Firebreathing Kittens

In this playthrough of Good Society, we follow Marty, Sadie, and Arethor as they dance through the salsa of salacious gossip and the polka of political maneuvering, to earn their crescendo of consequences.

Scandals, lies, and intrigue fly as Ailbh and Armando join Ivy at her high society birthday party! Does love win out? Are the rumors true? Tune in to this actual play of the Good Society TTRPG and discover which bombshells are revealed!

Scandals, lies, and intrigue fly as Ailbh and Armando join Ivy at her high society birthday party! Does love win out? Are the rumors true? Tune in to this actual play of the Good Society TTRPG and discover which bombshells are revealed!

How to play Good Society. Hi everyone, this is a special episode of Firebreathing Kittens. I’m the game master for an upcoming session using the rules for Good Society. This episode is a summary of what I learned after reading the rule book. Hopefully this will be a handy guide for how to play for my players, will help me organize myself, and will be useful for you listeners, too, who are looking to play Good Society yourselves. I’ll organize this how to play guide into sections. Theme Tokens: Resolve tokens Monologue tokens Five tone setting questions Building your major character Desire cards Relationship cards Family background Role sheet Reputation conditions Inner conflict Connections Public information sheet Eight phase cycle of play Novel chapter Reputation Rumor and scandal Epistolary Novel chapter Reputation Epistolary Upkeep The theme of Good Society is that you’re playing as a character who would have fit in comfortably in a Jane Austen novel. This game is a fictional portrayal of the genteel social class in England in the 1810’s. These people aren’t royalty, so they don’t have any royal obligations, but they also are so rich that they never have to work a day in their lives. How is that possible? Through the system of primogeniture, where only one child inherits all of the family’s money, concentrating everything on them so they can pass on the family name and social status. The other kids are out of luck. If you are born into the genteel social class as a boy then your job is to make sure that you’re the one who gets your family’s inheritance. If you’re born into this social class as a girl then your job is to marry a rich husband. Fail to marry well, and you might have to get a job, which means you have lost the game and are out of the genteel class. Maybe your old friends will hire you to sew them a dress for a party one day, but that’s the only time you would ever see them or your old lifestyle again. For the guys, if you fail to make yourself the one who inherits all of your family’s money, the military is an option for working a few years and retiring on a hefty officer’s pension. You just have to hope you don’t die while serving, and hope you’re not too old to find a wife by the time you get out. Your life path is up to you. Your imagination is your only limit in this fictional portrayal of the genteel social class in the 1810’s England. You lose if you have to get a day job. And also, in the words of Jane Austen herself, “Anything is to be preferred or endured rather than marrying without Affection.” That was the theme, now let’s talk about Good Society’s mechanics. Tokens. Spending tokens is the major mechanic of Good Society. You won’t be rolling dice or drawing cards. Instead, you have a limited resource action economy in how many tokens you still have left to spend. Each player starts with two resolve tokens on each character they control. The facilitator starts with three resolve tokens. You spend resolve tokens during the novel chapter phase, reputation phase, and epistolary phase. You get more resolve tokens from reputation tags and during the rumors and scandals phase and the upkeep phase. Resolve tokens represent your character’s determination to pursue their goals. You don’t need to spend one for most actions you want to do. Simply speak as your character and act out the role play of your character talking to your fellow players, who will respond speaking as the characters you are talking to. But you will need to spend a resolve token sometimes. Specifically, when you want to compel someone else’s character to do something, add a twist that makes the game more interesting, make a momentous change that significantly alters the story, establish a past relationship with a character you up until now didn’t know, ruin the plan or harm the interests of another player’s character, or learn about a delicious piece of gossip you would have otherwise been unlikely to learn. Doing these types of actions will require spending a resolve token, and if you’re out of them, then you can’t. I made this quick acronym for remembering when you need to use a resolve token: C for compelling someone else’s character to do something, I for making the game more interesting, M for momentous, big changes, E for establishing a prior relationship with a character where none existed before, R for ruining the plans or harming the interests of a major character or connection, U for unlikely or difficult actions succeeding. Compel, Interesting, Momentous, Establish, Ruin, Unlikely. Kimeru, use a resolve token. Do you want to compel Emma’s player to have Emma accidentally trip the Duke’s wife at a ball, or fall in love with a person of ill-repute, or arrange a meeting between your character and Emma’s brother? Spend a resolve token to begin negotiations with Emma’s player. Do you see a point where you could punch up the plot and make the storyline of someone else’s character more interesting? Spend a resolve tok

Ailbh Goldbeard Interview

Bartholomew, Nugh, and Mervon receive a late-night cry for help. A gleaming wizard's tower and family issues? Don’t sleep on this episode! A Nod To Mother is an actual play podcast of Roll For Shoes.

