The Big Red Couch RPG Podcast

An iron steed shies at the thunder of the Old Gods.The dawn of a new age, as life stirs on a blasted plane.At some point… breakfast. Well There’s Your Problem Podcast – A podcast (with slides) about engineering disasters and systemic fail. Precision_Railroading AKA precision scheduled railroading (PSR) What is the Correct Pronunciation of “Appalachian”? The Old Gods of Appalachia Podcast and RPG Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game by Magpie Games One More Multiverse Virtual Table Top Blades in the Dark RPG from John Harper and One Seven The Magpie Games Coming Soon page with Rapscallion and more

What’s this? A new episode? The land quakes and the seas roar, for they have returned like the heroes of old! Well, like old heroes anyway. People. Old people. Never meet your heroes, kids. Biding his time in the foetid swamp of Wah-Shing-Tun, the fearless traveler Craig set his sights on the “four and a bit” best days gaming in Indianapolis. Rapscallion – Magpie Games Urban Shadows – Magpie Games CHEW – Imagining Games Avatar Legends – Magpie Games Stealing Stories For The Devil – Monte Cook Games

Now GenCon is over for another year, it is a time for quiet reflection, sensations of creeping dread, and a commitment to doing more gaming. Better even! Yes, this is late. We are so, so tired. Tentacle Town Le Chat Noir Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior The Underarm bowling incident of 1981 Dr Nick Holm: how New Zealand comedy embraces being a bit s**t The Devil Made Us Do It! The British Museum Assholes Impersonate Gen Con Staff, Send Harassing Messages To Attendees

As the day dawns on the morning of the last day of GenCon for another year, Craig reminisces about this convention’s atmosphere and a strange sense of gamer melancholy. Wayfaring Strangers by Games from the Wild Wood Talismonger – Shadowrun slang Simple Simon (nursery rhyme) TV – Supernatural Alice Isn’t Dead TV – The Sandman Dark Matter by Mage Hand Press TV – Dark Matter the SYFY show from 2015 Avatar Legends RPG by Magpie Games Tentacle Town

With reality fraying around him, Craig relates the strange events of Friday and muses on what improbable futures Saturday might bring. Yazeba’s Bed & Breakfast by Possum Creek Games Bulldogs – Galileo Games Midnight Nation by J. Michael Straczynski TV – The Lost Room Avatar Legends RPG by Magpie Games

Craig’s at GenCon, the mad bastard, so we checked in on him yesterday to see what he’s been up to! He doesn’t appear to require medical evacuation yet, so we chatted about a few games and events. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jG7vScP-Ev4&ab_channel=FuturePhoto Put a huge fucking Q on the box! People who vilify Britain will be treated as extremists and referred to the Government’s deradicalisation Prevent programme under plans by Rishi Sunak. https://t.co/ukgih4RgeU pic.twitter.com/yTr3q289cd— Charles Hymas (@charleshymas) August 3, 2022 Tales from the Floating Vagabond by Avalon Hill Alexandria RPG Library “We are a nonprofit charity based in Washington State. We travel with a lending library to events to share role-playing games with others. When we are not at events we run games for at-risk youth, military service members with PTSD, senior citizens. The best part is that anyone that plays RPGs can help.” Crossroads Carnival by Magpie Games Film – Freaks (1932) Under Hollow Hills: About the Game Yazeba’s Bed & Breakfast by Possum Creek Games

