Do you have our podcasts?

The hard drive where we hosted our episodes has died. If somebody happens to have our episodes downloaded, we would love to get a copy of these! Please let me know at andy@cowell.org if you can help. Thank you!

Ed: We have recovered all episodes except 70-73. If you have these episodes, please let me know. Thank you!

Ed: I believe we have recovered all episodes at this point-- thanks to everybody who offered to help out!

New Episodes? Five New Episodes!

Hell has indeed frozen over!  For those of you still subscribed, you will have noticed FIVE new podcast episodes to surprise your inbox today!  Those of you who have let your subscription slide (well, you're probably not here either) it's time to sign back up!  Those of you who don't know what the hell this is?  You're in for a ride to be sure.

Working backwards we've got in store for you:

Episode #80:  Wrath of the Autarch!  The gang plays the beta version of this recent Kickstarter 4x troupe style RPG, powered by FATE!

Episode #79:  Durance is the fabulous colonial planet survival storytelling game by none other than Fiasco author Señor Morningstar!

Episode #78:  Fiasco!  One of our podcast favorites!  This time with the superheroes of Pinnacle City!

Episode #77:  Well if the gang ain't doing Fiasco, they're more than likely doing FATE!  This time it's a return to glory of the good ole Star Wars mashup days with Star Bastards!

Episode #76:  The Holiday Episode!  Here we chat and talk and do podcast stuff during December!

Here's a great RSS feed right off of Boardgame Geek!  Enjoy!

What's in store for the future?  Who knows?  I know this, there's five new episodes up so get to work citizens!

Lightning Strikes Twice!

Hot on the heels of Pathfinder Z just three nights ago, the gang's back with more!  

This time we're rocking Green Ronin's Dragon Age RPG and having tons of fun with it. We explain (and do) character creation, then get into some starter adventure action. 

So two new recorded episodes in one week. We've still got a backlog of episodes to get through, but between Gyro and T-Bone we at least know exactly where said backlog stands. 

Until next time, enjoy!

It's Not a Hoax

But only slightly more tangible than Sasquatch...

That red light means it's recording!

The Curtain Ain't Dropped Yet!

"Is the podcast dead?  Has the sun set on you guys?  What's the freakin' deal?  Where's the other episodes?  I've listened to everything y'all have and [inexplicably] I want more, what am I to do!"

 We have heard you, I'm not going to give you any excuses, we have fallen off the wagon but WE ARE NOT OUT OF THE FIGHT!  That 'fight' of course being the business of bringing open-mic, non-scripted, nonsensical game table mayhem to your ear holes.

The above photo was taken just two days ago, so there is proof the minions haven't had a Yoko-style breakup.  White Tail, Mystery Meat, and myself took our ladies out for dining and drinking.  It was a great night, it was over too soon, and although it wasn't the forum for discussing podcast plans we still said some stuff on the topic.

White Tail (formerly T-Bone) has talked about starting up a new game set in the Dragon Age world, which is ripe for RPGing.  I spoke to the boys about the emails I've received very recently about the show's status, and that we should get back at the stick, which was unanimously agreed upon.  Mystery Meat is 'up for anything' and good to go.  

All in all, the bottom line is we fell into a bit of a rut of doing nothing with recording and boardgaming has dominated the tabletop as of late.  That and some scheduling issues have severely hampered our Saturday games, which have seen the lion's share of the recording.  

We're working on getting the ship back on course friends.  Thanks for being patient.

Good Comm and Telemetry

So with all of the talk lately of new episodes, old episodes being unearthed, new horizons of teamwork, and what-not I thought I would share at least what's in the pipeline to date.  Mind you, this is all there is folks.  Including the episode of Pathfinder that just posted the other day, this is it as of this writing.  Note it does include what we recorded just the other night too, so really we're in pretty good shape.  There's some editing that needs to take place, and other little technical tweaks, but I'm confident these will well on their way to your libraries sooner than later.  Famous last words?  I hope not!

   

Episode 74; August 17th, Icons Superhero RPG

Episode 75; September 21st; Fiasco Dragon Slayers

Episode 76; December 10th; Around the Horn, Scheduling Discussions, General Malaise

Episode 77; February 22nd; Star Bastards Character Creation and Intro Adventure

Episode 73 is Now Up

As the title says...episode 73 is up now through all the usual channels; iTunes and straight RSS feed.  This one is from some time back, but it's new to you!  Looks like it's a Pathfinder episode featuring all elf-on-elf action.

