3 - I Have No Mouth and I Must GM cover art

3 - I Have No Mouth and I Must GM

3 - I Have No Mouth and I Must GM

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Summary

Welcome to another episode of the Good GMs Podcast! Your hosts, James Currie and Chucky Tee, are joined by a legendary figure from their gaming past: screenwriter and long-time DM, James Gordon Ross. We’re putting aside the usual notes to talk about the evolution of the hobby and a revolutionary new system currently in the works.

In This Episode!
  • The $10 Dungeon Master: James Gordon Ross shares a formative memory from 1992 involving a university student who actually charged for sessions. It wasn't a con though! It was a masterclass in atmosphere, featuring four Discmans for theme music and a completely diceless session of Mage that melted his 14-year-old, combat-heavy brain.
  • The "Seven Session" Problem: We discuss the reality of modern gaming, where the average group only meets seven times. James Gordon Ross explains why he’s designing a system specifically to support those massive, 120-session campaigns where characters actually have time for arcs, growth, and redemption.
  • Bleed Through: A New System:
    • The Locution Engine: Instead of standard stats, players form "sentences" to take actions, choosing from three adverbs (Physically, Mentally, Socially), three verbs (Overpower, Manipulate, Endure), and three nouns.
    • Dice and Fracture: A roll-low system using a dice pool where ones are great, but rolling a four gives the GM "fracture" points to use against you later.
    • Genre Mashups: The system is designed for "Bleed Through," where characters from different genres—like a cowboy whose gun doesn't kill people versus one whose gun does—can exist in the same party, each governed by the "media rules" of their own home world.
What do you think of a system where you build sentences instead of adding modifiers? Could your group survive 120 sessions?
  • James Gordon Ross: Check out his films Poor Agnes and Happy Fucking Sunshine.
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