Episode 164: Greg Gorden Discusses Torg Eternity and Game Design

In Episode 164 of Geekerati Radio, we had the honor of speaking with award winning game designer Greg Gorden about his work on the Torg Eternity Role Playing Game and his thoughts on game design in general. Greg Gorden is one of the most influential game designers in the role playing game industry and his design work includes James Bond 007 for Victory Games, DC Heroes for Mayfair Games, Earthdawn for FASA, Deadlands for Pinnacle Entertainment Group, and Torg for West End Games, and Torg: Eternity for Ulisses Spiele. He has also worked on the Star Wars Role Playing Game for West End Games and many editions of Dungeons & Dragons. Many of his games have gone on to win Origins Awards in their respective categories. He is Ulisses Spiele's line developer for the Torg Eternity Role Playing Game.

Segment 1

In the first segment of the episode, we talk about Torg Eternity and its innovative concept of "invading realities" as a role playing game setting. During this segment, we begin to see some insights into Greg Gorden's continuing efforts to bring player agency into role playing games.

Segment 2

In the second segment, we do a deep dive into Greg's past role playing game design work and explore where he came up with the concepts of "exploding die rolls" and using "dice as attributes." These are only some of the elements of our discussion, but it's a great chat. Have a listen and feel free to share your thoughts.

Segment 3

Episode 164 wraps up with our "Dungeons and Dilemmas" segment featuring Game Master Extraordinaire David Nett. This time we discuss the challenges of designing one shot adventures for three different audiences: your home game, a gaming convention, and for an online streaming show. David's experience working on Geek & Sundry's Starter Kit show and his recent show on ShoutTV! provide him with a wealth of experience on the topic. Give him a listen, then read his followup Twitter thread, and join in the conversation.

Products Discussed

Every episode, we discuss a wide range of popular culture. The discussion can include references to role playing games, comic books, television series, and films. As a part of our mission to share the things we love, we always include a section of the blog post dedicated to highlighting the things we mention so you can check them out and see why we love them so much.

• James Bond 007 -- Victory Games
• DC Heroes -- Mayfair Games
• Earthdawn -- FASA
• Deadlands -- Pinnacle Entertainment Group
• Torg -- West End Games
• Torg: Eternity -- Ulisses Spiele
• Tunnels and Trolls -- Flying Buffalo Games
• Starter Kit -- Geek and Sundry
• Always a Sword -- Shout TV!
• Protocol RPGs -- post world games
• Ten Candles -- Cavalry Games
• Krull -- Columbia Pictures
• Hawk the Slayer -- ITC Entertainment
• Shout TV!
• Over the Edge -- Atlas Games 
• Smallville -- Margaret Weis Productions

Episode 163: Toy Wizards, Pop Lurkers, and Running Mysteries.

Episode 163 is filled with reviews and interviews and comes in at one hour and 52 minutes!

Segments 1 and 2: Something Old/Something New

The "something new" for episode 163 are the Young Adventurer's Guides from Ten Speed Press. Weapons & Warriors and Monsters & Creatures are written by Jim Zub, Stacy King, and Andrew Wheeler as introductions to D&D fantasy tropes for younger readers who are interested in playing Dungeons & Dragons.

The books are described as "all the information you need to start building your own characters and putting together your adventuring party," but are they? Listen and find out.

The Supercrew by Tobias Radesäter is a rules light roleplaying game of superheroic action. Like the old Masters of the Universe Role Playing Game, the rules for the game are presented in a comic book format. Supercrew's central conceit is that the players are playing super heroic versions of themselves, which provides game masters with an interesting opportunity that I discuss in my review.

Does The Supercrew work as a role playing game, or is it a mere novelty item?

Segment 3: An Interview with the Toy Wizards 

Toy-Wizards is one of the go to websites for toy collecting news and we had the honor of interview to of the Toy Wizard crew, Loryn Stone and Scott Zillner, in this episode.

Image Source -- Toy Wizards

Loryn Stone is the Editor in Chief of Toy Wizards and has dedicated her life to the Word of the Nerd. She is most excited by collecting toys, writing about them, and infiltrating the convention scene. Loryn is also the writer of SyFy Wire’s ‘Important Toy News’ column, as well as the site owner and Executive Editor of Toy Wizard’s sister site, PopLurker.com.

Her writing has been published on other pop culture websites such as Cracked, LoadScreen, Nerdbot, That Hashtag Show, and Temple of Geek. Her toy collection is comprised of Megazords, Gundam, miscellaneous robots and trinkets, Sailor Moon, Snoopy, Otaku Garbage, and Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Image Source -- Toy Wizards

Scott Zillner is a world-renowned toy collector and the owner and founder of Toy Wizards. He grew up in the 1980s, the undisputed greatest decade ever. He truly believes in collecting, and his once hobby is now his lifestyle. A new world Renaissance man, he is a professional Artist, Toy Expert, and Convention promoter. He collects massive amounts of toys, games, and art. He also runs several pop culture conventions.

