There are only so many hours in the day, so many days in the week, and in order to pursue other interests, I must hang-up the mic for this podcast.

This podcast was largely an experiment, as I had never done anything like it before. It evolved from a round-table discussion show with my friends and co-hosts, to an actual play podcast and then finished with a series of interviews.

It has been great fun and I’ve enjoyed interacting with my guests and the many listeners who’ve emailed me and joined me on Google+ and Twitter.

Will I ever return to podcasting? Perhaps Flagons and Dragons will reboot somewhere down the road, or perhaps I’ll become involved with another podcast. Who knows. I may be closing shop, but I’m not throwing away the key.

What’s next for me? Aside from enjoying some games in my new-found free time, I’m currently writing a script for a gaming related web series which I plan to produce.

Thanks again for joining me on this ride.

Until next time, keep rolling those dice!

-Carl

I this interview I chat with illustrator and game designer Jeff Dee. You’ll recognize his artwork from numerous games and magazines, including TSR’s Deities and Demigods, as well as many AD&D modules and other early TSR products, as well as adventures for the Star Wars RPG from West End Games. He co-designed Villains & Vigilantes, among others, and his most recent project is Cavemaster, a role-playing game of Pleistocene adventure.

Be sure to check out his Kickstarter projects that include his re-created art from the TSR days. You can find Jeff’s games on RPGNow.com, through Lulu.com and Cubicle 7’s web store. Jeff’s website is monkeyhousegames.com.

Jon Hook is a podcaster and contributing writer to some of Chaosium’s contest adventure monographs. He co-hosts the new Miskatonic University Podcast; a podcast dedicated to the Call of Cthulhu role playing game. He’s author of a Cthulhu adventure soon-to-be-released by Goodman Games, and he’s currently working with Timeless Adventures on a Basic Roleplaying project set in WWII.

We talk about all things Cthulhu; the origins of the mythos, role playing games, board games, card games, fiction and movies.

Brett Pisinski is co-founder of Wicked North Games. They produce games using their Cinema6 engine, such as the fantasy roleplaying game Azamar, and the future release of Westward, a steampunk western roleplaying game. He’s also a homebrewer.

We chat about the history of D6 from West End Games, the Star Wars roleplaying game, Ghostbusters, Paranoia, the first games to utilize dice pools, where Fantasy Flight Games might take the Star Wars license, some fantastic beers from Stone Brewing, Brooklyn Brewery, Six Point Brewing, and more!

You can learn more about Wicked North by visiting www.Cinema6Games.com. They also have a Kickstarter going for their future release of Westward.

In this episode I discuss the pulp era with Fred Hicks. He runs Evil Hat Productions, an award-winning publisher of games and fiction. Among the games in its stables are The Dresden Files RPG, Spirit of the Century, and Swashbucklers of the Seven Skies.

The magazines of the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s were full of adventure, mystery, weird menaces and daring heroes. In this episode, Fred and I chat about the pulp era and how it’s influenced books, movies and games of today.

You can learn more about the upcoming novel at Dinocalypse.com and a growing catalog of games at EvilHat.com. Fred also has his own blog at DeadlyFredly.com

In this episode we enjoyed some wine from Ravenswood Winery and Casillero del Diablo.

We continue our discussion of various genres with Eddy Webb.  In this episode, it’s all about supernatural horror!

Eddy is an ENie award winning game designer and publisher and in 2011 he won the Robin D. Laws Innovation Award. He currently writes for the World of Darkness MMO, he contributed the 20th Anniversary Edition of Vampire: The Masquerade, and is writing for the upcoming 20th Anniversary Edition of Werewolf: The Apocalypse.

In episode 13 of our podcast we talked about a variety of genres, why we like what we like, can we overlook genre in favor of good rules, and can we overlook subpar rules in favor of genre. In the next few interviews, I and my guests are going to be digging deeper into specific genres, and in this episode I interview game designer and former podcaster Robert Bohl. His game Misspent Youth, is a role-playing game about friendship, rebellion, and kicking ass. Join us as we talk about the punk genre!

Fiction mentioned in this interview

China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station

Beneath the towering bleached ribs of a dead, ancient beast lies New Crobuzon, a squalid city where humans, Re-mades, and arcane races live in perpetual fear of Parliament and its brutal militia. The air and rivers are thick with factory pollutants and the strange effluents of alchemy, and the ghettos contain a vast mix of workers, artists, spies, junkies, and whores. In New Crobuzon, the unsavory deal is stranger to none—not even to Isaac, a brilliant scientist with a penchant for Crisis Theory.

Isaac has spent a lifetime quietly carrying out his unique research. But when a half-bird, half-human creature known as the Garuda comes to him from afar, Isaac is faced with challenges he has never before fathomed. Though the Garuda’s request is scientifically daunting, Isaac is sparked by his own curiosity and an uncanny reverence for this curious stranger.

