Pulp Gamer Out of Character

Hey guys,

I'm listening to PGOC 114 right now. You just finished discussing semi-automatic weapons of WWI vintage. I am saddened that the discussion entirely missed one of the neatest weapons ever manufactured. Not only that, but it's also capable of full auto fire. It's the Browning BAR:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1918_Browning_Automatic_Rifle

They were used through the gangster era (Clyde Barrow's favorite firearm, and he also met his fate on the receiving end of one) and into WWII and the Korean War.

Love the show, keep up the good work!

Zach

Hey folks,
I'm listening to OcC114 too!
First let me say Welcome back Jess! Some of us missed you.
I think you all should do an accent only show. That would be a hoot. Let us know when if possible. I'd like to call in with some accented content. Some more Accent Your Character would be great. Thanks to the commenter for the good words. I get the 'the crowd goes wild' thing all the time when I enter a room. Mostly from my son.
The Fiasco coverage was great. It is a really fun game. Chris (of GamerChris.com), myself, and another friend are building a playset called Action 6 News concerning a local news station. It's fun designing these. We worked on it at Game Night last week and got a new guy interested in rpg's with it. My Reconstruction playset is pretty cool. Jason didn't mention that he tweaked it to get just the right flavor. Very cool. Also he publishes a new playset each month and has made all the monthly playsets available now. They are fantastic. I think an Inside Track or TGTT with Jason would be really neat. He has some cool games in the works and is an extremely interesting guy. Maybe we can all play Fiasco at MACE this year. Hint.
I'm happy to know you have Forbidden Island in hand. I am looking forward to the review of it.
The Laundry sounds fun as do the books on which it is based. I'll have to try and find them. Speaking of espionage, any word on Agents of Oblivion? Ron? Dust sounds fun. Nazi Godzillas is awesome. I will have to use that in my next SOTC game. Thanks Veronica for the idea. Teaching games seems to have been a theme in April. Cody and John did a show on that too. I am working my way through your show on teaching and am enjoying it. I agree that most of us learn rules from someone teaching us the game rather than us reading them. The best advice I've gotten from both podcasts so far is give a brief synopsis of what you are doing in the game, tell what the goal is and how to achieve it, then work through a test hand or round. I listen to the How To Play podcast also and he uses this format. This is a great podcast by the way. Tutorial sessions is another good idea especially for rpgs. I haven't played Dogs yet but I like the intro idea that you mentioned. I think I will try this when I intro a new game to my groups. Speaking of teaching games, I recently picked up Homesteaders by Tasty Minstel and needed to learn the game before introducing it to the game group. So I tried it out on my children thinking I would get one decent teaching session in. They loved it! And they are good at it. It has become our most requested game. My 8 yr. old son has developed his own strategy and wins most of the time now. It's a great game and think it would be a good one for you to check out.
Jason, congrats on the Alpha Omega gig.
Thanks for the Ablaze! coverage. I found an online solo version at the designer's website and am playing through the different games. The online interface is a bit wonky and I don't have all the rule down yet but the games look fun. And Jason, cudos to your smokejumper relative (I forgot who). That is a super difficult and dangerous job. Speaking of online games I'm doing a lot of online gaming now. I've learned Arkadia, Finca, Richelieu, on Yucata.de and Wallenstein on Spielbyweb.com so far. Come on over to either and let's play some games.
Lastly, everyone including PG listeners, head over to Go Forth And Game (tomgurg.wordpress.com) and comment on the latest blog post - What makes a great game?. I'm interested in hearing what people think makes a game great versus or in addition to making it fun.
That's all.
Tomg signing off.
Go Forth and Game.

Wow! Tomg's bloviation is admirable. Though I fear that such verbosity may elicit an increase in the listenership's bellicosity. Perhaps not. Only the rotation of our sphere and the concurrent temporal passage of tachyons will inform.

Thank you for listing Ron Blessing's new blog for Game Daze. This is an insightful look at current games for a wide audience. Based on the facts, Ron is a better blogger than Derek -- by a score of 2 to nil.
Referring to Ron's blog and a recent commentary on Monopoly, I have read the official rules (in English), and I agree that, to have a successful game, a group needs to decide on the "house rules" for the night.
A lesson that I have learned from Monopoly is: "You own the game and you can re-write the rules." Especially if we are brining in new players (as you have discussed in the past), we may substitue some rules for ease of play.
I admit that I own some rule books that have margin notes and playtesting results.

And another thing...
I have been reading a book "Challenges for Game Designers -- non-digital exercises for video game designers" by Brenda Brathwaite and Ian Schreiber.
While the title makes this book seem like it is specific to video games, and it is, it has a lot of interesting "thought games" that foster creativity. With a textbook like approach, the authors present game concepts such as puzzles, challenges or level design. Then, they provide some challenges to exercise the ideas. For me, this is a game in itself.
I thought of this when you all mentioned the Tutorial Level teaches the basics of RPGs. For Game Masters, this is a good book to consider different ways of presenting challenges at the game table. Some of the development ideas can be implemented with pen and paper games (even board games).

Thanks for the book reference Brian. It sounds interesting.

I'm still listening to 114 now, but speaking of game design books I especialy liked and would recommend the book "The Art of Game Design: A book of lenses" By Jesse Schell.

One of you asked, "So, are there actually any board games that you guys can think of, other than doing the, 'the first game doesn't count, we play with our hands open' thing, are there any board games that actually have a...a warm-up phase?"

Let me direct you to Space Alert: http://czechgames.com/en/space-alert/ . It's a co-operative game produced in the Czech Republic by Czech Games Edition and published here in the US by Rio Grande Games. The concept is of a space ship jumping through hyperspace to a sector of the galaxy to map it, and jumping back. The players' job is to protect the ship in that (potentially hostile) sector of the galaxy. It has a rulebook and a handbook: the handbook teaches the game, and the rulebook is for reference. The handbook introduces things incrementally. Players start with a "test run", and if necessary, a "second test run", and gradually work up to "mission simulations" and "advanced mission simulations" before embarking on full-on "missions". It's a great way to ramp up to the full set of rules. And as a bonus, the handbook is great reading in and of itself.