Gamer's Tavern

Want to have your cake and eat it too? Welcome to the world of generic or "kitchen sink" roleplaying games. Ivan Van Norman joins us to discuss all the systems that act as a catch-all for your gaming experience, whether it's the open world full of white space to explore or the system or setting that allows you to throw every genre into a blender and hit frappe. So sit back and join us at the Gamer's Tavern as we discuss generic, universal, "kitchen sink" systems. Our Sponsor Accursed: A Savage Worlds Campaign Setting Our Guest Ivan’s Twitter Outbreak Undead King of the Nerds Hunters Books YouTube Channel Ivan van Norman's Geek & Sundry VLog   What We’ve Been Playing Marvel Super Heroess Roleplaying from TSR Accursed Dread Temple of Elemental Evil   Kitchen Sink Games TORG Rifts Champions Numenera The Strange GURPS FATE Shadowrun Savage Worlds Tephra World of Darkness True20 Stargate SG1 Planescape Spelljammer Kazei 5 Closing Bobby Derie's Farcast Space City Con ChupacabraCon Genghi

Is your New Years resolution to change careers into the gaming industry? Do you want to work with the big boys or be your own boss as a freelancer? Guests Sam Stewart and Sean Patrick Fannon join us to talk about how to break into the gaming business. If you go to the Gamer's Tavern website the weekend after this episode posts, I'll have a blog post up with multiple links to Sponsor: Drive Thru RPG Fantasy Flight Games Shaintar Ross's amazing dark fantasy setting, Accursed, is finally available! Click here to purchase it right now! Darryl will be at Space City Con in Galveston, TX, on January 3-5, 2014 with a special surprise for Gamer's Tavern listeners! Ross will be at ChupacabraCon in Austin, TX, on January 17-19, 2014 and at GenghisCon in Aurora, CO, February 13-16, 2014.

Dungeons & Dragons is the reason we're in this hobby. Everyone plays it. But how much do you know about where it came from? Ross Watson and Darryl Mott Jr. are flying solo as they talk about the history of the most popular roleplaying game on the planet, its origins, and the entire TSR era. Designers and Dragons by Shannon Applecline The far less expensive Wikipedia article on D&D D&D White Box Collector’s Set B1: Into the Unknown B2: Keep on the Borderlands GDQ Adventure Path Rules Cyclopedia Ross's Blog on Birthright Darryl will be at Space City Con January 2-4 in Galveston, TX Ross will be at ChupacabraCon January 17-19 in Austin, TX Ross will also be at Genghis Con February 13-16 in Aurora, CO Sponsor: Audible, your best source on the internet for audio books!

This episode of the Gamer’s Tavern is devoted to examining the link between gaming and film. Film has influenced tabletop gaming over the years and, more recently, gaming has started to influence films as the kids playing the Red Box grew up to be writers, actors, and directors. This week’s show notes are going to be a little odd as there aren’t going to be very many links. We talked about a lot of films during the podcast and, while I’ve listed them all below, I’m not sure whether you watch films through Netflix, Amazon Prime, DVDs, or if you choose some othARRRRR method of getting your media. So I’ll list the film titles for you to search, but there are some interesting notes you may want to look at when it comes to some of these films. Mack Martin Wyrd Games Nordling Ain’t It Cool News Little Wars by HG Wells (not Jules Verne) Zero Charisma The Gamers Life with the Dice Bag THAC0 The Dungeon Masters Robot Jox Battletech's Legal Battles and the Unseen BattleTech Alp

Running a roleplaying game can be difficult. How can you make it easier on yourself while adding more epic to your games? That's exactly what Keith Baker, designer of Eberron and Gloom, joins us to discuss! Worldbuilding, adventure design, NPCs, you name it, we cover it in the longest and most packed episode of Gamer's Tavern yet! Keith Baker's blog Eberron Gloom Tokaido Accursed Dread Jim Butcher on Characters And please visit our sponsor, Drive Thru RPG!

