Episode 15: One Way or Another
Episode 15: One Way or Another
6:30
Cthulhu Awakens – The Dare, Part Two
Cthulhu Awakens – The Dare, Part One
USP Thanksgiving Blog 2023
Happy Thanksgiving!
Hello heroes! We wanted to use our blog post this week to talk a little bit about what each of us is thankful for in regards to tabletop roleplaying games. All of our lives have been enriched by this hobby that brings us together. We are thankful as a group for all of you who tune into our games, join us at conventions, and support us as we give our stories to the world. Here are some of our thoughts below:
Alex:
I am thankful for the friends and family I have cultivated through RPGs, for the creative outlet they offer, and for the life-changing career I have pursued in this industry. Mostly I’m grateful for the connection gaming allows me to keep with my father even though he has passed on. I wouldn’t be the person I am today if he hadn’t introduced me to roleplaying games. It’s a magic I get to capture every day!
Jonesy:
Gaming has brought me so much to be thankful for. I have forged lifelong friendships and found my family while repelling alien invaders, hostile dragons, machinations of elder Kindred and other crises. Of all the blessings it’s given me, the thing I am most thankful for is the community that welcomed and embraced me when I came out. To this day that group of Garou and Kindred that supported and loved their ST unconditionally was more than I could have ever dreamed possible.
Chris:
40 years allows for many things to be thankful for…the friends I’ve made, the places I’ve been able to travel to and see, the opportunity to improve as a person and be the accepting inclusive person my home environment would never understand or have allowed. For all of my faults, of which there are many, my strengths have been developed and nurtured at the gaming table. THANK YOU.
Brandon:
I’m thankful for the friends!
Jo:
I mean…. Can I be supremely sappy? Because I wouldn’t have my partner, I wouldn’t have come to terms with parts of my sexual identity/relationship styles, and I would not have found most of my NeuroSpicyFam without ttrpgs….So basically much of my happiness and foundations for self-care is rooted in collaborative storytelling and interconnectedness of collective pretend.
Aunt Puppy:
I’m grateful for getting to live lives I’d never get to in the real world with people all over the place. Allows for escapism of everyday stuff for just a short time.
Wiccy:
I’m thankful to have a completely normal outlet for all the voices in my head.
Deuce:
I’m thankful for the people who have shared all the stories over the years with me. Whether in the game or around it, I always find those moments as the fondest of memories shared with people who have made this life such a beautiful thing. Also thankful for all the poor unfortunate souls who have to put up with my bad jokes and still find the strength of will to come back. Don’t know how you do it but glad you do.
Andy:
I’m thankful gaming gave me an outlet in which to be creative. I’m thankful it gave me a way to connect with different people, and connects us even though we’re not always close.
Teegan:
I’m thankful for an outlet for the wild insane stories I come up with.
Gemmy:
I think the amount of adventures and stories I’ve been able to have and share because of these games, and how many friends I’ve made by getting to ramble back and forth about chaotic stories from different sessions we’d had with our friends.
Aaron:
- I’m thankful for the OGL. Despite the recent ruckus caused by the changes to OGL, OGL did create a new landscape for tabletop RPGs. Without the OGL, we never would have seen Pathfinder when D&D 3.5 went away, we never would have seen the first edition of Mutants & Masterminds, and in general our hobby would be much poorer.
- I’m thankful for all of the family, teachers, and friends who didn’t make fun of gaming, or fall to the “Satanic Panic.” Because of their encouragement, I’ve been able to meet some of my closest friends, and have had countless hours of enjoyment and entertainment.
- Modern dice makers. When I got into gaming, dice were hard lumps of plastic that required you to color the numbers in. Now there are so many beautiful and customizable dice that it just makes gaming more fun and colorful. I love it when a player comes to the table with their Pride-colored dice, or their latest metallic dice from Norse Foundry, or whatever other bizarre dice they have.
Kat:
The amount of people I’ve met through ttrpgs that have made my life infinitely better.
USP Holiday Limited Series Preview!
USP Holiday Limited Series Preview!
It’s October, which means that once more we’re going to be taking some time away from some of our regular series and bringing you some Limited Series – some of which are distinctly holiday themed, others not so much. We used to always call this our “One-Shots,” but we’ve come to realize that’s merely wishful thinking.
So, without ado, here’s what you can expect from USP on Wednesdays for the remainder of 2023.
November 1
“Up Around the Bend”
Deadlands Reloaded
GM: Deuce
Players: Wiccy, Kat, Alex, Calvin, Brandon, Jo
The sequel to last year’s “The Long Black Train!” The Posse left Yulcaipa on the last train towards Lost Angels. The workers of the Wasatch Railroad working the engine are very curious as to what happened in the town and want answers from a confused Posse and the lone little girl they brought with them. Yet the fear that pervades the town may also have hopped a ride too.
