November « 2013 « Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

Archive for November, 2013

Episode 67: You Suck as a Depicter of Matriarchies

November 29th, 2013 | Robin

Take a moment to study the menu in the Gaming Hut, as we contrast the operations of prix fixe and a la carte character improvement RPG designs.

Watch us cut the ribbon on our brand new Abandoned Idea Clearinghouse, in which we look at creative ideas we decided not to pursue and why we set them aside.

In Ask Ken and Robin, we don our therapeutic coats to help listener Martin Rundkvist through a crisis of verisimilitude brought on by his humanities degree.

Finally we enter the Eliptony Hut to probe deeply into the 1973 Pascagoula UFO abduction.

Slabtown Games moves into the anchor sponsor slot as it continues to tease the upcoming Kickstarter for Storyscape, a tablet-based tabletop roleplaying game Robin is currently designing for them.

Kotadama Heavy Industries invites you to explore Ryuutama: The Natural Fantasy RPG, translated by Matt Sanchez & Andy Kitkowski. Satisfy your yearning for travel and exploration by jumping aboard their successful Kickstarter campaign.

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Tags: Abandoned Idea Clearinghouse, Ask Ken and Robin, Eliptony Hut, Gaming hut

Posted in Podcast | 20 Comments »

Episode 66: The Random Piggly-Wiggly Table

November 22nd, 2013 | Robin

We place a horseshoe over the mantle of the Gaming Hut to consider luck’s role as a branch point in roleplaying.

Then, at the behest of lead sponsor Stephen Jankiewicz, we enter the cobwebbed confines of the Horror Hut to ask if terror and sense of wonder can coexist.

In Ask Ken and Robin, Leo Pall Hrafnsson inquires: “How do you run a game that feels like Heat or Catch Me If You Can, where the PCs directly oppose one another?”

Finally, a grumbling time traveler revs up Ken’s Time Machine to intervene in the invention of Thanksgiving to build a more sensible, dare we say Canadian, separation between it and Christmas.

Serving as anchor sponsor this week is author Stephen Jankiewicz. Among his many works, KARTAS listeners may be most drawn to his weird tales in the Lovecraft tradition, as found in his collections Medusa, the Drowned and Other Tales and The Muse of the Monstrous. Check out his stuff on Amazon.

Slabtown Games joins us to tout Storyscape, a tablet-based tabletop roleplaying game Robin is currently designing for them.

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Tags: Ask Ken and Robin, Gaming hut, Horror Hut, Ken's Time Machine

Posted in Podcast | 12 Comments »

Episode 65: Cherubs Who Have Aged Out

November 15th, 2013 | Robin

We put down our catalogues of iron rations and guaranteed unpossessed cats to venture into the Gaming Hut and discuss the allure of shopping and gear in roleplaying games.

Inside the perimeter of the Tradecraft Hut we round up such national security concerns as Angela Merkel’s cellphone and the secret Twitter life of dismissed White House staffer Jofi Joseph.

Corwyn Pendragon Asks Ken and Robin to name their touchstone works on story and structure.

Finally Ken uses his high-level Consulting Occultist borrowing privileges to scrutinize the legendary Voynich Manuscript.

A new honor roll of sponsors joins us to help keep the podcast going.

Slabtown Games joins us to tout Storyscape, a tablet-based tabletop roleplaying game Robin is currently designing for them.

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Tags: Ask Ken and Robin, Consulting Occultist, Gaming hut, Tradecraft Hut

Posted in Podcast | 24 Comments »

Episode 64: The Gypsy was Doing Us a Solid

November 8th, 2013 | Robin

Ken has returned from the Chicago Film Festival to regale the Cinema Hut with demonic pacts, ghost possession, a Kurdish western, and an unusually sympathetic take on the new Dario Argento flick.

As prompted by George Pletz, Ask Ken and Robin considers the picaresque and floats various techniques for strictly episodic RPGing.

In the Genre Hut we mull the highly problematic footprint Fu Manchu has planted in pop culture.

Finally, we rev up Ken’s Time Machine, sending our chrono-hero to whichever sack of Rome he chooses to prevent.

Our anchor sponsor this episode is Engine Publishing and their system-neutral GM resource, Odyssey: The Complete Game Master’s Guide to Campaign Management. Get $5 off in the Engine Publishing store using code KARTAS20, good through November 2013!

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

Posted in Podcast | 23 Comments »

Episode 63: Pretending To Be Regular Daves

November 1st, 2013 | Robin

Gather in the Gaming Hut as we discuss differences of perspective between game players and game designers.

In How to Write Good we explore that most ancient of all fiction maxims. What does it mean to write what you know?

Erik Otterberg supplies us the subject for Ask Ken and Robin: what if H. P. Lovecraft had lived to a ripe old age?

Finally, popular demand, as it so often does, cries out for a sequel—in this case, the third Politics Hut retelling of the ongoing saga of Toronto mayor Rob Ford. In the segment you’ll hear Robin mention the strange suspended feeling of waiting over a period of months for the big shoe to drop. Well, it dropped yesterday, rendering this segment, recorded last week, a halcyon snapshot of a bygone day. Still, it will help to bridge the gap from when non-Torontonians stopped following the story and yesterday, when he once again made headlines worldwide.