C-Sides: Trophy Gold ft. Jason Cordova - The Rime Palace, Chapter I

We continue our game of Trophy Gold with Jason Cordova! While you don’t need to have listened to that series to understand this one, I highly recommend you check it out.

Ezio, Zabatu, Sgt. Bruno Ilicik, and Lord Dion Devanos are treasure-hunters searching for a bone ship called Ardken, a legendary ship that supposedly will be able to take them to a lost domain of fae called The Rime Palace.

For more information about Trophy, or to purchase this excellent system, check their website here.

You can follow Jason on twitter, and check out The Gauntlet’s website and Patreon.

Cloven Pine Games can be found here, where you can pick up more of their TTRPG work.

The theme music for our Trophy games was made by Gabi Vanek who rules. You can find more of her work here.

Finally, here are links to our Patreon, merch, and twitter and instagram.

C-Sides: Hungry Gnolls Eat the Rich

Today's C-Side is Zack Garth's Hungry Gnolls Eat the Rich! A game about building community and uh.. eating the rich, of course.

So enjoy the quest of Tooth-tooth and Greymane as they attempt to steal what food and clothing they can from the human Gospa ruling class preparing for a war the Gnolls have no say in.

If you would like to support us we have merch available on our store, or you can check out our Patreon for opportunities to vote on new C-Sides and chat in our Discord

Finally, be sure to check out Zack Garth’s works. He makes small games and publishes them on itch as well as podcasts with his wife Diana on the one-on-one RPG podcast Heart Points.

Thanks for listening!

Series IX: Cyclopolis of the Damned - Chapter VIII

Milio the Bard, Kimin the Shaman, and Uraziti the Spellblade deal with the consequences of their own actions during our last session. Milio and Kimin are dealing with arcane art gone awry, while Uraziti has transported himself to his own center of power, but without a way back from a hostile land.

Together, though, they come up with a plan to reunite. It's going to take everyone working in unison, which in this group, means a lot of trouble may be headed their way. And everything is getting pretty strange...

If you'd like to support us, consider leaving us a review wherever you download your podcasts from. It'd benefit us hugely, and if you let us know we’ll send you access to our Discord!

Check out our Patreon! Supporting us there let’s you vote on upcoming C-Sides as well as Discord access. You can also receive a tableside version of the podcast, which in this episode includes a long discussion about multiclassing, “power creep” in narrative games, and things to consider when radically changing a character and their playbook mid-game. Also a bunch of dick jokes. I’m sorry. There’s more quality content in there, too!

We also have shirts and stickers for sale!

As always, you can follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

Series IX: Cyclopolis of the Damned - Chapter VII

Uraziti the Spellblade, Kimin the Shaman, and Milio the Bard make their way from the crumbling tower deeper toward the heart of the Vulturelands. The enchantments of this place affecting them more as they go on their way.

The standing bones give their first glimpse into the dark, forgotten history of the cyclopes, a glimpse that is difficult for them to withstand.

They then search for an easier way forward as they explore this land. They move to a lake of black water, but some old friends decide to drop in.

If you enjoy what we do, please consider leaving a review on iTunes or wherever you download podcasts. Let us know if you do, and we’ll send you an invite to our Discord!

Please also check out our Patreon if you’d like to support us. You’ll be able to vote on what we’re playing, you can access our Discord, and our notes for games, the occasional additional bonus episodes, and you can get a version of the podcast where we leave in our table banter and have more discussion about what we’re playing.

The Patreon will also greatly help us produce additional regular content as well! We’re very close to our next goal, where we will begin streaming tabletop-related games and discussions in addition to producing our podcast!

As always, you can find us on Twitter and Instagram. And check out our merchandise if you'd like some cool art on your body or stuff.

Series IX: Cyclopolis of the Damned - Chapter VI

Kimin the Shaman and Uraziti the Spellblade deal with some ratfolk in order to get Uraziti's sorcerous weapon back. But it leaves them with some unanswered questions.

Milio the Bard makes his way back to the tower to rejoin the party, but spends some time unlocking a crate which lead to an unexpected situation.

When the party does finally meet up, things are tense as Milio confronts Uraziti about leaving him for dead, while Kimin has bigger issues to worry about.

If you enjoy our podcast, consider backing our Patreon!

In this week’s Patron version of the episode, we include discussion about refining the custom moves I made for the game, managing party dynamics, roleplaying outside of your comfort zone, and more!

You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram AT chimaeracast. 

You can buy our shirts or stickers at thechimaera.bigcartel.com! 

Series IX: Cyclopolis of the Damned - Chapter V

Kimin the Bard and Uraziti the Spellblade, having lost their traveling companion over a cliff, decide to explore the crumbling tower that had been guarded by skeletons. They find themselves dealing with mysterious effects and something skittering within.

Meanwhile, Milio the Bard, believing his companions are traveling in the same direction in order to meet up, walks along a river of tar alone, seeking a way back up the ravine. While in some ways, he finds the walk beneficial, it's not going to be so straightforward to meet up with his friends again.

