EPISODE ONE HUNDRED

Happy New Year, listeners! And- possibly more importantly- WE GOT TO A HUNDRED EPISODES! This has been an amazing ride so far, and we never would have made it without you, the listener. So if you're here reading this, THANK YOU!

And because we know how much you love when we deep dive into cerebral, thought-provoking questions about the nature of tabletop gaming and its history and future, this week we're bringing you a special treat- a bunch of questions we've gone (in some cases) two years without having a good answer for! Yes, in a way, we're treating this episode like a garbage can proving ground for some bad answers experimental discussion that we wouldn't have covered on any other episode. But don't worry, this episode was a blast to record and there's definitely a ton of fun to be had!

This week's winner of our Chapel on the Cliffs drawing is Apathywizards! Congratulations, Apathywizards! You should get your copy within the next 48 hours. If you like it (or if you don't) be sure to leave Goblin Stone a review!

Would you like to enter the drawing? It's easy- just e-mail us at InterPartyConflict@gmail.com with "Chapel on the Cliffs" in the subject line! It's that easy!

And remember, Goblin Stone is just one of the great content creators in the Critnation Fellowship! For more books and adventures, check out Loresmyth, Aurican's Lair, and Jeff Stevens- and for more podcasts, visit our friends at Crit Academy and D&D Character Lab!

One last thing- be sure to get yourself a copy of Crit Academy's Unearthed Tips & Tricks book! It's a great product, and I helped write it!

Happy New Year! Here's to a hundred more episodes!

Episode 100: One Hundred

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Question answered this episode:

1. Have you tried D&D style emulation with different systems? (ie. Dungeon World, GURPS Dungeon Fantasy.)

2. If you were looking to emulate a darker low fantasy game what system would you use?

3. Have you ever experimented with genre mashups? Supers/Fantasy, SciFi/Teen Drama, etc?

4. One of my players is a 5e Swashbuckler, and I want to let her dual-wield guns so I'm considering fudging the rules a bit- but I'm afraid it might be too powerful and overshadow the rest of her abilities. What should I do?

5. How can you improve your GM skills to the point where you can change even simple, cliched concepts into engaging plot hooks?

6. Can a way of the four elements monk stun and or knock prone a construct or an elemental (specifically a lightning based elemental)?

7. What RPG would you use for a game based on Halo?

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Noteworthy Links:

Alton Brown

The World's End

Dolomar's Force Wave

I've Got Two Guns

Halo

Smash Brothers

Strike Team Alpha - I think this is the game Jeff mentioned in the episode, but I'm not sure

Cauldron, the city where the Shackled City Adventure Path begins

Faxanadu, an NES side-scrolling Action-RPG

Elan Sleazebaggano, an idiotically-named character from Star Wars

We Hate Movies, the podcast that was criticizing the name of the killer in Friday the 13th Part V

Bonus Episode 5: 'Tis the Season to be Off-Topic

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

I'm posting the episode a bit early today as I'll most likely be too busy to do it later. In honor of the holiday (as well as to fit the weird format we've made for our yearly podcasting releases), this week's episode is not a normal numbered episode- instead, it's a bonus episode where Jeff and I answer off-topic questions about us, the future of the show, as well as a certain dog (who has been very naughty the last few days). So I hope you enjoy this little peek into our personal lives and I hope you'll join us next week for our one-hundredth episode!

This week's winner of our Chapel on the Cliffs drawing is Hal A! Congratulations, Hal! You should get your copy within the next 48 hours. If you like it (or if you don't) be sure to leave Goblin Stone a review!

Would you like to enter the drawing? It's easy- just e-mail us at InterPartyConflict@gmail.com with "Chapel on the Cliffs" in the subject line! It's that easy!

And remember, Goblin Stone is just one of the great content creators in the Critnation Fellowship! For more books and adventures, check out Loresmyth, Aurican's Lair, and Jeff Stevens- and for more podcasts, visit our friends at Crit Academy and D&D Character Lab!

One last thing- be sure to get yourself a copy of Crit Academy's Unearthed Tips & Tricks book! It's a great product, and I helped write it!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a great week!

