Shows
Dice ExploderActual Play: 4AM at a Diner (Last Train to Brooklyn) with Linnie SchellTranscripts available at diceexploder.comLast Train to Brooklyn is an actual play from Twice Rolled Tales where they play Last Train to Bremen on a New York City subway car. It's also probably my favorite actual play full stop. Why? I think because it leans into what I'm most excited about this medium: treating capturing the act of play more like a documentary than a means towards fiction. It's excited at least as much about its nonfiction story as its fictional one.Today I've invited Linnie Schell, one of the main creatives behind Last...
2025-10-281h 06Dice ExploderActual Play: An Uncomfortable Offer (Maia's Game Room: The Electric State) with Maia WilsonTranscripts available at diceexploder.comOne of my favorite parts about these episodes where I'm highlighting a single moment from an actual play is how many practical lessons I can bring back to my own table by going beat by beat through a significant moment in play. And today, Maia Wilson has brought a particularly significant moment from her show Maia's Game Room in which one character, in desperate straights, is pressured by an NPC to pay for his help with sex.It's an intense moment. It may not be for you (and this episode...
2025-10-2148 minDice ExploderActual Play: A Tree Shanty (My First Dungeon: The Wildsea) with Brian Flaherty and Elliot DavisTranscripts available at diceexploder.comIn The Wildsea, you play as sailors on a sea of trees in a climate post-apocalypse where the climate won. And in the My First Dungeon mini series of this game, today's co-cohost Brian Flaherty took it on himself - along with co-player J Strautman - to write an original song, a “tree shanty,” that played on each episode.Today Brian and I, along with his Talk of the Table cohost and Wildsea GM Elliot Davis, break down one of those tree shanties: how it came to be, and how this...
2025-10-1456 minDice ExploderActual Play: The First 30 Minutes (My First Dungeon: Orbital Blues) with Rowan ZeoliTranscripts available at diceexploder.comIt's a new series on Dice Exploder all about actual play. For five episodes, instead of breaking down one mechanic, we're going to break down one moment from one actual play show. And to kick things off, I'm joined by actual play critic and all-around-writer Rowan Zeoli of Rascal and Polygon. We cover an overview of actual play as a medium and the current state of the scene, we dig deep into the fine line this medium walks between fiction and nonfiction, and then we get to our moment: the very beginning...
2025-10-0748 minDice ExploderYou Will Die In This Place with Merrilee Bufkin and Jay DragonTranscripts available at diceexploder.comLast summer a hot new game hit the indie rpg scene: You Will Die In This Place, a surreal and experimental... dungeon crawler? Technically? ...that seems to have more in common with House of Leaves than it does many roleplaying games. And for a couple weeks I saw so many discussions about this game that I eventually broke down and was like, do I need to do an emergency podcast about this?No. I did not. I was busy with a hundred other things. But past cohosts Merrilee Bufkin and...
2025-09-3048 minDice ExploderLove, Sex, and Romance: The War (Will That Be All?) with Kim LamTranscripts available at diceexploder.comToday we’re wrapping up the Dice Exploder series on love, sex, and romance with Will That Be All? by Graham Walmsley, a game about the social relationships between the downstairs staff at Melton Hall, a fictional British estate, over the course of about a decade between the first and second world wars.It’s a lovely game about finding solace and community even as the world outside feel deeply uncertain - and that’s what Kim wanted to talk about: how setting, and in this case the spectre of war, c...
2025-09-0945 minDice ExploderLove, Sex, and Romance: Big Chunky Prompts with Tasha RobinsonTranscripts available at diceexploder.comI’m back! Alex and Sharang have done an amazing job talking love, sex, and romance over the past month but I have plenty to say on the subject myself. In particular, I wanted to approach the conversation Alex and Sharang started about the quantification of romance from the perspective of how I feel when I’m actually at the table playing these games. Because that quantification makes me feel kinda weird… but what do I want instead?Because freeform romance is tough for me. Romance is scary! I want some h...
2025-09-021h 02Dice ExploderLove, Sex, and Romance: Physical Touch with Alex & SharangTranscripts available at diceexploder.comIn this final episode hosted by Sharang and Alex, perhaps their climactic episode, they are turning up the heat on sex mechanics all the way to physical contact, both as a way to simulate sex acts through other kinds of physical touch... and through actual sex acts being used as game mechanics.This stuff is fascinating, I think much more broadly applicable than you might believe at first blush, and I think also very obviously under discussed in the way that all things sex and sexuality are under discussed. Let's...
2025-08-2644 minDice ExploderLove, Sex, and Romance: The Phallus with Alex & SharangTranscripts available at diceexploder.comOur series on game mechanics centered around sex and romance continues with returning champions Alex Roberts and Sharang Biswas, and today they are talking about dicks. “The phallus.” Or more generally, physical objects. I did some episodes on physicality earlier this year and how the physicality of a game undeniably affects how it feels to play it. But Alex and Sharang go a step further, talking about how in a game you can use an object as almost a vessel for player emotions. Take a listen.Further ReadingTales...
2025-08-1934 minDice ExploderLove, Sex, and Romance: Roll to Seduce with Alex & SharangTranscripts available at diceexploder.comAlex Roberts and Sharang Biswas are back for round two, this time with “roll to seduce,” that classic action so many people try and even succeed at taking across any number of games. If I roll high enough on my persuasion check, surely the dragon will fuck me instead of killing us, right? In some games, yes! Right indeed!This is such a weird dynamic, but clearly so appealing to so many people, and today Alex and Sharang get into the why and how of it all. That leads to all...
2025-08-1249 minDice ExploderLove, Sex, and Romance: Sex Moves (Apocalypse World) with Alex & SharangTranscripts available at diceexploder.comLove, sex, and romance: huge human topics, wildly under-discussed in roleplaying games. At least in my opinion. So today on Dice Exploder we’re kicking off a new miniseries on the subject hosted by NOT ME. Instead, for the next four episodes, Alex Roberts (Star Crossed, For the Queen) and Sharang Biswas (editor of Honey and Hot Wax) are taking over the show to bring you all things love and sex.And today they’re kicking off with an episode on sex moves from Apocalypse World and Monsterhearts, classic PBTA move...
2025-08-0543 minDice ExploderRolling the Dice... On Camera! (The Die Guys) with Moira Joy SmithTranscripts available at diceexploder.comMoira Joy "MJ" Smith is the Dungeon Master for the Try Guys D&D actual play show "The Die Guys". She created the show in 2024 along with the Try Guys, and I was her right-hand dude during production and the show's video editor.Today, ahead of a whole series I have planned later this fall on actual play, MJ and I sit down to talk about how we made The Die Guys. We start with a bunch of background - how shows get made for YouTube at large, how the...
2025-07-011h 50
Narrative FeatsThe Joy of GMing w Special Guest Sam Dunnewold!In this episode, Casey Jones chats with award-winning tabletop designer and mastermind behind the Dice Exploder Podcast, Sam Dunnewold! Together, we dive into:• the ins and outs of creating (and naming) a timeless sci-fi TTRPG• breaking down game mechanics one-by-one• the essence of a great heist game• prioritizing the creative process when you have a whole list of ideasWhether you’re a game designer, podcaster, or a creative of any kind, you’ll find fresh inspiration in this stimulating conversation.👉 Connect with Sam on LinkedIn!🎲 Listen to the Dice Exploder Po...
2025-06-301h 16Dice ExploderAfterimage: City of WinterDice Exploder: Afterimage is a new show format I'm trying, a mashup of This American Life with a play report.I have a box full of memories that lives in my closet, a pair of drumsticks, a half smoked cigar, a thimble full of sand from a beach I've never been to. If I passed away and you were cleaning out my closet, you would look at this box and you would know it was important, but you wouldn't know why. You wouldn't know whose funeral I played at with those drumsticks, or on which rooftop in m...
2025-06-2432 minDice ExploderAfterimage: Yazeba's Bed & BreakfastDice Exploder: Afterimage is a new show format I'm trying, a mashup of This American Life with a play report.When I was in the third grade, there was this cartoon that aired while I was coming home from school, so I could only ever watch the second half of episodes. The name of that show was Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast... or was that the name of a tabletop roleplaying game?Written, edited, and performed by Sam DunnewoldTranscript available at www.diceexploder.comMusic by Blue Dot Sessions: https://app.sessions...
2025-06-1720 minDice ExploderParty by the Apocalypse preview: an Apocalypse World sex sceneHello and welcome to Party by the Apocalypse, an actual play miniseries where we play Apocalypse World while breaking down how it works and the choices we're making as players so you can learn how to better play it.Party by the Apocalypse is Dice Exploder’s first foray into actual play, and the whole thing is out right now wherever you get your podcasts.In the full show, we over any number of mechanics and how they play out at the table: character creation, violence and combat, player vs player, prep, and more. But to...
2025-06-0322 minDice ExploderAnnouncement: Dice Exploder joins the Many Sided NetworkToday the folks over at Many Sided Media, the production house behind My First Dungeon and Talk of the Table, are launching a new podcast network... and Dice Exploder is a part of it!Nothing on the show should change much, but today I wanted to sit down with Brian Flaherty, a co-founder of Many Sided Media, to talk about what this network is going to look like.
2025-06-0205 min
Dice ExploderClarity (Changeling: the Lost 1e) with MintRabbitTranscripts available at diceexploder.comIn the unreliable urban fantasy world of Changeling, Clarity is a mechanic that measures... well, for now let’s go with a character's ability to trust their own reality. But finishing that sentence is kind of what this episode is all about, because Clarity has deep ties to various sanity mechanics from any number of Call of Cthulhu inspired games, even as it’s trying to do something different, maybe a little more nuanced and less obviously offensive as measuring a person’s sanity with a flat number.There’s any numb...
2025-05-2037 min
Dice ExploderQuestion Oracle (Stoneburner) and rolling the dice again with Ray ChouTranscripts available at diceexploder.comFor the two year anniversary of Dice Exploder, my first ever cohost Ray Chou returns for what starts off as a brand new episode about Stoneburner by Fari RPGs and that game’s oracle mechanic: a way to use dice, random tables, and the careful framing of stakes to adapt the game for solo play.But at some point the conversation morphs into a deserving sequel episode to our first go around on rolling the dice in idie rpgs more broadly. When do you roll dice? Are partial successes good? An...
2025-05-1341 min
Dice Exploder10 Candles (10 Candles) with Jay DragonTranscripts available at diceexploder.comThis is, at long last, the end of this Dice Exploder miniseries on larp. And I wanted to send it off by returning to the question I kicked it off with: what can tabletop designers learn from larp? To get into that, there’s few people I’d rather have on than Jay Dragon (Wanderhome, Yazeba’s Bed & Breakfast).When I pitched Jay this topic, Jay wanted to bring in the 10 Candles from 10 Candles. This is a game best known for, what else, the 10 candles you light at the beginning of pla...
2025-05-0655 min
Dice ExploderExperience Design with Caro MurphyTranscripts available at diceexploder.comHere near the end of Dice Exploder's larp series, I wanted to have on Caro Murphy (Galactic Starcruiser) to talk about experience design, and specifically how to think about curating all those parts of an experience bigger and larger than most of us at home will ever have access to. How do you design the set a game is played on? How do you design something for hundreds if not thousands of participants?And Caro delivered so much more: we get into bleed and empathy and how Caro sees games...
2025-04-2956 min
Dice ExploderSafety Tools, and Players Are More Important Than The Game, with Sarah Lynne BowmanTranscripts available at diceexploder.comSafety in RPGs and larp is a huge topic, one I’ve wanted to cover on Dice Exploder for a long time, but one I’ve avoided it because it feels hard to approach inside the “pick one mechanic” format of this show. Even more than most mechanics I cover on Dice Exploder, I feel like most safety mechanics are in conversation with each other in both logistical ways—how they compliment each other—but also in the philosophy behind their existence in the first place, how including these mechanics at the table is ide...
2025-04-2158 min
Dice ExploderBeats (Heart: the City Beneath) with Aaron VoigtTranscripts available at diceexploder.comLast week, indie rpg YouTube essayist Aaron Voigt and I delved into Heart: the City Beneath, a surreal and maximalist dungeon crawler with lots to love. But when I ran the game, I had some trouble with it from a mechanic that by all accounts I should love: beats, little nuggets of story, little goals your character takes on that they advance by achieving. I’ve always found it strange I didn’t love beats in practice, and I today I wanted to break down how and why they left me overwhelmed and...
2025-04-1533 min
Dice ExploderZenith Abilities (Heart: the City Beneath) with Aaron VoigtTranscripts available at diceexploder.comHeart: the City Beneath. It’s a surreal and bloody dungeon crawler full of so much to love… plus some bits that drive me up the wall. This week and next I’m devoting TWO episodes to it. Today, it’s everything I love about Heart as seen through the lens of zenith abilities: epic things that let players take control of the game and do something gigantic and fucking cool… before killing their character.I’m joined by ardent Heart-lover Aaron Voigt, aka the guy who makes the indie rpg video es...
