Podcasts by Virtual Play
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Episode 94: Sensemaking in Classic Traveller from 2021-06-13T13:29
Bill and I spend 45 minutes or so talking about Classic Traveller. The focus of the episode is on how players make sense of clues and other information provided by the GM and how this contribut...
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Episode 93: Classic Traveller from 2021-04-22T00:03:45
Welcome to the next episode! Bill and I have been playing some Classic Traveller on Roll 20 so this episode is an excerpt of play of two from a recent game. We talk about Bill's penchant for m...
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Episode 92: Top Secret NWO from 2021-03-07T16:41:22
At Total Con 35, which had an espionage focus, I ran a hack of TSR's Top Secret: New World Order. My goal was to run it in the style of TV's Mission: Impossible. I wanted to include the brief...
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Episode 91: An Encounter with Dungeon Crawl Classics from 2021-02-13T15:20:12
Welcome back to Virtual Play! Bill and I take a close look at an encounter in a Dungeon Crawl Classics game. It involves an encounter with undead in a bath house that has since become a tomb! ...
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Episode 90: A Virtual Play Year from 2021-01-23T21:19:27
Happy New Year! I hope you are all as well as can be. Thanks for sticking around for more episodes. In our inaugural podcast of 2021, Bill and I talk about gaming from the last year or so. I...
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Episode 89: Dying is Easy from 2018-11-04T01:53:47
Bill and I are in the last night of Metatopia 2018. We're excited about the result of our playtest of Dying is Easy. In many ways, the evolution of Dying is Easy over the past two Metatopias a...
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Episode 88: Metatopia, the Indie Scene from 2018-11-02T23:11:37
Bill and are continue our Metatopia special episodes with a discussion about and excerpt from a game Bill wrote called "the Indie Scene". The game will be a chapter in Bill's book on the Forge,...
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Metatopia Special Part 1 from 2018-11-01T20:54:37
Bill and I are at Day 1 of Metatopia, the Game Design Festival in Morristown NJ. We briefly discuss the games we are here to playtest, including an excerpt from a moment of play in a game that ...
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Episode 86: Game Master, You're in a Dungeon from 2017-09-02T14:19:09
Welcome to Virtual Play! Bill and I discuss a GM workshop we conducted at Gencon. The format was the participants played characters in an adventuring party, with rotating GM duties. The works...
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Episode 85: What Happened in the Big Hoodoo? from 2017-07-28T03:19:51
We talk about Bill running his adventure for Pelgrane Press's Trail of Cthulhu, "The Big Hoodoo," where 1950s sci-fi writers like Bob Heinlein and Isaac Asimov confront a Mythos mystery...
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Episode 84: I'm a Dog from 2017-07-14T03:35:21
Or at least Bill is. In this recap of a moment play from Dungeon Crawl Classics, Bill, playing a kitsune dog spirit, attempts to get something to eat. Because that's what dogs do. The episode...
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Episode 83: Dying is Easy from 2017-07-11T01:33:12
Hi! Welcome back to Virtual Play. Bill and I had a great conversation with Jim Crocker, Ben Forest and Dave Petroski at Dexcon 20 discussing a bunch of things such as comics, the retail indust...
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Dexcon Special: Ben Forest on Roleplaying Games from 2016-08-05T15:30:32
Bill and I spent some time at the Hyatt bar talking to Ben Forest about running and playing in games. We mainly discuss the question is the role of the game-master to entertain or to be entertai...
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Origins Special: Morgan's Fate Rant #1 from 2016-07-16T19:42:53
Here's some bonus content! At Origins, Bill talked to Morgan Ellis and other folks about Fate and Nitrate City. They agreed to let us listen in! I feel like I'm actually there at the Big Bar ...
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Episode 82: Nitrate City from 2016-07-16T18:52:30
Welcome back! In this episode, Bill and I talk about Nitrate City, a World of Adventure for Fate. Bill co-wrote the game with Doselle Young--Doselle provided the vision, Bill provided the mech...
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Episode 81: Fall of Magic from 2016-05-15T01:31:22
In this episode, Bill and I discuss the game "Fall of Magic". It's described as a roleplaying game of profound fantasy. I was attracted to it by the thematic link to Larry Niven's short story,...
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Episode 80: With Great Power from 2016-04-10T15:49:45
In this episode, Bill and I get to talk about a game we have been excited about for a while. Michael Miller has revised "With Great Power" his superhero roleplaying game. Superheroes are one o...
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Episode 79: GM advice with D&D 5th Edition excerpts from 2016-04-07T03:08:47
Bill wanted to call this episode "Mel And Bill fix Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition," but I think the game mastering advice we talk about in the show applies to any game. There is nothing D&D spec...
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Episode 78: Andromeda and the Fate Space Toolkit from 2016-04-03T20:16:51
Lots of changes here at Virtual Play! Bill and I are going to be trying shorter shows with greater frequency. Thanks to a household move, we are a lot closer now so we'll give it our best shot...
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Episode 77: Games from Gencon from 2015-08-15T20:54:52
Welcome back to Virtual Play! In this episode Bill and I talk about some GM techniques using Torchbearer and Night's Black Agents for excerpts. The games are a handful of games we played or ra...