Bonus Episode 05: Inter-Inter-Party Conflict Conflict

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Question answered this episode:

1. I don't know if you've ever answered this but have you and Jeff ever talked about how you guys met?

2. We've heard a lot about video games and podcasts you like. What are your favorites from other general media (TV shows, movies, music, plays, etc.)?

3. Where do you see the podcast this time next year?

4. Do you have any podcast back up plans? Or plans to expand into other genres?

5. Do you think you'll ever find the listener question format doesn't work?

6. Do you have any regrets about decisions made during development of the show and if you could alter them now, would you?

7. Do you find yourselves answering similar questions frequently?

8. Are there any questions you have received which you refuse to answer? And Why?

9. Gabe- Are you and Lisa high school sweet hearts?

10. Tell me about your dog. What kind do you have? How old? Has he/she ever done anything stupid?

11. Jeff- Are you and Skyler gonna get married?

12. I’ve got a really important question here...what are your favorite pizza toppings??

13. What Hogwarts houses are you both?

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Noteworthy Links:

WDHS Student Video, the video program where Jeff and I first met (note: the website I linked to apparently underwent a redesign some time ago, and as such is completely useless. For videos created by the program, go to their Youtube channel)

My Fair Lady, the first musical I acted in back in 2002

Banana Man by Tally Hall

Inherit the Wind, a play about the Scopes Monkey Trial, a historical court case about teaching evolution in schools- I was in this play in 2002 as well

Frasier, a sitcom starring Kelsey Grammar that was a spin-off of Cheers

Firefly, a sci-fi western TV show by Joss Whedon

The Office, an American remake of a British sitcom

Toast of London, a British sitcom about an out-of-work actor starring Matt Berry

Breaking Bad, an American TV show about a chemistry teacher-turned drug kingpin

Farscape, a sci-fi TV show created by Jim Henson Productions

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek Voyager

Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol

The Muppet Christmas Carol

The World's End, Gabe's favorite movie of all time (Holy crap, even watching that movie makes want to watch it again BRB I'M ABOUT TO WATCH IT AGAIN)

Tally Hall Directions - Watch This Video

Pepperoni 2 - Watch This Video Too

Actual Cannibal Shia Lebeouf - And This One

Perfect (29 Celebrity Impressions song)

Noises Off, Jeff's favorite movie

Clue, a murder-mystery film based on the classic board game

Wicked, an award-winner musical about the untold story of the Wicked Witch of the West

Guys & Dolls, another amazing musical about a group of gamblers in the roarin' 1920s

Damn Yankees, a musical about a baseball player who sells his soul to the devil

Once on this Island, a tropical island musical about the gods' meddling in human affairs

20 Year Old Movie, a podcast hosted by our friend, Joel Walkowski

1776, a musical about the signing of the Declaration of Independance

Some Great Dane facts

Super Hans, the crack-addled side character on the British sitcom Peep Show

The Ring, Gore Verbinski's American remake of the Japanese horror film Ringu

Pottermore, the official home of Harry Potter lore

Episode 99: The Great Wheel Turns

Hello, everyone! I hope you had a great week, and I hope you have some excited holiday plans. This week, we talk about your soul being trapped in an inanimate object, an entire group of enemies all taking their turns at the same time, balancing encounters, and more. I've been busy setting up plans for my upcoming break, so expect great things in the future!

I should mention- if I haven't made it clear already, next week isn't going to be a normal episode of the show. Instead, we're going to be doing an off-topic episode- answering questions about the making of the show, Jeff's and my personal lives, and so on. We'll still do a Chapel on the Cliffs drawing, but otherwise the episode will be non-standard.

Speaking of which, this week's winner of our Chapel on the Cliffs drawing is Michael T! Congratulations, Michael! You should get your copy within the next 48 hours. If you like it (or if you don't) be sure to leave Goblin Stone a review!

Would you like to enter the drawing? It's easy- just e-mail us at InterPartyConflict@gmail.com with "Chapel on the Cliffs" in the subject line! It's that easy!

