48 thoughts on “begin transmission:”

1. I am very sorry you are feeling bad. I recently have been dealing with a depression as well, and it has paralyzed me, again. So I am, as always, in a sort of awe that you get anything done at all. And after seeing you do it over and over, I have faith that you’ll pull through again. I also have faith in your talent even if you’ve got the evil voice telling you it’s all a lie. You are a talented writer, actor and lover of things. And as ever you will rise. Tell the voice to eat a bag of dicks.

   Now if only I could tell my own evil voice to do that….

2. The Black Ops single player campaigns are a lot of fun, at least to another guy who struggles with being competitive in FPSers.

   Question… Will the artwork from the show be in the Titansgrave book?

   1. Question… Will the artwork from the show be in the Titansgrave book?

      Some, but not all.

3. Call of Duty: Black Ops I has some interesting narrative stuff. It’s not particularly deep for a Call of Duty game, but there was a twist in there that made me want to play through the game again to see the clues I may have missed.

   Black Ops II has a guest appearance from (and was promoted by) Oliver North as himself, relating to the Iran Contra affair, so I gave that game a miss.

   Anyway, as far as FPS games (particularly console FPS games) go, the Call of Duty games are a pretty series to go in on, as I think they really get the controls just perfectly, to the point that a lot of other console FPS series have been taking cues from CoD’s control scheme (and rightly so).

4. Sorry to hear times are tough right now. It can definitely create a roadblock in the inspiration department. Remember you have a wonderful family and avid fan base. While we’ve only talked a few times online and by no means does that make us friends, know that myself and many others are always here for you, rooting for you and hoping for your best in health and happiness.

   RDWHAHB.. I know you’ve got some. I’ve got some new recipes I’ve been working on (my black ipa is killer right now, a nice easy drinking session ipa and a huge double ipa I just did this weekend).. let me know if you want a recipe, or hell, even a few bottles — I have a gift to ship out to a friend in LA who just had a baby, I don’t mind dropping an extra box.

5. Sorry that your trust was broken, but you, through tabletop, have really turned me into the gamer and I am today, and I appreciate that!! Thank You! Keep up the good work!!

6. Your epic bedhead reminds me of this splendid song by Trout Fishing in America, “My hair had a party last night.” Maybe it will cheer you up. http://www.troutmusic.com/

7. Sorry if the FB tweet is adding more stress to the mix

   The efforts the Tabletop/Titansgrave teams have put into producing shows that are fun, showcasing games and promoting face to face gaming gave me, if not an excuse, definitely a wake up call, to say “Wow, I haven’t seen the guys n girls in a while now. What would be a great reason to have them round?”

   Tabletop has opened my eyes to a whole new social world and strengthened the friendships I have, through some great, fun excuses to get together and I genuinely can’t thank you enough for that. My wife now routinely thrashes me at Ticket to Ride over a lunchtime and when we take little microgames to work, we’ve found new people who pass us in the canteen and say things like “Wow, is that Love Letter?! Can I play?”

   So for those people I’ve brought into the hobby, for those friendships I’ve renewed and the new private jokes my wife and I now share thanks to the work that you and the Tabletop team put in, thank you.

   You deserve to hear it more. Play more Games.

8. Fuck them and feed them fish heads….to quote one of the greats…you’re too legit to quit (hey, hey)

9. I’m really sad to hear that [this guy] has been lying to you and other people for so long.
   I obviously do not know you, but from what you let transpire on the interwebs you seem really great at being human, and I don’t comprehend how someone you used to call a friend could ever do this to you.
   As a human who has experienced betrayal before, you have my deepest sympathy.

10. I’m listening to “Lock in” your version. I love it. But now I’m not going to be able to get these pictures out of my head while I listen to you read it.

11. Take it easy Wil, you, you look like 5 kinds of crap.
    What you do inspires lots of people to play lots more games.

12. Commiserations on the (ex)friend problem. That stuff tends to ripple for a while, too. 🙁

13. I had to laugh about what you said about Reactor. My husband and I were watching Geeks Who Drink (which I love) and there was a commercial for Reactor and I said, ” Man…it’s the Wil Wheaton Project without Wil Wheaton. Those SyFy folks have some big balls.”

    I am sorry about what happened with your “friend” – stuff like that always sucks; BUT, we can use it as a learning experience – not to shut down – but to grow and move on. Try not to let it make you bitter…you have true friends who would never hurt you like that; treasure them.

    Awesome bed head!

14. I like the bed head 🙂 I should show mine. It makes my husband laugh. All My shorter hair stands up around my head like a star’s corona seen during a total eclipse. Hehe

    Later in this article, I learned of someone misusing your trusted.:( I am deeply sorry that happened. I don’t know why folks do that. There’s no logic or reason for someone to deceive another. Honestly is better. I hope it was accidental or a misunderstanding, but if it wasn’t. :-(epic suckage. I’m sorry.

