Fear the Boot, RPG Podcast

* (0:49) Fear the Con and its Con Planner site. All our love to Fred. * (2:47) The Salt in Wounds game setting, and why it intrigues Brodeur. * (14:40) Unpacking the human psychology of why we like dark things, starting with some examples from Dan’s life. Resident Evil VII and Alien Isolation. Revenge stories. * (22:40) When these impulses manifest at the meta-game level. The traitor mechanic in many board games. * (28:09) Feeling bad for the Tarrasque. Butchering a dragon. * (38:36) The anatomy of what attracts us to evil, and why it can improve us morally. Midnight by Fantasy Flight. The Invitation. * (46:08) The banality of evil. Hosts: Brodeur, Chad, Dan, Wayne

* (0:41) A look back at the Big Board. * (3:37) Lesson prep for a church and how it demonstrates a social concept that applies to gaming. * (7:17) Performance by one versus content by all. * (15:14) Recognizing what’s important to another person. * (25:01) Whose benefit is the game for? Setting the right level of control. Hosts: Brodeur, Chad, Dan

* (0:28) Fear the Con’s site is ready. * (1:13) Our emails have been fixed, including the confirmation for forum signup. * (8:56) The planned ending for a session of the Actual Play goes awry. * (14:59) Being fair to your players. The song that inspired the intended scene. * (21:23) Reinventing the end. * (22:02) Giving your players the freedom to surprise you. * (32:16) Changing up instead of panicking or doubling-down. * (37:50) Planning for the unexpected by looking at what something brings to the game, not how an event might turn out. Hosts: Brodeur, Chad, Dan

* (0:37) Non-player characters that can be used to guide the party. * (2:04) Tying the NPC to the group while avoiding them becoming a GMPC. * (8:14) Needing them all the time is a sign something has gone wrong. Keeping them within their own character limits. * (15:36) The ways to avoid overshadowing the party with a guiding NPC. * (25:44) Not giving an NPC a planned future since the story isn’t about them. * (31:19) Too far on the back-burner. * (34:12) Giving the NPCs consistency, usefulness, and the same depth as any other character. Hosts: Brodeur, Chad, Dan, Julia

* (1:16) Thanks to Sgt. Dan and Mumswear for the shirts. * (2:33) Thanks to Mark Larson for the Crown Royal bags. * (5:19) A shout-out to Andrew Martin. * (7:33) Brodeur’s two episodes on running a game store can be found here and here. Miniature Market’s website. * (12:49) A non-gamer opens a game store. * (19:01) Building an FLGS from scratch. * (26:17) Consolidating overhead expenses. * (30:34) Separate spaces for pay and play. * (33:38) The flow of the store. * (42:27) Integrating a store and website. * (45:38) The gateways to success no one thinks of. Hosts: Brodeur, Chad, Dan, Wayne

* (0:29) Brodeur thanks John Wells, Mark Lawson, and Sgt. Dan for help with Crown Royal bags. * (2:33) Dan gets a copy of Battletech’s Alpha Strike rules. * (4:25) A shift—or new fad—in tabletop roleplaying games: consuming play instead of participating in it. * (12:32) New technologies allowing a new market, misinterpreted as a change in an existing market. Hosts: Brodeur, Chad, Dan

* Caring Bridge * Pancreatic Cancer Action Network * Annie’s Hope * direct GoFundMe donations

* (0:18) The Caring Bridge site for Pat. * (1:50) An update on Pat. (As of the episode release, the information is a bit outdated. Pat is now home on hospice care.) * (2:47) Whether to continue a game when a player passes. * (7:31) Keeping mementos from those we’ve lost. * (13:10) Moving on after loss. * (19:18) More mementos we’ve kept. Hosts: Brodeur, Chad, Dan, Wayne

* (0:28) The father-daughter podcast, Reading Radio. * (1:57) Brodeur beats the negative association with reading. * (8:35) Wayne doesn’t have access to a computer and decides to go retro. * (12:31) The lingering value of the old way of doing things. * (22:11) The flexibility of a three-ring binder. * (24:18) Plot powerful. * (31:43) The appeal of tangibility. Online ordering for Crown Royal bags. Hosts: Brodeur, Dan, Wayne

