Episodes
Tuesday Nov 28, 2017
Episode 121 - Battered Group Syndrome, Part 1
Tuesday Nov 28, 2017
Tuesday Nov 28, 2017
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 Min/Max Podcast, another excellent show by Christians about gaming and theology. We then quickly answer a question from Patreon backer Kevin about our favorite polyhedral dice (results: 2d12+1d8, mean: 17.5.) After our Scripture readings, it's time to tackle this topic head-on!
In this first half, we cover the symptoms of "battered group syndrome" (especially avoidance behaviors) and a few suggestions to help treat it, such as changing GMs or systems for a bit, granting players as much narrative control as possible, take-backs, and failures. Jenny also introduces us to the Funcilitator, which sounds ... ominous. Enjoy!
Full credit to Fear the Boot for, we believe, coining the phrase "battered group syndrome" and discussing this themselves in FTB 440.>/p>
Scripture: Psalm 51:10-13, Proverbs 25:18-20, Romans 12:17-21
Tuesday Nov 14, 2017
Episode 120 - Six Clickbaity GMing Traditions We Need To Stop
Tuesday Nov 14, 2017
Tuesday Nov 14, 2017
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 Saturday Morning Podcast (who are of course long-time friends of ours) to analyze an amazing and difficult cartoon from his childhood—Exo Squad. It's very long, because that's what happens when our podcasts combine! Here's Part 1, an introduction to the show and a breakdown of episodes and characters; and here's Part 2, an analysis of thematic elements and considerations for gaming in this setting. Enjoy!
Scripture: Leviticus 19:14-15, Ephesians 4:22-25, 2 Timothy 2:22-26