Sep 132011
 
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The episode we’ve all been waiting for is finally here! This week, the boys in The Rag-NERD-rok Crew answer what is perhaps one of the most difficult questions in all of nerd-dom: which apocalypse is the best apocalypse? Ed, Ryan, Erik and Meyer face off in a formal debate moderated by Alex to get to the bottom of this matter once and for all. Later, Ryan reviews the new “Fiasco Companion,” published by Bully Pulpit Games in June of 2011, and the boys in The Crew discuss their experiences playing the game, writing playsets, and using the results to fuel their creative endeavors. Finally, Ed presents the second episode of his serial drama, “Dead of Winter.” We hope you enjoy the much-lauded Episode 008, our best so far!

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Sep 022011
 

On our last podcast episode, we sat down with good friend and long-time game master Chuck Rozakis for a discussion about world building and storytelling. As a supplement to the pointers he gave during the interview, Chuck has sent us a list of some very helpful tips for those of you who want to design your own game worlds. They’re insightful, practical and definitely worth a look.

For those of you who are interested in purchasing Chuck’s book about loopholes and imbalances in D&D 3.5, “The Broken Rules Compendium,” it is available through iTunes or Lulu as a paperback and an eBook.

(Chuck’s world building tips after the break.)

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Sep 012011
 
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Since the dark, awkward days of our early adolescence, we of the Rag-NERD-rok Crew have enjoyed tabletop role-playing games. During that period of nascent nerdliness, when we first scoured the hobby shops of Long Island for polyhedral dice and White Wolf source books, our game master was Chuck Rozakis, and the campaigns he ran were the stuff of legends. Playing alongside us, testing the boundaries of the game system and of Chuck’s resolve at every possible turn, was our friend Paul Faldetta, who took min-maxing and elevated it to a practiced art form. In this week’s episode, we sit down with Chuck and Paul for a discussion about how to create exciting worlds for your players to explore and entertaining games for them to enjoy, as well as how to take those carefully laid plans and burn them to ashes in a searing, white-hot monster hug of abysmal flame.

(Show notes after the break.)

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