foldedfrequencies

Live Action Role-Playing with Rex [S2E5]

In this week’s episode, we chat with Rex about being a mean satyr, the role of persuasion and compulsion in TTRPGs and LARP, and how to step out of your players’ ways and let them tell their own stories. This conversation might actually have convinced Jake and Reilly to start getting into LARP. Jake is very concerned about whether you still get to sleep on a comfortable mattress, though.

Rex is telling us about the Gothic LARP system. The two currently-active theatres are Luisant and Runeheim. Here’s a picture of Rex’s extremely cool sword:

You can find more of Rex’s creative projects on BSky.

This week’s PC intro comes from Jake – not host Jake, nor Season 1 guest Jake, but a completely separate Jake. We apologize for the confusion and commit to a moratorium on future Jakes on this 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.

Dungeon Lore IV: Wizards, Pokemon, and Primal Order [S2F4]

In this week’s Flashlight, Reilly introduces some very special guests, Jake is intimidated by game store employees, and we discuss the meteoric rise of Wizards of the Coast. We also get into the economic situation in the 1990s, the Canadian political system, and how our podcast production works behind the scenes. The bit about unpaid interns was a joke, we promise.

We compare and contrast WotC with its predecessor TSR, so it might help to listen to our Flashlight on the history of TSR as well.

Also, in this episode Jake says “top quintile” without defining it. This just means “top 20%”. Sorry about that.

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

You can see those original rules for Wizards of the Coast’s first publication The Primal Order here.
Here’s a detailed history of the history of Wizards of the Coast through the 1990s.
This review of the very first Magic: the Gathering World Championships isn’t the very first use of the word “metagame” but it’s an interesting read and an early discussion of the concept.
Here’s a forum thread on early Magic: the Gathering card prices – we didn’t talk about this in the episode, but it’s interesting history.
Here are the Consumer Expenditure Survey tables we used to get historical spending on hobbies.
Here’s WotC’s patent on collectible card games.
Here’s the Bulbapedia page on the WotC Pokemon card era. As always Bulbapedia is one of the most comprehensive sources of information on anything anywhere on the Internet.
Here’s a thoughtful critical review of the Homelands MtG card deck.

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

Messy Entanglements with Erika [S2E4]

This week, we chat with Erika about running a campaign using multiple systems, the upsides of metagaming, and worldbuilding at a table of dirty anarchist punks. Spoiler warning for Super Dimension Fortress Macross. In a sure sign that we’re close to middle age, we do joke about the contents of our filing cabinets.

Here are the TTRPG systems that Erika describes playing in this campaign:

We also talk about Friends at the Table, which you should go listen to once you’re all caught up on Campaign Spotlight.

Erika shared this map of the Citadel from the campaign, which is extremely cool.

We tried playing Microscope in a Flashlight way back at the beginning of Season 1, and we really enjoyed it.

This week’s PC intro comes from Levi, who has been a very fun player in some of Jake’s games and who is also an incredible performer.

Dungeon Lore III: Corporate Finance and also Swords [S2F3]

In this week’s Flashlight, we chat about the complicated corporate history of TSR, monetizing your hobbies, and how we’d deal with getting sued. Reilly wields a sword. Jake makes a metaphor about a goose that calls into question whether Jake has ever seen a goose before.

In this episode we also introduce Monocles McGillicuddy with absolutely zero context. Monocles was Reilly’s PC way back in our Season 1 Flashlight on the Genesys system.

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

If you’re interested in that Hunt for Red October game from TSR, here’s an analysis of the game complete with a bunch of photos.
If you really need to see the odious comments that blew up the TSR revival, here’s a rundown of the comments and here’s an article on a lawsuit from Wizards of the Coast about the last iteration of TSR. Reading about this will not brighten your day.
Completely off-topic, but if you want to play the critically-panned Ringworld-themed point-and-click adventure game that launched at the same 1993 GenCon as Magic: the Gathering, you can still do so.
Here’s a free character sheet for the Top Secret TTRPG if you want to see what the game is like.

Also, in our last episode, Drew provided the PC intro. Thank you so much to Drew, who is a player in Jake’s long-running campaign and every bit as chaotic as that intro sounded. We apologize for the omission last week.

Old School with Max [S2E3]

In this week’s episode, we chat with Max about Old School Revival gameplay, the joys of exploration, and how being a guest on our show can improve your romantic relationship. Minor spoilers for Lost Mine of Phandelver, if that matters to you. Also, if you’re wondering what the production process looks like, the beginning of this episode has a bit of behind-the-scenes conversation.

This is a very theory-heavy episode with long discussions of the connection between TTRPGs and video games as well as the role of skill checks in D&D 5th Edition. Also, we briefly touch on the economic impacts of explorers continually hauling gold back to the village. For more on how dungeon gold can devalue the currency in a world with magic and dragons, Google “fantasy inflation”.

