The Jank Cast

First, the wonderful nerd blog io9 posted this.

As someone whose free time revolves around metal and gaming, I wanted to comment.

First off, I’m going to suggest gaming ambiance for an upcoming cast episode.  Music will be in that episode.  Stay tuned for that.  Generally, I think music at the table is great.  There’s three ways to approach it:

1) Game motivated (I did this when I GM’ed SOTC).  This means that when the GM says “you guys are in a jazz club,” jazz music plays.

2) Atmosphere.  This would be quieter music played to set the mood.

3) Music driven gaming.  This is what that article seems to be getting at.  ”We’re going to be doing a sweet dungeon crawl so put on some Sabbath, dude.”

Now, onto the post.

First off- Rainbow?  Seriously.  Rainbow?  I mean, I love Dio and all, but… RAINBOW?  And while we’re at it… DEEP PURPLE?  What are we, a junior high marching band?

Okay.  Having said that, The Sword and 3 Inches of Blood are SWEET choices for some good fantasy-themed metal.  I would also suggest A Band of Orcs (who are a literal band of orcs), Armory, Powerwolf, Doomsword, While Heaven Wept, and Amon Amarth.  That’s for dungeon crawl kind of music, though.  For more atmospheric stuff, I would go with any good instrumetal band such as Latitudes, Tides, Tomydeepestego, or Conifer.  My PERSONAL music preferences, though, are more towards atmospheric and ambient music.  Mono is good, SunnO))) is good, but my personal favorite music to use is Clint Mansell’s soundtracks, particularly the soundtrack to Moon.

Right now, I’m planning to use Morricone when I run a Dust Devils campaign and Earth when I run a Deadlands campaign.

Then there’s the grandaddy of them all.  (The Lord Weird) Slough Feg, who actually wrote a whole album about the game Traveller.  Even without the nerdiness, they’re still one of the best straight up metal bands out there.  The gamer-geekiness is just the icing on the already awesome metal cake that is Slough Feg.

To me, music should set the mood.  It’s really going to depend on what you’re doing, I suppose.  I tend more towards instrumental stuff, so we can talk over it, but some part of me is REAL into the idea of running a sweet dungeon crawl or straight up hard sci-fi laser fight with some good fantasy or death metal blasting.  No talking required- just rocking and rolling (see what I did there?).

So yeah.  Keep your ears open for a (hopefully) future podcast that brings this topic up.

-Todd

In my previous post (see below) I blamed it all on system. Most systems encourage character investment/building, and have mechanics which don’t lend themselves to single, grand heroic gestures. Timo’s comment got me thinking, though. While that’s all true, this is also about both the players and the GM contributing to a certain kind of story. This has a ring of GNS theory, here.

On some level this can also be broken down to the degree to which you think of what you do as a game vs. a story.

Surely we all think of it as both, but if you’re more on the game side, why SHOULD you risk your character? If you think of it as a story, why SHOULDN’T you? When everyone at the table agrees that the important thing is telling the cool story as opposed to “winning the game” so to speak, why wouldn’t you throw that character in harms way?

I’m not saying the system isn’t important here, just that some of this is an agreement between players and GMs- do we want a cool story or a cool game? You can certainly have both, but a high stakes moment may force you all to come down on one side or another, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

-Todd

…is by porn stars.

Be ashamed, nerds.

My question: does this site do more to dispel myths about role-players or porn stars?  Either way, get on board.  It’s a sweet blog.

-Todd

(NOTE: So we’ve been talking about adding some blog content on the Jank Blog here, so this website will now have both the weekly podcast AND various text-only thoughts by the cast members in between podcasts.  Let us know if you hate it.  The content here will be crossed with the content at chicagolandgames.com ).

Tonight we hit up some Apocalypse World (or A-PO-WO, as the cool kids call it, because the cool kids totally abbreviate everything, natch).  I imagine we’ll talk more thoroughly about it on the cast this weekend, but I did want to bring something up: I put my character in some straight up mortal danger, and not like “we’re having a combat” mortal danger but “if I don’t make this roll, I’ll probably be very dead” danger.  Other people went pretty far into putting their characters into the line of fire as well.  The last game I did this in was Dread (the Jenga one), in which I straight up killed my character to do something super-cool.

