The GameBastard

he/him

4.9

(16)

Timezone

America/chicago

Language

English

Identity

Podcaster

Voice Actor

About The GameBastard

I am Kyle, the GameBastard, the main GM for the BastardQuest actual play podcast. We've got over 100 episodes, and have played 25+ different games. If you want to listen to me run a game, you can find us on the YouTube link on this page, Spotify, or wherever fine podcasts are distributed freely. I’ve played RPGs regularly for 30 years. Mostly, I've been the GM. I have tens of thousands of hours running games of all types. I started with D&D, of course, but have also played Rifts, Heroes Unlimited, Shadowrun, Star Wars (multiple versions), Fading Suns, Burning Wheel, Vampire, Werewolf, Dune, A Good Society, Alien, Achtung! Cthulhu, Marvel (FASERIP, Heroic, Multiverse), and way too many more. I've also been running games online since 2008 and understand this format well. I'm also definitely a human person. I went to college, got a job in marketing, married my wife, performed improv, had kids, started consulting, etc. But, mainly, yeah, I'm a gamer.

At a glance

2 years on StartPlaying

116 games hosted

Highly rated for: Creativity, Storytelling, Rule of Cool

Featured Prompts

I became a GM because

I was the guy that wanted to game more than anyone else, so I had to become the GM. Now, it's my favorite thing to do.

My favorite books are

Dune, Legacy of the Aldenata, Dungeon Crawler Carl, We Are Legion, The Wheel of Time, The Dragonlance Chronicles, Heir to the Empire, anything written by John Keegan, ADB's Night Lords and Black Legion Warhammer 40k books, most anything Dan Abnett writes for WH40k, but Eisenhorn in particular.

My favorite system of all Time is

The Burning Wheel. It has a reputation as an ultra-crunchy and difficult to understand ruleset. And I don't necessarily disagree with that. What I would say is that all the rules in Burning Wheel serve the purpose of creating an intense, dramatic experience. There is a virtuous cycle there I love.

How The GameBastard runs games

As a GM, I see my role as the Inventor of Challenge. What the heck does that mean? First, I mean that I am not a novelist. I am not inventing a grandiose plot tapestry through which the players’ choices are narrated. I do create non-player characters, factions, locations, lore, and more with which the player characters can interact. However, what happens is very much up to those player characters. Second, the drama only happens when characters in any medium face challenges. This is the story of our player characters, right? Ergo, they must face tough challenges for this to be at all interesting. Any roleplaying game without a challenge, though they might wildly vary in type, for the players to face would be a boring one. Third, I do not craft solutions. Solutions are up to the players, and their characters. I specifically do not even try to speculate about what the players are going to do about a given problem. I’ve done that in the past, and I’m always wrong. These days I just assume the players will figure it out or not. When they do, I adapt, improvise, and get them heading to the next challenge that their characters will no doubt, somehow, overcome. Or fail. Fail? Yes, I believe in a consequential table. The dice fall where they may. The NPCs react according to their nature and resources. If the players miscalculate, if the (dice) gods abandon them, then failure can follow, and beloved PCs might die. It sucks, so why do it? Why not fudge the dice to success? I’ve run and played in games where failure was possible, and where it wasn’t. And, for my money, the ones where it was always an option were far more interesting and compelling than the ones in which it felt like we could do no wrong.

Featured Prompts

I prep by

Using the principles from Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master. It is, I have found, by far the best methodology to prepare for a session in which you intend to give players the maximal freedom possible to do as they wish within the boundaries of the sandbox.

Rules are...

Important! They're the shared language we've all agreed to use to speak out this narrative that we're telling. That said, not all rules are equally important nor are all rulesets equally well designed. The best way to figure out a person's ideal version of any system is via play, so I do that.

When it comes to voices

It depends. Trying to give every NPC a unique voice is a terrible idea. Depending on the style of campaign you run, you might introduce a half dozen new NPCs in each session. No one can do that many good, unique voices. On the other hand, really important NPCs probably deserve a little something.

The GameBastard's ideal table

My ideal table? I can't really say that I have one. I think I would say that I have ideal player profiles depending on the type of game I'm running, because different players thrive best in different systems. That is not to say that people can't enjoy very different experiences, but in my experience RPG systems are not one-size-fits-all. So, if you're trying to decide, "Would I fit at this guy's table?", I think a better question might be, "Is this game system the right fit for me?"

Featured Prompts

If you're into ___, you're going to love my table

Serious consequences, high tension situations, and the drama between characters is what I'm into. Even when I run combat heavy games, they're about more than just racking up XP and finding treasure. If that's all you're into, there are lots of CRPGs that will make you way happier than I ever will.

I love it when a player

Pushes the action forward by being proactive and wanting things. Wanting things? Yep! Characters that want things are the best kinds of characters. What should they want? Ideally things that will be conducive to a fun game, but wanting something is almost always better than nothing.

I think metagaming...

Can be good or boring. If you're looking at your character from a metagame perspective and making decisions based on what is bad or good mechanically that will lead to interesting, dramatic consequences, it's great. If you're metagaming just to "win", that's less interesting.