Haste - The Official Obsidian Portal Podcast

Intro: "Prelude" ~ LukHash Outro: "Stande Alone" ~ LukHash Announcements Today we're joined by Joanna Gaskell and Rob Hunt of the very awesome, D&D inspired Standard Action web series. We take some time out to talk about the show and conduct a mini-interview. If you've not checked out standard action we highly suggest you do, they are currently raising funds to get their second season off the ground. So show them some love and they'll show you some right back! We'd also like to remind you that the d20Monkey caption contest is just begging to be captioned with all of your witty holiday-cheer infused charm. Topics Holiday Hiatus Guide Just an episode or two ago Micah and I discussed coping with the holiday hiatus that your game is going to inevitably go through. The Learning DM has a great article up on the topic with some really great bits of advice, so check it out. What are your holiday hiatus remedies and/or horror stories? Heroes of the Feywild is Here! We've mentioned it a while back but the book is finally here, it's all you need to inject a heavy dose of fey magic and a bit of whimsy into your 4e D&D campaign. I got the chance to interview author Steve Townshend about his work on the title, he shares some really great insight on the process involved in making these books as well as a lot of other great stuff about D&D, movies, edition wars and more. We discuss a bit about the book! Teach Your Kids To Game Week Recently, DriveThruRPG has started a tradition with "Teach Your Kids To Game Week" wherein they offer a bunch of kid-oriented RPG's at discount prices and encourage all of us far and wide to spread the hobby to younger generations. This is a very cool idea and is a great movement, we discuss in depth! Tip Corner Did you know you can get a RSS feed update for any campaign? Just click the orange RSS icon on the page! Twitter Question @Revengeanceful As a GM, what’s your best trick to pick up the pacing on a story? Listen to find out! PS: Here's that pic of Renaldo we promised!

Intro: "Prelude" ~ LukHash Outro: "Stande Alone" ~ LukHash Announcements Today we're joined by cartoonist and illustrator James Stowe whom you probably know from his awesome D&D For Dads custom character illustrations/sheets we talked about a while back. He's got some cool stuff going on including working with Daniel Solis and doing some custom character designs for JourneyQuest! We'd also like to remind you that the d20Monkey caption contest is just begging to be captioned with all of your witty holiday-cheer infused charm. You can also win a copy of Scott Fitzgerald Gray's new book "A Prayer for Dead Kings and Other Tales" Topics Cthulhu Wrapping Paper What better way to share the magic of the holidays than with Cthulhu wrapping paper? Every gift is like a relic of the dead god himself, waiting to sap the sanity from all those wide eyed gift openers who dare unlock his secrets! Eric Bauer of gaming paper has a kickstarter up to do just that, check it out! D&D Dragon Mini Collector Set There's another set of minis on the horizon from WotC, this time: Dragons. Similar to the Beholder collectors box of mini's this one features a series of dragons, some of the molds are new as well. These kinds of things have a limited run so if you want your chance, grab em' before they're gone! The At-Will Blog Closes It's Doors In recent, rather unfortunate news, a very predominant 4e D&D blog has decided to call it quits. Quinn Murphy of the At-Will blog let us all know that he was done, and seeking new endeavors. His post was quickly followed up by a "4e is Dead" by Ryven Cedrylle. James and I discuss. Tip Corner Did you know you can download backups of your campaigns? Just go to the campaign, click "edit settings" and jump all the way to the bottom of the page. Twitter Question @Drubskin asks:  What are your guys favorite iPad/iPhone apps that help with your games? Listen to find out!

Intro: "Prelude" ~ LukHash Outro: "Stande Alone" ~ LukHash Announcements We've got a brand new thanksgiving themed d20Monkey comic contest for you all to enjoy, so get out there and get on those one-liners for your chance to win some awesome OP prizes. We've also got a fresh Campaign of the Month for November - Avatar: Conquest of the Imperial Order, be sure to check out our interview (and the campaign) when you're done listening to the podcast! We've also got an interview and giveaway with Wizards of the Coast Writer/Editor Scott Fitzgerald Gray about his new collection of sword & sorcery stories A Prayer for Dead Kings and Other Tales. Now, onto the topics! Topics Three Questions to Start A Campaign There's a pretty good article over at Gnomestew about the three questions you've gotta ask when starting a new campaign. We delve into the questions and present our own anecdotes regarding the ins and outs of running games. Will Hindmarch & Fred Hicks New Game: Revengers Announced on Halloween, Revengers will be a game where you play as a ghost who solves or avenges crimes. According to the site, the game is still in very early stages of development and has no solid release date yet, it will use a heavily modified version of the gumshoe rules. Geek Seekers Monte Cook & Jen Page are putting together a new web series called Geek Seekers. It is a webseries that will debut in 2012 featuring them investigating aspects of the paranormal—ghosts, UFOs, bigfoot, etc. Episodes will be 10-15 minutes long, we're not sure what to expect so stay tuned to find out more. Tip Corner The holidays are coming. Your game will be inevitably postponed for an undetermined amount of time. Micah provides some quick tips on surviving this state of holiday gaming hibernation. Twitter Question @DarkPatu asks: How do you work around spell components and what benefits do you provide for good roleplay? Listen to find out!

Today we talk about a kickass D&D coloring book, layoffs at CCP/White Wolf, Wired's top 9 geek books and more. Tune in now!

Today we talk about the upcomign Shadowrun browser based videogame, the Pathfinder Beginner Box has arrived and is chalk full of awesome, also Monte Cook's "Live Together, Die Alone" article sparks some good debate about class roles and more. Tips for building your wiki and a top notch twitter question are all here in our 20th episode of Haste!

