October « 2013 « Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

Archive for October, 2013

Episode 62: Watch Out, Boys, He Has the Power of Transcendentalism

October 25th, 2013 | Robin

Feel all leafy-like as Ken issues an autumnal Travel Advisory for his recent road trip to Lovecraft’s Vermont and Marblehead.

Bathe in the cathode rays of the Television Hut as we compare and contrast two nerd-relevant new shows—”Sleepy Hollow” and “Marvel’s Agents of Shield.”

In Ask Ken and Robin we take on a Jeromy French query on the use of music in roleplaying games.

Finally, with a sigh of palpable reluctance, the Consulting Occultist educates us on the Transcendentalism of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Our anchor sponsor this episode is Engine Publishing and their system-neutral GM resource, Odyssey: The Complete Game Master’s Guide to Campaign Management. Get $5 off in the Engine Publishing store using code KARTAS20, good through November 2013!

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Tags: Ask Ken and Robin, Consulting Occultist, Television Hut, Travel Advisory

Posted in Podcast | 12 Comments »

Episode 61: Next To the Opposite Hex You’ll Be Like a Ferret in Heat

October 18th, 2013 | Robin

To what extent should an adventure tell a story to the GM who is about to read it? Journey with us into the Gaming Hut to find out.

Then fire up your laptops with their Cartography Hut screensavers and geographic information systems to look at the genre possibilities of digital cemetery mapping.

In Ask Ken and Robin, Tom Clare asks about using in-world narrative voices to write rules text and setting material.

We conclude by revving up Ken’s Time Machine and urging him to reverse the Gran Sasso raid, in which the Nazis rescued Mussolini from Allied custody.

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Tags: Ask Ken and Robin, Cartography Hut, Gaming hut, Ken's Time Machine

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Episode 60: Problems With Sabertooth Tigers

October 11th, 2013 | Robin

With the smoke from our burning village billowing behind us, we take momentary refuge in the Gaming Hut to discuss great migration campaign frames.

Under the war-room glare of the Geopolitics Hut we look at the averted strike on Syria and the limits of military intervention.

Ask Ken and Robin features a Tim Daly question about the relative virtues of designing a game engine from the ground up, as opposed to adapting an existing house system.

Finally the Consulting Occultist goes back to basics to study the surprisingly young history of the Tarot.

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Tags: Ask Ken and Robin, Consulting Occultist, Gaming hut, Geopolitics Hut

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Episode 59: Thwarted by Trees

October 4th, 2013 | Robin

Gather your Hegelian war band around the speakers to listen to our opening Gaming Hut segment, in which we look at ways to transform groups of murder hoboes into ensemble procedural casts.

We open a historical case file in the Tradecraft Hut, looking at the role spy novelist William Le Queux, abetted by the Daily Mail, played in whipping up espionage fever in the nineteen-oughts.

Among My Many Hats prompts Robin to share his preparatory thinking on the new edition of Feng Shui he’ll be working on, in partnership with Atlas Games and Atomic Overmind.

Finally we dust off Ken’s Time Machine and send him off to extend by at least a generation the golden age that was Periclean Athens.

Take a moment to appreciate the support of episode sponsor and Eliptonic essayist Matthew Rossi. Check out his Kindle-ready books Things That Never Were, Bottled Demon, and At last, Atlantis at Amazon!