Podcasts about big bad con

Daniel and Drew dive into substitution ciphers, Steve's wedding, discuss plans for San Francisco now that Asians Represent aren't attending Big Bad Con, and plan what their lives would be like if they were reborn in a fantasy world! Learn more about Wandering Blades: danielhkwan.itch.io/wanderingblades Watch exclusive NDNP video podcasts at patreon.com/aznsrepresent //SPONSOR  Head to diceenvy.com/aznsrepresent and use code AZNSREPRESENT to get 10% off!  //FOLLOW  Website | aznsrepresent.com  Twitter | @aznsrepresent  Twitch | @aznsrep  Follow Daniel @danielhkwan and Drew @DrewQuon on Twitter!  //CONTACT  If you have questions about this episode's themes, suggestions, or anything else related to Asians Represent, get in touch with us at aznsrepresent.com //MUSIC Honey Bee by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

I chat with Brandon O'Brien, who is a writer, performance poet, teaching artist, and game designer from Trinidad and Tobago. We read some selective pieces from his poetry collection Can you sign my tentacle? As well as discuss mental health, supporting community, and Big Bad Con. So listen and share. Links: brandonobrien.xyz  @therisingtithes on Twitter & Instagram The Speculate! podcast at speculatesf.com  The Skiffy and Fanty Show at skiffyandfanty.com

PAX, GenCon, Big Bad Con, FlameCon, etc. There are so many different conventions and ways to meet other folks who share similar passions to you, but cons can also be large, overwhelming, and difficult spaces to navigate. Today's chat is all about how to try and have the best con experiences one can have! We have assembled a great group who offer up some really good insights! Nala / Jae (they/them) Social LinksDJ (he/him) TwitterNanite (he/him) Twitch===Intro/Outro music by Harris HellerHost, Eric Crumrine (he/they): https://twitter.com/ECrumrineThe QueerXP Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheQueerXPThe QueerXP Instagram: https://instagram.com/thequeerxpThe QueerXP BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/thequeerxp.bsky.social Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you're a fan of the show, you'll know we love AGON, powered by the Paragon system. This time the lads are delighted to be joined by Sean Nittner, the co-author and independent game designer Tim Denee, who's done some great stuff with the game. Come on in for a deep dive on the game design process, what makes these sets of games great and how to squeeze more gaming juice from your sessions! Evil Hat have a ton of great games you can peruse for your delectation on their website.You can see more of Tim's great work on his website, Old Dog GamesIf you're in the US, or plan on travelling there for a convention, find out about Big Bad Con here. If you dig actual plays then check out the new Unconventional GMs for games played in about two hours!

If you're a fan of the show, you'll know we love AGON, powered by the Paragon system. This time the lads are delighted to be joined by Sean Nittner, the co-author and independent game designer Tim Denee, who's done some great stuff with the game. Come on in for a deep dive on the game design process, what makes these sets of games great and how to squeeze more gaming juice from your sessions! Evil Hat have a ton of great games you can peruse for your delectation on their website.You can see more of Tim's great work on his website, Old Dog GamesIf you're in the US, or plan on travelling there for a convention, find out about Big Bad Con here. If you dig actual plays then check out the new Unconventional GMs for games played in about two hours!

I chat this time with Pam Punzalan, who I had chance to finally meet at Big Bad Con 2023. Pam is a Writier and Lead Editor on a numerous Table Top Roleplaying Games, The Executive Director of Dames Making Games of Toronto, Queer Advocate, and Gamer. We talk about their work on Blades in the Dark: Dagger Isles, as well as their work in bring more marginalized voice to the gaming world through their nonprofit and the venue of Big Bad Con. Additionally the challenges of being Queer and Immigrant in todays world. Links: Dames Making Games https://damesmakinggames.org IG, Twitter, & Bluesky: TheDoveTailor

In Transplanar's first-ever live show, Strike Team Nova squares off against the Hounds of Mercy in the COLISEUM OF QUEER CHAOS, presided over by a tyrannical god-king: SQUEAK. This special one-shot stars quinn b. rodriguez, Dare Hickman, Hamnah Shahid, Sea Thomas, Valiant Dorian, Cai K., and Samm Star. Content warnings: fantasy violence, gore, blood, flirting, romance, kissing, sexual references, monsters and monstrosity, body horror, and brief descriptions of space. The Coliseum of Queer Chaos was produced live by Sloan K. Smith and Lex Rosenberg, with audio editing done by Marisa Ewing of Hemlock Creek Productions and final touches by Connie Chang. This one-shot is proudly sponsored by ExplainTrade, Frivolous Bear Studios, Sandy Pug Games, By Odins Beard RPG, Bookwyrm Games, and The Bow System. Special thanks to our Hands of Fate and Precepts: Haru3x6, Azra, Summer Rose Folta, @brownestnerd, Isabel, Seth, Finn, Kevin O., Faebelle, AshRex, Gavin, Nate Rose, Taylor, Jade, Sunny, Charles, Cora Eckert, chillacres, Lex Slater, Scruffasus, Hat, Alex, Mark J., Lyle and Peanut, Spencer, Brooke in Seattle, Derryk Davidson, Phil, Jordan, Cassidy, Rose, and Eliza Fuller.

