Wow, this one took a long time to put out. I recorded this episode with Tracy back in November, and it took a long, long time to get it out there due to Christmas, college, children, and lots of other factors.

This episode, we talked about realism in games. Is realism a good thing? A trivial thing?

I just recorded another episode last night, and hope to have it up soon. Keep your eyes open for Dice Monkey Radio Episode 4.

Interested in being a co-host in the future? Let me know. I’m always looking for new blood.

Run, don’t walk, over to the latest episode of Dice Monkey Radio.

This episode is a bit different than the last two: A bonus episode with no news, no editing, and 6 hosts!

The hosts are: Tim from Dice, Food, Lodging, Jenn of Jennisodes, Michael of Online Dungeon Master, Michael of The Id DM, Gary of GMSarli Games, and of course, myself.

I know! It’s like a cornucopia of superstars!

I was really excited to record this episode. Note that I normally spend weeks editing a single episode, and spent next to no time editing this one, so you may hear some strange noises, awkward pauses, and other things here and there. Enjoy!

I’ve been posting up things on Twitter, little projects I’ve been working on, and almost every time, someone says, “Jeeze, man, how many projects are you working on?!”

Good question.

My hobby is collecting projects. I’ll often begin working on something, then leave it to the side when I become bored, only to come back to it again months later. This is what’s been going on with Veil of Secrecy (formerly known as Pointman, Hacker & Thief). I was expecting to have it out by the end of last year, but it now looks to be done by the end of this year.

So, here’s what I’m working on.

Websites

Dice Monkey: Still going strong here. I post up whenever I think of things to write about. It used to be every day (sometimes twice a day), but lately, it’s dwindled to every other day or so.

Dungeons and Dragons and Dads: I write for this one on occasion, and I’ve got some ideas for articles. It’s just a matter of getting it done.

The Time That is Given Us: This is my site for my writing. Here’s where I collect what I’ve written in one place. There’s no set schedule, so as I write a piece of fiction, it’ll go up there.

Podcasts

RPG Circus: I’m still on the show, as I’m available. The last few episodes, I haven’t been able to make, but I hope to get back to it.

Dice Monkey Radio: Formerly called the Dice Monkey Dicecast, this is a new podcast I’ve started. One episode is up, another one is in editing. It’ll only be going up about once a month, so I have plenty of time for editing. It only requires getting one other person on, and who that is is different every month, so I can just fit it into my schedule. Not too time consuming. It’s put out by the Tome Show, so I just pass it along to Jeff when I’m done.

Gaming

The Godfell Stone: I’m currently running a 4e campaign, which you’ve seen here on the site. It’s going well, though we haven’t gotten together in the last few weeks.

Star Wars: Shattered Alliance: This is a game of Star Wars I’m running on RPOL.net. It’s with the group of friends I’ve been playing with since 2000 or so. After we wrapped up the story that started 11 years ago, we started a new one. I keep forgetting to get on there and post, but I really need to.

Star Wars d6: I’m running this occasionally for a group of guys, including Gary Sarli and Enrique Bertran. We play on Maptools, and will be getting together soon again (I hope).

Fiasco

With Great Power…: This was sitting on my computer for about two months. One day, my brother and I hopped online and began writing up different notes for this Fiasco Playset. Then… it sat there. I finally knocked the layout out in about a half an afternoon, as I already had the template from when I did Toil & Trouble. It’s been moderately successful. While I’ve seen some play session reports from Toil & Trouble, nothing from With Great Power… so far. Hopefully I’ll get some feedback soon.

Where No Man Has Gone Before: This is my next playset. It’ll be dealing with Star Trek-ian themes. Hope to mock a few tropes here and there. Also, I’m considering a Mission mechanic to add to the game. I look forward to working on it.

A Scarred Face in Miami: I’m going to be working on this one with Enrique. He’s been kicking around the idea of a 70′s-80′s Miami playset for a while now, and wants to write it. I think I’m being used for my graphic art skills, though…

Other Projects

Veil of Secrecy: It’s off at the editor’s! I finally got it done; an espionage RPG. My first full RPG. I plan on making a PoD version of it once it’s out, too. Stuart Robertson of Robertson Games is working on the cover, and it’ll be laid out by Michael Wolf of Stargazer’s World. It’ll be released through Stargazer Games as a free PDF. I really look forward to seeing a finished copy!

