The Secret Lair Episode 0006: Interrogation of Ken Newquist

If you question the effectiveness of our Retrieval Squads, you may wish to ask Mr. Ken Newquist about his opinion on the subject. They came in the dead of night and before Ken was even aware that his home had been infiltrated he was subdued, transported to one of our Interrogation rooms and submitted to “methods of inquiry” that would make anyone even marginally acquainted with the Geneva Conventions weep.

Once satisfied that we had wrung every useful iota of information from Mr. Newquist, we wiped every memory of the interrogation from his mind—leaving only a powerful sub- and semi-conscious fear of all things related to The Secret Lair—and turned him over to our Detrieval Squad (which probably needs a better name) who returned him to his home.¹

In retrospect, Ken may not be able to provide the best testimonial to the effectiveness of our Retrieval Squads, but he can certainly attest to the thoroughness of our upgraded memory alteration hardware. More accurately, the recording we present in this episode of The Secret Lair and Mr. Newquist’s complete lack of memory regarding the same should demonstrate that the hardware works quite well indeed.

Our interrogation of Mr. Newquist (or, at least, the bits of it we’re sharing) was primarily devoted to roleplaying games, wikis and open source content management systems. While a roleplaying game about a content management system might be incredibly dull, there are certainly ways in which RPGs can benefit from web-based tools, and such is the core of our discussion.

Roleplaying Games

• Dungeons & Dragons
  • World of Greyhawk
  • D&D 4th Edition
• Mutants & Masterminds
• Savage Worlds
  • The Savage World of Solomon Kane
  • The Pirates of the Spanish Main
• WarHammer 40K
• World of Warcraft

Online Tools for Gamers

• The wiki, a tool that allows multiple users to easily create and link web documents.
  • MediaWiki is the software upon which Wikipedia and Mahalo are built.
  • The Griffin’s Crier wiki is powered by MediaWiki.
• The virtual table top, usually a client-server application, allows remote gamers to play pen and paper RPGs together.
  • OpenRPG is an open source application developed in Python that runs on any OS.
  • Battlegrounds: RPG Edition runs on Windows and Mac OS X.
  • The Screen Monkey GM server runs on a Windows PC, but clients need only a web browser.
• Play-by-Email
  • PBEM-Portal.com
  • PBEM Players
  • Groovy Gamers
• Other Tools
  • RPTools, a collection of tools to help with mapping, tracking initiative, dice rolling and more. [Kudos to Trevor for the link.]

Open Source Software

• Moodle is an open source Course Management System, an alternative to Blackboard.
• Drupal is an open source Content Management System with lots of module support.
• WordPress is the open source blogging software upon which The Secret Lair website is built.

Promos

• The Game That May Be
• Nuketown Radio Active

Ken Newquist is the editor of Nuketown and host of Nuketown Radio Active. His gaming column, Summon Web Scryer, appears in Knights of the Dinner Table magazine.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 47:11 — 43.2MB)

1. Mr. Newquist’s family was totally unaware that he had been abducted, such is the power of our new temporal arrestor. [↩]

Related posts:

1. The Secret Lair Episode 0009: No Fools Allowed
2. Upcoming Interrogation: Mur Lafferty
3. The Secret Lair Episode 0008: Market Forces by Richard K. Morgan
4. The Secret Lair Episode 0002: The Secret Library
5. The Secret Lair Episode 0004: Always Watching…

1. 

   The Secretary of Artistic Propaganda says:

   February 26, 2008 at 6:47 pm

   I would like to submit my vote for the graphic novel idea (for the SL book club).
2. 

   Ken Newquist says:

   February 27, 2008 at 5:30 am

   Wait … I thought I was playing Backgammon Sunday night…

   If I really was there (and I’ve heard tell of your doppelganger training facilities, so I have reason to doubt) then thanks for having me. It sounds like I had a lot of fun.

   And if I wasn’t … well, the orbital mind control laser facility should be done any day now, and then I shall have my revenge!
3. 

   David Mead says:

   February 27, 2008 at 8:51 am

   I get the hint and I’ll return your copy of Wanted real soon

   Good episode and I look forward to hearing more from the “middle-aged in Middle Earth”.
4. 

   Trevor says:

   February 27, 2008 at 9:53 am

   You might also check out MapTool from RPTools ( http://rptools.net )
5. 

   Kris says:

   February 27, 2008 at 1:13 pm

   Good suggestion, Trevor. I’ve added a link in the show notes.
6. 

   Walt says:

   February 29, 2008 at 10:35 am

   Wasn’t there a site out there called WEBRPG, that hosted online RPG games? I tried running a pulp campaign on there but it was very cumbersome, and we gave up on the idea.
7. 

   Gerall says:

   March 3, 2008 at 9:41 am

   Blast!

   I’m in the midst of an OS-transplant, and I don’t have my podcatcher online yet… Very much looking forward to hearing the commentary on the venerable Greyhawk setting!

   Also, Kris’ previous encounter with the Solomon Kane setting for Savage Worlds, and now an official mention on the ‘Lair?!? I can’t see how they’re keeping copies on the shelf.

   -peace is for the conquered-
8. 

   Gerall says:

   March 5, 2008 at 11:37 am

   You guys mentioned Dark City!

   You guys mentioned Shell Beach!

   Is there a tag for that?