Cold Calls And Dice

On this week's episode we talk with Owen KC Stephens, longtime game developer of such games as Star Wars D20, Pathfinder and Starfinder. Our discussion explores playing and running games cooperatively, how to make all players responsible for everyone's fun around the table, and our own great and bad stories about cooperation at the game table.

Check out Owen at his website:

https://owenkcstephens.com

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/owenkcstephens/the-ultimate-spellbook-for-pathfinder-first-edition

This episode we talk video games with Gord Cooper of Riyo Games, combat designer of the upcoming 'Threads of Time'. We discuss design, teaching and fostering creativity within the video game industry. We touch on the precarious nature of the industry today and coping with the sometimes less than savoury corporate elements that have sometimes soured the experience. We talk about what we love about games as well as our favorite video game villains. Come have a listen, and as always, please do tell us what you think! And we've got a new Facebook page! Come by and tell us how we're doing!

Threads of Time website: https://threadsoftimegame.com/

Threads of Time Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2090210/Threads_of_Time/

Cold Calls & Dice Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61594244978501

*Gords mic gets fixed around the 8 minute mark*

Aaron “Floxypox” Holmes is a growing YouTube video game pundit, and he joins us to talk about not only how video games have changed, but how our own relationships with games have changed. We all love video games, but it seems like things are different... Is it the industry? Is it us? Could it be both at the same time? And most of all, is there still hope in the future of video games? This was a great conversation about the nostalgia, value and basic fun of video games.Be sure to check out Aaron’s YouTube channel for some fantastic video game discussions and thoughts:https://www.youtube.com/@floxypoxAnd we’re building our social media presence, slowly, but we’re getting there!Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61594244978501Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/coldcallsanddice.bsky.social

Toren Atkinson has been in the gaming adjacent space for decades, be it as a designer, a writer, an actor, an artist, and of course as a musician as part of the legendary Lovecraftian rock band The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets. And while he has opinions, skills and experience with so much in the game sphere, it’s his talents as an visual artist that we talk about today, specifically, art made for RPG’s.Toren Atkinson’s website: https://torenatkinson.com/Website for the Darkest of the Hillside Thickets: https://thickets.net/Spaceship Zero: https://spaceshipzero.com/

With the modern day perils of ownership, digital and physical, what DO we own? The ttrpgs space is shifting to a stronger digital model, with big companies like Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro making moves that feel like diminishing value, not added. What are our options? Our guest, Travis Diffender, certainly has his ideas, and have a great conversation with him about it! And what his postal worker is apparently capable of... Is unsettling.

Travis:

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

https://linktr.ee/travisdiffenderfer

The Horror:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/OB0U7aHCEsY?feature=share

"There's a big audience for gaming podcasts these days, and a lot of people trying thier hands at it, including us! And while we're new and figuring things out, getting a chance to have a chat with Scott Joest and Keith Mageau of the Titterpigs podcast helps us put our own burgeoning journey into perspective. Good friends of the show, Scott and Keith talk about podcasting in general, and existing in the ttrpgs gaming sphere."

Today we talk to Banana Chan, visionary creator behind such games as Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall, Forger, Knockoff, and the upcoming Sample, not to mention the scads of other games and supplements she’s createdd and contributed to!  We talk about innovations in gaming, and about games we feel that break the mould and try something new. Riley struggles to remember a game... and then remembers. It’s all very exciting, we promise! AND LAUGS (that is spelled properly I think!) Also, apologies to Avery Alder, Jon Hook and Dennis Detwiller – DO NOT LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE... yet.

Sample by Banana Chan (coming to backerkit in October!): https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/banana-chan/sample/pre-launch

Forgery

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/446805/forgery

Knockoff

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/549717/knockoff

The Darkness at the Brink of Ohio

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/507718/the-darkness-at-the-brink-of-ohio

All of Banana Chan’s Drive Thru RPG stuff:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/browse?authorName=%22Banana%20Chan%22

Dread

https://www.tiltingatwindmills.net/games/

The games of Thorny Games, including Sign, Dialect and Xenolanguage

https://thornygames.com/

Mission ImPAWsible

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/473289/mission-impawsible

Today James and Riley talk with Rob Seib who is a board and rpg game designer from Kamloops BC. His company, Mindfruit Games, includes Travelers of Tryphosa, Mythical Menagerie, Frame and others!

Rob Seib:

https://mindfruit.ca/

Our Social Feeds:

https://www.instagram.com/coldcallsanddice/

https://bsky.app/profile/coldcallsanddice.bsky.social

Welcome to our First episode of Cold calls and dice! Where we interview Andrew E Gaska the 2020 and 2021 Ennie and UKGE Award-winning settings and adventure writer for Alien: The Roleplaying Game. Adapting Media from Books, to movies, to games, Andrew is a master at bringing something from one form to another. We hope you enjoy our first roundtable.

***We are aware of the audio issues in this first eps, we have since corrected the issues and will be more on top of the gremlins***

Andrew E Gaska - Websites and social media

https://www.instagram.com/blamventurer/

https://roguereviewer.wordpress.com/

https://www.magnetic-press.com/

https://freeleaguepublishing.com/games/alien/

Our Social Links

https://bsky.app/profile/coldcallsanddice.bsky.social

https://www.instagram.com/coldcallsanddice/

James wanted this for some reason...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE7zdN-Qzvw