This month's episode:

(direct download link here - running time 56:43)

Happy holidays dear listeners! We kick off December with the second installment of Ryan’s exploration of gaming groups and how they operate. Personally, I found it fascinating to listen to how Mike’s group plays together. And these guys are pretty hard core!

We also discuss two very pleasant interactions we’ve had with gaming stores recently. Ryan is very happy that the new store Organized Play has opened up not too far from him in the Knoxville, TN. I had a chance to go to Chicago and discovered that Games Plus, in nearby Mt. Prospect, lives up to its excellent reputation indeed.

Ryan has been loving Swashbucklers of the Seven Skies and you can find a link to the wiki for his ongoing Lexicon game here: http://lexicon-rpg.wikispaces.com/

We are always looking for new subjects for the Friendly Neighbourhood Gamer interviews, so if you know anyone, let us know in the comments. We’re interested in how other groups play together and trying to get people who aren’t connected to the online community (tricky to do from a blog, natch). But if you think about it, I’m sure you know someone in your group who would be interested in talking to Ryan and sharing the way you all play together.

We hope you enjoy the show!

This month's episode:

(running time: 51:38)

This month, I talk to Simon Washbourne about how he designs his games, the history and production process behind Barbarians of Lemuria and some of the exciting projects he is currently working on. I have wanted to talk to Simon for a long time and I’m quite happy with the way the interview turned out.

Here is the link for those of you who want to download the audio file directly.

Barbarians of Lemuria will be available in better game stores in December and is currently available, along with the rest of his oeuvre, in pdf form at RPGNow. He also has several free games available as well as some earlier versions of his published games for free as well over at 1KM1KT. I strongly recommend that you check them out.

Below is a list of Simon’s published games in chronological order, for your reference.

Lashings of Ginger Beer (2003) (although there was a free version around before that)

It’s a Dog’s Life (2004) (ditto the above)

Go Fer Yer Gun! (2005)

Medieval Murder Mysteries (2005)

Tales from The Wood (2005) (there was/is a free version around before that and you can still get it at 1KM1KT)

Medieval Mysteries 1PG (Heyoka Studios 2007)

Battleforce Bravo Adventure Pack (Heyoka Studios 2007)

Barbarians of Lemuria (2008) (Free version around since about 2003)

I’d like to correct one error I made in the interview, where I called mistook Dave “Grubman” Bezio’s first name, calling him Jeff. This is the second time I’ve done this and I really have no idea why. My apologies, Grubman.

As always, I’d love to hear your feedback.

This month's episode:

Draconis, Montreal’s Gaming Convention, takes place next week and it gives me an opportunity to get a lot of interesting recorded material.  We begin with an interview with three of the organizers of the convention: Christopher Hammock, the Con Chair; Martin Sirois, the Head of Publicity and Jason Rivest, Head of Programming.  We discuss what each of their roles are, the challenges they face and the current state of the con.  If you are interested in organizing your own local convention or are already doing so, I think you will find our discussion informative.

Here is the file for direct download.

This month's episode:

This month, I interview Chris Rutkowsky, the creator of the Basic Action Super Heroes system. He is on the verge of releasing the BASH Ultimate Edition. As well as getting pretty deep into the mechanics of BASH, we talk about his gaming background, what led him to create BASH, what other projects he’s working on and his gaming community. Chris can be seen around the internet under the handle BASHMAN and the website for his game can be found at http://www.bashrpg.com/.

The mp3 file can be downloaded directly from this link, if that be your pleasure.

This month's episode:

This month's episode:

We have an interesting two-course meal for you this month. Boulet gives us a brief review and history of the French RPG Bloodlust, where the players take on the role of God-Weapons or the characters they possess. The main segment is the first episode of Ryan’s Friendly Neighbourhood Gamer where he talks to Mike in an attempt to learn more about the myriad ways we come together and play in our hobby.

You can download the mp3 file directly here.

This month's episode:

We recorded this special episode for all of you not going to GenCon (and also for those of you going). We begin with some coping strategies for those of us left at home. Then we promote some of our favorite bloggers, posters and podcasters who are going to be reporting from GenCon so that we can follow along from home. After that, Ryan gets consumer as he goes through the varied and exciting of lists of products that are going to be released at GenCon and that we won’t be able to see until later. Finally, we discuss some of the interesting hobby trends and industry developments that will be highlighted during GenCon.

(you can download the mp3 file directly here)

Links:

For all your live GenCon news:

1) Zacharythefirst’s live reporting thread from GenCon (It’s live!  It’s live! and don’t forget his blog, RPGBlog2 where he’ll be sharing some updates as well.)

2) ChattyDM’s GenCon Plans (where I’ll be doing a guest post this Monday on Mutant Future)

3) This Just in from GenCon podcast (or just search for it in iTunes!)

4) Twitter accounts to follow during GenCon (and don’t forget the #gencon hashtag!): MountZionRyan, danielsolis, Pramas, ChattyDM, rpgblog2, Jolly Blackburn, Ron Blessing, Pramas (this list will grow, so keep checking back!)

New Product Releases at GenCon
Pinnacle: Weird Wars: Weird War II, Stick & Stones Card Game
Paizo: Pathfinder
Arcane Legions by Wells Expiditions
Rogue Trader Collector’s Edition
Paranoia - 25th Anniversary
Judge Dredd using Traveller rules
Western City GMless Western RPG
Reality Blurs: (SW) Realms of Cthulhu
Cubicle7: Qin Core book reprint. Qin Game Masters Screen, Qin: Legends
White Wolf: Geist: Sin Eaters
Ribbon Drive
AD 316
A Game Called Fear, An Anthology Horror Game John Wick (creepy teaser video)
The World of Near
Ganakagok

As always, we welcome any comments, criticisms or questions. If you have any other suggestions for good sites, blogs, podcasts and twitter accounts to follow GenCon, please put them in a comment below!