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[Episode 29]Announcements
Check out the newest Campaign of the Month and first one of 2012, Star Trek Late Night! Also, we’ve got a winner for December and a new caption for the new year, ready for you guys to start cracking wise upon this month. Go forth and jest, fellow portallers!
The Real Year In Review of D&D
A piece published on critical hits serves to do its own justice of summing up D&D as a counter to the recent escapist pieces we covered last episode on D&D’s past, present & future. While the article doesn’t directly counter any statements made, it does give another (good) perspective on the state of the game. Ryan Dancey also wrote a small novella on the subject as a follow up, over at ENworld.
Pathfinder Comic Book
Paizo has announced that there will be a Pathfinder comic book coming in 2012. They are working with dynamite entertainment to produce the comic, adding yet another Pathfinder goodie to the list of schwag they have recently been kicking out!
Skill Challenges, Ignore them or Simplify Them
Rob Schwalb, D&D freelancer and author of many, many books recently wrote a few pieces on skill challenges and how to handle them, or to simply ignore them. Some great insight is provided here, Micah and I discuss thoroughly.
Tip Corner
Use the calendar and make events and collect RSVPs, but don’t stop there. On the day of the game, hit everyone up with a text message, email, call, facebook message, whatever. Just make sure to get some kind of final confirmation that they will be there!
Twitter Question
Justin Mason (via Facebook) asks: What are your thoughts on ambient music during gaming?
Listen to find out!
Music Credits | Intro: “Prelude” ~ LukHash | Outro: “Stande Alone” ~ LukHash |
Obsidian Portal is the award winning Online Campaign Management System for tabletop role-playing games. It’s free to use, it can be accessed from any web browser and it's built from the ground up for gamers by gamers.
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Let’s hear some more positive stuff! D&D has been doing licensed comics since the 80s! Two guys who don’t read comics think a Pathfinder comic is a bad idea? Dynamite is licensing the world from Paizo, it’s not like Paizo will be taking time out of creating their core product to write a comic…Although I really hope they get Wayne Reynolds to do the covers.
Anyways, thanks for creating one of the best RPG podcasts out there!
Good point about the licensing. The MMO will probably suck up a huge amount of their time, but the comic is a partnership deal where someone else probably does the heavy lifting.
I am a comics reader and the D&D comic is currently my favorite comic out there.
The MMO just seems weird…Golarion/Pathfinder means nothing to most people, there’s just no selling point to differentiate it to Joe Gamer (they can’t even use the words Dungeons and Dragons). And to the casual person who is unaware of what pathfinder is, it’s going to seem like ghetto wannabe D&D. I’m with you, I hope the MMO doesn’t suck talent/resources from the RPG. Pathfinder seems to be growing the hobby in a great way, and has a huge community, etc.
I guess we’ll see what happens.
Once again, interesting and informative Podcast. I was a bit surprised at some of the playing techniques I heard in the “skill challenges” section. My friends and I play D&D 3.5, which has extensive skills; and we do use them, but they are always just part of the game and never really a major issue. It certainly never becomes a separate thing as is implied in the talk, and in the articles.
I always enjoy these podcasts. Listening to these makes me a better DM, and I think improves my game a lot.
Jerry, did you end up finding the OP campaign site that covers music for RPGs ?
Right here!, sorry about that I’m gonna update the post. Totally forgot to link it in!
Great, thanks Jerry. Appreciate it.