Don and Jeremiah record in front of a live audience at Gen Con 2008. We are joined by Mike Selinker, Derek Guder, and Alex Yeager. We talk about a variety of events going on at Gen Con to include Gygax memorials, the results of the Catan World Championships, the ENnies, and Johan, the Settler of Catan. Some games mentioned in today's show include Unspeakable Words, Changeling: The Lost, Yetisburg, and Settlers of Catan. Thanks again to everyone who has made Gen Con special to us. We look forward to seeing you again next year!

Listen Now:

While at Origins, Don was able to sit down with Dave Wallace. You may have heard Dave on many of the GAMA Trade Show Seminars. He and his wife, Kelli, run a small chain of stores and do a considerable amount of work for GAMA helping other retailers get started. He has also just recently taken a position for the online store, Troll and Toad.

Listen Now:

Don brings us another great conversation from Origins. This time he visits with Kenneth Hite. Kenneth has written a number of our favorite games, but today we talk mostly about Trail of Cthulhu. Kenneth Hite has designed, written, or co-authored more than 70 books, roleplaying games, and supplements, including the Origins Award-winning Star Trek: The Next Generation RPG, GURPS Infinite Worlds, and Call Of Cthulhu d20. He has been Line Developer for Chaosium's Nephilim and Last Unicorn Games' original-series Star Trek RPG, and has written for White Wolf, Pinnacle, Atlas, and many other companies. His most recent works include the Mythos miscellany Dubious Shards (available in print and PDF), the Trail Of Cthulhu RPG from Pelgrane Press, chapters in Wild Talents and Grim War from ArcDream, and Adventures Into Darkness, a Lovecraftian Golden Age superhero sourcebook available in PDF. He explores the Higher Weirdness roughly biweekly in his "Suppressed Transmission" column in Pyramid Magazine (http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid); it has been collected in two volumes. Since 1997, he has written "Out of the Box," an RPG industry news and review column most recently at www.gamingreport.com.

Listen Now:

Jeremiah takes us back in time to Settlers of the Stone Age. Journey out of Africa as human-kind settles the globe. Improve your ability to survive harsh climates and collect what resources you can before Africa turns to desert. Settlers of the Stone Age Publisher: Mayfair Games Style: Board Game Designed by: Klaus Teuber Players: 3-4 Play Time: 45-60 minutes Ages: 12+ MSRP: $49.00

Listen Now:

Don was able to sit down with Fred Hicks at Origins to spend some time talking about our game. We have all come to the conclusion that he would be one of our first picks to have at our table. Fred Hicks is one of the minds behind Evil Hat Productions, a small-press publisher of roleplaying games, is the author of Don't Rest Your Head, and is a co-author of Spirit of the Century. He also works part-time as the customer service desk for Indie Press Revolution and as a freelance layout consultant. Fred is not at all certain how it is he lucked into doing all this as his job, but he's certain he has his lovely wife to thank for it.

Listen Now:

We are all back together in the studio again and dive into something we have wanted to talk about for a long time. This is a collection of tips you can implement to run a smoother roleplaying game. We also respond to some feedback that continues with the Are Games Art discussion, started by Johnathan. In other news, Wizards will be closing down Gleemax. We touch on the Southern Arizona Gamer's Association's new projects, the coordinated campaigns. One is for World of Darkness, the other is going to either be using Dungeons & Dragons 4.0 rules, or Pathfinder. One of the project participants, Berin, wrote a good introduction on his blog after we finished recording where you can learn more. Other games discussed in todays show include Horus, Settlers of the Stone Age, Race for the Galaxy, Loot, and War of the Ring. Next up, Gen Con. If you are going to be there, be sure to take note of our scheduled events. We also want to wish Curt and the Wandering Geek podcast luck at this year's ENnie awards.

Listen Now:

Don had a great opportunity at Origins to visit with Jeff Bellinger, the designer of Playroom Entertainment's Killer Bunnies. Jeff was full of stories making it an easy and entertaining conversation. Jeff Bellinger began his life in Jersey and spent many hours developing games as he grew up. He took those games with him to the United States Navy to see the world until he was finally dropped off in San Diego where he created Saren's Stuff to take his games to market. Killer Bunnies caught the attention of Playroom Entertainment in 2002 and has become nothing less than a phenomenon. Jeff teaches math during the school year and continues to travel extensively. He still does most of his work with a paper and pencil and takes advantage of quiet rainy days to work.

