Some Derps Talk About Games

Humankind and Millenia have done what some of us have never expected: Gone back to the tried and true board game set up for strategy games. With Civ VII on the horizon, innovations to Civ VI coming monthly, and a promise of long tail content for Humankind and Millenia, there is a resurgence in these titles. What's fueling it? What's interesting about new mechanics and design? What fresh takes do t...

If Roguelitification is the process of players understanding a more complex web of game design, mastery and completion, Indiefication is the force of market and business pressures that are changing games not from within game design itself, but from the outside as an external pressure constantly squeezing the industry. I swear to God there will be jokes in this one it's not all going to be so dry....

Gamists, Narrativists, Simultationists, Performists Let's talk a little about playstyle and player profile in Tabletop RPG gaming. Do you love the crunch? Do you love the story? Do you love just throwing around a grenade or seeing what happens? AngryGM Article: https://theangrygm.com/g-n-s-p/ ---------------------------------------------------------------- Want to watch these episodes live? Check...

Roguelitification You get roguelike elements! And you get roguelike elements! And YOU get roguelike elements! In a world where roguelites are infecting every little corner of video games, we come together to discuss: Is adding all these roguelike elements to various games a good thing for our industry and community? Or a bad thing? ---------------------------------------------------------------- W...

The Derpies 2023! It's that time of year! What are our bests of this year? Best what? Anything! Categories of any size and stripe! As long as one of us makes a category, the other needs to fill it with their favorite stuff from last year. Come suggest some wild categories in the chat and we'll answer! ---------------------------------------------------------------- Want to watch these episodes liv...

AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM The tragic end of the DCEU is upon us. Jason Momoa, Patrick Wilson, and the rest of the Aquaman cast return to the buckwild, gonzo world established in 2018. Do they recapture the magic of that billion dollar movie? Or will Aquaman become just another doomed boat beneath the tides? ---------------------------------------------------------------- Want to watch these epi...

THE FINALS Friend of the cast Manik joins to talk about the newest FPS rage, shadowdropped at the Game Awards featuring super uncontroversial AI voiceover, THE FINALS! The game about pretending that you're good enough to be an esports star. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Want to watch these episodes live? Check us out at https://www.youtube.com/@somederpsplaygames...

THE MARVELS Hope you've watched all your Disney+ shows because The Marvels pulls from a bunch of them! Nick Fury from Secret Invasion, Monica Rambeau from Wandavision, and then of course Ms. Marvel all get heavily featured in this movie that's barely even a sequel to the first Captain Marvel. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Want to watch these episodes live? Check...

Some Derps Grab Bag! Reach inside and see what you get! There's a bunch of little topics in here, so let's talk about all of 'em. How do we feel about the Five Nights at Freddy's Movie being one of the biggest smash hits of the year? How do you feel about Peter Griffin in Fortnite? What about the Universes Beyond in Magic: The Gathering? ------------------------------------------------------------...

Amirdrassil: Disco Inferno WoW's 10.2 patch is out and it's time to dig in. What are the mechanics like? Are they good? Are they bad? Do we like Fyrakk? Do we like story? What do we think of this magical realm brought to life in WoW for the first time? How many questions can I ask in this little portion? ---------------------------------------------------------------- Want to watch these episodes...

It's time to talk a little Warhammer 40k: Darktide. Even though this bad boy came out in late 2022 (basically a year ago,) the game has seen a number of major changes since its launch state-- culminating in the recent Talent Trees patch that greatly varied up the classes and gameplay for the Veteran, Zealot, Ogryn and Psyker. Glory for the Emperor, Varlets! ----------------------------------------...

Baldur's Gate 3 For Real This Time Wrap Up Mango has finished the game, so now's the time to talk about all the Act 3 goodness. What worked. What didn't. GOTY? No GOTY? Probably the greatest time to dig into the details is right now, two months after release when everyone is obsessing about the now Spider-Man game. BakeOff Edits: https://youtu.be/2OEwbocwYF8?si=hPDCbKcVfyHijD5X -------------------...

Christian Esoterica: Exorcism and the Church In a weird crossover, Constantine and The Pope's Exorcist share a ton in common so we watched both of them. If you watched the most recent Exorcist, that's cool but we didn't lol. Come watch, it'll be a time: https://www.twitch.tv/somederpsplaygames https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_nUkst1COpd4cCiUkmPh1g ------------------------------------------------...

