Topics

16

General Discussion / Pictures from MO

« on: October 20, 2009, 03:50:45 PM »

Here are a couple pics from my MO trip. First, what has to be one of the largest tabletop game stores in the world - Meta Games Unlimited in Springfield:



The store was literally less than a block off the freeway I was driving on to get to Branson anyway. So despite the fact that we had driven 12 hours, we had to stop. I met Rob and Mike inside, but my wife was too busy chasing three restless children around the store to take any pictures inside.

The second pic is from a week later in St Louis:



Good time and plenty of beer in D&B's!

17

General Discussion / Visiting St Louis

« on: September 21, 2009, 01:27:27 PM »

My family and I are visiting St Louis in October! On Friday, 16 Oct, we're planning to go to Dave & Busters and for dinner, drinks, and games and you're all invited. I'm thinking a 6pm start time so we can take advantage of Happy Hour drinks and cheaper games. Please let us know if you plan to attend so I can try and keep a headcount.

On Saturday, 17 Oct, we're planning to go to "Boo at the Zoo" at the STL Zoo. Not sure what time yet, but if anyone is interested in going with us please let me know.

18

Video Games / Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

« on: September 21, 2009, 01:08:36 PM »

My wife and I are playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. If you see us on and want to play, hit me up. We're going through the whole game, clearing all the rooms looking for collectibles, and watching all the movies. So fair warning if that's not your style.

The "Fusions" in the game are really cool. The graphics and art are really a step up from MUA1, too. If you're a Marvel fan, really can't miss this one. I'm hoping they can redeem the Civil War storyline, but I'm not far enough along to know yet. So far, so good.

19

Video Games / Halo ODST

« on: September 21, 2009, 01:04:23 PM »

So after playing Halo 3 with Havick this weekend, I'm looking forward to ODST. It will have a Horde mode ala Gears 2! So who is going to get it and play soon?

20

Story Shtick: Comments/Suggestions / Promo for Story Shtick

« on: August 27, 2009, 03:29:32 PM »

Here's a promo for Story Shtick. I think it's pretty funny. If anyone plays it on their show, let me know!

21

General Discussion / Video Editing Software Suggestions

« on: August 26, 2009, 06:58:49 PM »

So back in February, I put together this little video-slide-show. I'm planning to work on a similar, but much longer, video-slide-show for my podcast. Basically, I'm going to record a very complicated game and then do a slide show of all the handouts and stuff in action to show people how the game works in gory detail. So no actual video will be involved, but it will have audio, graphics, text, screen caps, and animation/transitions.

I did the video linked above using Windows Movie Maker. That wasn't bad at all, but it wasn't exactly geared to do this kind of thing. I know how to do the same thing in Power Point, but I think Windows Movie Maker would be superior for this purpose.

So what I'd like to know, since there are so many software and video savvy people here, is are there better tools out there for doing this type of project? I'm not looking to spend a lot of money, but I would probably spend some if the tools were a lot better and easier than what I have.

Thanks!

22

Story Shtick: Episodes / In A Wicked Age

« on: August 26, 2009, 06:26:15 AM »

The first episode of the "In A Wicked Age" series is now available. Please comment about it here!

This one is pretty different in that it's my home group and it's the third game session in a short campaign.

23

Games and Hobbies / Podcasting Tips

« on: August 20, 2009, 09:35:56 PM »

I didn't want to distract the recent Podgecast ep thread, but I thought it might be a good idea to talk about podcasting tips in a thread. I'm no great expert, but I do like to dig in deep to my hobbies and podcasting is no exception.

And besides, this is a forum comprised mostly of podcasters. No reason we shouldn't talk about it as it's own hobby! Maybe everybody already knows this stuff, but I learned a lot from David and from doing things myself and from listening to other podcasts talk about podcasting. So why not pass on some cool tips? So that's what this thread is for.

So I thought it would be informative to show folks what Google Analytics can do for them. First, the coolest thing - the map! This shows you where your listeners are at. This file is just a PDF of the top level for my show, you can drill down and find out how many visits from each state (for the US) and by each city/town (for everywhere). Not surprisingly, in the US a lot of my listeners are from Colorado. A good number from STL (thanks!) and I can see the densities of Story Gamers in my maps because I know that certain areas are ripe with them. So I know I'm largely reaching my target audience. Furthermore, the details show you the average time on site and the number of pages visited so I know that the hits from Brazil are an anomaly and someone from Denmark is really into my site!

The most useful thing is the Referring Sites page. Using that I can see that while there's a lot from SOP there's more from RPGPodcasts and they spend more time on the site - probably because they were looking for Actual Play or Indie Games info. Also, posting to the Forge (indie-rpgs.com) produces high quality visits for me. I only PDFed the top ten referrals, but I look through them all and often find where people linked to my site that I didn't know about.

You can also adjust the dates you look at so you can just check out who hit the site since the last show dropped.

24

Story Shtick: Episodes / Time Enough for GeekDo

« on: August 15, 2009, 02:19:06 PM »

In this short, bloggy episode I talk about GeekDo and control of fiction in RPGs. This is where you tell me why I'm wrong  .

