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GamerNation Con X in Review
15 Plays8 days ago
Now part of the d20 Radio Network! As we all recover from GamerNation Con X, Daryl, Robert, & Nick are joined by GM Chris - GamerNation Con Director and host of the Order 66 Podcast. Together, we discuss our favorite parts of the con, its origins, and what's in store for next year's 4 Days of Gaming Goodness. And, maybe there's some impromptu brainstorming for game ideas along the way.
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...in Spaaace!
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Transcript
Introduction to D20 Radio and Gaming Content
00:00:03
Speaker
D20 Radio, at your game is rolled.
00:00:17
Speaker
How We Roll Gaming is dedicated to spreading enjoyment of great role-playing games. We hope to bring you insights into games you may not have played, tips to be a better game master and player, and share stories of momentous events at our tables.
00:00:29
Speaker
Every game is a new story to tell. I'm Daryl. I'm Nick. And here's Robert. And this is how we roll.
Joining D20 Radio Network and Show Highlights
00:00:43
Speaker
Hey, you guys hear something different in the opening there? I did, Nick. We are honored to say that as of this episode, we are proud member of the D20 Radio Network.
00:00:55
Speaker
And on the network, you're going to find a wide variety of podcasts dedicated to the hobby that we all love, role-playing games. Shows like Me and Steve Talk RPGs.
00:01:07
Speaker
In their most recent episode, Steve and Steve talked about shopping. Perhaps the most low-key, divisive thing we commonly do in games. Some love doing it, some hate doing it. Some don't much carry the way.
00:01:18
Speaker
So how do you keep the whole table interested? Or how do you keep yourself interested? That's what they chat about in this latest episode. Check out me and Steve talk RPGs whenever you get to your podcasts. Thanks, Robert.
Guest Appearance by GM Chris and Gamer Nation Con Insights
00:01:29
Speaker
And we skipped over our usual catch-up of what we've been doing lately because, well, all of us have been doing the same thing, having a blast at Gamer Nation Con.
00:01:38
Speaker
And that brings us to our special guest, host of the Order 66 podcast, or so I've been told because I never listen to the Order 66 podcast, and an organizer of Gamer Nation Con, GM Chris.
00:01:50
Speaker
Welcome, Chris. Welcome to our last of the internet, GM Chris. yeah What is up Gamer Nation? GM Chris here and I am happy to be here. And yeah, it's kind of fitting. You guys you guys have officially joined the the podcasting ranks of D20 Radio after just coming back from D20 Radio's official convention. So yeah, yeah it was as it was it was a good time.
00:02:11
Speaker
It was and Thank you for letting us join the fun of D20 Radio. Oh, thank you guys for being such awesome community members. Are kidding? Thank you very much for joining us. And we're honored to join the fun of D20 Radio.
00:02:26
Speaker
And get to do our own thing there ourselves. We'll dive right in because we have Chris for a short time tonight. But Gamer Nation Con, we talked about it. We kind of went into a little bit of detail pimping it out a couple episodes ago. We might have. but and ah We might have you once or twice.
00:02:45
Speaker
But ah for my money, the best gaming con that I have ever, ever attended. The best sci-fi con. Any con that I've been to.
00:02:56
Speaker
the best one because what I love about it is it's a great big family. Also for those in the great state of Texas, it's local.
00:03:08
Speaker
Yeah, there there's that too. And so thank you for putting it on every year, Chris. I know that it is a huge undertaking for you. ah It's a, it's a labor of labor of love to be sure. And if you told me,
00:03:22
Speaker
you know, a dozen years ago that we'd be doing this with regularity, I would have laughed at you. what It started off as ah a bit of a fluke, kind of ah ah a stretch goal reward for trying to do a Kickstarter to fund one year of podcasting um and just raise a couple hundred dollars for server fees. And ah it was like, um well, okay, what what do we do if we're like, because we're researching? Because this this is, keep in mind, this is like 12, 13 years ago, right? Kickstarter isn't...
00:03:51
Speaker
It's yeah, apparently you're supposed to have these things called stretch goals. It's like, oh, okay, well, that's a neat idea. and We should have one crazy, one that's completely unattainable, but just it's fun. It's like, okay, well, $10,000 will host a convention.
00:04:02
Speaker
So that was literally the stretch goal, and we hit it. And it was like, I guess we need to figure out how to yeah to have a convention. um So we did. It's
Movie Discussions and Unique Gaming Experiences
00:04:12
Speaker
crazy, but the last Neil Green film was entirely crowdfunded. Yeah. Yeah.
00:04:17
Speaker
and we don't and We don't talk about that, Nick. We don't talk about Neil Breen. If you've never been subjected to Neil Breen, Chris, don't. Don't subject yourself. Please don't. i've seen I've seen clips, yeah.
00:04:28
Speaker
Oh, yeah but yeah. Nick has made us watch like three movies. He watched the latest one to torture us and himself. Yeah, we we made him, the last one we actually made him watch because it was a sequel to the one before that.
00:04:42
Speaker
And we all tried to escape Nick's house during that movie. I think we lost Nick. Yeah. And um yet we've we forced him when we found out there was a sequel.
00:04:56
Speaker
we We have to watch the sequel and you have to remain sober while watching it. Yeah, that that that's that's like that's like watching The Room without you know throwing spoons at the screen. You just can't do it.
00:05:10
Speaker
Yeah, it was a tough thing. That's to say, we ran to the door to get his key while he was crawling on the floor after us. Literally. There was lots of great stuff at the con.
00:05:23
Speaker
ah I know first off, very first thing I did, I was in GM Phil's RVG game of a session of Fractured Republic, which I have been totally not listening to every episode of the Order 66 podcast with bated breath about the Fractured Republic setting. So awesome work you guys are doing there. I'm loving it.
00:05:46
Speaker
um And it was great to get to play in it. What did you guys do first? Well, Nick and I were actually in the same game, and i'm also an RPG game, with Steve, one of the hosts of Me and Steve Talk RPGs.
00:06:00
Speaker
And we got to play a fun little game called Slay Industries. and What was interesting about that, Nick? Oh, it was very interesting. Steve, amazing GM.
00:06:12
Speaker
Very knowledgeable about the concept. Oh, yes. Basically, it's basically sci-fi. What if Amazon ruled the galaxy? yeah what yeah I think we're got think we're getting there, Robert. I think we're getting there.
00:06:28
Speaker
Yeah, but what if they did it for like 900 years? Just ruled the entire galaxy for 900 years, and you basically are freelance, up well not, least operatives out of their company,
Creative RPG Mechanics and Gaming Sessions
00:06:41
Speaker
and you basically do jobs for really, really low pay, and you basically are working up the corporate ladder. And what's really interesting is is that...
00:06:51
Speaker
they really ah non jump into the corporate corporate ladder. mean, aren't all corporate ladders nonsensical? No, but these guys did their research. I think it's like the the classic like ah Brazil sort of like Monty Python parody of like a corporate structure.
00:07:10
Speaker
Yes, because we started at corporate security clearance 10. And Steve told us how it goes, is that it goes 10, 10.1, 2, 3, all the way up to 9, two three all the way up to nine And then you go to 9 and then 9.1, 9.1A, 9.1B.
00:07:28
Speaker
and the lower you get, the more security clearance you have. So it's like, no, for this job, you need a level theta alpha lot of fun. seven
00:07:39
Speaker
settleers that that sounds like a lot of fun It reminds me of a one of my... um And it's free. it's It's free and you can find it One of my favorite quick RPGs um is published by one of my RPG heroes, Robin Laws.
00:07:56
Speaker
um And he... Who wrote Robin's Guide to Good Game Mastering way back in the day. um And the game is called In Space! but I think I've heard of it before.
00:08:09
Speaker
Yeah, it's basically Hitchhiker's Guide if it was an RPG. um Yeah. it's it's ah yeah it's it's ah It's absolutely fantastic, but it's a diceless system. It uses ah it uses token mechanic. Really? Mm-hmm. It's absolutely fascinating. like the The GM has a pool of tokens, and every player has a pool of tokens, um which you keep which you keep secret.
00:08:31
Speaker
And um if you if there's ever a conflict between the GM's narration and the player's narration, ah you you literally have, or or player versus player, you literally have a silent bid.
00:08:42
Speaker
And you you reveal your tokens and whoever wins. It's kind of everyone is John without that without revealing. Oh, yes. To an extent. oh There is obviously dice and everyone is John. but Yeah, but it's the best example I have to give.
00:08:57
Speaker
Yeah, so like and you like whoever whoever bids the most loses their tokens, but they get to narrate their version of events, and then um or they they lose a portion of their tokens, basically. And and it's ah it's a sliding economy system, too. And this is an older RPG, so like you like the tokens you give up go to the opposite side.
00:09:13
Speaker
So if the GM wins, the player gets currency to be awesome. And then you have like talents. player Players have the equivalent of talents or feats that basically give you ghost tokens, to bid on things. So you know you automatically assume to have free tokens to bid on certain activities. It's fun.