**Raid in the Rearview: Abberus, the Shadowed Crucible** AotC GET! In our grand tradition of getting AotC and then reviewing the raid, it's time to talk a little about Abberus, the Shadowed Crucible. The raid from 10.1 features many things, including traps, walls, mines, we falling and mortals pissing. For all the deep thoughts, why don't you tune in? https://clips.twitch.tv/TubularFunBearNotLikeT...

Just Roll Good! Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles released on Thursday of last week! This is my baby. The love of my life. The game that I'm proudest to have worked on (IDK maybe Rain World, lol.) Some of the most complicated design I've ever played and I still can't stop after 300 hours. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Want to watch these episodes live? Check us out at ht...

Shhhh, it's a secret! The WoW Secrets of Azeroth event has just completed! Two weeks of bespoke content for a community dedicated to solving secrets and fun ARG puzzles. Is this a new, great way to interface with the game going forward? Or a lame way to frustrate your fan base? ---------------------------------------------------------------- Want to watch these episodes live? Check us out at https...

With the success of Baldur's Gate 3 and all the stuff with the OGL, maybe it's a good time to check in on some good ol' fashioned tabletop RPG game design. Michael Sayre had some very interesting threads on spellcaster design on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/comments/16fghlm/michael_sayre_on_class_design_and_balance/?share_id=ZpPR6xjiXDG5RaBidQH2D https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinde...

I don't know who Baldur is but he's got a HUGE Gate! A month late to absolutely everything, let's talk about Baldur's Gate 3! The trials! The tribulations! The vast variety of different outcomes that all end up at the exact same point. Is it a new standard for gaming going forward? Let's talk about it! ---------------------------------------------------------------- Want to watch these episodes li...

It's HAI-MAY not JAY-MEE! Blue Bettle in a world without a DCEU! Is this the first movie of James Gunn's new mandate? The last movie in a dying trend? The first hispanic superhero? A worthy successor of the Keith Giffen title? Maybe all of the above? ---------------------------------------------------------------- Want to watch these episodes live? Check us out at https://www.youtube.com/@somederp...

It's the new talking point. Baldur's Gate 3 is a new bar for massive, massive roleplaying games, voice acted in every different way, allowing you to play through so many different permutations of the same, compelling Dungeons and Dragons base. The entire world seems obsessed with Baldur's Gate and that has led gamers to ask: Should this be the kind of game we expect from developers? Or not? Suprem...

A wartorn city on the hard-bitten front line. Desperation from all side. Barely enough clothes to keep warm, enough food to keep fed, enough weaponry to keep safe. In a Campaign Pitch Me, Buddy or Mango pitches the other on a sweet idea for a tabletop RPG campaign and whether it's the existential dread of Barbie, the historical vibe of Oppenheimer or just some weird thought stuck in his head, I re...

Do you like it when podcasts bring on interesting and unique guests? What if those guests just happen to be our friends hanging out with Mango? What if those guests aren't all that interesting and unique and mostly just hang out? That's Josh for you! ---------------------------------------------------------------- Want to watch these episodes live? Check us out at https://www.youtube.com/@somederp...

Well, a meme on Twitter has blossomed into a massive weekend supported by two tentpole pictures, Greta Gerwig's Barbie and Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer. We've watched them both. Is Barbie a metamodern masterpiece? Does Robert Oppenheimer have to think about his entire life before he builds an atomic weapon? Which movie had the better portrayal of a cloying partner? -----------------------------...

Slowpoke.jpg: Hey, have you guys seen that new Spider-man Movie? The most recent in a grouping of multiverse movies, Across the Spider-verse is now one of the highest grossing movies of the year! The incredibly highly-anticipated follow up to the previous Into the Spider-verse, there's a question running through our minds: Does it escape the "Multiverse Curse" of so many other multiverse movies? I...

With Diablo 4 in the wild, Street Fighter 6 making waves, and a new horizon on Hearthstone all coming right on top of one another, we're asking the question: What makes a good meta? When is it fun to follow meta builds? When is it fun to go against the grain? ---------------------------------------------------------------- Want to watch these episodes live? Check us out at https://www.youtube.com/...