#ttrpg interviews

[thefandomentals]

Dan sat down with Paizo's James Jacobs to talk about Player Core 2, War of Immortals, and the seismic changes yet to come for Golarion.

[ostermad-blog]

You've read Kill Six Billion Demons, right?

"The thing that got me into K6BD was someone posting a screenshot of Mother Om saying “Perish” and blowing off Gog-agog’s head. I saw that and thought, ‘Oh, that rules!’ Fun Rath trivia, the last D&D character I ever played, and ever will play, probably, was in a West Marshes campaign. They were a Kenku warlock named Pwk [pronounced “Pook”]. And Pwk’s gimmick was that they were obsessed with spellcraft and sold their original name to a fairy queen to be able to cast spells because they have no natural talent for it and never got the education you need to be a wizard. But they’d been obsessed with magic for so long that they’d trained themselves to be able to say spell names. So, instead of just being able to imitate noises, I could also say the names of spells. And I used that as how I talked. I had a notes document on my phone of every spell in D&D, with all the ones that were good at conveying ideas bolded. And only a few people managed to figure this out, but Pwk’s name was spelled ‘P-W-K’, and it stood for Power Word: Kill. Because, ultimately, that’s what Pwk saw magic as: as the power to say a word and have anything you want happen.”

Rathayibacter Toxicus

You want to read more cool stories, musings on game design and Pokemon fuckability? Then you should check out Bxllet Clip, the new ttrpg periodical! In our first issue, I interviewed Rath to get this gem and a host of others. You can also grab a fantastic new hack by Adira Slattery, a couple of adventures, some new classes, and more!

Pick up your copy here! Bxllet Clip: The Pinxp Issue by Wheels Within Wheels Publishing (itch.io)

[queerpg]

Year In Review

This year we: 🎬Released 2 full seasons (that’s 40 episodes!) 📼Released our first mini-show 🎤Launched Press Pause: Let’s Chat and had some awesome guests 🫖Released our first pieces of merch

And it feels like we just hit the jackpot and next year is gonna be so, so sweet!

[toskarin]

when I make a post comparing bg3 with bioware's latter years output, I always forget that it parses to most people (because a lot of people do say this to be fair) as "bioware should have just made a game like larian" and not "a series of corporate decisions made over two decades forced bioware into a situation where they were not allowed nor equipped to make rpgs in that genre"

[anim-ttrpgs]

Exerpt from the Vampire rules for Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy.

[sohkrates]

Blood & Tears

I want to make a vampire game.

I've been wanting to make this game for quite a while. I've always loved vampire stories. Not sure why. I'm a recovering goth, and I've always been fascinated by the idea of immortality. Of how it would warp human perspective, how at some point it would become alien, unknowable, unapproachable. It would be lonely and sad, a tragedy, and I've always liked tragedies too.

The world always feels more approachable to me when it's sad.

So I'm gonna make a tabletop roleplaying game about vampires.

It's called Blood & Tears.

It's coming together pretty quickly, probably because it's one of the projects that's been cooking in the back of my brain for a few years now. Every time I watched a vampire movie I'd take notes, I'd make a wish list of what I'd like to see and what I think I'd need to make rules for telling stories about vampires.

And then well, we had the Interview With The Vampire series, and that incredible Nosferatu movie, and I thought people would be pretty receptive of something like this. Especially the freaks, who make up probably a sizeable portion of my audience.

Hi freaks.

I want to make a game that lets you play in history. That teaches you about things, that doesn't overexplain, and encourages you to look some stuff up to figure out what's happening. I want the zine to read like a tome detailing a secret in the world that's been true for a very very long time.

I'm the one in the horror movie that cracks open the old tome and summons the dead god. I'm the one that would read the Necronomicon. I'm sorry, but that's who I am. Curious to a fault. So maybe that's why I'm enjoying putting all these thoughts into layout so much.

Anyway. I want to make a game about vampires. I want to make a space for a table of friends to think about what it means to live forever, about the friends you'd make or lose, the factions that hold power over centuries, and what other things might be true if vampires exist.

Don't worry. At least one of the playbooks will be Sad and one will be Horny. I know my audience.

