Dice in Mind

Episode 166: Cathy and Tom Thrush Are in the Date Night Dungeon

Tom and Cathy Thrush are the founders of Urban Realms. D&D is a huge part of their lives. It’s the way they stay in touch with friends, an escape from everyday life, and a creative outlet. It’s something they’ve been doing together since before their marriage in May of 2003. So, it was no surprise that they wanted to share some of their best ideas with the rest of the D&D community. But as their list of ideas for projects grew, they realized they couldn’t do it all themselves. So they enlisted their good friend, Daryen O’Dell to help. Now the three of them do their best to stay in touch with the amazing people they’ve met through Urban Realms and bring more passion projects to life.

Please check out these relevant links:

Date Night Dungeons
Date Night Dungeons (Amazon)
Urban Realms
Lady Blade (Amazon)
Libram of Lists (Kickstarter Video)

Welcome to Dice in Mind, a podcast hosted by Bradley Browne and Jason Kaufman to explore the intersection of life, games, science, music, philosophy, and creativity through interviews with leading creatives. All are welcome in this space. Royalty-free music "Night Jazz Beats" courtesy of flybirdaudio.

Episode 165: Proactive Roleplaying with Jonah and Tristan Fishel

Jonah and Tristan Fishel are the authors of The Game Master's Handbook of Proactive Roleplaying and The Game Master's Handbook of Collaborative Campaign Design.

Jonah Fishel has been playing TTRPGs for nearly twenty years, and has game mastered far more than his fair share of campaigns. Away from the gaming table, Jonah is a learning differences tutor. He lives in Charlottesville, VA with his wife, daughter, and dog. For some reason, Jonah has a degree in Storytelling.

Tristan Fishel is an author and RPG writer living in Newport News, Virginia. Tristan has written several adventures, rules expansions, and other content for both 5e and a few of his other favored systems. In his spare time, Tristan enjoys running home games for his friends, writing fiction, and serving as a devoted caretaker to his beloved cat, Cupcake.

Please check out these relevant links:

The Game Master's Handbook of Proactive Roleplaying
The Game Master's Handbook of Collaborative Campaign Design
Game Master's Laboratory
Media Lab Books

Welcome to Dice in Mind, a podcast hosted by Bradley Browne and Jason Kaufman to explore the intersection of life, games, science, music, philosophy, and creativity through interviews with leading creatives. All are welcome in this space. Royalty-free music "Night Jazz Beats" courtesy of flybirdaudio.

Episode 164: Christopher Griffen is a Pioneer

Raised in the mild climate of Northern California, Christopher Griffen's steady diet of Marvel comic books, Star Wars, Dungeons & Dragons, and all the sci-fi he could read turned him into the man-child that he is today. Now a writer of both role-playing games – Traveller, from Mongoose Publishing is his game of choice – and comics from Markosia Publishing, he is living the dream, collaborating with some of the best in the business to create narratives for all to enjoy.

Please check out these relevant links:

Pioneer RPG
Christopher Griffen on DriveThruRPG
Christopher Griffen on Amazon

Welcome to Dice in Mind, a podcast hosted by Bradley Browne and Jason Kaufman to explore the intersection of life, games, science, music, philosophy, and creativity through interviews with leading creatives. All are welcome in this space. Royalty-free music "Night Jazz Beats" courtesy of flybirdaudio.

Episode 163: Drs. Robert Hazen and Michael Wong Are Playing with Time

Robert M. Hazen is Senior Staff Scientist at the Carnegie Institution’s Geophysical Laboratory and Clarence Robinson Professor of Earth Sciences at George Mason University. He received the BS and SM in geology at the MIT, the PhD at Harvard University in Earth science, and was NATO Postdoctoral Fellow at Cambridge University.

Michael Wong is an astrobiologist and planetary scientist whose primary scientific interests are planetary atmospheres, habitability, biosignatures, and the emergence of life. He is co-authoring a revised edition of the textbook Astrobiology: A Multidisciplinary Approach. He also hosts a podcast that examines science, technology, and culture through the lens of Star Trek. He is working with Staff Scientist Bob Hazen to assess the network topologies of exoplanet atmospheres for potential biosignatures.

Please check out these relevant links:

Dr. Robert Hazen (Carnegie Science)
Dr. Robert Hazen (George Mason University)
Dr. Michael Wong (Carnegie Science)
Dr. Michael Wong (Website)
Time's Second Arrow: Evolution, Order, and a New Law of Nature
Strange New Worlds: A Science & Star Trek Podcast

Welcome to Dice in Mind, a podcast hosted by Bradley Browne and Jason Kaufman to explore the intersection of life, games, science, music, philosophy, and creativity through interviews with leading creatives. All are welcome in this space. Royalty-free music "Night Jazz Beats" courtesy of flybirdaudio.

