275 – Into the Fire Tale

Taking on deeper topics at the table can be a great way of working through your feelings as a group, but it can be intimidating. We have ideas on how to do it at the table without scaring your players away and to make it touch on the topics the players want.

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274 – The Disruption Tale

It can only mean one thing, invasion. We were emailed a question about a player using the crafting mechanics at the table, from there we expanded the scope into talking about disruptive players and how to deal with them.

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273 – The House Rule Tale

When Ben is looking for help coming up with tag team rules for a fight in a game he turns to Rissa for advice and a second set of eyes. We then take a look at a few of our own house rules that we’ve had to create.

Things we’ve talked about in the episode:

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272 – The Saber Tale

We were given a prompt on our discord server, and got talking about using sabers and the force in Star Wars adventures and how to make getting a lightsaber into something momentous for the characters and players.

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271 – The Empire Strikes Back Tale

Rissa and Ben take a look at The Empire Strikes Back to see what stories that they get inspired to tell by the movie and little corners that create new avenues for adventures for you to use.

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270 – A Tale of Building

We talk of setting and communicating difficulty to not overpower your characters, and to make sure that your players understand the difficulties that are presented to them. From a single patrol to a gang that’s chasing after the party we have ideas on how to make sure no one is taken by surprise.

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269 – The Lawless Tale

Law enforcement through out the galaxy has different textures that your players can feel. We start off talking about what to do with players who seem to be a law unto their own, not paying Stormtroopers any mind. Then we move to the outer rim and find ways to make a one ronto town feel alive with the sheriff. Finally we move through the detentes of the underworld and through using the Force in the dark times.

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268 – The Side Quest Tale

We talk about making obligation and character side quests simple and and achievable along side the main plots. From keeping the ideas contained, to getting the players involved we have ideas on how to make character quests awesome for you and your players.

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267 – The New Hope Tale

We start our series on taking inspiration from the Star Wars movies and seeing what stories we want to tell in the cracks, and what giant plots and galaxy changing things we see as coming from the text of the movies.

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266 – The Expensive Tale

We talk about the stages of an adventuring party, from the poverty of starting to gaining the experience and equipment to be awesome. Ideas about how to handle the frustrations and lack of equipment abound in this episode.

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265 – The Consequences Tale

There are times when players seem to not recognize when their actions should have consequences for their characters. We give advice on how to tie their actions explicitly back to the character actions and in how to make it more interesting when a die result means it’s complicated.

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264 – Tales of the Early Years

Every GM will have issues they have to overcome, there isn’t a set path to learning and being good at it. Rissa and Ben have had to learn along the way from their own mistakes. We share some of the weird things that have happened and how we can learn from them.

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263 – The Structured Tale

We started to talk about how to build in the flexibility to deal with your players improvising at the table in the scenes you’re creating. Plus how to shape the fun in a way to not curtail the players exuberance while keeping your own fun as a core part of the game.

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262 – The Tale of Vergences

Adam from Force Majure asked about vergences and how to use them to guide the story and adventure. We have several ideas on how to make things even more out there for Star Wars and how we’re able to focus on making it fun and meaningful for the players.

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261 – The Three Plot Tale

We go back to the list of RPG plots and gain ideas for you and us to use. From a fish out of water, to diplomacy, and racing in between we have ideas on engaging plots and some nifty places to find ideas.

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260 – Setting The Hook Tale

We talk about story hooks and trying to set the ones you as a GM want, while still being okay with the changes your players will inadvertently want. Growing beyond the plots we have and maturing into the stories of the whole table.

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259 – A Blockade Run Tale

Rissa was posed a question about how to get players to run blockades, we both have ideas and advice on how to make the seemingly impossible into challenges your players won’t balk to see.

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258 – A Tale of Two NPCs

For Heroes Act 2 Ben needed advice on how to do an important characters voice without doing an accent. Rissa has experience with making new voices and showing off different personalities for characters. The advice given becomes useful for differentiating characters for all.

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257 – The Shepard’s Tale

Ben had a question for Rissa, how do you guide the players without taking their agency away from them? How do you get the players to choose to do something that will be cool, but they have no idea how to get there?

Rissa has some ideas and Ben has a thought or two as well.

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256 – The Android Tale

In part 2 of our Android review we talk careers, the construction of the book, the favor economy, and hacking. We loved the setup and found that it sparked each of our imaginations in making us want to explore the universe more.

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255 – The Beanstalk Tale

A little while back Shadow of the Beanstalk launched from FFG, we decided to do a review episode about it and even brought in noted cyberpunkfile David Pickering. We talk about the lore and why the setting and mechanics lead to interesting choices to be made and how adventured hooks drip from the book.

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254 – The Edge to Age Tale

Players grow and some want to move from the Edge of the Empire style of scum and villainy and a shade of grey for every action to something more obvious of good and bad. We have ideas on how to suggest this to your players and a few ways to nudge them into the rebellion.

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253 – The End of Thursday Tale

Ben’s Thursday night campaign is coming to an end, but he’s unsure how he should do it. Rissa has several helpful ideas on how to bring it in for an end in a satisfying fashion.

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252 – The Failing Up Tale

After a session or two when your players are having no luck with the dice it can be so disheartening, and which can lead to player resentment. We talk about how to deal with failure after failure in a story and how to make it more interesting and fun for the player.

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251 – The Tale of Destiny

We get talking about the Destiny pool and how to keep it in play and moving between sides. From using it as a GM intrusion to an adventure to upgrading rolls and so many places in between

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