00:09:28
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, that's very interesting. yeah Sounds like it. i'm Very much like a corporate game. Yes. But in the Slay Industries, the whole job we did, that whole one shot, basically we're clearing a sewer.
00:09:41
Speaker
And we fought rats, scabbers, and a giant ah cybernetic monster. And we got the equivalent of $75 for it. Oh, that's hilarious. oh that's hilarious That's nice.
00:09:53
Speaker
Before I get lynched, I misspoke earlier. It's not Robin Laws who wrote that. It's not everyone who is one of my RPG icons. It was one of my other RPG icons, so Greg Stolze. Ah.
00:10:04
Speaker
So before before before somebody out there throws something at me. yeah and And I have made a note that I'm looking for that now because it sounds fun. And that was Arthur.
00:10:15
Speaker
Slate Industries is very fun to to describe the system. It's it's the term it's made by the same company that does the Terminator system that you and I played a couple days ago, couple weeks back. ah So it's a similar system to that.
00:10:32
Speaker
The exact same system. Cool, cool. ah And... Something else that that I had a lot of fun with, I i played in a pickup game with ah Nate and the Tabletop Empire guys who came for the first time.
00:10:48
Speaker
And were great guys. And it was it was a very interesting... you It was kind of, sort of Genesis.
00:10:59
Speaker
It used Genesis and Star Wars dice. But ah it was run by Joe from Tabletop Empire. What he did was he He had us build out the setting and everything.
00:11:13
Speaker
Had cards like, okay, this is the vibe. I want from each of you, I want something about the vibe of the game. Okay, now from each of you, I want input on the setting. Okay, now from each of you... Lauren was telling me about that.
00:11:27
Speaker
that you yeah from Yeah, from each of you, I want something about the antagonists and the protagonists. And then we made our characters by each of us came up with one...
00:11:42
Speaker
we came up with a character hook, then one descriptor of our own character, one descriptor of the character for of the person to our right, and one for the person to our left.
00:11:54
Speaker
It kind of was like a hit-seeding. but i was i i was at a table ah next to you run running running a fire tower, a board game, but then like I was still able to listen in and was like...
Collaborative RPG Setting Creation and Unique Scenarios
00:12:08
Speaker
And it was a ton of fun, because it was...
00:12:13
Speaker
He had to make it all up on the fly based on all of this, some of it, absolute non-contradictory nonsense that we came up with to set it up.
00:12:23
Speaker
And it was a lot of fun. um We ended up... That was on Friday. think so. The setting was of big. because when you were playing Fire Tower, I was doing part two of Delta Green.
00:12:37
Speaker
So that had to be Friday. Mm-hmm. Yeah, we were we were in kind of a Jetsons future with people on the ground levels who were edgy furries. and yeahs yeah Yeah, that's what Lauren told me. think that That was Lauren's contribution to the vibe.
00:12:57
Speaker
or to the antagonist, one of the two, edgy furries. um and there was a whole robots rights thing, and we were having to investigate someone who had been kidnapped by aliens, and it was going all over the place, but it was a ton of fun.
00:13:17
Speaker
ah Lots of fun was had. I might have to try experimenting with that kind of of freeform game setup sometime. yeah it It definitely, from what I was hearing, it's a,
00:13:30
Speaker
I didn't get the extra mechanical like benefits of hearing that. I was on the other table, but it sounded like everyone is having a good good time. Oh, yeah. the The mechanics were just you know basic narrative dice system.
00:13:43
Speaker
Genesis and Star Wars. We were using Genesis and Star Wars dice. Well, okay. Slightly different. So rather than having a full character sheet, we had those three attributes of our characters that we all came up with.
00:13:57
Speaker
as a group, right? And you decided which one took top priority, which was middle and which was bottom. The top priority, you had three yellows in.
00:14:09
Speaker
The middle, you had two yellows and a green. And the bottom, you had one yellow and two green. That's pretty cool. That's how your stats worked. And if you... That really works for for a con game. That really works one.
00:14:23
Speaker
Yeah, and none of those if none of those attributes applied, then you had just base three green in in your roll. So it was it was great. you know You could make arguments for boosts just like normal. You could make arguments for, okay, well, this is upgraded because of this reason.
00:14:40
Speaker
And it was a nice, simple distillation of narrative dice system. And it was a lot of fun. Worked great for a con game. Fantastic. Now, while all this is going on, Chris, of course, is having to keep the lid on the barrel of monkeys.
00:14:56
Speaker
ah ah Honestly, first few days, i was i was I ran three sessions first couple of days. um And then that was... Hey, hey, where are the monkeys? The bulk of my time this for those first few days, I'll tell you that.
00:15:10
Speaker
um And i did get to i managed to I did get to get some play in, which was nice, on Saturday night. um aht with Darren West ran ah an incredible Star Wars game. ah for us. oh yeah was Was that the Rad Batch?
00:15:24
Speaker
um No, this was um this was a Mandalorian game. ah So we were we were all Mandalorians. um This is shortly after the end of the last season of The Mandalorian in terms of timeline. Undertaking a quest for Bo-Katan Kreeze to go find the Helm of Mandalore. Ooh, that's a fun one.
00:15:47
Speaker
I saw the trailer for that. Train Heist? Oh, that's cool. We've done one of those. We've done several of those. yeah god i get i love ah train heist yeah But for for my own game, which I ran, as i was I always like to do create my own themed game, depending on the theme of the con. And obviously, this is Gamer Nation Con X, and our theme was paranormal.
00:16:11
Speaker
And additionally, our our guest of honor at the con, Sam Gregor Stewart, the um rpg manager for a former former RPG manager at Fantasy Flight Games and now RPG manager at Edge Studios. um Obviously, Genesis, Star Wars.
00:16:24
Speaker
um They just released a brand new game, which is Arkham Horror, the role-playing game. um And ah Sam, as well as several of our attendees that were there, including Darren West and others and D20 radio alums like Keith Cappell,
00:16:38
Speaker
um Scott Zumwalt, others, um all worked on this system. um And ah the the DPS system or dynamic pool system, it's it's kind of fascinating. And so I decided to to kind of break from tradition for me. And I actually, i created, I learned DPS.
00:16:55
Speaker
And full transparency, ran it for the ran it for the first time at the con. um And ah did did my own adventure in my own quirky style. I wasn't going to horror. I had to make it a little more me.
00:17:14
Speaker
So it was it was DPS, but our our our pre-generated player characters were Fred Jones, Shaggy Rogers, Velma Dinkley, Daphne Blake, ah Scooby-Doo, and Scrappy-Doo.
00:17:26
Speaker
And, um, And Scrappy was the Lovecraftian horror. Please, please tell me he was yeah he was he he he was he was. He was the plucky guardian in the group, which was which was a lot of fun.
00:17:37
Speaker
um But it was absolutely fantastic. i've been I've been gaming lately, the past several years. I i got, hell, yeah at the time I got it, it was a great sale. you can You can buy them anywhere at this price now. But I got myself a 42-inch flat screen ah for like 200 bucks, right? And that was like like a few years back. And it was a huge, huge sale. was like, oh my gosh.
00:17:58
Speaker
And I've had a dream forever to have a digital game table. And it's one of those things where instead of having a projection screen or something like that, these flat screens are pretty tough. And so literally, 42 inches is huge and perfectly sized for your average RPG.
00:18:18
Speaker
I came a couple of years back. darl Yeah, yeah i I have similar. Coworker's sister sold me a 32 inch, I think.
00:18:30
Speaker
Flat screen for like 30 bucks because one of the speakers blew. it It fits really well because yeah I think it is the 32. It's like around the 30 inch. Yeah. Yeah. But you, but it's a, it's a really uncomplicated setup. The, the most of the modern flat screens, they have a USB port in the back and they have their own onboard media players.
00:18:48
Speaker
So you don't need to hook a laptop or anything. All you need is just the JPEG file or the best. And the reason I wanted to do it is, is a video file. There's, there's been a growing number of, of animated map makers out there.
00:18:59
Speaker
yeah And so you can, you can literally load up these files onto USB, put in the back of the television and it just plays. And, There's most of them are making their maps specifically for 42 inch TV.
00:19:09
Speaker
So if they're gridded, which DPS is a system that that uses feet increments, unlike Genesis and Star Wars. so ah grid So a gridded map matters. Those grids are perfectly scaled to where when they're projected on a 42 inch television, they're one inch.
00:19:23
Speaker
And um without any modifications on your part. And there's sound and animation. um there's There's a couple of great guys on Patreon making content. And I got, yeah you ever you guys ever get an asset to like an awesome map or ah or a cool set of minis or a terrain that's so cool and you put it in your back pocket and you're like, I've got to devise an encounter around this or I've got to build a session around this. Like I've i've got to do that. No, it's never happened.
