#21: Dragon Double Bill
Last issue of the year, folks. Thanks for subscribing and hope you’re having a good last week of the year. And I’ll see you in 2021 where hopefully things get better for all of us.
I. Listen of the Week
Two recommendations this week - a dragon double bill, if you will:
First, on Fear of a Black Dragon, there’s a great section in the middle of their Christmas cracker episode about introducing roleplaying games to people who might not have played one before. It’s a topic that I keep returning to - I introduce a lot of people to their first RPG. Right now, I’m leaning towards something like For the Queen as my ideal starter game but I haven’t tested this out. There’s something about starting someone’s roleplaying experience with conversation and questions that appeals to me.
Second, on Daydreaming with Dragons, this week’s Tabletop Technique has some excellent tips for GMs on the challenge of getting players to “care” about your worldbuilding. Judd’s advice always feels ‘lived in’ and fundamentally warm-spirited. Which is also true here. And then Inspiration Goat brings up Studio Ghibli movies like My Neighbour Totoro and non-traditional, non-conflict-driven stories.
Both of these are great listening!
II. Links of the Week
On the Liber Ludorum blog, an exploration of Mork Borg and the tradition of early European Carnival: “We frequently think of apocalypse as the end of the world: a cosmic cataclysm, a nuclear holocaust, or some other catastrophic event. But etymologically, apocalypse means a profound insight or moment of enlightenment—hence the Christian apocalyptic narrative is titled The Book of Revelation.
Carnival is one such apocalypse—it reveals a world and a way of living beyond the mundane and everyday order. And Mörk Borg is another—it enacts a radical break from standards and expectations of what rulebooks and grimdark games should be.”
The Aleatoric Nature of Tabletop Roleplaying Games: a video where Batts compares game rulebooks to sheets of music.
“One shots make me more nervous than any other kind of rpg session: more than first sessions of campaigns, big showdowns, or even finales. By their nature you’ve got one bite at the apple”: Running One Shots from the Gauntlet blog.
Jared Rascher asked a 100 people how they decided to buy new editions of games they owned. The results seem like good news. Full article here!
StorySynth, a site for playtesting card-based storygames, got some cool updates.
III. Small Ads
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Hello, dear readers. This newsletter is written by me, Thomas Manuel. I’m half-man, half-beast, half-journalist, half-game designer.
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