Passive (Aggressive) Perception

Ivan Potocnik & Steve Jones
  • 5.0 (14)
  • GAMES
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

🎲System-agnostic tabletop roleplaying game discussions. Level up your TTRPG sessions with topic deep-dives, news, and tips for D&D and so much more. 🌲New EVERGREEN episodes every Wednesday. 🤹‍♂️Always as goofy as they are sincere, Ivan and Steve are two forever GMs obsessed with making your next TTRPG session the best one yet. 🗣Covering topics including •metagaming •interviews with industry leaders •bringing real life socio-political issues into your campaigns •TTRPG news, and beyond. 🧙‍♂️Passive (Aggressive) Perception investigates any and all games/systems including D&D, Pathfinder, Savage Worlds, Call of Cthulhu, Star Wars, Vampire the Masquerade, and anything else they can get their hands on. If it can be played it's fair game. 📚The conversation is never limited by any one game, but all of the topics, tips, and core principles easily apply to Dungeons & Dragons or whatever else you happen to be playing at the time. 💻icastspells.com & anywhere you get podcasts.

  1. 10/01/2022

    So Long and Thanks For All The Crits (Final Episode)

    I won't bore you with an overly-verbose description for this one. I'll only use this opportunity to say THANK YOU for accompanying us on this grand journey, and we hope that your next session is the best one yet. -Ivan & Steve

    18 min

  2. 09/21/2022

    Ep 61 - Bright Lights, Big City (Playing In City Settings)

    Do your players (or yourself as a player) behave differently when your PCs enter a city, village, or township? Today we're discussing some of the unique challenges of playing in a city setting. We go in-depth on how specific game times associated with city play differ from a traditional gaming model which heavily incorporates the TTRPG pillar of exploration. We run down several methods for keeping the action moving, avoiding boredom, and maintaining canon. We also cover the idea of player pragmatism, and the unique phenomenon of behavioral shifts caused by a change of locale. Our Website: https://icastspells.com Our Twitter: @passive_podcast Our Email: passiveaggropod@protonmail.com Show Breakdown: 0:00: Intro0:30: TTRPG News08:35: How some adventure types lend themselves to city settings.09:30: Adapting the TTRPG pillar of exploration for intuitive city play.11:50: Making a locale robust without getting stuck in the trap of endless prep.20:15: Lore is great for reinforcing a city's character.22:43: Maintaining canon.26:32: Cities provide much more immediate consequence for questionable behavior.31:58: How to avoid alienating certain player types while in different locales.36:48: Pragmatism, character integrity, and how locale can influence the behavioral shifts of players.44:07: Ways to regain tone after out-of-character conversations short circuit encounters.49:44: Avoiding getting into a boring string of fetch quests.54:33: Outro

    56 min

  3. 09/14/2022

    Ep 60 - Campaign Length (and Knowing When To Quit)

    To have the problem of finishing a campaign milestone and have your players still wanting more, even though the story is over, is a much better problem to have than your players being bored because there is no end in sight. How many campaigns have you been a part of that have languished and died because of a lack of payoff. Is your gaming group losing steam? Are you scrambling to wrap up story arcs? We address these challenges and more as we discuss how we think many stories are better for having an ending. Our Website: https://icastspells.com Our Twitter: @passive_podcast Our Email: passiveaggropod@protonmail.com Show Breakdown: 0:00: Intro02:40: TTRPG News16:19: Main Topic18:32: Personal examples of TTRPG campaigns that suffered from having shaky conclusions.22:30: Consider playing your TTRPG campaign in chapters.27:23: How unclear campaign goals can affect pacing.29:20: The fantasy of the never-ending campaign can stand in the way of good games.32:03: How many times have you as a GM/DM had to scramble to tie up a campaign?33:42: Examples of TTRPG systems that nudge players toward campaign conclusions.35:39: Foregoing a game's natural conclusion can prevent you from trying other things that you might find you enjoy.37:52: Framing the conclusion of your game.45:40: Outro47:31: Absolute Mayhem

    49 min

  4. 09/07/2022

    Ep 59 - No-Combat Sessions

    Do you ever run entire sessions without a combat encounter? This week we analyze how varying level of combat work in your TTRPG games. We discuss engaging the players in a way that simulates the thrill of combat but in social and exploration encounters. We also talk about the message of "might makes right" and how realism can affect players' enthusiasm or aversion to in-game violence. Mad Jack Churchill: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Churchill Our Website: https://icastspells.com Our Twitter: @passive_podcast Our Email: passiveaggropod@protonmail.com Show Breakdown: 0:00: Intro0:44: TTRPG News13:41: Main Topic14:32: How much combat should I be including in my TTRPG sessions?25:49: Making non-combat encounters feel like combat.28:05: Giving individual players a chance to shine.31:53: Putting just as much prep energy into exploration and social encounters as you would stat blocks.34:00: Giving the players the tools to define the terms of their own fun.39:43: The message of "might makes right" in games.46:13: Outro