2025-04-0836 min
Dice ExploderElf Motors with Chris DuffyTranscripts available at diceexploder.comOver on the Dice Exploder discord, we welcome new members by asking them what their favorite mechanic is. It’s a great tradition, kicks off a lot of great conversations, but I have largely avoided having it turned my way. So today I thought let’s just get it out there in an episode: what is my favorite mechanic and what do I think about it?Further ReadingElf MotorsSocialsChris’s podcast How to Be a Better HumanSam on Bluesk...
2025-04-0108 min
Dice ExploderFateplay Scenes (House of Craving) with Sharang BiswasTranscripts available at diceexploder.comLast week was a show about how it might work to frame a scene when you get to decide whatever you want that scene to look like. But this week, we're looking at the reverse: what happens when you're given a very detailed scene and must figure out how to incorporate it into your story?This episode brings together a bunch of threads I’ve been building up throughout this larp series: immersion, the separation or lack thereof between player and character, safer play, and more. I couldn't ask for a...
2025-03-2550 min
Dice ExploderSpotlight Scenes with Moyra TurkingtonTranscripts available at diceexploder.comWhen you’re playing roleplay-heavy D&D, what does a scene look like? Since the game doesn’t give you much in the way of tools for doing so, are you framing scenes intentionally or just kind of letting them happen? And if the latter, is that serving you well?You very well might be, but I’ve become obsessed lately with how we frame scenes in roleplaying games, and today I want to talk about a mechanic that does so very firmly: spotlight scenes, a procedure in which each player...
2025-03-1850 min
Dice ExploderShadows with Elin DalstålTranscripts available at diceexploder.comShadows are a metatechnique in larp where you have players in the role of something other than a traditional larp or rpg player character. Maybe they’re stagehands turning out the lights because there’s ghosts in this house. Maybe they’re the characters’ worst fears who wander around and whisper into players’ ears to egg them on into terrible actions and choices. They’re special effects, or ghosts, or whatever else you want them to be. Let's talk about them!Ad LinksExtra Ordinary on Kickstarter now!SocialsE...
2025-03-1137 min
Dice ExploderWorkshops with Marc MajcherTranscripts available at diceexploder.comThere's this period of time between when we've all agreed we're going to play a game now and when we start "actually playing." We've got to learn the rules, learn the setting, maybe go over safety or characters. Maybe we order the pizza in here, too.This part of a game is just as much something that can be intentionally designed as gameplay itself, but I don't see much of that in ttrpgs. Meanwhile in larp, workshops to set up a game are standard practice. What do they look like...
2025-03-0447 min
Dice ExploderDice Exploder is on Patreon, plus Yazeba's Bed & BreakfastTranscripts available at diceexploder.comThe show is on Patreon! There's not going to be a lot behind the paywall, but there is right now a pilot episode for a new podcast that's part play report, part games criticism, and part personal memoir. This pilot is about the excellent game Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast, and you can listen to it now on the brand new Dice Exploder patreon.https://www.patreon.com/DiceExploder
2025-03-0304 min
Dice ExploderEmbodiment with Kate HillTranscripts available at diceexploder.comIn a lot of tabletop rpgs, to do something in the fictional world, we engage with abstraction: to pick someone’s pocket, we describe picking their pocket, or we roll a die to see how well we pick it. But in larp, sometimes the action is the action. I pick your pocket... by picking your pocket.This embodiment of play, where my real life actions equal my fictional character's actions, might be what many people understand as the core difference between larp and tabletop games. Today, Kate Hill and I ge...
2025-02-2550 min
Dice ExploderJust Read the Card (Ghost Court) with Randy LubinTranscripts are available at diceexploder.comLarp! It’s that thing where you dress up like wizards, go into the woods, and hit each other with sticks. Right? Well.. yeah! Except no, because it’s a million other things, too.Today I'm gonna introduce you to the world of larp. If you've ever been intimidated by it, this is a place to start. Because I think tabletop designers have so much we could learn from larp, so much that this is the start of a big series on larp.And where better to star...
2025-02-1841 min
Wait, Roll That Again!S2E3 - Playtesting, and A Telling Off (ft. Sam Dunnewold)Alex has to playtest his latest changes to Fight or Fright, and he turns to Sam for some advice. Sam imparts some hard truths about some of Alex's design thoughts. Thanks to Sam Dunnewold for coming on the show! Check out his fantastic podcast Dice Exploder, and head to itch.io to check out his games, including Band-Aids and Bullet Holes, Space Fam, and We Three Shall Meet Again. Jay Dragon's article for Boom Town Playtesting can be found here.Fight or Fright! is available now! Check it out here, where s...
2025-02-1338 min
Dice ExploderMule (Last Train to Bremen) and Pregenerated Characters with Aaron LimTranscripts available at diceexploder.comPregens! They're not just a tool to get started playing quicker, they're also a way for a designer to take you by the hand and guide you to a very specific place, and they're a shared language across every table that picks up your game. Today, Aaron Lim and I break down all the joys and beauty of pregens, up to and including Aaron's meme charts.Aaron’s KickstarterIthaca in the Cards: Second Expedition and What Should We Have Tomorrow? Full CourseAd Links...
2025-02-1146 min
Dice ExploderColoring Book Character Sheet (Two Hand Path) with Jeeyon ShimTranscripts available at diceexploder.comWhat’s the best way to convey the emotional experience of being a post-apocalyptic demon-fighting wizard action hero? Did you say “a coloring book with some Yahtzee on the side?” Because that’s what Two Hand Path designer Mikey Hamm landed on.Last week was an episode all about the joy of destruction and transgression, and I wanted to balance that out today with another episode on physicality in games and the act of creation. But because I’m joined by the wonderful and prolific Jeeyon Shim, this spilled out into so mu...
2025-02-0454 min
Dice ExploderFlauros the Demon (Wreck This Deck) with Audrey StolzeTranscripts available at diceexploder.comDon't you hate it when one card in a deck gets a little bent? You ever have someone spill their coffee on your cards while you're playing and wish death upon them? What if I told you there was a game that told you to do these things and worse... on purpose?We're kicking off season 5 of Dice Exploder with two episodes on physicality in games. Today that's Wreck This Deck, and the transgressive feeling you get when the core mechanic of a game is to fuck up a bunch...
2025-01-2850 min
Dice Exploder2024 Year End BonanzaTranscripts can be found at diceexploder.comIt's the Dice Exploder 2024 year end bonanza! This year I'm joined by Aaron Voigt, Rowan Zeoli, and MintRabbit plus a cavalcade of friends of the show to go over games and adjacent things we loved from 2024. Come reminisce about the year with us!Aaron on Youtube and BlueskyRowan on BlueskyMintRabbit on TumblrAaron’s picksLast Train to Bremen by Caro Asercion Fealty by Michael Elliot and Galen PejeauHelvetia by Bully Pulpit Games/Jason Morningstar Rascal News/Scrying on Iran...