Hello hello! 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 artThe “oops all PBTA moves” version of i know the endThree of my short filmsMy previous written designer commentaries on Space Train Space Heist and CouriersJohn Harper talking with Andrew Gillis about the origins of Blades in the DarkThe official designer commentary podcasts for Spire and HeartAaron Lim's An Altogether Different River, which comes with a designer commentary versionCamera 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 incorrectlyWhat 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 LinklaterQuestionable Content by Jeph JacquesSocials: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!Transcript:Sam: Hello and welcome to Dice Exploder. Normally each week we take a tabletop RPG mechanic, bait our lines with it, and cast them out to see, to see what we can catch. But you hear that different intro music? That means this episode I'm doing something much more self indulgent, a designer commentary on a module I released earlier this year called I Know the End.And just a heads up here at the top, to get the most out of this, you probably want to have at least read through the module in question before, or as, you're listening. I threw a bunch of free copies up on itch for exactly this purpose, so feel free to go run and grab one. I'll wait.Anyway, I love designer commentaries. You can find a few of my old written ones, as well as links to a few of my favorites from other people, in the show notes. But I wanted to try releasing one as a podcast, because one, that sounds fun, and two, what's the point of having a podcast feed if you can't be ridiculously self indulgent in it on occasion?And I picked I Know The End to talk about because it is... weird. I don't know. It's weird. I describe it on itch as a short scenario about returning home and all the horrors that entails. But you'll hear us take issue with, I don't know, maybe every word in that sentence over the course of this commentary. It was a strange experience to make this thing, and I figured that might be interesting to hear about.It was also the first time I ever worked with an editor Nico MacDougall my friend and the organizer behind The Awards since 2023. Nico was excellent to work with and you can find their rates and such in the show notes and they are with me today to talk through this thing in excruciating detail as you probably noticed from the runtime we had a lot to say. Definitely contracted two guys on a podcast disease. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this. But regardless, I'd love to hear what you think of it. Should I do more? Never again? Want to organize the Dice Exploder Game Jam we mused about doing at the end of this? Hit me up! I'd love to hear from you. And now, here is myself, I guess, and Nico MacDougall, with a full designer's commentary on I Know The End.Nico: Well, Sam, thanks for being here on your podcast to discuss your... adventure.Sam: You're welcome.Nico: Yes.Sam: for having me.Nico: Very first question is adventure: is that really, like, the right term for this?Sam: Are we really starting here? Like, I, I don't know. I, I feel like I got, I really went into this thing with true intentions to write a proper module, you know? Like I was thinking about OSR style play for like the first time in my life, and like, we were both coming out of the awards 2022 judging, and a lot of the submissions for 2022 the Awards were modules. I thought that was great but it really was sort of like opening the floodgates of this style of play that I knew basically nothing about. And, at the same time that we were reading through all 200 submissions for the awards, I was also reading Marcia B's list of 100 OSR blog posts of some influence.And so I was really drinking from the fire hose of this style of play, and also, I wasn't playing any of it. Like, I was experimenting with Trophy Gold a little bit, which is this story game that is designed to try to play OSR modules and dungeons as, like, a story game kind of experience. And I was kind of figuring out how it works and like how I wanted to run it and how to make it go And Joe DeSimone, who was running the awards at the time was just encouraging everyone to make weirder shit and like, that was his ethos and those were the people that he got to submit to the awards. Like, it was just the weirdest stuff that I had ever read in the RPG space and... That's probably a lie. There's some weird stuff out there.It was just like so much weird stuff. It was like stuff on the bleeding edge of a whole side of the hobby that I didn't participate in in the first place. My intro to this part of the hobby was the bleeding edge of it. And I was like, alright, I, I just wanna make something there, I wanna try playing around there and see what happens.And Joe tweeted out the tweet was like, Now we're all making modules based on songs that make us cry. And I was listening to the Phoebe Bridgers album Punisher on loop at the time to inspire a screenplay I was working on. And the last track is called I Know the End, and just ends with this, primal scream.And it was, it was a hard fall for me, at the time. And the primal scream felt really cathartic. And I was spending a lot of time in the, small town where I grew up. And, this horror monster idea of a town that is, itself, an entity and like is a whole monster, and like, what does that mean exactly? I don't know, but intuitively, I like, understand it, and we're just gonna kind of drive... towards my intuitive understanding of what this thing is supposed to be. I just decided to do that and see what happened. And did that give us an adventure in the end? I don't know. Did that give us a 32 page long bestiary entry in the form of a module? Like, that sounds closer to right to me, but also, taxonomies are a lie and foolish anyways.I don't know, I made a weird thing, here it is. Nico: Yeah. So I was scrolling back in our, in our conversation to where you first shared this with me, and I... I would like to share with the audience the text that accompanied it. It was the Google Doc, and then it said, This might be completely unplayable, it might actually be a short story, or, like, a movie, but I'm gonna publish it anyway, and, you know... If that isn't exactly it, like...Sam: Yeah I like that stuff. I don't know, another thing I've been thinking about a lot this fall is writing by stream of consciousness. Like, I realized that I don't have a lot of confidence in any of my work that I feel like I created quickly. Like, the RPG thing I'm most well known for, I think, is Doskvol Breathes, which I just pumped out in an afternoon. It was just a thought that I had on a whim about how you might play blades in the dark maybe. And I finished it and then I released it and people were like, this is amazing. And I still get complimented on it all the time. I'm still really proud of it, but it, I don't have any confidence in it because it came so quickly.And, like, I know that this is something I need to, like, talk about in therapy, you know, about, like, It's not real art unless I worked on it for six months straight, like, really worked my ass off. But this process, I sort of looked back over my career as a screenwriter, as a short filmmaker, as a game designer, and started realizing just how many of my favorite things that I've made came from exactly that process of the whole idea kind of coming together all at once in like one sitting. And even if it then took like a bunch of months of like refining like it's wild to me How much of my favorite work was created by following my intuition, and then just leaving it be afterwards.Nico: Yeah, I actually did want to ask about the similarity between your, like, process for TTRPG design versus screenwriting, cause... While I have read, you know, edited this, but also, like, read your your game design work and know relatively well your thoughts on, like, you know, just game design sort of theory and stuff in general, I have never read any, like, screenwriting stuff that you've done. Although, lord knows I hope to see it someday. Sam: Well, listen, if anyone listening to this wants to read my screenplays, I'm on Discord. You can find me and I'll happily share them all. My old short films are largely available on the internet, too. You know, maybe I'll link a couple in the show notes.Nico: oh yeah,Sam: But I I think of my process for screenwriting as really, really structural.Like, I, I'm a person who really came out of needing a plot and needing to know what happens in a story, and to really especially need to know the ending of a story so I know kind of what I'm going towards as I'm writing the thing. I outline like really extensively before I write feature or a pilot, like there's so much planning you have to do, I think it is really, really hard to write any kind of screenplay and not have to revise it over and over and over again, or at least like plan really carefully ahead of time and like really think about all the details, revise a lot, run it by a lot of people for feedback over and over. But especially for me that, that having an ending, like a target in mind when I'm writing is so important. I just don't know how to do it without that.Except occasionally when I get some sort of idea like this one where I have a feeling of vibe and I just start writing that thing and then eventually it's done. And I, I've never had that happen for a feature film screenplay or like a TV pilot kind of screenplay.But I have had a couple of short films come together that way where I don't know what the thing is, I just know what I am writing right now, and then it's done, and then I go make it. And I I don't know why that happens sometimes. Nico: Yeah, I mean I would imagine length plays a factor in it, right? Like a short film, or, I mean, gosh, how many pages did I know the end, end, end up being? Sam: 36. Nico: But I find that really fascinating that, too, that you say that when you're screenwriting, you have to have it really structural, really outlined, an end specifically in mind, when, to me, that almost feels like, well, not the outlining part, but having an end in mind feels almost antithetical to even the idea of, like, game design, or, I guess, TTRPG design, right?Even the most sort of relatively pre structured, Eat the Reich, Yazeeba's Bed and Breakfast, like, Lady Blackbird games, where the characters are pretty well defined before any human player starts interacting with them, you can never know how it's going to end. And it's kind of almost against the idea of the game or the, the sort of art form as a whole to really know that.Even games that are play to lose, like, there are many games now where it's like, you will die at the end. And it's like, okay, but like, that's not really the actual end. Like, sure, it's technically the end, but it's like, we have no idea what's gonna be the moment right before that, or the moment before that. As opposed to screenwriting Sam: yeah, it's a, it's a really different medium. I still think my need to have a target in mind is something that is really true about my game design process too.Like the other game that I'm well known for, well known for being relative here, but is Space Train Space Heist, where I was like, I have a very clear goal, I want to run a Blades in the Dark as a one shot at Games on Demand in a two hour slot. And Blades in the Dark is not a game that is built to do that well, so I want to make a game that is built to do that well, but like, captures everything about the one shot Blades in the Dark experience that I think is good and fun .And that may not be a sort of thematic statement kind of ending, like that's what I'm kind of looking for when I'm writing a screenplay, but that is a clear goal for a design of a game.Nico: Yeah. even In the context of I know the end, and to start talking a little bit about my role in this as well, as, as the editor, I think the point of view, the vibe, the, like, desired sort of aesthetic end point Was very clear from the start, from the jump. And I think that in many ways sort of substitutes for knowing the end of the story in your screenwriting process.So that really helped when I was editing it by focusing on like, okay, here's the pitch. How can I help sort of whittle it down or enhance it or change stuff in order to help realize that goal.And sometimes it kind of surprises me even, like, how much my games shift and change as they reach that goal. Like, sometimes you can, like, look back at old versions of it, and you're like, wow, so little of this is still present. But, like, you can see the throughline, very sort of Ship of Theseus, right? Like, you're like, wow, everything has been replaced, and yet, it's, like, still the thing that I wanted to end up at.Sam: Yeah, another thing that is, I think, more true of my screenwriting process than my game design process is how very common that in the middle of the process I will have to step back and take stock of what was I trying to do again? Like, what was my original goal? I've gotten all these notes from a lot of different people and, like, I've done a lot of work and I've found stuff that I like.And what was I trying to do? Like, I have, all this material on the table now, I have, like, clay on the wheel, and, like, I just gotta step back and take a break and refocus on, like, what are we trying to do. I Think it's really important to be able to do that in any creative process.To Tie together a couple of threads that we've talked about here, talked at the beginning of this about how much this felt like a stream of consciousness project for me, that I really just like, dumped this out and then like, let it rip.But also, I mean, this was my first time working with an editor, and I think you did a lot of work on this to make it way better, like really polish it up and make those edges the kind of pointy that they wanted to be, that this game really called for. And that makes this, in some ways, both a really unstructured process for me, and then a really structured process, and... I don't know what to make of that. I think there's something cool about having both of those components involved in a process. Nico: Yeah, it is. I I very much agree that like, yeah, most of my sort of design stuff have, has proceeded very much the same way of just kind of like sporadically working on it, changing stuff, like revamping it, whatever. And it's like, it's sort of, yeah, in a constant state of fluxx up until the moment where I'm like, okay, I guess it's done now.What I was gonna say, I was gonna jump back just a point or two which is you mentioned Clayton Notestein's Explorer's Design Jam. And I was curious, like, what was your experience, like, using that design template? Sam: Yeah I really enjoyed it, I really had a good time with it. I had already gotten really comfortable with InDesign just teaching myself during lockdown. Like, that's what I did for 2020, was I, like, laid out a bunch of games myself and they all looked like shit, but they all taught me how to use InDesign as a program.And I think templates are really, really valuable. Like it's so much easier to reconfigure the guts of another template than it is to create something from scratch.And I like Clayton's template. I think it's nice and clean. I think you can see in all the publications that have come out using Clayton's template, how recognizable it is. How little most people stray from the bones of it, and on the one hand, I think it's amazing that you can just use the template and go really quickly and like, get something out.And also I just want to push on it a little bit more. I want something, like the template is designed to be a template. It is not a suit tailored to whatever your particular project is. But also, I think if I had tried to lay this out without a template, it would look substantially worse, and there are a few notable breaks here and there that I, you know, I enjoyed experimenting with. I like the use of the comments column for little artwork. I think that was a nice little innovation that I added.And, you know, I didn't write this originally to have that sort of commentary column as a part of it. Like, all of the text was just in the main body of it. And I like the way it turned out to have that sort of, like, director's commentary thing hanging out in the wings. lot of people have talked about how much they like that in Clayton's template. so I, I don't know, like I, think that on the one hand a template really opens up a lot of possibilities for a lot of people and really opened up a lot of possibilities for me, and on the other hand I do still look at it and I see the template And I'm like, I hope this doesn't look too much like every other person whoNico: Right, right. I mean, that is definitely the difficulty of providing those kinds of tools, because like, it makes it very easy to make things especially if you're sort of just getting started, or if you don't have a lot of confidence or familiarity with it inDesign or anything like that. But ultimately, I feel like Clayton himself would say that the Explorer's Design Template is not intended to be, like, the final template, right? It's intended to be, like, a tool that you can use to varying effects, right?Yeah, I was thinking about it when I was going through this earlier, and I was like, Oh, yeah, like, you only use the comments, column a few times, and then I literally only realized maybe five minutes before you said it, I was like, oh, wait, all the little artwork is also in that little column thing, like you just said, and I was like, oh, that's like, that's actually a really cool way to use the template, because that space is already provided if you include that column, but just because you have the column that's, you know, quote unquote, intended for commentary, doesn't mean you have to use it for commentary, doesn't mean you have to put text in there.Sam: Yeah, you definitely like learn a lot of stuff about the guts of the thing as you start playing with it.Nico: Yeah. is probably getting on the level of, like, pretty pointless, sort of what ifs, but I'm curious... If Clayton hadn't done the Explorer's Design Template Jam, or if you had, for whatever reason, like, not been inspired to use that as the impetus to, like, make this and get it edited and laid out and published or whatever, like, Do you think you still would have tried to use that template, or would you have just tried to lay it out yourself, like you've done in the past?Sam: Honestly, I think without the jam this wouldn't exist. I have like a long to do list of things at any given time, like creative projects I wanna on, youNico: Oh, yeah,Sam: know? And the thing that brought this to the top of that to do list was just wanting to have something to submit into that jam. You know, I wanted to work with you as an editor. I Always want to clear something off the to do list. I always want to have some kind of creative project. And, I wanted to submit something to that jam, but I think if you took any one of those away, I might not have put the thing out at all. Nico: Yeah, that's really interesting. But I guess that's also, again, kind of what a good template or layout or just tool in general can help is actually get these things made. Sam: That's what a good jam can do, too, right? I mean, there's a reason the Golden Cobra contest is something that I love. It's like 40 new LARPs every year and they only exist because the Golden Cobra is throwing down the gauntlet.Nico: That's very true. Well, maybe it's time to move along to more practical concerns Sam: Maybe it's time to do the actual commentary part of this episodeWe've done the waxing philosophical part, butNico: we, yeah, checked off that Dice Exploder box. Now it's time to do the actual game talk.Sam: your bingo cards Nico: Yeah, Sam: Yeah, so let's start with the cover.Nico: Yes, the cover, which I only realized it was a teeth, that it was a mouth with teeth open when you said in the outline, ah yes, it's a mouth with teeth. And I looked at it and I was like... Oh my god, it is. Like,Sam: I did my job so well. I wanted it to be subtle, but I always like looked at it and was like it's so obviously teeth, I'm never gonna get this subtle enough. But I'm I'm glad to hear that I succeeded.Nico: I truly don't know what I thought it was before, but it definitely wasn't teeth.Sam: Yeah. Well, it started as I'll share this in the show notes. It started as this image. It was like a 6x9 layout, and, the teeth were still there, and it was like, all black, and the teeth were this much wider, gaping maw, like, inhuman, unhinged jaw kind of situation. And then, in the middle of it, was a, like, live laugh love kind of Airbnb sign with I Know The End on it. It was like the mouth, like, eating the sign.And I liked that. I felt like, the problem with that was that... As much as creepy, live, laugh, love sign is kind of the like, vibe of this, I didn't really want to bring in the like, kitsch of that at all, like, I felt like that kitschiness would hang over the whole thing if I made it the cover, and I mean, this whole thing is just about my own personal emotional repression, right? And my feelings about my small town that I'm from, andabout like, my ambition, and, exactly, yeah.But I, I write a lot, and I make a lot of