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Sam D @diceexploder.com · 1d

This week on Dice Exploder: @moreblueberries.bsky.social and @brianflaherty.bsky.social talk an original "tree shanty" produced for My First Dungeon's Wildsea series. We go deep on how preproduction, production, and post can all influence and surprise each other in the creation of a single moment.

Actual Play: A Tree Shanty (My First Dungeon: The Wildsea) with Brian Flaherty and Elliot Davis — Dice Exploder

In The Wildsea, you play as sailors on a sea of trees in a climate post-apocalypse where the climate won. And in the My First Dungeon mini series of this game, today's co-cohost Brian Flaherty took…

www.diceexploder.com

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Sam D @diceexploder.com · 1d

We can lurk together!

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Sam D @diceexploder.com · 2d

(Also it's possible you understood this and I misunderstood you, but I wanted to clarify anyway.)

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Sam D @diceexploder.com · 2d

The thing I'm excited about in AP is the relationship between the brothers, not the world of Neverwinter or the characters in it.

And to be clear: no shade to people with different taste than mine!

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Sam D @diceexploder.com · 2d

2. Taako procures the Flaming Poisoning Raging Sword of Doom. It's among the funniest things I've ever heard. It takes place in fiction, but what makes it good is that it's a story about Justin pulling on over on his brother Griffin. 7 years later I can tell you play by play how this went down.

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Sam D @diceexploder.com · 2d

Like, two examples from TAZ Balance:

1. The ending of the series is a bunch of big emotional climaxes. I was entertained. Today, 7 years after listening, I remember essentially no details other than "that was pretty good!"

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Sam D @diceexploder.com · 2d

I think what excites me more is less "out of character conversations" of various kinds and more stories (documentaries?) about people who happen to be playing a game.

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Sam D @diceexploder.com · 2d

Anyway, here's Wonderwall (aka the origin of everything I currently think about actual play) buttondown.com/partyofonepo...

Thinking About Actual Play As Nonfiction

Hey Party People! Work on the newest season of Party of One is underway. Read on for a look at what’s new with the show, as well as a little bit of what has...

buttondown.com

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Sam D @diceexploder.com · 2d

Lessons from editing my actual play series: I prefer the medium when it's a documentary that has a relationship to fiction rather than a piece of fiction that acknowledges its authors in real time.

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Sam D @diceexploder.com · 5d

Clayton on awards has been great this week. I love his case for why we should care about awards even if we don't like them, I love imagining the awards show he might make, and I also don't want to think about how much work it must take to put on any awards show, much less a good or even okay one.

Clayton @explorersdesign.bsky.social · 5d

The last article in my Awards Debrief is up. What even is the point of an award show? Should anyone care?

www.explorersdesign.com/ennies-4/

Where do rpg awards go next?

An insider's look into the 2025 Ennie Awards. Part four. What's the point of an award show? And what do we want to see in the future?

www.explorersdesign.com

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Sam D @diceexploder.com · 5d

Watching any movie: this could be Midnight Run instead

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Sam D @diceexploder.com · 7d

Interesting! I will say I also find character creation to be often excruciating even when I'm at the table doing it myself which probably colors all this.

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Sam D @diceexploder.com · 7d

But AP is so much about the people making it! If I'm not here for that, especially when they're so often prioritizing it there in the session 0, what am I doing?

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Sam D @diceexploder.com · 7d

The fiction vs nonfiction discussion on this one was so useful for me in helping sort out my relationship to AP - I skip ep0 stuff on most shows historically because my thinking is I'm here for the story, not the people making it.

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Reposted by Sam D

satah @posatahchips.gaygothvibes.online · 7d

shout out to rowan for immediately noting it's crazy not to name friends at the table as a core show in the development of actual play as a medium

Sam D @diceexploder.com · 8d

Today Dice Exploder kicks off a miniseries on actual play, where each ep we cover one moment of play. First up is @rowanzeoli.bsky.social on the very beginning of My First Dungeon's Orbital Blues series, and an overview of where AP is at as a medium. Plus: is AP a fiction or nonfiction medium?

Actual Play: The First 30 Minutes (My First Dungeon: Orbital Blues) with Rowan Zeoli — Dice Exploder

It's a new series on Dice Exploder all about actual play. For five episodes, instead of breaking down one mechanic, we're going to break down one moment from one actual play show. This week: the openi...

www.diceexploder.com

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Sam D @diceexploder.com · 8d

Having recorded 5 of them now, it's a great format. Someone with more long-term interest than me in AP should make a whole show out of it.

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Sam D @diceexploder.com · 8d

Today Dice Exploder kicks off a miniseries on actual play, where each ep we cover one moment of play. First up is @rowanzeoli.bsky.social on the very beginning of My First Dungeon's Orbital Blues series, and an overview of where AP is at as a medium. Plus: is AP a fiction or nonfiction medium?

Actual Play: The First 30 Minutes (My First Dungeon: Orbital Blues) with Rowan Zeoli — Dice Exploder

It's a new series on Dice Exploder all about actual play. For five episodes, instead of breaking down one mechanic, we're going to break down one moment from one actual play show. This week: the openi...

www.diceexploder.com

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Sam D @diceexploder.com · 10d

Apocalypse World

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Sam D @diceexploder.com · 12d

Next week on Dice Exploder I'm starting a 5 episode series on actual play where instead of breaking down one mechanic each ep, we'll cover one moment from an AP.

If you want to get a jump on the subject of next week's show, check out the opening moments of My First Dungeon's Orbital Blues series:

Orbital Blues: Session 1 - “The 21st Night of September”

open.spotify.com

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Sam D @diceexploder.com · 12d

Who are my late night Los Angeles movie people? Who's coming to the 10pm screening of SNEAKERS with me on Friday?

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Sam D @diceexploder.com · 12d

I just unlocked the thing where you can mark certain boons to highlight their requirements when they're offered, and I was like "nice I can finally do build planning easily" and then opened my codex, looked at the number of boons, and was like "im happy for you tho, or sorry that happened"

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Sam D @diceexploder.com · 12d

Yeah the game is so much more tactical than the brute-force I found I was relying on in Hades 1. I have found a lot of success building to maximize certain weapon moves, but like "only the special on this thing" or "only the attack on that thing." It feels like I'm missing something still.

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Sam D @diceexploder.com · 13d

Yeah I think Eris may be the most consistently challenging boss in the game for me. I'm quite deep in and I still haven't found a good rhythm with her.

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Sam D @diceexploder.com · 13d

Prometheus has a higher kill rate against me than Typhon.

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Sam D @diceexploder.com · 15d

I shoulda given you a heads up! I've been trying to make that more of a habit with folks the show covers.

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