Dice Exploder

Sam Dunnewold
  • 4.8 (5)
  • DESIGN

A show about tabletop RPG design. Each episode we bring you a single mechanic and break it down as deep as we possibly can. Co-hosted by Sam Dunnewold and a rotating roster of designers. Part of the Many Sided Network. diceexploder.com

  1. 17 HRS AGO

    The Voice of the Text (Triangle Agency) with Seraphina Garcia Ramirez

    Transcripts available at diceexploder.com I bet you’ve heard of this game Triangle Agency. Big exciting Kickstarter, super flashy product design, a game with… spoilers in the back? It’s corporate horror, it’s packed gorgeous art, it’s a game I spent 20 sessions with in 2025. And I… had a pretty frustrating time with the game. There is so much I love and admire about Triangle Agency, but also so much I struggled with, and I wanted to break it all down on the show. And I didn’t want to do that without bringing on someone who could unabashedly sing this game’s praises, because I think the game deserves that too. So today I’m joined by the general manager of my campaign, moderator of the Dice Exploder discord, my friend Seraphina Garcia Ramirez, to talk about the voice of Triangle Agency's game text and really the whole game at large. It's the longest episode of Dice Exploder ever. Let's go. Further Reading Triangle Agency by Caleb Zane Huett and Sean Ireland Socials Seraphina on Bluesky and itch Sam on Bluesky and itch The Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.com Our logo was designed by sporgory, our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey, and our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer. Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show! Credits Our logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.

    1h 58m

  2. MAR 3

    Draw Maps, Leave Blanks (Dungeon World) with Tim Denee

    Transcripts available at diceexploder.com If the thesis of last week’s episode was “hey the fiction of your game matters a lot and can even have mechanical effects,” how do you know how deeply to define that fiction? Maybe no one in indie games has recently faced that question on quite the scale of Tim Denee with Blades ‘68, an expansion to Blades in the Dark. I wanted to have him on to talk about when you completely reinvent the setting, how do you think about what parts of the fiction are important and need to be kept vs what parts should evolve and change? And to do that, we picked an old mechanic from Dungeon World that cuts to the heart of it: draw maps, leave blanks. But how detailed of maps, and how big of blanks? Further Reading Blades 68 on Backerkit Blades in the Dark by John Harper Dungeon World Tim’s maps of Doskvol Socials Tim on Bluesky and olddog.games Sam on Bluesky and itch The Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.com Our logo was designed by sporgory, our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey, and our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer. Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show! Credits Our logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey. This episode was edited by Em Acosta.

    48 min

  3. FEB 24

    Doskvol's Lightning Barriers (Blades in the Dark) with Nova

    Transcripts available at diceexploder.com In Blades in the Dark, you play as criminals in Doskvol a haunted city where the ghosts are such a problem that they built giant lightning barriers around the whole city to keep them out. That sentence alone already makes me want to get the game to the table, and we haven’t even gotten to the rules of Blades in the Dark yet. That’s the conversation I wanted to take a crack at today: rules are important, they can radically shape play, but the fiction a game brings is just as important. Doskvol’s lightning barriers mean you can’t just run away into the wilderness after you’ve committed some crimes, and that’s just as important for ratcheting up the tension and consequences of your campaign as the mechanic of devil’s bargains... Further Reading Blades in the Dark by John Harper Mythic Bastionland by Chris McDowall Apocalypse World 3e/Burned Over by Meguey & Vincent Baker Wanderhome by Jay Dragon Vincent Baker on How Apocalypse World Is Structured (like an onion) In Praise of Legwork by Sam Sorensen 1d20 Diegetic Rules, 1d20 Hypo-Diegetic Rules by Sam Sorensen The Rule Book: The Building Blocks of Games by Jaakko Stenros and Markus Montola Socials Nova on Bluesky. Nova’s blog, Playful Void. Sam on Bluesky and itch. The Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.com Our logo was designed by sporgory, our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey, and our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer. Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show! Credits Our logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey. This episode was edited by Em Acosta.

