gamers » Troll in the Corner

Catch me with Jay Libby (G-Core) and Peter Bryant (Tri-Tac, ConMen) on Gamers On Games

Feb 072013

GamersOnGames

Big thanks to David Simpson for inviting me on to Gamers on Games – a hangout on air thingy where a bunch of us indie folks get together and talk about what we do for an hour.

It was a lot of fun as we covered lots of topics, from where we get our ideas to how to market them and not be a dick about it. It should also be known that Peter, Jay and I are all industry guests at this year’s Total Confusion – so if you’re in the area, look us up and say hello!

Check out David’s other videos and more right here. Catch Jay Libby and his awesome games over at Dilly Green Bean Games and find Peter Bryant at Studio 187.

Indie Talks Episode 6 – Matt Vancil

Indie Talks Podcast, Role Playing Games No Responses »

Jul 252012

Indie Talks Episode 6 - Matt Vancil [ 18:30 | 16.95 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (234)

In this episode of Indie Talks we’re joined by Matt Vancil of the Dead Gentlemen and Zombie Orpheus Entertainment as he talks about their latest project, Gamers: Hands of Fate! A full length, crowd funded feature film!

In The Gamers: Hands of Fate, the cast of internationally acclaimed The Gamers: Dorkness Rising returns for another dice-hurling, waffle-devouring, GM-infuriating romp through worlds of sword, sorcery, and surrealism. InHands of Fate, the gamers must expand their horizons past pen-and-paper RPGs to explore two whole new realms of geekdom – Collectible Card Games (CCGs) and game convention life – and face off against their arch-nemesis: The Shadow!

Contact me with comments: Indietalks@trollitc.com, follow me on twitter @trollitc and also check us out on iTunes! While you’re at it, there’s the Indie Talks Facebook page and the Indie Talks Google+ page. Myspace…well, I won’t go there if you wont. Please do rate this podcast on iTunes, and leave feedback through any of these links!

This episode brought to you by RPGOrbit!
The music you hear is “Infralove” by Diablo Swing Orchestra, available free and CC licensed at Jamendo.

Reminder: 2 more days for a chance at some free, HD videos from Z.O.E. – Gamers: Dorkness Rising and JourneyQuest

Contests, Role Playing Games No Responses »

Nov 172011

Do not forget that you’ve got two more days to enter! Go to the original post and leave a comment for you chance at one of the four HD downloads. Read the instructions for ways to get more entries and increase your chances of being totally awesome!

Check out what you can win right here at DriveThruRPG.

Win HD downloads of RPG favorites Gamers: Dorkness Rising and JourneyQuest Season 1

Contests, Movies and TV, Role Playing Games 17 Responses »

Nov 142011

He who stumbles around in darkness with a stick is blind. But he who… sticks out in darkness… is… fluorescent!

Read on for your chance to win one of four HD downloads of Gamers: Dorkness Rising and JourneyQuest Season 1 from DriveThruRPG!

Tabletop Gamers – a love letter

Ben's Corner, Pathfinder, Role Playing Games, Savage Worlds 1 Response »

Sep 162011

Early morning on the 15th of September, before the sun had risen, I uploaded the Wayne Foundation Charity RPG Pack to DriveThruRPG. Within two hours, with no advertising, three people had ponied up their $15 to purchase it. By the time 24 hours had passed – our first day in a 15 day sale, we had sold over $810 worth of charity packs, raising over $520 dollars for the Wayne Foundation.

Thank you.

It says a lot, in my eyes, that people from all around the world will jump in to support causes like this. I’ve seen it time and time again on DriveThruRPG when natural disasters cause huge amounts of human suffering, or when gamers get together to support a charitable organization they believe in. It’s always been a great feeling.

When you’re the one spearheading an effort to get something done, that feeling is magnified. I’m very proud of our community and proud to be a part of it. The indie press publisher who contributed their products to this bundle, the folks at DriveThruRPG for helping me put this together, and everyone out there who’s purchased it, helped spread the word and sent words of encouragement my way. You are all amazing.

