Monthly Archives: June 2013

IPMM 43: Monsterhearts Finale

“fin”

The Hiver

The Hiver (image courtesy of Curiomira)

Mara is dead, Chloe is gone, Chassie’s gang and Gabe’s team are in tatters, and the Hiver is still out there… somewhere.  What’s a Chosen to do? Oh, right, go kill the monster.

Except that won’t be quite as easy as anyone expects, even if they can figure out how to counteract its power and use its secret weakness against it.  You see, the Hiver has a new friend…

At the end of this episode, for the sake of time, we go into “full cinematic” mode and stop rolling dice. Fortunately, it works because we’ve all got a really good notion of the shared fiction. However, we realize that we’re not playing the game as intended, so apologies to anyone who wanted to see the final interaction played out that way.

We’re pretty sure you’ll find the end product entertaining, though!

IPMM-43-Monsterhearts-Finale

2 Comments

Filed under Actual Play, Podcast

IPMM 42: Monsterhearts Episode 10

“Volatile and Hot”

This is the first half of the two-part finale of our Monsterhearts season!

In this episode, Chassie, Gabe, and Robin all go to rescue Mara… but who really needs rescuing?

IPMM-42-Monsterhearts-Episode-10

Leave a Comment

Filed under Actual Play, Podcast

IPMM 41 – Bonus Episode: Transhumanism!

“It’s like doing Bayesian inference without the priors.”

We talk about transhumanism and body augmentation, then about made-up religions. Topics covered include:

IPMM-41-Bonus-Transhumanism

Leave a Comment

Filed under Discussion, Podcast

IPMM 40: Monsterhearts Episode 9

“Endgame”

As if things weren’t dark enough…

We start with love letters in the form of hospital charts.  Chloe desperately tries to stave off damnation just a bit longer, but that puts Mara in the crosshairs.  The rest of the cast are blindsided – they know they have to do something, but what?

IPMM-40-Monsterhearts-Episode-9

2 Comments

Filed under Actual Play, Podcast

IPMM 39: Be Gentle, It’s My First Time!

“Learn how to play Korean”

In this episode we talk about running games for the first time – either the first time with a new system, or the first time as a GM.  What keeps people from GMing?  What are some of the challenges of running a game with more experienced players (and how do you handle people who are jerks about it)?

We also talk about Joanna’s awesome Dread scenario (which Dave also ran at Forge Midwest) and how to write Dread questionnaires.  This was Joanna’s first time writing a module or running a game, ever.  We’ll post the scenario at some future point, once we’ve done a final editing pass.

Finally, we talk about Caitlin’s upcoming Apocalypse World campaign.  We talk about silliness in serious games.  Dave and Yanni give some advice from their own experience as MCs.

Stuff mentioned in this episode:

IPMM-39-Be-Gentle-Its-My-First-Time

Leave a Comment

Filed under Discussion, Play Aids, Podcast

IPMM 38: Monsterhearts Episode 8

“Makeover”

In this episode, Chassie and Robin have an ’80s-style montage.  Chloe tries riding in cars with boys. Gabe tries his hardest to get himself arrested and/or killed.

No extra disclaimer – this is a relatively tame episode.

IPMM-38-Monsterhearts-Episode-8

Leave a Comment

Filed under Actual Play, Podcast

IPMM 37 – Bonus Episode: Philosophy!

“Pussifism”

This episode is entirely game-unrelated; hence “bonus”.  Don’t worry – Monsterhearts 8 will be up soon!

We talk about lots of different philosophy topics, starting with Solipsism and ranging through Constructivism and Empiricism to Computer Intelligence and Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics.

We also talk about “that’s what she said” jokes and forum avatars.

Finally, Dave coins a new phrase.

IPMM-37-Bonus-Philosophy

2 Comments

Filed under Discussion, Podcast

IPMM 36: Good and Evil

“But thou must!”

In this episode, we talk about moral choices in both video and tabletop games:

  • How are moral choices presented?
  • How does the world react to those choices?
  • How are the choices ultimately rewarded?
  • What makes playing a good or evil character rewarding?
  • What makes for an interesting evil character?
  • How should a GM treat an interesting evil character?

IPMM-36-Good-and-Evil

 

Leave a Comment

Filed under Discussion, Podcast