Look guys and girls out there, we know there's been a lack of episodes and minion representation but after several board meetings and finger pointing we are getting things back on track, for you, the listener.

Rock on.

The New Face of Star Bastards

New characters, new campaign, new episodes...all in the works. Last night we made characters and jumped right into the adventure. Left to right up top; Chico Sticks rolled up a human scoundrel/pilot who learned their trade in the military but couldn't stomach the beaurocracy of it all and went AWOL. Gyro rolled up a Trandoshan (Bossk race) muscle bound mercenary who swings first and worries about the details later. Americano is playing a first generation Mandalorian clone whose destiny was scrapped in favor of the more obedient Fett line, he's a little bitter. T-Bone is playing a very cautious Mon Calamari who tentatively acts as the group's negotiator and front man. Finally is Biscuit's Jawa/Battle Droid combo that plays not unlike a split personality/old married couple. 

We're using the FATE derivative, FATE Accelerated. It may be streamlined but it's got it where it counts. We breezed through character creation and were knee-deep in the adventure in no time, and that's after a couple of hours of pre-game pizza, beer, and snack shopping. All in all it was great to get everyone (mostly, Mystery Meat was missing in action) together at the table and recording again. Rock on. 

T-Minus Now

This is happening.  Right now.  Tonight.  Episode 77; Star Bastards.

Mark, We Are Okay

There's a lot of that going on, running low on an ammo, being chased by undead hordes, trying to survive.  Pretty much everything that's been going on with the Minions podcast; just trying to survive.  

Duck Sauce runs the server that hosts the episodes out of his home, but it crashed, then he fixed most of it but other stuff didn't get fixed.  Then his upstairs bathroom exploded into the kitchen below.  He's also a family man, so life doesn't pause so he can fix podcast issues.

He tried to clue Gyro in on the technical side of things, why he picked Gyro I will never know since both Americano and Mystery Meat work in the computer-go industry and neither are more than a foot from the latest technology at any given time.  T-Bone isn't in the industry but he does tech-stuff on the side as a hobby, so he would've been a better choice as well.  Gyro surfs the web and checks email, and up until recently, plays World of Warcraft, that's the extent of his tech-fu.  

What we need to do is just sit back, take a moment, sip some Bourbon, inventory, and start anew.  As with most things in life, with the new year weeks away, that may be the jumping on point.  Here's our action-item list:

• Gyro and Duck Sauce need to be in the same room with their computers
• Gyro needs to take notes on what steps to do to get an episode air-ready
• Duck Sauce needs to do whatever it is to get the podcast server limping along
• Episodes that need to be published need to be...published
• We need to figure out where we left off
• Get season four intro theme song from Spacejacker
• Start recording again, week night sessions, Around the Horn, whatevs

Onward Bound

Episode 75 cranked out tonight with the fantasy Dragon Slayers playset of one our faves, Fiasco. 

New episodes being posted as we speak. 

Episode 72: Battalion Black Playtest and Boardgame Review-a-palooza

Episode 72: iTunes

Episode 72: Non-iTunes

Hosts:  Gyro, Biscuit, Pad Prik, Mystery Meat, Americano, and Duck Sauce

We recap our annual summer cabin plus our thoughts on the tons of boardgames played there:

• King of Tokyo
• Drunkquest
• Gloom
• Core Worlds
• Clash of Cultures
• City of Remnants
• Epic Spell Wars
• X-Wing Battles
• Eminent Domain
• Dominant Species
• Love Letters
• Catacombs
• Cards Against Humanity
• Carcassonne
• Smash Up 
• 7 Wonders
• Small World Realms
• Puerto Rico
• Timeline
• Shadows Over Camelot
• Terra Mystica
• Ticket to Ride

After this we kick into what was formerly known as Alpha Wolfpack, now retitled Battalion Black.  Battalion Black is auxiliary minion Pad Prik's brainchild and fledgling military sci-fi rpg, this is part of the same series as the previous Wolfpack Playtest episodes.  So, more playtest and actual play abounds in this episode.  Don't forget, at least three more episodes are in the pipe.  Enjoy!

Episode 71: Rise of the Runelords, Episode 6

Episode 71: iTunes

Episode 71: Non-iTunes

"The one human we let tag along leads us into big piles of...human!"

Feed Back Up

Just a heads up; the Minions feed is back up.  

Repeat; the Minions feed is back up.

Previously unpublished, back-logged episodes due soon.

Under Construction

Just a reminder, the server is down.  We're looking into getting a new drive enclosure, and the feed is temporarily offline.