Spending the holidays with the family? Got some non-gamer friends you want to hook on roleplaying? Episode 8 of the Gamer’s Tavern has you covered as our guest Nicole Wakelin, aka Total Fangirl, joins us to examine how gaming with the family is a bonding experience, what games work best to play during the holidays, and how to get your non-gamer friends hooked on roleplaying games. Below we have listed all of the games we talked about on the show and, for the board games, we give our ratings of the content based on art and text depictions of violence or sex as well as the tone, so you know which ones to keep away from the kids. We didn't rate the roleplaying games this way because it depends more on the adventure and the players involved. G: There's nothing that anyone could possibly find objectionable in this game. PG: There may be some violence, dangerous situations, or something else that the easily offended or very young may not want to be exposed to. PG-13: Either non-detailed violence is one of the

We finally get the Shadowrun out of our systems as we're joined by John Dunn and Russell Zimmerman to talk about my personal favorite RPG of all time, Shadowrun! If you've never played the game before, you'll want to check out the primer I recorded on the Shadowrun system and its history so you can follow along. Other than that, all I have to say chummers is shoot straight, conserve ammo, and never ever cut a deal with a dragon! Melior Via Games Satellite Games Kickstarter (It's over, but you can still pledge) Shadowrun Official Website Dumpshock, the unofficial Shadowrun forums Shadowrun games at Drive Thru RPG

Tomorrow's episode is about my favorite roleplaying game on the planet, Shadowrun. Because I'm such a big fan and both our guests, John Dunn and Russell Zimmerman, as well as Ross himself have all worked on the Shadowrun line at some point, I felt it was necessary to record a sort of primer for Shadowrun. This should get you up to speed so you can follow along on Episode 7. If you'd like to know more about the history of the Sixth World check out the Neo-Anarchist Podcast by Opti.You can also get Quick Start rules for Shadowrun Third Edition, Shadowrun Fourth Edition, and Shadowrun Fifth Edition. Music is by Unununium, licensed under Creative Commons by-nc-sa.

Modern technology is changing the gaming world one app and social media page at a time. Jesse Scoble (designer on Silver Age Sentinels and A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying) joins us to discuss how our smartphones, tablets, laptops, and the internet are all changing the industry and our gaming table. The Gods of the Digital Age tried to stop this episode from reaching your ears, causing a few audio issues, but we managed to wrest the recording from their grasp and get it to you! Welcome to the Gamer's Tavern. Jesse Scoble Wizard 101 Silver Age Sentinels Champions City of Heroes Big Eyes, Small Mouth Amber Diceless Lords of Gossamer and Shadow Jolly Blackburn’s con set-up HeroLab Chessex Pound of Dice Eclipse Phase Adam Jury's blog post about Creative Commons, Piracy, and it's benefit to Eclipse Phase Golem Arcana Lords of Waterdeep App Announcement Magic: The Gathering Online Mechwarrior Tactics Accursed Glory to Rome Kickstarter causes creator Ed Carter to lose his house Drive Thru RPG

Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, World of Darkness both new and old, Ravenloft, Call of Cthulhu...what draws us to these classic horror roleplaying systems and settings? Guest Ari Marmell (fantasy author and game designer for White Wolf and Wizards of the Coast) joins us at the Gamer's Tavern to talk about these systems, how they influenced gaming, and why we're so attracted to the dark and macabre. Ari Marmell Vampire: The Masquerade Werewolf: The Apocalypse Mage: The Ascention Wraith: The Oblivion Changling: The Dreaming Demon: The Fallen Samuel Haight World of Darkness (New) Vampire: The Requiem Werewolf: The Foresaken Mage: The Awakening Geist: The Sin-Eaters Changling: The Lost Mummy: The Curse Orpheus Onyx Path The Ryan Dancey Presentation Original module I6: Ravenloft Expedition to Castle Ravenloft (D&D 3.5 version) Ravenloft Campaign Setting Ravenloft Dominions: The Black Crusade Call of Cthulhu CthulhuPunk Accursed Dark Conspiracy Nightlife Kult Deadlands The Lost Citadel This w

Welcome to the Gamer's Tavern. How do you define horror in roleplaying games? What tricks can you use to increase the horror in your games? How do you stop the tension in your games from getting derailed? Our guests Brian Patterson (d20Monkey) and Jason Marker join us to find answers to these questions. Grab a drink and join us for You All Meet in a Tavern, Episode 4. Brian Patterson - D20 Monkey Jason Marker - Amalgamated Fiction Call of Cthulhu 2XS by Nigel Findley Shadowrun: Universal Brotherhood Pathfinder: Rise of the Runelords Dead Man Everything's Eventual by Stephen King (including the short story "1408") Setting the Scene, from Ross Watson We'd like to thank this week's sponsor, Mutha Oith Creations and their Kickstarter for Dementalism running until November 4th. The Low Life/Dementalism theme "Heck on Oith" is performed by Stratos, courtsey of Bailey Records, Copyright 2009, used with permission.

