Explore every episode of the podcast Dice Exploder
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Speak Your Truth (Desperation) with Jeff Stormer | 21 Aug 2024 | 00:34:13 | |
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 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 | |||
| THAC0 (AD&D 2e) with my dad | 13 Aug 2024 | 00:43:21 | |
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 Socials 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! | |||
| Everyone Adds a Detail (Stewpot) with Lee Conrads | 25 Apr 2024 | 00:46:33 | |
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 Great Reckonings in Little Rooms Comedy Book by Jesse David Fox Socials 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! | |||
| Playlists (Ribbon Drive) with Takuma Okada | 18 Apr 2024 | 00:39:48 | |
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: Everything Is Illuminated, the book and film Sam’s playlist from playing Ribbon Drive The Awards website The Awards interview on Yes Indie'd Socials Takuma on Twitter and Bluesky. 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 | |||
| Fan Mail (Primetime Adventures) with Meguey Baker | 04 Apr 2024 | 00:39:05 | |
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 The Baker family blog and games. 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! | |||
| Playbooks and Communication with Moe Poplar | 28 Mar 2024 | 00:41:41 | |
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 The Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.com Our logo was designed by sporgory, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey. | |||
| Exploding Dice with Mikey Hamm | 21 Mar 2024 | 00:50:45 | |
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. 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! | |||
| Innovation in Game Design with James Wallis | 14 Mar 2024 | 00:37:36 | |
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 Fairweather Manor, the Downton Abbey larp 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. 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! | |||
| Lyrical Ludology: A New Show About Lyric Games | 07 Mar 2024 | 00:10:37 | |
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! | |||
| Solo Game Prompts with Seb Pines | 29 Feb 2024 | 01:08:27 | |
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. 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! | |||
| Character Sheets with Emanoel Melo | 22 Feb 2024 | 00:46:39 | |
This is an intensely visual episode. If you'd like to follow along with the sheets we mention and get some extra commentary from me, you can do so at https://www.diceexploder.com/blog/2024/2/22/dice-exploder-aftershow-character-sheets I’m fascinated by character sheets, mostly because there are so so so precious few that I think do a good job. I don’t mean this to call anyone out - I think the job of making a good character sheet might genuinely be impossible. They just have so much they have to accomplish. Today I'm talking to Emanoel Melo, designer of CBR+PNK, about what we like in character sheets and whether there are any we would actually go to bat for. Further reading Aftershow blog post featuring all the character sheets we talk about plus extra commentary on diceexploder.com Bruno Prosaiko, the artist behind the beautiful ornate sheets we talk about, on Instagram A collection of Brazilian tabletop games on itch that Emanoel curates Socials Emanoel on Twitter and Instagram. His website, Cabinet of Curiosities. 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! | |||
| Pity Points (Kagematsu) with Alex Roberts | 15 Feb 2024 | 01:01:53 | |
Alex Roberts, designer of Star Crossed and For the Queen, joins me to talk about pity points from Kagematsu, a mechanic that doesn't actually do anything itself beyond evoke a particular feeling when put in opposition to love points. This episode is what I always dreamed Dice Exploder could be. We start from a simple game mechanic, but we get into power dynamics at the table in the past and the future, how people treat you when you’re disabled, cultural appropriation, my personal techniques for flirting, details of a new game Alex is working on, and of course “what is the true nature of love?” Happy day after Valentine’s Day. Further Reading Kagematsu is no longer available in print or online Kagematsu actual play, featuring Alex, on the One Shot podcast What Dice Do blogpost by Graham Walmsley The Quiet Year by Avery Alder Alex’s finished podcast Backstory Star Crossed by Alex Roberts For the Queen, second edition coming May 14th from Darrington Press Socials Alex’s personal carrd page The Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.com Our logo was designed by sporgory, our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey, and our ad music is Lily Pads by my boi Travis Tessmer. Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show! | |||
| Rule Zero (D&D) with Em Acosta | 06 Aug 2024 | 00:46:07 | |
I have a list of mechanics I’d like to cover on Dice Exploder, and I’d say about a third of them are jokes. One of those jokes is Rule Zero, a maxim that says "the DM (or GM) is always right." I think of Rule Zero as originating in D&D culture, and as part of this D&D miniseries, I thought it'd be interesting to use as a way into talking about the play culture around the game, how it's actually played at the table, and how many of its rules people actually use. There's no one I'd rather talk with about "do rules matter" than returning cohost Em Acosta (Exiles, Crescent Moon) who's spent a lot of time thinking about what rules they find actually useful in play. And in the end, we find yet another answer to my series-long quest for an answer to the question: "what actually is Dungeons & Dragons?" Further Reading: Rule Zero on TV Tropes (I do not endorse this but interesting context) Em’s Patreon Em’s banger games Exiles and Crescent Moon Socials 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! | |||
