Virtual Play

Bill and I talk about some of our recent experiences with games using cards for conflict resolution. I recently played God-KIng, a game by Daniel Cruz Chan, that uses a normal deck of playing cards in places of dice for conflict resolution. Basically, in each conflict, players are dealt four cards and add one card from two that they already are holding. Red suits are successes in mental conflicts; black suits are successes in physical conflicts. Jokers indicate an outomatic loss, while aces indicate an automatic win--and aces trump jokers. I thoroughly enoyed the game and could see porting the card-based resolution mechanic for other uses. Bill talks about using the Deck of Fate in Fate Core. The deck replaces fudge diceand also includes aspects written on the card that can be used to shape the fiction, invoked as aspects, and other ways. This episode is approximately 55 minutes long. Thanks for listening!Mel

Hi, In this episode Bill and I are joined by Ben Forest to talk about immersion in roleplaying games. We'll use a couple of excerpts from Traveller games. Ben ran one of the games; in the other the GM was Adam D. Unsurprisingly, our conclusion on immersion is that it means different things to different people!Mel

Bill and I had a great time at the Dreamation RPG convention last week in Morristown. I was able to play or run seven games and all of them were a blast. This show is about a Dungeon World adventure I ran. Bill pointed out that he runs split parties differently than I do, and I think his method is better! Rather than run scenes sequentially, as I have been doing, he runs them simultaneously. This is our discussion about that. The episode runs at approximately 56 minutes. Enjoy the show!Mel

Hi,Welcome to Virtual Play! In this oversize episode (71 minutes) Bill and I recap the games we played at Dexcon 2014. The games are Cthulhu Dark, Trail of Cthulhu, the new game Bill is working on called 'The New World', a game by Waking Dreams Games--although I am not sure of the exact name of the game--Singularity System, classic Traveller, and Fate Core. We had a great time at Dexcon and I think you can hear it in the excerpts of these games. I hope you enjoy them!Mel

Hi! This is the first episode here at the new site! I am excited to be publishing these podcasts again after a long hiatus. Thanks to all who have been waiting for Virtual Play to resume--as I've said before--both of you! In this episode, Bill and I talk about a few of the games we played at Dreamation 2014. The show includes excerpts from Dungeon Crawl Classics, Ashen Stars, and Trail of Cthulhu. The focus of the show is on the use of flashbacks and other time manipulation as a technique for adventure design. Our discussion also includes a few minutes on a Traveller adventure I ran, but we have no excerpt because I lost the SD card. Drat! The episode clocks in at 75 minute--a little longer than usualI think it's worth it. Enjoy the show! Mel