Dice Exploder

By Sam DunnewoldArts Design

Dice Exploder episodes

September 29 De-Roling with Caro Murphy
Transcripts available at diceexploder.com
Further reading
Back Tower Runners on Kickstarter!
DrachenFest
Incantrix Productions
Imagi-Ne'er-Do-Wells
Socials
Caro’s website
Sam on Bluesky and itch
The Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.com
Our logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.
Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!
Dice Exploder on Patreon
Credits
Our logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.
This episode was edited by Em Acosta.
55 min
September 22 Our Lives in the Wood with Kendo Smith
Transcripts available at diceexploder.com
Further reading
Our Lives in the Wood episode 5
This Game Takes Place in Your Home Town
Socials
Kendo on Bluesky and the web
Sam on Bluesky and itch
The Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.com
Our logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.
Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!
Dice Exploder on Patreon
Credits
Our logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.
This episode was edited by Em Acosta.
1 hr
September 15 What Is There to Eat in Duskwall (Blades in the Dark) with Jeeyon Shim
Transcripts available at diceexploder.com
Note: the "What Is There to Eat in Duskwall" pages of Blades in the Dark were written by Andrew Shields.
Further Reading
Blades in the Dark by John Harper
Socials
Jeeyon on Patreon, Bluesky, and itch
Sam on Bluesky and itch
The Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.com
Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!
Credits
Our logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.
This episode was edited by Em Acosta.
57 min
September 08 Duty Stations (Night Witches) with Ash Kreider
Transcripts available at diceexploder.com
Further Reading
The Watch 2e is on Kickstarter now
Night Witches by Jason Morningstar
Socials
Ash on Bluesky
Ash's website, including listings for their games and books
Sam on Bluesky and itch
The Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.com
Our logo was designed by sporgory, our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey, and our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer.
Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!
Credits
Our logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.
This episode was edited by Em Acosta.
40 min
August 31 New Episodes Next Week + An Announcement
Transcripts available at diceexploder.com
4 min
May 26 Deckbuilding (Signs of the Sojourner) with Lady Tabletop
Transcripts available at diceexploder.com
Further Reading
Signs of the Sojourner by Echo Dog Games
Band-Aids & Bullet Holes by Sam, on Kickstarter now
Slay the Spire 2 by Mega Crit
Socials
Lady Tabletop on itch
Sam on Bluesky and itch
The Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.com
Our logo was designed by sporgory, our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey, and our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer.
Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!
Credits
Our logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.

42 min
May 19 Minigames (Firebrands) with Viditya Voleti
Transcripts available at diceexploder.com
Further Reading
Band-Aids & Bullet Holes on Kickstarter
Mobile Frame Zero: Firebrands by Meguey & Vincent Baker
The King Is Dead by Meguey & Vincent Baker
Stewpot: Tales from a Fantasy Tavern by Takuma Okada
Socials
Viditya on Bluesky and itch
Sam on Bluesky and itch
The Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.com
Our logo was designed by sporgory, our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey, and our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer.
Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!
Credits
Our logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.
This episode was edited by Em Acosta.

53 min
May 12 John Wick (2014) and Genre Emulation with Sam Roberts
Transcripts available at diceexploder.com
My new game Band-Aids & Bullet Holes is still on Kickstarter! Check it out today.
In honor of BABH, this month on Dice Exploder I'm covering mechanics from other games that inspired it. In keeping with this show's increasingly loose definition of "mechanic," today I'm joined by Sam Roberts (Escape from Dino Island) to tackle one of this game's greatest influences: the 2014 Keanu Reeves movie John Wick.
The first half of this ep is basically a movie podcast. We go deep on what makes John Wick tick (in brief: the first 30 minutes). But the back half we get into the extremely popular concept within indie rpgs of genre emulation: making games that evoke another piece of media or genre of media. What makes genre emulation work? What do we think most people get wrong when they attempt to do it? And is it even a worthy goal?
Further Reading
Back Band-Aids & Bullet Holes on Kickstarter now!
John Wick (2014)
Escape from Dino Island by Sam Roberts and Sam Tung
Socials
Sam Roberts on Bluesky
Sam Dunnewold on Bluesky and itch
The Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.com
Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!
Credits
Our logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.
This episode was edited by Em Acosta
1 hr 6 min
May 05 Character Nonmonogamy (Space Post) with Sidney Icarus
Transcripts available at diceexploder.com
Today is the launch of Band-Aids & Bullet Holes, my melodramatic action game of bloody revenge. It's a one shot, capsule game, box set, deckbuilder rpg. Check it out.
In honor of BABH, this month on Dice Exploder I'm covering mechanics from other games that inspired it, starting today with the idea of character nonmonogamy. Traditionally in rpgs each player gets one main character. This is often true regardless of whether or not there's a GM: certain characters "belong" to each player. Not so in Band-Aids & Bullet Holes.
But what does that look like? And what does it do to play? There's a lot of games that have played with other models, but to kick things off today we're digging into how it works in Jason Morningstar's Space Post, a game about delivering the mail in space, where main postman and space ship characters are passed around between players.
And to do that I'm joined by Sidney Icarus, game design smarty, designer of Decaying Orbit, and former host of The Hard Move aka the podcast whose format I stole for Dice Exploder. Come on, let's get into it...
Further Reading
Band-Aids & Bullet Holes on Kickstarter
Space Post by Jason Morningstar
Bluebeard's Bride
Band of Blades
Everyone Is John
Ars Magica
Socials
Sidney’s website, YouTube channel, and Bluesky
Sam on Bluesky and itch
The Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.com
Our logo was designed by sporgory, our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey, and our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer.
Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!
Credits
Our logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.
This episode was edited by Em Acosta
1 hr 5 min
April 28 Calling Cards (Band-Aids & Bullet Holes) with Lady Tabletop and Seraphina
Transcripts available at diceexploder.com
My first stand-alone print game, Band-Aids & Bullet Holes, goes live on Kickstarter next week on May 5th. I have a lot to say about it, and I'm gonna say a lot of it: May's going to be all episodes about mechanics from other people's games that inspired me in this design.
Today I wanted to talk about Band-Aids & Bullet Holes straight up, but I didn't want you to just take it from me all the stuff I love about it, so I'm handing the show over once again to Lady Tabletop and Seraphina Garcia Ramirez. They're gonna tell you about Band-Aids & Bullet Holes through its core mechanic: take a marker, sharpie your character's core traits onto playing cards, then shuffle those up and flip them at each other, high card wins. As Sera says, somehow adding flavor to the classic card game War makes it so much better...
Further Reading
Band-Aids & Bullet Holes on Kickstarter
Socials
Seraphina on Bluesky and itch
Lady Tabletop on Tumblr and itch
The Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.com
Our logo was designed by sporgory, our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey, and our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer.
Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!
Credits
Our logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.
This episode was edited by Em Acosta
33 min

About Dice Exploder

From the publisher's feed

A show about tabletop RPG design. Each episode we bring you a single mechanic and break it down as deep as we possibly can. Co-hosted by Sam Dunnewold and a rotating roster of designers. Part of…