Episode 29 – Amethyst
Amethyst - guns, elves and hard-core action for D&D 4E
Just a short episode this time round, giving you your HBG fix until we can do a complete episode. Life has caught up with us in a big way so neither of us have played much lately. We are, however, very excited about a bunch of new games on the horizon and we have a chat about them. We also have a “first look” review of a new D&D 4E setting, Amethyst from Dias Ex Machina and Goodman Games.
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[00.00] Intro & What We’ve Been Playing
[4.45] On Our Radar
[20.00] First Look – Amethyst Foundations
[33.45] Email and Query
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Nathan & Marty
10 Comments
That is an awesome podcast. I have been listening to you guys since I first discovered you and you two are two of the most intelligent speakers I have heard across the entire SPECTRUM of podcasts.
I listened to the whole thing and I totally love this. You got everything right. You caught onto all the philosophical points I was trying to touch upon.
You two were talking about the “ins” and “outs” of using the GSL with D&D, the legality of it and all, and it was an issue for us as well. For one, we created all new elvish races but couldn’t call any of them elves. Our Goblins are call Boggs; our orcs are called pagus. But this way, the setting is closer to being how I wanted the world to look and feel, and not settle on the staples of traditional D&D. Oddly enough, it was BECAUSE the new GSL was limiting compared to the 3.5 (which was open) which resulted in a more original setting. The only real sacrifice was that we couldn’t “modify” classes to make them work in our setting (like cleric and paladin). We had to remove them because we couldn’t insert a modification to make them in canon. HOWEVER, we may have found a fix around that (next book).
By the way… The name, Dias Ex Machina…
Here’s how it goes:
In Greek, there is this term “Deus Ex Machina”, which sounds like “DAE-oos eks MakEEna” which means “Machine of the Gods”
My friend, in a loving contribution, FORCED me to name the company Dias Ex Machina, or “DEE-ass eks MakEEna” because of my last name…and that’s the origin. So now you know how its pronounced…and yes, everyone gets that wrong.
Just wanted to make a few comments about the latest episode.
1) Very enjoyable
2) You should offer Mouse Guard as an option for Gencon. it has pre-generated characters and a sample quest. (Plus I really wanna play it but haven’t had the chance yet.)
3) In regards to Adam sound cutting out, I had the same problem every time I heard the words “and I’m Marty”, the sound would cut out, I’d have a loss of vision and general lose conciseness. After seeking medical advice it turned out the sound of Marty’s voice was putting me to sleep. : )
The fix – load the podcast into audacity and tell it to remove white noise, works like a charm removes Marty from the whole podcast. : P
Just kidding – I have never had the issues and I listen to the show through itunes-Ipod-Iphone, and as MP3 on my normal phone. My guess bad downloading -maybe slow dodgy connection or too much network traffic.
Try listen on a second media maybe the device is faulty or doesn’t support the encoding of the podcast properly. If you getting through itune try just downloading the MP3 or vise versa.
Hope this helps.
Ray
I did not have sound problems either; I am listening on a normal USB MP3 player. The Amethyst setting sounds quite interesting, although I immediately think of Shadowrun (in a extreme/reversed way) or the PC RPG Arcanum, at least Magic vs. Science.
You are quite right in thinking that Amethyst sounds a bit like Shadowrun, with the sudden emergence of magic into the modern world. But Amethyst has a very different tone (or should I say tones). In one way it is far more desperate, particularly if you look at the cities that are besieged by the magical world. On the otherhand there is a sense of wonder that pervades the descriptions of the magical elements of the world. Of course, the other big difference is that unlike Shadowrun, there is no “middle ground” for “man to meet magic and machine”. Amethyst certainly stands on its own in terms of setting and feel.
Thanks, Nate. Of all the arguments, yours has been the best. The Shadowrun comparison will never stop despite Amethyst not being cyber
punk. Now, to go against Arcanum…
I listen to the podcast on an iPod and don’t seem to have real trouble. Sometimes there’s a digital glitch or blip but nothing major.
And as for Mouse Guard at Gencon, I’ve got a tentative commitment from a GM to run it, but nothing more than that. Keep watching the schedule page. Or better still, volunteer to run it. ;o)
Hey Andrew – I’d love to run a session of Mouse Guard at Gencon, however there are a couple of problems with that:
1) While I have the book I have not read it all yet,
2) I have not played a single game of Mouse Guard, and
3) I have never DM’d in my life, there is no way my first attempt is going to be with 3 – 5 people I don’t know.
So, what’s stopping you Raymunji?
You know, if you get a game under your belt in the next month or so you might want to attend the next Go Play Brisbane. It would be a great warm-up to GenCon, with lots of friendly approachable players and GM’s. Find out more at http://www.stockade.wordpress.com
Sweet I was just wondering the other day when the next Go Play was on, think I wil be going this time. just need to make up something to tell the wife
That is awesome. Here that Andrew, another victim for you!