Episode 162: Marveling with Matt Forbeck

Matt Forbeck is an award-winning and New York Times-bestselling author and game designer with over thirty-five novels and countless games published to date. His projects have won a Peabody Award, a Scribe Award, and numerous ENnies and Origins Awards. He is also the president of the Diana Jones Award Foundation, which celebrates excellence in gaming. His latest work includes the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game, Hard West 2, Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus, Minecraft Legends: Return of the Piglins, and the Shotguns & Sorcery 5E Sourcebook based on his novels. He is the father of five, including a set of quadruplets.

Please check out these relevant links:

Matt Forbeck (website)
Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game: Core Rulebook
Shotguns and Sorcery: The 5E Sourcebook
Star Trek Adventures Second Edition: Species Sourcebook

Welcome to Dice in Mind, a podcast hosted by Bradley Browne and Jason Kaufman to explore the intersection of life, games, science, music, philosophy, and creativity through interviews with leading creatives. All are welcome in this space. Royalty-free music "Night Jazz Beats" courtesy of flybirdaudio.

Episode 161: Ethics of the Fathers: A Star Trek Adventures Actual Play

And now for something completely different...

Welcome to our first and only actual play episode! Join us as we embark on a homebrewed session of Star Trek Adventures titled "Ethics of the Fathers".

Please check out this relevant link:

Star Trek Adventures Second Edition

Welcome to Dice in Mind, a podcast hosted by Bradley Browne and Jason Kaufman to explore the intersection of life, games, science, music, philosophy, and creativity through interviews with leading creatives. All are welcome in this space. Royalty-free music "Night Jazz Beats" courtesy of flybirdaudio.

Episode 160: Keith Ammann is Making Enemies

Keith Ammann is an ENNIE Award–winning writer based in Chicago. He’s the author of several books of advice for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons players, including The Monsters Know What They’re Doing: Combat Tactics for Dungeon Masters, MOAR! Monsters Know What They’re Doing, How to Defend Your Lair, and most recently Making Enemies: Monster Design Inspiration for Tabletop Roleplaying Games, as well as the blog The Monsters Know What They’re Doing. He’s been a role-playing gamer and game master for more than thirty years. He likes to play outwardly abrasive helpers, out-of-their-element helpers, and genuinely nice, helpful helpers. Mostly, though, he plays non-player characters. And monsters.

Please check out these relevant links:

Making Enemies: Monster Design Inspiration for Tabletop Roleplaying Games
Spy & Owl
The Monsters Know What They're Doing (blog)

Welcome to Dice in Mind, a podcast hosted by Bradley Browne and Jason Kaufman to explore the intersection of life, games, science, music, philosophy, and creativity through interviews with leading creatives. All are welcome in this space. Royalty-free music "Night Jazz Beats" courtesy of flybirdaudio.

Episode 159: Ben Robbins of Lame Mage

Ben Robbins has spent most of his life elbow-deep in role-playing games. He created Microscope, Kingdom, and In This World, writes the ars ludi blog, and spent years running Story Games Seattle to bring total strangers together at the table. He's working on his new game, Rules of Law, as soon as he finishes writing this bio.

Please check out these relevant links:

Lame Mage Productions
Microscope RPG
Pioneer RPG

Welcome to Dice in Mind, a podcast hosted by Bradley Browne and Jason Kaufman to explore the intersection of life, games, science, music, philosophy, and creativity through interviews with leading creatives. All are welcome in this space. Royalty-free music "Night Jazz Beats" courtesy of flybirdaudio.

Episode 158: The Epistolaries of W.M. Akers

W.M. Akers is a novelist, playwright, editor, game designer, copywriter and, well, just about any other kind of writer you might require. He is the author of Westside, Westside Saints and Westside Lights, the creator of Deadball: Baseball With Dice and Comrades: A Revolution RPG, and too many plays to mention here. He is also responsible for Strange Times, a weekly newsletter that investigates the weirdest news 1921 has to offer, and Strange Pulp, an irregular journal of weird fiction.

Please check out these relevant links:

Website
Deadball: Baseball with Dice
Letters to the Stars

Welcome to Dice in Mind, a podcast hosted by Bradley Browne and Jason Kaufman to explore the intersection of life, games, science, music, philosophy, and creativity through interviews with leading creatives. All are welcome in this space. Royalty-free music "Night Jazz Beats" courtesy of flybirdaudio.

Episode 157: Dr. Jason von Stietz and Mental Health in Our Games

Dr. Jason von Stietz is a licensed psychologist and cognitive behavior therapist who specializes in the treatment of people with OCD, Panic, Insomnia, and Sport/Performance related issues.

Please check out these relevant links:

Dr. Jason von Stietz (website)
Movie House Sports Psychology (podcast)
The Mentally Fit Athlete (podcast)

Welcome to Dice in Mind, a podcast hosted by Bradley Browne and Jason Kaufman to explore the intersection of life, games, science, music, philosophy, and creativity through interviews with leading creatives. All are welcome in this space. Royalty-free music "Night Jazz Beats" courtesy of flybirdaudio.