Listen Now

My guest today is a gamer I admire for his style of DMing and asking players questions. He has the uncanny ability for generating gameable premises. He is the author of the Dictionary of Mu, a favorite sword and sorcery setting of mine. He's the host of the Daydreaming About Dragons podcast and my current Friday morning GM for Trophy Gold. Judd Karlman  Blog: githyankidiaspora.com Podcast: https://anchor.fm/daydreaming-about-dragons  Twitch.tv/ActualPlay Trophy Gold  Worlds of Dungeons  Dungeons & Dragons  Hutt Cartel | Cartel RPG  Canva  Stars without Number RPG Support the show

Started Mothership with Judd. I'm playing a character inspired by Fox Mulder.  The pitch: Two scientists investigate the disappearance of their professor and the crew of a science vessel.  Twilight: 2000:  The discovery of a dead soldier stashed in the woods and a convoy heading toward Barnes's occupied Polish town,  sends Bard and Justin off to extract Tracy and Janush. They decide to confront the polish spook, Phil before sneaking out of the encampment and back to their base in the woods. Legacy 2E: Gale and  Manta-ray kill each other in the Endless city over control of the "Hand"  artifact. Gale's death move sends both players to an eternal hellscape. The artifact is lost to the Endless City. And the Third age begins. Wrath & Glory: Exotic weapons have been turning up in skirmishes on Gideon Prime. Tasked with investigating the origins of these weapons our favorite Tech-Priest follows a trail that leads him to the Spacehulk - Veritagous. Playing Elden Ring - dying, wonder, exploring, dying. Prepping Barbarians of Lemuria: Treachery at Axos Mountains. We have a fully leaned-in sorcerer, a sky-ship pilot, and an amnesiac mercenary being pursued into the Axos Mountains where they hope to find a haven of outcasts to go to ground at.  Improv for Gamers 2e will be on Gamefound by Evil Hat. I've got a piece in there as well as a cornucopia of amazing folks, check it out. And GauntletCon Open Gaming end of March. C'mon out and play!! Support the show (http://www.patreon.com/madjayzero)

Rich Rogers, co-host of Plus One Forward and designer of Hit the Streets: Defend the Block, an ENnie award-winning street-level supers RPG joins me to talk about his gaming week - it's like a mini-con!! Rich's Stone Top duet game with his wife,  Vampire 5e, Bounty of the Week (Monster of the Week hack), Gravity Rip, Star Wars Blades in the Dark, Rascals, X-Crawl.Support the show (http://www.patreon.com/madjayzero)

Running: Whitehack + Dungeons and Dilemmas  Twilight: 2000: Base building and sweet, sweet sandbox magic. Legacy 2E: Life Among the Ruins. Four families and bad virtual dice rolling! Wrath & Glory 1v1. Tech-Priest visiting a Space Hulk. Playing An ex-Stormtrooper in Bounty of the Week on twitch.tv/actualplay, Rich Rogers is running it. A Buzzard-headed god of death in Godbound Northern Death Pantheon. And thinking about Dragons.. 😉Support the show (http://www.patreon.com/madjayzero)

The 2021 Mad Jay Picks! Some year-end metrics and my personal game picks for:  Most Surprised Experience.  The Old Man Logan Award. The  Lethal Sessions Award Most evocative setting Closest to my heart. Support the show (http://www.patreon.com/madjayzero)

Support the show (http://www.patreon.com/madjayzero)

 The One Ring on Twitch is a wrap at 11 sessions! We've traveled from Rivendell to the Cold Fells to Bree and finale in the South Barrow-downs tracking down the fell sorcerer Gorlanc! Rich Rogers of +1 Forward takes the reigns and will run Bounty of the Week in the new year! Twilight: 2000 - Straight Outta Kalisz the Saturday sessions, we're two sessions into a gas station firefight! Combat is STRESSful!  Whitehack RPG has been fun on Tuesday nights, I'm digging the fiction that gets generated as players use the groups and vocations they've picked.   I ran Mothership Rpg - Desert Moon of Karth for Star Wars Con Special Edition for the Gauntlet. Fixed Ewok cage match. Say No more!! Headed to PAX later this week. TWIL: There's a Cortex community license?! I'll take a swing at that! You can check out my madness at Playefearless on substack.Support the show (http://www.patreon.com/madjayzero)

