Episodes
Saturday Apr 04, 2020
Playing Ironsworn Part 1: Character Creation, Brand Personalities
Saturday Apr 04, 2020
Saturday Apr 04, 2020
I'm pretty excited about this new episode, I'm looking forward to hearing what you think of it. I've had plans to begin recording a tabletop roleplaying game while musing about brand strategy and a few other topics, and it's finally beginning! In this episode, I'm creating the setting and playing character for Ironsworn, a roleplaying game that friends told me about and is designed to be played in a solo format (though not only, you can also play the same game with friends).
In this game of perilous quests, characters take vows they swear on a bit of iron leading them to adventures to fulfill on them.
I will record the sequel soon, but otherwise if you'd like to join me in playing a game and chatting about strategy and communications some time, please keep in touch!
In this episode I go through the creative process of the beginning of a roleplaying game, while also mentioning brand personalities a little and a few other bits, like Stephen Kings' seminal 1971 paper "What is a Brand?" and Ogilvy on Advertising.
A few other things mentioned in the episode:
Saturday Mar 28, 2020
Confined in Paris
Saturday Mar 28, 2020
Saturday Mar 28, 2020
A month has gone by in a flash since the last episode I published, and the world has massively changed since - at least much of the world has, as the COVID-19 virus has been declared a global pandemic. In France we have been confined to our homes for the past two weeks, asked to stay home aside for work essential to running the country, going out for groceries, and minimal physical exercise. If you're reading I'm sure you know all this.
Much of my world and media diet has been coronavirus related for more than two weeks now, and while there are experts talking about that side of things with more knowledge than I have, I wanted to record and share some of my thoughts of how it has been for me in the past couple of weeks, and hoping it is useful and resonates with some of your experience as well.
It's also a way to say I am still working on my podcast, and the next episode will be back to some "normal programming" even though as I mention, I'm still exploring what normal is for my podcast.
I think I forgot one important point in this recording, in case you read this, and that is the importance of taking care of your mind and emotions in this time of crisis. I'm even more diligent than usual about my daily meditation, and on that topic I recommend a great and short episode of Sam Harris' podcast: Meditation in an Emergency.
That's about it for now, I'll be back with more soon, stay home stay safe in the meantime!
Thursday Feb 27, 2020
Quill RPG Author and Trollish Delver, Scott Malthouse
Thursday Feb 27, 2020
Thursday Feb 27, 2020
We are back to a more traditional episode of the podcast this month, it follows the episode I recently published playing Quill, a letter-writing roleplaying game for a single player - you can go back to that one first if you'd like though it's not essential to following this conversation.
After publishing the episode playing Quill, I reached out to Scott Malthouse, the author of the game, and he graciously accepted to take some time for a recording, a mere few weeks later and voilà!
I hope you enjoy listening as much as I did chatting with Scott about his games, if you did please take a few minutes to post a review on your favorite podcasting app, it helps me keep motivated to record and publish, and helps others find the podcast thanks to the recommendations.
In this episode:
- Scott Malthouse on Twitter
- Trollish Delver Games
- We Love Folklore
- Quill RPG (and more Quill in other languages too)
- Fighting Fantasy / Choose Your Own Adventure Books
- Warhammer / Warhammer 40,000
- Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
- D&D
- Fiasco RPG
- OSR Retro clones
- Osric
- Swords & Wizardry
- Tunnels & Trolls
- Dungeon World
- Powered by the Apocalypse
- Rulings not Rules
- Apocalypse World
- USR - Unbelievably Simple Roleplaying
- Osprey Games
- Romance of the Perilous Land
- Frostgrave
- Nookers
- Boggarts
- De Profundis
- Story Cubes / 9 dice
- Dixit
- Mysterium
- Obscurio
- Tarot Deck
- Once Upon a Time
- Dragonmeet
- Pathfinder
- Alphonse Mucha
Monday Jan 20, 2020
Playful Visit at The Louvre Museum
Monday Jan 20, 2020
Monday Jan 20, 2020
I am experimenting new types of episodes for the podcast and would love to hear what you think of this one, given it's a first time for me.
Before Christmas, I went out one day with my Zoom H5 audio recorder and recorded my observations visiting the Louvre Museum in Paris for the first time.
Join me for a quite ignorant but hopefully entertaining audio experience from the most visited museum in the world!
Mentioned in this episode:
- The Louvre Museum
- Nintendo & The Louvre partnership for 3DS audioguides
- Musée d'Orsay
- Zoom H5 Audio Recorder
- Man, Play, and Games, by Roger Caillois
- Red Carnations on a Black Grave, tabletop roleplaying game
- The Assumption of the Virgin, painting by Giambattista Piazetta
- Ancient Rome and Modern Rome, paintings by Giovanni Paolo Panini
- Landscape with the Flight into Egypt, painting by Dominichino
- Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci
- Le Sacre ou le Couronnement (Napoleon at Notre Dame)
- Leonidas at Thermopylae, David
- Liberty Guiding The People (Delacroix)
- ...And many more.
