* Chatroulette redux

* Starcraft Night of Carnage? We should plan one.

* Quest for Glory has a place in our hearts

* Luke will be at Fear the Con 3 runnnig Iron Tyrants!

* Small Press publishing – a case study in Spooky Outhouse Production’s journey with Iron Tyrants.

* Black Pidgeon Press and Hacktastic

* Print options: Studio 2

David is joined by:
* Brant (TrapCast)
* Meg (Brilliant Gameologists)
* Tim (Return to Northmoor)

We do a live episode, joined by various peoples and shoot the bull for an hour.

* After marathon-ing Cowboy Bebop for 8 hours, Paul, Eric, Matt and David review it

* What makes Cowboy Bebop transcend ‘good anime’ into ‘this is a great piece of art’?

*EXPLICIT!

*Session 1 of our Diaspora game – The Dark Tower: Dissonance

*Our Obsidian Portal campaign hub is here. The worlds we generated are there in detail.

*Diaspora’s SRD can be found here.

*This is a bit of an experiment. We get a lot of calls for Actual Play. Some love it. Some hate it. Let us know what you think.

*We will also be doing our Campaign Recaps, like with KTNG, in the future.

*Sound quality is a bit lower than normal because Adam’s usual recording device was gone. We made do.

*The occasional rhythmic banging? Those are the cats trying to escape. Can’t be helped.

*Anchorplate IP

*New Wave IP Litigation

*Commemorative Plates

*Barrage-O-Bama was a placeholder name never an actual consideration. Jerks.

*Matt has an official Mardi Gras policy

*Black Pigeon Press

*HERCULANEUM!

*Eric and the Adams

*Paul likes cooler indie underground non-sampled rap than you do.

*The old mailing a screenplay to yourself trick.

Team Trek: Climb Long and Prosper will attempt to “Master the Met,” ascending Saint Louis’s tallest building, on March 6, 2010.

We will be attempting this competitive stair climb of 42 flights of stairs (that’s 1,018 stairs!) in full Starfleet uniforms, representing our fellow Sci Fi Geeks everywhere. Our team must raise $300 to participate before March 6th! The entire amount goes to a great cause – the American Lung Association.

If you make a donation in any amount (even just $5!): We will add your name, the name of your podcast, business, or organization to a giant poster we will be carrying with us right up until we cross the start line!

So give to a good cause, get your podcast’s or organization’s name out there, and help us Master The Met!!

Thanks for your support!!

Which you can do here.

* A Beginner’s Guide to Anime

Show Outline (what we worked from):
Episode 76: THAC0 – To Hit Anime Comprehension Zero

Pimp Way of the Game

Banter

What do you like/dislike about anime?
Misconceptions about anime
Sub vs. Dub

A nugget of genre discussion
Possibly? best to steer clear of shounen, shoujo, josei, seinen, etc.
-But still inform people that there is a LOT of anime out there of all different types
Possibly? better to stick with shit like sci-fi/mech, fantasy, comedy, dramedy, romance, blah blah blah

Good anime for the uninitiated
-> Trigun

Paul’s List of series
Fantasy: Full Metal Alchemist, Escaflowne, Last Exile, Mushishi (mystery), Kamichu! (slice of life)
Sci fi: Fantastic Children, Cowboy Bebop, GITS: Stand Alone Complex
Comedy: Azumanga Daioh? (I’ve shown this to newbies who have dug it, but I’m not sure if it’s a good general recommendation)
Drama/Romance: Haibane Renmei (fantasy), Honey & Clover (comedy), Nodame Cantabile (comedy), Beck (music, comedy, coming of age)
Other: Hidamari Sketch (cute girls going to art school), Windy Tales (slice of life), Michiko e Hatchin (blaxploitation), Samurai Champloo (historic/action)

Eric says, can’t forget Mecha if we’re talking about Anime 101. Probably best just to buck up and go with the original Mobile Suit Gundam, and then maybe Macross Plus.
Under no circumstances inflict Evangelion on a innocent mind.
Paul’s response: I’ve known more people to be driven away by mech, but it’s a distinct and popular area, so go for it.

Movies
Whisper of the Heart
Porco Rosso
My Neighbor Totoro
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Popular anime that is not recommended for anime newbies
FLCL
Serial Experiments: Lain
Long shit like Naruto and Bleach
Inuyasha seems to turn a lot of people off of anime

Tentacle Porn – Why do bad things happen to Japanese schoolgirls?
Because they deserve it, oh, god, they’re gonna get what’s coming to them, uuunnnnnggghhh

*BSG: The Plan sucks

*Ron Swanson is the man

*Matt lives a year behind in TMBG releases

*Discussing breaking up with your gaming group as inspired by this post.

* Blood Bowl Leage

* Luke is old, the Miner’s Daughter and Curling a Grumpy with the Dusty Muffin

* Fable 2 and Chaoseater

* Double Meat Podcast

* Pillars of the Earth audiobook

* Matt Kills It: Pitching Established Settings

*Rat Tails and Trad Gaming

* Cliches we *like* in media

* Chris and David mention everything under the sun. Hopefully, they’ll get together some highlight links:

Boobs
Romantic Comedies
Battlestar Galactica
The Wire
Mad Men
Weeds
A-Team
Prophecies
The Lightning Thief
The Spiderwick Chronicles and Young-Adult Films
His Dark Materials Trilogy
Rufies
The Dresden Files
Harry Potter
Audiobooks, including the two former and the two latter.
Fables
Star Wars
Batman, The Animated Series
The Guyver
Metal Gear
Preposterous Plots
Deus Ex
Evangelion
Warren Ellis
Transmetropolitan
Grant Morrison
All-Star Superman
Clever Reinvisioning of Things
Sherlock Holmes
Back to Battlestar
Katie Sackhoff
BBC’s Merlin and Robin Hood
V (“Jaunty Adventure”?)
Pacing
Resistance Movements
Disaster Movies
White Man Guilt Movies
Avatar
Michelle Rodriguez
Jim Cameron Casts
Alien 4
Firefly
and The Connection Between Them,
Joss Whedon
Dollhouse
Redemption
Back to Battlestar AGAIN!
Gaeta
New Dr. Who
Protestant Dick-Waivery
The Doctor
Rose
Bad Choices
Babylon 5
Londo Milari
The Watchability of Season 1
Mitchell and Webb Look

*Dickle

*Contest Winner

*The Internet Age

*The d20 boom and bust

*Small publishers and indie explosion

*What’s next?

*Intro products and pricing

Follow this link and do what you can.  We know you fans of the Podge Cast are the best people out there.  Now’s your time to shine!

*Media that’s so bad it’s good

*Finding the sweet spot in gaming philosophies

*Names

Other stuff:

Serial Homicide Unit by Kat and Michael Miller
Dirty Secrets by Seth Ben Ezra
The Drifter’s Escape by Ben Lehman
Burning Wheel Revised and by Luke Crane and the Burning Wheel Headquarters

My stuff:

Misspent Youth, my first game
The Independent Insurgency, my first podcast
Oo! Let’s Make a Game!, my other podcast

* Geek trauma, which turns into: geek inspirations

* Paul doesn’t do a very good job of getting us on to settings

*GM vs. Players

*Player vs. Player

*Hodge: Chris Engler, World Vision 2009 Charity

More details:

I’m sending you this message in the hopes that you’ll partner with myself and World Vision again this year for my third annual Christmas fundraiser. This year I’m going to depart from the “cow” theme of the prior two years and ask for your help raising money for the rehabilitation and restoration of child soldiers and sexually exploited children. For $75 World Vision can provide many resources to children who have been virtually destroyed. I’d like us to help 20 such children. Based on the number of people I’m inviting to participate, if everyone I invite donates an average of $20 this goal will be met but donations of any size are welcome.

Below is a link to a four-minute video on YouTube that was put together by a friend of mine (Paul Bettings) who has travelled extensively and documented first-hand some of the worst circumstances children are in. The video tells the story of an 11 year-old girl named Elise who was once a sex-worker but is in the process of getting her life back thanks to World Vision’s efforts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SoxWq0e9yg

Here is a link to my World Vision Gift Catalogue page. Please forward this e-mail or any of the links contained to anyon that you think may be interested in participating:

Full Link
Shortened Link (suitable for Twitter)

Thank you in advance, and Merry Christmas!

* This episode is largely unedited

* We attempt to determine the best geek media of 2000 – 2009

*Hodge: Chris Engler, World Vision 2009 Charity

More details:

I’m sending you this message in the hopes that you’ll partner with myself and World Vision again this year for my third annual Christmas fundraiser. This year I’m going to depart from the “cow” theme of the prior two years and ask for your help raising money for the rehabilitation and restoration of child soldiers and sexually exploited children. For $75 World Vision can provide many resources to children who have been virtually destroyed. I’d like us to help 20 such children. Based on the number of people I’m inviting to participate, if everyone I invite donates an average of $20 this goal will be met but donations of any size are welcome.

Below is a link to a four-minute video on YouTube that was put together by a friend of mine (Paul Bettings) who has travelled extensively and documented first-hand some of the worst circumstances children are in. The video tells the story of an 11 year-old girl named Elise who was once a sex-worker but is in the process of getting her life back thanks to World Vision’s efforts.

Here is a link to my World Vision Gift Catalogue page. Please forward this e-mail or any of the links contained to anyon that you think may be interested in participating:

Full Link
Shortened Link (suitable for Twitter)

Thank you in advance, and Merry Christmas!

* Luke is a teenage girl and liked New Moon

* The “Name That Contest” contest. Just go ahead and e-mail your submissions to adam@podgecast.com

* Handling downtime in games

* Can elements of board/video games translate to the tabletop to handle downtime?

Hodge: Chris Engler, World Vision 2009 Charity

More details:

I’m sending you this message in the hopes that you’ll partner with myself and World Vision again this year for my third annual Christmas fundraiser. This year I’m going to depart from the “cow” theme of the prior two years and ask for your help raising money for the rehabilitation and restoration of child soldiers and sexually exploited children. For $75 World Vision can provide many resources to children who have been virtually destroyed. I’d like us to help 20 such children. Based on the number of people I’m inviting to participate, if everyone I invite donates an average of $20 this goal will be met but donations of any size are welcome.

Below is a link to a four-minute video on YouTube that was put together by a friend of mine (Paul Bettings) who has travelled extensively and documented first-hand some of the worst circumstances children are in. The video tells the story of an 11 year-old girl named Elise who was once a sex-worker but is in the process of getting her life back thanks to World Vision’s efforts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SoxWq0e9yg

Here is a link to my World Vision Gift Catalogue page. Please forward this e-mail or any of the links contained to anyon that you think may be interested in participating:

Full Link
Shortened Link (suitable for Twitter)

Thank you in advance, and Merry Christmas!

* Stuff Kevin mentions:

His Majesty’s Dragon

In A Wicked Age

Dirty Secrets

Zombie Cinema

Polaris

Drifter’s Escape

*Houses of the Blooded – Aria of Ill Fortune

*Session I: The Rose and the Thorn Part I

*Session II: Unquiet Repose

* Google Wave

* Master Plan

*Luke is a guest on this week’s Kicked in the Dicebags. If you don’t already know, it’s super-explicit. Also, super-awesome.

* Do us a favor, tell a friend or leave an iTunes review.

* The TrapCast’s bad iTunes review contest was hilarious and awesome, we’re not doing that.

* Project Donut: http://projectdonut.com

* Kevin, The Walking Eye

* What is art?

Favorite Art from this Year:

- David – Glee
- Eric – Battletech
- Matt – The Brothers Bloom
- Paul -Sphongle’s New Album

Twisted Records (Shpongle samples on the front page player)

- Luke – Iron Tyrants

- Hodge: Fraser from Accidental Survivors is here to talk about Mondus Novit being released by Swords Edge Publshing

* Antagonism and Villains, something we know nothing about at the Podge

That Mitchell and Webb Look sketches referenced:

* Horrible Man

* Librarian

* Angel Summoner

* Clarinet Secrets

*Sir Digby Chicken Caeser

* Diaspora

* Designing and playing epic fantasy campaigns.

*Like, y’know, over 9000.

* Starblazer Adventures: http://www.cubicle-7.com/starblazer.htm

* Diaspora: http://www.vsca.ca/Diaspora/

Thanks, Xoph, for reminding me about the links.

Virtues
Strength 2
Cunning 5
Courage 2
Beauty 3
Wisdom 3
Prowess 0

Parentage
Father: Marquis Theodore Steele, House of the Elk (dominant)
Mother: Baroness Evelyn Burghe, House of the Bear
Birth Order
Sister
Me
Sister
Brother

Married to Alma Burghe

Contact: Travis Thorne

Aspects
I am Hateful
Invoke: To harm others
Tag: When I must be kind
Compel: To be cruel

Chance-Taker
Invoke: When taking a risky action with a high probability of failure
Tag: When I must take time to make decisions
Compel: Feels compelled to always take dangerous risks

Description:
Medium height and build. Short brown hair, clean-shaven. Dresses simply, mostly with earth tones and/or season-appropriate colors. Commonly in traditional Scottish garb, including kilts and a wide collection of sgian dubh. Also known to dress even simpler, frequently in overcoats and decorative riding boots.

Background:
Raised competitively in outdoorsmanship, hunting, strategy, and debate with the children of his father’s vassals.
Swore to Vrain as an alternative to his father in order to prove his independence and distance himself from some weak members of his family he felt were unnecessarily familiar with the strong members.
Met and rescued his wife, Alma, from a winter storm while trekking in Vrain’s legendary hunting grounds.

Three things:
Reputation as a great hunter
Generous to allies
Known to be capable of despicable things

Trivialities:
-Jasmine hosted in Vrain’s absence. She was not pleased by my gift.
-I juried a dispute between Niassa’s husband, Gregor, and Victor Steele over an indiscretion between Gregor and Delia, Victor’s fiancée and Niassa’s sister.
Fellow jurors: Krueger, Kether (intoxicated), Verdict: Duel to the Blood on the third day of the party.

Personal:
My wife, Alma, continues to surprise. Her organization, kind demeanor, and admirable preparation have become a force in my life. While I do not envision her warmth becoming one of my qualities, it may be vital in the growth of our home. I am confident her strength will serve both of us well while I am away with Donovan.
Alma and Donovan, two Blooded of the Bear to whom I am bound. The theatre of Ven deceit and illness has always aroused my enmity, but perhaps my stage will yet prove it is best shared.

Lord Vrain Adrente, Count of Sandrose

-Hates Travis

-Is wearing the black

-Morgana Mwrr’s mother was his mistress

-Niassa protects his lands with her Roadmen

-Has a great game reserve

-Niassa was betrothed to his son, Victor, but broke it off for a better match

-Niassa is one of the few who know why he’s wearing the black

-Nisassa’s apothecary leanred from his

-He’s wearing the black to cover something Nisssa did.