00:19:46
Speaker
Yes. Never. Never. No, totally. Never happened. So about a year ago, this this digital map creator does these video maps that I get it from. um I subscribe to him on Patreon.
00:19:59
Speaker
He made a four-story haunted lighthouse.
00:20:04
Speaker
And like I was like, oh, I got to use that in something. And of course, Scooby-Doo, man. Scooby-Doo. Yeah. That's beautiful. Where are you? That's very way beautiful.
00:20:16
Speaker
Where is Scooby-Doo? We need him now more than ever. Yeah, but it was it was a lot it was a lot of fun, to say at the least. Yeah, it was a good con this year. I'm glad to hear you guys had a good time.
00:20:27
Speaker
Oh, yeah. We had an amazing time. No, nobody went insane, which was which was nice. Nobody went insane in my game. i Maybe it was a little too nice on the players. I don't know. They were rolling like mad, though. It was really good.
00:20:38
Speaker
Yeah, because I did my... I was in my own like Cthulhu game. It was, yeah. We should actually talk about our, about our con games that we did. i suppose, but it was funny because in and I was doing the 1980s analog core or basically in the nineteen eighty s working on this radio station, some weird broadcasts have been going in. So we're investigating.
00:20:58
Speaker
There were different professions as usual. So I rolled the office intern. And so I just decided for a joke. Okay. Uh, What do you call an office intern who gets paid nothing and it's paid an experience? So instead of a name, i put in quotation marks, hey, you. Because I just said no one knew my name.
00:21:19
Speaker
All I do is make coffee. And the weirdest thing is my character, every role, never lost one point of sanity. He was saying throughout the entire thing. Hey, if you're an unpaid intern, you might as well roll with the punches.
00:21:34
Speaker
but The joke was the ofly other lady who played the other intern, she would always scream. She died, became a new character. Then that character died and got the flesh character. Oh, yeah. I definitely want to ask about that. Like, how did like we can talk about that later? But like, how is it? What did they make it analog horror? That's a that's a style of horror. I've been very interested. It's a relatively new genre of horror.
00:22:01
Speaker
Well, I'll say she did. She did. I think this was an actually established scenario in Call Cthulhu, I believe. I don't know where she it. But it was analog because there were like four videos she did show us that was in the analog type of style.
00:22:18
Speaker
Interesting. Right on. Right on. Well, Nick did mention the games that we ran. And Chris, I don't know how much you heard about them other than the summaries that we put in our event submissions.
00:22:31
Speaker
that's That's my main thing, was where yeah was was was running it all through. I know you you guys ran a pair of games coterminously, because I made sure to put your tables next to each other, which was which was Aliens, if I'm not mistaken. Yes, um it was Alien Up Above It and Alien Down In It.
00:22:46
Speaker
No, i I was not inspired by Nine Inch Nails with the title. Why do you ask? um I was running the Up Above It table. Nick was down in it. And my PCs were the...
00:23:02
Speaker
executives on this Weyland-Yutani, ostensibly it's a retirement space station, a luxury um retirement community. um That's not to say that this is Weyland-Yutani, a retired scientist who was in the Up Above It crew, was doing some experimentation still.
00:23:22
Speaker
He was quote-unquote retired. It was a hobby. It was a hobby. And then Nick had the down in it crew who they were in the maintenance side of the station.
00:23:34
Speaker
Inspiration for the station design, kind of like Romulus where there's two halves of the station, except in the center, there was this giant domed park where Weyland-Yutani had genetically engineered extinct flora like cherry blossoms and things like this.
00:23:51
Speaker
And of course, this being alien, things went sideways. Sideways. Very fast. But one of the main things that we wanted to do is make sure that we had, since we had two tables, but we, as you know about the alien system, there's the concept of secret agendas and rivals and buddies.
00:24:12
Speaker
And some of the buddies and rivals were at opposite tables from one another. ah For instance, in in the up above it side, there was a husband and wife duo of which The wife was the station administrator.
00:24:28
Speaker
but husband is The is the HR manager for the station. And she's fooling around with a pilot who's in the down in it section.
00:24:42
Speaker
And part of her secret agendas was throughout the game, she's had enough of the husband. It's like, oh, wait, all of this is going sideways. Boy, it sure would be awful if something happened to him, wouldn't it?
00:24:55
Speaker
Her signature item, her small item that she carries around is the unsigned divorce papers that she's been waiting to just throw at him.
00:25:06
Speaker
Fast forwarding ahead to the end. One thing that was beautiful, this happened in our play test. And it also happened in the live table at the end as everything was going pear shaped and everything was going wrong.
00:25:20
Speaker
She shoves the papers at him. Here I'm done. ah guy like um I love that that's the concept that they all went with because that's sort of like the that's the appropriate ending like her goal is like without it being a secret agenda concept it's like no no I wanted her to be like if they make it out of us he's just shoving those papers right in his chest like these are yours
00:25:54
Speaker
And another concept that we had that this was only made explicit to two of the PCs, one on each side, there was a backup copy of the Ash AI from the Ash Android from the original movie that was in the system on the station.
00:26:13
Speaker
Weyland Yutani's using him for his information of the events of the first movie, right? But he has his own ideas, so he has downloaded his consciousness into two android bodies, one that's at each table, but neither of them is aware of the other's existence.
00:26:32
Speaker
As a fun out-of-character sort of joke, we casted like actors for the characters. they yeah the the the The fake, the additional asses are played by two different versions of James McAvoy.
00:26:51
Speaker
One is James McAvoy looking all proper in a suit, and he is an administrative assistant in the ah in the administrative side. The other is atomic blonde dirtbag James McAvoy on the down-in-it side.
00:27:07
Speaker
was the down-in-it McAvoy in the playtest. And you know we we have pictures of all of the characters on little standees around the table. And just the one of the things that we do, too, is we had it broken into a three-act structure.
00:27:20
Speaker
And at the end of Act 1, we swapped two players from table to table. Two from each table, swapping over to the other. We could have had up to three for each. It just depended on how ah the play... Yeah. two Two was the sweet spot, though.
00:27:37
Speaker
And the way it worked out... It was better than we expected. It was better than we expected because we ended up with both of the Ash copies over at my table.
00:27:48
Speaker
Oh yeah, you told me that happened. But the party had split, so the two Ashes weren't together the very end. Yeah, so the party on the Green table was split, while my table was more cohesive.
00:28:04
Speaker
So therefore they didn't realize the the the two the the two James McAvoys were on there until the very end of Act 3. and when When the new Ash came in, I had the half of the group that that he joined up with make a perception check. you know like Something about this guy looks familiar. Make a perception check.
00:28:25
Speaker
Failed the perception check.
00:28:28
Speaker
and What's funny is both of the Ashes are sitting side by side at the table. and Oh yeah, you were right up. You told me about that. that what While he's making the perception, while the other player's making the perception check...
00:28:42
Speaker
um one of the longtime Gamer Nation Con attendees, got got his 10-year badge. ah Jerry was playing the up-above-it Ash, and he's sitting there dancing his his character identification, you the little placard, back and forth, like, look, look, you noticed this, right?
00:29:04
Speaker
Look.
00:29:07
Speaker
But... you It's in character. Why would the upper exempt notice a lowly mechanic? Exactly. Honestly, it does it does fit mechanically that like with enough distance, but the fact that they were sitting there together, as just space like honestly, i was waiting for the Spider-Man meme with them pointing at each other at some point.
Unexpected RPG Interactions and Creative Storytelling
00:29:27
Speaker
For Act 3, we basically combined the two tables into one big table. we We had a big set piece, but we pulled an old David Letterman. you Remember when he used to throw the cards through the window behind him?
00:29:41
Speaker
especially when you know a segment was going off the rails and he was letting it and would throw the cards. I was more of the opinion. like Screw it, let's do it live. oh yeah.
00:29:52
Speaker
we We tossed the big set piece because the interactions between all of the players and the various... nefarious hijinks and backstabbing and web of of deceit was much more interesting than the big monster fight that we had written for the final act.
00:30:12
Speaker
Because it was yours was more chaotic. I described the big monster fight in the background and they sort of Oh, it represents the... They they were doing like the the philosophical opinions, like, oh, that's the that's the that's the microcosm. What's going on here?
00:30:30
Speaker
Fighting against each other's interests with different origins and stuff that. Meanwhile, on your side of the table, they were just Lord of the Flies fighting each other to the death. Well, and that that translated to table to table because we had set up rivalries between some of the PCs at each table.
00:30:51
Speaker
And as soon as one character from your side, Nick, was visible to the character at my table that had a grudge against her, he immediately just shot her between the eyes.
00:31:06
Speaker
Yeah, that's an alien game, all right. Yeah, that's an alien game. But much fun was had. We ended on the classic, like, oh there's an alien egg on there, but that's just sort of, that's to be standard, and that would have always been the ending. But it's like, yeah the fact that they' it became like, no, the we didn't have to do like, the real monster is man. They're already doing that.
