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Episodes
The best panels and seminars about analog game design & publishing.
Episodes
Saturday Apr 29, 2017
Saturday Apr 29, 2017
Being a Great Player
Recorded at Breakout Con 2017
Presented by Emily Griggs, Jason Pitre, Moyra Turkington and Chris Chung, moderated by Corey Reid.
A great GM can only craft an amazing tabletop RPG experience with the help of great players. A discussion of how to be one of those players, improving the at-table experience for both yourself and everyone else. Includes discussions on roleplaying technique, communal storytelling, and how experienced players can help welcome new players into the hobby.
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Saturday Apr 01, 2017
Saturday Apr 01, 2017
Playing and Designing at the Intersections: Creating Good Allyship
Recorded at Metatopia 2015
Presented by Kat Jones, Krista White, Elsa S. Henry & K.N. Granger.
This roundtable will focus on how to design and run games from an intersectional feminist standpoint. We will discuss different ways a game can be intersectional including: mechanics, characters, artwork, and more. Drawing on concrete examples from panelists about their own design process, as well as games that have influenced them, we will offer suggestions for designing intersectional games. We will also give some examples of how to make pre-existing games and systems more intersectional. Topics included in the discussion will be: how to fail forward, how to be a good ally, and how to respectfully write about marginalized groups when coming from a position of privilege
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Sunday Jan 22, 2017
Sunday Jan 22, 2017
Making your First Game
Recorded at Metatopia 2015
Presented by Mark Richardson, John Adamus & Jason Walters.
So, you’ve decided to make your first game. How exciting! Discuss what pitfalls to avoid and what strategies can speed you toward success with designers also making their first game.
Note that Mark’s first game is Headspace, currently available at Indie Press Revolution!
John’s first game, Noir World, is coming to kickstarter soon!
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Sunday Jan 08, 2017
Sunday Jan 08, 2017
Cyber Infiltration Hotsheet: Prepping to GM a Cyberheist
Recorded at Metatopia 2015
Presented by Shane Harsch, Tim Rodriguez & Mark Richardson.
What a cyberpunk GM should consider when prepping a cyberheist to keep the drama at least nominally grounded in reality (watch Mr. Robot before attending)
This is a follow up to Episode 50, the panel on Hacking in RPGs.
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Thursday Dec 08, 2016
Thursday Dec 08, 2016
Superhero Games Across the Multiverse
Recorded at Metatopia 2015
Presented by Dave Chalker, Cam Banks, Darren Watts & Christopher Badell
Superheroes are more popular than ever in the movies and on TV, and there are more games about superheroes than there’s ever been. What makes a superhero game a superhero game? How do you make your superhero game distinct? What are the most important aspects of a superhero game to make it feel heroic?
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Thursday Sep 01, 2016
Thursday Sep 01, 2016
Heartwrenchers: Emotional RPGs
Recorded at Gencon 2016
Presented by Jason Pitre, Shoshanna Kessock and Emily Care Boss
The very best roleplaying games will tug on the heart strings during play. Whether the games make you feel love, grief or rage, they make for a memorable play experience. We will discuss these emotion-rich games, and what makes them tick like a broken heart.
Apologies for poor sound quality on this recording.
Before you go, we would like to ask you to fill in the RPG Design Panelcast Listener Survey! This will help us learn more about what you like, and solicit suggestions for future panels.
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Saturday Aug 20, 2016
Saturday Aug 20, 2016
Introduction to RPG Publishing
Recorded at Gencon 2016
Presented by Jason Pitre, Shoshanna Kessock and Caleb Stokes
Want to publish a roleplaying game? This panel, sponsored by the Indie Game Developer Network, is here to get started, avoiding the hidden pitfalls. Learn about Kickstarter, budgeting, distribution, printing, and the other black arts of publishing.
Before you go, we would like to ask you to fill in the RPG Design Panelcast Listener Survey! This will help us learn more about what you like, and solicit suggestions for future panels.
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Monday Aug 15, 2016
Monday Aug 15, 2016
Introduction to RPG Design
Recorded at Gencon 2016
Presented by Jason Pitre, Dustin Depenning, Emily Care Boss, Shoshanna Kessock
You can design games, and we want to help. This panel, sponsored by the Indie Game Developer Network, is here to get you started by sharing resources and best practices. Want to find out the basic of game design? We are here to help show you the way.
Before you go, we would like to ask you to fill in the RPG Design Panelcast Listener Survey! This will help us learn more about what you like, and solicit suggestions for future panels.
