Dungeons & Dialectics

Matt discovers that Joe's vast capacity for useless nerdy trivia extends beyond the walls of Dungeons & Dragons. He can also identify ANY H.P. Lovecraft story with a SINGLE sentence! A little bonus treat ripped from our 2-part episode on Mind Flayers.

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Join us for a deep dive into another Stranger Things Monster: The Mind Flayer! Trace the convoluted lore from a random book cover Gary Gygax saw one day to the weird shadow beast that flays minds. PLUS the secret true story behind Stranger Things that led to the creation of the mind flayer world of Ssirik Akuar in D&D.

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Sources:

The Strategic Review Volume 1

Eldritch Wizardry

Dragon Magazine #79

Dragon Magazine #150

The Illithiad

Dragon Magazine #337

Lords of Madness

Monster Manual V

Fiend Folio 1st Ed

Burrowers Beneath

Expanded Psionics Handbook

What a weird way to end last episode. RANDOM, some might say. Even ABSURD! This week, we'll ask if TTRPGs even NEED to make sense. Does there need to be a story? A satisfying narrative? What if we just had an absurdist game where lots happened but nothing HAPPENED? How much fun are Matt and Joe willing to sacrifice in the name of some meta-joke on the nature of storytelling? Apparently... almost all the fun.

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Sources:

Avalon Hill. Outdoor Survival. 1973.

Beckett, Samuel. Waiting for Godot. 1953.

Camus. The Myth of Sisyphus. 1942.

Gary Gygax & Dave Arneson. Dungeons & Dragons. pp. 69-70. 1974.

Kafka. Complete Stories of Franz Kafka. 1971.

Nietzche. Beyond Good and Evil. 1886.

Nietzche. The Gay Science. 1882.

Nietzche. Thus Spoke Zarathustra. 1883.

Jerry Seinfeld & Larry David. Seinfeld. 1989-1998

Mephit James. Rules Lite Games. 2017.

Sell, Daniel. Troika! 2018

Sly Flourish. Run Meaningful Random Encounters. 2021.

Whoa soooooo random! What did Joe learn about random encounters by getting mugged on the bus? What did Matt learn about life waiting for a train that never came? Is life just a series of random encounters? Does it make sense? DOES IT HAVE TO?

The answer may surprise you! Or may not. Or maybe there is no answer... Who knows! It's RANDOM!

Keep in touch on Twitter and support us on Patreon for extended episodes!

Sources:

Sell, Daniel. Troika! 2018

Waiting for Godot

Camus. The Myth of Sisyphus. 1942.

Kafka. Complete Stories of Franz Kafka. 1971.

Nietzche. Beyond Good and Evil. 1886.

Nietzche. The Gay Science. 1882.

Nietzche. Thus Spoke Zarathustra. 1883.

Jerry Seinfeld & Larry David. Seinfeld. 1989-1998

Rules Lite

Random Encounters.

OD&D

Outdoor Survival

Fresh off of finishing Stranger Things 4, Matt and Joe take a dive into each of the iconic monsters that graced the small screen. Matt is a certified Stranger Things super fan and Joe spends WAY too much time reading old D&D lore. Together, they'll demystify the history of this floral creature from the upside down through his roots as a baboon-headed demon prince, a formless symbol of popular resistance, and finally his origin in Platonic philosophy. Who better to unpack the History of Demogorgon!

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Sources:

Cook, Monte. Book of Vile Darkness. 2002.

Gary Gygax & Brian Blume. Eldritch Wizardry pp 36-37. 1976.

Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies. vii. 33.

Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, i. 6.

Jacobs, James. "Demogorgon: Prince of Demons", Dragon #357. 2007

Kenson, Steve. Out of the Abyss. 2015.

McDaniel, Spencer. The Bizarre Origin Story of the Demogorgon. 2019.

Plato. Timaeus. 24A.

Wells, Jeff. The Otherwordly History of Demogorgon. 2016.

"A pregnant woman was going down to the Planned Parenthood clinic in Jericho, PA, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stole her purse with her cell phone, her money, and credit cards, leaving her dazed by the side of the road..."

-Margaret Kamitsuka

There's a lot of bad Christian theology out there trying to restrict people's rights, but what if a pro-choice perspective is actually the MOST Christian stance. How does a Christian ethic of care, hospitality and kénosis actually make a stronger argument for pro-choice than anti-choice postures? What does our experience of God say? Church tradition? Reason? What does the BIBLE say? (spoiler alert... it doesn't look great for the anti-choice extremists...)

As last week, if you didn't wake up today wanting to listen to two cis white guys talk about abortion, DONATE to Planned Parenthood or local abortion funds and then take a listen to some other voices:

Sources:

Balmer, Randall. The Real Origins of the Religious Right. 2014.

Bellinger, Charles. Review: Abortion and the Christian Tradition: A Pro-Choice Theological Ethic. 2020.

d’Almeida, Luís Duarte. "Fundamental Legal Concepts: The Hohfeldian Framework". 2016.

