Posted on

The Crusading Couch episode 5: player conflict

In this months episode of The Crusading Couch; Billy asks Kim and Raymond about player conflict and party disputes.
We discuss arguments over loot division, as well as GM’s trying too hard to please everyone. We also come back to a few themes from earlier episodes and view them in a new light. All in all, we think it’s an entertaining episode.

We’re still trying to grow our audience, so if you know someone that might like our stuff please SHARE it with them.

When we reach 100 likes on Facebook, or 100 subscribers on WordPress/Sound Cloud, we are going to run a special viewers choice one shot.
YOU, the Listeners, will get to pick the setting and system. You could have us play as the magical princesses of Saturn, on a quest to save their father from an Earthican death cult!
So please, like us on Facebook.

Farewell from the past, I’m Raymond.

Posted on

NEWS TIME: Expanding our managment team AND new content coming soon.

First thing’s first: our new assistant editor and marketing advisor; Kim. since we launched in November 2014 most of the work at [insert quest here] has been done by Raymond. Lots of people helped create content by playing in games but Raymond was the one that ran the site. Over the months Kim (a regular player and close friend of Raymond’s) has become more involved. Kim has been key to keeping Raymond motivated, as well as expanding the sites reach, he even ran a campaign for us; Arcanum Quest. Recently, Raymond had to go away for a week and Kim bravely stepped up to help keep the site running. At the moment, Kim’s duties mostly extend to proof reading and spell checking Raymond’s writing, making Facebook posts promoting the site, and helping Raymond come up with new content. In the future Kim’s role will expand but for now he has enough on his plate.

New content: we’ve got a lot of ideas for role playing games we’d like to feature. But, we’re also looking to expand! Many of the ideas we have still require more planning, but one thing we are ready to launch is a monthly writing challenge.

The monthly writing challenge is designed to get YOUR creative ideas out there and onto the [IQH] site.
How it works is every month we’ll post an image to serve as inspiration for a creative writing project. Anyone can take part and you’ll have until the 28th of that month to submit your article. Think of it as a short story based on the stimulus image.
We’ll post something of our own based on the image, but really we’re more interested in seeing what you have to offer. Who knows where it might lead?
One month’s writing project could turn into the idea/setting for an entire campaign, or start people along the path to becoming the world’s next best-selling author.
The fundamental idea behind the monthly writing challenge is to get inspired; whether that’s inspiring yourself or someone else, all inspiration should be cherished and nurtured.

In the mean time, we at [IQH] hope you continue to enjoy and, if you’re keen, share out content.
Until then, Happy Gaming!

Posted on

The Quiet Year: Amusement

The Quiet year is a co-operative map drawing/world building game with elements of role-playing where the players act as voices within the community attempting to survive and build something in a post apocalyptic world.
Our community was situated in an amusement park, complete with a clown religion, a break away sect, and general light-hearted shenanigans.

We took photos of out map throughout the game, you can find them below, or on tumblr.

If you liked our play through of The Quiet Year, leave us a comment with YOUR preferred Quiet Year setting.
Who knows maybe we’ll play there next time! Stay tuned to find out.

Posted on

Arcanum Quest: complete playlist

Arcanum Quest was a campaign run by Kim. The goal was to transcribe the video game Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, into a table top role playing game. Kim tried to faithfully recreate the game, while also streamlining it into something manageable. He placed a lot of focus on the dialogue with some interesting results. The system we used was new world of darkness 1st edition; chosen because most of the players were familiar with it, and it had rules we liked.

Now I’ve got some thoughts from Kim, reflections from after the campaign was completed.

Arcanum Quest was, and still is, one of the most enjoyable role-playing experiences I have had. Whilst I am not an experienced GM, the sensation of bringing a world to life for the players is something that I crave to feel again.
The idea behind Arcanum Quest was to bring the world of the video game Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, to the table-top role-playing format. I purposefully asked players who were not overly familiar with the original game so that the plot would be fresh for them, and their experience of the world uninfluenced by any preconceptions that the video game might have given them.

