A podcast about board games, role playing games and gaming conventions! We bring on game designers, creators, players and game masters to talk about their passion.
Episodes
Tuesday Sep 10, 2019
Tuesday Sep 10, 2019
Logan Bonner from Paizo joins us to talk about the game, the book, the journey, and the lessons learned in the creation of Pathfinder Second Edition! We are so fortunate to have him on the show. Logan really let us look at how this project came together, dive into some of the thought processes behind 2nd Edition pathfinder, how it compares to other tabletop RPGs, and to first edition. Rich and Dave have enjoyed getting to beta test PF2e in past episodes but this really takes the cake.
Pathfinder Second Edition continues the theme of high fantasy, high action roleplaying they're known for, but with some seismic shifts to how the game delivers that style of play to players. Paizo has often focused on player choices and character customization, but in our reading of PF2e they've gone the extra step to make a system that is fundamentally customizable for the game master. Everywhere we looked we found rulesets we liked that could be easily transformed or dropped without breaking the rest of the game. Logan helps us navigate some of those waters.
Great, enjoyable, and informative episode for folks who aren't already fully versed on all things Pathfinder and Paizo.
Listen now on:
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Other places you can connect with the HSG Squad:
Facebook @High Shelf Gaming Podcast
Twitter @highshelfgaming
Twitch /highshelfgaming
Discord Chat https://discord.gg/tMPCXgN
Tuesday Sep 03, 2019
Tuesday Sep 03, 2019
Listen now on:
iTunes GooglePlay Spotify Stitcher
Other places you can connect with the HSG Squad:
Facebook @High Shelf Gaming Podcast
Twitter @highshelfgaming
Twitch /highshelfgaming
Discord Chat https://discord.gg/tMPCXgN
Monday Jun 10, 2019
Monday Jun 10, 2019
This is part 3 of our series on 3D printers. We bring a friend of David's to the show, Ryan, who has a great deal more experience with 3D printers. He has heavily modified printers and has a nice approach to building your own in a way that's not so overwhelming. Ryan has a lot of knowledge to share, so we paired it down to the big highlights.
A few great resources he shared with us:
simplify3D troubleshooting guide - visual dictionary
Listen now on:
iTunes GooglePlay Spotify Stitcher
Other places you can connect with the HSG Squad:
Facebook @High Shelf Gaming Podcast
Twitter @highshelfgaming
Friday Night Twitch /highshelfgaming
Discord Chat https://discord.gg/tMPCXgN
Likely our last episode for a bit. If you have more questions or ideas on this space share them with us! We'll gladly revisit if there's more interest.
Tuesday Apr 16, 2019
Tuesday Apr 16, 2019
This begins a periodic series on 3D Printing in Gaming. We discuss the two most common types available for consumers (FDM and SLA) the strengths and weaknesses of both. We touch a bit on the software used and the many uses a gamer would have for a 3D printer.
A few tips to consider: things like joining the community for the printer you're interested in before buying, have an idea of your focus in printing (fine detail or larger items), be ready to fiddle and play with settings to really perfect your prints.
Other resources:
3D Printed Tabletop - YouTube channel
Listen now on:
iTunes GooglePlay Spotify Stitcher
Other places you can connect with the HSG Squad:
Facebook @High Shelf Gaming Podcast
Twitter @highshelfgaming
Friday Night Twitch /highshelfgaming
Discord Chat https://discord.gg/tMPCXgN
Monday Apr 01, 2019
Monday Apr 01, 2019
Twitter makes for interesting connections. We met Ari there and he had desires to be on a podcast. In talking with him some we realized he had insight into a world Rich and I only saw from a distance. Live Action Role Play (LARP) and specifically a national organization of fantasy LARP called the New England Roleplay Organization (NERO) We learn some surprising facts and briefly expose my own history of Vampire Larping back in the 90s with mixed results.
This game is bigger and more interesting than I ever knew. Shame on me for not being open to it sooner.
You can find Ari on twitter @ari_covert
Listen now on:
iTunes | GooglePlay | Spotify | Stitcher
Other places you can connect with the HSG Squad:
Facebook @High Shelf Gaming Podcast
Twitter @highshelfgaming
Friday Night Twitch /highshelfgaming
Discord Chat https://discord.gg/tMPCXgN
Monday Mar 04, 2019
Monday Mar 04, 2019
A great friend of mine, Mitch, has somehow convinced his company to let him use the office at night to run a 10-person Dungeons & Dragons game! Such a cool story and we wanted to share his nuggets of wisdom with our audience. It started out as a simple board game night to team build in a way that was totally free to his employer. Mitch slowly ratcheted up the complexity of the games he provided, and the duration of game night grew organically. Soon enough, it was a tiny step further to make it a D&D game for those interested.