| Third Party License (Mork Borg) with Strega Wolf van den Berg | 08 Feb 2024 | 00:26:57 | |
This week I've got designer and illustrator Strega Wolf van den Berg on to talk about money and the Mork Borg third party license. What, if anything, is the difference between making RPGs for fun, to pay rent, and to be paid fairly? And what is the cost (aha) of bringing money into making art? On the flip side, this is also an episode about community, and how the shape of Mork Borg’s license fostered a community around it that allowed Strega Wolf to find a space in this hobby. Community can give us so many things that money can’t. Further reading: The Mork Borg third party license The Origin Of My Depression by Uboa Socials Strega Wolf's website and itch page Sam on Bluesky and itch. The Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.com Our logo was designed by sporgory, our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey, and our ad music is Lily Pads by my boi Travis Tessmer. Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show! | |||
| Rumor Tables (Lorn Song of the Bachelor) with Nova | 01 Feb 2024 | 00:48:56 | |
This week I've got Nova, aka Idle Cartulary, of the excellent Playful Void blog among other places linked below. Nova's one of my favorite writers in the, as she puts it, DIY elf game scene, and I knew that was a world I wanted to cover more this season. Nova brought on the rumor table from Zedeck Siew's Lorn Song of the Bachelor, an excellent elf game adventure. We got to talk about what makes a good random table at large, our taste in how adventures are written, and how point of view is the thing that often turns serviceable fiction into real primo shit. Further Reading: Nova’s kickstarter for The Curse of Mizzling Grove Dice Exploder on pick lists The Isle, in print and on itch Socials Nova’s blog, Playful Void Nova’s podcast, Dungeon Regular Nova’s games on itch The Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.com Our logo was designed by sporgory, our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey, and our ad music is Lily Pads by my boi Travis Tessmer. Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show! | |||
| The Risk Sheet (Psi*Run) with John Harper | 25 Jan 2024 | 00:38:38 | |
On the season 3 premiere, I’m joined by John Harper, designer of many games featured on past episodes of Dice Exploder including Blades in the Dark, Lasers & Feelings, and Agon 2e. John brought in the Psi*Run risk sheet, a fairly complex dice resolution mechanic, known generically as Otherkind Dice. The risk sheet is such an elegant piece of design, packing essentially a whole game onto a single sheet of paper, and being so clear in both how it works and how you might tear it apart for your own ends. If you’re a new designer, or even just looking to get back in touch with the basics, John and I agree that hacking this thing is a great place to look. It’s good to be back. Further Reading: Vincent Baker’s original 2005 post on Otherkind Dice Vincent’s 2022 Otherkind Dice SRD Psi*Run by Michael Lingner, Christopher Moore, and Meguey Baker Socials John’s website, onesevendesign.com, and itch page. The Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.com Our logo was designed by sporgory, our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey, and our ad music is Lily Pads by my boi Travis Tessmer. Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show! | |||
| Dice Exploder: Season 3 Trailer | 18 Jan 2024 | 00:02:07 | |
Thursday January 25th Dice Exploder is back with an all new crowdfunded-by-listeners season! The lineup includes John Harper, Alex Roberts, James Wallis, Idle Cartulary, Strega Wolf van den Berg, Emanoel Melo, Seb Pines and MORE - that's right, I'm over-delivering on the Kickstarter as a treat. Check back next week for the season premiere, and visit the blog's new home at diceexploder.com. | |||
| 2023 Year End Bonanza | 12 Dec 2023 | 01:53:27 | |
Hello and welcome to the Dice Exploder 2023 end of year bonanza! I love me a good ranked list of movies on an end of year movie podcast, but ranked lists are bad and this show’s about RPGs not movies, so you get this instead. It’s me, Aaron King of the RTFM podcast, Lady Tabletop of the Alone at the Table podcast, and Sharang Biswas of winning tons of Ennies this year and being a games academic, and the four of us (plus a half dozen other special guests) are here to tell you about a bunch of cool games shit we played, read, and listened to this year. Hope you had a great year in games! Come on down and listen to ours. Our picks: Aaron’s games * GREED by Gormengeist * Undertree Temple of the Elf Gods by Happy Chthonian * Crush Depth Apparition by Amanda Lee Franck Audrey’s games * Void 1680 AM by Ken Lowery * Wreck This Deck by Black Armada Games (Josh Fox and Becky Annison) * Extreme Meatpunks Forever by Sinister Beard Games Sharang’s games * Fight With Spirit by Story Brewers Roleplaying * The Silt Verses by Gabriel Robinson and Jason Cordova * The Broadcast by Jason Morningstar and Lizzie Stark Sam’s games * Eating Oranges in the Shower by Hazel Anneke Dixon * Barkeep on the Borderlands by W. F. Smith * Exiles by em acosta Game adjacent things * Aaron: Grog the Frog by Alba BG * Audrey: Roleplaying Games Enter the World of Ballet in a Unique New Performance by Linda Codega * Sharang: The Dungeons & Dragons players of Death Row by Keri Blakinger * Sam: The Ink That Bleeds by Paul Czege (here’s an excerpt from