    47 min

  4. FEB 17

    Setting Elements (Dream Askew / Dream Apart) with Kodi Gonzaga

    Transcripts available at diceexploder.com There's many ways to decide who has authority over what in an RPG. Traditional games have a bunch of players with one PC each and a GM responsible for everything else, while Dreams Askew / Dream Apart by Avery Alder and Ben Rosenbaum takes a very different approach: divide that "everything else" up into flavorful pieces, like "gossip & reputation" and "the wild forest" and give everyone a piece. That choice has become one of the backbones of Belonging Outside Belonging games (hacks of Dream Askew / Dream Apart), and today I'm joined by my good friend Kodi Gonzaga, a designer making just such a game, to break down exactly how it works at the table. Kodi's game Extra Ordinary is on Kickstarter now. Check it out! Further Reading Dream Askew / Dream Apart by Avery Alder and Benjamin Rosenbaum Socials Extra Ordinary on Kickstarter! Kodi on Bluesky. Sam on Bluesky and itch. The Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.com Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show! Dice Exploder on Patreon Credits Our logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey. This episode was edited by Em Acosta.

    43 min

  5. JAN 28

    Afterimage: The Experimental Role-Playing Laboratory

    Dice Exploder: Afterimage is alternative show format, a cross between play report and personal memoir. The Experimental Role-Playing Laboratory, or ERPL, was a thrice a year mini convention put on by students at my college back in the 00s and 10s and onward to this day. It's how I got into indie games. I still think about it, and the people I met there, to this day. They still mean something to me. What might I still mean to them? Written, edited, and performed by Sam Dunnewold Tristan Zimmerman at the Molten Sulfur blog Steven’s newsletter and novels. Try Black Velvet to start. Transcript available at www.diceexploder.com Music by Blue Dot Sessions: https://app.sessions.blue/ My games: sdunnewold.itch.io Follow me on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/diceexploder.com

    37 min

  6. 2025-12-22

    2025 Year End Bonanza

    Transcripts available at diceexploder.com It's the Dice Exploder 2025 year end bonanza! This year I'm joined by Lin Codega and Diogo Nogueira to go over a whole bunch of game mechanics that we think represent where rpgs were at in 2025 and where they might be going in the future. Further Reading Mythic Bastionland by Chris McDowall Praise the Hawkmoth King by Sage the Anagogue I want to fight my friends in the back of a moving truck by Seraphina Garcia Ramirez Traffic Lights Are Communication Tools by Meguey Baker Daggerheart Draw Steel The One Ring starter set Sam Sorensen’s overview of Over/Under and one of Lin’s pieces on the aftermath Apocalypse World 3e Kickstarter (now finished) Socials Rascal.news Weird Games and Weirder People Lin and Diogo on Bluesky. Sam on Bluesky and itch. The Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.com Our 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

    46 min

  7. 2025-11-18

    Inventory Tetris (Mausritter) with Quinns

    Transcripts available at diceexploder.com Mausritter is an old school dungeon crawling game where instead of playing as elves fighting dragons, you play as mice fleeing from owls. It’s not unlike any number of other old school games like Cairn or Into the Odd, but its inventory system is the only inventory system I’ve ever actually liked. Does it work differently than other games? At a raw numbers level, not really! But instead of a bunch of paper bookkeeping, Mausritter turns items into little cardboard squares like board game pieces that you put in a grid on your character sheet. That physicality makes all the difference. Further Reading Mausritter by Isaac Williams The Lonely Oak by Victor Lane Cairn by Yochai Gal Blades in the Dark by John Harper Quinns Quest on youtube and patreon. Socials Quinns on Bluesky. Sam on Bluesky and itch. The Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.com Our 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

    59 min

  8. 2025-11-11

    The Brainer VS The Brain-Picker (Apocalypse World 2e/3e) with the Bakers

    Transcripts available at diceexploder.com Apocalypse World 3rd edition is on Kickstarter right now. In many ways, it hasn’t changed much. In many ways, it's a whole new apocalypse. So I thought it'd be fun to have on the Bakers and go through a playbook - the Brainer in 2e vs its equivalent the Brain-Picker in 3e - and ask them about every single change on the sheet, from updating the basic moves all the way down to a single name on a single picklist. Further Reading Apocalypse World: Burned Over 3e on Kickstarter and a preview of The Brain-Picker Apocalypse World 2e handouts, including the Brainer Designing a seduce or manipulate replacement on the Dice Exploder Patreon Preview the Bakers’ seduce or manipulate replacement on their Patreon Socials Meguey and Vincent on Bluesky. The Baker House Blog Sam on Bluesky and itch. The Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.com Our 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

    1h 13m
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Ratings & Reviews

4.8
out of 5
5 Ratings

About

A show about tabletop RPG design. Each episode we bring you a single mechanic and break it down as deep as we possibly can. Co-hosted by Sam Dunnewold and a rotating roster of designers. Part of the Many Sided Network. diceexploder.com

Information

  • Creator
    Sam Dunnewold
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    99
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Sam Dunnewold
  • Show Website
    Dice Exploder

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