As a Professional Artist, he worked on Disney’s 2010 Tron Legacy film, painting the light bikes and toys in young Flynn’s room. The same year, his Tron Stich collectible vinyl sculpture from Disney was released.

Segment 4: Dungeons & Dilemmas -- Running Mysteries

In our second Dungeons and Dilemmas segment, writer/director David Nett and I discuss the challenges Dungeon Masters face when running mystery themed adventures in role playing games.  David came to the discussion with three key recommendations, but the conversation ended with five. Along the way, we make a number of pop culture adventures and give insight into our own personal game campaigns.

Episode Segments Featured Discussion of the Events and Products Listed Below:

• Toon Con (November 10, 2019) - A new convention that celebrates all genres and eras of animated entertainment.
• Powermorphicon - The largest convention dedicated to the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
• Japan World Heroes (August 16-18, 2019) - A convention dedicated to Kaiju, tokusatsu, Giant Robots and more. 
• D&D Basic Set - This is the Tom Moldvay Basic Set that inspired a Generation of young kids.
• The Veiled Society - One of the first D&D modules to break out of the dungeon and into the city.
• The Tomb of Horrors - The dungeon Gary Gygax wrote to put power gamers in their place.
• Players Essentials: Heroes of the Fallen Lands - While the early 4th edition books didn't capture the imagination the way some hoped, the Essentials series was fantastic.
• The Dungeons & Dragons Essentials Kit - This game set is exclusive to Target. Hunt it down. It's worth it.
• The Dungeons & Dragons Starter Kit - All you need to start playing D&D.
• Monster Slayers: Heroes of Hesiod - An adventure for young players written by Susan J. Morris.
• Monster Slayers: Champions of the Elements - Another Susan J. Morris adventure for younger players.
• Warriors & Weapons -- by Jim Zub, Stacy King, and Andrew Wheeler.
• Monsters & Creatures -- by Jim Zub, Stacy King, and Andrew Wheeler.
• The Supercrew -- by  Tobias Radesäter
• A Study in Scarlet -- by Arthur Conan Doyle.
• Dune -- by Frank Herbert

We hope you enjoy your listening experience. We've got a lot of great interviews lined up in the future and you can leave us voice messages on our Anchor.fm page if you have any topics you'd like us to discuss.

Episode 162: Not So Tiny Conversations About Tiny d6

It's time for Episode 162 of Geekerati and this one is a doozy, coming in at approximately 2 1/2 hours of content.

Segment 1:

The first segment of episode 162 is a 30 minute interview with Alan Bahr of Gallant Knight Games who joins us to discuss GKG's wonderful catalog of role playing games. During the interview we go into a detailed discussion of Tiny Supers, Tiny Dungeon, and GKG's other Tiny d6 role playing games. We also discuss how Alan's company runs the gamut of the indie rpg world from OSR style games like For Coin and Blood to one shot pick up and play narrative games like Beach Patrol. It was a great conversation and our experience with the Tiny Supers role playing game inspired us to write up quick statistics for The Human Torch and The Invisible Woman using the Tiny Supers rules set. You can find those characters down below and we'd love to hear your thoughts on how you would adapt the characters to the Tiny Supers system.

Segment 2:

Since we were highlighting Tiny d6 games in our main interview, we thought it would be a great opportunity to expose listeners to a delightful Kickstarter project launched to support Tiny Dungeon 2nd Edition. The Micronomicon Kickstarter features new spells, new archetypes, and more importantly new "micro-settings." John D Payne and Gregory Israel stopped by to chat about this wonderful project and to share their love of the Tiny d6 system in general. It's a wonderful discussion.

John D Payne is the editor of The Micronomicon and he has a Patreon account which supports his game design efforts. The Patreon has a large number of backer supported extras that you might want to check out.

Gregory Israel's designs have been featured in the Tiny Dungeon 2nd Edition rulebook and in issues of Tinyzine, an official online magazine that supports the Tiny d6 line of games. Gregory is also the author of Between Sun and Shadow, a setting for the Tiny Dungeon system.

Segments 3 and 4:

Segments 3 and 4 contained our regular Something Old and Something New segment. This week, I  highlighted the Beach Patrol game from Gallant Knight Games as the Something New and Tales from the Floating Vagabond by Lee Garvin as the Something Old. Both of these games are humorous in nature and can be used to emulate the action of 80s and 90s shows. I had intended to include a review of Extreme Vengeance by Archangel Studios as well, but that will have to wait for a future episode. Hopefully an episode where we interview Philip Reed or Tony Lee who were involved with that particular project.

Segment 5:

We were finally able to reveal one of the exciting changes to the Geekerati podcast in Episode 162 with the addition of the Dungeons and Dilemmas segment with writer and director David Nett. Nett was on the vanguard of gaming related webseries and his Gold series set a high standard, particularly its second season Night of the Zombie King. We are honored to have him as our regular game mastering expert Dungeons and Dilemmas.

