Posts Tagged ‘Ken’s Time Machine’
Ep 40: Forces of the Tomkitten
May 24th, 2013 | Robin
Ken and Robin enter the Gaming Hut to catch you up on what they’re playing right now, from xenoarcheaological exploration to carnies caught between the devil and alien invaders.
In Ask Ken and Robin, Terry O’Connell asks, “What’s your take on the Beyonce as Illuminati meme?”
How to Write Good leads us into a general consideration of the mash-up age, before we provide advice on how to pastiche the prose styles of previous eras.
Finally we rev up Ken’s Time Machine to prevent Cannibalism at the Jamestown colony.
Episode 38: Driving Bananas Around
May 10th, 2013 | Robin
We start with a visit to the Gaming Hut to discuss the play utility of illustrations.
In the Food Hut we explore the legends and lore of packaged goods, including the secret origins of Cool Whip, the Twinkie, and Gatorade.
Conrad Kinch Asks Ken and Robin how one guides a playtester to greatness. Michael Cule adds a supplemental: have we ever regretted not implementing a piece of playtester advice?
Finally, Ken’s Time Machine takes us to the intractable yet little mythologized tragedy that was the Trail of Tears.
Episode 36: A Scuba Diver Walks Into an Ice Cream Shop
April 26th, 2013 | Robin
Ken and Robin hit a bare and blackened stage to bring the improv concept of “yes anding” to the Gaming Hut.
In Ask Ken and Robin, they answer Kevin J. Maroney’s question about picking a game for roleplaying newbies.
In its return appearance, How To Write Good tackles the basics of short story structure.
And finally, listener Falko Sieverding proposes a mission for Ken’s Time Machine. Is maintaining the Vice-Presidency of Henry Wallace past 1944 the way to stop the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
Episode 36: A Scuba Diver Walks Into an Ice Cream Shop [ 1:13:57 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadEpisode 34: Easily Approached By My Techniques
April 12th, 2013 | Robin
Ken and Robin meet in the Gaming Hut to workshop a game mechanic—the interpersonal disadvantage.
The Tradecraft Hut uses further evidence that Blackwater served as a CIA front as an opportunity to riff on the differences between reality levels in espionage games and fiction.
Ask Ken and Robin sees our intrepid heroes venturing from behind the couch to answer HippyWizard’s query on overcoming the shyness factor at the game table.
And finally, Ken’s Time Machine prevents the arrest and death in custody of Pope Pius VI.
Episode 31: Love, Gerald Ford
March 22nd, 2013 | Robin
In the Gaming Hut, we consider the soul of the orc. How do you present this classic fantasy trope without letting in the toxin of real world racism?
History Hut returns to crime in Chicago for a consideration of its gangland, then and now.
In Ask Ken and Robin, Robin is asked to further expound on a Thing He Always Says, the nature of the iconic character.
Finally we activate Ken’s Time Machine in a chrono-traveling effort to prevent the pardon of Richard M. Nixon.
Update: We’ve re-uploaded the file. Apologies to those inconvenienced by the earlier file error.
Episode 29: Because, Hey, Benzedrine
March 8th, 2013 | Robin
We start by venturing into the Genre Hut to limn the fraught boundaries of the Fake Nerd crisis.
Our examination of the Chelyabinsk meteor takes us into the Eliptony Hut, where we trace its impact on, and incorporation into, a cluster of competing conspiracy theories.
In Ask Ken and Robin we tackle the role of laws and law-breaking in roleplaying games. Is it an American thing, or does it arise from an impulse that defies national boundaries?
Finally we rev up Ken’s Time Machine, where Ken reveals several four-color strategies for preventing the adoption of the Comics Code Authority.
Episode 26: Passing the Legislation To See What’s In It
February 15th, 2013 | Robin
In an unprecedented merger of the Gaming Hut with the Politics Hut, we look to political scientist Steven Teles’ theory of government as kludgeocracy to demonstrate why government should hire game designers like Ken and Robin to playtest their legislation for them.
Then we take latitudes with the longitudes of the Cartography Hut to examine the history and fantasy of Stonehenge.
The map above is from Profantasy Software’s Source Maps: Temples, Tombs and Catacombs, which you can grab at a mere $10, a quarter of the usual price, until Feb 22nd, by following this special link to the Profantasy store. This informative pack of historical maps stands alone, with a built in viewer and tons of images and background. But if you have Profantasy Software’s flagship mapping package, Campaign Cartographer 3, you can edit the maps and use symbols from them.
In Ask Ken and Robin, we entertain Lisa Padol’s question about the edition wars inspired by the differences between old and new World of Darkness.
Finally, Ken’s Time Machine averts the sacking of China’s Old Summer Palace—or, at least, the most notorious of its several sackings.
Episode 26: Passing the Legislation to See What's In It [ 1:05:14 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadEpisode 23: Within the Eliptonic Radius
January 25th, 2013 | Robin
Kicking off with another service-oriented segment of Ask Ken and Robin, we suggest ways to introduce a rich setting to players who are unfamiliar with it.
Then we inaugurate the Eliptony Hut, first by explaining what the heck eliptony is, then squeezing adventure and story ideas from the latest in white-hot weirdness, the Martian ground squirrel.
What one might call Among My Many Hats Classic Edition sends us back in time to chat about a joint project, the Shadows Over Filmland supplement for Trail of Cthulhu. Which, due to a wondrous and wholly inexplicable coincidence, happens to be on sale at the Pelgrane Press store until February 1st, 2013. [Shadows over Filmland is $10 off, not 10% off as it says in the podcast - that's more than 25%]
Finally we rev up Ken’s Time Machine, assigning our chrono-hopping Chicagoan to find the least-worst replacement for Joseph Stalin as leader of the Soviet Union.
Episode 21: A Thin Sludge Along the Sidewalks
January 11th, 2013 | Robin
Our first episode of the new year begins in the Gaming Hut, where we examine the difference between showing up to be entertained, and showing up to play.
Ask Ken and Robin fields Paul Weimer’s question about fudging die rolls—when, if ever, is it acceptable?
The Politics Hut takes on the classic modernist curvature of Toronto’s city hall as Robin recounts the saga that can only be called The Assassination of His Own Mayoralty by the Lunkhead Rob Ford. (Since we recorded, the libel suit against Ford Robin mentions was dismissed. But still, the point stands…)
And finally, in Ken’s Time Machine, our maverick chrono-detective chafes at the fussy over-caution of his superiors as they send him to 1888 to find out who Jack the Ripper was—without simply showing up at one of the murder scenes.
Episode 17: A Gorgeous Work of Rosicrucian Monomania
November 28th, 2012 | Robin
In Ask Ken and Robin, we examine the popularity, or lack thereof, of the western as a roleplaying genre, and point to models historical and cinematic for the adventuring party in spurs and Stetsons.
We venture into a particularly cramped and cluttered iteration of the Cartography Hut to spin a passel of story threads from the real-life tale of the Mount Washington map hoard.
With zombie-like tread we shamble down the aisles of the Cinema Hut to chew over the career of director George A. Romero.
Then Time Incorporated once more dispatches Ken’s Time Machine, this time to prevent the murder of Salvador Allende and the ensuing ascension to power of Augusto Pinochet.
