Roleplay Rescue

Another instalment of my dronings about Gamemastering a roleplaying campaign. Good news with the teenaged gaming group, not so much with the adults. As ever, this is a laid-bare peek behind the GM's screen and not for the faint-hearted. Enter at your peril! 

Whatever your rules system, there are two other big elements that you’ll want to create as you get started with your game. The first of those is the world. The second of those are the game structures that you want to employ. As a beginning Dungeon Master, I’d recommend keeping things simple. This episode is about creating a short adventure in a lightly sketched world using the Dungeoncrawl game structure. It's also an episode in which I ditch the script and record off the cuff. Hope it's not too awful. Useful Link: The Unscripted Dungeon Map on UbiquitousRat.net: ubiquitousrat.net/?p=5030 Show Contact Details: Roleplay Rescue Quicklink: rpgrescue.com Email Me: hello@rpgrescue.com MeWe Page: mewe.com/page/5c077833bce33a3fe7dd7f04 (or search "Roleplay Rescue") Facebook Page: facebook.com/roleplayrescue/ (or search "Roleplay Rescue") Patreon: patreon.com/rpgrescue

GM's Journal becomes a regular fixture at Roleplay Rescue with our first scheduled Wednesday release. This episode sees me focused on preparing for the new fantasy roleplaying campaign that the Friday Night Gamers have asked for. Along the way we visit antics at the school club and hear an update on Saturday night online gaming. As ever, it's a candid peek behind the GM's screen which assembles my audio notes into a rough edit. There's the odd naughty word and there are spoilers for players in my campaigns... you have been warned!

I wanted to create more episodes that explore other well-known roleplaying game systems. To do this, I decided it’d be a good idea to talk to people who already enjoy those games. Today’s episode is the first of these in which the brief was to create a Dungeon World 101. Yochai Gal is an avid fan of the Dungeon World roleplaying game who hails from Massachusetts, USA. He maintains the Dungeon World Syllabus, a repository of links useful to anyone who wants to get into the game, and is highly active in the Reddit community. Yochai published a Beta of this Dungeon World hack, “One Shot World”, via DriveThruRPG in January. He’s here today to talk about the Dungeon World RPG and why we should consider getting into it. Useful Links: Dungeon World Syllabus: docs.google.com/document/d/1ORjM3sxhQrwNI_chlNzYFMD5OFHj7u-Rs_gY4kHkzO0 A 16 Hit Point Dragon: latorra.org/2012/05/15/a-16-hp-dragon/ Dungeon World Guide: drive.google.com/file/d/0BzeF5GXNEsnfUjU0NXRDM1dFN1k Dungeon World Website: dungeon-world.com

Here's the latest Journal in which I burble on about deciding what to do with the Friday Night Roleplayers. A decision is made.  As usual, this episode features my audio notes recorded here and there. Assembled into a rough  edit, these notes form a journal and let you take a peek behind the GM’s screen. But be warned: there are spoilers aplenty for anyone who plays at any of my gaming sessions. It’s a pretty candid and messy  snapshot of my inner life as a gamer - you have been warned! 

Over recent weeks, there have been a few people in the Anchorite OSR community talking about the current edition of Dungeons & Dragons. As someone who got involved playing the Fifth Edition right from the days of the D&D Next Playtest, I feel it’s high-time we gave the game some serious consideration. This episode I want to ask: What’s wrong with 5e? Why not just play the world’s most popular roleplaying game? Useful links: D&D5e Basic Rules: dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules Show Contact Details: Roleplay Rescue Quicklink: rpgrescue.com Email Me: hello@rpgrescue.com MeWe Page: mewe.com/page/5c077833bce33a3fe7dd7f04 (or search "Roleplay Rescue") Facebook Page: facebook.com/roleplayrescue/ (or search "Roleplay Rescue") Patreon: patreon.com/rpgrescue

Welcome to the Roleplay Rescue Game Master’s Journal. This episode covers the two week period from the end of Season 2 and the start of this new series. Each journal episode features my audio notes, recorded here and there over the days between my regular gaming sessions. Assembled into a rough edit, these notes form a journal and let you take a peek behind the GM’s screen. But be warned: there are spoilers aplenty for anyone who plays at any of my gaming sessions. It’s a pretty candid and messy snapshot of my inner life as a gamer - you have been warned!

