Posts Tagged ‘How To Write Good’
Episode 137: Clown Moistening Skills
April 24th, 2015 | Robin
This article on the programmable variability of claw machines springboards us into the Gaming Hut for an examination of pass/fail cycles.
A corpse with the distinctive dagger of medieval Teutonic justice lies near the threshold of the History Hut, where we convene to discuss Vehmic courts.
How to Write Good has us spitballing classic characters reimagined as leading characters in TV police procedurals.
Finally the Consulting Occultist answers a request from Bryant Durrell for the 101 on spiritualist polymath Rudolf Steiner.
Attention, class! Anchor sponsor Atlas Games wants to enroll you in Mad Scientist University, the card game of evil genius, insane assignments, and unstable elements. Act now, Ken and Robin listeners, and they’ll throw in the Spring Break expansion set for free. Shipping within the US is also free.
This episode also brought to you by Double Exposure’s Envoy program, which is all about the bringing. Specifically, bringing together games, runners of games, and players of games. Become a herald today, or jump aboard their team for Origins and/or Gen Con.
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Episode 131: Helping People Steal Concrete
March 13th, 2015 | Robin
Join us in the Gaming Hut for a psychotropic ritual as we think about introducing entheogens into the magic of your F20 world.
The Politics Hut flips its municipal focus as Ken shares his perspective on the Chicago machine and mayor Rahm Emanuel’s forced confrontation with a run-off election.
How to Write Good takes a closer look at first acts, specifically the ones that set up your character’s status quo and the imminent threats to it.
Finally the Consulting Occultist crosses over with Among My Many Hats as Ken tells us about his Goetia instalment of Ken Writes About Stuff.
Attention, class! Anchor sponsor Atlas Games wants to enroll you in Mad Scientist University, the card game of evil genius, insane assignments, and unstable elements. Act now, Ken and Robin listeners, and they’ll throw in the Spring Break expansion set for free. Shipping within the US is also free.
Roll yourself a critical hit by ordering from a freshly discovered special trove of The Bones, the book on dice from our pals at Gameplaywright. Notables including Wil Wheaton, John Kovalic and our own Kenneth Hite wax both cubic and polyhedral, now at a crazy low price.
Mapheads, rejoice. CAD maestro Jeff James is Kickstarting Scale Realms. This project will fund full color, high quality maps with 3D structures and landscaping, with a hex or square option.
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Episode 127: Blah Blah Zombies Blah Blah
February 13th, 2015 | Robin
We begin with endings as the Gaming Hut enumerates ways to build your roleplaying series to the biggest of finishes.
Among My Many Hats has Ken telling us about Vendetta Run, the latest installment of Ken Writes About Stuff, in which a spectral Wyatt Earp decides you’re in need of some rough supernatural justice.
How to Write Good looks at common pitfalls in mystery plotting.
That telltale salty crunch tells you that Ken’s Time Machine has been tasked by questioner Donald Dennis to inquire into the legend behind the invention of the potato chip.
Attention, class! Anchor sponsor Atlas Games wants to enroll you in Mad Scientist University, the card game of evil genius, insane assignments, and unstable elements. Act now, Ken and Robin listeners, and they’ll throw in the Spring Break expansion set for free. Shipping within the US is also free.
This episode is also brought to you by the Plot Points podcast. After you listen to us, listen to them analyze RPG adventures as literature.
What’s better than ravening ghouls prowling a blasted land for dead flesh to feast upon? Free ravening ghouls prowling a blasted land for dead flesh to feast upon! For a limited time only, grab Ken’s Ghouls installment of Ken Writes About Stuff for the grave-dirt price of $0.00.
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Episode 123: Freemium Democratic Regime
January 16th, 2015 | Robin
Verily and anon, adopt the cloak of darkness as Ken ducks into the Elizabethan tavern that is the Gaming Hut to discuss his School of Night GUMSHOE setting.
Violence and mayhem disrupt the tranquil comfort of the Food Hut as we examine America’s Whiskey Wars and riff some dystopian futuristic equivalents.
Should that scene end with a jump or a slide? How to Write Good mulls the art of transitions.
The Conspiracy Corner situates itself in a hotel room—the so-called Illuminati hotel room at Houston’s Hotel Zaza. We spitball the sinister plotlines that might spin from this weird location.
Attention, class! Anchor sponsor Atlas Games wants to enroll you in Mad Scientist University, the card game of evil genius, insane assignments, and unstable elements. Act now, Ken and Robin listeners, and they’ll throw in the Spring Break expansion set for free. Shipping within the US is also free.
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Episode 114: Don’t Read Books
November 7th, 2014 | Robin
Gallop into the Gaming Hut as we discuss a term from documentary filmmaking, chasing story, and how it might relate to roleplaying games.
Take a seat in the Cinema Hut as Ken discusses his top picks from the 2014 Chicago International Film Festival.
Begin at the beginning as How to Write Good looks at constructing compelling opening scenes.
Then puzzle through a chronological controversy in the Eliptony Hut, with our examination of the centuries of darkness thesis.
