Send us a text

In 1982 Arnold Schwarzenegger stepped into the sandals of one of pulp’s most celebrated heroes and, what was likely the most on point casting in the history of cinema, became legend. Conan the Barbarian.

There is a common quote from that film, bandied about by fans, but it’s not my favorite. My favorite quote from the film and my favorite scene come at the end of the picture.

“Crom, I have never prayed to you before. I have no tongue for it. No one, not even you, will remember if we were good men or bad. Why we fought, or why we died. All that matters is that two stood against many. That's what's important! Valor pleases you, Crom... so grant me one request. Grant me revenge! And if you do not listen, then to HELL with you!”

To me, that was Conan

Over the years the Conan archetype has been shoehorned into many games, Of course I’m looking at the very poor attempt in D&D called the Barbarian class. You might like the class, but it’s not Conan, and make no mistake it was supposed to be Conan when it was introduced.

In 1985 TSR tried to cash in with its own Conan RPG. In 1989 Steve Jackson Games came out with a Conan supplement for GURPS. In 2004 Mongoose Publishing launched their Conan: The Roleplaying Game which was a d20 variant. And in 2017 Modiphius released a 2d20 version called Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of.

All of these games had various levels of success. I mean it’s Conan, it doesn’t take much for people to pick up the book and several of them were held in high regard. Personally I never found one that really clicked for me. I gave the GURPS version a try, but it just felt a little flat.

Then Monolith Board Games Kickstarted Conan the Hyborian Age. This rules light system approached the barbarian and Robert E. Howards tales differently then the other versions. In Conan the Hyborian Age the story mattered. The rules were simple and left the door open for narrative to push the story. Or at least that’s what the Kickstarter said.

So I backed it and when I downloaded a copy of the core rulebook something special happened.

I got excited. I don’t know what it was, maybe it was the fantastic art, maybe it was a focus on Robert E. Howard’s stories, maybe it was the very simplistic combat system, maybe it was the magic system that pulled your own life to fuel the spells, or maybe they just found the perfect combination.

I had to play this thing. So I hit up the Thursday night group and said “What do you guys think about playing a Conan game?”

The rest as they say is history.

On this episode Mike, Christina and I are going to talk about the new Conan: They Hyborian Age TTRPG. We will talk about the core rules, the book itself and the good, the great, and the bad we’ve come across after playing it for a couple of months.

And just to give you a little heads up for the episode.

I absolutely love this game.

Christina, let’s start with you. What’s your history with Conan and what did you initially think when I suggested playing it?

[Kick to Christina]

Mike, same question, what did you think about Conan going into the game?

[Kick to Mike]

Send us a text

We have talked about AI a lot on this podcast and we plan on talking about it more. It’s the future, whether you like it or not. Personally, I don’t think the problem is going to be AI. I think the problem, as usual, is going to be people.

https://youtu.be/86nhP8tvbLY?si=179uCtun2WcHLHNz

I am a music fan and watch many of the big music theory channels on YouTube. Rhett Shull is a musician and YouTuber who has been around the platform for a very long time. In one of his most recent videos, he noticed that YouTube seems to be adding some type of AI filter to his videos and it’s not just his videos. In this video he shows several examples and while it looks like YouTube might be using the AI filter to enhance video clarity the most interesting part about it is that he didn’t approve it.

That’s right, it looks like YouTube is adding AI to people’s video without their permission or notification.

And that to me is the rub.

Mike, you’re our AI guru what do you make of this?

[Kick to Mike]

Christina, from an ethics standpoint, what are your thoughts?

[kick to Christina]

Next, we are back to the world of TTRPGs with a little fun article from EN World.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/with-alien-earth-about-to-hit-our-screens-here-for-free-are-a5es-xenid-monster-stats.714828/

In preparation for the new Alien series Alien Earth on Hulu, EN World shows some screen shots from the just kickstarted Voidrunners Codex. This new 5E supplement from EN Publishing, the same company that brings you EN World, is a Sci-Fi supplement for D&D Fifth Edition and in their upcoming release they have not one, not two, but 6 pages dedicated to our favorite space monster.

Now I bring this up, because some of you might be interested in just such a supplement, and that’s cool. But personally, I wanted an opportunity to yell at the Disney Corporation and 20th Century Fox for completely ruining what should have been one of the greatest film franchises in the history of film. I mean seriously, Alien is a masterclass of storytelling and Aliens flipped the script by turning horror into an action/thriller. Then the studio dropped the ball on what should have been a solid David Fincher directed Alien 3. What little good was in that movie was completely excised in Alien Resurrection, then the god-awful Alien vs. Predator films, don’t get me started on Prometheus, and Covenant and Romulus just doubled down on the Prometheus crap…And then I tried to watch Alien Earth. It’s written by children. Stupid, lazy, and barely literate children.