Mitch can be found on Twitter and Tumblr as @Coolkidmitch!
Listen now on:
iTunes GooglePlay Spotify Stitcher
Other places you can connect with the HSG Squad:
Facebook @High Shelf Gaming Podcast
Twitter @highshelfgaming
Friday Night Twitch /highshelfgaming
Discord Chat https://discord.gg/tMPCXgN
Thursday Feb 07, 2019
Thursday Feb 07, 2019
Rich and David are back to talk all about the history of their favorite gaming convention, Gen Con. How it got started, and what steps led to its enormous success. Everything from the humble beginnings as a place to play "Fight in the Skies!" and other war games to the ideal incubator for D&D and TSR. early on Gen Con becomes the place to launch games like Magic the Gathering, whos founding company goes on to purchase TSR and Gen Con... Really an interesting story.
::Correction! We claim Gen Con is the largest convention in the world... There is another. and it's an impressive 3x larger with 190,000 attendees! over in Germany: https://www.spiel-messe.com/en/
^ Turns out this convention does turn style accounting instead of estimating headcount. It's a fair bit smaller than GenCon. Unless it doesn't, then it is larger. We're getting conflicting reports and I can't read German.
Some additional resources:
Interactive site with maps, timelines, and every Gen Con program cover
40 Years of Gen Con, a hardcover book detailing waaaay more than we ever could
Listen now on:
iTunes GooglePlay Spotify Stitcher
Other places you can connect with the HSG Squad:
Facebook @High Shelf Gaming Podcast
Twitter @highshelfgaming
Friday Night Twitch /highshelfgaming
Discord Chat https://discord.gg/tMPCXgN
Monday Jan 28, 2019
Monday Jan 28, 2019
Mike returns! Rich and Dave talk with Mike about the apps, tools, resources, and websites we use when making worlds, adventures, and games for tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs) like D&D, Shadowrun, Cyberpunk, and others. In this episode, we make a theme song, talk about my celebrity look alike, try and help the audience, talk about old school web tools like Web Rings, and oh yeah MAKE A THEME SONG. It's a terrible song, but I love it, so it stays in.
Tools we cover:
Archivist Elements - Android App full of DM tools
DiceCloud D&D 5e Character Tracker
Reddit's World Building subreddit (join their Discord, it's awesome!)
Legend Keeper - A great way to keep all the lore of your world organized and tagged to maps
Dragon's foot - early DnD resource!
Listen now on:
iTunes GooglePlay Spotify Stitcher
Other places you can connect with the HSG Squad:
Facebook @High Shelf Gaming Podcast
Twitter @highshelfgaming
Friday Night Twitch /highshelfgaming
Discord Chat https://discord.gg/tMPCXgN
Tuesday Jan 15, 2019
Tuesday Jan 15, 2019
We bring Heather back to chat about a broad swath of fantasy RPGs. If your group has been playing tons of D&D 5e, and wonder what else is out there we cover lots of systems. We cover diceless systems like Amber and Dread, low-dice systems focused on story and roleplay, and more tactical and crunchy systems that are popular and available. We even sneak in a Fantasy / Sci-fi hybrid of ShadowRun.
Also, In the end, Rich exposes his fursona as a bear.
We've already covered so many games that we discuss in greater detail. Here are some links to our past episodes covering these great games:
The Witcher Part 1, Part 2
Pathfinder 1st Edition, 2nd Edition (pre-beta)
Legend of the Five Rings and other Samurai Fantasy RPGs
Listen now on:
iTunes GooglePlay Spotify Stitcher
Other places you can connect with the HSG Squad:
Facebook @High Shelf Gaming Podcast
Twitter @highshelfgaming
Friday Night Twitch /highshelfgaming
Discord Chat https://discord.gg/tMPCXgN
Sunday Dec 23, 2018
Sunday Dec 23, 2018
David and Rich talk all about Dice. Symmetry, Balance, Process, and Results! We get in the weeds on how to test your dice, how to get more randomness. Why you may not want to pick up casino dice, other precision options, and why there's this rash of games requiring custom dice.
Listen now on:
iTunes GooglePlay Spotify Stitcher
Other places you can connect with the HSG Squad:
Facebook @High Shelf Gaming Podcast
Twitter @highshelfgaming
Friday Night Twitch /highshelfgaming
Discord Chat https://discord.gg/tMPCXgN