The interactions that the players had with the world that I knew so well and loved was intriguing to say the least. My portrayal of the Arcanum world was not as accurate as I had hoped, and the feelings that I gave to the players were only slightly reminiscent of the original game. However, I think that the world which we created together, through my vision and planning, and their character ideas, personalities, and choices, was far more interesting, dynamic, and above all creative.
I often see worlds from video game RPGs that I wish I could interact with without the restrictions of the game. During Arcanum Quest I believe I tried too hard to make the players conform to the structures of the video game; something that video games can do very well by stipulating the way in which players interact with the world, which are far less effective for the table-top format.

The knowledge I have gained from Arcanum Quest warns me against trying to do such things in the future. However, I am not turned off adapting video games to table-top role-playing in the future, far from it. I am now resolved instead to try again with different worlds, but improve the experience for the players and myself by taking the theme of the world, some pivotal characters, and trying to re-create the ‘feel’ of the world, allowing it to ebb and flow and be moulded by the way in which the characters interact with it. Rather than trying to re-crate the game for table-top, take the idea that I love so much and give it a new voice, hopefully a stronger voice; and by doing so instil the same enjoyment and passion that I have for these worlds in my players.

I (Raymond) quite enjoyed the game, despite my frustration at times. I really look forward to more games from Kim in the future.
Farewell from the past, I’m Raymond.

Posted on

Arcanum Quest episode 6

The final episode of Arcanum Quest. Wilfred, Liam, and Raymond finally face the big bad.
Will it be a walk in the park, or battle for the ages?
Listen in to find out.

If you liked this please share it. We’d love any support you can show us.

Farewell from the past, I’m Raymond

Posted on

Eclipse Phase: The Evac

RPPR-Eclipse Phase: The Evac.

A hap hazard group of professionals is put together to help evac some VIPs during the Fall. Who will live, and who will die? More importantly who will look like a total Badass while doing something reckless?

Ross Payton of Role Playing Public Radio recently ran an online game of Eclipse Phase for some of RPPR’s Patreon backers. I got to finally play EP. Needless to say, I was SUPER excited. I had a great time and look forward to more online games. We also might have Ross play in one of our games in the future so keep an ear out for that.

If you enjoyed this, you can find more from RPPR HERE, or listen to some of their actual plays HERE. You can also support them on Patreon by clicking on this link: right here.

Farewell from the past, I’m Raymond.

Posted on

Arcanum Quest Episode 5


(if you wish to skip Ulrich’s  recap, you can go straight to 10:55)

IT’S TIME FOR MORE ARCANUM QUEST!
We get a little distracted by some of the art on the walls at the beginning of the game…which is a nice foreshadowing of what our characters will be doing later in the episode. We continue our work for Stringy Pete, making right all his life’s sins. All in the pursuit of our ultimate goal…what was that again?

If you enjoyed this episode please share it with others. Better yet, follow us on wordpress or soundcloud! You can also like us on facebook.

Farewell from the past, I’m Raymond.

Posted on

The Crusading Couch episode 4: story organisation.

This week, in lieu of an Arcanum Quest episode, we have this months Crusading Couch episode. In this podcast we discuss the importance of planning and organising your story. We also have a guest on, our friend Caitlyn. She’s been involved with role playing for a while and we thought she’d offer some interesting insight.

We hope you enjoy this episode of The Crusading Couch. If you did, please share it with your friends.

Farewell from the past, I’m Raymond.

Posted on

Game ideas

This page features brief descriptions of future scenarios and campaigns we want to run. It’s so listeners and players can see what is coming up, make suggestions, and maybe even ask to be a player in one of them. This list will expand and contract. At the moment it’s only Raymond’s ideas, but it will likely include other people’s in the future.

Space Road Truckers: Players are long haul space transporters trying to get their cargo to port. Could be Eclipse Phase(and serious) or something else, like Dungeon Planet(and campy.)

When one door closes, another opens [version2]: An Eclipse Phase gatecrashing game, where the players are sent through a Pandora gate to explore an exo-planet but end up at a different location than intended.

Luna Hell Hunt: an Eclipse Phase one shot where all the players are adolescents on Luna. It’s Halloween, and a large group of teens is terrorising youngsters. inspired by the Bob’s Burgers episode “full bars”.

Homesteading: a gatecrashing team arrives on a newly discovered world, lush with vegetation. while searching it they find an abandoned wooden homestead, clear signs of having been built by humans. It shouldn’t be there. How did it get there? who built it? where are they?

