Epic Adventure

Send us a textIf I have read it once in an online forum I have read it a thousand times.“I want to play game X but my players won’t play anything but D&D”I always want to fire back with get new players, but that isn’t necessarily realistic and besides it’s not a good answer.Over the years I’ve played a ton of different games and game systems. I personally have never hard a difficult time convincing people to try something different, but maybe that’s because I’m good at convincing people to try something different.Taking a step back I can see where someone might struggle with pitching a new game idea. Or have to overcome the inherent biases of their players who just want to keep doing the thing that they like instead of trying new stuff.So, for our last episode of Season 3 and 2025, Christina and I are going to talk about pitching a game idea to your players. We are going to give you some tips and tricks to help sell them on the idea, but first let’s start with Christina.Christina, Pitch Mike and I a game idea to make us want to play.[Kick to Christina]It’s only fair that I give it a shot. Here goes.[Steve’s Pitch]

Send us a textWelcome to You Heard it Here Last, where we talk about news, you’ve already heard.https://www.enworld.org/threads/tolkien%E2%80%99s-writing-desk-on-auction-at-christies.716325/Christie’s Action House is hosting a live auction in December, 2025 called Groundbreakers: Icons of our Time and in that auction, you will find a simple 19th Century Merton’s College Desk that just happened to be owned by JRR Tolkien. The desk is going for a deal at somewhere between 50 and 80 thousand Pounds.ChristinaYou don’t strike me as much of a collector? Do these things interest you?[Kick to Christina]Along with the desk they also have the Winchcombe Meteorite, the Kenbak-1 First Personal Computer, and the original cover artwork for the first edition of Warhammer. Definitely some cools stuff for the collector out there.Next up we have two of our favorite things; Netflix and D&D.Yep, I read that in my sarcasm voice.https://www.enworld.org/threads/shawn-levy-provides-update-on-netflix-d-d-show.716209/Shawn Levy the producer for the upcoming live action D&D Show title Forgotten Realms gave a brief update on what’s been going on behind the scenes with the show and his answers are, well, Interesting. Levy said "I think that the reason it's taken so long and the reason why it is a challenging process is you're not adapting story IP, You're adapting a world and a lexicon and a spirit, but story needs to be invented largely from scratch. And it needs to be invented in a way that feels organic to everything that's great about DnD. So that one is in very active every day chipping-away-at-it development at Netflix."Let me translate that for you…This show is going to suck.Christina, what do you think?[Kick to Christina]And finally, from all of us to all of you. Whatever you believe in and however you believe it. Just be happy. And there you have it, all the news, you’ve already heard.

Send us a textI remember being a young roleplayer diving into my first rpg’s. Character creation was similar in most of the games on the market. Make a very basic character, adventure with them, kill monsters, find treasure, gain experience points, gain levels, get more skills, rinse, repeat. Back in the day we would memorize the XP charts so we would know when our characters would level up.Those old TTRPG’s were bad enough, but when computer programmers took their favorite table top games and ported them into the computer world the character advancement concept of “leveling up” started to look like heroine dealers giving their junkie friends the first taste for free.Over the years character advancement has been closely tied to the leveling up concept, but I’ve noticed something interesting as I’ve become an older and more mature gamer.I don’t care about leveling up.It’s not the character advancement I’m looking for. I think I first became aware of the anti-leveling up faction when I first started playing Traveller all of those years ago. In Traveller you create a seasoned, experienced character. After character creation nothing really changes. And then there was Call of Cthulhu a game in which your character is more likely to get worse as you play and not better.Funny enough, those are my two favorite roleplaying games.In this episode Christina, and I are going to talk about character advancement. The traditional methods and why it was innovative and important at the time and the current ideas of character advancement and how they have changed over the years.First let’s start with the Doc.Christina, what are you personal thoughts on character advancement, before we get into all the scientific nitty gritty?Kick to Christina

Send us a textWelcome to You Heard it Here Last where we talk about news, you’ve already heard.We have a little D&D announcement coming out of Wizards of the Coast that I’m actually kind of interested in.https://www.enworld.org/threads/wizards-of-the-coast-re-registers-dark-sun-with-uspto.716113/Wizards of the Coast recently filed an application to register Dark Sun in the US, a sign that D&D could be bringing back the campaign setting in the near future. That’s the opening sentence to the article about the move on EN world. The article goes on to point out that the trademark on Dark Suns lapsed a year ago and that this might be basic paperwork, but I’m kinda holding out hope.Dark Sun was an original campaign world set on a post-apocalyptic desert planet and in my opinion the only interesting setting D&D has ever had. It was dark, gritty, and at the time of it’s release in 1991 genre-bending. It was also a little controversial at the time and I think it would be even more so today. The setting had slavery, genocide, and leaned into racial themes such as the “muls” a half human half dwarf created for forced labor. I’m not sure those would fly today.Chirstina, this seems like a setting just dripping with ethical issues and your our ethical expert…thoughts?[Kick to Christina]Next on our list is a cultural mile marker. One of those things that can really tell you where you are at in the great timeline. If you doubted that roleplaying had become a common hobby then this is the final piece of information you have been waiting for to change your mind.https://www.enworld.org/threads/review-of-how-to-dungeon-master-parenting.716272/This new book, designed for expecting families breaks down parenting in a way that gamers will understand. Move over Dr. Spock, we have How to Dungeon Master Parenting. While I haven’t read the book, the article on EN World is enough to sell me on it.Christina, from a cultural standpoint, how important is a book like this that mergers our favorite hobby with raising kids?[Kick to Christina]And there you have it, all the news that you’ve already heard.

Send us a textIn 2023 I was already neck deep into my Kickstarter obsession when I saw an advertisement for a brand new OSR style roleplaying game called Shadowdark. It was the creation of Kelsey Dionne and it looked very cool. The book was large and black with silver script and silver artwork of what I thought was a beholder.I immediately backed it. But to be fair I was immediately backing a lot of things back then. When I turned on my YouTubes I got blasted with a social media blitz unlike any I had seen before. All of the TTRPG sites that covered anything even remotely different than D&D were all over this game. The superlatives seemed to match the online excitement and soon it had garnered 1.4 million dollars on Kickstarter.I couldn’t wait to get the book. But while I was reading the .pdf and waiting for the hardback to arrive I had the chance to watch Kelsey Dionne herself walk backers through her creation process of the ranger class. I also got to see a number of interviews with her regarding the product. Again, I just kept getting more and more excited.When the book finally came it sat on my bookshelf. Now don’t be sad for the game, that’s what tends to happen to most of the stuff I grab off of Kickstarter. But, it was on a short list of games to be played.Finally, my Masks of Nyrlethotep came to a shuddering, bumbling halt and I wanted something fast, easy, and different as a palette cleanser. Enter Shadowdark. I quickly brushed up on the rules and set the date for my group. This was about the same time that the Glass Cannon Podcast announced they were going to be using Shadowdark as the rules for their next big live play. Yep, stoked again.We dove head first into Shadowdark.And it was … Ok … I guess.Not the resounding plug you thought I was going to give.If you are fans of the game, stick around because we are diving deeper than that. There are some really good things about this game. Some really bad things about this game. And a lot of mehh things about this game. In this episode Mike, Christina, and I are going to walk you through all of that and give you our honest review of the game.