2024-12-101h 35
Dice ExploderThe Challenge Deck (Wickedness) with Audrey Stolze and Seraphina Garcia RamirezTranscripts available at diceexploder.comA few weeks back, a conversation on the Dice Exploder discord lead to a new game jam: the Femininomenon Jam, a jam about femininity and whatever that means to you, happening now on itch.io through February 11th. To help kick off your thinking on what a game in this theme might look like, today two of the hosts of that jam sit down to talk about the challenge deck from Wickedness by M. Veselak. In this game about a coven of three witches, the challenge deck is a bespoke oracle for...
2024-11-2633 min
Dice ExploderAMA with Merrilee BufkinTranscripts available at diceexploder.comI usually like to think of Dice Exploder as a pretty focused show with a pretty tight format. Yeah we may sprawl sometimes, but we’re not here shooting the shit, we’re here to talk game mechanics. But sometimes, a guy wants to stretch out like a dog in the sun, hang out for a while, and just yap the day away while answering a bunch of listener questions. And there’s no one I like yapping with more than my friend Merrilee Bufkin. So this week, it’s casual times on Dice...
2024-11-121h 01
Dice ExploderDeep Cuts with John HarperTranscripts available at diceexploder.comIt’s a Dice Exploder EMERGENCY POD! Less than 24 hours ago as of recording, John Harper, designer of Blades in the Dark, released a brand new official supplement for the game: Blades in the Dark: Deep Cuts. It’s 110 pages packed full of new setting and new mechanic ideas, and I really wanted to talk about it! I love Apocalypse World’s concept of “advanced fuckery,” and I’ve never seen such a good and extended example of it all in one place.Further Reading:Deep Cuts by John Harper
2024-11-0449 min
Dice ExploderDice Forager: a Dice Exploder zineTranscripts available at diceexploder.comHello from the between-season malaise! Today I'm joined by Aaron King, back again, who interviews me about my new zine Dice Forager: a 50 page collection of games, manifestos, and mini written-out episodes of Dice Exploder. We talk about how setting goals is great and people should do it for, what counts as a manifesto, and how making art meant just for your friends can be just as if not more rewarding than for any other reason.Preorder Dice Forager now! (if you live in the US, otherwise DM me and...
2024-10-2235 min
Dice ExploderThe Sooth Deck (Invisible Sun) and Custom Oracles with James D'AmatoTranscriptThis week I’ve got James D’Amato (Campaign: Skyjacks, the Ultimate RPG book line, and the upcoming Oh Captain, My Captain) here to talk about custom oracle decks. Yeah a Tarot deck is cool, and great for doing Tarot, but James makes the case that it’s the “custom” in “custom oracle deck” that will really bring the not-quite-but-feels-like magic of an oracle to your table. But before we get into that, we dig deep into a mysterious black cube to get to our specific custom oracle deck: the Sooth Deck of Invisible Sun...
2024-09-181h 00
Dice ExploderKeys (Keymaster) with Caro AsercionTranscriptToday, Caro Asercion (i'm sorry did you say street magic) brings us a game and mechanic all about instinct and physical embodiment: Keys from the larp Keymaster. This game isn't like most games. It’s so much about physical embodiment and exploring group identity rather than pesky shit like “storytelling”. Physicality! Larp! The Golden Cobra Challenge! We've got it all.Further ReadingKeymaster by J LiThe Golden Cobra Challengei’m sorry did you say street magic by Caro AsercionSocialsCaro on itch...
2024-09-1248 min
Dice ExploderLove Letters (Apocalypse World) with Aaron KingTranscriptThrilled this week to have on one of my favorite movewrights, it’s Aaron King of the RTFM podcast. Aaron brought on Love Letters from Apocalypse World, a kind of custom move the GM can write when it’s been a while since we played and everyone might need a refresher on what was going on to get the ball rolling again. I think custom moves are a wildly overlooked part of Apocalypse World, and today we go deep on why that is and how and when to write your own.Further ReadingAp...
2024-09-041h 00
Party of One Podcast421 - Desperation (Dead House) with Sam DunnewoldSam is the host of Dice Exploder, an ENnie-nominated podcast where game designers break down the specific mechanics of their favorite TTRPGs (as well as an incredible game designer in his own right). We sat down to play Desperation (Dead House), a historical horror RPG, based on real history, about a small community in Kansas facing an oppressive, deadly winter. Who will survive being pushed to their limits?SAM DUNNEWOLD: https://samdunnewold.com/DICE EXPLODER: https://www.diceexploder.com/DESPERATION: https://bullypulpitgames.com/products/desperationSAM DUNNEWOLD ON ITCH: https://sdunnewold...
2024-08-221h 36
Dice ExploderSpeak Your Truth (Desperation) with Jeff StormerTranscriptIt’s the crossover event of the season! This week I’m joined by Jeff Stormer of the Party of One podcast to talk about the core mechanic of Desperation by Jason Morningstar. In this game full of dread about a small Kansas town struggling through a never-ending winter, instead of deciding what happens, each turn you draw a card and decide who the thing on the card happens to. It’s a super slick mechanic. Meanwhile over on Party of One, you can listen to Jeff and I actually play the game.Further Readin...
2024-08-2133 min
Dice ExploderTHAC0 (AD&D 2e) with my dadTranscriptFor this final episode of the Dice Exploder D&D miniseries, I wanted to go back to the source, to my first experiences playing the game. And I figured who better to do that with than someone else who was there, my first DM, my very own father.We get plenty nostalgic for back when I was 8 years old, but I also made him talk to me about THAC0, early D&D's needlessly opaque and complicated version of an attack bonus. I made him do this because I think of THAC0 as so representative...
2024-08-1342 min
Dice ExploderRule Zero (D&D) with Em AcostaTranscriptI have a list of mechanics I’d like to cover on Dice Exploder, and I’d say about a third of them are jokes. One of those jokes is Rule Zero, a maxim that says "the DM (or GM) is always right." I think of Rule Zero as originating in D&D culture, and as part of this D&D miniseries, I thought it'd be interesting to use as a way into talking about the play culture around the game, how it's actually played at the table, and how many of its rules people actually use...
2024-08-0645 min
TABLETOP TALK - Third Floor WarsSam Dunnewold (Dice Exploder) Interview: ep. 243Craig sat down with Sam Dunnewold and learned where the inspiration for Dice Exploder emerged from, Sam's creative process works, and what it was like working with Jason Morningstar on a new game about time, reenactors, and the horrible human that was Jesse James.
Check out Dice Exploder
Back Season 4 of Dice Exploder
Fiasco RPG
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
I Saw the TV Glow
Kamikaze Girls
Constellation
When Evil Lurks
Game...