Bartholomew, Nugh, and Mervon receive a late-night cry for help. A gleaming wizard's tower and family issues? Don’t sleep on this episode! A Nod To Mother is an actual play podcast of Roll For Shoes.

After a harrowing welcome to Silverwood Haven, Arethor, Qigiq, and Sadie embark on a quest seeking The Alchemist for… something. This episode uses v1.4 playtest rules for the Daggerheart game system.

After a harrowing welcome to Silverwood Haven, Arethor, Qigiq, and Sadie embark on a quest seeking The Alchemist for… something. This episode uses v1.4 playtest rules for the Daggerheart game system.

Arethor Gowek Interview

Floating jungle islands are rare so when they show up somebody has to explore them. And who better than Qigiq, Ivy Green, and Colette three of the Firebreathing Kittens? Come listen as they find wind monsters, become influencers amongst lizard people, and find something quite unexpected at the center of this mysterious island! Tales of the Wind is an actual play podcast of When Sky And Sea Were Not Named.

Floating jungle islands are rare so when they show up somebody has to explore them. And who better than Qigiq, Ivy Green, and Colette three of the Firebreathing Kittens? Come listen as they find wind monsters, become influencers amongst lizard people, and find something quite unexpected at the center of this mysterious island! Tales of the Wind is an actual play podcast of When Sky and Sea Were Not Named.

A simple errand turns into an impromptu audit as Sadie, Mary, and Bartholomew investigate the astronomic inflation in Shireford Upon Emou. Tune in to this Risus Epic adventure to see if they can solve the town's financial woes!

A simple errand turns into an impromptu audit as Sadie, Mary, and Bartholomew investigate the astronomic inflation in Shireford Upon Emou. Tune in to this Risus Epic adventure to see if they can solve the town's financial woes!

Join Bill and Maeve as they battle capitalism, Ponzi schemes, and fool's gold.

Join Bill and Maeve as they battle capitalism, Ponzi schemes, and fool's gold.

How To Play Risus Epic

Welcome back listeners! Today, Fennis, Mervon and Sadie are playing "Community Radio". In this episode, we draw back a bit, instead of following a single adventure, Niqamui itself is the focus, more specifically- the local radio station's coverage of some of the supernatural events that take place in Niqamui's casual day-to-day. Breaking Council Decrees! Cult politics! 24hr coverage of the slow encroachment of ominous fog! All this and more are coming up, so don't touch that dial!

Greetings and welcome to the Firebreathing Kittens. This is a short overview of how to play Community Radio. Community Radio is a story and improv focused game. We don't have character sheets. Instead, the players play out slice of life moments from a strange community, while the GM plays the Host of the community's radio station. The mood of a Community Radio game captures the voice of a community the way Welcome to Nightvale or Northern Exposure can capture the voice of a community. The game is written by Quinn Murphy and is available at thought crime games.itch.io. A second edition is currently in development. The Firebreathing Kittens will be playing version 1.2 of the game. Community Radio is also the basis for the excellent game Radio Free Kaiju, which centers on a community surviving a world populated by giant, deadly monsters. Prior to the game, all the players have submitted to the GM the following ideas: * An Innocent Person * A Terror * A Place of Interest * A Mood * A Strange Item * Up to 3 original songs or poems to be aired on the radio station. * Optionally, up to 3 decrees from the Niqamui Community Council, to be read on air. The GM has taken these elements and shuffled them into a very loosely connected series of slice of life scenes that the players will play out in an improv manner. Each slice of life scene is 3-5 minutes long. After a slice of life scene, there is a short musical interlude. During the musical break, players who were just in the scene write decrees, sometimes about the scene, or about a previous scene, or just about something else entirely. These decrees are secretly passed to the Host, who selects from the available decrees during the Radio Scene. Radio scenes have a bumper, a report from the Host reacting to and interpreting the slice of life scene, and lastly a decree by the Council. The Host is not allowed to break Council decrees, and the decrees often respond to actions during the slice of life scene. You'll notice there is nothing about "how do you fight in this game" or "how do I convince someone to do what I want." As an improv-heavy game, Community Radio relies on players to adjudicate using "yes, and" to narrate what their characters are doing and how successful they are. The game is heavily player-generated, with the Host acting as an interpreter more than anything else. For purposes of the Firebreathing Kittens format, I have added some structure to the scenes so they aren't as random as suggested in the Community Radio rulebook. The key elements are all provided by the players, however, as are all the decrees. I hope you enjoy our episode featuring Community Radio.

