By The Jank Cast
A round table discussion podcast about gaming of all kinds.
Hosts: Jenn, Ross, Teri, Todd In this episode, we have Ross Cowman from Heart of the Deernicorn games and his mom Teri on to talk about their currently kickstarting game BFF! They discuss what it's like to design with your parent,...
Hosts: Joe, Kelly, Megan, Tim, Willow Recorded at Forge Midwest, Joe and Megan are joined by esteemed guests Tim Jensen and Willow Palecek, who put on Forge Midwest, and Kelly Vanda, who runs Minnloco, to talk about the ins and outs...
Hosts: Elizabeth, Todd We have on Elizabeth Chaipraditkul of Angry Hamster Publishing to talk about her new game, kickstarting now, Familiars of Terra, as well as to discuss what makes a game serious or lighthearted, and how there is some ambiguity...
Players: Joe, Todd Joe and Todd play a playtest version of Alex Robert's two-player romance(?) game Tension. Enjoy!
Hosts: Eloy, Jenn, Jerry, Misha, Todd Jenn and Todd sit down with Eloy, Misha, and Jerry of New Agenda Publishing, a new gaming company aimed at promoting diversity in gaming and mentoring and publishing designers from underrepresented groups. We have a...
Players: Jenn, Joe, Megan, Scott The final episode of our Masks actual play!
Hosts: Alex, Banana, Jenn Jenn welcomes Banana Chan and Alex Roberts to talk about what they've been playing and making lately, including their trips to Big Bad Con and Metatopia. Also, everyone is sick, so Todd had the joy of editing...
Players: Jenn, Joe, Megan, Scott, Timo In the home stretch, our second to last episode of Masks!
Players: Jenn, Joe, Megan, Scott, Timo, Todd Todd joins the crew to play Crucible in the next episode of our Masks AP!
Hosts: Jason, Jenn, Todd We have on guy-you've-probably-never-heard-of-just-kidding-you-love-his-work Jason Morningstar of Bully Pulpit Games to talk with Jenn and Todd about Gencon 2017. We discuss a number of games including Limbo, Let's be Dinosaurs, Poutine, Circles of Power, and more. Also,...
Players: Jenn, Joe, Megan, Scott, Timo The adventures of the Baywatch gang continue!
Players: Jenn, Joe, Megan, Scott, Timo The next installment of our AP of Masks.
Hosts: Jenn, Joe, Megan, Todd After a summer hiatus due to Megan and Todd moving, we're back with a new episode that looks at how some narrative conventions for providing information are useful or not useful in gaming. Enjoy!
Players: Jenn, Joe, Megan, Scott, Timo The Baywatch crew continues their exploits in our newest episode of Masks. Enjoy!
Players: Jenn, Joe, Megan, Scott, Timo We've been a bit slow because Todd has been moving back to Illinois. Hooray! But he's settled now, so we're going to get back to getting you that sweet, sweet content. Here is the third installment/second...
Players: Jenn, Joe, Megan, Scott, Timo The second installment of our AP of Masks. In this episode, the gang takes on their first real challenge. If you're interested in Masks, you'll get to hear the combat mechanics in action, here.
Hosts: Jenn, Megan, Tom, Todd In this episode, we discuss The Sword, The Crown, and The Unspeakable Power, Tom and Todd's game that is currently Kickstarting. If you're interested in checking it out, you can do so here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wheeltreepress/the-sword-the-crown-and-the-unspeakable-power
Hosts: Jenn, Joe, Todd We went to Forge! We round up all the cool games we got to play. Also! In case you haven't heard, we're Kickstarting The Sword, The Crown, and The Unspeakable Power! We talk about it a bit in...
Players: Jenn, Joe, Megan, Scott, Timo The Jank Cast tackles Brendan Conway's Masks by our friend Brendan Conway. Masks is a teen superhero roleplaying game and this episode covers character creation of the team: THE WATCH! OR BAYWATCH! OR THE B-VENGERS!...
Hosts: Jenn, Joe Jenn and Joe went to Dreamation 2017. They talk about all the fun new games they played, including Power Button and The Watch. Enjoy! SPOILER ALERT: From about 1:01:00 to about 1:07:30 Jenn talks about Here is My Power...
Hosts: Jenn, Joe, Scott, Todd We talk about superhero games and how most of them involve rolling giant fistfulls of dice and, as such, present an interesting window into thinking about design.
Hosts: Jenn, Megan, Sarah, Tania, Todd In this cast, we discuss HEROES OF YARNIA, the KRPG (Knitting RPG) with its creator Tania Richter as well as Sarah Richardson who is playing, along with Megan and Jenn. Todd asks total basic questions...
Hosts: Jenn, Megan, Todd In this episode, we discuss a recent quiz on board gaming styles. It turns into us talking about the degree to which we like and dislike conflict at the table under different circumstances. Links- The quiz in question: https://apps.quanticfoundry.com/lab/tabletop/ Epimas,...
Hosts: Alex, Jenn Jenn is joined by friend of the show Alex Roberts to talk about Metatopia. They discuss games they played, panels they were on, and what it's like playtesting something at a con that's all about playtesting.
Players: Adam, Jenn, Todd Just in time for Janksgiving, we do our second and final AP of Adam's game Poutine. Who DOESN'T like some Poutine for Janksgiving?
Players: Adam, Jenn, Todd We play a playtest version of Adam Robichaud's super fun Canadian story game Poutine. This is the first of... maybe 2 or 3 sessions? We'll find out!
