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In this episode, we review The Dresden Files RPG Volume 3: The Paranet Papers, discover that there are gaming ideas that we’re not prepared to play, run, or share a room with, and come up with a possible new segment for the Big Red Couch; Dumb-Ass Gaming Ideas.

We start the show, after some introductory yammering, with a review of The Dresden Files RPG Volume 3: The Paranet Papers, by Evil Hat Productions, who were kind enough to send us an electronic preview copy. The review concludes at about the 21 minute mark with a condensed version of our thoughts, and then goes into what we laughably call the content of our show, which contains such ideas as;

• An unpleasant corporation seeks trading opportunities between Alternate Earths, and will attempt to profit from anything.
• What sort of monstrous things are you prepared to do in order to bring down an evil mega-corp?
• The advantage of working for a cartoonishly evil multi-universal corporate entity is that idiotic & cartoonish methods of resistance are really quite effective.

Here are some links to stuff we nattered about

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High-Stakes Fashion!
Shipwrecked Siblings Spar On Island Stronghold Of Sinister Scientist!
What Does Your Chinese Zodiacal Sign Say About You?
Manipulating History Through The Medium Of Inconvenient Ancestors!

We are joined by the energetic serial contributor, Taz!  Reel as he challenges our feckless lack of authenticity (in the nicest way possible.)
Here are some of the things we nattered about.

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To fill the void left by Space Ghost’s passing, a team of Vigilantes is formed to combat Space Crime & avenge Space Ghost’s death.

Using the strange and barely-controllable powers given to them by the same incident which cause the crash of their experimental spacecraft, the crew must rescue themselves without making things any worse.

The psychological testing to ensure that only the right people get to wear ultra-tech watches granting them superpowers is very thorough, and never fails. So how is it that people are dying in a manner which points the big hand of blame squarely at a wearer of the intangibility-granting Ghost Watch?

Once superpowers are discovered, and the ability to confer them on those with the potential is developed, the ‘Overdrivers’ have to decide between the approaches to the situation; Governmental? Private research? Or maybe Overdrive-enhanced extra-legal shenanigans?

At sea, the Ghost Watch is that watch period in the middle of the night when spirits are most likely to be active, and when the summonings of the enemy’s Necromancers will strike.

What happens when a media franchise goes on for so long that it becomes sentient, and starts to act in it’s own interest via the actors?

Going back into the dungeon you’ve just looted to rescue that one guy who hit his head on the way out, and is still trapped backed there.

Here are some links to stuff we nattered about

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A Supervillan Retirement Home where the super-villany attempted by the residents may not be age-appropriate.
Or approved by their physician.
Or by the residents of the Superhero Retirement Home across the road.

A creature which feeds (fatally) upon joy escapes from it’s prison and seeks a steady source of nourishment by moving into politics.

Our game opens upon a Clown, bleeding into the sawdust under the Big Top, …

A therapeutic hospital for Mad Scientists & Deranged Engineers has it’s work complicated by the desire of the patients to ‘improve’ their environment, and by the people trying to ‘borrow’ the inmates.

Fantastic Voyage: The RPG – A surgeon and their support team journey inside their patient for some micro-scale medicine.

The only way to defend against a laughter-consuming monster is to promote mirthlessness, and to assemble a team to combat humour wherever it lurks.

Here are some links to stuff we nattered about

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This week we are joined by our northern-most foreign correspondent, John, all the way from Canada!

Thrill as John mocks our puny antipodean “science” from his secret underground laboratory!

Also:

• The tale of  struggling manufacturer goes to desperate and alarming lengths to wind back the technological clock.
• A secret organisation battling in the shadow of the Canadian music industry to stave off the unthinkable.
• Racing machines tearing across the wastes of an alien planet, propelled interdependent teams of artificial intelligence and human nerve.
• An orbiting world where cultures from massively different home-worlds live cheek-by-jowl.
• …and the Big Red Couch’s MOST CANADIAN EPISODE EVER! So far, anyway!

John also gives a shout-out to “How We Play”, a podcast which considers the social aspects of our pastime.  Warning: It does not contain the level of scattershot balderdash present in the Big Red Couch.  Consult your physician if comprehension persists.

Here are some links to stuff we nattered about

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• Ghost Watch! Host Rami Spectre guides a group of talented young ghosts as they compete for a place on the Fabulous “Haunt This!” tour.
• A technology-enhanced paranormal investigation LARP in which the players navigate a haunted house to try to figure out the hauntings.
• A watch which captures the spirit of someone who dies while it’s in their possession, locked to the hour in which they died.
• An improv exercise in which the players both create a group of ghosts, and tell the tale of the group of people who discover them.
• Teams of working spectres whose job is to lure TV crews and high-profile ghost hunters away from the really dangerous poltergeists by giving them entirely unrelated paranormal activities to chase.
• A gameshow broadcast in the Netherworld, in which contestants have to stop Ghost Hunters from obtaining any proof of the paranormal.

The Gutter Skypes
All Games Considered
Blindgeek Adventures
Monkeys Took My Jetpack

Here are some links to stuff we nattered about

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Ordinary people find themselves sharing the same dream as their alternate selves try to find a solution to a problem which hasn’t happened yet.

In the wake of a nuclear war, life in the underground shelters is made so very much better by a new strain of humanity, who can filter the radiation out of blood, and are more resistant to the poisons on the surface, and who have a terrible allergy to sunlight but are in no way the ‘V’ word.
The two strains of humanity are getting on fine, but what if all of this was planned?

What do you do when the sure-fire, certain to succeed magical ritual to destroy Lord Evil turns out to be … kind of evil?

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Will imagines a form of corporate takeover by a company which can really get inside the opposition’s heads & change the way they see things, Ben looks at negotiations with nanotech, and Craig suggests that there’s a limit to how far “The King is the Land” should be taken.

Here are some links to stuff we nattered about

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• A community assembles their new village from the ground up.
• Managing the local ecology to build, maintain, & improve the town’s public infrastructure
• Playing the First Heroes of your history.
• A game in which the players swap between being the Legendary First Heroes, and being the current-day adventurers living in the world those heroes created.
• A town on a bridge which is constructed upon a gigantic petrified troll, sustained by the precious ores mined from the stony flesh of the troll itself.
• A village living in the shadow of a Dragon’s lair makes it’s living selling supplies to adventures. Nobody’s actually seen the dragon, but they’re all sure it’s there.
• Running a heist on the Trollbridge mines to avoid the crippling taxes the Town Council levies upon troll-derived valuables.
• The Fundamentals of Dungeoneering: The only way to cross the ravine is to go through the petrified troll which forms the bridge.

Here are some links to stuff we nattered about