Just Played

This is the full audio track of the November 14, 2021 Writer's Workshop for Hacking The Between.  The Between is a tabletop RPG of Victorian monster hunters by Jason Cordova. It's inspired by media like Penny Dreadful, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and From Hell as well as period literature like HG Wells, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, et al.  In this online workshop, Jason lays out the design philosophy that underlies the game, guiding discussion and taking questions from other game designers interested in creating content specifically for The Between as well as those creating new games based on the engine. You can join the ongoing design discussion of this game and other Gauntlet Publishing titles on on The Gauntlet Publishing Discord. 

This is the audio for a meeting of designers for the Trophy Gold role-playing game. Trophy designer Jesse Ross and Gauntlet Publishing owner Jason Cordova moderated, and offered general advice for creating adventures and hacks of the Trophy Gold system as well as specific feedback on individual projects submitted by some of the designers in attendance. My own work will be appearing in both Trophy Dark and Trophy Gold. It's a wonderfully rich system, and Jesse has gone out of his way to make it open to both modification and expansion.

Last Fleet is a tabletop RPG that follows the remnants of humanity as they flee an implacable alien foe. It's a PBTA love letter to Battlestar Galactica. We organized and played this game via the Gauntlet Gaming Community. You can watch the Actual Play video of this session on YouTube. You can support Jim by subscribing to his YouTube Channel or buying his gaming writing on projects for Gauntlet Publishing. A couple of other podcasts on Anchor that I recommend as inpsirational: Ray Otus' Plundergrounds, and Judd Karlman's Daydreaming About Dragons. Check them out, they're both wonderfully eclectic, heartfelt, and mercifully concise.

This is another Actual Play special. In this episode, Jason Cordova facilitates a session of the Trophy Dark Weird West incursion Devil, Aim for Me. You can find Devil, Aim for Me on itch.io. The full Kickstarted version of Trophy (Including Trophy Dark, and my own incursion The Flocculent Cathedral) is now available for pre-order. Please note this is raw audio pulled from a YouTube video with no post-production editing.  It's a real-life actual play session.

This is another departure form the standard format: it's a design workshop for Brindlewood Bay. If you're not familiar with it, think Murder She Wrote meets The Shadow Over Innsmouth. It's got a really innovative and elegant system for presenting mysteries that can carry over into other genres outside the cozy/horror base setting. This is a discussion /Q & A with folks interested in writing hacks and variants for the game. It's facilitated by Brindlewood Bay designer Jason Cordova.  As with other 'special episodes' of Just Played,  I haven't done any editing, so there may be variable sound quality and there's a couple of breaks you'll need to jump over. Other than that, though, there's lots of in-the-weeds discussion of game design and genre/setting. I've got a very nascent idea for a game based around retired superheroes in the vein of The Boys, Powers, and Astro City: Tarnished Angel that I discuss. You can purchase the Brindlewood Bay core game, and the first expansion, Nephews in Peril, via Drive-Thr

PLEASE NOTE: This is a departure from my usual (hah!) format, but these are crazy times. This is an audio presentation of a full session of a full AP Session. If listeners enjoy these, I'll post more as the opportunity arises and folks give me permission (including for my own games). In any event, big thanks to Kieron for giving permission to covert it to audio and present it. Go buy his comics, they're great! Accompanying the Image comic book series DIE, writer Kieron Gillen has developed a whole role-playing system to let people re-create their own DIE experience at home.   Or, relevantly, on a streaming panel at a virtual con.   Kieron Gillen runs a one-off highly-meta con-set game for a comics all star cast of players, for your amusement and horror.    The Die Beta rules are available from the DIE site or itch.io. The game was played with safety tools, including Lines & Veils and the X-Card.    Starring: Kieron Gillen, Marguerite Bennett, Chip Zdarsky, Ed Brubaker, Emma Vieceli, Matt Fraction   Suppor

Bluebeard's Bride is a game of feminist body horror and haunted exploration. Its from Magpie Games. Support these shows by getting it from Jim. We organized and played this game via the Gauntlet Gaming Community. You can support Jim by purchasing games from his web site or visiting his booth at one of the many conventions he attends (whenever that starts happening again). A couple of other podcasts on Anchor that I recommend as inpsirational: Ray Otus' Plundergrounds, and Judd Karlman's Daydreaming About Dragons. Check them out, they're both wonderfully eclectic, heartfelt, and short.

