G.U.B.A.R Podcast

A Perfect example of how the podcast came to be.

Last night the collaborators who bring you GUBAR all got together for board games.  It was to celebrate another visit from Mike Sanchez, the Godfather of Vegas Gaming, whom appeared in Episode 3.  We played Power Grid and 7 Wonders and had a great time with both.  We almost got in a game of the Resistance but it didn’t quite go down.  I highly recommend all 3 games if you haven’t played them or even if you have.

Afterward, Scott and I hung out on the street chatting about gaming as we are apt to do.  We did the usual; talked about the current game, the games we want to play in the future and games we’d like to play in a perfect world of unlimited time and resources.  This is something that we have done at length since we became friends almost two years ago.  The two of us have lofty gaming ambitions so we are excellent at feeding one another’s desire to play games, play them a certain way and plot how to involve our friends to play in those games.

I’ve mentioned this on the show but Scott has a great bit of knowledge regarding games, game developers and the companies who distribute those games or the websites that offer them for sell.  This knowledge serves him well when I am postulating about crazy games I want to play since he can recommend the actual system that would be used to to play them.  We also do a fair amount of coming up with games to play where we use one game system to play in a setting we find compelling.

One example from our conversation last night was playing Houses of the Blooded in the Pathfinder Society region of Cheliax.  Playing a tyrannical and diabolic noble of a house rather than the emotionally charged ven of Houses of the Blooded original setting is something Scott has been talking about since he introduced me to that John Wick creation.  Of course, he is drawn to Cheliax because it is a powerful nation that relies on a deal with the devils to stay powerful.  He loves him some devils.  It must be all that death metal he listens to.

Another game of large scope we discussed was using the Houses of the Blooded mechanic to play a game in which lords of a realm in the Warhammer Fantasy setting are secretly devoted to Chaos and attempting to corrupt that realm.  Yes, that would be two uses of Houses of the Blooded mechanic to play games involving evil nobility locked in the power struggles of a nation.  I also wanted Houses of Chaos to be the backdrop of a Warhammer 3rd edition RPG.  This would allow us to have the larger forces being represented in one game and then the smaller scale heroic struggle on the other with both games affecting one another.

The concept of two intertwined games is one that has always been bouncing around in the back of my mind.  Having a larger game being played with one mechanic and another game encapsulated within that setting that allowed for a band of heroes to fight against the forces that pressed upon them is very appealing.  Maybe I watched too much Clash of the Titans as a kid.  My original thought was to try to have a board game be the overarching campaign and a heroic RPG within it.  This is most likely due to my love of geography and my background of playing board games like Risk and Avalon Hill strategy games.  Now I think that two RPGs would easily fit that bill and allow for two GMs to share that responsibility by switching off who ran what game depending on the events that transpired in either game.  I think this would be extremely rewarding and allow for a group to play a deep story-based roleplaying game that had sweeping consequences and fight some great battles for a cause they believed in.

John Wick’s creations got a lot of discussion as we also discussed the Flux as a way for us to continue playing our deceased D&D characters from Scott’s Numinis campaign.  Alas, a TPK ruined some great character camaraderie and development and we all want to continue playing those characters without taking a mulligan on the TPK we suffered.  To attempt to play those characters in Numinis would cheapen the risks taken to face the dangers we faced.  The Flux will give us the chance to play those characters in a different campaign, due to the death of Numinis thanks to the undead apocalypse that world faced.  I look forward to taking up arms next to my brothers in death, in whatever setting and system is next.  (I hope it is Dogs in the Vineyard.  Shhh….)

Yeah, we did quite a bit of chatting which is exactly what inspired the podcast in the first place.  We hope you have enjoyed it thus far.  Episode 5 will be out before you know it.