00:31:31
Speaker
Yeah, they did it for us, so. no i'm It's funny how, even though they were on the same team, The two McAvoys still didn't notice each other because in the playtest, that didn't happen.
00:31:43
Speaker
And then the other one died in Act 2, so my McAvoy never met the other one. Right. Oh, yeah. The surprising fact is, like, it was so much fun seeing, like, the different... Honestly, we could play this same scenario, like, probably every game in AsenCon and probably get something different.
00:32:02
Speaker
and Okay. So now do we want to talk about The Delta one? Or save that for another episode? This is Game Renaissance Recap. but Then there was the Delta Green game.
00:32:16
Speaker
are What is becoming our traditional three-parter where we do a relay between the three of us doing a three-part game. The hook was came from a a joke meme that I saw shortly after Gamer Nation Con last year, which was, what if Bob Ross was a serial killer and his paintings were of the locations where he buried the bodies?
00:32:41
Speaker
we We ran with it. We took that point we ran with it. that That is Delta Green. Act one was pretty much, the one that I ran is pretty much just investigation.
00:32:54
Speaker
ah They chased down a few red herrings. ah And one of the benefits to using Bob Ross in this is that no one wants him to be a bad guy.
00:33:06
Speaker
I've talked about that multiple times. Like there's some, like even when we were doing the playtons review, there was a part of me that even though we planned this, a part of me was like, Trying to be like, no, no, I was buying into everyone. I was like, he's being framed. It's some sort of trick.
00:33:25
Speaker
It's not him. Because I watched your act one because I needed to take notes for my act two. It was so fun because one, the red herrings you gave them, they like zoned in on that and would only focus on that. Yes. They did have to steer them back on track.
00:33:41
Speaker
And then they used it to think about the other suspects. Yes. And so... And you weren't there for the playtest, Robert, because that's exactly how it happened. No one wants to assume Ross the villain. And...
00:33:59
Speaker
At the end of Act 1, Act 1 was always going to end this way. At the end of Act 1, They come across, they go back to a storage unit that they've investigated that Bob Ross has has rented that has all of the accoutrements of a serial killer in it.
00:34:18
Speaker
And they find him committing one of these ritual murders and carving the symbols into his would-be victim who is still alive. they direct In this case, they directly cut, Steve shotgunned He played small officer and he was like, innocent in danger, bang.
00:34:40
Speaker
My God, what's he carving into him? Happy little trees. And Bob Ross falls, gunshot wound, hits his head on the corner of a table. And in his dying words says, you fools, you've doomed us all.
00:34:55
Speaker
Well, he, he was committing these ritual murders, but it was to keep an elder God contained. In one of his paintings. And he basically ended Act 1 by saying, the ground shakes and a giant beam of light you can see in the distance.
00:35:16
Speaker
And he hadn't finished the final ritual. So then it passed on to Robert. Yes, and mine was a little more first dealing with the fallout, where surprise, surprise, the handler that gave them this mission is actually a Yes, but no with Delta Green. And he wanted them to to succeed in killing Bob Ross because he wanted them to release this Elder God for steps upon steps, plans within plans.
00:35:48
Speaker
And he basically said, OK, you let him out. Good job. Now I'm going to tell you how to put him back in because it's like you let him out. you can put him back in because that's all I needed to happen. So was basically like, OK, I need to get a few materials.
00:36:01
Speaker
But lucky for you. All these materials needed for the ritual, minus one that you can easily get. It's all at a secret underground facility underneath a National Guard base on Lake Heron.
00:36:15
Speaker
Oh, will say this but but for you, Robert, and based on both of my reactions from my players and your your table as well. They both agree. are depiction of quote-unquote Gil, they hate him.
00:36:28
Speaker
They hate him. they hateed Good. That was the goal. That was the goal. That makes them hate Gil. And that was the goal, but was like, they're like, we hate him. We hate him so much.
00:36:40
Speaker
And like, mission accomplished. We did it. And yeah, basically they went in got the stuff, had a big fight. I introduced some artifacts, which in Nick's Act 3, they're really They really used one of them that I gave them.
00:36:56
Speaker
ah You do need to tell a lot about that artifact. so that could i'd say That's an ethical part of my part of the story. Okay, this artifact I made up because in the Delta Green timeline in the books, it's that we're in a period of time where the U.S. government, the secret Delta Green U.S. government called Majestic, has made a deal with these extraterrestrial beings beings called the Grey.
00:37:19
Speaker
who have been giving them artifacts and information in in return for them, turning a blind eye to some of the more unethical things the greys do with people. So I decided, okay, we're in that timeline. I'll add some usual crafty and stuff, but I'm going to add this this crystal metal-looking orb, like a crystal ball.
00:37:39
Speaker
The orb. ah They called big li they call it the orb as well. And what I had them do while they were in the base... I led them on to one of them picking it up, and then I said, okay, you see a green light shootout hit your forehead.
00:37:55
Speaker
a green light shootout and hit another character's forehead. Then I did, and i physically went up, took both their character sheets, and gave them the other one and said, okay, you wake up, and you're looking at your body, and you're looking at your body.
00:38:11
Speaker
yeah Your minds have been swapped. It's a Freaky Friday situation. Yeah, and but when... We play tested that happened to Nick and i and Nick's character was kind of schlubby and I was playing an ATF agent and Nick decided I like this body better and tried to kill me.
00:38:32
Speaker
Yes, very much. It was even more hilarious because Nick was like, I go up to him. I put my gun right to his head and shoot. And he missed. Or we hit him for one damage. And I was like, okay, you Nick his ear.
00:38:47
Speaker
b um we've had We've had so many interesting themes for Gamer Nation Con over the years. And a few years back for 8th convention, it was Gamer Nation Con 80s. And so when you talk about Bob Ross, although I went with a different direction, i had an outline a written and actually pulling up looking at it now where I wanted to do a Genesis adventure. It was the heroes of PBS.
00:39:07
Speaker
And the the the idea was that did that the... The children of the world ah had psychically were scanned by a group of of aliens to pick the greatest heroes of the planet.
00:39:20
Speaker
to be given special superpowers to fight off an oncoming alien invasion from another group of aliens. And of course the children of the earth in the eighties, their heroes were Bob Vila, Bob Ross, Fred Rogers, LeVar Burton, Jim Henson and Carl Sagan. Right.
00:39:34
Speaker
um All the, all these, all these PBS, ah you know, heroes. And so it was, it was, it was, it was pretty fun. It was pretty fun. that that That's beautiful. gate i want to play that.
00:39:45
Speaker
I want to play that. I want to play that. I want to play that. Gamer Nation in the 80s was the first year that I ran a game at the con. And i I did DC Heroes, dug that up from the 80s.
00:39:58
Speaker
And all of the PCs were stereotypical 80s characters. Dazzler, Vibe, Booster Gold, oh Video Man from the Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends cartoon. Video Man!
00:40:13
Speaker
oh It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. Well, I know that our time with Chris is limited, so we'll jump into Nick's part three afterwards because I know he has to go soon. So that does bring us to next year, which Gamer Nation Con 11 to boldly go.
00:40:34
Speaker
and issue with. Oh, you have an issue with it, Nick? Yes. Yes. And what is that issue, Nick? Why isn't it heist-based?
00:40:46
Speaker
Why isn't it Ocean's Eleven? why is it what? Why isn't it Ocean's Eleven? ah Because we don't. That's that's a good question. um we We figured, honestly, we week we kind of lucked into 10. We figured out a while ago we were going to stop basing our themes around the number. So we we we figured out a while ago it's just not going to work very much anymore.
00:41:09
Speaker
um But we did Gamma Nation Con 007, which was espionage-based. That was our seventh convention. um And honestly, it's just an a little too close to that in terms of themes. We're trying to we're trying to do that. We haven't done anything even remotely sci-fi or space opera since Gamination Con 4, which was a new hope. yeah My eyebrows? don't know how high I can raise them. I'm not even like that That's fair.
00:41:40
Speaker
I know that a lot of people had were buzzing around the con. Well, the alternate option is you know Stranger Things. and we're like, well, that's like the same thing. That's literally the same thing as the 10th con, which is Terranimal.
00:41:52
Speaker
But no, realistically, also had ulterior motives behind this theme as well in terms of pushing it forward. we also we also had had ulterior motives behind this theme as well um in terms of in terms of pushing it forward um we We were really debating a couple themes at the end of
Upcoming Con Themes and Sci-Fi Discussions
00:42:09
Speaker
the day, the directors were.
00:42:10
Speaker
um ah you know Myself, my wife, Krista, TG, Twi'Lek Goodness, and GM Dave. um And considering the way everything is right now, we wanted to do ah things that would give people some hope.
00:42:25
Speaker
um we we toyed with the idea of pulp because pulp or pulp adventure has has been on our list for a while. and yeah and And, you know, everyone loves punching Nazis and that would be very, ah very impactful and in our current climate. im mean, that's an pastime.