FBK is hired to protect two children as they undergo a pilgrimage. What no one yet realizes is the true danger spreading in the blessed grove. Join Bill, Qigiq, and Armando as they seek a sense of justice and work to become true heroes in this actual play podcast of Alaria Valor and Company.

FBK is hired to protect two children as they undergo a pilgrimage. What no one yet realizes is the true danger spreading in the blessed grove. Join Bill, Qigiq, and Armando as they seek a sense of justice and work to become true heroes in this actual play podcast of Alaria Valor and Company.

How To Play Alaria Valor And Company

Qigiq Steel Interview

During a regular shopping trip, Demyan and Jimmy Potatoes are rudely whisked off by pirates to break into a mysterious complex, which holds secrets that could change the face of the planet... This episode uses the 'Dicing With Death' Playtest TTRPG.

During a regular shopping trip, Demyan and Jimmy Potatoes are rudely whisked off by pirates to break into a mysterious complex, which holds secrets that could change the face of the planet... This episode uses the 'Dicing With Death' Playtest TTRPG.

Fennis, Sadie, and Mervon get body swapped with their furry friends. Can they get back? Are greebles real? SHOULD they be? Tune in! CATegorical Success is an actual play podcast of Psychic Cat Chaos.

Fennis, Sadie, and Mervon get body swapped with their furry friends. Can they get back? Are greebles real? SHOULD they be? Tune in! CATegorical Success is an actual play podcast of Psychic Cat Chaos.

Mervon The Stolid Interview

May 2024 TTRPG Rules Discussion

Marty, Colette, and Sadie are thrown into a most terrifying retro horror story using Summer Camp Slayers game mechanics. Tag along and see who survives the night, and whose light fizzles out.

Marty, Colette, and Sadie are thrown into a most terrifying retro horror story using Summer Camp Slayers game mechanics. Tag along and see who survives the night, and whose light fizzles out.

