T w e n t y S i d e d
A few eagle-eyed readers might have noticed the Fear the Boot link and banner that have been appearing on the site for the past couple of days. The show is a podcast about tabletop roleplaying. They recently had me on the show for an interview and we talked about D&D, DM of the Rings, and a bit about me personally. It was great fun. If you want to know a bit about how DM of the Rings works behind the scenes or about my experiences as a DM in the past, then you should definitely give it a listen.
I never really got into podcasts before Fear the Boot, but I must say the show is quite enjoyable. It flows less like a talk show and more like an animated conversation between friends. It works really well.
If you want to dive in and see what the rest of the show is like, then I suggest starting around episode 40 and going forward from there. The archives are huge and it would take forever to hear them all, and I think the most recent episodes are their best work to date.
Thanks again to Dan, Chad and John for having me on.
id Software Coding Style
When the source code for Doom 3 was released, we got a look at some of the style conventions used by the developers. Here I analyze this style and explain what it all means.
In Defense of Crunch
Crunch-mode game development isn't good, but sometimes it happens for good reasons.
Project Button Masher
I teach myself music composition by imitating the style of various videogame soundtracks. How did it turn out? Listen for yourself.
Mass Effect Retrospective
A novel-sized analysis of the Mass Effect series that explains where it all went wrong. Spoiler: It was long before the ending.
Juvenile and Proud
Yes, this game is loud, crude, childish, and stupid. But it it knows what it wants to be and nails it. And that's admirable.
Shamus, just listened to the interview with the FtB guys. Was pretty excited to see your name pop up when the episode was downloading in iTunes this morning. Have a request for you, if you have time… would you mind writing a little bit about how you prepared to GM a game when you had no previous experience with gaming? I’m in the same boat (wanna start a group, haven’t ever played or GM’d before) as you described. I know your time is limited (isn’t everyone’s?), but thought this might make a good blog entry sometime. Thanks, and keep up the good work.
All I got to say is this summer its time to start up again!
yeah, straight up all you’ve got to do is tell skeeve youre ready, and then we can start, and let the olden times of yore begin anew! It’s freakin shweet!
i also must say i like your diva village, It’s trashy yet classy.
As a regular Fear the Boot listener since around episode 2 or 3 of the show, I was excited to see your name pop up in my iTunes this morning. And what a great interview! I hope that you’ll get swept up in the podcasting world, and I also hope you find yourself a good local group to game with.
Cause you know we could always move over to the world of Star Wars so that you can better prepare yourself for what should be the next great comic DM of the Force!
I’m crying to myself that I can’t have you by my side. your masculine voice puts me so much to shame.
Forever yours,
The creepy fanboy
Shamus, I have to admit, I truly appreciate you plugging an excellent podcast show such as that one. the guys who run the show make it almost sound too easy. Is that what we as roleplayers get for pursuing the hobby? The ability to host good podcast shows?
I remember listening to shows long ago that just didn’t have the ability (the hosts failed their rolls). Case and point, the failure that was counterstrike radio. Ugh.
Sorry a bit off topic:
I always thought that the number of dice icons on the comments line reflected the number of comments posted. But the ‘WoW that was close’ post has 41 comments and 3 dice and yet the HP=Horrible Pcomputers has only 35 posts and yet comes in at 4 dice. What gives? (Apart from my utter sad geekness for noticing such things).
Ravs
I think that to do a funny new non-D&D-based series after DM of the Rings is over would require knowing what’s funny about other game systems. If you were a regular Mutants & Masterminds or Champions player you would be able to do a funny look at the X-Men trilogy.
If you add the dice, it equals comment number. Sometimes the dice roll higher than others, thus needing less dice.
Ravs, look at the first post and its die icon. Look at the second, and the third, and the fourth. Then the fifth, which is 4+1, then 4+2, then 5+2, and so on.
Dammit, Shamus, get back to work and stop stepping on my explanations of your site! :)
Great interview, Shamus. Fear the Boot has been a favorite gaming podcast for a while now, and it was awesome to have you join the group for an episode. Like them, I had assumed from your incisive commentary that you were a long-time gaming veteran, and was surprised to learn you’d only played in a few campaigns under a single system.
I’m offended about the halfling-thief thing (not really, but it stuck out to me). Ander the unlucky halfling rogue was the fist character I ever made and played (4e D&D). I was nigh-mercilessly teased in-and-out-of-character about it (mostly by dwarves, for some reason). Unfortunately, it was kinda justified. The problem was, by virtue of being a hit-and-run type of player, I would:
A. Go through the entire game without a hit point of damage or
B. Need to get bailed out by that stinkin’ dwarf three times/combat encounter.
I’m still known as the halfling (that occasionally plays one in D&D) among that first group.
Ander was good, so I almost never stole anything, and never something from another PC. Still, maybe the stigma Fear the Boot talked about is the reason I was mocked so much.