High Level Games had our corporate retreat on June 3rd this year and as part of it we played some games! This episode is a recording that was taken from one of those games called "Sixteen Tons" which was ran by Matthew Barrett.

Sixteen Tons is a tabletop RPG about undead servants who rediscover their lost memories, and find themselves on the run from the forces that would turn them into mindless slaves again. In this first adventure, 'Tabula Rasa,' players learn about the world and create the initial set of characters through their actions.

As a side note, we all connected online to play this, and as such we have to deal with peoples internet connections and Matthew's was a bit slow on the upload. This means that the players sometimes had a hard time understanding him as the sound on our ends garbled up. Thankfully this recording was taken by Matthew which means that the recording of his voice is still good, but there are a few places in the game where there is a pause or break due to the sound not coming through well to the players. That said, it was an incredibly fun game to play and the cooperative character creation is very interesting with a larger group.

This is part eighteen of an actual play from the table that VP Quinn and Assistant to the Assistant to the Regional Manager Joel play at. The game is run by Andrew, and the players are Quinn playing a murderous goblin, Joel playing an elven plant magician, Ryan playing a human bureaucrat and Anthony playing a human ex prince of the Hegemony and the ships captain. 

This episode follows part 17. The crew has to finish dealing with the pirates that are chasing them. Once this is done they are given the opportunity to take another job transporting some cargo, but in typical fashion they face a tough choice... do we deliver the valuable cargo that we would be paid for on delivery, or steal it and try to get more elsewhere?!?

In our fifth episode of Leveling Up VP Quinn and our blog manager Josh discuss the different communities that exist withing gaming. The hosts delve into the world of LARP groups and the different types available, as well as their personal experience with them. They then move on to discussing their experience with in store gaming in public, as well as the whole convention experience. Board gaming communities are also very numerous in the current markets and many times the groups there have a lot of overlap with other types of gaming as well. They also discuss video gamers, and debate some of the similarities and differences between the player types that they have gamed with in their own circles over the years.

This is part seventeen of an actual play from the table that VP Quinn and Assistant to the Assistant to the Regional Manager Joel play at. The game is run by Andrew, and the players are Quinn playing a murderous goblin, Joel playing an elven plant magician, Ryan playing a human bureaucrat and Anthony playing a human ex prince of the Hegemony and the ships captain. 

This episode follows part 16. The crew has been ambushed by the fearsome Klenaki pirates and has to fight for their lives as the terrifying orcs try to take their ship. Can they survive? Can they even manage to run away?

This is part sixteen of an actual play from the table that VP Quinn and Assistant to the Assistant to the Regional Manager Joel play at. The game is run by Andrew, and the players are Quinn playing a murderous goblin, Joel playing an elven plant magician, Ryan playing a human bureaucrat and Anthony playing a human ex prince of the Hegemony and the ships captain. 

This episode follows part 15. The crew finds another paying job so that they can get fuel to leave the planet, but it involves transporting a man who insists that they fly through a narrow canyon. Does that sound like an ambush waiting to happen to anyone else?

This is part fifteen of an actual play from the table that VP Quinn and Assistant to the Assistant to the Regional Manager Joel play at. The game is run by Andrew, and the players are Quinn playing a murderous goblin, Joel playing an elven plant magician, Ryan playing a human bureaucrat and Anthony playing a human ex prince of the Hegemony and the ships captain. 

This episode follows part 14. The crew is being chased by their old nemesis the "Royal Glory" and needs to try to escape. If they can pull that off they are still not totally free however as they are nearly out of fuel. They need to find a planet to land at where they can hopefully find a job so that they can get the resources they need!

This is part fourteen of an actual play from the table that VP Quinn and Assistant to the Assistant to the Regional Manager Joel play at. The game is run by Andrew, and the players are Quinn playing a murderous goblin, Joel playing an elven plant magician, Ryan playing a human bureaucrat and Anthony playing a human ex prince of the Hegemony and the ships captain. 

This episode follows part 13. The crew realizes that they are lost out in the Aether and starts to try to find a way out. The only nearby sectors that they know are in the neighborhood are all places that they don't want to go for fear of running into old enemies, but with few choices they do what they can. While trying to navigate they run into an old nemesis... The Royal Glory!

In this episode of the Star Wars Black Squadron Actual Play podcast the crew realizes that they may have given themselves away slightly on a previous planet, and then they fly out to their next destination on Tatooine. The dry air is terrible on their Mon Calamari leader, and while trying to scout out a rendezvous point they come under attack!

This is part thirteen of an actual play from the table that VP Quinn and Assistant to the Assistant to the Regional Manager Joel play at. The game is run by Andrew, and the players are Quinn playing a murderous goblin, Joel playing an elven plant magician, Ryan playing a human bureaucrat and Anthony playing a human ex prince of the Hegemony and the ships captain. 

This episode follows part 12 and begins with the players updating their characters and the ship after completing a minor milestone, and then sees the crew deciding where they want to go next followed by a night of drinking. The drinking quickly devolves into the ship going way off course thanks to Halluethiar getting far too drunk and trying to help, and Gril and Archibald squaring off against each other in a battle of the best fighters the crew has!

In episode 8 of the High Level Games podcast we cover three questions from listeners and then dive into a discussion about the Dread RPG. Dread is a horror themed RPG that uses a Jenga tower as a game mechanic. If you knock over the tower, you are out of the story... usually through death! We talk about the strengths and weakness of the Dread RPG as we see them, and discuss the "Beneath A Metal Sky" module in a bit more detail.

This is part twelve of an actual play from the table that VP Quinn and Assistant to the Assistant to the Regional Manager Joel play at. The game is run by Andrew, and the players are Quinn playing a murderous goblin, Joel playing an elven plant magician, Ryan playing a human bureaucrat and Anthony playing a human ex prince of the Hegemony and the ships captain. 

This episode follows part 11 and sees the crew in an extremely dangerous fight with the ghost that they had tried to free, who is now far more powerful because of it. The Countess is trying to perform a ritual to restore the souls of Gril and Skraa Troll and the crew needs to defend her while staying alive themselves!

This is part eleven of an actual play from the table that VP Quinn and Assistant to the Assistant to the Regional Manager Joel play at. The game is run by Andrew, and the players are Quinn playing a murderous goblin, Joel playing an elven plant magician, Ryan playing a human bureaucrat and Anthony playing a human ex prince of the Hegemony and the ships captain. 

This episode follows part 10 and sees the crew finally reaching their destination, where they promptly begin to haggle for a better reward. They also try to get the Countess to follow through on her promise and perform a ritual to return the souls of Gril and Skraa troll.

This is part ten of an actual play from the table that VP Quinn and Assistant to the Assistant to the Regional Manager Joel play at. The game is run by Andrew, and the players are Quinn playing a murderous goblin, Joel playing an elven plant magician, Ryan playing a human bureaucrat and Anthony playing a human ex prince of the Hegemony and the ships captain. 

This episode follows part 9 and starts with some housekeeping for the table, including a discussion for a possible new rule and a minor milestone for character changes. It then jumps back into the story with the Countess being terrified of the newly freed and far more deadly ghost, and a recommendation that no one in the crew ever be alone. She also suggests that they try to get together all the magical weapons they have and even try to bless the non magical ones in the hopes that it can still harm the newly freed apparition.

In this episode of our actual play Star Wars Black Squadron series the crew finally leaves Hoth, only to realize that the supplies provided by the rebels are not nearly enough to even keep them fed for the journey. They have to find another system with available supplies and try to acquire enough for not only themselves but the army they hope to raise. The process of getting the supplies and disagreements on the methods prove to be a major problem in the crew which leads to some serious strife before they even get to the system where they are supposed to foster a rebellion.

This is part nine of an actual play from the table that VP Quinn and Assistant to the Assistant to the Regional Manager Joel play at. The game is run by Andrew, and the players are Quinn playing a murderous goblin, Joel playing an elven plant magician, Ryan playing a human bureaucrat and Anthony playing a human diplomat and the ships captain. 

This episode follows part 8 and shows how much worse the problems with haunting can get when you try to free bound spirits! The crew has to band together to deal with a far more substantial and deadly apparition than before, which puts them into a situation that leaves even the Countess rattled.

This is the fourth episode of Leveling Up, a fantastic podcast done by VP Quinn and our Blog Manager Josh. In this episode Quinn and Josh are joined by Alina Pete of the amazing Webcomic Weregeek. Alina is also a renowned writer for several RPG products, including Ohunkakan. In this episode our hosts dive deeply into the topic of respectful representation of Indigenous cultures within gaming. They discuss Werewolf:The Apocalypse, Shadowrun, and several other games with less than great native presentations, and then they talk about ways to do better in the future. This image is from Ohunkakan.