Blood & Tears is funding right now on Kickstarter, from February 1st to the 12th. You can find out more about the game there.

Check it out. Spread the word. Ask yourself...

"Do you want to live forever?"

[talesyettold]

Had the pleasure of guesting for a special interview episode of Mage Hand High Five where they let me yap about Actual Plays, the difference between more “highly produced” and “home game” shows, and the motivating factors for the art we create and how we present it.

Love talking Actual Play theory and I love yapping, so this was the best of both worlds. You should go check it out!

[j-richmond]

After their fantastic Yeld adventure, the Tiny Table team invited Nick and I to talk about our game and our approach to world building and design. It was a really fun interview! You can listen to part 1 here, and part 2 on the Tiny Table Patreon!

[22to22]

on itch.io here.

[macguffinandco]

We did a little interview with Kaoiss Games, and it's just long enough to steep your tea to. Head over to their blog for a quick read!

https://kaiossgames.co.uk/blogs/news/60-second-interview-sasha-sienna-and-jonny-sims

[ratwavekayla]

This is Your Lifepath is back for season 2! On the first episode I interview @gormengeist (GREED, Bubblegum Wizards,Nuclear Knights) and we talk about language, noir, finding the voice a project needs and more.

As well as Spotify available wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe to the RSS feed to make sure you catch every episode. This season is releasing weekly and is going to run until the end of July.

(Also fun fact; even though we made a whole book together this was the first time me and Gormengeist talked live i.e. not over email/discord)

[vintagerpg]

Talkin' 'bout collecting! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we talk to the Rick Meints, president of Chaosium! He doesn't just run the company, he's its biggest fan, with a collection of Chaosium games, art, documents and ephemera that likely dwarfs all others. We talk about collecting, RuneQuest (Rick's primary RPG passion, as he penned the wonderful Meints Index to Glorantha), the company's history and its plans for the future for some of its key lines going into their 50th anniversary in 2025. You can bet your butts we'll be having Rick back next year during the celebration!

[balmungkriemhild]

taking my first (heavily homebrewed) D&D character and turning her into a pathfinder character. meet Miteko, the Kitsune Gunslinger who helps people find their way through the desert

[queerpg]

a little snippet from @just-trying-togetby's interview with @jdragsky about why Wanderhome takes place in a world with no violence

Full interview on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Amazon Music!

or check our our Patreon tiers to see how you can watch the full video version!

[thefandomentals]

Dan had a chat with @goblinmixtape about their latest solo TTRPG Death of the Author, the meaning of agency, and what a tarot card and a LEGO have in common.

[anim-ttrpgs]

The A.N.I.M. interveiw with @tinytablerpg is up! Listen to our best interview yet with, with the first-ever interview appearance of @theblackwarden, designer of the snoops!

This interview will contain major spoilers for the tiny table actual play of the Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy adventure module FORIVA: The Angel Game. We highly encourage you to listen to that before you listen to this. Here's the episodes, and here's the list of questions they're asking us in the interview!

Rules Episode

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

Episode 4

Post-game Discussion

Questions:

Eureka wears its inspirations on its sleeves with traits like Bumbling Detective and Elementary, allowing investigators to emulate famous fictional detectives. What were the big detective and mystery inspirations for Eureka, and how did they help inform the game’s core design? Are there any that you love, but weren’t a good fit for Eureka?

2. What advice do you have to players who are new to investigative games? Mystery solving and the lateral thinking needed for it are skills not often stressed by the games that dominate the current market. What are some game-agnostic practices players can rely on to be better mystery solvers in the investigative genre of TTRPGs? What is some advice for Eureka in particular?

3. What systems inspired Eureka’s design? Which systems are anathema to Eureka’s design? What kind of direction would you like Eureka to push the TTRPG industry?

4. We’d love to hear about the process of creating a mystery scenario. How long does it take, what kind of resources do you rely on, and what does the structure of creation and playtesting look like?

5. We’d love to recommend new options for our listeners who want to run Eureka themselves and want to run something other than FORIVA after listening to it. What are some other scenarios that will be ready by the game’s release?