Bonus Experience Rai Witter Cole, Monica Speca

Hello Bonus Babies,



Rai returns for a finale. We sort of talk about games, but mostly we just talk. 



Here's some stuff we talk about: 



Monica's computer



Rai's life



Music of the 90s



Monica's book



Onyx Path shop talk



A better alternative to the "no fascists" rule



Rai's son and the Progress Pride Flag



Fabula Ultima



Dungeon Meishi



Gay Final Fantasy



You can find even more nonsense in the extended cut.



And here's some links for things referenced: 



"Dragostea Din Tei" by O-Zone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnopHCL1Jk8



2018 Progress Pride Flag (Danial Quasar): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_flag_(LGBT)#/media/File:LGBTQ+_rainbow_flag_Quasar_%22Progress%22_variant.svg



Fabula Ultima: https://www.needgames.it/fabula-ultima-en/



Delicious in Dungeon (Dungeon Meishi/Danjon Meishi): https://yenpress.com/series/delicious-in-dungeon



Rai's social:



Rai on Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/raiasintended



Thank you everyone for sticking with us. We love you.

Hello Bonus Babies,



I am so sorry for the huge delay - when it rains it pours. But here we are with the penultimate episode of Season Six! 



Today Monica gets together with Heather (her wife) to discuss one of their mutually shared core principles of game design: participation makes the game. If you remove players from play, you are denying them the chance to experience your game. We break down what this means as well as provide good and bad examples of designing for character creation, incapacitation, elimination, and replacement. We also discuss constructive self-entertainment vs. disruptive behavior and techniques for different designs and different styles of play. 



In your patron cut you'll also hear: 



The mystery of the brown fluff



Live Morgana Updates



Live Julia Updates



Important links from the show: 



Fabula Ultima: https://www.needgames.it/fabula-ultima-en/



"Bluebeard's Bride AP" on The Story Told RPG Podcast: https://thestorytold.libsyn.com/bluebeards-bride-ap



Heather's socials:



@Snoutopus on Twitter and Bluesky



@plague-of-frog on Tumblr https://www.tumblr.com/plague-of-frog

Hello Bonus Babies,



Today I'm joined by friend and colleague Alex Guerrero to discuss how video games utilize narrative and setting design to create a sense of wonder and mystery - and how you can bring that to the table in your own tabletop RPGs!



We discuss:

Good writing and pacing of lore

Creating and fostering mystery while running games

Supporting an action-RPG feel at the table

Using techniques from GMless gaming

Integrating social influence into games

Building lore for your game using other games



Also discussed in the extended cut:

Monica's favorite GM slight-of-hand and the judicious handling of "yes, but"

Behind the scenes in trying to close the show

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR HONKAI STAR RAIL FROM 15:32 to 19:05. They're called out with a musical bumper so if you don't want the plot spoiled PLEASE SKIP AHEAD.



We mention a lot of things we said we would link, so here are quite literally all of them:





"Are You Satisfied?" by Marina and the Diamonds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWywn51-B_I



Ashikai https://www.youtube.com/@Ashikai

(The lore analyst that Alex mentioned)



Video games



Genshin Impacthttps://genshin.hoyoverse.com/



Honkai: Star Railhttps://hsr.hoyoverse.com/





TTRPGs mentioned for Genshin-style play



Exalted Essencehttps://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/427275/Exalted-Essence



Godbound



Free edition https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/185959/Godbound-A-Game-of-Divine-Heroes-Free-Edition



Deluxe edition https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/185960/Godbound-A-Game-of-Divine-Heroes





AGE System https://greenroninstore.com/collections/age-system



Storypath System https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/431162/Storypath-Ultra-Preview-2023



Anima Primehttps://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/90234/Anima-Prime-RPG





Other TTRPGs mentioned



Microscope https://www.lamemage.com/microscope/



The Quiet Yearhttps://buriedwithoutceremony.com/the-quiet-year



Spindlewheel https://www.teacabbage.com/spindlewheel



Blades in the Darkhttps://evilhat.com/product/blades-in-the-dark/





Alex's links



Twitter https://twitter.com/AFractalDragon



Itch https://fractaldragon.itch.io/



Tumblr https://letourswordsdecide.tumblr.com/

Hello Bonus Babies!



D is back in the studio with me today to deliver on our promise to discuss exceptions-based rules design. We talk about Exalted: Essence an awful lot, but also talk about Malifaux, Chronicles of Darkness, and some upcoming games. We talk about good examples of how to build strong exceptions and an equal number of bad ones, and point out games that don't do this at all.



Also discussed in the extended cut:





Live, custom made, spooky beeps



Even more on ASMR



The weirdness of TikTok



Anticipating a LARP



Expectations for advances



The intricacies of royalties and "the Bigolas Dickolas Moment"



Find D's Choice of Games novel here: https://www.choiceofgames.com/seventh-sea-a-pirates-pact/

Hello Bonus Babies,



Today Monica sits down with friend and colleague Hiromi Cota to discuss how you can improve the accessibility of your tabletop RPG. We talk about making things accessible to folks with physical issues, but mental ones as well. We also talk about math a lot.



In the patron cut:





More coping strategies for ADHD



Monica's style guide opinions



Being ready to teach dice pools



You can find Hiromi and their work here:





https://hiromicota.com/



https://www.tumblr.com/hiromicota

Hello Bonus Babies,



Today Monica is joined by the hosts of the Malifaux podcast, Steampowered Scoundrels, to have a lively discussion about being small content creators in a niche field, being the microest of micro celebrities, having relationships with tabletop game designers, and a lot, and I really mean a lot, of talk about Malifaux.



Don't worry I also bring up Exalted at least once.



Also discussed: bad times at work and the Condescension Special; the authenticity of background noise and where to get the good misophonia; the story of Trixibelle's lemon; war criminals, annoying women, and problematic content in long-term properties.



Content warning that we touch on, but do not deeply discuss, some pretty messed up shit that our favorite games have included.





You can find the Scoundrels here: https://steampoweredscoundrels.podbean.com/



The episode featuring yours truly here: https://steampoweredscoundrels.podbean.com/e/steam-powered-scoundrels-episode-22-ships-and-giggles/



More information on Malifaux here: https://www.wyrd-games.net/malifaux



Place to find the Scoundrels:

Discord: https://discord.gg/KnFbYPdBn9%20



TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@steampoweredscoundrels



YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ArtefactorsUnion



Good Things Happen Charity Event: https://fb.me/e/13rS4sbY1 and https://ko-fi.com/goodthingshappenmalifaux