To get on with a bit of housekeeping – there’s some great news for charity pack purchasers. The Impossible Dream have stepped up and asked to be included, adding their Ennie award winning horror game Dread to the charity pack. If you’ve already purchased this, just return to the charity pack page on DriveThruRPG and download the dread-already-purchased.zip file. New buyers will find Dread already included in the Wayne Foundation Charity Pack.zip and need not download the second .zip file.

Any help you’d be able to give spreading the word about this over the next 14 days would also be greatly appreciated! Social networks, email, blogs… if you need anything by way of images, blurbs or lists of product, get in touch with me and I’ll happily provide them.

I expect the first day of sales to be the largest but would love to show up on the Wayne Foundation’s virtual doorstep with a nice big donation, so every sale from now to the 30th of September counts a great deal!

Finally, I’ve just confirmed that I’ll be at Total Confusion XXVI in Mansfield MA this coming February 23-26. This is a great gaming convention and I’d encourage anyone within travel distance to stop in and hang out! Attendance runs just under a thousand, which means there’s enough people to always find a game or hang out with, but not so many that you’ll be lost in a crowd. I hope to see you there!

5 things gamers get wrong

Ben's Corner, Role Playing Games 2 Responses »

May 072010

The Rules. It happens all the time. Whether you’re a GM or a player, those rules are sometimes misinterpreted, forgotten about or just plain ignored. And that is okay, as long as everyone is enjoying the session and it doesn’t break the game.

I remember when I first started running D&D games with my 7th grade friends. There was this really powerful 1st or 2nd level spell that all of our spell chuckers took. Point your finger at a baddie and if they fail a save – BLAM! Dead.

You don’t remember that spell? It was called “Feign Death”. Yeah. None of us knew what the hell a ‘feign’ was but whatever it was it was throwing death around like nobody’s business. And it was an awful lot of fun for a group of 12 and 13 year old boys.

I’m always reminded of the line from Gamers: Dorkness Rising. “Story trumps rules”.

Not everyone agrees with this I’m sure. If you’re in a session where the rules are the be-all-end-all authority and everyone agrees this is so, that’s great. I’ve seen a lot of tension though when there are mixed feelings about what’s more important.

Animals. Believe it or not, rare and powerful wild animals will probably not want to flock towards your clanking, swearing, sweaty party as they tromp through the woods on some quest or another.

I dislike random woodland encounter tables that have the party meeting up with 1d6 wolves, 1d4-1 brown bear or 14d10 squirrels. I’ve spent a little bit of time in the woods being relatively quite and sedate, with food. Once, a bear came in to my camp to investigate and got scared off by a dog.

I understand that encounters with wild animals happen when we’re in their element, but once a day just to keep the party occupied and get some experience seems a little ridiculous to me.

Personal Hygiene. There I said it. I know there is the stereotype of the smelly nerd and I’m not meaning to play in to it but I have to make a confession.

I take public transportation all the time, in a big city. I’ve also gone to a few gaming conventions. I’ve encountered more people with crummy personal hygiene at the conventions than I do on a hot subway filled with a random selection of people from the city.

Take it from me. People do notice if you smell and it will make a huge difference in how you are perceived if you step up the washing and deodorant a bit. Please.

Dungeons This is more from personal experience and anecdotes from friends. Yes, it’s called Dungeons & Dragons and yes it spawned the original RPG movement. But seriously, I’ve played in campaigns (in many, many systems) where I’m a Knight-type character and the only thing my horse is good for is riding from one dungeon to the next. My lance is strictly used to keep my pennant off the ground, not for mounted combat because I can’t ride my damned horse into a dungeon.

Not every adventure or campaign need be riddle with dungeons. If you’re doing a hack n slash type thing where it’s expected that the thrust of game will be hitting things as hard as you can, that’s cool. A detailed campaign though should feature more than just the over used dungeon.

And if you do use a dungeon in something other than hack n slash, come up with a reason why 18 goblins have been hanging around 3 levels underground without food or water just waiting for you or someone like you to come along.

