New Dice Exploder on the Yes Indie'd podcast feed, Space Train Space Heist design diary, and more
Plus the "unprofessional" edit of the season 3 Kickstarter video
Today I’m dropping an extra episode of Dice Exploder on the Yes Indie’d and Fine Blueprints podcast feeds! It features Thomas Manuel of the Indie RPG Newsletter and Yes Indie’d podcast talking about Band of Blades, a grim military fantasy forged in the dark game from Off Guard Games.
Specifically, Thomas brought Secondary Missions. In Band of Blades, while you and your party are off doing one mission, there’s a whole other squad over there doing a whole other mission! What’s up with them? This mechanic tells us.
Secondary Missions have a deceptively big impact on the mouthfeel of Band of Blades. They’re just a masterpiece of design. We get into how this mechanic supports the genre and themes of the game, all the tough choices it puts in front of players, and how mechanics like it that couldn’t exist in any other game are often our favorites.
It’s classic Dice Exploder this week, a deep dive at it’s best.
Listen now, or wait until the 12th. But either way, remember you can still back the season 3 Kickstarter right now! It ends Friday, so don’t wait until then to get your second bonus episode of the day with Mikey Hamm of Slugblaster talking about exploding dice. I’ve had people tell me Mikey’s ep is their favorite of the whole show! Don’t miss it.
Space Train Space Heist Designer’s Commentary
This week I ran an updated version of my designer’s commentary for Space Train Space Heist on the Wait, Roll That Again! blog. I’ve been loving the first season of WRTA, a podcast in which host Alex Marinkovich-Josey walks through the process of designing his first ever ttrpg, including getting advice from industry greats like Jay Dragon (designer of Wanderhome) and Clayton Notestine. Especially if you’re a new designer, there’s a ton to learn here, and I’m lucky Alex let me run this piece.
Pick up a free copy on the game on its itch page and follow along.
Also, in general, I’m a sucker for designer commentaries. If you like this one, here are the others I know of:
Heart and Spire designer commentary podcasts from Rowan, Rook and Deckard
John Harper’s breakdown of the history of Blades in the Dark with Andrew Gillis
My own commentary on my Bladerunner 2049-inspired game Couriers
Aaron Lim’s designer notes on An Altogether Different River, downloadable if you own or purchase the game
If there are others you think I should know about, please hit me up to tell me about them!
An “Unprofessional” Kickstarter Video
So I told people, including y’all, that when I got to 69 backers on the Kickstarter I’d release the original project video I made for it that several reviewers described as “too unprofessional to use.” I think maybe they were wrong though. I’ll let you judge.
Finally, if we met at Big Bad Con, I’m so glad we got to speak! Everyone there was such a joy, and I hope we get to spend more time together soon.
Thanks as always for reading and listening!
CORRECTION: I originally said the Blades in the Dark video was with John Harper and Sydney Icarus. It is in fact John Harper and Andrew Gillis, as I’ve listed it in the text now.