And remember, Goblin Stone is just one of the great content creators in the Critnation Fellowship! For more books and adventures, check out Loresmyth, Aurican's Lair, and Jeff Stevens- and for more podcasts, visit our friends at Crit Academy and D&D Character Lab!

One last thing- be sure to get yourself a copy of Crit Academy's Unearthed Tips & Tricks book! It's a great product, and I helped write it!

Happy Holidays!

Episode 98: Enthusiastic Players Wanted

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Question answered this episode:

1. Most encounters have the players acting separately, but all monsters act on the same initiative. Is this a disadvantage to the players, and should the DM accomodate for that?

2. How do you balance your encounters?

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Noteworthy Links:

Sealab 2021

Captain Ginyu, a villain from Dragonball Z

Wombo's Guide to Combos, an amazing product from Garin Jones of D&D Character Lab

Captain America: Civil War Airport Battle Scene

Kender Are Terrible

Episode 98: Roll to Persuade

Hey everyone! The end of the year is creeping up on us, and with it, comes the looming spectre of episode 100! We're still trying to figure out what we're going to do for that. But as we mention in this week's episode, we have plans for a bonus episode to go out between episodes 99 and 100, which is going to be our usual Q&A format, but not about tabletop games. So if you have any questions you want us to discuss, about any topic (including, but not limited to, the making of the podcast, our personal lives, astrophysics, etc.) then send those to us ASAP!

This week, we talk about the common practice of giving characters benefits (or drawbacks) to Charisma-based skills based on the player's own Charisma, and whether this is fair (as well as whether it should apply to other abilities as well- Dexterity or Strength, for example!). We also talk about running a game for children, or for people who otherwise have trouble paying attention; but neither Jeff nor I have children, so take it with a grain of salt I guess.

This week's winner of our Chapel on the Cliffs drawing is Quinn B! Congratulations, Quinn! You should get your copy within the next 48 hours. If you like it (or if you don't) be sure to leave Goblin Stone a review!

Would you like to enter the drawing? It's easy- just e-mail us at InterPartyConflict@gmail.com with "Chapel on the Cliffs" in the subject line! It's that easy!

And remember, Goblin Stone is just one of the great content creators in the Critnation Fellowship! For more books and adventures, check out Loresmyth, Aurican's Lair, and Jeff Stevens- and for more podcasts, visit our friends at Crit Academy and D&D Character Lab!

Keep an eye out, everyone!

Episode 98: Enthusiastic Players Wanted

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Question answered this episode:

1. Do you think people overly penalize (or reward) players for using Charisma-based skills?

2. Have you ever played in or ran a game for young children (i.e., 3-8 years old)? What tips can you give for running such a game?

3. Have any of you ran a game for a group of people with difficulty really paying attention?

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Noteworthy Links:

Crit Academy's Unearthed Tips & Tricks: Volume I

The Cantrip Podcast where they talked about kids at the gaming table

Samwise Gamgee vs. Shelob from Return of the King

Pocky, a Japanese candy

Flynn Lives by Daft Punk, from the Tron: Legacy soundtrack

Episode 97: I See What You Did There

Hello there in the Webiverse! We're back this week with another episode, and one that I have quite a lot to say about. (I wouldn't say it's one of my "Patented Gabe Rants", but it's pretty darn close.) We talk about a mechanic from 5th Edition D&D that you may be using wrong: Passive Perception. So strap on your Nightvision Goggles and come along for this week's episode!

If you missed it, be sure to go back and check out our FriendQuest Arcade Stream! It was a ton of fun and we hope to do another one in the future.

This week's winner of our Chapel on the Cliffs drawing is Happy Gilmore! Congratulations, Happy! You should get your copy within the next 48 hours. If you like it (or if you don't) be sure to leave Goblin Stone a review!

Would you like to enter the drawing? It's easy- just e-mail us at InterPartyConflict@gmail.com with "Chapel on the Cliffs" in the subject line! It's that easy!

And remember, Goblin Stone is just one of the great content creators in the Critnation Fellowship! For more books and adventures, check out Loresmyth, Aurican's Lair, and Jeff Stevens- and for  more podcasts, visit our friends at Crit Academy and D&D Character Lab!

