Unwritten Earths Symposium – Details, episodes & analysis

In this Plus Expenses we talk about: It’s the official “crossover” Plus Expenses, James Garner handing off a baton to a wizard, feelings about ending Two Hundred a Day (but Two Hundred a Day will remain!), actually ending a thing, starting a new podcast: Unwritten Earths Symposium, how Plus Expenses will fit into the new show, the early days of Dread, building our new Discord so it’s a place where people play each others games, the experience of playing THAT game, learning new podcast skills, learning from The Rockford Files, goals for Unwritten Earths, future Two Hundred a Day eps, THANK YOU Two Hundred a Day listeners, hello new Unwritten Earths listeners, the Unwritten Earths Patreon, and pitching the Adventure & Hobbyist Annual.

If this sounds good to you, come into the Symposium and let’s teach and learn from each other!
And there's more:

• Unwritten Earths Symposium
• Our Patreon
• Join the Discord
• Nathan's games
• Eppy's games
• Music by Will Jobst

Welcome to the Unwritten Earths Symposium Podcast! On Episode 0, game designers Nathan D. Paoletta and Epidiah Ravachol introduce themselves, talk about the Symposium, and then uncover some arcane games from their game discovery homework. Have we designed a game yet?

In this episode, we mentioned:

• Land of Nodd
• Stories From the Grave
• the d1 RPG
• The Shrike

And there's more:

• Unwritten Earths Symposium
• Our Patreon
• Join the Discord
• Nathan's games
• Eppy's games
• Music by Will Jobst

Show Notes:

• Horse Armor (from Elder Scrolls, not World of Warcraft)
• The box that turns itself off is also called a useless machine
• Eppy tried to calculate the number of deck shuffle possibilies in The Shrike but it was too many

Games We Talked About:

• The game where you play a sword is Wield by John Wick and Gillian Fraser
• the d1 RPG
• The Shrike

And there's more:

• Unwritten Earths Symposium
• Our Patreon
• Join the Discord
• Nathan's games
• Eppy's games
• Music by Will Jobst

In this episode we talk about our "white whale" game design projects, both those we're currently in pursuit of and those we managed, at long last, to catch.

Show Notes:

• We talk about these Robin Hoods: Howard Pyle's The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood of Great Renown in Nottinghamshire (1883), Robin of Sherwood (1984-1986), Disney's Robin Hood (1973), Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves(1991), Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales (1997)

Games Mentioned:

• Imp of the Perverse
• Swords Without Master
• Monkeydome

And there's more:

• Unwritten Earths Symposium
• Our Patreon
• Join the Discord
• Nathan's games
• Eppy's games
• Music by Will Jobst

In this episode we give a production update on the Annual 2025 before measuring our shelves for game discovery. Our homework happened to have a shared theme of hidden information, and we end up discussing the idea of "sleight of hand" to create moments of magic in play.

Games Discussed:

• Lacuna Part 1: The Creation of the Mystery and the Girl from Blue City (second attempt)
• Castle Falkenstein
• Burning Wheel
• Tunnels and Trolls
• InSpectres
• Egyptian Ratscrew/Slap

And there's more:

• The Adventurer & Hobbyist Annual 2025 (still accepting late pledges!)
• Unwritten Earths Symposium
• Our Patreon
• Join the Discord
• Nathan's games
• Eppy's games
• Music by Will Jobst

In this episode we do our color-guided homework, explore the realm of rpg fiction written by people who haven't played rpgs (?), and talk about Epidiah "The Night Writer" Ravachol's handwriting strategy.

Show Notes:

• Hobgoblin by John Coyne
• Witch and Wombat by Carolyn Cushman
• The CATS method is by Patrick O'Leary, and can be found in the TTRPG Safety Toolkit 

Games We Talked About:

• Necronautilus by Adam Vass/World Champ Game Co (2020)
• Gamma World (Seventh Edition, 2010)
• Code of Unaris by Gary Pratt/Goldleaf Games (and here's John Kim's review of it)

And there's more:

• Unwritten Earths Symposium
• Our Patreon
• Join the Discord
• Nathan's games
• Eppy's games
• Music by Will Jobst

In this episode we lay out the template for Coffee & Game Design, assign some homework, delve into the archives for some Arcane Gems, share a war story and field a listener question about promoting our games.

Show Notes:

• Color Contrast Bot on Mastodon
• Spencer Campbell's Unsung Hero thread on Bluesky

Game We Talked About:

• The Shadow of Yesterday (html page with full text of the game)
• The Shadow of Yesterday (full text on github)
• Solar System
• Hunter: the Reckoning
• Bullwinkle and Rocky Role-Playing Party Game
• Tunnels & Trolls
• Usagi Yojimbo Role-Playing Game (Sanguine Games, 1st edition)
• Incarnadine Press (With Great Power, Serial Homicide Unit
• TCK Roleplaying (Mars Colony, Hero's Banner

And there's more:

• Unwritten Earths Symposium
• Our Patreon
• Join the Discord
• Nathan's games
• Eppy's games
• Music by Will Jobst

In this Cursed Episode, despite being interrupted by a power outage we talk about some juicy Arcane Gems within our game discovery homework, and talk about our current works in progress.

Show Notes:

• From the Guardian: "‘It’s game over for facts’: how vibes came to rule everything from pop to politics"
• The Ashcan Front

Games We Talked About:

• Acts of Evil by Paul Czege
• Atlantis: the Second Age (this looks like an updated edition from the one Eppy has - that one is here), by Kephera Publishing
• The Arcanum / The Atlantean Trilogy, by Bard Games
• Talislanta, a rich and varied history
• Omni System was the system developed for the Morrigan Press version of Talislanta

And there's more:

• Unwritten Earths Symposium
• Our Patreon
• Join the Discord
• Nathan's games
• Eppy's games
• Music by Will Jobst

In this episode we come back from game discovery sabbatical to talk about some esoteric picks from our itch.io libraries, and then discuss how we approach and interact with trends in the larger ttrpg industry, in game design, and in how those intersect for us.

Show Notes:

• We are now recording on Discord, in case things sound different
• Dissidia Final Fantasy (2008)
• The Lost Room (2006) (shoutout to Richard Hatem!)
• Warehouse 13

Games Mentioned:

• One-Time Journal of Findings in RPG Game Design (Epimas Edition) - Note that this may not be publically available, sorry!
• Victor’s GMless Oracle by CurseNightGames
• One Page Dungeons
• Traverser (unreleased) & The Clay That Woke
• Fiasco by Bully Pulpit
• Mythic by Word Mill Games
• Ironsworn by Tomkin Press
• 13th Age by Pelgrane Press
• Nathan's Mech Game Vesna Thaw
• Solo Wrestling Game - 5- Star Match

And there's more:

• The Adventurer & Hobbyist Annual 2025 (still accepting late pledges!)
• Unwritten Earths Symposium
• Our Patreon
• Join the Discord
• Nathan's games
• Eppy's games
• Music by Will Jobst

In this episode we talk about building rituals in and for play, follow a train of thought about building in "blessings" for each other into gameplay, discuss the joy of dice, and come back from sabbatical to assign game discovery homework.

Reminder: The Adventurer & Hobbyist Annual 2025 Kickstarter is live through the end of April!

Show Notes:

• Primetime Adventures
• Star Trek: Lower Decks
• Time and Temp
• Masks of the Mummy Kings
• Our itch.io storefront

And there's more:

• Unwritten Earths Symposium
• Our Patreon
• Join the Discord
• Nathan's games
• Eppy's games
• Music by Will Jobst