News: There’s a horror video marathon on the RPPR Patreon Discord on Sunday October 30, starting at 3 pm CDT! Sign up for the RPPR Newsletter and get a FREE Monster PDF!

Synopsis: After watching the first 7 Saw movies in the last week, I realized that game design comes up in a lot in horror films. I got Chris and Aaron to talk about the franchise and other horror movies that intersect with game design topics. We mention Phantasm, Cube, Circle, Tremors, and a lot of other movies. A fun discussion just in time for the spookiest month of the year!

Shout Outs

  • Saloum: An African horror thriller film currently on Shudder. Beautiful, intriguing, and unforgettable
  • Scorn: A horror adventure video game with a biomechanical aesthetic.
  • Three Thousand Years of Longing: A fantasy film about a writer and a genie, from director George Miller
  • Forgive Me Father: A Lovecraftian FPS with an old school design. Mow down hordes of cultists with a tommy gun. What’s not to love?
  • Shining the Holy Ark: A Sega Saturn RPG with some unique features.
  • Happy Endings: An autobiography of Bella Green, a comedian and sex worker.
  • Disney Dreamlight Valley: Animal Crossing but with Disney characters.
  • Floodlight: A drum and bass album where all proceeds go to disaster relief for flooding in Pakistan.
  • Quantum Leap: It’s a reboot of the 1980s show.

Music: Floodlight DnB Aid for Flooding in Pakistan

A new crew of smugglers start taking jobs in Duskvol. They call themselves the Blind Eyes and specialize in the weird and the occult. As the gang grows in power, they learn of an invisible war for control over the city between supernatural beings and ruthless factions and an incredibly powerful artifact that can change the course of history.

This episode, the players and I talk about what worked and what didn’t work in our 24 episode campaign of Blades in the Dark, both in game mechanics and the story of this particular game. If you missed an episode, check our the campaign page to find download links.

This group portrait of The Blind Eyes by Patsy McDowell. From left to right: Vimes, Salvage, Salty, Flake, and Audra

Baz – Salty / Oberon Matias Declarmont the Spider
Birk – Audra the Whisper
Aaron – Salvage the Leech
Caleb – Flake the Cutter
Bill – Vimes/Seth the Slide

A cluster of enclaves in Missouri faces annihilation at the hands of a massive horde of the undead. Their only hope is to prepare for war, a job for their preeminent taker crew, the D4s. The crew uses an armored vehicle to take the largest scores of valuable goods they can find, no matter what gets in their way, whether it’s undead, human, or mother nature. In this episode, Jason B, Aaron, Maddy, David, and I talk about this campaign. How did Jason get the idea for it, how it was run, what we liked and what we would have changed, if anything.

If you missed the campaign, here’s a page with links to all of the episodes.

Music: The Dead Walk by John Carpenter