Derby Drama is a story game that captures the thrills, spills, and feels of Roller Derby, It's on Kickstarter right now! We organized and played this game via the Gauntlet Gaming Community. You can support Jim by purchasing games from his web site or visiting his booth at one of the many conventions he attends. I mentioned a couple of other podcasts on Anchor that I recommend: Ray Otus' Plundergrounds, and Judd Karlman's Daydreaming About Dragons. Check them out, they're both wonderfully eclectic, heartfelt, and short.

Checkpoint Midnight is a game supernatural espionage in Cold War Vienna, currently in development by Alexi Sargent of Cloven Pine Games. We played this session at 'SargeCon' a one-day house con held in honor of Alexi's birthday. We didn't record it, but here's a nice pic of our table layout. Prior to running this one-shot, I played in a 3-game run MCed by Alexi on The Gauntlet gaming community. You can support the show by rating and reviewing it wherever you found it, and/or by purchasing games from Jim at a convention he attends or his web site. You can also follow Jim on Twitter to keep up on his breakneck convention schedule: @jimlikesgames

We organized and played this session on the Gauntlet Gaming Community. Check my YouTube Channel for Actual Play video of this games and dozens of other full-session tabletop RPGs. Check out the cool Jewish TTRPG Anthology that our player Eli appears in. Learn more about the actual historical Night Witches. Support the show by purchasing games including many featured on this podcast at Jim Likes Games.

We organized and played this session on the Gauntlet Gaming Community. You can find info on Visigoths vs Mall Goths at its Kickstarter page. Check out an Actual Play video of this game on YouTube, and subscribe to Jim's channel. Support the show by purchasing games including many featured on this podcast at Jim Likes Games.

We organized and played this session on the Gauntlet Gaming Community. You can find info on Girl Underground at its Kickstarter page. Support the show by purchasing games including many featured on this podcast at Jim Likes Games.

We played this session at GenCon, the self-styled 'home of tabletop gaming'. Autumn Triduum is a game in development by Cloven Pine Games. Support the show by purchasing games and following my blog at Jim Likes Games.

We organized and played this session on the Gauntlet Gaming Community. The Once Again, We Return playset for Monsterhearts appears in Codex: Glamour 2 (currently only available to Gauntlet Patrons, look for it on Drive-Thru RPG soon!) Here's a Spotify playlist for my character Hathor if you're into that kind of thing. Support the show by purchasing games including Monsterhearts 2 at Jim Likes Games.

Learn more about Mothership from Tuesday Knight Games. We organized and played this session face-to-face as part of RPG Roulette, an NYC-based game day with a random GM. Support the show by purchasing games at Jim Likes Games.

We organized and played this session on the Gauntlet Gaming Community. Support the show by purchasing games including the ashcan edition of Velvet Glove at Jim Likes Games.

Learn about the actual real-life 'Night Witches'. We organized and played this session on the Gauntlet Gaming Community. Check out a full session video on Jim's YouTube channel. Support the show by purchasing games including Night Witches at Jim Likes Games.

Find info on The Fleet RPG. Attend the Double Exposure tabletop and LARP conventions, three times a year in Morristown, NJ. Buy games from Jim (and support the show!) at Jim Likes Games.

Hearts of Wulin just completed a successful Kickstarter and is scheduled for release in Q4 2019. We played this game on the Gauntlet RPG Community. Support the show by shopping at Jim Likes Games.

Hearts of Wulin just completed a successful Kickstarter and is scheduled for release in Q4 2019. We played this game on the Gauntlet RPG Community. Support the show by shopping at Jim Likes Games.