November « 2012 « Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

Archive for November, 2012

Episode 18: Conspiracy To Commit Ophthalmology

November 28th, 2012 | Robin

This week’s episode commences with a trip to the Gaming Hut to consider Robin’s dichotomy of rewards versus incentives, which segues into a discussion of the co-designer syndrome in playtest feedback.

Ask Ken and Robin fields a question from Brett Evill on how one might bend history to add Ruritania-style postage stamp states back to the map of Europe.

We swap the key cooking tips we’d wished our time traveling present selves had told our neophyte incarnations as the Food Hut tackles minimaxing in the kitchen.

Then a recent report on the decoding of the Copiale Codex sends us to Conspiracy Corner to consider the history of secret societies through the obscured lenses of the Great Enlightened Society of Oculists.

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Tags: Ask Ken and Robin, Conspiracy Corner, Food Hut, Gaming hut

Posted in Podcast | 6 Comments »

Episode 17: A Gorgeous Work of Rosicrucian Monomania

November 28th, 2012 | Robin

In Ask Ken and Robin, we examine the popularity, or lack thereof, of the western as a roleplaying genre, and point to models historical and cinematic for the adventuring party in spurs and Stetsons.

We venture into a particularly cramped and cluttered iteration of the Cartography Hut to spin a passel of story threads from the real-life tale of the Mount Washington map hoard.

With zombie-like tread we shamble down the aisles of the Cinema Hut to chew over the career of director George A. Romero.

Then Time Incorporated once more dispatches Ken’s Time Machine, this time to prevent the murder of Salvador Allende and the ensuing ascension to power of Augusto Pinochet.

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Tags: Ask Ken and Robin, Cartography Hut, Cinema hut, Ken's Time Machine

Posted in Podcast | 8 Comments »

Episode 16: As Kenya is To Running

November 23rd, 2012 | Robin

Inspired by Christian Marclay’s cinechronological video installation The Clock, Gaming Hut examines time and pacing in roleplaying.

The Schaudenfreude Institute initiates a new PhD course and Ken plots a bold path forward for his beloved Republican party as we enter the ballot booth-like confines of the Politics Hut to mull the 2012 Presidential Election.

In Ask Ken and Robin, Justin Mohareb, in a cleverly submitted audio question, asks Robin to expound on his theory of the one okay game store.

Finally, we power down the cloaking device concealing our brand-new Tradecraft Hut to look at the Petraeus resignation and its place in the history of sexual security scandals.

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Tags: Ask Ken and Robin, Gaming hut, Politics Hut, Tradecraft Hut

Posted in Podcast | 10 Comments »

Truly We Are Golden Geeks

November 17th, 2012 | KenH

Many thanks to all who voted or influenced the voters for the Golden Geek Awards! Your hard work or subtle noodges have paid off, as Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff has won the 2012 Golden Geek Award for Best Podcast! We are both a lot honored and a bit dumfounded, given the great talent on all the fine podcasts ranged against us in nomination.

Tags: Awards

Posted in Announcements and Housekeeping | 1 Comment »

Episode 15: A Mere Frustum

November 16th, 2012 | Robin

In The Business of Gaming, Robin shares the Kickstarter lessons he learned from the recent bumper crowdfund of his new roleplaying game, Hillfolk.

Ken brings the light of his presence to a devastated New Jersey in Travel Advisory, recounting his adventures at Metatopia.

Ask Ken and Robin envisions the Dominion of America, the alternate world political entity resulting from Britain’s sensible management of its North American colonies.

Then Ken in his guise as the Consulting Occultist finds the standards-loving organist behind media-seeking Satanist Anton LaVey.

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Tags: Ask Ken and Robin, Consulting Occultist, The Business of Gaming, Travel Advisory

Posted in Podcast | 7 Comments »

Episode 14: Undetectable Notes of Irony

November 9th, 2012 | Robin

We kick off with another film festival wrap-up in the Cinema Hut, this time Ken’s visit to the Chicago International Film Festival.

Ask Ken and Robin asks us to contemplate the differences between two of Robin’s game engines, DramaSystem and Skulduggery, leading us to contemplate a broader old saw: does system matter?

In the Cartography Hut we examine a map of Chicago gangland in 1926, limning an urban geography of booze and bullets.

Then we rev up Ken’s Time Machine, sending him back to prevent the burning of the library at Alexandria. Or burnings, if you prefer.

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Tags: Ask Ken and Robin, Cartography Hut, Cinema hut, Ken's Time Machine

Posted in Podcast | 10 Comments »

Episode 13: That Time We Burned Down the White House

November 2nd, 2012 | Robin

This week’s Ask Ken and Robin asks us to turn a previous thing that Ken always says on its head. When is it better not to base your setting on the real world?

Then Robin and Ken square off in the History Hut for their long-planned reenactment of the War of 1812. As in real history, the Canadian battles the American to a standstill and therefore achieves resounding victory, as graded on a curve.

At the request of beloved sponsor Dork Tower, Ken and Robin then establish yet another new hut, this time the Food Hut, in which a discussion of our favorite recipes and shopping haunts leads us to a sense of place, waves of immigration to Toronto, and the death of the Chicago meat packing industry.

Finally we drop in again on the Consulting Occultist for an introduction to Kenneth Grant, whose role as Derleth to Aleister Crowley’s Lovecraft went as far as incorporating Shub-Niggurath into his ritual practices.