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Star Trek Podcasting Best Practices & Improvements (Updated)

Here are some notes from our 1/4/2017 recording sessions on ways to improve our podcasting of Star Trek Adventures game sessions.

Tools Needed

  • Rank Chart
  • “Stay In Character” Sign
  • Cheat Sheet — People/Places/Things Cheat Sheet
  • Player stand — Stand for character sheet (not sure this is practical given the current room on table)
  • GM Tools — I’ve got a host of GM tools (name tables, techno-babble tables, sector map, etc.) I’ll be creating

Behavior Changes

  • Talking over people — I think we still talk over each other and it will be distracting
  • Rabbit trails — Need to avoid tangential discussions not related to the story
  • Eating at the table — We should restrict eating to the breaks
  • Table Noises — Avoid dropping phone on table, crinkling water bottles, excessive shuffling of papers, etc.

Hand Signals

Add the following hand signals.

Podcasting Hand-Signals

Podcasting Hand-Signals

  • Timeout — Pause recording
  • Move Along — Used to shut down Rabbit trails digressions, excessive time in a scene, etc.
  • Come to an End — About to close the segment so don’t start new actions

Standard Terms

  • Session — An evening of play. Target is 3 segments per session. Games start at 6:30pm (activities at 6:30pm include leveling up, podcast logistics discussion, and other off-air activities). Recording starts around 6:45-7pm. Segments record from 7-8pm, 8-9pm, and 9-10pm. Session ends around 10pm.
  • Adventure — An adventure arc of approximately 3-6 segments, run over 1 to 2 game sessions.
  • Segment — aka an Episode. 45-55 minutes of roleplaying which close on a satisfying ending. Each segment will eventually be packaged as a Podcast Episode. Followed by a 5-10 minute break.
  • Episode — Individual segments packaged up as an Podcast episode. Follows the Season # + Episode # format naming convention, e.g. ‘Vanguard S1E01’ or ‘Vanguard: Season 1, Episode 01’.

Notes from 1/17/2018 Discussion

  • We will publish an org chart of characters and setting information.
  • We will post a summary of podcast rules in the room where we podcast.
  • Season One — have both a Primary and a Secondary character.
  • Season Two — One of your two characters is likely to die, and the other one you carry forward. You’ll create a new character of the type (Primary or Secondary) you don’t have. You’ll have again have a Primary and a Secondary character at that point. Any time a character dies, you replace them with a new character of that type.
  • Stan starts off as the NPC captain. Pretty quickly, Mason becomes the new captain for Season 1. We plan on John S. becoming captain at the beginning of Season 2. Idea is that seasons run around 6+ months and end with a big milestone event, after which time the current captain gets promoted, killed, or otherwise is off-stage. Character who was the captain before comes in with a new character at much lower level (maybe an Ensign).
  • Whoever is playing the captain does the podcast intro. and reads the captain’s log ‘boxed text’ that kicks off an adventure. So the poll results are moot at this point.

Star Trek Rules Q&A Part 1

Rules Questions

Here are some answers to last sessions Star Trek Adventures rules questions.

  1. Question: Does momentum go away at the end of a scene?
    Answer: “At the end of each scene, one point of Momentum in the pool is lost” (p. 84).
  2. Question: How many questions does Momentum grant you?
    Answer: A successful roll achieves some result. For each point of Momentum a player spends, then can receive 1 additional answers.
  3. Question: How does “retain the initiative” work?
    Answer: “After a character has completed their Turn — attempted a single Task and any Minor Actions they wish to perform — the Player hands the action to the opposing side (typically, but not always, Gamemaster-controlled NPCs), who will choose a single character to act next. Alternatively, the Player may spend 2 Momentum (Immediate) to keep the initiative, handing the action to another Player Character instead. Once a Player has opted to keep the initiative, nobody on that side may keep the initiative again until the opposition have taken at least one Turn of their own. In any case, no character may take more than one Turn in a Round.Once all characters on one side have taken a Turn, then any remaining characters on the other side take their Turns in any order they choose, one at a time, until all characters on both sides have taken one Turn. Once all characters on both sides have taken a Turn, then the action goes to a character on whichever side did not take the last Turn, and the whole process begins again for the next Round.” p. 163
  4. Question: How does Advantage and Complications work and what mechanically it means to create a problem (Quickstart rules are unclear on this).
    Answer: See pp. 76-77. Traits (with Complications and Advantages) are similar to Aspects in Fate RPG. Complication increases Difficulty of related tasks by 1.
  5. What type of ‘Ice pick’ does the Andorian have?
    Answered: It’s a climbers ice pick.

Phases Roll-out of Rules

Star Trek Adventures core rules book is over 300 pages, so its amazing, but a lot to digest. Here’s my approach for learning and rolling out the rules.

Phase I (Now through most of Season 1)

Using 32 pages of rules from the main book (pp. 73-88 Core Rules, and pp. 163-180 Conflicts), which covers roughly the same rules introduced in the Quickstart.

Phase II (End of Season 1, or Season 2)

Add 26 additional pages of rules (pp. 89-91 Advanced Rules (Challenges & Extended Tasks), and pp. 210-233 Starship Rules).

Phase III (At Kickoff of Season 2)

Character creation and the rest of the rules.

 

 

 

 

Sounds of Dicehaven: Early Sample Intro Music

I’ve been testing out some audio using Apple Garage Band.

