Dice Exploder

Transcripts 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 get into it.Further ReadingThe Sleepover by Kat Jones & Julia B. EllingboeThis interview by Lizzie Stark with Emma Wieslander, who created Ars Amandi for the 2001 larp Between Heaven and SeaA Place to Fuck Each Other by Avery AlderKirigami Dominatrix Display Simulator by Aura BellePraise the Hawkmoth King by sage the anagogueVice & Violence by ScalliORKFUCK by SympatheticSapphicSapphicworld by Darling Demon GamesSocialsAlex on Bluesky and carrdSharang 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.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 of the Fisherman’s Wife by Julia Bond EllingboeThe Beast by Aleksandra SontowskaJust a Little Lovin’ by Tor Kjetil Edland and Hanne GrasmoBetween Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial DesireLet These Mermaids Touch Your Dick Maybe by Riverhouse GamesSocialsAlex on Bluesky and carrdSharang 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.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 kinds of places, but in particular the seductive choice to quantify sex and romance, but put a number to all these ephemeral and scary ideas about sex and romance, presumably so we might better understand them or be able to avoid dealing with how potentially embarrassing and messy they can be.Further ReadingThe Book of Erotic Fantasy by Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel and Duncan ScottLove and Sex in the 9th World by by Shanna GermainStrixhaven: A Curriculum of ChaosAlex Roberts on Dice Exploder discussing KagematsuFog of Love by Jacob JaskovBluebeard’s Bride by Whitney “Strix” Beltran, Marissa Kelly, & Sarah DoomSocialsAlex on Bluesky and carrdSharang 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.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 moves that trigger when two characters have sex. Let’s get into it!Further ReadingApocalypse World by Meguey & Vincent BakerMonsterhearts 2 by Avery AlderMy Girl’s Sparrow by Troels Ken PedersenHow Do Aliens Do “It”? by Kieron GillenPop! by Alex Roberts, found in Honey and Hot Wax, edited by Sharang Biswas and L. KahnSocialsAlex on Bluesky and carrdSharang 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.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 Try Guys specifically make shows, and how this show came about - but we get granular to, all the way down to how I made choices in the edit about whether to leave in or cut individual jokes.Further ReadingThe Try Guys streaming service, where you can find The Die Guys season 2The Die Guys episode 1 on YouTubeSocialsSam 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!

Dice 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 my hometown, I smoked that half a cigar. But you would feel their weight all the same...Written, edited, and performed by Sam DunnewoldTranscript available at www.diceexploder.comCity of Winter at Heart of the DeernicornMusic by Blue Dot Sessions: https://app.sessions.blue/My games: sdunnewold.itch.ioFollow me on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/diceexploder.com

Dice 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.blue/My games: sdunnewold.itch.ioFollow me on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/diceexploder.com

Hello 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 today on the Dice Exploder main feed I wanted to bring you a taste of the show featuring a part of Apocalypse World I find people are often intimidated by: the sex moves. What does the conversation look like around a sex scene in Apocalypse World, both mechanically and just as people? For one answer, come take a listen.Party by the Apocalypse is:Sam Dunnewold of Dice Exploder, a podcast about rpg designAaron King of RTFM, an rpg book club podcastKeganEXE of PlusOneEXP, a publisher of rpgsEssay of Three of Hearts, an actual play podcastTheme music: Phantasm by Purely Grey

Today 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.

Transcripts 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 number of metaphors you might find meaning in with Clarity. It’s not clear to me that that makes it much better than sanity. And yet, today's cohost MintRabbit loves this game and this mechanic dearly, sees so much of herself in it. And seeing yourself in a flawed game, still finding beauty in it, that's what makes today's episode interesting.Ad LinksSpectacula by Jeremy MelloulKiss Me If You Can by me, Sam DunnewoldFurther ReadingChangeling the Lost 1e by White Wolf GamesChangelings, Trauma & Gaming by Mint RabbitA second post from Mint about ChangelingDice Exploder on safety toolsSocialsMint on Tumblr, Bluesky, itch, dice.camp, and ko-fiSam 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!