The Shrieker Podcast 010: Freeman Faust

Public defense attorney Freeman Faust joins us to talk about something we have all dealt with, whether we’ve thought about it or not: Social Contract. The agreements, whether explicit or implicit, define what behaviors are expected and acceptable in a group of any size. When these contracts are breached, when expectations do not line up, people tend to get upset. By talking together and clearly establishing a contract before playing, the group will hopefully be able endure for longer  and keep players happier. Episode #156 of the Misdirected Mark Podcast does a good job of breaking down a gaming social contract into the logistics of getting a group together and the campaign framework, which guides the story and playstyle of the game.

For your downloading pleasure, Freeman drafted an actual social contract, containing many of the topics that your tables social contract might include that you can force your players to sign. Remember, it’s not legally binding unless you have it stamped by a notary.

The Free RPG Society: Rewind: Temporal Tales is a pay-what-you-want RPG that handles time looping stories like Groundhogs Day. It’s written primarily for one player and one GM and works very well for that. It also has suggesting for using an oracle mechanic for solo play, though I didn’t find that very satisfying. Look for a full a review on the Geeks Rising blog.

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The Shrieker Podcast 008: Josh Van Laningham

After plugging the new Shrieker Facebook and G+ groups, Josh Van Laningham talks to us about his work as an Art Director and Graphic Designer at Level 99 Games.

Level 99 produces 2 player head-to-head board games influenced by fighting video games. As a graphic designer, Josh takes all the art and game elements and assembles them into beautiful, usable, informative rule books, boxes and other items. He started work first on Mystic Empyrean, Level 99’s only RPG, which is now out of print but has a demo still available on DriveThruRPG. His favorite game is Sellswords, a card drafting, tile placement game. Their games are available directly from the Level 99 website and locally at the Empire Board Game Library.

This month you can download The Shrieker, a playable character for Level 99’s BattleCon. Unleash fungoid might to bring down your enemies!

The Free RPG Society: I got to try out Nighttime Guardians, the game we talked about last month. The good news is that the game’s cute setting and simple mechanics are just as charming in play as I expected. Unfortunately it has some serious balance issues that need to be addressed. Look for a full a review on the Geeks Rising blog.

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The Shrieker Podcast 007: Jonathan Zimmerman

Jonathan Zimmerman talks to us about Nighttime Guardians, a simple game about teddy bears protecting sleeping children from things that go bump in the night.

Jonathans’s first game aims to be accessible through its simplicity. The rules are short, filling one double-sided page. The game only requires a handful of common six sided dice. The subject matter and simplicity should make the game usable by even the youngest players. The core game is available as a pay-what-you-want but future supplements will likely have a small fixed price.

This month you can download Quimcy Sluran’s Slumber, a short adventure for Nighttime Guardians.

The Free RPG Society: The demo version of Golden Sky Stories is a trimmed down but completely usable version of the full game. Its unique genre and resolution mechanic make this a game that everyone should try at some point.

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The Shrieker Podcast 006: Taylor Frank

Taylor Frank  chats with us about his zines, Dungeon Crawl Classics, and their intersection, his DCC fan-zine, Dungeon Lord.

Zines, abbreviated from magazine, are small, independently created pieces of literature that allow for small side cultures to have a presence and a voice. In many ways they can serve the same function as a blog but there is still something special about a physical object. The first tabletop RPGs fit the description of Zines in a lot of ways. As the hobby developed zines continued to distribute fan-made content before that could be done via Internet. Now the Internet can be a valuable zine distribution tool.

Dungeon Crawl Classics originated in the Old School Renaissance which endeavors preserve and expand the experience of some of the first games. The first OSR games were the retroclone game like OSRIC that tried to stay very true to the earliest games. DCC doesn't stay as tethered to the past, instead trying to keep the charm of old games while providing a fresh, contemporary play experience. DCC has fostered a very active fan base that creates shares a great deal of content for the game including zines and software. DCC’s publisher, Goodman Games, supports fan creations in ways that few other company's do.

While some other DCC zines focus on developing a specific setting, Dungeon Lord collects any sort of entertaining materials including maps, character classes, poetry and art inspired by DCC. Taylor also creates single page zines that support charities. They can be found at his website and rpgnow.com. Submissions for For Dungeon Lord can be sent to deathmachinepress@gmail.com

This month we have a d50 random table, full of magical and mundane rings, created for you mostly by Taylor Frank.

The Free RPG Society: Lasers and Feeling is a single page game based on fiction like Star Trek (and a song by The Doubleclicks). It's fast, easy and has a very clever mechanic that allows the players to inform the GM on the complications they want to see. The One Shot Podcast has played it a couple of times with fantastic results that you can listen to here.

The Name of God Kickstarter is a game by Italian designer Alessandro Piroddi. It’s a short-form story-driven GM-less game using a deck of custom cards. The kickstarter has already doubled it’s modest funding goal and is now tearing through push goals that involve new cards by notable female designers. Check it out.

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The Shrieker Podcast 002: Jeff Dee

Jeff Dee talks to us about his legal battle over the rights to Villains and Vigilantes and the speculates on the where the strengths of RPGs will take the hobby in the future.

Jeff Dee entered the RPG industry as a teen, illustrating for TSR in 1979. Along with Jack Herman, he developed the first complete superhero RPG, Villains and Vigilantes. 1st and 2nd edition V&V were published by Fantasy Games Unlimited Incorporated in 1979 and 1982. In 1991 FGU unincorporated, effectively ending their publishing contract. FGU president, Scott Bizar, retained the name to the company and began selling the V&V rulebook and supplements electronically in 2010. Since then Jeff Dee and Jack Herman have fought Scott Bizar in court, winning back the copyright for the V&V text but, currently not the trademark for the name. You can help Jeff fight for creator’s right on his Go Fund Me page.

Having been a part of the RPG hobby since nearly its inception, Jeff Dee has a good perspective on where the industry is going. He marvels at the increased availability of games, and resources. There are free random generators for pretty much anything a player might need online. There are ample cheap printable paper miniatures at drivethruRPG.com. There are even customizable 3D printed miniatures, such as at heroforge.com, though the technology is still very expensive. Online virtual tabletops, such as Roll20, are allowing players around the globe to play together, though they will need to become easier to use.

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Downloadable Character Sheet (Sky Hunter Man)