Genesis 2:7, Exodus 21:22-23, Numbers 5:11-31. The Bible. New International Version. 1973.

Glenza, Jessica. ‘Historical accident’: how abortion came to focus white, evangelical anger. 2021.

Judith Jarvis Thomson. "A Defense of Abortion". 1971.

Kamitsuka, Margaret. Abortion and the Christian Tradition: A Pro-Choice Theological Ethic. 2019.

Lymer, Jane. "Maternal Hospitality, Ethics and Ontology". 2016.

OllieGarkey. "Bible: Life Begins at Breath, Not Conception". 2014.

Tobiah. "'Pro-Life' is Anti-Biblical". 2022.

If you didn't wake up today wanting to listen to two cis white guys talk about abortion, DONATE to Planned Parenthood or local abortion funds and then take a listen to some other voices:

If you're still here, this isn't a funny episode. But we'll dive a bit into the history of Roe v. Wade and question the ways anti-choicers frame these questions to make the playing field uneven from the outset. Can philosophy help us resist the ways the anti-choice lobby manipulates the conversation? Can these arguments even convince anyone? Can Matt and Joe tie any of this back to Tabletop RPGs?

Sources:

Balmer, Randall. The Real Origins of the Religious Right. 2014.

Bellinger, Charles. Review: Abortion and the Christian Tradition: A Pro-Choice Theological Ethic. 2020.

d’Almeida, Luís Duarte. "Fundamental Legal Concepts: The Hohfeldian Framework". 2016.

Genesis 2:7, Exodus 21:22-23, Numbers 5:11-31. The Bible. New International Version. 1973.

Glenza, Jessica. ‘Historical accident’: how abortion came to focus white, evangelical anger. 2021.

Judith Jarvis Thomson. "A Defense of Abortion". 1971.

Kamitsuka, Margaret. Abortion and the Christian Tradition: A Pro-Choice Theological Ethic. 2019.

Lymer, Jane. "Maternal Hospitality, Ethics and Ontology". 2016.

OllieGarkey. "Bible: Life Begins at Breath, Not Conception". 2014.

Tobiah. "'Pro-Life' is Anti-Biblical". 2022.

Our SECOND INTERVIEW with resident bad*ss Mara! Join this unlikely trio as we dive into things Matt knows nothing about: gender.

What even is gender? What does it mean to be a social construct? Gender as a performance? When we roleplay as a character, do we ACTUALLY become the gender we are playing? There are no shades of grey! There is no nuance! For nothing but black and white answers, look no further than this episode of Dungeons & Dialectics!

Keep in touch on Twitter and support us on Patreon for extended episodes!

Sources:

Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. 1990.

Butler, Judith. Undoing Gender. 2004.

Lakofka, Len. "Notes on Women & Magic", Dragon #3. 1976.

Fanning, Maria. "Rolling for Gender: Why I'm angry at a D&D 1st edition magic item". 2020.

Mussett, Shannon. "Berserker in a Skirt: Sex and Gender in Dungeons & Dragons", Dungeons and Dragons and Philosophy Read and Gain Advantage on All Wisdom Checks. 2014.

Gygax, Gary & Arneson, Dave. Dungeons & Dragons. 1974.

Wyatt, James et al. Player's Handbook. 2014

This is a weird one. Stay after the episode for a look behind the scenes of our first ad read!

Keep in touch on Twitter and support us on Patreon for extended episodes!

Sources:

Bingham, Caleb. "Dialogue between a Master and Slave." The Columbian Orator: Containing a variety of orignal and selected pieces, together with rules; calculated to improve youth and others in the ornamental and useful art of eloquence., 1797, pp. 240-42.

Hegel, G.W.F. "Lordship and Bondage." Phenomenology of Spirit, translated by A.V. Miller. 1977, pp. 111-118.

A new duo, Matt and Joe from Earth-69 (an alternate dimension characterized by anti-podcast totalitarianism and shameless hedonism) hijack the podcast! Together they'll speak truth to power as they break down the essential qualities of a Dungeons & Dragons Campaign Setting and reveal the fate of Earth-69's version of Joe Rogan and his luscious locks. You don't wanna miss it.

Keep in touch on Twitter and support us on Patreon for extended episodes!

Sources:

Baker et al. Eberron Campaign Setting. Wizards of the Coast. 2004.

Brown and Denning. Dark Sun Boxed Set. TSR. 1991.

The Burnt World of Athas: The official Dark Sun website. 2022.

"Exandria". Critical Role Wiki. 2022.

Greenwood et al. Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting. Wizards of the Coast. 2001.

Hadot, Pierre. Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault. Wiley-Blackwell. 1995.

Puslow and Ryan. "Dungeons & Dragons Will Return to Dragonlance and Spelljammer This Year". IGN. 2022.

Swartz and Bradley. Possible Worlds: An Introduction to Logic and Its Philosophy. Hackett Pub Co. Inc. 1979.

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. 1954-1955.

Tolkien, J. R. R. & Tolkien, Christopher. the Silmarillion. 1977.