Episode 13 - Tales from the Wood

This month Matt and Travis invite 3 special guests (and one tag along) to the show. Travis has struggled trying to work with the Red Market's RPG system. Tonight, with the help of our guests, we hope to rectify that. Along the way we will talk the different focuses GM's have when designing games, our advice for learning how to write scenarios, and personal tricks for running games.

Special thanks to Technical Difficulties' Greg, Laura, and Adam as well as Roleplaying Exchange's Sean for all their assistance with the creation of this episode.

Media Referenced:

• Red Markets
• Red Markets 10,000 Lakes - Blessed Beer
• The Hurt Locker
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
• Roadside Picnic - Free PDF
• Stalker

Guest Information

• Matt - Twitter - Twitch
• Travis - Twitter - Twitch
• Greg - Twitter - Twitch
• Laura - Twitter - Blog

David Cage's Detroit: Become Human has become something of a bad joke among those who have experienced it due to its nonsensical twists and poor handling of the idea of the Civil Rights Movement.  Since the internet at large has spent more than their fair share of time beating it down, we felt like comparing it to another cop story that deals with the subject of racial inequality by also discussing the first season of David Simon's 2002-2008 HBO Drama The Wire. 

We also talk in detail about the concept of Sensitivity Editors and other ideas to bring more grounding to your work and iron out problems you may not think you had.

Media Discussed:

• Mother's Basement - Detroit: Become Human
• Super Best Friends Play Detroit: Become Human
• David Cage on Domestic Violence
• Show Me a Hero
• Craig Froehle - The Evolution of the Fence Comic
• City Beautiful - Why did we build high-rise housing projects?

Twitter

• The Drunk and Ugly
• Travis
• Matt

Travis and Matt are currently dealing with personal issues.  We will return in July.

Paranoia Agent is an animated program from Satoshi Kon, director of animated films such as Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, and Paprika.  Paranoia Agent was described as a way for him to use ideas that he wasn't able to fit into his other feature films, connecting the scraps into an anthology by way of a framing device. 

In this episode we discuss the themes of Paranoia Agent and the meanings of anthologies, series, and serials.

Media Referenced in this Episode

• Paranoia Agent
• Paprika
• Tokyo Godfathers
• The Final Revelation
• Road Trip
• PUBG is a Successful Failure
• Extra Credits - The Need for B Games
• Jim Sterling - Middle Shelf Games
• Mark Brown - Do We Need a "Soulslike" Genre?

As of now, as of right this second, there's a new dynamic at play.  And this dynamic is the final from here on out until I state otherwise.  There'll be no more debate, no more discussion, no more compromise. It's me speaking you listening, me saying you doing. Do you understand that? 

It's time for a new course of action. A new direction. A game change.

You're joining me in the navy.

Speedrunning is a rather esoteric hobby of trying to beat games as quickly as possible under specific conditions.  It's difficult to say where it began or what the first speedrun was, but on this day in the year of our lord two thousand eighteen it's grown into a large community that contains many smaller subcultures.

To the outside observer, speedrunning may seem like a fruitless or impossible task to pick up, as observation of the fastest run shows that runners immediately understand the whole game and execute it to the finest degree in ways not conceived by the developers.  What is actually being observed in each speedrun, however, is the end product of dozens of hands in perfecting a route and hours of practice before finally reciting the sequence in a run.

No man is an island, and there's no wrong way to play.  In this episode, we talk about this concept as it relates to tabletop gaming with our friend Greg Bennett of Technical Difficulties.

Media Referenced in This Episode:

• Crypt of the Necrodancer Online Racing
• ALTTP Keysanity Randomizer 
• Authorblues on "The Death of Speedrunning"
• Zallard1 Playing Punch Out and Super Punch Out
• Hootey's #3 Super Punch Out Run (Formerly 2nd Place)
• Vinny Playing Randomizer
• Legend of Zelda Game End Glitch

Follow Us:

• Matt - Twitter - Twitch
• Travis - Twitter
• Greg - Twitter - Twitch

What's the difference between a gimmick and a core mechanic?

In this episode, we discuss various games with strange ideas and odd control schemes in an effort to get to the bottom of this discussion, and also how this can be applied to your own games, be they tabletop or otherwise.

Strap yourself in and be ready for some spoilers.

Media Referenced in this Episode:

• Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
• The Last Guardian
• Lifeline
• The Chechen Candidate
• Game Maker's Toolkit: Dual Purpose Design
• Zen Pencils: The Two Wolves
• Fragile Dream: Farewell Ruins of the Moon

Do you have some writing ideas for Posthuman Studios?  Check out their current writing contest!

The Cry of Mann was an interactive webseries that ran from October 23rd until November 2nd of 2017, performed by the members of the sketch comedy group Wham City. 

The series followed the trials and tribulations of the Mann family who have been waiting for their patriarch, Tank Mann, to return home, hopefully in time for the annual celebration of TROOL Day.  Each family member has their own individual struggles and the family business seems to be unraveling without Tank at the helm. 

The main crux of this series was that the whole set was lined with telephones and viewers were prompted repeatedly throughout each episode to call in and talk to the characters.  This was first thought to be a novelty or a way to scrape more lore from the world but as the series continued it became apparent that interaction with the characters would alter the course of the story.

This particular style of fiction is so novel and unprecedented that we were not entirely sure how to define or describe it.  It seemed like something of a black box stageplay and an ARG all in one.  To help, we called in our friend the Review Cultist of Al Dente Rigamortis to help sort it out.

Media Referenced this Episode:

• The Cry of Mann (adultswim)
• The Cry of Mann: Communication Breakdown (Night Mind)
• Waiting for Godot
• YTV Dark Night (4 and 5 are recommended)

This month we readdress last years topic on cultural storytelling. This time we are looking at American Culture as can be seen through the lens of American Horror cinema. This does a bit to get into, so give it a listen. We talk about ghosts, film, horror franchises, Travis gets burpy, and the hidden political subtext of Saw. It gets weird. Check it out.

Media Referenced in this Episode:

• Extra Credits - Horror that Lingers
• Extra Credits - The Beast Macabre
• Wise Craft - Philosophy of Saw 
• Company Man - Ouija
• Ghostland 
• Chucky (Series)
• Saw (Series)