Theory From the Closet

Show052: Live interview with Vincent Baker

Clyde L. Rhoer — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 23:10:23 +0000

Show052: Live interview with Vincent Baker Here’s the Live Show. Man this was hard for me. I was cutting in and out, my interviewee was across space and time, and I had a hard time focusing on the conversation, and paying attention to a chat box. On the plus, it was really cool to have live [...]

Show051: Interview with Chris Perrin and Clyde L. Rhoer

Clyde L. Rhoer — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 04:09:27 +0000

Show051: Interview with Chris Perrin and Clyde L. Rhoer This show was recorded at Gen Con for Cannon Punture by Chris Perrin. Chris recently left Cannon Punture on good terms, and I checked in with him to see if Cannon Punture had the audio of this show and planned to run it. When I found out [...]

Show050: Interview with Eero Tuovinen

Clyde L. Rhoer — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 11:18:18 +0000

Show050: Interview with Eero Tuovinen Here is possibly the last of my Gen Con recordings. (I’m still searching for one.) This was with Eero Tuovinen, one of the three folks behind Arkenstone Publishing, and creator of Zombie Cinema, and Solar System. My questions were a little less focused than what I’d like, but I was really [...]

Show049: Interview with John Wick

Clyde L. Rhoer — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 20:04:59 +0000

Show049: Interview with John Wick This is an interview I did with John Wick at Gen Con 2008. We talk about his new game, Houses of the Blooded, Legend of the Five Rings, torture-porn, and some of his thoughts about game design, and actual play. I couldn’t get the volume correct on this one with out adding [...]

Show048: Techniques and Ephemera

Clyde L. Rhoer — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 21:45:55 +0000

Show048: Techniques and Ephemera This show we tackle the last two layers of the Big Model, Techniques and Ephemera. If you need a review the last layer was Exploration, and before that was Social Contract. Not much else to say.

Show047: Interview with Ron Edwards

Clyde L. Rhoer — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 09:07:22 +0000

Show047: Interview with Ron Edwards Here’s an interview with Ron Edwards that I recorded at Gen Con 2008. It’s about half the time of the first interview I did with Ron, but still packed full of interesting information. In this show he corrects some info I’ve given before, plus we discuss Creative Agendas, and Actual Play. [...]

Show046: State of the Podcast 2

Clyde L. Rhoer — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:11:08 +0000

Show046: State of the Podcast 2 Another year down. Here’s the state of the podcast for this year. I’ve finally decided to halfway pursue turning podcasting into a job, so you’ll likely be seeing changes soon, as I gather the money I need for more hosting, possibly professional software, and gain knowledge. I’m not sure what [...]

Show045: Interview with Justin D. Jacobson

Clyde L. Rhoer — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 09:04:15 +0000

Show045: Interview with Justin D. Jacobson Here’s the second interview from Gen Con. I think there’s about Five more. This is with Justin D. Jacobson from Blue Devil Games, and One Bad Egg, and the creator of the well written Bullseye ashcan. You’ll likely hear me talking about Bullseye in Janurary via… well… via something secret. In [...]

Show044: Interview with Mike Mearls

Clyde L. Rhoer — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:03:54 +0000

Show044: Interview with Mike Mearls This is the first interview coming out of Gen Con ‘08. I’ve wanted to talk to Mike for a bit, but didn’t catch him at Origins. Fortunately I caught him at Gen Con. I questioned him about Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition’s design principles. It was a really interesting interview, and [...]

Show043: Interview with Andrea Sfiligoi

Clyde L. Rhoer — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 02:42:20 +0000

Show043: Interview with Andrea Sfiligoi This is the last of my Origins interviews. This interview is with Andrea Sfiligoi, creator of Song of Blades and Heroes, which was an Origins award nominee. It came about due to Paul Czege’s sharp eye as we were looking at the Origins awards nominees. Paul pointed out that one of [...]