Dungeon Lore II: Platonic Solids and Horned Beasts [S2F2]

In this week’s deep dive into the history of D&D, we talk about the origins of two iconic aspects of the game: the variety of dice and the extremely weird and specific monsters. Jake describes probability distributions, Reilly comes up with appealing backstories for creatures, and we take a brief detour into the concept of good and evil in fantasy worldbuilding. Throughout the episode we completely ignore the d10, which is the least aesthetically pleasing die shape.

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

This video from Bob World Builder summarizes the history of the dice used in D&D.
This blog post shows the chits TSR shipped out during the dice shortage era.
Here’s the rules for Chainmail, which was a TSR combat system that used d6s.
Here’s a list of all the US PTO dice patents, which includes some really ambitious dice designs.
This blog post from Tony Diterlizzi includes pictures and descriptions of the figurines that inspired the monsters we talked about in this episode.

Also, in this episode, Jake implies that 3^8 is “about 6400”. It’s actually 6561. We sincerely apologize for the error and we promise to never attempt math on the fly again.

Eternity in an Hour with Kit [S2E2]

This week, we chat with Kit about incorporating intimate character moments in a campaign with a cosmic scale, themes of family and lineage at an all-queer table, and dealing with a whole menagerie of PC pets. Spoiler warnings for A Series of Unfortunate Events. We also talk about the poem “Auguries of Innocence“. Unfortunately, we never did manage to land that Cover Girl sponsorship.

Kit shared plenty of great recommendations for your home game:

The Owlbear Rodeo virtual tabletop system
Battlemaps from Eightfold Paper, Fantasy Atlas, Morvold Press, and Wizgrids
The Griffon’s Saddlebag for cool items
Kenku.FM for music

This week’s PC intro comes from Chris, who was our guest at the very end of Season 1. You can watch Chris play D&D on Twitch if you’re so inclined. He’s on the Phandelver and Below streams!

Dungeon Lore I: Brawl in Braunstein [S2F1]

In this season’s Flashlight episodes, we’re taking a deep dive into the history of Dungeons and Dragons. Whether you love it, hate it, or are grimly resigned to playing it because everybody already knows the rules, the long history of D&D parallels the history of modern TTRPGs. We’re starting out in the 1960s and working forward to the present day.

This week, we try to talk about the wargames of the pre-D&D era. Along the way, we end up exposing our lack of knowledge of 1790s Prussia, discussing the travails of tavern ownership, and announcing a wholly fictitious live podcast tour. It’s our first time back in the studio one-on-one in a while, and as a result we get a little silly.

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

This guide to running a Braunstein RPG is an excellent and comprehensive resource with links to plenty of other resources.
This article from Ben Robbins (the creator of Microscope!) adds some more flavour to David Wesley’s history with tabletop games.
The first and second volume of Strategos explore the really deep history of wargames, which were the precursor to TTRPGs.

Also, in this episode, Reilly asks Jake about the history about student loans, and Jake doesn’t have a good answer. Jake, who writes the show notes, is still mortified about this. Here’s a very long and detailed history of student loans.

Chultan Pride with Perry [S2E1]

In our very first episode of Season 2, we chat with Perry about running a campaign motivated by spite, building a griot PC class, and becoming a cleric by eating another cleric. Spoiler warnings for the D&D 5e Tomb of Annihilation module – although, honestly, this episode is a great primer for running any campaign set in Chult. This is our first time back in the studio after a big break since Season 1, and you can hear Jake getting back up to speed at the start.

Perry has plenty of great recommendations in this episode: Darker Hue Studios, Black Dice Society, the Wagadu Chronicles, Harriet Tubman: Demon Slayer, and the books of Tananarive Due. You can watch Perry on Symphony Entertainment or find his other projects on his Linktree. You can also find many of his creations on DNDBeyond.

This weeks’s PC intro comes from Jason. Thanks to Jason for kicking off our PC intros for the season – and also for all the love and support the whole time we’ve been making this podcast.

Flashlight: Season finale!

In this week’s Flashlight, we talk about the experience of making a podcast about the creativity and uniqueness of home TTRPGs! Jake describes the terrible initial plan for this project, Reilly recounts an incident of subpar DMing, and we go wildly off the rails by the end.

It’s been a real privilege to get to hear about the wild fun games our friends are running. We discuss why we started this show, how it’s changed the way we play TTRPGs, and what we’re planning for the future of Campaign Spotlight. We also talk about the capricious and inscrutable algorithms that control the flow of information on the Internet and the implications for this podcast.

Also, we should have mentioned this sooner – but Reilly wrote and produced all the music for this season (except for the very first episode, which Mike recorded for his own interview). You can follow Reilly on Bandcamp or listen to some mixes from Reilly’s live shows on Mixcloud.

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.