Listen Now:

Derek is missing from today's show, but we have several clips from some friends we talked to at Origins. Each with good stories to tell. Ron from The Games the Thing launched a topic of game store ethics that we are eager to hear your opinions on. We also talked to Kim from Gamer Adventures. There are several gaming cruises coming up. We have got to get ourselves on one of these trips. Perhaps we will participate sometime soon. Some of our news was around the changes with West End Games. It sounds like the final punches have been thrown. We are looking forward to Gen Con. Mike Selinker is going to join us for our live Out of Character episode. There are several other events also on the schedule to check out.

Listen Now:

Don had a great time talking to Phil Chase at Origins. Phil was joined by his son Auden, who was equally as entertaining. We spoke on a variety of educational topics, emphasizing linguistics in a way we had not yet explored. We also talked about a lot of games, even outside of Phil’s designs. Some of them include Set, Lord of the Rings, Settlers of Catan, Shear Panic, Hey! Where’s My Fish!, and Down with the King. Phil Chase has been an educator for 14 years, working now for the State of Michigan's Department of Education. His board game design career, under the pen name P. R. Chase, started in 2002 with the release of Theophrastus with Mayfair Games. In 2006, Grand Tribunal was published by Atlas Games, and Gemstones followed in 2007 by Kadon Enterprises. He's a proud father of two boys, ages 7 and 8, who play board games at home as avidly as he does.

Listen Now:

Jeremiah takes us on a journey in Anno 1503 to explore uncharted islands and find valuable resources for our people. Of course to be of any value, we also focus on the growth of our settlements and culture. Anno 1503 Publisher: Mayfair Games Style: Board Game Designed by: Klaus Teuber Players: 2-4 Play Time: 60-120 minutes Ages: 10+ MSRP: $49.00

Listen Now:

Today's main topic fascinated us. Are games considered art? We even get into the topic of how gaming itself may or may not be art. Join in the discussion. We talk some about our friends at Polymancer. They had a little car wreck, but things seem to be going well. Their magazine is certainly looking good. They also have other projects coming. We talk about D&D some, mostly to bring up the Chaos Challenge at RinCon. Many will enter; all but one will die. The last one standing wins. We want to thank Jeff Greiner from The Tome for his help at Origins. Find out how to get free copies of Accent Your Character by listening to his show. You can now order the CDs or the digital downloads from Paizo, Lovecraftiana, and RPGNow. Gen Con is the next coming convention that we are biting our nails in excitement for. There is an entire track of events to participate in. We can't wait to see you there!

Listen Now:

Don was able to spend some time with Michelle Nephew at Origins this year. The visit was phenomenal. We learned at least a little about a bunch of Atlas Games titles, talked some about women in gaming, but mostly just learned more about Michelle and her gaming life. After years of playing Shadowrun and Vampire in college, Michelle Nephew's RPG editing career began in 2000 with Atlas Games' Three Days to Kill, the very first adventure available for sale under the Open Game License. She followed this up by authoring her own d20 adventure, The Tide of Years, in 2001. While continuing to write and edit gaming material, she finished her Ph.D. at UW-Milwaukee, writing her dissertation on the topic of authorship and roleplaying games. A chapter from her dissertation has since been published in Gaming As Culture, a collection of academic essays on RPGs. With the title "Tenured Editor," Michelle wears many hats at Atlas Games today, including production coordinator, card and board game developer/editor, layout monkey, advertising/marketing coordinator, convention support organizer, and Special Ops demo team coordinator.

