Episode 131: Helping People Steal Concrete
March 13th, 2015 | Robin
Join us in the Gaming Hut for a psychotropic ritual as we think about introducing entheogens into the magic of your F20 world.
The Politics Hut flips its municipal focus as Ken shares his perspective on the Chicago machine and mayor Rahm Emanuel’s forced confrontation with a run-off election.
How to Write Good takes a closer look at first acts, specifically the ones that set up your character’s status quo and the imminent threats to it.
Finally the Consulting Occultist crosses over with Among My Many Hats as Ken tells us about his Goetia instalment of Ken Writes About Stuff.
Attention, class! Anchor sponsor Atlas Games wants to enroll you in Mad Scientist University, the card game of evil genius, insane assignments, and unstable elements. Act now, Ken and Robin listeners, and they’ll throw in the Spring Break expansion set for free. Shipping within the US is also free.
Roll yourself a critical hit by ordering from a freshly discovered special trove of The Bones, the book on dice from our pals at Gameplaywright. Notables including Wil Wheaton, John Kovalic and our own Kenneth Hite wax both cubic and polyhedral, now at a crazy low price.
Mapheads, rejoice. CAD maestro Jeff James is Kickstarting Scale Realms. This project will fund full color, high quality maps with 3D structures and landscaping, with a hex or square option.
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I like the topic on the use of mind altering plants to alter the story in a variety of ways. As magic in these games is reliant on mental skills, one thought from me is that for the wizard or cleric needs to use some herb that’s somewhat mind altering to shift the magic to a different frequency to work versus a particular foe (where the shift goes through their defenses) but it’s got some drawback to using the drug/potion/plant so the more they use it will result in other problems.
Though I love the idea of putting magical catnip in some game like this that has it’s effect on everyone, not just cats, weretigers & other cat infused npcs in the game.
Also the mysteries & mechanications of Chicago politics is just insane.
The very entertaining and funny “Bartimaeus” series by Jonathan Stroud is set in a world where pretty much any magic is goetic. The character through whose eyes the story is told is a demon.
sounds nifty
RE Chicago politics…
It’s too bad Ken didn’t have time for a digression into the Council Wars that defined Harold Washington’s time in office. During this period of political gridlock Chicago came to be called “Beirut by the Lake.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_Wars
Dying Earth Bundle on Bundle of Holding!
Thanks Robin/Simon for putting this up. Don’t have the budget to purchase *everything* new and shiny… but a Robin design on BoH just can’t be ignored.
Dying Earth bundle at Bundle of Holding…
https://bundleofholding.com/index/current
Corporate Goetica adventure frame? “Hostile Aquisition”
Another Feng Shui 2 question for Robin:
It’s often a thing in martial arts movies to disarm the opponent. If a PC wants to do this, any advice on how to rule it?
I see a “Disarming Shot” schtick, but if they don’t have that… I might consider it a stunt, if it succeeds with enough margin they disarm the enemy. Does that seem reasonable?
The Goetia section recalls the manga _Devils and Realist_, which is all about devils politicing to be the temporary ruler of Hell. (The angels politic as well…)