Facts about Paevra K’mar (The Sea of Cutting Hatred)

-The lands are cursed

-Excellent road system

-Plagued by pirates at sea

-Caravans travel overland with ease

-Vrain helped settle the area

-Lot of Ruins

Spring Gala at The Verdant Palace

Jasmine Steele is throwing the annual spring gala even though her husband is ostracized because her son, Victor Steele, is announcing his betrothal.  Victor was betrothed once before, to Niassa Yvarai, but that was broken off.  Turns out his new finacee is one of Niassa’s many sisters, Delia, though his mother doesn’t think it’s a good match.  She would prefer he got together with Niassa, which is complicated by Niassa’s marriage to Gregor.

The night began with the presentation of gifts of Lady Jasmine.  Notably, Travis and Niassa’s gifts impressed while Ambrose and Morgana earned nothing but scorn.  Travis’s gift of a gorgeous red dress drew a coy smile from the Lady.  Morgana, embarrassed because of her Lady’s displeasure apologized profusely.  Lady Jasmine told her that she could make it up to her by helping get Niassa and Victor back together by breaking up Niassa’s marriage.  Morgana quickly began plotting.

After gifts were presented everyone retired to the banquet hall and proceeded to mingle.  A small scandal broke out when Travis inadvertantly ripped a large gash in Jasmine’s dress as he pulled out her seat.  As the Lady retired to change outfits, her son Victor was obviously insulted by Travis’s action.  A quick Game of Insults later left Victor with the reputation of being negligent with his father’s lands, as he was the steward.  Several of Victor’s cronies, including Goodren Steele came to ease him back from doing something rash afterward.

Many facts were declared during these exchanges:

Lord Victor Steele, Baron of Drummond

-Widely known to have beauty as a weakness

-Mama’s Boy

-Duels at the slightest insult

-Taking care of his father’s estate

-Hates Travis for the same reason as his father

-Holds no anger towards Niassa…

-…Though he was greatly hurt by the ending of their betrothal

-Expert swordsman

-Loyal followers

-Planning to marry one of Niassa’s sisters

Lady Delia Yvarai, Baroness of Valtross

-Younger sister to Niassa

-betrothed to Victor Steele

-Better match for Victor than Niassa

-Lady Jasmine is displeased with this match

-Lord Vrain was pleased with the match

-Thinks Victor overreacts to most insults

While the guests await the return of their hostess to eat, foxwine is brought out and mingling begins in earnest.  Ambrose gets to know Stacia Silja and learns she is in need of both support and vassals since her husband has passed. He has promised to help.  Morgana begins her search for a way to split up Niassa and Gregor by talking to Lady Peacock, the court’s most famous gossip who is also already drunk. Morgana learns that Gregor, Niassa’s husband, is already looking for a way out of the marriage and is just looking for an excuse.  It’s also rumored that he has been seen flirting heavily  with all of Niassa’s sisters. Word of Lady Peacock’s loose lips finds its way back to Niassa when she starts chattering with all her sisters.

Niassa also spends time speaking with Lady Azra Ru, whom Niassa allows to borrow her apothecary for two season in exchange for his being trained and a cask of wine. She also speaks at length, uncomfortably, with Count Vyzir Mwrr whom she gives he son Ivan as an apprentice in exchange for aid in discovering the potential of one of her artifacts.

Lady Jasmine eventually comes back out, attired in the dress that Travis gave her as a gift. She publicly scolds Victor for his temper over the accident.

After dinner the annual Chase for The Rose and The Thorn began.  The Rose is an expertly crafted silver rose encrusted in jewels and its always hidden somewhere in the flower-strewn lands of The Verdant Palace. Whoever finds it becomes The Verdant Lord (or Lady), an Aspect that aids in beginning romances. That person also becomes the “belle of the ball” so to speak, only second in importance to the hostess herself.  The Thorn is a black iron rose covered in thorns. Whoever find it may give it to anyone they choose.  Once given, the bearer becomes shunned for the season as bad luck tends to follow them around.

Ambrose quickly finds The Rose which he gives to Stacia, who was desperately looking for it.  Jasmine sees him hand it off to her and is a bit upset he did so secretly.  Niassa finds The Thorn.  Morgana disovers a journal while looking around.  Soon after discovering it, she and a multitude of other stumble upon Gregor and Delia locked in a passionate kiss in a secluded corner of the garden.  Niassa  gives Gregor The Thorn while Victor goes straight to the jury to ask for a duel.

The jury consists of a completely drunk Count Kether, Ambrose, and the always eccentric Lord Krueger. After a brief discussion they decided that it shall be a duel to the blood. The duel is then scheduled for the final day of the party.  Travis is chosen as Victor’s second, something his mother insisted.  Tabitha, Travis’s wife, is chosen as Gregor’s second as she was late in arriving and Gregor asked her before she knew he had The Thorn.

As the guests all retired to their beds that night, Morgana stumbled across a body in a corridor.

End of session.

* Luke recaps his experience at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado

* NaNoWriMo discussion – is this a good thing or a bad thing?

* Twilight, the gateway drug

* Luke hates That Guy.

* Guest Hodge – Aron Head, Matt Sturges Interview

Once again, it seems your arrival heralds an escalation in The Great Game. I’m not sure what prompted you to leave Alleria, but your presence at the parties is always… a welcome sight. You know how I feel about swimming alone with these sharks.

The entrance and mingling was frightfully dull this year, which was a welcome change from last year’s reception when our noble Count Vrein embarrassed me publicly upon our entrance. Do you remember?

The Countess was most impressed with ‘our’ gift of the dress. The other vassals, Ambrose and Morgana didn’t present anything worth noting. Niassa, however, presented a gift I can’t remember but the Countess was enthralled with it. The rest of the gift presentation was uneventful and droll, though Countess Jasmin did invite me to sit at her side on the main table.

There was a bit of an incident before dinner. I pulled her chair, as is custom, for her to sit and it caught on her dress, ripping it from her body. As the servants escorted her from the dais, her son Victor (do you remember him? He was betrothed to Lady Niassa before it was broken off for whatever reason) accused me of embarrassing his mother. I taught the dullard a lesson in insults, though, so no dishonor came to me.

The remainder of dinner passed without incident, though I did hear some interesting gossip about Lady Niassa’s sister and Lord Victor being intimately involved (more on this to come!). Lady Niassa is a barbed rose. Watch your step around that one.

After dinner, the annual rose ceremony commenced. I thought I was a major contender for the Red Rose, the ultimate symbol of romance at the spring party, but Lord Ambrose found it first (and under the chair that ruined Lady Jasmin’s dress, no less!) and gave it to the young Marquess Stacia.

I thought for sure Lady Niassa, who found The Thorn would give me that prize (do you remember the oaf that won The Thorn last year? Nobody spoke to that oaf for the rest of the party!), but during my hunt I spotted Lord Gregor, Lady Niassa’s husband intimately engaged with Lady Delia (Lady Niassa’s sister and Lord Victor’s betrothed!). After Lord Victor told Lord Gregor he was taking him to Jury over the matter, Lady Niassa gave him The Black Thorn. What an exciting first couple hours!

It was at this point that you showed up, dear. Lord Victor has chosen me as his second, and Lord Gregor, shunned pariah of the party asked the only person at the party who did not yet know of his shame: you.

Your Devoted Husband,
Travis

* Brant from the Trap Cast joins us.

* How would you survive the zombie apocalypse?

* Survivalist games and a discussion about horror

Core Players refer to the group that makes the vast majority of games.  Cameo Players refer to those who only make the occasional game.

Given the nature of the game, I’m also laying down some requirements and encouragements of how we’ll be playing.  Here’s the list.

1. Read the book. Part of the fun of the game is emulating Ven culture and to do that you’ve got to know the basics.  Since the game allows you to basically define culture and rules as you like, it helps if we all start on the same page. Plus the PDF is only five bucks and is awesome in so many ways.

2. Maturity.  I think we’re all aware of just how goofy things get when we get going (ERIC NO!).  This game gives you enough narrative control to really make the game a goof-fest.  While that’s all well and good, I’d like to tone of this to be relatively serious.  As such, using wagers or Style to do things like making tons of people gay or graphically dictating the arousal state of others is going to be considered Bad Form.  Really, this falls under the “Don’t Be A Wanker” rule in the book, but I thought I’d be explicit.

3. We’ll be using the full rules from the book so you’re going to need to manage your Domain.  We’ll be handling most of that via email, I imagine.  Cameo Players will not be expected to maintain their Domains, but may certainly do so if they wish.  Each player must keep an Action Log that documents how each Season Action was spent.

4. Character Backgrounds are required by the third game a player attends.  Backgrounds should be a few paragraphs long, at most.  Remember to just hit the high points and leave a lot of room to be filled in during play.  Both you and other players are going to be able to dictate facts about your character, so keep that in mind. These will be posted on the blog.

5. Every character will need to have their Three Things done at character creation so they can share with everyone. These will also be posted on the blog.

6. Core Players are required to submit an in-character post to this blog at least once between each game session. This should take the form of a letter, diary entry, poem, song, or anything else that the group would deem cool.  The post should at least make reference to the events of the most recent session.  Additional posts are also encouraged to let the player explore their characters lives not covered during gaming sessions, like exploring their Domain and the like.  Proper maintenance of the blog earns Style. Really impressive use of the blog may earn greater rewards.

7. Additional player contributions are highly encouraged. Art, music, maps, etc. will all earn Style.

8. This is a Friendly Game.  That means all secrets and plotting is out in the open.  Remember, your character is there to be messed with. Revel in it.  All players know all other player’s compels at the start of the game.  Invokes and Tags must be learned through Cunning risks, as usual.

9.  Cameo Player Quick-Start.  If you’re jumping into your first game you don’t need to do full character creation if you don’t have time. We’ll likely have a few characters ready to be played.

10. NPCs.  Whenver you turn a vassal into an NPC, the GM will create the NPC.  The player may state the Three Things about the NPC for free.  Any additional details will cost Style.

* Narrativism in traditional games, and our thoughts on the story game movement in general

* Houses Domain Management, our thoughts and expectations for the upcoming game

* Bounty Head Bebop contest winners are announced!

* Luke gushes some more about The Dresden Files

* Paul’s metagaming quandry

* Paul’s a new host?

* Eddy Webb’s White Chapel Project

* Travel in games, most specifically Venice, Italy, which Matt has recently traveled to.

* There are some great television shows that do some good research for your games, The Colony and Surviving Disaster.

* Locations of gaming – what feel are you projecting in your gaming space?

* Are you gaming or are you dating?

* Dating advice

* Luke’s funhouse story, followed by Matt’s funhouse story

*Geist: The Sin-Eaters

*Werewolf: The Forsaken

*Changeling: The Lost

*One Geek To Another

-Easiest Contest Ever! Win a plethora of Bounty Head Bebop prizes!

-A Farewell to Joe – Make sure to let him know how much you appreciate all he’s done on the message boards.

-Matt’s recording in an airport this week.  He has to scoot early on. No worries, folks. We know what happened to him, unlike last time.

-The Origins of Clockworks

-Worst Cosplays

-Shawn’s GMing Pro-Tips

-The Voltron Interlude

-Splitting the Party and Psuedo-troupe play

-Persistent worlds across multiple GMs and campaigns as exemplified by Clockworks

-Chainmail Bikini revisited

-Shawn’s other works: Doors and Windows, Children’s Choir, True Tales of South City

-Clockworks Savage Worlds Adventures  and Sourcebook

-Sandwich Taco

Hosts: Adam, Matt, Luke, Shawn

* Valhalla’s Gate in Columbia, MO, is only the greatest general game store ever. Myriad Games in Salem, NH, is the best board game store ever.

* Melcrest’s D*C Wrap-Up: James Marsters is awesome, Stargate Atlantis stuff was awesome, TAPS interview was awesome. She also danced the 903 person large, Guiness Book record breaking Thriller Dance. A video can be found here.

* Congratulations to the BGs who won the Parsec at D*C!

* To skip all the D*C stories, you can go ahead and skip to 22:30ish.

* Before we start talking the episode topic, we talk a lot about Iron Tyrants, which Eric is the lead playtester (badass) for.

* Religion and Philosophy in games: its place, how we handle it, and how it can enrich your games

* The Great Debate podcast – go check it out

* Kevin Smith, hardcore fans, validation for creative works. I’m editing it now, and can’t figure out how we started talking about this, The Watchmen Review Podcast with Kevin Smith

* Long episode is long

With David, Luke, Joe, Eric and Melcrest

The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite written by Gerard Way, art by Gabriel Ba, colors by Dave Stewart, letters by Nate Piekos of Blambot

The first volume of the Umbrella Academy opens with a professional wrestler dropping a flying atomic elbow on a cyclopean space squid from Rigel X-9 and quickly begins to get weird. What kept surprising everyone about this comic wasn’t that musician Gerard Way had some decidedly odd ideas for his story. What surprised everyone was just how damn good the whole thing turned out to be. Seriously, outside of My Chemical Romance’s legions of teen fans, who was expecting the guy to have these levels of creative chops. But he does. And when matched with Brazillian artist Gabriel Ba you get what is easily one of the top comics for 2008.

Time travel, little kids fighting the Eiffel Tower, bad parenting, talking chimps and a family reunion that probably isn’t that much more of a disaster than most peoples. I mean sure most reunions don’t lead to the end of the world, but the crying and fighting is probably pretty typical…

*Check out the Bounty Head Bebop prizes from Heroic Journey Publishing for the Easiest Contest Ever!

*Check out Shadow Complex for XBLA.

*Licensed RPGs:  Are they worthwhile or just generic systems with pretty pictures?

*Emulation of source material

*Buffy, Angel, Army of Darkness, Mouse Guard, Burning Wheel, Star Wars, A Game of Thrones, Serenity, Battlestar Galactica

Vampire Loves by Joann Sfar, colors by Audre Jardel, translated by Alexis Siegel

Vampire Loves is centered mostly around the vampire Ferdinand. He’s just broken up with Lani, his plant-spirit girlfriend after he caught her cheating on him with one of his friends. He’s a bit of a depressive type who normally only feeds with one tooth so as to make people think they’ve been bitten by a mosquito. And he really doesn’t have a clue about dating. Vampire Loves follows Ferdinand, Lani and their collection of spirits, robots, humans, mystics and others in their attempt to find love.

Sfar’s work often has a level of sadness to it, even the humor. But its charming and thought-provoking and hopeful. Sfar’s world is one where the occult and the normal converge, mostly showing that people are people and thus mostly confused. Even when they’re dead. Or a tree…

* Joe’s zipline video

* XKCD is fantastic.

* Doctor X has some questions; How to make players make decisions that are in line with their characters, and not necessarily mechanically beneficial

* When will we see a Renaissance in gaming?

* Supernatural doormats from Bear Swarm Matt’s dad! LINK

Skin Horse vol. 1 by Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells

The first collection for the Skin Horse webcomic. A comic about the semi-secret Black Ops Social Services department for non-human intelligences. The ones who go in with government assistances for those poor Destroyer Robots, Transgenic Beasts and Stranger Things That Result From Playing God. When the Rampage Ends, Thats Where Project Skin Horse Begins…

Well they try anyway. But with a field team consisting of a talking ex-pat Canadian dog (Sweetheart), a patchwork zombie girl (Unity) and a transvestite psychologist (Dr. Tip Wilkin) its possible things might not go according to plan. But that doesn’t mean they won’t find a way to solve their clients’ problems. Whether they be genetically-modified lions, warring mutant societies in the sub-basements or foul-mouthed cyborg battle copters…

Game: Neuroshima Hex
Publisher: Z-Man Games
Price: $34.99 (USD)
Type: Board, Combat, Life Points, Tile Game
Players: Tom Carrier, Jason Quintal, Joe Selby
Snacks: Baked Wheat Thins (garden vegetable), Baked Ruffles, Helluva Good Dip (sour cream and onion)
Theme Music: “Zantlop 786″ by Gasserpe from Podsafe Music Network

Click on the image to open a slide show in a new tab of pictures taken from play.