art about emotional repression , and I think the particular vibe of this game's repression doesn't have space for irony, or satire, or like, Do you wanna live, laugh, love? Like, I don't know how else to put it. Like, it just felt really wrong.It was like, if you put that into the space at all, it's gonna curdle the whole feeling. Nico: it's about the framing of it. I, know that Spencer Campbell of Gila RPGs has written something about this on his blog. I don't remember specifically what the context is, but he's a psychologist by training and is talking about how, like, the way that you frame something matters a lot to how people respond to it, right?So you like, if you're framing it as like, oh, you have, twelve things and I take away six from you, versus like, oh, you have nothing and then you are given six things. It's like, both scenarios, you like, end up with six but Sam: One feels like a letdown and one feels great. Yeah,Nico: yeah, and so I think in his article he was talking about in the, yeah, you know, tying that into the game design context, obviously.And I think it matches here where like, sort of runs the risk of like, priming people to expect kitsch, and I don't think that that's really present in the rest of the game. And that kind of mismatched expectations could really, like, lead to some problems when people are trying to, like, play the game.Sam: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I mean this cover is just kind of like, oh. Like, it doesn't it doesn't really tell you much other than just like there's something back there that's maybe vaguely menacing, and that's kind of it. That's kind of Nico: Yeah.Sam: Alright, speaking of which can we, can we talk about my favorite interaction between the two of us as we were working on this?Nico: Oh, yeah, I was not sure how to bring that up. yes, please do. Now that we're moving on to... For everyone following along at home, we are proceeding to the credits page.Sam: The comment I got from you while you were editing this was, IDK if it would look different in print, but having the text so close to the edge of the page is activating my fight or flight response. And I just replied, working as intended.Nico: It yeah, I had the feeling, I think, even when I sent that, I was like, this, this is not like an accident. Like, like, like no one makes this like no one does this by accident. But, yes, truly, I hope that you are following along at home because I believe that Sam generously gave a whole bunch of community copies of this game, or made them available. Sam: I believe it was 42, 069 I'm usually doing some number like that. This game, I might have done a different number, but that's, the other games that I've done.Nico: So, but the text on this, for credits page specifically, it's truly, like, at the edge of the page. Like, it looks like it could be cut off. It's like, in print, it would be like, cut off by the process of actually like, making it. In fact, feels like if you try to send it to a printer, they could almost send it back and be like, you've gotta give us some space there. Like, you simply can't do that. There needs to be a gutter, or bleed, or whatever the term is. Like, Sam: I love it. maybe one day I will print this. Honestly, like if I become a super famous game designer or something, like, this is one of the ones that I Nico: screen, slash screenwriter.Sam: yeah, yeah. This is one of the ones I'd like to go back and hold in my hand, but I also I don't know, I just love it. I, I love designing for digital as, like, a primary thing, because I just feel like most people who play the thing are gonna play it out of digital.And I don't know if that's, like, the primary audience for a lot of modules. Like, I think there are a ton of people out there who just, like, buy the zine and hold the zine in their hand and probably never get around to playing it. But I, I love the digital. I've always loved the digital. I don't know, I just like making for it.Nico: Well I mean I was even thinking about it in the context of like, you know, how you talked about how you changed the aspect ratio, I was like thinking about that and I was like, I mean, it's not like that would be impossible to print, but like, most standard commercial printers operate in like, one of the more standard like, page sizes. Even the risograph you said is what it's called, right?Sam: The, the RISO. Yeah, I don't know if it's Rizzo or RISO, but I'm gonna sayNico: The RISO background also makes the, again, just from like a fully practical point of view, it's like you're adding color to the whole thing,Like there are many potential barriers to this as like a physical product that would, that are simply not there when you're designing for digital, so like, it is nice to have that sort of freedom, like, when you're thinking about how to lay this out or, or put stuff on here, it's like, you're freed from a lot of those practical considerations.Sam: There's a few other details I want to talk about on this page just kind of like references I'm making that are not obvious.So the first is that the header font and title font of I Know The End is a font that I ripped from Lilancholy, which is this amazing book by Snow, which is ostensibly a game, but but also a reflection on childhood and personal relationship to emotions and trauma.And I love the look of the font, but I also intentionally wanted to reference that game while I was making something that felt really personal in a similar vein. And another another reference here is that the color of the whole game, like this red, is pulled from the cover art for the Phoebe Bridgers album Punisher that I know the end is off of. I, I just found the, like, most saturated red pixel that I could on the album and was like, that's the color! I love hiding little references in every little detail that I can. Nico: Yeah, it's so interesting because I did not know any of that, you know, prior to this conversation or seeing that stuff on the outline. What did you sort of hope to achieve with those references, right? Because I can't imagine that you're plan was like, for someone to look at it and be like, oh my god, that's the Lilancholy font, and that's the Phoebe Bridgers album Sam: that's one pixel from that album cover.Yeah.What am I trying to achieve? I don't know, like there's, so the Paul Thomas Anderson movie Phantom Thread Is an amazing movie, and it's about Daniel Day Lewis being incredibly serious, scary Daniel Day Lewis, making dresses, being a tailor, and an element of the movie is that he hides his initials inside the dresses, like, when he's making them, he, like, sews his initials in.And that's a real thing that, that people did, and maybe it's just for him. It's also kind of an arrogant thing to do, you know, that all these, like, women are gonna be walking around wearing these dresses with, like, his initials kind of, like, carved, it's like this power thing. But my favorite part of it is that Phantom Thread is PT, also known as Paul Thomas Anderson.Nico: Ha Sam: And, like, like, I, I just feel like when you're doing that kind of thing, it's just, what an act, it's just so beautiful and arrogant and satisfying. Like I think doing that kind of little reference and joke for myself brings me into the mindset of what I am trying to convey with the game.Like, if I'm thinking in the detail of the font selection, what do I want to reference? What do I want to bring to this game? Then, I'm gonna be I'm gonna be thinking about that in every other choice I'm making for the game, too. And even if half of those choices end up being just for me, I will have been in the headspace to make the other half that are for everyone else, too.Nico: Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah. like, You could almost even call these, like, Easter eggs, right?But it also made me think about, I had to look this up actually as you were talking, because I was like, about that, the CalArts classroom number that like all of the animators that studied there fit into like Pixar movies and stuff, like, A113, A113. And I think that's also sort of a good example of it in some ways, because it's like now, with the advent of the internet, and you know, and a certain way of engaging with media, like, everyone knows what that, what that means now, or they could if they just looked it up, or they just see some BuzzFeed, you know, article that's like, you know, 50 easter eggs that you missed in the latest Pixar movie.But yeah, it's like, it's very interesting because it kind of asks who is the movie for? What's the intended or imagined audience for all of these things? And it sort of shows that, like, you can have multiple audiences or multiple levels of engagement with the same audience, like, at the same time. Maybe, I would say, it's very unlikely that any random person would just like, look at the cover of I Know The End and be like, oh, that's the Lilancholy font, but,Sam: I have had someone say that to me, though. Yeah.Nico: but, so, what I was just gonna say is like, but I don't think it's hard to imagine that like, the type of person who would, who would buy, who would be interested in I Know The End or Lilancholy, I think there's a pretty decent chance that they would be interested in the other if they're interested in one of them, right?And so it is interesting as well, where it's like, I am often surprised by like the ability of people to sort of interpret or decipher things that far outweighs my sort of expectations of their ability to do so.If only just because I have the arrogance to be like, well no one could ever have a mind like mine. Like, no one could ever think in the specific bizarre way that I do. Then it's like actually a surprising number of people think in a very similar way. Sam: Another thing I think about with making these really, really tiny references, easter eggs, it's the, not making a decision is making a decision, right? CentrismNico: Oh,Sam: Like, if you have literally anything that you have not made a choice about with intention, that is a missed opportunity, I think.And... I have so much respect for people who will just pump something out, like, write a page of a game and, like, upload as a DocX to itch. Like, Aaron King is a genius, and I know a lot of games that are put out that way, and I love that stuff. But for me, like, the kind of art creation process that I enjoy and like doing is so based on finding meaning in every crevice, finding a way to express yourself in every detail. just love doing it.Nico: you are the English teacher that the, the curtains are blue meme is referencing, in fact.Sam: Yes.Nico: The curtains are blue in I Know The End because,Sam: Well, and I know the end they are red, but Nico: yes.Imagine that being the new version of the meme: the curtains in this are red because there's a Phoebe Bridgers album that has a single pixel that is that color.Sam: Yeah, I don't know. It's true, though.Nico: Exactly. it is in fact true. But so would, in some ways, any other interpretation of...Sam: Yeah.Nico: of the red color, right? It's like you picked it because of the association with the album cover. Someone else could be like, Oh, it means this otherthing. And like that interpretation is correct. Sam: Yeah, I mean, I also picked it because of its association with blood, you know, like I, I wanted to kind of evoke that feeling too, so.Shall we do the table of contents? HehNico: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think the most interesting thing to talk about, and I want to know when this entered the sort of the design process, is the blacked out Table of Contents entry which corresponds to an almost entirely blacked out, or in this case, redded out,Sam: Yeah, Nico: messily redacted,part of, the book,Sam: Yeah, I think this was always there, I think I started writing a list of locations very early on, and on that list of locations was, like, I work in Google Docs to begin with for most of my stuff, and it was a bullet pointed numbered list, and the last list item was struck through, and it was your mom's house.And I just thought that was a funny little joke. It's like really dark? Another, just like a little detail, I have such a great relationship with my parents. Like really just a better relationship with my parents than anyone I know. And, so much of my art ends up with these like, really bad, fucked up relationships with parents, and I don't know what that's about.But, there's, there's something about, there's a piece of your hometown that is like so traumatic that you can't bring yourself to look at it. There's a piece of yourself, or your childhood, or like, where you came up, there's something from your origin story that you can't bear to face is a lot of what this is about. And even as the climax of this thing is I think in a lot of ways turning to face everything that you left behind.I mean the whole module is about that but I think fact that even when you are doing that, there's one piece of it that you can't bear to look at is really tragic and a mood to me. You know, it really felt right. Nico: it's sort of like, yeah, I'm finally gonna stand my ground and face my fear, or whatever, except for that thing. That thing, that part over there, for whatever reason, because I'm actually just very afraid of it. It really, as always, is sort of like the exceptions to the rule make the rule, or emphasize the rule. You're kind of carving out the negative space around it. And it makes it clearer in so. so Well, Yeah, so like, then the first thing of the game text itself, so to speak, is like the front and back of a postcard. And where's the picture from? It looks kind of old timey in a sort of non specific way.Sam: It's from Wikimedia Commons, I believe. I was looking for pictures of old postcards, and I wanted a small town, and, this is what I found.The postcard image is actually like a hell of a photo bash too. The stamp on it is from a real postcard I received from my cousin. The handwriting was me on just like a piece of paper that I scanned, and then the postcard is another like open source postcard image.Nico: Yeah. I am, once again, sort of showing, showing a lot of my bias here. I am often kind of against a lot of little, like, accessories, or sort of, like, physical things that are often part of crowdfunding, like, stretch goals, you know, like, it's, I don't know. I don't think it's, like, ontologically evil or anything like that, it's just, I understand, it's part of the reality of crowdfunding, and, like, attracting attention, and yada yada yada, I just personally don't love that reality. Which, of course, is easy to criticize when you're not part of a project is trying to do that, but that aside, I think it would actually genuinely be very cool to have, like, this postcard as, like, a physical object like, if the game were to be printed.Sam: You gonna make me like, handwrite every one of the postcards too? Cause that isNico: I did not say that. Oh, is that really? Well, but then, then you have it already, you can just print it off, like, or you make that the, like, I don't know, the hundred dollar stretch goal, you know, they back it at that level and then the postcard just appears inside their mailbox. Like,Sam: That wa that is creepy. I will tell you that,Nico: You say that as though it's happened to you before. You're like, well, let meSam: well, I'm not, I, I revealing nothing. How autobiographical is this? Nico: Yeah. so I guess, yeah, so getting, So this is the introduction page, the background, the introduction, giving the context to what this module, extended bestiary, what have you, what it is. My question here from a sort of meta perspective is like, how much are you trying to sort of give away at the start of this? How do you pitch this to , like to someone you know?Sam: that's a great question. I'm pretty proud of the execution here. I think I do a good job of, like, leaving some juicy hints here as to what might be going on without giving anything away. Like, the fact that I advertise this as maybe closer to a bestiary entry than a module, like, uh, what? Like, like you, you have an idea of what that means, but also like, where's the monster, what is the thing that I'm looking like, that is kind of planted in your mind in a way that I think is intriguing and sets expectations without giving the whole thing away.And, also, this is just me, like, trying to figure out how to describe this thing in real time as I'm writing. It really came from intuition. Nico: yeah. I know that, you know you're on, very much on record talking about how, you know, like, taxonomy is fake and, you know, et cetera, et cetera. Sam: As much as I love it.Nico: right, right, exactly, I mean, I feel the same way, but I, I am curious as to like if you were trying to sell someone on the idea of even just playing this game, like, how effective do you think it is of like communicating whatever this is, you know, like, is it effective to say it's kind of this, or it's not this, or maybe it's this, like, Sam: I think this is going to be really good at reaching the kind of person who will love this, and really bad at selling this to like a mass audience, you know? But luckily, I'm not trying to sell this to a mass audience. I'm like trying to make Joe Dissimone proud, you know? Like I'm trying to make like something as weird as fucking possible.and I think there's a kind of person who really appreciates that and this struggle to define what this is using existing terminology, I think is going to really appeal to the people who like this.Nico: yeah, I agree, I think it signposts well hey, you, there, like, look at this thing. Isn't that interesting. And if they're like, If they're like, no, that's confusing and I don't know what to do with it, and they go somewhere else, in some ways, it could be argued that that is like, working as intended, right, likeSam: I kind of find it interesting in the sidebar here to watch me sort of like struggle with how you're supposed to play this game, like what rule system are you supposed to use?I do think with some distance from this, the best way to experience this is as a solo game. Like to just read the thing but pause and journal about your character's experience as you sort of walk through it. I have started playing more solo games since I wrote this in preparation for a Season 3 episode of the show, and I think this would serve that experience really well.I considered even, like, rewriting this to be more of explicitly a solo experience, but I, ultimately was really happy leaving it in its sort of nebulous, provocative, what if, is this, what is this sort of state. Nico: Yeah. I would genuinely be interested to have like, the two of us play the game, like this game, like one running it, one as the player, because I don't necessarily disagree with what you said, might be better suited as a solo game, but I really do think that there is something that can be gained about, like being in a room with, like, one other person, or, you know, being on a call with one other person, or whatever and going through this,Sam: Yeah, yeah, I can feel the intensity of that as you describe it. And it sounds harrowing and... Amazing. I do, I do have this dream of like running a Mork Borg dungeon, like over the course of like three sessions, and then like taking one of the players who survives and being like, I've got another module that I think we should play with the same character. Nico: yeah. Anyways, you go home and you think you're safe, but actually, like, Sam: I do think that this as a response to OSR play is really an interesting way to try to play the game, like to Nico: just sort of experienceSam: Yeah, to try to take the kind of character that you would have coming out of that and the experience you would have coming out of that and then like get tossed into this, like that disorientation I think would serve this really well and would do something that I found I really like to do with the OSR kind of play of like finding ways to bring in more character stuff, to just have people to reflect on their person, rather than on the logistical problem solving.Nico: Mm hmm. Which, of course, in some ways also is like, I don't want to say direct contradiction, but like, moving perpendicular to a lot of the sort of OSR principles, rightSam: But yeah, I mean, fuck em. Nico: exactly, I mean, I'm not, saying that to discourage you from doing it, I'm just saying, like, I just think it's an interesting for those to come into sort of, conflict or, or whatever in, in that specific way.Sam: I mean, that's what the bleeding edge of something is all about, right? It's like, what are our principles? What if we throw them out? What does thatNico: Right, right. What if we smash things together that, like, should sort of repel each other like magnets? Like,Sam: Yeah.Nico: Let's move on to the town?Sam: Yeah. So this is the, like, GM spoiler page.Nico: Right.Sam: I don't know that I have a lot to say about this particular page. It's, it's the town. There are, like, two suggestions in the first chunk of this book that came from you that I think are really valuable to this. Like, the first is that the town is always capitalized throughout. Which I like sort of was doing, but you really emphasized, and I think was a great decision.And, the second is that there aren't any