the Indie Game Reading Club) Thing we’re proud of * Aaron: RTFM, Speedrune, and Aaron’s annual list of favorite books * Audrey: Behold: A Game * Sharang: Winning 3 Ennies: Judges choice for MOONLIGHT ON ROSEVILLE BEACH and Best Rules/Best Family Game for AVATAR * Sam: you’re lookin at it Picks from friends of the show: * Ray Chou: Decuma * Thomas Manuel: A.A. Voigt on Youtube, Daydreaming About Dragons podcast by Judd Karlman, the Indie Game Reading Club, and Aaron Marks at Cannibal Halfling. * Mikey Hamm: Picturepedia and other coffee table reference books * John Harper: Girl By Moonlight * Em Acosta: The Zone and Blades in ‘68 * Nova / Idle Cartulary: mindfulness fantasy map drawing (see her Dungeons Regularly vols. 1 and 2) * Moe Poplar: the Dice Exploder podcast Further reading: * Meakpunk manifesto by Heather “Flowers” Robertson * Sharang’s piece about Brindlewood Bay * Amanda Lee Franck’s Comradery * Alba BG’s Instagram * BALLETCOLLECTIVE presents THE MOMENT IS IMMINENT * RTFM patreon episode on VOID 1680 AM * LadyTabletop’s VOID 1680 AM broadcast Socials Aaron can be found on, like, just listen to RTFM, linked above. Audrey on Tumblr, and her podcast Alone at the Table about solo games. Sharang is on itch and Twitter and Bluesky. Sam is @sdunnewold on all socials and itch. 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! | |||
| Designer Commentary: i know the end (with Nico MacDougall) | 04 Dec 2023 | 01:51:25 | |
Today I’ve got for you another between-season bonus episode. This time we’re breaking format to talk about i know the end, a module I published earlier this year about going back home after a long time away and all the horrors that entails. Because if you can’t occasionally publish something self-indulgent in your podcast feed, what’s even the point of having one? My cohost for this is my friend Nico MacDougall, the current organizer of The Awards, who edited i know the end and had almost as much to say about it as I did. For maximum understanding of this episode, you can pick up a free copy of the module here and follow along (or skim it in advance). Further reading: The original i know the end cover art The “oops all PBTA moves” version of i know the end Three of my short films My previous written designer commentaries on Space Train Space Heist and Couriers John Harper talking with Andrew Gillis about the origins of Blades in the Dark The official designer commentary podcasts for Spire and Heart Aaron Lim’s An Altogether Different River, which comes with a designer commentary version Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes, a photography theory book that we talked about during recording but which I later cut because I remembered most of the details about it incorrectly What Is Risograph Printing, another topic cut from the final recording because I got basically everything about it wrong while recording (the background texture of the module is a risograph printed texture) Before Sunrise by Richard Linklater Questionable Content by Jeph Jacques Socials: Nico’s carrd page, which includes links to their socials, editing rates, and The Awards. Sam on Bluesky, Twitter, dice.camp, and itch. The Dice Exploder 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! | |||
| Accessibility and Graphic Design (Mork Borg) with Marc Muszynski | 09 Nov 2023 | 00:49:05 | |
It’s a bonus between-seasons Dice Exploder! Wowie! As promised back in my episode with Gem Room Games about Mork Borg, today I’m talking about accessibility in game design using Mork Borg’s graphic design as an example. My cohost is Marc Muszynski, a friend and screenwriter with low vision, and we talk in detail about his experience with Mork Borg. Is this game, with all its important and loud art, accessible to people who can’t see? Like with most accessibility questions, It’s Complicated™! Further reading: Accessibility in Gaming Resource Guide by Jennifer Kretchmer TTRPG Accessibility Drive 2023 game jam on itch Contrast checking tool for visual design. Color checking tool for colorblindness. Sylexiad, my favorite Dyslexia-friendly font: Fate Accessibility Toolkit by Evil Hat Two articles about “sanity” mechanics in RPGs (don’t put “sanity” mechanics in your games) Socials: Marc on imdb (lmao) Sam on Bluesky, Twitter, dice.camp, and itch. 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! | |||
| Customizing Games for Your Table with Nychelle Schneider | 19 Oct 2023 | 00:38:56 | |
On this episode I’m joined by Nychelle Schneider, also known as Mistletoe Kiss, a moderator from the Blades in the Dark discord and contributor to The Wildsea, the upcoming Dagger Isles supplement for Blades, and Underground Maps & Passkeys among others. Nychelle brought on the idea of customizing existing games, homebrewing mechanics for your table (or even publication). This is... a big conversation, chock full of cool ideas that I hope people take and run with. There are so many games out there, and I think there’s so much to be gained by making stuff that can plug into and enhance other people’s art. Nychelle also has so many interesting trains of thought about in this episode, many of which I didn’t follow up on as much as I wish I had. So I encourage you to listen to what she says, and then take those ideas an run with them. I hope that every week, but especially with this one. Further reading: A post-show blogpost about Sam’s joke Blades playbook The Boogeyman Nychelle’s Blades playbook The Surge Vincent Baker’s blogpost Apocalypse World Custom Advancement Tim Denee’s Dogs in the Bark Sam’s Blades crewsheet Spirit Chasers Sam’s Blades downtime hack Doskvol Breathes Several zines by Aaron King of PBTA moves that exist outside of games: Reading the Apocalypse, PbtA23 January Digest, and PbtA23 February Digest Socials: Nychelle’s website, Twitter, and itch. The Blades in the Dark Discord Sam on Bluesky, Twitter, dice.camp, and itch. 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! | |||