2024-07-312h 11
Dice ExploderPrestige Classes (D&D 3e/3.5e) with Sam RobertsBack Dice Exploder season 4 on Backerkit now!TranscriptThis episode I'm joined by Sam Roberts (Escape from Dino Island) to talk about prestige classes, special classes from D&D 3e that you could only take by multiclassing into them. Sam thinks of these things as a noble failure: a very cool idea whose execution almost immediately dropped the ball. But what can we learn from their corpse?We get into that, along with a boots-on-the-ground discussion of what our experiences were like actually playing D&D 3rd edition and an exploration of advancement as a conce...
2024-07-3041 min
Dice ExploderThe Adventuring Day (D&D) with Tristan ZimmermanBack Dice Exploder season 4 on Backerkit now!TranscriptWelcome to the D&D miniseries! I wanted to kick this off with a look into the mechanical heart of D&D, but I didn't really know what that meant. So I asked my friend Tristan! Designer of the award winning game Shanty Hunters and author of the Molten Sulfur blog, Tristan now spends his time as a designer on Nations & Cannons, a hack of D&D set in the American Revolutionary War.Tristan brought on a mechanized design principle underpinning D&D, the Adventuring Day...
2024-07-2352 min
Dice ExploderD&D Miniseries Intro (Homage to the Player's Handbook)Back Dice Exploder season 4 on Backerkit now!
Transcript
Today I'm kicking off a miniseries of Dice Exploder episodes all about the Tarrasque in the room: Dungeons & Dragons itself. But before we get into that, I wanted to lay out for context where I'm coming from, what my relationship is like to "the world's greatest roleplaying game™" is like, and what questions I was hoping to answer with this series.
If you listen to this show, you probably come from a community that's skeptical of D&D. I'm not personally a fan. But it's unques...
2024-07-1820 min
The RPG Academy: Show and TellShow And Tell # 148 – Sam Dunnewold
https://therpgacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Show-Tell-Sam-D.mp3
This week’s Show and Tell finds Host Moe Poplar ( @Ashyfeet1 ) sitting down with Sam Dunnewald about his game Northfield and his Ennie nominated podcast Dice Exploder.
Links
https://samdunnewold.com/
http://www.diceexploder.com/
https://sdunnewold.itch.io/
VOTE FOR ACTION 12 CINEMA FOR AN ENNIE
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Playing Roleplaying games can...
2024-07-1640 min
The RPG Academy: Faculty MeetingsShow And Tell # 148 – Sam Dunnewold
https://therpgacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Show-Tell-Sam-D.mp3
This week’s Show and Tell finds Host Moe Poplar ( @Ashyfeet1 ) sitting down with Sam Dunnewald about his game Northfield and his Ennie nominated podcast Dice Exploder.
Links
https://samdunnewold.com/
http://www.diceexploder.com/
https://sdunnewold.itch.io/
VOTE FOR ACTION 12 CINEMA FOR AN ENNIE
E-mail us at TheRpgAcademy/Gmail.
Follow us on twitter @TheRpgAcademy
Follow Michael on TikTok
Visit our Facebook Page
Support our show by becoming a Patron at www.Patreon.Com/TheRpgAcademy
Playing Roleplaying games can...
2024-07-1640 min
Dice ExploderThe Queen Is Under Attack (For The Queen) with Kimi HughesBack Dice Exploder season 4 on Backerkit now!TranscriptAmong my favorite RPGs is Alex Roberts' triumph of minimalistic, elegant design: For The Queen. Today I'm doing just with along with Kimi Hughes of Golden Lasso Games. For The Queen is a card drawing prompt game, and one prompt is always the game's last: "The Queen is under attack. Do you defend her?" That's today's mechanic, but we cover most of this pretty small game at some point.You can back Kimi's new game Starscape on Kickstarter now!Further Reading:...
2024-07-1636 min
Dice ExploderDesigner Commentary: Northfield (with Jason Morningstar)TranscriptIt is still designer commentary season on Dice Exploder, and today I'm talking with Jason Morningstar (Fiasco, Night Witches, a million other games) about Northfield: a game we co-designed about when Jesse James tried to rob the bank in my home town, we shot the hell out of him and his gang, and then we started an annual small town fair to celebrate our victory. You play as both a member of the James-Younger gang and as a person in the present day portraying your gang member in a reenactment.It's a weird little...
2024-06-1351 min
Dice ExploderDesigner Commentary: Space Fam (with Claire and Caveat)TranscriptFor Ken Lowery’s Disc 2 jam, I decided to finally release the game I’ve been working on for nearly four years: Space Fam.This is a game about, you guessed it, found family in space. In particular, it takes a lot of inspiration from The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet in that you’re the crew of a ship escorting a traveler from point A to point B, and along the way you deal with your feelings of guilt and stress about living under an oppressive government.It’s a hack o...
2024-05-1541 min
Dice ExploderGame Exploder Jam RoundupTranscriptThe first ever Dice Exploder game jam came to a close about a month ago, and today I sit down with the three hooligans from the discord who put it together and go through some of our favorite entries. If Dice Exploder is a show about concrete examples, this episode is as Dice Exploder as it gets.All the games we talk about are pretty short, so it should be easy to follow along at home. Check out all the jam submissions here.Thanks to Audrey Stolze (aka Lady Tabletop), Chris Greenbriar...
2024-05-0252 min
Dice ExploderEveryone Adds a Detail (Stewpot) with Lee ConradsTranscriptWhat if your D&D adventuring party settled down and opened a tavern, and the vibes went from dragon murderers to Bob’s Burgers? That's my pitch for Stewpot: Tales from a Fantasy Tavern, one of my favorite RPGs. It's currently on Backerkit, and you should check it out.This week I'm talking about a super simple unnamed mechanic from Stewpot, and presumably other games before it, that's inspired much of my own work: everyone goes around and adds a detail about the scene at hand or whatever we're talking about. Simple but effective....
2024-04-2546 min
Dice ExploderPlaylists (Ribbon Drive) with Takuma OkadaTranscriptIs sharing music with your friends an RPG? It sure is when you're playing Avery Alder's game Ribbon Drive. Takuma Okada, the designer of Stewpot: Tales from a Fantasy Tavern (on Backerkit right now), joins me this week to talk about music, contemplation, and unconventional ways to inspire players.Further Reading:Ribbon DriveSpindlewheelEverything Is Illuminated, the book and filmTen CandlesDreadStar CrossedOur Radios Are DyingVoid 1680 AMSam’s playlist from playing Ribbon DriveThe Awards...
