Posts Tagged ‘Travel Advisory’
Episode 24: Conan Gets a Fish
February 1st, 2013 | Robin
After two bits of preamble business, one elegiac and the other bathetic , we issue a Travel Advisory to wring vicarious enjoyment from Ken’s journey to WarpCon in Cork, Ireland.
We then step into the Cinema Hut to regale one and all with our top ten picks from the sterling movie year that was 2012.
In Ask Ken and Robin, Lowell Francis asks Ken to expand on a past comment contrasting his sense of fun placement to that of our esteemed pal Dennis Detwiller, leading us to a consideration of the grind, character fragility, and when to bring the power fantasy.
Finally, we once more brave the shadowy depths of the Conspiracy Corner to explore the patterns and motivations behind the recent wave of truther movements.
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Episode 20: Twentieth Century Eccentrics
December 21st, 2012 | Robin
In our final episode of 2012, we issue a Travel Advisory on our recent trip to Dragonmeet in London. A seamless segue then ushers us to the wonder of Ken’s Bookshelf, in which Robin vicariously enjoys the impressive pile of tomes Ken liberated from the British Isles during his journey.
With yet another end of the world imminent, we are then behooved to cut the ribbon on the Mythology Hut to consider the State of the Apocalypse, 2012 edition.
In Ask Ken and Robin, we ponder the ideal RPG rules set for the play-by-forum format.
We close with another visit to the Consulting Occultist, who this time around delves into the murky facts behind a reputed 17th century French Satanism outbreak, better known as the Affair of the Poisons.
We’ll be back on Jan 11, 2013 with our next new episode. Until then, please accept the seasonal greeting of your choice and have a safe and pleasant holiday!
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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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Episode 7: Lindbergh’s Mummy
September 20th, 2012 | Robin
Travel Advisory whisks us on an aural journey to Worldcon, courtesy of Ken, who brings back knowledge of Chinese SF, steampunk semantics, the best vampire novel of the last 100 years, and the dreaded hallway seminar. Along the way we explore the sub-cultural differences between the literary side of geekery and its gaming cousin.
We venture into the Gaming Hut to peer over the shoulders of Mike Mason and Paul Fricker as they refit the classic roleplaying game Call of Cthulhu for its seventh edition.
On the occasion of a $69 mil settlement of price-fixing charges by HarperCollins, Hachette and Simon & Schuster, The Business of Gaming contrasts mainstream publishing’s response to ebooks to that of the tabletop gaming world.
Finally, in History Bending, we squeeze gameworthy or fictionable material from the connection between aviator Charles Lindbergh and his associates, real-life weird scientist Dr. Alexis Carrel and pulp-writer/UFO investigator Donald Keyhoe. Referenced: The Immortalists, by David M. Friedman.
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Episode 5: Gen Con ‘12
September 7th, 2012 | Robin
It’s a bumper installment of Travel Advisory as Ken and Robin look back on the whirlwind that was Gen Con 2012. Amid the fast-flying references: Fantasy Flight’s Spartacus and Netrunner; GURPS Horror, Book of the Smoke, Bookhounds of London, the Coventry Street, Harmonsworth and Highgate Vampires; Charles Fort, Lorefinder, Ashen Stars, 13th Age, Delta Green, John Helfers, Matt Forbeck, Pathfinder Tales.
In Ken and Robin Recycle Audio choice snippets of the GUMSHOE Investigative roleplaying panel are presented for your delectation, with special guest silvered tones supplied by Pelgrane Press publisher Simon Rogers. They add Night’s Black Agents and The Esoterrorists to the reference tally.
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Episode 1: Vampires are A-holes
August 3rd, 2012 | Robin
Welcome to the inaugural episode of Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff, the new podcast from game designers and authors Kenneth Hite and Robin D. Laws. Join our thrilling audio adventure as we discuss games, movies, history, narrative and sundry concerns of the geekosphere.
Here’s what we talk about this week:
In our Among Our Many Hats segment, we talk about Ken’s new roleplaying game Night’s Black Agents, in which the spy thriller goes vampire, with logistics supplied by the GUMSHOE system.
In Travel Advisory, Robin recounts his recent trip to the Continuum convention in Leicester, England, where he performs a health-check on the hobby and marvels over future Glorantha mapping plans from Moon Design, publishers of HeroQuest and now RuneQuest. Along the way we detour to London’s John Soane Museum, an enduring monument to one man’s acquisitiveness.
Our Ask Ken and Robin segment tackles a question from Robert Scott Martin on the role of the GM in contemporary game design.
To round out the episode, Ken dons the mantle of Consulting Occultist to give us the 101 on The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, with a cast of characters including William Butler Yeats, Bram Stoker, and Aleister Crowley.
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