Show042: Interview with Thor Olavsrud

Clyde L. Rhoer — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:10:47 +0000

Show042: Interview with Thor Olavsrud This is another interview recorded at Origins. I talk to Thor Olavsrud about editing again, but this time he’s not in a spaceship. It’s amazing to me right now how much I have learned since last year via the method know as the hard way. Anyway, We cover even more material [...]

Show041: Forums and the ” i ” word

Clyde L. Rhoer — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 07:58:54 +0000

Show041: Forums and the ” i ” word Not much to say about this show. I talk about how I’ve been thinking about creating a forum for this site, and what those thoughts are exactly. Then I talk about immersion and how it’s more than most people think it is.

Show040: Interview with Peter Adkison

Clyde L. Rhoer — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 02:11:08 +0000

Show040: Interview with Peter Adkison At Origins I interviewed Peter Adkison the C.E.O. of Hidden City Games, and Gen Con. If I sound more stupid than normal it’s because I was operating without notes. Note to self, do everything in Google Docs. Although I found one redemption in that Spectromancer and Dragon Horde are listed as [...]

Show039: Interview with Ralph Mazza

Clyde L. Rhoer — Mon, 19 May 2008 01:34:31 +0000

Show039: Interview with Ralph Mazza Here’s the second, or third interview I did at Forge Midwest. This is with the other creator of Universalis, Ralph Mazza. We talk about Universalis, Robots and Rapiers, plus Blood Red Sands. We also discuss how we believe that folks aren’t paying enough attention to covering who gets to make decisions [...]

Show038: Exploration

Clyde L. Rhoer — Tue, 13 May 2008 14:30:38 +0000

Show038: Exploration So this week I cover Exploration. Exploration is the level of the big model that is synonymous with Shared Imaginary Space. It’s made out of character, setting, color, situation, and system.

Show037: Interview with Mike Holmes

Clyde L. Rhoer — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:47:40 +0000

Show037: Interview with Mike Holmes This is the first of the RPG recordings I made at Forge Midwest. I only made two, but I got to play some games and it was sweet. Anyway, I’ve been wanting to talk to Mike since last year but have kept dropping the ball. We discuss why you can’t reward [...]

Show036: Marketing and Customer Service for Game Designers

Clyde L. Rhoer — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 03:20:25 +0000

Show036: Marketing and Customer Service for Game Designers This show is out of order. Show035 isn’t done yet and will be out later this week. Why don’t you just make this show035, Clyde? Good question, Clyde. It was already done which means the id3 tags were already made and I didn’t want to go back and [...]

Show034: The Toxicity of Status

Clyde L. Rhoer — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 22:01:01 +0000

Show034: The Toxicity of Status This show, while not a masterpiece, is at least an entry level work to gain access into the guild of sound editing. If you could hear the original and see the tiny flatline of a sound file I had to work with you would be amazed. Anyway, I worked really hard [...]

Show033: Theory Refresher

Clyde L. Rhoer — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 04:24:16 +0000

Show033: Theory Refresher Here’s that show to try to get us caught back up. Not much more to say. Don’t forget to check out the Random-wiki for definitions of theory terms.

Show032: 2007 Swinnies

Clyde L. Rhoer — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 01:27:27 +0000

Show032: 2007 Swinnies So here’s that award show I promised. Here’s the Breakdown: Best Actual Play: Burning Wheel (10) Inspectres (5), Don’t Rest Your Head (5) Act’s of Evil (3), Trollbabe (3), 44 (3), Panty Explosion (3), Agon (3), Dust Devils (3), Dogs in the Vineyard (3), Prime Time Adventures (3), Burning Empires (3), The Mountain Witch (3), Other [...]

