Storytelling Breakdown

As we near the end of summer, the Storytelling Breakdown team decided it was time for Movie Share II: Electric Boogaloo.  The rotation from last time has been reversed. Stephen has Ben, exploring more works of Hayao Miyazaki with Howl’s Moving Castle. Ben has Larissa, and the two opened the episode with a trip back to the 1970’s with Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous. Larissa has Caleb, and she put De...

Film goers of a certain age have grown up with Indiana Jones. For the Storytelling Breakdown team, that meant seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade on VHS, sharing the first viewings with parents and siblings, and probably seeing Temple of Doom a little later in the ol’ childhood. We got Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in 2008 and 15 years ago it looked unlikely that Indiana Jones would...

When Storytelling Breakdown debuted in 2020, our first episode dedicated to a single movie was dedicated to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Our guest for that episode was Autumn Schultz. With a new Spider-Verse film capturing the imaginations of audiences worldwide, Caleb and Larissa have invited Autumn back to the podcast to discuss the Web-Head’s latest outing. She is joined by another guest...

Before the start of Storytelling Breakdown’s third season, our community update episode served as an official welcoming of Stephen Stachofsky and Larissa Whitaker as co-hosts of the podcast. We went down the rabbit hole of everyone’s media histories and Larissa mentioned a show we will cover in depth in this June episode, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.  Despite sixteen seasons of staying power...

You pull into the drive-in for a double feature. Maybe you tilt your seat back and settle in for the latest entry in a franchise with decades of staying power. The floor is sticky. The popcorn is almost gone by the time the trailers finish. These thoughts could remind you of when you were a kid or maybe you're the one bringing the kids along. They could also remind you of a commercial featuring Vi...

Take my love, take my land, take me where I cannot stand…  We are finally getting around to a Firefly episode. Ben, Caleb, and Larissa revisited the series for the first time in a while and started out with what currently sits as the highest rated episode in the series on IMDB, Out of Gas.  To again paraphrase Robert McKee, “true character is revealed in the decisions human beings make under press...

Before this episode starts, we want to boost the signal for a GoFundMe to support the Hall of Heroes. Ben and Caleb visited the museum in 2019 for the finale episode of Storytelling Breakdown’s first season. The museum was broken into on March 19 and several valuable items in the museum were taken. Our team is heartbroken that some of this amazing history that the museum holds may be lost and we h...

We cover a lot of movies on Storytelling Breakdown. This entertainment is bite-sized compared to the time you can spend getting to know a character through a TV show. And both of these are dwarfed by the time you can spend getting to know a character in a D&D game.  Dungeons & Dragons has permeated the pop culture landscape in recent years, becoming even more popular through shows like Str...

“Wait, you haven’t seen…”  We know how this interaction goes. On one end of the conversation you have someone who hasn’t seen a film and is about to get a recommendation that might be going on a list they have been working through at an somewhat uneven pace. The other person gets to share one of their favorite movies and looks forward to hearing what the other person has to say about it.  We’re ta...

Ben said it during the introduction for this episode, but truly this felt inevitable. After many standard episodes and campaign diaries dedicated to Dungeons & Dragons, the Storytelling Breakdown team is attempting one of the most famous dungeon crawls of all time, the Tomb of Horrors.  First released in 1978, our adventurers will be attempting the fifth edition version as Ben takes on the rol...

It all comes down to this. One game. Four factions. Two undefeated players trying to claim… bragging rights.  While it isn’t always Smash Up, there’s not a pairing of players in this tournament who have played more games against one another than Lucas Gerke and Caleb. Each comes into this game with a win over the other three tournament participants. Lucas got by Ben with the power of game altering...

Sometimes a pair of factions can allow Smash Up players to do very similar things. And if those combos go up against one another, they can lead to a very close game.  Ben and Nicole Rudolph are each playing their final game of this tournament. If Ben wins, we’re set up to have everyone end this tournament with a different number of victories. Ben would be back at .500. Nicole is trying to avoid go...

When describing the game of Smash Up to someone who hasn’t played it, things are usually pretty clear as you describe the Ninjas, Pirates, or Zombies. Mentioning the Bear Cavalry is likely to get you a “wait, what?” response.  The factions for this matchup between Lucas Gerke and Jacob Ganser feature four factions from relatively early on in Smash Up’s ten year history. Lucas is deploying the prev...

