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Clarice emerges from the bathroom in a half-crouch, arms

out, both hands on the gun, extended just below the level of

her unseeing eyes. She stops, listens. In her raw-nerved

darkness, every SOUND is unnaturally magnified - the HUM of

the refrigerator... the TRICKLE of water... her own terrified

BREATHING, and Catherine's faraway, echoing SOBS... Moths

smack against her face and arms. She eases forward, then

stops again, listens... She eases forward again, following

her gun, and creeps directly in front of, and then past -

MR. GUMB

That excerpt from the script to Silence of the Lambs showcases the power of the thriller. I can remember sitting in a dark movie theater, glued to the big screen trying to will Jodie Foster’s character, Clarice Starling to turn and shoot the killer. I miss those days at the movies.

But we are not here to chat about the fall of modern cinema, no, we are here to talk about the Thriller. What it is and why you should try to incorporate elements into your roleplaying game.

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15 years ago, the TTRPG world as we new it came to an end and a new era began. The postapocalyptic era, an era powered by the apocalypse. In 2010 Apocalypse World changed everything. The new take on traditional RPGs quickly changed the landscape from crunchy numbers-based games to one that flowed with the narrative and allowed players the freedom to affect the game unlike anything we have ever seen before.

Well, they are back.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/apocalypse-world-to-get-third-edition-kickstarter-launching-soon.715124/

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lumpleygames/apocalypse-world-burned-over

Apocalypse World is releasing a 3rd edition of the game.

The newest edition doesn’t have a set release date at the time of this recording and the Kickstarter page only says coming soon.

Christina, I know you weren’t necessarily a fan of Apocalypse World, but you are a massive fan of the Powered by the Apocalypse systems. What do you think of this news? Will we see anything revolutionary in the newest edition?

[Kick to Christina]

Since Apocalypse World could be viewed as one of the big games, at least with name recognition, why are they releasing it through Kickstarter? Is every new TTRPG going to come out through Backerkit or Kickstarter in the future?

[Kick to Christina]

Next, we have a new game announcement from over at Rascal News.

https://www.rascal.news/new-release-posting-through-it-a-social-media-futures-game/

Posting Through It is a new roleplaying game from Diegetic Games. The press release describes the game as follows;

Posting Through It explores how modern public discourse has changed our experience of global disruption and redefined what it means to “win” and “lose” in an uncertain future. It’s played over a group chat platform like Discord or WhatsApp.

The game is free to download and looks like it could be very interesting for those of you obsessed with social media.

Christina, what do you think of this new game?

[Kick to Christina]

With Critical Role announcing their Campaign 4 will be a “West Marches” Style game the internet is a tizzy with descriptions of West Marches. That style of play seems to be built for social media. Bigger Question, how has social media changed the way we roleplay?

[Kick to Christina]

And there you have it, all the news you’ve already heard?

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One of the things we are passionate about at the Epic Adventure Podcast is spontaneous story telling. I have been a low prep game master for a very long time, preferring to let my players actions push the narrative and typically filling in the gaps between the sessions to make it feel like I’ve pre written an epic storyline, when in reality I’m just making it up as I go along.

Christina is the same way, playing in her games is a lesson in be careful what you ask for, because you will likely get it.

And then we have Mike, the most regimented of the three of us. He loves to spend hours pouring over the perfect game story, layers within layers and mysteries within mysteries, only to have us, the players, show up and burn it all to the ground in minutes.

Funny enough, Mike, the planner was the one to come up with the Radiance Adventure Engine.

For those of you not familiar Radiance was designed to allow you to solo roleplay any roleplaying game in existence. It is a set of cards that are based on traditional story telling methods that help you create a story for your game, then you use the rule system from your favorite ttrpg to resolve the conflicts that occur. It’s amazing as a solo game, but it’s story engine design makes it, in my opinion, the greatest GM toolkit ever created. If you are stuck and need a quick story or idea in your adventure because the pure beings of chaos called your players did something different, just pull a Radiance card, and there you go.

Instant adventure.

We’ve used Radiance before on this podcast to create adventures on the fly, but today we are going to do something different.

We are going to generate a world on the fly.

That’s right, a world to adventure in. More specifically a Fantasy World to adventure in.

Recently we pontificated on the fact that the worlds and settings of D&D sucked. I don’t have to read minds to know that the fans of D&D were shouting “Oh Yea, can you do it better?” Well let’s find out.

On this episode I’m going to pull some Radiance cards and surprise Mike, Christina, and myself with the prompts. From there, we are going to build a Fantasy World for you.

So, You guys ready for this?