Show031: Interview with Julia Bond Ellingboe

Clyde L. Rhoer — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 23:34:29 +0000

Show031: Interview with Julia Bond Ellingboe (<—–Click this link to listen!!) This is another interview that happened at Dreamation. This time it’s with Julia Bond Ellingboe creator of the slave narrative game, “Steal Away Jordan.” I typically am not terribly nervous or worried doing an interview, but I was a bit concerned doing this [...]

Show030: Mutualism is dead?

Clyde L. Rhoer — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:22:59 +0000

Show030: Mutualism is dead? Here’s the first of those issue based podcasts I’ve been talking about. In this show I have Vincent Baker, Luke Crane, and my occasionally interrupting self, discussing Mutualism and whether it’s dead in the Indie-Punk scene. I came in with the dead opinion, but this discussion convinced me I was wrong. Not [...]

Show029: Interview with Vincent Baker

Clyde L. Rhoer — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 07:51:52 +0000

Show029: Inteview with Vincent Baker Here’s the follow up interview I did with Vincent Baker somewhat based on feedback folks gave to Show025. I will at some point have a link to the interview Luke Crane did with Vincent right before this interview, that is mentioned at the beginning. For the record it’s not [...]

Show028: Interview with Jason Walters

Clyde L. Rhoer — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 11:17:08 +0000

Show028: Interview with Jason Walters This is the last of the Gen Con interviews, and the last of the Ashcan Front interviews to boot. I talk with Jason Walters about his game, “You Brought This On Yourself,” a game based in Slasher film fiction. I recorded this Gen Con Sunday, and I think we could have [...]

Show027: Interview with Ram Hull

Clyde L. Rhoer — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 15:24:03 +0000

Show027: Interview with Ram Hull Here’s the interview I did with Ram Hull at Gen Con last year.

Show026: State of the podcast

Clyde L. Rhoer — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:08:20 +0000

Show026: State of the Podcast So here’s a show. How about that? I’ll have to get to links Monday. I’m about to fall asleep. Edit- I’m four days late, but here’s those links: Stabbing Contest Independant Insurgency The Score Master Plan Canon Puncture Grumbling Dwarf especially this episode.

Discussions From the Closet (Preview)

Clyde L. Rhoer — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 04:32:19 +0000

I’m starting a new podcast and this is the first episode of it’s first season. Each season will have different topics and whatever length is required to discuss them. This is going to be a monthly show, and it won’t be reducing the frequency of Theory From the Closet. I love making podcasts. Not the [...]

Show025: Interview with Ron Edwards and Vincent Baker

Clyde L. Rhoer — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 03:35:27 +0000

Show025: Interview with Ron Edwards and Vincent Baker I’m going to do notes and links for this one tomorrow, but I wanted to get this out so I could listen to it at work tonight.

Show024: Interview with Jeff Lower

Clyde L. Rhoer — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 03:11:07 +0000

Show024: Interview with Jeff Lower Here is my shortest interview ever. I spoke with Jeff Lower, one of the folks from the Ashcan Front at Gen Con. Jeff is one third of the Sons of Kryos and the creator of Giants. On his show their segments usually don’t go over 15 minutes, and that’s how this [...]

Show023: Interview with Darren Watts

Clyde L. Rhoer — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 15:19:21 +0000

Show023: Interview with Darren Watts We’re back. The site has been transferred to the new computer and as promised here is a new show. I sat down with Darren Watts, President of Hero Games at Gen Con. We talked about how Hero is designed as a very large toolkit, what the heck Indie means, and several [...]

Show022: Interview with Paul and Danielle Czege plus Matt Synder

Clyde L. Rhoer — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 13:15:40 +0000

Show022: Interview with Paul and Danielle Czege plus Matt Synder 3 weeks. Wow. I didn’t think I’ve been goofing with my computer that long. Here’s one with Paul, Danielle, and Matt the folks behind the Ashcan Front. I’ll do links and stuff later, but I need to take a quick nap and then head back to [...]

