Table Talk - A D&D Podcast

Table Talk - A D&D Podcast

by Maddi Conway & Robert Lopez

Science Fiction Games

Season 2

Session 10: Neon Dreams, Smokey Schemes PT.I

What's more fun than playing superheroes in a city full of neon lights and concrete heights? Join Robert and Maddi as they play the villainous vigilantes Smoke and Fetch. On a night out gone wrong (or right, according to Fetch) full of dancing on tables, sneaking into a club, and almost stabbing a puffer-fish bouncer, Smoke and Fetch end the evening with a block party for the books, quickly starting their morning. They're offered a job by Sapphire City's Codfather, a half-shark half-man gangster, leading them into a series of wild escapades. From fighting the city's deviant task force to dealing with a drug-fueled superhero, Smoke and Fetch aim to pull off one last job to settle debts and secure their future. But with complications at every turn, failure means facing the Codfather's wrath or worse, DRT's bullets.

Session 9: Sapphire Prodigies - The Bad Guys

We’ve covered the basics…Capes and Crooks by Crit Academy is a sci-fi super-powered 5th Edition RPG from the goons you fight to the quips you make! Now it’s time to use our own campaign, The Sapphire Prodigies, and the lovely sourcebook to create two brand new (not really)...villains? Join us as we build Fetch and Smoke, two rebellious deviants hellbent on surviving by any means necessary in Sapphire City. Fetch is a high octane neon powered punk with a mean streak as hot as the plasma she wields, taking her anger out on the local government task force, the Deviant Response Team. Smoke on the other hand prefers to rebel by using his gaseous powers to fly through vents and scale large buildings, defacing any government owned property with his own brand of anti-establishment graffiti, making sure every “message” he leaves is loud and permanent.

Session 8: Tales from the Inn: The Sapphire Prodigies

You’ve heard us talk about it way too much… so here it is! We return to our Tales from the Inn series where we tell you a tale from our very own table. This time, join us to hear about our current campaign- the Sapphire Prodigies, a cyberpunk city filled with super powered people called Deviants, ranging from a random civilian with the ability to call lightning, or a plant that gained sentience and now stops crime with it's massive vines. Our story follows Knightlite, Shadow, Chip, Kaze and Volt - a ragtag group of heroes all trying to make it big in Sapphire City, one of the last sanctuaries for Deviants and non-deviants in the world. They find themselves forced to work together in order to keep their City safe, and quickly become an unwilling and unruly team of misfit Devants out to do the right thing (some times?). This campaign is loosely based on Capes and Crooks 5E and uses their amazing systems, setting touchstones, and character creation process.

Session 7: The Deck of Many Questions

Did you know gargoyles, y'know the living statues- are considered elementals? Neither did we! In this episode, Robert and Maddi (attempt) to dive into classic D&D lore trivial pursuit style - and how little they actually know. Playing an (unsponsored and unaffiliated) game of Trivial Pursuit: D&D Edition, we show you that you don’t have to know anything about the lore of the game to be a fan- or host an entire podcast about it! From the silly, numerous names of the "Outer Planes" to what type of seed is required for gust of wind, join us as we stumble our way through what has to be the worst game of Trivial Pursuit: D&D edition of all time.

Session 6: How Was Point Pleasant?

Join us for a talkback session about Maddi's first time GMing her own one-shot from the last session. From one-shot versus campaigns, roleplay driven versus more combat encounters, homebrewing versus pre-written- we compare and contrast our own experiences DMing, as well as reflect on favorite moments from our first time Point Pleasant.

Session 5: Welcome to Point Pleasant - PT. 1

What better way to start your GM-ing experience than trying it in front of a microphone for everyone to hear? Maddi takes the reins and leads her first ever damn-near-homebrew one shot, taking place in a small town on the Jersey Shore, and follows Tony Zuko, a greaser dressing cool kid and the rest of the junior class at Hidden Harbor as they prepare for the annual field trip to Port Pleasant, an overnight camping trip just a short walk away from the Boardwalk. From secret friendships to evil science teachers, makeovers, the social maze of hormonal teenager’s and more can be found inside this totally normal and definitely not cursed town.  Link to Patreon Post with Behind the Screen info here!

Session 4: All About Bikes (And Kids On Them)

Robert and Maddi switch seats this episode as she takes the lead in talking about a different system, Kids on Bikes! Join us as we explore the rulebook, talk the pros and cons between 5e and Kids on Bikes, and highlight the SICK modules and settings in the back. To wrap things up, join Robert and Maddi as they build characters using the Kids on Bikes system: the Plastic Beauty, Tony, and the Conspiracy Theorist, Aster.

Session 3: Muti-class Madness

Now that you’ve presumably listened to our episodes on how to build a character, join us as we take it a step further with multiclassing! We discuss the pros and cons of taking levels in different classes at the same time, several different insane combinations, and what tends to work the best and what works the worst. This especially includes Robert’s personal beef with Sorcerer/Warlock multi-classing, broken in many ways. In response of course, Maddi builds her PC Sparrow into that very multi-class, as Robert builds Ybba into a fighter/barbarian for maximum hits.

Session 2: Can I roll to hit that? Valentines Day Special

In honor of a belated love day, Robert and Maddi tackle two things: an incredible and in depth D&D feedback quiz by Justice Ramin Arman linked here, and in depth and intimate looks at character relationships. How do you flirt at the table and not make it weird? How do the villains you make reflect the party they're fighting with? What NPC’s do your player’s connect to and why? Or maybe you just want to listen to Maddi go into excruciating detail about character foils and over analyze every action other PC’s and NPC’s make.

Session 1: Capes and Crooks - The Sapphire Prodigies

Join us at the table as we take you through Capes and Crooks, a 5e Superhero RPG by Crit Academy that we recently started using at our own table in our current campaign, The Sapphire Prodigies! We unpack the inspiration behind our campaign, our experiences with comic books, a quick look at an amazing sourcebook, and give you a run down of the characters at our table. The Sapphire Prodigies, written and DM'd by our very own Robert Lopez, follows a mixed bag of heroes, old and new, human and not so human, who all "coincidently" meet on a high stakes mission gone wrong. Each hero has their own unique power set from Light to Shadow, Lighting to Wind, and of course the obligatory robot, and each is striving to become Sapphire City's top hero in 2099, the new golden age of technology and super-powered beings.

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