This is part eight of an actual play from the table that VP Quinn and Assistant to the Assistant to the Regional Manager Joel play at. The game is run by Andrew, and the players are Quinn playing a murderous goblin, Joel playing an elven plant magician, Ryan playing a human bureaucrat and Anthony playing a human diplomat and the ships captain. 

This episode follows part 7 and begins with a discussion about where we as a group want to go in the future of this campaign and how we can try to make it better. It then continues on with how the crew is dealing with the Countess, including their plans to try to get the ship to no longer be haunted, and how to make some money in the meantime. 

In the second episode of Star Wars Black Squadron the squadron learns more about their mission and finds out what kind of a ship they have. They then meet some of the other crew, and decide what kind of equipment they need to request from the Rebellion to help bring the Rebellion to another system. They also learn that they may have to square off with a Victory Class Star Destroyer in the future and need to plan accordingly. 

This is part seven of an actual play from the table that VP Quinn and Assistant to the Assistant to the Regional Manager Joel play at. The game is run by Andrew, and the players are Quinn playing a murderous goblin, Joel playing an elven plant magician, Ryan playing a human bureaucrat and Anthony playing a human diplomat and the ships captain. 

This episode follows part 6 and continues the story of Archibald's shame, including him trying to remove the power the Countess has over him by telling his shipmates about his secret that she knows. He figures that if it's out in the open, she won't be able to use it against him. What happens next makes things weird for the rest of the crew... all while still dealing with the persistent haunting problem.

This is part six of an actual play from the table that VP Quinn and Assistant to the Assistant to the Regional Manager Joel play at. The game is run by Andrew, and the players are Quinn playing a murderous goblin, Joel playing an elven plant magician, Ryan playing a human bureaucrat and Anthony playing a human diplomat and the ships captain. 

This episode follows part 5 and covers how Archibald deals with his encounter with the Countess, and the schemes of Grill and the captain in how to turn this all around and make a profit.

This is part five of an actual play from the table that VP Quinn and Assistant to the Assistant to the Regional Manager Joel play at. The game is run by Andrew, and the players are Quinn playing a murderous goblin, Joel playing an elven plant magician, Ryan playing a human bureaucrat and Anthony playing a human diplomat and the ships captain. 

This episode follows part 4 and is the first part that was recorded at a different gaming session. The Countess has been brought to the edge of the ships railing by Archibald, who has no good intentions. How will she deal with this? What will happen to her and the crew? Tune in to find out!

This is the first episode in a new series we here at High Level Games are releasing in our actual plays. In this new series the group plays the D6 Star Wars Roleplaying Game with a new game master and different group of players than our Aether Sea actual plays.

In this episode we have an introduction to the players and characters in the game, and have the group start to form up and get ready for their first mission all while meeting with some famous rebel heroes on the planet of Hoth, about a month before the events of "The Empire Strikes Back".

This is the third episode in our "Leveling Up" podcast series, in which the hosts VP Quinn and our Blog Manager Josh discuss religion in gaming. In this episode they begin with how religion and gaming interact, as well as some history starting with the “Satanic Panic.” They then discuss how you can create and work with religion in a respectful way in your games without reducing it to a trope or just assuming that atheism is the natural order of things. Finally they talk about how to work with religious players in such a way that you are respectful of their beliefs while still allowing players to explore religion in the context of the gaming world.

This is part four of an actual play from the table that VP Quinn and Assistant to the Assistant to the Regional Manager Joel play at. The game is run by Andrew, and the players are Quinn playing a murderous goblin, Joel playing an elven plant magician, Ryan playing a human bureaucrat and Anthony playing a human diplomat and the ships captain. 

This episode picks up directly after part 3, and continues the story. The crew is still being attacked by ghosts, and is struggling to agree on what to do about the Countess and her artifact the Soul Bubble, as well as her zombie servants. Below is a brief introduction to our campaign as written by our Game Master Andrew.

In episode 7 of the High Level Games podcast we begin by talking about the concept of a "geek off" as a way of playing and then move on to talking about our play through of "Greyhawk Ruins." This module was originally from AD&D and was converted to 3.5e by VP Quinn for our table. 

We discuss how the play style differed from our usual games, and what we liked about the module and a few of the issues that we had with it. We also cover ways to help make this module more interesting for your group with ways to add on to the content in the published book.