Friday, April 27, 2018

Authentic RPG Podcast, with Carl Olson


Bet you thought I'd never get another one of these in place.

This is the fourth episode of my podcast, Authentic Role-playing.  Carl and I talk about getting started in the game, issues having to do with everyday life, participation by military players, the definition of the game and the presence of elitism among participants.

Please thank Carl for taking part, if you're able.  I couldn't make these podcasts without brave people willing to talk about themselves and each one deserves to be rewarded with a kind word and a pat on the back.  Carl did great here and I for one am grateful.

4 comments:

  1. Thank you, Alexis, for a most enjoyable conversation and for the hard work of putting these together. It's a rare thing in the online community, having these frank and honest discussions; I'm looking forward to hearing the rest of them.

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  2. Some in-depth discussion, indeed. The desire of some players to have a sweetness-and-light type of game can be a bit irritating, but where more potentially controversial material is concerned, I do try to be sensitive to my players to an extent - especially where they might have unpleasant real-world experiences with certain topics, which they don't want to dredge up in a roleplaying game.

    Carl's mention of Ghost Dog brought a smile to my face. I was a bit surprised that he didn't mention the RPG based on it, though - especially since it ran on the same engine as Big Eyes, Small Mouth, which he mentioned playing. But since the movie is obscure enough on its own, it's entirely possible that he just didn't know about the game; I certainly wouldn't have, if it weren't for a freak accident.

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  3. Damn, I completely forgot about the Ghost Dog RPG. Don't think I ever played it ~ I think I learned about it after I had stopped playing BESM.

    That brings back memories.

    On a different note, I'd like to share a bit of the feedback I received to the podcast (the full discussion can be found here):

    "Both of you talk about how it is not only fine, but reasonable, for folks to seek a lighter game, to play with young folks, to steer clear of harsher themes, even at great cost to immersion. Not what you two are interested in, full stop, but it is okay. But then their is the matter of your “blogger personas”, where all of that falls away to appeals to grow up, to name-calling and mudslinging. I’m not going to lie, if not for knowing the context I would expect that both people in the podcast would be exasperated by much of this blog."

    I'm intrigued by this. I would have thought that, at least once or twice, I came across as clearly against certain gaming paradigms ~ but it seems that there's this need to couch our discussions in a manner that's palatable to the audience. You find it with certain YouTubers and bloggers; it's become more of a standard or norm on the forums; and part of me sees it as an overly sensitive, "precious little snowflake" attitude ~ like, really people? You can't hear a different point of view and just let it go?

    Then again, that might be part of the reason I don't have many readers.

    Or is there something else going on?

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  4. It sounds like a reader is trying to put my motivation and personality into a small box, and the podcast is making that hard for him.

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