The DM’s Craft

#RPGaday Wrap-up

/ Renaissance Gamer / Leave a comment

cropped-chibi-brent.jpgThe weekend sort of got away from me, what with an event I was running going off very successfully and a few other things. But it meant not having a moment to finish up the last four days of RPGaDay, so let’s take care of that now, shall we?

Day 28: Favourite Game You No Longer Play

I really enjoyed Vampire: The Masquerade back in the day. I played in a campaign for about a year and had a great time. The mechanics of that first edition really supported role-playing, and the World of Darkness was an excellent, dark lens on our own world. Sadly, though I read all the other WoD books, I never got to play in that world beyond Vampire. Years later I did try out Scion, which used the same basic mechanic as all White Wolf games. I’d love to go back and try the 1st Edition Vampire, but I’m not as invested in the world of the current version.

Day 29: Favourite RPG Website/Blog

I really enjoy a YouTube series called The DM’s Craft, which is a great look at building unique and functional scenery for your gaming table. I don’t do enough of it for my home game, but I’m trying to get in the habit of building pieces bit by bit. Along with the video series, he also has a website and forums, filled with a great community sharing tips and tricks for building scenery, GMing, and general gaming goodness. I’m on there weekly at least and I always find something to catch my eye. Give them a look!

Day 30: Favourite RPG Playing Celebrity

Broadening the scope a little, because my favourite is actually a cast and not a person. I have fallen in love with the cast of Critical Role, and they are my new favourite gaming show to watch. If you aren’t familiar with the show, it runs on Geek & Sundry’s Twitch stream and follows the tabletop adventures of DM Matt Mercer and players Liam O’Brien, Ashley Johnson, Sam Riegel, Marisha Ray, Travis Willingham, Orion Acaba, Laura Bailey, and Taliesin Jaffe. Everyone involved is a voice actor and/or actor, which makes the episodes highly entertaining. What I love most about the show, however, is it’s like getting to sit in the room and watch your nerdy best friends play D&D. There is such a love of the game and each other, it makes me want to be a better GM for my players. I catch the live-stream if I can, and watch the episodes on G&S later if I have to miss it. They just uploaded episode 22 (so I know what I’m doing tonight), but trust me, you want to go back to episode 1 and watch/listen from the beginning.

Day 31: Favourite non-RPG Thing to come out of RPGing

I wrote about this in a post years ago, but one of my favourite things about the RPG hobby is everything I have studied or learned because of it. There are a whole range of topics I might never have read about or studied if it weren’t for RPGs: world mythology, archeology, non-Western/North American history, and philosophy, just to name a few. Because of running and taking part in organized play I’ve learned organizational skills, diplomacy, and interpersonal skills. Just from playing the games I’ve honed skills like problem solving and maths. Heck, RPGs have even allowed me to develop things like empathy, which I think is one of the greatest benefits the hobby can give to anyone. And while it may not be popular, I don’t think it’s playing one game or another that makes you a gamer, I think it’s developing that empathy, wherever you might be in that development, that makes a gamer.

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That’s it, that’s all for RPGaDay! I’ve had fun, and I hope you have as well. We will now return to a more manageable 3 posts a week schedule, so look for those updates soon.

My 3 Favourite Vlogs for Tabletop Gaming

/ Renaissance Gamer / Leave a comment

I’m a huge fan of YouTube and the on-line video revolution. It’s no secret that audio-visual media is moving on-line, and has been for quite a while. The ease with which creators can put their work in front of an audience has meant an explosion in web-based nerd entertainment. Whatever your geeky persuasion, you’ll find hours of entertainment on YouTube.

I’m subscribed to a plethora of tabletop gaming vlogs, covering everything from game reviews to play-through demos to how-to videos about miniature painting, campaign creation and so on. Excepting play-through vlogs, most are only 5-10 minutes long which is a perfect length for me; I can watch one while I wait for breakfast to cook in the morning, another while I eat, and so on. I usually manage to watch three to eight videos a day, in times when I’d just be sitting idle anyway. And now that I have a smart phone this is actually smart, I can watch many of these videos while I’m on the move as well. With proper head-phones, of course, I’m not a jerk.

Here are three of my favourite vlogs, in no particular order:

The DM’s Craft – Though I’ve fallen out of the habit in recent years, I used to love building unique props and location models for my tabletop games. In the last year or so I decided to get back into crafting, and along the way I discovered The DM’s Craft. Whether you are just starting out as a crafter, or have been building things for your tabletop games for years, this video series is a gold-mine of tips, tricks, and ideas to spruce up your game sessions. There are projects for all skill levels, ranging from basic things like simple dungeon tiles to elaborate and unique setting locations. My personal favourite is the video on creating a gelatinous cube; it’s so simple I can’t believe I didn’t think of it myself. If you want to build cool things to impress your layers, this vlog is for you.

Game Geeks – If you play tabletop RPGs, you know game books can be expensive. It can be hard, without knowing anything about a particular book or game, to plunk down your hard-earned cash in blind faith that the book will be worth it. For years I’ve relied on game review sites to help steer my purchases, and Game Geeks, hosted by Kurt Wiegel, is one of the best. While I watch many review vlogs, Kurt’s is my favourite because he’s a GM just like me. Because I know he runs his own games, I feel I can trust his opinion on the usefulness of a particular book or resource. He reviews a wide range of books and game types, and while he has a self-professed bias towards certain game styles, I’ve never noticed it get in the way of a fair critique of any book. Definitely check it out before your next big RPG purchase.

Epic Level TV – Technically this is a channel, not a series, but it has a lot of tabletop goodness packed inside. The first show you’ll likely recognize from Epic Level TV is Dungeon Bastard, featuring comedic old-school gaming advice from the Dungeon Bastard himself. DB is a character played by Tom Lommel, and if you grew up through the hobby you will recognize someone just like the Dungeon Bastard. But besides this, ELTV offers really entertaining videos for tabletop nerds:  Interpuppetary Nerdgasm, a nerd culture show hosted by felt puppets; their newest series, Force Push, about a group of nerds trying to help their friend develop force powers; as well a run of comedy shorts related to tabletop gaming. My personal favourite is the Rolling High video explaining how attacks of opportunity work. I think gamers of all stripes will get a kick out of something on ELTV, and possibly many somethings.

Those are three of my favourite vlogs. Do you watch vlogs, and if so do you have a favourite? Share your recommendations in the comments!