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Ding Dong Bowser

Ding Dong Bowser

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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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Shadow Johnson

Shadow Johnson

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PIXEL REMASTER REMARKS: The release of Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster is finally upon us and Andrew has a few––very short––thoughts about it.

DOCTOR WHAT?: It was announced that––despite an existing tabletop role-playing game existing––there would be a new Doctor Who roleplaying game based on the fifth edition (5E) of Dungeons and Dragons. And people have opinions.

RELEVANT LINKS:

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • “Aural Improvisation” (6 February 2015): Where Andrew first discussed Cubicle 7’s “bespoke” original tabletop RPG based on Doctor Who.
  • “The Badger Abides” (7 February 2020): Where Andrew talks about the work of Evil Hat Games and their tabletop RPGs.
  • “Exposure Creates Tolerance” (17 September 2021): Where Andrew talks about the first four games in the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster series.

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Smell the Duke

Smell the Duke

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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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Halloween Still

Halloween Still

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RTD2: With the next series of Doctor Who wrapping up the tenures of both the star, Jodie Whittaker, and its showrunner, Chris Chibnall, it was announced that the 2023 series will herald the return of the showrunner who brought the show back from the wilderness in 2005, Russell T Davies. Our hosts discuss the possibilities––and drawbacks––of this announcement.

RELEVANT LINKS:

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • “Teasing the Difference” (05 June 2015): Where D. Bethel discusses playing The Last of Us, the game that came with his purchase of this Playstation 4.

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Books For Days

Books For Days

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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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U3DS

U3DS

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WEEK IN GEEK: This week, Andrew enthusiastically plays the 2nd edition of Pathfinder, despite not fully enjoying the first edition, while D. Bethel gets really excited to play an adventure game based on one of his favorite comics, Blacksad, but gets horribly disappointed by Blacksad: Under the Skin.

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • “The Volumometer Incident” (10 July 2014): Where Andrew shares his experience playing the Pathfinder card game.
  • “Starting By Starting” (03 January 2020): Where D. Bethel discusses the noir adventure game inspired by H. P. Lovecraft, Frogwares’ The Sinking City.
  • “Nature’s Velcro” (03 July 2020): Where Andrew plays the computer RPG, Pathfinder: Kingmaker.

RELEVANT LINKS:

  • Here’s D. Bethel’s fan art of Blacksad.
Sketch Fridays #78 – Blacksad by D. Bethel.

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Makes A Taste

Makes A Taste

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CORONA, I HARDLY KNEW YA: The coronavirus continues to wreak havoc on the nerd world with––since the last episode––the postponement of Emerald City Comic Con, the cancellation of this year’s E3 and other cultural events like SXSW. Andrew & D. Bethel cover the COVID-19-related news since the last episode.

WEEK IN GEEK: This week, Andrew falls in love with Scratchpad Publishing’s new RPG, Spectaculars, while D. Bethel is intrigued by the demo for Final Fantasy VII Remake on Playstation 4.

RELEVANT LINKS:

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • Episode 100, Part 2 – Action Noir Theater (29 July 2016): Where the podcast debuted part one of its audio drama, Nick Springer and the Fremont Horror.
  • Episode 146 – Bad Games Make Precedent (08 Sept. 2017): Where D. Bethel and Andrew talk about the impact of Final Fantasy VII, for better or for worse.
  • The Future is Only Forward (22 March 2019): Where Andrew talks about Rodney Thompson’s previous game, Dusk City Outlaws.
  • Textured in Fear (24 May 2019): Where SquareEnix released its first trailer for Final Fantasy VII Remake and D. Bethel and Andrew discuss the remake’s relevance to the modern market.
  • Tile Pile (22 Nov. 2019): Where Andrew talks about playing Betrayal Legacy.

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The Transformers Paradox

The Transformers Paradox

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GOTTA GO FAST: Sonic the Hedgehog destroys box office expectations Valentine’s Day weekend. Andrew and Dan discuss the surprise success of this cinematic adaptation of the beloved video game franchise.

BIRDS OF PREY: OR, THE REINSTATEMENT OF INSTITUTIONALIZED SEXISM AGAINST WOMAN-LED SUPERHERO FILMS: Birds of Prey released last week and its box office performance left some upset. D. Bethel and Andrew talk about the relativity of box office success, how Marvel fandom may be tainting the pond, and how marketing is a strange magic.

DOOMED ANIMAL CROSSING: In a bit of light news, with Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Doom Eternal releasing on the same day, Twitter and Reddit have become very interesting places, and in mostly good ways.

RELEVANT LINKS:

https://twitter.com/abujimin/status/1227314799303970819

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • “Episode 101 – The Black Arts of Algorithms” (05 August 2015): Where Andrew and D. Bethel discuss a similar discourse around the reboot of Ghostbusters and how it was deemed a failure despite earning perfectly fine box office numbers.
  • “Episode 155 – Captain Host” (20 July 2018): Where Dan and Andrew ask the question, “Were there too many superhero/nerd movies packed into a single summer?”, among which Solo: A Star Wars Story was released.

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The Badger Abides

The Badger Abides

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THE PROBLEM WITH LOVECRAFT: A lot of controversy was had (mostly on Twitter) over the last few weeks with the release of Evil Hat Productions’ Fate of Cthulhu, a new table-top RPG integrating the systems of Evil Hat’s Fate Core and the Lovecraft mythos. Evil Hat proudly declared that it was bucking tropes of other Lovecraft-inspired games––mainly how it addresses Lovecraft’s prejudices head-on and it doesn’t include sanity meters for its players––and that, for some reason, made a lot of people upset. Andrew talks about the subsequent furor while D. Bethel shows up as our resident Lovecraft scholar.

*Show image is a screenshot of Dean Stockwell as Wilbur Whateley from the 1970 film, The Dunwich Horror.

RELEVANT LINKS:

  • Evil Hat tweets about how Fate of Cthulhu bends the traditional Lovecraftian gaming experience:
  • Evil Hat Production’s content warning included with Fate of Cthulhu (click to enlarge):
  • The adorable video of a coyote and a badger off to go hunting together:

RELEVANT EPISODES:

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Robot Monsters From the Future

Robot Monsters From the Future

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THE FINAL COUNTDOWN: As 2019 hurries to a close, our hosts kick up their feet and just chat about the things they’re doing to occupy their time until the new year rolls around. They talk about everything from the winter Steam sale, to finishing Outer Wilds (no spoilers!), to Lovecraftian tabletop games (Fate of Cthulhu), video games (The Sinking City), and novels (Winter Tide), to developing for web browsers, to––of course––Doctor Who and Star Wars.

RELEVANT LINKS:

  • “Weird World News“––a module for Fate Core by friend-of-the-show, André La Roche.
  • La Roche, André. “Spotlight: The Joke’s On Us.” A Website [ , ] For All Intents and Purposes, 27 October 2019––André’s critical look at one of the most divisive movies of the year.
  • Wildfire––the game by Ryan Kubik.

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • “Shortcast 03 – Interview with André La Roche” (31 December 2014): When we actually had friend-of-the-show, André La Roche, on to talk about writing for tabletop games, thus becoming a friend-of-the-show.
  • “Episode 89 – High-Five Forever” (25 March 2016): Where D. Bethel talked about the revisionist Lovecraftian story, The Ballad of Black Tom.
  • “Shortcast 21 – Love the Stank” (30 December 2016): Where Andrew first talked about playing Stardew Valley.
  • “Shortcast 77 – Smash Talk” (14 December 2018): Where our hosts talk about Series 11 of Doctor Who, which introduced the world to Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor.
  • “End-Of-Year-Cast #001 – #WIN” (28 December 2018): Where our hosts go over the things that defined 2018 for them.
  • “Plants Having Sex” (05 April 2019): Where Andrew first talks about playing No Man’s Sky.
  • “Threadnaught” (13 September 2019): Where Andrew talks about the big No Man’s Sky update, No Man’s Sky Beyond.
  • “Tile Pile” (22 November 2019): Where D. Bethel discussed his first impressions of Outer Wilds.
  • “Universe of Nonsense” (06 December 2019): Where the trailer (and release date) for Series 12 of Doctor Who was discussed.

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