Tabletop Hot Takes

Funky and Aria discuss exploiting game writing for fun, not-fun, and profit. We explore the world of why numbers are stupid, the Greater Seattle Polycule™, and carrying hundreds of ceramic plates around.

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Clickbait title aside... Funky and Aria discuss what plagiarism really is, and why you should maybe do it actually. All kinds of niche media abound.

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• Gurren Lagann - Cuz we mentioned it... sorta... Mostly I just wanted an excuse to say the line...
• Leverage - You REALLY should know more about Leverage
• Burn Notice - If you feel you want to know more about Burn Notice
• Yokohama Shopping List - You should know more about Yokohama Shopping List
• Future Boy Conan - In case you want to know more about Future Boy Conan
• The Elder Scrolls | Morrowind - In case you don't know what Morrowind is
• Bad Medicine for Dr. Drugs - DriveThruRPG link for Bad Medicine for Dr. Drugs
• Blades in the Dark - DriveThruRPG link for Blades in the Dark
• Shadowrun - DriveThruRPG link for all Shadowrun products
• Ryuutama - DriveThruRPG link for Ryuutama
• Detail Diatribe: The Anime that Inspired Wind Waker - Video by Overly Sarcastic Productions about Wind Waker and Future Boy Conan
• Apocalypse Keys - A Doomsday TTRPG by Evil Hat - Link for Apocalypse Key on Evil Hat's website
• DM of the Rings I:The Copious Backstory - Twenty Sided - DM of the Rings
• Pale | Beyond a Doubt - Link for Pale, by Wildbow Y'all should read Worm too.
• Monster of the Week - DrivethruRPG link for Monster of the Week

Funky and Aria discuss bad games they know with good lessons to learn from them. This delves into pandas in World of Warcraft, 17th century england, and the eponymous classic movie Equilibrium

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Systems Referenced in this Episode:

Clockwork & Chivalry 2nd Edition

Tails of Equestria

Hackmaster

Shadowrun

MAKE YOUR ALIENS WEIRDER!! JUST DO IT!

Funky and Aria discuss weird alien people and why they should be weirder. This includes Tolkien, The Doctor, elves, and planets miniaturized into people.

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Our Patreon - patreon.com/TabletopHotTakes

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The second in our series about Genres. We pick right up with mysteries. We explore the required baseline for mysteries and how they can and can very much NOT work in TTRPGs.

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Our Patreon - patreon.com/TabletopHotTakes

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• Mystery Novel Structure Simplified - ZARA ALTAIR AUTHOR - Blog post about mystery structure
• 25 Things You Need to Know About Writing Mysteries - Chuck Wendig blog post about mystery writing
• Mystery Tropes - TV Tropes - TV Tropes page on Mysteries
• Essential Elements of a Mystery Story - Article on essential elements of a mystery
• Detectives by Overly Sarcastic Productions - Video about detectives and a bit about the mystery genre in general

Links for the systems mentioned:

Brindlewood Bay - Miss Marple style mysteries

Apocalypse Keys - BPRD style mysteries

Scion 2e - Game about the children of old gods adventuring

Promethean: The Created - Call of Darkness game about created lifeforms

Firefly: The RPG - long out-of-print game for running games in the Firefly universe

Leverage: The RPG - long-out-of-print game for running games in the Leverage world

Blades in the Dark - modern heist game for running crews in the world of Duskvol

Funky and Aria discuss Gender, Sexuality, and TTRPG history. They chronicle changes to approach of gender in society and games alike.

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Our Patreon - patreon.com/TabletopHotTakes

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• The First Female Gamers - Medium article about the first female gamers and their experiences
• The Trouble with Gender in LARP - Blog post by queer game designers about gender in LARP communities and games.
• Gender | Dungeons & Dragons Lore Wiki | Fandom - Wiki post about gender expression in D&D
• Out of the Dungeons: Representations of Queer Sexuality in RPG Source Books | Analog Game Studies - Blog by queer game designers about queer representation in TTRPGs
• Dragon Magazine Issue 10 - Weights & Measures; Physical Appearance and Why Males are Stronger than Females in D&D by P.M. Crabaugh

Funky and Aria discuss one way to categorize players. They cover the difficulty of ungendered words to describe mean people, Funky having a bit of a breakdown, and trying to not break Shadowrun.

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Our Patreon - patreon.com/TabletopHotTakes

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• Matt Colville - Kinds of Players - Matt Colville breaks down his categorization of players that Funky pulls from heavily.

Professors Funky and Aria begin their series on the Eras of Role Playing. They discuss Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson, their epic friendship, and eventual rivalry They even mention writing on napkins, and promise not to sue each other.

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Our Patreon - patreon.com/TabletopHotTakes

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• The Ambush at Sheridan Springs - The article by Jon Peterson on the corporate machinations at play in Sheridan Springs.
• Arneson V. Gygax Lawsuit Filings - The best link we could find for info on this lawsuit.
• Advanced D&D - Rulebook for Advanced D&D on DriveThruRPG
• D&D Basic - Rulebook for D&D Basic Set on DriveThruRPG
• Playing at the World - Jon Peterson's Blog. I couldn't find the Internet Archive link for the book. Many apologies. I believe in our listener's abilities more than mine...
• Chainmail - Full rules of Chainmail available on DriveThruRPG
• Kriegsspiel - The International Kriegsspiel Society. Great resource to play it and learn more about the modern play of an ancient game.
• Ironsides - The Ironsides page on BoardGameGeek. I couldn't find an official link.

We review the small, and very accessible, TTRPG Let's Rob RJ McIlhenney and Steal Her Golden Quill. We cover why it's great, how we could play it with our coworkers at Starbucks, and get bleeped a LOT!

Our Patreon - patreon.com/TabletopHotTakes

Link for the system:

Let's Rob RJ McIlhenney and Steal Her Golden Quill

Links for systems mentioned:

Tails of Equestria

The beginning of a series exploring genres. We begin with a 101 course into the term of genre. We then explore the Horror genre, how it can work, how it can fail, and some spooky hot takes. We talk about some favorite horror movies and systems, and chat about amish playing TTRPGs.

Our Patreon - patreon.com/TabletopHotTakes

Sources:

• Alien - Look out! Its a man in a suit! Truly an apex predator.
• Hot Fuzz - Nick Frost couldn't make a horror film if he TRIED!
• Sunshine - Sci-Fi Horror Film with low, but impactful, gore.
• Event Horizon - Go to hell. Catch some rays. Have some laughs!
• Cabin in the Woods - Horror subversion dialed to 11!
• Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil - Its a good movie. Watch it. Alan Tudyk is in it.
• Quote by Alfred Hitchcock - Quote by Alfred Hitchcock
• Horror - TV Tropes - TV Tropes page of the Horror genre
• Horror Genre - The "Four Core Framework" of Horror.
• Three Elements of Horror | Story Empire - The three core elements of Horror.

Links for the systems mentioned:

• Ten Candles - A one-shot game meant strictly for horror games
• Dread - A Horror game played with a Jenga tower. When the tower falls, so does your character.
• Little Fears - Children know the truth, and the adults never will. The monsters under the bed are real, and they are terrifying.