00:42:40
Speaker
that that's it that's an assetle pas time you know it's it's it's it is It is a national pastime, but but in the end, we decided it might be fun to have a return to science fiction, but more importantly, if there is an intellectual property that that exists out there that is the epitome of a hopeful future, it's definitely Star Trek.
00:43:01
Speaker
So something to to inspire us and and give us something to shoot for and root for has has always been the joy of what that property has been about. And we felt it was something that we all need right now.
00:43:15
Speaker
that's That's fine. And I can agree with that. But also in the name of of of Americana freedom and rebellion, I'm going to do heist games anyways. You should do what really want to do is this do should do a Star Trek heist game.
00:43:31
Speaker
That's, you know, that that's that's that's that's gonna be that's going to be incredible. ah that That's what I want to see. And I've already talked to people like, like ah ah Darren wants to run like an all Klingon combat game using the Arkham horror system. But instead of horror dice, you have honor dice.
00:43:47
Speaker
Okay. Like, um you know, there's so many. I want somebody to run like an economics game where it's all about negotiation and the whole party's Ferengi. You know, there there is no reason you can't run a heist game in Star Trek. There's no reason at all.
00:44:03
Speaker
but Putting those two together, i Nick, putting those two together, you do a game that's a sequel to a piece of the action from the original series.
00:44:15
Speaker
They realize that McCoy left his communicator behind and and somebody, a group from Starfleet has to sneak back onto Iosha and get back McCoy's communicator. You have a heist.
00:44:26
Speaker
You have you Star Trek on a 1920s planet. It writes itself. Damn it, I just wrote a session. you you You just did it. You just did it.
00:44:39
Speaker
Well, I'll say as someone who didn't grow up a Trekkie, it's going to be interesting to see you next year. Well, I will walk you guys through, because the good thing for for me about the theme, mean, aside from I love Star Trek almost as much as I love Star Wars.
00:44:57
Speaker
and really you You have the advantage here. like i i follow I know Star Trek, but not as much as Star Wars. Well, it pushes me and again get off my butt and actually learn Star Trek adventures well enough to run it.
00:45:14
Speaker
where its you it's It's not a bad system. Frankly, I'll be i'll be running Genesis. That's my other option because last year um for my solo game at the Lord of the Rings themed con, Scott Zumwalt has a partial Genesis Star Trek setting that he had started on that he shot me the notes for that I used to... I ran a session last year that It was Star Trek. It was the holodeck story.
00:45:43
Speaker
Can be done in an exploratory exploration in the unknown regions and stuff like that. Yeah, we've done that before. i But I did a Star Trek.
00:45:54
Speaker
It was a holodeck episode where they were the PCs were playing Lord of the Rings in the holodeck. And what always happens in a holodeck episode?
00:46:06
Speaker
The holodeck short circuits. and All the safeties are off, and I was very glad when they rolled a despair because I had in my back pocket that when a despair was rolled, the program glitched yet again, and they found themselves in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
00:46:24
Speaker
Fantastic. absolutely Absolutely fantastic. Well, I will say, Nick, Rob, like if if you guys if you guys are burgeoning Trekkies and you didn't grow up on it,
00:46:36
Speaker
Well, I go up in and out of it. it's like i i leave whos been There's been so much. there's been so much if i like it if i can If I can point you to one thing, one thing to to get yourself jonesed up before the con, one thing is the most recent Star Trek television show, which is Strange New Worlds.
00:46:58
Speaker
Yes. You do not need to have watched any other Star Trek. you You don't need to. You'll get it. It's okay. And it is... It isn't one of it. it's it's It is actually really good. it's right It is phenomenal.
00:47:10
Speaker
it is it is It is truly phenomenal television. And, Daryl, there have been, at this point, two versions of the Star Trek Adventure system published using the 2D20 system.
00:47:21
Speaker
Yep, I've got both. I would highly recommend you stick with the second edition over the first. Yeah, I i am... ah I am waiting. I'm probably this weekend going to go buy the starter set for it. I've got the core book and I've got the GM kit, but I want to go get the starter.
00:47:40
Speaker
Now, if you want to get really nerdy and they're they're free, you can find it on Thingiverse and you have 3D printer. and People have made. People have made tri-quarter dice cases for the 2D20 system.
00:47:52
Speaker
I've seen them. I've seen them. Well, we can't get too nerdy. We're trying to trying to appeal to all ages on this one. But yeah, I know that I'm going to have to do the heavy some of the heavy lifting on plotting our traditional three-parter for this one. I've already been... ah been trying to come up with some ideas and what I'm thinking is each part will ah cover a different Star Trek trope.
00:48:18
Speaker
That could be fun. say one it One is time travel, one's a holodeck. you know Why not have a connected holodeck? The three adventures are one malfunctioning holodeck or a set of holodecks. One of you could be running fantasy, one of you could be running sci-fi, one of you could be running 20s gangster ah Ocean's Eleven Heist.
00:48:39
Speaker
Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. and and And literally, like after every encounter, the players switch tables, right? Right. Could be fun, just saying Could be.
00:48:51
Speaker
i want a red shirt. well Well, see, if you're in the generation, the red shirts don't die. so oh That's the worst generation. Because they don't die.
00:49:02
Speaker
no the gold shirts do. Ah, revenge of the red shirts. oh there There you go. There you go. oh yeah we we can we We know enough. We have some ideas we can work with.
00:49:15
Speaker
We've got a good year to figure it out. I at least know what I'm going to cosplay. Because you know how we procrastinate. I at least know what I'm going to cosplay. I'm going to be con.
00:49:29
Speaker
so that that's the one other question that i have and you kind of touched on it a little bit and i know you answered it on socials but so that tens of people can hear it on the podcast um so past titles of the cons have yeah kind of been punny yes wrath of con is sitting right there where it was it was sitting right there we talked about it it was on the list but we we really wanted to lean into a hopeful message.
00:49:56
Speaker
And so to to boldly go is is is important. And maybe maybe maybe a little yawny, but all i'll take i'll take ah I'll take yawning over crying at this point right now.
00:50:09
Speaker
I would have said Beyond because like Beyond was the last movie, and that's where we last lost a really great checkoff. there oh yeah speaking of tears yeah anton yelchin oh you have have to go and bring it down now nick yeah thanks nick it's what he's there for well i know you gotta go 11 nick nick is stuck up we we did have some ideas already if it were heists look we're we have a star wars game where we're pirates we'll give you heist
00:50:44
Speaker
You can make a heist. yeah Yes. Betsy and I have hinted about heists before. You can make a heist in any. You could have made a heist for paranormal. That would have fun one. too You go and heist something and now you're stuck with an entity.
00:50:58
Speaker
Well, I mean, Robert's part two was kind of partially heist. yeah Sort of heist, yeah. Infiltrate, get the stuff, and get out. I'm not going to lie. If it was heist, I had in my back pocket.
00:51:09
Speaker
Chris, I know that, like me, you are our deep dive Star Wars stuff, especially the the weird stuff. I had Jackson's 11 minus 5 ready to go. Yeah.
00:51:24
Speaker
But it was great having you here. It was. I know you got to go. Thank you for giving us some of your time. and Of course. And thank you once again for letting us letting us join the fun. Yeah, of course. Thank you guys for being such strong members of the community, running some amazing games for the con. I'm really, really, really looking forward to next year.
00:51:46
Speaker
And as we get closer to that timeframe in about a year, um so maybe, in maybe i I don't know, in about maybe nine or 10 months, maybe I can swing back around, guess what you guys again, we can talk about the upcoming con plans and and ah get everyone kind of jazzed and excited as we approach.
00:52:01
Speaker
That sounds like a plan to me. We'll be there. All right. And in the meantime, where can and everybody find you, Chris? ah Well, ironically, we're having a brand new site built. If you go there right now, you may or may not find it functional.
00:52:16
Speaker
um We're actually completely changing our hosting providers. um Everything is it's is getting kind of wild, and that's that's a whole conversation right now. ah But ah depending on when you're listening to this, d20radio.com is obviously the network site.
00:52:28
Speaker
um But honestly, the the best place to find us is is right now is social media, d20radio. We've got a great community there. um If you're interested in the Order 66 podcast, you can also find us on Facebook there as well.
00:52:40
Speaker
um so ah But honestly, the most pop in place for D20 Radio and podcast discussion is our Discord server. And you guys can find us on Discord at D20 Radio. We have a very active community.
00:52:51
Speaker
um And can put that sir. Fantastic. and we get put that in the show yeah i said yeah yes sir fantastic Gents,
Concluding Thoughts and Community Contributions
00:53:02
Speaker
thank you very much. i hope you have a wonderful, wonderful evening.
00:53:05
Speaker
Thank you, Chris. We had a wonderful four days at your convention. Yes, sir. Four days of gaming goodness. can't wait for four more. Thank you, guys. Peace, love, and good gaming. Live long and prosper.
