We're playing a confined campaign. Everyone erase your gear.

When the characters are kept in the same area (against their will or not) for an extended period of time, that is a confined campaign. Whether they are actually held captive, or merely living together in the same location, the opportunity for player character and non-player character development is very good.

We talk about scenarios that have this theme and some of the movies we like for inspiration.

Confined Campaigns – Ep57

Cast – Eric, Mike, Dan, Mark and Shawn

Running Time – 28:16

00:00     Intro – Shawn

00:30     On to the Topic

Items Mentioned: Star Trek, Mutants and Masterminds, Event Horizon, Alien, Aliens, Das Boot, Babylon 5

06:34     TANGENT: Sea Princes NPCs and Theme

09:08     Back to Topic

Item Mentioned: Harry Potter

11:00     TANGENT: Fiasco

Item Mentioned: Fiasco

11:39     Back to the Topic

Items Mentioned: Dresden Files, Dark City, Ember, Paranoia, Total Recall, Metamorphosis Alpha, Dr. Who

15:29     TANGENT: Mexico City Supers

15:58     Back to the Topic

Items Mentioned: Dungeons & Dragons, Riddick, Lost, Enemy Mine

19:19     TANGENT: Ball Sweat Fiasco

20:04     Back to the Topic

20:20     TANGENT: Titanic Twitter

Items Mentioned: Funny or Die, HMS Titanic, Poseidon Adventure

21:31     Back to the Topic

Item Mentioned: 9^th Gate

22:31     TANGENT: People Hate Event Horizon

23:14     Back to Topic

Items Mentioned: Sunshine, Solaris, Moon, Shawshank Redemption

27:16     Outro – Shawn

OFFICIAL TANGENT COUNT: 6

Pfft... Star Wars? Too mainstream. I prefer Aegis.

What is the first reaction you get from most gamers when the term indie game is mentioned, or worse indie gamers? The terms used are usually somewhere between elitist dicks and hipster douche bags.

Problem is, that is not always the case. It could just be a case of a community bringing down the thing that they love. Some independent games are quite good and with online publishing making it easy to cheaply produce material, the future is bright for those who shirk the mainstream yoke.

We take a look at some of the independent games that have been produced that intrigue us the most.

Indie Games – Ep56

Cast – Eric, Mike, Dan, Mark and Shawn

Running Time – 32:37

00:00     Intro: Mike

00:32     TANGENT: Swarmy

01:28     On to the Topic

Items Mentioned: Wizards of the Coast, Drive Thru RPG, RPG Now, Shadowrun, Mutants and Masterminds

06:19     TANGENT: Superlink

Item Mentioned: Green Ronin

06:44     Back to Topic

Items Mentioned: The Forge, RPG Geek

07:43     TANGENT: The Pajama People Tastemakers

Items Mentioned: Rotten Tomatoes, The Mhurs, Pitchfork

09:54     TANGENT: The Beavis and Butthead Effect

Items Mentioned: Beavis and Butthead, Casey Kasem

10:38     Back to Topic

Items Mentioned: The Indie RPG Awards, Apocalypse World, Kagematsu

13:32     SIDETANGENT: Indie Games of the Year 2012 Candidates

13:46    The Agency

Items Mentioned: The Agency, James Bond, Avengers

14:14    Outremer

Item Mentioned: Outremer

14:49     Back to Topic

Items Mentioned: Dresden Files, Fate System, FUDGE, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, D&D Next

19:13     SIDETANGET RETURNS: Early Dark

Item Mentioned: Early Dark

20:20    Alpha Omega

Items Mentioned: Alpha Omega, Gen Con

21:09    Tools of Ignorance

Items Mentioned: Tools of Ignorance, Blood Bowl, Baseball Stars

24:17    Aegis Project

Item Mentioned: Aegis Project, Legend of the Five Rings, 7th Sea

24:51     Back to Topic

Item Mentioned: GURPS, Sword Noir, Retrocalypse, Atomic Highway, Car Wars, Cubicle 7

26:46     TANGENT: Fiasco

Items Mentioned: Fiasco, The Hangover, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

28:22     TANGENT: WuShu

Items Mentioned: WuShu, Singham

29:51     Back to Topic

30:10     TANGENT: Back to Fiasco

Item Mentioned: Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG

30:42     Back to Topic

31:51     Outro: Mike

OFFICIAL TANGENT COUNT: 8

You wanna see what we do to cheaters?

