[45min 38sec] While in Las Vegas for GTS, Fred sits down with Lenny to talk about all sorts of things.  In this first part, they cover what it means to be a game designer, the mayor of Las Vegas, and some of the things Lenny's been working on with the Dresden Files RPG.

[1hr 8min] In this episode, Fred Hicks sits down with Chris Hanrahan from 2d6 Feet in a Random Direction to talk about their impressions of the GAMA Trade Show, IPR, "the industry", selling RPGs as a retailer, and a ton of other stuff. 

No show notes for the moment!  In the interests of putting out something super-current, Fred's skipping that part for now.  We're podcasting without a net, baby!

[1hr 11min 33sec] This past Saturday, we got all of the Dresden Files RPG team -- and then some -- together in Maryland for an Evil Hat convocation (first of its kind).  Once we were done discussing all company matters, we gathered in Fred's living room for a roundtable discussion about how the day went and whatever else happened to come up.  Along the way we talk about some of the development of the Dresden Files RPG, other upcoming games, independent publishing, MUSHing and Amber, how exactly Chad Underkoffler does what he does, and being honest about what it is you're best for in a collaborative organization -- among other things.

If you've ever wondered what's going on "under the Hat", here's your first peek.  Have a listen.

[1hr 4min 21sec] We finish out Faith, Faces & Fingerprints setting creation with the shaving of children, a map, a discussion of magic, and much more.  The setting of Donnerdam takes its full form, primed to start the game.  Character creation did follow this but did not make for good radio -- lots of silent scratching on character sheets and such.  So our next episode will carry a snippet of play from the first session.  Stay tuned!

[50min 59sec] We're back with the second part of the Faith, Faces, & Fingerprints setting creation session.  Unlike the first recording you heard, this gets into the "main sequence", where a sort of organic "freeform round-robin" question and answer session gives everyone a chance to get their priorities for the setting baked into the details.

This worked pretty well. The idea of folks who've answered questions taking a coin that prevents them from answering further ones definitely helped to make sure everyone got a chance to contribute; but we exercised a liberal "embellishment policy" that gave room for some enthusiastic discussion of the answers that were offered.

In this debut segment of "In the Lab", Fred runs a complete game of Escape or Die! at Dreamation 2008.  You may recognize podcasters Remi Treuer (of the Durham Three) and Rob Bohl (of the Independent Insurgency) as two of the player voices.

Escape or Die! is currently in playtest and has a few hurdles to cross before publication, but you should be able to get a pretty good idea of how it plays from listening to this.  The idea is simple: you're in a highly lethal escape movie where the only options are, indeed, to escape or die.  The catch with the game is that it's run on the clock, putting a lot of pressure on players to narrate circumstances and push their characters forward quickly before their doom catches up with them.  In play, this makes the game almost a "real-time RPG", in that it lasts about as long as the movies it emulates.

Like a big dork, I turned off the recorder before I got a bunch of feedback from the folks who played -- but I got a chance later in the weekend (unrecorded) to put a few of their suggestions into practice to good effect.

(1hr 8min; 31MB) Fred sits down to kick off his Faith, Faces & Fingerprints game with Rob, Deborah, and Kim.  This session focuses entirely on creating the setting of the game, starting with some setting seeds that Fred brought to the table.  Part one of several