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Thursday Aug 11, 2016
Thursday Aug 11, 2016
Fictional Cartography
Recorded at Metatopia 2015
Presented by Mark Richardson & Kenneth Hite
Presented by Mark Richardson & Kenneth Hite. A discussion of map making for use in games. From tools to methodology and creative process. Learn what goes in to bringing life to the maps at the center of our gaming tables!
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Sunday Jul 24, 2016
Sunday Jul 24, 2016
Gaming the Future: Putting the Science Fiction in SF RPGs
Recorded at Metatopia 2015
Presented by Joshua A.C. Newman, Dev Purkayastha, Laura Simpson & Rachel Walton.
Science Fiction, as a genre, has always been about social change and the pressures that change exerts on those caught in that change. That vertiginous change in perspective is designed to give us insight into the human condition as we experience it now. Our panel will talk about the techniques we use to focus RPG play on the interplay of ideas that makes Science Fiction such a compelling genre.
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Saturday Jul 09, 2016
Saturday Jul 09, 2016
GMing Outside Your Comfort Zone
Recorded at Metatopia 2015
Presented by Cheyenne Wall-Grimes, Sarah Richardson and Elsa S. Henry
We all have games that we love to play and GM, but what happens when you break out of your normal type of game and venture into unknown territory? How do you deal with a new group of players who are into something very different than what you normally run? Whether it’s in a campaign setting or running con games, we’ll go over some of the things to expect, avoid and how to bounce back.
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Saturday May 28, 2016
Saturday May 28, 2016
Cinematic Plays
Recorded at Metatopia 2015
Presented by Will Hindmarch
What are cinematic game mechanics? What makes a game cinematic and what do we call it when a game is not cinematic? In this presentation, writer/designer Will Hindmarch examines the languages of film and what we can borrow from cinema when we make our games, our adventures, and our plays at the table.
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Saturday Apr 30, 2016
Saturday Apr 30, 2016
Agile Design and Publishing
Recorded at Metatopia 2015
Presented by Rob Donoghue and Emily Dresner
Join our panelists for a discussion of how nerdy business concepts such as Agile software development to can be applied to your gaming experience. Key concepts of agile software design include rapid and flexible response to change – let’s talk about how to apply them to running games.
More about Agile from Rob over on his site, at this blog post!
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Saturday Feb 06, 2016
Saturday Feb 06, 2016
Genius Loci: Your Setting is the Character
Recorded at Metatopia 2014
Presented by Will Hindmarch
Places, rather than protagonists, are often what RPG campaigns have in common because the characters are bespoke but the setting is shared. How does your game’s space inform its setting – and vice versa? How does setting pose and reflect theme? Settings can be characters in their own right, tuned and portrayed through your design to dramatize the themes and issues at the heart of your game. In this seminar, I’ll share some of what I set out to do and some of what I’ve learned designing Project: Dark and its play spaces.
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Saturday Dec 05, 2015
Saturday Dec 05, 2015
Lovecraft WTF
Recorded at Metatopia 2014
Presented by Julia Ellingboe, Kenneth Hite, Darren Watts & Bill White.
H. P. Lovecraft is one of the grandfathers of weird fiction and horror. His racist and anti-Semitic beliefs are no secret. They are the foundation of his fictional worlds. They are interwoven throughout his work and for many readers, impossible to separate from the genius of his writing. Can a Lovecraft-inspired game make his work more accessible? It’s okay to like problematic things. This panel will be neither an attack nor a defense of Lovecraft’s work. In a broad sense, it will be a conversation about how designers might interpret or use source material with themes or images that are problematic.
Apologies for sound quality issues.
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Saturday Aug 29, 2015
Saturday Aug 29, 2015
Learn RPG Design Redux
Recorded at Gencon 2015
Presented by Jason Pitre, Caleb Stokes and Andreas Walters
This panel, sponsored by the Indie Game Developer Network is a fresh new exploration of how to start roleplaying game design by focussing on mission statements, the important questions of game design, and other gems. Also an absurd number of references to games including, but not limited to: Inspectres, Headspace, Dog Eat Dog, Paranoia, Fiasco and Apocalypse World.
There is a reference to cards with links to a ton of resources? All of that treasure-trove is available over here.
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Saturday Aug 15, 2015
Saturday Aug 15, 2015
Women in Game Design: Building Networks and Forming Mentorships
Recorded at Metatopia 2014
Presented by Emily Care-Boss, Julia Ellingboe, Shoshana Kessock, Amanda Valentine & Avonelle Wing.
