# Episode 164: Fire Good! Fire Shiny! **URL:** \ **Category:** Improvised Radio Theatre with Dice\ **Created:** [1 November 2026 11:17 UTC](https://discussion.tekeli.li/t/episode-164-fire-good-fire-shiny/6952 "2026-11-01T11:17:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RogerBW](https://discussion.tekeli.li/user_avatar/discussion.tekeli.li/rogerbw/32/3_2.png) [@RogerBW](https://discussion.tekeli.li/u/RogerBW)\ **Post date:** [1 November 2026 11:17 UTC](https://discussion.tekeli.li/t/episode-164-fire-good-fire-shiny/6952/1 "2026-11-01T11:17:20Z")
[https://tekeli.li/podcast/irtd\_164.mp3](https://tekeli.li/podcast/irtd_164.mp3) This month, Mike and Roger look at _Deepnight Legacy_ and split the party. We mentioned: [Monster of the Week at the Bundle of Holding](https://bundleofholding.com/presents/MotW2026) (until 2 November), [GURPS Monster Hunters](http://sjgames.com/gurps/books/monsterhunters/), [Deepnight Revelation](https://www.mongoosepublishing.com/products/deepnight-revelation-core-set), [GURPS Traveller](http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/traveller/), [Mongoose’s Bayern](https://www.mongoosepublishing.com/products/project-bayern), [Contour map generator](https://contourmapcreator.urgr8.ch/), [GURPS Banestorm](http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/banestorm/), and [Fighters of the Purple Rage](https://warehouse23.com/products/gurps-classic-fantasy-fighters-of-the-purple-rage) originally in GURPS Fantasy Adventures. We have a [tip jar](https://paypal.me/RogerBW/) (please tell us how you’d like to be acknowledged on the show). Music by Kevin MacLeod at [incompetech.com](http://incompetech.com). ---
**Author:** ![Agemegos](https://discussion.tekeli.li/user_avatar/discussion.tekeli.li/agemegos/32/15077_2.png) [@Agemegos](https://discussion.tekeli.li/u/Agemegos)\ **Post date:** [2 November 2026 01:45 UTC](https://discussion.tekeli.li/t/episode-164-fire-good-fire-shiny/6952/2 "2026-11-02T01:45:23Z")
There are old scouts and bold scouts, but no old, bold scouts. ---
**Author:** ![Agemegos](https://discussion.tekeli.li/user_avatar/discussion.tekeli.li/agemegos/32/15077_2.png) [@Agemegos](https://discussion.tekeli.li/u/Agemegos)\ **Post date:** [2 November 2026 02:34 UTC](https://discussion.tekeli.li/t/episode-164-fire-good-fire-shiny/6952/3 "2026-11-02T02:34:40Z")
It has often occurred to me that one of the aspects of good roleplaying is to be entertaining to those players whose turn it is currently not. The ideal roleplayer would be prepared to spend a due number of reasonably short intervals in Audience stance, in which the acme of skill is to be entertained by the antics of others. Similarly, the ideal roleplayer will likely find themself occasionally alone in the spotlight, during which intervals it is the acme of skill to deal, expeditiously but without undue haste, with issues that are relevant to the whole group, in a manner that is fun for the other players to appreciate from Audience stance. Naturally, we cannot expect to improvise the composition and delivery of a polished script by a rehearsed actor, nor the corresponding flights of intricate stage business. But we ought to strive to be relevant, expeditious, and amusing. ---
**Author:** ![RogerBW](https://discussion.tekeli.li/user_avatar/discussion.tekeli.li/rogerbw/32/3_2.png) [@RogerBW](https://discussion.tekeli.li/u/RogerBW)\ **Post date:** [2 November 2026 09:28 UTC](https://discussion.tekeli.li/t/episode-164-fire-good-fire-shiny/6952/4 "2026-11-02T09:28:20Z")
> [@Agemegos](#): > > no old, bold scouts As we said in the game, they have a term for brave intrepid Scouts. It’s “on the Memorial Wall, learn by their mistakes”. ---
**Author:** ![RogerBW](https://discussion.tekeli.li/user_avatar/discussion.tekeli.li/rogerbw/32/3_2.png) [@RogerBW](https://discussion.tekeli.li/u/RogerBW)\ **Post date:** [2 November 2026 09:30 UTC](https://discussion.tekeli.li/t/episode-164-fire-good-fire-shiny/6952/5 "2026-11-02T09:30:51Z")
Interesting thought. I’ve always regarded the player who is twitchy when not in a scene as essentially a problem _with that player._ But there may well be things the “active” players can do which would make the game more interesting to observe. I wonder what they might be, separately from making it more interesting to play. Of course we have actual-play recordings these days, and perhaps the same things might make the game more appealing to the audience for that. ---
**Author:** ![DrBob](https://discussion.tekeli.li/user_avatar/discussion.tekeli.li/drbob/32/10_2.png) [@DrBob](https://discussion.tekeli.li/u/DrBob)\ **Post date:** [2 November 2026 11:38 UTC](https://discussion.tekeli.li/t/episode-164-fire-good-fire-shiny/6952/6 "2026-11-02T11:38:25Z")
> [@RogerBW](#): > > Interesting thought. I’ve always regarded the player who is twitchy when not in a scene as essentially a problem _with that player._ But there may well be things the “active” players can do which would make the game more interesting to observe. I wonder what they might be, separately from making it more interesting to play. For me it’s a matter of (1) HOW LONG I’m expected to just sit and be the audience and (2) how much screen time I got when I was was on my own. For example, if I get 5 minutes for blagging my way past the bouncer, picking a lock and sneaking into the club office, then the hacker gets 30 minutes for the hacking mini-game, I’m peeved. I’ve been the audience a number of times where the first 10 minutes of watching someone else do stuff was vastly entertaining, but the next 10 minutes was less so, partly because I can see so many ways for the rest of the party to help/get involved/create diversions or whatever. And if it drags on longer than that… I’m here to play, not to watch. Also, the session only lasts 3 hours! I guess I’m getting old and curmudgeonly… but I recall too many games where, while waiting for the GM to include the rest of us again, I literally had time to go to the loo, to go downstairs to queue and order a round of drinks at the bar, to chat non-RPG stuff with the other bored players, etc. These were NOT hacker mini-games, they were the GM having too much fun running the scene for an individual PC/one half of a split party. In two cases after about 30 mins I asked _“Is there any chance the rest of us will get something to do any time soon?”_ In one case the answer was the GM asked the non-participating players to make dice roll which contributed nothing to the game, then went straight back to the other half of the party. I finished my drink and went home. ---