You can support us on Patreon to gain Discord Access and vote on upcoming C-Sides. You can also listen to a version of the podcast with more banter and game discussion, and more! This week, the extended episode includes talk about game pacing with split parties among other things.

You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram AT chimaeracast.

And you can find our merchandise at thechimaera.bigcartel.com.

Series IX: Cyclopolis of the Damned - Chapter IV

Milio the Bard, Uraziti the Spellblade, and Kimin the Shaman have journeyed through the Vulturelands to a strange tower polite enough to inform them it is forbidden. Our party tries to dig deeper to learn more, but finds themselves confronted by a group of skeletal warriors. Uraziti uses his powerful martial magic to blast these bony foes, Milio uses his brains to outsmart the brainless, and Kimin uses his... brute strength?

Things don't go quite how they hoped.

If you enjoy our podcast, please consider supporting us on Patreon!

We also have shirts and stickers for sale at thechimaera.bigcartel.com.

Write us a review and let us know about it and we'll send you a link to our fan Discord!

You can follow us on Twitter or Instagram AT chimaeracast.

Series IX: Cyclopolis of the Damned - Chapter III

We join Kimin the Shaman, Uraziti the Spellblade, and Milio the Bard while they investigate a skeleton of a leviathan held aloft by wriggling tendrils. They search for answers that will tell them more about the Vulturelands, but find themselves a little lost. Perhaps they'll get lucky and find their guide!

If the custom moves in this recording are a little different than the end result we made available for listeners, it's because we edited them for improvements as we used them, so don't worry when they don't quite match.

If you enjoy what we do and have the money to spare, please check out our Patreon. Along with our gratitude, you'll gain Discord access and the ability to vote on our upcoming games. In the Patron-only version of this week's episode, we spend more time discussing the custom moves I wrote for this point crawl, as well as the potential advanced moves available for these playbooks, and more!

As always, you can follow us on Instagram and Twitter AT chimaeracast. We have t-shirts and stickers at thechimaera.bigcartel.com. And of course we'd love it if you left us a review!

C-Sides: The Veil - Chapter V

This is it! The Veil concludes!

Mr. Smiley, now mask-off to the viewer, leads the team toward an assassination attempt on the famous talking-head Bryan O'Doule of Omega Day News, but first there's a to-do on the floor of the Crystal Palace Casino...

900 opens themself up -- both figuratively and literally -- to one of the casino staff, but their affections only bring the crew more trouble.

Chainbreaker, now the de-facto leader of his local religious sect, has to keep the neophytes safe as best he can, but his fast-progressing illness can only let him do so much.

And Snow White is determined to make sure that she's the biggest beneficiary of all this chaos, at any means necessary.

Also, before you go, our friend Gabi Vanek, who has done music for several of our games now, released a couple of EPs with another local Will Yager in the last year. If you 'd like to give her a little love, you can find those here and here.

You hear my pitch in the intro, but if you have the desire and scratch to help us make this podcast, consider subscribing to our Patreon, it really helps us out, or buy an awesome T-Shirt.

See you next time, thanks again

-N

Series IX: Cyclopolis of the Damned - Chapter II

Milio the Bard, Kimin the Shaman, and Uraziti the Spellblade follow their strange dwarven guide Ishth through the Gate of Jet, leading them upward toward the Pass of the Harpies toward the Vulturelands. What awaits them is not the easy alpine hike they were hoping to enjoy. Though the birding is excellent.

The custom moves I wrote to support a point crawl in Dungeon World for this series are in the comments of this episode post on our website. Feel free to use them, modify them, or take inspiration from them in your own games.

If you enjoy our podcast, consider leaving us a review! Let us know that you did and we’ll send you an invite to our new Discord!

You can also gain access to our Discord by supporting us through our Patreon. You’ll also be able to vote on upcoming C-Sides. Other tiers include a tableside version of the podcast, access to all our notes, personalized magic items, and more!

This is the last week to purchase our merch for 30% off using the code "cyclops"!

As always you can follow us on Instagram and Twitter AT chimaeracast.

Series IX: Cyclopolis of the Damned - Chapter I

Uraziti the Spellblade, Kimin the Shaman, and Milio the Bard make their way up the Howling Valley and into the isolated dwarven city of Law. There, they find hints of what lies before them, impress some strange old dwarves, and take in the sights and smells of the city before making their way even higher to the outer boundary of the Vulturelands.

If you enjoy our podcast, consider checking out our Patreon where we have longer, more banter-filled episodes of the podcast, discord access, and additional story game content.

We have shirts and stickers for sale over at thechimaera.bigcartel.com!

And you can follow us on Twitter and Instagram at chimaeracast.

Series IX: Cyclopolis of the Damned - Introduction

We kick off our Third Cycle around our table with the beginning of Series IX, entitled “Cyclopolis of the Damned.” We first are introduced to Kimin Bilaskis the Shaman who harvested power from a dead god and carries another around his neck, Milio Miretti the Bard who escaped the slaughter of Lucco and lived with the Fjord-Dwarves, and Uraziti the Spellblade, youngest son of the Shah of Ashkeshahr and hidden weapon of a secret order.