* Neuroshima Hex Overview

* The Rules

* An Example of Play (Actual Play)

* In-Action Slideshow/Photo Album

* Addendum

* Jake joins us from various forums and communities

* How fun is Gencon going to be? Especially since we all just got back from it

* We begin talking about vices

* Rob from Accidental Survivors joins us for the remainder of the episode

* Drinking, smoking, cell phones, racism and personal hygiene

Super Hero Happy Hour written by Dan Taylor, art by Chris Fason

A very simple concept. Neighborhood bar where the city’s super-heroes hang out. This volume collects the original 4-issue mini-series. The art is a bit crude to start, but Fason hits his stride by the second issue (“Ladies’ Night”) putting down simple but effective black & white, cartoon-like art.

Also Psiren and Knightengale are TOTALLY female hero names I wish I’d thought up first…

* This interview was conducted in the room, therefore the sound quality is lower, but still very easily listenable

* Brant and Jenn from the Trap Cast join David at Gencon ‘09

* What have you been up to, what have you done?

* What are your goals for the convention?

* Meeting RPG podcasters

Sparks: An urban fairy tale by Lawrence Marvit

Jo is a lonely auto mechanic. She lives at home with her drunken cop father and zoned out mother. And one day she builds..well not a robot. More the shell of one. And that night a lightning strike brings him to life. Jo eventually names him Galahad and he becomes her closest friend. Even as she struggles to fit in and make friends with other people. But even an artificial man can love.

Or its the story of a beautiful princess trapped by a wicked king and the brave knight who will do anything to save her.

Or maybe both…

* If you’re interested in playing Drinkokalypse at Gencon with David and Jenn, hunt for ‘em at the convention. They’re playing Thursday night and will have tickets to get into the event.

* Luke will be running Project MG games during the weekend. If you’re interested in that let him know.

* Role-playing depth preferences, how far do you take it?

* Life Events, how do you let them impact your games?

* Shark Week.

Mini Marvels: rock, paper, scissors by Chris Giarrusso

Chris G’s brilliantly adorable series of Marvel characters as children had previously been found scattered throughout various Marvel titles. But this collection gathers them up in one slim $10 volume. Thrill to Spidey and Venom’s paper delivery adventures. Wolverines quest for his favorite cereal. The Human Torch learning a valuable lesson about courtesy. And of course the most perfect adaptation of the World War Hulk story-arc…

Chris G’s all-ages comic never fails to make me laugh. Plus Elephant Steve. The Marvel universe could use more Elephant Steve.

* This episode is VERY explicit. You have been warned.

* The nature of ‘explicit’

* The ENnies, why bother entering?

* Why actively try and get listeners, and why do you even bother podcasting?

* The ENnies, can it be improved?

* Who do you think will win best podcast this year?

Yotsuba&! vol. 1 by Kiyohiko Azuma

I’m not normally a big manga reader. But there is something perfectly charming about this series. Its cute and funny and I found myself picking up all five volumes as well as picking them up for my nieces…

The series is about a strange green-haired girl named Yotsuba. She moves to a new town with her adoptive father. In the first volume she befriends her neighbors the Ayases. Especially the Ayase daughters, Fuku, Asagi and Ena. She also goes to the market. And goes cicada catching with Ena and her father’s best friend Jumbo. Yotsuba zooms from one idea to another. Watching the simple joy everything brings her always brings a smile to my face…

* Thanks to Andrew, who got the St. Louis guys an ice-cream cookie cake!

* Congratulations to Asylos, winner of the D&D minis contest!

* We kick off the Pro-Tip Proving for all of The Podge’s released material. Listen to the episode for details, and then send adam@podgecast.com an e-mail with all of your answers!

* Big thanks to the Trap Cast for all of their hard work on episode 50. Go listen to their show, because they’re pretty awesome.

* The Sultan. Enough said.

* Auto-Tune The News

Nocturnals: Black Planet by Dan Brereton

Dan Brereton creates a world of gene-crafted humanoid animals, android-hired torpedos, and supernatural pulp heroes. The Nocturnals are led by Doc Horror of the heroic cursed genius and two-fisted guns variety. He fights the evil of the Narn K Corporation and the alien Crim with his crew of undead gunsels, freed hybrids, and pyschics.

Brereton’s signature painted style brings out the best for his post-dusk setting. Lots of shadows and moonlit settings. Brereton crafts an excellent mash-up of scifi, Lovecraftian and gangster tropes into a pulp noir story.

* A new segment: Getting to know your hosts

* Role-Playing Games

* In the Hodge (live), Joe talks about bagels

A Distant Soil: The Gathering by Colleen Doran

Within the first dozen pages of Doran’s sci-fi/fantasy/romance epic you get a brother and sister with mysterious powers and the villainous Martin Institute. Then soon after that, you get the aliens. Beautiful, human-looking aliens and weird, hulking ones both. And more psychics. And a cynical but heroic cop. And a gang-banger with a good heart. And more beautiful alien psychics. And Sir Galahad of Avalon. And alien revolutions. And an alien threat to Earth. And a plan to gather heroes to stop it. And a were-panther/alien. And evil dictators who aren’t. And so on…

Colleen Doran manages to somehow blend together all these disparate elements into a cohesive and compelling story in a A Distant Soil. Even the Faerie. Did I mention the Faerie? Yeah, from what could easily be a giant mess, Doran creates a world and tale that lives up to the description of epic.

* Topic

* Hodge (if there is one)

Laika written and drawn by Nick Abadzis, colors by Hilary Sycamore

Laika follows former political prisoner who was one of prominent engineers in the Russian space program, Yelena a veterinary technician and Laika the dog aboard the second Soviet orbital launch. Having to meet Premiere Khruschev’s deadline of only a month to launch Sputnik II means that some things have to be cut. Like any means for the satellite to return safely to Earth. Abadzis mixes the available facts together to create a sad but touching story.

Poor, brave little dog…

To whet your appetite, here is a sample of episode 50 (as well as a retrospective of the previous 49).

We hope you enjoy.

* Tony Mast records with us, but the episode still comes out the next week

* You want to win D&D minis! We want to give them to you! Enter now!

* Literary devices that can be applied to role-playing games

* Fish out of water and system bias

* Matt wants to role-play the Gilmore Girls

* The prologue

* GMs breaking their own rules

* Misdirection

* In the Hodge (live), Joe talks about Taking Chance

The Savage Dragon by Erik Larsen, letters by Chris Eliopoulos, Colors by Gregory Wright & Steve Oliff

A collection of the original mini-series that introduced Larsen’s signature series. Waaaay back in ‘92 when Image started I was a High School junior and a Marvel fan-boy. Especially of the X-books. So when several of the creative teams behind those left Marvel I followed along to see what else they’d do. And I checked out a couple other people. McFarlane on Spawn and Larsen on Savage Dragon. I had a few random issues of various Spider-Man books by both and thought they were nice enough. Seventeen years later and I’m still a fan of Larsen and his fin-headed hero.

I’ve followed through the silly cartoon, the numerous spin-offs, tragedies and triumphs in Larsen’s life, delays and more feuds than you could shake an internet browser at. And the book has remained one of my favorites. From when he starts out as a Chicago cop to the creation of Freak Force to encounters with Gods, with other dimensions, being fired, with being the leader of a government super-team, the destruction of the “original” Image Earth, overthrowing the tyrant leader of “new” Earth, getting married and to becoming a cop again, I’ve kept up…

It’s been seventeen years since that first mini-series and I’ve long since lost interest in the other Image founders and their creations. But I’ll probably be a Fin-Addict for another seventeen.

On July 2nd, 1776, the second continental congress voted to declare the independence of the American colonies from the kingdom of Great Britain. Two days later, the congress approved the declaration of independence. A few years after that, David, Joe, Luke, and Matt started the PodgeCast, an exercise in our liberties.

Happy Independence Day to all our American listeners.

* The debut of Shawn Gaston’s Clockworks

* If you like Lovecraft pulp, check out Lovecraft is Missing

* For the hattrick, go read A Girl and her Fed

* Last part of our D&D Minis. Email your answers to joe@podgecast.com

* Harry Potter – the books

* Harry Potter – the movies

* Book 7, how it should have been

* The Last Airbender live action movie

* In the Hodge (live), White Wolf’s new podcast and blog

The Savage Sword of Conan: Vol. 1 written by Roy Thomas, art by various

By Crom! Fifteen tales of the Cimmerian adventurer! Fifteen tales of blood and glory and women and danger! Valeria of the flashing blade! Red Sonja of the fearsome temper! The art of Barry Windsor-Smith, John Buscema, Jim Starlin, Walter Simonson and more! Fifteen thrilling tales of Conan, filled with strange beasts, dark magics and conquest!

Who would dare pass up this opportunity? Only a fool!

CROOOOOOOOM!

Podcast shows are nominated by fans, and finalists are chosen by a yearly steering committee. Those finalists are then voted on by an independent panel of judges from outside of podcasting. As part of the process, we had to submit a sample of our show during the eligible period (for us, that was episodes 1 through 39). If you’d like to hear more about the Parsecs, you can listen to their promo.

We hope you can join us at Dragon*Con when we claim our Best Podcast trophy (either from the Parsec people or the chump who wins when his back is turned—we could use the extra muscle). Wish us luck!

* After the hilarity of getting everything together, we finally get underway to try and determine which is the funniest television series of all time. The winner will surprise you… or probably won’t.

* The video is forthcoming. I was seriously going to have it available early, but ran out of time. Maybe I’ll get to it tomorrow.

* I marked the episode as explicit, since David drops the F*bomb a few times. What an ass.

Jack Staff: Yesterday’s Heroes written and drawn by Paul Grist

The world of Jack Staff is one of super-heroes, vampires, reports, and maverick cops. Named Maveryk. This collection of the first four indy press issues takes Britain’s greatest hero, Jack Staff, from a fight in the 1940s alongside the Freedom Fighters to a series of vampire attacks in the modern day.

This collection presents the first issues of one of the best—and sometimes oddest—super-hero books on the stands. While this edition is now out of print, it is collected as part of Image’s Jack Staff: Everything Used to be Black and White. Still theres something enjoyable about lucking into earlier editions. But whatever collected version or single issues, Jack Staff is one of best and most enjoyable comics out there.

* Go listen to the TrapCast. They’re funny.

* James is listing his gaming books here. Mention that you heard about it from the Podge (before paying, obviously) and get 10-25% off!

* V3 was a huge success

* Intra-Party Conflict (which is different than inter-player conflict)

* Mechanic-based conflict resolution systems

* Organic vs. Synthetic Conflict

* Dangers of Intra-Party Conflict

* Follow the discussion with a handy outline on Plus 1

Astro Boy by Osamu Tezuka

Astro Boy originally named Tetsuwan Atom or “Mighty Atom” is one of the cornerstones of Japanese manga and anime. Created and written by comics legend Osamu Tezuka, the series ran for EIGHTEEN years. Tezuka’s stories, based around the adventures of the good-hearted robot boy became one of the cultural touchstones of Japan. Here you have the first two volumes collected and translated into English. You get stories of alien invaders, robot/human politics, stage magic and cyborg dogs. Trips to the moon, powerful battles and a robot hero with machine guns in his butt…

These early stories are fun to read and enhanced by the cartoonish but clean drawing style. The characters have exageratted physical characteristics, emotionally overreact and use classic sight-gags. While Tezuka himself was not always happy with his early work it still has a simple elegance to it and the stories are, above all, fun.

* LIVE Tuesday, June 16th at 8:30 pm Eastern.

* http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-podge-cast

* Audio and video

* Audience participation! Choose your own nominees. Eject others. Play a critical part in the BATTLE!

* Rules for the BATTLE can be found on our forums

* James is listing his gaming books here. Mention that you heard about it from the Podge (before paying, obviously) and get 10-25% off!

* Tope Dome is touring in your city soon!

* Winners of the Top Down and Bottom Up campaign contests, Dan Henson and Dan Marlett (Double Dan)

* We stop talking about Mike’s mom…no we don’t.

* David vs. Joe: THUNDERDOME! (Worst vs. Lesser)

* Group Design

* Goals, party pitches, and conflict

* Role maximization

* Follow the discussion with a handy outline on Plus 1

* Mr. T is a Night Elf Mohawk, Ted Talks, and Imagining the Tenth Dimension

* CONTEST! Win D&D Minis

* Hodge (live): The Tome Show celebrates 4e’s first birthday

The Middleman: The Collected Series Indispensability written by Javier Grillo-Marxuach, art by Les McClaine

The Middleman is the agent of an organization so top secret even he doesn’t know who they are. He’s tasked with protecting the world from those who would conquer it and also dealing with things too strange for normal authorities. Like crime-boss monkeys, rogue groups of los luchadors or giant city-buster robots…

His new partner is artist and temp worker Wendy Watson. Since he burned down her last job stopping a tentacle monster and had her framed for it, she’s been in need of work. So Mad Science Action Hero Sidekick will have to do for now…

Grillo-Marxuach’s series was adapted into a television show for ABC Family which was pretty good the one time I caught it. The book collects all three volumes of the comic as well as bonus comics featuring the Middleman in other eras. One of which features time traveling Soviet bears on motorcycles. And thats just awesome.

Enjoy!

Hosts:

David – The Podge Cast
Scott – Story Shtrick
Rob – Bear Swarm
Rib – The Downuder Gamer Show

You can find the show here.

* Thank you to our armed service members past and present

* Five Guys hamburgers is sexworthy

* Luke has closed his business and is now a hobo

* James is listing his gaming books here. Mention that you heard about it from the Podge (before paying, obviously) and get 10-25% off!

* Buy Storm Cloud, David and Luke’s (et al.) anthology

* Different methods of character generation

* Pre-flighting your character

* Character-Focused (Who-What-Why?)

* Mechanics-Focused (What-Why?)

* Character Optimization and the Brilliant Gameologists

* Character-Study Approach

* Joe’s char-gen notes are available in Plus 1 (really, we promise!)

Scalped: Indian Country written by Jason Aaron, Art by R.M. Guera, Colors by Lee Loughridge, Letters by Phil Balsman

Jason Aaron is one of comics’ rising stars. He’s infusing new life into old properties at Marvel and, along with co-creator Guera, is doing one of Vertigo’s latest flagship titles with Scalped. The book looks at various characters living on or involved with the Prairie Rose Indian Reservation, focusing heavily on recently returned prodigal son Dashiell “Dash” Bad Horse. After fifteen years away he returns and gets hired on by local crime boss, tribal chief and chief of police Lincoln Red Crow. Red Crow used to be a major part of the activist movement, alongside Dash’s mother Gina Bad Horse. But now he’s a corrupt and violent bastard determined to get his new casino up and running at any cost.

