Design Doc

We try redesigning Noirlandia, one of our other roleplaying games, in one hour!

Who are the Junk Poets and what do they add to Questlandia? We go over what we know, what's still missing, and how they could make a GMless game easier to play!

We've finished the first two playtests of Questlandia and something is still missing. In this episode we talk about how to hone in on the emotional core of the game. What stories does this game want to tell and how do we make sure it tells them?

After playtesting Questlandia's new kingdom and character creation, it's time to test some scenes! Bartholomew the anxious city planner and Quincy the cast out justice-bringer will have to make some hard choices. Choices that begin with a cat and end with a geological anomaly. Intro/Outro theme music - by Pat King

Welcome to Kingdom Knot, where our people keep vigil over the void at the edge of the world. Something has emerged from that void—a creature for which we have no words, of which we have no memory. For now, we will call it...a "cat." Music credits: Design Doc Intro/Outro theme written by Pat King Also featuring New Ages 1 by Little Dog, Big Ears

Alanna Shaffer joins us to talk about how, even when telling made-up stories, we can be aware of biases in the way we talk about history. Whose stories get told? Whose get left behind? And what's our responsibility to our fictional worlds? Mentioned reading: Charity and Sylvia by Rachel Hope Cleves The New Map of Empire: How Britain Imagined America before Independence by Max Edelson The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller by Carlo Ginzburg Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution by Kathleen DuVal A Misplaced Massacre: Struggling over the Memory of Sand Creek by Ari Kelman

Why are our worlds turning out horrible? After playtesting at Metatopia, we talk about how the framing for worldbuilding can exaggerate societies to cartoonish levels. Maybe we can learn from the original Questlandia?

It's Trans Awareness Week. A short bonus episode about trans allyship, education, and creating better gaming spaces. Trans Awareness Week: https://www.glaad.org/transweek The Trans Language Primer : https://www.translanguageprimer.com/

We talk about acknowledging—and embracing—the inherent politics of game design. Intro music credit. New Ages 1 from Little Big Dog Ears. http://opsound.org/artist/littledogbigears/ http://opsound.org/info/license/

In September we met for a mini Questlandia retreat. We talked about how our intentions for the game have shifted in the current political landscape and introduced an unfolding guidebook that will sit at the center of play.