November 8 & November 15
TBD
November 22
“A Titan City Thanksgiving”
Mutants & Masterminds
GM: Alex
Players: Andy, Kat, Calvin, Jonesy, Kevin
A follow up to last year’s Christmas adventure, a group of Titan City heroes find themselves tasked with saving Thanksgiving.
November 29
Heckin’ Good Doggos
GM: Wiccy
Players: TBD
Details still TBD
December 6
Power Rangers
GM: Andy
Players: Aaron, Alex, Deuce, Laura, Carl
The rangers are back for another holiday adventure.
December 13 & December 20
“The Fight Before Christmas”
Street Fighter: The Storytelling Game
GM: Aaron
Players: Gemmy, Wiccy, Andy, Jo
When a mysterious billionaire announces a street fighting tournament to be streamed live on PPV Christmas Eve, with an unspecified prize that would be the “ultimate Christmas present,” up-and-coming fighters from all across the world try to secure a spot. But when signs emerge that suggest Shadaloo is using the tournament as a cover for their latest operation, the stakes are raised far beyond what is in the ring.
December 27
“Dreams of Desolation”
Star Trek Adventures
GM: Kevin
Players: TBD
The USS Gryphon is patrolling the dangerous unaligned sector nestled between the Beta Quadrant powers. What discoveries await the crew on the neutral world of New Cairo? Beam on down to find out!
Something in the Dark Announcement
We’re one day away from the debut of our new show, Something in the Dark. Something in the Dark will be a part of our connected Earth-Prime universe, which currently consists of Netherwar, City of Destiny, Guardians of Haven, GemStars, Freedom League Dark, Heroes of Tomorrow, and our Freedom City and Emerald City Pride events that were done as a part of our Trevor Project fundraiser.
New Orleans. The Big Easy. Crescent City. These names bring many things to mind – from incredible Cajun cuisine, to Mardi Gras parades, to riverboats, and to the best damn Jazz music ever made.
But there is a darker side to the city. New Orleans is known just as much for Voodoo and vampires and ghost tours. On Earth-Prime, New Orleans holds the headquarters for ARCADE – the American Research Center for the Arcane Defense of Earth. Few know of ARCADE, and that’s the way they want it. Let the Freedom League and the Stormbreakers have the nightly news. If ARCADE does its job correctly, no one will ever know they existed.
Join us, as a new group of magically touched heroes find themselves drawn into the web of mysteries and secrets that surround this organization. They’ll either save the world, or end up damning it.
The latest chapter in the USP Earth-Prime universe for Mutants & Masterminds 3rd Edition begins soon. On this show, you’ll find mages and mystics, monsters and men, semi-divine beings and infernally-touched warriors, including a visitor from outside of Earth-Prime’s cosmos. We’ll be making extensive use of ideas from the Supernatural Handbook for Mutants & Masterminds.
Your host and GM for this series is Aaron, and our cast will be:
- Alex (Anson Walker) (Coming to the show in November, 2023)
- Aunt Puppy (Professor Daffodil Carrie Pembroke)
- Brandon (Orpheus & Eurydice)
- Deuce (Babel)
- Gemmy (Muse)
- Wiccy (Harper Graves)
Now, while Alex may have promised (and failed to deliver) on a “lighter tone” with Guardians of Haven, Something in the Dark promises the opposite. This is a story where bad things happen. Drug-use, sexual situations, domestic violence, and slavery will all be on display here. This will be a story of heroes standing against some of the worse elements of humanity, and the supernatural elements that are behind them are only nearly as scary. That said, this will be a story of heroes, and at the end of the day, they will (hopefully) have held the darkness at bay.
Hope to see you tomorrow night!
Episode 23 – Conundrum of Tomorrow
Episode 23 – Conundrum of Tomorrow
When last we saw our heroes, they had just finished battling a rogue robot rampage. After quickly dispatching the mechanical monster, our heroes investigated the trail back to Exotech. There, they will discover that the rampage seems to just be part of a bigger puzzle. And speaking of puzzles, the crazed captain of confusion, Conundrum seems to be behind it all.
Fantasy AGE – A Familiar Tale, Finale
Fantasy AGE – A Familiar Tale, Finale
A Familiar Tale tells the story of a group of animal companions of typical fantasy heroes, played using Fantasy AGE, 2nd Edition from Green Ronin Publishing.
To learn more about Fantasy AGE, head here.
GM – Jonesy
- Calvin – Renwyrd, Rat familiar to Nash the Necromancer
- Deuce – Saywell, Spider spinwright, arcane bonded to Vagna the Warlock
- Jo – Xender, the Spell-casting Bookworm, Dragon made entirely of scrolls, friend to Samwell
- Kevin – Farrin, Falcon companion to Regis the Ranger
- Wiccy – Roth, Raccoon partner to Lejean the Thief