| Secondary Missions (Band of Blades) with Thomas Manuel | 12 Oct 2023 | 00:34:09 | |
Thomas Manuel of the Indie RPG Newsletter and the Yes Indie’d podcast joins me to talk about Secondary Missions, a mechanic from Band of Blades by Off Guard Games. In Band of Blades, a grim military fantasy forged in the dark game, you and your party go off and do missions. Meanwhile, there’s a whole other squad out there doing a whole other mission! What’s up with them? This mechanic tells us. It’s such a change in the mouthfeel of Band of Blades compare to other forged in the dark games. We get into how it supports the genre and themes of the game, all the tough choices it puts in front of players, and how mechanics like this one that couldn’t exist in any other game are often our favorites. It’s a classic Dice Exploder deep dive this week. Enjoy. Further reading: * Band of Brothers Socials: Sam on Bluesky, Twitter, dice.camp, and itch. 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! | |||
| A Five and a Half Foot Long Hand-Printed Scroll (Fall of Magic) with Tasha Robinson | 05 Oct 2023 | 01:05:08 | |
This week I’m joined by Tasha Robinson, film editor at Polygon, Games on Demand aficionado, Golden Cobra honorable mentionee, and author of this excellent piece about today’s game and mechanic: Fall of Magic and the five and a half foot long handprinted scroll at its heart. There’s a lot to say about such a unique physical object, and also a lot to cover about maps in RPGs at large. We get into all of it. Consider this the third part of the travel series this season opened with. Pack your bags. It’s a heck of a journey. Further reading: * Fall of Magic by Ross Cowman * Tasha’s article about Fall of Magic and City of Winter * Tasha’s article about larps about AI * Tasha’s archive on Polygon * Tasha’s Golden Cobra honorably mentioned larp The Regency Committee on Decorum and Punchbowl Poop Prevention * Rusalka by Nick Wedig * Doskvol Street Maps by Tim Denee * Blades in ‘68 on Twitter * Beak Feather and Bone, another mapmaking game from Possible Worlds Games * Dread by Epidiah Ravachol Socials: Sam on Bluesky, Twitter, dice.camp, and itch. Our logo was designed by sporgory, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey via Breaking Copyright. Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show! | |||
| Prestige Classes (D&D 3e/3.5e) with Sam Roberts | 30 Jul 2024 | 00:42:19 | |
Back Dice Exploder season 4 on Backerkit now! This episode I'm joined by Sam Roberts (Escape from Dino Island) to talk about prestige classes, special classes from D&D 3e that you could only take by multiclassing into them. Sam thinks of these things as a noble failure: a very cool idea whose execution almost immediately dropped the ball. But what can we learn from their corpse? We get into that, along with a boots-on-the-ground discussion of what our experiences were like actually playing D&D 3rd edition and an exploration of advancement as a concept at large: how does it work in most games, and how might it work instead? Further Reading The Game Left Unplayed, blogpost by Jay Dragon D&D third edition D&D 3.5 edition Sam R’s game Escape from Dino Island Socials 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! | |||
| Blaseball with Chris Greenbriar | 28 Sep 2023 | 00:44:59 | |
In the year of our lord two thousand and twenty, many things occurred. But one of those things was the cultural event known as Blaseball. Blaseball was, more or less, a simulated baseball league that ran one game an hour, one season a week, that players could bet on and then use their winnings to vote for global rules changes. It got... weirder from there. And bigger. And memeier. It became nothing less than a lifestyle. And then, this past summer of 2023, it ended. What made it such a phenomenon? What made its fans so passionate? Was Blaseball even a game? And what will we do with ourselves now that it’s gone? This week Sam is joined by Chris Greenbriar, former moderator of the team discord for the Core Mechanics (that’s one of the teams from Blaseball) to reminisce and celebrate Blaseball’s legacy and everything that made it beautiful. Further reading: The Seattle Garages bandcamp and the Fourth Strike Records website. The Great Soul Train Robbery in both original two page and zine length. Empires of EVE: the EVE Online history book series 17776, which we didn’t mention but which you should give a glance Socials: Join the Dice Exploder Discord if you need to talk with Chris directly. Sam on Bluesky, Twitter, dice.camp, and itch. Our logo was designed by sporgory, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey. | |||
| Transparency with Jason Morningstar | 21 Sep 2023 | 00:42:29 | |
This week Sam is joined by Jason Morningstar of Bully Pulpit Games, known for Fiasco, Night Witches, and many other excellent games. Jason brought on transparency, a concept originating in the Nordic larp community, which describes the separation of player knowledge from character knowledge (similar to dramatic irony. We go through a whole library of example games in this one as we talk through genre, safety tools, playing to lose, and the deployment of secrets. Jason’s enthusiasm for this topic is infectious - there’s so much to think about here! If you’re listening and a designer, I’m pumped to hear what shenanigans you find to get up to with transparency in your own games. Further reading: The Golden Cobra Challenge, live now! Socials: Jason on Bluesky and dice.camp. Bully Pulpit Games and their Patreon. Sam on Bluesky, Twitter, dice.camp, and itch. 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! | |||
