Ugly Talk

This month Matt and Travis invite 3 special guests (and one tag along) to the show. Travis has struggled trying to work with the Red Market's RPG system. Tonight, with the help of our guests, we hope to rectify that. Along the way we will talk the different focuses GM's have when designing games, our advice for learning how to write scenarios, and personal tricks for running games. Special thanks to Technical Difficulties' Greg, Laura, and Adam as well as Roleplaying Exchange's Sean for all their assistance with the creation of this episode. Media Referenced: Red Markets Red Markets 10,000 Lakes - Blessed Beer The Hurt Locker S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Roadside Picnic - Free PDF Stalker Guest Information Matt - Twitter - Twitch Travis - Twitter - Twitch Greg - Twitter - Twitch Laura - Twitter - Blog

David Cage's Detroit: Become Human has become something of a bad joke among those who have experienced it due to its nonsensical twists and poor handling of the idea of the Civil Rights Movement.  Since the internet at large has spent more than their fair share of time beating it down, we felt like comparing it to another cop story that deals with the subject of racial inequality by also discussing the first season of David Simon's 2002-2008 HBO Drama The Wire.  We also talk in detail about the concept of Sensitivity Editors and other ideas to bring more grounding to your work and iron out problems you may not think you had. Media Discussed: Mother's Basement - Detroit: Become Human Super Best Friends Play Detroit: Become Human David Cage on Domestic Violence Show Me a Hero Craig Froehle - The Evolution of the Fence Comic City Beautiful - Why did we build high-rise housing projects? Twitter The Drunk and Ugly Travis Matt

Cosmic Horror isn't just tentacles monsters and insanity. It is the loneliness of the outsider. It is the realization of how small you our in a system vastly beyond your own. Strange Cases of Cosmic Horror will reveal some examples of media that might now be viewed as traditional cosmic horror, but still fits within the genre's aesthetic. Furthermore, this panel briefly delves into how RPG systems can use the ideas and aesthetics of cosmic horror to provide a voice to individuals who struggle to express their experiences.     Panel includes: RPPR's David Dobleman, Aldente Rigormortis' Review Cultist, and DnU's Max Daniel and Travis Gasque.   Special thanks to Review Cultist for taking a backup recording so that we could post this.

Travis and Matt are currently dealing with personal issues.  We will return in July.

Paranoia Agent is an animated program from Satoshi Kon, director of animated films such as Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, and Paprika.  Paranoia Agent was described as a way for him to use ideas that he wasn't able to fit into his other feature films, connecting the scraps into an anthology by way of a framing device.  In this episode we discuss the themes of Paranoia Agent and the meanings of anthologies, series, and serials. Media Referenced in this Episode Paranoia Agent Paprika Tokyo Godfathers The Final Revelation Road Trip PUBG is a Successful Failure Extra Credits - The Need for B Games Jim Sterling - Middle Shelf Games Mark Brown - Do We Need a "Soulslike" Genre?

As of now, as of right this second, there's a new dynamic at play.  And this dynamic is the final from here on out until I state otherwise.  There'll be no more debate, no more discussion, no more compromise. It's me speaking you listening, me saying you doing. Do you understand that?  It's time for a new course of action. A new direction. A game change. You're joining me in the navy.

Speedrunning is a rather esoteric hobby of trying to beat games as quickly as possible under specific conditions.  It's difficult to say where it began or what the first speedrun was, but on this day in the year of our lord two thousand eighteen it's grown into a large community that contains many smaller subcultures. To the outside observer, speedrunning may seem like a fruitless or impossible task to pick up, as observation of the fastest run shows that runners immediately understand the whole game and execute it to the finest degree in ways not conceived by the developers.  What is actually being observed in each speedrun, however, is the end product of dozens of hands in perfecting a route and hours of practice before finally reciting the sequence in a run. No man is an island, and there's no wrong way to play.  In this episode, we talk about this concept as it relates to tabletop gaming with our friend Greg Bennett of Technical Difficulties. Media Referenced in This Episode: Crypt of the Necrodancer Onl

What's the difference between a gimmick and a core mechanic? In this episode, we discuss various games with strange ideas and odd control schemes in an effort to get to the bottom of this discussion, and also how this can be applied to your own games, be they tabletop or otherwise. Strap yourself in and be ready for some spoilers. Media Referenced in this Episode: Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons The Last Guardian Lifeline The Chechen Candidate Game Maker's Toolkit: Dual Purpose Design Zen Pencils: The Two Wolves Fragile Dream: Farewell Ruins of the Moon Do you have some writing ideas for Posthuman Studios?  Check out their current writing contest!