Keep an eye out, everyone!

Episode 97: Very Perceptive

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Question answered this episode:

1. What are your thoughts on Passive checks in 5e (like Passive Perception)?

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Noteworthy Links:

Ninja Baseball BatMan

The Perfect Cast

The Matrix

Happy Gilmore

Divinity: Original Sin 2

Episode 96: Crafting Systems in D&D, ft. SteveJo

Hello there! We've got a fun episode for you- though I put a disclaimer at the beginning because it's a bit different than we usually do. Our good friend Steve was here in the studio with us, since he had quite a bit of experience with part of the topic we were going to be covering- and so while we were recording he had some fun comments to interject, even though he was off-mic. (In retrospect, we should have hooked up a third mic, but hey, you live and you learn.) Some of his additions ended up really good and helpful, so instead of editing around him I decided to just clean up his audio the best I could and include it all. So the end product is a very long episode with lots of reminiscing about great times past, and lots of crunch about D&D!

Also- we guest-hosted on an episode of The Cantrip the other day! It was a ton of fun and we think you should go listen to it right now!

This week's winner of our Chapel on the Cliffs drawing is Tim K! Congratulations, Tim! You should get your copy within the next 48 hours. If you like it (or if you don't) be sure to leave Goblin Stone a review!

Would you like to enter the drawing? It's easy- just e-mail us at InterPartyConflict@gmail.com with "Chapel on the Cliffs" in the subject line! We're STILL running dangerously low on applicants, so if you enter there's a very, very high chance that you'll win very soon!

And remember, Goblin Stone is just one of the great content creators in the Critnation Fellowship! For more books and adventures, check out Loresmyth, Aurican's Lair, and Jeff Stevens- and for  more podcasts, visit our friends at Crit Academy and D&D Character Lab!

Have a great week, everyone!

Episode 96: Overly Crafty

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Question answered this episode:

1. The current system in D&D 5e for crafting is absurd. What does a DM do to make crafting a much more viable option?

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Noteworthy Links:

In Bird Culture

Legos 

Episode 95: I, Powergamer

Hey there listeners! This week we have another great episode for you. We get some riveting discussion out of the question of how to deal when playing in a group with powergaming players (and why that shouldn't necessarily be a problem), as well as talk about whether or not you should involve friendly NPCs in battle. (I'm surprised we didn't dip into discussing DMPCs, but hey, maybe next time.)

At the time that this post comes out, there's just a couple more days until our arcade stream! It's going to be on friday, November 23rd at 7pm EST, and you can join the stream by going to our Friend Quest Twitch Channel. It's going to be a ton of fun, so we hope to see you all there!

This week's winner of our Chapel on the Cliffs drawing is Dustin S! Congratulations, Dustin! You should get your copy within the next 48 hours. If you like it (or if you don't) be sure to leave Goblin Stone a review!

Would you like to enter the drawing? It's easy- just e-mail us at InterPartyConflict@gmail.com with "Chapel on the Cliffs" in the subject line! We're STILL running dangerously low on applicants, so if you enter there's a very, very high chance that you'll win very soon!

And remember, Goblin Stone is just one of the great content creators in the Critnation Fellowship! For more books and adventures, check out Loresmyth, Aurican's Lair, and Jeff Stevens- and for  more podcasts, visit our friends at Crit Academy and D&D Character Lab!

Have a happy turkey day!

Episode 95: Let's Work Together

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Questions answered this episode:

1. As a fellow player, how should I deal with other powergamers?

2. When do you involve NPCs in combat?

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Noteworthy Links:

Generic Gamer, our good friend Peter who helped us stream last time

Pokemon Let's GO!

80s Guy

Legolas and Gimli

Jeremy Renner wasn't in Infinite War because he broke his arms

Nimblewright, a construct from the 3e Monster Manual 2 (though I've heard rumor it's also in the 5e Dragon Heist book)

Spongebob Imagination meme

Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, a 3e adventure module and sequel to the classic AD&D Temple of Elemental Evil

I Have to Go Now, My Planet Needs Me meme

Heroes Never Die