Activate The Goose-ducer! – Descendants of an end-of-days science experiment battle the descendants of a different end-of-days science experiment through the use of yet another end-of-days science experiment. The Dream Police Want To Make Sure That Nothing Is Inside Your Head – Dreaming is illegal, Science Rays ensure that nobody dreams, and Z-Leggers smuggle stolen dreams through sleepeasys. There’s a reason for this, and the Government say it’s a neccesary thing, but … Is it a good enough reason? A Mobster Calls – Telepresence work shifts aren’t fun, but the rest of prison life here is OK, the counselling staff seem nice, and the guards are weirdly unconcerned about what you’re up to. It’s a nice place to serve your time, but those older counselling staff, the ones who give off the ‘former inmate’ vibe, keep dropping hints that you can’t even see the real prison. IVAR chair, by IKEA Tarot Terry Pratchett The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee 2022 Monsters Inc. Untitled Goose Game Episode One Hundred And Sixty Two – Ruins Of The Ancients The Secret of NIMHMrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, by Robert C. O’BrienLand of the Lost ( The one with dinosaurs & Sleestak ~ T. Jones )Land of the Giants ( The one with tiny people ~ T. Jones ) Transducer The FlyJeff Goldblum Old World Blues (Fallout DLC / Add-On)Fallout: New Vegas Kalawan Rising, by William Dymock-JohnsonThe Uplift Universe Series, by David Brin Harry Harrison Ogre (board game) Welcome To Night Vale (show)Welcome To Night Vale (wikipedia) Eliot NessH.P. LovecraftThe Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, by H.P. Lovecraft Dark CityFringe The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray, by Chris Wooding Hellboy Jacob’s Ladder Silent Hill Stranger ThingsLocke & Key Dark Conspiracy Episode One – AlcatrazEpisode Two – Mexico Is Missing An IslandEpisode Three – Star Dot Star Telepresence Alcatraz Island Clarence Anglin / Frank Morris ( June 1962 Alcatraz Escape )Al Capone( “Due to his good behavior, Capone was permitted to play banjo in the Alcatraz prison band, the Rock Islanders, which gave regular Sunday concerts for other inmates” ~ T. Jones ) Sleep DealerThe MatrixA Monster Calls Twistaplot Novel The Amazing CriswellPlan 9 From Outer Space

To My Esteemed Undersea Colleague – Beneath the ice of Europa, isolated Mecha Pilots on long patrols stay in touch by writing letters back & forth Aquapastoral – Flooding can be expected after a storm, but nobody expected the water to be 30 feet above the farmhouse roof, and they certainly didn’t expect the water to politely stay outside of the house itself. Jousting ‘Neath The Waves – Once the submarine battles between the sea-dwarf & human kingdoms came to an end, the various rulers needed to find something to keep their combat-ready & easily-bored warriors from breaking the peace. IKEA Ivar Chair Inverness Bette MidlerBeaches ( Movie from 1988, demonstrating that Craig has seen too many movies ~ T. Jones ) Episode One Hundred and Fifty Four – Drab Majesty San FranciscoPalace of Fine Arts, San Francisco Zodiac, by Neal StephensonSeveneves, by Neal Stephenson The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald D20 Go Bad Taste (movie) Waiheke IslandMotukorea / Browns Island SIGNAL//r021 by Hexavexagon Signal Seed by Hexavexagon Epistolary Europa Iron Lung (game)Five Nights At Freddies De Profundis Castle Falkenstein Dugong Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis CarrollThe Walrus & The Carpenter, by Lewis Carroll Studio GhibliSpirited AwayPonyo / Ponyo on the Cliff by the SeaPom Poko Yazeba’s Bed & BreakfastPossum Creek GamesWanderhome Craig made me put this in, but refuses to explain why, other than it being something to do with misspelling Studio Ghibli ~ T. Jones The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum Done & Been, by Gypsy Moon Chuck TingleThe Tingleverse: The Official Chuck Tingle Role-Playing Game ( Amazon Link )chucktingle.com ( I’m honestly not sure whether this is NSFW or not ~ T. Jones ) Red NovemberBurning Wheel Cool RunningsA Knight’s Tale America’s Cup Blue MaxStar Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game Archer