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Episode 76: Origins and Dexcon Recap (part 1) from 2015-07-17T02:45:44
Hi,
Welcome to a longer than usual episode of Virtual Play, clocking in at approximately 75 minutes. Bill and I talk about games from Origins and Dexcon, as well as some local games. The ...
Episode 75: Camp Nerdly 2015 from 2015-05-22T17:06:03
Bill and I are once again joined by Hannah to talk about games from Camp Nerdly. This show contains excerpts from Star Wars d6, Little Wizards, a Hellboy themed RPG, Night's Black Agents and Ac...
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Episode 74: Cards for conflict resolution in Fate Core and God-King from 2015-05-13T00:54:54
Bill and I talk about some of our recent experiences with games using cards for conflict resolution. I recently played God-KIng, a game by Daniel Cruz Chan, that uses a normal deck of playing c...
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Episode 73: Immersion and Traveller from 2015-03-24T16:58:30
Hi, In this episode Bill and I are joined by Ben Forest to talk about immersion in roleplaying games. We'll use a couple of excerpts from Traveller games. Ben ran one of the games; in the oth...
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Episode 72: Dungeon World at Dreamation from 2015-03-02T19:03:27
Bill and I had a great time at the Dreamation RPG convention last week in Morristown. I was able to play or run seven games and all of them were a blast. This show is about a Dungeon World adv...
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Episode 71: Timewatch from 2014-12-15T16:08:21
At Gencon, Bill played in a game of Timewatch ran by Kevin Kulp, the game's author! Timewatch is a new game being released by Pelgrane Press. In Timewatch, the player characters are part of an...
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Episode 70: Night's Black Agents from 2014-11-30T21:47:48
Welcome back! In this episode, Bill and I talk about the game of Night's Black Agents he ran at Gencon 2014. The adventure was named "the Lazarus Sanction" and it involved the agents reconnect...
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Episode 69: Dexcon 2014 Recap from 2014-08-27T01:20:07
Hi,
Welcome to Virtual Play! In this oversize episode (71 minutes) Bill and I recap the games we played at Dexcon 2014. The games are Cthulhu Dark, Trail of Cthulhu, the new game Bill is ...
Episode 68: Games from Camp Nerdly 2014 from 2014-05-27T02:02:53
Welcome to Virtual Play! Bill was in Virginia last week at Camp Nerdly, along with his daughter, Hannah. They stopped by after the weekend to talk about the games they played. Among them were...
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Episode 67: Dreamation 2014 Games from 2014-03-15T20:25:25
Hi! This is the first episode here at the new site! I am excited to be publishing these podcasts again after a long hiatus. Thanks to all who have been waiting for Virtual Play to resume--as ...
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Welcome to the New Virtual Play site from 2014-03-03T12:37:19
Hi! This is Virtual Play's new home. I'm still getting used to the differences between this site and the old site but I hope to have a new show published soon.
Mel
Episode 66: Trouble for Hire from 2013-06-16T23:32:25
While Mel is away, he’s entrusted me with keeping the Virtual Play flame burning, a task to which I have not applied myself as assiduously as I ought. But now that summer’s here and my teaching dut...
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Episode 65: Dungeon Crawl Classics from 2012-12-16T20:46:47
This episode of Virtual Play is a quick look at Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics. A fantasy RPG in the old-school tradition, DCC was a lot of fun to run. The recommended method to start play...
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Episode 64: Black Seven from 2012-12-08T00:36:49
I am making up for some lost ground in November with a quick turn on another show this month. I’m excited to be talking about Black Seven because I had a great time playing the game. Joe ran the ...
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Episode 63: Tenra Bansho Zero from 2012-12-05T20:06:32
Welcome to Virtual Play! Today’s episode is about Tenra Bansho Zero. This is a Japanese game from 1997 that is being translated into English. I believe the English version will be available with...
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Episode 62: Chronica Feudalis from 2012-10-08T02:06:41
In this episode of Virtual Play, Bill and I talk about the Chronica Feudalis game he is running. Set during the First Crusade, Bill’s campaign is a great opportunity to intermix history with rolep...
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Episode 61: Marvel Heroic Roleplaying from 2012-09-10T23:00:48
Hi! Welcome to Virtual Play. This episode is a bit different than normal. Rather than playing several short excerpts intermixed with discussion, I am going to play the more or less complete actu...
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Episode 60: Cthulhu Dark at Dexcon from 2012-08-29T23:24:22
Bill and I are back with the final episode recounting our games from Dexcon 2012. Today’s episode is about Cthulhu Dark, a rules-light game of Lovecraftian Horror by Graham Walmsley. The adventur...
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Episode 59: Ashen Stars and Night’s Black Agents at Dexcon from 2012-08-18T16:00:11
Welcome to Virtual Play! In this episode, Bill and I discuss Ashen Stars and Night’s Black Agents. Bill ran both these games at Dexcon. They are both based on the Gumshoe system, by Pelgrane Pre...
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Episode 58: Classic Traveller at Dexcon from 2012-07-31T02:05:51
As promised, this episode is a recap of the two Classic Traveller games Bill ran at Dexcon. I find these games very entertaining to listen to. They make me want to play! Both these games were es...
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Episode 57: Skulduggery at Dexcon 2012 from 2012-07-30T00:20:36
Our Dexcon wrap-up episodes continue with this look at Skulduggery. It’s an adventure pitting heroes of Mankara against a giant automaton built centuries earlier that has awoken once more to threa...
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