We've got a crack team of analysts, therapists, and even some hybrid analrapists working 'round the clock to fix it.  In addition we have construction crews, catering, English Civil War re-enactors, and a full-time masseuse to help with all the stress induced tension.

Thanks for being patient.  This guy says, "Hey, no problem chief!"

Technical Delays, Not the End of the World (or the Podcast)

Duck Sauce: "FYI.  Not sure the problem yet, won't be able to work on it until tomorrow night."

A little later.

Duck Sauce: "FWIW, it doesn't look terminal.  The drive enclosure went down, so I will have to buy a new one.  It will take a few days to get back up."

Even later.

Duck Sauce: "Yeah the podcast feed is gone until the server is back up.  I had just put together the next episode and was uploading it when I realized the server had crashed."

Then.

Duck Sauce: "You may want to post on minions site."

So what can we take away from this?  Well, it looks like we were AWOL for the summer. Now with the feed gone it looks likes we're gone from the Earth.  These are just LOOKS people!  As you can see from our closet of wires, this is a sensitive tech operation, the slightest out-of-phase variance and the whole enchilada shuts down.

Recap:

No, we're not AWOL, on the contrary we've been recording more than ever.

No, the podcast isn't gone, it's just having server problems now.  The upside is when it gets back up it will be faster and better than ever.  And start cranking out a whole catalog of back issues.

The takeaway:

We're here, but having a little trouble.  Spread the word, tell your friends, post on your blogs, talk about it on your own podcasts...the Minions are forever.  Seriously, spread the word.

We'll see you soon.

Minions MIA?

Yeah, it's been dormant...dead...a ghost town!  That's why Pavel here looks so unsure of himself.  Rest assured, the Minions themselves have NOT been dormant.  We've got, like, a lot of finished episodes in the can and just waiting to be delivered to you.  We've got some Pathfinder all-Elf stuff, a new Superhero game using a new ruleset (ICONS), a bunch of Around the Horn, and you know, other stuff.  In all seriousness, as of this writing, we've got at least half a dozen episodes that are as yet unreleased.  So stay tuned, go back and listen to some older episodes (surely you haven't heard them all, right?) or relisten to some of your favorite moments.  Winter's coming, and so are more Minions.

Episodes 69 and 70 Imminent

By the weekend it's a good bet that you'll have not one, but two new Minions episodes for your listening pleasure. 

Episode 69 features Woodford, friend and guest auxiliary minion sitting in and doing some Around the Horn. We also answer some listener mail which generates a good deal of further gaming conversation. 

Episode 70 is fresh off the press; we just finished recording it last night. We kick back into Pathfinder gear with more elf-on-elf action getting a rise out of the Runelords. The above photo is from that session. 

So stay tuned true believers, more inane banter is headed your way!

Minions of the X-Com Master

Thanks to regular listener Señor Mencken for sending in this great photo. He outfitted his hard boiled team of bug stompers from the game X-Com with monikers to match all of the hosts of the podcast! Very cool, thanks again Dave!

Technical Difficulties: It's All Part of the Show

That is a HUGE spider!

Often we have joked about how here at Minions Headquarters it's not the polished, professional product most other "good" podcasts strive for.  We're down and dirty, record fast and loose, and in the end we hop there's a bit of a niche out there for putting you at the game table on your random game night, hanging out with your buddies, having a drink, and rolling some dice...all vicariously through the podcast itself.

Even with the admitted lack of professionalism, there's even standards that aren't good enough for us.  You see, we though that the "four channel" mode on the recorder was a good idea.  We figured, four channels has to be better than two channels, right?

Wrong.  When the Zoom H2 recorder is in four channel mode it automatically converts sound files to .WAV type files, recording MP3s (like we have always done) is impossible.  .WAV files are limited to a maximum of about three and a half hours after which it stops recording and technically starts a brand new file to pick up where the old one left off with "several tens of seconds of lost audio".  We are fairly certain that the last half dozen or so podcast episodes suffered from this problem causing some very severe "cliffhanger" moments in the actual play. 

The bad news is that almost all of these recent episodes are cut off at the end, losing up to thirty to forty-five minutes each.  One episode isn't cut off but that was because it was a short episode anyway.  The good news is that we figured this problem out before it got too out of hand and starting with episode #67, we should be back on track. 

I suppose there is a ghost of a chance that there are some "tail end" clips on the device we didn't think to look for where it rolled over, but we may have to just bite the bullet and count our losses.  So, whereas we may indeed play fast and loose, we still try to at least keep the technical side of things in the clear.  Sorry for the cliffhangers friends, we're now good to go!