Gaming on the Frontier

Episode 75: Making Great Adventures

This week we come live From Balticon! This episode Blix hijacks the show once again to record live from a convention. His co-hosts include Scott Sigler, John Monahan, Chris Lester, and Travis Surber. We discuss ways to kick your adventures out of the mundane and into overdrive. All of my co-hosts have published works and are experienced gamers. This is a must not miss episode! Scott Sigler John Monahan Chris Lester Travis Surber

Episode 74: Hard Wired Hinterland Intro Campaign

This week Bruce Sheffer presents his intro campaign for the Hard Wired Hinterland game.  He provides a series of adventures that leads to a great conclusion and forms a platform for continuing adventures.  Peter, John, and Trav help bring the awesome to this adventure arc for fledgling players and GM's in the Hard Wired Hinterland.

Episode 73: State of Fringeworthy Address

The state of things for the Savage Worlds edition of Fringeworthy. Spoilers, contest announcement, and just straight up goodies. Come and get some! Under the break are the new Skills and Edges for Fringeworthy.

New Skills:

Craft (Agility, Smarts. or Spirit) You are skilled at one of several crafts. Depending on the craft, this skill is based on Agility, Smarts, or Spirit. Some example craft focuses: Craft (Writing) Smarts, Craft (Carpentry) Agility, Craft (Painting) Spirit, or Craft (Demolitions) Smarts. You can use this skill to create something of value or for use by yourself or other people, or build an item for a specific purpose and quality. The GM decides how many rolls and how many successes you will need to complete the creation of the object and how long it will take. Depending on the number of successes you roll, the value or the quality of the item will increase or decrease. Raises count as extra successes. The GM can also set the difficulty for creating the item, starting with a target number of 4 and going up beyond that. For example: You decide to create a table using your Craft (Carpentry) d6 skill and then sell it. The GM decides that you need four successes on four rolls to build a table worth $50 and that it will take you a day to do build it. Every success above these 4 will increases the value by $10. For every each failure under four successes, the value drops by $10, and to zero dollars if you roll four failures in a row. Your target number is 4. You roll the following: 11, 1, 5, 9. You get 5 successes, increasing the value of the table by $10, for a total value of $60. Now you have to use either your Persuasion skill or Streetwise skill to sell that table. Performance (Spirit) Performance is a catchall skill for the various types of entertainment. This skill must have a focus, such as Performance (Singing) or Performance (Newsreader). The skill can be taken multiple times for different focuses. You can use your Charisma bonus when rolling this skill. Use this skill to entertain, inform, or mimic another person.

New Edges:

Actor Requirements:Novice, Spirit d6 You are a natural entertainer. You thrill the audience and make strong men weep. You gain a +2 to the Performance skill. Fringeworthy Requirements: Novice, Free to Player Characters. You are Fringeworthy. You have the rare ability to use the Tehrmelern portals that lead to the Fringepaths. All player characters get this edge for free. It can be acquired by a other characters only by handling a crystal key over time. Although it will rarely come into play in regard to Earth born player characters, it should be noted that traveling the Fringepaths over an extended period of time imparts Fringe Vigor, slowing the aging process and even partially reversing the debilities of old age. Humans of 500 years or older are not unheard of on the 'Paths. In addition, you've now have a connection to the crystal keys that the Tehrmelern created to control the portals and with that connection, you can now call on different crystal key powers from these crystals. You've gained a new skill, Crystal Key Use, at d4, and two powers: Locate Portal and Find Fringeworthy. You have to take the New Power Edge to gain access to more crystal powers. You also receive an initial 10 Crystal Power Points to use these powers. You can gain more power points by taking the edge Power Points. Crystal Power Points regenerate at the same rate as normal Power Points. You can only use a single Tehrmelern crystal and command one crystal power at a time. Crystals are rated from 1-11. Types 8 to 11 have a defensive power. Types 9-11 have an offensive power. All crystals act as key at varying security levels for the portals and other Tehrmelern technology. (See Crystal Keys for more information.) Handy Man Requirements: Novice, Smarts d6 When it comes to working with your hands, you're second to none. You can make just about any object or device, given the right resources and sufficient time. You gain a +2 to the Repair skill and to all Craft skills.

Episode 72: Saying Yes

This week we explore the concept of always trying to say yes to whatever another player might want to do in a game.  Whether GM or Player we should always support each other's most creative efforts.  However there are some dangers to avoid, and we talk about that too. This starts our summer season where the episodes will intentionally be only 1/2 hour in length.  With all the conventions and family obligations of the summer months we can't get together as often to record as we can the rest of the year.  We hope we will be able to provide enough content to satisfy our loyal listeners. Please let us know how we are doing.  Especially please comment on our various forums, web pages, and facebook with any questions about any game we produce.  We will answer them there and in a podcast as soon as possible.

Episode 71: Props part 2

This week we finish our discussion of props, sound, gaming environments, and a lot of other factors that can lift your gaming experience to new heights.

Episode 70: Props pt 1

We have a lengthy interview with RPG dramatist Andre Krupa about using props, lighting, sound and more to make your adventures pop.  This week we have the first part with an hour long episode next week finishing it up.

Episode 69: The Big Bad pt 2

We continue our discussion of the big bad focusing on Tri Tac's much unappreciated gem: Beach Bunny Bimbo's with Blasters.  Also we discussion Stellar Games: Night Life, A.C.E and A.C.E Supers Stellar Games products are available through Tri Tac Games.

Episode 68: The Big Bad

Who is the big bad of your game?  Does he/she/it make  the player gnash their teeth, froth at the mouths, and shake their fists?  What are some examples of good big bad antagonists that really drive the story and the characters?

Episode 67: Electrostatic Dome Crystal Use and Dimixi

As promised, we have a full episode with is actually two recording sessions.  First we discuss the Fringeworthy advanced crystal powers as part of a question from Eric of the Travcast.  He wanted to know how the protective electrostatic dome power worked.  Then we follow that with a discussion of the Fringeworty Alien Corps race:  The Dimixi.  These spider-like creatures have many nuances that spring into view as we discuss them.  We hope you will include them in your Fringeworthy Game. As a special treat.  Richard Tucholka took part in the Dimixi discussion.  It is always great to hear from him about how we've extended and possibly abused his games.  Even after 30 years, he still surprises us with background info nobody every recorded until now.

Episode 66: Total Con Review pt 2

We continue our review of the podcast Blix recorded on Interdimensional Gaming at TotalCon.