Modifier is an interview show hosted by Meghan Dornbrock all about why and how people change games. Episodes tackle accessibility, homebrews, system conversions, and that Apocalypse World hack you’ve secretly been working on. From the hobbyist to the professional, from house rules to publication, we all have in mind a better way to play.
Meghan Dornbrock knows that books are true magic, and has a weak spot for storytelling rogue-kings. An artist, animator, and all-around games enthusiast, she’s fascinated by the many different ways there are to tell a good story and is eager to see what’ll come next. Eventually she will die on Mars, but currently she lives in the uncool part of Brooklyn.
One time she made her brother hold a frog and he hasn’t really gotten over it.
52. The Backstory of Tension with Alex Roberts
Alex Roberts joins me for maximum pod-feed confusion, but mainly to talk about her first game, codenamed Tension. Inspired by Dread and romance games like Kagematsu and Hot Guys Making Out, this is a game about the emotional tension in a tricky relationship. We look at the game’s evolution, negotiation an safety mechanics, and learn...
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51. Pasion de las Pasiones with Brandon Leon-Gambetta
Roughly translated as “the sexiest RPG on your shelf”, Pasion de las Pasiones is the telenovela RPG from Brandon Leon-Gambetta. We talk about: Latinx representation in games, telenovela tropes, statless playbooks, Hugh Jackman, and Pippin the Corgi. (There are tangents.)
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50. Going on an Expedition with Todd Medema
Expedition is an RPG system that combines cards and a mobile app (all free, all open-source) to streamline the RPG experience, allowing you to play the way you want to. Built to be modded, Todd shares the strengths and challenges of playing the Expedition way, and may be just the project you were looking for!
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49. #280rpg
John Harness got 280 characters on twitter before it was the norm, and decided to turn it into a game design challenge. Paul Czege answered the call. We talk about the challenge, what we can learn from small games, and take a look at the amazing contributions.
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48. The Many Forms of Iron Edda with Tracy Barnett
Iron Edda is a game that exists across several systems and has a second edition in the works, and Tracy Barnett joins us to talk about how it got that way. We discuss what makes something an Iron Edda game, what different systems bring to the fiction, and where it’s headed next.
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47. Exploring New Settings with James Mendez Hodes
What goes into bringing an existing game into a brand new setting? How should you approach writing settings that are unfamiliar to you? James Mendez Hodes talks about all that and a bunch of other cool stuff!
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46. 7th Sea: Khitai with John Wick
7th Sea is a game about being an awesome hero, but there’s more than one way to be a hero. John talks about the Western and Eastern hero archetypes, and how they’ve been working on modifying the existing 7th Sea system to tell new kinds of hero stories.
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45. Get Acquainted with the Unfamiliar Heroes – Part 2
Fay Onyx, the mastermind behind the Unfamiliar Heroes podcast project, and two of its GMs, Anna Murray and Jordan Green, chat about what it’s like to run an actual play with diverse players and characters at the core. This second part of our conversation focuses on mechanics that aim to recreate or facilitate these diverse...
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44. Numenera 2 with Monte Cook
Monte Cook of Monte Cook Games is here to dig into what Numenera 2: Discovery & Destiny is all about. We look at how Numenera & Cypher System’s unique structure allows this new edition to work seamlessly with the one on your shelf right now, and the cool new cyphers coming your way.
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43. Get Acquainted with the Unfamiliar Heroes – Part 1
Fay Onyx, the mastermind behind the Unfamiliar Heroes podcast project, and two of its GMs, Anna Murray and Jordan Green, chat about what it’s like to run an actual play with diverse players and characters at the core. This first part of our conversation focuses on addressing the needs of players, and considering how accessible your game system itself is.
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