Adding to the mix are other activists former and current (like crazy white boy Diesel), FBI agent Nitz looking to pin a 20 year old murder of two FBI agents on Red Crow, Red Crow’s self-destructive daughter and other crooks, cops and citizens on the Rez. Not that its always possible to tell those last three apart…

Aaron and Guera are telling a hyper-violent cops/noir/gangster/tribal life/spiritual journey mash-up of a story. And with its diverse cast and interlocking story arcs its no wonder its often looked at as the succesor to the recently ended 100 Bullets.

Game: El Grande
Publisher: Rio Grande Games
Price: $40-$55 (USD)
Type: Board, Region Control, Settlement, Strategy, Victory Points
Players: Tom Carrier, Mark Corsey, Jason Quintal, Joe Selby
Snacks: Goldfish, M&Ms (plain and peanut), TJ’s Hemp Tortilla Chips
Theme Music: “Zantlop 786″ by Gasserpe from Podsafe Music Network

* An introduction of A Boarding Party

* El Grande Overview

* The Rules (Pre-Actual Play)

* An Example of Play (Actual Play)

* Our Thoughts (Post-Actual Play)

* Living Forgotten Realms and it’s global regional design

* Adventures, how they can be acquired and played

* Story and the regional adventure style

* 4th edition’s impact on the RPGA

* Why should someone play an RPGA adventure?

Dr. Strange: The Oath written by Brian K. Vaughn, art by Marcos Martin, inks & colors by Alvaro Lopez & Javier Rodriguez, letters by Willie Schubert

And welcome to the last good Dr. Strange story. One that opens with Strange being dragged into the clinic of Dr. Linda “Night Nurse” Carter. Strange has been shot and so Wong takes him to the only doctor in the city who specializes in vigilante trauma. From there we learn that Wong has a malignant brain tumor, Dr. Strange located a magical potion that can cure it and the person who shot him was a costumed burglur named Brigand who stole the potion on behalf of a mysterious enemy of the Sorcerer Supreme. And then we get demons, robots and Hitler’s Gun…

Vaughn tells what is probably one of the best Dr. Strange stories in years, an impressive talent given the difficulties most writer’s have in presenting the character (*glares at Bendis*). And Martin has a classical comic book style of art that meshes well. Though honestly, the book is almost worth picking up just for the first two pages and the conversation between rookie hero Arana and Iron Fist in Night Nurse’s waiting room…

* DP Challenges Adam to Latin Subtext

* Company of Heroes, Win a copy!

* Dr. Horrible, Jeff’s Awesomeness, Lost, JJ Abrams, George R.R. Martin, Adam as Dark Tower Expert, Ideology of Madness, and Luke shakes his butt

* Fundamentals of the Game: Logistics

* Maintaining Your Game: Campaign Pro Tips

* The Campaign Pyramid

* Paint-by-Numbers Campaign Construction

* More, More, Less

* Campaign Fade

* Birth of the Third World

Boneyard: Vol. 1 by Richard Moore

A collection of the first four-issues. Michael Paris inherits a plot of land in the town of Raven Hollow. When he gets to town he finds out he got a cemetery. One home to various strange and frightening creatures. And the locals would like his help in getting rid of the monsters. Though Paris finds himself unsure about siding with the townsfolk over the cemetery residents. Especially the vampire Abbigail…

Boneyard is a mostly light-hearted horror comic. I mean except when it isn’t. But Moore is enjoyable if for no other reason, then that he can remember that people come in more than one body type…

* V3 is June 6th (V3 location information will appear at the end of our episodes beginning with episode 42)

* Last week’s contest Google doc form is here (click the link). We also clarify evolutionary items.

* Campaign Design, the Bottom Up approach. You can find an outline, and actual notes on the Plus 1 page.

* What beginning steps mirror the Top Down approach.

* Character generation and the character theme

* Establishing conflict

* The Character Domino Effect

* Adventure (non-character) focused Bottom Up design

* The Fog of War

* All podcasters are liars, except for 3/4 of the PodgeCast

* A SECOND CONTEST! Go ahead and click here to open the form and submit.

* Matt goes insane

The Damned Script and Story by Cullen Bunn, Art and Story by Brian Hurt

The Damned is high concept at its most perfect. Think Miller’s Crossing with demons. And the story is one of those sadly rare times where the creators far and away deliver on the concept. The lead character is Eddie, your regular broken down cynical anti-hero. Except he can’t stay dead. When someone touches his corpse, skin to skin, they take his death and drag him out of hell.

Eddie’s boss needs him again so his corpse is revived from the half-empty field where its lying. The demon crime boss has a problem. Hell’s sent up someone to broker the war between the cities two biggest demon crime families. And that negotiator has gone missing. So Eddie’s been tapped to find him…

The Damned is perfect for fans of noir, crime movies or plain old good story-telling.

* Ideology also had their Week of Mice with Weapons

* Donate your old cell phones to Cell Phones for Soldiers

* Deadliest Warrior and other cool TV shows. Adam kept calling it Ultimate Warrior, which is a crappy show. This is the actual show Deadliest Warrior.

* Luke needs playtesters for “Project MG.” Email him at luke@podgecast.com

* Joe was a guest host on Kicked in the Dicebags: Episode 5

* Adam is going to record a bonus video to show you how to “double record” if you’re looking for alternative recording methods

* Campaign Design, the Top Down approach. You can find an outline, and actual notes on the Plus 1 page.

* Pre-Planning Phase

* The Three Pillars of System Selection

* Pre-Player Phase (PPP or P³)

* Scope Your Game

* Evolutionary Items (like a Monkey Trial)

* The Fun Cooker

* Themes

* Organizations and our inherent nature to group

* Conflict

* Character Generation and Player Input

* Why (and why not) to plan your first show

* Why (and why not) to use box text

* Matt’s campaign document is on the Plus 1 page in the Episode Resources

* Scoping this discussion

* Announcing…THE CONTEST! You can enter here.

Cerebus by Dave Sim

So Cerebus. Lets get one thing out of the way first. Dave Sim. Dave Sim is crazy. Not wacky, not eccentric. Bug-fuck, rat-shit, random animal-random swear CRAZY. This is unarguable to anyone who’s read his non-comics writings. Well its arguable, and lots of people DO, but they’re really, really wrong. Misogynist + Crazy = Dave Sim. Simple fact. Which doesn’t change how really fucking good much of Cerebus is…

What started as a funny animal parody of Conan morphed into a satire on comics and then into just lots of weird philosophy, action, humor, celebrity cameos and more. Three hundred issues of it. Some of it is actually pretty terrible, having too much of the “real-world” Sim in it. Other stuff is just full-on awesome. Volume 1 here is the first 25 issues and its full of parody, barbarians, the greatest use of a fake Groucho Marx ever, violence, artists, weird women, weirder men, the Roach and more…

So there you go. Cerebus. Mostly excellent comic written by a really crazy person…

* TPC will soon be having a boatload more content. I’m not really sure how it will all line out yet, so stay tuned!

* Systems, when/how to change ‘em to get what you need.

Hench written by Adam Beechan, art by Manny Bello

Mike Fulton is an ex-jock, sidelined by a knee injury, now just another blue collar guy. Trying to get buy and support a wife and kid. But he misses the excitement of football and the feeling of being part of something bigger. So when Randy Kirkman, another athlete taken out in his prime by an injury, approaches him about an opportunity he listens. And Randy introduces him into the world of professional henching. Hired muscle for costumed crooks and crazies. The new life goes well at first but when his wife threatens to leave him he quits. But then his son gets sick. And the medical bills keep mounting. And so Mike goes back to the only thing that will bring in the money fast enough. But henching costs him his job, gets him a prison record and gets him hurt.

Hench is far from the only piece of super-hero fiction to take a look at the costumed life from the henchman’s perspective. But in Mike Fulton it succeeds in creating a relatable everyman. Just another common guy working a job. Beechan and Bello’s background heroes and villains are interesting as well. I especially like the drunken Russian called the Cosmonaut and the mystic villain Hellbent. Who, ironically, is the best at looking out for his people and having well-thought out plans.

* Dave Arneson really did die and he is missed.

* Thank you to all those who donated to Luke Appreciation Week, even those whose last names we can’t pronounce

* Kal Penn, House, and Public Service

* Adam is sick of fighting (he also hates happiness)

* Castle Crashers is an awesome game

* We talk about things you might have missed

* System Shock 2

* Red Dwarf

* Black Adder

* Invader Zim

* Venture Bros.

* Failure to Launch

* Supernatural

* Greg the Bunny

* Jim Henson’s Storyteller

* Avatar: The Last Airbender

* O

* The Monster Squad

* Grim Fandango

* Arrested Development

* Steel-Cut Oatmeal

* Emiliana Torrini

* The Sugar Queen

Jonah Hex: Two-Gun Mojo written by Joe R. Lansdale, Drawn by Timothy Truman, Inks by Sam Glanzman, Colors by Sam Parsons and Letters by Todd Klein

Two-Gun Mojo was my introduction to both Jonah Hex and Lansdale. Its possible its even my first real introduction to Truman, before I found Grimjack even. Hex is a scarred Civil War vet turned bounty hunter. And thanks to various animated appearances on Batman: the Animated Series, Justice League Unlimited and Batman: The Brave & The Bold he’s probably DC’s best known Old West character…

In “Two-Gun Mojo” Lansdale mixes together his two favorite genres, Westerns and Horror. Here he uses a two-bit snake-oil salesman and his carnival of freaks that cross paths with Hex. And making them especially dangerous is that one of the freaks is the animated corpse of legendary gunfighter Wild Bill Hickock…

The story is as violent as a Peckinpah movie and darkly humorous. Lansdale and Truman are both recognized master’s in their fields and letterer Klein has more Eisner nominations than I’ve got fingers. Together with Glanzman and Parsons they craft a classic tale of murder, vengeance and dark magics…

Behold the Wild Matt in his native habitat. He’s a rugged beast with a peculiar mating call.

* There is a video forthcoming. When David gets off his duff and edits the video.

* We eventually get to the topic: “What is the best movie sequel?”

* If you listened through the end (Look at you!), you can take the survey David mentions here: Survey!

Incredible Change-Bots by Jeffrey Brown

The not true story of the non-eternal war between the heroic Awesomebots and the villainous Fantasticons. After devastating their home world Electronocybercircuitron the two factions band together to explore the stars for a new home with a new source of energy. But a spirited debate leads to violence and the robotic masters of disguise find themselves crashing onto the strange new world called Earth. There, under the leadership of the amazing Big Rig and the fantastical Shootertron, their war continues!

While small in size every page is packed with 150% of your needed doses of humorous parody. Brown delivers a tale sure to delight everyone who has grown up watching giant robots turn into trucks and then back again to beat up ones that turn into jets. Chee choo che choo chee. Incredible change to vehicle mode and roll out!

* Our initial impressions of D&D 4e.

* Some general discussion about what’s new in the PHB2, and what we expect that it will do to the game.

* Problems, issues and general comment about the system.

*** This episode is not our usual type of episode. It is a one-system, 45 minute discussion.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Wolves at the Gates Scripts by Joss Whedon & Drew Goddard, Pencils by Georges Jeanty, Inks Andy Owens, Colors Michelle Madsen, Letters Richard Starkings & Comicraft

The 3rd volume of “Season 8″ and probably the strongest. Collecting issues 11-15, with only the first written by Whedon. Which is a good issue. But Goddard honestly hits a home run with it. Capturing the idiosyncratic voice of the original series while adding his own improvements. This arc has the return of Dracula, a fairly flat character in the one television episode. But here, especially in the weird friendship between him and Xander, he’s a scene stealer. Also you have a giant teen-age girl getting in a fight with a giant robot version of herself. Also Andrew lecturing a group of Slayers about Dracula while wearing George Hamilton’s costume from Love at First Bite. And what else. Oh yeah, lesbianism. This is the arc with Buffy’s fling with fellow slayer Satsu. Which of course made it the greatest comic ever written. I have mathematical formulas proving it.

Not that everything is perfect with the writing. Aside from Dracula and the original cast few of the other characters have much in the way of developed personalties. And Xander Harris shows that he matches Kyle Rayner in being a guy no one should date. Ever. Seriously of all the people he’s EVER been romantically linked to, no matter how brief, two have survived. And one of those went gay…

*Special Guest Host: Jenn from The Trapcast.

*Our second Live episode is recording on 3/31. Come join us online! You can find the live episode here.

*Adam cites his funniest moment in podcast courtesy of Downunder Gamers

*Adam challenges us to build a setting in thirty minutes and brags how easy it is

*Listen as too many cooks prove Adam wrong.

*Joe’s true destiny

*We find out we just inadvertently played the first part of a Primetime Adventures game.

*Madonna

*Silent, but taco

Criminal: Coward written by Ed Brubaker, art by Sean Phillips

Criminal is probably one of the best books (not just comics, but books) being published. And probably one of the finest examples of noir you can find. No capes, no magic, nothing but cops and crooks and two-time losers and people looking for that last one big score and fools and madmen…

This first collected story arc follows Leo, a master pick pocket who gets recruited to work an armored car heist. One where damn near everything goes wrong and almost everyone involved is lying. Its violent and beautiful and tragic.

I’ve yet to see a bad review of this series and this first volume is a perfect start. The only thing thats really missing from the singles are the back-up essays on the noir genre, highlighting creators and works in print and film.

* We can finally wank about Watchmen

* Shaky cam fight scenes and fish islands

* It’s just a penis. Get over it.

* Villainy, alignment, and being evil

* Evil campaigns

* Evil characters in non-evil campaigns

* Advice for playing evil characters

* Number of times we talk about Burning Wheel: 4

Proof Book 1: Goatsucker Script and letters by Alexander Grecian, Art & colors by Riley Rossmo, Colors by Tyler Jenkins

Proof is John Prufrock, agent of the Lodge and 200+ year old Sasquatch. The Lodge is in charge of watching cryptids. Keeping them safe from humanity and humanity safe from many of them. Ginger Brown is his new partner. She was FBI until a hostage situation she was negotiating was solved by a giant man made from clay. One no one else says they saw. And on her first day at her new job she and Proof are sent to Minnesota to investigate a chupacabra sighting…

Within the last couple years cryptozoology seems to have got an upswing in popularity again. Proof is one of a couple comics and shows featuring secret groups that employ and investigate “monsters”. And its probably my favorite of the bunch. The comic has a very early season X-Files feel to it. Especially if they’d only done the weird happenings episodes and not the Alien/Conspiracy Mythology ones…

Time, much like music, is described in many forms. Everyone has an opinion on time and how we perceive it. From a simple measurement between then and now, to a scientific theory on relativistic time versus Newtonian time. In M. Ward’s newest album Hold Time he has much to say about time. Nothing that will expand any scientific fields of research, but bits from the past and the future that can spin into a much longer yarn if you will your imagination to take you there.