Accents and Sound Effects This one is for any player who’s ever been in any of my groups. I have a natural tendency to drop in to accents for various NPCs and describe situations by saying something like “Suddenly, you hear (insert strange noise issuing from somewhere between my throat and my nasal cavity). That’s a bad habit.

Not only do I end up having to blow my nose a lot more but inevitably my players all look at each other and then look at me and say “What. The hell. Was that?”. Unless you are a talented actor you should probably stick with descriptive text. I’ll try my best to adhere to my own rule.

[tags]rpg, role playing games, gamers[/tags]

The Dead Gentlemen Live! Check out their new web presence

Ben's Corner No Responses »

Aug 282009

Like role playing games? Humor? Movies? Critical fumbles? We’ve talked a lot about and with various folks from the Dead Gentlemen. They’re not dead and they’re not all gentlemen and they’ve been getting their new site ready for launch. Today it has sprung fully formed on to the Internet!

Very slick looking too.

Be sure to check them out. They’re the people responsible for Gamers, Gamers: Dorkness Rising and Demon Hunters to name a few. They’ve also got a brand new web series coming out in September.

If you like any of those things I mentioned above, you really owe it to yourself to get a copy of Gamers and Gamers: Dorkness Rising at the very least. Demon Hunters kicks ass too. Hell, just buy the whole catalog, put it on your netflix queue or grab them from Amazon.

[tags]dead gentlement, gamers, dorkness rising, jen page[/tags]

You’re going to backstab him with a ballista?

Jen Page is a chaotic-neutral gamer, actress, geek and our latest interview subject

Movies and TV, Role Playing Games 19 Responses »

Jun 082009

If you’ve seen The Gamers: Dorkness Rising, you know who Luster is. If you don’t know who Luster is, go watch the film. Jen Page (Luster in G:DR) is the multi-talented woman who plays the female Luster in the the flick. She’s also something of a geek, gamer and SF/F aficionado as well as wrangling web pages for Wizards of the Coast and being cool enough to willingly submit to an interview with me.

Not only did Jen vaporize a zero level NPC with a 4th level spell, change the web at WotC and wear a corset to GenCon, she’s also got a few upcoming projects that look like a lot of fun as well. She’ll be appearing in a vampire themed short film. She’s also been cast in a Capes! A web series that looks at some college-aged gamers who wake up one day with super powers.

That’s a lot like me actually. I woke up one day with the power to blog and now here I am interviewing folks like Jen.

Another project that Jen’s working on which looks absolutely fantastic is Project London – a feature length SciFi film with 500 or so effects scenes created in (open source software) Blender and done almost entirely by volunteers. The films is in post production now and we’ll be talking a lot more about it here on TC in the near future. Look, I love vampires and I was a college age gamer (now with the power to Blog!) but a SciFi film done through the internet with open source software that’s got Jen with blue hair in it? Sold! Where’s the popcorn?

Alright, enough babbling. Here’s Jen!

TC: Making a movie to me always seemed like an amazingly fun adventure. Am I completely misguided on this thought? What was it like to make this film in terms of enjoyment, stress and general cool factor? Does it differ from film to film?

Jen: Making a movie is an amazingly fun adventure as an actor. When the camera is rolling, you truly believe that world exists. When I explode a peasant or torture a demon, everyone reacts as if I did. It can be fantastic fun. Of course, when you are waiting for your scene to be shot, you are very much aware that you are in the real world.

TC: I will hazard a guess that you are or have one time been an active gamer. What system(s) do you play and what got you into gaming in the first place?

Jen: I read a lot of sci-fi/fantasy in high school so I was really psyched to try those ideas out in gaming. I play D&D, Alternity, Paranoia and Cthulhu but I’m always up for trying a new setting.

3. Many film franchises have gone the route of the musical. Legally blonde, Titanic, Spamalot, Schindler’s List. Have any of you given thought to a Broadway adaptation of Dorkness Rising? If that happens, can you sing?

Jen: Uh, that would be awesome fun. But the jury is out on whether or not I sing well.

