Dice Exploder – Details, episodes & analysis

Transcript

It’s the crossover event of the season! This week I’m joined by Jeff Stormer of the Party of One podcast to talk about the core mechanic of Desperation by Jason Morningstar. In this game full of dread about a small Kansas town struggling through a never-ending winter, instead of deciding what happens, each turn you draw a card and decide who the thing on the card happens to. It’s a super slick mechanic. Meanwhile over on Party of One, you can listen to Jeff and I actually play the game.

Further Reading

Me on the Party of One Podcast

Desperation by Bully Pulpit Games

Socials

Sam D on Bluesky and itch

The Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.com

Our logo was designed by sporgory, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.

Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!

Ad Links

Spectrum Roleplaying by Nat Knight

Sock Puppets by Kurt Refling

Transcript

For this final episode of the Dice Exploder D&D miniseries, I wanted to go back to the source, to my first experiences playing the game. And I figured who better to do that with than someone else who was there, my first DM, my very own father.

We get plenty nostalgic for back when I was 8 years old, but I also made him talk to me about THAC0, early D&D's needlessly opaque and complicated version of an attack bonus. I made him do this because I think of THAC0 as so representative of how D&D's rules have worked for me over the years, and because my dad has never given a crap about any of those rules. When we played, he barely even read the rulebooks. So how did we still end up playing D&D? What were we even doing?

Further Reading

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, second edition

Dice Exploder on Theorize from Brindlewood Bay, and the pros and cons of a fixed world vs one you’re making up together at the table.

E.T. (1982, dir. Steven Spielberg)

Ad Links

Reacting Consortium

Fractals Co-op

Socials

Sam on Bluesky and itch.

The Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.com

Our logo was designed by sporgory, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.

Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!

Transcript

What if your D&D adventuring party settled down and opened a tavern, and the vibes went from dragon murderers to Bob’s Burgers? That's my pitch for Stewpot: Tales from a Fantasy Tavern, one of my favorite RPGs. It's currently on Backerkit, and you should check it out.

This week I'm talking about a super simple unnamed mechanic from Stewpot, and presumably other games before it, that's inspired much of my own work: everyone goes around and adds a detail about the scene at hand or whatever we're talking about. Simple but effective.

I think of this mechanic, and Stewpot generally, as especially welcoming to people new to the hobby. And so I brought on my favorite new to the hobby person: Lee Conrads, acclaimed theater director (there's a lot of theater and audience theory in this one) and also my spouse. It's a very special episode.

Further Reading:

The Stewpot backerkit campaign

Circle X theater company

Great Reckonings in Little Rooms

Comedy Book by Jesse David Fox

Socials

Sam on Bluesky and itch.

The Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.com

Our logo was designed by sporgory, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.

Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!

Transcript

Is sharing music with your friends an RPG? It sure is when you're playing Avery Alder's game Ribbon Drive. Takuma Okada, the designer of Stewpot: Tales from a Fantasy Tavern (⁠on Backerkit right now⁠), joins me this week to talk about music, contemplation, and unconventional ways to inspire players.

Further Reading:

⁠Ribbon Drive⁠

⁠Spindlewheel⁠

Everything Is Illuminated, the book and film

⁠Ten Candles⁠

⁠Dread⁠

⁠Star Crossed⁠

⁠Our Radios Are Dying⁠

⁠Void 1680 AM⁠

Sam’s ⁠playlist⁠ from playing Ribbon Drive

⁠The Awards⁠ website

⁠The Awards interview on Yes Indie'd⁠

Socials

Takuma on Twitter and Bluesky.

Sam on ⁠Bluesky⁠ and ⁠itch⁠.

The Dice Exploder blog is at ⁠diceexploder.com⁠

Our logo was designed by ⁠sporgory⁠, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.

Join the ⁠Dice Exploder Discord⁠ to talk

Transcripts are available at diceexploder.com

People talk a lot about how and whether RPGs emulate TV and movies, but this week cohost Meguey Baker (Apocalypse World, Under Hollow Hills) brings in a game that takes that sentiment to a compelling meta level. Fan Mail, from Primetime Adventures by Matt Wilson, is the core of the game's key metaphor: that players are simultaneously writers of a TV show, fans watching that show, and the characters portrayed on screen. We talk about the storygame scene in the early 2000s, how Primetime Adventures has influenced Meg's work, and how different this mechanic can feel in a one shot vs a full campaign.

This game feels like a classic. I wish I'd known about it ten years ago.

