This episode includes a call from Jason Connerley in regard to Episode 65 with the Arcane Alienist, about RPGs and memory, and then sets the Wayback Machine for 2010 and a fresh look at an old post called By any other name~ and the town that got away.
This is an abridged version of a long overdue conversation with Scott Welker, long-time gamer and successful game designer with titles based in Savage Worlds, D20, Year Zero, and soon a system of his own making. Scott is one half of Thieves Guild Gaming. Our conversation is a full on, open-minded examination about focused attention in RPGs – otherwise known colloquially but ambiguously and unhelpfully as “immersion.”
You can watch the full conversation, with its load of annotations and notes, on YouTube:
Scott likes to say “Immersion is impossible!” We get into what he means by that. I, as you know, Dear Listener, like to say that immersion, like so many other things, is frequently misunderstood. We get into that, too. For added value, one way we explore the topic is through Scott’s games and how they were written.
Useful links:
Thieves Guild Games on DTRPG, has just launched a public beta of their new OPENSIX system and are looking for feedback. As a system, it is directly relevant to this discussion. The game is currently PWYW and can be found here:
This episode possibly resumes more regular releases of the podcast while sharing thoughts on some topics I have missed recently and on that gem of a system, Chaosium’s Basic Roleplaying.
You can read the written post on this topic as well!
Is Hindsightless THE most sporadic podcast on the Internet? I am not sure, this one must surely qualify for something in that category.
NOTE: This episode is available as a video on Spotify and as audio on other distributors. The specific recap portion of the video has been subtitled for your convenience.
I have been putting up a in-depth videos on the YouTube channel lately about the nature of RPGs, so this weekend, with my thin strips of free time, I grilled up a recap as a sort of celebration of the great play I have been enjoying with Call of Cthulhu for the past year and a half, and as a possible on-ramp to getting into or at least enjoying the campaign vicariously, for those who don’t enjoy YouTube. It was fun for me to go over our calendar of dates and events and spin that into a sort of StoryTime for the Casting Shadows Podcast. I hope you enjoy it, too. It is also available in written form if you would prefer to read it.
If you are curious about a great exploration of Chainmail in the context of playing it as the wargame it began life as, rather then the product shoehorned into OD&D, please consider checking out the Diegetic Advancement podcast.
This nearly 90-minute conversation was made possible by the open-minded attitude of TrilltheDM, the interest of MercuriousAulicus and Black Lodge Games, and I suppose, the letter X. In it, we discuss Trill’s recent video: Mastering Player Choice in Mystery and Horror RPGs and take it further than the original 10-minute runtime would allow, dive into its specific context, and in general have an enjoyable and interesting discussion.
This episode is in three segments. The first presents links and reactions to just a few of the cool posts I have seen in response to the 2nd week of #RPGaDAY2024. This is part of a series for each week of the event. If you have suggestions for great posts, send me a message with the links! The second segment offers some tantalizing morsels stolen from the freshly unearthed Mordavia: Land of Horror supplement for Leagues of Adventure, Leagues of Gothic Horror, and Leagues of Cthulhu by Triple Ace Games. The final segment runs roughshod over my own responses to the #RPGaDAY2024 prompts in unseemly haste!
This episode presents links and reactions to just a few of the cool posts I have seen in response to the first week of #RPGaDAY2024. This is intended to be the first of a series for each week of the event. If you have suggestions for great posts, send me a message with the links!
I sit down with a second conversation with Daniel Jones of @Primaeval , this time about making the culture and approach to play in an RPG group more visible and accessible to others. Do we achieve this goal? Join us and see~
In this conversation with Roleplay Rescue‘s host and seeker of immersive and engaging play, Che Webster, we discuss some blog posts about techniques that Che is starting to use to get more of what he wants from play. As that quest is near and dear to my heart, I thought others might resonate with it as well. We talk about making room for imagination, facilitating a more active stance in our imaginations, and consider how we speak to one another when we play.
This episode responds to listener calls dating back over the last two episodes of the podcast and continuing the exploration of imagination, memory, and attention as valuable parts of RPG play. Thanks go out to Jason Connerly, Spencer/FreeThrall, and Jean-Francois ‘SameOldJi’ St-Onge for the calls and the interaction~
Casting Shadows Podcast 