Donuts & Crullers – Ben starts to make a game about a TV Genre he hates, and ends up inventing a card mechanic for cooking competitions. 24/7 Coffee & Questions – Craig tries to come up with an explanation for the “high-level adventurer running a tavern” trope, and ends up with a mystery hiding in plain sight. The Bangers & Mash Are Coming! – The International Food section of the Grocery Isles is under threat from the Anglican Food Empire, and the East Asian Pastries are all that stands to protect them from an endless beige buffet. Kiwi RPG Week 2022 The Winter of Our DiscontentBath, Somerset Narrowboat CrullerDonut Crouching Tiger, Hidden DragonAng Lee Dunkin’ DonutsBaker Street, LondonSherlock Holmes Whenuapai AirbaseC-130 Hercules Stephen ChowThe God Of Cookery Masterchef Australia Castle Falkenstein Borough MarketGreenwich Market Warren Buffet The Dresden Files RPGShadowrun Jackie ChanKung Fu Hustle The Vegi-Verse / Big Shopping Cart / The Grocery Isles have come up in a few episodes by now ~ T. JonesEpisode One Hundred And Forty Five – The Case Of The Accidental Battered Sausage Episode Eighty One – Banana Warriors Of Dimension X Episode One Hundred And Forty Seven – From Me To You; A Free Gift Of Soul Dust Wikipedia list of Chinese Bakery products Mascot-tan Kantai Collection / Kantai Korekushon OS-tan UK Data Loader Tsundere Beholder Gunboat Diplomacy Strontium DogThe Munch Bunch 2000AD Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other StrangenessGamma World VeggieTales Cherry 2000Mad MaxRollerblade Warriors( One of a series of Post-Apocalyptic Rollerblade Action movies by Donald G. Jackson. Craig has seen some, but not all of them. We judge him for this, and we are right to do so. ~ T. Jones )Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn Admiral Zeng He

Presley Event Overload – The timeline is fracturing under a cascade of divergence events, splitting faster than they can be investigated, let alone dealt with. There’s no clear pattern to what’s happening, though a certain 20th Century musician seems to be affected by more of the changes than mere coincidence would permit. The Mystery Of The King Beyond The Stars – In the far future, at a multi-species gathering of devotees of Elvis, someone who clearly does not have Elvis in their heart (or hearts) (or decentralised circulatory system) has stolen one of the most treasured artifacts of The King. Elvis: The Legendary Tours – Wandering Hero Elvis & his friends encounter more and more Elvis impersonators, people who heard rumors of the death of The King & have decided to take up the Sequined Mantle. Clearly his evil half-brother Abbot Costello is involved, but what other tricks does the pretender to the throne of Graceland have lined up? Elvis Presley Colonel Tom Parker DalekCult of Skaro Timewatch Loki (TV) Gremlins 2: The New Batch The Trousers Of Time Priscilla Presley Amphetamines Looks like Craig remembered “Dark Futures” slightly wrong; Dark Future was a miniatures wargame from GDW. There was a novel, Comeback Tour, which is set in the world of the game & is the thing with Col. Presley that Craig remembered.~ T. Jones Clarke County, Space, by Allen Steele Among Us 3000 Miles To GracelandAlmost Elvis (documentary) Bubba Ho-Tep Suspicious Minds (song)Elvis ( a.k.a. ’68 Comeback Special ) Judge Dredd Beyond 2000 Scott Pilgrim vs. the World Captain Marvel Jr. Shroud of TurinBritish Museum Psi*RunParanoiaDread (rpg)Dread: Dredd (new edition of Dread)Fiasco SHINOBIGAMI: Modern Ninja Battle RPG Diana: Warrior PrincessElvis: The Legendary Tours John had a lot of links ~ T. Jones Chinese ElvisBlack ElvisHeavy Metal ElvisFemale ElvisSumo Elvis The Heavy Metal Fox deity worshiping kitsune, Yoji Metal (a.k.a. Baby Metal) Techno Elvis wants to replace the organic version with his Cybernetic, Algorithmically Derived MusicAnd Goth Elvis just wants to see the world burn The Flying Elvises Red Elvises Six String Samurai Fallout: New Vegas David Bowie Major Tom Hercules: The Legendary JourneysXena: Warrior PrincessAtlantis Kevin Sorbo Andromeda The Emperor’s New Groove Your Crimes Are Known. The Frog Council Sits In Judgement. Image of Elvis Presley by George Hodan KiwiRPG Week 2022

