Dice Exploder

Sam Dunnewold
  • 5.0 (23)
  • 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. 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

  2. JUN 24

    Afterimage: City of Winter

    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 Dunnewold Transcript available at www.diceexploder.com City of Winter at Heart of the Deernicorn Music by Blue Dot Sessions: https://app.sessions.blue/ My games: sdunnewold.itch.io Follow me on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/diceexploder.com

    32 min

  3. JUN 17

    Afterimage: Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast

    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 Dunnewold 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

    21 min

  4. JUN 3 · BONUS

    Party by the Apocalypse preview: an Apocalypse World sex scene

    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

    22 min

  5. JUN 2

    Announcement: Dice Exploder joins the Many Sided Network

    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.

    5 min
  6. Clarity (Changeling: the Lost 1e) with MintRabbit

    MAY 20

    Clarity (Changeling: the Lost 1e) with MintRabbit

    Transcripts available at diceexploder.com In 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 Links Spectacula by Jeremy Melloul Kiss Me If You Can by me, Sam Dunnewold Further Reading Changeling the Lost 1e by White Wolf Games Changelings, Trauma & Gaming by Mint Rabbit A second post from Mint about Changeling Dice Exploder on safety tools Socials Mint on Tumblr, Bluesky, itch, dice.camp, and ko-fi 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!

    38 min
  7. Question Oracle (Stoneburner) and rolling the dice again with Ray Chou

    MAY 13

    Question Oracle (Stoneburner) and rolling the dice again with Ray Chou

    Transcripts available at diceexploder.com For the two year anniversary of Dice Exploder, my first ever cohost Ray Chou returns for what starts off as a brand new episode about Stoneburner by Fari RPGs and that game’s oracle mechanic: a way to use dice, random tables, and the careful framing of stakes to adapt the game for solo play. But at some point the conversation morphs into a deserving sequel episode to our first go around on rolling the dice in idie rpgs more broadly. When do you roll dice? Are partial successes good? And how does all of this change for solo and GM-less play? We didn’t ask all these questions last time, and we didn’t have great answers to the ones we did. So let’s check in on the state of rolling the dice! Further Reading Stoneburner by Fari RPGs Apocalypse World by Meguey and Vincent Baker Blades in the Dark by John Harper Socials Mythworks homepage Mythworks on Blueksy 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

    41 min
  8. 10 Candles (10 Candles) with Jay Dragon

    MAY 6

    10 Candles (10 Candles) with Jay Dragon

    Transcripts available at diceexploder.com This is, at long last, the end of this Dice Exploder miniseries on larp. And I wanted to send it off by returning to the question I kicked it off with: what can tabletop designers learn from larp? To get into that, there’s few people I’d rather have on than Jay Dragon (Wanderhome, Yazeba’s Bed & Breakfast). When I pitched Jay this topic, Jay wanted to bring in the 10 Candles from 10 Candles. This is a game best known for, what else, the 10 candles you light at the beginning of play. And the act of doing so, and then turning out the lights, sets a mood that feels like a ritual, something deeper and more visceral than most tabletop games, something not exactly larp-like, but that feels of a piece with the emphasis on environment and embodiment that larp often brings… Ad Links Spectacula by Jeremy Melloul Make a Scene festival Further Reading 10 Candles by Cavalry Games Yazeba’s Bed & Breakfast by Possum Creek Games Wanderhome by Possum Creek Games Game Design Study Buddies on Addiction By Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas by Natasha Dow Schüll Dice Exploder on Ribbon Drive by Avery Alder A Dozen Fragments On Playground Theory by Jay Dragon Socials Jay on Bluesky and Possum Creek Games on itch and Warehouse 23 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

    56 min
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Trailer

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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
    79
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Sam Dunnewold
  • Show Website
    Dice Exploder

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