Dice Exploder

Coming August 17th, 2023: DICE EXPLODER SEASON 2.

(Here’s a transcript of this trailer.)

That’s right, we are back next week with an all new season. It's 12 new episodes, 13 new co-hosts diving face first with me into the world of tabletop RPG design one mechanic at a time.

This is gonna be a season that's a lot about flavor and vibes and how those things themselves are fundamentally mechanics in these games. We've also got a trio of episodes about different ways to depict travel, and of course a few deep dives into crunchy grindy bits of games.

Our longest episode yet. Our shortest episode yet. Splorts!

Tell your siblings and your niblings! Join our Discord if you can’t wait that long.

See you soon.

Transcript

This week, Sam talks with Tan Shao Han about stress from Brinkwood by Erik Bernhardt, a character resource originally from Blades in the Dark by John Harper.

This is one of those episodes where to talk about the mechanic in question, we kind of have to talk about the whole-ass game around it because so much of Brinkwood is tied up in stress. And in this case, we really had to talk about two whole-ass games, because so much of what makes Brinkwood stress interesting is how a few small tweaks from Blades in the Dark ripple out through the design and lead to big changes in play.

Get ready for the full firehose of mechanics: this is an episode jam-packed with delicious, crunchy examples.

Further reading:

Brinkwood by Erik Bernhardt: https://brinkwood.net/

Blades in the Dark by John Harper: https://bladesinthedark.com/

The Blades in the Dark discord: https://discord.gg/uXwCKq3

Thoughts on Forging in the Dark by Small Cool Games: https://smallcoolgames.itch.io/thoughts-on-forging-in-the-dark

An Amateur’s Guide to Hacking Blades in the Dark by past cohost Michael Elliott: https://notwriting.itch.io/an-amateurs-guide-to-hacking-blades-in-the-dark

Socials:

Shao on Bluesky, Twitter, and his personal website.

Sam on Bluesky, Twitter, dice.camp, and itch.

Our logo was designed by sporgory, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey via Breaking Copyright.

Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!

Transcript

This week, Sam talks with wendi yu about the Fate Point economy, a meta currency system from Fate by Fred Hicks and Rob Donoghue and published by Evil Hat. Some topics discussed include:

Getting into storygames

“Generic” RPGs

When crunch kills the vibe

The Hero’s Journey

The (lack of) difference between rules and flavor

Writing good aspects: it’s hard!

wendi’s game here, there, be monsters!

You can find wendi on Twitter @wen_di_yu, and you can buy here, there, be monsters! digitally on itch or physically from SoulMuppet.

You can find Sam @sdunnewold on Bluesky, Twitter, dice.camp, and itch.io, and by subscribing to the Dice Exploder newsletter.

You can find Fate at Evil Hat.

The Dice Exploder logo is by sporgory, and the theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.

Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!

Transcript

This week, Sam talks with Pam Punzalan about Devil’s Bargains, one part of the dice pool mechanic from John Harper's game Blades in the Dark. Some topics discussed include:

Rulebooks as guidelines and play philosophy more than proper rules

DBs as a safety tool

Generic DBs

Do DBs slow down the game? Is that good or bad?

Retconning in RPGs (it's good)

Putting DBs into any old game

Our favorite DBs

Games mentioned:

Blades in the Dark

Navathem's End

The Exiles

Belonging Outside Belonging games such as Dream Askew // Dream Apart

You can find Pam on Twitter, dice.camp, and itch.io at TheDoveTailor. You can find their newsletter at thedovetailor.substack.com. Her website is thedovetailor.carrd.co.

You can find Sam @sdunnewold on Twitter, dice.camp, and itch.io

You can find Blades in the Dark at bladesinthedark.com.

The Dice Exploder logo is by sporgory, and the theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.

Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!

Transcript

In the year of our lord two thousand and twenty, many things occurred. But one of those things was the cultural event known as Blaseball.

Blaseball was, more or less, a simulated baseball league that ran one game an hour, one season a week, that players could bet on and then use their winnings to vote for global rules changes. It got... weirder from there. And bigger. And memeier. It became nothing less than a lifestyle.

And then, this past summer of 2023, it ended.

What made it such a phenomenon? What made its fans so passionate? Was Blaseball even a game? And what will we do with ourselves now that it’s gone?

This week Sam is joined by Chris Greenbriar, former moderator of the team discord for the Core Mechanics (that’s one of the teams from Blaseball) to reminisce and celebrate Blaseball’s legacy and everything that made it beautiful.

Further reading:

Blaseball’s website

The Blaseball fan wiki

The Seattle Garages bandcamp and the Fourth Strike Records website.

The Great Soul Train Robbery in both original two page and zine length.

Empires of EVE: the EVE Online history book series

17776, which we didn’t mention but which you should give a glance

Socials:

Join the Dice Exploder Discord if you need to talk with Chris directly.

Sam on Bluesky, Twitter, dice.camp, and itch.

Our logo was designed by sporgory, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.