Welcome home.
This is Audio EXP for the 6th of July, and the episode title is “Just because you can”
[The following is a transcript of Audio EXP: #247]
[Also on Stitcher | Spotify | Apple]
The OG GM Adventures won the RPG Publisher Spotlight this month.
If this is not your first time listening to this podcast, then you’ll know the routine. My next move is to try to get in touch with the OG GM and try to line up an interview. It’s been a good week for interviews. Listen on for mentions of Rascal News and what the team there thinks the future of TTRPGs might be like, and, in an entirely different interview, Cocaine Owlbears.
First, though, let’s review the candidates for the August RPG Publisher Spotlight. They are;
The big news of the week was the cybersecurity breach at Roll20.
Someone got access to the admin, or an admin, account and therefore access to subscribers’ first name, last name, last four numbers on any saved credit card and the last known IP address.
At the time of recording, Roll20 had not said how this happened or how long illicit access had been going on without detection, but they certainly moved quickly once it came to light. The data also doesn’t seem too bad in terms of a breach, but some will be freaked out, and some right to point out that it’s not good enough.
It shouldn’t have happened.
Bronwen has a candidate for an “It shouldn’t have happened” or “just because you can does not mean you should” story this week. Scientists have made a smiling robot face from live human cells.
It’s freaky.
The actual plan is that we can grow these faces and stick them on robots to make them look more like us. If we want Cylons, that sounds like a sensible way forward.
It’s Superhero Week on Geek Native which means we’ve been doing a post or two each day on theme.
Fear not, I won’t run through the lot, but we asked whether it’s possible to cosplay as Gru then proven you can by finding photographic evidence, we’ve got set photos of Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern and Isabela Mercerd as Hawkgirl, and even dug up Kim Dracula’s Superhero music video.
In RPG news, Steamforged Games is pushing on with Strangelight Workshop. Strangelight Workshop is an Iron Kingdoms-based game with an investigation and occult slant. Given that Steamforged only recently bought Iron Kingdoms from Privateer Press, there was every reason to believe such projects would be in review, but Steamforged isn’t hanging around.
That news broke at about midnight. I was just shutting down, but I rushed out a quick post anyway. Good plan, maybe, but I spelt both Strangelight Workshop and Steamforged wrong in the title, didn’t notice and then have taken two attempts this week to fix the typos. Yikes.
If you want an example of a more professional TTRPG news site less likely to clown around like that then consider Rascal News. Not only does Geek Native have an interview with Lin, Rowan and Chase we also have a discount link.
You can find the links in the transcript via the show notes but the deal means you can join Rascal for;
$3 a month for 3 months, $5 a month thereafter.
Rowan predicted the death of blog networks, the big players, due to capitalism and big tech.
Lin doesn’t think that TTRPGs will ever produce enough monetizable news to satisfy the big media because big media is never satisfied.
Chase is willing to admit that Roll20’s merger and acquisition strategy might be practical in the face of the shadowy VTT from WoTC, but none of the team are fans conglomeration within the hobby.
I also interviewed Mike Lafferty because that Cocaine Owlbear came back. We ended up talking about drugs and whether TTRPGs reflect today’s cultural concerns.
The penultimate story and last RPG one is about Peckers.
Don’t snigger.
In this case, Peckers is a TTRPG designed by 10-year-old Scottish kids.
Aww, cute? Not so fast. Peckers are robots who now roam the Earth to attack people and rescue other Peckers from us. It’s at least as creepy as it is cute and it needs £500 to fund on Kickstarter.
The last story, just a quick mention, is for the review of Blue Lock the Movie – Episode Nagi.
I’m not generally a sports anime fan and have not seen the series, but I enjoyed this until it suddenly stopped. The whole cinema sat and watched the credits role for a bit as we all expected something else to happen.
On that note, beware of giant human-hunting robot birds, and see you next week.
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