19 Hits the Dragon

Season 2 Episode 1: Wrangling the Cats; or, A 1-Shot of Your Very Own

What is a One shot and why do we play them? Where do I begin the creation process? What should I focus on when writing? How do I prepare for when my players inevitably ignore the tasks in front of them and go have a light lunch instead? 
 
My very first guests Alex Rodriguez and Brian LeBlanc aka Helix Missionary from the delightfully chaotic Two Weeks One Shot are here to answer these very questions.  They've joined me to  share the lessons they've learned in their own misadventures. We begin with how to attack the conceptual phase and bring all of your ideas together for the game you're interested in running. From there we talk tips for game prep, what you need to have at the ready in order to run the game. Then we talk how to actually sit down and run this game.
 
It seems like a tall task when you never know what shenanigans your friends will get up to. I mean you've got maybe 4 hours to tell this story and everyone might head off in different directions and completely ignore the clues you've left them. Or maybe they'll get to the place and then all split up and decide to do their own thing. How are you supposed to manage all that? 
 
Well rest assured my friend that with the shared insight of Alex, Brian and myself you'll have all the tools you need to manage this very situation and have a great time at your table. 
 
We've included their trailer at the top of the show for a glimpse of what to expect! You can find our guest wherever you get your podcast or check this link: https://linktr.ee/twoscast
 
Be sure to like, comment, leave a rating or review, and tell 19 of your closest friends! 
 
Special thanks as always to Paul Mackie, for a rocking theme song, and to Hannah Miller for editing our nonsense together into something worth listening to! 

Season 2 Trailer; or Second Wind

We have a lot of great content in store this season and I'm super excited to get all of our episodes to you our listeners. In the mean time enjoy a peek at the conversations to come! 
 
Huge thank you to Paul Mackie for the rocking theme song and our editor Hannah Miller for all the amazing work she does! 

Season 2 Announcement Promo

19 Hits the Dragon is back in action May 8th! Join Mike as he sits down with some awesome TTRPG creators to talk shop about our favorite aspects of gaming.

Intermission

Hello listeners, Mike here with a quick announcement. You may have noticed we don’t have a full episode this week. We’re beginning a brief hiatus as we make some adjustments to the show moving forward. I explain in more detail in the clip we have uploaded today.
In the meantime I’ll still be reachable on twitter @19hitsthedragon or via email at 19hitsthedragon@gmail.com. If you are a creator in the TTRPG world and are interested in making a guest appearance with the show feel free to drop me a line by your preferred means of contact. 
We thank you all for your support thus far and ask for your patience as I get things sorted and find the best way to move forward. We’ll see you real soon on 19 Hits the Dragon.

Episode 14: Take Care of your (Mental) Health; or, An Introduction to Cyberpunk Red, Part 3

CW for this episode: Extreme bodily harm, drug use/addiction, mental illness, discussion of psychopathy and dissociation
We return to the Dark Future of Cyberpunk Red for our final installment (for now) of this series of episodes. LAst week we talked about combat and all the ways that bullets can hurt you. Today we continue this conversation by covering the critical injuries that can occur when you take damage some of which are quite grim indeed. From there the discussion leads into the ways injuries are treated, the difficulties and costs associated with getting treatment. We also talk about how in this fictional setting one can afford better health care if you have more money. Again totally fictional and any resemblance to reality is purely coincidental. We also touch on the various street drugs that can be purchased and used in the game, how they effect your character, and what happens when you get addicted to them. 
You may be thinking to yourselves, “This reality is full of dark and grim circumstances and consequences, how could anyone be ok living in a world like this.” You would be right to wonder such things. The good news is your characters can always go to therapy. We cover the mechanics of how therapy works in game and what the benefits and costs are for such services. 
This leads us into talking about certain aspects of mental health as detailed in the game mechanics. The consequences of your character losing too much Humanity and Empathy and empathy are quite dire and you can easily teeter on the edge of a psychopathic breakdown if you’re not careful. 
All this and more in Episode 14 of 19 Hits the Dragon! Check it out! Tell your friends! And remember to like, comment, and subscribe!
Contact us on Twitter @19hitsthedragon, or email us at 19hitsthedragon@gmail.com.

Episode 13: The Future is Dark; or, An Introduction to Cyberpunk Red, Part 2

We are back in the dark future of Cyberpunk Red! Today we highlight the core mechanics of the game and how your edgerunner succeeds or fails in their attempts to topple the megacorps. 
We spend a little time talking through various aspects of the numerous skills before slowing down to unpack the role abilities. These are abilities and features that are distinct to each role and make each option unique. Are you a Rockerboy with a cult-like following? Maybe a Media with stories that will shake the foundations of society? Perhaps you’re a road warrior Nomad with a suped up ride? The possibilities and customization options to make your edgerunner unique are nearly endless.
Of course it wouldn’t be a Cyberpunk game without deadly firefights and combat encounters that can leave you hanging on to life by a thread. Swing your bats and swap bullets with the Boostergangers and hope your armor holds together long enough for you to flatline them. We talk some about how to get healed up and glance over the critical injuries but we save most of that for next week.
We wrap things up for this episode by talking about how you improve your character and how it differs from a traditional leveling system. It’s a longer episode but a lot of great info here so bear with us! Also Mike apologizes in advance for talking so much. 
All this and more in Episode 13 of 19 Hits the Dragon! Check it out! Tell your friends! And remember to like, comment, and subscribe!
Contact us on Twitter @19hitsthedragon, or email us at 19hitsthedragon@gmail.com.

Episode 12: Is The Matrix Cyberpunk?; or, An Introduction to Cyberpunk Red, Part 1

It's a very special episode of 19 Hits the Dragon!
For the very first time in the show's extensive and prestigious history, Mike and Rob are venturing all the way out of the high fantasy adventure gaming space and dive headlong into the world of Cyberpunk Red! It is a distant, bleak, dystopian future, where a small cabal of hyper-wealthy elites exerts pulls the strings of society at every level, while the rest are left to scrounge to survive. Boy, aren't we all happy that doesn't remind us of any current prevailing conditions, am I right?
Anyway, this episode is the first part of a three part examination of Cyberpunk Red, as Mike and Rob share their first impressions of the system, take a look at the major Roles and talk about how they work, and talk about what characterizes Cyberpunk as a genre, and how the game's setting and rules reflect those characteristics. 
Also here is a list of some of the other Cyberpunk and otherwise punk related titles we mention in the episode: 
Hard Wired by John Williams
Nueromancer and the rest of The Sprawl Trilogy by William Gibson 
Our Band Could Be Your Life by Michael Azzerod
Bubblegum Crisis
Ghost in the Shell
Akira
 
All this and more in Episode 12 of 19 Hits the Dragon! Check it out! Tell your friends! And remember to like, comment, and subscribe!
Contact us on Twitter @19hitsthedragon, or email us at 19hitsthedragon@gmail.com.

Episode 11: AD&D 2nd Edition Part 2; or, It Makes Perfect Sense If You're Totally Deranged

(Content Warning: Alcohol mention in the episode)
19 Hits the Dragon is back to delve further into the mysteries of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd Edition! This episode is all about classes. You would think that classes would be pretty straightforward, right? Then, you start flipping through Chapter 3 and are immediately confronted with a maze of experience tables, ability score requirements, and essential details buried under dense mountains of text. And then, after that, you come across the rules for high-level Druid advancement, and all hell breaks loose.
Fortunately, Mike and Rob are here to decipher these riddles, so that you don't have to! What are these mysteriously specific Thief skills, and how do they work? What's all this Priest spheres business about? And can anyone dare to delve into the mysteries of THAC0?
All this and more in Episode 11 of 19 Hits the Dragon! Check it out! Tell your friends! And remember to like, comment, and subscribe!
Contact us on Twitter @19hitsthedragon, or email us at 19hitsthedragon@gmail.com.

Episode 10: AD&D 2nd Edition Part 1; or, Bioessentialism Gives You a Headache

You come into consciousness, floating in nilspace. You are unsure if you have corporeal form, or any sort of physical extension, for that matter. As far as you know, you are only the sum of your thoughts and mental processes. Before you are able to fully acclimate to this nothing, a voice calls out to you: “Roll 3d6. 11? Ok, that's your Strength score, write that down.” This process repeats five more times, at which point, you emerge fully formed, a 1st level wizard doomed to die in a panic after your one use of Magic Missile is insufficient to kill the hobgoblin.
This episode is the first part of a look at character creation in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd Edition, a strange system from a strange time. Mike and Rob begin the descent into this nilspace to examine D&D as it was long ago, to look at what has changed and what has changed less than you'd think. 
This system is a bizarre place, full of weird ability modifiers and confusing racial restrictions. Those racial restrictions give our heroes a fantastic opportunity to criticize race as indicator of abilities, which the game has moved on from in some ways, but not others.
All this and more in Episode 10 of 19 Hits the Dragon! Check it out! Tell your friends! And remember to like, comment, and subscribe! 
Contact us on Twitter @19hitsthedragon, or email us at 19hitsthedragon@gmail.com.

Episode 9: Not Sponsored by Stardust; or, Mike and Rob's Favorite Spells, Part 2

19 Hits the Dragon is back for a further look at Mike and Rob's favorite D&D spells! Last episode was all about combat spells, giving our intrepid co-hosts the chance to spread their wings and soar as majestic, contrarian hipster eagles who don't care for Magic Missile.
But this episode is all about all those other weird spells. These spells don't pop off of the page as effective murder hobo implements; rather, these are the kinds of spells guaranteed to make your D&D game weirder and therefore, better. These are spells that read minds and animate trees and transport parties across vast distances in the blink of an eye; they also give Mike and Rob reminders of a certain Claire Danes film from times of yore.
Also, there's an innocent discussion of the spell Identify that will send our heroes down a dark and strange path in the coming episodes...
All this and more in Episode 9 of 19 Hits the Dragon! Check it out! Tell your friends! And remember to like, comment, and subscribe!
Contact us on Twitter @19hitsthedragon, or email us at 19hitsthedragon@gmail.com.