GMS Magazine Podcast - RPGs, Board Games reviews, interviews, advice. Mostly Asian and Indie games.

GMS Magazine Podcast - RPGs, Board Games reviews, interviews, advice. Mostly Asian and Indie games.

By Board Games and RPGs interviews and reviews by Paco García JaénLeisureGames
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GMS Magazine Podcast - RPGs, Board Games reviews, interviews, advice. Mostly Asian and Indie games. episodes

  • The RPG Room: On cultural appropriation in games

    The topic of cultural appropriation is a hot one in Social Justice circles.
    But is it a justified outcry when someone uses someone else’s culture to create
    games, costumes or anything else?

    It is a matter of fact that cultures evolve both by themselves – traditions
    that become canon in time or ones that die, fashion that evolves… – and by
    assimilation when we see something from another culture and we adopt it. In a
    world that is a lot more globalised today than it was 30 or 40 years ago mostly
    thanks to the Internet, the rate at which cultures are being shared, adopted,
    evolved and bastardized has also increased exponentially.

    Are we ready for this?

    Is there a justified concern for the phenomenon we are witnessing in which
    people use other people’s cultures?

    And is it justified to do it in RPGs?

    Since there is not a single RPG that hasn’t borrowed from one culture or
    another, to say we are free from culture appropriation would be pretty naive
    thing, so it is safe to say it’s unavoidable.

    So what?

    Jim and I explore all those questions and give our take on this controversial
    topic.

    Warning… we don’t hold back and we are likely to offend some people.
    1 hr
  • The RPG Room: Culture and Social advocacy in RPGs
    A few days ago Jim and I talked for a while about culture in games. How they
    are not well used or even created in most games and we touched on some of the
    social aspects of cultures and how to translate them into gaming. Also how to
    convert real cultures into gaming cultures.
    After that, it was pointed out by someone who heard our episode and, in
    particular, the bit about understanding someone else’s culture and getting to know
    it, even if from a distance, that it was very obvious that it was two white guys
    talking about topic.
    Regardless of the fact that the assertion is wrong (I am not white. I just
    have white skin privilege), that sparked a conversation between Jim and myself:
    How is social advocacy affecting RPGs.
    In this episode we discuss that, as well as a bit of cultural appropriation
    (very little) and a few other interesting things.
    A fair bit of swearing in this episode!
    1 hr 2 min
  • The RPG Room: Culture and Social advocacy in RPGs

    A few days ago Jim and I talked for a while about culture in games. How they
    are not well used or even created in most games and we touched on some of the
    social aspects of cultures and how to translate them into gaming. Also how to
    convert real cultures into gaming cultures.

    After that, it was pointed out by someone who heard our episode and, in
    particular, the bit about understanding someone else’s culture and getting to know
    it, even if from a distance, that it was very obvious that it was two white guys
    talking about topic.

    Regardless of the fact that the assertion is wrong (I am not white. I just
    have white skin privilege), that sparked a conversation between Jim and myself:
    How is social advocacy affecting RPGs.

    In this episode we discuss that, as well as a bit of cultural appropriation
    (very little) and a few other interesting things.

    A fair bit of swearing in this episode!
    1 hr 2 min
  • The RPG Room: Cultures in games
    Many people try to portray cultures in their games. Whenever a game has a
    setting, the description of their cities, countries, societies… they are meant
    to have cultures.
    But that is not something most games do well.
    When you scratch the surface of any setting, there are massive gaps that are
    not easy to fill and subtract from the understanding of how the world works. How
    can one create new material that is congruent and of good quality if we don’t
    understand where the cultures that shape our worlds come from?
    Thank goodness, Jim is an anthropologist and he can answer a few questions on
    that front!
    1 hr
  • The RPG Room: Cultures in games

    Many people try to portray cultures in their games. Whenever a game has a
    setting, the description of their cities, countries, societies… they are meant
    to have cultures.

    But that is not something most games do well.

    When you scratch the surface of any setting, there are massive gaps that are
    not easy to fill and subtract from the understanding of how the world works. How
    can one create new material that is congruent and of good quality if we don’t
    understand where the cultures that shape our worlds come from?

