OgreCave Audio: distorting time and decency

This week’s program, or possibly last week’s, is interactive. That’s right; tell us what you think in the comments of this post right here. You’ll have to listen for more details, as well as the sad tale of my capitulation to the siren call of Warmachine, Chris’ current theories on the roleplaying market, and our reviews of a few recent big splashes. Hit it, maestro!

20 comments

  1. Hey, Judd here, from the Sons of Kryos podcast, to respond to your question.

    I’m a big indie RPG fan. What I’m excited about is darkpages, a Vertigo-inspired super-hero RPG by Jared Sorenson. I’m looking forward to Stranger Things, a game inspired by the amazing mechanics of Ron Edward’s Trollbabe (http://www.onesevendesign.com/strangerthings/index.html).

    That’s what I’m looking forward to.

    Great show.

    Judd

  2. I want ta hear about cyber/bio/steampunk products. Though I wouldn’t ever get into a miniatures game I like the fact you guys have given a good look at Warmachine. It’s a neat game.

  3. podcast 9/12/05 thoughts:

    wotc: I think wotc has done a lot to promote d20 in the last couple years. 30th anniversary, released the Basic Game to interest new players, and the new edition could be viewed as a promotion.

    Also, wotc are doing adventures.They just started the Fantastic Locations Series. Fane of the Drow just came out, Hellspike Prison in another month or so…

    What I am looking forward to (that came out of Gen Con this year):
    – The Mountain Witch because it is just cool. Boardgame like mechanics. A single package -> no need to buy other products. Non-collectable, if you will. Great for post-Kill Bill viewings.
    – Northern Crown. I am not into history type games, but it really perked my interest. The myths! Great stuff to think about.
    – Serenity because I just love Joss and anything related.
    – I too would be interested in non-collectable pre-painted miniatures. I prefer the fantasy genre. But most importantly, simple game play. I love DDM, but the rules and special abilities and spells get cumbersome quick, and it is hard to interest other family members to play.
    – Heroscape castle expansion this winter. Those castle walls can be used for so many geeky thinks.

  4. Do you really think that companies can make suffient ammount of money with non-random pre-painted minis?

    I’d think they’d be too expensive to be practical if theyre non collectible.

    WotC alsys seems to claim there is an “SKU” problem with non collectibe minis, where the shop has to stock too many items, and some won’t sell, leading to full shelves.

  5. Hey all, these are some AWESOME comments…

    And we will be talking about them next show. Thanks for your help!

  6. I forgot a couple things (that are bugging me):
    – wotc is also releasing 30pg adventures for Forgotten Realms. At GenCon they said they were actively looking into other ideas, like boxed sets, etc.
    – I am also looking forward to getting the card game, Gloom.
    – That effect on your voices in this latest podcast…kind of annoying.
    -pduggie, you are probably right, non-collectable prepainted may be too expensive for companies to pull off. What about half painted, just so people feel they can at least use their new minis? Maybe some enterprising startup will tackle this problem in a smart way.
    – maybe you should have forums.

  7. Guys — you HAVE TO lose that annoying damn sound that was going on in the background the entire podcast. It’s not cool. It just makes some of the lower volume sections impossible to understand and is otherwise nauseating.

    Second, I think that if you are going to have around a 50 minute podcast one thing that would be super useful is to come up with a simple time index telling me where I can find various types of information (Chizo Rising Review at time index XX:YY).

    Overall, I think you guys have an interesting podcast, and I listen to every episode. Keep up the good work.

    Lee Valentine

  8. It’s interesting to look at the current crop of new releases. The only titles that seem to generate a lot of interest are retreads of old ideas, such as Shadowrun 4e, the new Mage, and so on.

    I thought it was really interesting that Magic of Incarnum draws a sort of blah, or baffled reaction, but at the same time we have a sense of boredom in the market. There’s a weird dual sense of the audience wanting something new, but then seeking out the old.

    As for what I’m looking forward to, I don’t see much. I have Descent on pre-order, and that’s really it.

  9. I agree, most of the stuff coming out from the “name” companies is new editions of old material. I’m an old Shadowrun fan so I’m looking forward to the 4th edition. But almost everything else bores me, as much as I hate to say it.

    The indies stuff is cool. I’m really excited about The Mountian Witch.