Star Trek Vanguard Campaign: Example Intro Theme

"Sister Flight" by Dave Metlesits (https://davemetlesits.deviantart.com/art/Sister-flight-109684730)

“Sister Flight” by Dave Metlesits

“Jubilee” theme song by Scott Buckley.

Possible Audio for the Dicehaven Roundtable

(Note there is a ‘Pond 5’ audio ‘watermark’ on each track which will be there until we select and buy a given sound track).

Funk

House

Space

Flying High

Groove

Redmark Session 26: Entering the Great Gates

April 3-6, TA 1331

The shock of the unusual trip to another world the group just took quickly turned into yet another party with the natives. And another eating contest for Quintos to foolishly volunteer for. This time, however, he actually managed to win. Who knew a Roman could eat such a horrible food and not die from some horrible food poisoning.

The next day, and under much fanfare, the adventurers left the party happy little village in search of the fabled Buffalo and the legendary lost city located somewhere in the depths of the dark and scary jungle. None struggled with fear, however, as several local wilderness men were coming along as guides. Given the guides already outstanding track record, having lost only 27 of their original 30 members, things were looking very promising.

The journey went swimmingly until a rabid group of baboons descended upon the party like a horde of wild trinket collectors. They lurched at everything they could see that was shinny, including an item of great sentimental value to Marcus. Fortunately, he was able to win the game of grabsies and maintained ownership of his family heirloom. The fight was brought to a close when the red bottomed menaces fled in terror thanks to the clever use of a war cry enhanced with Thaumaturgy. Following the baboons led the group to an alcove where sat a large and well-adorned orangutan. With his new ability to speak with animals, Ghost Dancer sought and was granted an audience with the clear leader of this group of primates. This led to the question to end all questions…”Is an orangutan aware that it is actually an orangutan?”

This conversation was cut short when a giant Roc snatched up this lordly orangutan as he heatedly blamed Quintos’ “war crrwwyy!!” for summoning the winged beast. While tracking the Roc, Nerio (Quintos’ owl familiar) discovered that the Roc’s nest was filled with great treasure. So, for the benefit of…..the….Desperate Adventurers Charity our now sweaty and stinky adventurers made for the nest. At the base of the mountain upon which the Roc nested, their “nest invasion planning” session was rudely interrupted by a gigantic chameleon. This inconsiderate chameleon was quickly dealt with but not before it swallowed poor Ku, one of the guides, like a tiny cricket.

Although forced to adjust their success rate numbers to having lost only 28 out of 30, the guides are still convinced they can turn their luck around. Now the party readies themselves for the climb….of…..DOOM!!!

Vanguard Session 01: Signals (Take 1)

Red Dwarf by Justv23

Red Dwarf by Justv23

Note: We had some audio issues with this first session so we rebooted the adventure and recorded it again over here.

Captain’s Log: Stardate 1266.01

“We’ve received a message from the civilian exploration starship Ventura that their long-range shuttlecraft called the Susquehanna has gone missing in the Carina Nebula, deep within the Taurus Reach. The Susquehanna was investigating an unusual alien signal that originated from the nebula when all contact was lost. We have been ordered to enter the nebula, find the shuttle, and determine the origin and cause of the alien signal. Starfleet has also advised that Romulan and Tholian ships have been sighted in the region, so we should exercise caution since they may well have detected the alien signal as well.”

Characters

  • Lieutenant Bennett (the Human Chief Medical Officer, played by Bailey)
  • Lieutenant Commander Abossas (the Andorian Chief Of Security, played by Mason)
  • Ensign Sevek (the Vulcan Science Officer, played by Jeff M.)
  • Captain Gregory Konstans (NPC)

Episode Summary

Captain Konstans summons an away team aboard the U.S.S. Darius, a single-nacelle, Saladin class starship patrolling the Taurus Reach. He dispatches a team of 3 to beam down to a Class M planet recently discovered nested in the Carina Nebula. The Darius had traced the ion trail of the lost shuttle Susquehanna to this location. Heavy electrical interference in the atmosphere is making reads on the planet difficult, but a clearing in the perpetual storms allows the away team to beam down.

Planetside, the away team beamed down and were almost immediately attacked by 3 Romulans. Due to their superior training and tactics, the Starfleet officers manage to stun the Romulans.

A tricorder scan of the area indicates three notable areas of interest.

  1. Two kilometers to the North are trace signs of civilian Combadges, a signal consistent with the crew of the lost Susquehanna.
  2. Three kilometers to the Southeast, a trail of smoke (barely visible in the red, dim horizon) snakes up into the sky.
  3. Six kilometers to the Southwest the tricorder picks up a chirping signal consistent with the signature of the alien signal the Ventura was seeking when it dispatched the shuttle the Susquehanna to investigate.

The episode ends with the away team communicating with Captain Konstans about their findings and discussing next steps before an incoming magnetic storm again disrupts communications.

Rules Questions

  1. Does momentum go away at the end of a scene? (We seem to recall it does in Conan)
  2. How many questions does Momentum grant you? (With a successful roll and 2 momentum earned and spent, is that 2 questions, or 3?)
  3. GM picking who goes first (Need to read the full rules on initiative)
  4. Turn order and cost to retain the initiative (Bailey’s character had a special ability but we had questions on how it exactly worked)
  5. General questions on how Advantage and Complications work and what mechanically it means to create a problem (Quickstart rules are unclear on this)
  6. What type of ‘Ice pick’ does the Andorian have? (Answered: It’s a climbers ice pick).
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