Both of these systems/settings, I would argue, encourage this.  Here’s how:

1) Dread does it via the mechanic.  If you knock over the tower, you’re taken out but you accomplish whatever you’re trying to do.  Therefore, you are straight up rewarded for doing something which puts yourself in danger.

2) Both games seem designed more for short-term or one-shot play than a D&D style campaign.  There’s not a lot of character advancement in either, and they have gritty systems in which it’s easy to die.  Which leads me to…

3) They have gritty systems in which it’s easy to die.  The corollary of this is that it’s also easy to kill.  I like feeling like I’m putting something on the line with a roll- with this roll I’ll either go out in a blaze of glory or kick some legendary ass.

4) They encourage brutality in settings.  A-PO-WO directly, via it’s “holy shit it’s the apocalypse” setting, and Dread via the kind of settings that you’ll create to go along with the brutal central mechanic.

5) They don’t give you just one way to kick ass.  My A-PO-WO character isn’t particularly tough, but can manipulate people and has a cult of 20 followers ready to do just about anything for him.  If I wind up maimed or blinded or whatever, it’s not like I become useless.  A lot of games just aren’t like this.  When you’re playing a fighter in D&D and someone, say, blinds your character, you might as well stop playing them (unless you play D&D in a really unconventional way that it’s not really designed for).

If you take that altogether, it means that you have little to lose by putting a character on the line and a lot to gain, story-wise.  It’s not like you’ll be risking some character you’ve put too much time and energy to lose into, it’s not like if they get messed up you’ll be useless, and you’re contributing to the brutality of the setting.  Besides the above mentioned games, a game I think does this really well is Dust Devils, where your character’s ultimate end is almost built right into their backstory, and it’s just up to you to figure out what the coolest time and way to do it is.

I think that’s a nice feature in games.  Sure, building up a character is fun, but we all know that building up a character means you have to play at least a little conservative (especially in the early going) if you want them to last.  When your system/setting encourages you, however, to throw it all away for some cool plot moment, I think you can wind up with some pretty awesome story options.

-Todd

Episode Forty-One: Why?
Hosts: JOHNKELLY, Scott, Todd, Timo, Lexx

JOHNKELLY is back.
Star Trek the MMO.
None of us played RPGs. What. The. Fuck.
Upcoming… Starblazer, Apoclapse World, Sorcerer
Nico, Timo is sorry. The rest of us laugh at your pain.
J.P.’s mom uses hex bags
Main Topic: Why do we game?
Gaming over writing
Why we make fun of each of us
Todd is covered in Eastwood
Escapism
Emo Timo
Creating the World’s details
Sci-Fi
Game to have fun
Todd hates fun and is therefore Gargamel

Rants
Timo: Emotor
Lexx: Magic Players
JOHNKELLY: *cough*
Scott: Facebook
Todd: Stairs
Everyone except JOHNKELLY is old

You have been listening to The Jank Cast, copyright 2009 under the creative commons license. You can find out more about us at jankcast.com. All the music in the show is from the song, “Jank is a Dork Word” written and recorded by Todd and is used with his permission. You can send comments and feedback to feedback@jankcast.com Again, we are sponsored by Chicagoland Games, and this is JOHNKELLY reminding you to support your local gaming store. Now go out and roll some dice.

 

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Episode Forty: JOHNKELLY!!!!!!!!
Hosts: Timo, Allen, Scott, Lexx, Todd
Edited by: JOHNKELLY

BTW: They didn’t plug the mixer in.

(01:30) JOHNKELLY is sick.
(02:00) What we played this week: Doctor Who, Starblazer Adventures, Furry Supernatural, Apocalypse World,  Bayonetta
(05:00) Ron Edwards, Little Ronny, and the forum topic that inspired our topic
(06:30) The Forge
(10:00) Dungeons and Dragons marketing
(18:00) A Comic Store Comparison
(24:00) Indie Games as a “gateway drug”
(25:30) The Jank Cast does not support the use of illegal drugs
(30:00) Doctor Who
(31:00) TMNT
(34:15) Supernatural: The Roleplaying Game
(41:00) Theme
(42:20) 4th Edition
(46:30) Blasphemy: The Board Game

Rants
(48:15) Lexx: To Ron Edwards…
(49:30) Todd: Convince me
(51:15) Scott: “I play D&D.”
(52:30) Allen: The ancient British of Greece / Ninja Poop
(55:10) Timo: People are not responsible for their fanboys

(57:00) A message from JOHNKELLY

You have been listening to The Jank Cast, copyright 2009 under the creative commons license. You can find out more about us at jankcast.com. All the music in the show is from the song, “Jank is a Dork Word” written and recorded by Todd and is used with his permission. You can send comments and feedback tofeedback@jankcast.com Again, we are sponsored by Chicagoland Games, and this is JOHNKELLY reminding you to support your local gaming store. Now go out and roll some dice.