contractions in this book except for possessives. And, that was another suggestion that came from you, to have this sort of stilted, formal, slightly off kind of language of not having contractions, that I think serves it really well and is just really cool.Nico: Yeah, I have to give credit for that, to the Questionable Content webcomic, which is a webcomic that has been running forSam: God, is it still going?Nico: oh, it very much is still going, I, it updates Monday to Friday, and I, am reading, I am seated and reading,Sam: stopped reading that like a decade ago.Nico: It is officially 20 years old. It started in 2003.but so one of the characters in that she initially never uses contractions. It is always, it is, it is never, it's. Do not, not, don't, you know, is not, not, isn't and over time, as the character sort of gets more comfortable and starts to open up about her kind of mysterious past, and they'll deal with a lot of the sort of like, serious emotional turmoil that is present in the character, she like, starts to use contractions.And so, it's a specific device that is very weirdly ingrained in my head at this point, because I remember, like, realizing that when it was called out the first time, and then I will fess up and say I have re read the webcomic from the beginning several times. I have a lot of time on my hands sometimes. And it is always kind of a delight to go back to the beginning and see this character and to really notice that device because you know where she ends up and how much more comfortable she is and so to see that difference in the beginning makes it very effective on a reread in a way that is sort of present in the maybe subconscious the first time on the way through.Thank you. And I feel like it's similar here, not quite the same because I don't know if you would ever necessarily actively realize, like, oh, there are no sort of contractions here.Sam: and the town is never gonna stop being a entity of repression.Nico: Yeah, exactly. And so it's giving this like underlying anxiety kind of like,like, you're just like, Ooh, this is Sam: Yeah. It's like, what is going on? What's wrong with the language here?Nico: Yeah. And you might not even really be able to, articulate it because it's sort of hard to articulate the absence of somethingSam: And like, that's the feeling of the whole module. yeah, It's, it's just, it's a great decision. Nico: Yeah. And then of course, capitalizing town, you know, are you even really a game designer if you're not capitalizing some random words in Sam: yeah. gotta have one at least, come on.Sam: I will say I really enjoy the fact that I give no origin story for the town. I think that's also really powerful, of leaving a hole that people can fill in if they want.The mom repression stuff is kinda like that too, the like, the blacking out sharpie. Of like, that's a hole you could fill in in play if you wanted to, but I, I'm not going to. I'm gonna intentionally leave that hole there.Nico: It also is the kind of thing, right, of like, oh gosh, Nova was saying this in the Dice Exploder Discord recently, where like, part of the reason the OSR can be so sort of rules light and stripped down is because like, it is relying a lot on the sort of cultural script of like, what is a fantasy role playing game, or even just like a fantasy story in general, you know? What your knowledge of an OSR game is.And this, in a similar way, is sort of like, you know what a hometown is. Like, you know, I don't need to tell you what the backstory of this is, because you know what it's like to be from somewhere. Cause it's also worth saying, like, this game does not give any character creation instructions, right? I mean, actually, I guess that's not entirely true, because underneath the postcard, you know, it just says, A decade or more gone since you fled the small backwater town that spawned you.And it's like, yeah, that's basically all the sort of character creation information you need, like,Sam: yeah, yeah, like wait, gonna play yourself and you're gonna be sad about this, like uh, Nico: Right, or, like, or if you're not playing yourself, you are playing a person who's sad about it, like, you know, it's like, it's kind of all you really need, Sam: you have internalized the tone of this thing, like, your character is in ways the negative space of the voice of the text. Nico: Like, a weird relationship with your small hometown, we just don't need to spend very much, time covering that broad background. It's much better spent covering the specific, like, locations and people in this town that also sort of help to convey that, feeling, that information.Sam: Temptations and terrors?Nico: Yes, probably The closest thing to a system that is in here, inasmuch as it's taken roughly verbatim from Trophy Dark Sam: yeah, I do think it is notable that when I wrote this I had not played Trophy Dark, and Trophy Dark is the one where you definitely die,Nico: Right. Right. Sam: My intention was not that you would definitely die in this. I really want escape to be a big possibility at the end and so it's interesting that I went with Trophy Dark as, like, the obvious system.Yeah, I like these lists. This is just a lot of tone setting, basically, right? I don't have a lot to say about the details here. The first terror, a children's toy, damp in a gutter, is a reference to another song that makes me cry. The Rebecca Sugar song for Adventure Time, Everything Stays.But most of the rest of this is just, vibes. Here's some vibes. I don't know, I re read these lists and I was like, yeah, they're fine, great, next page. But I don't know, is there anything that stands out to you here?Nico: I mean, I think the most important thing about these lists, these kinds of things, you could maybe even sort of broaden this to like pick lists in general, is that, they kinda need to do two things, like they need to both give you a good solid list of things to pick from, if you're like, at a loss, or if you just are like, looking through it, and you're like, this is good, I want to use this.Or, the other purpose of using it is to have it sort of identify the space that you're playing in to the point where you can come up with your own thing that like, could just be the next entry on that list, right? For me at least, the whole point of like, buying a game is like, I want something that I like, can't essentially come up with by myself, you know? Because I like to be surprised, I like to be sort of challenged, I like to be inspired, and so I think a really good game is one that you sort of like, read it, and you're like, okay, like, there's great things to use in here that I'm excited to use. I also, after having read this, am coming up with my own ideas. Like, equally long, if not longer, list of things that like, fit into this perfectlySam: Bring the vibes of your small town. Nico: Yeah, exactly, that I could also use. It's like, and so it's like, it's kind of funny that like, for me at least, the mark of a good game is like oh yeah, you both want to use everything that's contained in it, and also you immediately get way more of your own ideas than you could ever use when you're running the game.Sam: Yeah. Next?Nico: Yes. Act 1. Sam: I love this little guy, I love Wes he's just kind of a pathetic little dude, and I feel sad for him.Nico: It's so funny, too, because this particular little guy, like, doesn't look very pathetic to me. Like, he looks like he's kind of doing okay. Sam: I definitely like drew, like all the art in the book I drew, and I did it by just drawing a lot of little heads, and then assigning them to people. Like, there were a couple where they were defining details about how the people looked, that I knew I needed to draw specifically. But in general, I just drew a bunch of heads and then doled them out, and like, this is the one that ended up on Wes. And, I think that the contrast between, like, in my mind, Wes is this skinny, lanky, little kid, you know, he's like early 20s, finally making it on his own, and he has no idea what the hell's going on with the world, and he always looked up to you, and he's finally getting out of town. And then he's, he's like overcompensating with the beard for the fact that he's like balding really early, and like, you know, he's, I don't know, like, I think the contrast is just fun.Nico: I love this whole life that you have for this, this little, this little guy, like, which is, I can't stress this enough, mostly not contained in the text,Sam: Yeah. yeah. I think a good NPC is like that. I think it's really hard to transcribe the characters we get in our heads.Nico: yeah, Sam: I really like the, the pun in the Town Crier, I mean like the Town Crier feels like a horror movie trope, like the old man who's gonna be like, You got don't go up to the cabin! But it's also, like I wrote that down first and then just started describing this Wes guy and then I was like I'm gonna just like make a pun out of this.This is something I did all the time while writing this, was I had, like, a little oracle going, actually, at a certain point, like, in the same way that you would in a solo game with an oracle. Like, if I was stuck for an idea, I would just roll on the oracle table and then, like, fill in a detail that was somehow related to the oracle. Nico: Mhm. Sam: That, that didn't happen here, but the idea of, Oh, I want a little bit more description for this guy, like, what should I do? I, like, pulled the word crier, and then was like, Oh, that's really interesting, like, when would this guy have cried? Like, oh, that's a great question, let's just, like, put that to the player. I'm always, like, a thing in screenwriting that is really hard to do, and that I'm always looking for is, like, really good, pithy character descriptions.Like, a friend of mine loves the one like, this is a woman who always orders fajitas at a Mexican restaurant because she loves the attention that she gets when the fajitas come out.She hates fajitas. And that description just says Nico: That's Sam: much. It's so good, right? And that one's even a little bit long for like a screenplay, but it'd be great for like an RPG thing, right?And something about like Here's a little bit about this guy. You remember when he was crying once, like a baby? What was the deal with that? Like, it's such a, like, defines everything else about him. Like, I, I, I'm really proud that.Nico: Yeah. No, that's, that's how I felt a little bit with I ran Vampire Cruise at Big Bad Con this year. And that game has some of, like, the best random NPC generating tables that I've, like, ever seen and played with.I remember one specifically, it was, like, I was like, rolling to generate a passenger, and I think it was like, the secrets part of the table, or something like that, and what I rolled was like, regrets that she never got to see the dinosaurs, and it's like, what does that mean?Like, like, Sam: She had a traumatic experience at a science museum as a kid, or maybe she's like 10 million years old, like, I don't...Nico: or, yeah, or she's just like a weirdo who like really loves dinosaurs? It's like, it's, Like, it really gives you sort of what you need to just sort of like, spin a world out of that specific detail. Sam: It's weird because I like completely agree with you, and you know, I was tooting my own horn about like this question about Wes sobbing and also like, in every single spread of this thing, I'm taking like two full pages to talk about like one or two NPCs, which is a terrible way to do the thing that we are talking about doing. Like,Nico: That is true, that is, it must be said,Sam: it makes it feel so much more like a short story, or maybe like a solo game, right? It's like, eh, spend two pages, like, getting to know this guy. Nico: who won't come up again, spoiler alert, Sam: Yeah, it feels like the right call for this thing where like, I mean it's like the text is forcing you to sit with the memory of this guy, it's like forcing you to come in and like spend more time than you would like to like back at home with these people.And there's some like location context built into all these descriptions too, and we like learn about the bakery thing here and like old stories and stuff. And like, already it's like, do we need that shit to run this game? Like, absolutely not, like, get, get out of the way, like, but also, I don't know, it feels right?And it's one of the things that makes all this weird and, you know, unrunnable.Nico: Which is of course the goal, we don't want people to run this. Yeah, no, that's something that I've thought about in my own games as well, is, is, and just sort of like, my life, I guess, is sort of like, what makes a place that place, you know, like, what makes a town a town, what makes a city a city, like, is it the people who live there? Is it the places? Like, again, kind of back to the sort of Ship of Theseus metaphor, it's like, if everyone you know leaves, and a lot of the stores turnover, like, is that still your hometown? Like... Does your relationship to it change?And so I, in defense of, of what we're doing here, it makes a lot of sense to spend so much time thinking about the people and the places that are here because that also basically is the game, right?Like, like, this is not a dungeon crawl, right? Like, this is not a hack and slash thing, It's not a dungeon crawl, like, Sam: it's a person crawl. Nico: Yeah, exactly, you're yeah, the point of you coming home is you're trying to find Sidra, the person who sent you this postcard, asking you to come home, and yeah, you're basically doing a point crawl, trying to find this person.And then there are various conditions that need to be in place for you to actually find them = And yeah, so it's like, using more words than a sort of your standard OSR like dungeon crawl or point crawl or whatever, or hex crawl, but like, it's kind of the same way where it's like, yeah, but like, that's the game, that's the adventure, like, Sam: yeah, yeah. Another detail here I'm really proud of is the like, offhand remark about how Wes and Sidra aren't talking for what are probably romantic reasons. Because the implication, there's like a strong implication that you, player, have some sort of romantic history with Sidra, like, whether it was ever consummated or not. And I love the just sort of, like, offhand, Wes and Sidra had a thing that didn't work out, because it both... leaves open your potential romantic relationship with Sidra, but also like complicates it and like darkens it from whatever sort of nostalgic quote unquote pure like memory of it you had.And I love that it just sort of brings a little complexity into what happens when you leave for 15 years. And then like what it feels like when you like, hear, oh yeah, your ex has been like, dating someone for a couple years. What were we talking about? Like just that, like sometimes like a bolt of like, information about like, someone from your past that like, you care a lot about will just hit you and you'll be like, oh, wait, what? And we're just I'm supposed to just like, take that and move on? Like, yeah, yeah, Nico: It's also a very small town, right, where it's a sort of like, oh yeah, passing reference to this because everyone knows this already, right? Like, this is old news as well as, like, in a small town, it's like, there's a small pool of people your age that you're interested in, so, not like you're gonna get with all of them inevitably, but it's like, yeah, there's a pretty high chance that you might.Last thing I did wanna say on this, do you wanna share what Wes's name was in the first draft of this that I received?Sam: What was it? I don't rememberNico: It was Glup Shitto. It was, it was one of the first comments I left! It was one of the first comments I left! I was like, Sam, you've gotta know this can't be the final thing, right?Sam: knew it couldn't be the final name. But there was something really funny to me about like the one person who like doesn't fit into town, like this little fucking Star Wars fanboy like schmuck kid is just Glup Shitto. And he's leaving town cuz like when you got that name, it doesn't fit anymore. You gotta get the fuck out of there.No wonder the town couldn't absorb him. His name was Glup Shitto.Nico: I want to say, like, I might have, like, made my first round of comments because I was, like, yeah, feeling the same way of, like, okay, obviously this is not the finalSam: yeah, yeah, I just didn't change it and you were likebruh Nico: and then, yeah, and then you, like, made changes based on the comments that I left, and I went back to it, and I'm like, it's still Glup Shitto. Like, it simply can't be this! It's not allowed! It's, it's not legal! Like, Sam: there ought to be a law.Nico: yeah.Sam: Alright, let's do Act 2 gosh.Yeah, so I made this little map. I like the little map. This is just my hometown, incidentally. Like, there's so much in this that is just, like, pulling details directly from my hometown. That oracle that I mentioned earlier, like, Northfield, Minnesota was, like, one of the things on the oracle. And you can see that here in like, the riverwalk and this little bridge over it was very Northfield. the Rube, which we're getting to next, these two bars, the kind of cowboy themed bar thing was a thing.Nico: Again, it's a very small town of just like, no sort of reasonable business person would have these specific Sam: yeah, but they, they exist here for some reason Nico: it almost feels like the kind of thing where it's like, like they can exist in a really small town, because it's sort of like, well they're the only things here, and they can exist in like New York City Sam: yeah. Nico: everything's in New York city, and like every kind of place is there, but like anywhere in between, people would just be like, I don't understand, and then it goes out of business,Sam: Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, doctors always also a big portion of my childhood and my past always coming up in my stuff just because I spent so much time in hospitals as a kid. So the, inclusion of a doctor here is also very much something coming out of my hometown.I like the little mechanic here of, like, rolling and you, like, add one every, every time. I think that's a nice sort of way to handle trying to find Sidra. Nico: as like a classic Nico mechanic 'cause I simply haven't made and published that many things. But in my mind, my narcissistic fantasy, it is a classic me mechanic.Sam: I believe that came from you.Nico: I fucking love a table that like evolves over time.And it's not like I invented it, but like, I think my more standard thing is sort of like you have a table of like 12 things, and then you change which die you roll on it, you know, it's like, oh you can do like a d4 through d12 or whatever and that's like, I really like the ability to sort of go back to a table and, like, use it multiple times as opposed to, like, Okay, we have one table for this, we have a different table for that, you know.Sam: Additional persons. I really like this format for sort of generic NPCs, like, I'm not gonna tell you anything about this person, but I am gonna tell you what you think about them and your relationship to them.I think it's a really cool way of doing... Oh, do you just need to, like, bring someone in? You, like, met someone on the street or whatever? In a lot of other settings, you would just have, like, a random person, and it would be, like, the Vampire Cruise thing. If you give them an interesting detail in here, it'd be a cool thing.But I think, especially in, like, a small town format, the, like, here's your relationship to this person, because everyone knows everyone, and, every character that comes in, like, is gonna have to inspire some kind of feeling and past in you. I think this works really cool, reallyNico: It also feels very sort of true to life in terms of, at least, how I often GM things. Someone will be like, hey, can I, like, ask just, like, the next person I see on the street what they know about this thing? And I'm like, I mean, I fuckin I guess, like, it'll shock you to learn I don't have a name for that person, but, you know, I just have to, like, come up with, like, here's a weird voice, and like, a random thing they know, and like here's a name, Sam: This is a great way to turn that experience back on the player.Nico: exactly, yeah, there's this random person, you're like, alright, this is someone who owes you an apology, why is that?Like, Sam: yeah, Nico: I also wanna say that I feel like this was actually a relatively late addition to theSam: Yeah, it was. I always intended to write these, but it was like the last thing that I wrote.Nico: Yeah.Sam: Yeah.Nico: There was definitely some time when I sort of came back and looked at it, and all of a sudden there was this relatively large additional persons section in here, and I was like, huh, interesting.Sam: Yeah. I'm happy with how it came out. I think these are my best little guys. Nico: Oh yeah, Sam: I really like the unfinishedness of these little guys that you can project a little bit of yourself onto them while there's still some, like, major details there. This someone you seek vengeance upon looks a lot like a penis, and I don't know how I feel about that one, butNico: I was gonna say, I find that one fascinating as the ide