The song “Never Had Nobody Like You” dwells for a short time on the past, but never so far back as to not see the person who’s standing right in front of him, shows how well this album has been crafted around it’s title. It’s almost novel-like in how there’s a loose narrative flowing throughout. This track features Zooey Deschanel and has some fantastically catchy guitar rifts and drum beats.

“One Hundred Million Years” is a simple love song that spans eons. The mellow sound that flutters from the guitar sets a soothing and lovely tone for the song. Which carries right over into the next track, “Stars of Leo.” Another love song, but this time a bit more heavy on the symbolism and wordplay. It does take a minute to build up to the real catchy rifts, but if you follow the narrative you can understand why.

While sifting through the lines in this album, I came to realize that he’s layered this album with many, many religious references. The first song “For Beginners” mentions Mount Zion and the original sinners, an obvious reference to Adam and Eve. “Jailbird” tells the haunting last moments of a prisoner on death row. And “Epistemology” which tells us how the singer, whether that be M. Ward or someone else, had found religion.

I liked this album, a lot. It showcases a lot of the reasons why I love M. Ward’s music so much. Haunting melodies, rolling guitars that make me dance in my seat, and fun catchy lyrics that I’ll sing along with. However, I can’t get past the fact that a few of the tracks sound vaguely similar to his past work. They have that simple touch of a few notes that make me think back on previous tracks, and then I come back to the tune at hand. It almost takes me out of the moment. But then, I’d be fooling myself if I didn’t think about those crazy power chord guitarist of the ‘80’s. Oh, how they loved to reuse so many chords.

The only criticism I have for this album is that the tracks are short. Much too short for my tastes, but Ward does put a lot of effort into squeezing his mind in each track. Another fifteen or so minutes could have really filled this one out, but then, we can’t all hold onto so much time like Ward does.

* Aron screws up his introduction

* White Castles and its effects on the human condition

* Luke Appreciation Week; if you want to donate, email joe@podgecast.com

* Go to this episode’s discussion thread to vote on which subject we’ll talk about in our live episode

* Our live episode is Tuesday, March 31st at 8:00 pm EDT (GMT-5). Join us at
www.ustream.tv/channel/the-podge-cast where you can participate in the show as it is recorded!

* JeffCon charity event, Adam is attending

* Master the Met was a success except for the part where they failed

* Getting fired from artistic endeavors

* Personal Blogging vs. Professional Blogging

* Geographical realities of gaming communities

* Harneshing Passion

* Name Dropping
- Ideology of Madness (http://ideologyofmadness.com/)
- Luke’s Magnificent Beard (http://ideologyofmadness.com/archives/1772)
- The Bastard Blog (http://www.evilbastard.net/bastardblog/)
- Paul’s Blog (http://www.thesiblingsscarington.com/)
- The Popecast (http://markandrewpope.com/)

Starman Omnibus, vol. 1 Written by James Robinson, Pencils by Tony Harris, Inks by Wade Von Grawbadger, Colors and Letters by various

It seems appropiate to have this collection get focused on today. Because one of the underlying themes of the entire series is fathers. Jack and Ted. The Mist and his two children. The O’Dare clan and the influence their father had on them. Throughout the run of this book the theme shows up…

For those unfamiliar with Robinson’s Starman, its the tale of a second generation hero, Jack Knight. Jack’s father Ted was the first Starman, though there were several others in between Ted’s WWII adventures and Jack taking up the mantle. Will Payton, the alien warrior Mikaal, alien Prince Gavyn. Even Jack’s older brother David. In fact this first volume opens with David’s assassination at the hands of the Mist’s son Kyle. The Mist had been one of Ted’s oldest foes. And in his twillight days he attempts to destroy his rival and all his works. But the attempt to kill Jack pushes him into taking up Starman’s Cosmic Rod…

While everyone else was spending the 90s trying to copy the worst excesses of Image, Starman set a different tone. With its gorgeous and fleshed out Opal City. With its expanded DCU history. And with its way of making bad guys into good guys…

Because just as much as the long term story was about the Starman legacy of the Knight family, it was also about the evolution of golden age villain the Shade into hero. And with these new omnibus editions all that will be seen. In this volume and the five to follow will be every issue and every story. Annuals, one-shots, mini series. Everything. Which explains, other than the fact that the thing is just amazing, why I’m buying this series for a third time…

* Luke doesn’t like Jared Sorenson but likes Inspectors

* V3-3 is June 6th, you’ve been warned

* Our next Podge Live recording is March 31st at 8:00pm Eastern. Join us at
www.ustream.tv/channel/the-podge-cast where you can participate in the show as it is recorded!

* Bone Wrestling

* Adam’s opinion of gamedays is evolving

* Casual gamedays vs. Organized gamedays

* Conventions

* Gaming is people!!!

* Taking convention material and using it at home

Street Angel written by Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca, drawn by Jim Rugg

Whats this? A Sunday Trade update in the morning???

Thats right! Be shocked and amazed by my get up and go attitude that is all for you and not linked in any way to my desire to spend all of Sunday in a coma so I can put off cleaning my apartment…

Rugg and Maruca’s title character is a martial arts bad-ass and skateboarding wizard. An orphaned girl, raised on the mean streets of the world’s worst ghetto she spends her time scrounging for food, ditching class and delivering savage and sometimes lethal beat downs to arrogant cops, ninjas, conquistidorspirates and/or robots. And maybe she’ll take some time to get recruited to rescue the mayor’s spoiled brat daughter from mad geologist Dr. Pangea. Or help out retired blaxploitation hero Afrodisiac or Irish astronaut CosMick. But mostly she’s just bad-ass awesome and wicked, crazy cool…

Scott’s Podcast: http://storyshtick.com
Genghis Con: http://denvergamers.org
Andy Collins: http://www.andycollins.net/
Gwendolyn Kestrel: http://www.gwendolynkestrel.com/
Harley Stroh: http://www.goodman-games.com/

Apparently, I’ve forgotten how to do this properly Everything should be working correctly now.

No, this is a list about a man who can take hours away from you at a time by just listening to him. A man who is known and unknown by many. Bob Dylan has a catalogue of music that will take you days to sift through, weeks to find the gems that others glance over, and months to appreciate that one verse, that one smidge of pure glee that you might have otherwise missed the first twenty times you listened to it.

For you, the reader and listener, I have taken years going over these songs over and over. Listening to them at work, listening to them on walks, and listening to them when I’m playing games. I’ve combined both the original recorded track and all the live tracks I could. This clocks in at over six hours of music. I’m going to distill as much as I can for you, while still not gloating about how much I love Bob Dylan. (Go ahead, get your sneers in about his raspy-taspy voice now. I’ll wait.)

Ok, ready? These six are those that benefit from being played live, and are better than the original recording.

I’ll start with It Ain’t Me Babe from “Another Side of Bob Dylan.” It’s a simple song, and simply put it doesn’t stand out that much from the rest of the album. In it’s entirety you may wonder why Dylan chose this song to include in his live set lists. I couldn’t tell you exactly, since I wasn’t around in those days, but I can tell you I’m glad he did. There are four live versions of this song. My favorite of them all is from the “Rolling Thunder Revue” which is a deliciously fantastic album. There’s energy, power, and force behind Dylan on this song. He brings it all here, and he’s really performing superbly. Check this one out for some great licks.

My next pick is one of Dylan’s more silly songs. Yes, I’m talking about Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 from “Blonde on Blonde.” The original album recording is already choke full of fun sounds, and then you get into the lyrics and you can tell he’s having a good time. Now, you get into the Live versions of the song and everything just comes off the hinges. From the “MTV Unplugged” album he knocks it out of the park a little further and does a fantastic job of juicing this up with some great sounds. Give it a listen, you’ll be happy you did. (Side note: This was the one Dylan song my boss at Target knew of, and he had little talent for singing. I smiled and nodded, and continued to think of him as an idiot.)

This is not the exact song I’m talking about here, but it is Dylan playing with Elvis Costello, so it’s just as good.

This one you might roll your eyes at because it’s Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door from the “Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid” film. I’ve actually watched the film, and can say it’s not all that great. However, this song is one of the few good things to come from that. Now, you might be saying that Guns N’ Roses cover is a good one, and that I shouldn’t bother. Ok, but consider this: Axl Rose is an asshole. I understand I don’t know the man, but c’mon. Who just throws “hey’s” and “whoa’s” around? That dick, that’s who. However, Dylan does a live version of this song on his “MTV Unplugged” album that’s heart-felt and powerful in execution. The added three minutes from the original stand out, but do take a minute to build up and draw you into the song. Also, if you want to hear this song with a flute solo you should check out the “Live At Budokan” recording.

From the “Blood on the Tracks” album comes Shelter From the Storm. This already well written song is bolstered even further up along the reasons of why I love Dylan so much. On the “Hard Rain” album his performance of this song truly goes to create a gorgeous melody and a lilting playfulness you might not expect from him. An album that’s been said to be a ghost train with little steam from the “Rolling Thunder Revue” tour, there’s still plenty of gems here and this song is just one of them.

Tombstone Blues has always been one of those high concept songs to me. With lyrics that, at first glance, blow your mind, and slowly turns toward something more compelling and frightening to find out what Dylan is talking about. From the “MTV Unplugged” album he’s turned the song into a quasi-country jamband tune. It deviates the tune just enough to recast it in a light that any fan of Dylan can appreciate

The song Maggie’s Farm was one I had originally heard from the Bootleg Series Volume 7 in which it was performed live during that infamous period where Dylan started playing electric guitar. I then heard the original recording from the “Bringing It All Back Home” album. I was stunned to hear such a difference between the two and that’s when I started digging further into his live albums. My favorite live track though comes from the “Hard Rain” album. The guitars all roll along the same twangy pattern that’s just fun to listen to, but the great part is the way Dylan executes his vocals for this song. It just pulls you in and makes you want to sing along.

And those are my picks for Dylan’s live tracks. I hope you enjoyed it, and if you’ve got some favorites of your own let me know! Tune in next time when I point out the tracks that should have been left off the set list from his live albums.

- Zak Kaveney

* NERD RAGE!

* How to design online content and not suck

* 4e, its successes and failures, a business prespective

* When can a company be a jerk?

* Where’s Waldo (by Waldo we mean Matt)

* Wanking about Joss Whedon is awesome

* This XKCD strip is the show’s thesis

* Joe talks about the graphic novel Serenity: Those Left Behind in the Hodge (Live!)

Justice League: A New Beginning written by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis, Pencils by Kevin Maguire, Inks by Terry Austin (Ch.1) and Al Gordon (Ch. 2-7), Letters by Bob Lappan, Colors by Gene D’Angelo and Daniel Vozzo

“A New Beginning” marks the start of the Giffen/DeMatteis run on Justice League of America aka The Justice League International era aka The Bwahaha League. The last because even during serious and dramatic story-lines it still wouldn’t take things totally seriously. Even the dourest of Detectives or emoest of Martians would crack wise or at least crack a smile. It’s an era that introduced the perfect team-up of Booster Gold and Blue Beetle. And of course its the volume of One Punch…

While the original soft trade is now out-of-print thats mostly because DC is slowly releasing the entire run in a series of fairly affordable hard-back editions. An excellent addition to fans of capes and the DCU ones especially. The books should also be appealing to those whose main introduction to the DCU is from the Justice League and JLU cartoons.

Scott’s Podcast: http://storyshtick.com
Genghis Con: http://denvergamers.org
Andy Collins: http://www.andycollins.net/
Gwendolyn Kestrel: http://www.gwendolynkestrel.com
Harley Stroh: http://www.goodman-games.com/

Part 2 will follow next Thursday!

* Alex tells a gaming story

* Joe is employed!

* V3-2 is almost here. Come join us.

* Master the Met with Phil and Adam

* Maladjusted expectations

* Improvisation

* Why

* Go listen to This Modern Death

* Number of times we talk about Burning Wheel: 1

Northlanders: Sven the Returned written by Brian Wood, illustrated by Davide Gianfelice, colors Dave McCaig, letters Travis Lanham

Collecting the first arc of Brian Wood’s most recent ongoing series. About, well, Vikings. In this case the story of Sven, a chieftan’s son working as a soldier in Constantinople as one of the Varangian. Sven learns that his father has died and his lands taken over by his uncle. So Sven decides to head back to the home he abandoned for his inheritance. Or at least the parts that clink and are easily portable…

Wood’s story reads like a violent gangster story really. Or maybe a adaption of a never filmed Kurosawa adaptation of a forgotten noir piece. Dark and brooding and full of blood and vengeance. All set in ink by the skilled Gianfelice and McCaig…

Plus its a fat 8-issue tpb that only runs 10 bucks. Thats a damned good deal…

Since Adam didn’t want to run both games, I’ll be taking over D&D after we’re done with the Keep.  I’m very excited!  I haven’t run D&D for years because I grew tired of the massive preparation time that third edition carried with it.  4e fixes that problem  so I was more than happy to put on my cape and step back into the role of DM.

Like any excited gaming group, everyone immediately began discussing exactly what they were going to play.  Since D&D’s creation, the proper balance of classes in a party has always been an important part of the metagame.  The concept of having your niche on the battlefield was one of the cornerstones of the game in those early days.  As editions came and went, the importance of these niches began to fade as rules for multiclassing allowed for characters to account for their own weaknesses instead of relying on a party member to compensate for it.  This seems like a small thing, but it really changed the way the game was played.

Third Edition was the biggest offender when it came to lack of niche protection.  With both multiclassing and prestige classes designed to let your character specialize, generalize, hypnotize, and hypothesize, the idea that a class had well-defined weaknesses to go along with its strengths was out the window.  This is actually one of my big beefs with Third Edition but it really just comes down to a matter of taste.  There are lots of folks out there who love the wide array of options presented and don’t enjoy the more restricted versions of classes that other editions, including Fourth, offer.

In Fourth Edition, the concept of niches comes back as one of the foundations of the game.  Instead of hiding the concept within the rules for the players to eventually figure out, they instead opened the curtains and made it very explicit that classes are grouped into certain battlefield roles.  The four roles in the game are striker, defender, leader, and controller.  Each class specialized in one role and can usually build in such a way to dabble with another.  The roles all complement one another and when a party has each role filled it is fun to watch the gears turn together to become a well-oiled machine.  This is one of the better concepts that the designers yoinked from MMOs (though MMOs yoinked the idea from older edition of D&D).

Playing through the module Adam is running now, we have every role filled with the fifth player being a defender (a party makeup we have found to be very effective).  When we made characters, no one wanted to play the wizard, currently the only controller in the game, so I filled that role. It’s probably the most complained about class in the game, if you pay attention to message boards (and I wouldn’t), because it doesn’t seem as focused as the other classes.  Even the designers admit that the wizard is like that because even they hadn’t really decided all the things a controller should do.

As someone who’s played one for a few sessions, I’m loving it.  So don’t believe the hype, I guess.

It turns out, I’m the only one who was loving it, though.  Nobody wanted to play the wizard in the upcoming game and since that’s the only controller in the game until Players Handbook 2 releases, the party is going to be short a role.  I sounded like a broken record that night as I made sure to emphasize that lacking a controller is going to be a weakness for the crew.  That didn’t change any minds, but at least they’re aware of it.

