In this episode we interview the man, the myth, the legend, the Maestro of the Marquis, the human gorilla, Mr. Mark Finn. Mark has been a regular on The 42cast, but this is our first time discussing his past in depth. Join us as Mark discusses his early forays into the world of comic books, pulp novels, and role playing games. Stick with us as Mark talks about early days in the theater, radio drama, and his various writing ventures. We also get into his love of Robert E. Howard and how he became a theater mogul. We end by discussing Mark’s interest in magic.
As this is an interview episode there is no five-minute controversy.
Show Notes:
The North Texas Apocalypse Bunker
Mark’s prose on Amazon
Mark’s RPG Content
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In this second part of our two-part extravaganza on The Rings of Power the cast jumps back into talking about Middle Earth. In this episode they ask “What’s in a name?” as they wonder why anyone included a Hobbit. The Stranger’s gray identity is mooted. The cast discusses the geometry of rings and why 15 minutes may not be enough time to devote to their creation. They also get into the trauma that creates the orcs and the idea of an “evil race”. Along the way they discuss tropish women who need fathers for their sons, vampire orcs, and the politics of Númenor.
It’s a trip back to Middle-Earth this week as the cast takes an epic-length at the Amazon Prime series, The Rings of Power. In this episode the cast discusses the logic of a series that can only use the appendices of Lord of the Rings as reference. They get into the types of stories that they’re choosing to tell and whether or not there’s a significant loss of context. Along the way they also get into the casting and what they think of the portrayal of the characters. They also opine on the production values and the various controversies that surrounded this series.
Roll models continues into its third and final episode. In this episode we do a deep dive to delve into what panel of GM’s think about player conflict, forbidding certain types of behavior, and how to flex games beyond their mechanics. We also talk about the costs of gaming and give some ideas on how to save money on playing RPG’s. We also discuss our favorite systems of all time and why those suit us so well. Along the way we also give our absolute favorite gaming experiences and why we just enjoy this hobby so much.
Tabletop roleplaying games are a big subject, and we continue our discussion in our next installment of Roll Models. In this episode we ask our panel of experts about their RPG recommendations. They discuss the upsides and downsides of playing the systems and relate their experiences with them. They also discuss content creation for both worldbuilding and game mechanics and they detail where you can find their stuff.
From the beginning of the show we’ve been looking for an opportunity to talk about roleplaying games. With this episode we start a three part series doing just that. Join us as we’re joined by an illustrious group of content creators to discuss roleplaying games. We talk about what is a roleplaying game, what we enjoy about the format, different types of games, and what to do and not do to make the gaming table inviting.