Hey everyone! So… just like the title suggests we went into a bit of a chaos spiral in this episode. Melissa talks about commercial jingle conspiracy theories, we find out that DayQuil and NightQuil actually don't work, JP and De talk about Big Bad Con and attempt to get the rest of the crew excited about a game, and we try and end on a happy note (spoiler alert, it just ends weird). Get ready for a wild ride of an episode. Check out our carrd to see where you can find us!  https://nerdgasmnoire.carrd.co/ Make sure you join our new discord channel and hang out with the community! discord.gg/7DqMZSy ENJOY! Intro / Outro - Feelin Good provided by Mike (Pound 4 Pound Podcast) & Marion Moore from ALBM Production  

Fresh from Big Bad Con (and recovering from COVID), enjoy this collection of live interviews Daniel conducted with Agatha, Steve, and Drew in San Francisco! //COMMUNITY Join our Discord community! Check it out here: https://discord.gg/aznsrepresent //SUPPORT  Help us produce new and exclusive content! Join us on Patreon for exclusive audio and series! https://www.patreon.com/aznsrepresent //SPONSOR  Head to diceenvy.com/aznsrepresent and use code AZNSREPRESENT to get 10% off!  Check out VALOROUS GAMES and the Valor Tabletop system, a high-action roleplay experience that offers high levels of customizability and excitement, at valorousgames.com! //FOLLOW  Website | aznsrepresent.com  Twitter | @aznsrepresent  Twitch | @aznsrep  Follow Daniel @danielhkwan, Liana @ValorLiana, and Emma @starchaeologist on Twitter! Music: Euphoria by PAVALON //CONTACT  If you have questions about this episode's themes, suggestions, or anything else related to Asians Represent, get in touch with us at aznsrepresent.com

