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Dungeons & Grandmas

Dungeons & Grandmas

ROLL TO SAVE: Now that Andrew has finally seen it, our hosts dive into the surprise hit of the year, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and look at how it honors (and deviates from) the game it’s based upon.

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • The Black Arts of Algorithms” (5 August 2016): Where our hosts discuss the disparity of interpretation of box office numbers with regard to Ghostbusters: Answer the Call and the first Suicide Squad.
  • Open Awesome License” (13 January 2023): Where Andrew discusses the Open Game License controversy D&D publisher, Wizards of the Coast, got into.
  • Madmacguffin” (20 January 2023): Where our hosts share their thoughts about the first (and only?) season of the Disney+ show, Willow.

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Jellyfish Panthers

Jellyfish Panthers

A-NEWS BOUCHE: It’s been a busy few months, so our hosts felt that it was time to get away on a cruise, albeit a news cruise. They talk about the recent legal woes with Microsoft’s attempted acquisition of Activision Blizzard, recap all of the Wizards of the Coast’s woes, and all the strange Twitter drama as of late.

RELEVANT LINKS:

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • Hammering With a Screwdriver” (19 August 2016): Where D. Bethel discusses the first episode of Batman: The Telltale Series.
  • Nature’s Velcro” (3 July 2020): Where Andrew relays his time with Owlcat’s Pathfinder: Kingmaker.

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Mech Media

Mech Media

D&D BEYOND LOW EXPECTATIONS: D. Bethel quickly relates (spoiler free) his enjoyable viewing last week of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

WEEK IN GEEK: This week, Andrew talks about the recently wrapped first season of NBC’s “requel” series, Quantum Leap, while D. dips his toes into a remake of a rerelease of a game he played an import of in the mid ’90s: Square Enix’s Front Mission 1st: Remake.

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • Part Racehorse; All Workhorse” (17 April 2020): Where our hosts discuss the hotness of remaking games.
  • An Optimistic Dystopia” (12 August 2022): Where Andrew plays through Capcom’s remake of Resident Evil 3.
  • A Week for Days” (23 September 2022): Where Andrew discusses the first few episodes of the new Quantum Leap show.

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Madmacguffin

Madmacguffin

OUT OF THE WAY, PECK: After 34 years, Disney decided to create a sequel series to the Lucasfilm cult classic fantasy film, Willow, exclusively for Disney+. D. Bethel is a devout fan of that original film; Andrew couldn’t care less. So, they’re going into this series from two very different contexts, but come to very similar conclusions: it’s okay.

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • A Week for Days” (23 September 2022): Where our hosts discuss the first trailer for the Disney+ Willow series.
  • Tweets to Toots” (9 December 2022): Where our hosts discuss the first two episodes of the Disney+ Willow series.
  • Open Awesome License” (13 January 2023): Where Andrew broke down the controversy around the possible new Open Game License that Wizards of the Coast is working on.

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FEATURED MUSIC:

  • “Money For Nothing” by Dire Straits excerpted
Ding Dong Bowser

Ding Dong Bowser

NEWS CRUISE: This week, our hosts dive into a variety of news of the shocking, weird, and downright questionable.

CHAPTERS:

  • (00:00) Intro – Old Man Talk: Allergies
  • (02:43) News Cruise: Monte Cook Games’ Announcement
  • (10:50) Nintendo uses sentencing of a hacker to make a statement.
  • (16:33) Upcoming Predator prequel, Prey, will be available with a Comanche language audio track.
  • (22:12) Confusion and deception (maybe?) from Blue Box Game Studios
  • (31:06) Outro – Netflix’s Sandman and the danger of trailers.
  • (33:14) Outtakes

RELEVANT LINKS:

  • Andrew’s short series of tweets about the Monte Cook Games announcement:
  • The teaser trailer for the Predator prequel, Prey (the full trailer has since been released and made the connection much more explicit):

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • In a World” (20 March 2015): Where Andrew discusses a bit about Open Game Licenses.
  • Drive Your Gorilla” (25 June 2021): Where our hosts first talk about controversy––or at least the mystery––surrounding Blue Box Game Studios.

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Flabbercast

Flabbercast

TRAIN SUPLEX: The trailer for the next and last (of the current set) of the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster series from Square Enix, Final Fantasy VI, has been released and our hosts have some thoughts (and nitpicks).

NFTHAC0: TTRPG Twitter caught on fire when discussion erupted around the possibility that Dungeons & Dragons developer, Wizards of the Coast, might be considering getting into the NFT game.

RESCUE THE RANGERS: A trailer for an upcoming movie based on Chip ‘n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers dropped and it…it…I have no words, for good or for ill. We’ll wait and see.