On the table 3 sessions in for Vena and the King of Nothing! We had a solid ordinary but strong third session of Burning Wheel. We talk about the three sessions and the game so far, the good, the bad, and what's next. Spoilers: Elle is still game! I did a panel called Fresh Starts for Big Bad Con with Lowel Francis from the Gauntlet and Rich Rogers of +1 Forward fame.  We talked about starting new games with new groups. I re-started a Twilight: 2000 limited series, a reboot of a one-shot I ran for GauntletCon Open Gaming --two events ago! Starting up some Delta Green with Brendan. He is playing an online blogger media journalist that investigates weird true crimes. How have I not looked at this game before?! I've finished Superman and the Authority #4. I don't want it to end!  Played a Debtpunk hack of Apocalypse World, looking to see where the fun, interesting stuff is. And thus was born the IX playbook! Prepping Whitehack for a group formed on the IGRC. Back into Pirates of Drinax and the One Ring this week. Forbidden Lands for the Patreon monthly hustle game. What are you playing?Support the show (http://www.patreon.com/madjayzero)

Mad Elle and I continue our Burning Wheel series. Vena the Elf ranger is on the run with the young Elven prince she was tasked to kill for the Queen-Regent. In this episode, she has to make some choices about the humans living in the millhouse she once stayed in with the ghost king. An Elven patrol finds her and her crew at the mill house. And Elle makes anamazing stake setting choice! You can check out our session zero and see how we got here! Vena, Ranger of the Wilderland. Born Etharch, Attendant, Second, Ranger Relationships: Seeker, prince-in-exile Ghost of the murdered Elf King (Forbidden, Romantic) Queen-Regent (Family, Hateful) Uncle-King (Forbidden) Beliefs: I must protect the prince, we need to find shelter before winter sets in. I will avenge the king by bringing his murderers to justice. I will reach out to the Tengu people to make friends. Instincts Always see the best in people. Support the show (http://www.patreon.com/madjayzero)

It's a Bye Week!!! The One Ring was a Bye Week. Our Fellowship is in Bree to track down Gorlanc the sorcerer dwarf?! The One Ring has final PDFs released and we're pouring through looking updating our characters! My new Burning Wheel game Vena and the King of Nothing is two sessions in and on the Diceology podcast. Vena is pursued by elves,  made an owlbear friend, and learned about Elven grief via human conflict. My lady friend, Elle had a fantastic rules breakthrough and we learned some hard truths about Vena her character! Pirates of Drinax had a bye week. I'm looking at Firefly and Hammerheads for vehicle mechanics inspirations!  Prepping for some Delta Green 1v1play with  Brendan from the What people do podcast.  I'm reading UVG and excited about running it soon. I'm set to run Desert Moon of Karth via Mothership for the Gauntlet's Star Wars Sat/Sun: Special Edition mini-con. in Dec and the session is full. I hung out with some gamers from the Gauntlet Sunday afternoon on Zoom. About 9 or 10 other folks scattered globally. We just chatted about recent games we're playing and running down the gaming tangents. This week I learned about Whitehack experiences from Christopher Kubasik via the Indie Game Reading Club Slack and it's climbed up my must playlist! What's on your game table or shortlist?Support the show (http://www.patreon.com/madjayzero)

We set off on our Burning Wheel series. Vena the Elf ranger is on the run with the young Elven prince she was tasked to kill for the Queen-Regent. We learn a bit about the ghost of the murdered King, Tengu in an ancient forest, and an Owlbear! You can check out our session zero and see how we got here!Support the show (http://www.patreon.com/madjayzero)

Support the show (http://www.patreon.com/madjayzero)

