* (0:29) Wayne has a problem: the Wardens from Dresden Files. Coming up with too many excuses for why powerful organizations don’t care about the characters’ problems.

* (7:14) Session Zero can help…or maybe not.

* (10:29) There’s always someone bigger, and maybe your allies lack what you need.

* (14:42) What if the characters are the backup? Or maybe they’re starting to get a reputation.

* (17:41) Not letting it become a chip on the GM’s shoulder. Players that hamstring themselves.

* (23:45) The assistance not being what the players expected.

* (27:54) Falling back to the mature answer.

Hosts: Dan, Doug, Mary, Wayne

* (0:30) What steps do we take to bring a character to life?

* (1:49) Ask what’s important.

* (6:53) Seeing the good and bad in a single trait.

* (8:06) Doug’s personality triangle model.

* (10:54) Demonstrating character quirks.

* (16:34) Making characters that both have and express personal growth.

* (18:57) Taking a hobby, off-topic skill, or development path. Keeping your character in continuity.

* (23:11) Practicing a character.

* (29:43) Developing your idea in other creative media, but consider leaving a gap before the game begins.

* (35:35) The last few days of the Fear the Con 2024 Kickstarter!

Hosts: Dan, Doug, Mary, Wayne

Today’s ingredient: The dead are consuming the living. Why and how? Let’s find out!

Fear the Con 2024’s Kickstarter can be found here.

Hosts: Dan, Doug, Mary, Wayne

* (0:29) In defense of technology at the gaming table. Caleb’s setup with Owlbear Rodeo.

* (5:13) Dan’s Lion King sing-a-long and Wayne’s Ghostbusters game.

* (6:27) The deeper pool of online players, including AIs. Remoting in a missing player for an in-person game.

* (14:04) Working distance and distraction into the game.

* (17:54) Digital storage and organization. The wonder of CTRL-F.

* (25:21) Minimalization of the gaming experience.

* (30:01) Dodging some issues by allowing only one person to have technology. The visual obstruction created by laptops and such.

* (41:01) Getting digital audio to work for you.

* (45:00) Balancing it all out. Advantages, disadvantages, familiarity, and the passage of time.

Hosts: Caleb, Dan, Mary, Wayne

I decided to skip over the Iron GM and go for a Tungsten GM. The ingredient? All broadcasts cease because something won’t let them get through. What’s the game plot?

Also, the Fear the Con 2024 Kickstarter is now live here!

Hosts: Dan, Doug, Mary, Wayne

* (0:30) Dan runs a game a bit too literally.

* (4:12) The intersection of technology and roleplaying in a way that isn’t required by the game.

* (7:32) Why multimedia doesn’t pay-off the way it does in other forms of storytelling.

* (13:36) The prep time technology adds, and the stability it takes away.

* (15:59) The time spent digging up the right asset on-the-spot.

* (20:52) The physical space taken up by technology. Playing “follow the leader” at a subconscious level.

Hosts: Dan, Doug, Mary, Wayne

* (0:29) Why talk about intelligence? The Why Files episode about Cicada 3301.

* (9:24) A game takes an unhelpfully long break, only to be replaced by another RPG.

* (12:44) The lack of a bottomless “buffet of ideas” in a closed setting.

* (14:24) Use minimal starting information to give you room to work.

* (18:12) How to run a school (everyone go play Persona 5).

* (24:48) Create a wide variety of NPCs and give them their own lives.

* (30:38) Keeping the party together, even if it doesn’t quite make sense.

* (31:57) PC-specific NPCs, so you know the players are bought it.

Hosts: Dan, Mary, Wayne

* (0:22) Picking out the point we became curmudgeons and what exactly that means.

* (4:48) Being too set in our ways.

* (11:19) The self-destruction that comes with stagnation.

* (21:32) Wii have a solution.

* (24:32) Ducking new games while at a convention. Playing The Quiet Year on an airplane.

* (32:57) The role of pragmatism. Why expand your horizons when no one lets you go there, anyway?

* (38:43) There’s always going to be something wrong.

* (41:09) A lesson learned from The Why Files.

Hosts: Dan, Doug, Wayne

* (0:29) Reintroducing Julia’s husband, Mike.

* (2:24) Lowered expectations, inspired by a post-pandemic world.

* (7:25) Being a bit more experimental.

* (13:18) Playing online instead of returning to the table.

* (19:18) Returning to the table instead of playing online.

* (23:58) The commonality of not being able to find an active gaming group.

* (31:54) Not lower expectations—just different ones.

Hosts: Dan, Mary, Mike, Wayne

* (0:29) Thanks to Eric Van Note for Swole Mole!

* (3:15) The value of terrible GMing.

* (8:42) Everyone is their own most inept critic. Sojourn Volume 2.

* (15:28) The worst possible outcome: something being forgettable.

* (22:20) Asking Doug to grade his own game.

* (25:35) The value of creating art, simply for the act of creation.

* (37:04) A few too many contacts in someone’s eyes.

Hosts: Dan, Doug, Mary, Wayne

* (0:29) Dan prefers affiliated groups, Wayne does not.

* (2:15) Cohesion, identity, and help.

* (9:35) Affiliations you start with as opposed to those you pick up along the way.

* (11:56) The party’s direction and motivation. Affiliating with an ideal.

* (20:23) Affiliations create an obvious pool of NPC relationships.

* (25:40) External versus internal affiliations, and how they’re not mutually exclusive.

* (32:06) Taking extreme positions just to highlight the topic.

Hosts: Dan, Doug, Julia, Wayne