Episode 81 – Fear

Grant’s second child is here and everybody is doing well!

Grant and Peter discuss some recent news, including Gamerati’s taking over of RPGpodcasts.com (a very good thing) and the upcoming Tavern Con and Electric City Comic Con, then get down to discussing the main topic: fear in RPGs. A lot of gaming groups have trouble handling fear in-game. Grant and Peter discuss some common reasons for the trouble and offer a number of potential solutions.

Links:

Tavern Con (no official link yet)

Episode 45 – Unity vs. Uniformity (With Ed Healy)

Stardew Valley

Electric City Comic Con

Gameable Pixar Podc […]

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Bonus Content – Tom Anders & Impact Miniatures

Daniel and Jeff got to sit down with Tom Anders to talk about Impact Miniatures, Blood Bowl, and more. It’s a really interesting discussion about the process of making that game happen and about the business of making miniatures and custom dice, as well as just talking about favorite and recommended games. Continue reading

Episode 122 – So You Want to Run a Gaming Ministry?

In episode 122, I finally get a chance to talk about going out to play with the wonderful people at First Presbyterian Church of Phoenixville. Between talking about that, and Daniel talking about his upcoming game day that will start a monthly ongoing group, we spend this episode talking about things you need to consider if you want to pursue gaming ministry.

We also have a brief update about Tavern Con 2016! We’d like to thank the folks at Monte Cook Games for donating one of their Reliquary box sets for someone to win at the event. Everything you need to play or run your own Numenera campaign and WAY more. I’m officially jealous of anyone who wins this!

We also announce that we’ll have Jack Berkenstock from  The Bodhana Group joining us this year. Not only will he and his crew be able to tell you about the therapeutic work that they do with games – but he mentioned something about a LIVE ACTION version of Go Goblin Go that I’m excited to see. Continue reading

Episode 80 – Mechanical Morality Systems

Grant and Peter break down the various advantages and challenges of using mechanical morality systems in your game and also dig into the reasons why such systems exist in the first place. In addition, we plug Tavern Con, Innroads Ministries in general and The MacGuffin Factory in particular, and Electric City Comic Con.

Links:

Tavern Con (no official link yet)

The Macguffin Factory

Episode 25 with Jack Berkenstock

Electric City Comic Con

Episode 140 of KARTAS

Scripture:

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Episode 121 – You Can’t Slap Jesus on It

Most of your hosts were sick as a dog when this was recorded, but we still had a fun time getting together around the mics. In this episode we talk about games like Animal Upon Animal, PIG, and Tragedy Looper.

As far as our theological topic of the episode – well, I could tell you about it, but I’ll give you this out-of-context quote and let you experience it for yourself:

“You can’t just slap Jesus on this and hope that it’ll be effective, because it won’t be. If it’s coming from a place of authenticity and truth, and ‘This is what’s REALLY going on in my life’ – then that makes a huge difference. It’s the difference between a Queen’s Gambit and Ewoks Save the Trees.”

On a side note: I mention about potentially having Future Mike stop in to give an update about the Phoenixville Game day. After waking up early, spending 4 hours on the road split at the front and back of a 7 hour game day — every Mike in the multiverse is tired as I post this. The short version is that it was a very successful event and the church is planning more game days to come. I’ll talk about it in the next episode. Continue reading

Episode 6 – Pre-Guffins, a MacGuffin Factory Tangent

This is not your standard episode. Our scheduled recording time was interrupted by personal matters, and rescheduling became problematic because Grant is busy being the daddy of new baby boy! However, we didn’t want to go without offering you guys an episode full of storytelling gold, so Mike is doing… Continue reading

Episode 79 – Character Advancement

Grant and Peter get together to discuss a topic that we often take for granted in our gaming experience: how our characters advance in gaming and what that says about our games. There’s some comparison to XCOM 2 (which Peter has been playing quite a bit of lately) but the conversation branches out from there pretty rapidly. This episode is also Peter’s first crack at production, so be kind if the audio is a bit rough.

Scripture: 1 Samuel 2:26, Ephesians 4:11-14

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Episode 120 – A Triumphant Return to the Wide World

As the title of this episode suggests, this episode Mike has stepped back to the mics after his journeys through the lands of Administration. He kicks off with stories of bear related games (Nyet! and Samurai Spirit) before the rest of the guys get going, as well as an update about the state of the Tavern Con 2016 prize pool with donations from Chara Games, Funhill Games, Tasty Minstrel Games, and more.

We also talk about the concept of the moral will of God and the global will of God – the understanding of doing right and being good in our own little box in our own little way versus the desire to step into the wide world and make connections with people from all walks of life. Continue reading

Episode 78 – Listener Mailbag 1

Grant and Peter read and respond to listener emails this week! We got some very interesting emails: One from Brady, asking about Habitica, a series on bible stories, and our unfulfilled promises; and one from Gameable Pixar Podcast’s Kris commenting on Manichaeism, alignments and dualism, and housework. Plus, Grant teases some upcoming site changes (forums!) and we remind everyone that Peter writes blog posts for weeks without new STG episodes.

Scripture: Proverbs 11:14, Mark 4:21-24, James 1:22

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