The Salvage Bar Play Podcast

Realm Guard, session 2

salvagebar — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:22:13 +0000

Here is another session of Realm Guard. I have a few personal notes, which I put in an introduction at the start of the audio. Nick, who played in session one, came back, and two new players join: Richard, who plays Reggie/Ronnie in the Necessary Evil game, and Shawn, who runs a great game of Mutants and Masterminds that I joined two weeks ago. I ran a test conflict to introduce players to the central mechanic. At that point, the party chose to go through character generation and start a new story with notes I had prepared, rather than pick up from the end of the first session.

Time table -

1m30s: Introduction ends

47m45s: Test conflict with players ends.

54m: Character Generation begins.

1h25m50s: Character generation ends.

1h32m30s: GM’s turn begins.

1h40m: Party has received mission goal; choosing Beliefs, Goals, Instincts, and Gear.

1h50m30s: First skill challenge.

1h58m30s: Fight conflict begins.

2h13m: GM’s turn ends. Players’ turns begin.

3h10m: 2nd GM’s turn. King Thranduil of Mirkwood initiates a very high-stakes speech conflict.

4h12m: Conflict ends, with surprising results. Compromises negotiated, session ends, then artha awards.

4h27m: Rules talk, notes from players, and session aftermath. Everyone staggers off in exhaustion.

Notes for next time: Insist on writing everything down. Everything. Mission Goal, personal Goal, Beliefs, Instincts, and each Conflict Goal. I overlooked these things, and paid the price with confusion later. The exact wording should be stated, put down in black and white, and posted in the chat. These statements are all a kind of contract, and imprecision invites frustration.

Necessary Evil: Uprising Part 6.2 “Division”

salvagebar — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 18:33:45 +0000

Session 6 continues. I placed a small overlap in the two audio files.

45m0s: The session proper ends; rules discussion begins.

Necessary Evil: Uprising Part 6.1 “Division”

salvagebar — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 18:29:39 +0000

I have gone back to breaking up the audio for each session into two parts.

1m30s: Intro ends.

4m50s: Session begins.

Necessary Evil: Uprising Part 5 “Break-in”

salvagebar — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 16:36:57 +0000

Here’s the audio for session 5. The pace is picking up, and I realize I need to crystallize my ideas as we reach the end of what I think of as “Act One”.

Realm Guard character creation

salvagebar — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 21:03:55 +0000

The character creation audio.

Realm Guard, session 1

salvagebar — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 20:59:03 +0000

A session of Realm Guard, a hack of the Mouse Guard RPG. As I say in my introduction, part of the reason I started my podcast was to have a chance to attract players to a certain type of role-playing game that I have become passionate about.

Time table -

00s to 1m40s: Introduction

06m: Part arrives at the throne room of the King

13m: Party has received mission, and starts choosing Beliefs, Goals, Instincts, and Gear.

39m30s: Story resumes.

48m30s: Baby cries.

49m30s: Party encounters boatmen.

53m30s: Trolls appear.

55m30s: Chase conflict begins. I over-explaining the scripting mechanic.

01h21m: I make an interesting mistake. A player comes up with a good idea, and I realize now that I should have said “Yes” to his suggestion.

01h46m: Conflict ends. Both sides reduced to zero disposition in the same action!

01h51m: PCs meet Harnbad.

02h01m: GM’s turn ends.

02h26m: Session ends, Artha awards.

02h31m: Artha ends, rules discussion begins.

Necessary Evil: Uprising Part 4, second file

salvagebar — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 05:24:33 +0000

Here is the second file of session four. I hope you enjoy it, and any notes on sound quality are encouraged. I very much want to work out any kinks in the current recording setup.

Necessary Evil: Uprising Part 4, first file

salvagebar — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 05:18:29 +0000

This session is divided into two files, for easier downloading and queuing. In this session, we roll out the map tools in the Vassal mod that we use to manage the dicerolling and messaging online. My experiences of RPG combats without a map and miniatures have been very frustrating. This ruleset lends itself to using a map, and I am glad that we managed to work out the technical difficulties and get one working in the online space. I enjoy designing maps, and I hope it improves the pacing of the episodes as well.

Necessary Evil: Uprising Part 3, second file

salvagebar — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:44:48 +0000

Here is the second file for session three.

Please note: the adventure proper ends about 95 minutes in, and then we go into a rules/character concept discussion.

Necessary Evil: Uprising Part 3

salvagebar — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:41:57 +0000

Necessary Evil: Uprising Part 3 “Intrusion”

It is really satisfying to see the story develop in the party’s hands, and things really pick up momentum this session. This was our longest meeting yet, nearly five hours before I cut it down to size. I split it into two parts, for easier queuing.

Necessary Evil: Uprising Part 2

salvagebar — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:12:22 +0000

Necessary Evil: Uprising Part 2 “Transmission”

There was a long delay on this one, folks, but worth it. The

characters really start to get defined in sessions 2 and 3, as the party goes after a protoype surveillance device.

Radio Lightning, episode 1

salvagebar — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:17:17 +0000

I am including the different “Radio Lightning” broadcasts that are available for the players in the campaign as separate episodes. You are free to use these in your own campaigns or shows. I borrowed the idea from Grey Ranks.

Grey Ranks, from Bully Pulpit Games

Necessary Evil: Uprising Part 1

salvagebar — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:09:23 +0000

Necessary Evil: Uprising Part 1 “Shakedown”

Here’s the first session of Uprising, our Necessary Evil campaign.

The Salvagebar Play Podcast

salvagebar — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:56:44 +0000

Welcome to the first post of The Salvagebar Play Podcast. I’ll be publishing RPG actual-play sessions and discussions (mostly actual-play). The first project is a Necessary Evil campaign I’ve titled “Uprising”, which uses the Savage Worlds rule set, with FATE-style Aspects available to the PCs.My heart lies with the newer generation of role-playing games, which move around narrative control, emphasize scene framing over character/ability planning, and de-emphasize GM fiat. The kind of crunchy, map-and-minis, combat-oriented games like D&D and Savage Worlds, which are the standard experience of 95% of most RP gamers, are actually quite new to me.

In the future, I hope to find groups to play Lacuna, Burning Empires, Best Friends, My Life With Master, and more like these.

Necessary Evil: Uprising campaign trailer

salvagebar — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:27:15 +0000

Here is the trailer for Uprising, a campaign in the “Necessary Evil” setting. This is the first project of The Salvagebar Play Podcast, which will be publishing weekly RPG actual-play sessions.

The music is “Warded” by Adhesion, courtesy of the podsafe music network.

Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group