Game seven of our Smash Up tournament does have significant implications for who can win going forward. SPOILERS ahead!  If you’ve stayed up to date with our last six battles, then you know that this battle could prove decisive. Caleb is battling our dear friend, Nicole Rudolph. If Caleb wins, only he and Lucas Gerke will remain undefeated in our tournament. This would also eliminate Ben, Jacob Ga...

Our midseason finale featured a Smash Up matchup between two players who had never faced each other before. We are resuming our season with a matchup that is quite the opposite.  Ben and Jacob Ganser each come into this match looking to improve their win percentage. They are each also pulling at least one faction from the original base set for Smash Up. Ben is unleashing an army of the undead, wit...

You find yourself cornered in an ancient castle that used to be your school as dark forces close in. Or maybe you find yourself being batted by gusts of wind as the shadow of an enormous red dragon appears overhead. Or wait, how about this? You are just trying to get rid of all of the artichokes.  What’s the best way to deal with any of this? Draw a few cards and hope for the best.  Our gaming foc...

We’ve made it to our midseason finale episode, bringing back two fighters from previous battles. Today’s episode pits Lucas Gerke against Nicole Rudolph. If you haven’t listened to our other episodes thus far this season, spoilers ahead.  Lucas defeated Ben in game three, winning convincingly with the help of Cthulhu factions. While his combination for this game will be different, old, giant creat...

Throughout this season of RPG Decades, Ben and Caleb have been comparing Smash Up to Magic: The Gathering. One possible comparison comes in the form of bases in Smash Up and lands in Magic: The Gathering. Now, bases in Smash Up are put in play at the start of the game and swapped out when they reach their break points. Lands are put in play by the players in Magic. At first, this might not seem li...

With two games played, there’s only one more competitor to add to the mix. Lucas Gerke returns to the podcast. You can see him represented on our logo in the likeness of the Bear Cavalry faction.  Magic: The Gathering experience is helpful in playing Smash Up. Caleb and Lucas have been playing for years. That is the obstacle Ben will have to overcome as he and Lucas field their team. Lucas is unle...

We are one game in and already we are experiencing total chaos. Ben and Caleb have played Smash Up more times than they can count and this next episode will match up two common opponents.  We are welcoming Jacob Ganser back to the podcast after his turn as Dr. Seward for our Halloween episode and his Spotlight on RWBY last year. Nicole Rudolph, another dear friend from our team’s college days (whe...

While the first episode of Storytelling Breakdown debuted in September of 2020, the podcast’s origins go back to late winter of 2019. Ben and Caleb sat at the dining room table in Ben’s old apartment and as the first conversations about starting a podcast were happening, Ben and Caleb were playing Smash Up, the shuffle building game of total awesomeness!  RPG Decades is a miniseries under the Stor...

How is fall damage calculated again? A question that passes through everyone’s minds when the party goes airborne, which is where our adventurers find themselves after last episode. Ada, Delilah, Gorg, Nerine, and Siv are about to board an airship bound for a major city. Unfortunately, saboteurs have other plans for the voyage. How did this play out?  Ben welcomes Megan Bracker back to the podcast...

The story of Dracula is an epic. It is with that in mind, the Storytelling Breakdown team is bringing you the biggest episode we’ve ever produced.  Our four hosts stepped into the roles of Dracula and three of the hunters pursuing the vampire for this Halloween episode. The game is an ongoing tabletop cat and mouse dynamic. Stephen played Count Dracula, evading the hunters at every opportunity, wh...

Strahd is the land. While Barovia is synonymous with the dread lord that rules it, this episode will provide an opportunity to get perspective from the characters of our party.  We’ve gotten a bit of a sense of how Ben operates when playing Jagger, the half-elf rogue. He and Stephen talk about the character design, how and when a player’s kit can be modified over time, and how one key race ability...

The Dungeon Master has the luxury of seeing how the world is connected, what plot threads intersect, and the different places the story could possibly go. We thought it was time to get a perspective from someone experiencing the world firsthand.  Ben and Stephen are welcoming Megan Bracker back to the podcast. She plays Ada Ifindow, the half-elf artificer. The first several sessions were a whirlwi...