2024-04-1839 min
Dice ExploderFan Mail (Primetime Adventures) with Meguey BakerTranscripts are available at diceexploder.comPeople talk a lot about how and whether RPGs emulate TV and movies, but this week cohost Meguey Baker (Apocalypse World, Under Hollow Hills) brings in a game that takes that sentiment to a compelling meta level. Fan Mail, from Primetime Adventures by Matt Wilson, is the core of the game's key metaphor: that players are simultaneously writers of a TV show, fans watching that show, and the characters portrayed on screen. We talk about the storygame scene in the early 2000s, how Primetime Adventures has influenced Meg's work, and how...
2024-04-0439 min
Dice ExploderPlaybooks and Communication with Moe PoplarTranscriptWhat's the deal with Playbooks? That's a question that's way too big for one episode. But Moe Poplar, of the RPG Academy podcast Show & Tell, had a very particular effect of playbooks that he wanted to talk about on the show today: how playbook choice can be a line of communication between players, GM, and designer.This is one of those episodes that's as much play advice as it is about design. I should do more of those.Further Reading:Monster of the WeekBlades in the Dark
2024-03-2841 min
Dice ExploderExploding Dice with Mikey HammTranscriptThis week, now that the part of season 3 that was funded by Kickstarter is over, I’ve got a treat for you: the backers-only bonus episode with Mikey Hamm, designer of Slugblaster. You didn’t think I was gonna just hold on to an episode this good forever, did you? It’s the show’s namesake mechanic!Mikey is currently Kickstarting Two-Hand Path, a solo game roll-and-write dungeon crawler. Check it out.While I thought this episode would be a big of a goof about a goofy mechanic (and it is), it also bro...
2024-03-2150 min
Dice ExploderInnovation in Game Design with James WallisTranscriptThis week's cohost is James Wallis, cohost of the Ludonarrative Dissidents podcast, a show a lot like this one that's Kickstarting their third season now, and designer of one of the first story games: The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen.Today we're breaking format: instead of talking about one game mechanic, James brought in the concept of innovation in game design. What does it look like, is it important, and how can we do more of it?The show notes for this one are friggin packed.Further Reading:...
2024-03-1437 min
Characters Without StoriesExit, the Outsider - Character Building is Worldbuilding with Sam Dunnewold (Apocalypse World)Sam Dunnewold brings Exit to the table. Exit is a scavenger living on the edges of a dangerous psychic mist and a society that demands they conform.Sam and I discuss building a character within the context of a post apocalyptic world, being brave because you have to be, and transparency in gaming.This character is built for Apocalypse World by D. Vincent and Maguey Baker.http://apocalypse-world.comSam Dunnewold is a Minnesotan game designer, screenwriter, and podcaster living in Hollywood like a chump. His podcast, Dice Exploder, breaks down a...
2024-03-091h 00
Dice ExploderLyrical Ludology: A New Show About Lyric GamesThis week I'm bringing you an episode from the new podcast Lyrical Ludology with host Logan Timmins, a show all about lyric games. I'm very excited for it.
There's already at least one more episode of Lyrical Ludology published, so if you like this one, go subscribe and take a listen!
2024-03-0710 min
Dice ExploderSolo Game Prompts with Seb PinesTranscriptIt’s the solo games episode! Hopefully the first of many. I’m joined by Seb Pines, designer of The Awards winning game Dwelling and haver of MFA in basically solo games, to talk about prompts in solo games.This is a broad survey of solo games. We talk about a bunch of games (listed below) that all behave differently. If you’re curious about this side of the hobby, this is the primer for you.Further Reading:Dwelling by Seb PinesThousand Year Old Vampire by Tim Hutchi...
2024-02-291h 07
Dice ExploderCharacter Sheets with Emanoel MeloTranscriptThis is an intensely visual episode. If you'd like to follow along with the sheets we mention and get some extra commentary from me, you can do so at https://www.diceexploder.com/blog/2024/2/22/dice-exploder-aftershow-character-sheetsI’m fascinated by character sheets, mostly because there are so so so precious few that I think do a good job. I don’t mean this to call anyone out - I think the job of making a good character sheet might genuinely be impossible. They just have so much they have to accomplish.Today I'm talk...
2024-02-2245 min
Dice ExploderPity Points (Kagematsu) with Alex RobertsTranscriptAlex Roberts, designer of Star Crossed and For the Queen, joins me to talk about pity points from Kagematsu, a mechanic that doesn't actually do anything itself beyond evoke a particular feeling when put in opposition to love points.This episode is what I always dreamed Dice Exploder could be. We start from a simple game mechanic, but we get into power dynamics at the table in the past and the future, how people treat you when you’re disabled, cultural appropriation, my personal techniques for flirting, details of a new game Alex is wo...
2024-02-151h 00
Dice ExploderThird Party License (Mork Borg) with Strega Wolf van den BergTranscriptThis week I've got designer and illustrator Strega Wolf van den Berg on to talk about money and the Mork Borg third party license. What, if anything, is the difference between making RPGs for fun, to pay rent, and to be paid fairly? And what is the cost (aha) of bringing money into making art?On the flip side, this is also an episode about community, and how the shape of Mork Borg’s license fostered a community around it that allowed Strega Wolf to find a space in this hobby. Community can give us...
2024-02-0825 min
Dice ExploderRumor Tables (Lorn Song of the Bachelor) with NovaTranscriptThis week I've got Nova, aka Idle Cartulary, of the excellent Playful Void blog among other places linked below. Nova's one of my favorite writers in the, as she puts it, DIY elf game scene, and I knew that was a world I wanted to cover more this season.Nova brought on the rumor table from Zedeck Siew's Lorn Song of the Bachelor, an excellent elf game adventure. We got to talk about what makes a good random table at large, our taste in how adventures are written, and how point of view is...
2024-02-0147 min
Dice ExploderThe Risk Sheet (Psi*Run) with John HarperTranscriptOn the season 3 premiere, I’m joined by John Harper, designer of many games featured on past episodes of Dice Exploder including Blades in the Dark, Lasers & Feelings, and Agon 2e.John brought in the Psi*Run risk sheet, a fairly complex dice resolution mechanic, known generically as Otherkind Dice. The risk sheet is such an elegant piece of design, packing essentially a whole game onto a single sheet of paper, and being so clear in both how it works and how you might tear it apart for your own ends. If you’re a ne...
2024-01-2537 min
Dice ExploderDice Exploder: Season 3 TrailerThursday January 25th Dice Exploder is back with an all new crowdfunded-by-listeners season! The lineup includes John Harper, Alex Roberts, James Wallis, Idle Cartulary, Strega Wolf van den Berg, Emanoel Melo, Seb Pines and MORE - that's right, I'm over-delivering on the Kickstarter as a treat. Check back next week for the season premiere, and visit the blog's new home at diceexploder.com.
