Author Archives: foldedfrequencies

In this week’s episode of Campaign Spotlight, we chat with Chris about healthcare crowdfunding, LARPing on a remote island, and the virtues of small-scale personal stories. No spoilers this week, although we do discuss quite a few old D&D modules in general terms. Also, it’s not clear why Chris and Jake are so dead-set on winning sponsorships from the knife store at the mall.

This is the very end of our Campaign Spotlight season! In next week’s Flashlight, we chat about what we learned this season and where we’re planning to go from here.

You can watch Chris play D&D on Twitch if you’re so inclined. He’s on the Phandelver and Below streams!

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Do you run your own home game? Tell us about a cool homebrew item and we might feature it in an upcoming episode. Give us a call and tell us about it at 724 320 2020.

In this week’s Flashlight, we explore the game Dallas, based on the TV series from the 1970s and 1980s! Reilly leaves in a hot-mic moment, Jake tries to sound knowledgeable about buying horses, and neither one of us can sustain a Texas accent.

Here’s the link to SPI Wargame Resources, where you can find the ruleset for Dallas if you really want to try playing it. We also mention a few other old-school TTRPGs based on the hottest IP of the early 1980s:

• Here’s a MemoryAlpha article on the original Star Trek TTRPG and here’s a (still-active!) forum for it.
• Here’s a catalogue of the sourcebooks for the Indiana Jones TTRPG – which are apparently very hard to find today.
• Here’s a review of the Judge Dredd TTRPG which is also very hard to find today.
• Here’s an archive of the Marvel Super Heroes TTRPG, with a bunch of character profiles as well.
• Here’s a modern review for the original Doctor Who TTRPG.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed.

Do you run your own home game? Tell us about a cool homebrew item and we might feature it in an upcoming episode. Give us a call and tell us about it at 724 320 2020.

In this week’s episode of Campaign Spotlight, we chat with Jesse about the Mophidius 2d20 system, the information flow between players, and improving the lot of your noble house. Spoiler warning for Dune, because Jesse’s using the Dune TTRPG system. Also, spoiler warning for Game of Thrones, we guess. What’s going on with all the sirens in the background in this episode? Not entirely sure, but maybe we should look into soundproofing.

Here’s the publisher’s website for the system Jesse is using. Hearing about a really fascinating game based on pre-existing IP made us curious about the history of IP-based tabletop games. In next week’s Flashlight, you’ll hear about our attempt to play the Dallas TTRPG, based on the 1970s TV show.

Also, here’s the site Jesse used to build his game’s wiki and here’s the virtual tabletop system Jesse used to run his encounters.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed.

Do you run your own home game? Tell us about a cool homebrew item and we might feature it in an upcoming episode. Give us a call and tell us about it at 724 320 2020.

In this week’s Flashlight, we explore a very old ruleset for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, First Edition! Reilly attempts to befriend a sloth, Jake covets Reilly’s dice, and we speculate on the role of a sociologist in a Tolkienesque fantasy world.

Finding an old copy of the rules can be tricky. OSRIC has compiled a set of first-edition rules (excluding the flavour text, which is subject to copyright) which you can read in more detail here.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed.

Do you run your own home game? Tell us about a cool homebrew item and we might feature it in an upcoming episode. Give us a call and tell us about it at 724 320 2020.

In this week’s episode of Campaign Spotlight, we chat with Kyros about making your own story out of a pre-existing module, adding too many NPCs to the party, and flesh golem weddings. Spoiler alerts for the Curse of Strahd module – although, as we learn, this isn’t necessarily a great choice for your next campaign.

Talking about this module with Kyros got us morbidly curious about old-school Dungeons and Dragons. In next week’s Flashlight episode, we track down the AD&D ruleset and try out some of its mechanics.

Here’s that full implementation of Castle Ravenloft in Minecraft that Kyros describes.

For a Romani tabletop game developer’s perspective on the depiction of Vistani people in the Curse of Strahd, check out this piece by Rue Dickey.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed.

Do you run your own home game? Tell us about a cool homebrew item and we might feature it in an upcoming episode. Give us a call and tell us about it at 724 320 2020.

