Have you ever wondered what it's like to turn your tabletop gaming passion into a profession? Judd Karlman and I chat about our extraordinary path from hobbyists to professional game masters (GMs), revealing the quirky, exciting, and sometimes absurd adventures that come with the territory. From hilarious bachelor party RPG requests to the broader implications of monetizing our love for gaming, we peel back the curtain on a niche that's rapidly gaining traction. Join us as we reminisce about...

Jolt and his family are hunkering down at a Hilton Garden Hotel in Jacksonville, guarded by Cherry Bomb's security. It's nearly midnight when Red-Eye calls Jolt... and it's not a "wyd?!" kinda call. Chimaera is making a move to grab Citrus Climax! And you know who's coming to the rescue?  I bet ya do! Support the showIf you're picking up, what we're putting down, consider becoming a subscriber at https://www.patreon.com/madjayzero. You can catch me on Twitter at @godiceology or Facebook at...

Jolt #4 - Daye & Knight Nate and Obie encounter some extraordinary security guards when they try to make off with goods from the secret lab they've robbed. Later after getting Jason to a hospital, they have a strange encounter with 3-Pain. That night Nate, Obie, and Maggie strategize for the coming days ahead. Support the showIf you're picking up, what we're putting down, consider becoming a subscriber at https://www.patreon.com/madjayzero. You can catch me on Twitter at @godiceology or...

Ready for an action-packed hour of gaming discussion and adventure? Join Rich and me as we delve into the world of real life and role-playing games, exploring the connection between comic books and gaming, and discovering what it means to truly "play to find out." Experience the thrill of strategizing to keep our in-game characters, Sera and Mason, safe while handling new threats and enlisting help from old contacts. But tread carefully - who can we really trust in this thrilling...

Jolt #2: Nathan interviews for the super spokesmodel position at Door Dash but gets an emergency text from his wife and leaves abruptly! 3Pain, the witness protection assassin, has made a house call! Later, Nathan and OB discuss OB's debt to Red-Eye, the wetwork job left undone, and a secret lab OB found while doing that job.  Support the showIf you're picking up, what we're putting down, consider becoming a subscriber at https://www.patreon.com/madjayzero. You can catch me on Twitter at...

Jolt #1 - Nathan is lured into a CHIMERA experiment as they trap him on the Buckman bridge to observe his abilities! Back home, it’s parent-teacher conference night for him Sarah and their kid Mason. OB stops by looking for a hanging-out buddy. And Danny “Red-Eye” comes looking for OB. It was a smooth session of #ChampionsNow, mostly - the area effect rules tripped me up a little. But We got to see Nathan put the slap down on some CHIMERA agents with his super speed. Support the showIf you're...

2Eleven returns with Jolt! Welcome to Session Zero for Jolt! A Champions Now actual play. I feel like I must remind you I do not receive any kickbacks for the millions of Champions Now sessions, content, or name drops! 🤣 Champions Now RPG has been a great source 0f fun for me, and I am thrilled to have Rich Rogers of +1 Forward fame along for the ride! Nathan Fellows was the Jolt! Cola Super Supermodel back in the day. Today, Nathan is an aging, unemployed speedster juggling multiple gigs in...

Champions Now Jolt #2 -3 Nathan interviews for the super spokesmodel position at Door Dash but gets an emergency text from his wife and leaves abruptly! 3Pain, the witness protection assassin, has made a house call looking for 'Claire' AKA Sera, Nathan's wife, who's in the program. Later, Nathan and OB discuss OB's debt to Red-Eye, the wetwork job left undone, and a secret lab OB found doing that job. Next Jolt #3: Nathan and OB check out that secret lab with help from Cherry Bomb, Forbes CEO...

Support the showIf you're picking up, what we're putting down, consider becoming a subscriber at https://www.patreon.com/madjayzero. You can catch me on Twitter at @godiceology or Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/diceology

My guests, Jason Lutes and Paul Beakley, and I get lost in the West Marches game style. Jason is currently running his second West Marches campaign using Freebooters on the Frontier and Arden Vul as the setting.  I get an incredible amount of joy from running West Marches campaigns, and geeking out with both Jason and Paul on the subject was good stuff. I am very, very sorry for some of the audio. I recorded using a new audio platform and discovered issues with Paul's audio in the recording...