The “gaming industry” has been a brutal place to be a woman this year. Join our esteemed panelists for a conversation about the need for strong support networks and finding mentors in a turbulent and sometimes hostile industry.
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Saturday Aug 08, 2015
Saturday Aug 08, 2015
Dramatic Editing : Creating the Editing Bay
Recorded at Metatopia 2014
Presented by Will Hindmarch
How does your design facilitate dramatic editing at the game table? Do you have strict mechanisms that put editing into the hands of the players or their characters through overt metaphors or in-setting magic? Or do you provide procedures and guidelines for collaborating and revising action during play? Dramatic editing at the table allows for players to propose and explore actions without them necessarily making it “on stage” or committing it to “film” and that can be a messy freedom or a beautiful drudge. Let’s look at ways to facilitate what you want to happen at the table.
Note that the sound quality is lousy in the first minute of audio, but it gets much better after that point.
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Saturday Aug 01, 2015
Saturday Aug 01, 2015
Gaming With, and Designing For, Young Players
Recorded at Metatopia 2014
Presented by Cam Banks, Lisa Bowman-Steenson, Clark Valentine, Amanda Valentine & Brennan Taylor.
Young players can present unique challenges to game designers and adults at the table. Attention spans, play styles, system mastery, and age appropriate subject matter can vary a great deal. Be part of a discussion about making and running games that work for young players.
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Saturday Jul 25, 2015
Saturday Jul 25, 2015
Bisociation, Mashups, the Uncanny, and the Weird
Recorded at Metatopia 2014
Presented by Kenneth Hite.
“Bisociation, Mashups, the Uncanny, and the Weird: Toward an Aesthetic of Setting Bricolage” presented by Kenneth Hite. A dictionary may have been involved.
In an age where “everything is mashup”, what makes a game setting more than the sum of its parts? Both the modern “uncanny” and the postmodern “slipstream” depend on subverting or deranging expectations, but how can you get good play without something to play off of? Do Koestler’s “bisociation” or Lovecraft’s “truly weird” help us out or derail us? Designer Kenneth Hite (NIGHT’S BLACK AGENTS, DAY AFTER RAGNAROK) isn’t sure yet, which is why he asks you to join him and think out loud on these topics.
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Saturday Jul 11, 2015
Saturday Jul 11, 2015
Coming Up in the Indies: From Newcomer to Company Owner
Recorded at Metatopia 2014
Presented by Fred Hicks, Shoshana Kessock and Tim Rodriguez.
This panel will be a discussion between newer and more established company owners with success stories in the indie RPG world. They are ready to share their insight and tips about becoming part of the publishing world.
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Friday Jun 12, 2015
Friday Jun 12, 2015
So You’re Making Your First Game
Recorded at Metatopia 2014
Presented by John Adamus and Mark Richardson.
Learn from a pair of first time game makers and industry professionals the perils, frustrations and strategies it takes to put together your first game from start to finish.
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Monday May 04, 2015
Monday May 04, 2015
Cartography of Fictional Worlds
Recorded at Metatopia 2014
Presented by Kenneth Hite, Hal Mangold & Mark Richardson
Learn from a panel of veteran cartographers and game designers the techniques they use to make maps of fictional worlds.
A map from Mark Richardson about renaissance superheroes from The Enlightened Man.
Wednesday Apr 15, 2015
Wednesday Apr 15, 2015
Work Together AND Keep Your Friends: Healthy Publishing Collaboration
Recorded at Metatopia 2014
Presented by Joshua A. C. Newman, Epidiah Ravachol & Hannah Shaffer.
Collaborating on a creative project is great! You get double the creativity, double the productivity, and the benefit of mutual support. Nothing could go wrong, right? Whether you’re collaborating with friends or strangers, there are some important strategies to keep your collaboration healthy and productive. What happens when one person is doing the majority of the work? Do you need a contract when working with your friends? Who owns the intellectual property that you produce? What happens if you become an overnight success? We’ll share strategies, horror stories, and success stories about creative collaboration.
Saturday Mar 21, 2015
Saturday Mar 21, 2015
Computer Hacking in Games
Recorded at Metatopia 2014
Presented by Shane Harsch, Clark Valentine & Tim Rodriguez
Our panel discusses the actual process/stages of intrusion (what we call the “Kill Chain”) and then facilitates a discussion about the challenges of turning that real-world process into an actionable and fun gaming experience.