Friday Jan 03, 2020
Playing Quill, A Letter-writing Roleplaying Game for a Single Player
Friday Jan 03, 2020
Friday Jan 03, 2020
Happy new year, I hope you had an amazing time over the holidays!!
I can't believe it's 2020 already. Now I really feel old, still thinking of "the Twenties" as the 1920s now nearly twenty years into the 21st century. I'm sure people thought and said that a hundred years ago too.
Check out Tim Urban's short post on Wait But Why about 2020 for some more of this kind of perspective in the kind of fantastic diagram he does so well - and just a little bit depressing too.
I'm finally back with an experimental episode, it's about time! I've settled in Paris and still aiming to record playing games and having generally playful experiences with others, though in the meantime I'm beginning the experiment by myself. I'm definitely interested in hearing what you think of this one, given it's pretty different from previous episodes.
Mentioned in this episode:
- Wait But Why: It's 2020 and you're in the future
- Mark Pollard's Sweathead podcast
- Les Voix d'Altaride, podcast rôliste (en français)
- Samuel Ziterman (en français, GM Tips, solo TTRPGs)
- Cendrones (en français, IronSworn solo TTRPG episode 1)
- Quill, A Letter-writing Roleplaying Game for a Single Player, on Itch.io (and Drivethru RPG) by Scott Malthouse of Trollish Delver Games.
Friday Jul 05, 2019
Summer update on the way from Chicago to Paris
Friday Jul 05, 2019
Friday Jul 05, 2019
Well for a change I'm kind of behind on all sorts of things (mainly the podcast, newsletter, and other similar side projects and ideas - like designing a board game, that hasn't gotten any love in a while. But I digress) I was about to fly from Chicago to Paris yesterday on the 4th July and after nearly 4 hours delay, the flight was cancelled.
It just so happens that I'm in the middle of moving from Chicago to Paris, so they put me up in a hotel near the airport, rebooked on a flight a day later, and I've been doing my best to catch up on everything, including dealing with a few fires and emergencies to do with organizing my 40th birthday party in Spain in a couple of weeks - which I'm super excited about!
That's about it for now, I have more news in the episode, including a week long intensive improv comedy course I took, a workshop about stand-up comedy, performed for our improv comedy student show, did a quick set at a stand-up open mic, lots going on with organizing my big vacation and party to celebrate my 40th birthday - in the villa pictured above, and lots done in Chicago to enjoy all the things I love about the city!
That's about it for now, keep in touch and as usual please tell me if you enjoy listening to the podcast!
Wednesday Jun 12, 2019
Wednesday Jun 12, 2019
I first met Jason at GenCon in 2018, and have been meaning to have a conversation about his game designing since. We had a brilliant chat about coffee roasting, roleplaying game writing and design, some of his history, what he believes his game design is about, and some pointers for people interested in trying out tabletop roleplaying games.
"I'm trying to make memorable, emotionally moving games that make people think about serious issues so that we can use games to teach people how to be better humans through the incredible empathy building that is available in the roleplaying game hobby."
- Jason Pitre
Info mentioned in this episode:
- Genesis of Legend
- Follow Genesis of Legend on Twitter
- AeroPress
- French Press
- Chemex coffee maker
- Ottawa
- Accadians
- Victoria, British Columbia
- Les Voix d'Altaride Podcast (French)
- Magic: The Gathering
- RuneQuest RPG
- Rifts RPG
- Bushido RPG
- Dungeons & Dragons RPG
- TSR (company)
- Demon: The Fallen RPG
- White Wolf Publishing
- Spark RPG
- Wizards of the Coast
- Harlem Unbound RPG
- Cthtulhu Mythos
- H.P. Lovecraft
- Chaosium
- Sig: Manual of the Primes RPG
- Planescape
- RPG Design Panelcast
- Spire RPG
- Good Society RPG
- The Jank Cast
- D&D Adventurer's League
- Microscope RPG
- Kingdom RPG
- Follow RPG
- Seven Wonders: A Story Games Anthology
- Dragonmeet Convention in London
- A Theory of Fun for Game Design, by Raph Koster
- Metatopia Game design convention
- Jeni's Ice Cream
- Origins Game Fair
- Gauntlet: Red Carnation on a Black Grave
- One Child's Heart (recently on KS)
- Quarter Share, by Nathan Lowell
Tuesday Jun 04, 2019
Tuesday Jun 04, 2019
I had a brilliant and lively conversation about the value of being helpful, enthusiasm, the craft of writing, storytelling, today's media landscape, and more with Jessica Greenwood, Chief Strategy Officer of R/GA.
Jessica was a journalist before being hired as a strategist and advocates the importance of writing as a craft for strategists in the creative communications industry. Jess was named to Ad Age U.S. Women to Watch Class of 2019.
"The big rub on strategists is that they prefer to be clever rather than helpful."
- Jessica Greenwood
"As we go to a more data led world, and this sort of signal to noise ratio gets a little more confusing, I think writing is something we need to talk about more. I don't think it's made clear enough to strategists entering the industry that you are a storyteller, you have to tell a story in a way that is irrefutable."