Segments of this episode discussed the products and blogs below.

Products Discussed/Featured in this Episode

• Tiny Supers by Alan Bahr from Gallant Knight Games.
• Tiny Dungeon 2nd Edition by Alan Bahr from Gallant Knight Games.
• Beach Patrol by Alan Bahr from Gallant Knight Games.
• Tales from the Floating Vagabond by Lee Garvin.
  
• Gingerbread Kaiju by Stan! from Rogue Genius Games.
• Tiny Zine Issue 10 featuring Swords Against Deviltry from Gallant Knight Games.
• The Micronomicon Kickstarter by John D Payne.
• Between Sun and Shadow by Gregory Israel from Blue Oxrat Games.
• Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher (Book 1 of the Codex Alera)
• The Aeronaut's Windlass by Jim Butcher (Book 1 of The Cinder Spires)
• The Dresden Files book series by Jim Butcher.
• Jason Statham's Big Vacation a Free Indie RPG by Grant Howitt.
• John D Payne's Patreon for Exploding Seed Games.
• Gallant Knight Games' Patreon.
• Geek & Sundry's Starter Kit Show.
• Vampire the Masquerade 5th Edition by Modiphius.
• My First D&D Experience (Pants Issues) by Christian Lindke

A Glimpse at Two Quick Tiny Supers Characters

No post should be without gaming content if we can help it, so here's this post's weekly does of gaming goodness.

While the Fantastic Four has never quite been able to translate successfully to the big screen, they are among Marvel Comics' most iconic characters. The brother and sister team of Johnny Storm and Sue Storm-Richards are particular favorites of the Geekerati crew, so we jumped at the chance to convert them to the Tiny Supers role playing game system as a way to test it out. It's a pretty good fit, but maybe your take would be a little bit different. Feel free to give us your ideas for how you would adapt these or other characters to this quick and easy to play super hero role playing game. Is Johnny a "Striker"? Is Susan Richards best defined as a "Defender"? Would you use a different mix of powers?

Los Angeles Gamer Gallery: David Nett

In this first entry in the Los Angeles Gamer Gallery series, we'll be taking a quick look at David Nett. He is a gamer, actor, webseries producer/writer/director, one of the founders of Nerdstrong Gym, and a tremendous advocate for the role playing game hobby. David came to Los Angeles after attending the University of Minnesota at Duluth in order to pursue a career in acting.

I first became aware of David Nett when he and his production company put together an interesting webseries entitled GOLD. The series was about a professional role playing gamer who suffered an injury during a championship match that left him emotionally scarred and unable to effectively lead the U.S. team in international competition. His story takes place at a time when viewers are abandoning watching live games in favor of computer based competitions surrounding MMORPGs. At the time, I thought the story seemed far fetched. Who would watch live role playing game sessions? Other than me that is. In the years since, David seems to have been on to something. While online Game Streams aren't competitive in nature, they can be quite sophisticated and very entertaining.

GOLD: Episode 1 (HD) from David Nett on Vimeo.

Where the first season/series of GOLD displays all of the rough edges one expects from an early project, and a significant amount of what I call pilotitis, the second season is a very entertaining and far more personal tale. That series, entitled Night of the Zombie King, doesn't appear to be available for streaming right now, but it is well worth tracking down a copy. Where the first season of GOLD tried to simulate a world with professional gaming on a large scale, this season brings it down to the individual level and tells the tale of a gamer coming home to finish a campaign left unfinished when he moved away from his small town to a larger community. It's a tale of returning to old friends and reliving fond memories while overcoming past wrongs. It's very good and deserves to be expanded into something more.

David recently stopped by Geek & Sundry's GM TIPS show with Satine Phoenix where they discuss what to do when your stories get derailed.

From his acting and directing career, to his work at Nerdstrong Gym, David has found a way to incorporate his gaming experiences into his work and creative endeavors. This is a common theme in the Southern California gaming community, and one of the things I love about it. The gamers I've met down here are about expanding the hobby and using what they've learned in the hobby to make them better at everything else they do. When my friends and I were working on the pre-production of our failed documentary about the "gamers hidden among us" called Dice Chuckers, David was one of the people we wanted to have as our principle interviewees.

GOLD Webseries Posts First "Companion" Series Trailer

David Nett and company have posted a trailer for a one-shot spin-off webisode of their popular GOLD rpg gamer drama web series entitled NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIE KING. From the looks of the trailer, this one shot will lack some of the features that rubbed me the wrong way in the original series. I still think the original series is entertaining and well crafted, but this trailer hints that the storytelling talents of the GOLD crew are getting better and better.



My one complaint regarding the performances in the trailer is that the physical conflict in the middle looks forced and inorganic. As such, itloses some of the dramatic power it could otherwise have.