00:53:17
Speaker
See, you got it, Robert. I at least know that much. any of them May the force be with you. It's a long franchise, Nick. It's just what it is at this house.
00:53:28
Speaker
It piggybacked off this one. Yep. It nice talk. Yeah, it was. Chris is awesome. Great time. Great time. ah Just like it was a great convention we had.
00:53:41
Speaker
Yes. yes so Fill everybody in on your part two, Nick. your last Part three. All right. Oh, I'm just like a last time on our previous game at AT&T. I'm I'm bringing up the rear part three.
00:54:00
Speaker
The finale. Bringing it all home. Now, Bailey, bit shorter than expected. Partly because I was a bit tired, bit long-winded.
00:54:12
Speaker
but all of them really came out good. But here's how it started off. Off of your mission to the underwater base, they got all the materials they needed to reseal the great old one that they revealed. Cthugwa.
00:54:28
Speaker
The big fireball. Oogwa, Cotogwa, basically a giant spinning cyclone of fire. And they got their usual help from Gil. um Help is doing a lot of a lot of heavy lifting there. Help, taunting, chiding, the usual.
00:54:48
Speaker
A ladder truck with some water in it. And they had to deal with ah going to the the ritual site on the Forfeits of Lai. They developed some traffic, they got the materials they needed, they encountered some warrior women wearing pots and pans as armor.
00:55:06
Speaker
But the real fun began with your little artifact, which i I was sitting in on your assassin, so I know learned about howard how you described it.
00:55:18
Speaker
Not just the mechanics of how it worked. I'll admit I did change the mechanics a little to make it easier, but yeah, I didn't. I didn't think they'd take the orb after Act 2, but apparently they did.
00:55:30
Speaker
They did. and they And from my understanding, hijinks ensued. One of the characters was obsessed with the orb. Was asking for like every other ah the time I turned to them.
00:55:43
Speaker
They wanted the orb. And they managed to convince them to be given the orb. So here's the setup of the scene that honestly defined this whole assassin. There's a whole bunch of cultists configuring with all these like floating demon balls of fire and trying to arrange them in a specific way, and they're eating other a cultists who are like giving themselves off to make sure these balls of fire butt off like like a sponge reproduce into more balls of fire.
00:56:15
Speaker
So the person who wanted the mind transfer orb, for lack of a term, or as they called it, the orb every time. Yeah, I just called it the the orb of transference.
00:56:27
Speaker
Or they just called it the Orb. Which is a much better name, just the Orb. And I'm going to describe it exactly how they they said it to me. Like, okay, I'm going to approach the circle where the cultists are and the fireballs are.
00:56:45
Speaker
I am going to take out the Orb and I am going to... And I'm quoting... Shake it up. Shake it up.
00:56:56
Speaker
And suddenly the cars are playing in my head. toss it into the middle of the area. And then what happened? I did have the song for a second. was like, wait, wait, what?
00:57:08
Speaker
Yeah, I go in and shake it up. Shake it up. At no point did you at all involve, like, shaking it up. Nope. No shaking needed. Well, that can't be good. i didn't even require a roll for it just like,
00:57:23
Speaker
Okay, you yeah shake up the orb and you throw it. And I describe it as it is. A green light hits the area. Everyone in the area switches bodies.
00:57:37
Speaker
Cultus player characters. Indiscriminate. Basically, mind swap grenade. yeah The way you described it to me first is that thought he threw it.
00:57:50
Speaker
It just rolled on the ground and how I said it was like small lights hitting each other's foreheads. I thought it was like a disco ball shooting off all these lights everywhere. Basically, that's what it looked like.
00:58:01
Speaker
And the way I would describe it is like, the way he asked me what happened like, well, I imagine that you use this this this orb and shook it up like you put Mentos in a Diet Coke bottle.
00:58:15
Speaker
And she just let it ride. That's just wild. And how are you yeah how many players did you say got their body swapped? Oh, there were four players in the zone. Eight cultists.
00:58:29
Speaker
So they all got mids and mats with each other. i admit, I was playing a good game while you were doing leading yours, but I so wish I could have been there to see that moment and their reaction.
00:58:41
Speaker
Luckily, because the mind swap had happened before, they used intellect checks to as well as like just visual checks of where they were determine like, oh, I'm you, you're me. It's like, don't hit me.
00:58:58
Speaker
I'm them. And we had one of them like do a really cool, like like the ATF agent was able to do like a cool Jason Bourne, like knockout move on one of the players who was taken over by cultist who had the book, who could have been really dangerous with the book.
00:59:14
Speaker
Oh, was did he knock out Magnus to give it the book? Yeah, Magnus had the and the book, but he was taken over by a cultist because he was in the body of a cultist. Yeah, I remember hearing about that. And isn't the character who played Magnus actually die in the cultist's body?
00:59:32
Speaker
The cultist dies because they're eaten by by the by the fire vampires. So the cultist died in Magnus's body. Yeah.
00:59:43
Speaker
Oh, no. They took over their own body again, but they're like, Yeah, that person's dead. Oh, yeah. The player who got Magnus really got the brunt of the stuff, because she and that other character who actually was obsessed with the orb were the two people I swapped the bodies with.
01:00:00
Speaker
And he used the orb in my act, too, to beat a guard over the head with it, basically killing him. So I was like, okay. He would completely the axe crazy, but in the body he was in, was just awful at every killing skill.
01:00:17
Speaker
Just would complete axe crazy, failed every skill to kill one person. Yeah, I can get that, but... Meanwhile, Magnus was the one that'd be like, no, no, I'm Magnus, stop me, get the book!
01:00:37
Speaker
So the body swapped, and then They had to stop the ritual, right? Like, that's the abridged version, but that's the main thing. It's like, oh, you stopped the ritual. That's how I preface this. Like, oh, congratulations. You stopped the ritual.
01:00:52
Speaker
ah Look at your hands. Those aren't your hands. Those hands are her hands. And her hands are his hands. And everyone's hands are different hands. You don't switch bodies.
01:01:03
Speaker
That's funny. Which caused all the fire vampires who were being like carefully like guided to start, like, why was this going to start eating people? As you do. Of course. And it just became became chaos, and ah eventually they did succeed, but it was, like, very chaotic.
01:01:22
Speaker
Someone nearly died due to the power of rituals. Not the power of friendship? No. No, but by the power of MPG and vulnerability. Yes. They were able to survive, and They succeeded. And Thelbit ended a bit early. Honestly, I felt it was better than better for brevity rather than a extending it.
01:01:45
Speaker
Oh, yeah. From what you described, it was a great ending. The amount of chaos going on. again like I didn't even contribute the chaos. It was entirely the orb.
01:01:57
Speaker
and I didn't think the orb was going to be that big. I just made it because... secret underground base studying the unnatural. You gotta have some artifacts in there. So I just made them up.
01:02:08
Speaker
Oh, even in my notes, like the orb was just like... Someone has the orb. I did not anticipate the orb to be like the literal like game changer of someone nor their opinion to be like grab the orb shake it up and just toss it again like he described his intention to me afterwards.
01:02:31
Speaker
I wanted one of the cultists and the other cultists to switch brains to disrupt the ritual. but i mean he He got what he wanted. I was feeling that worked.
01:02:43
Speaker
And honestly, the only reason I even like allowed that to happen was the way he described it. It's like, I am shaking the orb. Shake it up. Okay, this is an orb that transfers brains.
01:02:55
Speaker
He probably didn't shake it. Yeah. So I went back there to grade school silence. If you if you shake something that's volatile, it's going to be more volatile.
01:03:08
Speaker
Yeah. Honestly, I think that is up there, probably if not equal to, I'd say like maybe a point better than our than our Lords of the Holocron. um it Personally, I like i like this three-act one more than Lords of the Holocron. Definitely because we weren't constrained by a pre-written storyline.
01:03:29
Speaker
we We got to riff and we got to, to play with what the players choices gave us to do. ah Whereas with Lord of the Holocrons, we're like, okay, well, we know what Lord of the Rings does. So we have to get over here to this point and then to this point. So Yeah.
01:03:50
Speaker
Lord of the Holocrons was fun. It was great for us to work out the kinks of how to do this three-part relay, which apparently seems to be becoming our thing to do at Gamer Nation Con.
01:04:05
Speaker
I mean, I'm not sure what's that being our thing. This year, we got to come up with something that was wholly original, and like I say, we we got to riff. And we riffed, and we enjoyed it.
01:04:17
Speaker
Honestly, they again, that the whole... The orb. The orb was never meant to be this important, but it's like it really changed it for like a... Especially since their rolls were pretty bad with like the ah extinguisher and the water pump, that made the whole fire the whole battle like like more tenable. Yeah, and that's just further proof of what we said before. like Sometimes the story's more interesting when you continually fail than continually succeed.
01:04:49
Speaker
Or when there's a random element that just changes whole subject Or when there's something that you didn't intend to be this big center point suddenly becomes this big center point. Like, I swear, the amount of times that I heard going into before the orb was used, I knew the orb was going to be used for something.