| Graphic Design // The Calendar of Nechrubel (Mork Borg) with Gem Room Games | 14 Sep 2023 | 01:00:16 | |
Double the cohosts, double the mechanics, double the Kickstarters to back! This week, Sam talks with Kali Lawrie and Dan Phipps of Gem Room Games about Mork Borg by Pelle Nilsson and Johan Nohr: its graphic design and the Calendar of Nechrubel. Mork Borg is famous for the absolute assault on the eyes [complimentary] committed by its graphic design. In this season of the podcast about how mechanics can be more than just rules, I really wanted to cover it. And who better to do that with me than Gem Room Games, authors of Dukk Borg, the mashup of Mork Borg and DuckTales? We talk about the look, comedy, and sheer commitment of Mork Borg in this double-stuffed episode. Dukk Borg by Gem Room Games is on Kickstarter right now. Further reading: Mork Borg: https://morkborg.com/ Sam’s other favorite Gem Room Games game Subway Runners: https://gemroomgames.itch.io/subwayrunners Socials: Kali on Bluesky and Twitter. Dan on Bluesky and Twitter. Gem Room Games on Bluesky, Twitter, and itch. Sam on Bluesky, Twitter, dice.camp, and itch. Our logo was designed by sporgory, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey via Breaking Copyright. Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show! | |||
| Stress (Brinkwood) with Tan Shao Han | 07 Sep 2023 | 00:34:29 | |
This week, Sam talks with Tan Shao Han about stress from Brinkwood by Erik Bernhardt, a character resource originally from Blades in the Dark by John Harper. This is one of those episodes where to talk about the mechanic in question, we kind of have to talk about the whole-ass game around it because so much of Brinkwood is tied up in stress. And in this case, we really had to talk about two whole-ass games, because so much of what makes Brinkwood stress interesting is how a few small tweaks from Blades in the Dark ripple out through the design and lead to big changes in play. Get ready for the full firehose of mechanics: this is an episode jam-packed with delicious, crunchy examples. Further reading: Brinkwood by Erik Bernhardt: https://brinkwood.net/ Blades in the Dark by John Harper: https://bladesinthedark.com/ The Blades in the Dark discord: https://discord.gg/uXwCKq3 Thoughts on Forging in the Dark by Small Cool Games: https://smallcoolgames.itch.io/thoughts-on-forging-in-the-dark An Amateur’s Guide to Hacking Blades in the Dark by past cohost Michael Elliott: https://notwriting.itch.io/an-amateurs-guide-to-hacking-blades-in-the-dark Socials: Shao on Bluesky, Twitter, and his personal website. Sam on Bluesky, Twitter, dice.camp, and itch. Our logo was designed by sporgory, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey via Breaking Copyright. Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show! | |||
| [redacted word] (We Are But Worms: A One Word RPG) with David Block | 31 Aug 2023 | 01:05:00 | |
This week, Sam talks with his middle school buddy David Block about We Are But Worms: A One Word RPG, other lyric games, and experimental art at large. Some topics discussed include: * Art * Games * Poetry * Lists The best place to find David is on the Dice Exploder Discord. But No More: A One Letter Supplement for We Are But Worms: A One Word RPG You can find Sam on Bluesky, Twitter, dice.camp, and itch @sdunnewold. Our logo was designed by sporgory, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey. | |||
| Fate Points and Aspects (Fate) with wendi yu | 24 Aug 2023 | 00:47:38 | |
This week, Sam talks with wendi yu about the Fate Point economy, a meta currency system from Fate by Fred Hicks and Rob Donoghue and published by Evil Hat. Some topics discussed include: * Getting into storygames * “Generic” RPGs * When crunch kills the vibe * The Hero’s Journey * The (lack of) difference between rules and flavor * Writing good aspects: it’s hard! * wendi’s game here, there, be monsters! You can find wendi on Twitter @wen_di_yu, and you can buy here, there, be monsters! digitally on itch or physically from SoulMuppet. You can find Sam @sdunnewold on Bluesky, Twitter, dice.camp, and itch.io, and by subscribing to the Dice Exploder newsletter. You can find Fate at Evil Hat. The Dice Exploder logo is by sporgory, and the theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey. Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show! | |||
| Cramped Quarters (Uncharted Worlds) with Morgan Nuncio | 18 Aug 2023 | 00:27:38 | |
This week, Sam talks with Morgan Nuncio about cramped quarters, a move from Uncharted Worlds. Some topics discussed include: * Travel in story games * Making this move at the beginning, middle, or end of a scene * Moves as training wheels * Stonetop’s “keep company” * Wanderhome * For the Queen You can find Mo on Twitter @SirenaBesos. You can find Sam on Bluesky, Twitter, dice.camp, and itch @sdunnewold. 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! | |||
| The Hex with Clayton Notestine | 17 Aug 2023 | 00:48:50 | |
This week, Sam talks with Clayton Notestine about hexagons and hex maps. Some topics discussed include: * The birth of RPGs out of wargaming * Avalon Hill’s hex map * The vibes of different numbers * Why hexes and not squares? * The hex’s modularity * How RPGs create stories in the fiction and at the table * Leaving hexes empty * Travel in RPGs * Hex flowers Clayton can be found @ClayNotestine on Twitter, @ExplorersDesign on Bluesky and dice.camp, at explorers.itch.io, and of course at explorersdesign.com. That’s also where you can get his sick layout templates and join the explorers design discord. I’ll see you in there. You can find Sam on Bluesky, Twitter, dice.camp, and itch @sdunnewold. 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! | |||
