Role Playing Public Radio RPPR Episode 59: Bildungsroman
Zombies of the World is now available in print, PDF and Kindle format!
My book, Road Trip, has been nominated for an Ennie!
Synopsis: Bildungsroman is a fancy way of describing the ‘youth to adulthood’ genre – stories like “to Kill a Mockingbird” where the character grows from a child to become an adult or closer to an adult. Role playing games are often like these stories – characters grow from being relatively weak and naive to eventually becoming epic badasses of destiny. However, many game systems do not encourage character growth – advancement is slow, ponderous and mechanically difficult. Furthermore, most campaigns are relatively short – interrupted or abandoned for myriad reasons. If you want players to grow at a faster pace, what should you do? How is mechanical growth different from role playing growth? Tom and I discuss these issues and more. Plus, instead of a letter, Tom and I read an excerpt from the infamous rpg.net review of FATAL. It’s definitely NSFW.
Shout outs
- Attack the Gas Station 1 and 2: Hilariously insane Korean comedies.
- The Eliminators: An action sci-fi movie with ninjas, mandroids, cavemen, robots and time travel. Follows the conventions of RPGs coincidentally enough.
- Ugly Americans: an animated sitcom about monsters and normal people living together.
- Killing Floor: Steampunk/circus summer event going on right now! Monkeys with chainsaws!
- Steam Summer Sale: only a few days left!
- The Man From Nowhere: Intense Korean action/thriller. Do not fuck with the pawnshop owner.