Hello everybody this is a special episode of the Firebreathing Kittens podcast. I am the Gamemaster for an upcoming episode where I’ll be using the mechanics from the tabletop role-play game, summer camp slayers. You can catch me as ‘Tord Unfrid’ playing a similar game that uses a different flavour of the same mechanics called Pirates of the Bone Blade in episode 266 of the Firebreathing Kittens Podcast. Summer camp slayers is a table top role-play game designed by Richard Woolcock from Zadmar Games using his universal Tricube game system and you can find this and more on DriveThruRPG. I will speak more on the TriCube system towards the end of episode here but for now let’s get into those game mechanics. General Mechanics: In summer camp slayers, you roll between one and three D6 6 sided dice, depending on your characters archetype and you compare your highest result against the difficulty set by the game master. For instance, you may roll two 6 sided dice and have a 3 and 5 on the dice the game master set the difficulty at five meaning you have one success. You start with 2D6 add a die to your roll if what you’re doing falls in line with your trait and you remove a die if what you’re doing falls outside the scope of your concept but we'll get into that more during the character creation section. The main thing to remember going forward is that together your trait and concept make up your characters archetype forming half of your character design, the other half of the character design comes from your perks and quirks. Perks and Quirks (Archetype) Overview: Speaking of perks and quirks, they allow you to influence the difficulty of the challenge you face. You can influence the difficulty of the task by expending one of your karma points to reduce the difficulty of the task by 1 if you can explain how your perk aids you in that moment. You can also decide to make the difficulty of the task harder before rolling, increasing it by 1, describing how your quirk negatively effected you. If you fail the task when using your quirk you get a karma back but if you succeed you can choose to regain a resolve instead if you'd like. If a player runs out of resolve they are typically removed from the scene and gain an affliction. Afflictions are described by the victor and are treated as temporary quirks for your player. A character with three affliction is retired from play, although they can be brought back if one of their afflictions is cured. Now that we've talked about how to decide the outcome of a challenge let's find out what happens if you succeed or fail. Success/Failure: Succeeding a task with one single die above or meeting the difficulty rating will result in a normal success, any additional successful die roll will be a exceptional success. Exceptional successes typical provide additional removed effort tokens or beneficial effects as decided by the game master. The same is true however for failures as well with the distinction being that you have to roll all 1’s on your dice for it to be a critical failure, this typically involves losing double the amount of resolve or additional negative effects as decided by the game master and player such as gaining an affliction. Some tasks are simple and only require a single success to complete them, there are however harder tasks and in these instances effort tokens will be used. A harder task can require anywhere from 2-4 successes or more depending on the situation to whittle down that encounters effort tokens. Character Creation: Now that we know how the game works, let’s talk about creating a character. In Summer Camp Slayers you select from a list of four different options during character creation, those four options as discussed earlier are Trait, Concept, Perk and Quirk. At first all the these four terms may sound the same however they do function differently from each other, let’s get into that. Traits: We’ll start with trait, in this game system a trait is always the same, regardless of the flavour of the system you’re playing. A trait is one of the following: Agile, Brawny or Crafty; the ABC’s of Tricube! Agile covers things like quickness, dexterity, reflexes, or stealth; they also roll 3d6 for ranged combat. Brawny covers things like strength, toughness, stamina or athletics; they also roll 3d6 for melee combat. Crafty covers things like charisma, intellect, willpower or perception; they also roll 3d6 for mental combat (magic, persuasion, intimidation). Unless something falls within your trait you will roll 2d6, if it does happen to fall within your trait however you get to roll 3d6 instead! For example. A brawny kid would roll 3D6 when trying to lift something heavy off their friends, but only 2D6 if they were trying to avoid getting pinned by the same object as it's falling as that would be an Agile roll. Concepts: Next let's talk about concepts, as it is a bit more of a loose idea and changes depending on the flavour of the game type and world you're

When Demyan and Armando find out a sneaky rabbit has stolen a Bag of Tricks, they hunger for justice! Will they follow their nose and find the culprit? Or will they be serially thwarted by multiple challenges? I Eat Challenges For Breakfast is an actual play podcast of the LUCAS rpg system.

When Demyan and Armando find out a sneaky rabbit has stolen a Bag of Tricks, they hunger for justice! Will they follow their nose and find the culprit? Or will they be serially thwarted by multiple challenges? I Eat Challenges For Breakfast is an actual play podcast of the LUCAS rpg system.

Ivy, Tord, Fennis, and Colette have to save a soup kitchen! Naturally this means a heist of a huge diamond, a fake murder, a duel, a pop song from the 70s, and a spaceship?! Join them on this exciting episode of Firebreathing Kittens! Come Fly To Space is an actual play podcast of the No Port Called Home RPG system.

Ivy, Tord, Fennis, and Colette have to save a soup kitchen! Naturally this means a heist of a huge diamond, a fake murder, a duel, a pop song from the 70s, and a spaceship?! Join them on this exciting episode of Firebreathing Kittens! Come Fly To Space is an actual play podcast of the No Port Called Home RPG system.

