Yes Indie'd Pod Thomas M

Because of some travel, instead of an interview, something from the patreon feed makes it way into the main feed. This is a round-up of 2023's answers to the question, "What is something you're trying to do better at the gaming table?" Enjoy!

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On this week's episode, I talk to Sidney Icarus, a game designer of, among other things, the scifi horror game, Decaying Orbit, published by Storybrewers Roleplaying, which won the 2023 ARPIA Game of the Year. But I first heard of them as the fantastic host of the now-concluded Hard Move, a wonderful podcast where every episode, Sidney and a guest analysed one move from a PbtA game.



Show Notes:

03:12 - RPG Descriptivist

14:49 - The "Who Says What When" Framework

22:06 - What is Action Paths?

32:04 - Analyzing Decaying Orbit using Action Paths

1:08:46 - Sidney's next game: The Most Dangerous Game

1:12:03 - Infectious Enthusiasm: Bump in the Dark

1:13:50 - Tyranny of Numbers

1:16:50 - RePlay

1:18:14 - All advice is advice for myself



The Indie RPG Newsletter

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On today's show, we're talking ship with Sebastian Yue, a game designer, writer, and editor. Apart from their own self-published games and DMs Guild modules, They work full-time at Hit Point Press which is best known for various very succesful third party D&D 5e products like Heckna and Humblewood. They've also contributed as a designer to some wonderful projects like Apocalypse Keys, Cloud Empress, ennie-award winning Uncaged Goddesses anthology, and the currently in-progress official Tomb Raider RPG.



Show Notes

04:18 Getting started with game design

15:18 Working full-time at Hitpoint Press

22:10 Being in both the D&D and indie game communities

24:15 All about editing: style guides & more

29:50 Future plans

34:07 Advice for aspiring game designers

36:56 Infectious Enthusiasm: Ingkit by Pukepeku Games

38:15 Tyranny of Numbers: Annual earnings

42:15 RePlay

43:43 All Advice is Advice for Myself



The Indie RPG Newsletter

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Today, we're talking to Graham Walmsley, the celebrated game designer behind tabletop RPGs like Cthulhu Dark and A Taste for Murder, larps like Will That Be All, and lovecraftian scenarios for games like Trail of Cthulhu. He's also the author of two non-fiction books called Stealing Cthulhu about telling lovecraftian stories and Play Unsafe about techniques for being a better player of tabletop games. This year, he's got two new games out, Cosmic Dark, a sequel to Cthulhu Dark about corporate employees in space, and Darkenwood, a GM-less game about a nightmarish forest.



Show Notes:

01:41 Introducing Graham

03:07 Starting with Lovecraft

12:08 What is weird fiction?

16:55 All the cool stuff in Cosmic Dark

26:24 Rules, advice, setting

39:22 Infectious Enthusiasm: Lumberjills by Moira Turkington

41:50 Tyranny of Numbers

43:44 RePlay

46:25 All Advice is Advice for Myself



The Indie RPG Newsletter

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This week, we're talking to Nico MacDougall and returning guest Tan Shao Han about The Awards, an alternative tabletop RPG awards project.



Show Notes:

03:56 Introductions

13:31 Being a judge

16:09 The process of picking a winner

21:30 Who should be a judge?

25:36 Infectious Enthusiasm

27:59 Tyranny of Numbers: Breaking down submissions to the Awards

31:02 All Advice is Advice for Myself

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Today we're talking to Max and Aaron from RTFM. Maxwell Lander is a game designer, photographer, visual artist, and also musician with an album of dungeon synth. Aaron King is a game designer whose works including Patchwork World Sixth Edition. They are both the co-hosts of RTFM, an RPG book club podcast.



Show Notes:

[00:02:49] Why start an RPG bookclub podcast?

[00:14:43] What each person brings to the table

[00:28:47] Critiquing RPGs as an artform

[00:41:24] Infectious Enthusiasm: Sagas of the Icelanders, Bloodfeud

[00:45:03] Tyranny of Numbers

[00:50:08] RePlay

[00:53:13] All Advice is Advice For Myself: Prep more, be less?



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It's up to you really, an all vtuber actual play of Patchwork World