Does Canon Matter? Part 1 – Doctor Who
I set out to do a quick talk about the role of canon in various fandoms and it turned into a massive lecture that I’ll have to split into multiple parts. So, here’s the first part, wherein I talk at length about the canon of Doctor Who (and quite possibly tick off some of my fellow Whovians).
NOTE: I’ve noticed I use the word “series” a lot in this episode. For the most part, I’m using the American meaning of the word (the entirety of a single show’s run), though there is one point in the middle where I try to switch to the UK meaning (when I’m talking about people being familiar with “the current series and the previous series” – by which I mean the current season and the previous season) but despite my effort to grammatically hop the pond, I clumsily fall back into the Standard `Murican definition pretty quickly after that.
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Interview: Charles White – Olympus, Inc.
A few days ago I did a quick interview with Charles White about his crowdfunding project for Olympus, Inc. It’s the first foray into a full-blown RPG setting for his company, Fabled Environments, and it presents a very interesting take on Greek mythology – as seen through the lens of the modern world.
The Indiegogo campaign is ending very soon! It’s running until Tuesday, April 26th, so I urge everyone to go and check it out! You can find that campaign HERE.
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Music by Kevin MacLeod
Interview: John Wick & Rob Justice – 7th Sea, Second Edition
My friend Michael Carlucci (of the Chaotic Neutral podcast) and I sit down and interview the developers of the second edition of the glorious fantasy Restoration-era tabletop RPG 7th Sea! We talk about the game’s origins, the ongoing Kickstarter for the new edition and the nature of the changes we can expect to see. We even take some time out to get a 7th Sea location pronunciation guide on record and take a few quick side trips down various geeky memory lanes.
The Kickstarter runs through March 13th, 2016 and can be found HERE.
You can find more info at johnwickpresents.com and sailthe7thsea.com.
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Music by Tim Beek
Discussion: SCARAB 2016
A few weeks ago I went to the SCARAB Gaming Convention in Columbia, South Carolina. I had the opportunity to hang out in the media room with some of the folks behind the con along with a couple of gentlemen running some of its events. As it happens, some of them were fellow podcasters! We had a nice, rambling, chaotic chat and talked about the con, our favorite games, costumes and all manner of other things.
Jon Maness and Ruby Jones are on the SCARAB staff and also run the SCARAB Swarm Cast. Their friend Tim helps out with all manner of things including photography and managing activities, and is well known for his games of “All Flesh Must Be Eaten.” Donald Dennis, who ran several games at the con this year, is one of the minds behind the site Inverse Genius and lends his voice to their various podcasts. He also runs Shush Con in Pawley’s Island, SC.
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Gamesmashery
Let’s chat for a little while about the idea of using one kind of game to generate ideas for another. I go deep into gamer geekery this episode to explore the idea of creating scenarios for tabletop RPGs using other role playing games or even board games.
In my ramblings I bring up a blog article by James Walls about using Small World in this way – that article can be found HERE.
I also mention a few other games that may be of interest – here are some links for those:
Dungeon Crawl Classics
Fiasco
Dungeons & Dragons
Dawn of Worlds
The Quiet Year
Microscope
Dungeon World
Lady Blackbird
In a Wicked Age
Vampire: the Masquerade
Durance
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You Can’t Make Me Laugh
Society has changed a heck of a lot over the last half-century. I suspect we’re missing some element we used to have and that we’ve become more hollow and paranoid as a result. But when I try to figure out the exact cause of this problem, I can never quite put my finger on it. So feel free to download this little bit of rambling about the hints at societal change I noticed from watching different versions of the game show “Make Me Laugh.” You’ll get to hear me flail about and spiral into near-madness as I try to figure it out.
The video I mention near the beginning with John Cleese and John Hodgman can be found HERE.
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Discussion: ConCarolinas 2015
After dealing with several life-altering bits of oddity over the last few months, here finally is a discussion I recorded with some folks a while back as a post-mortem to ConCarolinas this year. Of course, as you’ll hear, there’s already a bit of time-bending in our conversation (as none of us could quite recall what day or week it was, most likely due to an unfortunate combination of alcohol and time travel), so I’m sure posting it at the end of August will make it all the more strange and confusing. Also, my microphone was acting strangely at the time of the recording, so my apologies if the audio sounds a bit wonky. Despite all this, we had an excellent conversation about the con! Here `tis.
LINKERY!
The Charlotte Geeks:
– Facebook
– Meetup
– The Geek Gala (2015 Event on Facebook!)
– Guardians of the Geekery Podcast
SCARAB:
SCARAB Gaming Convention
The SCARAB Swarm Cast
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Music by Kevin MacLeod
I Am Not Dead
A quick update to let you know I’m still among the living and to watch for more content soon!
EDIT: If anyone is in any doubt about the subject of this post in future, it turns out my friend Chris has kindly provided us with a resource that we can check at any time around the clock to see if I am, in fact, dead. Many thanks to her for thinking of it!
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Tenebrous
Howdy! I’ve got a bit of a storytelling experiment to share with you. I’ve put together three short pieces of semi-abstract audio fiction for you to listen to. I’ve linked them down below the audio for this entry’s podcast. Listen to them in any order you like – I’m curious to know if that makes a difference or not – and let me know what you think in the comments or via e-mail (JimRyanMedia at gmail.com).
(Also – I’ll be doing a live version of Crucible at Realms at ConCarolinas 2015! Right now it’s listed as Jim Ryan Media Podcast on the schedule. Come by and build a world with us, whydon’tcha?)
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TENEBROUS
(Clicking on each of these three icons should bring you to its corresponding MP3 file. If you like, you can download each part by right-clicking the icon of whichever of the three you’d like to listen to and choosing your “Save As…” option.)
The Chromatic Perspective Vortex
Forgive me, Internet, but I’m going to discuss The Dress. You probably know the one I’m talking about – you know, the one whose colors people can’t agree on. What fascinated me about this recent phenomenon wasn’t so much the optical illusion but the sheer amount of rage people exhibited. And the opportunity this one particular dress has given us to learn about ourselves.
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Here, have some links:
Caitlin McNeill’s tumblr post (WARNING! SEEING THIS PICTURE MAY CAUSE ARGUMENTS AND, PERHAPS, INSANITY.)
Syndication
Jim Ryan
This is what Jim looks like uncomfortably close up.
Jim's Podcasts
http://www.crucibleofrealms.com/
http://www.rpgdebate.com/
https://cyphercast.wordpress.com/Jim's Writing for Sale!
Abduction Etiquette
Farrago on Amazon Kindle- Farrago on Smashwords
From the Dark Side on Amazon- From the Dark Side on Smashwords
- In the Bloodstream: An Anthology of Dark Fantasy and Horror
- Kaiser's Gate: Tales from the Front on Amazon Kindle
- Kaiser's Gate: Tales from the Front on DriveThruRPG
Main Street Rag – Spring 2010
Titanic Jocularity!
License
Jim - Yes, THAT Jim by Byron James Ryan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Jim - Yes, THAT Jim 