Category Archives: The Creative Process

“What am I doing at GenCon, you ask?” – A Response

GenConLogo

As a high school teacher also writing my thesis, the last five months have been an unending headache, and the next month and a half will be much of the same.  That being said, there’s one thing on the horizon that has kept me from going completely insane.  That one thing is Gen Con 2013!  I’ve kept up with Matt’s Twitter posts about the convention as well as his articles on here, and I felt that I should answer his essential question of “What are YOU doing at Gen Con?”  So, here are the top events that I’m going to be experiencing at the biggest convention in gaming.

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Episode 84 – Bringing a Game to Life

props

Gamers want to feel immersed and invested in the games they play and run.  Now, while this responsibility can be shared by Players and GMs alike, it will almost certainly falls on the shoulders of the overburdened GM.  Bringing something unique and memorable to the gaming table – be it a prop, ambiance, or even food – will definitely stay in the forefront of the Players minds, unlike useless details such as “Where are we?” or “What are we supposed to be doing?” or “What was the name of the guy that hired us?”  Join us this week as we welcome our special guest, MITC listener and fellow podcaster JiB of the Happy Jacks RPG community to talk about techniques to help bring a game to life.  Strap on a HazMat suit, clean out your test tubes, and be sure to have a plan as you get ready for an all new episode of Monkey in the Cage!

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I Took a Stab at Conan and Conan Won

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So, the crew over at Gamerstable wrapped up their Conan Character Submission Contest this week in preparation for their next Savage Worlds actual play podcast.  I (and apparently plenty of other gamers out there) caught wind of the contest and decided to jump headlong into the creation process, albeit with two minor problems.  The first problem, I had only ever created five Savage Worlds characters, so I’m pretty much a n00b to the system.  The second problem, the extent of my knowledge regarding the Conan universe is limited to the 1980′s films Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer.  Ignoring these minor inconveniences, I forged ahead (thanks to my copy of Hero Lab and plenty of time spent at the Conan Wiki).  Although I was not one of the lucky winners, I’m still proud of the characters I drafted and have decided to share them here, in all their fleshed out and statted glory.

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Episode 61 – Gaming With Friends vs. Strangers

Gaming as a hobby and the experiences it brings can swing from one end of the spectrum to the other.  Be it tabletop RPGs, online gaming, or a good old-fashioned roundabout with a board game, there are always inherent pros and cons when it comes to living the gamer lifestyle (or life in general).  We here at To-Ag Studios have been fortunate to have maintained a core gaming group, but what’s a solitary gamer to do when a local group isn’t available?  Join us this week as we discuss the process of gaming with strangers and offer our insights on how both enjoy the positive experiences as well as survive the not so positive ones.  So, pop those social anxiety pills, make sure your PING is decent, and definitely DON’T smell like cold-cuts and prepare yourself for a new episode of Monkey in the Cage.

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The True\False Film Festival or How I Came to Love the Doc

Earlier this year, many of us participated in, or were at least aware of, a Kickstarter event to help place the history of one of our favorite hobbies on film.  I was so excited by the prospect I ended up being the third person to put money to the project and certainly spent a fair amount of time and energy promoting it in my own small way.  The reason for my fervor had a lot to do with my love for documentary film, and that love of documentary film can be traced back to one solitary yearly event, the True\False Film Festival.

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Episode 60 – How the Internet has Changed Geekdom

The world is getting smaller.  We hear it so much nowadays that the statement has become totally cliché, but it’s the truth.  While the immediately world is getting smaller because we are all inevitably getting fatter, it’s really the internet’s fault… and we couldn’t be happier!  For those geeks out there who remember the pre-modern internet world, it wasn’t always so easy to get your geek on!  Join us this week as we discuss the impact that this new-fangled internet fad (it’s a flash in the pan, trust us) has had on geeks and geekdom at large.  Fire up that 26.6k modem, plug in that AOL free-trial CD you got in the mail, and whatever you do, don’t let anyone pick up that land-line as you sit back and plug-in to a brand new episode of Monkey in the Cage!*

*Now on the World Wide Web

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