Mike talks about the 2023 New Jersey Web Fest and then Brandon and Mike talk about BigBadCon 2023. Brandon discusses their experiences in 2019 vs. 2023 and the importance of the POC Scholars program. The video for this discussion was available early to subscribers at patreon.com/speculate, along with including exclusive extras from our series, bonus episodes, access to behind-the-scenes material like GM streams and session zero recordings, and more! Check out our Court of Blades series “Valloward” at https://bit.ly/3yh6Bxh (now an Official Selection for the 2023 New Jersey, Minnesota, and Baltimore Next Media Web Fests!) and watch all of our completed series and one-shots at speculatesf.com/videosThis episode was edited by the amazing Rudy Basso (find him at https://twitter.com/RudyBasso). As always, thanks for listening!

On the latest episode of No Dice, No Problem, Daniel and Drew reflected on their recent trip to San Francisco to attend Big Bad Con, buying OSR products, playing TCGs at the con, and meeting members of the community! //SUPPORT  Help us produce new and exclusive content! Join us on Patreon for ad-free audio and exclusive series! patreon.com/aznsrepresent //SPONSOR  Head to diceenvy.com/aznsrepresent and use code AZNSREPRESENT to get 10% off!  //FOLLOW  Website | aznsrepresent.com  Twitter | @aznsrepresent  Twitch | @aznsrep  Follow Daniel @danielhkwan and Drew @DrewQuon on Twitter!  //CONTACT  If you have questions about this episode's themes, suggestions, or anything else related to Asians Represent, get in touch with us at aznsrepresent.com //MUSIC Honey Bee by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This week the Ace of Geeks find themselves in a four way tie between Overcooked 2, Big Bad Con, Kamen Rider Geats, and Synced. We do eventually reach a consensus, but you will just have to listen to see which one came out on top! (pun intended)

Hello Academaniacs! Welcome to Detention! In this special episode I have guest co-host Moe Poplar ( @ashyfeet1 ) to chat about his recent experience at Big Bad Con!   Streamed live on Twitch on 10/04/23

Hello Academaniacs! Welcome to Detention! In this special episode I have guest co-host Moe Poplar ( @ashyfeet1 ) to chat about his recent experience at Big Bad Con!   Streamed live on Twitch on 10/04/23

Howdy all! Kaleb's at Big Bad Con 2023, so here's a lil bonus clip and a lil update! Take care of yourselves!

◇ Vyrrk asks about getting what you need out of a game, Anonymous GM unmasked, Ken from Canada sends in a lightning round of questions | Hosts: Kimi, Pooja & Alex ◇ 00:38 - Welcome & Episode Summary | 01:10 - Announcements: Game Daze is September 23rd on happyjacks.org/discord, Big Bad Con, Sept 28 - Oct 1st | 03:46 - Indie Designer of the Month: Cezar Capacle (quirky.games) | 05:32 - Vyrrk asks about getting what you need out of a game. | 35:04 - Anonymous GM unmasked! | 42:18 - Ken from Canada sends in a lightning round of questions | 01:07:44 Episode Closing | 01:08:38 - Song | ◇ Email happyjacksrpg@gmail.com to send in your own topic or question for the show! ◇ Find us on Youtube ◇ Twitch ◇ Twitter ◇ Instagram ◇ Facebook ◇ Discord or find all our podcast feeds on your favorite Podcast platform! happyjacksrpg.carrd.co ◇ Subscribe to our Actual Play Feed! We have a backlog of campaigns in over 20 RPG systems and new games running all the time. ◇ Become a Patreon! All the money goes into maintaining and improving the quality of our shows. patreon.com/happyjacksrpg Ⓒ2023 Happy Jacks RPG Network www.happyjacks.org

◇ Eric from NJ ask if TTRPGs can be therapeutic, Thomas from Denmark revisits a topic about teenage gamers | Hosts: Kimi & Jason ◇ 00:38 - Welcome & Episode Summary | 01:18 - Announcements: Game Daze is September 23rd on happyjacks.org/discord, Big Bad Con, Sept 28 - Oct 1st | 04:47 - Indie Designer of the Month: Cezar Capacle (quirky.games) | 09:06 - Eric from NJ ask if TTRPGs can be therapeutic | 26:58 - Thomas from Denmark revisits a topic about teenage gamers | 01:11:15 Episode Closing | 01:11:57 Song "Henry, Me Son" by the Poxy Boggards (poxyboggards.com) | ◇ Email happyjacksrpg@gmail.com to send in your own topic or question for the show! ◇ Find us on Youtube ◇ Twitch ◇ Twitter ◇ Instagram ◇ Facebook ◇ Discord or find all our podcast feeds on your favorite Podcast platform! happyjacksrpg.carrd.co ◇ Subscribe to our Actual Play Feed! We have a backlog of campaigns in over 20 RPG systems and new games running all the time. ◇ Become a Patreon! All the money goes into maintaining and improving the quality of our shows. patreon.com/happyjacksrpg Ⓒ2023 Happy Jacks RPG Network www.happyjacks.org

Hello Adventurers~! We're coming back after our brief summer break! Episode 57. Dreamwalking 101 will be released this Friday, August 4th at 7:00PM EST Friday @ 7:00PM EST biweekly will also be our usual publishing time going forward. If you're a Patron, you can join us for Live Listening Streams in our Patreon Community Discord server to react to the finished episodes with members of the Squad and other fans. Check us out here ---> https://www.patreon.com/thestorytellersquadThe Storyteller Squad will be at several conventions in the second half of this year. If you'll be at GenCon, Pax West, Big Bad Con, or Pax Unplugged and want to say hi to us in person, send us a message on our socials. You can find us on most social platforms @storysquadcast or @thestorytellersquad ---> https://linktr.ee/TheStorytellerSquadMaybe we'll see you out there! Take care Adventurers~! Music: "The Wilderness" by George's Town

     In this episode we interview Sean Nittner of BigBadCon.  Saul and Jolene have a great talk with Sean Steward of BigBadCon a convention in the Bay Area that is one of the most inclusive and loved gaming cons on the West Coast.  We discuss with Sean his vision of Big Bad Con,  the Pandemic effect and the post pandemic recovery.  What Big Bad Con Does for the gaming community.   Big Bad Con is a charity con so you can have a great time playing games and feel good about donating to an official non-profit charity.    You can go to https://www.bigbadcon.com/   to get all the info you need about Big Bad Con.     Thank you all for listening.    Web Art by Jim Foster     Episode Art by Michael Shean-Jones    

Rob interviews  Sean Nittner about the Backerkit for,  "Big Bad Con 23"! Support this Backerkit at this link: https://www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/79ab90a4-9eed-4b37-a417-01692df6f57c/landing   Big Bad Con is a tabletop gaming convention focused on supporting gamers from marginalized backgrounds and nurturing a space to grow the gaming community by hosting a convention that is as physically, socially, and financially accessible as possible. We are a volunteer-run 501(c)(3) non-profit organization composed of volunteers, staff, GMs, and players.   We welcome you to join us on September 28 for Big Bad Con 2023, featuring four days of TTRPGs, LARPs, board and card games, panels, workshops, and more.     Social Media Links & Tags Facebook https://www.facebook.com/BigBadCon Twitter  https://twitter.com/bigbadcon Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bigbadcon/   YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZTZeTM1WamDePxRpEMCftw Discord: https://www.bigbadcon.com/community-discord/ Website: https://www.bigbadcon.com/ Email: info@bigbadcon.com   Find Go Fund This at: southgatemediagroup.com twitter.com/rsouthgate facebook.com/gofundthispodcast patreon.com/southgatemediagroup

