Welcome to Roadworthy! This is a chance to show off a Road Crew Judge and allow them to share their experience and wisdom. We provide these profiles to help provide insight into their personality and style, and maybe give up-and-coming Judges some advice on improving their game.
This week we chat with Judge Kablooey of Gongfarmers Local #221 — Shane Madgett! Shane lets us in on his DCC origin story, and how he threw himself into running games after a thirty year hiatus!
Shane Madgett, also known as the magnificent Judge Kablooey, is a Roadworthy Judge from Calgary, Canada. Shane is a relative newcomer to the world of Dungeon Crawl Classics, but has launched headfirst into the community with a full slate of games scheduled at his friendly local game store, The Sentry Box.
Shane spent some time kicking around the quick start guide before really diving into DCC at the end of last year.
“All of a sudden, I just went full in,” Shane said. “I picked up the rulebook, the Tome of Adventure and the Annual and just bang–I was hooked.”
Shane first learned about tabletop roleplaying games by watching E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, where he saw kids in the movie playing D&D. He lived in a small town, which made it difficult to find a store to purchase his first games from. (And unfortunately there was no flying bicycle around to aid in his efforts.)
Yet after a long search, Shane was triumphant in locating copies of the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set and Monster Manual. The iconic red box set in hand, Shane lived through amazing worlds and battled fierce monsters until “the typical 80s story” struck.
“When girls came into the equation, I had to dump it,” Shane said.
Eventually Shane resumed playing tabletop games, ultimately resulting in the start of his Road Crew career.
“I have a little joke I say that I got back into roleplaying after a 30 year long rest,” Shane said. “COVID had happened, so I bought a bunch of books and just read.”
Some of the first DCC games that Shane ran were played at a local library. However, it was difficult to secure a consistent location there, which prompted the swap to The Sentry Box, where he runs both DCC and 5E. Part of his strategy for finding players is presenting the games he runs as something new and interesting.
“I started advertising it as something very different, because even the 5E stuff from Goodman [Games]–it is quite different. It’s got its own feel,” Shane said. “We ran our first full session last night, and there were four regular 5E players. And they’re like, ‘this is crazy.’ This is different. I love this. I’ve never played a D&D session like this. And it was just a Fifth Edition Fantasy module, so you know there’s something special there.”
Shane’s advice for other Judges is to fight off the nervousness involved in running a game by being willing to “just do it.” After his 30 year long rest, Shane started looking for games to join. When that wasn’t happening, he started his own at the library by running Sailors on the Starless Sea. His regular group, known as the Gongfarmers Local #211, celebrated each Nat 1 with an eruption of cheers.
Launching back into gaming after a long hiatus helped Shane realize that most players are there to have fun, rather than hold their Judge to a nerve-wracking standard.
“They’re just so happy to play a game,” Shane said. “They’re not judging you, and they’re not trying to compare you to somebody like Matt Mercer. They just want to go out and play a game.”
Name/Alias
- Shane Madgett “Judge Kablooey”
- charter member of the Gongfarmers Local #221
Number of Games Run (So Far)
- Lucky 13
Alignment
- Chaotic Silly
Favorite Monster
- Cookie Monster
Inspiring Book/Movie/TV Show
- I take great inspiration from media… Left right and center… I just take it all Lynn and it comes out when I’m creating anything
- FILM: Star Wars, anything by Bakshi & Harry Hausen
- PRINT: Marvel’s Annihilation, Silver Surfer Black and my all time fave: Grant Morrison’s run on Doom Patrol
- TV: Looney Tunes, Gilligan’s Island and Powerpuff Girls. Maybe add Watchmen series and Sopranos.
- APPENDIX M: Parliament Funkadelic have the greatest fictional musical universe. They inspire all my session planning. Clutch rule my airwaves too
Coffee or Tea?
- Rooibos Tea – Pu’er if I need caffeine
Favorite Adjective
- Adorable – it’s what we should all strive to be.
Thanks for the great interview, Shane!