While I love the  focus on roles, now we see the downside.  With one role missing, the monster-bashing machine is going to be missing an important gear.  This is by no means game-breaking, but it’s going to be interesting to see how the party holds up when they’re not following the strong suggestions of the rules.

Next time I’ll talk a bit about the specialty weapons in 4E.  See you then.

* V3-2 is almost here. February 28th.

* Aron Head has a new blog, Ideology of Madness, and they’re hosting a contest.

* V3-3 is going to be June 6th.

* Support Adam walking up stairs (or support Phil). Details on the forums.

* Matt didn’t waste his money on his new boots

* Joss Whedon is our master now

* Feminism and Chauvinism in the Whedonverse

* Death and tragedy

* Technical skill and its influences

* Favorite moments, lines, and characters

Tamara Drewe by Posy Simmonds

Brit Posy Simmonds writes and draws a tale of sex, drugs and rock and roll. Well, ok its got an ex-rock star in it. The story actually centers around a writer’s retreat at the farm of Stonefields. The owner’s husband is a fairly successful writer of a detective series. He’s also more than a bit of a philandering prick. The titular character returns to a neighboring house after the death of her mother. Ms. Drewe is a newspaper columnist and would be novelist as well. The young and beautiful women soon has everyone entranced or upset. Especially after several local teens become obsessed with her and her ex-rock star boyfriend…

Simmonds’ art style is very clean and crisp and still detailed. Plus look, right there on the cover. Sex! Hard-core sheep on sheep action!

*New V3 locations!

*The KTNG contest winner is announced

*The skeptic psychic?

*Tales of a psychic detective

*Palmistry  = Chick Magnet

*Tales from Weird Chicago

*Visit Ken’s website here

*Book your Weird Chicago tours here

Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life by Bryan Lee O’Malley

The first volume of six, introducing Scott Pilgrim, a good kid if a bit of a doofus. See him date cute teen-ager Knives Chau only to meet the mysterious Ramona Flowers. But even if he decides to go after Ramona, he’d still have to deal with her League of Evil Ex-Boyfriends. Like the magical Matthew Patel. Plus he’s got to cope with Wallace his gay room-mate, playing with his band Sex Bob-omb and that whole being an idiot at times…

But these books have it all! Canadians! Americans! Rock ‘n Roll! Video Game Jokes! Magic! AND MORE! Well not a lot more. BUT SOME MORE!

*This is the KTNG finale.  Are you prepared?

*Session 21: The Battle of the Witchwood

*Epilogue: Wait and See

*We wrap up the campaign with our take on how it ran.

-Melina (Adam’s wife)
-Jen (Joe’s fiancee)
-Sarah (Francis’ sister (lucky her))
-Faith (Scott from the Dark Tower Fan Roundtable’s wife)
-Katie (Adam and Melina’s friend)

My show notes are going to be weird for this one since I didn’t record it with them:

* The ladies tease everyone with a sex conversation that never happens

* A gaming history of each lady

* Conventions!

* Baby tees

* The K:tNG contest actually ended two days after I posted this. Oops.

* v3 is still happening at locations. Check the forums for details.

The New York Four written by Brian Wood, art by Ryan Kelly
Emiko Superstar written by Mariko Tamaki, art by Steve Rolston

As many of you likely already know, DC recently announced they were ending their minx line of books. Lots of armchair analysis as to why. Poor marketing, not producing a consistent product, etc etc. I still have no real idea if the line had much appeal to its target audience, but I know I liked the majority of it. And two of what look to be the last output were Brian Wood’s The New York Four and Emiko Superstar from Mariko Tamaki…

The first follows four female college freshman at a New York school. Wood excells when it comes to writing about people in New York, no matter what the rest of the setting looks like. With the only real criticism of the book being that it is very much the start of a series. The ending is weaker than it could be. Which, now that Wood will have to shop the series around for a new publisher, is kind of annoying…

Tamaki’s book is in some ways a normal teen-age coming of age story. Her lead has to discover her own self-worth, realize who is and isn’t worth listening to and balancing responsibility with staying true to self. But while the basic underlying story isn’t anything new, Tamaki crafts it well, using a background of an indy/underground performance art scene. Emiko Superstar makes a high point for minx to go out on…

While I openly profess to an aversion to house rules, there were a few modifications I wanted to make. I’m listing them here with an explanation as to why I did so.

1. Healing: There is no magical healing in the Third World. Skills like Healing and edges like Nerves of Steel are essential to a dedicated warrior. But the amount of time necessary to heal wounds is often longer than the amount of down time adventurers have. For that reason, the target to soak damage is simply a success and not a success and a raise. This allows the players to soak more of their wounds and leave battle with none or one wound rather than two or three.

2. Skills: While Savage Worlds consolidates skills into their fundamental roots (i.e., stealth), I found myself inconsistently incorrectly using the Investigate skill. When searching a house, I have the players use Investigate even though the rules say to use Notice. After consideration, I decided to continue down that path, separating these much like the separation of Spot and Search in 3rd Edition. Searching a house is investigating a house, thus the Investigation skill is used. Certainly Notice still applies in a lot of other situations.

3. Bennies: The party averages three xp per session. I base the adventures on this expected rate of advancement. I also think bennies should be used to help the players do awesome things. For these reasons, I do not allow remaining bennies to be used to gain additional xp.

4. Hero Points: A benny may be spent before a roll to add a +2 to the roll. A benny may be spent after a roll to add a +1 to the roll.

5. Twist of Fate: Spend two bennies (not from the same character) to get a clue from the GM. It may be pointing out something the party missed or even something the party got but didn’t pursue. The effects of this are wholly at the GMs discretion. This ability is generally only available if the party is honestly stuck.

6. Bravery: A character receives a +1 bonus (cumulative) to Guts checks for each rank above Novice. (Seasoned characters receive +1, Veteran +2, and so on.)

6. Racial Skills: The only playable race is human, but among the humans there are 13 different nationalities. I added two Bonus Racial Skills based on the nationality chosen at character creation. These focused on skills that are so common in those nations that anyone raised there would have a d4 in the skill by simple exposure. I wanted these skills to reinforce the national identity of the characters. Sure they’re all human, but they are still very different. If you were creating a character raised in the wastelands of Aman, you could assign 15 skill points as normal, but would begin with a d4 in Repair and a d4 in Survival in addition (so 17 skill points total).

7. Racial Edges: For the same reasons, I also added one Racial Edge. This was also distributed based on nationality and in some circumstances ignored prerequsities. Certain nations were better defined by edges than by skills. If you were creating a Skivndian character, you would get the Brawny edge for free. (This is in addition to the bonus edge the character already receives for being human, as per the standard Savage Worlds rules.)

Number 7 is the only one I consider a mistake. Racial bonuses were meant to help establish national identity for the players at character creation. This wasn’t really the case. The characters were new are still evolving as our sessions continue. What I’ve found is that the racial bonuses have helped establish that identity as we continue, instances where the party has not focused on a particular skill but the racial affinity allows a character the knowledge needed. The edges have not been effective in this or any other manner. They are simply bonus edges. And while the Brinish character’s bonus Charismatic edge may not be game breaking, I did not want to give extra abilities just for the sake of giving them.

* Gaerma is pretty awesome.

* The K:tNG contest is still going strong. Get your entries in now! Prizes are either the two pack of the Character Burner and System Rules, or one of the two expansion books The Monster Burner or The Magic Burner

* V3 is coming up on 2/28/2009.

* Social media assault: we can’t focus.

* How do I put up the normal aspects of a supernatural game?

* GM Prep, what do you need to come to the table with?

* I hate writing show notes.

* In answer to your question, Moises Alou, a outfielder for the NY Mets was interviewed a couple of years ago, and he did admit to peeing on his hands to reduce calouses.

Nat Turner by Kyle Baker

On August 21st, 1831 Nat Turner led a slave revolution in Southhampton County, Virginia. He and his followers executed fifty-five people, many of them children before being stopped. Turner himself was captured, tried, and executed. He was hung, beheaded, and skinned.

I’ve been meaning to review this book for months now, but kept putting it off. I’m not the right person to judge Turner or his actions. I can just say that the book makes me uncomfortable. Which is good. Kyle Baker tells a mostly dialogue-less story that challenges the reader. It doesn’t try to hide anything. And while it’s far from being a “fun” book, it is an important one. Like Spiegleman’s Maus, Nat Turner pushes the field of comics.

Josh is an asshole.

Peer into the inner depths of each of the following podcasters and join us in Josh’s healing process.

Intervention Moderator:
Meg- Brilliant Gameologists http://brilliantgameologists.com/

Intervention Participants:
Adam/ David: The Podge Cast http://podgecast.com/
Luke: The Podge Cast http://podgecast.com/
Rob: Accidental Survivors http://accidentalsurvivors.libsyn.com/
Rob: The Bear Swarm http://www.bearswarm.com/
Zeke: Brilliant Gameologists http://brilliantgameologists.com/

Intervention Target:
Josh: Brilliant Gameologists http://brilliantgameologists.com/ was lured to the intervention on the promise of awards for “Mr. Sexy Gaming Podcaster 2008″.

The music featured was Adhesion’s “Float Up from Depth” found on the Podshow’s Podsafe Music Network

This intervention was recorded over skype.

Warning: This episode is tagged Explicit. It is intended for adult audiences

* Adam and Luke are jealous of the awesome snow that Matt and Joe have enjoyed.

* The new Dr. Who, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and The Wire are fantastic. Go buy them and watch them. You won’t be disappointed.

* Dungeon and Dragon magazine back-issues can be gotten from the D&D Insider subscription.

* The actual gaming topic: GM Expectations of Players

* What is a sandbox? Check this out to find out.

The War at Ellsmere by Faith Erin Hicks

Faith Erin Hicks has been doing comics for over a decade now. At first online with the superb Demonology 101 and of late in regular print. She started with a light book about zombies and then moved on to something harder, teenage girls…

The War at Ellsmere has the normal tropes for a high school story. The new student. The evil clique. The clueless parents of the evil clique leader. And of course the administrators and teachers who seem unable or unwilling to notice how the evil clique scams them to the detriment of other students. Which actually really bugs me. I’ve got to find a work of fiction (book, movie, other) where the adults supposedly in charge just shut down the plots of cruel kids. 1st season Boston Public maybe? ANYWAY, back on topic…

There isn’t much thats truly NEW here, but Erin Hicks is a gifted writer and so you invest in the characters. You care about the New Girl and her friend, Shy Girl. You hate Evil Girl and her Helpers of Evil. An excellent book all around and I remain hopeful that F.E.H’s online works will be collected for print one day as well…

* Joe is thankful the gang decided to talk about movies, TV, and politics while he was on vacation because he hates talking about those subjects

* The Bear Swarm thinks Joe is their favorite PodgeCast host (other than Table Saw)

* What is a campaign? What is a story?

* What do you like campaign length to be as a player? How about as a GM?

* What are published adventures good for?

* Matt is wise and all-knowing, Luke…not so much

* Number of times we talk about Burning Wheel: 1

* Joe talks about the book, Hitman, in the Hodge (live)

Knights of the Dinner Table Bundle of Trouble Vol. 1 by Jolly Blackburn

Ah KoDT. THE gamer’s gamer comic. For years now it’s embraced, mocked, and encouraged us in our mad, expensive hobby. Not just role-playing games but board games. And video games. And card games. All games. There are few others that tread the same ground (Kovalic’s Dork Tower or Kurtz’s PvP). But none truly capture the madness of the hard-core gamer so well…

The Bundles of Trouble are three-issue (later ones jump up to four issues) collections of the comic (really more comic/gaming magazine) Knights of the Dinner Table. Just the KoDT strips, with the normal articles, secondary comics and reviews removed. Which (though they only get put out as back-stock of single issues dries up) makes them a good way for people who don’t WANT those extra bits clogging up the comics…

And Volume One introduces the core cast of the Knights. B.A. and the Untouchable Trio +1. And the basic set-up of Gamemaster vs. Player in an endless cycle of one-upmanship. This first volume also gives game store owner and old-school gamer Weird Pete, former Knight Johnny Kizinski, and game company owner and designer Gary Jackson. But its mostly the Knights. Gamemaster B.A. Felton, often harried and stunned by his players actions. Bob, working out his frustrations and lack of “real” life at the game table. Dave, the reckless fool. Brian, the damn near autistic number cruncher and rules lawyer. And Sara, the girl. The one who wants social interaction and to move the story along. Except of course when she doesn’t. It is a rare gamer indeed who doesn’t look at the Knight’s table and recognize someone they’ve gamed with. Or a few of them. Or all of them. Or even looks at their weekend game and thought, “Damn, this is us.”

*CONTEST!  Listen to see how you can win your choice of Burning Wheel books!  Follow this link for rules.

*Session 19: Lines in the Sand

*Session 20: The Rising

*Luke’s beard is made of magnificence.

*The Penny Arcade we reference is here.

*A discussion of the games, movies, books, shows  we loved and hated in 2008

*Is Luke a grognard?  Does Adam even know how to pronounce that?  Does Matt’s face exude impartiality?

Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things and Courtney Crumrin and the Coven of Mystics by Ted Naifeh

Courtney Crumrin is a young lass of the vaguely gothic and too smart for the world variety. Her parents, after years of living well beyond their means, have jumped at the chance to move in with her elderly great-uncle Aloysius at his mansion in the suburbs. Where dark things lurk in the woods and spoiled rich kids lurk everywhere else. And great-uncle Aloysius is very much more than the creepy old man in the creepy house (though he is that). Especially with his library full of strange books…

In the first volume Courtney deals with bullies, meets a goblin, gets a baby-sitting job, tries out a spell to make herself popular and then has to cope with being an outsider. In the second volume Courtney learns of the Coven of Mystics, the secret society of people like her. Witches and warlocks. And learns that people are still people and most of them are bastards, whether they’re “normal” or not…

Naifeh crafts darkly amusing stories here. Sort of Harry Potter meets The Adamms Family. The original comics more than the tv show. A welcome addition to the library of any fan of fairy tales, modern fantasy or just well done YA fiction. Perfect for that young relative with the drawer full of plastic bats or simply someone with the heart of a child. Probably in a jar somewhere…

*The Gunslinger (RESUMPTION)

*Non-spoiler meta discussion of the novel

*SPOILERS! Our in-depth analysis, chapter by chapter.

*Hosts: Adam, Luke, Francis, Scott, Eric

G0dland: Hello, Cosmic! by Joe Casey & Tom Scioli, Design by Richard Starkings, Colors by Bill Crabtree

Adam Archer is the lone survivor of a mission to land on Mars. And while using the last of his oxygen to explore he stumbles into a strange alien building. There he’s bombarded with strange energies by mysterious energies, transforming him and allowing him to return to Earth. Once home he becomes, with the help of his sisters Neela, Stella and Angie, Earth’s premiere protector and investigator of the dangerous and unknown. Facing alien visitors, the drug-addled obsessive Basil Cronus, the twisted Discordia and the heroic Crashman…

G0dland is Kirby inspired super-heroics cranked up to eleven. Alien gods, bizarre villains and vibrant crackling colors. If ever there were a true succesor to the King’s 4th World work it would be Casey and Scioli…

* This is two videos smashed together of real life Duel of Wits scenarios in Burning Wheel.

