This episode presents a community talk from back in 2022. It features Rae Nedjadi, David MK, and myself talking about managing and working with playtests. It seemed like a useful thing to get back into the feed, so I've cleaned up the audio for posting. We talking about planning playtests, setting expectations, dealing with feedback, and filtering input.

Rae Nedjadi on itch.io
Rae Nedjadi on Patreon
David MK on itch.io
David MK on Patreon

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Support us on Patreon!
Our actual play podcast can be found here
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In our fifth episode of Roll for Mutation, we look at two different licensed post-apocalyptic TTRPGs from the 1990s. First, World of Tank Girl, part of West End Games Masterbook series which apparently launched even before the film it was based on hit the theaters. Then we cover Ralph Bakshi's Wizards, based on the eponymous wild animated movie from the 1970s. We talk about what both games do, the source materials, their specific apocalypses, and how both games showcase 1990's game design tendencies: for better or worse (Lowell says worse).

References
Designers and Dragons: The 1980s
Designers and Dragons: The 1990s
Tank Girl on Wikipedia
Wizards on Wikipedia

For other shows like this, check out Roll for Origin: Supers TTRPG History.

Marc Majcher is an award-winning game designer, performer, educator, director, woodworker, writer, and all-around goblin-man recently relocated from Austin, Texas to East Lansing, Michigan. You can find their RPGs and LARPs inspired by the works of Philip K. Dick, a bird apocalypse, eldritch startup cults, viral videos, and much, much more at https://majcher.itch.io/ and everything else at https://majcher.com/.

Lowell Francis is the designer and co-author of Hearts of Wulin. He's the ENnie-winning creator of the Age of Ravens blog and community manager for the Open Hearth Gaming Community.

You can find Lowell's work on YouTube, on Itch.io, and on DriveThruRPG.

Find out more about the Open Hearth Gaming Community
Support us on Patreon!
Our actual play podcast can be found here
Follow us on Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/open-hearth-rpg
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/openhearthrpg
Mastodon: @openhearthrpg@dice.camp

Music: Here Comes the Night Karl Casey @White Bat Audio

00:00 Introduction: Licensed Apocalypses
02:02 Tank Girl
24:41 Ralph Bakshi's Wizards

While the Open Hearth Community has often focused on one-shots, two-shots, and monthly short campaigns, there's always the siren call of running a longer series: a quarterly or beyond. In this community talk we're going to talk about "long" campaign best practices, planning, dealing with burnout, and more. Lowell has ideas and he'll be leading this discussion group– relying mostly on the participation of folks who join us and desperately filling dead air in between points. This is part of our Open Hearth series of community RPG talks.

Links
Microscope
Microscope with 13th Age
Arium
Talking World Building (OH Podcast Episode)
Age of Ravens Campaign Builder Decks
Trinity Game Prep Sheet
World Ending Game

Find out more about the Open Hearth Gaming Community
Support us on Patreon!
Our actual play podcast can be found here
Follow us on Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/open-hearth-rpg
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/openhearthrpg
Mastodon: @openhearthrpg@dice.camp