Tag Archives: Roleplaying Games

Episode 7: On Facilitating Fear

Summary

Broaching the subject of roleplaying games focused on emotional reactions of self-protection, we take some broad examples such as Call of Cthulhu and FFG’s Star Wars Roleplaying to get things going. We look at two shades of this disquieting emotion: Horror and Fear. We look at how our two example games invoke it mechanically for the character, and what we as players can do to facilitate more than a hat tip to the reaction the character is experiencing. This episode covers a lot of ground, digs up a few graves, kicks in a few doors, and perhaps opens some old books that should stay closed, but all of that is being done in the spirit of sharing how we actually play~

—

Send in a voice message via Speakpipe!

Episode 5: On “What is a Roleplaying Game?!”

Summary

Like the previous episodes so far, this was drawn from thoughts from the distant past, but which have not been shared widely and publicly until now. That’s right, the release date of both the article and podcast are the same – October 7th 2020 – but reaching back in time to the mid-eighties and a small town where playing an RPG was pretty much the only good thing. 

—

Send in a voice message via Speakpipe!

Episode 4: On Cracking Open the Skull of Evil

Summary

This practical post of three specific tips for villains in an RPG was originally posted in response to a blog Carnival prompt on ‘How to think like a villain.’ Using examples from Actual Play which are accessible on the written blog, this post lays out simple means of getting into the heads of characters in your setting and seeing where that takes you in terms of villainy~

—

Send in a voice message via Speakpipe!

Episode 3: On Genre being Rule 0

Summary

This post relates an idea which appeared in written and video form in 2013, as an expression of earlier and less specific ideas. Genre is Rule 0 is a set of posts which have proven to be of more use and be more relevant to my RPG conversations than almost anything else. As such, I think it is a good idea to include in the introductory posts of this podcast. Also, taking a cue from Ron Edwards, I reclaim some preferred jargon from the discard pile and reconnect this functional piece of theory with an ambiguous but possibly helpful term: idiom. I still feel that it will confuse some, but it will help others, and that is ultimately what matters to me. 

Relevant Links:

Genre Is Rule 0 (Casting Shadows Blog)

Genre is Rule 0 (YouTube)

—

Send in a voice message via Speakpipe!

Episode 2: On Character Poisoning

Summary

This is the second of five introductory episodes. On a notion put forward on the written blog in 2011 based on my musings in the 90s, this episode examines both the post and the idea of character poisoning. This is a look at a potential source of dissatisfaction in play, rooted in unintentional conflict between system, setting, fellow players, and/or the character concept~

—

Send in a voice message via Speakpipe!

Episode 1: On Premature Imagination

Summary

In this first of five introductory episodes to this podcast, 2010 meets 2020 as an early but somewhat important post from the written blog is shared with commentary. The post deals generally with culture of play and the difference between rules and procedure, while going into specifics on an effect of going against a necessary order of operations in play, and an influence on our imagination~

—

Send in a voice message via Speakpipe!