    Rest assured, that At least I am genuine. I’ll always be honest. Tactful but honest. For you to be vulnerable telling us net lurkers these personal things Is humbling to me. It shows you’re trusting To stick yourself out there. Very gusty, comendable. It causes me to want to hug you and Annie both,if that Is allowable.:)

15. Oh wow. You really have NOTHING to write about 🙂

16. I kinda like the do lol lol no lie lol and its weird but i just watched a marathon of u on cable the other day .. 🙂 blessings to u ..

17. I’d love to get this, I really really want it, but the cheapest shipping option is $45 (more than basic rules + the pdf edition together).

    I ordered the whole set of D&D 5th (PH, DMG & MM) and it was about that for a 3 day shipping. There has to be a way of shipping this to my country at a lower cost… please? I don’t want to pay more in shipping than the book itself.

18. The moment the Titansgrave Campaignbook is available as PDF i gonna snag it. Already got the AGE PDF. So looking forward to it.
    I probably gonna start a campaign on Roll20 then.

19. Hey Wil. Sorry you’re in a bit of a funk. Look, about TableTop, you shouldn’t be beating yourself or others up over this. I’m sure it’s embarrassing, but it’s a game. Literally.

    This past week YOU showed me that I’ve been playing Sushi Go wrong for a year. We’ve been playing the rounds as cumulative. Then I went to Game Night and taught Glass Road wrong with the refilling of the buildings. shrug I like refilling them more often anyway, so I’ll probably keep doing that.

    You guys have moved past the basic well known games into new games that clearly people don’t know as well. Rules will be read or interpreted wrong, it’s inevitable. I don’t know a single Board Game reviewer who hasn’t published a review explaining a rule wrong. They all get rules wrong and it’s literally their only job. It’s okay. It happens. Maybe there’s more to this story than you’ve said, but you’re really coming off as a bit of a jerk beating up on a (former) friend for screwing up what thousands have screwed up before, and it’s really making me question backing for another season.

20. You are going to be upset about that toxic person for a while. It’s not going to go away overnight. And that’s Okay. I had a few toxic friends that i’m still not over, but I’m okay with that and I do my best not to dwell on them. One day, you will be in a state of mind where you will be able to forgive them, not for what they did, but so you can move on. I can tell you from personal experience that it helps a lot. But it’s okay too if you feel you can never forgive them, you will still be able to move on. I wish you all the luck the world for everything you do and I really enjoy reading your blog and following you all over social media. You are an awesome person!

21. Four watches and a freindship bracelet – you’re giving me flashbacks to my childhood. I love that you completely own your past the way you do. You make the struggle each of us goes through to accept being who we are seem effortless, at least publically.

22. Sorry about all the rough times right now 🙁 But yes that is some epic bedhead!

23. Honestly, the first thought I had on seeing this post was ….

    “Why’s Wil got that picture of Jonathon Frakes up there?” Then I realized you were rocking it far more than Riker ever did.

24. Don’t forget to pimp that the Age System is out now in PDF form for people that hate holding amazing and wonderful book tomes in their hands. Just in time for Titansgrave to come out and DMs can be ready to run the system for all their friends (Or enemies, if they’re like that.)

    1. I don’t hate holding amazing books … But it is a lot easier to ‘carry’ a stack of PDFs and cheaper to boot!

25. So – I’m trying to listen to all the RFBs. I’ve put the feed into my podcast app but it’s only showing me the last 13 eps.

    Is there an RSS that includes all the old episodes? Or am I doing something wrong?

26. Hey Wil, I’m so sorry that you’ve had your trust abused. That sucks and it really hurts. And situations like that make it more difficult to trust people who actually deserve it.

    Thanks for doing what you do. For almost all my life, I thought I just wasn’t a “board games” person. Turns out I was playing the wrong games. Now that our shelves are filled with games I love, our family plays all the time, and that’s totally because of Tabletop.

    Our enjoyment of the show is unabated.

    1. On the tabletop comment, I have to both agree and disagree. I think both of these games could stand a whole show. At the same time, being able to showcase two games instead of just one is a great benefit for the viewers, as we get more game previews. I also like the effect of a player not doing so well in one, but doing better in another game, it adds some lovely Chaos.

       I honestly loved the show as a whole, and of course from the Wheaton effect I bought Roll for it halfway through the show. Thanks to Amazon Prime, two days later my wife and I are playing and loving the new addition to our game stash.

       While I honestly love the longer play tabletop episodes, I also really enjoy the double game shows as I feel most of the games port to light or non-gamers easier. Keep up the great work as always!

    2. Very well said, I couldn’t agree more!

27. Hahahahahaha…. multiple watches – wonderful!

    I’d totally forgotten about that. At one point I had a freezer-sized ziplock bag of crappy plastic (s)watches.

    But hey, it was 1986 baby, If you weren’t poppin’ at least two polos and wearing a stack of wrist bling, you just weren’t stylin’. Topsiders, 501s, a canvas belt & a handful of Paul Mitchell mousse to complete the look.

    Everybody Wang Chung tonight.

28. Burrrritoooo Woop Woop… Thank u, thank u, thank u, thank u 🙂

29. I was thinking to start a new RPG with a group of friends. It would be my first experience as master (and I don’t have a lot as player neither), so I though to get an well written adventure rather than create my own. Needless to say I loove your show, and I somehow if I will suck as master you will own my friends because you convinced me that we have to play more RPG.
    OK enough captatio benevolentiae, my question is: if I want to buy and play “The ashes of Valkana” should I ask the other players to never watch your show?
    I think it would be nice if they watch some of it so to have a reference in building the characters and playing (and they would have you introducing the setting rather than me); but then will they know too much to actually play a “fair” game?

    1. if I want to buy and play “The ashes of Valkana” should I ask the other players to never watch your show?

       There are a lot of things in the book that didn’t make it into the show, as well as a lot of things that were written specifically for the book, so even if you’ve seen the series, you can still be surprised.

       That said, the main story that drives the adventure doesn’t change, so anyone who has seen the season will know where all the secrets are, and that may not be as much fun for them. If you were going to choose, I’d suggest you tell the players not to watch the series until they finish the adventure.

       1. Could we, with the adventure book, also just use the world of Valkana as a place? Maybe even stir up our own adventures within it? or would you not want us to take that level in our living rooms?

          1. Of course! That’s the whole point of giving you the world to play in!

30. When I find out what the Magic system is in AGE, I’ll let you know of a character idea I have (if I ever get to play in AoV, that is…)

    1. PS: this is because I really really like writing in-depth character backgrounds for my PCs (I wrote 16k words once for a cliched evil overlord in training once, muahahahaaa…)
       …as I’ve got older I get caught up in designing the next one and the next one, etc. I don’t want to play just a bunch of stats in a loincloth that goes ugh smash without a good reason for doing so…
       … so, any excuse for “that cool new idea I thought of” i.e. to have a feuding gangster family that have through the ages signed their kids away for power and phat lewts, six budgerigars and a spooky birthmark (well, maybe I was messing with you about the budgerigars…), basically, the style of play and the world itself are filling my brain with all sorts of stuff when I should really be working (boo)

       Also I was wondering if there was , well, maybe not the verboten kind, like in Dragon Age, but at least some mildly frowned upon, or treading a fine line style of Magic in Valkana (in some areas of the land); the artwork and the snapshots of the world we are getting in the episodes are wonderful but I don’t want to craft something that won’t fit, if you get what I’m blathering on about here…?

31. You need to put the last and first photos side-by-side with some caption. “What happened?” “F___ Father Time.” “The Ages of (a) Man”.

    Seems every day I get a reminder of why I consciously chose never to get Facebook nor Twitter accounts. They are the only two online services I eschew.

    1. Another option, insert your normal blog photo in between and make it a triptych!

32. You could consider getting the PDF. It’s not the same as holding an awesome book (with such awesome art!) in your hands, but at least you get the content and can play it with your friends.

    Another option that might be cheaper is to buy a copy and ship it to a friend in the US (or other cheaper-shipping country), then have them mail it to you. Depending on the country and shipping method, it could be substantially cheaper, though it will likely take a while to arrive.

    1. That was supposed to be a reply to J. Not sure why it didn’t thread the response…

    2. I was going to buy the PDF too (it comes in handy), it’s just $5 extra, but the book is very useful during a game (and reading in bed, too :-P). Anyway, I will follow your advice, I do have several friends in the states who won’t mind do me the favor 🙂

       Still, I just bought (literally 5 minutes ago) 2 adventure books for D&D, they will be here tomorrow and it didn’t cost me a dime. I understand Green Ronin aren’t Amazon, but $45… I see myself buying plenty of stuff from them, I’m loving what I’ve seen of A.G.E. in Wil’s show, if they’d find a way to send international at a significantly reduced cost that would GREAT.

       For now I’ll do what you said and take advantage of my friends there 😛

       Thank you! 🙂

33. HEY, Wheaton.

    RESPECT THE SWATCH.

    (As a fellow back-in-the-day Swatch aficionado.)

34. TheFutonCritic claims Reactor was “confirmed as canceled on 8/14/15” after 5 eps…WWP wins. (With me as well.)

    1. I never thought about it as a competition between the two shows. The network goons didn’t like me, I didn’t like them, but the show concept was solid, so they tried again with a different creative team. I’m sorry for the people involved that it didn’t work out for them, and I wonder if maybe the root of the problem is that there aren’t enough clever and awesome people at the network who respect the audience to balance out the goons who don’t.

       1. I’m with you. I should have put ironic quotes around “wins”, since everybody lost. Except in episode count, which of course has little importance.

35. lol. Nice. I think wearing multiple watches in Teen girl magizines is better then all the puppies and sometimes kitties they made JTT hold for his pictures. And this one time a fawn WTF. http://ak-hdl.buzzfed.com/static/2013-12/enhanced/webdr02/20/15/enhanced-buzz-27118-1387572821-0.jpg

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