 

 Episode Fourty [58:56m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (42)

Episode Thirty-Nine: Not in my House!
Hosts: JOHNKELLY, Timo, Scott, Nick

(01:00) Lexx is at Capricon
(01:50) Happy Chinese New Year, Valentines Day and Unattached Drifter Christmas
(02:30) Supernatural (Chicagoland’s Living Game)
(05:30) What we played this week: Supernatural, Little Fears: Nightmare Edition
(06:30) Shout out to Valentines Day: Masturbation Jokes
(07:00) Main Topic: Gaming at Different Locations
(10:30) Nick joins us. Mock the Cleric
(14:00) Sorcerer
(15:30) Poison’d
(17:45) Call of Cthulhu
(23:00) Length of Gaming
(33:00) Gaming at another’s house
(36:00) Food
(42:00) Microsoft Surface

Rants
(46:40) Scott: Crappy Movie and TV about Rome
(48:50) Nick: Gamer Relationships/’
(50:20) JOHNKELLY: Timo, talk about BBQ
(52:20) Timo: CapriCon

You have been listening to The Jank Cast, copyright 2009 under the creative commons license. You can find out more about us at jankcast.com. All the music in the show is from the song, “Jank is a Dork Word” written and recorded by Todd and is used with his permission. You can send comments and feedback tofeedback@jankcast.com Again, we are sponsored by Chicagoland Games, and this is JOHNKELLY reminding you to support your local gaming store. Now go out and roll some dice.

 

 Episode Thirty-Nine [54:09m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (152)

Interview & Review: Little Fears

Interview with Jason Blair, designer of Little Fears and Little Fears: Nightmare Edition

Interview: JOHNKELLY and Lexx

(36:30) Review of Little Fears: Nightmare Edition

Hosts: JOHNKELLY, Timo, Rob, Lexx

You have been listening to The Jank Cast, copyright 2009 under the creative commons license. You can find out more about us at jankcast.com. All the music in the show is from the song, “Jank is a Dork Word” written and recorded by Todd and is used with his permission. You can send comments and feedback tofeedback@jankcast.com Again, we are sponsored by Chicagoland Games, and this is JOHNKELLY reminding you to support your local gaming store. Now go out and roll some dice.

 

 Interview/Review of Little Fears: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (18)

Due to the drunken Super Bowl weekend haze we managed to overlook recording an episode. So Episode Thirty-Nine is going to be delayed until next week. However this gives us a chance release some awesome stuff! Are you excited?!?! I am!!! Can’t you see how many exclamation points I’m using?!?! This week we will be releasing two interviews and one review. GET READY FOR SOME AWESOMENESS! Stay turned for more Jank Radio…

-The Jank Cast

Episode Thirty-Eight: ADMs
Hosts: JOHNKELLY, Timo, Rick (Mustashio), Lexx

(00:30) Degrees of Gayness
(01:00)Who is Rick?
(02:30) What we played this week: Supernatural, Lexx LARPed, Left 4 Dead 2, Bayonetta, Kafka , Dungeon Lords, Les Miserables: the Arm Joe
(03:15) Cloak, and the other good things about Marvel
(07:30) Main Topic: Adversarial GMs
(18:00) Knights of the Dinner Table
(28:00) Dogs in the Vineyard, Black Cadillacs, Apocalypse World, Poison’d
(50:00) Dungeons and Dragons

Rants
(52:30) Lexx: I am so goddamn popular [Gorbo the Destroya]
(53:35) Timo: Bring back Lexx?
(54:45) JOHNKELLY: Lexx…….
(55:20) Rick: Be Afraid young Goblins

 

 Episode Thirty-Eight: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (251)