Episode #2: Settings in Roleplaying Games
Ludological Alchemy: The Hypothesis
Release Date: 05/29/2024
Ludological Alchemy: The Hypothesis - Episode #12: Looking back on a year of Ludological Alchemy
Ludological Alchemy: The Hypothesis
Greetings astute alchemists, In this our twelfth episode, we ramble through our preamble discussing Christmas music, knock-knock jokes, online scams and modern art. After we amble through those brambles, Christopher takes us through a year of our mail bag of comments and questions. We hope you find the chaos of our 12th recording both diverting and informative. — Luke & Christopher !
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Ludological Alchemy: The Hypothesis - Episode #11: Designing to Teach Game Design
Ludological Alchemy: The Hypothesis
Greetings, alchemists. Once again, we dive into an arcane topic, but this one has a bit of a metatextual level: we speak of teaching the subject of game design. Christopher has many questions for Luke, who has answers, experience, and even some questions of his own. We discuss subject matter, students, things to consider from the academic side of things, and how the teacher can even consider themselves. Interested in becoming more of a subject matter expert? Check out the !
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Ludological Alchemy: The Hypothesis - Episode #10: Iron Hearts in Hearts of Iron
Ludological Alchemy: The Hypothesis
Players of Games, As a game designer, playing other games is important to the design process, especially games orthogonal to your area of expertise. In Episode 10 of Ludological Alchemy’s Hypothesis we broaden our remit to discuss a topic adjacent to roleplaying games: war games. Specifically in our case, Hearts of Iron 4 by Paradox Entertainment. Luke introduced Christopher to the game a couple of years ago and since then they’ve played weekly becoming embroiled in a number of gritty, closely-fought campaigns. In the recording, they reflect on how they play the game and how it has...
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Ludological Alchemy: The Hypothesis - A Random Encounter with Tom Bombadil
Ludological Alchemy: The Hypothesis
Dearest listener, Here we present to a special episode. Normally, we limit such special episodes to paid subscribers, but we enjoyed this discussion so much we wanted to share it with everyone. Please enjoy and if you’re so compelled, put a few goldberries in our yellow hat. TOM BOMBADIL. Merry old Tom is a denizen of the Old Forest, northeast of the Shire in Tolkien’s Middle Earth. He’s an odd character, seeming unlike the elves and powers of the world. Even Elrond’s council discusses Tom’s queer nature and what use he could be in the quest to destroy the Ring of Power. In fact,...
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Ludological Alchemy: The Hypothesis - Episode #9: In All Fairness
Ludological Alchemy: The Hypothesis
We know that for many, today is a day known as "Christmas Day", however, we here at Ludological Alchemy celebrate a more esoteric event: the final episode of our podcast The Hypothesis for the year 2024. Our first year of podcasting and blogging has been tumultuous, perilous, enlightening, frustrating, joyous, fraught, and entirely worthwhile, by our estimation. However, rather than looking back on this year in this episode, we instead bring you an altogether different experience. This very month, only a few weeks ago, Luke and Christopher met in person in the Lair of the Crane, where we...
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Ludological Alchemy: The Hypothesis - Episode #8: Ten Rules of Roleplaying Games
Ludological Alchemy: The Hypothesis
We return to undertake a challenge. What rules must one adhere to when crafting roleplaying games? We develop a list of ten of them. Listen to follow our journey! Technical note for our listeners: Recording this episode seems to have triggered some mild curse. Christopher appears to have angered some kami of audio, a gremlin of podcasting. Thus the recording required two attempts over the course of three months, and this was the best we could do. That said, the audio quality is not up to our usual standards. Before we record our next episode, we’ll burn some sage in the corners of...
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Ludological Alchemy: The Hypothesis - Episode #7: Players Playing
Ludological Alchemy: The Hypothesis
Are games truly games without those who play them? In this latest episode of our Ludological Alchemy podcast "The Hypothesis" we discuss the terms, personages, conditions by which we can identify and better understand that which is the most difficult part of any game: the player. Are you a player of games? Surely you must be, but what sort of player do you consider yourself? Interesting. Tell us more — leave us a comment on the Ludological Alchemy substack, . We greatly look forward to recording more content soon and delivering it to your ears soon thereafter. Until then, we remain your...
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Episode #6: Ruminations and Consternations under the Shadow of Ursula
Ludological Alchemy: The Hypothesis
Greetings, alchemists, and welcome to another episode of our humble audio ventures into the unknown: a so-called "podcast", and it is so called "The Hypothesis". We are your Ludological Alchemists, Luke and Christopher. Sam was not with us in body or voice for this recording, but very much so in spirit. He will return for another episode in the future. For today, you will have to contend with just the two of us. Let it be a burden which we can all gain growth and wisdom from. We go quite a ways outside our normal banter and topics... and yet, what we cover never leaves the realm of the...
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Episode #5: Golems LIVE at Gen Con 2024
Ludological Alchemy: The Hypothesis
Dearest listener, This episode of our Hypothesis contains a different outlook than our previous iterations. Herein, we present to you a live recording captured at Gen Con ‘24 of your humble alchemists at their labors. In this experiment, we attempt to play our game, The Alchemist & the Golem with each other and then, as a body, with the audience. I think you may be surprised to learn just how difficult it is to induce a golem to play a roleplaying game. In addition, for your visual delights, we display photographs captured by our producer Trevor Casterline at said event. Enjoy, but do...
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Episode #4: Certain about Uncertainty
Ludological Alchemy: The Hypothesis
Welcome to yet another episode of The Hypothesis! Today, we discuss uncertainty! In all its myriad forms. Can we crack open any kernels of known unknowns? We suggest listening to the episode from start to finish, and not in some random order, but we cannot control you. Nor would we want to! For you, dear listeners, provide us with yet another — and possibly the most important — element of... uncertainty. Luke mentioned some probability distribution slides. ! Read, and weep. (Weeping is not mandatory, though it is encouraged.) This week is Gen Con! It's one of the biggest shows...
info_outlineWe're back! Did you miss us? It's only the second episode!
We're off to a powerful start, getting into some notably macabre topics before talking about RPGs at all. Are we going somewhere? Do we have a point? That we leave as an excersize for the listener.
We talk in-depth and in circles about setting and its place in roleplaying games. Thoughts? Do you agree with us? Or, better yet, are you convinced we drew all the wrong conclusions? Leave us a comment on the Ludological Alchemy substack, found here!
We look forward to bringing you another episode in a month! Until then, we remain your humble Alchemists.