Be Our Guest? – Ever since the actual apocalypse, the Hosts at the Apocalypse World park really haven’t had a lot to do. Now that some Guests in dire need of help have arrived, a group of ‘wasteland marauders’ and ‘besieged remnants of civilization’ have to figure out how to bypass their own programmed scripts so that they can keep those Guests alive & get them to SOME kind of safety. When The Wind In The Willows – Cute animals in their V8 Interceptors & War Rigs travel in search of a possibly mythical better place, with clean water and non-radioactive food. Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Max World! – With his last breath, Max pointed everyone at the utopia somewhere over the mountains. Now the race is on to get there & claim it. NZ Parliamentary ProtestFreedom ConvoyRam Ranch (song) (wikipedia) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MADvxFXWvwE Please Note: Ram Ranch Is Not Safe For Most Workplaces Utopia (concept)Sir Thomas MoreUtopia, by Sir Thomas More Mad Max FranchiseGeorge Miller Babe: Pig In The CityHappy FeetThe Lord Of The Rings Episode One Hundred And Thirty Five – Things Are Going Down At Disney Town Westworld (tv)Westworld (movie)FutureworldShōgunworld ( Craig called this Samuraiworld in the show, presumably based on the SW logo seen in an episode in season 2 ~ T. Jones ) Apocalypse World Fallout Franchise Jericho (tv) Sawney Bean WanderhomeJourney Away (Kickstarter link, because it’s all I could find ~ T. Jones) The Bicameral Mind Fellowship (rpg) Samurai Jack Big Rock Candy MountainHoboRailroad Bull After The Bomb When The Wind Blows, by Raymond BriggsThe Wind In The Willows, by Kenneth Grahame Grave Of The FirefliesWatership Down, by Richard Adams Peter Rabbit (movie) Zealandia Mad Max Furry Road – image by Tumbler user UncalarMad Max Muppets – image by DeviantArt user JoppaDoops Wacky Races Fiasco It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad WorldA Boy And His Dog Harlan Ellison Misspent Youth Snarfquest ThreadsThe Hundred Acre Wood TTRPGS for Trans Rights in Texas NoirlandiaSpace Train Space HeistJonathan Frakes Wants Your Attention, And You Must Not Give It To HimGarfield ± You Cruller (Oh, and there’s a faint chance that Ben’s attempt at sporting humour at the start of the episode was something to do with Ricky Ponting, though they are Australian, a cricket coach, and proof that Ben is somehow in posession of negative knowledge about sports. Stick to your lane, will you? ~ T. Jones)

The Heroes are defeated, ground down by a controlling society. As the last remaining bastion of ‘otherness’, Mad Scientists reach out to children through the medium of educational television, trying to spark a sense of rebellion in the only people who can still hear them. Educational Television in a world of Science Heroes, Supergenius Villains, and Pulp Adventurer-Explorers! For any problem, there’s a technical solution. Even the problems caused by the previous technical solution.And sometimes the people coming up with those solutions need to be reigned in, before their backyard nuclear reactor contaminates the whole neighborhood. Alien scientists simultaneously guiding & observing ( and occasionally running from the catastrophic actions of ) the human scientific community. (Episode updated with actual audio! Apologies, the mad science is strong with this lot. I hope you didn’t strain yourselves trying to hear the absent data. ~ T. Jones ) Paleolithic Blue Peter The Tripods, by John ChristopherLogan’s RunMichael York NZ Covid Protesters – Convoy 2022 New Zealand Equilibrium Necessary Evil Fallen Angels, by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Michael Flynn NZ Parliament Buildings Cook StraitPictonWellington Atomic Robo RPG Victor Von Doom / Doctor Doom Kids On Bikes Scooby DooThe Venture Brothers InspectresFlotsam: Adrift Among The Stars Babylon 5The Expanse David Hahn – The Nuclear Boy Scout A Miracle Of Science Luddites Earth Scientists Are All Doc Browns Doc BrownBack To The Future Eureka Paranoia Robots Have No Tails, by Henry Kuttner ( & C.L.Moore )( Craig misremembered this – Gallagher Plus is the name of one of the stories in the collection ~ T. Jones ) Fiasco