The Powergrid System: I’ve got an idea rattling around for a superhero RPG. I’d love to write it down, but I’ve been chatting with Scott of The Angry DM about the mechanics. Not much more to say on that at the moment.

Innstrad 4e Supplement: I’m taking the material WotC has been putting out on their site about the new Magic: The Gathering set, and assembling it into PDF, adding in 4e rules such as monsters, knowledge rolls, and such. I’ve gotten the first chapter done. You can see what I’ve got here.

Imperial Guard Army: I’ve got a Warhammer 40,000 army that really, really needs to get assembled, painted, and onto the battlefield. Not sure when I’ll be done, but it’s a pretty large army still on its sprue.

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And that’s about it. So I keep myself busy by gathering projects and sitting on them for a while. Keep an eye open as some of these projects get completed!

Wow, I’ve got a lot of news, which I’ve forgotten to show you all!

Firstly, a couple weeks ago, I got some Dungeonstone in the mail! Leo of Dungeonstone was on the RPG Circus Podcast, where he discussed his methods for making them, as well as other things. I told him I’d be definitely buying some soon. Well, I did! I bought the basic set, and it arrived only a week later, just in time for my game session (which I still haven’t posted about…)

I made a video of the unboxing, so here it is!

Secondly, I have a new podcast! Jeff at The Tome Show has graciously given me his air-waves, and allowed me to start a podcast. It’s part of his Tome Show feed, so if you’re subscribed to his show, you’re subscribed to mine!

If you follow the link here, you’ll see it’s called the Dice Monkey Dicecast. Turns out, there’s already a show called the DiceCast, so I’ve renamed it as Dice Monkey Radio, which it’ll be called from here on out. Hope you enjoy it! The next episode, we’ll be talking about playing online games.

That’s about all. As soon as I get a free moment to start making Transformers, I’m going to do so. I’ll probably do Bumblebee, Starscream, Optimus Prime and Megatron, then let everyone make their own from there.

I’m finally caught up: All eight episodes so far of the Reckless Dice podcast. It’s the only podcast out there (as far as I’m aware) that exclusively covers Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3e.

The hosts are very knowledgeable about the subjects, have great banter, and none of them sounds like an old grognard.

One thing that’s kept my podcast-listening low is hearing grumpy people with annoying voices and horrible audio quality fumble through a show, and spending two hours to do it. Not so with these hosts.

They keep the show moving and entertaining, their audio is all on par with each other, and they stay focused.

Each show follows a standard format: The hosts start the show, Jesse “Gitzman” Burke talks about the updates he’s made to the SHDMotWOW (Super-Huge Detailed Map of the World of Warhammer), an immense map he’s developed, that keeps getting bigger and bigger. It’s a fantastic resource for anyone playing any edition of Warhammer.

During this first part of the show, they spend some time speculating over the next release, how they think new mechanics will work, and the like. They’ve conceived of a few good mechanics that never saw fruition.

Following that, they will have their System Spotlight, where they discuss an aspect of the rules that makes it different than other RPGs. They’ve done a lot to explain certain aspects of the game I still didn’t quite understand. I still haven’t delved into the rules for magic, but their episode that covered that really helped me grok how the rules work.

They did a great series on the Chaos gods, in which they broke down how each of them worked. They still haven’t covered Slaanesh, but I imagine they’ll do that after the book for Slaanesh comes out, whenever that may be.

They devote a really good portion of their show to Q&A, which you can send in via their site, email, Twitter or Facebook. They really know their stuff, and seem to have researched everything a lot.

In the weeks between them recording, they post actual play podcasts of the published adventures, which they run on MapTools. I haven’t listened to much of those, because during the character creation episode, there was a guy who was breathing really, really heavily, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to continue to listen if it was like that. I really should listen to a more recent episode to see if that’s still the case.

If you have any interest in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3e, or are looking to get into it and find out what it’s all about, you should check out the podcast.

Day two of GenCon was busy, busy, busy and fantastic!

This morning we woke up too late for the game we were scheduled for, so instead we went over to the Dealer Hall and wandered for a while. Bridget picked up a set of Game Science dice, we got a stuffed dragon for Gabe, and we got the new Mousling figures from Reaper. They’re basically Mouse Guard mice, and are very cool. Kudos to Reaper for having a military discount as well!

We got to meet Shelly Mazzanoble over in the Author’s Alley. We got to talk for a while, and she’s very, very nice. Bridget lamented forgetting to bring her copy of Confessions of a Part-Time Sorceress to have her sign.

