Today Monica invites her friend, Jacqueline Bryk, to join her and discuss something she considers a blank spot in her traditional game literacy: LARP. We discuss what makes a LARP, and general LARP design principles as Jax gives a detailed 101 crash course. We also kick around designing our own together, for a bit.
Tag: Game Mastering
BXP 06×01 Monica and D Analyze Resource Management
In today’s episode D and Monica sit down to get into the ins and outs of designing good resource management games. We talk about what you need to consider as a designer and break down how you can avoid common pitfalls. We also cite a handful of excellent games you can try that use their resources extremely well.
BXP Season 6 Update
BXP is BACK for Season Six. We have some very important updates to the show as well as some super cool episodes coming up. Give it a listen. If you stayed a patron through the off-season, Monica shouts out your name.
BXP 05×12 – Character Development (feat. Terry Robinson)
This is the final episode of Season Five. Terry joins Monica again with the second half of their very long conversation about experiences with gaming and new people.
Today we talk about character development in RPGs: what that means, what people want when they say they’re into it, and how games do and don’t support character growth over time. It’s a very interesting discussion and a perfect send-off for our fifth season.
BXP 05×11 – Mage, Exalted, and D&D (feat. Terry Robinson)
Terry (of Mage: the Podcast) joins Monica to talk about the wild experience of teaching Mage to new people and Monica commiserates about her experiences with teaching Exalted to beginners. We discuss the interesting cultural baggage that comes with most folks pop understanding of the hobby and what it’s like to show folks new games.
BXP 05×10-Games Without Randomizers feat. Chazz
Here’s the long-awaited new episode. Chazz of Pain in the Dice, OPPCast and Systematic Understanding of Everything joins Monica to discuss games without randomizers. No cards. No dice. No coin flips – just a variety of narrative resolutions. We break down what we like about these games and what makes them work and (most importantly) what’s worth stealing for your own homebrew.
BXP 05×09-So, You’re Playing D&D for the First Time…
Monica overheard a conversation about someone being nervous to play D&D for the first time and their worries about how to be a good player, so here’s today’s episode. Rai and Monica hang out to discuss what sort of things are good to keep in mind when you’re a player for the first time – no matter what game you’re playing.
BXP 05×08-Does System Matter?
Today Rai and Monica sit down to discuss a favorite internet discourse topic: does system matter? Can you just enjoy any game, regardless of system? Do you even NEED to be a game designer?
You’ll just have to listen to the whole thing if you want the answer.
BXP 05×07-DEEP DIVE: Streamlining Systems
While Rai sorts out a few life things, D joins us again for another deep dive. Today, Monica and Danielle discuss streamlining game systems – whether you’re doing that on your own for fun or whether it’s a professional job. We talk about the meaning, goals, and methods of streamlining and give some examples of systems we’d fix and systems we wouldn’t.
BXP 05×06-The BXP Memorial Day Picnic
We’ve really been going through it this year, so when we sat down to record our most recent episode we decided it would be fun and relaxing to just hang out instead.
Here’s nearly an hour of Monica and Rai talking about… everything and nothing.