Brilliant Gameologists

BG - Sode 018 - Setting 04 - Scope and Boundaries

Sunday, July 13th, 2008
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Warm-Up:

Each time we record, we watch a video or find a picture to get us in the mood for the episode. It doesn’t always have anything to do with the episode, but frames our minds, so we’re going to share so you can be appropriately framed as well.

• YouTube Video- 30 minutes of 90’s Cartoons

Icebreaker:

• Favorite TV show opening songs and scenes.

Douchebag of the Week:

• The Braggart

Main Topic:

Scope and Boundaries

• How wide or deep should you go?
• Meg’s analogy: Establishing Shots from movies/ TV
• Kinds of groups you can be in an RPG
• Published Campaign worlds
• Media Worlds (Star Wars and Superheroes)
• Historical Settings
• The problem with Forgotten Realms
• What to do with this huge world setting

Promos:

Gamers in the Press: Blogs, Podcasts, and Print at GenCon

http://www.pulpgamer.com/gencon/

BG - Sode 017 - Bonus02 - Gaming at Cons

Sunday, June 29th, 2008
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This is a Bonus Episode which is fancy talk for “The dogs ate the shownotes so we can’t do our normal episode so we totally wung this”.

Is wung a word? Winged?

In this episode we discuss Gaming at Conventions. Well, that and a LOT of just banter.  (This is what we’re like when we are just hanging out but this time happened to have a mic capturing it all.  And only Josh had been drinking!  Also, the dog did actually chew through Meg’s headphone cord so the whole experience was fairly surreal and much less organized.) NEWS ITEM: Brilliant Gameologists chosen to lead GenCon seminars

PROMO: (A real one!) Gamers in the Press- Blogs, Podcasts, and Print Seminars (http://www.pulpgamer.com/gencon/)

Discussion Topics:

• Gaming at GenCon: GenCon Indy
• Gaming at Small Conventions: Arisia
• Gaming at Indy Game/ Ashcan Venues: JiffyCon

Games we played at JiffyCon:

• It’s Complicated
  • Story/ Pass-the-stick game where everyone has an internal struggle and some visible manifestation.
• Traveller
  • Old-school. Terrible system but Zeke had a ton of fun regardless.
• Caper: A Game of Pros and Cons
  • Pull off a criminal caper. Josh’s group tried to steal Jerry Seinfield’s cars.
• Misspent Youth
  • Meg’s dream game. Dystopian young-adult type scenarios. Game involves building the world. The Ashcan version will be available at GenCon at the Play Collective booth. The early non-official review gives this a 3 on our scale.
• Red Sky A.M.
  • Play Space Marines and their loved-ones back home.

Just Announced!

The Gameologists will help organize JiffyCon Lowell- November 8, 2008 @ Middlesex Community College, Lowell, MA.

Other stuff from this Train-Wreck:

Wrong Hole Montage

Independent Insurgency Podcast from Rob Bohl

BG - Sode 016 - Meta04 - Peritextual Elements of RPGs

Sunday, June 22nd, 2008
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Nerd Up!

In this episode we look at the peritextual elements of quite a few books– all of the things that aren’t the content– and how they relate to the feel of the book and our impressions about it.

Size and Shape

D&D 4th Edition- The standard in gaming. Hardcover, 8.5×11 inches. 4th Edition’s difference is that the 3 books come in a handy-dandy sleeve.

Hero 5th Edition Revised- The same shape as D&D but text-book thick.

Burning Wheel- 5×7 and softcover. Still has same number of pages as D&D, but they are mini pages. Makes the book much more portable.

Savage Worlds: Explorer’s Edition- Also softcover, but a bit longer and wider than Burning Wheel (which means neat, orderly shelving will be screwy).

Star Wars Saga- A square. Made to fit on bookstore’s shelves.

Covers

Rifts- Pretty picture, shows action, clear title, publisher, and author, and of course, boobies.

Paranoia XP- comical, funny, bright colors and the back cover entirely in the style of Paranoia. Draws in new people but also provides a callback to previous players.

The Savage World of Solomon Kane- Only a few words, but great illustration and the glossy and matte finish make Meg happy.

Cover opened to see front and back together

Dread- Extremely simple but sets the stage beautifully. A bloody thumbprint? What’s not to love?

Burning Wheel- Red on Red. Hard to see, confusing, boring. Doesn’t say anything about the game.

The Trail of Cthulhu - Green on green, but spooky, mysterious

GURPS: Alpha Century- cover of book is cover of Sid Meier’s video game. Good marketing if you like the video game (which we did).

Front Matter

First few pages of a book before the content actually starts. Can include publication information, credits, acknowledgments, table of contents, and introduction

• Pastedown- the page pasted to the inside of the cover (hardcover only)
• Flyleaf- the page opposite the pastedown

Spirit of the Century- has fun with the credits

Grimm- Pastedown and Flyleaf are at least red. Introduction WAY too long (download full introduction).

Deadlands Reloaded- Personal acknowledgments, Font in table of contents very appropriate and there is “white space” so text doesn’t feel claustrophobic. Introduction is a old-timely newspaper format. Back Cover

Dark Heresy, Warhammer 40,000- Pastedown and Flyleaf show an illustration of a star map

Borders:

Are illustrations confined in a border to make it feel like you are looking as an voyeur, or do the touch the edge of the page to draw you in?

• Bleed- when the illustration touches the edge of a page
• Full Bleed- when all illustrations touch all edges

Deadlands Reloaded- full bleed

d20 Future- Standard. Page number in border (on side)

GURPS- Transhuman Space- Dark border with white boxes with text. Dark borders give it a space theme.

Grimm (download of first chapter)- Very appropriate, very approprite. Page numbers in spider body and intricate

Expeditious Retreat: Magical Society of Ecology and Culture and Savage Worlds Explorer’s Edition- Old timey paper feel to border.

Interesting Content

Cyberspace. Almost whole book in table or chart. Lower corner of each page gives extra material to book in terms of a year-by-year timeline.

Nightbane- Very first thing in book is a warning to prevent claims of Satanism.

Earthdawn- All peritextual elements completely vanilla (written in 1995) except two full pages of punch-out cardstock cards.

Illustrations

Pictures in books should show you things you may play, things you may fight or goals or ideas you may have as well as set the stage for the book. The feel also needs to be consistent throughout. The media used can change, but don’t mix styles!

D&D 4th Edition- Player’s Handbook has detailed pictures of the types of characters you are going to play (Person), the Dungeon Master’s Guide shows places you will go (Place), and the Monster Manual shows the things you are going to fight (Things).

Mutants and Masterminds- Very comic book feel to illustrations, some complete with speech bubbles. Very consistent throughout.

Dark Heresy, Warhammer 40,000- Extremely detailed, dark, gritty illustrations.

Rifts- almost entirely black and white inking. Art very evocative of the world, but not enough of it and the color plates in the middle of the book don’t match.

Serenity- Beautiful cover, but almost all of “illustrations” are screen caps from the movie. Says not, “We’re trying to adapt the movie” but “We’re trying to make the movie.” Borders are good except top of every page says “Serenity the Role Playing Game”. Seems too self-congratulatory and constantly reminds us it is “official“.

Star Wars Saga- nice mix of screencaps and illustrations, but again, too much of a mix of styles.

BG-Review006-Battlestar Galactica

Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
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The BG’s review BSG in the last of our full Origin’s review series.

Battlestar Galactica is published by Margaret Weis Productions.

Our rating scale is:

• 1= If you are only going to buy 1 book, get this one.
• 3= If you are going to buy 3 books so you have a “main game” plus a fun pickup, this is the book for you
• 10= If you are going to get 10 books for a bit more variety, get this one
• 0= Don’t buy it.

Fair warning: we are not fans. At all. This episode is part review, part bullshit, and part GenCon stories. Listen at your own risk!

Discuss this episode on our Message Boards in THIS thread!

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