Playtonics

It’s all legs and hard boiled eggs as the Pals step into your ears with a case you just can’t turn down.

This ep we talked a lot about node based mysteries, popularised by The Alexandrian. If you’re confused why we start talking about nodes half way through, give this series a read first.

If you have ideas for topics you’d like to hear us cover, hit us up at [email protected], or slide into our DMs on Instagram, Bluesky and Mastodon.

You can also join us on Discord for a chat about the show, and all things game mastering – we’ll see you there!

rain_near_city_far.aif by loopbasedmusic — https://freesound.org/s/157483/ — License: Creative Commons 0

“Mystery Sax” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Rocky and Jords figure out what it takes to ride eternal on the Fury Road. But like, in a way that involves sitting around a table and not jumping between moving vehicles.

Witness us, shiny and chrome.

This month Jords recommends Outgunned, and Rocky recommends (re)watching Mad Max II.

If you have ideas for topics you’d like to hear us cover, hit us up at [email protected], or slide into our DMs on Instagram, Bluesky and Mastodon.

You can also join us on Discord for a chat about the show, and all things game mastering – we’ll see you there!

dune buggy muscle car pass slow loud nearby full engine rev and trail off to right.wav by kyles — https://freesound.org/s/413905/ — License: Creative Commons 0

truck big diesel engine work up a hill sustained rev and pass by2.flac by kyles — https://freesound.org/s/637914/ — License: Creative Commons 0

truck large diesel or military tank APC armored personnel carrier accelerate big rev and pull away then other distant engine rev and another one close pass by Saravena, Colombia 2016.flac by kyles — https://freesound.org/s/405086/ — License: Creative Commons 0

auto performance corvette ext top open shift into gear, start, idle, rev from engine.flac by kyles — https://freesound.org/s/637184/ — License: Creative Commons 0

“Big Drumming” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Rocky and Jords sink their teeth into what makes a game feel like an early-2000s vampire hunting flick.

We leaned pretty heavily on the Vampyramid and Conspyramid this episode, which are from Night’s Black Agents. You can find plenty of write-ups around, but we recommend checking out the original!

Or, if you want to see our take on it, check out Tupperware: The Masquerade, a one-sitting four-page fever dream of a game we wrote after recording this ep.

If you have ideas for topics you’d like to hear us cover, hit us up at [email protected], or slide into our DMs on Instagram, Bluesky and Mastodon.

You can also join us on Discord for a chat about the show, and all things game mastering – we’ll see you there!

Rocky and Jords play judge, jury, and a lil’ executioner as they convert 2012’s smash hit(?) Dredd into a quip-powered depth-crawl.

We landed on a depth crawl as the structure for this game, and Jordan would like to plug The Stygian Library and The Gardens of Ynn as great inspirations.

This episode was suggested by a member of the Playtonics Discord! It’s the best place to find us if you have ideas for topics you’d like to hear us cover, or just to chat about running tight games – we’ll see you there!

Discord not for you? Hit us up at [email protected], or slide into our DMs on Instagram, Bluesky and Mastodon.

Rocky and Jords dig into not one but three stories in SF writer Alastair Reynolds’ Revelation Space universe.

You can find the Songs For Dead Planets playlist Jords mentioned here.

Go buy all of Al Reynolds’ books here – as you can tell, we really dig them.

(Our bonus book recommendation was Blindsight, by Peter Watts, which we’re plugging here because it may never get its own episode as it seems genuinely un-game-able.)

To hear about our last ill-conceived Quiet Year mod, listen back to the Mean Girls episode.

If you have ideas for topics you’d like to hear us cover, hit us up at [email protected], or slide into our DMs on Instagram, Bluesky and Mastodon.

You can also join us on Discord for a chat about the show, and all things game mastering – we’ll see you there!

Rocky and Jords see how deep the rabbit hole goes as they figure out how to plan a session that feels like you’re in the Matrix. But then, out of the Matrix. And then, back in the Matrix again.

We had a few flashbacks this episode! If you enjoyed this one, you might enjoy hearing us talk about westerns, cyberpunk, Avatar, and John Wick.

If you have ideas for topics you’d like to hear us cover, hit us up at [email protected], or slide into our DMs on Instagram, Bluesky and Mastodon.

You can also join us on Discord for a chat about the show, and all things game mastering – we’ll see you there!

Rocky and Jords dive into the world of queen bees and wannabes as they turn Mean Girls into a game.

One small correction for this one – the sequel to The Quiet Year is The Deep Forest, not The Dark Forest. They’re both wonderful games and we recommend them highly!

If you have ideas for topics you’d like to hear us cover, hit us up at [email protected], or slide into our DMs on Instagram, Bluesky and Mastodon.

You can also join us on Discord for a chat about the show, and all things game mastering – we’ll see you there!

Rocky and Jords are back to discuss how to run a great game about being a terrible archaeologist.

We basically landed on “turn your RPG into a game of high-stakes globe-hopping MacGuffin Football.” It could be some of our best work.

And hey – it’s March, but we’re still planning our year! If you have ideas for what you’d like to see in 2025, hit us up at [email protected], or slide into our DMs on Instagram, Bluesky and Mastodon.

In a fast-and-loose end of year review, Rocky and Jords talk about some of the ideas that kept showing up in Season 1.

If you have ideas for what you’d like to hear in 2025, hit us up at [email protected], or slide into our shiny new DMs on Instagram, Bluesky and Mastodon.

After a year of podcasting, Rocky and Jords finally ask the big question: how do you run a great game of D&D that actually feels like D&D?

We normally try to keep these under an hour, but as you might expect, we had some things to say.

Thanks for joining us for Season 1! If you have ideas for what you’d like to see in 2025, hit us up at [email protected] – or slide into our DMs on Instagram, Bluesky and Mastodon.

See you in 2025!