Introducing the Fictoplasm Typecast

Hi there — owing to recent concerns with the mp3 format I’m switching to the more open and accessible A4 format. My hope is to make the ‘cast more accessible to all with this move. The downside is it may need a little more screen real estate and production time, so please bear with me. I’ll probably release the ‘cast a page at a time over a few weeks. Let me know what you think

Music

Music is by Chris Zabriskie: chriszabriskie.com // bandcamp // instagram // youtube

104: Interview with Frances Hardinge

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104: Interview with Frances Hardinge
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I’m interviewing Frances Hardinge! We talk about her novels including The Lie Tree and A Face Like Glass, her ideas and characters, unreliable landscapes, closed communities and islands, literary influences, and ghost stories.

  • 00:06 preamble
  • 01:02 Frances’ fiction (The Lie Tree, A Face Like Glass, research inc. cheese making)
  • 21:56 Literary influences (and ghost stories from East Anglia)
  • 36:16 playing RPGs
  • 47:00 more ghost story recommendations: Time of the Ghost by Diana Wynne Jones, The Shadow Cage by Philipa Pierce, An English Ghost Story by Kim Newman
  • 50:31 Wraith: The Oblivion
  • 55:36 what’s next?

Patreon

Support this podcast on The Fictoplasm Patreon!

Music Credits

Music is by Chris Zabriskie: chriszabriskie.com // bandcamp // instagram // youtube

Samples: “Is that you or are you you?” from Reappear, “Another version of you” from Thoughtless

98: Marvel 1602 with Paul Baldowski

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98: Marvel 1602 with Paul Baldowski
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Marvel 1602

With special guest Paul Baldowski of Just Crunch games, author of the Dee Sanction, The Cthulhu Hack and more!

Intro 00:07 // Synopsis 02:53 (spotting Marvel characters, Strange=Dee and Fury=Walsingham, pocket universes, three act structure, hating on bards) // Commentary 35:50 (the Dee Sanction and the Cthulhu Hack, the Duffer’s Guide to Historical Roleplaying and why you should visit actual bookshops) // Media 1:10:58 (Maelstrom, Mage: the Sorcerer’s Crusade, GURPS supplements, Lords of Creation, Luther Arkwright, The Discovery of Witches, The Irregulars, The Nevers) // Contact info for Paul 1:30:45

Books mentioned are The Time Traveller’s Guide to Elizabethan England by Ian Mortimer, and The Arch-Conjurer of England: John Dee by Glyn Parry (Guardian review), as well as the current printing of Maelstrom (Arion games).

All Rolled Up at UKGE

If you’re listening to this when the podcast is hot off the press, All Rolled Up will be at UKGE! Check the end of the podcast for the stand. If you’re not going, buy their stuff online, and contact Paul at twitter.com/cthulhuhack and twitter.com/deesancion

Patreon

Support this podcast on The Fictoplasm Patreon!

Music Credits

Music is by Chris Zabriskie: chriszabriskie.com // bandcamp // instagram // youtube

Samples: “Is that you or are you you?” from Reappear and “Another version of you” from Thoughtless

Podcast listening Sat 13th Feb 2021

Wow, I am burning through episodes — at this rate this is going to be a weekly post:

Mean by Scene ep 11 “In the Projection Room”

Sharanya and Tom discuss and break down Mean Girls, scene by scene. So fetch.

(but I have to say, Tom, how can you mention Parallel Lines and forget Heart of Glass?)

Episode 11

Anchor.fm

Orlanth Rex’s Gaming Vexes ep 11: interview with Paul Mitchener

I liked Paul’s interview (and he sounds much better than in the episodes we recorded together) and also I don’t much care for actual play but the editing of this episode to focus on the hilights really works.

Episode 11

Anchor.fm

Weekly Typographic 48

Inevitably I’ll go back to some favourite shows. This one from the League of Moveable Type is great both for uniwidth fonts, and for the legibility vs. readibility discussion.