How to play No Port Called Home. Hi everyone, this is a special episode of Firebreathing Kittens. I’m the game master for an upcoming session using the rules for No Port Called Home. This episode is a summary of what I learned after reading the rule book. Hopefully this will be a handy guide for how to play for my players, will help me organize myself, and will be useful for you listeners, too, who are looking to play No Port Called Home yourselves. There are a dozen different races to pick from in No Port Called Home. They include humans, giant jotunn, amphibious nix, genetically enhanced vesp, nomadic hedonistic fae, indestructible robotic archon, freed former worker drone tsuku, and more. When you build your character, you will pick one of these races. Use the race’s character sheet as your starting character sheet, that you’ll add more and more things to later. The rule book has an example crew mate named Zephyr who is a tsuku race, a freed former worker drone. I will refer to Zephyr’s character sheet throughout this how to play guide, using Zephyr as an example. Let’s talk about classes. No Place Called Home has nearly forty classes. You will pick three of them to build your character. These classes include a calibrist who obsessively optimizes a firearm, a swordfiend who stabs opponents with point objects, a martial artist who fights with their hands, a brute who fights with this chair they happened to find, a fortress that gains defensive bonuses as long as they hold their position, an engineer who can maintain and improve the team’s vehicle, a strategist who can delegate extra actions to their teammates, a con artist who and lies and fibs, a changeling who can rearrange their limbs, a conduit who can splice their mind into machines to remote listen to conversations, a swarmmaster with clouds of loyal insects, and more. Doesn’t that sound like a lot of fun options? Great news, you get to pick not one, not two, but three of them. Which three should you pick? The rule book suggests picking a combination of classes that empower you to take action both in and out of combat. Don’t limit yourself to only in-combat effects. For our example character build, Zephyr has the three classes of: martial artist who fights with their hands, freerunner who sprints and runs and does flips, and ranger, who prevents their teammates from setting off terrain effects through their expert guidance. Each class has some questions to think and write about. For example, among other questions, the ranger asks you to list four places you have been. The martial artist asks you, among other questions, if you advertise the fact that you are skilled in combat, or do you allow others to underestimate you? The freerunner asks you what you would do if a situation forced you to leave someone behind who could not run as fast. The three classes you pick will have questions that help you think about how your character would act. Let’s talk about skills. There are four categories of skills: physical, social, knowledge, and practical. Physical skills include agility, dexterity, strength, your ability to orient yourself in zero gravity, stealth, endurance, and how well you squirm. Knowledge skills include your knowledge of biotech, history, people, places, engineering, computers, and medicine. Social skills include your ability to soothe, entertain, deceive, manipulate, persuade, command, and read people. Practical skills include your perception, survival, research, crafting, and piloting skills. There are more than twenty skills overall. When you pick three classes, each class will come with points in skills and stats. Start out with a zero in all skills, and then add the numbers from your classes and write the total on your character sheet. For example, Zephyr is a martial artist, freerunner, and ranger. The martial artist gives them +2 in all physical skills, so that’s a 2 in agility, dexterity, strength, zero-g, stealth, endurance, and squirm. The martial artist also adds 2 in people reading. The freerunner adds 4 to agility and zero g, bringing those up to six, and adds two in stealth, endurance and squirm, bringing those up to four, and also adds two to entertain and perception. The ranger adds two to agility, endurance, stealth, knowledge of biotech, knowledge of places, soothe, perception, survival, and craft. That bumps Zephyr’s agility up to eight, and at six their endurance, zero-g, and stealth are pretty high, too. This has been an example of how to add your three classes’ skills together to get your character’s starting skill numbers. Here are some example skill rolls Zephyr could make in No Place Called Home. Hungry in a field outside town, Zephyr might roll a twenty sided dice, also called a d20, and add their survival skill to forage for edible greens. If Zephyr was trying to think of a low cost bakery in town, you would roll on a twenty sided dice, also called a d20, plus their places skill number. If Zephyr was trying to pers

Ivy Green Interview

Embark on a thrilling journey with Demyan, Nugh, and Maeve in a Dicing with Death adventure! Watch as they cast roles, conquer fate, and spice up the stage to save the play!

Embark on a thrilling journey with Demyan, Nugh, and Maeve in a Dicing with Death adventure! Watch as they cast roles, conquer fate, and spice up the stage to save the play!

Bartholomew, Fennis, and Sadie respond to a request for help from Mishui to investigate an epidemic of memory loss. This episode uses the gameplay mechanics from the system Cascade Effect.

Bartholomew, Fennis, and Sadie respond to a request for help from Mishui to investigate an epidemic of memory loss. This episode uses the gameplay mechanics from the system Cascade Effect.

Fennis Lightwall Interview

Marty, Demyan, Tord, and Sadie use the Pirates of the Bone Blade system to rescue a bad boy who might not be so bad.

Marty, Demyan, Tord, and Sadie use the Pirates of the Bone Blade system to rescue a bad boy who might not be so bad.

Tord Unfrid Interview

Bo, Marty, and Sadie use the Ludus: Nightmares Into Reality system to dive through layers of dreamscapes and rescue someone from Bo's forgotten past.