In this week’s Flashlight, we explore a rules-light tabletop game called Radical Catgirl Anarchy! Reilly displays a profiency for catgirl name generation, Jake learns about rollerskates, and we ponitificate on the difference between catgirlism and radicalism.

Here are the rules for Radical Catgirl Anarchy, here are the rules for the original game Lasers and Feelings, and here’s a list of other Lasers and Feelings hacks. We discussed quite a few other games from this list:

• Potatoes and Molasses
• Paul Blart Mall Cop 2: The RPG
• A Good Day to Roll Hard
• Boy Problems

Jake mentioned Adventure Skeletons, which isn’t related to Lasers and Feelings but which is a fun micro TTRPG. Also, Jake apologizes for getting so worked up about Carly Rae Jepsen.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed.

Do you run your own home game? Tell us about a cool homebrew item and we might feature it in an upcoming episode. Give us a call and tell us about it at 724 320 2020.

In this week’s episode of Campaign Spotlight, we chat with Jake about making the most of players’ busy schedules, dealing with important story beats happening offscreen, and Philadelphia energy. (This is our third guest this season from the Delaware Valley and yet somehow this is the first episode where Wawa comes up.) Very light spoilers for Neon Genesis Evangelion.

This conversation got us thinking about ways to get a lightweight game session up and running really quickly. In next week’s Flashlight episode, we try the very lightweight Radical Catgirl Anarchy.

Our guest Jake was kind enough to share with us some of the cutscenes he built for his players. Here are some screenshots from those (very charming) cutscenes:

Our guest also mentioned a bunch of useful resources:

• Hamill Illustration, Filibuster Frog, and Amanda Rotten for illustrations.
• Tale of an Industrious Rogue for inspiration.
• The r/battlemaps subreddit for battlemaps.
• FoundryVTT for running tabletop games online.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed.

Do you run your own home game? Tell us about a cool homebrew item and we might feature it in an upcoming episode. Give us a call and tell us about it at 724 320 2020.

In this week’s Flashlight, we explore everyone’s favourite minis wargame, Warhammer 40k! Reilly deploys a tape measure to manifest a smite, Jake repents for overly sweaty final showdowns in past campaigns, and we begin to wonder if playing a minis wargame on a podcast was a mistake.

Here’s the link to the publisher’s website for the Warhammer 40k system and here’s the wiki if you’re feeling like a few hours of fascinated clicking.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed.

Do you run your own home game? Tell us about a cool homebrew item and we might feature it in an upcoming episode. Give us a call and tell us about it at 724 320 2020.

In this week’s episode of Campaign Spotlight, we chat with Sam about running novel and interesting combat encounters, raising the stakes by putting everyone’s favourite NPC in danger, and ethically nonmonogamous orc throuples. Spoiler warning for Sam’s campaign – although we recorded this a while ago, and we’re pretty sure the players have already encountered that set filled with traps.

This interview got us thinking about the type of games that take the physical battlemap really seriously. In next week’s Flashlight episode, we’ll be talking about Warhammer 40K.

This is an episode where we spend some time admiring Sam’s intricate 3D battle sets. Is a podcast the best medium for discussing combat visuals? Probably not, but Jake doesn’t have the face for YouTube. Here are some pictures Sam sent us, so you can see what we’re talking about:

Sam mentioned the John Green YouTube channel Crash Course. Jake mentioned the David Prokopetz homebrew item Deck of Many Tarrasques.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed.

Do you run your own home game? Tell us about a cool homebrew item and we might feature it in an upcoming episode. Give us a call and tell us about it at 724 320 2020.

In this week’s Flashlight, we explore the Genesys TTRPG system! Reilly expounds a new definition for sports, Jake gets a little heated about private equity, and we seriously damage our chances that Spirit Airlines will ever sponsor the show.

Here’s the link to the publisher’s website for the Genesys system and here’s the dice roller we use in the episode. We mention a few flavour packs, including this one that fleshes out familiars and this one that goes deep into unarmed combat.

We also discuss Paizo’s Open RPG Creative License which is worth reading about in full if you’re interested in the future of TTRPG intellectual property norms.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed.

Do you run your own home game? Tell us about a cool homebrew item and we might feature it in an upcoming episode. Give us a call and tell us about it at 724 320 2020.