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Episode Synopsis
Paul and Dusey ask and answer: is player agency always sacrosanct? Should every new roleplayer start in a dungeon? Did Tolkien know how to name women and did he care? And why everything in every game, table and session is a trade-off. Plus talk about The Slow Knife and Urban Shadows.
Weird Terminology and Acronyms
Bleed: The spillover of emotions between character and player.
DungeonTube: The ecosystem of YouTube creators who make videos about D&D and other RPGs.
Flags/Flagging: An indication of a player’s interests, or disinterests, at the table. An explicit character motivation or goal, a belief, a very high skill, a character class, really anything at all that tells the table “I want this” or, perhaps “I do not want this.”
LARP: Live Action Role Play. Once again we direct you toward Wikipedia for more information. It’s an incredibly rich, complex body of work! IGRC is far more interested in the Nordic larp tradition than other forms.
OSR: Old School Revolution/Revival/Renaissance. Our definition will probably start fights, so go to Wikipedia for a hopefully more neutral take.
PbtA: Powered by the Apocalypse, the meta-platform pseudo-concept not-a-license game design framework that arose with the publication of Apocalypse World.
Player agency: A player’s authority over their character’s actions and feelings at the table.
Trad: A conventional RPG with a central facilitator with control over the world, players with control over their characters, resolution systems mostly concerned with material outcomes, frequently focused on tactical combat. Modern Mythology has a good article that differs from this a little but is still worth reading.
X-Card/Safety: You don’t know everything about everyone at the table, and sometimes subject matter or play style can be upsetting in a way the participants did not opt in for. John Stavropolous created the X-Card, one of the first explicit safety tools. The Indie Game Reading Club has also covered safety.
Games and RPG products referred to in this episode.
These are affiliate links to DriveThruRPG, where hopefully we can earn enough pennies to defray the cost of acquiring these games. The Indie Game Reading Club does not accept free or promotional copies of games! If it’s not available in PDF from DriveThruRPG, we link to the publishers or retailers where the games are available.
- Apocalypse World
- Avatar Legends
- Blades in the Dark
- Cowboy Bebop
- Dragonbane
- Escape the Dark Castle
- Fire in the Lake (COIN)
- John Company
- Masks: A New Generation
- Monsterhearts
- Mothership
- Mutant: Year Zero
- Stonetop
- Tenra Bansho Zero
- The Burning Wheel
- The Slow Knife
- Torchbearer
- Urban Shadows
- Wanderhome
- Zombie World
Contact Us
As always: If you have questions, comments, ideas or complaints, email us at hello@indiegamereadingclub.com!
