Many RPGs use cards in their mechanics, from playing cards to Tarot to custom decks of cards. We discuss some of these games, the types of mechanics we’ve seen and the history of card-based games.

If you enjoy this episode, back our Kickstarter for Season 2 of Ludonarrative Dissidents. This podcast is only possible with the help of backers and this time we’ll have a private RSS feed for early access to all episodes, plus other great rewards!

All of Season 1 is now available if you missed it. This episode will be the only one posted on the RPPR feed.

Some of the games mentioned in this episode

Ludonarrative Dissidents is a new podcast series from Ross Payton, Greg Stolze, and James Wallis. Check out the Kickstarter to help fund this project and get unique rewards!

In each episode, we plan to focus on a particular RPG, looking at its mechanics, setting, and everything else to see what makes this game tick. In this preview episode, we look at Apocalypse World, the RPG that launched a revolution in the indie RPG scene. We try to answer the following questions:

1) What the game does.
2) How it does it.
3) How people play it.
4) Why people play it that way.
If you want to hear more episodes, help us get our goal for a season of six episodes, with the games chosen by backers! We also have rewards for bundles of our games in PDF, a chance to play in an online game run by one of us, and get your game critiqued by us!

ua-ksCaleb and I talked to Greg Stolze about his latest project, the third edition of Unknown Armies, a post-modern horror role playing game. Urban legends, obsessions, occult conspiracies, and the invisible clergy are all part of a compelling modern game. It is also a profoundly humanist game, where humanity is the center of the universe, not cosmic and unfeeling alien gods beyond our comprehension. Greg talks about changes to the setting, new mechanics for Unknown Armies and game design in general. If you are interested in checking out the game, I recommend backing the Kickstarter so you can read the latest draft of the game now.

Unfortunately, we did have some recording errors, so some of the questions will have an echo. I tried to fix it in post but there’s only so much you can do.