Episode 36: Time for War

War. Huh. Yeah.
What is it good for?

-”War” Edwin Starr

Well, a plus-sized podcast episode for a start.
In this episode, we look at the three stages of war, the buildup, during and the aftermath, and the kinds of stories you can play in them. We also discuss how a focus on technology can make for some pretty intriguing games no matter which era you play in.

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Episode 35: Secrets and Lies

In this episode, we talk about how to best use lying and secrecy in your games.

The secrets of this episode:

  • Wayne’s d100 joke was originally Lyal’s. It was also originally funny.
  • Wayne has never seen Goodfellas, and Lyal has never seen Family Guy. This actually won’t seem like much of a secret after you listen to the episode.
  • Chris initially had a joke where he said the episode was about fantasy. Get it? It was a lie. It’s no secret why this “joke” never made it in.
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Episode 34: Pantheon Pandemonium: Norse Play

Praise not the day until evening has come; praise not a woman until she is burnt; praise not a sword until it is tried; praise not a maiden until she is married; praise not ice until it is crossed; praise not beer until it is drunk; praise a podcast any time. -Norse proverb (well, most of it)

In this episode, we discuss the Norse pantheon. We also uncover startling parallels between the Aesir and a certain American subculture.

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Episode 33: Addicted to Hands

Get your Idle Red Hands fix here. The first taste is free and so is the second taste. Hold on, all tastes are free. We would make really bad drug dealers.

In this episode, we look at addiction. Since we live in a country with extremely harsh drug laws (and darn glad of it, officer), we don’t have a lot of advice for the method role players out there. Instead, we discuss different types of addiction and how to include them in your game.

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Episode 32: Creature Feature: Cyborgs

LIST CREATURE FEATURE: CYBORG PRIME DIRECTIVES

1: DISCUSS CYBORGS, REAL AND FICTIONAL
2: DISCUSS HOW TO USE CYBORGS AS PROTAGONISTS
3: DISCUSS HOW TO USE CYBORGS AS ANTAGONISTS
4: [CLASSIFIED] (I think it has something to do with anime or transsexuals.)

Special Note: The Medal of Honor recipient mentioned in the episode is Leroy Petry. He received the award for his actions during a firefight in Afghanistan.

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DriveThruRPG.com Giveaway

In case you haven’t noticed, Idle Red Hand podcast episodes are now available for download on DriveThruRPG.com. To celebrate this momentous occasion, we’re having our first contest. Ever.

The rules are, like us, quite simple. Anyone who posts on our forums between now and September 10th, 2011, will be awarded a special code for DriveThruRPG that gives them 20% off the purchase any or all of the following titles:

In addition, one lucky poster will receive a copy of Iron Dynasty: Way of the Ronin completely free. Awesome! The prize codes will be awarded on September 11th, 2011, and must be redeemed before September 20th, 2011.

So register for the forums (if you haven’t done so already) and drop us a line. Even if it’s just to say hello.

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Episode 31: Warmachine & Hordes

In this episode, we look at the miniature wargames Warmachine and Hordes. We discuss our first impressions, for Chris and Yujiro, second impressions, for Lyal and Wayne, and whether we’ll play the games again.

If Privateer Press ever gets tired of the motto “Play Like You’ve Got a Pair”, here are a few suggested alternatives in the same spirit:

  • Ladies Need Not Apply
  • Men’s Time!
  • You’ll Die Alone
  • With an Apartment Filled with Miniatures, Dating Is Not Your Priority
  • Play Like It’s the 1950s
  • You’ll Have a Better Chance Meeting Women at Prison Than Across a Wargaming Table
  • Femiwhat?
  • All Sausage All the Time
  • Girls Have Cooties
  • Games Workshop Is for Women (and a lot of Men).
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Episode 30: Hardboiled

Good evening, hepcats, greasers and squares. We got the skinny on playing hardboiled in La La Land in the early ’60s, a land of queens, dreams and inbetweens. Dig Lyal laying on some heavy RPG experiments. Dig Wayne going talk, talk, talk (over Lyal). Dig Chris offering some funky advice.

So, tune in and dig the baaaad vibe we lay down. It’ll be a gas. From the podcast that’s on the record, off the QT and never very hush-hush.

Correction: Elfenland is actually like the travelling salesman problem, not “dilemma”.

Special Note 1: The Ryan and Matt mentioned in the podcast are the forum’s very own Ryan and Matt.

Special Note 2: It’s not mentioned in the episode, but we used the World of Darkness system.

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Episode 29: It’s About Time!

In this episode, we discuss time travel and what makes for a good time travel story. We have a mechanic suggestion that can be used in any time travel game and with any system. It’s quite possibly the greatest time travel RPG idea of all time.

We apologize for the sound quality. We messed up the microphone setting, so Wayne and Lyal sound a bit distant. We’ve figured out the problem, so it won’t be problem in future episodes. If only we could go back in time and put it to the correct setting before recording this episode.

Correction: The Adam Sandler movie Chris talks about is called Click, not The Remote. And this is the host you can hear clearly.

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Episode 28: Giving Props to Props

In this episode, we look at props. Do they help to propel a story or just dress up a table? Does the use of props encourage metagaming? Should the gamemaster get the players involved in creating props? Why did Wayne choose a purple horse to represent his Vampire character? All these questions and more will be answered over the next hour.

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