Episode 175 - Paragon System with Sean Nittner and Tim Denee If you're a fan of the show, you'll know we love AGON, powered by the Paragon system. This time the lads are delighted to be joined by Sean Nittner, the co-author and independent game designer Tim Denee, who's done some great stuff with the game. Come on in for a deep dive on the game design process, what makes these sets of games great and how to squeeze more gaming juice from your sessions! Evil Hat have a ton of great games you can peruse for your delectation on their website. You can see more of Tim's great work on his website, Old Dog Games If you're in the US, or plan on travelling there for a convention, find out about Big Bad Con here. If you dig actual plays and reviews of played modules, check out the new YouTube channel. Get in touch, the lads love to hear from you!Twitters: twitter.com/the_smart_partyEmail: thesmartparty@hotmail.comKo-Fi: ko-fi.com/thesmartpartyPatreons: patreon.com/thesmartparty We always welcome lovely reviews on iTunes or elsewhere too. If you're less keen, give us a shout, we'd are open to development opportunities! :)

Support the show on PatreonOn this episode, we're talking to Indrani Ganguly who is the marketing manager for Hunters Entertainment, the publisher of Kids on Bikes, Alice is Missing, among other games. She is also the co-founder of Desis n Dragons, probably India's largest community of tabletop roleplayers. Of which, I am a humble member. Indrani is also a dicemaker, an artisan, making beautiful and custom math rocks under the name Nonagon Dice. She was a part of last year's Big Bad Con PoC Leadership Team and expertly organized the India programme where three people from India were invited to attend Big Bad Con 2022. She is an inductee of the TheGameAwards Future Class of 2022. Show notes:00;30 - Indrani's bio02:24 - Getting started08:26 - Starting Desis & Dragons14:14 - The vision for the community24:04 - Showcasing indie RPGs in the community30:03 - Marketing TTRPGs35:50 - Up All Night, a game of bargaining with your brain for one night's rest37:29 - Infectious Enthusiasm: Alice is Missing, blase monotony, Bubble Bubble38:54 - Tyranny of Numbers40:24 -  RePlay41:52 - All Advice Is Advice For MyselfYou can find a written transcript of the episode here.Support the showThe Yes Indie'd Website // The Indie RPG Newsletter

Richie is joined by his lovely wife Mrs. Buzzkill as well as Kayla Returns and brings her Husband Tyler with her.  We talk about our experience at Big Bad Con 2022.   https://www.bigbadcon.com/ Kayla's Biz https://www.savingthrowtherapeutics.com/ All the Full Metal RPG https://linktr.ee/fullmetalrpg  

We are pleased to bring you this week our interview with author, editor, and improv-er (is that a word?) Karen Twelves. As you will hear, Karen has keen insight into the potential of improv to improve our game not only at the table, but also in the real world. She is also a dynamic and lovely individual. Enjoy the chat! Please also out Karen's creative work: Improv for Gamers (workshops) Improv for Gamers (gamefound) Improv for Gamers (2nd ed.) Also mentioned: Leadership from the Ready Room Leadership for a New World Karen Twelves has been teaching improv for over a decade for theater companies, corporate workshops, and through the GoogleArts program. She teaches her Improv for Gamers workshop series at conventions across the country, including Big Bad Con, Origins Game Fair, and GenCon. Karen is also an editor, and has worked on games such as Fiasco, Dialect, Blades in the Dark, and Thirsty Sword Lesbians. She loves playing one-shot games with epic wins and disastrous fails, and will tell you all about her Duelist character from a truly epic "Kingmaker" Pathfinder campaign. Welcome to Dice in Mind, a weekly podcast in which we explore the meaning of life through the lens of RPGs!  In each episode, we will consider everyday stuff like science, religion, philosophy, and economics…through the lens of a specific roleplaying game and its dice mechanic. If you like what you hear, consider buying us a cup of coffee or becoming a patron.  You can also join the conversation by following us on Facebook. Music by Kevin MacLeod courtesy of Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 license (https://www.youtube.com/c/kmmusic/featured).

◇ Summary: DriveThruRPG Game Jams, New Player Tropes, Big Bad Con Memories, & How to start GMing | Hosts: Kimi (@goldenlassogirl), Jay (@jayafrica), and Clara (@clearly_golden) ◇ 0:35 - Welcome & Episode Summary, 1:32 - Announcements: Please leave a us a (good) review!3:14 - News: DriveThruRPG is doing a game jam!, 14:30 - Heath from Maryland asks about our experiences with new player tropes, 30:42 - Jerry from Oregon returns to the HJ community and shares a story of Big Bad Con, 42:48 - Weaslecreature from California shares a tip for someone who is interested in GMing but doesn't know where to start, 59:32 - Episode Closing, 1:02:30 - Song: "Skye Boat Song" by The Mary Sues ◇ Email happyjacksrpg@gmail.com to send in a topic or question to the show! ◇ Follow Happy Jacks RPG on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or hang out with other tabletop roleplaying fans in our Discord community! ◇ Subscribe to our other podcasts! We have Actual Play Campaigns in over 20 RPG systems and a great collection of One-Shots if you prefer bite sized adventures. ◇ You can watch us on Youtube or Twitch! ◇ Keep us independent by becoming a Patreon! Our fantastic supporters let us play and say what we want instead of catering to companies for ad or sponsorship money. They are HEROES! https://patreon.com/happyjacksrpg Ⓒ2022 Happy Jacks RPG Network https://www.happyjacks.org/

@temporalhiccup and @auzumel bring on Kieron Gillen @kierongillen - comics writer and game designer Show Notes: 00:01:24 - Sherri's Games Played and Spotlight - The Sprawl 00:11:08 - Kerion's Games Played and Spotlight - Girl Underground 00:22:22 - Rae's Games Played and Spotlight - Balikbayan Second Segment 00:30:56 - Kieron discusses the inspiration, design, and philosophical underpinnings of DIE; The Roleplaying Game, on Kickstarter now Giving Me Life 00:48:15 - Sherri enjoys online reactions to news about the upcoming game The Twilight Throne 00:50:17 - Kieron delights in the return of the show Derry Girls 00:52:21 - Rae joyfully recalls Big Bad Online Games and resources discussed in this episode: The Sprawl http://www.ardens.org/games/the-sprawl/ On DriveThruRPG (NOON edition): https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/184711/The-Sprawl----NOON On DriveThruRPG (MIDNIGHT edition): https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/171286/The-Sprawl----MIDNIGHT Girl Underground https://girlunderground.org/ Balikbayan https://temporalhiccup.itch.io/balikbayan The Greatest Gamer https://kierongillen.itch.io/the-greatest-gamer DIE (the comic book) https://diecomic.com/ DIE: The Roleplaying Game on Kickstarter through Friday, June 10 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gshowitt/die-the-roleplaying-game The Twilight Throne https://temporalhiccup.itch.io/the-twilight-throne Big Bad Con https://www.bigbadcon.com/ Big Bad Online 2022 YouTube videos https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLY22glPJVwSLoU8rMdYmT6Z-edBV9WIau The Gauntlet Links: The Gauntlet website https://gauntlet-rpg.com/ @GauntletRPG on Twitter https://twitter.com/GauntletRPG The Gauntlet Forums https://forums.gauntlet-rpg.com/ The Gauntlet on Patreon https://patreon.com/gauntlet

On the table3 sessions in for Vena and the King of Nothing! We had a solid ordinary but strong third session of Burning Wheel. We talk about the three sessions and the game so far, the good, the bad, and what's next. Spoilers: Elle is still game!I did a panel called Fresh Starts for Big Bad Con with Lowel Francis from the Gauntlet and Rich Rogers of +1 Forward fame.  We talked about starting new games with new groups.I re-started a Twilight: 2000 limited series, a reboot of a one-shot I ran for GauntletCon Open Gaming --two events ago!Starting up some Delta Green with Brendan. He is playing an online blogger media journalist that investigates weird true crimes. How have I not looked at this game before?!I've finished Superman and the Authority #4. I don't want it to end! Played a Debtpunk hack of Apocalypse World, looking to see where the fun, interesting stuff is. And thus was born the IX playbook!PreppingWhitehack for a group formed on the IGRC.Back into Pirates of Drinax and the One Ring this week.Forbidden Lands for the Patreon monthly hustle game.What are you playing?Support the show (http://www.patreon.com/madjayzero)

First in a series of podcasts where my brother and I discuss our experience at Big Bad Con 2019. In this episode we introduce the characters for the first game I ran and discuss character naming. How do you feel about absurd or comical character names? Where do you get inspiration for names? Game System: Chaoses Limb (a Holmes Basic retroclone) Adventure: Before the Lost City (a hack of B4 - The Lost City) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rui-lourenco/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/rui-lourenco/support

Adam Vass and Will Jobst are two cars passing in the night. Adam’s about to leave on tour, and Will is back! On this episode, we clear the sticky-note docket, compare Gallaghers, and test dream games. Adam debriefs after Big Bad Con and Will presents the newest luxury RPG product. Find Adam on Twitter at @wcgameco and Will at @will_jobst Music by Will Jobst, available at https://soundcloud.com/willjobst.

Follow Viditya on Twitter @vidityavoleti and buy his games at vidityavoleti.itch.io. Follow Akemi on Twitter @NinjaPenguinAM and buy her games at doomedlegiongames.com. If you have questions about this episode’s theme, the games discussed, or anything else related to Asians Represent, get in touch with us on Twitter/Instagram @aznsrepresent, Facebook.com/aznsrepresent, or at aznsrepresent@oneshotpodcast.comMusic: Intro: Good Vibes by DJ Quads https://soundcloud.com/aka-dj-quadsOutro: Explore by Ikson https://www.soundcloud.com/ikson

Adam Vass and Will Jobst bring back the wonderful For The Queen hack “For The Game Design” and bring it on the road to Big Bad Con 2019 with a flurry of amazing designers and friends drawing cards. Adam & Will also have a nice discussion in-studio about player skill progression from repetitive play and start to re-assess where they are with the design process of A Guide to Casting Phantoms in The Revolution. Keep up with all of the designers who made appearances on the show this week: Suzanne Schenewerk a-sputnik.itch.io @smoreofbabylon Jason Brown https://blooperly.itch.io/ @blooperly_ Alex Roberts helloalexroberts.com @muscularpikachu JR Goldberg jrgoldb.itch.io @wrestlingbubble Mabel Harper @maybeitsmabel Nell Raban https://nell-raban.itch.io/ @nell_do_well Taylor LaBresh riverhousegames.itch.io game closet podcast (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/game-closet/id1091145623?mt=2) Adira Slattery adira.itch.io @adiraslattery Viditya Voleti vidityavoleti.itch.io @vidityavoleti Find Adam on Twitter at @wcgameco and Will at @will_jobst Music by Will Jobst, available at https://soundcloud.com/willjobst.