TC: I still think Christian Doyle looked pretty damned good in the red Luster outfit? Your thoughts on this?

Jen: I’m still disturbed that some people couldn’t easily tell us apart from behind.

TC: Star Trek or Star Wars?

Jen: I feel like I am betraying my childhood, but I have to go with Star Trek.

TC: There’s a scene in Dorkness Rising where Joanna walks into the gaming store for her first gaming session in the back room. All of the men in the store suddenly appear and stare, stupefied. I order most of my gaming stuff online and have since about 1998. Does this still happen? Does it happen to you?

Jen: I’ve been in stores where it has gotten really quiet around me, but nothing to the extreme as what we staged for Joanna. I’ve attended Gen Con about 6 years straight and have felt nothing but welcomed. But maybe that is due to the corset. (Editor’s Note: I attempted to wear a corset into a gaming store and indeed, got a lot of stares. That must be it.)

TC: (My investigative journalist question which took several seconds of intense investigation) You had platinum blond hair in Dorkness Rising, you appear to have Blue hair in Project London. In the photo you have provided you have darkish brownish hair. What kind of project would it take for you to have green and purple hair?

Jen: It wouldn’t take much! In fact, I would love to read a script that caused me to have green or purple hair. I love sci-fi/fantasy/steampunk/action/horror so I’d probably dig it.

TC: How did you end up involved with the Dead Gentlemen and Dorkness Rising?

Jen: Matt Vancil (writer/director) was in a writer’s group with me back in 1999 and he invited me to a screening of Demon Hunters: Dead Camper Lake. I was hooked by his humor and immediately wanted to contribute to anything Dead Gentlemen did. I was with the company for a few years before auditioning for Dorkness Rising. (Yes, even company members need to audition. No handouts.)

TC: Can I have your autograph?

Jen: Depends on where you want me to write it.

TC: What can you tell us about your most current projects? Can you go into details on Project London?

Jen: I’m currently working on a vampire short film, a werewolf short film and a web series about a bunch of college gamers who wake up with super powers. Life is good!

Project London is a very ambitious sci-fi/action feature that has been in post-production for CGI since August of 2007. I believe it will be completed at the end of 2009. I am very much looking forward to seeing it all come together. It is going to be an amazingly rad sci-fi film.

TC: Are you the same Jen Page that works for Wizards of the Coast? If so, what exactly do you do there and how cool is that?

Jen: Have you been Googling me again? Yes, I am the same Jen Page of Wizards of the Coast. I have been a web designer for Wizards for 7+ years now and Magic fans know my article image work for MagictheGathering.com. (There are legends of a giant blue penguin in a wizard hat as well as a ninja unzipping from a boar.) Speaking of “blue”, I use to co-host a webcast show for Wizards called Gamer Radio Zero (or GRZ) and my host name was Blue. Currently, I am redesigning the D&D website. I’m really jazzed to be giving it some design love. I really enjoy working for Wizards. Marinating in the geek gaming culture on a day-to-day basis is so rad! I should give you a pic of my cubicle. (Editor’s Note: She did give us pictures of our cube. Check the bottom of this post!)

TC: What are you reading now? What are some of your staple SF/F books and authors?

Jen: The first novel I read as Stephen King’s Pet Cemetery in fourth grade. That pretty much set the reading tone for me. I moved on from horror to SF/ F. I will always be grateful to my best friend’s mom who gave me my first Peirs Anthony Xanth novel to read in 8th grade.
…Just finished Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series (one of my favorite series EVER) and I’m looking forward to reading the next Anita Blake novel -Skin Trade.

Remember Jen’s gig at WotC? Well here’s proving that she has a better cube than I do. Probably better than you do to.

If you have not seen Jen in The Gamers: Dorkness Rising be absolutely sure to check that movie out. You can snag it at Netflix and most likely at your video store. When you see it and realize you need to own it grab it from the link above.

[tags]jen page, gamers, geeks, role playing games, movies, interview, best cube walls ever, interview[/tags]

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