Transcript
2024-01-1802 minDice Exploder2023 Year End BonanzaTranscriptHello and welcome to the Dice Exploder 2023 end of year bonanza! I love me a good ranked list of movies on an end of year movie podcast, but ranked lists are bad and this show’s about RPGs not movies, so you get this instead. It’s me, Aaron King of the RTFM podcast, Lady Tabletop of the Alone at the Table podcast, and Sharang Biswas of winning tons of Ennies this year and being a games academic, and the four of us (plus a half dozen other special guests) are here to tell you about a bu...
2023-12-121h 53Dice ExploderDesigner Commentary: i know the end (with Nico MacDougall)TranscriptToday 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...
2023-12-041h 51Dice ExploderAccessibility and Graphic Design (Mork Borg) with Marc MuszynskiTranscriptIt’s a bonus between-seasons Dice Exploder! Wowie!As promised back in my episode with Gem Room Games about Mork Borg, today I’m talking about accessibility in game design using Mork Borg’s graphic design as an example. My cohost is Marc Muszynski, a friend and screenwriter with low vision, and we talk in detail about his experience with Mork Borg. Is this game, with all its important and loud art, accessible to people who can’t see? Like with most accessibility questions, It’s Complicated™!Further reading:Mork BorgA...
2023-11-0949 minDice ExploderCustomizing Games for Your Table with Nychelle SchneiderTranscriptOn this episode I’m joined by Nychelle Schneider, also known as Mistletoe Kiss, a moderator from the Blades in the Dark discord and contributor to The Wildsea, the upcoming Dagger Isles supplement for Blades, and Underground Maps & Passkeys among others.Nychelle brought on the idea of customizing existing games, homebrewing mechanics for your table (or even publication). This is... a big conversation, chock full of cool ideas that I hope people take and run with. There are so many games out there, and I think there’s so much to be gained by maki...
2023-10-1939 minDice ExploderSecondary Missions (Band of Blades) with Thomas ManuelTranscriptThomas Manuel of the Indie RPG Newsletter and the Yes Indie’d podcast joins me to talk about Secondary Missions, a mechanic from Band of Blades by Off Guard Games.In Band of Blades, a grim military fantasy forged in the dark game, you and your party go off and do missions. Meanwhile, there’s a whole other squad out there doing a whole other mission! What’s up with them? This mechanic tells us. It’s such a change in the mouthfeel of Band of Blades compare to other forged in the dark games.
2023-10-1234 minDice ExploderA Five and a Half Foot Long Hand-Printed Scroll (Fall of Magic) with Tasha RobinsonTranscriptThis week I’m joined by Tasha Robinson, film editor at Polygon, Games on Demand aficionado, Golden Cobra honorable mentionee, and author of this excellent piece about today’s game and mechanic: Fall of Magic and the five and a half foot long handprinted scroll at its heart.There’s a lot to say about such a unique physical object, and also a lot to cover about maps in RPGs at large. We get into all of it. Consider this the third part of the travel series this season opened with.Pack your b...
2023-10-051h 05Dice ExploderBlaseball with Chris GreenbriarTranscriptIn the year of our lord two thousand and twenty, many things occurred. But one of those things was the cultural event known as Blaseball.Blaseball was, more or less, a simulated baseball league that ran one game an hour, one season a week, that players could bet on and then use their winnings to vote for global rules changes. It got... weirder from there. And bigger. And memeier. It became nothing less than a lifestyle.And then, this past summer of 2023, it ended.What made it such a phenomenon...
2023-09-2845 min
Dice ExploderExploding Dice with Mikey Hamm (KICKSTARTER PREVIEW)Transcript
DICE EXPLODER IS KICKSTARTING NOW
Ignore the lies of previous weeks, the Kickstarter has come early, and you can back it right the heck now. Here’s the link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sdunnewold/dice-exploder-a-tabletop-rpg-design-podcast
Today on this beautiful Tuesday I have for you a preview of the Kickstarter’s backers-exclusive episode featuring Mikey Hamm (Slugblaster) talking about exploding dice. Of course, what else could it be?
And while I thought this episode would be a bit of a goof about a goofy mechanic (and it is), it also brou...
2023-09-2607 minDice ExploderTransparency with Jason MorningstarTranscriptThis week Sam is joined by Jason Morningstar of Bully Pulpit Games, known for Fiasco, Night Witches, and many other excellent games.Jason brought on transparency, a concept originating in the Nordic larp community, which describes the separation of player knowledge from character knowledge (similar to dramatic irony. We go through a whole library of example games in this one as we talk through genre, safety tools, playing to lose, and the deployment of secrets. Jason’s enthusiasm for this topic is infectious - there’s so much to think about here! If you’re lis...
2023-09-2142 minDice ExploderGraphic Design // The Calendar of Nechrubel (Mork Borg) with Gem Room GamesTranscriptDouble the cohosts, double the mechanics, double the Kickstarters to back! This week, Sam talks with Kali Lawrie and Dan Phipps of Gem Room Games about Mork Borg by Pelle Nilsson and Johan Nohr: its graphic design and the Calendar of Nechrubel.Mork Borg is famous for the absolute assault on the eyes [complimentary] committed by its graphic design. In this season of the podcast about how mechanics can be more than just rules, I really wanted to cover it. And who better to do that with me than Gem Room Games, authors of...
2023-09-141h 00Dice ExploderStress (Brinkwood) with Tan Shao HanTranscriptThis week, Sam talks with Tan Shao Han about stress from Brinkwood by Erik Bernhardt, a character resource originally from Blades in the Dark by John Harper.This is one of those episodes where to talk about the mechanic in question, we kind of have to talk about the whole-ass game around it because so much of Brinkwood is tied up in stress. And in this case, we really had to talk about two whole-ass games, because so much of what makes Brinkwood stress interesting is how a few small tweaks from Blades in...
2023-09-0734 minDice Exploder[redacted word] (We Are But Worms: A One Word RPG) with David BlockTranscriptThis week, Sam talks with his middle school buddy David Block about We Are But Worms: A One Word RPG, other lyric games, and experimental art at large.Some topics discussed include:* Art* Games* Poetry* ListsThe best place to find David is on the Dice Exploder Discord.But No More: A One Letter Supplement for We Are But Worms: A One Word RPGYou can find Sam on Bluesky, Twitter, dice.camp, and itch @sdunnewold.Our logo...
2023-08-311h 05Dice ExploderFate Points and Aspects (Fate) with wendi yuTranscriptThis week, Sam talks with wendi yu about the Fate Point economy, a meta currency system from Fate by Fred Hicks and Rob Donoghue and published by Evil Hat. Some topics discussed include:* Getting into storygames* “Generic” RPGs* When crunch kills the vibe* The Hero’s Journey* The (lack of) difference between rules and flavor* Writing good aspects: it’s hard!* wendi’s game here, there, be monsters!You can find wendi on Twitter @wen_di_yu, and you can buy here...