| Dice Exploder: Season 2 Trailer | 10 Aug 2023 | 00:02:46 | |
Coming August 17th, 2023: DICE EXPLODER SEASON 2. (Here’s a transcript of this trailer.) That’s right, we are back next week with an all new season. It's 12 new episodes, 13 new co-hosts diving face first with me into the world of tabletop RPG design one mechanic at a time. This is gonna be a season that's a lot about flavor and vibes and how those things themselves are fundamentally mechanics in these games. We've also got a trio of episodes about different ways to depict travel, and of course a few deep dives into crunchy grindy bits of games. Our longest episode yet. Our shortest episode yet. Splorts! Tell your siblings and your niblings! Join our Discord if you can’t wait that long. See you soon. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit diceexploder.substack.com | |||
| Pick Lists with Ash Kreider | 13 Jul 2023 | 00:30:45 | |
This week, Sam talks with Ash Kreider about character creation picklists, a common feature of most (all?) PBTA games, as well as many others. Some topics discussed include: * Character creation speed runs * Gender lists * Are pick lists mechanics? * How Wanderhome doubles the length of its pick lists with This One Cool Trick * Are pick lists poetry? Games mentioned * Maid RPG You can find Ash at peachpantspress on itch and @wundergeek on Twitter. Their website is peachpantspress.com, or here’s direct links to There Is Only One Bed and Queer Sir. You can find Sam @sdunnewold on Bluesky, Twitter, dice.camp, and itch.io The Dice Exploder logo is by sporgory, and the theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show! | |||
| The Adventuring Day (D&D) with Tristan Zimmerman | 23 Jul 2024 | 00:53:55 | |
Back Dice Exploder season 4 on Backerkit now! Welcome to the D&D miniseries! I wanted to kick this off with a look into the mechanical heart of D&D, but I didn't really know what that meant. So I asked my friend Tristan! Designer of the award winning game Shanty Hunters and author of the Molten Sulfur blog, Tristan now spends his time as a designer on Nations & Cannons, a hack of D&D set in the American Revolutionary War. Tristan brought on a mechanized design principle underpinning D&D, the Adventuring Day, which says the game should be balanced for parties to go through 6-8 combat encounters between each long rest. It’s an interesting idea... even though absolutely no one in the known universe actually plays D&D like that. So where’d it come from? And how do you approach it as a designer? Further Reading: From the Dice Exploder blog: D&D Is A Comedy Game Socials Tristan on Bluesky. The Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.com Our logo was designed by sporgory, our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey, and our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer. Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show! | |||
| Whispers (The Wildsea) with Ryan Khan | 06 Jul 2023 | 00:32:38 | |
This week, Sam talks with Ryan Khan about Whispers, a player resource from The Wildsea by Felix Isaacs, but really about a whole bunch of mechanics from The Wildsea. Some topics discussed include: * Setting as game design, and open ended lore * Open ended prompts * Twists vs Devil’s Bargains * Player agency * Long skill lists: pros and cons Games mentioned: * Spire You can find Ryan Khan on Twitter @theOneTrueK and on itch.io at the-one-true-ryan-khan.itch.io You can find Sam @sdunnewold on Bluesky, Twitter, dice.camp, and itch.io, and by subscribing to the Dice Exploder newsletter. You can find The Wildsea at thewildsea.co.uk The Dice Exploder logo is by sporgory, and the theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show! | |||
| Divine Favor (Agon 2e) with Greg Soper | 29 Jun 2023 | 00:38:02 | |
This week, Sam talks with Greg Soper AKA sporgory about Divine Favor, one part of the dice pool mechanic from Agon second edition by Sean Nittner and John Harper. Some topics discussed include: - Having a family drama stapled to your character sheet - Greek Gods: bad parents - What makes hacking Divine Favor hard - Endeavor - Odyssey Aquatica - All Quiet No Peace - Starbones - The setting elements mechanic from Dream Askew // Dream Apart - ~HACKING LIVE ON AIR!!!~ You can find Greg on Twitter and itch.io at sporgory You can find Sam @sdunnewold on Twitter, dice.camp, and itch.io The Dice Exploder logo is by sporgory (!!), and the theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show! | |||
| Change The World (The Watch) with Ema Acosta | 22 Jun 2023 | 00:45:38 | |
This week on the Dice Exploder podcast, Sam talks with Ema Acosta about Change The World, a move from The Watch by Ash Kreider. Some topics discussed include: * The Watch: it’s depressing! * The Watch and its gender dynamics * A lot of people will never see this bit of design and that’s okay * Balancing misery with hope and beauty * “Just tell the players to do the thing” * Inducing emotions from technical language * “Rail shooter RPGs” * Crying Games mentioned: * Stewpot (currently unavailable) You can find Ema’s games at ema-acosta.itch.io You can find Sam @sdunnewold on Twitter, dice.camp, and itch.io The Dice Exploder logo is by sporgory, and the theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show! | |||
| Theorize (Brindlewood Bay via Oli Jeffrey) with Victor Lane | 15 Jun 2023 | 00:50:03 | |