Show021: Interview with Chris Moore and Michael Lingner

Clyde L. Rhoer — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 15:29:49 +0000

Show021: Interview with Chris Moore and Michael Lingner Here’s the next of the Ashcan Front interviews. I talk with Chris Moore and Michael Lingner about their game, “Psi Run.” This one may be a little on the quiet side. We recorded it in Michael and Chris’s hotel room while Chris’s son was sleeping in the next [...]

Show020: The Gen Con Open Mic Experiment

Clyde L. Rhoer — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 08:34:18 +0000

Show020: The Gen Con Open Mic Experiment This is a bit of an off show. At Gen Con there was a podcasting booth. I volunteered to spend two separate hours manning the booth. I planned on recording both hours but all the available power outlets were taken on my first shift. My second shift was Saturday [...]

Show019: Interview with Paul Tevis

Clyde L. Rhoer — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 00:23:43 +0000

Show019: Interview with Paul Tevis Here’s the second interview with an Ashcan Front contributer. This time we have Paul Tevis from Have Games Will Travel. We discuss his game, “A Penny For My Thoughts.” Some of the interesting things we talk about are; procedural rules, improv and how the game relates to it, and quite a [...]

Show018: Interview with Ryan Macklin

Clyde L. Rhoer — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 22:30:01 +0000

Show018: Interview with Ryan Macklin This is the first of my interviews with the folks at the Ashcan Front booth from Gen Con. I spent a good portion of my Gen Con time trying to get all of the participants in the booth to record interviews with me. I came up short on that goal, much [...]

Show017: Game Design for Game Designers with James Brown

Clyde L. Rhoer — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 01:40:17 +0000

Show017: Game Design for Game Designers with James Brown Here is the first of my Gen Con interviews. I had scheduled to record with James Brown, designer of Death’s Door, Brick Battles, and Blood and Bronze, on Wednesday night. We couldn’t find anywhere to record, so we did a commando recording in the lobby of my [...]

Show016: Interview with Mike and Kat Miller

Clyde L. Rhoer — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 14:52:09 +0000

Show016: Interview with Mike and Kat Miller So this one everything was working fine with the microphones, but I accidentally recorded over the first two minutes. Fortunately it appears I got everything important. I spoke with Mike Miller creator of With Great Power, and Kat Miller who is working on a investigative crime drama RPG called [...]

Show015: Editing for Game Designers with Thor Olavsrud

Clyde L. Rhoer — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 13:17:46 +0000

Show015: Editing for Game Designers with Thor Olavsrud This time we have Thor Olavsrud, editor of Burning Wheel, Burning Empires, etc, talking to me about editing from the perspective of RPG’s. There’s quite a bit of static in the recording. Thor unfortunately was on the bad microphone, so his stuff had to be really boosted. More [...]

Show014: Google for Game Designers with Alexander Newman

Clyde L. Rhoer — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 02:39:04 +0000

Show014: Google for Game Designers with Alexander Newman How many times can I get Alexander to say, “It’s a great pleasure to be here Clyde?” Never enough. Notes to come…. No. Really.

Show013: Finances for Game Designers with Luke Crane

Clyde L. Rhoer — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 00:49:01 +0000

Show013: Finances for Game Designers with Luke Crane Man did I mess up at Origins. More about that later. Hopefully this sounds decent. It starts with some crunch and munch. I got Luke right before the fabled Burning Wheel game where he was too busy lopping off player character’s heads to collect up his Origins award. [...]

Show012: Interview with Fred Hicks

Clyde L. Rhoer — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 22:49:38 +0000

Show012: Interview with Fred Hicks This is actually the last of my Origins interviews, but it’s the one I screwed up on the least. This means it was the easiest to edit, and I’ve got a wedding party to go to in another state this weekend. Fred and I discuss some of Spirit of the Century’s design [...]

Show011: Social Contract

Clyde L. Rhoer — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 16:45:26 +0000

Show011: Social contract Not a lot to say right now. I need to take a nap. I’ll spruce this post up after Origins. That means Monday.

