Fine Blueprints

Today, Justin and Nychelle are joined by Danielle to talk about their Animorphs game, Idiot Teenagers With A Deathwish. She talks about what inspired her to make a game based on the Animorphs series, and how she shapes the core themes and powers into the Forged in the Dark system. We also discuss adapting your favorite media property to RPGs with some great tips and anecdotes.

You can find the game on itch here: https://redtailedhawk90.itch.io/idiot-teenagers-with-a-death-wish
You can also find Danielle's actual play podcast of the game at https://dumb-kids-playing-hero.pinecast.co/ or wherever you listen to your podcasts!
You can follow Danielle and her projects and shows on Twitter at https://twitter.com/redtailedhawk90

Today, Oliver joins us to discuss his games Minutes to Midnight and Intergalactic Kammerjager. We talk about the mechanics that make IGK a comedy TV-show game, and the spy-thriller side of Minutes to Midnight. We also talk about games of alternate history with some very helpful advice for designing them!

You can find Oliver's games at https://soliver.itch.io/
And on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Oli_writes

In the first episode of Fine Blueprints, we change things up already!

Today, host Justin is joined by two designers: Cass of Undead Awakening and Yuri of Glamour of our Youth. Both are very different games about the similar themes of monstrous and chaotic protagonists: Zombies and Teens. We talk about how similar inspirations and goals can cause two unique games.

Undead Awakening is kickstarting now! Check them out: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/banditcamp/wo-ua-hardcover

Glamour of our Youth is right here: https://yurir.itch.io/glamour-playtest

And special shout out to Lo! Thy Dread Empire, which is also kickstarting, ending very soon! We wanted to get an episode in before the kickstarter ended, but we couldn't make it work. Give them all your support anyway! 
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/floaker/lo-thy-dread-empire

Follow our new Twitter! https://twitter.com/FictionfirstNet
As always, join the Blades in the Dark discord to hang out with us! https://discord.gg/NGPVKab3cN

We're back, with a new name and a new network!

Welcome to Fine Blueprints, a part of the Fiction First network. We all wanted to re-introduce ourselves!

Follow our new Twitter! https://twitter.com/FictionfirstNet

Nychelle: https://mistletoe-kiss.itch.io/ | https://www.voidalspace.com/
Adam: https://boocherry.itch.io/ | https://twitter.com/AdamBucceri
Justin: https://moth-lands.itch.io/ | https://twitter.com/MothLands
Riley: https://rileydaniels.itch.io/ | https://twitter.com/msmcnevertweet
Jacob: https://jacobalso.itch.io/ | https://twitter.com/JacobAlso
Michael (Eskur): https://eskur.itch.io/ | https://eskur.dev/

As always, join the Blades in the Dark discord to hang out with us! https://discord.gg/NGPVKab3cN

We're back! Today, we talk with Em Acosta about the stretch goals rapidly approaching for Exiles, a new dark fantasy TTRPG, funded in 48 hours and live now on Kickstarter!

The Kickstarter ends in under 24 hours, so swing by right now: ttrpg.link/exilesks
You can find Crescent Moon here: https://pocketcompass.itch.io/crescentmoon
You can find Em at @spookymeals on twitter!

Today, Mark and  new host Erik are joined by Karl, author of Mountain Home, a forged in the dark game about dwarves establishing a new home in the mountains. We talk about how emergent narrative in the inspiration, Dwarf Fortress, evokes the narrative EXPLORATION of TTRPGs, and what it means to get into character as a dwarf. We also DELVE into how entanglements drive the narrative tone and challenges, and DIG deep into a number of adjusted mechanics.

You can find Mountain Home at turtlehat.itch.io/mountain-home, and you can follow Carl on twitter at @TheTurtleHat.

Podcast episodes will be slower to come out until the end of January, as we are preparing for Con in the Dark 2022! Stay tuned to our twitter @HackedintheDark for more information!

Today, Nychelle is joined by Michael Low from Luck of Legends, an educational creative writing and story game camp, about the first chapters of his new game project, Stories RPG. We talk about running and designing games for kids, and how they can be amazing educational tools for topics ranging from conflict resolution to science! Michael describes some of the game design aspects inspired by his students, as well as his methods for making the game approachable for a parent unfamiliar with TTRPGs to pick up and play with their kids. This is a great episode if you're thinking of designing an all-ages game of your own!

For the young person in your life, you can find Luck of Legends at www.luckoflegends.com, and the first two chapters of Starsworn at storiesrpg.com

You can also find Michael on Twitter @LuckLegends

Today, Justin returns as a guest to talk about his current project, CHEW, an official spinoff forged in the dark game based on the best-selling CHEW comics by Image. Justin and Mark talk about incorporating humor into the typically more gritty forged in the dark system, as well as how he has incorporated the established world and, especially, the tone of the comics into a game.

The CHEW Kickstarter is ending in 3 days! Check it out here and help them get more stretch goals! www.kickstarter.com/projects/peteyp/chew-the-roleplaying-game

You can find Justin's other content on his new website mothlands.com, or on his twitter @MothLands.

Today, we're trying something new! We recently ran an Actual Play stream of External Containment Bureau (ECB), and we brought on the cast of the stream to talk about how it went, their favorite parts, and some insights into the game!

Please let us know if you enjoy this format, and we can keep doing it with our future streams!

Follow us on Twitch to catch our future streams at twitch.tv/hackedinthedark
You can watch the ECB stream on our Youtube page at youtube.com/c/HackedintheDark
You can find the game at mythicgazetteer.itch.io/external-containment-bureau
As always, you can join our Discord to let us know what you think, or to request future topics or have your own game featured! discord.com/invite/qzb2y98

Today, Mark is joined by Cohan and Garrett of Poor Students to talk about their one-page  game Subconscious_Routine, submitted as part of the Applied Hope game jam. They discuss how they limit both the overall rules and the players' available actions to convey the tone and setting of robots searching for free will, as well as their use of other media to convey the hopeful post-post-apocalyptic setting.

Stick around to the end of the episode for a trailer for their game!

Special thanks to Cohan for updating our intro and outro songs a few episodes back!

You can download Subconscious_Routine and follow along at poorstudents.itch.io/subconscious-routine.
You can follow the Poor Students on twitter at @poorstudentsRPG.
You can find other entries of the Applied Hope Jam here: itch.io/jam/applied-hope

As always, you can join our discord here: discord.com/invite/BDZckBB