Dieku Podcast

We were joined by prolific game designer, Philip Reed, who has produced volumes of supplements over his career. Although he has a full time job as CEO of Steve Jackson Games, he continues to pursue making small indie style game supplements out of his sheer love of design.

Most recently he has created several supplements for OSR style games such as o Mork Borg and Troika. He shared some of his design process and lessons that he has learned over a career that has spanned over 25+ years! 

To learn more: 

https://twitter.com/philipjreed

https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/philipreed/created

https://www.battlegrip.com

http://www.sjgames.com

We were joined by Matthew Carlson, the creator of WanderSquares,  The Underwood Tunnels - a fantasy tabletop role playing game with an ever-changing map and choose-your-path adventure guide, designed for adventurers, 9 & up!  

WanderSquares successfully completed their first Kickstarter in 2020, and now is looking to launch their second adventure - The Golden Hive - in 2022! 

For more information on WanderSquares:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wandersquares/wandersquares-the-underwood-tunnels

https://www.wandersquares.com

https://www.facebook.com/WanderSquares

https://twitter.com/wandersquares https://www.instagram.com/wandersquaresgame

Making role-playing games can feel futile at times, and sometimes you feel like just giving up. Maybe your game is too weird, too old, too..... whatever! I came across this inspiring interview with Wes Anderson from the New York Public Library, and it made me realize that sometimes you just have to find your audience, even if it is just a single voice.

We were joined by Yochai Gal, the creator of Cairn, an adventure game about exploring a dark and mysterious Wood filled with strange folk, hidden treasure, and unspeakable monstrosities. Character generation is quick and random, classless, and relies on fictional advancement rather than through XP or level mechanics. It is based on Knave by Ben Milton and Into The Odd by Chris McDowall.   

The interview covers Yochai’s journey ranging from the random discovery of Palladium Fantasy, to PBtA, and finally landing the Old School Revolution (OSR). Yochai went on with others to define new variations of OSR's approach as the New School Revolution (NSR) which has grown into an active and thriving game design community.

For more information on items within the interview: 

https://cairnrpg.com https://newschoolrevolution.com/ 

https://classless-kobolds.itch.io/weird-north

https://www.instagram.com/licopeoart

https://www.bastionland.com

https://mausritter.com

https://www.youtube.com/questingbeast

https://buriedwithoutceremony.com/the-quiet-year

https://lichvanwinkle.blogspot.com

https://discourse.rpgcauldron.com

We were joined by Tim Earley, who recently completed a successful Kickstarter for his new game - Holler, an Appalachian Apocalypse folk horror game.

Tim's shares the inspiration for the game as a love letter to his own heritage and experiences growing in the Appalachia. Tim also shares how he got into RPGs and designing games, as well as the string of events that caused Pinnacle Entertainment Group to embrace Holler as one of their own products under the Savage Worlds brand.

For more information:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/545820095/holler-an-appalachian-apocalypse-for-savage-worlds

http://www.timearley.net

https://peginc.com

Leo from LF OSR  joins us to discuss his journey into the world of OSR, starting with AD&D stylized illustrations which grew into a thriving printing and design business including the amazing Packet of Particular Peaks!  Leo also shared his advice for new designers thinking about taking their first steps into printing their games and zines.  

For more information on LF OSR

Learn more about Dieku Games:

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Z7gNqSZvX20

As part of filming the Friendly Local Game Store documentary, we interviewed a number of amazing individuals that brought great insight into all the things we love. We ended up with over 20 hours of footage, that we had to edit down to approximately 90 minutes. 

As part of the bonus features in the Kickstarter we are including some of the extra footage that allowed our guests to be more in-depth. 

One such guest is Brandon Hearty, who completed his Masters Thesis on the topic of "Chaotic/Neutral: Comparing the Social Worlds and Psychological Utility of Fantasy Role-playing and Religion." 

It is a fascinating discussion that covers many topics of what utility games are in our society, and we discuss hypothesis on the future of table-top role playing games.  

Brandon's Master's Thesis: https://prism.ucalgary.ca/handle/11023/4117 

Upstairs Alchemy Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zkwMAd9llIwKKaXcP38zo

Local Friendly Game Store Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/diekugames/flgs

After a lengthy gap in podcasts, I provide a bit of an update on what I'v been up to - including the discovery that I'm a needle in a needle stack! But it also provided me some perspective on what I really appreciated about the TTRPG hobby, which is talking about games, game designers, and the industry in general. From that realization, I used my energies to create a documentary on the World's Largest Game Store in Calgary, Alberta, Canada where I live! 

Today I launched a Kickstarter to support the post-production of the documentary!

Learn more at diekugames.com

I was joined by Kevin Madison from the Dungeon Musings YouTube Channel, which has now live-streamed over 500 gaming sessions since launching in 2015. As amazing as that feat is, even more impressive is the Channel’s Heroes Saving Villages charitable efforts. The Dungeon Musings Community has now donated over $10,000 for SOS Children’s Villages, an incredible organization that supports orphaned, abandoned and vulnerable children across the globe.

Dungeon Musings: 

Learn more about Dieku Games: 

In this episode of the Dieku Podcast, we were joined by M.A. Guax, a Brazilian TTRPG designer who has been developing some very interesting minimalist games since coming onto the scene. This last March, Guax hosted the first ever #LatAmJam on Itch with some of his fellow Latinx designers. Warch to learn more about how Guax entered the TTRPG industry and his philosophy on game design and influences from the #osr and #artpunk style.

Learn more about Dieku Games at:

https://diekugames.com

https://diekugames.itch.io

https://www.instagram.com/diekugames

https://www.twitter.com/diekugames