* Yes, things look green. The night vision setting was on, and I didn’t notice until a few days after we recorded it. Oops.

*Session 16:  Childress Van Lieber’s Guide to Investing

*Session 17:  Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned Part I

*Session 18:  Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned Part II

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the tubes
Not a poster was posting, not even the noobs;

Subscriptions were made on iTunes with care,
In hopes that Uncle Jimbone soon would be there;

The listeners were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of beer nipples danced in their heads;
And Adam on stripper pole, Luke in wide stance
Had just settled down for a long bromance
When up on the intarwebs arose such a clatter
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the laptop I flew like a flash,
Opened Firefox and went to the PodgeCast.
The glow of the screen on my angry eyebrows
Made me look happy, lord knows how
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But a bottle of moonshine and a hoedown right here,
With a lively ol’ jig and a skip in his walk,
Uncle Jimbone arrived and began to talk.
More rapid than eagles the forum posters came,
He clambered and clattered and called them by name
“Now Havick! now Dunphy! now Mr. Keith Curtis!
On Becca! on Gaerma! on Tim White!” he blurted.
“To the top of the nets! To the Outhouse Wall!
Now Podge away! Podge away! Podge away all!”
Quicker than flamers trolling the forums,
The listeners gathered and began to swarm;
So off to a wing night the fans they flew,
With beer and weck and barbecue too.

And then, with a clacking, I heard through the haze
Dice shucking and rolling as Uncle Jimbone plays.
Burning Wheel in my hand, I knew it would be,
The Uncle would sit in on this week’s KTNG.
Dressed in overalls, from his feet to his skull,
Recording with Jimbone would never be dull;
A bottle of whiskey he had flung on his back,
So much to drink that we never would lack.
Velociraptor, David, and Table Saw too,
But Matt Cushman got lost when he went to the loo!
Luke wooed and he hollered and he talked with a lisp;
He smiled and said, “I’ve been Pocalapalypsed!”
With his bottle of hobowine, a modern McGyver,
He drank like a host of Accidental Survivors;
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a jolly eyeballologist,
And I laughed at his impression by the Brilliant Gameologists;
With Walker and Meg and Dave along too
Adam still couldn’t segue, there’s nothing to do;
Uncle Jimbone spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the aggregators then turned with a jerk,
There were only so many of our jokes he could stand,
And after an hour it was too much to demand;

He sprang to the chat room and gave the listeners a wink,
Then he logged off and timed out and disappeared in a blink.

But I heard him exclaim, ere he shot out of sight,
“Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.”

Musical solo by Jennifer J. Notch.

* Regular Matt is back! Bizarro! He’s helping!

* Play Tom Clancy’s Endwar with Luke.

* What is the sexuality of a zombie?

* If you’re going to take a trip to the Grand Canyon (and you should), try and schedule it during a full moon. It’s breathtaking.

* The end of Fallout 3 sucks.

* Check out the other Spooky Outhouse podcasts. They don’t suck.

* Jeff Wayne’s “War of the Worlds” (and specifically the Oooh-laaaah remix)

* Do you mind it when GMs steal content from other media for their games/settings?

* Adam has theories about women, but they are wrong

* Adam has theories about Scooby Doo, but they are wrong

* Adam has theories about Star Wars, but they are wrong…maybe

* What other media gives you inspiration?

* Luke is Captain Underpants

* Cosby Bepop is awesome

* Wil Wheaton love

* What’s the best portrayal of Satan? Constantine vs. The Prophecy

* Rob from the Bear Swarm turns Christmas into Hatemas

* Number of times we discuss Burning Wheel: 2

Dead West by Rick Spears and Rob G

And in the spirit of the holidays, zombie western!

Yeah, Spears and Rob G are the creative talent behind the too long delayed Pirates of Coney Island as well as Teenagers From Mars. This short tale opens with the massacre of an Indian village, leaving a single survivor. One who turns to bad medicine to unleash a zombie plague. For one small town the dead shall rise to feast upon the living. And later a nameless bounty hunter chases a fat man into the town, each fighting thru the undead to end up in different clusters of survivors…

A perfect book for fans of zombies or Deadlands or Spaghetti westerns…

Zak Kaveney made my day by giving some in-depth analysis on one of my favorite bands.  Check out his thoughts below and see if you agree or not.

They Might Be Giants | My Top Ten Tracks

by Zak Kaveney

I was on my way home, trudging through the snow and trying not to slip on the ice in my horribly soled shoes when I started listing my favorite albums by They Might Be Giants. I was doing this because a friend had recently asked me for my top picks of the bands grand catalogue since he had never given them much of a listen. So, I named for him my favorite album, along with their two latest releases: John Henry, The Spine, and The Else.

Now, for those who want the quickest and easiest route to find themselves knee deep in a 2-disc collection of some of the finest TMBG songs can go and purchase Dial-A-Song. This set collects twenty years of TMBG and serves as a good starting point of creating a life-long fan. However, for my purposes (and because I enjoy songs that just aren’t always played on local radio stations) I’m going to delve into the vault a little deeper. There may be a few that aren’t as obscure, but they deserve just as much attention. So, let’s get to it.

Number Ten goes to Narrow Your Eyes from their fourth album Apollo 18. This entire album is full of great treasures that could fool a dark hearted man into tapping his foot because of all the upbeat rhythms the John’s throw behind the lyrics. This song stands out to me because it’s such a light-hearted love song that you might just not find the little strands of it until you narrow your eyes.

Number Nine might seem like an odd pick, but stay with me, we’re only just getting started. I’ve picked Hovering Sombrero for a few reasons. It’s a mellow song on an album that is already filled with an unruly amount of varying genres. It’s got soothing guitar rifts that flow from your speakers and through your heart, and maybe even able to touch some dark grey space in your head. But, most importantly, it should speak to a lot of people. With lines like ‘and the old familiar things are mostly all gone/but the old sombrero just keeps hovering on’ people should find that indeed, they’re never just a hat.

Number Eight is found on the self titled album from this dynamic duo. She’s An Angel is, if you’ll excuse the wordplay, an angelic song that I would hope Phil Collins never tries to sing. However, if you can find a live version of this song you’ll be much better off. Specifically, the Severe Tire Damage album has a wonderful version of this song with a fantastic horn section. How else can you describe love when you find the one and you can’t help but chase after the angel?

Number Seven gives us the metaphor of people as water and the land acting as their ship. This one, of course, is for Women and Men from the third album Flood. This song is a melodic affair to all the women and men that help make our planet 100% water based.

Side Note: Maybe you remember the promotion that was done for Flood? John and John sitting in a coffee shop as they pitch to the audience the album with snippets of a few songs thrown in. Either way, this one’s choke full of the Johns’ great sense of silly, outlandish lyrics, and will fill the eccentric’s ears with delight. Where else would you find a record with its own theme song? Exactly. And you can find the always delightful staples, Istanbul (Not Constantinople) and Particle Man, on it as well.

Number Six is on one of my favorite albums John Henry. That’s right; No One Knows My Plan is a fun, bouncy song, that I imagine Lex Luthor hearing in his mind as he bides his time in his prison cell, cooking up his plans to eliminate Superman. Really, what else can I say about this one?

Number Five will find you tapping your foot, clapping your hands, and smiling all before you realize that this song is actually much less about the happy, and much more about the sadness. I’m talking about Mr. Me from the second album Lincoln. If there’s one thing TMBG is capable of, it’s taking the most upbeat rhythm and throwing the saddest lyrics against them. The alliteration here could be the fault of your smile, but I think if you whistle along it’s your own fault.

Number Four is a simple melody. A melody about Your Own Worst Enemy. From their sixth album Factory Showroom, this song brings you the trouble of a bottle, work, and in the end becoming your own worst memory. There’s not much to the song, clocking in at 1:45, but it hits the liver like a double shot of whiskey.

Number Three showcases a lovely horn section; one might even call it bitchin’. From the bands tenth album The Spine, Museum of Idiots is a fun, fun song. I will be so bold as to say it’s about the love of two wax figures in their museum. But the song builds up through the horns so well, that by the last verse you’ve fallen in love with these two idiots who love each other. Even if they’re burning, even if the one is chopping the other into pieces, and even if they’ve forgotten one another. They’ll still say ‘I love you.’

Number Two is a bit of a guilty pick because it features my name. And of course, as I read the lyrics I find I am mistaken. It’s actually ‘sack’ not ‘Zak.’ Oh well! Withered Hope from the twelfth album The Else is a fantastic song that reminds me of I Palindrome I in the loosest sense. It’s more of a cyclical song that finds one character loving another character, loving another character, loving another character, loving another character that loves the first character. I think I got that right. But no matter! It’s a great song and you should give it a listen!

Number One! I’m choosing a song from the EP The Spine Surfs Alone for a few reasons. The song Now Is Strange is many things to me. It reminds me, after 20+ years of being a band that they can still do what they’ve always done. And that’s make a compelling song out of the strangest lyrics. Secondly, the song is just so haunting that whenever you listen to it you expect someone with a pumpkin to show up, kids dressed up in costumes, and fog. With lines like ‘Have you seen that naughty boy/Who steals each blade of grass/And replaces it with wires and batteries’ you cannot help but wonder just who this boy is and why he’d do such a heinous thing.

Alternately my number one would be Absolutely Bill’s Mood from their first album only because I want to hear it live. And I know they will never play this one live because it’s far too obscure and far too old for them to get any use out of it. There’s always cover bands, right?

That’s my far too wordy list. Whether you agree or disagree is one thing, whether you know the songs or not is another. Altogether though, you should do yourself a favor, find them, and listen to them if you’re at all interested in They Might Be Giants.

* The PodgeCast is baby approved!

* Christian (Gaerma) is awesome.

* Christmas in Iraq: If you want to send cards/presents to soldiers in Iraq, PM CausingHavick on the forums.

* Francis did a good job on the Outhouse Wall.

* V3 Pictures can be found here!

* The Outhouse Wall can be found here for free! Or, you can buy it from here!

* Number of times we discuss Burning Wheel: 2

* Sorry this was such a quiet, short episode, but it’s like our Christmas vacation!

The ‘Nam written by Doug Murray, Pencils & colors by Michael Golden, Inks by Armando Gil, Letters by Phil Felix

Published in the mid-80s The ‘Nam was built around an unused cover for G.I. Joe. The Marvel Edito-in-Chief handed it to editor Larry Hama and told him to create a book around it. Hama agreed but only if he could get it done right. And so in the midst of all its super-hero books, Marvel put out one of the more realistic war comics. And one based on the Vietnam conflict at that. Hama tapped two-tour Vietnam vet and freelance writer Murray to handle the writing chores, and Golden–who draws people with a slightly cartoonish exaggeration but excels at realistic weapon details–as artist.

The book ended up doing surprisingly well, getting mainstream critical support, winning awards and drawing praise from veterans’ groups. And despite being a Comics Code approved book, it stays remarkably true to its source material…

Hama and the creative team expected that The ‘Nam would be lucky to last a dozen issues, but it ran for over eighty. It survived changes in writer and artist and even attempts to tie it into regular Marvel continuity (the last several issues had guest appearances by the Punisher). This trade collects the first four issues, introducing PFC Marks, the 23rd Mechanized infantry, and Sgt. Polkow’s squad.

Plot: The Punisher has to kill 74% of the bad people in New York. This is no small task, so Frank Castle (a.k.a. The Punisher, played perfectly by Ray Stevenson) has to get creative and use every part of his body, every gun, every sharp weapon, and every random object near him to shoot, stab, decapitate, dismember, explode, and burn away the criminals.

Review: HOLY SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THE PROPHCIES ARE TRUE!!!!!!!! If you could take Mountain Dew, a slaughterhouse, the latest issue of Guns & Ammo, a rollercoaster, electric guitars, and the raw power of a flux capacitor, chemically bind them into a film reel, soak that reel in testosterone from the semen of Zeus, cook that soaked reel under the launch of a space shuttle, and finally have it hand delivered by the Dark Lord Sauron himself, you would have THIS FUCKING MOVIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, now that I’ve calmed down a bit, a few thoughts:

If you’re reading this review, you probably haven’t seen this movie yet. I say this because based on opening weekend box office results, almost no one went to see the greatest action movie ever to grace theaters. So shame on you. Support the hard-R action films! Don’t let them release PG-13 Die Hards & Max Paynes anymore!

Second, you’ve also probably read many terribly negative reviews of the film. Ignore them all. They are either ridiculously unfair or simply ignorant to what this movie is supposed to accomplish. The acting is fine. The story is fine. They get the job done to deliver what’s the point here – action intense enough to make Chuck Norris weep. (Oh, for the record, the soundtrack ROCKS ALL SHIT!!!!!)

The action is BRUTAL. I’ve never seen a movie like this, and you’ll be talking about your favorite kills long after the credits roll. I’m talking stuff that will make movie history here. I want to write a paragraph for every spectacular death Frank Castle is responsible for, but I just can’t spoil a single one!

The best part about the movie is how well it delivered to fans of the Marvel “MAX” comic series, which is generally agreed to be the best representation of the character yet. It’s dark, gritty, and more explicit than anything you’ve ever seen of read. The comic gets into much more detail than the movie of course, but still is a great taste of what it’s all about.

Enjoying this movie comes down to this – how much you enjoy action, violence, gore, some dark laughs, and above all else, a total blast at the movies.

Punisher: War Zone gets 10 out of 10 of the coolest onscreen kills ever.

* Apologies up front for Joe’s sound quality. It’s bad. We know. We’re sorry.

* Buffyverse Banter

* PodgeCast gaming on the Xbox, come play with us

* Warhammer Online: Badlands server, Xen of Onslaught is having open enrollment. Come play with Joe (and Dave from the Iron Agenda).

* Holiday Mail for Heroes
P.O. Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD. 20791-5456

* V3 was a triumph…we’re assuming

* Sacrificing your character for the good of the party

* Affecting the decisions of other players

* Rule 1 and Subclause 1.a

* Number of times we discuss Burning Wheel: 6

* Luke is in the Hodge (Live)

Empowered: Vol. 4 by Adam Warren

What can I say about Empowered that I haven’t said before. Twice. Probably not much new. So lets just repeat some points.

1. Empowered is sexy
2. Empowered is fun
3. Empowered is sweet
4. Empowered is awesome.

Volume 4 picks up almost immediately after the ninja battle in Volume 3. Well almost. First Warren includes the color story originally published in Dark Horse Presents On MySpace (really thats the title the trade collection from the publisher is called). Where Emp practices her Hummer Fu. No. Not that kind you filthy pervert. The quasi-military vehicle kind. But AFTER that the new volume jumps right into it where the last left off. And you get super-hospitals, Caged Demonwolf lesbian fantasies (I knew there was a reason I liked the Demonwolf), the debut of the Goddamned Maidman (seriously he’s Batman if Bruce decided to cos-play as American Maid and STILL fight crime), a REALLY creepy sequence with Wiley Pete (*shudder*), Emp getting tied up as part of Make-a-Wish (its really weirdly sweet) and a super-hero Awards show. For which Emp has been nominated. Mostly as a cruel joke by her peers. But through it all Emp struggles and triumphs. As do Thugboy and Ninjette. And hell, the book even adds more depth to Sistah Spooky…

Its always nice to be reminded that there are GOOD things being done in the field of super-hero comics…

2.  Becca’s daughter gives us our best review ever.  Watch for yourself.

Today is a good day.