Attention, class! Anchor sponsor Atlas Games wants to enroll you in Mad Scientist University, the card game of evil genius, insane assignments, and unstable elements. Act now, Ken and Robin listeners, and they’ll throw in the Spring Break expansion set for free. Shipping within the US is also free.
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Episode 111: A Rat Eats It and It Explodes
October 17th, 2014 | Robin
We kick off with a Gaming Hut riffed adventure premise, as heavily armed lords come from miles around to claim their share of a holy man’s ashes.
How to Write Good stacks its deck in favor of the protagonists to show you how to avoid Mary Sue syndrome.
Ask Ken and Robin leaves Robin as puzzled as the questioner as we tackle a persistent GUMSHOE fallacy.
Venus flies over the Eliptony Hut as Ken serves up the 101 on Immanuel Velikovsky.
Atlas Games again devotes its coveted anchor sponsor slot with windmill-kicking promotion for Robin’s Hong Kong action movie roleplaying game, Feng Shui 2, which is Kickstarting even as we speak. 
Worldspinner makes setting construction a breeze, from the map to the themes driving your adventures. Welcome them to the podcast sponsor roster by showing some geographical love to their Kickstarter.
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Episode 109: Put a Pointy Wizard Hat On It
October 3rd, 2014 | Robin
Ask Ken and Robin starts us in a murderous frame of mind as Dreaming Johnny wonders about settings and play styles for games where you play assassins.
In The Business of Gaming we helpfully collate all of our advice on breaking into game design as a career in one handy segment.
How to Write Good finds us looking at contrivances and how to avoid them.
Finally the Consulting Occultist gives us the real lowdown on synarchy.
Atlas Games again devotes its coveted anchor sponsor slot with windmill-kicking promotion for Robin’s Hong Kong action movie roleplaying game, Feng Shui 2, which is Kickstarting even as we speak.
Heroic Journey Publishing joins us to tout their Kickstarter for the Mecha: Kaiju sourcebook for their anime-styled, speed-line riddled Mecha RPG.
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Episode 102: Nonsense is on the March
August 15th, 2014 | Robin
Ask Ken and Robin tackles a Tim Isakson question on ways to handle tone as a GM.
Among My Many Hats tips its pith helmet to Ken’s new GURPS Horror book, The Madness Dossier.
How to Write Good sits in the chair to examine discipline, morale, the value of routine, and the hazards of self-doubt.
Thanks to a reminder from listener Joe Taylor, we finally let the Consulting Occultist loose on the Cathars, as we’ve been planning to do all along.
From the magical land of sponsors comes Atlas Games, who with a twinkle of fairy dust revive their 2nd Edition Once Upon a Time clearance sale.
Joining us for the first time as sponsor is Jeffrey Wikstrom’s Arthur Dies at the End, an ebook series that spins the tedium of Malory into erudite fun.
Stone Skin Press has a deal for you. Until September 1st, all hardcopy purchases of Robin’s action-driven Mythos fiction anthology Shotguns v. Cthulhu come not only with the expected free electronic edition of that book, but also an ebook of Schemers, Robin’s anthology of betrayal and conspiracy. Just buy it at the Pelgrane Press store, as you normally would, no special links or offer codes required. 
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Episode 96: Yardarm Shortage
July 4th, 2014 | Robin
All hail the audio majesty of editor Rob Borges, who rescued this and next week’s episodes from the scourge of electronic interference, leaving only a touch of distortion in Robin’s sibilants.
It’s time to talk terms in the Gaming Hut, as we toss around the distinction between simulation and modeling.
In the Conspiracy Corner we review the disputed death of Indian independence leader turned Axis ally Subhas Chandra Bose.
Inspired by this piece by Leigh Alexander on Gama Sutra, How to Write Good asks if suffering is the hallmark of the modern hero. And if so, what does that mean for our portrayals of female heroes?
The Eliptony Hut hosts the ultimate deniers as we consider Flat Earth Societies and their legendary five corners of the world.
Take a moment to patronize our fine array of sponsors, starting with Atlas Games, who with a twinkle of fairy dust revive their 2nd Edition Once Upon a Time clearance sale.
Then take an eerie cinematic journey with The Dreamlands, the first filmic adaptation of Lovecraft’s dream cycle, from the director of the acclaimed Die Farbe. Check out the trailers and decide whether crowdfunding or crowdinvesting is right for you.
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Episode 87: The Whacking Shovel
May 2nd, 2014 | Robin
Ken’s return from Portland’s HP Lovecraft Film Festival and its sister event Conthulhu prompts the issuance of an especially eldritch Travel Advisory.
Listener Greg Gray gets an unprecedented answer when he poses an Ask Ken and Robin question about the paucity of info in roleplaying rules books for spanking new players.
How to Write Good serializes its commas and regularizes its colons when we tackle the hot topic of punctuation gray areas.
Finally the Consulting Occultist pulls a long con and at least half of a badger game as we consider the grifting career of Cagliostro, alchemist and influential Freemason.
It’s yo ho ho and a pocketful of doubloons as Atlas Games surveys the seven seas from the crow’s nest that is our coveted anchor sponsor slot. Parrot on its shoulder, it orders up another special deal for Ken and Robin listeners, this time in the form of their innovative game of piratical nautical warfare, Pieces of Eight.
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