Author Archives: foldedfrequencies

This week, we chat with David about saving the whales, publishing your own game systems, and making a city feel corrupt, classy and discreet. David has built some very cool systems, and our conversation covers rules lawyering, game balance, and what it means for a table to tell a story together. For the first time in a long time, we don’t spoil any media and we also don’t ruin our changes at any sponsorships.

This episode is heavy on references to other games! First and foremost, you should go check out David’s Itch page where you can find Blood and Velvet and other game systems. David cites the following systems as inspiration:

• Noirlandia
• Follow
• Mobile Frame Zero: Firebrands (which we discussed with Prim last season)
• Epyllion

We also discuss a few worldbuilding systems:

• Kingdom
• Dialect
• For the Queen
• Microscope (which Jake and Reilly played way back in Season 1)
• The Quiet Year

David also recommends Fallen London, Darkest Dungeon, Black Jack Justice, and Friends at the Table – especially the Partisan arc.

Finally, if you’re interested in learning how to code in Python, here’s a decent place to get started.

These week’s intro comes from Seattle Dungeon Master Bryan Erickson! Thanks for the fun intro.

David composed and recorded the theme music for this week’s monologue. As always, Reilly wrote the main theme for the podcast. If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly’s music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.   

In the very first Flashlight of Season 3, we’re on location at Oppegaard Meadery in Seattle! This season, we’re getting out into the community and asking people about their PCs and their campaigns. This was a fun episode – not just because people had interesting things to say about TTRPGs, but also because the space was ludicrously cozy and the mead was delicious. Thanks to everyone who took the time to chat with us! Here’s a picture we took while we were recording:

A clarifying note: we emailed Oppegaard Meadery management asking permission to record at their D&D night, and they were incredibly friendly and helpful, but this episode isn’t sponsored. Jake has been buying their mead since before we even knew they had a D&D night at the meadery. If we start advertising on the show, we’ll clearly delineate the advertisement  and keep it separate from the rest of the episode.

Another clarifying note: Jake refers to the peasants in Warcraft II saying “zug zug”. It’s actually the orcish peons that say this. We sincerely regret this error.

We discuss the Fate of the Norns game system in this episode.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly’s music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.   

In the very first episode of Season 3, we chat with Austin about literal truckloads of cryptocurrrency, designing high-level enemies, and the importance of in-game downtime. Austin is an accomplished game designer and brings a ton of helpful advice to the conversation. Unfortunately, we do tank our prospects for a Tesla sponsorship.

A heads up that this episode swerves into a discussion of imperialist military violence in TTRPG campaigns and its parallels in the real world.

Go check out the Beam Saber system, which Austin designed. (To hear more about this system, go listen to last season’s interview with Erika. Erika also provided the incredible and intense intro for this episode!) Talking about the Rush Wars supplement made us want to rewatch the Fast and Furious series. Austin also tells us about the CalazCon actual play. It’s a huge ambitious actual play project, and we’re excited to listen to the whole thing! While you’re at it, go check out Austin’s itch.io page.

Austin also mentions two podcasts:

• Blowback which is about US military adventurism
• The Great Gundam Project, which covers all of Gundam in production order

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly’s music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.   

In this finale Flashlight of Season 2, Jake is embarrasingly earnest, Reilly gives the listeners a lot of homework, and the sword makes a second ominous appearance. We plug our Patreon, repeatedly give different numbers for the PC intro hotline (it’s 724 320 2020), and talk about our plans for Season 3. This is honestly an extremely silly conversation. We’ve had so much fun getting to make this podcast and we’re sincerely grateful to our guests so far and we’re really excited to share another season of interviews with you.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly’s music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.   

In this week’s episode, we chat with Lew about unsustainable character voices, mixing ABBA with Norse mythology, and the importance of buying in to the fantasy. Very minor spoiler alert for 500 Days of Summer. We do joke about Ikea being our sponsor, but they’re not, and this episode probably guarantees that they never will be.

In this episode Lew mentions the Wayward Children series as well as the SCP Foundation.

Lew also shared with us a ton of very cool pictures of the maps and minis from this campaign. Here’s a map of the Värld:

And here’s a diagram of its theology:

Here are the wraparound couch snakes Lew mentioned in the episode:

And, finally, here’s Lew’s next boss, “a gigantic Crayfish that will be at the bottom of a bathtub ocean”:

This week’s PC intro comes from Kyros, whom you may remember from this conversation last season about Curse of Strahd. Thanks Kyros!

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly’s music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.   

In this week’s Flashlight, we talk about intellectual property, resolve to go to law school, and finally earn that explicit rating. You can tell that we record a few weeks in advance, because we joke about WotC’s next bad decision but we don’t know about the DNDBeyond debacle yet. Jake gets into economic theory. Reilly’s mic might just be a cursed artifact. Spoiler warning for Fountainhead? Also, we’re not actually sponsored by Microsoft.

Dennis mentioned the OGL controversy last week, so go listen to the interview if you’d like to hear another perspective on the whole situation. Also, here’s a book by Reilly’s professor that looks pretty cool.

Here are some links that we used in research for the episode. 