Listen Now:

Derek give us Alibi. Through clever questioning, elimination, and deduction, you figure out whodunit. It is a little more involved than most whodunit games, and coming close will even give you a few points. Alibi Publisher: Mayfair Games Style: Card Game Designed by: Darwin Bromley & Jim Musser Players: 3-10 Play Time: 45-60 minutes Ages: 8+ MSRP: $15.00

Listen Now:

Don visits with Eddy Webb and John Chambers of White Wolf. Topics touched on range from the White Wolf culture to the range of roleplaying games we often find ourselves immersed in. Eddy officially started in the RPG industry in 2002 by working with Cynthia Celeste Miller on "Cartoon Action Hour" (which was later nominated for an Origins Award for Best RPG of 2003). He worked on projects for his own company (Spectrum Games) as well as freelance for other companies such as Deep7 and Comic Images. He was asked to develop and write White Wolf’s first joint electronic and print-on-demand product, "Mind’s Eye Theatre: Awakening," in 2006. After the book's release in 2007, he was hired to work full-time as the Alternative Product Developer. He currently lives in Stone Mountain, Georgia, with his wife, his roommate, his pug dog and his very grumpy cat. John Chambers has been a fixture at White Wolf Game Studio for a decade. From his humble beginnings as an intern, John rose through the ranks to develop two of the role-playing game industry's most popular properties, Exalted (revamping the game for its acclaimed second edition) and Scion (a game conceptualized and designed by John from the ground up). Riding high on his win of Best New Game for Scion at last year's Gen Con Ennie Awards, John looks forward developing role-playing games for a long time to come.

Listen Now:

Derek takes us on a journey with Nautilus. Explore the depth of the ocean. Only a combination of discovery and research will lead to victory. You will split your time between building the under-water station and diving your submarines to the depths in search of Atlantis. Nautilus Publisher: Mayfair Games Style: Board Game Designed by: Brigette & Wolfgang Ditt Players: 2-4 Play Time: 60-120 minutes Ages: 12+ MSRP: $49.00

Listen Now:

We area really enjoying the new features of the network. You can create your own custom feed and put a player on your web site. Choose what shows you want with mycast and listen to the rest of the instructions in today's show. We would like to thank Myriad Games for including us on their web site and in their store. Our topic today is about using games in professional training arenas, especially sales. This and other topics brought up games such as Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, Ars Magica, La Strada, Traders of Genoa, Settlers of Catan, Settlers of the Stone Age, China Rails, Chez Dork, and Ben Hvrt. On the topic of gaming, Don also could not help but to bring up player driven campaigns and a reference to Kobold Quarterly. We are right in the middle of convention season. We talk about Con Games, Origins, Gen Con, Dragon*Con, and RinCon. We also talk about the schedule of events we have planned at Gen Con. We also mention Crunch-Waffle's metagame. In the podcast arena we have to thank Jeff from The Tome for helping us at Origins. We also received word from Itmar of Hamishakia and DeAnna from Madhatterrgames.

Listen Now:

We have been long-time fans of The Pillars of the Earth. Your master builders have a number of ways to participate in the building of the cathedral. If you can be more efficient and make wise choices, you will do well against your opponents. The Expansion Set gives you even more choices during the game and allows a couple more players to join in. The Pillars of the Earth Expansion Set Publisher: Mayfair Games Style: Board Game Required: The Pillars of the Earth Designed by: Michael Rieneck & Stefan Stadler Players: 2-6 Play Time: 90-120 minutes Ages: 12+ MSRP: $29.00

Listen Now:

We ran our first games of 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons and had a great time. Like every change, there are things we really liked and others that we are still getting used to. We will certainly continue to play. It seems that we all differed in opinion at least slightly on a lot of details. Listen to find out more and let us know your thoughts!

Listen Now:

Jeremiah talks about one of our favorites, The Settlers of Catan. Explore and settle the island of Catan. Smart trades, planning, and a little bit of luck will work toward your victory. Some of the discussion is around a wealth of resources online. Educators can find some good information on Using The Settlers of Catan in the Classroom. Try it yourself from Professor Easy and learn more about The Origins of Catan. The Settlers of Catan Publisher: Mayfair Games Style: Board Game Designed by: Klaus Teuber Players: 2-4 Play Time: 60-90 minutes Ages: 10+ MSRP: $38.00 Join us online to play in the Catan Oline World. You can sign up and play for free. With a premium membership you can explore even more games and expansions and participate in community events. Visit the Catan Online Wold Forums to find out more.

Listen Now: