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Oh jesus, the eating on mic is horrible.

Fantastic! I've been relistening to old NNF episodes, and I was just wondering when Maria Bamford would return as a guest.

There's a Guardian article from february, when the pilot aired, and it says: Tonight's pilot show, starring American Brit Marling alongside Nesbitt, is to be followed by a series later in the year. http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/feb/09/babylon-met-police-danny-boyle-brian-paddick

If you think about it, there's a reason why spells don't require To Hit rolls - a fighter can attack each and every round (sometimes multiple times per round), as long as he or she has a weapon (or just his or her fists), while a magic user only can use the spell once, and then has to relearn it. It seems a bit mean to add the chance of a miss to using a spell, and would make it really unappealing to play as a magic user. What I'm basically saying is that the rules generally aren't there just for their own inherent 'rulesiness', they are there to create a balanced game. Which doesn't mean that anyone isn't free to scrap or amend any rule as they see fit, but I do get the feeling that some of what are seen as Nerd Poker 'house rules' just seem to be the group misremembering rules, and vaguely clawing at them..

An excellent song. Also, Heroes And Villains, which they all went "huh, don't know that one" at, one of their most un-Da Doo Ron Ron-like songs.

If you like music, I can't imagine saying that the Beach Boys suck. That's just nuts. I certainly don't like every song of theirs, but I still can hear that the songs I personally don't like, are well crafted songs.

Skeleton Poker

And what's up with the shortening of the theme? I used to be able to make a cup of coffee, drink the coffee, wash the cup and put it away, and still have a bit of theme left to go.. now I hardly have the time to pick a cup to start with!

Do you do requests?

This is the second time I've heard Todd Glass saying that he is the actual writer of his book, and not the ghostwriter (the first time was on Comedy Bang Bang, I think). I think it's pretty simple: if you didn't sit down and write down the actual words, and structured your writing (this is probably the most important), then you didn't write the book.

An excellent episode. St. Clair and Parham should have their own podcast, their interaction just never gets old.

To be fair, they tend do one episode each season featuring a "star", by which I mean someone who is quite mainstream and maybe not that familiar with the rhythm of the show (although Saget says he is a fan), and Jimmy and Matt then tend to take a backseat and let the guest talk. Earlier examples have been Conan O'Brien, Paul Reiser and Richard Lewis. With that in mind, I had plenty of fun with this episode.

What was the name of your band again?

I don't feel it's fair to compare Blaine to Sark, and not because one is better than the other - Sark's way of doing things is just one style of DMing. What I really like about Blaine is that he genuinely asks his players what they want to do, and reacts to their decisions. I have noticed Sark at times presenting options to the group, which is a nice way to move things along, but is also a stealthy way of railroading them. An example is the idea of the poisoning of the dog - the group didn't come up with that idea, it was presented to them by an NPC. (The group wasn't even involved in making the poison - gathering the ingredients and making the stuff was all handled "offscreen" by NPCs, if I remember correctly.) The only negative thing about giving your group free reign, is that if all options are open, it becomes nigh impossible to make a real choice. And that is why having a common goal (which could take the form of a quest, or job, but doesn't have to) helps - it focuses the group's attention, without actually limiting their range of decisions.

Saget talked almost continuously, he needed to conserve some energy to keep going.

I'm really happy to hear Sarah trying to steer the group into a direction. The semi-aimless wandering is nice enough, I suppose, but when you do that there tend to be little or no real stakes, which then tends to lead to characters opting for violence over other options (there is only the short term to consider, really). And you also get the strained situation that Sarah describes, where her character has no real reason to stay around these people, but she stays anway Because Of The Game. All of this has also made me think that Sarah might actually make a pretty spiffy DM, if she ever chooses to be one.

He has been on the show before - episode 13 of season 6.

Those look beautiful, but I would have some doubts about how fair those dice are..

I really want them back! Brian, Blaine and Ken are great (and Sark is a shitty DM, ofcourse), but Sarah and Gerry each bring a very different, distinct energy to the group.

I looked it up for you, and here's the deal as far as the rules are concerned (which may ofcourse differ completely from what Sark decides he wants them to be). It's an alteration spell, which means the caster actually physically changes, it is not an illusion. However, the caster doesn't receive any of the special abilities of the new form, only some of the basic ones. The Player's Book gives as an example that of an owl - the caster will be able to fly, but will have his own eyesight, not the heightened eyesight of an owl. Another example is that of becoming a 'black pudding' (a gelatinous monster), that can squeeze under doors, and slither across ceilings - the caster can do the door-squeezing, and the ceiling-slithering, but won't be able to use the creature's special combat abilities, like spitting acid. More importantly, the caster keeps his or her own physical characteristics, like hit points, attack rolls and saving throws. Which basically means that a caster can change into a rhino but won't have any of the extra strength and combat ability of a rhino.

I can't believe Brus didn't speak with Sark's Bruce Willis voice.. he's called Brus, for god's sake! When I heard the name, I seriously thought Sark was referencing that, and there'd be some variation of "come out to the coast, we'll get together, have a few laughs".

Hm, I don't find that idea very convincing. It seemed heavily implied that it was Sir Dick's ghost, what with the thumbs up 'n all.

Huh! Turns out it all was a dream!

I kind of like that characters die in this game - normally DMs are quite careful about killing off characters, and I think that's probably a good approach when gaming with friends. But from the perspective of a podcast, it is fun to have an extra level of danger, and to hear new characters introduced. Beside all that - it might be time for the group to make some regular arrangements regarding leveling up. Maybe Sark can give XP each session, or every 2 or 3 sessions, something like that. Now the leveling seems to be forgotten, and then people jump up several levels at once. XP and leveling are there for a reason, after all. I do think it would be better to do that outside of the podcast, it's probably not very interesting to listen to people flipping through players handbooks.. just start the next session with saying which characters leveled up (if any), no need to go into details. New spells and abilities can be introduced when they're used the first time.

Aw man, Sir Richard was my favourite character, sad to hear him go. But then Gerry will just make another awesome character. I was kind of expecting them to get hit by the blast, and then to wake up in The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe.