Episode #12
Episode 12: What is a Roleplaying Game?
In this foolish episode, we…. Wait, what is it we do here again? I… I can’t remember… we’ve got a long road ahead of us if we’re going to make sense of all this. (Seriously. It turns out we can’t even begin to answer this question without talking about the nature of storytelling, improv, kayfabe, the role of GM, the purpose of rules, being instructed to *break* those rules, what it means to “play”, the promises made when a game describes itself… this was meant to be a silly joke episode, dangit!) Freya turns her lovers into fighters. Violet collates a collaborative coventure. Freya is drawn to a new role. Violet explores the past pre-tense. Freya breaks free of her bindings. Violet imagines a world without imagination. *** Timestamps *** What’s new - 02:56 Mailbag - 11:07 Intro to the topic - 18:30 History - 25:12 Taxonomicon - 40:16 Actual start of the taxonomicon - 41:06 Just kidding, it’s a discussion of the spectrum between ‘board game’ and ‘improv theatre’ - 41:07 Could this be the taxo- oh, no, now we’re talking about the nature of rules - 46:32 Listen, I think we’re just not going to have a normal taxonomicon in this one - ?:??:!? Wait! A list of games in quick succession! This must be it! - 53:20 Discussion about Wanderhome and Kishotenketsu and game Promises and- are we sure we actually know what this podcast is about at all? - 01:05:36 Who’s Game is it anyway? (Discussion on the nature of GMs) - 01:21:08 The Counterexampliad, whatever that means - 01:27:25 Exclusive unlocked patreon content preview [*1]: international paper size deep dive - 01:31:51 to 01:33:17 Design Dreams - 01:56:58 We made it! - 02:12:59 *** Design Dreams *** Two Truths And A Lie-Fall Parasocial Investigations Diararchaeology Redaction RPG PBTA Chaos Draft Co-Op Adventure QWOP RPG: Rebus-Picto-Glyphs *** Games discussed *** D&D 3.5e Heavy Gear D&D 1e Pathfinder 1e Eat the Reich Unravel Stories from the Grave Wildsea Eberron GoGo Golf Kagematsu Triangle Agency Hyborea Coventry [*2] Tunnels & Trolls Pasión de las Pasiones In Nomine Satanis / Magna Veritas Vampire: the Masquerade Apocalypse World Dogs in the Vineyard World Wide Wrestling Monsterhearts A Song Of Ice And Fire RPG Genesys Fellowship Masks Do: Fate of the Flying Temple Avatar Legends Yazeba’s Bed And Breakfast Troika Mausritter Golden Sky Stories Savage Worlds Wanderhome Journeymon Alas for the Awful Sea Transit Lancer Chuubo’s Marvellous Wish-Granting Engine Slugblaster Interstitial Pitcrawler Triangle Agency Mothership Cypher RuneQuest II Monster of the Week Brindlewood Bay Scherzando Lost Kingdom Belonging Outside Belonging Colostle For Small Creatures Such As We Wreck This Deck Hot Damn Deadly Alien Overlord Au Pair [*3] Tacklebox For The Queen Our Queen Crumbles The Tragedy of GJ237B Paranoia Toon Microscope I’m Sorry Did You Say Street Magic Acts Of Evil [*4] “Messed Up Little Guy” [*5] Goblin Country Dream Askew Band of Blades Ars Magica Everyone Is John Star Trek Adventures This Discord Has Ghosts In It Goblonia Everything Is Tables Your Body A Landscape Spire De Profundis Apothecaria *** Other media discussed *** Mass Effect The Twilight Zone (and its ilk) Majora’s Mask Final Fantasy Tactics Advance The Elusive Shift Kriegsspiel [6] The Lord of the Rings Battleship Mastermind Kiki’s Delivery Service Star Wars: Empire At War FTL Nier Final Fantasy XIV Fighting Fantasy Grapefruit (Yoko Ono) Foundation Unwritten Earths Symposium October: Ten Days That Shook The World Spyfall Pacific Rim Dicey Dungeons City of the Six Moons Wildermyth Penny Arcade *** Notes *** [*1] This is a joke, we don’t have a patreon and if we did we’d serve you something better than this gag, probably. [*2] As you’ll discover when listening, this and several other entries on this list are debatably proto-RPGs. I’m giving them the honour of not being relegated to the ‘other media’ zone… [*3] Once again - I’m sorry, world. [*4] The author’s name is Paul Czege. [*5] By Grant Howitt. This is a paraphrasing of the game’s name, but delightfully, you will find it if you google this. [*6] Unlike Coventry, this one definitely goes on the ‘other’ list. Because it definitely is a wargame. It’s in the name. *** Links *** The term “ashcan edition” derives from quick, low-quality mockups used in the comics industry to quickly establish trademarks, and not intended to be read: something you’d take one look at, then thrown in the (tr)ashcan. In publishing, the term has shifted to mean early promotional materials. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashcan_comic Ironically, if you haven’t seen this xkcd, we may have overestimated your familiarity. https://xkcd.com/2501/ “Fafhrd”, of “Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser”, probably isn’t pronounced the way Violet valiantly attempted. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fafhrd_and_the_Gray_Mouser Violet quotes from The Grasshopper: Games, Life, and Utopia, by ludologist Bernard Suits. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lusory_attitude Freya only references webcomics if they’re at least 17 years old. https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/03/20/in-search-of-a-robust-cosmology *** Contact us! *** Thank you to everyone who has emailed into our mailbag - If you too have a question, idea, or interesting game you’d like to share with us, email systemshoppodcast@gmail.com *** Additional Credits *** Our intro music is "Magic Escape Room" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