We've started our second chapter of The One Ring. The fellowship is journeying from Rivendell to Bree in search of that bad, bad, sorcerer!! Prepping a Legacy: Life Among the Ruins 2ED by UFOPress for play with the Gauntlet folks GauntletCon Open Gaming is coming up and I'm running sessions of Twilight 2K and UVG.  My lady friend has burned up a 4LP Ranger elf for the Burning Wheel RPG. She's protecting the young elf prince she was supposed to kill for the queen. She has relationships with the murdered elf king's ghost, the queen-regent(cousin, hateful), and her uncle, now the king!! Superman and the Authority #3 is confirming my fears. No spoilers, but damn! Return to Marduk with Judd of the Daydreaming about Dragons podcast. More Dictionary of Mu and Sorcerer gaming on twitch.tv/actualplay This week I learned about  http://fantasycities.watabou.ru/ for mapping cities! And Inktober is coming!!!Support the show (http://www.patreon.com/madjayzero)

It's been a couple of weeks and I have lots to cover! We played our first session of Pirates of Drinax using Cortex Prime -it was the BOMB! Talked about playing Burning Wheel with my lady friend, she brought it up and pitched a premise inspired by...The Lion King. We also played the Harry Potter Hogwarts battle game, the co-op, and the PvP version. She LOVES Harry Potter. Two sessions of The One Ring -now weekly on Twitch.tv/actualplay We visited a wight inhabited barrow-tomb! And experience some horse theft! I'm working on some Foundry VTT code for my online games. Played an X-Men/X-Force-inspired game of Champions Now testing out pregens for my Lifted zine. Juggling basic moves and the first draft of 3 playbooks for Debtpunk.  And thinking about the futuristic setting that it exists in. I've read Superman and the Authority #2 was less than #1, but it was a team assembling montage, so I get it. I still have lore questions! The new Kill Team is out and I got in my Desert Moon of Karth Zine.  And this week I learned: Lupin the 3rd will be an RPG by Magnetic Press Play! Love it! And old Palladium Fantasy is pretty hot in the right hands!Support the show (http://www.patreon.com/madjayzero)

Support the show (http://www.patreon.com/madjayzero)

Kickstarters...WTF!! Hottest KS - Avatar Legends.  The Upset - Tears of a Machine SC  Carbon Grey RPG  Chronicles of Drunagor  Dogmight’s GM screen.  Forbidden Lands RPG – Book of Beasts and The Bloodmarch  A|State  Ran/Played: 2nd episode of The One Ring on Twitch.tv/ActualPlay R3D - Lifted with Champions Now. On my campaign turn with Five Parsecs from Home, a Sci-fi Solo Adventure wargaming game by Modiphius. Lancer RPG - The Long Rim. Reading/Prepping: Debtpunk iterating through moves and playbooks. Foundry VTT and the Forbidden Lands -Mad JaySupport the show (http://www.patreon.com/madjayzero)

Last week I ...   Ran/Played: The One Ring on Twitch.tv/ActualPlay Twilight: 2000 twice! Lifted with Champions Now two times! And thinking about an All-Star-Crisis session. Started Five Parsecs from Home, a Sci-fi Solo Adventure wargaming game by Modiphius. Lancer RPG. Reading/Prepping: Session Zero from Nahual  Reading Ruin Masters and the White Hack. And then there's Debtpunk. and some stuff about Jorune. What's on your play/read list? -Mad JaySupport the show (http://www.patreon.com/madjayzero)

I nerd-out about designing Debtpunk and Pinx via Vincent Baker's Powered by the Apocalypse essays and my Vampire game (SPOILERS) Played: Lancer RPG  Hutt Cartel - a Star Wars hack of Cartel Twilight: 2000 Tears of a Machine Sc -Live on Kickstarter!!  Prepping VtM:Rio by Night  The One Ring for Twitch/Actualplay Nahual A Tabletop RPG of Mexican Urban Fantasy Powered by the Apocalypse. What are you playing or nerding-out about? Support the show (http://www.patreon.com/madjayzero)

Russell Collins is an instructional and game designer. As an instructional designer for Learning Ally, he has spent decades creating accessible content for blind and dyslexic students and training others to do the same. As a game designer, he created The Tears of a Machine, a game inspired by his love of science fiction stories and young adult melodrama. He hopes to further access and inclusion in gaming. You can catch up with him at RobotClawTears of a Machine SC-  Live on Kickstarter!! Support the show (http://www.patreon.com/madjayzero)

Support the show (http://www.patreon.com/madjayzero)