I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did, please share with a friend and keep in touch to tell me if you enjoyed listening!
Mentioned in this episode:
- Jessica Greenwood on Twitter
- R/GA
- Samsung
- Verizon
- Nike
- Pepsi
- Contagious Magazine
- World 50
- This American Life - 'Anything can be Anything'
- Flat Earth Theory
- Papel e caneta
- Andre Chaves - Papel e Caneta
- The International Exchange
- Conversation with Philippa White
- Rummikub (board game)
- Billie Eilish record
- Game of Thrones
- Leaving Neverland (documentary feature film)
- Sundance Festival
- Christine Blasie Ford testimony
- Kavanaugh hearings
- Sweathead with Mark Pollard Podcast
- The Rolistes Gaming Podcast with Kalum
Monday May 20, 2019
Brave Storytelling with Ama McKinley, Freelance Strategy Consultant
Monday May 20, 2019
Monday May 20, 2019
I am happy to share the inspiring and fun conversation I had with Ama McKinley a few weeks ago. I came across her Linkedin profile while browsing as I sometimes do, read her profile, some of her writing, and reached out given she seemed to have an interesting background.
Ama is a freelance strategy consultant, poet, a griot (storyteller), writer, and more, based in Atlanta.
Here are a couple of thoughts from her about storytelling in the marketing industry:
"I think the word storytelling is very used but perhaps underrated in the sense of quality or passion of storytelling. As an industry, I don't thing we're aware of the power that we have, especially when we're able to tell brave stories, or dig deeper in the truths that are across cultures or the truths that are across time. Sometimes the safe bet stories, like "we're authentic, we keep it real." There is no bravery and no substance in this story, and the story fades. It's not a story carried from person to person, or generation to generation."
- Ama McKinley
I hope you enjoy the rest of the conversation as much as I did!
Mentioned in this episode:
- Ama McKinley on Linkedin
- Griot (Wikipedia)
- Atlanta, Georgia
- Storytelling
- The Devil's Advocate (film)
- Such is the Way to the Stars (Love+Radio podcast episode about Richmond, Virginia)
- American Gods, Neil Gaiman (Book & TV Series)
- The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman (audiobook version)
- Game of Thrones
- Born a Crime, Trevor Noah (audio book version)
- Maya Angelou
- I know why the caged birds sing, Maya Angelou
- What Women Want (film)
- Seville, Spain
- Andalus: Unlocking the Secrets of Moorish Spain, Jason Webster
- The Alhambra, Grenada
- Miami Ad School Bootcamp
- Ifa Lukumi faith
- Orishas
- Her (film)
- Anansi, Akan tradition from Ghana
- Banana pudding ice cream by Blue Bell
- Talenti sorbets
- 2048 (mobile game)
- Alchemy (mobile game)
- Doing a TED Talk: The Full Story (Wait But Why, Tim Urban)
- Pecha Kucha
Thursday May 09, 2019
Master P for Planner with Steve Bayley, Creata Strategy & Insights Director
Thursday May 09, 2019
Thursday May 09, 2019
Steve reached out a couple of months ago with an interest to be on the podcast, he seemed like he was up to a lot of interesting things so we organized meeting up for chat.
We ended up unexpectedly talking about rap and hip hop, Steve's circuitous journey to becoming a planner working in advertising and marketing, his involvement with soccer, the non-league he launched, and many other fascinating stories.
Steve is a compelling proof that a planner can come from all sorts of different background and succeed in the creative communications industry and it was a delightful conversation, I hope you enjoy it as well.
"If you have a vision, stick with it. Just pursue that vision and don't put so much stock in the maxims you get from industry luminaries, because I took that Jon Steel thing of 'Be interesting and be interested' to so much heart that it probably added years on to my circuitous journey."
Steve on breaking into the advertising industry as a planner.
Thank you to the True Star Foundation in Chicago who let us borrow a room in their facility to record this conversation, we talk about it during the podcast, it's a fantastic program supporting Chicago youth in gaining media and marketing experience through a range of after school courses, activities, programs, and job internships.
Mentioned in this episode:
- Steve Bayley on Twitter and Linkedin
- Non League America
- Truth, Lies, and Advertising, by Jon Steel
- University South Carolina, Greensboro
- Master P
- G Camp
- Hair bands
- Poison
- Cinderella
- Britney Fox
- Bullet Boys
- Bobby Brown
- The Chronic
- Dr Dre
- Eminem
- VCU Brand Center
- Miami Ad School
- Beasley Broadcast Group
- Clear Channel
- BBH
- Stratfest
- BBDO Atlanta
- Matlock Agency Atlanta
- Non League Soccer
- Fox Soccer Channel
- Torquay
- FA Cup
- US Open Cup
- Ground Hopper Culture
- Deep in the Pyramid
- Detroit City FC
- Creata
- McDonald's Happy Meal
- True Star Foundation Chicago
- Adcolor
- Leo Burnett
- Moleskine
- The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind