|
I've been skimming over the archives of the Sons of Kryos podcast (by Jeff, Judd and Storn) in the past few weeks. There are lots of really useful stuff and I thought that I should break some of my finds out for you.
The first podcast of Sons of Kryos was published in July 2005. There have been 62 podcasts since. Each podcast consists of three or four sections each lasting about 15 minutes. In my recap effort I'm now in the third season, somewhere around episode 40.
The only drawback of the Sons of Kryos podcast is that the starting times of different sections in the individual podcasts are not marked in the archives. Here I'm trying to give approximate numbers for those, also.
This is similar effort to the Cull blog where Ryan Stoughton recaps different rpg blos and podcasts and tries to point to the most bestest material. My effort here differs in that I haven't even listened to every Sons of Kryos podcast and my selections are simply a result of my personal interests right now. Regardless, I hope this is useful to you.
A short list of my recommendations, the full descriptions follow in full text:
- Episode 12, section I: Bangs (At the beginning)
- Episode 12, section 3: Inspired Games (Starts at 30 minutes)
- Episode 15, section 1: Good sentences - This is what the game is about (At the beginning)
- Episode 15, section 2: Stakes (Starts approx. at 15 minutes)
- Episode 18, section 2: How to Start a PTA Game (Starts at 23:40)
- Episode 27, section 1: Managing Screen time (At the beginning)
- Episode 35, section 2: Good sentences - No (Starts at 16 minutes)
Episode 12 , Bangs & Inspired Games
FirstBangs and using them are discussed. A bang, as you surely know, is a situation that requires a (thematically relevant) choice from the player as how the character will respond to the situation. Lots of practical advice on using bangs is provided in the opening section.
The Inspired Games section discusses games that are inspired by other fictional works. How to start a game like that, what one should consider, how to make it work. Interesting stuff.
Episode 15, What this game is about & Stakes
The episode starts with a Good Sentences segment that is a recurring item for Sons of Kryos. The sentence introduced in this episode is What this game is about. The discussion plots out how you can help yourself and your players by using the sentence when starting to GM a new game.
The second section is about Stakes. Stakes are related to conflict resolution. Basically they are what the conflict is about. This section discusses stakes and experiences on how to use them. Good stuff.
Episode 18, How to Start a PTA Game
PTA, or Primetime Adventures, is one of the more exciting indie rpgs I've been dying to try for a while. In fact, my room-mate told me yesterday that he'd skimmed my copy of PTA and he'd like to give it a try. He's not really a rpg guy. Yeah, so PTA is interesting for a lot of people. And this section does a good job of telling how one should go about starting a PTA game. I'll tell you more when I've got the time to try the advice in practice.
Episode 27, Managing Screen Time
Episode 27 tackles the ever-present problem of all GM's: managing screen time between your players. There are bits of cool advice, pointers to games that do that for you (PTA, for example). All in all, a perfect egment of rpg podcast goodness. Of course, this is an issue that porbably isn't gonna be exhausted just by one segment, so maybe the Sons of Kryos could return to this subject?
Episode 35, Good Sentences - No
In the middle of this podcast, there's the recurring Good Sentences segment again. And this time it's about blocking, or the word NO. Blocking or rejecting is an important part of any creative endeavour so why not rpgs? Yet, it is a delicate thing and one should block as little as one can. Good discussion around this subject and sound advice, too.
This ends my recap of the Sons of Kryos archives. I'm sure that there are plenty of other useful material for you. This was the highlights complied by yours truly.
|