    47 min

  5. 08/31/2022

    Ep 58 - Alex Clippinger: Game Design & Adapting 5e

    The incredible and prolific TTRPG designer, Alex Clippinger has joined us this week to give us an inside look into Cubicle 7's new project, Broken Weave, drop some game design knowledge, and talk through some of the benefits and pitfalls of adapting Dungeons & Dragons: Fifth Edition. This was a fantastic conversation covering several topics including points of focus for growing as a designer, expectations we bring to the table, burgeoning out into playing non-D&D systems, and much more. We ended with some pretty major takeaways from this episode that were unique to Alex's experience. A huge THANK YOU to Alex for doing this interview and hopefully this won't be the last time we hear from him. Find Alex here: Website: https://aclippinger.carrd.co/ Twitter: @Aclippinger DM's Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Alex%20Clippinger DriveThru RPG: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/17366/Alex-Clippinger Our Website: https://icastspells.com Our Twitter: @passive_podcast Our Email: passiveaggropod@protonmail.com Show Breakdown: 0:00: Intro03:06: A little about Alex03:58: "How did you get into freelancing?"05:37: "Were you a writer before you started doing TTRPG work?"08:49: "How did you get into the hobby of TTRPGs in general?"12:44: "How have you evolved as a designer and a writer since you first started out?"17:52: "How does genre play into your design process, and how do you utilize your influences?"24:47: Inside look at Broken Weave from Cubicle 7; one of Alex's newest unreleased projects34:36: "In the modern trend of 5e adaptations, why do you think it's so common?"38:01: "What is your interest in making 5e adaptations and how is it different from the alternatives?"39:34: "Do you think underdevelopment of the D&D: 5e system is a major design pitfall?"42:53: "What are you gaining and what are you sacrificing when you make the decision to adapt D&D: 5e?"46:17: "Do you think that people sometimes limit themselves by trying to adapt certain game types to D&D: 5e when other systems might already d that thing better?"53:38: Outro

    56 min

  6. 08/24/2022

    Ep 57 - Factions, Guilds, & Other Affiliations

    Is your TTRPG character affiliated with anything larger than themselves or the party they roll with (heheh puns)? This week we cover TTRPG factions, guilds, and other big-picture affiliations. We discuss how they can provide scope, inform character backstory, create fascinating and useful narrative drivers for your campaigns, and much more. Website: https://icastspells.com Twitter: @passive_podcast Email: passiveaggropod@protonmail.com Show Breakdown: 0:00: Intro01:12: TTRPG News10:12 Main Topic12:50: Some TTRPGs lean more heavily on factions than others13:32: TTRPG factions serving as patrons15:53: Forged in the Dark and juggling power between factions16:58: Big factions that span entire peoples and how they can inform character backstory and disposition21:14: TTRPG factions can help characters realize end-game aspirations22:44: Using factions as a trump card26: 18: Factions can be a way to introduce lore and legacy setting characters27:17: Factions can be a great way to explain the 'start of things'33:05: Watch out for misaligned goals and disparate faction affiliations within your TTRPG party35:25: Outro

    37 min

  7. 08/17/2022

    Ep 56 - GM Fiat (And Deus Ex Machina)

    What would you do if your GM said "because I said so" during a session? Talking about when GMs flex their table authority 'just because.' There are two sides of the GM using unilateral decision making, and we investigate both the positive and the negative aspects of this contentious issue. We talk through deus ex machina and offer our hot takes on popularized forms of it, plus much more. Website: https://icastspells.com Twitter: @passive_podcast Email: passiveaggropod@protonmail.com Show Breakdown: 0:00: Intro0:57: TTRPG News13:00 Main Topic14:43: Ways GM fiat can be used for bad.23:35: On TTRPG deus ex machina.33:56: Ways GM fiat can be used for good.44:02: Outro

    46 min

  8. 08/10/2022

    Ep 55 - Storybuilding Vs Storytelling

    This week we talk about the ancient and honored tradition of human storytelling, its base components, what defines a great storyteller, and how all of this applies to the TTRPG experience. We discuss how examining this discipline can improve our games, and how the idea of collaborative storytelling (i.e., story building) has evolved to accommodate the modern gaming paradigm. We try to cut through the haze of  semantic arguments and getting stuck on specific language, and hope to unify some of our perspectives on this contentious topic. Website: https://icastspells.com Twitter: @passive_podcast Email: passiveaggropod@protonmail.com Show Breakdown: 0:00: Intro3:57: TTRPG News4:57: GMs ARE storytellers... but so are players.15:25: Base definition of storytelling and how it applies to TTRPGs.19:09: The 5 tenets a good storyteller, and how these apply to the GMs role at the table.28:54: Who at the table shoulders the most story responsibility is a spectrum.33:33: Thought experiment #1 (actors & playwrights).39:17: Thought experiment #2 (AI copywriters).42:22: Improve your game by re-framing the table experience as one of collaborative story building.45:17: The foundation of gaming is mutual respect. Apply this to your table roles.46:19: Outro.

    49 min
See All (63)

5
out of 5
14 Ratings

About

🎲System-agnostic tabletop roleplaying game discussions. Level up your TTRPG sessions with topic deep-dives, news, and tips for D&D and so much more. 🌲New EVERGREEN episodes every Wednesday. 🤹‍♂️Always as goofy as they are sincere, Ivan and Steve are two forever GMs obsessed with making your next TTRPG session the best one yet. 🗣Covering topics including •metagaming •interviews with industry leaders •bringing real life socio-political issues into your campaigns •TTRPG news, and beyond. 🧙‍♂️Passive (Aggressive) Perception investigates any and all games/systems including D&D, Pathfinder, Savage Worlds, Call of Cthulhu, Star Wars, Vampire the Masquerade, and anything else they can get their hands on. If it can be played it's fair game. 📚The conversation is never limited by any one game, but all of the topics, tips, and core principles easily apply to Dungeons & Dragons or whatever else you happen to be playing at the time. 💻icastspells.com & anywhere you get podcasts.

Information

  • Creator
    Ivan Potocnik & Steve Jones
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2022
  • Episodes
    63
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2024 Passive (Aggressive) Perception
  • Show Website
    Passive (Aggressive) Perception