Bo, Marty, and Sadie use the Ludus: Nightmares Into Reality system to dive through layers of dreamscapes and rescue someone from Bo's forgotten past.

How To Play Ludus: Nightmares Into Reality. Hello! I’m the GM running the game Ludus: nightmares into reality in an upcoming episode of Firebreathing Kittens. This is a brief introduction to the game’s mechanics to help familiarize our players and listeners with the game before we play. Ludus is a game where the players influence a dream using “twists” and try to turn it into a true nightmare. There is no character sheet, nor weapons nor magic. Technically, it doesn’t even really need a GM. The players are in charge and it’s very improvisation-heavy. That’s not to say there isn’t a mechanic. There is, but it’s rather tricky to explain so I’ll do my best. The game starts with the characters establishing a dream. Then, they take turns adding a twist to the dream until they reach 20 twists or they decide they’re done. A twist is basically “yes, and…”-ing. So if the dream is sheep hopping over a fence, a twist would be “the fence has barbs”, then another twist is “the fence starts to grow and the barbs get closer to the sheep”, etc. etc. until the players decide to stop. This is where the game’s core mechanic comes in. The mechanic to determine whether or not the dream successfully turns into a nightmare is a cursed formula. The best way I can describe it is this: x(y@zD#w). I encourage you to write this down, so I’ll repeat it: x(y@zD#w). Where x = the number of twists; y = the dice to roll based on the number of twists to the dream; z = the number of players; and w = the number of dice values that equal the wild die’s value. @, D, and # are placeholders within the formula and hold no alternative meaning. The equation will be explained further in a second, but with the addition of twists, we get three values to plug into the formula: x (the number of twists), y (the dice to roll based on x), and z (the number of players). The game rules include a table that tells you which dice to use for what number of turns. So, we have three values. Now we roll the dice, represented by the variable y. This can be anywhere from one to three dice; no matter what, one of the lowest dice Must be designated as the wild die. If the wild die hits its maximum value, then it explodes and you roll another die of the same value. If that die also explodes, you repeat the process until it no longer explodes. For example, if your wild die is a d6 (or your common six-sided die) and you roll a 6, you roll another d6. If that die also rolls a 6, you roll another d6, etc. etc. until you don’t roll a 6. Next, you sort the dice from lowest face value to highest face value going from left to right. Count the number of dice that have the same face value as the wild die, including the wild die itself. This number is the w variable in our equation which again, is x(y@zD#w). We’ve finally finished writing our equation. Now we have to resolve it. Starting with the lowest die, count, from left to right, the number of dice equal to our w variable. The die you land on is the number of Rounds you have to do things in the Ballad section (more on that in a bit). Next, starting from the highest die value, count, from right to left, the number of dice equal to the z variable. Add up the face values of the dice you counted. This sum is the Success value. Now, compare your Success value to the number equal to your x variable. If the Success value is greater than x, the dream is twisted into a true nightmare. If the Success value is less than x, the dream gets weird but resolves as a dream normally would. After the resolution of the Success value, we move into the Ballad section. This is where the dream fully manifests into a failed or true nightmare. The players go around taking turns describing what happens, again using “yes, and…” to craft the nightmare. This “yes, and…” is known as a verse in the Ballad section, rather than a twist like it was in the dream section. A round is made up of each player contributing one verse, and the entire Ballad section has a number of rounds equal to the w variable. The nightmare should be a full story that resolves at the end of the last round. And that’s how you play Ludus! In the game I’m running, the players will need to make three true nightmares to succeed in their quest. Before we begin play, though, we’ll also go over player comfort and safety. I don’t want any of our fellow Firebreathing Kittens to feel overly uncomfortable, and this game has the potential for disturbing stuff to arise. We’ll be talking about lines, veils, and x-cards before we play. Lines are firm boundaries: any topic that is a line for a player won’t be brought up, period. Veils are more loose, things that players may feel uncomfortable with but also feel ok exploring. X-cards are for players to use if those veils are explored and they don’t like how it makes them feel. Anything that is x-carded will be treated as a line and the subject will be dropped. For anyone playing with me, I encourage use of the x-card. You’re the only one who knows your

Actual play podcasts of the solo play role playing games "You, Beyond The Pale", "Artefact", and "Thousand Year Old Vampire".