We recently had a great question on Twitter by IvPalmer:
“Have you guys ever came across a dismemberment case in D&D? A player lost an arm last session and I’d like to give him options.”
As it happens, yes, we have, and, like you, we wondered what exactly to do about it. The rules don’t give an answer… or do they?
There is a lot going on in this podcast, so instead of writing my usual introductory blurb on this one, I thought I would do a list instead.
There are references to an article we wrote a while back on polarising roleplaying game between left and right style systems (much as we do political ideologies) which you may find useful to read before listening (if you haven’t read it already).
Back in November last year we started our Grand Gaming Experiment. Little did we know then the journey that it would take us on. We’ve got to learn a lot about our hobby, we’ve made a lot of new friends and we’ve connected with lots of different parts of the community. Most importantly, we’ve got to play a lot of new games. Many of those games we have wanted to try for a long time, or bought to just keep on the shelf, or had just heard about. Above all, we have found the whole experience to be tremendously rewarding.
In this episode of the podcast Dwayne regales us with stories of how a game he was running got off the rails (literally), and we talk about ways to get things back on track (bear with us, the intro takes a little while on this one…). We also answer a question posed to us by reader Disemvowel. He asks us “Could a GM control the HPs of the players in a game to promote better roleplaying.” We also summarise our thoughts on the recent, and very controversial, guest posts on the role of the GM (at least until we get distracted by something else that is…).
About five years ago, after having run a D&D 3.5 campaign essentially non-stop for many years, I decided that I needed to have a break and give the reins to another GM. At the time our fellow blogger Ellisthion was jumping up and down saying “Pick me! Pick me!” so I handed over the GMing mantle and other sacraments, and we started what was going to be heretofore known as the Rochekell Campaign.
During the character creation process I hit upon an idea. I was going to play my usual larger than life Dwarf Cleric, but this time, he would be riding a boar. Naturally, Ellisthion was slightly incredulous. OK, he did everything that he could to dissuade me. In the end I got him to agree to a single condition. If I could find miniature of a Dwarf riding a pig, I could do it…
Our gaming groups aggregated ratings.
First published in 1986 by Steve Jackson Games, who also do Munchkin and Zombie Dice, GURPS (Generic Universal RolePlaying System) quickly became one of the standard non-D&D roleplaying game mainstays and has has been a popular choice for many a gaming group. GURPS has gone through a number of editions throughout its years with the most recent 4th edition being published in 2004. Due to its universal nature it has also attracted a horde of supplements of all types. If there’s a setting that you are interested in playing in, the chances are there is a sourcebook for you (although we looked and couldn’t find the Zombie Caveman Kilt Wearing Ninjas With Lasers setting).
We’ve been keen to play it for many, many, many years now and the Grand Gaming Experiment gave us the opportunity to give it a shot. So with all this anticipation and excitement, did it live up to our expectations?
Our good friend and all round good guy The Angry DM is running a competition on his site in a most interesting fashion. To win the prize you need to solve a puzzle given in the form of a script from a gaming table. All the clues are present in the conversations of the players and GM. You need to piece together what the party should have done to solve the riddle. The prize is an unspecified number of Neverwinter Fortune Card boosters. You had better be quick, as the competition ends Friday, August 26th at 11:59:59 PM Eastern Time in the US. The script and everything you need to enter is on The Angry DM’s website. We know our readers are a smart lot, don’t let us down…
(Update: Forgot to mention – this competition is only open to those with postal addresses in the Continental US or Canada, but that’s still over 60% of you according to our logs…)
Being quite the fans of the writings of HP Lovecraft around here, when regular reader and all round nice guy Symatt asked us to suggest a topic for one of his amazing CounterSketches, there really was only one thing we could say. Cthulhu. It would just have to be Cthulhu…
For those of you who read our blog regularly or listen to our podcast, you’ll know that we’re quite fond of the occasional horror roleplaying game. Turns out the guys at Gaming Tonic have a similar penchant. Check out their post on Setting the Stage for a night of horror roleplaying.
In this action packed episode of the podcast we discuss ways in which to deal with a bad GM (mostly by talking about what NOT to do…), the differences we’ve experienced in running short term games as part of our gaming experiment vs the normal long term games that are usually played and we answer questions about gaming accessories and dice from Donny on our Facebook page and Symatt on Twitter. Strap yourselves in, it’s a long one too at just under an hour.
