Dice Exploder

Sam Dunnewold
  • 5.0 (26)
  • 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. 21H AGO

    You Will Die In This Place with Merrilee Bufkin and Jay Dragon

    Transcripts available at diceexploder.com Last summer a hot new game hit the indie rpg scene: You Will Die In This Place, a surreal and experimental... dungeon crawler? Technically? ...that seems to have more in common with House of Leaves than it does many roleplaying games. And for a couple weeks I saw so many discussions about this game that I eventually broke down and was like, do I need to do an emergency podcast about this? No. I did not. I was busy with a hundred other things. But past cohosts Merrilee Bufkin and Jay Dragon did. So I invited the two of them to take over the show for a special bonus episode where they talk all things, or at least some things, You Will Die In This Place. It’s a dense text. They get into House of Leaves, gender, autism, misogyny, the state of the games industry, and a ton more. Take a listen. Further Reading You Will Die In This Place by Elizabeth Little YWDITP on Gamefound Socials Jay on Bluesky and Possum Creek Games on itch and Warehouse 23 Merrilee on Bluesky and itch 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 AP season "reading" list: My First Dungeon: Orbital Blues, session 1 My First Dungeon: Wildsea, episode 5 Maia's Game Room: Electric State, episode 5 - CW: sexual coercion Last Train to Brooklyn Void 1680 AM broadcasts

    49 min

  2. SEP 9

    Love, Sex, and Romance: The War (Will That Be All?) with Kim Lam

    Transcripts available at diceexploder.com Today we’re wrapping up the Dice Exploder series on love, sex, and romance with Will That Be All? by Graham Walmsley, a game about the social relationships between the downstairs staff at Melton Hall, a fictional British estate, over the course of about a decade between the first and second world wars. It’s a lovely game about finding solace and community even as the world outside feel deeply uncertain - and that’s what Kim wanted to talk about: how setting, and in this case the spectre of war, can encourage and affect how not just romance but relationships of all kinds can play out in a game. Further Reading Will That Be All? by Graham Whalmsley Breaking the Ice, and The Romance Trilogy, by Emily Care Boss Rosenstrasse by Jessica Hammer and Moyra Turkington Downton Abbey Socials K Lam on Bluesky and itch 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

  3. SEP 2

    Love, Sex, and Romance: Big Chunky Prompts with Tasha Robinson

    Transcripts available at diceexploder.com I’m back! Alex and Sharang have done an amazing job talking love, sex, and romance over the past month but I have plenty to say on the subject myself. In particular, I wanted to approach the conversation Alex and Sharang started about the quantification of romance from the perspective of how I feel when I’m actually at the table playing these games. Because that quantification makes me feel kinda weird… but what do I want instead? Because freeform romance is tough for me. Romance is scary! I want some help, some guidelines, some dare-I-say rules and mechanics for it. But if not quantification... then what? What else might help alleviate my fear and awkwardness? Or is that awkwardness part of the fun and charm of romance, and really we should leave it in? Today, Tasha Robinson returns to the show to talk it all through with me. Further Reading Steal My Heart by Sam Dunnewold The King Is Dead by Meguey and Vincent Baker Socials Tasha on Bluesky The Next Picture Show podcast 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 3m

  4. AUG 26

    Love, Sex, and Romance: Physical Touch with Alex & Sharang

    Transcripts available at diceexploder.com In 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 Reading The Sleepover by Kat Jones & Julia B. Ellingboe This interview by Lizzie Stark with Emma Wieslander, who created Ars Amandi for the 2001 larp Between Heaven and Sea A Place to Fuck Each Other by Avery Alder Kirigami Dominatrix Display Simulator by Aura Belle Praise the Hawkmoth King by sage the anagogue Vice & Violence by Scalli ORKFUCK by SympatheticSapphic Sapphicworld by Darling Demon Games Socials Alex on Bluesky and carrd Sharang on Bluesky and itch 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

    44 min

  5. AUG 19

    Love, Sex, and Romance: The Phallus with Alex & Sharang

    Transcripts available at diceexploder.com Our 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 Reading Tales of the Fisherman’s Wife by Julia Bond Ellingboe The Beast by Aleksandra Sontowska Just a Little Lovin’ by Tor Kjetil Edland and Hanne Grasmo Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire Let These Mermaids Touch Your Dick Maybe by Riverhouse Games Socials Alex on Bluesky and carrd Sharang on Bluesky and itch 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

    35 min

  6. AUG 12

    Love, Sex, and Romance: Roll to Seduce with Alex & Sharang

    Transcripts available at diceexploder.com Alex 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 f**k 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 Reading The Book of Erotic Fantasy by Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel and Duncan Scott Love and Sex in the 9th World by by Shanna Germain Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos Alex Roberts on Dice Exploder discussing Kagematsu Fog of Love by Jacob Jaskov Bluebeard’s Bride by Whitney “Strix” Beltran, Marissa Kelly, & Sarah Doom Socials Alex on Bluesky and carrd Sharang on Bluesky and itch 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

    49 min

  7. AUG 5

    Love, Sex, and Romance: Sex Moves (Apocalypse World) with Alex & Sharang

    Transcripts available at diceexploder.com Love, 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 Reading Apocalypse World by Meguey & Vincent Baker Monsterhearts 2 by Avery Alder My Girl’s Sparrow by Troels Ken Pedersen How Do Aliens Do “It”? by Kieron Gillen Pop! by Alex Roberts, found in Honey and Hot Wax, edited by Sharang Biswas and L. Kahn Socials Alex on Bluesky and carrd Sharang on Bluesky and itch 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

    44 min

  8. JUL 1

    Rolling the Dice... On Camera! (The Die Guys) with Moira Joy Smith

    Transcripts available at diceexploder.com Moira 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 Reading The Try Guys streaming service, where you can find The Die Guys season 2 The Die Guys episode 1 on YouTube Socials 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! Support Dice Exploder on Patreon!

    1h 51m
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Trailer

5
out of 5
26 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 - 2025
  • Episodes
    86
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Sam Dunnewold
  • Show Website
    Dice Exploder

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