Welcome to the Gamer's Tavern. This week's episode was...a bit of a clusterfrag as we had a guest unfortunately cancel on us at the last minute. But swooping in to save us was Darrell Hardy (who spells his name wrong regardless of what he says on the podcast because everyone knows Darryl is spelled D-A-R-R-Y-L..but anyway...), a veteran of the gaming industry who has worked on more games than I can count. This week, we're starting out Halloween specials with an episode of Horror Stories...but not the kind you may think. No, these are stories of gaming horror. Those nights when gaming goes awry and our hopes of a fun evening are dashed upon the rocks of bad players, bad DMs, miscommunication about tone, and other issues from the gaming table. Links for this week's episode: Darrell Hardy's blog Genghis Con Space City Con Shadowrun Vampire: The Masquerade Robotech RPG Nightlife Ravenloft Birthright We'd like to extend a special thank you to our sponsor for this episode, the Dementalism expansion Kickstarter!

Welcome to the Gamer’s Tavern. Have a seat and join us for You All Meet in a Tavern Episode 2, “What Makes a Game Fun” aka “How to Make Literally Dozens of Dollars a Year” with your hosts, Darryl Mott Jr. and Ross Watson. Ross spent the first half of the episode fighting a grue called “nvidia”, but was able to join us after the first break. Our guests are John Goodenough, currently with Alderac Entergainment Group and designer of Talisman 4th Edition, Relic, World of Warcraft: Board Game, and Tide of Iron amongst others, and Andy Hopp, designer and artist of Low Life and Dementalism. And yes, I know I said Paranoia early on when I meant Pandemic...I got them right for the rest of the episode. Episode Links: Alderac Entertainment Group Mother Oith Creations, home of Low Life and Dementalism Pandemic Paranoia Vampire: The Masquerade Shadowrun Castle Panic Tide of Iron We would like to thank our sponsors for this episode, The Accursed RPG Kickstarter and the Dementalism

Welcome to the Gamer's Tavern. On the first official episode of You All Meet in a Tavern, your hosts Darryl Mott Jr. and Ross Watson discuss what it is exactly about gaming that draws us to the hobby. Our guests this evening are Bruce Cordell (legendary game designer of many Dungeons & Dragons products including the second best module ever according to ENWorld, The Sunless Citadel), John Kovalic (cartoonist for Dork Tower, artist for Munchkin and Apples to Apples, and designer of ROFL!), and Torah Cottrill (author and former line editor for Wizards of the Coast). This Week's Links: Dork Tower by John Kovalic Bruce Cordell's Homepage Torah Cottrill's blog Our sponsor this week is Melior Via, who are Kickstartingthe Savage Worlds campaign setting Accursed until October 13th. "It's like someone slipped Ravenloft some PCP." - Abstruse, Ain't It Cool News Check them out at http://www.accursedrpg.com/

So, you all meet in a tavern. Sitting in a dark corner are your hosts, Darryl Mott Jr. and Ross Watson. In this episode, your hosts introduce themselves to you and talk about the twisting paths of how they got into gaming and how that lead to Darryl writing for Ain't It Cool News and Ross working for Games Workshop and Fantasy Flight Games. (Please excuse the audio quality as the file had to be created from a lower-quality back-up recording due to a rookie mistake by Darryl. Feel free to throw things at him as punishment.) Episode Links: http://gamerstavern.org The home of the You All Meet in a Tavern podcast http://rosswatson.blogspot.com/ Rogue Warden, Ross Watson's Ennie-nominated gaming blog http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1231173913/accursed-rpg The Kickstarter for Accused, Ross's official Savage Worlds setting of dark fantasy adventure running until October 13, 2013 http://scarn.wikia.com/wiki/Scarred_Lands_Wiki Unofficial wiki for the Scarred Lands campaign setting http://dlair.net/austin/ Dragon's