Intro: "Prelude" ~ LukHash Outro: "Stande Alone" ~ LukHash Announcements We've got a fresh d20Monkey caption contest up as well as a brand spanking new Campaign of the Month for October. Both are full of awesome and wackiness, go check them out! Topics Advanced Race Guide Playtest Paizo recently unleashed the Advanced Race Guide playtest for Pathfinder unto the world! They've noted that getting these sorts of things right is pretty tough and a delicate process, especially regarding game balance so this playtest is hoped to help all of that. Sounds really cool, wishing more games did this. Micah and I discuss what races we'd build, as well as our deep appreciation for goblins. Red Eye of Azathoth Kobold Quarterly has a great Cthulhu module out for this Halloween season: The Red Eye of Azathoth is a 5 part adventure for Call of Cthulhu (Chaosium) that takes place through the ages. Complete with handouts, new monsters and pre-generated investigators from a wide array of time periods, this episodic adventure is a sure way to do a Halloween campaign right! They also have a ton of other products available through open design, including Dark Roads & Golden Hells which I'm a patron on myself, check them out! Brian Patterson of d20Monkey makes CNN Geekout! As we're sure many of you know Brian Patterson from d20Monkey as we tell you of his fantastic exploits on the regular, however now he's managed to reach the CNN Geekout blog! It's great to see members of the RPG community get out there on popular sites and put on a good face for our little corner of the internet. Micah and I discuss his favorite quote from the interview as well. Tip Corner Did you know that you can easily track your PC’s loot using the items tab? Just create an item entitled “Playername’s Loot Bag” and have them keep track of all their characters belongings there. Much easier than re-writing it all every time a new character sheet is created! Twitter Question @Revenganceful asks: at what point do you consider a rules system too complicated? Too simple? Listen to find out!

Recently, we were lucky enough to interview New York Times best selling author R.A. Salvatore about his upcoming book Neverwinter, among many other things. We talk about writing, gaming, kids, video games and all sorts of good stuff. My interview with him was an absolute blast, so tune in and we hope you enjoy listening just as much as we did recording it!

Tonight I'm joined by the lovely Angela LeNeave aka @Momanatrix on twitter, full time D&D-Mom and part-time blogger and first ever female co-host on Haste. She will be discussing a recent article of hers which stirred up some great discussion (and comic) amidst the D&D/RPG community. Also, we've just wrapped up our contests for September, but stay tuned to the blog for more to come early next month! Tune in now and listen!

Tonight I'm joined by Enrique Bertran AKA NewbieDM as we talk about the massive 800+ page "Tome of Horrors", open playtesting for the new D&D miniatures skirmish game, groups imploding and how to avoid problems as well as other great pearls of wisdom and of course - some thoughts on the new Mordankainen's Magical Emporium book! Tune in now!

Intro: "Handlebars" ~ Flobots Outro: "Handlebars" ~ Flobots Announcements Tonight I'm joined by Thadeous Cooper of many RPG related internet venues, however his current project: Geek Cred is currently the flagship of his nerdy endeavors. He tells us what's new and exciting, and we do ask you to root for him to land his dream job a time or two. I also point out that our d20Monkey caption contest has only a little bit of time left and there's also some pretty great Unhallowed Metropolis stuff you should be checking out on the blog! Topics RPG Blogger "Tiers" A recent article on the OnlineDM's blog about becoming part of the community started quite a discussion about RPG bloggers and grouping them into "Tiers". I don't think the author meant to incite such chaos but there is much to be discussed here. What makes people "top tier"? We discuss! The World's Greatest GM Screen Stumbled across this awesome GM screen by Hammerdog recently, allowing for up to 8 custom inserts and it comes in multiple colors. You could put whatever you wanted in this baby, artwork, charts, notes, maps, etc. At $30 it's not bad especially if you're lazy like me! James Stowe's D&D Kids Character Sheets Illustrator James Stowe has received an outpouring of support and enthusiasm regarding his custom made D&D character sheets that he put together for his son's 8th birthday. His son convinced him to run a D&D game for a bunch of second graders. Turns out they all had a blast, we discuss how great these sheets look and how well they might turn people towards RPG gaming, child or not! UPDATE: Hit up James Stowe's Facebook fan page for more goods, he's doing some female versions too! Tip Corner Did you know about the Trash Bin? Obsidian Portal has a way for you to retrieve wiki entries that you've deleted, just hit up the trash bin button on the right side of your campaign to dig them out! Twitter Question @GeeksDreamGirl asks: Have any positive reinforcement techniques to reward ONLY the players that are paying attention at the table? Listen to find out!

This week we talk drama cards and other boons for 4e characters, Jerry shoots them down saying 4e PC's have it too easy. We also talk Unhallowed Metropolis, Dungeon Painter, and why Harry Potter might just make an awful RPG system. Tune in now!

Come hang out with Carl Bussler from Flagons & Dragons and myself as we talk about designers reviewing their own games, a man who probably shouldn't have purchased a game he hated 4 times and these super-useful little GM merit badges. We also take a question from twitter and talk about loot distribution and a lot more. Tune in now!

This week we talk Chris Perkins' problem players article, converting your non-gaming spouse, game night bloggers and answer a great twitter question. We also remind you that our Fiasco contest has only one week left! Tune in now!

This week we talk post-gencon wrap up, the upcoming Gary Gygax biography film, D&D Miniatures return! (more minis from Paizo as well) and our Top product picks from Gencon 2011! Tune in now!

Gencon is just around the corner! In this episode we talk Mordenkainen's Magical Emporium being back on the print que, Cartographer's Corner and the Gygax Memorial Fund updates - including a book to be sold at Gencon entitled "Cheers, Gary". Also a good twitter question from @AnExtendedRest, tune in now!