Christina, talk me off the ledge.

[Kick to Christina]

Mike, what are your thoughts?

[Kick to Mike]

And there you have it, all the news you’ve already heard.

Send us a text

I waved goodbye to Mike and Christina and made my way through the throngs of people getting their last chance to shop in the exhibit hall. By 1pm on Sunday of GenCon 2025 I was tapping out.

I was exhausted, hungry, and my capacity for patience was at an all-time low.

By the time I got back to my car and put Indianapolis in the rearview mirror I started to settle down and even though GenCon was only an hour behind me I realized I was already starting to miss it.

For those gamers out there not familiar with GenCon, shame on you. For the rest, here is a quick rundown.

GenCon is the largest and longest running tabletop gaming convention in North America. It was started by Gary Gygax and friends in 1968 and was originally called the Lake Geneva Wargames Convention. The name was quickly shortened to GenCon and in the early years the convention bounced around from location to location, but in 1985 it landed in Milwaukee Wisconsin. GenCon called Milwaukee home until 2003 when the convention moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, and that’s when it really blew up. If it is even close to the tabletop gaming space, it’s at GenCon.

Fast Forward to 2025 where the convention once again broke previous attendance records with over 72,000 people, 595 unique vendors, and nearly 30,000 events. Our friends at the Finding Attoria Podcast described it aptly as “Butts to Nuts” But GenCon just uses the tagline “The Best 4 Days of Gaming” and for once, they’re underselling it.

In this episode Mike, Christina and I are going to do a little wrap-up of GenCon 2025. We’ll throw out some observations, complaints, kudo’s and maybe even chat about what’s planned for next year.

Christina, let’s start with you. Give me your big takeaway from GenCon.

Kick to Christina

Mike, what about you. What’s your big takeaway from the con.

Send us a text

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/godzilla-franchise-enters-new-era-with-multiple-sequels-in-the-works/ar-AA1ISBUf

Oh No, there Goes Tokyo, Go Go Godzilla.

No, this story isn’t about Blue Oyster Cult, but we could do a full episode on the Long Island Psychedelic Rock Band that gave us Don’t Fear the Reaper and of course Godzilla. No, this story is about Godzilla himself. There are 33 Japanese movies about Godzilla with another 5 English language films.

Currently a sequel to the fantastic Godzilla Minus One is in development along with a sequel to 2016’s Shin Godzilla. There is also collaboration with Legendary Pictures upcoming Godzilla x Kong Supernova and Monarch: legacy of Monsters Season 2 on Apple TV.

With that much Godzilla out there I can actually hear Chrsitina smile. We will start with you Christina, what do you make of all the Godzilla love?

Kick to Christina

Mike, why do you think Godzilla is back dominating the box office again?

Kick to Mike

Next, we have a major announcement from Critical Role. Matt Mercer will be stepping aside as the GM for the 4th campaign and Brennan Lee Mulligan will be stepping in.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/brennan-lee-mulligan-to-gm-critical-role-campaign-4.714671/

This was announced right before Critical Role’s live show in Indianapolis during GenCon.

Matt Mercer has been the only GM behind the first 3 campaigns of Critical Role so this is a big departure for the series, but Brennan Lee Mulligan is no stranger to Critical Role and the Live Action Play space himself. Mulligan is a writer, actor and comedian who has been featured as the gamemaster on Dimension 20 and has also run several short spin-off adventures for Critical Role in the past.

Mike, what are your thoughts on this. Good, Bad, Indifferent?

Kick to Mike

Christina, I believe you’ve been a fan of Mulligan for a while, what do you think this move means for him and critical role.

Kick to Christina

And there you have it, all the news you’ve already heard.

Send us a text

I have a thing for Kickstarter. I find myself backing a lot of roleplaying games so it’s not unusual for me to browsing the new Kickstarters looking for something that might spark my imagination.

And that’s when I saw it.

Singularity.

A brand-new massive adventure for Mongoose Traveller.

Longtime listeners know our love of Traveller on this show and you might have even listened to our three part “Anatomy of a Campaign” series where we talked you through our Pirates of Drinax campaign.

The idea of another massive campaign intrigued me and the more I read through the description the more I was hooked.

I backed it.