I saw the Malifaux Terraclips terrain, and to be honest, was underwhelmed. The cardstock was too thin, so it bowed in places, and the plastic clips were too obvious and took away from the asthetic.

While in the Dealer Hall, I got a text from the TOFtBCHes telling me that Dan from Fear The Boot was going to be running a game of the Star Trek Tactical Starship game, which Dan has talked about frequently in the past.  They had two spots left, so Bridget and I ran up and joined the game.

It was an awesome game. Each person on the crew of the ship fills a role in the crew: Captain, Engineer, Weapons Officer, Science Officer and Helmsman. They all have to work together to successfully fight the other ship, which is also manned by another five people. I played the Engineer, sending power to the other systems of the ship and repairing any damage. Bridget was the Weapons Officer, in control of the phasers and torpedos.

We played the Romulans, sneaking up on a Federation ship in the Neutral zone as the Feds dropped an away team onto a planet to destroy a Romulan compound, then extract their crew and fly away. With cloaking device active, we moved in.

The game was a blast, with phaser and torpedo fire going everywhere. In the end, the Federation got away, but not without taking heavy damage to their Warp engines. It was a fantastic game. While the rules were overwhelming at first, we all got it. Bridget kept telling me for the rest of the day how phenomenal the game was.

After that, we rushed over to the GM’s Jam panel, where we showed up late, but had a great time talking with other GMs about issues they were having. On the panel with me were Jeff and Zach from RPG Circus, Dante from Stupid Ranger, and DNAPhil from Gnome Stew. Dante put out a great piece of advice: “Our characters can level up, and so can we.”

We then went over to The House at Union Station for a big RPG Bloggers and Podcasters meetup. It was awesome! We met a ton of other RPGers, and had some great conversations with Enrique, Quinn Murphy, Sarah Darkmagic, Chris Simms and Mike Shae. Newbie, Quinn and I had a great talk about an upcoming project we’re working on (which Bridget graciously took notes on) and Quinn and I talked about another project the two of us are working on.

It was a fantastic night, and I feel like now I can really call all these people “friend” now that I’ve met them all in person.

Yes, that’s right! We’re going to tell you exactly where we’ll be!

(Note there are a lot of board games here. We actually play a lot of board games here at home, so we’re happy to get out there and play some we’ve never tried before.)

Let’s start with Friday, our first day there. We’re assuming I’m going to be able to get that Friday off work to drive down.

FRIDAY

11:00: “I’m Wil Wheaton, and I’m a Gamer“: We’re going to go see my “Wil Save” himself, Bridget’s old pen pal. I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to talk to him.

12:00: Mouse Guard: Winter 1152: This is my Mouse Guard game I’ll be running. If you’re interested, contact me on Twitter. My handle is @markmeredith. This will run for a couple of hours.

3:00: Warhammer Fantasy RP 3e: This is the Warhammer game I’ll be running. Again, if you’re interested, etc. We’ve already got a few people interested.

And that’s it for my scheduled stuff. Bridget and I are going to go on a date that night, since we don’t have much time to when we’ve got the munchkin in tow. That evening, we’ll be milling about, so if you’re interested in hanging out, I’ll be on Twitter all weekend.

SATURDAY

10:00: Guillotine: We’re excited to play some Guillotine, one of our favorite card games.

2:00: Ticket to Ride with Europa 1912 Expansion: Bridget’s never played, so we’ll be using this to occupy our time until…

4:00: GM’s Jam: I’ll be on this panel with Zach from RPG Blog II and a few others. We’ll be talking about RPGs and how to be a better GM.

6:00: Atlantis: This is a board game we’ll be playing. Neither of us have played, and we’re interested in seeing how it turns out.

8:00: Media Meet & Greet: We’ll be here to chat with anyone about blogging and podcasting. We really look forward to seeing all the RPG Bloggers there!

After that, we’re pretty much free! I’ll have my phone synched with Twitter to get any @’s.

SUNDAY

Sunday we’ve only got two events planned.

10:00: Hey, That’s My Fish: This is another board game we’ve been interested in playing.

12:00: The Adventurers: This game by AEG looks pretty awesome.

And beyond that, we’ll be free for other activities.

