaign.
24:00-32:00: About this point we hit a discussion of “Epic” level play in D&D3, and that transitions over to a discussion about MMOs, WoW and Everquest, and then back to Epic level gaming and bringing MMO tropes into roleplaying. Also, some thoughts about roleplaying in D&D4 and how much it’s encouraged in the books.
32:00–35:00: Chris’ five-year-old is playing D&D. His character is a Dwarf fighter named “Hitterman.” He’s learning some [bad] tactics and will soon replace Brian on the show. But not as sound-editor. Still Brian’s job.
35:00–44:30: More games for kids, games to teach math, recommended games for young players [Monster Island comes up], how to manage running games for smaller kids.
44:30–48:00: Moving on from kids, to new gamers and demo games in general. “Let the Wookie win!”
48:00-50:00: What’s Ryan excited about? 4e, until he got too busy, but now he’s too busy working to get excited about playing. “Sucker,” sez Chris.
50:00-52:00: What’s Bruce excited about? Some sort of campaign he’s playing with some work-friends in a homebrew setting, and he’s about to join a 4e game, too. The 3.5 game he’s DMing is just about coming to and end, too. He’s also playing and enjoying the BSG board game, after a couple plays.
52:00-63:30: Dresden Files RPG! Ryan sez that they’re cranking it out, but they don’t want to “turn vaporware into crapware.” That’s a freakin’ great line. Lenny Balsera used to drunk-dial Ryan for game design advice.
63:30-68:30: Brian reviews Classic BattleTech Record Sheets: 3039 and Feral Cities for Shadowrun.
68:30: Bruce pimps City of Heroes! They’re adding some features that allows players to create and publisher their own missions, which sounds really cool.
70:00: Ryan pimps GameCryer.com, a new review site. He’s going to start doing video reviews on it. And of course, he has his own podcast, Master Plan.
Episode 40a
Here we are, back after a long winters hibernation with our 40th episode. The first 12 mins of this show should features the radioactive Chris Bennett. But it doesn’t it. We removed it, as he was using his iPhone to attract aliens, and it made for some interesting interference on the recording. Other than that, this episode is identical to Episode 40. Really.
Episode 40
Here we are, back after a long winter’s hibernation with our 40th episode. The first 12 mins of this show features the radioactive Chris Bennett. Seems he was using his iPhone to attract aliens, and it made for some interesting interference on the recording. We have made a second file with this portion cut out if you can’t stand it. (Sorry Chris). After we discuss Mouseguard with Chris, we spend some time recapping 2008. We try and cover the topic pretty broadly, but break it into the major categories. We round the whole thing out with a mini review of Wasabi. We look forward to 41!