Further Reading:

Primetime Adventures by Matt Wilson

The Revolution Was Televised by Alan Sepinwall

Inspecters by Jared Sorensen

A Thousand and One Nights by Meguey Baker

Ritual in Game Design by Meguey Baker

Meguey & Vincent’s new game Under Hollow Hills

Socials

Meg on Twitter and Bluesky.

The Baker family blog and games.

Sam on Bluesky and itch.

The Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.com

Our logo was designed by sporgory, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.

Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!

Transcript

What's the deal with Playbooks? That's a question that's way too big for one episode. But Moe Poplar, of the RPG Academy podcast Show & Tell, had a very particular effect of playbooks that he wanted to talk about on the show today: how playbook choice can be a line of communication between players, GM, and designer.

This is one of those episodes that's as much play advice as it is about design. I should do more of those.

Further Reading:

Monster of the Week

Blades in the Dark

Socials

Moe’s website, including his games.

Moe’s podcast via The RPG Academy, Show & Tell

Sam on Bluesky and itch.

The Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.com

Our logo was designed by sporgory, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.
Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!

Transcript

This week, now that the part of season 3 that was funded by Kickstarter is over, I’ve got a treat for you: the backers-only bonus episode with Mikey Hamm, designer of Slugblaster. You didn’t think I was gonna just hold on to an episode this good forever, did you? It’s the show’s namesake mechanic!

Mikey is currently Kickstarting Two-Hand Path, a solo game roll-and-write dungeon crawler. Check it out.

While I thought this episode would be a big of a goof about a goofy mechanic (and it is), it also brought out some of the most thoughtful thoughts on deploying mechanics with precision and purpose that I’ve had on the show yet. Also, we had a blast.

A slug blast.

List of Games with Exploding Dice

Middle Earth Roleplaying Game

Shadowrun

Earthdawn

Luck of Legends

The Burning Wheel

7th Sea

Heart (Deep Apiarist class)

Renegade Racers

Kids on Bikes

Armello

Socials

Back Two-Hand Path and buy Slugblaster now!

Mikey on Bluesky.

Sam on Bluesky and itch.

The Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.com

Our logo was designed by sporgory, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.

Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!

Transcript

This week's cohost is James Wallis, cohost of the Ludonarrative Dissidents podcast, a show a lot like this one that's Kickstarting their third season now, and designer of one of the first story games: The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen.

Today we're breaking format: instead of talking about one game mechanic, James brought in the concept of innovation in game design. What does it look like, is it important, and how can we do more of it?

The show notes for this one are friggin packed.

Further Reading:

Ludonarrative Dissidents podcast and season 3 Kickstarter

The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen and on Wikipedia

Nordic Larp book by Jaakko Stenros and Markus Montola

Nordic Larp wiki

Fairweather Manor, the Downton Abbey larp

The Diana Jones award

Dominion, the deckbuilder board game by Donald X. Vaccarino

Blades in the Dark by John Harper

My blog post Calvinballing a Whole Campaign

Star Crossed by Alex Roberts

Dread by Epidiah Ravachol

Apocalypse World by Meguey and Vincent Baker

The Beast by Naked Female Giant

The Crew by Thomas Sing

Thousand Year Old Vampire by Tim Hutchings

Bluebeard’s Bride by Marissa Kelly, Whitney Beltrán, and Sarah Doom

The Well Played Game by Bernie de Koven

Socials

James Wallis on Bluesky and dice.camp.

Sam on Bluesky and itch.

The Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.com

Our logo was designed by sporgory, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.

Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!

This week I'm bringing you an episode from the new podcast Lyrical Ludology with host Logan Timmins, a show all about lyric games. I'm very excited for it.

There's already at least one more episode of Lyrical Ludology published, so if you like this one, go subscribe and take a listen!

Transcript

It’s the solo games episode! Hopefully the first of many. I’m joined by Seb Pines, designer of The Awards winning game Dwelling and haver of MFA in basically solo games, to talk about prompts in solo games.

This is a broad survey of solo games. We talk about a bunch of games (listed below) that all behave differently. If you’re curious about this side of the hobby, this is the primer for you.

Further Reading:

Dwelling by Seb Pines

Thousand Year Old Vampire by Tim Hutchings

Horse Girl by Babblegum Sam

Artefact by Jack Harrison

Project ECCO by Elliot Davis

Notorious by Jason Price

Void 1680 AM by Ken Lowery

I Eat Mantras For Breakfast by Maria Mison

The Ink That Bleeds and an excerpt on the Indie Game Reading Club

My response to The Ink That Bleeds

Socials

Seb Pines on Bluesky and itch.

Sam on Bluesky and itch.

The Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.com

Our logo was designed by sporgory, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.

Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!