Episode 48

Weekly Typographic

Welcome to Night Vale 181: C****s

Love Night Vale. This episode has a fantastic world’s first audio crossword.

Ep 181 (and uncommon for a podcast, a transcript)

+1 FWD: Moonpunk

+1 FWD the PbtA Podcast discusses Moonpunk with its creators Wannabe Games. The game is apparently inspired by Robert A Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

BUT the most interesting part is the discusson on the use of PbtA in the classroom, including moves and playbooks.

Moonpunk on +1 FWD

84: Everway interview

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84: Everway interview
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This is a special episode of Fictoplasm where I interview the Everway Company on their forthcoming Silver Anniversary release of Jonathan Tweet’s Everway, coming to Kickstarter in January 2021.

Show Notes

Preamble 00:07 // Introductions 00:30 // History 04:55 // The anniversary edition 18:55 // The indie connection 25:39 // Supplements 31:35 // The new Fortune Deck 36:43 // Kickstarter 39:29 // Fictional touchstones for Jesse and Rich 42:00

Supplemental

I blogged about Everway back in 2015.

Music Credits

Music is by Chris Zabriskie: chriszabriskie.com // bandcamp // free music archive

Samples: “Is that you or are you you?” from Reappear // “Another version of you” from Thoughtless

77: Interview with Dave Morris

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77: Interview with Dave Morris
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Interview with Dave Morris, author of Can You Brexit Without Breaking Britain, Dragon Warriors, Jewel Spider, Mirabilis and more!

Show Notes

Intro 00:07 // Can You Brexit Without Breaking Britain? 00:35 // Frankenstein 29:45 // Politics in games 35:43 // Design Mechanism’s Lyonesse 47:32 // Tekumel and Tirikelu 53:18 // Dragon Warriors and Jewel Spider 57:12 // Tetsubo 1:01:04 // Abraxas/Sparta 1:09:39 // Mirabilis 1:13:27

Links

Can You Brexit?
Fabled Lands blog
Mirabilis
Patreon for Jewel Spider
The Frankenstein app
Tirikelu

Music Credits

Music is by Chris Zabriskie: chriszabriskie.com // bandcamp // free music archive

Samples: “Is that you or are you you?” from Reappear // “Another version of you” from Thoughtless

Episode 62: Interview with Tod Foley

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Episode 62: Interview with Tod Foley
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Fractopia

Interview with Tod Foley, leader of this is Fractopia and editor of Ubiquicity, author of Day Trippers RPG and Cyberspace.

Show Notes

Sample topics, in approximate order:

  • What is Fractopia?
  • Hierarchical vs. Anarchistic Frameworks (Day-trippers vs The Strange)
  • Daytrippers, an open-ended, multidimensional system
  • Who buys the games? Socialist overtones of the early indie RPGs
  • Why Tod isn’t into Cyberpunk
  • Snowcrash and postmodernism
  • Capitalist realism
  • Fractopian principles
  • Curated worlds
  • Digital and reputation economies
  • Fractopian podcast
  • Cyberpunk as “what we should avoid”
  • 50 things that made the modern economy
  • PC Character Sheets, 25 dollars and 5 cubic meters
  • Golden Age Adventures
  • Where to get it

Realistic Capitalism

Music Credits

Music is by Chris Zabriskie: chriszabriskie.com // bandcamp // free music archive

Samples: “Is That You Or Are You You?” from Reappear // “Another Version Of You” from Thoughtless

Episode 60: The King in Yellow with Scott Dorward

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Episode 60: The King in Yellow with Scott Dorward
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The King In Yellow by Robert W. Chambers

With Scott Dorward from the Good Friends of Jackson Elias! Visit their site for their ongoing series on the King in Yellow.