2023-08-2447 minDice ExploderCramped Quarters (Uncharted Worlds) with Morgan NuncioTranscriptThis week, Sam talks with Morgan Nuncio about cramped quarters, a move from Uncharted Worlds. Some topics discussed include:* Travel in story games* Making this move at the beginning, middle, or end of a scene* Moves as training wheels* Stonetop’s “keep company”* Wanderhome* For the QueenYou can find Mo on Twitter @SirenaBesos.You can find Sam on Bluesky, Twitter, dice.camp, and itch @sdunnewold.Our logo was designed by sporgory, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge...
2023-08-1827 minDice ExploderThe Hex with Clayton NotestineTranscriptThis week, Sam talks with Clayton Notestine about hexagons and hex maps. Some topics discussed include:* The birth of RPGs out of wargaming* Avalon Hill’s hex map* The vibes of different numbers* Why hexes and not squares?* The hex’s modularity* How RPGs create stories in the fiction and at the table* Leaving hexes empty* Travel in RPGs* Hex flowersClayton can be found @ClayNotestine on Twitter, @ExplorersDesign on Bluesky and dice.camp, at explorers.itch...
2023-08-1748 min
Dice ExploderDice Exploder: Season 2 TrailerComing August 17th, 2023: DICE EXPLODER SEASON 2.(Here’s a transcript of this trailer.)That’s right, we are back next week with an all new season. It's 12 new episodes, 13 new co-hosts diving face first with me into the world of tabletop RPG design one mechanic at a time.This is gonna be a season that's a lot about flavor and vibes and how those things themselves are fundamentally mechanics in these games. We've also got a trio of episodes about different ways to depict travel, and of course a few deep dives into crun...
2023-08-1002 minDice ExploderPick Lists with Ash KreiderTranscriptThis week, Sam talks with Ash Kreider about character creation picklists, a common feature of most (all?) PBTA games, as well as many others. Some topics discussed include:* Character creation speed runs* Gender lists* Are pick lists mechanics?* How Wanderhome doubles the length of its pick lists with This One Cool Trick* Are pick lists poetry?Games mentioned* Apocalypse World* The Watch* Blades in the Dark* Dream Askew // Dream Apart* Maid RPG...
2023-07-1330 minDice ExploderWhispers (The Wildsea) with Ryan KhanTranscriptThis week, Sam talks with Ryan Khan about Whispers, a player resource from The Wildsea by Felix Isaacs, but really about a whole bunch of mechanics from The Wildsea. Some topics discussed include:* Setting as game design, and open ended lore* Open ended prompts* Twists vs Devil’s Bargains* Player agency* Long skill lists: pros and consGames mentioned:* The Wildsea* Apocalypse World* Blades in the Dark* Heart: The City Beneath* SpireYo...
2023-07-0632 minDice ExploderDivine Favor (Agon 2e) with Greg SoperTranscriptThis week, Sam talks with Greg Soper AKA sporgory about Divine Favor, one part of the dice pool mechanic from Agon second edition by Sean Nittner and John Harper. Some topics discussed include:- Having a family drama stapled to your character sheet- Greek Gods: bad parents- What makes hacking Divine Favor hard- Endeavor- Odyssey Aquatica- All Quiet No Peace- Starbones- The setting elements mechanic from Dream Askew // Dream Apart- ~...
2023-06-2938 minDice ExploderChange The World (The Watch) with Ema AcostaTranscriptThis week on the Dice Exploder podcast, Sam talks with Ema Acosta about Change The World, a move from The Watch by Ash Kreider.Some topics discussed include:* The Watch: it’s depressing!* The Watch and its gender dynamics* A lot of people will never see this bit of design and that’s okay* Balancing misery with hope and beauty* “Just tell the players to do the thing”* Inducing emotions from technical language* “Rail shooter RPGs”* CryingGames ment...
2023-06-2245 minDice ExploderTheorize (Brindlewood Bay via Oli Jeffrey) with Victor LaneTranscriptThis week, Sam talks with Victor Lane about the Theorize move, originally from an idea by Oli Jeffrey and popularized in Brindlewood Bay by Jason Cordova. Some topics discussed include:* The history of solving mysteries in RPGs* The Three Clue Rule* Jason Cordova’s blogpost discussing Oli Jeffrey’s original Theorize move* Writing mystery stories VS reading or watching mystery stories VS playing a mystery RPG* Bullshit* Quantum villains* Victor’s advice on running Brindlewood Bay (he’s got great tips)* Stru...
2023-06-1550 minDice ExploderDevil's Bargains (Blades in the Dark) with Pam PunzalanTranscriptThis week, Sam talks with Pam Punzalan about Devil’s Bargains, one part of the dice pool mechanic from John Harper's game Blades in the Dark. Some topics discussed include:* Rulebooks as guidelines and play philosophy more than proper rules* DBs as a safety tool* Generic DBs* Do DBs slow down the game? Is that good or bad?* Retconning in RPGs (it's good)* Putting DBs into any old game* Our favorite DBsGames mentioned:* Blades in the Dark...
2023-06-0836 minDice ExploderComposure (Antiquarian Adventures) with Michael ElliottTranscriptThis week, Sam talks with Michael Elliott about Composure, a player resource mechanic from Ash McAllen’s game Antiquarian Adventures.Michael is currently Kickstarting his game Nasty Brutish and Long, a simple RPG about lives complicated by revolution.Some topics discussed today:* Failure and conflict, why they're great, and mechanics that encourage players to embrace them* Genre and mechanics that support it* Simplifying mechanics when hacking, with Blades in the Dark as an example* Passing the spotlight at the tableGames mentioned:...
2023-06-0134 minDice ExploderRolling The Dice (Lasers & Feelings) with Ray ChouTranscriptThis week’s cohost is Ray Chou, who brings Rolling The Dice from John Harper’s iconic one page RPG Lasers & Feelings.Topics discussed include:* Minimalism* Underlining genre through mechanics* Episodic vs serialized stories* When you should roll dice* Randomness and fate in real life* Beer & pretzels gamingGames mentioned:* Lasers and Feelings* Cows and Boys* Honey Heist* 316 Carnage Amongst the Stars* Heart: The City Beneath* CouriersSa...
2023-05-2539 min
Dice ExploderDice Exploder: Season 1 TrailerComing June 2023: DICE EXPLODER, a new podcast where each week we break down a tabletop RPG mechanic as deep as we possibly can, with Sam Dunnewold and a rotating co-host.Produced by the Fiction First Network. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit diceexploder.substack.com
2023-04-2701 min