     Today we have Sean Nittner the person that puts on BigBadCon in the Bay Area.  We wanted to get Sean to talk to us because BigBadCon is not a typical game con.   It has a different heart that other cons.  They all have their own character and BigBadCon is known for the great RPGs and LARPs.   In the last few years they have added  Boardgames, and Panels to BigBadCon.  Though most of the people that attend are from the San Francisco Bay Area there are quite a few that come from all over the U.S. to attend BigBadCon.      We really appreciate Sean taking time from his busy schedule to talk to us about BigBadCon from it roots to its future.       Though the Kickstarter is over you can still buy tickets starting in early July.       Here is the link the conventions website: https://www.bigbadcon.com/     BigBadCon takes place from October 10th-13th at the Marriot in Walnut Creek, California.    Here is the link to the Hotel block:  https://www.marriott.com/event-reservations/reservation-link.mi?id=1555698790823&key=GRP&app=resvlink    If you want to go to a great RPG con that runs many small press and independent rpg games BigBadCon should be on your list of cons to attend every year.    As always thanks for listening and all we ask is that you share our podcast with your family and friends.

     First of all I want to apologize for the lateness of this episode.  Technical difficulties prevented us from post these right after recording.  And even before we left for Kublacon our podcast computer died.  What I thought was a bad or corrupted boot file was worse.  So it taken a bit longer to get these episodes published.         We also recorded longer than our normal 30 minutes and the episodes area about an hour and a half long.      So I will be including a bit more detailed show notes.    1-13 minutes Saul and Jolene talk about what games they  have been playing.    14  Lifetime pass and Hyatt Regency discussion.    21  Game of Thrones    22  Ron Smith co creator of Wizardz Bluff talks about the game he is                     demoing at Kubla.  Can check out the game at Wizardzbluff.com      24  Back to Game of Thrones rant by Saul     26:40  Steve and the Conan Boardgame Kickstarter and mandatory                    Kickstarter discussion.      31:00    Flea Markets and Garage Sales finds.      40:00    Empire of the Petal Thrones discussion       48:40   Sean Nittner Comes by and talk about Big Bad Con.  How it                                started and what it has become.   Sean also talks about running                          Agon, Blades in the Dark and Ride or Die.  BigBadCon.com        1:00:10  Theresa of Temple Gate Games sits and talks about her                                           "Exhibitor" badge and what she is doing at KublaCon.  Their                                products can be seen at Templegategames.com         1:20:00   We sign off for the day.          As always thanks for listening and please share with your friends and family.           

Roll To Play Level Up Big Bad Con Featuring: Kristin Devine with special guests Banana Chan and Sean Nittner This episode of Level Up Kristin Devine sits down with Banana Chan of Game and a Curry and Sean Nittner of the Big Bad Con gaming convention to chat about Big Bad Con. To find out more about theBig Bad Con Kickstarter, go here. Social Media: www.rolltoplaypodcast.com Facebook: Roll To Play Podcast Twitter - @RollToPlayPod Instagram – rolltoplaypodcast Email – gm@rolltoplaynetwork.com

    The Last but not least of the Pre-Dundracon interviews, this one is with Ezra Denney.  I got to know these GM's by going to local gaming conventions.  Ezra is one of the best at running games that uses a lot of improvisation, which is not an easy skill to develop.  I had the pleasure of playing in one of his Paranoia games at Big Bad Con about 5 years ago and it is the best Paranoia game I have ever played in.  So when I sent out a call to do the interviews, Ezra was one of the first ones to sign on.  This was the 2nd attempt at the interview as the first one was during a West Coast Storm that knocked out Ezra's internet.  But he was gracious enough to try again and we are lucky to have him on our show.      Ezra is doing a actual play of Mask's of Nyarlathotep on Twitch and You Tube here is the link to the You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f3c5fFMm1k&fbclid=IwAR1dr6jedHEplcSr6VUYfZDIEAVf5GRWLXh1KKuyVOMgz7nx0dcX-Ex3RD0       These interviews were recorded in our non-standard time.  We usually record Sunday morning at 6 am which is why you might hear us yawn and stretch but here you have phone ringing and particularly loud cars zoom by.  No intro music  with these bonus episodes..          We will be recording LIVE at : http://www.dundracon.com/   Saturday and Sunday from 9:30am to 11am.      And Thanks to Ezra, David and Shannon for letting us interview them.  See you at DunDraCon!!!    

Lowell and Jason welcome Lauren McManamon to the show.   Game Discussion 00:00:35 - The Between 00:08:00 - Big Bad Con 00:13:33 - Thousand Arrows 00:30:45 - Girl Underground   Looking ahead to November 00:46:55 - Kingsport ‘62 00:48:05 - We Used to Be Friends 00:49:01 - Weave   Giving Me Life 00:51:15 - Niece running Hearts of Wulin 00:51:55 - #QueerGauntlet 00:53:31 - The Mercy Falls Campaign   Links Our website www.gauntlet-rpg.com   Our Patreon patreon.com/gauntlet   Follow us on Twitter @GauntletRPG

Podcaster and Unofficial Larpwright of the Olive Garden chain of restaurants Jeff Stormer joins us for a nice chat about professional wrestling, karaoke, and other roleplaying games. Jeff's Website, When You're Here You're Family, Alex's Guest Spot on the Party of One Podcast, Big Bad Con 2018

Lowell sits down with Sean Nittner from Big Bad Con and Evil Hat Productions. Big Bad Con 00:00:46 - Overview 00:05:03 - How the Con got started 00:09:00 - What makes Big Bad Con special? 00:18:30 - Kickstarter Sean's Work in Tabletop Publishing 00:28:26 - Sean's work at Evil Hat 00:35:45 - Advice for first-time game publishers 00:39:38 - Moving on to work with bigger publishers Giving Me Life 00:44:47 - Playtesting new games 00:47:10 - Indexes Links Big Bad Con Kickstarter https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1157274964/big-bad-con-2018

Larpwright and organizer Betty Bong on translating play across cultures. Cozy Larp LA, B Studio, Empresses in the Palace, Snow White, by J Li, Drink Me, by Betsy Isaacson, Inheritance, by Luke Crane, Star Crossed 14 Days, by Hannah Shaffer and Evan Rowland, Ghost Court: The Improvised Musical, Bully Pulpit Games at Origins, Big Bad Con 2018 Kickstarter

Game designer, project manager, community manager and all around interesting guy Nathan Black talks codes of conduct, selling a punch, and larping the everyday. Living Games Conference, Burning Wheel, Big Bad Con

Welcome to our Big Bad Con episode! We had a great time there, and interviewed some wonderful folks, including the founder of Big Bad Con, Sean Nitner! Interviewees: Brian Thomas Ian Norris Dev Purkayastha Sean Nitner

012 - How to Make a Breakout   Recorded April 14, 2017    00:20 Breakout Con   01:06 Fall of Magic by Ross Cowman   04:30 Chill by Growling Door Games   07:45 Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Organized Play by Wizards of the Coast   21:15 Bakaneko by Dana Kubilus   21:16 The Sprawl by Hamish Cameron   22:30 401 Games   23:55 Emily Griggs of Sweet Ingenuity art   25:06 Double Exposure   26:09 Dead of Winter by Plaid Hat Games   29:40 Daniel Kwan   29:45 Rachel Kahn   30:01 Game Masters Table   31:05 Anna Kreider   31:55 Alex Roberts   33:20 Genesis of Legend RPG Design Podcast   33:55 My Girl’s Sparrow by Troels Ken Penderson   34:20 Iron GM Competition   37:08 Big Bad Con   51:40 The Porch by Jacqueline Bryk   52:01 Moyra Turkington - Warbirds   52:44 Monsterhearts by Avery Alder   59:45 Michelle Lyons-McFarland on Breakout Con     60:38 Todd Crapper

Podcaster and Big Bad Con organizer Sean Nittner shares his love of Actual Play reporting, staying positive, and making gaming events safer and more inclusive. Key quote: "If you feel awkward or like you're going outside your comfort zone... you're probably on the right track." Sean's website Big Bad Con Kickstarter Have Games, Will Travel Blades in the Dark Fiasco Mage: The Ascension Adam Koebel on Twitch George R. R. Martin's LiveJournal Narrative Control Katanas & Trenchcoats Big Bad Con Double Exposure Envoy Program Social Deduction Games One-Night Werewolf Coup FATE Good Omens Call of Cthulu Hero System Ars Magica Iron Heroes Castles and Crusades End Game Magic: The Gathering Katherine Cross Dungeon World Welcome to Night Vale Dread Pronoun Badge Ribbons Whitney "Strix" Beltrán on Getting Women and other Minority Folks to Write for Your Game Tanya D

We're back from DunDraCon, and it was an incredible experience! We've all got some favorite moments to talk about, from Chris playing Microscope, to Ben trying out the Dungeons & Dragons Adventurer's League, to the awesome Star Wars build of Fate Core that Zack played named "Kellian's Fist". We go into detail about our experiences, what we've been up to, and some of our most interesting new discoveries. If you enjoy roleplaying games, then you owe it to yourself to attend a gaming convention one of these days -- listen in to find out why! Referenced in this episode: Microscope (http://www.lamemage.com/microscope/) D&D Adventurerâ??s League (http://dndadventurersleague.org/) Kellian's Fist, by Dovi Anderson (powered by Fate Core; see the Big Bad Con 2015 listing: http://www.bigbadcon.com/events/kellians-fist/) Hosts Ben Lee Chris Loe Zack McQueen Editor / Producer Ben Lee Executive Producers Mike Fatum Jarys Maragopoulos Logo Design Sarah Wiener (sarahwiener-art.com) Theme "Crunk Knight", Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) For more podcasts, videos, news, and assorted geekery, check out aceofgeeks.net!

The Ace of Geeks is back at one of our favorite cons, Big Bad Conâ??2015! This year, sponsored by us! Definitely, just us. The boys at Found in the Alleyâ?? had nothing to do with it. Mike is strutting his stuff on the stage but Jarys is joined by Melissa, Wendy, andâ?¦.the boys from Found in the Alley, Ryan and Robert. Theyâ??ll discuss the games they played and ran at the con, including Ryanâ??s hacking of Tokyo Brain Pop to make a Star Wars game, and tons of awesome LARPs. You can even hear them be recruited to be in a LARP, live on the air!

We’re back, creaky (and solo for this one). Brian emerges from the cave to drink scotch and ramble about Dead of Winter, Fate Con EndGame, Big Bad Con, and recent experiences in Magic World, Harn and Slumbering Tsar.Recorded 4/18/2013.