Episode 86: Game Master, You're in a Dungeon

09/02/17 • 58 min

Welcome to Virtual Play! Bill and I discuss a GM workshop we conducted at Gencon. The format was the participants played characters in an adventuring party, with rotating GM duties. The workshops were planned by Will Hindmarch at Demystics but when Will couldn't make it, we were privileged to fill in for a couple of sessions. Here's the result. The episode clocks in at just under one hour. Mel

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Episode 85: What Happened in the Big Hoodoo?

We talk about Bill running his adventure for Pelgrane Press's Trail of Cthulhu, "The Big Hoodoo," where 1950s sci-fi writers like Bob Heinlein and Isaac Asimov confront a Mythos mystery in sun-drenched California. We try to figure out why the players seemed so bemused by the plethora of clues at their disposal. We identify adventure design and game-running issues that may help other GMs run their mystery games. The episode is about 45 minutes long.

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Metatopia Special Part 1

Bill and I are at Day 1 of Metatopia, the Game Design Festival in Morristown NJ. We briefly discuss the games we are here to playtest, including an excerpt from a moment of play in a game that inspired our thinking about the design of one of those games. The excerpt is from a game in development by E. Tage Larsen called "Roughhouse", featuring the voices of dutiful listener Jim Crocker and Eric's friend, Dave.

Mel