Listen to this episode here.
Dice Exploder is now on Patreon! There's not going to be a lot behind the paywall, but there is right now a pilot episode for a new podcast that's part play report, part games criticism, and part personal memoir. This pilot is about the excellent game Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast, and you can listen to it now on the brand new Dice Exploder Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/DiceExploder
Transcript
Sam: Hello everyone. It's me. It's Sam. I'm here with an announcement that you have probably already read in the title of this episode. Dice Exploder is now on Patreon. I have given up the backer kit and kickstarter Pledge Drive funding ways for this show. And I'm trying out the Patreon thing. So if you love the show, this is your chance. You can go support the show on Patreon.
I wanted to kinda lay out a little bit of my philosophy behind what I want this Patreon to be, and also tell you about the main thing that is currently behind the paywall.
So first off is how I wanna look at Patreon. Primarily, this is just a way you to be like, I like the show. Here's a little money to support it continuing to exist. Like I'm not sure how often I'm actually gonna be putting out anything behind this paywall.
I certainly don't want the show to go behind the paywall. Like I'm not gonna give early access to patrons because I think that's a good way to split the conversation around the show where some people are talking about it a week before everyone else, and then both groups get a less interesting conversation out of the deal. I think it's bad for patrons even.
And it's so much work to make the show. I don't know how much time I'm gonna have for other stuff here. But I'm hoping I can use it a little bit like a design diary, like there's a lot of stuff I work on that doesn't feel ready for public consumption, but that if you like my work enough that you're regularly giving me money. Maybe you're interested in seeing the process behind it.
So I've got some games I'm working on that might show up there. I've got a desperation play set about evil henchman getting massacred by a superhero that may or may not ever get a public release because I don't know how I'm gonna get art for that game. But you'll see a version of it on this Patreon probably quite soon. I think this game's really fun.
But the main thing I wanted to tell you about today is this audio essay I have back there that I'm calling the pilot episode of Dice Mementos and I wanna tell you about how this thing came to be.
So for a long time I've wondered why is it so hard to tell people about your play experiences and have it be tolerable for them? You know, telling stories is a skill, but we tell stories about everything. And why is this particular kind of story, like what happened in my game tonight, which can be so emotional in the moment. Why is it so regularly terrible? There's a whole meme phrase about how bad this is. Like, let me tell you about my We all know that conversation.
And the conclusion I came to is that telling these stories is just really hard so. Often to understand the story of a moment at the table, you need to explain like three different layers. Like who are the players at the table? Who are the characters in the fiction and what are the rules of the game? And like maybe more context on top of that. And the best moments of play are often when all these layers come together in really beautiful ways, and it's just hard to communicate all that in a way that's entertaining to someone who understands what a role playing game is, let alone like to my mom, you know?
But also for some time I've wanted to try to do that. I've had this idea for years now of like an actual play style or format where you don't give people the game as it's happening. You give them a reported experience after the fact. Like imagine This American Life or 99% invisible style reporter, like coming to your gaming group, interviewing you all about what happened in a game, like it was some big historical event, and then editing together a reported piece about the best moments of your campaign.
And I. I feel like that'd be really cool. I want to make that. Like let me tell you about my table from a source that you can trust, who's gonna put effort into making it a good story.
But you know, it turns out reporting is like a full-time job and really hard, and like even more so than editing a game design podcast. And I've never really trusted that I'd get something good from interviewing someone else's group about a moment I wasn't there for. And none of my best moments that I would wanna do this for have been with groups interested in participating in this for, you know, any number of good and valid reasons. So mostly this, this is an idea I've had for like eight years that's just been on the back burner.
And then this January I played Yazeba's bed and breakfast for the first time. And I knew right away I needed to talk about this game, but the things I wanted to say didn't feel right for the format of Dice Exploder. They felt. More personal. Like I, I needed something new, a new way to be able to talk about them. And I thought, you know, sometimes on This American Life, it's just a person talking about their life. Sometimes it's just memoir.
And so I made that. And so for now, this thing is called Dice Mementos number one. It's a pilot episode. It's part play report, part game criticism and review, part memoir.
And I hope if you subscribe to the Patreon, you enjoy this. I think I'll probably make, like, I'm, I'm hoping I can make like six of these, but probably not for a while yet. But you know, if you subscribe to the Patreon, it'll be much more likely that, they come into existence and you'll be the first to hear about them. So again, keep listening to the show. The absolute best way to support the show is not to subscribe on Patreon it's just to tell a friend about this show, tell people about this show.
Thanks so much for listening, and I will see you tomorrow for a regular episode.