    What would I like to see? A big release of an SF space opera game like Traveller or even Fading Suns. There really hasn’t been a new game like this for years.

  10. Hello All,

    This was a great podcast. I agree that the strange sound in the background is distracting.

    As for what I’m looking forward to:

    – Dungeon Twister, big time. I actually got to play last weekend and I really enjoyed it. At Gen Con, someone described it as “Wiz War without the luck” and I think that is apt. Both players have the same resources and there is virtually no randomness. It is quite a Chess match.

    – Serenity, more because I’m a fan of the show than for actual play. I’ll pick it up if the book is as nice as the Buffy books. (Speaking of which, wasn’t Revised and Sunnydale supposed to be out months ago?)

    – Time to actually read through all the stuff I bought at The Forge booth at Gen Con.

    – What I *wish* for is more Blue Moon decks, a Diceland set that finally makes everyone realize what a great game it is (possibly a Penny Arcade set?), and a non-collectible miniatures game that I can play with my casual board-gaming friends (Fairy Meat did not quite do it for them.)

    Wistfully,

    -I

  11. Actually. now that I think of it, Heroscape is pre-painted and non-collectable. The figures aren’t lead, but they are quite nice. The gameplay has basic and master rules, plus lots of elbow room for house rules. Yeah, I’m looking forward to more heroscape. However, I understand this is not what many players look for in a minitures game.

    I’d like to hear more about Dungeon Twister. Is it easy to move the tiles around when say, the tile is sourrounded by other tiles and there are characters on the tile? Logistically, it sounds sort of messy. Or maybe I’ve misunderstood something….

  12. I am primarily a boardgamer (mainly Euro games), but have recently listened to all of your podcasts.

    Some quick feedback:

    * In some of your earlier shows, there was a small amount of swearing. I really think this should be avoided, since most of your content would be appropriate for a broad age range, so pointless swearing unnecessarily reduces your target audience.
    * Some more background information on some of the things you discuss would be great. Sometimes this is done, but sometimes not. As an outsider to RPGs, for example, I don’t understand all the references to D20 (ie. what is it?). Now, you can’t be expected to explain EVERYTHING, but maybe every episode try to incorporate some more general information (eg. what is D20? what are CCGs? what are Euro games etc etc).
    * Overall, a great show. You guys are obviously very comfortable chatting with each other, and the result is great listening – even for someone who doesn’t know anything about RPGs etc (ie. me).
    * What am I looking forward to? Well, as a Euro gamer, http://gamefest.com/news/gonecardboard is my source of truth. 😉 AH’s mystery reprint has caught my attention, as has Railroad Tycoon, the Memoir 44 expansions, the reprinting of Can’t Stop, Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation Deluxe Edition, the reprinting of Through The Desert, and the Z-man edition of Reef Encounter… Mmm, this is a costly hobby. 😉

  13. I’m excited about some of the upcoming Forge games like Full Light, Full Steam, the Japanese RPG Tenra Bansho Zero, and Vincent Baker’s Red Sky AM. None of them are published yet.

    What I’d really like to hear from you guys about is what the indie RPG scene should be doing to break into the retailer market. Is it really feasible at all? What needs to change for these sorts of things to move products and pull their weight on the games rack?

    And yes, the high-pitched squiggly noise is very annoying.

  14. Sorry It Took So Long,

    >September 22, 2005 06:39 PM: zentr says…
    >I’d like to hear more about Dungeon Twister. Is >it easy to move the tiles around when say, the >tile is sourrounded by other tiles and there >are characters on the tile? Logistically, it >sounds sort of messy.

    Because the tiles are in a 4X2 arrangement, you can sort of slide the tile to the right or to the left, turn it, and slide it back in. It is a small pain in the ass, not a big one.

    (Oh, and I think you should swear as much as you like.)

  15. >> (Oh, and I think you should swear as much as you like.)

    Of course, they can do whatever they like.

    The point is, my kids won’t be listening while there is swearing (you can debate whether that is good or not blah blah blah, but thats how it is). And swearing is so rare on this podcast (maybe three or four times total that I can remember) that they might as well not swear at all and so broaden their audience.

    Again – they can do whatever they want. It is just a suggestion if they want to broaden their audience.

Comments are closed.