**Author:** ![RogerBW](https://discussion.tekeli.li/user_avatar/discussion.tekeli.li/rogerbw/32/3_2.png) [@RogerBW](https://discussion.tekeli.li/u/RogerBW)\ **Post date:** [2 November 2026 11:45 UTC](https://discussion.tekeli.li/t/episode-164-fire-good-fire-shiny/6952/7 "2026-11-02T11:45:47Z")
And I know that one of my flaws as a GM is that if player A has read the handouts and is getting involved and bouncing ideas off me, and player B is less engaged, I’ll tend to give A more time because I’m enjoying the interaction more, and I feel I ought to give B more of a chance to _get_ engaged if they want to be. ---
**Author:** ![WolfeRJ](https://discussion.tekeli.li/user_avatar/discussion.tekeli.li/wolferj/32/16786_2.png) [@WolfeRJ](https://discussion.tekeli.li/u/WolfeRJ)\ **Post date:** [2 November 2026 12:30 UTC](https://discussion.tekeli.li/t/episode-164-fire-good-fire-shiny/6952/8 "2026-11-02T12:30:00Z")
The what of the game seems to have been my historic focus for tuning out Typically it’s been during generic fantasy dungeons when generic fantasy things are being done that have no impact to anyone other than the active PC The other one I can recall clearly is poorly managed hero system boss fights. There have been times when it’s been 45 minutes to an hour between my active segment and watching a big pile of stun get chipped away was not holding my attention or keeping me plugged into a narrative A thing I think has helped me over the years is that while character knowledge has always been pretty clearly delineated, player problem solving has been more fluid. So paying attention while a scene I wasn’t in has been positive. First because I as a player know more of the world, more of the narrative, and I cared about knowing those things. (games in which I didn’t care about the world or the emerging narrative i tended to drop or didn’t last anyway) Second because as the party problem solved, things observed as a player could help. I’ve never had the experience of a gm putting out “your character wasn’t there so you can’t talk with that player about it while he strategizes.” I think there’s a lot of value to a gaming group forming a writers’ room of their own for the top level of what their characters get up to. As a GM the mental model I have for it is listening to determine what players are engaged with the table vs what players seem only engaged with their character and trying to loop the second into the first at least a little ---
**Author:** ![RogerBW](https://discussion.tekeli.li/user_avatar/discussion.tekeli.li/rogerbw/32/3_2.png) [@RogerBW](https://discussion.tekeli.li/u/RogerBW)\ **Post date:** [2 November 2026 19:45 UTC](https://discussion.tekeli.li/t/episode-164-fire-good-fire-shiny/6952/9 "2026-11-02T19:45:01Z")
There are definitely different modes of play, which can slide into each other: everyone chatting, more or less in character, and trying to work out what to do next, and an individual player interacting with the game engine. Some of my favourite sessions (as player or GM) have had very little of the latter. In settings with good communications, I like to have everyone able to offer suggestions to the isolated character who has to do a thing. (And a standard dramatic trope falls out of PC specialisation: character A has the skill to defuse the bomb or whatever it is, but character B has the special mobility they need to get there, so B gets in place and then A has to talk them through it.) ---
**Author:** ![WolfeRJ](https://discussion.tekeli.li/user_avatar/discussion.tekeli.li/wolferj/32/16786_2.png) [@WolfeRJ](https://discussion.tekeli.li/u/WolfeRJ)\ **Post date:** [3 November 2026 02:25 UTC](https://discussion.tekeli.li/t/episode-164-fire-good-fire-shiny/6952/10 "2026-11-03T02:25:25Z")
The biggest influence on my gaming the past 10 years has been [Viola Spolin](https://spolin.com/?page_id=1068) from her **Improvisation for the Theatre** introduction, these items seem most apposite: “If during workshop sessions students become restless and static in their work, it is a danger sign. Refreshment and a new focus is needed. End the problem immediately and use some simple warm-up (object) exercise or game. Skip around the handbook and use anything that will keep up the vitality level of the group. Just be careful not to use any advanced exercises until the group is ready for them. Be certain that Orientation and Where exercises are given students in the beginning work, however. This is as true for the professional company as it is for the lay actor and newcomer to the theater.” “While a team is working on stage, the teacher-director must observe audience reaction as well as the players’ work. The audience (including yourself) should be checked for interest levels and restlessness; the actors must interrelate, communicate physically, and be seen and heard as they solve the acting problem. When an audience is restless, uninterested, the actors are responsible for this.”