Show010: Flags and One-shots

Clyde L. Rhoer — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 22:30:21 +0000

Show010:Flags and One-shots More Rambling this week about flags. This time how to use them to help set up one-shots with pregenerated characters for a game that’s more about drama. I am down to cutting out only a third of my ums. I’m slowly training you to get used to my almost rhythmic use of ums. [...]

Show009: Flags and Bangs

Clyde L. Rhoer — Tue, 22 May 2007 02:24:01 +0000

Show009:Flags and Bangs This week we’re back to just me rambling. Don’t miss the secret song! I think this is better than the first four shows but I can’t put my finger on why. If you want to give me the finger and tell me why, feel free. I’ll put up better notes tomorrow, but for [...]

Show008: Interview with Ron Edwards

Clyde L. Rhoer — Mon, 14 May 2007 00:28:51 +0000

Show008: Interview with Ron Edwards This is the last of the Forge Midwest interviews. Soon we’ll be back to listening to my short podcasts featuring only my nasal vocal tones, in stereo! Until then enjoy this interview with Ron Edwards. It’s the longest yet, and the only one where I didn’t get completely through my pitiful [...]

Show007: Interview with James Brown

Clyde L. Rhoer — Mon, 07 May 2007 09:15:03 +0000

Show007: Interview with James Brown This week is the third interview from Forge Midwest. On deck is James Brown, creator of Brick Battles, Death’s Door, and an upcoming game Blood and Bronze. We talk mainly about his games, especially Death’s Door. I found it especially interesting to see how well all of his mechanics have been [...]

Show006: Interview with Luke Crane

Clyde L. Rhoer — Tue, 01 May 2007 00:14:36 +0000

Show006: Interview with Luke Crane This is the second of the interviews I made at Forge Midwest. I interviewed Luke Crane, and we discuss his games Burning Wheel, and Burning Empires, people with silly tattoo’s, the pain of the creative process, his game Under a Serpent Sun, it’s theme of suicide, and many other things. Also Luke [...]

Show005: Interview with Paul Czege

Clyde L. Rhoer — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 02:22:28 +0000

Show005: Interview with Paul Czege I went to the Forge Midwest meet up this Weekend in Chicago, Illinois. I did some interviews while I was there and this is the first of those. Paul Czege discusses many things with me from the Ashcan Front booth both he and Matt Synder are organizing for Gen Con, [...]

Show004: Kickers and Bangs

Clyde L. Rhoer — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 05:49:12 +0000

Show004: Kickers and Bangs It’s only been a week, and here’s another show. It’s still got some of the warble-iness. I can’t figure out what’s causing it. I think I’ve got some kind of hard to trace system interrupt conflict. There maybe one more show before I have a solution for the problem. I then may [...]

Show003: Stances

Clyde L. Rhoer — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 07:09:40 +0000

Show003: Stances Wowza, it’s been three months. I’m not dead yet, and I haven’t quit. I’m just lazy. The next show is already recorded, I’ve just got to edit it. I left many more um’s in this show. Is it irritating yet? Here’s the Meat: Section 1: Introduction I introduce the show, and then discuss feedback I received [...]

Show002: Conflict and Task resolution

Clyde L. Rhoer — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 00:40:42 +0000

Show002: Conflict and Task Resolution Section 1: Introduction I introduce myself and give my email address. Then I discuss thee feedback from show 2, which was to fix the glitches and add music. I was able to get the music but am still learning the techniques for recording. I’ve figured out what I need to do to [...]

Show 001: Does System Matter?

Clyde L. Rhoer — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 20:24:09 +0000

Here it is: Show 001:Does System Matter? Section 1: Introduction This is where I introduced myself, and explained why I have no business discussing RPG theory or design. I then discussed the goals of the show, which are to be about 90% correct, that’s an A, and to build from the ground up so new folks can learn [...]