We’re looking at hitting up some other events in our free time: Tower of Gygax, WotC’s Lair of the Dread Witch, Dark Sun, some free painting, perhaps one of the HirstArts seminars, and the MechWarrior Simulators.

I look forward to seeing a lot of people there, including some game designers and the guys from Fear the Boot. And getting some interviews and an episode recorded for RPG Circus, of course.

If there are any events we’re missing that are going to be big, let us know! If you want us to play in your games, let us know!

This, I think, was one of our best episodes yet. I had a great time.

You’ll find: My review of Warhammer 3rd Edition (which has people very sharply divided between “it’s a pretty solid game” and “OMG! THIS IS THE WORST GAME IN EXISTENCE! *Froth, froth*”), making terrain count in your game and the difference in game feel between open ended/exploding dice and static dice.

Check it out here. And remember to subscribe and leave a review on iTunes.

"These don't exist. No, really guys. Trust me on this."

On a recent episode of Fear the Boot, the hosts discussed “lying to your players”. You’ll note I put that in quotes.

They had a serious issue with the idea of telling your players one thing, then revealing it to not be true later on. They worried it would break player/GM trust.

I personally don’t see it as an issue. I’d go so far as to say it’s an obligation for a GM to lie to their players.

Every time the player roles badly on a Spot check, the GM shouldn’t tell the player, “it doesn’t appear to you that the door is trapped.” No, no, an emphatic no. You should be telling the player “it’s not trapped,” because that’s what the player believes, having failed the check. If you tell them something doesn’t “appear” a certain way, they’re only going to believe that it must be the opposite, otherwise you would have told them. You’re almost giving away the truth by your wording.

I can’t see an issue with GM/player trust when it comes to telling them information about the world. If you say (an example from the episode) that there are no dwarves in this campaign world, then they encounter a dwarf, I can’t forsee a player saying “screw this! I quit! You lied to me!” No, the correct response would be for their character to be confused as to what this creature was.

Player/GM trust comes from a player trusting the GM to not throw an ancient dragon at a 1st level party, or a player not doing something they knowingly know will bother the GM or throw the game out of whack. It doesn’t come from withholding world information from them their characters wouldn’t know anything about.

What do you think?

It’s another Monday, and you know what that means? Another fantastic Top 5. These are my top five favorite things this week.

1. Happy Jacks RPG Podcast

Even though RPG Circus recorded a bumper for the beginning of their podcast, and they recorded one for ours a while back, I’ve never actually listened to Happy Jacks until this week. It’s a great roundtable discussion, with a gaming group, talking about different games and topics that pertain to RPGs, such as alignment and player options. It’s been a great listen so far. Give it a listen.

2. One Monk Miniatures

I’ve been downloading free sets from One Monk for a while, and haven’t ever plucked up the courage to actually start putting any together. Then, last week, I started putting together some modern horror figures, and discovered how easy it was to assemble the paper miniatures they make. The Crypt Worm (right) is a different story, but I’m going to try to get it assembled soon and use it in an upcoming game. They’ve got some great figures in the forums created by different people, including some random villagers and monsters of every kind.

3. Getting back in touch with my old group

Three of my players from the Crew of the Iron Dawn are on Facebook, and we’ve been reminiscing about old times. I was reminded of breaking Nate’s foot in a paintball game, causing him to have trouble attending sessions, Kate having no idea why it was I killed off her character in a dream sequence, and discussing the various adventures we all had. These were some great people (still are) and we had a phenomenal time with our group. I’ll be posting up more Never Split the Party posts soon, discussing other games I’ve been a part of.

4. Urban Dead

I’ve mentioned it before, but Urban Dead is a pretty cool game. Playing either a survivor or zombie in a city overrun, you fight throughout the entirely non-graphical city. I’ve maxed out on all my skills at this point, so I’ve been spending my time going around as a zombie making survivor’s lives miserable. If you’re a fan of the idea of zombies killing everything in sight, and you being the only thing standing between them and the world’s complete destruction, here’s your chance.

5. The Lightning Thief

Bridget and I went and saw the movie the other day. She was highly disappointed, as it’s nothing like the books, and it inspired me to start reading them. I’ve just finished The Lightning Thief, and it’s a really good read, if you’re into Greek mythology and the style of Harry Potter. The books are a quick read (Bridget read all 5 within about a week and a half) so it’s not going to take a lot of time out of your Star Wars novel reading (you know you are…)

That’s all for this week’s Top 5. Keep rolling 20′s!