Radio Active #100: The Golden Age of Online RPGs

Nuketown Radio Active

On Radio Active’s 100th episode I talk about Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, a shoot-and-loot video game based on the Borderlands franchise, go on a solitary, geeky retreat to work on RPG and podcast projects, and contemplate the golden age of online role-playing games.

Nuketown News

• Radio Active’s 100th Episode
  • It finally happened – Radio Active hit episode 100!
  • The first episode launched on March 14, 2005
  • That was 18 years ago. Heck, I didn’t even have two kids when this launched (Star Girl was 2; NeutronLad was still a year away).
  • Feels good to finally hit this milestone, so many years later.
  • Will it get to 200? Time will tell.
• Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands
  • A Dungeons & Dragons-inspired spinoff to the Borderlands franchise.
  • Same basic mechanics (guns, lots of guns) with fantasy trappings as Tiny Tina runs you through her Bunkers and Badasses campaign.
  • There are some new mechanics – spells instead of grenades and a variety of melee weapons.
  • Plus a bunch of fantasy-inspired classes – e.g. Spellshot, Spore Warden, Stabbomancer, Graveborn
  • If you like guns and loot, then this is for you. Take your brain off the hook and blow stuff up.
  • And hopefully, I’ll get to play it online – the game is cross-platform, so it’s possible to play with folks on PCs, Xboxes, and PlayStations.
• A Geeky Retreat
  • After dropping my daughter off at college in January, I went to my in-law’s lake house and hung out for a few days by myself (well, Hank was there).
  • Spent three days working on geeky projects
    • Recording episodes of Radio Active
    • Prepping for a Cyberpunk RED campaign
    • Prepping for a new Dungeons & Dragons campaign
    • Watching movies
    • Reading comic books
    • Staying up as late as I want and sleeping in as long as I want
      • (though I didn’t go totally crazy; I generally got to bed between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m.)
    • Great way to reset my brain after a stressful fall.

Golden Age of Online RPGs

A Golden Age amidst the Pandemic

• COVID-19 is terrible. The impact of the pandemic on the world, our country, and my community was also terrible.
• There have been a few upsides … and one of them has been role-playing games.
• During the pandemic, fewer kid activities meant more time to game online. And that meant reconnecting with old friends and making new ones.
• After the pandemic … I’ve got a kid in college and many of my kid-related obligations are winding down. I stayed in touch with my online gaming friends, and we’re contemplating new games.
• As a result, I’m playing more RPGs – and more different kinds of RPGs – than I have since the early 2000s.

Past Campaigns

• Brindlewood Bay
• Army Corps of Engineers: Special Operations (Fate)
• Tales from the Loop
• Scum and Villainy
• GURPS Fast & Furious (GURPS Lite, alternate Wednesday)
• Chroniclers (D&D, Sundays)

Current Campaigns

• Scales of Truth (D&D, alternate Wednesday)
• Star Wars: The Old Republic (a home-grown D&D 5e/Saga Edition mash-up)

Future Campaigns

• Cyberpunk RED @ Lair of Secrets (Thursdays)
• Elemental Apocalypse with the Blackrazor Guild (Sundays)

What works with online games

• Anyone, anywhere can play.

What doesn’t work with online games

• The downside to anyone, anywhere is that time zones are hard.
• Yet another online meeting. Even if this one has dice.

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