Gaming on the Frontier

Episode 36: Adventuring in Ancient Japan

Adventuring in the past:  Japan from 5th to 11th century.  Blix takes us on an journey to the beginnings of Japanese history and culture - before the samurai.  Here you will find powerful emperors, strong men of the mountains, ninja, and maybe a cappa or two. 02:20 - What no Samurai!? 02:40 - Shifting from tribes to cities. 04:19 - How to get along and fit in with the people of this time. 10:20 - Honor, Buddhism, and Bushido. 11:20 - The seat of power. 12:45 - The Golden Age of Japan. 14:25 - Ninjas and politics.

Episode 35.5: Game Demos and Listener Mail

We provide more information on our Dragon Con demos plus we continue to answer reader mail on how to handle where your team members are met with prejudice and what happens when a team goes missing. 01:20 – Fringeworthy novel release at GenCon. 02:20 – DragonCon Fringe Worthy Savage Worlds event by Blix. 03:50 – ConClave FW d20 adventure by Trav! 04:50 – TriTacGamer Forums. 05:17 – Ideas for improving the role of women in your adventures in difficult areas for women. 13:00 – Minority groups in areas of bigotry. 15:15 – Time travel and ways to avoid paradox. 26:00 – Does IDET send teams to investigate a lost team? 32:00 – Killing off a team is a great idea… Bruce goes homicidal and we let him ;) 36:00 – Bruce hosts the Intro to PodCasting panel at GenCon. It must have gotten cut but Bruce is also running events at DragonCon. He will be running d20 Fringe Worthy events. We apologize for our audio quality on this one; the quality came out a little rough.

Episode 35: Upcoming Demos & Reader Mail

This week Bruce talks about his Fringeworthy demos at Gencon Game Fair in Indianapolis.  He and Blix discuss their upcoming demos at Dragon Con in Atlanta.  Also mentioned are new demos by John Reiher and Trav. Then on to reader mail. What are essential skills for a character and how to make sure they have them? We will have more questions and answers next week.

Episode 34: FW Demo postmortem

John Reiher ran a demo and got a lot of feedback this time.  We discuss his design and execution for his demo and make suggestions for more successful demos.

Episode 33.5 Adventuring in the Past: Americas part 2

This week we continue our discussion of adventuring in the Native American cultures of North, South, and Central America in the 5th to 11th Centuries.

 

We talk about how they conducted war and how the introduction of modern weapons might not have the expected effect.

 

01:50 - Mesoamerican ball games.

05:00 – You are a God King! Trading the “shiny” with the Mayans and the repercussions.

12:45 – Other uses for gun powder.

13:35 – What adventures can you run?

14:40 – Holiest of Holy’s in Mesoamerica.

15:50 – What would fringe pirates do here?

17:00 – Where are the temples and what do they look like?

18:11 – Raiding Maya cities. Jay = Stupid Pirate, Bruce = Violent Pirate, John = Commercial Pirate

22:45 – Where to put portals and how the Maya would treat them.

26:00 – We are Terhmellern.

29:30 – John’s wrap up.

Fringeworthy: The Ed Powers Story

A promo for the soon to be released Fringeworthy novel and an offer for a free proof edition at Gencon 2010.