A safe but dull utopia has an unexpected need for people who can go outside of the norm and venture into dangerous situations.They’re a bit light on those, as a society, but by relaxing the constraints a bit on the psych profiles, they’ve got some candidates who are within a few standard deviations of ‘Adventurous’. Oneironauts journey into a patient’s psyche to guide them through constructed scenarios to a better mental state.Unfortunately, pushing on one part of a personality has a tendency to make it push back from somewhere else, … Auckland, NZ Frostpunk (game) Jack LondonFarley Mowat Futurama Myers–Briggs Type Indicator Star Trek: The Original Series[FTL Y’all] The Age of the $200 hyperdriveRadio Shack Paranoia Logan’s Run WanderhomeFlatpack Fallout (game series)S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (game) The City and the Stars, by Arthur C. Clarke ( Ben is basically recounting the use case of the Mini DC from this film, but I’ll allow it ~ T. Jones ) Paprika (2006) by Satoshi Kon Adventure Time Calvin and Hobbes Episode One Hundred And Thirty Two – (Big Red) Couch Surfing Ludo Fate Core The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank BaumThe Wizard of Oz (1939 film)Interpreting The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as an allegory for monetary policy( now there’s a sentence I never thought I’d type ~ T. Jones ) Torg Carl JungSigmund Freud Inception The Road To WellvilleJohn Harvey Kellogg Episode Ninety Seven – My story is essentially the tale of Juan Bobo, only dumber Traveller 2300 / 2300 AD ZardozMad Max 2 Civilization (game series) The Red Elvises

Craig tries to combine A Christmas Carol with Solo Shifts on a Spaceship, and fails, but Ben recovers the idea Ben pitches the idea of a Clip Show Holiday Episode of an RPG campaign, as a way to look back on the game so far & a sneaky way to see which bits the players remember the most The regulars at a dive bar are called upon, at Christmas Eve, to make a Christmas Miracle occur. It’s not going to be easy, the situation is probably already out of control, and it all has to happen by Christmas Morning With Christmas looming, inexplicable anonymous helpful acts are being performed. Is it Elves? Kindly House Spirits? Or is something leaking through from the Gigantic Research Facility next to the town? WanderHomeApocalypse WorldExaltedWerewolf: The Apocalypse RPG.net Forums GURPS The Muppet Christmas CarolCargoPandorumZ NationPassengers A Christmas CarolCharles Dickens The Full Monty Murderous Ghosts Restless – Buffy the Vampire Slayer (S4E22) Gideon The Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir Christmas Mince Pie Kids On Bikes Home AloneThe Santa Clause Blades In The Dark Prep & Landing The 13 Yule Lads Rare Exports: A Christmas TaleEureka Tales From The Loop (RPG)Tales From The Loop (Book) Stranger Things Episode One Hundred And Sixty Six – We can make anything into a dumpling. Anything.

Ben, Craig, & Special Guest Terry attempt to get to grips with the “pastoral fantasy” RPG Wanderhome, and probably succeed, in our first approximate actual play episode. Wanderhome, by Jay Dragon, can be purchased from Possum Creek Games. Wanderhome is a pastoral fantasy role-playing game about traveling animal-folk, the world they inhabit, and the way the seasons change.It is a game filled with grassy fields, mossy shrines, herds of chubby bumblebees, opossums in sundresses, salamanders with suspenders, starry night skies, and the most beautiful sunsets you can imagine. Wim Hof Brian JacquesHayao Miyazaki Hallow, Worcestershire