Welcome to Season 3 of Roleplay Rescue! Today we take a look at the meaning and importance of Escapism. We learn that we are healthier when we seek escapes that are focused on self-expansion rather than self-suppression. Through a brief glance at modern psychology, we find out how roleplaying games allow us to do do cool stuff AND become friends with people with whom we discover how to work with collaboratively. If that isn’t a cool reason to get back to the table, I don’t know what is. Show Contact Details: Roleplay Rescue Quicklink: rpgrescue.com Email Me: hello@rpgrescue.com MeWe Page: mewe.com/page/5c077833bce33a3fe7dd7f04 (or search "Roleplay Rescue") Facebook Page: facebook.com/roleplayrescue/ (or search "Roleplay Rescue") Patreon: patreon.com/rpgrescue

In Episode 58 of Plundergrounds, Ray Otus challenged his listeners to record a one-off podcast on the theme of "Something old, something new, something borrowed, and something out of the blue". Despite finishing my series for the holiday, the challenge has been bugging me. Haunting me, even. Here, then, is my response to the challenge. Find Ray Otus on Plundergrounds: anchor.fm/plundergrounds

Today’s episode is the last of Series Two. It began as a question posted on the MeWe group entitled “The Arduin Grimoire by Dave Hargrave”. From this stepped forward today’s guest. We arranged to chat online but, on the night, the technology let us down. After some tinkering and typing, we agree to hop onto the Anchor app and record the interview using our phones. Gabriel Roark is a Californian, married, and the father of one. An archaeologist, focused on California Indians and historic archaeological sites across the state, he has been a gamer since 1983, beginning with the Lone Wolf series and Mentzer's Red Box D&D. Like many, Gabriel had a gaming hiatus in the early 2000s owing to graduate school, having a young kid, and full-time employment. Gaming picked up again around 8 years ago when Gabriel taught his daughter to play D&D. He has been running an Arduin campaign for nearly two years and considers himself a Hargrave enthusiast. He’s even been known to publish a ‘zine called Bugbears & Ballyhoo through the Alarums & Excursions APA.   Show Contact Details: Roleplay Rescue Quicklink: rpgrescue.com Email Me: hello@rpgrescue.com MeWe Page: mewe.com/page/5c077833bce33a3fe7dd7f04 (or search "Roleplay Rescue") Facebook Page: facebook.com/roleplayrescue/ (or search "Roleplay Rescue") Patreon: patreon.com/rpgrescue

Well, GM's Journal #8 wasn't the last entry. Oh no. You guys got on Anchor and sent me a barrage of lovely voice messages which I have collected together in this episode. Additionally, I've hacked together the thoughts and mumblings from the past four or so days into a follow-up journal. The long and short of it is that I have come to realise something very powerful about my Gamemastering. As ever, this is a laid-bare peek behind the GM's screen and not for the faint-hearted. Enter at your peril!  

Rough edit from a rough week at the table. Shennanigans at the school club leading to the death of four characters, followed by the fourth Friday Night Roleplay session on the Isle of Fire going ... erm ... badly, leading to a TPK.  As ever, this is a laid-bare peek behind the GM's screen and not for the faint-hearted. Enter at your peril! Will this be the last entry in the Journal? You decide!

What if you don’t want to play in a fantasy roleplaying game? What are the options for getting a science-fiction game up to the table? Is anything different? In this episode, we delve into the second major RPG genre - the science-fiction game - and take a quick peek at the options available to the gamer who wants to boldly go where no-one has gone before. For me, science-fiction roleplaying adventure is a wonderful alternative to the traditional fantasy game. Through the years, many science-fiction rule systems have been produced but the fundamental game structures for an SF game go right back to the hobby’s foundations. Useful Links: Stars Without Number, Revised (free edition): drivethrurpg.com/product/230009/Stars-Without-Number-Revised-Edition-Free-Version The Alexandrian Game Structures: thealexandrian.net/wordpress/15126/roleplaying-games/game-structures Mongoose Traveller Starter Set: mongoosepublishing.com/traveller-starter-set Roll20 for Absolute Beginners: youtube.com/watch?v=Jbayc1GToow UK Games Expo: ukgamesexpo.co.uk Gothridge Manor: gothridgemanor.com Contact Details: Roleplay Rescue Quicklink: rpgrescue.com Email Me: hello@rpgrescue.com MeWe Page: mewe.com/page/5c077833bce33a3fe7dd7f04 (or search "Roleplay Rescue") Facebook Page: facebook.com/roleplayrescue/ (or search "Roleplay Rescue") Patreon: patreon.com/rpgrescue

Mash-up of clips from my day out to Birmingham on Saturday 30th March to attend Glorantha Games 2019, a convention held at Geek Retreat to celebrate the world and games of Glorantha. Organised by Pookie and Darren Happens, the show was run to raise money for Shelter and bring together the tribes of UK Glorantha fandom. It was my first convention in about 15 years and an amazingly positive experience. Forgive the awful audio quality at times - I just wanted to share some of the moments I experienced in a great day out. Game on!

This episode is a grab-bag of moments from the week: unboxing the Black Hack, prep for the school game, thoughts on Traveller, and ending the week with a trip to Ludorati in Nottingham. As ever, this is a laid-bare peek behind the GM's screen and not for the faint-hearted. Enter at your peril! Not sure how coherant I am but you guys are used to the format, right? Game on!