Episode 33 Adventuring in the Past: Americas

Adventuring in the 5th to 11th centuries:  Americas This week John Reiher takes us on a tour of ancient americas.  Mayans and Mixtecs and Mound Builders, Oh my! 1:49: Exploring the New World 5th to 11th Centuries 2:03: The Mound Builders. 2:27: The Anasazi. 3:00: The Mound Builders: What we know about them. 4:00: The Mayans: the Classic period. They lived in city states, ruled by a God king. 5:02: Combat with the Meso American peoples: Combat is for the taking of prisoners. 5:45: Your place in Mayan society. 6:00: Where to find more information about the Mayan. Wikipedia, Books, lots of them! 6:35: Mayans are not peace loving mathematician astronomers. 6:56: They developed their own writing system. 7:18: Nova: Cracking the Mayan code. 8:39: Dropping a Mellor into a Mayan society. It's a smorgasbord! 10:11: Mayan God Kings were the head of a personality cult. This may have helped lead to the collapse of their cities. 10:43: The Mayans are still living in the Yucatan today. 11:36: Missionaries converted the heathens. Christianity co-ops the local traditions. 13:23: The Mayan state was a caste system. 14:00: How to work the caste system. 14:10: Dealing with the legend of Kukulcan, Queztacoatl. Mayan religion in general. 15:19: The Mayan culture is the culture of personal sacrifice. 15:47: The Mayans were into all kinds of drugs. 16:47:  Trepanning for fun and profit. 18:09: Skull shaping by the Mayan. 18:28: Corn came from Southern North America or Central America. 19:12: Trade in Mayan Society. 19:48: No beasts of burden to provide labor. Guns, Germs, and Steel – [Fringeworthy GM’s read this book!] 20:26: Mayans had a very efficient agriculture that was did in by drought. 20:52: Mixtecs and Chichimecs invaded the Yucatan. 21:45: What kind of adventure to run in the Amazon. 22:04: Massive cultures in the Amazon that were wiped out by plague. 23:23: Most fertile soil in the world: Terra preta. 23:52: They would be friendly to foreigners. 24:22: Watch your step in the Mayans cities. 25:37: No Incas, but the Tiahuanaco built massive structures in the Andes. Tiwanaku – Pre-Incan Peruvians. 25:58: Chariots of the Clods. 27:02: Ancient Astronauts exist on some worlds. 27:18: The Nasca lines are being drawn. What were they for? Paths. 28:40: Having your PCs run into a Mayan raid on another Mayan city. 29:32: The different terrains that the Mayan lived in and their roads. 31:00: Fighting folks with obsidian swords. 32:01: Gas them with CS if you have the choice. 32:44: Flying over the Mayans. 33:36: Cortez didn't play by the rules.

Episode 32.5 How big is BIG? Pt 2

Bruce and Blix continue their discussion of how taking the time to understand how objects of huge or micro scale can greatly affect an adventure.  They continue on and add the meta discussion of how big or small to  make your campaign as well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSY42-QTfDM&NR=1

Episode 32: How big is BIG?

This week Blix and Bruce discuss how differences in scale can radically change the nature of an adventure and any solutions to problems presented in the adventure.  Why this is important in a science fiction game. 01:20 – Dealing with super fast speeds in space. Astronomical Unit, Speed of Light 04:10 – Saving an entire society and dealing with large scale problems. 06:30 – Dealing with the small scale. 13:20 – The scope of the adventures and campaigns. Little game time requires a small scope. Lots of games time allows for bigger scope. 18:50 – Fringe Pirate example of story arcs. 24:20 – Running one adventure after another with no big arcs. 25:50 – Know your players. Only run scopes as big as their desires.

Episode 31: Adventuring in the Past - Persia and India

We explore Persia and India from the 5th to the 11th century.  Hop a ride with sinbad and catch the belt of Vishnu. This one is a little fact heavy but we have provided plenty of links to everything disscussed so you can listen without taking notes. You can look everything up from the notes page later on.

Persia

01:50 – Trade in Persia

Caliphate, Sunni, Shi'ah, Caliph

03:30 – Missions

04:20 – Historically accurate – the “real” ugly dirty past vs. “movie style” pristine romantic past.

Sinbad, Richard Burton, 1001 Nights,  Black Plague, Islamic Golden Age

08:50 – Beware the religion bomb. See Episode 7 for more info.

10:31 – Battles and Wars

Ottoman Empire, Bagdad

11:15 – Mellors in ancient Persia

12:00 – The effect of the crusades.

Saladin, Crusaders

 

India

16:00 – Dynasties of ancient India.

India, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam

17:45 – The role of the caste systems.

Caste System

22:00 – Cultural influences on India.

Alexander the Great, Khyber Pass

24:00 – Caste conflicts within the party and “on-world”.

27:20 – How are outsiders treated during this time?

29:45 – Adventure idea #1 - Plausible Deniability.

31:30 – Adventure idea #2 – Temple of Doom.

Hashshashin, Thuggees, Temple of Doom

32:15 – Crypto archeology in India.

Erich von Däniken, Crypto Archeology, Hinduism in the Ice Age

33:34 – Ancient Indian treasures.

34:20 – Graphic novels featuring Indian mythology.

Deepak Chopra’s India Authentic, Ramayan 3392 A.D.

35:30 – Religious aspects of Hindu - Buddhism in game play.