Show Notes

defining cosmic horror 04:30 // gothic horror 07:50 // everything is delusion 09:50 // gothic motifs (question for Matt Sanderson) 13:20 // cosmic horror without Lovecraft 15:07 // house on the borderlands 16:54 // what would Sandy Petersen’s KiY look like? 21:05 // 1980s game design and Dallas 27:43 // Pelgrane’s Yellow King (Hillfolk vs Gumshoe) 34:55 // investigative horror 36:25 // consent 38:04 // Hellraiser comics and damned by crossword 39:11 // memes 50:58 // cosmology 53:44 // the stars are gods 55:37 // Shakespeare’s King in Yellow 58:20 // Clive Barker’s living city-gods 1:00:17 // uncaring vs. moralistic gods 1:02:10 // Scott’s dream team of fan writers (Karl Edward Wagner, Robert Aickman, Clive Barker, Brett Easton Ellis, Ramsay Campbell, Nathan Ballingrud) 1:03:44

Extra

The Brett Easton Ellis RPG character sheet

Music Credits

Music is by Chris Zabriskie: chriszabriskie.com // bandcamp // free music archive

Samples: “Is That You Or Are You You?” from Reappear // “Another Version Of You” from Thoughtless

Episode 302: Interview with Roz Morris

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Episode 302: Interview with Roz Morris
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Interview with Roz Morris, author of Not Quite Lost, Lifeform Three and My Memories Of A Future Life

Show Notes

  • Introduction to Roz Morris 00:35
  • Literary inspiration 01:25
  • Genre 04:40
    • The Bridge by Iain Banks
    • Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
    • Blindness by Jose Saramago (note: the film I was struggling to remember is Perfect Sense, starring Eva Green and Ewan McGregor and scored by Max Richter)
    • Night Work by Thomas Glavinic
    • Eclipse of the Century by Jan Mark
    • The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier
    • On the Beach by Nevil Shute
  • Worldbuilding 13:50
    • Where do you start?
    • The process
    • Other player input
    • Other starting points
    • Light of Other Days by Bob Shaw
  • Pony books 36:05
    • Authors: Mary Gervaise, Ruby Ferguson, Christine, Josephine and Diana Pullein-Thompson
    • Pony Action RPG
  • Self-publishing 50:20
    • Editing
    • Attitudes to self-publishing
    • Getting reviewed
    • Social media
  • Not Quite Lost 60:50

Music Credits

“Cylinder 9” from Cylinders by Chris Zabriskie

“Pick Up A Convict On Alcatraz” from Stunt Island by Chris Zabriskie

chriszabriskie.com // bandcamp // free music archive

Summer Special: Beyond the Wall

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Summer Special: Beyond the Wall
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In this seasonal special, Ralph interviews John Cocking and Peter Williams, authors of Beyond the Wall.

Show Notes

Ralph Lovegrove with John Cocking and Peter Williams of Flatland Games.

About Flatland Games 00:30 // Reading background 01:35 // Fantasy and D&D 04:40 // Swallows and Amazons 05:40 // Aiming for a roleplaying experience 07:05 // The lone wolf hero in fiction and RPGs 08:30 // The World of Darkness 10:45 // A shout out for Dragon Warriors 18:35 // How Beyond the Wall came to be 20:45 // What is the “D&D experience”? 24:30 // A four year-old’s perspective on system matching 25:55 // The lingua franca 29:30 // The playbooks and layers for other D&D 31:05 // BtW’s spells (and Ars Magica) 33:10 // Design — what came first? 36:25 // BtW and Appendix N 41:40 // Other fiction properties that should be RPGs 43:00 // Your favourite Eternal Champion (Ralph blathers a bit here…) 44:50 // Stormbringer RPG 48:30 // US-UK cross-cultural 49:20 // Flatland Games’ other offerings (Action Movie World, Wizard’s Museum Construction Kit) 52:20

Music credits

“Cylinder Eight“ and “Cylinder Nine” from Cylinders by Chris Zabriskie

chriszabriskie.com // bandcamp // free music archive