RELEVANT LINKS:

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • Milkbloods” (9 April 2021): Where our hosts first discussed the threat of NFTs.
  • Crypto ATM” (8 October 2021): Where our hosts discussed the threat of NFTs for the second time.
  • An Accident of Flavor” (12 November 2021): A third time when our hosts discussed the threat of NFTs (when video game companies first announced their support).

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Smell the Duke

Smell the Duke

SHIFTING SANDS: For a short bit, our hosts discuss The New York Times paying a large amount for the popular website-based word game, Wordle, as well as the announcement that Sony intends to buy the former Microsoft-owned studio, Bungie.

WEEK IN GEEK: This week, Andrew peruses the rule book for Renegade Game Studios’ new licensed tabletop RPG, Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, while D. Bethel is intrigued and impressed by the newest release from Klei Studios, Griftlands.

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • The Space Dog and Bacchus Show.” (21 August 2014): Where Andrew interviews game designer, Kai Cambra.
  • Applejacks. Hot Dogs. Thursday. Fire Truck.” (13 May 2016): Where Andrew talks about playing Klei’s Invisible, Inc.
  • States of Play” (30 August 2019): Where Andrew develops an obsession with Klei’s Oxygen Not Included.
  • Reliable Virtual Helmets” (27 September 2019): Where D. Bethel discusses his time with a real deckbuilding mobile game, Slothworks’ Meteorfall: Journey.
  • Makes a Taste” (13 March 2020): Where Andrew discusses playing the tabletop superhero RPG, The Spectaculars.
  • Films in Quarries” (18 June 2021): Where Andrew first discusses his current obsession with sentai shows.

RELEVANT LINKS:

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Memory of a Landline

Memory of a Landline

WEEK IN GEEK: It’s a week of superhero adaptations with Andrew watching the recent slate of DC/CW tv shows and D. Bethel playing the opening hours of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy by Eidos-Montréal.

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • Business Exempt” (19 Oct. 2018): Where our hosts last discussed TellTale Games…when they laid off a bunch of employees.
  • #SaveGrifter” (14 Feb. 2020): Where our hosts plus the DC-on-the-ground reporter, Taylor, talk about the last big DC/CW crossover event, “Crisis on Infinite Earths.”
  • All Those Words” (19 March 2021): Where Andrew talked about the most recent addition to the DC/CW catalogue, Superman & Lois.

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An Accident of Flavor

An Accident of Flavor

DIAMOND ANNIVERSARY: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim turned 10 years old this week, celebrated with yet another re-release of the game across all gaming platforms. Andrew and D. Bethel talk about this milestone for a brief bit.

PLEASE STOP: NFTs continue to rear their ugly heads as major gaming publishers announce their interest in integrating blockchain weirdness into their games. After an explanation of the whole mess, D. Bethel and Andrew discuss NFTs’ possible impact on video games.

RIP DEAN STOCKWELL: After a long and storied career, actor and writer Dean Stockwell passed away this week. Nerds know him best as Al from Quantum Leap, but his strange choices and charismatic performances made him an actor everybody surely has a fond memory of in some way or another.

RELEVANT LINKS:

  • A screenshot from Reddit outlining the hit cryptocurrency may take after the institution of the recently passed legislation (via the Twitter account @CoinersTakingLs):
  • Tweets from @outstarwalker about how NFTs may not be the game changer some people think they are:

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • Milkbloods” (09 April 2021): Where D. Bethel and Andrew first discuss the cultural pandemic called NFTs.
  • Meat Pops” (22 Oct. 2021): Where Andrew discusses the different ways Steam and the Epic Games store are approaching NFTs.

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Books For Days

Books For Days

CAP PUNCHED FIRST: Another day, another attack on fictional characters as a cable news segment pilloried Marvel Comics for making Captain America “woke” in a recent issue, seemingly forgetting that Cap has been punching literal Nazis in his comics since his first issue. Andrew and D. Bethel explore this while also examining the variety of ways texts (movies, comics, books, music, tv shows, etc.) can be read.

PRINT ON DEMAND: After buying some RPG books through DriveThruRPG, Andrew becomes fascinated by the idea––and future applicability––of print on demand services, where a book isn’t printed until a customer orders it. D. Bethel brings his creator experience with POD services to the conversation as well.

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • Slapcast” (02 July 2021): Where Andrew gave us the run down of the strange TSR Twitter fight.

RELEVANT LINKS:

  • The video Dan referred to with Stan Lee talking about the creation of the X-Men, though it’s one of many similar and slightly different creation stories he has told over the years:

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