Tim Bannock

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Enter The Nerdom VS Aliens

Enter The Nerdom Versus Alien the Roleplaying Game

08/19/2024 / / 1 Comment

Once again, I got to run a game for the Enter The Nerdom podcast, along with special guest Dan Mason.

Here’s where you can find Enter The Nerdom Ep. 46 – Alien RPG Tabletop; if you don’t see your favorite podcast venue of choice, check again in case I missed it.

There will be a video version of this episode with cameras on the battle maps and gaming table coming soon!

I ran Steve Hatherley’s Perfect Organism scenario with a few minor tweaks and it was almost a Paranoia-level hose-job for the players! I highly recommend it if you’re looking for a scenario that does a great job tying right into the first two ALIEN movies.

We’ll be doing a sort of post-session breakdown, explore some of the alternative events and some other actual plays of the scenario, and discuss ALIEN: Romulus later this week! I’ll make sure to really take you behind the scenes of the scenario when we do that.

 

Shadowdark - Better than the Dungeon Master's Guide?

The Dungeon Master’s Guide Sucks but Shadowdark’s Got Your Back

08/08/2024 / / 0 Comments

One of the things I realized a long time ago, but Sly Flourish article “How to Survive a Digital D&D Future” really cements, is that Wizards of the Coast will never release the Dungeon Master’s Guide (DMG) that DMs need. No, I’m not talking about one that will “teach them how to DM,” which the current one does, and which the next one is arguably going to do better. Teaching how to DM is great, but you also need to provide tools for a DM to identify and create good content for their game. People crave exciting games, filled with fun content.

I’m talking about having a DMG that’s packed with the tools necessary to generate a campaign and a dungeon top to bottom in a format that goes beyond vague advice and stylistic choices. I’m talking about procedural dungeon and campaign creation. Procedural NPC creation. Procedural adventure and encounter table generation. One with tons of evocative ideas that show DMs how to turn that content into good, fun content for the players to engage with.

What I’m really talking about is all the nifty tools that Shadowdark just won multiple ENNIE Awards for doing. Let’s take look.

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Behind the Scenes: A New Publisher is Born

08/02/2024 / / 0 Comments

It’s been a long time since I’ve (publicly) put a lot into game development and publishing, but behind the scenes things have been going on. A lot of things.

There will be bigger announcements and more news coming in the future. But for now, I just wanted to take a moment to say these new ventures will be happening under a more formalize organization: Bannock N Barkby, named after myself and the magical pupster who’s been in my logo for some time!

If you’d be so kind as to show some love, here’s where you’ll be able to find stuff in the future:

BannockNBarkby.com

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/bannocknbarkby

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bannocknbarkby/

Twitter (because X is a stupid name): https://x.com/BannockNBarkby

Like, subscribe, share, whatever. I’m not a big fan of social media, but you gotta what you gotta do to get the word out, right? Your support is always much appreciated; there’s no gaming without friends!

Tim Bannock Publishing will slowly but surely morph into Bannock N Barkby, and you may even see some revised releases to celebrate.

More to come!

ALIEN The Roleplaying Game
ALIEN The Roleplaying Game

Enter The Nerdom Plays ALIEN the Roleplaying Game

07/31/2024 / / 0 Comments

Update 8/5/2024: We pushed the recording to Sunday 8/18, so the podcast episode will be up sometime soon after that.

Last May, my friends from Enter The Nerdom — a podcast about all things fans love about movies, shows, comics, super heroes, gaming, and more, hosted by Chad, Stan, and Watson — invited me to chat about the origins of the tabletop roleplaying game hobby-turned-industry, and then I ran them through a one-shot dungeon crawl using the scenario Puzzle Dungeon: Seer’s Sanctum with the dead-simple rules of Knave (technically, I used a hack of the first edition). Joined by another friend of ours, Dan Mason, we had an absolute blast. (Check out all our antics in these posts.)

In celebration of the release of ALIEN: Romulus, I’m going to run ALIEN The Roleplaying Game for them. I found an incredibly fitting cinematic scenario to run. (I’ll post which one after the episode comes out; free cake* to anyone able to guess it listening to the episode before my reveal!)

As I often do, I spent some time revising the scenario and crafting some homemade props for it, so I’ll share those with the episode reveal, as well. Just to whet your appetite:

  • Custom xenomorph and other character pawns (in the style of Pathfinder Pawns)
  • Additional deck plans
  • Homemade agenda cards
  • Homemade initiative cards for ALIEN’s unique initiative and action tracking system
  • …and other handouts!

We’ll be recording the episode Sunday August 11th, and I’ll drop an update with the reveal and custom goodies once it’s live on all the usual channels!

*The cake is a lie.

ALIEN Roleplaying Game
ALIEN Roleplaying Game

The ALIEN Roleplaying Game Cheat Sheet

07/25/2024 / / 4 Comments

Updated 7/25/2024: I’ve significantly updated the cheat sheet while prepping for an upcoming cinematic scenario. If you have the previous version, definitely check out this new one as it is a huge improvement: page references, full Stealth Mode rules, quick references for Synthetic and Xenomorph rules, and more!

I don’t know what Fria Ligan has done to me, but they sunk their claws in deep when they announced the ALIEN Roleplaying Game coming later this year. I quickly pre-ordered, have been preparing to run the included starter scenario, and have devoured the content people are creating on the ALIEN RPG Forum.

Since I’m picky about what I want on my GM screen, I made the following cheat sheet. This combines a lot of what you’ll find on the forums, but lays it out slightly differently to suit my tastes. Check it out!

Download the PDF Cheat Sheet for the ALIEN Roleplaying Game from Google Drive.

Don’t hesitate to comment or reach out to me on social media (hit the links in the widgets or at the bottom of the page) if you catch any mistakes!

If you enjoyed this article, please like, comment, and share! Use the widgets to subscribe to get an email as soon as I publish something new, or check out my stuff at DMsGuild and DriveThruRPG. I really appreciate your support.

Happy gaming to ya!

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