Hosts: Jenn, Kathryn, Todd A few years ago, Todd, Evan, and Rob talked about language in games. You can listen to that cast here: http://jankcast.com/archives/2602 We decided to return to the topic because Kathryn Hymes has been working on some really cool language-based...
Players: Jenn, Joe, Todd The thrilling conclusion to Jenn, Joe, and Todd's actual play of Downfall. WILL THE SOCIETY HAVE A DOWNFALL? I mean.... yes. That's the point of the game. BUT HOW?
Hosts: Kat and Todd Todd is joined by special guest Kat Jones to talk about sociological theories that can help us understand gaming and gaming communities.
Players: Jenn, Joe, Todd This is Part 1 of our AP of Caroline Hobbs' game Downfall. This episode contains the world/character creation and the first set of scenes. In the next episode we'll wrap up with the final scenes, culminating in...
Hosts: Alex, Jenn, Scott, Todd We have Gencon Industry Insider Alex Roberts (www.helloalexroberts.com) on to talk about our experiences at Gencon! We discuss some of the panels, as well as talk about D&D;, Sign by Kathryn Hymes, and Group Date by...
Players: Colin, David, Eric, Tina, Todd (with an appearance by a wandering Megan) Megan and Todd released a game this year called Time Cellist. A handful of listeners wanted to know more about it, so we ran it for some kind...
Hosts: Jenn, Joe, Josh, Scott, Todd If you've been following our twosie AP series, we're capping it off this week with a cast on twosie games featuring Josh Jordan. 3:55- What'd we play? 17:35- Topic 46:39- Rants We also end on name dropping our new...
Players: Jenn and Joe In the final of our twosie series, Jenn and Joe play Breaking the Ice, a game about two people going on a series of dates together. Enjoy! More about the game here: http://www.blackgreengames.com/shop/breaking-the-ice-pdf
Hosts: Jenn, Joe, Megan, Todd We talk about when mechanics don't sit quite right with you, which we call "mechanical dissonance." Enjoy! Sh'notes: 5:50- What'd we play. 15:35- Topic
Players: Jenn, Todd We return to our twosie AP series with two twosies! Jenn and Todd play two short games about relationships and feelings: 183 Days and The Sky is Grey and You are Distressed. 183 Days starts at 5:00 minutes. The Sky...
Players: Jenn, Joe, Timo, Todd Following up on our interview with Stephanie Bryant, we take a break from our twosie AP series to release this AP of Stephanie's game Threadbare. Threadbare is currently in beta so some of the rules here...
Hosts: Jenn, Megan, Stephanie, Todd We sit down for an interview with the creator of the soon-to-be-Kickstarted RPG Threadbare, Stephanie Bryant. We talk about violence in games, mental illness in games, stitchpunk, and what goes into designing a particular feel. Enjoy! Check...
Players: Scott, Timo Part two of our twosie series is Murderous Ghosts by Vincent Baker: http://theunstore.com/index.php/unstore/game/128
Hosts: Jenn, Joe, Megan, Todd We recap our trip to Forge Midwest, which is always fun. Relevant links: https://www.patreon.com/jankcast?ty=h https://wheeltreepress.wordpress.com/ http://www.cinemasupercollider.com/
In this episode we invite John Stavropoulos (and butcher his name) to talk about content and consent in games, including lines, veils, and X cards.
Players: Megan, Todd LET THE GREAT TWOSIE GAME EXPERIMENT BEGIN! Megan and Todd play Ron Edward's groundbreaking S/Lay With Me to kick off a series of Actual Plays where we will play two player (TWOSIE!) games, culminating in some casts where we...
Hosts: Clyde, Todd Todd sits down with the esteemed and eminent Clyde Rhoer of Theory From the Closet renown to discuss gaming as a way to deal with or confront personal and social issues. Clyde drops knowledge. Like what you hear?...
Players: Ben, Joe, Megan, Sarah The thrilling conclusion of Bluebeard's Bride! Please see the content warning at the beginning of the episode. Shit gets gnarly.
Hosts: Jenn, Todd In this episode, Todd and Jenn talk about character identification and slay ALL THE TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES. Seriously, they're edited out, but everything went wrong as we recorded this cast. It's a miracle we didn't literally explode. HEY! We...
Players: Ben, Joe, Megan, Sarah This is an actual play of Whitney Beltràn, Marissa Kelly, & Sarah Richardson's Bluebeard's Bride, run by Sarah herself. Joe and Megan sit down to play her game with her along with our friend Ben. This...
Hosts: Jenn, Megan, Nathan, Sarah (and GHOST TODD!) We bring on the esteemed Nathan Paoletta and Sarah Richardson to talk about art and design in games. Todd is there but can't say anything because technology. Or is it art?
Players: Jenn, Joe, Megan, Rob, Timo, Tom, Todd, with special guest Dr. Boyfriend Our conclusion of SOTH! BTW, this is where the spoilers kick in. You are forewarned. Also, be forewarned, content continues to be...
Hosts: Joe, Megan, Todd In this episode, we discuss how characters are built in games, from the mechanics, to emergent stuff that happens in the game, to the backstory you bring to your character. Sh'notes! 2:30- What have we played. 22:24- Topic. 57:00- Rants
Hosts: Joe, Megan, Todd In this episode, we examine the pros and cons of gaming group monogamy (where you have one, long term group you always play with) or gaming with lots of different ad hoc groups. We also talk a...