I then brought it to the podcast. Mike, Christina and I talked briefly about Singularity in S3E11 on You Heard it Here Last, but that didn’t quite scratch the itch enough. So I reached out to Mongoose Publishing and spoke to Mathew Sprange the Managing Director who put me in touch with the author of Singularity Chris Griffen.

Chris was nice enough to take the time to sit down and talk with me about this new campaign setting.

Send us a text

Let’s start with something different.

https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/en/follow-hbp/news/2023/09/04/learning-brain-make-ai-more-energy-efficient/

This article from the Human Brain Project outlines the power requirements for the human brain and the results are staggering. The human brain uses only 20 watts of power to work. That’s the equivalent of a computer monitor…on sleep mode.

In contrast an AI requires 2.7 billion watts just to simulate even basic cognitive functions.

This is the kind of article that just blows my mind and gets the creative juices flowing. So many sci-fi ideas, and it kinda flips The Matrix on its head.

Christina, thoughts?

[Kick to Christina]

Game ideas?

EN World has an article about the May 2025 Kickstarter for Deathstalker the TTRPG. You all remember 1983’s Deathstalker right.

Deathstalker…Conan with more boobs

It was a Roger Corman rip of Conan and it has a bit of a cult following. Now I was never a big fan of Deathstalker. I felt it was one of Corman’s less interesting and very un-original films. But somebody at EN World loves Deathstalker because the wrote not 1, but 2 articles about the movies (yes, they made a sequel) and the game.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/where%E2%80%99s-the-deathstalker-rpg-part-1.713549/

https://www.enworld.org/threads/where%E2%80%99s-the-deathstalker-rpg-part-2.713550/

Does everything deserve a TTRPG? I mean just looking at Corman’s filmography and we can find several ideas that would likely make cool and interesting games. Death Race 2000, Deathsport, Rock and Roll High School, and even Frankenstein Unbound are all ripe for a little TTRPG fun.

But Deathstalker?

Christina, I know you love the B-Movie as much as I do, what’s your thoughts on this one?

[Kick to Christina]

And there you have it, all the news, you’ve already heard.

Send us a text

Sisterhood: Nuns with Guns.

What a great title for a game. You’ve already heard Mike, Christina and I talk about this game when we saw it drop on Backerkit. We didn’t have a ton of information on the game, but the imagery and the concept were so evocative that both Christina and I backed it on the spot.

Fast forward to our 100th episode where we talked about wanting to do more interviews and the first interview I knew I wanted to do was with Parable Games. I wanted to know all about Sisterhood. I wanted to know all about the concepts, tones, themes, and mechanics.

So I reached out to Parable Games and Adam Holloway agreed to spend a few minutes and chat with me about Sisterhood, Shiver, and there new upcoming expansion for Shiver that should be crowdfunding on Backerkit as you listen to this episode.

Also make sure you stick around for the end. Adam drops a discount code for Parable Games you won’t want to miss.

Here's that discount code for your listeners: Just go to parable games, enter the code and get 20% off Shiver... SPOOKYEPIC1

Send us a text

You know that news crawler that pops up in the right-hand corner of your computer screen for those of us two dumb to turn it off. Well, an article popped up that got my interest.

The 15 Best TTRPGs For One-Shot Sessions

MSN pulled an article from CBR that listed the 15 Best TTRPGS for One-Shot Sessions. It lists games like Crash Pandas, Alien, Mork Borg, Blades in the Dark and Dread. It also has D&D listed along with Call of Cthulhu. It’s just interesting to see an article about TTRPGs dropped in a main news media feed and then to see so many independent games getting equal time as D&D is fantastic.

Christina? Does this mean anything for the independent TTRPGs or am I just reading too much into it?

[Kick to Christina]

In other behind the scenes news Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford who until recently were the Creative Director and Game Director respectively at Wizards of the Coast have taken positions with Darrington Press. It looks like both Perkins and Crawford both left Wizards with the intent to retire, but were lured back into the business by Darrington Press.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/chris-perkins-and-jeremy-crawford-join-darrington-press.713839/

What does this mean for Daggerheart…and why the hell would anyone come out of retirement. I can only think of three things that could get me out of retirement, A lot of Money, a lot of power, or a lot of promises. Preferably it would be a combination of all three.

And speaking of Daggerheart the reviews are, well, not encouraging. Seems to be too finicky, lots of math for no reason, and very slow combat. I haven’t played it yet, so don’t shoot the messenger.

Christina, thoughts on Daggerheart?

[Kick to Christina]

What do you think it means that Perkins and Crawford joined Darrington Press?

And that’s it, all the news, you’ve already heard.