DiceCast™ Special Holiday Episode

In this special holiday episode, we review the year in gaming. Although 2009 was not as "lively" as 2008, there were still some notable developments. We note the loss of D&D^® co-creator Dave Arneson, the release of the third edition of Warhammer Fantasy™ Roleplaying, and the upset at the 2009 Origins Awards™ in which the Mouseguard™ RPG took the "Best RPG" award, rather than Dungeons & Dragons^® Fourth Edition.

The staff of Polymancer^®Studios, Inc. would like to take this opportunity to wish all the fans of DiceCast™, all the readers of our publications and newsletters, and the gaming public at large all the best for the holiday season and that they may have a healthy and productive 2010.

DiceCast™ Episode 7: An interview with Adam Jury

Adam Jury is the head of Media Design and Production at Catalyst Game Labs, publisher of Shadowrun™, Classic Battletech™, Cthulhutech™, and other fine products. He shares an insider's view on how things work behind the scenes at a successful game company. Adam Jury also shares some very helpful tips on how an aspiring freelance writer or artist can break into the industry.

We are introduced to Catalyst's newest offering, the RPG setting Eclipse Phase™. This sci fi setting allows players to play multiple characters and brings cyberwear and space travel to a new level. Rather than say too much here, we'll let Adam Jury explain more about Eclipse Phase in the 'cast.

Like last episode's interview with Jess Hartley, this interview was recorded on location at FanExpo Canada 2009. The sound quality reflects this, and parts of the interview are interrupted by the booming voice of an announcer who exhorts the convention attendees to leave and the exhibitors to reserve their booths for next year. Adam Jury took all this in stride and gave us a lively, informative, and illuminating interview. We decided to leave the extraneous sounds in for an authentic convention experience.

Links:

• Adam Jury's personal web site
  
• Catalyst Game Labs
  
• Eclipse Phase
  
• FanExpo Canada, a multimedia convention for fans of sci fi, horror, comics, gaming, and every other cool thing imaginable.
  

DiceCast™ Episode 6: An interview with Jess Hartley

In this episode, we interview renown RPG writer Jess Hartley, famous for her work with White Wolf. Jess discusses the role played by women in horror writing, freelancing, and her career in general.

We met up with Jess Hartley at FanExpo Canada in late August 2009. Please note that this is a live field recording of an interview done on location. Throughout the interview, you will hear such genuine convention sounds as an announcer on a loudspeaker instructing attendees to head tot he exit at closing time. While the sound quality is not up to studio standards, the atmosphere and the content of the interview itself make for an authentic and informative listening experience.

Links

• Jess Hartley's web site, includes a complete bibliography, updates about her current projects, and her "One Geek to Another" advice column.
  
• FanExpo Canada is a major convention, an annual multimedia event for fans of science fiction, horror, comic books, gaming, and many other fun things. it is held every August in Toronto, Canada.
  

DiceCast™ Episode 5: Props

Props can amaze your players, create a more immersive roleplaying experience, and go a long way towards dramatizing a scene. In this episode, we discuss the many ways to make cool, eye-popping props that are sure to make your game memorable, such as maps and sound effects. While the focus is on modern, investigative roleplaying genres, we are sure that these tips will fire up your imagination enough to make props for just about any kind of RPG.

We also announce the complete relaunch of our main corporate web site, www.polymancerstudios.com.

In other news, we are pleased to announce that the quickstart rules for our PUMMEL! (Pick-Up, Multigenre Miniatures, Easy to Learn) miniatures wargame system are now available for free download on Scribd. This is a very simple, fun, and playable miniatures wargame that is built for fast, furious action.

DiceCast™ Episode 4: An Interview with Ken St. Andre, creator of Tunnels & Trolls™

Ken St. Andre is the creator of Tunnels & Trolls™, one of the first RPGs ever made, in fact the first fantasy alternative to Dungeons & Dragons™. For those who are not familiar, T&T is a classic fantasy RPG with a richly-detailed campaign setting that is equally suited for gritty and light-hearted roleplaying. The game was innovative for making solitaire play possible, for allowing PCs to be orcs, and for being purely optimized for roleplaying, rather than for miniatures play. It holds the record for being the oldest RPG in continuous production by its original publisher (Flying Buffalo, Inc.). This episode is a special treat for fans of the Tunnels & Trolls™ RPG, fantasy gamers, and old school gamers in general.

This interview was done over the phone, so some of the audio is not "radio perfect." Mr. St Andre's words, however, are very clear, every bit as clear as his modesty and his commitment to making the fun, satisfying, and unique RPG that Tunnels & Trolls has been for over 30 years.

In other news, we announce the re-emergence of Polymancer's web site, www.polymancer.com.

DiceCast is available at the iTunes Music Store.

Links

• Trollhalla
  
• Tunnels & Trolls web page at Flying Buffalo's web site
  
• Tunnels & Trolls web page at Fiery Dragon Productions
  
• Polymancer official web site
  

DiceCast™ Episode 3: The Future of Roleplaying Games and a Review of Fantasycraft

In this episode, we discuss how popular RPGs seem to be moving away from the traditional "books only" format into formats with more components. Gaming that takes place "all in the mind" has fallen away to games that use miniatures, cards, and other tactile elements. This in turn has the potential to change the gaming experience from a "role-playing" experience, with talking and characterization as the focus, to "roll-playing," with tactical play as its focus.

We also review the new Fantasycraft RPG by Crafty Games.

DiceCast™ Episode 2: Worldwide D&D Day

We interviewed a number of gamers about how long they have been playing Dungeons & Dragons™, their thoughts on the game in general, and what the game means in their lives. We found that for the people who play it, this game is more than just a hobby or a leisure activity.

More information about Polymancer® Studios, Inc. is available at .

Special DiceCast announcement: Welcome to our new location

This audio bumper officially announces that DiceCast™ has been moved to dicecast.blogspot.com as well as that the show's RSS feed and iTunes™ Music Store entries have changed. Full details about how to change your subscription in iTunes and in other programs are given in the MP3 file.

This is a very short (01:04:00) announcement with a musical background. Podcasters are permitted, and in fact encouraged, to download this episode and include it in their shows (right-click the title and select "Save link as...").

Polymancer® Studios thanks you for your patience and welcomes you to DiceCast's new download location!

DiceCast™ Episode 1: Character Creation

The guys from Polymancer® Studios discuss character creation. Facets of character creation covered include choosing an archetype, creating a background and backstory without going overboard, personality; and making the character a unique, fun challenge both for you to roleplay, for others to play alongside, and for others to encounter.

While focused on gaming, much of the discussion is relevant to writers of fiction too.

More information about who we are and what we do is available at www.polymancer.com. Questions and comments are always welcome at dicecast@polymancerstudios.com.

This episode contains bumpers for the following podcasts: Wapcaplets, All Games Considered, 3.5 Private Sanctuary, and The Escapistcast. These podcasts, the other podcasts named here, and many others are members of RPGPodcasts.com.

This episode was originally posted on January 1, 2009.

DiceCast Episode 0: Starting a new campaign

In this premier episode of DiceCast™, the guys from Polymancer discuss starting a new campaign. Every consideration that a gamemaster or player needs to keep in mind when a new campaign is being set up is discussed here.

New opportunities for freelance writers are announced at the end of the cast.

This episode was originally posted on Wednesday, Sep 17, 2008.