While Isaac’s experiments for the Garuda turn into an obsession, one of his lab specimens demands attention: a brilliantly colored caterpillar that feeds on nothing but a hallucinatory drug and grows larger — and more consuming — by the day. What finally emerges from the silken cocoon will permeate every fiber of New Crobuzon — and not even the Ambassador of Hell will challenge the malignant terror it invokes.

Scott Lynch’s Gentlemen Bastard Series

In this stunning debut, author Scott Lynch delivers the wonderfully thrilling tale of an audacious criminal and his band of confidence tricksters. Set in a fantastic city pulsing with the lives of decadent nobles and daring thieves, here is a story of adventure, loyalty, and survival that is one part Robin Hood, one part Ocean’s Eleven, and entirely enthralling.…

An orphan’s life is harsh–and often short–in the island city of Camorr, built on the ruins of a mysterious alien race. But born with a quick wit and a gift for thieving, Locke Lamora has dodged both death and slavery, only to fall into the hands of an eyeless priest known as Chains–a man who is neither blind nor a priest. A con artist of extraordinary talent, Chains passes his skills on to his carefully selected “family” of orphans–a group known as the Gentlemen Bastards. Under his tutelage, Locke grows to lead the Bastards, delightedly pulling off one outrageous confidence game after another. Soon he is infamous as the Thorn of Camorr, and no wealthy noble is safe from his sting.

Passing themselves off as petty thieves, the brilliant Locke and his tightly knit band of light-fingered brothers have fooled even the criminal underworld’s most feared ruler, Capa Barsavi. But there is someone in the shadows more powerful–and more ambitious–than Locke has yet imagined.

James Merendino’s SLC Punk

To grow up in America is to, at one point or another, rebel against the world around you. If you’re Stevo and you live in Reagan-era Salt Lake City, then, well…you just have to rebel a little bit harder. To this recent grad, the world is his enemy, anarchy his religion, and the Ramones, The Specials and the Dead Kennedys his muses. As he takes us on a guided tour of his life, we meet all sorts of punks, poseurs, mods, freaks and a few others best described as indescribable.

Stevo’s ex-hippie father sees his lifestyle as a rite of passage and urges him to attend Harvard Law School like himself. Not to sell out to the system, but to buy in. For Stevo, underneath the mohawk haircuts, earrings and leather, the idea, painfully, has some merit. The question becomes; how do you stay hard-core and still hope for a life beyond?

Also…

A Clockwork Orange, Stand By Me, The Goonies, The Last Airbender

Games mentioned in this interview

Robert Bohl’s Misspent Youth

Misspent Youth is a tabletop pen-and-paper roleplaying game about friendship, rebellion, and kicking ass. In the game, you play 12- to 17-year-old kids in a future world fucked-up beyond recognition by The Authority. The Authority is a force that you create together at the start of the series and played by one person.

Julia B. Ellingboe’s Steal Away Jordan

Steal Away Jordan is a role playing game written in the spirit of neo slave narratives like Margaret Walker’s Jubilee, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, and Octavia Butler’s Kindred. Like these fictional accounts of slave life, players explore the social and psychological implications of life in a society where people can be property. Ultimately, players consider slavery’s long-term impact on a society and on the descendants of slaves and slave owners.

Paul Czege’s My Life With Master

A role-playing game of villainy, self-loathing and unrequited love.

Also…

Apocalypse World, Zombie Cinema

In this regular episode we discuss genres of role-playing games, why we like particular genres and why certain certain don’t appeal to us.Can we overlook subpar game mechanics if we love the genre, and can we overlook genre if the game mechanics are solid?

Hosts: Carl, Brandon, Andrew, Jason and Todd

Note: We tried something new in this episode and recorded the entire thing using the Zoom H2 microphone set to surround. Let us know what you think!

This part 2 of 2 of the pilot, now with 100% more Flagons! We take a moment to taste and discuss Stone Brewing’s Belgo Anise Imperial Russian Stout.

The acolytes have found Bulagor Thrungg, who appears to be in possession of what may be a demonic claw. He orders his lizard-like hyenas (aptly named Lyzenas by Silon) to attack!

The characters are:

• Zuriel, an imperial psyker played by Andrew.
• Tibalt, a roguish scum played by Brandon.
• Padre, the cleric, played by Jason.
• Silon, the tech priest, played by Carl.

We’re open to ideas, suggestions or comments on this and future episodes.

Enjoy!

Hosts: Todd, Carl, Brandon, Andrew and Jason

Music: Kevin MacLeod

When we last left our heroes that had just narrowly escaped a nuclear explosion at one of the Cognitive Advanced Research Laboratories.

Melvin, an alien from another world, helped them flee the doomed site inside his flying saucer. Unfortunatley, their prized jeep, U2 the urban surveillance droid, and Hank’s horse didn’t make it.

Hurtling at great speed, the saucer headed west on a preprogrammed path, it’s destination unknown.  However, the saucer was not properly refueled before they left. Will they crash into the ocean? Let’s find out.

Hosts: Carl, Jeremy, Jason