25

General Discussion / Hail Damage

« on: August 08, 2009, 07:38:36 AM »

My wife's van was pummeled by a severe hailstorm. It's just life in Colorado, really, but it's the worst damage we've experienced due to hail. Almost $7000! That beats the hail-induced-basement-flooding-repairs that came to about $1200 a few years ago.

Thankfully, my wife and children were not in the van during the storm. So Molloram asked me to post some pics of it here (through my wife, who he's spending a suspicious amount of time with on Xbox Live  ).

First, the storm!



Here's the hail about a half-hour after the storm - after a half-an-hour melting in July!

At my wife's feet:



In my four-year-old's hand:



And now, the van itself:





This one could've been deadly:



And to cheer you up - ain't Darth Maul cute?

26

Games and Hobbies / Wizards Fan Sites

« on: August 07, 2009, 04:19:34 PM »

Here's an opinionated and informed article on WotC's new fan site...stuff. I thought this might be of interest here because of all the Intellectual Property discussions on the board and on the Podge.

I do think he underestimates the appeal of having a WotC banner on your site. There are many dorks like me that love that smell of officiousness and have probably already jumped all over this program to slap that thing up on their site.

27

Story Shtick: Comments/Suggestions / Vision Statement

« on: August 06, 2009, 04:04:10 PM »

The Brilliant Gameologists have a Mission Statement, so I figured I’d one-up them with a Vision Statement for Story Shtick! I'm very interested in your feedback on this and what you'd like to see (hear) out of my show. Thanks!

What I do here is fairly different from most actual play podcasts and actual play recordings released for most games. I thought it might be useful to give listeners some insight into what I’m trying to achieve and how I plan to achieve it. To that end, I’ve created a Vision Statement for the podcast in two parts.

Vision Statement, Part 1: Present actual play of Story Games in a manner that will inform and entertain, revealing the creative process of the games in play while maintaining the linear narrative.

In order to do this, I edit the audio recordings quite heavily. Typically I cut a half-hour to an hour out of each game. This mostly consists of dead air, off-topic discussions, and redundant explanations. Repetition is an important part of learning. But when listening to others play a game you can focus on explanations the first couple of times without the distraction of concentrating on your own character or role in the game. So what is necessary repetition at the game table can often be redundant to a non-playing listener.

At the same time, listening to the actual play in the sequence it occurs helps the listener follow the game and understand the system. Therefore, I try to keep as much of the flow of the game session in tact as possible. The brainstorming, the back-and-forth, and even the misunderstandings are a part of the play process and they are important to understanding how these games are played. I also realize that some listeners enjoy actual play purely as an entertaining story and I want to keep the story together whenever possible.

Throughout the actual play recordings I interject commentary recorded after editing the audio. This commentary serves to inform wherever the details of the session are unclear or the rules weren’t strictly adhered to. Hopefully my commentaries also entertain! I try to add commentary as naturally as possible without taking the listener out of the flow of the game too often or too abruptly. My balance is to add a comment about every five minutes and to avoid making comments less than one minute apart unless they are very brief.

Another way in which I try to keep the entertainment value high is in cherry-picking the best recordings and the best game sessions. When all the players are clicking and the energy levels at the game table are high it makes for a better game and a better show.

Vision Statement, Part 2: Showcase game systems and be a standing resource for those interested in purchasing, running, and playing those games.

This is why I don’t number episodes as “Story Shtick Episode 6” or the like. I doesn’t matter which episode is most recent or which was released first. Each game system featured has its own series of episodes that stand alone if you don’t listen to any of the other episodes of the show.

Also, I don’t plan to release more actual play of a game system that has already been covered. I like lots of games and I haven’t had a chance to record and edit all of the game systems I’m playing or would like to play. Someday I will run out and I’ll either take a long break from the show or end it, but I plan to keep it about the new – at least for the edited actual play.

28

Games and Hobbies / Pathfinder Blazes a Trail!

« on: August 04, 2009, 06:48:32 AM »

Check out this press release from Paizo. Now there's no info on how many they sold or how small their first print run was, but selling out before release is a big deal either way. What is says to me is that the folks rejecting 4E aren't just a tiny but vocal group (like those that held on to 2E).

29

Games and Hobbies / RPG Geek

« on: July 31, 2009, 02:52:17 PM »

Have you ever heard of Board Game Geek? Well now they have it for RPGs too! Best part is that it's fully integrated with the Board Game side. Check out the sidebar on Story Shtick (link below) and you'll see my recently played games - both Board and RPG.

I always go to Board Game Geek to learn more about games, see the ratings, and read reviews before I buy them. I think RPG Geek is going to be as big a deal.

30

General Discussion / What fresh hell is this?

« on: July 13, 2009, 03:03:10 PM »

So things are really moving here at the Outhouse: new shows are joining up again, the Showcase is a new, innovative success, and Northmoor is even nominated for an Ennie!

And now it all might go to shit?  What happens to the Outhouse now? Are the foul-mouthed freaks at "Kicked in the Dice Bags" supposed to be our anchor show now?