Dice Exploder

Dice Exploder: Afterimage is alternative show format, a cross between play report and personal memoir.The Experimental Role-Playing Laboratory, or ERPL, was a thrice a year mini convention put on by students at my college back in the 00s and 10s and onward to this day. It's how I got into indie games. I still think about it, and the people I met there, to this day. They still mean something to me. What might I still mean to them?Written, edited, and performed by Sam DunnewoldTristan Zimmerman at the Molten Sulfur blogSteven’s newsletter and novels. Try Black Velvet to start.Transcript available at www.diceexploder.comMusic by Blue Dot Sessions: https://app.sessions.blue/My games: sdunnewold.itch.ioFollow me on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/diceexploder.com

Transcripts available at diceexploder.comMausritter is an old school dungeon crawling game where instead of playing as elves fighting dragons, you play as mice fleeing from owls. It’s not unlike any number of other old school games like Cairn or Into the Odd, but its inventory system is the only inventory system I’ve ever actually liked. Does it work differently than other games? At a raw numbers level, not really! But instead of a bunch of paper bookkeeping, Mausritter turns items into little cardboard squares like board game pieces that you put in a grid on your character sheet. That physicality makes all the difference.Further ReadingMausritter by Isaac WilliamsThe Lonely Oak by Victor LaneCairn by Yochai GalBlades in the Dark by John HarperQuinns Quest on youtube and patreon.SocialsQuinns on Bluesky.Sam on Bluesky and itch.The Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.comOur logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!Dice Exploder on Patreon

Transcripts available at diceexploder.comTo close out this miniseries on actual play, I wanted to feature a game that I think uses actual play as a game mechanic. Hear me out. Void 1680 AM is a solo playlist-building game in which you create a fictional radio broadcast. Except when you're done, you can send it to the game's creator (this week's cohost Ken Lowery), and he'll broadcast it out onto the real radio via the AM antenna in his garage (and on YouTube).Obviously it feels different to play the game knowing it's going to go out on air. But I think it feels different even just knowing that it could go out on air. And while most actual play feels first and foremost like an act of performance, Ken's broadcasts feel more like an extension of gameplay and an act of community building. How's it feel to be inside all that? Come take a listen.Further ReadingVoid 1680 AM by Ken LoweryVoid 1680 AM Community Broadcasts archives on YouTubeSam’s Void Community BroadcastChinese larp of Void on InstagramCharacters Without Stories featuring SamSocialsKen on Bluesky and itch. You can purchase physical copies from his imprint Bannerless Games.Sam on Bluesky and itchThe Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.comOur logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!Dice Exploder on Patreon

Transcripts available at diceexploder.comOne of my favorite parts about these episodes where I'm highlighting a single moment from an actual play is how many practical lessons I can bring back to my own table by going beat by beat through a significant moment in play. And today, Maia Wilson has brought a particularly significant moment from her show Maia's Game Room in which one character, in desperate straights, is pressured by an NPC to pay for his help with sex.It's an intense moment. It may not be for you (and this episode may not be, either). But I think there's no better way to learn about how to establish good communication and try to keep people safe at the table than by breaking down a specific example. Plus, when you get this right like I think Maia and her table do, the results can be cathartic and compelling. Let's get into it.Further ReadingMaia's Game Room: Electric State, episode 5 The Battle of Primrose Park: Playing for Emancipatory Bleed in Fortune & Felicity by Jonaya KemperThe Electric State rpgThe Electric State art bookSocialsMaia on BlueskySam on Bluesky and itchThe Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.comOur logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!Dice Exploder on Patreon

Transcripts available at diceexploder.comIt's a new series on Dice Exploder all about actual play. For five episodes, instead of breaking down one mechanic, we're going to break down one moment from one actual play show. And to kick things off, I'm joined by actual play critic and all-around-writer Rowan Zeoli of Rascal and Polygon. We cover an overview of actual play as a medium and the current state of the scene, we dig deep into the fine line this medium walks between fiction and nonfiction, and then we get to our moment: the very beginning of My First Dungeon's six episode miniseries on Orbital Blues. How can you make the most of those precious opening moments when there's so much to establish?Further ReadingOrbital Blues by Sam Sleney, Joshua Clark, and Zachary CoxMy First Dungeon: Orbital Blues episode 1Em Friedman on PatreonSocialsRowan on Bluesky and Rascal NewsSam on Bluesky and itchThe Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.comOur logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!Dice Exploder on Patreon

Transcripts available at diceexploder.comToday we’re wrapping up the Dice Exploder series on love, sex, and romance with Will That Be All? by Graham Walmsley, a game about the social relationships between the downstairs staff at Melton Hall, a fictional British estate, over the course of about a decade between the first and second world wars.It’s a lovely game about finding solace and community even as the world outside feel deeply uncertain - and that’s what Kim wanted to talk about: how setting, and in this case the spectre of war, can encourage and affect how not just romance but relationships of all kinds can play out in a game. Further ReadingWill That Be All? by Graham WhalmsleyBreaking the Ice, and The Romance Trilogy, by Emily Care BossRosenstrasse by Jessica Hammer and Moyra TurkingtonDownton AbbeySocialsK Lam on Bluesky and itchSam on Bluesky and itchThe Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.comOur logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!Dice Exploder on Patreon