Sorry for the absence recently - Philip hurt his back and Chris decided that was a good time to start playing World of Warcraft again. But, they’ve also got some listener questions such as: What famous people would you want to play board games with?
Read MoreChris takes a look at Pathfinder Second Edition again, this time comparing it to D&D 5th Edition and what he likes about each system.
Read MoreThe Dirtbags crew has hit a stopping point on Avernus, as they haven’t had as many recording sessions since the Pandemic happened. In the meantime, enjoy this batch of Outtakes from the first couple of sessions of their D&D 5th Edition campaign “Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus”.
Read MoreWhy would you hit someone in the wrist? That’s so inconsiderate. Find out as the crew continues the D&D 5th Edition campaign “Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus”.
Read MoreThe group has descended into…..a sewer beneath the bathhouse! No, really. I guess that might be hell for someone? Anyway, let’s see if our group finds any other information about the Cult of the Dead Three as we continue the D&D 5th Edition campaign “Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus”.
Read MoreThe group gets pretty philosophical about the definition of a cult…while they try and investigate a bathhouse rumored to be the hideout of the Cult of the Dead Three as we continue the D&D 5th Edition campaign “Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus”.
Read MoreEhhhh I’m pretty sure I can. Let’s see if the group managed to get through their first fight without major casualties as we continue the D&D 5th Edition campaign “Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus”.
Read MoreDungeons & Dragons (D&D) 5th Edition hit a big milestone last year, as it was the game’s fifth anniversary. Which means for us players, we should probably expect to hear rumors of the next edition coming along shortly. However, for Wizards of the Coast, they took the opportunity to celebrate the big milestone with some hefty gifts...if you were willing to spend the money. The most elegant of these was the Sapphire anniversary dice set, which was a magnificent set of dice for the low price of just $299.99…Wow.
Equally as elegant, but not as back breaking, was the Special Edition reprint of “Tyranny of Dragons”, the adventure series that launched with D&D 5th Edition with the books “Hoard of the Dragon Queen” and “Rise of Tiamat”. It’s a great idea: celebrate all the good years that D&D has had by going back to where 5th edition started. Plus, it took these two adventure books and combined them into a single looking hardcover with a new beautiful cover.
Read MoreIt’s time for our little level 1 halflings to show their talents in combat! Will everyone come out of this first encounter alive? Only one way to find out!
Read MoreWe love getting feedback, and so this next campaign was actually a suggestion from one of our listeners, Beetle! He suggested we take the new D&D 5th edition adventure “Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus”, and play it as a party of only halflings! Now he gets to see what a poor decision he has made! In this episode, we meet most of the party as they answer a summons to see a local Captain in Baldur’s Gate.
Read MoreIt’s the last part of our DC Comics Adventures game! The last bit was a little short, so I threw in the few outtakes we had at the very end for you to enjoy. Come back next time as we start our newest D&D 5th edition campaign: Descent into Avernus!
Read MoreWe continue our DC Adventures RPG from Green Ronin. Our players are “famous” heroes from the DC Comics universe who have been gathered at Arkham Asylum to investigate some weird stuff going on. Last time, there was a meteor crash that had the team wake up to find that the asylum had been….altered. Wear headphones if you can! We experimented with using the Syrinscape software to add some thematic background noise to help with the ambiance. Let me know if it came through alright!
Read MoreCaveat: Not a real professor. I just play one on TV….if your TV is looking at my YouTube videos. Also my grandfather used to call me that when I was in college.
Now that I am back to blogging more often, its time to revisit this column. Got a question about board games, roleplaying games, comics or pop culture? Send me an email Chris@ocdcast.com or tweet me @ChrisTheProf on twitter with the #asktheprof hashtag and I may answer it in a future column.
Pulling from my archives, @BKfishen4Games asked on Twitter:
"How can I teach young gamers that it’s not all about winning?"
Brandon from the Brawling Brothers podcast (@BrawlingBros) asked:
"How do you loosen up the 'stiffs' at the table and have them fall into character?!?"
First of all, calling them stiffs is probably not helping your cause. Secondly, I totally know where Brandon is coming from. One of the first games I ran as a GM was the Star Wars Saga Edition RPG from Wizards of the Coast (basically D&D 3.5 but with Star Wars). I was trying to get a new group of friends into RPGs and as such pretty much everyone in my game had never played in a RPG before. A couple of players got into it, but there was one or two people that basically acted like we were playing Zork:
Read MoreIt’s our first episode of 2020! And its our 150th episode! And its the first episode of a new game! Here’s the first episode of the game we streamed on Halloween using the DC Adventures RPG from Green Ronin. Our players are “famous” heroes from the DC Comics universe who have been gathered at Arkham Asylum to investigate some weird stuff going on. Wear headphones if you can! We experimented with using the Syrinscape software to add some thematic background noise to help with the ambiance. Let me know if it came through alright!
Read MoreHere are the outtakes from our Tabula Rasa game! Come back next week as we play DC Comics superheroes!
Read MoreFresh off the heels of PAX Unplugged, today I’ll be taking a look at a sourcebook for D&D 5th Edition that was made in partnership with Penny Arcade, the people behind PAX. That sourcebook is “Acquisitions Incorporated”, and if you have been familiar with D&D and/or Penny Arcade then you probably have a good idea of what this book is about.
For those that aren’t aware, “Acquisitions Incorporated” was the name of the D&D adventuring party started by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik of the webcomic Penny Arcade, along with Scott Kurtz from the webcomic PvP. The crew started their adventures on the official D&D podcast back in 2009, where they were DM’d by the master himself, Chris Perkins (hey did you know I got the chance to interview him?). Since then, the stories and legacy have grown across several mediums, such as comics, animation, and even various streams on Twitch. In fact, one of the highlights of several Pax conventions is the chance to see the crew play another crazy adventure live.
Read MoreIt’s the conclusion to our Tabula Rasa game! Previously: Our “heroes” woke up in a lab with no memory and with superpowers. At some point, we jumped back on the rails and raced off to help Philip deal with the thugs that captured him. We continue our Tabula Rasa game using the Genesys RPG system from Fantasy Flight Games.
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