Archive for the ‘Podcast Announcements’ Category

If you’re into the whole “listen to me on a podcast” thing, you’re in luck! I’ve been on a couple recently:

Kevin Weiser took some time to interview Elizabeth Sampat & I about the Random Kindness Encounter Bundle on The Walking Eye, which you can find here. We talk quite a bit about the various challenges of doing a project like this, and it’s of interest if you’re looking to do similar. Because the bundle was nearly closed when we talked with Kevin, it was far more deconstruction than promotion.

Rich Rogers from The Voice of the Revolution, one of my old audio stomping grounds, interviewed me about editing based on my recent blog post about the pillars of developmental editing[1]. I talk a bit more about flow and such, so if that post was up your alley, the interview will be as well. (And I’ll be following up what I mentioned there with some more posts, cuz, hey, editing.)

Happy Monday, friends!

- Ryan

[1] Judging by the URL, it seems like a damned saucy interview. But I assure you it doesn’t warrant its triple-X rating. And for that, I deeply apologize.

Last week, ENnie-nominated Dave the Game[1] interviewed ENnie-nominated Brennan Taylor and ENnie-nominated[2] me about one of my most very favorite probably-ENnie-nominated topics ever, convention GMing. It’s on the ENnie-nominated Dungeon Master Guys podcast, episode 11.

In This Episode:

• Special guest Sarah Darkmagic assists in hosting duties
• Dave talks to Brennan Taylor and Ryan Macklin about running convention games
• NewbieDM talks to Daniel Perez about running online games
• And we answer reader questions, including how to break the stigma of D&D to potential players, eating healthy at the game table, how to appeal to a mixed party of roleplayers and minmaxers in 4e, a time when a game really clicked, and money in game.

The episode is 65 minutes long (63M). Brennan & I talked for around 10-12 minutes, much like you’d expect if you listened to ENnie-Nominated The Voice of the Revolution. I mentioned that I should write up my convention questions as a blog post, so it’s now on my giant list of Things I May One Day Write About.

Oh, and remember, vote for the ENnies. If you don’t, They win. Who are They? You don’t want to find out, do you? So vote.

- Ryan

[1] Who should perhaps be known as Dave the Fame. Right, ladies? Hello? Is this thing on?

[2] Technically, it’s ENnie-award-winning, but that breaks the pattern.

Last night, Josh Roby and I ended up spontaneously podcasting with the ever-charming Tim Rodriguez of the fine podcast Dice + Food + Lodging. Josh and I talked about playtesting — how we go about it, what we’re looking for, pitfalls we’ve dealt with, and lessons we’ve learned.

The episode. It’s 25 minutes long. Josh was on shortly before recording a game we’re designing, Atlantis Risen[1], and I stopped partway through my commute in order to talk. (If you’re curious where I recorded from, outside The Ferry Building in San Francisco [image]. It’s the stop between the first and second third of my commute home.)

Was a good talk, even if I ended up talking more than Josh. He and I have very different environments: he has a dedicated playtest group that is trained the way people who do writing or art critiques are trained. I travel to conventions and constantly playtest with new people. Both are awesome, as they generate different experiences and feedback.

Apologies for the lack of Fate content. I have one more bullet point, though I’m unlikely to blog tomorrow, as I’m going on an Origins-methadone vacation. :) But that’s what next week is for!

- Ryan

[1] Which has no website yet.

This Just In…From Gen Con!, the podcast that Paul Tevis and I started back in 2008, is about to do its fourth season. I’ve given the show to the esteemed Daniel Perez and Rich Rogers, both fine podcasters and gentlemen of note.

I’ve mentioned that the show takes a lot of work to do, which is why I’ve happily stepped away. Daniel & Rich are well aware of the work — they’ve seen what I’ve had to do over the years. So they’re doing something smart: looking to crowdfund the show. I’ll let them tell you about it:

It’s pretty exciting what they’re doing — they’re going farther than I did, using Twitter, Facebook & Tumblr to connect with fans and broadcast news and highlights from the show even when they’re not podcasting. And they’re going to do short early-morning segments for the at-GenCon crowd that listen to the show on the wait to the hall. Seriously, they’ve blown me away with their plans for this year.

I hope you’ll consider funding them. Let’s keep the show alive. Check out the IndieGoGo campaign here.

- Ryan

A couple of announcements!

Dresdacon II’s Coming Up!

I’ll be at Dresdacon II, at Endgame Oakland this June 18th. Want to chat with me? Want to play some Dresden Files? Want to enjoy the fine eateries in Downtown Oakland? Come on up!

We need some help, though. To quote Fred Hicks quoting Chris Hanrahan of Endgame:

Hey, folks. The fine folks over at EndGame are hosting a second DresdaCon event at their store on June 18th, but they’re short on GMs. Here’s the message from the store:

DresdaCon II needs a few more GMs!

We are rapidly approaching the deadline for GM signs-ups for DresdaCon II. We have space for 3 more GMs in each time slot. Yes, we are going for 16 games! Wanna help? Head over to http://endgameoakland.com/dresdacon for all the details.

Hope to see you there!

We’ve even made it easy for you to run, with the release of Neutral Grounds and Night Fears! So if you live in or near the San Francisco bay area, and are willing to run a game, please contact the store and let them know. And if you haven’t made it to Endgame before, you owe it to yourself — it’s one of the best gamestores in the nation.

I’ll be a Special Guest at Celesticon!

Celesticon is a San Francisco Bay Area convention happening this Labor Day Weekend, September 2-5, 2011 at the Hotel Sofitel in Redwood City. I’ll be there, along with James Ernest & Kenneth Hite. (As of the time of this post. Check out the special guests page.)

You can find out more about the show at the website, www.celesticon.com. I’m pretty excited to be there, and we’re working out what sort of shenanigans are in store for folks attending. Naturally, I’ll update as we get closer to time.

(Side note: after reading this blog post about writing bios, mine on their site feels anemic.)

Reddit Interview about Dresden Files RPG!

A few months back, Ben Woerner polled folks on reddit for questions to ask Fred Hicks, Leonard Balsera & I. The interview is up now! It’s a two-parter, done with the four of us on Skype, so take the audio quality as you will. It was a fun interview, and the questions were neat. A good group of folks there. Hope you enjoy!

- Ryan