The Cry of Mann was an interactive webseries that ran from October 23rd until November 2nd of 2017, performed by the members of the sketch comedy group Wham City.  The series followed the trials and tribulations of the Mann family who have been waiting for their patriarch, Tank Mann, to return home, hopefully in time for the annual celebration of TROOL Day.  Each family member has their own individual struggles and the family business seems to be unraveling without Tank at the helm.  The main crux of this series was that the whole set was lined with telephones and viewers were prompted repeatedly throughout each episode to call in and talk to the characters.  This was first thought to be a novelty or a way to scrape more lore from the world but as the series continued it became apparent that interaction with the characters would alter the course of the story. This particular style of fiction is so novel and unprecedented that we were not entirely sure how to define or describe it.  It seemed like something of

This month we readdress last years topic on cultural storytelling. This time we are looking at American Culture as can be seen through the lens of American Horror cinema. This does a bit to get into, so give it a listen. We talk about ghosts, film, horror franchises, Travis gets burpy, and the hidden political subtext of Saw. It gets weird. Check it out. Media Referenced in this Episode: Extra Credits - Horror that Lingers Extra Credits - The Beast Macabre Wise Craft - Philosophy of Saw  Company Man - Ouija Ghostland  Chucky (Series) Saw (Series)

Gobblin’ is an original RPG setting and system where players control goblins settling and exploring a post-apocalyptic Earth. The creatures who crave violence, stupidity and chaos have just found the perfect means to obtain it.  Travis talks to Greg to better understand this game about everyone's favorite miserable minions. Remember to check out Gobblin on Kickstarter!

This panel was recorded at Gen Con 2017.  The panelists were Travis, Matt, and Greg Bennett of Technical Difficulties. Horror beyond time and space! The unknowable horror of the universe! But is it really all the same? This panel is an exploration of the evolution of Lovecraft's works in the modern era. And how what we experience today might changed due to the influenced by other mediums.

This is a panel from Gen Con 2017. Travis talks about Ludonarrative Dissonance (Fludonarrative discobiscuits if you're hungry). If you've been in the video game blog-o-sphere at some point, you have heard of LND (I'm not typing out the entire word you can't make me). But is it necessarily the pejorative term as its become in video game circles. Listen to this panel from Gen Con that gives the answer: NO. Most of all if anything LND is a feature most Tabletop GMs and Players are intimately familiar with, but haven't realized there was a term for. As such, listen in, learn a thing (maybe), and speak up if you have questions. Welcome to Herding Cats: Ludonarrative Dissonance and Players. (Dammit you tricked me into writing the full things again...) Do you want to take part in a playtest of Gobblin': The Goblin RPG? Send an email to thedrunkandtheugly@gmail.com

The Story of Your Life is a short story by Ted Chiang following a woman whose understanding of an alien language has vastly altered her perception of reality.  This story was later adapted into the multimillion dollar Sci-Fi motion picture Arrival.  Experiencing both of these media, the throughline can be easily found, but the two stories are vastly different in their construction to aid in conveying their core message in a written format and a visual medium.  In translating writing concepts between media, we have picked apart specific ways the story has been adapted to make it work better, and we will pass these teachings onto you. Media Referenced in this Episode Lessons from the Screenplay (inspiration for the episode) "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang Arrival film based on SoYL by Ted Chiang Daikatana by John Romero "Wild Cards" series by George RR Martin Persona / SMT series published by Atlus Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei (Digital Devil Story: Goddess Reincarnation) by Aya Nishitani  Persona 3 by