Castle in the border lands: I’d like to do an Eclipse Phase dungeon crawl, set in the Scum swarm, “There’s No Going Back”, on their la France rig Castle on the borderlands.

The Liberation: You are communist heroes! You must free the capitalists from the oppressors.

Agents of The Empire: War has been outlawed on earth, by mutual compact. However, with the invention of aether drives the old empires have been spread to the stars! You play as secret agents of the Immortal Empress Victoria. This’d be a FATE game.

Under The Sea: You play as a Tritons! It’s a Dungeon World game, but underwater.

Quest for Fire: a Numenera game where the players hail from a town fuelled by a burning nuclear heart. Where the heart has almost burnt out all it’s fuel rods. The players must become Numenera hunters in order to save their home.

The New World cometh: a fantasy game where the players are starting a colony in newly discovered land which is thought to be uninhabited, only to be proven wrong.

Bootstraps: a modern setting campaign where the players build a criminal empire. Could be urban fantasy, could just be a modern tale.

Weapons of the Divine: You play as one of the Divine weapons, prophesied to rise at the end of every great epoch. Agents of change, what injustices will you combat with god like power? A FATE game. So far the Divine weapons are: The Sword, Bow, Spear, Axe, Shield, Body, Knife, Club. Each one would have a list of archetypal character traits.

Rollin’ City: An Apocalypse World game, set in nomadic town of drifters, drivers, haulers, and choppers. A town on wheels, chewin’ up resources, and whatever remains of the tarmac.

Long Stretch: An Eclipse Phase campaign. You are criminals, put into suspension prisons before the strife and destruction that was the Fall. You awaken into a new world, unsure of your place in it, or how to navigate the new social structures you find yourselves in. The only skills you have are the ones that landed you in lock up. What will you do to survive?

Means Of Production: An Eclipse Phase campaign. You are Firewall sentinels, investigating a series of hostile take overs of various hypercorp facilities. Some of them have been retaken, others are being held quite securely. Find the cause, and inform your handlers if you think it’s an X-threat.

Pain//Recovery: An Eclipse Phase campaign where all the players took part in a shared traumatic holding action during the fall. 10 years later, 10 years into their new lives and old “war buddy” contacts them posthumously via the mesh after deleting all his back ups. He tells them it‘s back, what ever it is.

Pirate Bait: An Eclipse Phase scenario where the players are drift pirates. Waiting out in the interplanetary shipping lanes for automated cargo ships to drift by so they can jack the cargo and try not to starve. But something is off about the near by prey, this ship don’t move right.

Parole Hearing: You wake up in a loud room, lit by low red lights. You can’t move. You can barely feel your body. It’s hard to breath. The last thing you remember is a prison doc telling you to count back from ten as they slipped the ego probes onto your head. A silhouette emerges from the red. “This is your parole hearing. If you are willing to kill monster to your last breath then your sentence will be commuted. If that sounds like too much to ask, we’ll leave your egos in cold storage we abandon this rock. Make your choice.” -An Eclipse Phase one shot set during the fall.

The Long Road Home: A fantasy game where the players characters are survivors of a disastrous invasion of another nation. Now stranded in a foreign land they have to try and get home.

Those are the ideas I have at the moment.
Farewell from the past, I’m Raymond.

This page is linked to on our About page.

Posted on

Crusading Couch: news for February 2015

We’ll be recording a new episode of The Crusading Couch this weekend, the topic is organisation.
Both the planning of scenarios and adventures (working out your story), as well as planning for games (working out where you’ll be playing, snacks, transport).

If you’ve got any ideas for this episode or a future one, please leave us a comment. or you could email us.

If you like what we post please share it with others.
Sharing our content increases the chances that someone new might discover a love for role playing, or even just actual plays. If you’d like to show support in another way you can follow us on WordPress or Soundcloud, or like us on Facebook.
When we get to 100 followers or likes (which ever comes first) we will be doing a special listeners choice recording.
It could be anything! It could be a mecha combat RPG set during the Vietnam war, featuring imagery reminiscent of the great Greek tragedies.

Farewell from the past, I’m Raymond.