• Here’s a Wall Street Journal article on the Hasbro reorganization that refers to D&D as “old-school tabletop games”.
• Here’s the Hasbro press release about the WotC CEO becoming the overall Hasbro CEO.
• Here’s the interview with WotC’s VP of tabletop gaming about the rationale for the OGL.
• Here’s an academic journal article with statistics on TTRPG publications after the release of the OGL.
• Here’s a very early Gizmodo piece on the updated OGL.
• Here’s a blog post that lays out the biggest issues with the proposed updated OGL.
• Here’s Hasbro’s annual SEC report for 2022.
• Here’s an article about the plans to release new editions under a Creative Commons license. 
• Here’s a review of Paizo’s ORC license.
• Here’s a Reddit thread on Paizo’s ORC license and whether it’ll be applied to Pathfinder Infinite.
• Here’s Monte Cook’s guide to consent in gaming.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly’s music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.   

In this week’s episode, we chat with Dennis about branching out from D&D, useful feedback on game design, and the tradeoff between generality and specificity. We’re doing something a little bit different this week (talking to someone who’s built a new game system) and so the conversation gets a little crunchy at times. Also, you get to hear about Jake and Reilly’s whole process of backups on backups when we’re recording these episodes.

Spoiler alert for Jane Eyre, which Jake embarrassingly confuses with Sense and Sensibility. Also, spoiler alert for Lord of the Rings. If you’re listening to this podcast and you’ve somehow never read or watched Lord of the Rings, let us know.

If you’re interested in downloading SAGAS for yourself, here’s the Kickstarter and here’s the DriveThruRPG page. Also, go check out Dennis’s other projects!  

Here are some of the other game systems that we mention in this episode:

• ezd6, which has some excellently streamlined rules
• Tangled Blessings, which has an extremely strong aesthetic
• Contained, which is a very cute micro-TTRPG that Dennis built previously

This week’s PC intro comes from Jordan. Thanks Jordan!

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly’s music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.   

In this week’s Flashlight, we talk the rise of actual plays, the incredible profitability of Wizards of the Coast, and the professionalization of a hobby. We get into both academic media theory and SEC filings. Reilly is astounded by how many movies Jake has never seen. Spoiler warnings for Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves as well as “I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream” as well as maybe Rick and Morty? Also, we mention our Patreon on air for the first time.

Here are some links that we used in research for the episode. (It’s a research-heavy episode.)

• Here’s a CNBC article about Wizards of the Coast’s financials, including its profitability. 
• Here’s a link to World’s Largest Dungeon Session 01, which is the oldest RPGMP3 episode still online.
• Here’s the host of RPGMP3 talking about actual play podcasts in 2008. 
• Here’s a Polygon article about the history and format of actual plays.
• Here’s an academic journal article on actual play production and monetization.
• Here’s a discussion of actual play shows trying to tell inclusive stories.
• Here’s an academic journal article that analyzes actual plays through a media studies lens. 
• Here’s another CNBC article (sorry) quoting WotC management on the importance of actual play to the business.
• Here’s Hasbro’s quarterly SEC filing from May 2024.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly’s music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.   

In this week’s episode, we chat with Wolfgang about the struggle of making it in showbusiness, the importance of embracing a system’s genre conventions, and the deployment of feminine appeal. Spoiler warning for Jaws in this one? And, to a lesser extent, The Young and the Restless. Disclaimers that we’re not actually sponsored by Adobe Acrobat and Jake is not actually 5’6. 

Here’s the Beginning Idol system that Wolfgang is sharing with us. Here’s Wolfgang’s own Itch page. And, because we mention Eric a few times, here’s Eric’s actual real-life band.

We talk about the Dallas TTRPG a little bit, so here’s the Flashlight where we try to play Dallas.

This week’s PC intro comes from Sonne, who builds travel guides to the best (and worst) places in the multiverse. Thanks Sonne!

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly’s music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.  

In this week’s Flashlight, we talk about playtesting at scale, becoming a cult leader, and the development of D&D 3e and D&D 3.5e as well as Pathfinder. Reilly shares his philosophy on ability checks and roleplay. Jake really doesn’t know anything about cinema.

We mention the games Swords of the Serpentine and Time Watch, both of which look extremely fun. Also, here are some links that we used in research for the episode: 

• Here’s a Department of Commerce study called “A Nation Online” that talks about who would be able to access the Internet in the era of the 3rd Edition playtest, complete with some very old-school Excel charts.
• Here’s a forum thread from Jonathan Tweet (the lead designer on D&D 3rd Edition) that talks about the changes in 3rd Edition.
• Here’s a contemporary Death Cookie review of 3rd Edition that discusses some of the changes from previous editions.
• Here’s a review of 3rd Edition play from 2000 that’s mostly positive.
• Here’s another forum thread with a retrospective on how players felt about D&D 3rd Edition.
• Here’s Monte Cook, one of the designers for 3rd Edition (but not 3.5) talking about the development of 3.5.
• Here’s a brief history of Paizo, the publisher of Pathfinder.
• Here’s the character generator we used in this episode.
• We didn’t really get into this, but Roll20’s Orr Report shows the relative popularity of different TTRPG systems. 

Here’s the character sheet that Reilly builds in this episode. As you can see, neither one of us knows how to minmax D&D 3e:

 If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly’s music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon.