Podcast #38: National Public Gamers

21
May/07
14

Durham 3 #38

A renewed statement of purpose, mocking NPR, and finding the fun in war-ravaged Poland.

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  1. James Jeffers
    6:49 am on May 21st, 2007

    Remi was right: Twilight:2000 is one of the oldest of Old School. In fact, Pluto is not a planet, but a group of Conquistadors that Frank Chadwick knocked into orbit with his 1st edition boxed set of T2K.

    I think I liked your ‘cast because you guys only play stuff you like, and if it rocks you say it rocks. You’re not all dour like ESPN.

  2. Chris Bennett
    1:23 am on May 22nd, 2007

    I hate to be a fanboy by posting again. But I just listened to #37 and 38 back-to-back and they are the *shit*.

    You guys bring so much great energy into your shows that it’s hard not to climb aboard the funtrain.

    Choo! Choo!!

  3. Jason
    9:03 am on May 22nd, 2007

    Thanks guys! We’re having a good time and it’s great to get positive feedback.

    James, I literally had *no idea* that Pluto was made of Spaniards. It makes sense on so many levels. Obvious, really.

  4. Clinton
    9:15 am on May 22nd, 2007

    Chris,

    I can’t wait until you hear #39, the end of T2K. We went nuts in the last game, and we show it big time in the podcast.

  5. Jon Hastings
    9:41 am on May 22nd, 2007

    Hey guys -

    Big fan of your podcast.

    Question (may have been answered but I missed it): which edition of T2K were you using?

  6. Clinton
    10:58 am on May 22nd, 2007

    Jon,

    Version 2.2. I’ve read the first edition, and don’t care for it, although I’ve never played it. The second edition is what I cut my teeth on.

  7. Chris Bennett
    11:37 am on May 22nd, 2007

    One question, tho. How do you keep the game and the narrative flowing with all of the crunchy gun pr0n rules? My recollection (from 20-25 years ago) is that we approached the game with high hopes but got bogged down for entire sessions trying to drudge through a seemingly simple skirmish or ambush.

    “Dude, was that an ICM shell or an ICM-DP from that 155? ”
    “Shut up, I’m trying to figure out the blast radius on that MK-19.”

    “Is Thundarr on yet?”

  8. Clinton
    2:13 pm on May 22nd, 2007

    Grenade, rocket, and mortar rules are totally bonkers, I’ll admit. Rifle and handgun rules, on the other hand, were pretty easy. We were able to flow through combats pretty simple by keeping the participants down to 5 or 6 (with two protagonists, this was kind of necessary), and not pushing too hard on recoil. Since there’s no real mechanical advantage to firing more bullets than you can handle with the recoil, no NPC ever did.

  9. Chris Bennett
    2:21 pm on May 22nd, 2007

    Ah..that’s good info, thanks Clinton. I remember having just two players as well, but we wanted to run like a LAV-25 and a HMMMV with a TOW, so we needed like 5 or 6 NPCs. And so to make it challenging we’d end up in firefights with like 30 Polish cavalry and a BRDM. Oops.

    I tell ya, that ‘Pirates of the Vistula’ was pretty hot. I’d like to go back and play that.

  10. James Jeffers
    7:23 pm on May 22nd, 2007

    We used to get all hot-n-heavy by bringing it stateside. We shot the crap out of post-war Florida.

  11. John Powell
    12:43 am on May 23rd, 2007

    Hey guys, great show. The T2k really got me looking over the old school on my shelf – especially all the Chadwick stuff. Tonight I made characters for Traveller 2300, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, and Space:1889. Wooee! did that boy have some hits and misses!

    Anyways, I’m looking forward to the next podcast, and meeting Clinton in Seattle for Go Play NorthWest.

    Cheers!

  12. mazirian
    6:19 pm on May 30th, 2007

    So Traveller (Classic) is next up, right? ;)

  13. Jason
    7:53 am on June 1st, 2007

    Don’t tempt me. I actually took it on vacation and made up a couple dozen characters on the flight.

  14. mazirian
    11:16 am on June 1st, 2007

    Go there, my son! Go there.

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