* (0:28) Event signup for Fear the Con 11 is now open. Additional shots at the stretch goals will be coming up in the next few months. * (2:13) Brodeur’s love for minis. The Toy Soldiers video game. Jim McClure’s Satanic Panic. The Army Painter Quickshade dip. * (10:21) Drawing inspiration from visual sources, tropes, and other sources. * (22:41) Daphne vs Velma. * (23:28) Replacing a character mid-game with one that isn’t socially integrated with the group. * (31:25) Giving the character room to have a new voice while still being compatible with the group. * (39:11) Bringing in a geographically distant character. Hosts: Brodeur, Dan, Wayne

* (0:36) Chad’s patience. * (1:33) This show will reference episode 13 of the Skies of Glass Actual Play. * (2:41) Characters finding hope in hopelessness. * (6:34)  The mixed morality of a group of player-characters. * (15:14) Joe’s innocence and the loss of it. * (29:19) The moment it all changed, and the unexpected poetry of it. * (38:52) Gaming being more like writing than acting. Dan’s appearance on the Connections radio show. Hosts: Brodeur, Chad, Dan, Wayne

* (0:29) Dan was a guest on The Greatest Show. You can see the video here or grab an audio version here. * (0:53) Dan was also a guest on the Connections radio show, talking about RPG culture. You can find that episode here. We hope you’ll listen to the whole thing, but if you just want to hear Dan’s part, that’s at about 38:40. * (3:23) Fear the Boot now has a Discord server. * (4:56) Using the same things that motivate us in an RPG to help us improve our lives. Bullet journals. The Bullet Journal RPG can be found here. * (8:13) Breaking down large, daunting tasks. Making small tasks more rewarding. * (16:20) Assigning value to a specific task. * (21:25) Not all affirming things make good goals. * (23:58) Creating accountability. * (27:33) Milestone goals that allow you to take a break. * (30:49) Other gamification tools: Habitica, Darebee, and Duolingo. * (33:35) Using this approach to unlearn negative habits. * (41:50) A bit more about The Greatest Show. Also, The Specter Show and PRO Chess League podcasts. Hosts: Brodeur, Chad, Dan, DJ

* (0:29) Brodeur turns a negative episode into a regular one. * (4:52) An end to a long-running D&D campaign. * (6:34) An unexpected finish. Microscope. * (10:20) Balancing player agency against story coherence. * (17:04) Confinement forcing creativity. * (21:30) The signs it was a successful ending. * (25:59) How Brodeur will end the next leg of his campaign. Hosts: Brodeur, Chad, Dan, Wayne

* (0:23) Introducing Beth and Adam. * (1:27) Dan will be on the Connections radio show on Wednesday, November 8th, from 10:30pm – 11:00pm Eastern time. You can find how to tune-in here. * (4:00) Whatever this con is called, it’s occurring on June 22nd and 23rd, 2018. If the Wing Night funds, that will be on June 21st. * (12:03) Admission to the convention is free. Whether it happens or not is purely up to the Kickstarter, which we hope you’ll back! * (18:21) Taking Bob’s place. * (21:26) The con’s location. The random gnoll sketch Dan was given by a vendor last year. * (23:46) Ending a convention with heat exhaustion. Hosts: Adam, Beth, Dan

* (0:28) Charles has too little British for Brodeur and too little beef for Wayne. * (3:34) The flash fiction anthology, FLASH!, which you can grab from Amazon. * (4:54) The Lairdbalor. * (6:22) More properly introducing Charles. * (9:38) Corsana: The Phalanx Syndicate. * (12:43) Using an RPG to play-test a story. * (16:47) The relationship between forms of creativity. * (25:35) Intimidating the players by knowing your setting too well. * (43:15) The value of seemingly irrelevant conversation. Two things to give depth to a flat character. * (54:57) Get in on the Fear the Con 11 Kickstarter! Hosts: Brodeur, Dan, Wayne Guests: Charles Wellington