01:05:08
Speaker
Because they kept on talking about the orb... Apparently that was like a big deal with all of them. and So what else stuck out to us at the con? And now I know that our whole group had a nice impromptu game of everyone is John with GMB. Oh, that was amazing.
01:05:31
Speaker
and for For those of you out there listening who are unfamiliar with Everyone is John, it began its life as a one-page RPG, and Chris and Dave and Gamer Nation Studios, through a Kickstarter a few years ago, expanded out on it.
01:05:50
Speaker
They expanded the rules just a little bit, and the bulk of the book is just scenarios. But the idea is it is a competitive RPG. And the short version is that all of the players have will points that they have little tokens for.
01:06:09
Speaker
Your character sheet is... a single double-sided business card where you have two to three skills that you can perform, and then you have a simple goal, a moderate goal, something that might take a check to resolve, and then a difficult goal, something that would take several checks to resolve.
01:06:34
Speaker
The only people who know the goals are you as the player and the GM. All of the players play different voices inside John's head.
01:06:45
Speaker
The quote-unquote main player. The main character. The player character. Right. You're all voices in John's head. And... You're competing for control of... You're competing for control. And and if you fail a check...
01:07:04
Speaker
Then everyone bids using will points to see who takes control of John. The goal is to be the one to accomplish your goals. every Every time you accomplish your goals, you score.
01:07:21
Speaker
If you accomplish your easy goal, every time you do it, you get a point. Your medium goal, you get two, and your difficult goal, you get three. it does not matter which personality is in control of John when these goals are obtained.
01:07:37
Speaker
Oh, no, it doesn't. You still get the points. There's the quote-unquote arbiter, the GM for lack of a better term, tallies that up. And the thing is, is also, if you fail, we roll again.
01:07:52
Speaker
But if you take too long with whatever you're doing, John gets bored and falls asleep and you gotta roll for control again. So it's You gotta do what you need to do, but you also gotta do it quickly enough to where it doesn't extra expand out the story. If you've seen ah Marvel's Moon Knight, it's kind of like that.
01:08:10
Speaker
And all the scenario you re-ran. Basically, John was an old western cowboy and a gang round run by a sheriff who was about to rob a stagecoach or something.
01:08:22
Speaker
And wackiness ensued. The number of times we we as players got on our horse... Went to the general store, went up the steps with the horse to break down the poor general store owner's door. To get into the general store.
01:08:40
Speaker
To shop and So many times. And we were, or at least I was dying as it kept going on. Dave is an amazing GM for everyone as John, too. Yes, very much so.
01:08:55
Speaker
But honestly, I can't even see that he was like, I think we were pussy. Oh, yeah. he was He was like, you go to the store again? like, yes!
01:09:07
Speaker
Oh, my God. We were forced. I can see there wasn't him. Thinking of everyone is John, i just had a wacky idea to fit the theme for next year's con.
01:09:20
Speaker
But it's not everyone is John. Everyone is con? No. Well, that could be fun, too. That could be fun, yeah. Wait, I think I know what you're going to do.
01:09:31
Speaker
But are you sure? and Are you sure? Never assume. Are you like I'm not going to assume. ah you know rules It starts off as Star Trek.
01:09:43
Speaker
Just straight Star Trek. And they beam down to the planet and it's paranoia.
01:09:55
Speaker
Oh. You are devious. Oh.
01:10:02
Speaker
Okay, and I can't be involved because I want to play that. I want to play That's very interesting. Well, I mean, it if if I do it, you know we'll, of course, do a play test. so Yeah, come on, Nick. The question is, are the PCs... Well, the PCs have to be Starfleet officers, and they're statted out like Starfleet officers and such, but they have to deal with all of the nonsense of the world of paranoia. Yeah.
01:10:31
Speaker
There's a lot to work with. That can be fleshed out later. Oh my god. it's It's the original series characters. So one of them is Kirk. And what is one of the tropes that Kirk is famous for?
01:10:45
Speaker
Double illogicing computers to death. And who runs Alpha Complex? The computer. Oh, yeah. you know, i i i really want time to play next year as a player, but I'm coming up with more and more ideas. Yeah.
01:11:04
Speaker
You may get that Iron GM badge. I don't want the Iron GM badge because the Iron GM badge means that you GM every available slot. yeah I looked that I was like, could I do that?
01:11:18
Speaker
Yes. Do I want to do that? No. No, because I love to play. Not just because I wanted to play, but also like Stephanie explains it best. Like I have only so many spoons.
01:11:31
Speaker
And even if this a place where I can like, Oh, I have so many spoons. It was like, no, even I would be like tired of running RPG games for that long.
01:11:41
Speaker
Oh yes. With the everybody is John. We broke that door so much. And Steve, for me and Steve talk RPGs, his moderate goal was break stuff. And we just,
01:11:53
Speaker
And just for our attention, kept getting him more points because we kept breaking that door. We broke a post. We broke some other stuff. Honestly, like, we were doing the work for him.
01:12:06
Speaker
that's the whole thing. because Because also, Stephanie had a simple goal of just get on horse. And nearly all of our characters started with, I get on my horse. Yeah. honestly think she said it first and then I used it as well so like I think that's how she got the point because like I used the exact phrase like well I'm gonna get on my horse and then I would use the same phrasing as that honestly I think was just like a word like ah association everyone's like okay we're gonna do the same object and verbiage yeah and you and you had a and you went to the general store a lot Nick what were you trying to do there
01:12:44
Speaker
Oh, I was there for entirely my secondary goal, which is exactly to go shopping, which I described entirely as this. I need a new hat, I need a new belt, and I need a new boot.
01:12:57
Speaker
Yeah, you were oddly specific in needing a new boot. A boot. And every time you got control, it was, I get on my horse and I'm going to the general store.
01:13:09
Speaker
And Dave just played that poor man like, no, stop coming in. and I'm climbing in there, assisting with Steve's thing by breaking down the door.
01:13:20
Speaker
I need a hat. I need a belt. And I need a boot. And when you finally think of the girl, it's like, I need a hat.
01:13:30
Speaker
She needs a hat. I need a belt. She needs a belt. I need a boot. She needs a slipper. Poor man. Yeah, that was everyone. It's John. And then we also... Steve is a very brave man because he ran that pickup game where we played half of the table.
01:13:53
Speaker
it It was a pickup game that he very graciously ran just for our group because we heard about his game concept and wanted to play it.
01:14:06
Speaker
And the premise was... ah go ahead. Oh, no, I was just going to say that you know none of our schedules aligned to be able to get in one of the sessions of it.
01:14:17
Speaker
So he was very gracious to run it as a pickup game specifically for us. Yes, Steve. Thank you again, Steve. Thank you. we We need to have Steve on sometime.
01:14:28
Speaker
And he said, as long as we get that schedule working, he's glad to come on. Yep. Yeah. But yes, basically, there were six of us at this table. Half of the table.
01:14:38
Speaker
were sort of like Bigfoot video hunters. Not like hunting Bigfoot for sport, but like hunting to get proof of him like you've ever seen. it was like hunting Bigfoot TV shows. That's basically what they were playing.
01:14:51
Speaker
Yeah. And then the other three of us were playing yeah a small group of small family of Sasquatches. I was the big tall father.
01:15:02
Speaker
ah Lawrence was the shaman mother. And another player, Betsy. was basically the teenage Bigfoot. I was expecting her to be my favorite, but it's between me and Lauren's Shaman mom and your big guy.
01:15:21
Speaker
Because it was like my favorite. is At the end of it. Yeah, and the whole thing is competing against each other. Just because Betsy is great at playing the precocious child character, it was also you two were like two MVPs on that side.
01:15:35
Speaker
my opinion. we We definitely tried our best. I wanted to be the father trying to protect his family, but also... He's also a Bigfoot, so he doesn't understand these humies in their weird boxes with lights.
01:15:48
Speaker
And we had fun, because it's basically... It's not exactly competitive, but you're playing off each other. So what they did, we would react. And how we would react to them, they would react to us.
01:15:59
Speaker
And basically... like Going off of what we described earlier, sometimes the better games, especially in role-playing games, are when things don't go to plan.
01:16:11
Speaker
But the biggest highlight was our Sasquatches got to the camp after luring the other table away, and we went into their camp, and we opened Nick's character's tent.
01:16:23
Speaker
And Nick is a My Little Pony's fan. So he said, his tent, there is ah pile or an assortment of my little pony dolls. but So we played it off a Sasquatch like, why are there tiny horses?
01:16:39
Speaker
They aren't moving. They're not doing anything. What's wrong? And we had seen Daryl's character like drink beer and stuff. We called it brown water. We were like, what is this brown water? Why is he drinking it? Brown water is dirty.