This week, Sam talks with Victor Lane about the Theorize move, originally from an idea by Oli Jeffrey and popularized in Brindlewood Bay by Jason Cordova. Some topics discussed include: * The history of solving mysteries in RPGs * Jason Cordova’s blogpost discussing Oli Jeffrey’s original Theorize move * Writing mystery stories VS reading or watching mystery stories VS playing a mystery RPG * Bullshit * Quantum villains * Victor’s advice on running Brindlewood Bay (he’s got great tips) * Structured surprise vs emergent surprise * Mechanical clues, as distinct from diegetic clues * The butler did it * Complexity (the mechanic) Games mentioned: * GUMSHOE Movies and TV mentioned: Knives Out, Glass Onion, Murder She Wrote, Fedora Noir, Speed, Father Brown, Columbo, Poker Face, Agatha Christie You can find Victor on TikTok and itch.io at ThisIsVictor. His website is thisisvictor.com. You can find Sam @sdunnewold on Twitter, dice.camp, and itch.io The Dice Exploder logo is by sporgory, and the theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show! | |||
| Devil's Bargains (Blades in the Dark) with Pam Punzalan | 08 Jun 2023 | 00:36:49 | |
This week, Sam talks with Pam Punzalan about Devil’s Bargains, one part of the dice pool mechanic from John Harper's game Blades in the Dark. Some topics discussed include: * Rulebooks as guidelines and play philosophy more than proper rules * DBs as a safety tool * Generic DBs * Do DBs slow down the game? Is that good or bad? * Retconning in RPGs (it's good) * Putting DBs into any old game * Our favorite DBs Games mentioned: * Belonging Outside Belonging games such as Dream Askew // Dream Apart You can find Pam on Twitter, dice.camp, and itch.io at TheDoveTailor. You can find their newsletter at thedovetailor.substack.com. Her website is thedovetailor.carrd.co. You can find Sam @sdunnewold on Twitter, dice.camp, and itch.io You can find Blades in the Dark at bladesinthedark.com. The Dice Exploder logo is by sporgory, and the theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey. Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show! | |||
| Composure (Antiquarian Adventures) with Michael Elliott | 01 Jun 2023 | 00:34:34 | |
This week, Sam talks with Michael Elliott about Composure, a player resource mechanic from Ash McAllen’s game Antiquarian Adventures. Michael is currently Kickstarting his game Nasty Brutish and Long, a simple RPG about lives complicated by revolution. Some topics discussed today: * Failure and conflict, why they're great, and mechanics that encourage players to embrace them * Genre and mechanics that support it * Simplifying mechanics when hacking, with Blades in the Dark as an example * Passing the spotlight at the table Games mentioned: * Fiasco Sam’s blog post whether conflict is necessary in RPGs James Mendez Hodes’ website and blog Pam Punzalan’s blog post “The Unbearable Otherness of a Global South Creator” Asians Represent podcast on Twitter Michael’s on Twitter, dice.camp, itch.io, and other places @NotWriting Sam is @sdunnewold on Twitter, dice.camp, and itch.io The Dice Exploder logo is by sporgory, and the theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show! | |||
| Rolling The Dice (Lasers & Feelings) with Ray Chou | 25 May 2023 | 00:39:24 | |
This week’s cohost is Ray Chou, who brings Rolling The Dice from John Harper’s iconic one page RPG Lasers & Feelings. Topics discussed include: * Minimalism * Underlining genre through mechanics * Episodic vs serialized stories * When you should roll dice * Randomness and fate in real life * Beer & pretzels gaming Games mentioned: * 316 Carnage Amongst the Stars * Couriers Sam’s designer commentary on his own Lasers & Feelings hack, Couriers, can be found here. You can find Ray's publishing company at myth.works. You can find Sam @sdunnewold on Twitter, dice.camp, and itch.io. The Dice Exploder logo is by sporgory, and the theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey. | |||
| Dice Exploder: Season 1 Trailer | 27 Apr 2023 | 00:01:09 | |
Coming June 2023: DICE EXPLODER, a new podcast where each week we break down a tabletop RPG mechanic as deep as we possibly can, with Sam Dunnewold and a rotating co-host. Produced by the Fiction First Network. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit diceexploder.substack.com | |||
| D&D Miniseries Intro (Homage to the Player's Handbook) | 18 Jul 2024 | 00:20:20 | |
Back Dice Exploder season 4 on Backerkit now! Today I'm kicking off a miniseries of Dice Exploder episodes all about the Tarrasque in the room: Dungeons & Dragons itself. But before we get into that, I wanted to lay out for context where I'm coming from, what my relationship is like to "the world's greatest roleplaying game™" is like, and what questions I was hoping to answer with this series. If you listen to this show, you probably come from a community that's skeptical of D&D. I'm not personally a fan. But it's unquestionably doing something for many people, and I don't buy that they simply don't know any better. So what's the deal? What's good about Dungeons & Dragons? Further Reading At 50 Years Old, Dungeons & Dragons Is An Artifact post by Lin Codega on Rascal News Dungeons & Dragons Is A Comedy Game on the Dice Exploder blog Homage to the Players Handbook by Tim Hutchings Socials 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! | |||
| The Queen Is Under Attack (For The Queen) with Kimi Hughes | 16 Jul 2024 | 00:37:15 | |
Back Dice Exploder season 4 on Backerkit now! Among my favorite RPGs is Alex Roberts' triumph of minimalistic, elegant design: For The Queen. Today I'm doing just with along with Kimi Hughes of Golden Lasso Games. For The Queen is a card drawing prompt game, and one prompt is always the game's last: "The Queen is under attack. Do you defend her?" That's today's mechanic, but we cover most of this pretty small game at some point. You can back Kimi's new game Starscape on Kickstarter now! Further Reading: For The Queen by Alex Roberts Starscape by Kimi Hughes Oh Captain My Captain by James D’Amato Socials Kimi on Bluesky as well as Golden Lasso Games. Happy Jacks on YouTube. 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! | |||
