Tale #20 – A Father’s Blessing

As I am literally days away from welcoming my son Noah into this world – I couldn’t help but pause a bit and reflect on all the fathers who stood before their sons, offering blessings that would aid and guide the rest of their lives. While my blessing to my… Continue reading

Episode 122 – Battered Group Syndrome, Part 2

As promised in Episode 120, we’re tackling “battered group syndrome” in this episode and the next! Yes, it’s a two-parter, because we had so much to say on this topic we couldn’t keep the conversation short enough for a single episode. We lead off with two quick plugs: One for Grant’s appearance on the Gameable Saturday Morning Podcast to talk about Exo Squad (Part 1Part 2, and the horror of a Gameable AU involving Palladium’s Ninjas & Superspi […]

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Episode 121 – Battered Group Syndrome, Part 1

As promised in Episode 120, we’re tackling “battered group syndrome” in this episode and the next! Yes, it’s a two-parter, because we had so much to say on this topic we couldn’t keep the conversation short enough for a single episode. We lead off with two quick plugs: One for Grant’s appearance on the Gameable Saturday Morning Podcast to talk about Exo Squad (Part 1, Part 2, and the horror of a Gameable AU involving Palladium’s Ninjas & Superspies); and one for

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Episode 120 – Six Clickbaity GMing Traditions We Need To Stop

We’re back with our angriest, most rant-filled episode yet! Well, not really—but there’s a lot of passion in this episode, because we’re talking about GMing traditions the gaming community still seems to support despite being destructive, uncomfortable, and simply wrong. First, though, we’ve got a question from Patreon backer Paige Lowe about how blatantly one should steal from other media when planning a game. After that, we tackle our Scripture as usual before diving into six common behaviors we still see: Adversarial GMing; monopolizing narrative control; turning exceptional successes into failures; misunderstanding metagaming; harming characters to punish players; and creating in-game penalties for missed gaming sessions.

Also: Grant was recently on the Gameable […]

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Tale #18 – Daddy’s Little Snowflake

You’ve probably seen it if you find yourself on any form of social media. Somebody shares their hurts, frustrations, or expectations and they get called a “snowflake.” Well – I’m here as one of those snowflakes, and I’m gonna tell you some stories from my life that remind me that… Continue reading

Indulgent Themes

I grew up playing trick-taking games. Hearts, Spades, or the occasional round of Rook. They got my whole family to the table, sure, but what for? I was a kid. The idea of playing cards with numbers on them bigger than the other players’ numbers was hardly a thrilling concept.… Continue reading

Bonus Episode 11 – Save Against Fear 2017 Con Report

Jenny and her mother Shannon (of STG 10 fame!) deliver an after-action report on Save Against Fear 2017, held Oct. 13-15 in Harrisburg, PA! Everyone had a great time, and the con was exceptionally well-run and definitely worth attending next year.

Some specific shoutouts: First, to our former co-host Branden, who was in attendance and ran a fantastic Mistborn game! Also to the Harrisburg Mall for providing an excellent con space; Harrisburg University’s game design program; and of course to The Bodhana Group[…]

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Empires Over Engines

There is a bleak beauty that runs throughout the artwork in Scythe. Artist Jakub Rozalski does an amazing job of world building in his images of hulking mechs lumbering in the distance as poor farmers toil in the fields in the foreground. It’s an alternate history where black smoke chugs… Continue reading