01:16:50
Speaker
And then my character was like, no. They've stolen the souls of these horses, and they're drinking them, the brown water. That's why Nick's little character may be small of body, but must be big of spirit because she's ah taking all these horses spirits.
01:17:08
Speaker
And so we did this whole thing like we're pouring the liquor out on the fire because we're like, we must release these pony souls. And then we take, we steal his My Little Pony collection and go to a cave to try and do a cleansing ritual.
01:17:24
Speaker
And while we're doing this... It was last year of a very heavily involved dancing montage that happened for up to the Humanae Assassin. Yeah, because basically I decided, okay, we're doing a chant, so obviously there's some dance.
01:17:37
Speaker
And then anyone who's ever seen Sonic 3, you just remember that one scene where Robotnik by Jim Carrey is just doing a dance-off with an older version of himself. And they're just dancing that laser room to the song, and I was like, okay, that's basically what we're doing. And that became a running gag.
01:17:54
Speaker
And so we do the whole chant, but, you know, because they're dolls, nothing happens. So we're like, it's too late for them, but we can avenge them. While at the camp, Nick's like, they took my pony collection.
01:18:07
Speaker
They took my My Little Ponies. They were mean. I know Steve mentioned it at the table, but several times going to, at, and from the post-con dinner,
01:18:23
Speaker
Yeah, Steve wants to write a sequel to it specifically to how we played it. you know a sequel to our scenario, not the general scenario.
01:18:35
Speaker
Yeah, he mentioned that while we were finishing up that he was like... Yeah, he mentioned it at the table, but he revisited that thought several times going to dinner, at dinner, and on the way to drop him at the hotel after dinner.
01:18:53
Speaker
Oh, wow. Yeah, and he brought a good point up at the table because our group knows each other so well, we know how each other will react. We basically just played off each other and Steve was like, I didn't really have to do anything. I just had i just got to watch you guys play this out.
01:19:07
Speaker
I just got to watch you guys and every so often throw something out there. Honestly, since I was also eating dinner, I would point out between... moments while I was eating. like, yeah, this is the average experience.
01:19:21
Speaker
So thought I do let you guys just, I said that and set the zone and let you guys sort of just run around. and I'm learning when to recognize when to do that as well. Just be like, when to let them riff.
01:19:35
Speaker
it's It's hard, but like, He understood the fact that, again, like he had basically 90% of our regular player base yeahp at the table. so And we know each other. We know our limits.
01:19:49
Speaker
I didn't introduce the ponies into my character. You just know me to introduce that onto that. Yeah, I think it was Betsy who said that you had the collection in there.
01:20:01
Speaker
That's just us working off of each other. Ripping off of each other because we know each other. Yeah, and a fun little Easter egg was Steve told us that he he had run this before, early in the day, or at least the day before.
01:20:15
Speaker
he ran it earlier because Lauren or was there. Yeah, and while we were at the camp, we were trying to open the tents, and of course the tent has a zipper, so we had to stroll to see if we could open it without you know scratching and tearing it through. yeah And he said basically...
01:20:30
Speaker
I would do this when my claws hooked on the zipper and zipped up. And I said, my Sasquatch reacted like this. And then he'd just start doing this. And Steve was like, that's exactly what the other group did.
01:20:42
Speaker
There's just some fundamental things like instincts to players and everything. like ah yes Honestly, like and again, seeing that across like different tables, different board games, different ah RPGs. like We got to see similar things that we see in our regular tables.
01:20:58
Speaker
Some new stuff. As well as how similar we are Like ah you said, like it's it's a big family of gamers. It's always good because you can just go in there and know you will not hear one quiet table or an awkward table. It's just going to be laughing, exclaiming, just gung-ho.
01:21:20
Speaker
Even at tables that I was like, I did not know anyone. The awkwardness lasted maybe five, ten minutes. Then it's all like, once dice are being rolled, once when something goes on, it's like, once you connect with someone, youre you're fist bumping each other, you're high-fiving, you're... Once you get into character.
01:21:42
Speaker
as someone who's usually like, yeah, i use alcohol as a social all lubricant, sober the entire time, had a great time with everybody.
01:21:53
Speaker
Didn't need anything else, but just, like, good vibes, good people, fun games. Yeah, I wasn't just blowing smoke at Chris because he was on with us and our guest.
01:22:06
Speaker
This con of everything, every con that I've gone to, I've been to San Diego Comic Con, I've been to local comic cons and fan expos and stuff, but...
01:22:18
Speaker
This is the one that I look forward to every year because it is just such a welcoming, fun group that once I said it every time we talked about Gamer Nation Con, once you go, you're family.
01:22:39
Speaker
And i was telling I was telling Nate and his guys from Tabletop Empire that I went Wednesday night before the con to pick them up from the airport because they needed a ride.
01:22:49
Speaker
And on the way to the hotel from the airport, you they had asked what kind of things to expect because they've been to Gen Con. Yeah. Big gaming con. I was like, this is not Gen Con.
01:23:03
Speaker
This is 150 people max. And if you come back again, you people may not necessarily remember your name, but they're going to remember the experience that they had with you.
01:23:16
Speaker
And they're going to welcome you with open arms because this is just a great big family. and we all love the same thing. We all love games. I've made the bigger cons too.
01:23:28
Speaker
But this this is a con that's, yeah, it's it's not like celebration. It's not San Diego. It's not New York. But you know what? It's better than that.
01:23:40
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. As you said, you might not know everyone's name. You may not know everyone everyone's face. But someone was like, hey, I played with this before. of you and like You did this cool thing that time that me and my group talk about.
01:23:55
Speaker
Well, and one of the players who was at all three sessions of Delta Green, it was her second year coming to the con, but she played in two of the three Lord of the Holocrons sessions last year.
01:24:11
Speaker
Yeah. And remembered having fun with us. Yeah, remember what you're talking about. When she saw... The game, another three-part game by us listed, she's like I'm signing up because I had fun with these guys.
01:24:27
Speaker
There should be more cons like this, and I'm sure there are out there across these 50 states. But here and you in the great state of Texas, we got GaminationCon.
01:24:38
Speaker
Hopefully things will be in a slightly better place next year that the Canadian contingent will be back and some of the people. We're going to get the Aussies back.
01:24:51
Speaker
Hopefully the Aussies haven't been since six. um i've heard I've heard the stories though. I've heard so much that I need to meet these people.
01:25:03
Speaker
The audience needs to come back. there There have been jokes about, you know, let's but start a Kickstarter to get GM Hooley back. GM Hooley, he's basically the cryptid.
01:25:16
Speaker
ah the soul band um I've heard so many tales. Oh, if we do get GM Cooley, or if we don't, we need to get GM Cooley on the podcast at some point.
01:25:27
Speaker
i I can reach out to him because I have him on socials. And there was there was one night a couple of years ago that he just messaged me out of the blue on Facebook and we had a nice...
01:25:37
Speaker
hour, hour and a half long conversation about all kinds of just general stuff. So I will reach out to Hooli. It will be nice to have him on if he is willing. Just saying, he he he's a he's a legend.
01:25:51
Speaker
Yes, I've only heard of him. He co-hosted a podcast with Chris all about creating Genesis materials for Genesis Foundry called The Forge.
01:26:02
Speaker
You can still find the episodes archived wherever you find your podcasts. It sounds like a good way of segueing to the end of our podcast. It's a good way of closing down this little venue, Vos. Yes, it is. So speaking of places where you find your podcasts, also be sure to check out our website at howwerollgaming.com.
01:26:27
Speaker
And there on the site, you'll find links to all of our socials, information about our current campaigns, and a link to our merch store. yeah And you can also now directly support the show through our brand new Patreon.
01:26:42
Speaker
Finally got one up. Just go to patreon.com slash howrerollgaming. And you'll see our different membership tiers starting in just $2 a month. With special recognition on our Discord server.
01:26:52
Speaker
And even higher tiers will give you on-air credit and discounts on our merch store. We're looking at other other benefits too. We'll just need to finalize them. since We're still in the baby phase. Still in the egg. We just need to hatch out.
01:27:05
Speaker
Finally, if you have any questions you you'd like us to answer, much would you like us to cover? Or even submit your own RPG glory stories, which is something we do on this here podcast.
01:27:19
Speaker
Shoot us an email at podcast at howwerollgaming.com. And join us next time when we kind of stick with the theme of conventions and talk about putting together a convention game.
01:27:33
Speaker
I'm looking forward to it. How about you guys? It'll be good practice for me and a good thing to talk about others, too. Absolutely. It's a unique challenge, one that we're getting used to, but always used to, so that other people wouldn't might want to learn, too.
01:27:51
Speaker
Exactly. But until then, as always, I'm Daryl. I'm Nick. And I'm Robert. And this is How We Roll.
01:28:03
Speaker
This episode of the How We Roll Gaming podcast is copyright 2025, How We Roll Gaming, LLC. All games and associated intellectual properties are copyrighted their respective owners, and How We Roll Gaming makes no claim of ownership by discussing them here.