Michael Drescher emails us about Why All the Hate/Sean’s move from 5e

Hey guys! I’m in the camp, which you’re both well aware, of being over 5e. A fine game, but my issue is there isn’t any adventure left for me. I know all the spells, all the feats, all the class abilities, etc. There’s no mystery left and so the worlds within might as well stay on the map “here there be dragons”. My list for adventure doesn’t get satisfied when the world is known. 

Now, that being said, I do steal adventures and turn the adventure back up. Example, Tyranny of Dragons takes on a whole new tone when you run it sword and sorcery style in Call of Cthulhu. Particularly the cult of the dragon. Curse of Strahd I run in Fate with corruption mechanics. Princes of the Apocalypse I run with Blades in the Dark and treat the whole thing as a turf war. 

It brings a breath of fresh air into a otherwise fully explored realm. Most other things I run in Fate to keep the risks high, and story rich, as there is no set world or menus where thieves get backstab and wizards get magic missile.

I’ve run my mouth long enough, so I’ll close with a quick update. The move to Georgia has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. And I’m becoming a professional role player for the DHS lol. The world is full of surprises, and I can’t wait to see what new adventures await. I hope to see you at cons as soon as possible! 

Stay awesome 😎

Best Regards,

Michael Drescher

Jon R. writes in on World of Darkness.

Brett and Sean,

I just finished listening to the World of Darkness episode, and from how Brett wants to run his WoD games, I thought he might like Orpheus. It came out towards the end of the Old World of Darkness run and continued the story of Wraith after they ended that game line, but from the perspective of an agency trying to piece together what was happening around them. If nothing else it could give you some good flavor to throw into your Chronicles of Darkness game.

Jon in SC

Matt V. comments on World of Darkness but has a topic suggestion

Hello Gentlemen, long time no write in!

Glad to hear you’re feeling better Brett! This getting old thing sucks!

Don’t worry I’m still listening religiously and I mean to write in almost every episode, but life!

So, I won’t chime in on anything because it would get quite wordy, and just make a request so Brett doesn’t have to work so hard.

I have a topic request….

“How to make the horror genre entertaining”

Like Sean, I’m not really a horror guy. I don’t watch horror movies, or jam anything horror, it doesn’t really intrigue. However, the RPG horror space has always intrigued me, but never done it for me. And seeing as Sean has found entertainment there besides not being into horror its been making me reconsider looking at.

And Brett has a ton of horror experience to add, as well.

I have never ran a true horror game, largely because I fail to see how to make it entertaining. I ran pathfinders Carrion Crown, but I don’t really c onsider that in the “horror” genre. I’ve read Cuthullu 7th ed and NWOD, both of which I liked mechanically.

I just can’t see how to bring it to the table. I get the whole “take away their stuff” aspect, and the “explore and research” aspect, and do that in my games regularily, but it doesn’t seem like enough to build an entire game around.

And my experience as a player in horror has been very dull. I’ve played in a few very short campaigns and some one shots, and never found it entertaining.

It may just not be my jam, but I find it equally likely that its never been done right at the tables I’m at.

So I’d love to hear your takes on how to “horror” the one and only correct way;)

Alright guys, keep up the great work! It really brightens my week!

Matt.

Jared Rascher sheds some interesting light on World of Darkness and WWE(?)

I knew there was some hiccups with Gangrel and White Wolf, so I looked it up, and of course, it was weirder than I thought it would be.

David Heath was a wrestler that decided it would be cool to do a vampire wrestler gimmick because he liked The Lost Boys. He used it as his thing when he was an independent wrestler and in ECW. He never used the name Gangrel at this time.

He got picked up by the WWE, and Vince hated the idea of a vampire wrestler, but Vince Russo convinced Vince to run with it, and he worked up a whole new entrance and name, i.e. Gangrel.

Turns out, Russo didn’t think White Wolf would notice WWE using the name, and they were wrong, because this was the height of White Wolf power, around the time when they had a full-blown television show. They worked out a deal with WWE, where they could license the name Gangrel from them, and they signed a five-year deal.

I vaguely remember a tiny little trademark notice on the Gangrel WWE action figures mentioning White Wolf.

At the end of the five years, Gangrel wasn’t really a headliner, so WWE released him from his contract and didn’t renew the license for the name. Fast forward a few years . . . WWE decided to bring back old members of the Undertaker’s Ministry as a group trying to get revenge on the Deadman.

Except . . . when WWE tried to contact White Wolf to renew the license for the name, they found out that White Wolf’s IP was owned by CCP Games. CCP games suddenly realized that there was a wrestler named Gangrel, and tried to sue WWE for EVER using the name, and a judge said that they couldn’t sue WWE for using the name in the past, when they had an agreement with White Wolf.

To be extra safe, WWE will not currently refer to the character as Gangrel. They didn’t pull any of the matches from their streaming service that include him being called Gangrel, but whenever they refer to him in current merchandise, they always use his actual name of David Heath.

Edge and Christian were one of the premier tag teams after The Brood split up, never to mention their former vampirism ever again. Eventually Christian left WWE to go to various other promotions, Edge got a HUGE push, then injured his neck and had to have a spinal fusion surgery (hm . . . I’ve heard of that before).

Like most modern wrestlers, despite being told if he injures his neck again that he could be paralyzed, Edge has come out of retirement because wrestling is a terrible industry to retire from if you didn’t become a movie star, and Christian just made his return a AEW wrestling, which, maybe, sort of, could be starting to be a rival to WWE dominance of wrestling since WCW was purchased and buried by Vince.