Top Five Most Viewed RPG Videos

Periodically I go through my YouTube channel (you can find a link to the right) and see what videos are the ones that people are watching. It is always interesting to see what people want to watch on my channel. Following are the five (in order) with the most viewings.

1) Dorkland Roundtable with Zak Smith

A couple of years ago I launched an experiment in interviewing gaming people via the wonders of the (then new) technology of G+ Hangouts on the Air. I did these for a couple of reasons: to put faces and voices to the names that so many of us have seen on books over the years, and to help humanize gaming creators as well. When people are used to interacting with people through the text of books, or social media, they can start to see those people as just that text. Sometimes seeing a game designer or publisher in their home, or office, shows that they aren't all that different from the rest of us.

Zak is a controversial figure for some, but he made for an interesting interview subject. Someday, I think that I would like to tackle interviewing him again.

2) The Great Cyberpunk 2020 Adventure Ep. 1

I love Cyberpunk 2020. I found the game while I was in college, back in the day when a lot of the elements of the game were still science fictional. It is a great game, and it has given me a lot of fun over the years. I ran a few episodes of it for some G+ people before scheduling fell apart. We took on the game as a sort of retro experience, much like playing Old School D&D. We didn't try to change or update the game, we just went for it. The group become a ring of "art terrorists" fighting against the corporations of the "future." It was a fun game while it lasted.

3) Dorkland Roundtable with James Maliszewski

I enjoyed this interview, even if I still can't pronounce James' last name properly. We talked a lot about our experiences as gamers back in the early days of the hobby. Both of us being about the same age, and having started gaming at about the same time, it was interesting to see how our experiences compared and contrasted. This was probably the last interview with James before all of the controversy around Dwimmermount. I know that's mostly why people have been watching the interview. There is still some good stuff in there, and it is an interview that I am proud of having done.

4) Masks of Nyarlathotep: Episode 1

I love Call of Cthulhu. One of the things that I had never had a chance to do was to run one of the big "megacampaigns" for the game. This was my hope. Sadly, scheduling caused the game to quickly fall apart. We still had a good time with this session. This session shows off the reasons that I enjoy the Call of Cthulhu game. One day I will run this campaign in its entirety. Hopefully.

5) Rifts Episode 1

Ah, Rifts. I've been a fan of Palladium games since I found a copy of Ninjas and Superspies back while I was in college. I have a lot of their games, but the one thing that I have never had a chance to run has been Rifts. Things blew up fast, but that's cool because that is what Rifts is supposed to be. I would run Rifts again, definitely. Every time I see a new book for it, it makes me want to run the thing. We almost went for another Rifts game as the interim before we start playing D&D 5e, but Call of Cthulhu won out instead. Surprising, but it is a fun game.

Really, I am surprised that the actual play videos have been as popular as they have been. None of us really expected that people would want to watch any of us sitting around playing role-playing games by Google Plus Hangouts. I have always been surprised that my Dorkland Roundtable with Monte Cook wasn't more popular. It does make me realize that I need to do more vblog posts on my YouTube channel, however.

Dorkland! Roundtable with John Wick

I spoke to John Wick about his background in gaming on the Dorkland! Roundtable. As many of these have ended up, he and I talked more than a bit about the impact of Kickstarter on tabletop RPGs and how publishers and designers who wish to remain successful at crowdfunding need to establish an economy of trust with their customers. More and more, I think, those publishers and designers who misspend the money raised through Kickstarter as well as their time with chronically late projects will find it harder and harder to raise money through this method.

Check out our conversation, and see us talk about all of this and more.

Dorkland! Roundtable with Matt Finch

I spoke with +Matt Finch on the Dorkland! Roundtable. A lot of you probably know him as the creator of Swords & Wizardry, but you may not know that as the original developer of OSRIC, he is probably responsible for starting up the whole retroclone trend that has hit gaming.

We spent time talking about why retroclones are a good thing, and various bits and pieces about old school gaming. If you haven't checked out our talk, you should give it a watch.

Dorkland! Roundtable with Anthony Gallela

I spoke with Anthony Gallela on the Dorkland! Roundtable. As a former Executive Director for GAMA (gaming's one and only trade association), I thought that it would make for some interesting background to talk about that for a bit. Most John Q. Gamers aren't really all that familiar with GAMA and what it does for gaming, so I thought it would make for some interesting listening.

We also talked about his time as a designer of RPGs and board games, and we spent a bit of time talking about the Theatrix diceless game that he was a designer of, and how Star Trek influenced the design of the game (hint: it was originally intended to be the system for a licensed Star Trek game).

Dorkland! Roundtable with Jeff Dee

I spoke with +Jeff Dee on the Dorkland! Roundtable. Apparently a couple of the questions about the early days of TSR were a bit too far back for a clear remembrance, but I think that I did get some interesting stories about the early days of TSR out of him.

We did talk about the background of Villains & Vigilantes, how it came about because of one of the deep, philosophical questions that only comic fans worry about (which you can find out about in the video). We also talked a lot about his work as an artist and his recent embracing of Kickstarter.

Dorkland! Roundtable with C.A. Suleiman

I spoke with White Wolf Developer/Designer C.A. Suleiman on the Dorkland! Roundtable. We talked about his time in the gaming business, working for companies like Wizards of the Coast and Green Ronin on projects like Eberron and Hamunaptra. We talked about his recent work for White Wolf on the Mummy RPG as well as his music.

Dorkland! Roundtable with Patrick Kapera

I spoke with +Patrick Kapera of Crafy Games about many things on the Dorkland! Roundtable. We discussed the history of the development of Spycraft, how that lead to Fantasy Craft and how designers who'd made a book as big as Spycraft 2.0 could then do something as small as the Mistborn Adventure Game. It was a good talk, and it gave some interesting insights into Patrick's and Crafty's processes, as well as looking at how they approach the development of a new RPG.

We had a slight technical glitch at one point, so just bear with us at that point.

Dorkland! Roundtable with Sean Fannon

I talked with long time game designer and industry insider Sean Fannon on the Dorkland! Roundtable. He has worn a lot of hats in the gaming business and we tried to talk about as many of those hats as possible in the time that we had.

We also spent some time talking about his upcoming game Shaintar (he even gave us an advanced preview of the cover art sans tradedress):

It was a good talk and we managed to squeeze a lot of Sean's history and current doings into the interview.

Dorkland! Roundtable with Ross Watson

I spoke with designer (and soon to be publisher) Ross Watson about a number of things from his time working with companies like Games Workshop and Fantasy Flight Games on their licensed properties. There is a lot of wisdom in his answers about dealing with licensed properties.

We also spent a lot of time talking about miniatures. It is a pretty well-known fact that I am not a miniatures person, but like the time spent with +Eddy Webb talking about LARPing, I did find it interesting to find out more about an aspect of gaming that I have never engaged with. One of the things that I like about these talks is that I am getting to talk about, and learn about, parts of the overall "stream" of what we all consider to be gaming that I've never dealt with before. Even if it isn't something that I would use in my gaming personally, it is still good to look behind the curtains and see the though processes of others and how they approach their styles of play.

Hopefully this talk will be informative to someone who is an unknowledgeable about miniatures, and I hope that I asked just the right stupid questions.

Dorkland! Roundtable with Mark Truman

Once again I find myself falling behind with posting my Dorkland! Roundtables here to my blog. Things have been busy the last couple of week, with the build up to the Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day, and all that sort of fun stuff, so other things have lagged. Fear not! That doesn't mean that I am ignoring my Dorkland! Roundtables (I do prefer to let them percolate over on G+ and my YouTube channel for a while anyway).

I spoke with +Mark Diaz Truman of Magpie Games, creator of such fine games as The Play's The Thing and Last Best Hope.

We spent a lot of time talking about the impact of Kickstarter on tabletop RPG publishing, and I think that Mark brought up a lot of good points on how to engage a community before, during and after your Kickstarter to help maximize the appeal of attention grabbingness (yes, I just made up that word) of a game. For better or worse, depending on the project, Kickstarter has changed how role-playing games are taken to market, or sold to people in general.

Dorkland! Roundtable with Eddy Webb

I spoke with Eddy Webb of CCP/White Wolf on the Dorkland! Roundtable recently. It was a good talk and we spent some time talking about all things LARP and LARPing. I've never done any LARPing, so it was an interesting discussion for me. It is good to see how other people approach their modes of gaming, and to learn how you can take the approaches from LARPs and tabletop RPGs and see how you can apply them to each other.

Hero Games' Steve Long On The Dorkland! Roundtable

I think that the Hero System gets a bit of a bad rap among gamers. Yeah, it can be a complicated approach to gaming but without variety we would all be playing the exact same dungeon crawls still. I talked with Steve Long about Hero Games, its history and some of the flack that it gets from gamers on the Dorkland! Roundtable. Say what you will about the Hero System, but Steve Long is a man who is passionate about gaming and about the Hero System and this passion came through in the interview. I hope that you enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed talking with him.

Green Ronin's Chris Pramas on The Dorkland! Roundtable

I spoke recently with Chris Pramas of Green Ronin Publishing about his history as a gamer, designer and publisher. We talked about trying to expand fantasy gaming in new directions, with settings like Testament and The Trojan War and games like Blue Rose. We also talk a bit about how gamers react to the "different" that they ask for.

Also be sure to check out Green Ronin's Kickstarter for a new Pathfinder edition of Freeport (ending in just 8 days from the time of this post).

Dorkland! Roundtable with Richard Iorio

Last week I spoke with Rouge Games' +Richard Iorio II about his history as a gamer, getting into designing and his work with getting Rogue Games going, and his games Colonial Gothic and Shadow, Sword & Spell. We spent a lot of time talking about older games and what about them motivated his current approaches to designing games.

Dorkland! Roundtable with Matt Forbeck

There was a lot of things to talk about when Matt Forbeck was at the Dorkland! Roundtable. I knew that he had worked for a great deal of companies in the tabletop role-playing industry, even co-found Pinnacle Entertainment group and serving as its first President. I didn't know that he had published a gaming fanzine while still a teen and had a booth at GenCon for it. We talked about all of these interesting things and we talked about his writing career, including his successful 12 for 12 Kickstarter campaigns.

There was a lot of good stuff, and we probably could have kept talking for another hour. I think, along with my talk with Monte Cook, these were the two Roundtables that we could have just kept going on and on. I hope you enjoy.

Dorkland! Roundtable with Monte Cook

I studied journalism through high school and college. I worked on the various papers of the schools that I went to, and as a blogger I have tried to utilize the skills and training that I picked up while studying journalism. When I was in high school, still living in Indiana, my mom manager to wrangle my getting to interview (then) local morning radio personalities Bob & Tom. It was a big thrill, but I think being a full of himself teen took the edge of of the awe that I felt in talking with them.

Yes, there is a point to this.

A couple of weeks ago I was able to interview +Monte Cook for my Dorkland! Roundtable. I think for the first time since I have been interviewing people, I was nervous during my interview. I tried to work around it. Who knows, hopefully (if I wasn't telling all of you about it now) it won't be noticeable.

Monte Cook was one of the designers of D&D 3e, the game that brought me back into the D&D gaming fold after so many years of wandering in the role-playing deserts of the world. Monte also was given the opportunity to not only revamp the World of Darkness, but he was able to convert it into a different gaming system. Of course, we talked about all of that.

Monte also had a big Kickstarter for a game that he is working on now, a science fantasy game called Numenera. I didn't back the Kickstarter, but I am looking forward to when the game comes out.

One of my big regrets of my many years of not playing D&D is that I missed out on Planescape, one of the big second edition settings. Honestly, from what little I do know about it I think that I would have really enjoyed playing in the setting. That's also probably why Planescape, despite being one of the things that Monte has worked on over his career, gets so little mention in our interview. Maybe one day I will find the books for cheap and I will get to see what was such a big deal about the game. Until then, I guess that I just have my imagination. I hope that you all enjoy the interview.

Dorkland! Roundtable with E. Bryan Rumph

I spoke with +E. Bryan Rumph on the Dorkland! Roundtable. A new designer with a rules light Noir game called The Coin's Hard Edge. Like a lot of starting publishers in this technological world, he is using the Print on Demand services of Lulu.com to fulfill the printing on his game. I honestly think that this is a smart decision for someone starting out (the first print run of Spirit of the Century was done via PoD after all). We talked a bit about what it is like to be a publisher and designer starting out in gaming right now.

It was a good talk and if you are looking at starting out as an RPG publisher, or have just been thinking about it, Bryan makes some good points in his answers.

Dorkland! Roundtable With Tim Kirk

I talked with +Tim Kirk, creator of the super-hero RPG Hearts & Souls about his game, his history as a gamer, comics and what lead him to create his game. If you don't know about Tim or his game (particularly if you are a fan of comic book super-heroics), you definitely need to check it out.

Dorkland! Roundtable with Steven Kenson

I don't think that +Steve Kenson requires much of an introduction from me, not to fan of role-playing games at least. He is personally responsible for two popular super-hero role-playing games (Mutants & Masterminds and Icons), as well as having designed supplements for Shadowrun, GURPS, d20 and other systems. He's also written novels and blogs. He is a one man RPG industry. Kidding aside, Steve is a really nice guy, very engaging to speak with, and probably one of the friendlier people that I know in the gaming business.

He has recently, in addition to his work with Green Ronin, reclaimed the rights to streamlined and almost old school super-hero RPG Icons and entered into the realms of being a publisher. His first Kickstarter for his first self-published Icons supplement. I managed to convince Steve to take some time out of his busy schedule to speak with me on the Dorkland! Roundtable, and although YouTube did try to eat the resulting video...it has survived for you to watch it now.

I hope that you enjoy. Also, don't forget to compliment Steve on his "dress" hoodie.

Dorkland! Roundtable with Corvus Elrod

Last week I spoke with +Corvus Elrod on the Dorkland! Roundtable. It was an interesting talk and, as always, a valuable insight into the workings of the mind of a game designer. We talked about his influences, how being a computer game and tabletop designer can influence each other, as well as his crowdfunded game Bhaloidam. Check Bhaloidam out at the link, because Corvus gives it out for free in PDF form at the link. There are some interesting innovative bits to the game, around the character sheet and how players interact with it to play the game. We talk about it a little bit in the Roundtable, so check it out.

I'm also using a new feature of Blogger that lets me + a person by their G+ account in a blog post. For them, that lets them know that I am talking about them. For you, as the reader that gives you an easy way to track these people down and find them over on G+. If you are a gamer and you aren't yet on G+, you really should be. Some of the best gaming (and general geeky) conversations that I have had online in a very long time are happening on Google Plus. I didn't think it was possible, but it is. If you haven't circled me over there you you can find me at +Christopher Helton.

If you add me over there, please let me know who you are and why you are adding me. It will make things simpler.