Then the dungeon master asks a few questions to fill out some details of the party’s lives and travels before heading the the walled dwarven city of Law.

We just launched a Patreon, so if you’d like to support us, check it out! Supporting us on Patreon will let you vote on upcoming games you want to hear us play in C-Sides and gets you an invite to a discord channel. You can also get an unabridged version of our podcast feed starting with Series IX, more like you’re sitting at the table with us. This week, the Patreon episode includes discussions we had while crafting bonds and flags, some silly game ideas we riff on, and more jokes. The feed will also include wrap-up episodes after each individual series, game readings and discussions, and occasionally some additional C-Sides. We will be uploading all of our notes from our games to the Patreon for your reference. You could also get all of our future releases, starting with the Dualist (not a typo) playbook for Dungeon World and the Streak playbook for World Wide Wrestling!

We have shirts and stickers for sale over at thechimaera.bigcartel.com!

You can follow us on Twitter or Instagram AT chimaeracast.

The Bard playbook is part of the core Dungeon World rules. The Shaman can be found in Grim World from Boldly Games. And the Spellblade can be found in Incomplete Adventurer by Trevor Murray & Ben K. Rosenbloom.

The Dragon's Den - Cycle Two

With the end of Series VIII, the Second Cycle of Chimaeracast has come to an end, and to celebrate our latest rotation around our gaming table, we present again our fireside chat - The Dragon’s Den!

Life’s a lot different since the last Den: JD and Ryan have flown the coop, and then everything that happened in 2020 happened, so we’re happy to have you all to listen to us. We love and appreciate you. The episode’s a mammoth, so I’ll say this here, too — if you want to hang out with us on Discord, just leave us a review on your platform of choice and shoot us an e-mail, we’d love to hang out with you. We’ll be watching movies and wrestling, playing video games, or just bullshitting.

Just because the Den is out doesn’t mean you can’t ask us questions, either! Feel free to leave comments on the site here, or on Twitter, or even use the above link to e-mail us.

A couple additional fun links from the episode:

JD mentions a Conan story “The Tower of the Elephant” which is found in an issue of Weird Tales from March 1933, you can find an archived version of the issue here.

The intro/outro music (ie, not the weird noise Zach made with his mouth) is “The World’s Sorrow” from the SNES game Dragon View composed by M. Takenaka, N. Komatsu, T. Sekido, and the Mercado Inc Staff and you can find that here.

Finally, the quote JD used at the end is from Sorcerer by Ron Edwards of Adept Play, and you can check out it and other games at the Adept Un-Store here.

Next week is the beginning of the next cycle, starting with JD, so check that out!

-N

C-Sides: The Veil - Chapter IV

In this fourth installment of our Veil series, the party escapes the chaos of Quarters' Arcade, but with two dozen neophytes in tow. Luckily, Smiley knows a place they can lay low

C-Sides: The Veil - Chapter III

We continue our playthrough of Fraser Simons' The Veil!

900, Chainbreaker, and Mr. Smiley seek refuge in an arcade-cum-cathedral, but the recent assassination of a public figure isn't something they can shake so easily.

Series VIII: The Blood of Pearls - Chapter XIV

Here it is: the long awaited final episode of the series.

The plague that haunts this series takes its biggest bite out of the audio and I am sorry about that. I hope that our tinkering helps to make the last episode salvagable from an audio and story perspective.

This episode the team faces themselves and then faces the big bad. There is no two ways about it: this episode is about Death, Love, Blood & Guts. The climatic ending to series 8 starts right now!

Thanks again for listening, we really appriciate your patience with this episode and look forward to hearing feedback on this series and everything we have done so far.

Z

We have merch!

Series VIII: The Blood of Pearls - Chapter XIII

Our heroes delve deeper into the church and encounter a solemn king who has lost his heart. Things come to a head as Anep's heart is tested and is at the center of all things, maybe not the heart your thinking of though...

WE HAVE SHIRTS!

Series VIII: The Blood of Pearls - Chapter XII

The gang plunges deeper into the church: Anep takes an opportunity to make a new friend, Bale takes an opportunity to be a little selfish, and the church itself tries to take an opportunity to try and bathe Ukhaz in blood.

Sorry again dear listeners about the audio issues. I hope they will be cured soon!

WE MADE ARMOR FOR YOUR BONES!

C-Sides: The Veil - Chapter II

Our C-Side of The Veil continues!

900, Mr. Smiley, and Chainbreaker have been captured by an unnamed group and now their boss Joel Pinkerton-Wyatt has a job for them, but Mr. Smiley has other plans

Series VIII: The Blood of Pearls - Chapter XI

The gang plunges into the depths of their desires in order to progress in the great depths of P’thya. While this episode lacks our classic sword play, we get a deep look into who they characters truly see themselves as…

WE HAVE MERCH