Assorted Nostalgia | Dorks Just Chatting
The Mana Pool
For the last episode of 2025, the dorks (except Dirk) spend an entire episode inadvertently discussing a lot of nostalgic stuff. It kicks off with GI Joe movies and Ghostbusters lore (with some Dave Coulier thrown in, for some reason?). Then we move into video games for the majority of the show, pitching ideas for applying a randomizer to old games, point & click adventure game Moon Logic, smashing franchises and generations of games together, inserting roguelikes, and other tangential nonsense as usual. Be sure to let us know what old video game franchise you'd wish they'd put into a...
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Supply Lines: Dungeons & Dragons Part 2 - Combat | The Mana Pool #741
The Mana Pool
Welcome to Supply Lines, a running feature here on TMP where the dorks will be looking at resource management in games. What games? All games, because Chewie is convinced that they're all just different styles of resource management dressed up in genre pants. This is the third Supply Lines episode, and the second about the most popular tabletop RPG of all time, Dungeons & Dragons. On the first one in episode 736 we covered all the resources involved in character creation (well, most of them). Now it's time to get into combat! We're talking about all the different things that you have...
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Vehicles in Video Games | The Mana Pool #740
The Mana Pool
The dorks are discussing the different types of vehicular transporation you can find in video games. From the cutscene/background only vehicles to the ones that essentially are the player, we're covering as many as we can think of, with plenty of suggestions from the TMP Discord (see, that's why you should totally join!) to round us out. Be sure to let us know what your favorite vehicle is! Come join us in the future! The show is live on Thursdays around 8pm(ish) Eastern time on Twitch. Become a Lifeguard on Patreon! – Podcast RSS Feed: YouTube: The Deep End: ...
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Then Everything Changed When the Fire Nation Attacked | The Mana Pool #739
The Mana Pool
The dorks continue checking out the Avatar set! And it's just after Chewie's 45th birthday! What is going on here? Where is the Avatar? What happened to my cabbages? Gallery: Come join us in the future! The show is live on Thursdays around 8pm(ish) Eastern time on Twitch. Become a Lifeguard on Patreon! – Podcast RSS Feed: YouTube: The Deep End: TMP Streams Archive: Twitch: Discord: BlueSky: Instagram: Threads: Email: Intro & Outro Music: Diamond by Swift –
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Long Ago the Four Dorks Lived Together in Harmony... | The Mana Pool #738
The Mana Pool
Yup, the dorks are looking at the Avatar: The Last Airbender set. And it's our 18 year anniversary! Holy crap! Mechanics: Gallery: Come join us in the future! The show is live on Thursdays around 8pm(ish) Eastern time on Twitch. Become a Lifeguard on Patreon! – Podcast RSS Feed: YouTube: The Deep End: TMP Streams Archive: Twitch: Discord: BlueSky: Instagram: Threads: Email: Intro & Outro Music: Diamond by Swift –
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Gaming & Other Nonsense | Dorks Just Chatting
The Mana Pool
The dorks (except Mike) get together to discuss what we've been playing lately along with a bit of personal nonsense. You know how it is, we're dorks and we're just chatting! Come join us in the future! The show is live on Thursdays around 8pm(ish) Eastern time on Twitch. Become a Lifeguard on Patreon! – Podcast RSS Feed: YouTube: The Deep End: TMP Streams Archive: Twitch: Discord: BlueSky: Instagram: Threads: Email:
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Spooky Stories That Spooked Us | The Mana Pool #737
The Mana Pool
Since it's Halloween time the dorks thought they'd get into the spirit of things by telling you all about some spooky stories. These come from folklore, our childhood, the bookstore, and the internet, and all of them spooked us, or unsettled us, or at the very least just stuck with us, and we want to share them with you. We also got several suggestions from the TMP Discord, which you should totally join too! Come join us in the future! The show is live on Thursdays around 8pm(ish) Eastern time on Twitch. Become a Lifeguard on Patreon! – Podcast RSS Feed: YouTube: The Deep...
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Supply Lines: Dungeons & Dragons Part 1 - Character Creation | The Mana Pool #736
The Mana Pool
Welcome to Supply Lines, a running feature here on TMP where the dorks will be looking at resource management in games. What games? All games, because Chewie is convinced that they're all just different styles of resource management dressed up in genre pants. This is the second Supply Lines episode, after starting with Magic: The Gathering (for obvious reasons) in episode 723. For this one we decided to go to one of the most hardcore examples of resource management in games, Dungeons & Dragons! Chewie has been playing Baldur's Gate 3 and the other dorks actually play D&D, so they've...
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Fictional Books (in Fiction) | The Mana Pool #735
The Mana Pool
On this fictional episode of The Mana Pool, the dorks are taking a look at books that don't actually exist. Whether they're macguffins that drive the story, plot points that provide exposition or power to the protagonists (or antagonists), or a self-referential meta thing that makes your head hurt, fictional books have been important in fiction across all kinds of genres and mediums, and we're going to talk about a whole mess of them! What's your favorite fictional book, whether we did or didn't cover it in the episode? Come join us in the future! The show is live on Thursdays around 8pm(ish)...
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Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Cards | The Mana Pool #734
The Mana Pool
The dorks dive back into the Spider-Man (and the Through the Omenpaths digital nonsense version) Magic set to pick out a mess of cards to talk about. As usual with Universes Beyond stuff, we're talking about what the cards do and what they represent from the source material. Radioactive spider blood! Become a Lifeguard on Patreon! – Podcast RSS Feed: YouTube: The Deep End: TMP Streams Archive: Twitch: Discord: BlueSky: Instagram: Threads: Email: Intro & Outro Music: Diamond by Swift –
info_outlineThe dorks dive into the horror tropes of Duskmourn! You know the drill by now - mechanics first then we dive into the card image gallery. And Chewie finds a new word that makes him happy.
Heh, boilerbilges.
Mechanics: https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/feature/duskmourn-house-of-horror-mechanics
Gallery: https://magic.wizards.com/en/products/duskmourn-house-of-horror/card-image-gallery
Come join us in the future! The show is live on Thursdays around 8pm(ish) Eastern time on Twitch
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Intro & Outro Music: Diamond by Swift – https://open.spotify.com/artist/0vAs5HIBkUPbuoN5b5GWTE