    Thank goodness, Jim is an anthropologist and he can answer a few questions on
    that front!
    1 hr
  • The RPG Interview Room: Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate
    Brendan Davis from Bedrock Games has been creating a few interesting games in the
    last few years. Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate is their latest and most ambitious
    proposal yet.
    A game based on the Wuxia genre from China, this is not the first time the
    company attempt at recreating cultural aspects of a real life society to a game.
    With Arrows of Indra, Bedrock Games tried with only moderate success to create a
    game that would integrate Indian culture into an OSR, though it sadly fell short
    of the mark.
    In this case, though, I am much more hopeful as the author is indeed very
    keen and passionate about the topic.
    With over 400 pages of game, this one has a great deal of potential to offer
    detailed and accurate information, so I thought it would be a good idea to check
    with one of the authors what the game is all about and what sort of measures
    they have taken to get the best game possible.
    Hope you enjoy the show!
    36 min
  • The RPG Interview Room: Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate

    Brendan Davis from Bedrock Games has been creating a few interesting games in the
    last few years. Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate is their latest and most ambitious
    proposal yet.

    A game based on the Wuxia genre from China, this is not the first time the
    company attempt at recreating cultural aspects of a real life society to a game.
    With Arrows of Indra, Bedrock Games tried with only moderate success to create a
    game that would integrate Indian culture into an OSR, though it sadly fell short
    of the mark.

    In this case, though, I am much more hopeful as the author is indeed very
    keen and passionate about the topic.

    With over 400 pages of game, this one has a great deal of potential to offer
    detailed and accurate information, so I thought it would be a good idea to check
    with one of the authors what the game is all about and what sort of measures
    they have taken to get the best game possible.

    Hope you enjoy the show!
    36 min
  • The RPG Room: Ideas Genesis
    Sometimes we have ideas, lots of ideas, and we want them to grow wings and
    fly to the skies until they reach heights never suspected by humanity.
    And then they get nowhere.
    Ideas are very hard things to deal with because we love them, we get attached
    to them and we look after them like they are our children, regardless of how
    ugly or useless they can be.
    So what can you do with them? How can you identify if an idea is any good and
    worthy of your attention? And what happens if you want your idea to get super
    high up there but can only get to about eye-level?
    Well.. here are some pieces of advice from Jim and I.
    Hope you enjoy the show!
    54 min
  • The RPG Room: Ideas Genesis

    Sometimes we have ideas, lots of ideas, and we want them to grow wings and
    fly to the skies until they reach heights never suspected by humanity.

    And then they get nowhere.

    Ideas are very hard things to deal with because we love them, we get attached
    to them and we look after them like they are our children, regardless of how
    ugly or useless they can be.

    So what can you do with them? How can you identify if an idea is any good and
    worthy of your attention? And what happens if you want your idea to get super
    high up there but can only get to about eye-level?

    Well.. here are some pieces of advice from Jim and I.

    Hope you enjoy the show!
    54 min
  • The RPG Interview Room: Lone Wolf Development and Pathfinder Modules
    Lone Wolf Development has been going for a number of years and Hero
    Lab has become the go-to application for a lot of people when is about
    character creation and campaign management.
    A hugely comprehensive set of stats and data, it makes the task of managing
    your character, campaign or adventure easier and with less things to
    remember.
    It has been a while since they released the Pathfinder Adventure Path to help you run your campaigns and
    now they are releasing modules, smaller adventures with everything you need to
    keep track of encounters, locations, treasure, NPCs…
    I thought a few questions were in order and Colen McAlister was the perfect
    person for that. Because he knows pretty much everything about Hero Lab and the
    company.
    You can download a free trial for Windows and Mac here.
    So here it goes… hope you enjoy the show!
    33 min

About GMS Magazine Podcast - RPGs, Board Games reviews, interviews, advice. Mostly Asian and Indie games.

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We cover, mostly, Asian and Indie boardgames and roleplaying games. We do interviews, reviews and publishing advice with some of the best people in the industry.