Undergopher Central

This week on UnderDiscussion we officially upgrade frequent guest Hooligan into the third host of UnderDiscussion, and what better way to do that than with an actual play of one of the best games of 2011: Quarriors! Slacker joins us for a surprisingly long game of what is usually a snappy dice game. This one clocks in [...]
On this week’s bonus episode the Undergophers reveal the contents of “The List.” The band name list we’ve been collecting for three years. This episode is being marked Explicit.
Welcome to the first episode of the new year and the third calendar year of the podcast. We start things right with an actual episode this year (instead of the bonus boardgame review like last January) with a full house discussion of WDR’s old school style Pathfinder campaign. Kat, Freebird and Slacker join WDR, Hooligan and [...]
On this week’s bonus episode Hooligan and I discuss cartoons and how they can make your games better. We talk about our favorites and how they can make good models for RPGs, such as pacing and the conveying of backstory. (really it’s mostly an excuse to talk about cartoons for half an hour, but we do [...]
This week Kat, Hooligan, Slacker, and Freebird join WDR and myself to discuss, review and play with the new Pathfinder Beginner Box from Paizo. We spend the first fifteen minutes or so is a discussion of the contents of the box, and the adventure starts at around twenty two minutes in. As this is an actual play [...]
On this week’s bonus episode Hooligan and Kat join WDR and myself to discuss comic strips and web comics. Mentions for web comics include Theater Hopper, d20 Monkey, DM of the Rings, Darths and Droids, Basic Instructions, Full Frontal Nerdity, and the always popular XKCD & Penny Arcade. This one clocks in at 17 minutes.
This week Slacker and new guest Dawson join WDR and myself to discuss horror games. We touch on both RPGs and Board games, and what makes a game a horror game as opposed to just a theme game. Mentions include Zombie Mosh, Arkham Horror, Zombie dice, Chill, Witch of Salem, Last Night on Earth, Mansions of [...]

Random Quotes Wednesday 1/25

Jan 252012

In general I like to start these out of context quotes wth a little bit of personal writing. Much like the previous sentence.

FATE. Its treated in someplaces as the great RPG ever to be written and those who do not like it or do not get it are pretty much unenlightened heathens.
Call me an unenlightened Heathen as its kinda MEH, and just does not click for me, it might be an ok system but it isn’t the be all , end off of RPGdom people seem to think it is.

“Ixnay on the Agicmay.”
if you’re going to question why you’re climbing a jagged, icy mountain, that’s the sort of question that’d make more sense at the bottom, rather than halfway up.
“I say unto thee, thou hast snoozed and thus, thou have lost.”
“Thank you for calling the CIA anti-espionage hotline. We’ve dispatched agents to the location you are calling from already. What is your issue?”
In a Call of Cthulhu game where all the PCs were academics he wanted to be a professor of ninja studies.
AoO aren’t hard to deal with, I don’t know what paint-chip eating players keep complaining about them.
One of my players tried running a campaign that started with us as slaves. It didn’t really work, because none of us were willing to stop trying to escape, not even for a second.
But it would open the floodgates to things like casting ventriloquism and having the voice come from the target of antagonize so that he would attack himself in melee because he thinks he is fed up with his own bull s&&&.
Either way, I have only one genuine requirement, before characters are even created. Backstory or no, they must be the type to answer the call to adventure, and work as a team. They can be evil, ugly, temperamental or strange, but when that plot hook drops they must be the type to say “yes please” and take it up. I am not running a game for boring coward PCs. It’s an adventure game, and PCs must be adventurous, if not adventurers outright.

My example may not have been the best.

and the winner is...

Transmissions 1 Response »

Jan 242012

Since only two people voted you both win!

UnderDiscussion 65: Quarriors Actual Play

UnderDiscussion No Responses »

Jan 232012

This week on UnderDiscussion we officially upgrade frequent guest Hooligan into the third host of UnderDiscussion, and what better way to do that than with an actual play of one of the best games of 2011: Quarriors! Slacker joins us for a surprisingly long game of what is usually a snappy dice game. This one clocks in at just under fifty minutes.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Quick Contest

General Roleplaying 6 Responses »

Jan 182012

Just a quick little contest that only requires you to answer one question: What’s your favorite episode of UnderDiscussion of 2011? Answer in the comments section of this post. The prize will be a $10 gift certificate to DriveThruRPG. I’ll select a winner at random (using Random.org) next week, so be sure to answer before 11:59am central time on Tuesday Jan 24th 2012.

Random Quotes Wednesday 1/18

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Jan 182012

I’m going to, from now on, try to make these as RPG-centric as possible.

Jean-Luc Picard famously said, “Being first at any cost is not always the point.”
As for SoS abilities, don’t spam it if you can’t take it is what I tell ‘em.
What I find unrealistic is that the other PCs let you live.

I find it sad that multiple people at the table thought it would be perfectly reasonable to bring a loaded weapon to church.
Well, first of all, an unloaded gun isn’t much use. And second of all, not everyone is okay with dying in church. As convenient as it is.

I mean if the GM specifically says that he’s running a very four color cartoonish style of superhero game where the villain’s plan is always this zany scheme to kidnap the Statue of Liberty and stuff like that, where it’s very unlikely that civilians ever get killed, then it’s ok if the villain escapes and does it again because hey the heroes need something to keep them busy, right? But if the villain is typically committing violent crimes where people are killed then I think it is the GM’s responsibility not to make the players feel like a bunch of saps for handing him over to the authorities only to escape time after time. Otherwise I think it is perfectly reasonable for them to be asking themselves, “Is our code of justice costing lives that we could otherwise be saving?”
Some groups switched to Pathfinder simply because the GM said, “I’m only running Pathfinder, if you want to do 4E you’ll need a different GM.”
You are wrong! I invoke nerdrage to prove it!
Laugh all the way to the bank as the GM vows silent, swift, revenge.
My dad was an old school newspaper man, who said, “Never get in an argument with a newspaper which buys ink by the ton.” It is still good advice, even if it needs to be modernized in this digital medium.

Helaman wrote:
Assuming your characters maxed out at level 6, what class(es) would you play and why?
LazarX Replied:A different game. Being forever restricted to third level spells is fine for some, but it’s not my cup of cocoa.
Let me put it this way. Looking at the game, it shows you Mt. Everest and once you see that mountain, you want to climb it. You arrive there all pumped up, and then E6 ropes off everything but the foothills and tells you that’s where you’re restricted to climbing not just now, but forever.
Handing out a feat every now and then isn’t the same thing. It’s not the same as playing a game without levels those games have a structure and a rhythm that accomodates it. But D&D and it’s children have always been about Mt. Everest. I might not ever scale the peak, I might fall into a crevasse, but at least I know the mountain is there and potentially climbable.

Mostly so I can justify them in the RPG feed.