Just a head’s up, I guest hosted over on Spooky Outhouse’s own Iron Agenda.  Even if you don’t play Warmachine or Hordes you need to listen to at least the first 15 minutes.  BAM!

What Should Have Been the Plot: Near carbon copy of the first two Transporter films – this involves a really cool, disciplined dude named Frank Martin (Jason Statham) who has to take something to a certain place. Things aren’t as easy as expected, so aforementioned dude has to kick dozens of people in the face and jump cars over shit.

Actual Plot: Apparently it’s a movie about an evil food conspiracy because it seemed to me that a majority of the running time was Frank Martin discussing salads with the girl he had to transport. Now seriously, the previous Transporter films may have stretched reality a bit at times, but it was all part of the fun. Transporter 3 was totally unrealistic because Frank Martin would never eat a sissy salad. If he wants an appetizer before he eats dinner, he has a bowl of motor oil.

If things couldn’t get any worse, there was actually a scene, not kidding here, of Frank snuggling with the girl on a hillside at sunset, talking about something that I’d guess was in a Hallmark card. B-O-R-I-N-G. That’s when I knew all hope was lost. The few potentially fun action scenes were a visual mess, for the most part, due to poor editing & camera work. (See my Quantum of Solace review.) So there really was very little to enjoy about the film.

I’d also like to mention that any advances actresses like Angelina Jolie, Milla Jovovich, or Carrie-Anne Moss have made for female action stars have now been set back due to the stupid girl with an accent who should not have been part of Transporter 3.

Review: Not enough action. None of the action was properly filmed or edited. Too much froofy conversation. Not worthy of a Transporter sequel.

Transporter 3 gets 3 out of 10 Jason Statham ab muscles.

* Dave from the Iron Agenda is here

* Matt is here in body if not mind

* V3 is this Saturday. Come play.

* Play video games with Luke not Joe

* WAR update: We’re moving to the Badlands server

* Leslie and the Badgers

* Can too many rules inhibit role playing?

* Adam revisits a topic from 17 episodes ago

* Iron Agenda is about Big Vagina Islands

* Number of times we discuss Burning Wheel: 6

 

Thor: Visionaries Walter Simonson by Walter Simonson, additional inks Terry Austin & Bob Wiacek, letters by John Workman Jr, colors by George Roussos & Christie Scheele

The “Visionaries” series is meant to showcase those whose work exemplified a series. And few people left a greater mark on book than the Simonson did during his run on The Mighty Thor. This book collects issues #337-348 of his legendary run. It has the introduction of Beta Ray Bill, the fight with Fafnir, Malekith the Dark Elf and the opening of the invasion by Surtur and his armies. Which is annoyingly where the book ends. On a massive cliffhanger. Happily I see there are four more volumes of Simonson Thor. Sadly, I see volumes two and three are out of print and have tripled in price on the teritary markets. Annoying…

But given my volume one is a fairly new printing, hopefully that means Marvel will reprint the rest. I mean its not like Marvel would instead put out “Visionaries” books collecting the “legendary” Daredevil run of Kevin Smith or the X-Men run of Joe Madureira. Seriously, I bought damn near every X-book in the 90s and I couldn’t even guess which ones Madureira wrote…

But Simonson + Thor = Gods’-be-damned awesome. I mean it has Sif and a talking space battleship teaming up to kick the crap out of space-demons. Balder tries to be a pacifist. Loki gets his head cut off (he gets better). Comics where everything is larger than life and twice as colorful…

Warhammer 40,000 is a worldwide phenomenon. It’s probably the only miniature game that has been played in what has to be nearly every country in the world. It has entire stores, conventions, books, resin art, video games, and just about everything else short of a movie devoted to celebrating the grim future of humanity (in which there is only war and stuff). 40K is easily Games Workshop’s strongest brand and that makes it the strongest brand in the miniature gaming world.

Unfortunately, in the two decades that the game has been around, it has gained a number of less-than-positive reputations. It’s expensive to get into. It’s expensive to keep up with. Tournaments require you to also take up the hobby of painting. The large fanbase contains a lot of people who are not fun to play competitive games against. The list goes on. I know I don’t play because of the sheer expense of it. That and I’ve been burned by Games Workshop in the past and really don’t want to give them my money anymore.

But that doesn’t mean I’m not a fan.

I think the reason that Warhammer 40K will always have a place in the cockles of my heart is because I picked up Rogue Trader, the original version of the 40K rules, on a whim five years ago. Now, I’m a man of varied tastes that hates the “it is better because it is older” nostalgia-orgy that seems to be the hallmark of we who grew up in the 1980’s. When it comes to games, older generally means slow rules with only a modicum of balance and a focus that is far more on the numbers that it is on the fun. Battletech, I’m looking at you.

Rogue Trader is not surprising in this regard. The rules are a bit clunky and resolution of various phases has steps that could be easily removed. Balance is questionable, but excusable as the game expected the players to have an impartial GM to judge the game. The rules actually work well, but it’s definitely got more unneeded fiddly bits that the more recent versions of the rules have since streamlined. Even if you didn’t know what game you were looking at, if you’re at all familiar with games you could easily say, “Yup, this game came from the 80’s.”

But what Rogue Trader lacks in elegance it more than makes up for in imagination. Ladies and gentlemen, this is one of those few, magical books that you flip through and immediately feel justified that you play with tiny little army men on a map full of felt terrain or spend your hours drawing out dungeon maps on graph paper. The book oozes ideas, excitement, and passion. There’s not a paragraph or illustration in the book that doesn’t pull you further into the setting and make you want to explore it. It’s a catalogue of geek love.

And for those wondering, the setting is magnificent. The modern-day incarnation of the 40K setting is far more strict and less malleable. This allows for very strong themes in the current minis games, but excludes a lot of the gonzo-chaotic nature of the original presentation. In Rogue Trader, the Eldar are nothing but alien pirate elves, the Imperium is fanatical but not nearly as stifling, Genestealers and Tyrannids are separate races, and you’ll see just why Catachan is a famous death world when you look at the stats of the indigenous life. It is 40K with a more ‘anything goes’ attitude.

And, happily, the rules back that up. Gone are army lists. Instead you get all the rules on how to build your own troops, robots, and vehicles. Think you’re choosing weapons? Nope, the charts will determine what your force gets. Need ideas for a campaign? There are pages of plots and subplots for you to use. Don’t want random? Fine, just pick. It’s freeform, it’s loose, and it fuels the imagination…three things that the current 40K rules lack since they’re used in such competitive play.

The book also teases here and there about how the Warhammer Fantasy world is just another world in the Imperium. It’s obvious the designers had a great deal of fun making this.

Rogue Trader has become a go-to book for me when I need to be reminded why I spend so much of my time pretending. It reminds you that it’s all good fun as long as you’re blowing something up and I think that’s a lesson we can all take home.

A PodgeCast Thanksgiving Feast

Adam
Turkey
Toferky
Dressing
Mashed Potatoes
Gravy
Corn
Sweet Potatoes
Rolls
Zia’s Salad
Pecan Pie
Pumpkin Pie with whipped cream
Cranberry Sauce

Joe
Roasted Chicken with Apples and Leeks
Rye and Apple Stuffing
Roasted Parsnip and Carrot Casserole Topped with French Fried Onions
Strueseled Sweet Potato Casserole
Corn and Parsnip Fritters
Rustic Applesauce
Romaine and Red Leaf Salad
Pumpkin Pie

Luke
Turkey
Homemade Mashed Potatos
Homemade Turkey Gravy
Homemade Noodles
Sweet Potatos
Stuffing
Cranberry Fluff
Pumpkin Pie

Matt
Turkey
Stuffing
Green Beans with Bacon
Oven-Baked Rolls
Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
Broccoli/Cauliflower/Bacon/Ranch-esque dressing salad
Cheezeball
Locally-Made Chocolate Covered Pecans
Pumpkin Roll

* This begins the second season of KTNG.

* Session 14: Downtime I – The Shadows of Things to Come

* Session 15: The Night of Knives

* Phil is wrong. V3 is December 6th.

* Want to contribute the Spooky Outhouse Wall (the newsletter)? Email Adam!

* Adam’s experience playing Don’t Rest Your Head

* Luke’s story game epiphany

* If you want to be on the Dark Tower fan roundtable, email adam@podgecast.com

* Magic systems

Moving through mid November, I thought few things could top my experience with Fallout 3, which had solidly taken hold of my ‘game of the year’ spot.   I couldn’t have been more wrong, though.

Left4Dead isn’t a complicated game.  It pits 4 people against a horde of undead, populated by both normal zombies and special ‘boss’ zombies.  Besides the co-op, it has a Vs. mode in which actual people fill the rolls of the boss zombies.

Playing this tonight, in both Vs. mode and regular co-op, has been the most fun I’ve had playing video games in months, easily.

Whether you get it on Steam or on the 360, I consider this game the most fun since Portal.

Act accordingly.

The information here doesn’t specifically lend itself to geekery, but it’s an amazing and interesting interview that does have ramifications in all of fiction and creators rights. We hope you enjoy listening to this discussion as much as we enjoyed recording it.

Geoff contributes to a blog at: http://iplitigator.huschblackwell.com Let us know what you think, and if you think we should try to get Geoff on the show again.

Plot: Taking place literally minutes after the events of Casino Royale (best 007 movie ever), Quantum of Solace leads James Bond (Daniel Craig) on a path of revenge against those who wronged him and those he cared about. Along the way, Bond discovers a secret organization that is bigger and deeper than he’d ever imagined. This is terrible for him, but great for the audience, as it opens up endless lines of cannon fodder henchmen for 007 to lay the smack down on.

Review: I’ll start with the title. Many people were a little confused by what ‘Quantum of Solace’ exactly means, so let’s break it down for the ignorant masses, shall we? ‘Quantum’ is an ancient Latin word used by the Gecko-Romans to describe the utilization of cars, boats, motorcycles, and planes. ‘Solace’ is a word that loosely translates from its original French or Mexican as “to fracture the skulls of those who dare even look at you the wrong way.” So, based on title analysis, the film is about James Bond using fast things with motors to kill a whole bunch of evil people wearing suits. Beyond that, if the vehicles don’t finish the job, he always uses the personal touch of a gun or a fist. Rock on. Doesn’t get much better then that, especially considering there were actually scenes near the end of Casino Royale where Bond played kissyface on the beach with some girl and talked about relationships. This sequel could have been called ‘Autumn Breaths of Cedar Passion’ or some such crap. We must count our blessings.

You’ll see my score at the bottom only gets a 7 though, as I have to be an honest critic. As much as I enjoyed the movie, two things stood out from making this the greatest motion picture of our time. The first problem is that the movie broke an important action movie rule – each successive action sequence should be bigger than the previous one, yielding a massive, shit-your-pants, epic ending – hopefully ending up in space, regardless of the validity of such a situation. The ending of the movie rocked, but did not match the intensity of the first half hour, making you feel a little let down. The second problem is the editing of the action sequences. There are way too many quick edits and overuse of the shaky cam. You have these incredible sequences that you can’t fully appreciate because you’re not allowed to see all of it. (This is a problem I’ve been seeing in many recent action films.) Despite that, there are some seriously awesome stunts and plenty of excitement! As a sidenote, I’ve never been the ‘cultured’ type, but if ballet was described as people fighting on ropes in construction zones, I’d buy a fucking ballet season pass. 

My minor gripes don’t make it a bad movie though. It’s a more concise film in terms of story, but logically expands on past events and forces 007 to think about the consequences of some of his actions. Above all else, it’s great follow up to Casino Royale and paves the way for plenty of future Bond fun.

Quantum of Solace gets 7 out of 10 GoldenEye cartridges for the Nintendo 64.

* Adam rocked the house with Episode 17

* The Iron Tyrants have moved their Warhammer guild to Averheim

* Joe doesn’t own Gears of War 2

* Thank you, veterans. (In memory of 1LT Wil Edens, US Army)

* Confirmed locations for V3

* Do you want to be part of the Dark Tower fan roundtable? Email adam@podgecast.com

* Spooky Outhouse Productions needs talent. Contact Adam or Luke.

* Tony Mast gives us our topic: Are gamers just wannabe writers that lack confidence?

* The topic evolves

* The topic becomes intelligent and achieves consciousness. We name it Joshua.

* Do you want to play a game?

* It is explicit, because Joe can’t not say the F-Bomb.

* V3 (the new name for One-Shotter Day) is still going on strong! Information can be found here http://spookyouthouse.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=636

* We attempt to decide on (with the help of the audience) the worst character in Sci/Fantasy. You’ll have to listen to see who wins.

Hosts: Adam, Luke, Joe and Matt

Find the video of the show here.

*Session 12: Revelations

*Session 13: The Choices of House Van Lieber

*This concludes Season 1 of KTNG.  We do a bit of analysis about that at the end.

*Stay tuned for the start of Season 2!

* OSD participants at Gamescape North in San Rafael, CA should contact Darren at gamescape@mac.com

* OSD participants at Meta Games Unlimited in Springfield, Mo should visit here.

* Secret Password Winners are announced

* Iron Tyrants are still rocking Ulthuan. Come join the Waaaagh!

* Episode 17 will be a Live performance at www.ustream.tv/channel/the-podge-cast

* We kick Adam off the mic and have Melina sit in. The show is much improved

* Our paranormal experiences

* What does a house say?

Who is the worst character in sci fi/fantasy/horror? 16 enter; one leaves triumphant!

Show starts at 7:30 Central time (GMT-6). 

The performance is live so it may become explicit at times.

A Q&A will follow if participants are interested.

* Matt’s co-worker is walking halfway around the world for the Breast Cancer Awareness Month, go stop by here and giver her some support.

* The Warhammer guild is still going on!  Get out and join us!

* Let’s talk about what is’t like owning a small business in the gaming industry

* One-Shotter Day Announcement!  Details below.

* Long Warmachine discussion among Walker and Luke, Adam was zoning out

* What’s new and interesting in the gaming community

One-Shotter Day!

On Saturday, December 6th, The Podge Cast will be hosting a one-shotter day at Game On, in West County St. Louis.  If you’re interested in playing, shoot an e-mail to Adam or Luke (or if you’re in Arizona, Matt), drop a comment, or post on the forums.

Hosts: Adam, Luke, Matt, Walker

*A word of warning. Due to scheduling conflicts we ended up playing and recording on a Friday which meant that more than a few drinks were consumed.  It was also Talk Like A Pirate Day.  Because the recording came at the end of many alcohol-soaked hours, it’s a bit rambly.

*Session 10:  Everybody Loves Wentworth / The Houseguests From Hell/ Blood in the Water

*Session 11: The Battle of Estermarsh

*Are published settings crap?

*What makes a setting good?

*Convincing the yonkels

*Matt becomes the center of a deep mystery and a foul conspiracy

*Joe gets teleported in the Hodge.  Seriously.

Flames of