Dice Exploder

Transcripts 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 unsatisfied. I think there’s at least as much to learn from looking at what doesn’t work in games as what does, especially in games and other art that feels so close to exactly for you…Further ReadingHeart: the City Beneath by Rowan, Rook and DecardSpire: the City Must Fall by Rowan, Rook and DecardSocialsAaron on Bluesky, itch, YouTube, and PatreonSam on Bluesky and itchThe Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.comOur logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!Support Dice Exploder on Patreon!

Transcripts 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 essays on YouTube. We get into Heart’s spectacular setting, the act of handing story agency over to players, and the joys of playing to lose. Then come back next week for part two with more Heart and more Aaron!AdsRust Never Sleeps, a solo blackjack mecha rpgFurther ReadingHeart: the City Beneath by Rowan, Rook and DecardSpire: the City Must Fall by Rowan, Rook and DecardSanfielle by Friends At The TableAgon 2e by Sean Nittner and John HarperSocialsAaron on Bluesky, itch, YouTube, and PatreonSam on Bluesky and itchThe Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.comOur logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!Support Dice Exploder on Patreon!

Transcripts 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 Bluesky and itchThe Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.comOur logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!Dice Exploder on Patreon

Transcripts 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 better cohost for that than Sharang Biswas.Ads⁠⁠⁠Extra Ordinary on Kickstarter now!⁠⁠⁠Preorder Sharang’s book The Iron Below RemembersFurther ReadingHouse of Craving by Tor Kjetil Edland, Danny Wilson & Bjarke PedersenLumberjills by Moyra TurkingtonI Say A Little Prayer by Tor Kjetil EdlandJust a Little Lovin’ by Tor Kjetil Edland and Hanne GrasmoUncertainty in Games by Greg CostikyanRules of Play by Katie Salen & Eric Zimmerman The Self Reflexive Tabletop Role Playing Game by Evan Torner The World is Born from Zero by Cameron KunzelmanSocialsSharang on Bluesky and itchSam on Bluesky and itchThe Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.comOur logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!Dice Exploder on Patreon

Transcripts 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 in the game gets a turn to say what they want the next scene to be.To do that, I’m joined by Mo Turkington, designer of many great structured freeform larps including the well-lauded Rosenstrasse and her latest release Lumberjills. We get into the history of spotlight scenes, the pros and cons of including rules for framing and ending scenes in your game, and how even a mechanic like this one that feels so structural and procedural, when used int he right context, can have a beautiful, thematically resonant message in it about agency and self-actualization.Ad LinksSong of the Scryptwyrm by Almost Bedtime TheaterFurther ReadingLumberjills by Moyra TurkingtonI Say A Little Prayer by Tor Kjetil EdlandJust a Little Lovin’ by Tor Kjetil Edland and Hanne GrasmoRosenstrasse by Moyra Turkington and Jessica HammerMontsegur 1244 by Frederik J. JensenRed Carnations on a Black Grave by Catherine Ramen and Juan OchoaSocialsMoyra’s games on itchSam on Bluesky and itchThe Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.comOur logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!Dice Exploder on Patreon

Transcripts 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!⁠⁠SocialsElin on BlueskySam on Bluesky and itchThe Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.comOur logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!Dice Exploder on Patreon

Transcripts 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, and what can we learn from them?Ad LinksExtra Ordinary launches on Kickstarter March 10th!Further ReadingThe Art of Gathering by Priya ParkerBleed on the Nordic Larp wikiPlaying to Lift, Not Just to Lose by Susanne VejdemoThe Battle of Primrose Park: Playing for Emancipatory Bleed in Fortune & Felicity by Jonaya KemperSpace Train Space Heist by Sam DunnewoldVeins of Corruption, Marc's itchfunding mega-zungeonSocialsMarc on Bluesky and itch and actual plays on youtubeSam on Bluesky and itchThe Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.comOur logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the showSupport ⁠Dice Exploder on Patreon⁠!

Transcripts 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

Transcripts 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 get into the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful of embodied play.Further ReadingPlaying to Lift, Not Just to Lose by Susanne VejdemoBluebeard’s BrideNew World MagischolaChasing Bleed – An American Fantasy Larper at Wizard School by Tara M. ClapperGolden Cobra ChallengeFind Larp Shack on Facebook!Two Hand Path and the Dice Exploder episode about itAd LinksWe Three Shall Meet Again by Sam DunnewoldSocialsKate on Bluesky.Kate’s actual play Path of Glory on twitch.Sam on Bluesky and itch.The Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.comOur logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!

Transcripts 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 start than with a mechanic that makes getting into larp easier than ever: just pick up a card and read what it says.Further ReadingGhost Court by Jason MorningstarWe Are Roommates Now by Wendy GormanSpace Larps by Jason MorningstarWelcome Guests by Jason MorningstarThe Climb by Jason MorningstarSo Mom I Made This Sex Tape by Susanne VejdemoBehind the Magic by Randy LubinThe Hench Union Larp by Sam DunnewoldSocialsRandy onBlueskyRandy’s foresight games are at leveragedplay.comRandy’s consumer games are at diegeticgames.comRandy’s online games platformStorySynthSam onBluesky anditchThe Dice Exploder blog is atdiceexploder.comOur logo was designed bysporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song isSunset Bridge by Purely Grey.Join theDice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!