Fine Blueprints Fine Blueprints

 Today we bring you another episode of DICE EXPLODER, the show where host Sam Dunnewold breaks down one ttrpg mechanic with a friend.
On this episode, Sam talks with Thomas Manuel of the Yes Indie’d podcast and the Indie RPG Newsletter about Secondary Missions, a mechanic from Band of Blades by Off Guard Games.
This mechanic has a deceptively big impact on the mouthfeel of Band of Blades. It’s just a masterpiece of design. We get into how it supports the genre and themes of the game, all the tough choices it puts in front of players, and how mechanics like this one that couldn’t exist in any other game are often our favorites. It’s classic Dice Exploder this week, a deep dive at it’s best.
And if you enjoy this episode, check out the third season of Dice Exploder on Kickstarter now through October 6th! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sdunnewold/dice-exploder-a-tabletop-rpg-design-podcast

Today we've got sneak peak of the first episode of DICE EXPLODER, a new show on the fiction first network.
Each week on Dice Exploder, Sam will have on a new cohost, and they'll bring one RPG mechanic that we'll break down as far as we can. It's gonna be a real nuts and bolts show about design and getting the most out of games. The first season premieres on May 25th.
Subscribe to Dice Exploder on your favorite podcast app for future episodes!

This week, Sam talks with Ray Chou about "rolling the dice," the core mechanic from John Harper's game Lasers and Feelings. Some topics covered include: 
MinimalismUnderlining genre through mechanicsCows and BoysHoney HeistEpisodic vs serialized storiesWhen you should roll diceRandomness and fate in real lifeBeer & pretzels gaming You can find Ray's publishing company at myth.works You can find Sam @sdunnewold on Twitter, dice.camp, and itch.io.

We're back with another episode before Sam takes over for a bit. Today, Ted joins us to talk about his upcoming game, The Last Caravan, kickstarting very soon! Ted and Ray discuss travel mechanics and converting the phase structure of Blades while running away from aliens.

Bookmark the kickstarter here! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/theodoreinthevalley/the-last-caravan-a-cars-and-aliens-tabletop-rpg
And download the quickstart here; https://tedbushman.itch.io/the-last-caravan-quickstart

We're finally back with a hilarious episode! Long-time Fiction First Network contributor Sam hosts Healed and Skelpie to talk about their games, Most Trusted Advisors and That's Right, I Did It!

We talk about how to allow the players to create humor in their games, what goes into a humorous setting, and what purpose mechanics serve in comedic games, with plenty of laughs along the way!

You can find Most Trusted Advisors here: https://thehorizonmachine.itch.io/most-trusted-advisors
You can follow Healed and her cowriter on twitter https://twitter.com/horizon_machine

That's Right, I Did It isn't fully released just yet, but stay tuned to the Blades in the Dark discord for updates.

We'll be pausing Fine Blueprints after this episode to do more recordings, but in its place, Sam will be hosting a new series deep-diving into some of the game design community's favorite TTRPG mechanics. Stay tuned  Dice Exploder! We plan to be back with Fine Blueprints after that.

Today, we talk with members of the Desperate Attune actual play podcast about their adaptation of the U'Dudasha setting, an aspect of the Special Edition of Blades in the Dark. Tree and Prince talk about setting aspects they've added, excitement and critiques of the setting as written, and so on, as well as how they develop the limited setting into greater detail for their show.

You can find the show's twitter, with a link to the show, at https://mobile.twitter.com/desperateattune, or listen to it where you listen to your favorite podcasts!
You can also find Tree's game at https://mobile.twitter.com/desperateattune

We're joined today by Jex to talk about their game, Bump in the Dark, and how using the cinematic techniques of film and TV can help add vibrancy to your game and bring players into the writer's room of story telling. We talk about some of the tools and terms of this style of story telling, including some of the downsides as well.

You can find Bump in the Dark here: https://jexjthomas.itch.io/bump-in-the-dark

You can follow Jex on twitter (if you're still there) here: https://twitter.com/jexjthomas 
Or on Mastodon here: https://dice.camp/@jexjthomas