Welcome to What is Roleplay: a podcast from Beyond Cataclysm exploring the very basics of Roleplay, Role Play Games, and what it means to be part of this awesome hobby.
We will be exploring the nuts and bolts of how to play role play, with each episode themed on a particular concept or idea. Even if you know literally nothing about role play games currently, this podcast is at a level that assumes no prior knowledge.
We will have interviews with leading designers from the indie scene, and take a look into games you may have heard of, and others you haven’t heard of, but should.
Each episode ends with some short live-play examples too, to put flesh on the bones we’ve laid out earlier on.
Welcome to Episode 15 of ‘What Is Roleplay?! This episode we are joined by Côme Martin to discuss diceless rpg Chris & Côme discuss many different Roleplaying Games that don’t use dice & explore the spectrum of games from completely controlled by fate, to the other end of the spectrum where the only narrative input …
Welcome to Episode 14 of ‘What Is Roleplay?! This episode we are joined by Johan Nohr to discuss design Everyone can draw – as adults we stop being creative because we fool ourselves into thinking that we cannot do it. How the independent games scene allows people to explore new ways of designing and laying …
Welcome to Episode 13 of ‘What Is Roleplay?! This episode we are joined by Rugose Kohn to discuss Melee Combat Trigger warning for violence and body horror! Melee combat is usually gritty and visceral hand to hand combat as opposed to more removed and antiseptic approach such as aerial bombardment. How early roleplaying games have …
Welcome to Episode 12 of ‘What Is Roleplay?! Join Chris & Dave as they get very silly in an All Outta Bubblegum actual play special! A brief explanation of the rules of All Outta Bubblegum A safety talk Counting for fun Setting the scene Pizza delivery mishaps and corner shop catastrophes More counting Listen as the …
Welcome to Episode 11 of ‘What Is Roleplay?! This episode we are joined by Guilherme Gontijo to discuss Design How design is very similar across the board, and how the differences often just come down to execution? Why does design matter? It is more than just style or a taste aesthetic Design is more about …
Welcome to Episode 10 of ‘What Is Roleplay?! This episode we are joined by Spencer Campbell to discuss Stats Laying out some of the basic types of stats that are used in roleplaying games The concept of Min/Max The good, the bad and the ugly of Stats Focusing on skills and approaches rather than just …
Welcome to Episode 9 of ‘What Is Roleplay?! This episode we are joined by Cezar Capacle to discuss Chance & Probability Be amazed by Cezar’s amazing productivity levels – 20+ games in three years! What on earth are “Conflict Resolution Mechanics”? We explore mechanics within various games systems that make good use of chance and …
Welcome to Episode 8 of ‘What Is Roleplay?! This episode we are joined by James D’Amato to discuss Personal Play An important, yet often undiscussed, topic – personal play encompasses anything in game play that you do on your own – things like world building, rolling dice to create a character, and writing character backstories. …
Welcome to Episode 7 of ‘What Is Roleplay?! This episode we are joined by Marx Shepherd to discuss Life Paths So, this episode was released a bit out of order… it’s not episode 3, but actually 7! It’s also worth noting that Marx no longer runs the Yes Indie’d Podcast! We cover tables, and rolling …
Welcome to Episode 6 of ‘What Is Roleplay?! This episode we are joined by Chris Bissette to discuss Character Creation What actually is Character Creation? Deciding who you are going to be in a game, right? How traditional RPGs such as Dungeons & Dragons handle character creation. Randomly generating versus picking skills Beginning with a …