Easily the week of the West Marches. Starting with my halfling wizard’s Arden Vul adventure to helping my local gamers launch their own IRL West Marches games. It’s got me thinking about other non-fantasy applications. On the Gauntlet, we’ve wrapped up a three-session run of Fading Suns with Lowell Francis at the helm. He also hosted a Zoom talk about Legacy 2E: Life among the Ruins. Best practices, some thoughts around running the game, hacking the game. Pretty much talked me into running...

Fading Suns Fading Suns on The Gauntlet. Lowell Francis trying out the system, and you can tell he’s down his prep. I’m playing an Ur-Ukar witch with TK-like abilities. We’ve taken up a mission from a noble to be his escort and eyes and ears in a hostile system. Fading Suns has pulled at me for some years now; I’m hoping to jump-start my future runs of it by playing it first. At its core, it is a Skill + ability roll under system. This was our session one, and we got a small, easy skirmish...

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Mad Jay talks about Mythras and Glorantha, Twilight: 2000, Horizon Zero Dawn, Cortex and BX D&D with Old School Essentials! Support the show

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My guest today is a gamer I admire for his style of DMing and asking players questions. He has the uncanny ability for generating gameable premises. He is the author of the Dictionary of Mu, a favorite sword and sorcery setting of mine. He's the host of the Daydreaming About Dragons podcast and my current Friday morning GM for Trophy Gold. Judd Karlman  Blog: githyankidiaspora.com Podcast: https://anchor.fm/daydreaming-about-dragons  Twitch.tv/ActualPlay Trophy Gold  Worlds of...

I've recorded this conversation with Geoff and Neil from my Twilight: 2000 Saturday morning game. This group, this time slot, and the game are a magical thing for me right now, and I suspect for the four players as well. I wanted to get their thoughts and feels 10 sessions in about the game, the group, and whatever else comes up.  Content warning. Twilight: 2000 is a survival sandbox game set in war-torn Poland in the 2000s. There are parallels with the current invasion of Ukraine and we talk...

Started Mothership with Judd. I'm playing a character inspired by Fox Mulder.  The pitch: Two scientists investigate the disappearance of their professor and the crew of a science vessel.  Twilight: 2000:  The discovery of a dead soldier stashed in the woods and a convoy heading toward Barnes's occupied Polish town,  sends Bard and Justin off to extract Tracy and Janush. They decide to confront the polish spook, Phil before sneaking out of the encampment and back to their base in the...

Rich Rogers, co-host of Plus One Forward and designer of Hit the Streets: Defend the Block, an ENnie award-winning street-level supers RPG joins me to talk about his gaming week - it's like a mini-con!! Rich's Stone Top duet game with his wife,  Vampire 5e, Bounty of the Week (Monster of the Week hack), Gravity Rip, Star Wars Blades in the Dark, Rascals, X-Crawl. Support the show (http://www.patreon.com/madjayzero)

Running: Whitehack + Dungeons and Dilemmas  Twilight: 2000: Base building and sweet, sweet sandbox magic. Legacy 2E: Life Among the Ruins. Four families and bad virtual dice rolling! Wrath & Glory 1v1. Tech-Priest visiting a Space Hulk. Playing An ex-Stormtrooper in Bounty of the Week on twitch.tv/actualplay, Rich Rogers is running it. A Buzzard-headed god of death in Godbound Northern Death Pantheon. And thinking about Dragons.. 😉 Support the show (http://www.patreon.com/madjayzero)

The 2021 Mad Jay Picks! Some year-end metrics and my personal game picks for:  Most Surprised Experience. The Old Man Logan Award.The  Lethal Sessions AwardMost evocative settingClosest to my heart.Support the show (http://www.patreon.com/madjayzero)

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 The One Ring on Twitch is a wrap at 11 sessions! We've traveled from Rivendell to the Cold Fells to Bree and finale in the South Barrow-downs tracking down the fell sorcerer Gorlanc! Rich Rogers of +1 Forward takes the reigns and will run Bounty of the Week in the new year! Twilight: 2000 - Straight Outta Kalisz the Saturday sessions, we're two sessions into a gas station firefight! Combat is STRESSful!  Whitehack RPG has been fun on Tuesday nights, I'm digging the fiction that gets...

On the table 3 sessions in for Vena and the King of Nothing! We had a solid ordinary but strong third session of Burning Wheel. We talk about the three sessions and the game so far, the good, the bad, and what's next. Spoilers: Elle is still game! I did a panel called Fresh Starts for Big Bad Con with Lowel Francis from the Gauntlet and Rich Rogers of +1 Forward fame.  We talked about starting new games with new groups. I re-started a Twilight: 2000 limited series, a reboot of a one-shot I...