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Episode 63: Pretending To Be Regular Daves

November 1st, 2013 | Robin

Gather in the Gaming Hut as we discuss differences of perspective between game players and game designers.

In How to Write Good we explore that most ancient of all fiction maxims. What does it mean to write what you know?

Erik Otterberg supplies us the subject for Ask Ken and Robin: what if H. P. Lovecraft had lived to a ripe old age?

Finally, popular demand, as it so often does, cries out for a sequel—in this case, the third Politics Hut retelling of the ongoing saga of Toronto mayor Rob Ford. In the segment you’ll hear Robin mention the strange suspended feeling of waiting over a period of months for the big shoe to drop. Well, it dropped yesterday, rendering this segment, recorded last week, a halcyon snapshot of a bygone day. Still, it will help to bridge the gap from when non-Torontonians stopped following the story and yesterday, when he once again made headlines worldwide.

15 Responses to “Episode 63: Pretending To Be Regular Daves”

  1. Cambias says:

    Your remarks about the absence of genre or edition rivalry among professionals reminds me of the same phenomenon among musicians. Fans care a lot more about musical genres than musicians do. Musicians are interested in music.

    • Tom says:

      The counterpoint is stand-up comedians.
      People think they’re all pals, especially the ones that get on TV. But they really, really aren’t.

  2. Randall Porter says:

    Well Robin your dear sweet mayor made the morning WTHR news along with video today. They said the cops have the “special video” now. Keep the fun fun fun coming Robin.

  3. Not knowing where also to make it, let me use this space to suggest a topic for a future Consulting Occultist section: Immanuel Velikovsky! What I know about him can be summed up in one sentence (which I’m not even sure is true): a slightly-more-respectable Erich von Daniken. Yes? No? It’s more complicated than that? Inquiring minds want to know!

    And while we’re on the subject, I want to hear Ken’s take on Marx. Maybe that’s a bad fit for the Consulting Occultist, but I’m sure there’s some other Hut that could accommodate it. Let’s make this happen!

  4. Joe Tyne says:

    I have a problem. I don’t like the Chaosium Call of Cthulhu RPG.
    Now, in the decade since my first encounter with CoC I’ve come to understand that my first experience of the game was a poor one. Our keeper was running Beyond The Mountains of Madness, the one and only session consisted of 2 hours of character creation, 1 hour of book-keeping to supply our expedition , 10 minutes of role-playing. And one series of failed rolls where the entire party fell off a glacier and died.

    Following this experience, I picked up the d20 Call of Cthulhu game and ran it quite successfully for many years, running home brewed campaigns and one shot ‘monster of the week’ pulp adventures. Just recently I’ve secured a copy of Trail of Cthulhu with intent to explore the ‘Eternal Lies’ campaign.
    But it bothers me that I still can’t appreciate Chaosium’s original. So (at long last) my question is this, What edition and campaign can you recommend to properly capture what it is that you love about the Chaosium game? What do I need to do to ‘get it right’ and really present my players with the best face of Call of Cthulhu?

    Thanks!

  5. William Lee says:

    Dear Ken & Robin

    Please re-visit the Rob Ford Hut in your next podcast, and suck out all the marrow from the latest revelations about the most entertaining mayor in the world. Let us eat, drink, and make merry of Rob Ford, for tomorrow he may be out of office.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/06/world/americas/toronto-mayor-admits-smoking-crack.html?hp#comments

  6. John Willson says:

    Thanks for the segment on “write what you know,” a very useful explanation of some well-meaning but discouraging advice!

    Here’s another question for Ken and Robin. Mainly, I just post questions because I never want Ken and Robin to run out of Stuff to Talk About; so, feel free to use or ignore them as you will. Here it is:

    “I just ran an awesome home-brew campaign with my gaming group. I should publish my notes as a game supplement!” What is the advice for turning great play experiences into good, usable published scenarios or settings? Does this ever work out well?

  7. Paul Douglas says:

    Ken’s Time Machine continues to be my favourite of your segments – keep it coming!

    Some suggestions/requests for future assignments (presumably from the stockholders of Time Inc.):
    – Arrange for China to be unified by one of the Warring States that isn’t quite as fascist-dictator-y as Qin;
    – Preserve constitutional monarchy in Poland-Lithuania; or
    – Create a second ‘golden age of piracy’ – anywhere, any time.

  8. Geoffrey Nelson says:

    This is primarily a Ken question. Well, a few questions about DAR:

    1. Where did you find the inspiration for Zeke DaCova? Was he a real person?

    2. Will we ever, ever, ever see Memphis: Gateway to the Poison Lands? Ever? Or are we to be left standing in the hills of Shiloh, pining for the book that will never come?

    • KenH says:

      1. Re-read “Drums of Tombalku.”

      2. I need a stretch of unclaimed-by-others time to do Memphis right. Once the first happens, so shall the second. I swear by Crump!

  9. Just in case you haven’t seen it, this “Who Said It: Toronto Mayor Rob Ford or Simpsons Mayor Diamond Joe Quimby?” quiz was pretty awesome:

    http://www.slate.com/blogs/crime/2013/05/17/rob_ford_crack_cocaine_simpsons_mayor_diamond_joe_quimby_or_toronto_mayor.html

  10. Simon Rogers says:

    Do not ever say giant robot again.

  11. James says:

    Robin: THANK YOU! I don’t know which I enjoy the most: (1) the pleasure of knowing way more about Rob Ford than all my friends–and gently rubbing their noses in it; (2) the satisfaction of having known about the story far in advance of all my friends–and warmly urging them to keep trying to scoop me; or (3) hearing you shed your mild-mannered Canadian-ness and take on the Aspect of Hite. (^_^)

  12. Cowboy Wally says:

    More Rob Ford fun! I am sure Mr. Laws has already viewed this, but for those who have not:

    http://landing.newsinc.com/shared/video.html?freewheel=90085&sitesection=breitbart_nws_wld_sty_vmppap&VID=25352549

    Question: Have you purchased illegal drugs in the past two years.
    Answer: Pause
    Pause
    Pause
    Yes, I have.

    Is this the municipal version of Question Time with the Prime Minister?

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