Episode 166: Jim Pinto Talks About D&D as "Work," Player Agency vs. Consumer Agency, and the DM/Player Compact

This episode features two Tiny d6 Role Playing Game system interviews. The first interview is with Alan Bahr of Gallant Knight Games who discusses Beach Patrol, Tiny Supers, and the overall Gallant Knight Games catalog. The second interview is with John D Payne and Gregory Israel of the Micronomicon Kickstarter Project, a collection of spells, archetypes, and Micro-Settings for the Tiny Dungeon Second Edition Role Playing Game. Our regular review segment Something Old and Something New discusses the Beach Patrol and Tales from the Floating Vagabond Game. New this episode is our Dungeons and Dilemmas segment, a bi-weekly discussion with Game Master extraordinaire David Nett. Join us as we Geek out about games and fiction in this weeks episode.

I’m a huge fan of superhero roleplaying games. It is my favorite genre to play in and I’m constantly on the look out for new games in the genre. I’ve frequently stated that there was a time when I owned every superhero game on the market. That’s no longer true, but I do own a lot and a lot of them are very interesting. Tobias Radesäter’s Supercrew definitely falls into the interesting category.

In this episode, I discuss Robin D Laws article "Four Players and a Murder Hobo" that was published on Pelgrane Press's website in 2016. While I believe that Robin is one of the best writers of game master advice in the history of table top gaming, I think he missed a key factor in this article. Yes, the article is 8 years old, but the dilemma it presents is still salient.

This episode is a discussion of the long out of print Flash Gordon and the Warriors of Mongo role playing game. It was published by Fantasy Games Unlimited and written by FGU publisher Scott Bizar and Lin Carter and is likely the first licensed role playing game. Though the game was published in 1977, it is very different from D&D and other role playing games at the time. And an interesting D&D connection is that if you are familiar with Appendix N, Lin Carter edited about half the stories featured there and it’s interesting to see what he thought a role playing game should look like.

Doc Wyatt and Gavin Hignight are the co-owners of Wandering Planet Toys a small action figure company that is releasing some very exciting lines of action figures. Their first foray into the field was a line of The Prisoner action figures and they are following it up with a new Nancy Drew action figure Kickstarter campaign. I chat with them about their inspirations and why they think Nancy Drew is a perfect fit for a line of action figures.

Lou Anders visits Geekerati Media to discuss Sword and Sorcery Fiction. Anders edited an excellent compilation of new Sword and Sorcery Fiction and is the author of a fun young adult series in the genre called Throne and Bones. In this interview, we touch on a definition of Sword and Sorcery and Anders provides several recommendations for readers who are interested in what's happening in the genre right now. In addition to the interview with Anders, this episode features our two regular review segments. In Critical Hits or Misses, Colleen Watts Carson reviews The Crystal Cavern by Mary Stewart and Randy Delgado discusses the most recent Pokemon Dungeon adventure in Randy's Corner. Join us for the discussion and share your thoughts.

Film and Television Writer and Producer Doc Wyatt (Napoleon Dynamite, Iron Man Armored Adventures, Spider-Man, Ninjago, and Much More) stops by the Geekerati Discord Server to share his recommendations for cartoons that are worth binging during the Covid-Quarantine... and when it's over. This interview is followed by our monthly Book Review from Colleen Watts Carson and Randy Delgado's pop culture review. Give a listen. Enjoy and share your thoughts with us.

In this episode of Geekerati Radio, we've got some very interesting segments for your listening pleasure. In our main segment, Jared Daniel Nielson from World of Game Design discusses the republication of a rare “70s California Style D&D” game supplement called The Manual of Aurania and plans for a new edition. In her Critical Hits and Misses segment, our resident literature reviewer Colleen Watts Carson chats about The Dark Lands by Markus Heitz, a novel that features the “daughter of Solomon Kane.” Does the book live up to the possibilities that creates? Looks like our reviews have a Robert E Howard-ish theme this month, fitting given his January Birthday, as in Randy’s Reviews our video game and comic book reviewer Randy Delgado gives his thoughts on the recent Savage Avengers Trade Paperback.

Christian Lindke and Keith Baker discuss the new rule book for the now classic Eberron setting for the Dungeons & Dragons role playing game, as well as Keith's upcoming card game inspired by the Adventure Zone podcast. It's a great conversation that touches on some of the design decisions required when updating a setting for a new edition of a game, as well as going into many of the things that make Eberron so special. Episode 167 also features the addition of a new segment called Critical Hits and Misses where Colleen Watts Carson gives her review of a work of fiction to let you know whether it is a Critical Hit or a Critical Miss. Geekerati Radio will be bringing in a host of new review spots and we'd love to hear your thoughts on them.

Jim Pinto is an experienced and influential game designer who has some thought provoking opinions about the state of the art in role playing games. One of his opinions is that as D&D has evolved as a game, that the role of game master has become more like "work" and less like "play" and that there is an imbalance in player expectations and game master responsibilities. We discuss this phenomenon, the concept of agency in role playing games, and the dynamics of the DM to Player social compact. What do you think the proper role of the game master is? I give my answer in this episode, but I'd love to hear yours. You can leave a voice message with your response or email it to me at [email protected].