| Designer Commentary: Northfield (with Jason Morningstar) | 13 Jun 2024 | 00:51:03 | |
It is still designer commentary season on Dice Exploder, and today I'm talking with Jason Morningstar (Fiasco, Night Witches, a million other games) about Northfield: a game we co-designed about when Jesse James tried to rob the bank in my home town, we shot the hell out of him and his gang, and then we started an annual small town fair to celebrate our victory. You play as both a member of the James-Younger gang and as a person in the present day portraying your gang member in a reenactment. It's a weird little game, much like its subject matter, and surprisingly personal to me (Jason was not surprised). On this episode, we break down the process of our collaboration and how we feel about the results (very positively). More than any other designer commentary I've done, I hope you check out this game. I'm really proud of it. You can get it on the Bully Pulpit Patreon now for $5. Further Reading Northfield, the game, on the Bully Pulpit Patreon Video of the Defeat of Jesse James Days reenactment Official Defeat of Jesse James Days website Photo of (allegedly) Charlie Pitts’ ear Wikipedia articles on Northfield and the James-Younger gang Socials Jason on Bluesky and dice.camp. 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! | |||
| Designer Commentary: Space Fam (with Claire and Caveat) | 15 May 2024 | 00:41:14 | |
For Ken Lowery’s Disc 2 jam, I decided to finally release the game I’ve been working on for nearly four years: Space Fam. This is a game about, you guessed it, found family in space. In particular, it takes a lot of inspiration from The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet in that you’re the crew of a ship escorting a traveler from point A to point B, and along the way you deal with your feelings of guilt and stress about living under an oppressive government. It’s a hack of Our Traveling Home by Ash Kreider, and it’s like 90% of the way to really great. But that last 10% is always the hard 10%, and I decided it was time to let this game just be what it is and push it out into the world. As a part of that, I wanted to look back on the design process. What went well, what didn’t, what would I change if I was going to spend another 30 minutes or 30 years on this thing. To do that, I sat down with two of my friends who playtested the game, and we talked about all things Space Fam. Further Reading Space Fam on itch The Disc 2 jam. A commentary podcast episode for Space Fam is available here. I wrote about the design of Space Fam's "scenes menu" here. I wrote about the design of the Space Fam character sheet here. Our Traveling Home by Ash Kreider Stewpot: Tales from a Fantasy Tavern by Takuma Okada Space Post by Jason Morningstar Night Witches by Jason Morningstar Socials 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! | |||
| Game Exploder Jam Roundup | 02 May 2024 | 00:51:53 | |
The first ever Dice Exploder game jam came to a close about a month ago, and today I sit down with the three hooligans from the discord who put it together and go through some of our favorite entries. If Dice Exploder is a show about concrete examples, this episode is as Dice Exploder as it gets. All the games we talk about are pretty short, so it should be easy to follow along at home. Check out all the jam submissions here. Thanks to Audrey Stolze (aka Lady Tabletop), Chris Greenbriar, and Sam Roberts for running the jam! Further Reading: Game Exploder full list of entries Sam D's late entry: World Ending Game (Sam's Version) Socials Sam R's game Escape from Dino Island. Audrey on Tumblr, and her podcast Alone at the Table about solo games. 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! | |||
| Love Letters (Apocalypse World) with Aaron King | 04 Sep 2024 | 01:01:07 | |
Thrilled this week to have on one of my favorite movewrights, it’s Aaron King of the RTFM podcast. Aaron brought on Love Letters from Apocalypse World, a kind of custom move the GM can write when it’s been a while since we played and everyone might need a refresher on what was going on to get the ball rolling again. I think custom moves are a wildly overlooked part of Apocalypse World, and today we go deep on why that is and how and when to write your own. Further Reading Apocalypse World by Vincent and Meguey Baker Aaron King’s Worksheet Manifesto The SF Ultra podcast Reading the Apocalypse by Aaron King Socials RTFM podcast and Patreon The Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.com Our logo was designed by sporgory, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey. This episode was edited by Chris Greenbriar. Thanks Chris! Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show! Ad Links Jukebox by Jar of Eyes Oh Captain My Captain by James D’Amato | |||
| Keys (Keymaster) with Caro Asercion | 12 Sep 2024 | 00:49:53 | |
Today, Caro Asercion (i'm sorry did you say street magic) brings us a game and mechanic all about instinct and physical embodiment: Keys from the larp Keymaster. This game isn't like most games. It’s so much about physical embodiment and exploring group identity rather than pesky shit like “storytelling”. Physicality! Larp! The Golden Cobra Challenge! We've got it all. Further Reading Keymaster by J Li i’m sorry did you say street magic by Caro Asercion Socials Caro on 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 Oh Captain My Captain by James D’Amato | |||