Hello internet!  We return to you this summer to talk about the return of a revered but short series from the 1990s.  Twin Peaks was a TV series by David Lynch and Mark Frost about the murder of the Homecoming Queen Laura Palmer in the sleepy town of Twin Peaks, Washington.  We share the experiences and explore the town through Dale Cooper, a federal agent called in to investigate the murder. The M.I.C.E. quotient is a writing foundation credited to Orson Scott Card, known most notably for his science fiction series Ender's Game.  The basic idea as listed in the acronym is that every story seed falls into the categories of milieu, idea, character, or event.  You will have many of these story ideas overlapping and building upon one another in the course of your story, but the important thing is that you resolve them in the reverse of the order you introduce them. The structure of the early episodes and the subsequent failure of Twin Peaks can be heavily traced to MICE (among other things), and in this episode,

Stasis is a 2015 science fiction horror game developed and published by The Brotherhood, a South African studio comprised of the brothers Nicolas and Christopher Bischoff.  In the year of its release, it was awarded Adventure Game of the Year by AdventureGamers.com The plot of the game draws heavily from Event Horizon and Dead Space.  It follows John Maracheck, a family man and school teacher who wakes up from cryostasis on an unknown and apparently abandoned vessel known as "The Groomlake.  Injured, unarmed, and alone, he must search out and rescue his family and escape the dying vessel, all the while learning the horrifying secrets it holds. Through the course of this episode, we discuss the story and design decisions of Stasis along with James and Kevin Colmar.  We discuss what we think could have been improved, as well as design lessons to take away in our own writing.

Hello Internet!  Apologies for the wait, but the March Madness applies to more than college basketball.  In this episode we hit on a topic that we have wanted to cover for probably over a year now:  Tales from the Wood.  For the entire time since we played this game we have been really thinking on how we can make it better or at least better adhere to the themes that it seems to be aiming for while also making it a more cohesive system in general.   In this episode, we discuss the design and writing choices of this game, what mistakes we feel it made, and ways we would try to correct it.

Hello internet!  In this episode we continue our discussion from the previous episode on ways to break down media, where we now focus on the supreme way: Deconstruction and Reconstruction.   In a deconstruction, a medium is taken apart, usually by playing the subject matter completely straight and considering how the signature elements would work in the real world.  In a reconstruction, the criticisms pointed out by deconstructing are accepted and modified in such a way that they feel faithful to the core work, but don't require the same caveats they once did. In the course of this episode, we will analyze several deconstructed and reconstructed works, find the connecting threads between the relevant media, and find a way to use it in your own writing. Media Discussed in this Episode: Neon Genesis Evangeleon Doom (2016) Better Angels Monsters and Other Childish Things If you want to follow us on social media: Travis' Twitter Matt's Twitter The Podcast Twitter

Hello Internet, and welcome back to Ugly Talk.  In our first episode of 2017, we're discussing patterns in media remixing and creation by examining and comparing some very different video games.  Namely, we are comparing Punch Club, an early 2016 mobile fight manager simulator with a number of very goofy themes, to the more recently released Final Fantasy XV, a AAA multi-hour JRPG that wears its previous influences on its sleeve.  In our discussion, we break down the ideas of parody, bricolage, pastiche, homage, and plagiarism and how to consider taking elements from other media to remix into your own games. Media Discussed in this Episode: Punch Club Final Fantasy XV If you want to follow us on social media: Travis' Twitter Matt's Twitter The Podcast Twitter

Welcome back to Ugly Talk!  We've got one more to close the year out, focusing some feel good TV.  Black Mirror is a project by the great Charlie Brooker, humorist, satirist, critic, etc, etc.  Brooker has produced many short run television series, mostly comedies, but all of which seem to deconstruct the world of entertainment around us and call into question that which we have either ignored or normalized.  Black Mirror is the extreme of this deconstructivism as via a Twilight Zone lens of sci-fi conceits to shine a light on some element of media we already live with. In the episode, Travis and Matt look at how Brooker's deconstructive nature and its influence from the British culture and how you can apply these mindsets to your games.   Media Discussed in this Episode: The Complete works of Charlie Brooker including Black Mirror (now on Netflix) A Touch of Cloth So You've Been Publicly Shamed Monsters and Other Childish Things Paranoia (quick start) Eclipse Phase (Creative Commons Licensed) Leaving Meg