Show me someone who cheats at roleplaying games and I’ll show you… you know what, it may not be as uncommon as you might think. Be it fudging dice rolls or tweaking stats, cheating is something that every gamer has been exposed to. You’ve either done it or know someone who has. What do you do with someone you’ve caught with their hand in the cookie jar?

We talk about ways to cheat, the people we know who’ve done it and how some of us have done it.

Cheaters – Ep55

Cast – Eric, Mike, Dan, Mark and Jayson

Running Time – 35:10

00:00     Intro – Mark

00:31     On to the Topic

02:18     TANGENT: The Percentage Roll

03:47     Back to Topic

Items Mentioned: Dr. Strangelove, Star Wars

09:14     TANGENT: Mark Cannot Miss, or Can He?

09:49     Back to Topic

Items Mentioned: Warhammer 40K, Warhammer Fantasy

13:17     TANGENT: Epic Arguments

13:44     Back to Topic

Items Mentioned: Dungeons & Dragons, Dragon Magazine, Henry Rollins, Q Workshop

26:19     TANGENT: Dice

28:37     TANGENT: Jay Got Mark and The Live Rick Roll

Items Mentioned: Rick Roll

29:37     Back to Topic

30:12     TANGENT: Eric’s Open Air Policy and GM Screens

30:58     Back to Topic

Items Mentioned: Illuminati, Munchkin, The Great Dalmuti

34:27     Outro – Mark

OFFICIAL TANGENT COUNT: 6

Who knows, he could be a real sweetheart if you got to know him.

How believable are the societies in roleplaying games? Many of the established game worlds we play in expect the suspension of belief, granted. If you really look at it, though, is an evil society sustainable? Are races inherently evil, like the drow or orcs?

In this Episode we take on these questions and ask a few more.

Fictional Societies – Ep54

Cast – Eric, Mike, Dan, Mark and Jayson

Running Time – 36:21

00:00     Intro

00:40     On to the Topic

Items Mentioned: Dungeons & Dragons, Warhammer 40k, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Idiocracy

04:36     TANGENT: The Sex Perspective

05:57     TANGENT: Orcs (or Orks)

06:54     Back to Topic

Items Mentioned: Keep on the Borderlands, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Action Nerds: Go!, Warhammer: Age of Reckoning, Firefly, World of Greyhawk, Rolemaster Classic

17:12     TANGENT: James Franco, Paul Walker and the Mark Hamel Society

Items Mentioned: James Franco, Paul Walker, Cracked Mark Hamill Scale

18:21     Back to Topic

Items Mentioned: Stan Nicholls Orcs, Markus Heitz Dwarves, Ice Pirates, World of Warcraft, Harry Potter

21:00     TANGENT: Goblins, Elves and Barney Stenson

Items Mentioned: Barney Stenson, The Karate Kid

21:59     Back to Topic

Items Mentioned: Starship Troopers, Men in Black

23:04     TANGENT: The Humans

Items Mentioned: Survivorman, Bear Grylls

25:42     Back to Topic

Items Mentioned: Star Trek, Legend of the Five Rings

32:12     TANGENT: How Evolved Are We?

Items Mentioned: The Hunger Games, Thor

33:27     Back to Topic

35:37     Outro

OFFICIAL TANGENT COUNT: 6

Telling a gamer that they play in a dead world is like telling these guys disco is dead.

Dungeons and Dragons seems to be the game of lost lands. Meaning that there are worlds that were once very popular but have been abandoned by the people that own the rights to them. Are these worlds really dead? If not, what constitutes a dead world in roleplaying?

We talk about our take on this and some of the game worlds that we’ve played or wished we played that have may or may not have died.

Dead Worlds – Ep53

Cast – Eric, Mike, Dan, Mark, Jayson and Shawn

Running Time – 30:40

00:00     Intro

00:30     On to the Topic

Items Mentions: Dungeons & Dragons, Dark Sun, Star Wars, Wizards of the Coast, Greyhawk

04:29     TANGENT: The Power of Words

Item Mentioned: The Persuaders

05:18     Back to Topic

Items Mentioned: Ravenloft, Forgotten Realms

07:49     TANGENT: Would Mike Do It?

09:23     Back to Topic

Item Mentioned: White Wolf

11:22     TANGENT: World of Darkness Kickstarter

Item Mentioned: Kickstarter

12:37     Back to Topic

Items Mentioned: Al Qadim, Planescape, CanonFire!

14:28     TANGENT: Jamaican Mike

Item Mentioned: In Living Color

15:04     TANGENT: Warhammer Codex and Magic the Gathering

Items Mentioned: Games Workshop, Magic the Gathering

16:14     TANGENT: The New Guy

16:59     Back to Topic

Items Mentioned: Traveller, Games Designer Workshop, Conan, Robert Jordan, Mongoose Publishing, Paizo Publishing

20:22     TANGENT: The Sidewinder Saga

Items Mentioned: Sidewinder

21:27     Back to Topic

Items Mentioned: Star Frontiers, Gamma World

22:19     TANGENT: Cyberpunk 2020 vs. Shadowrun

Items Mentioned: Cyperpunk 2020, Shadowrun

23:09     TANGENT: Big Eyes, Small Mouth Players

Item Mentioned: Big Eyes, Small Mouth

23:39     Back to Topic

Item Mentioned: Legend of the Five Rings

29:58     Outro

OFFICIAL TANGENT COUNT: 9

The Sheer Number of Sources Can Be Daunting

Does the amount of choices in modern table-top roleplaying games make playing them for the long term more of a chore than an enjoyment? Are we too OCD to last a campaign or game out?

Dan springs this question on us and we do our best to answer it.

Variety vs. Longevity – Ep52

Cast – Eric, Mike, Dan, Mark, Jayson and Shawn

Running Time – 27:54

00:00     Intro

00:30     On to the Topic

Items Mentioned: Dungeons & Dragons, Aurora’s Whole Realms Catalog, Pirates of the Caribbean, Savage Tide, Star Wars, Shadowrun, Fight Club

05:36     TANGENT: Now Campaigns vs. Then

06:19     TANGENT: Group Size

Item Mentioned: Warhammer 40K

08:08     TANGENT: Extreme Casual Gaming

08:31     Back to Topic

Items Mentioned: Age of Worms, Stormwrack

12:18     TANGENT: Modern Game Consumers

13:04     TANGENT: Less is More

14:38     Back to Topic

Items Mentioned: Victoriana, Mutants and Masterminds, Traveller

19:23     TANGENT: The College Years

Item Mentioned: White Collar

20:08     TANGENT: 1^st World Gamer Problems

21:51     TANGENT: Powergame Mark

23:10     Back to Topic

24:46     TANGENT: 1^st Ed Premium Players Handbook

Items Mentioned: 1^st Ed Premium Player Handbook, E.T.

27:06     Outro

OFFICIAL TANGENT COUNT: 9

Who is the Greatest of all Time?

Many people say that it’s the villains that make the hero.

Okay that may be true, but in that case what are the criteria for truly epic villains? What sets them apart from mediocre or lame villains?

In this episode we enlist the help of Mike and Ryan from Action Nerds: Go! to answer these questions.

Villains – Ep51

Cast – Eric, Mike, Dan, Mark, Jayson, Shawn, (Mike) Kramer & Ryan

Running Time – 39:52

00:00     Intro and Welcome

00:46     On to the Topic

00:56     TANGENT: Why is Alan Rickman Awesome and Not  Lance Henrickson

Items Mentioned: Alan Rickman, Brian Bozworth, Lance Henriksen

02:43     Back to Topic

Item Mentioned: Star Wars

03:24     TANGENT: The Evolution of Ghetto Leah

03:59     Back to Topic

Items Mentioned: James Bond, Gary Oldman, The Professional

06:05     TANGENT: Lost in Space

Items Mentioned: Lost in Space, Matt LeBlanc

06:47     TANGENT: William Hurt or John Hurt?

Item Mentioned: V for Vendetta

07:24     Back to Topic

Item Mentioned: Masters of the Universe

08:11     TANGENT: The Female Skeletor and She Man

Item Mentioned: IO9

08:46     Back to Topic

Items Mentioned: Friday the 13^th, Jaws, Megamind, Shadowrun, Inspector Gadget, Eli Tomorast, The Usual Suspects, Watchmen, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Wookiepedia

17:21     SIDETANGENT: Star Wars, Star Wars and more Star Wars

25:48     Back to Topic

Items Mentioned: Unbreakable, Die Hard: With a Vengeance, Joker, Hannibal Lecter, American Psycho, Psycho, Ed Gein, Mr. Blonde Song, Princess Bride, Wizard of Oz, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Little House on the Prairie, The Black Adder, Back to the Future, The Dark Tower, Space Balls, Game of the Thrones, Cowboy Bebop, Michael Wincott, Darth Plagueis

39:06     Outro

OFFICIAL TANGENT COUNT: 6

Thanks to Mike and Ryan for joining us. Please check out their show Action Nerds: Go!

Be careful which iconic characters you inject into your game. It could spell doom.

It is one of the most fulfilling and potentially damning things that can happen in a campaign, meeting the iconic characters from a setting. Doing it right can mean so much to the players that they reminisce about it for years. Doing it wrong means you have to listen to the players bitch about it forever.

With some help from the community, we tackle this very touchy and popular topic.

Rubbing Elbows with Iconic NPCs – Ep50

Cast – Eric, Mike, Dan, Mark, Jayson and Shawn

Running Time – 27:55

00:00     Intro

00:42     On to the Topic

Items Mentioned: World of Greyhawk, Drizzt, Elminster, Lord of the Rings, Legend of the Five Rings, Star Wars, Call of Cthulhu, Victoriana, Aces & Eights, R A Salvatore

07:09     TANGENT: Monday Night Dark Times

07:43     Back to Topic

15:42     TANGENT: Mandalorian Troop

16:05     Back to Topic

Items Mentioned: Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, DC Adventures, Mutants and Masterminds

18:01     TANGENT: Underlying Theme, Star Wars Thoughts and Huck Finn

Items Mentioned: E.T., Huckleberry Finn

22:16     Back to Topic

Items Mentioned: Fallout, Dungeons & Dragons, Mystery Men

27:10     Outro

OFFICIAL TANGENT COUNT: 3

The Mortal Enemy to the Flow of a Game

We’ve all done it. Buying a new game is a gamer’s joy. But there are many different options on how to actually learn how to play that new game.

In this episode we discuss our methods and members of the community have volunteered theirs as well.

Learning New Games – Ep49

Cast – Eric, Mike, Dan, Mark, Jayson and Shawn

Running Time – 31:17

00:00     Intro

00:31     On to the Topic

Items Mentioned: Dungeons & Dragons, Mutants and Masterminds, Legend of the Five Rings, Shadowrun, Canon Puncture Podcast

04:56     TANGENT: Jayson’s Aces & Eights Beginnings

Item Mentioned: Aces & Eights

06:12     Back to Topic

Item Mentioned: Hero System

08:09     TANGENT: Play it Wrong

Items Mentioned: West End Games Star Wars, Vampire the Masquerade, Gen Con, Warhammer 40K

09:24     TANGENT: We are Dicks

10:05     Back to Topic

17:24     TANGENT: D&D for Cash Debacle

Item Mentioned: Blood Bowl

19:46     Back to Topic

20:20     TANGENT: Shawn GM? & More of us Being Dicks

Item Mentioned: Serenity RPG

21:42     TANGENT: Mark’s Con GM Game of Choice

Item Mentioned : Hungry Hungry Hippos

22:33     Back to Topic

Items Mentioned: Story By The Throat, Victoriana, Wordman Shadowrun Sheets, Wizard of Earthsea, Dresden Files, Blood Bowl Team Manager, Arkham Horror, Fantasy Flight Games

OFFICIAL TANGENT COUNT:  6

We have not tried this one, but after reading it we should.

If you are a gamer, or nerd in general, then you are into science fiction (at least we have never met one that isn’t). Popular science fiction, as we know it now, is technically considered space opera as opposed to the hard science fiction that was the standard in the sixties and seventies.

In this episode we talk about the different games devoted to this very popular genre.

Space Opera – Ep48

Cast – Eric, Mike, Dan, Mark, Jayson and Shawn

Running Time – 36:58

00:00     Monkey in the Cage Promo

00:31     Intro: Shawn

01:01     Topic: Space Opera

Items Mentioned: Arthur C Clark, Issac Asimov, Star Trek RPG, Traveller, GDW, 2300AD, Dune

02:50     TANGENT: Hard Sci-Fi and Dune

03:34     Back to Topic

Items Mentioned: Battlestar Galactica, Kim Stanley Robinson, John Carter

05:20     TANGENT: Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Items Mentioned: Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Warhammer, Dungeons & Dragons

06:07     Back to Topic

Items Mentioned: Rogue Trader, GURPS, d20, Hero System, Star Frontiers, Star Wars, Mass Effect, Firefly, Dune RPG, Decipher, Fantasy Flight Games, GenCon, Wizards of the Coast, Star Warriors, Serenity RPG, Starcraft, Eve Online, Star Wars: the Old Republic, Dark Heresy, Warhammer 40K, Fafhrd and Gray Mouser, Michael Bay, Transformers, Dark Sun, Clone Wars, Game of Thrones, R A Salvatore, Highlander, Space Opera RPG

36:15     Outro: Shawn

OFFICIAL TANGENT COUNT: 2