Some Derps Talk About Games

Villains What do villains mean in our stories? What's the difference between an antagonist and a villain? What are the best villains we've ever encountered? How do villains work? Buddy just wrapped two tabletop arcs that had competing archetypes for villains. How did they play out? ---------------------------------------------------------------- Want to watch these episodes live? Check us out at h...

What's the Opposite of a Plot Hole? Loooooong time ago, we had a whole big podcast about plot holes. Are they good? Are they bad? What is Mango's Iron Law of Worldbuilding? Well, interestingly, something we didn't consider in that conversation is the opposite of a plot hole. In other words, a plot pedestal. What is it? How does it work? Is it good or bad? The video that inspired this convo: https:...

Guys, We Have Infinity Things To Talk About Given that it's been more than a month since our last cast, it turns out there's a ton of stuff that has happened. It's getting a little wild. Silksong wasn't even announced at the time of the last podcast and now it's been out for two weeks. Plus, we played Emperor, we've played more DnD and a lot more to talk about. ------------------------------------...

More Grab Bag! In accordance with us failing to materialize topics, we're going to rip through a bunch of things that are percolating right underneath the surface. On the docket: GenCon! MTG Proxies 11.2 First Impressions DK Bonanza ---------------------------------------------------------------- Want to watch these episodes live? Check us out at https://www.youtube.com/@somederpsplaygames or twit...

Look, Up in the Sky: Superman! Would you look at that. Nine months (or something) since our last movie review. Today's foray back towards the monoculture: Superman! James Gunn's entrance into the DC Superhero Universe has arrived with gusto. What do we think? Good? Bad? And what's all this about a secret harem? ---------------------------------------------------------------- Want to watch these ep...

Power Creep through a New Lens Hell gamers-- it's almost been a month because lots of things have happened! Hearthstone released a new expansion! Magic banned a ton of cards in standard! The new WoW patch is coming! All of this comes to a crux-- what does it mean when old games update with new content? What's the proper frame of reference? What other insanely crunchy shit can we fit in this episod...

The Liberation of Undermine: Raid Review! It's been months since The Liberation of Undermine actually showed up and now it's time to review it! Operation Goblini Freedom was a great success. Gazlowe has cast out Gallywix. What did we think of one of Blizzard's shortest raids in recent memory? And where does this rank in our stack of raids of all time? ----------------------------------------------...

So, a few years ago, we did a big grab bag and complained about Universes Beyond in Magic: The Gathering. Since then, it's... it's just gotten way worse. On top of the release of the Final Fantasy Universes Beyond set, it feels like a good time to revisit the topic for 2025. What is the state of Universes Beyond in MTG? Every 5x5 Nonogram: https://pixelogic.app/every-5x5-nonogram -----------------...

Did you know that fan art for Marathon was added into the game? That there's a massive controversy around plagiarism? That the tides are deeply against Marathon and it's only four months from release? It's time to get into the details on all of this as mostly Mango explains to clueless Buddy the dumpsterfire. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Want to watch these epis...

Pathfinder 2.0 Check-in Whelp, we've had a huge set of podcasts about the establishment of PF2E for Heretic Heroes, so why don't we take a minute to check in on how that's going? What are Buddy's first impressions of the systems? How does it feel in comparison to 5E? Let's get into it! We ended up talking a lot about the tension pool. Brainrot version of the kanye song: https://youtu.be/fvEZ7OGwit...

WoW's Add-on Philosophy In a huge podcast shaking up twenty years of design, Ian Hozzikostas announced the team's long term intentions to integrate popular add-on functionality into the game itself-- and in the process, strip those same add-ons of their bread and butter functionality in order to open up design space for the future. To call it "one of the biggest design shifts in WoW history" feels...

Another episode about Commander and DnD! Mango and I have discovered a new podcast and they're bringing up tons of new stuff to the MTG side of things. We anna talk about it! Also, Buddy has started the new DnD game set in Ceran, Heretic Heroes-- but it poses a problem. How can he and Mango solve it? Plus, plus, Buddy also played his first game of Warhammer 40k last night. How did it go? ---------...

Buddy's System for Artifacts BY REQUEST, we'll be covering the special, super secret ruleset for how Buddy creates and implements magic items in his tabletop games. What are the kinds of systems that are used to accentuate players? How do we come up with where they go and how they progress? What are the pieces that he wants to design and wants to avoid? Let's find out! ----------------------------...

Commander! We spent Saturday playing some new Commander decks with friends of the cast, Frank and Josh and this is a battle report of some of those adventures. How do we feel about power level in Commander? What makes for a powerful Commander deck? What were we able to accomplish? ---------------------------------------------------------------- Want to watch these episodes live? Check us out at ht...

PATHFINDER 2E MEET AND GREET Because we're setting up a new game, it's time to talk systems! Pathfinder 2nd Edition has been out for a while. And it's time to learn what it's all about! What are ancestries and how are they different than races? What are the different class options? How does the three action economy work? Mango will be answering it all! INCLUDING YOUR QUESTIONS! If you're playing P...

Ceran Buddy's custom campaign setting gets the Mango interrogation today because we're starting up a new game inside of it in a few weeks. What's the hook of this grand setting? What are the cute little quirks? How does religion and magic work? All will be answered in today's episode! INCLUDING YOUR QUESTIONS! If you're playing in the setting, now's the perfect time to ask a little bit about how i...

Eephus Mango's brother (Grango) happened to be the cinematographer for an indie feature called EEPHUS! It's about old guys. It's about baseball. It's about New England. It's about stuff that doesn't matter. If you like anti-climactic tone poems, see if you can find a showing of Eephus near you! www.eephusfilm.com https://www.musicboxfilms.com/film/eephus/ Map of Showings: https://www.google.com/ma...

Buddy's Dragonlance Game This one's sort of a grab bag. Buddy has started running a Dragonlance game in person-- and that includes a bunch of different systems. Artifacts, party advantage, the tension pool, and more. How are they playing out? What's it like? Let's talk about it! Potter's Curse Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jayscottgames/the-potters-curse Cabernet Steam Page: ht...

Civ VII: Is it bad? The new Civ is out. Buddy was insanely hyped for it. But is it good? Is it bad? It opened to mostly negative reviews, sits at Mixed right now on Steam. The Civ subreddit is huffing copium. Youtubers are tearing it apart or exalting its praises. How do the derps feel about it? Let's talk about it! ---------------------------------------------------------------- Want to watch the...

Raid Review: Nerub'ar Palace Coming in late in the game with a Queen An'surek kill just before the new season buzzer went off (as Wombo is well-known to do,) we are now prepared to review the opening raid for the War Within! What do we like? What do we hate? What do we think was the best boss? What was the worst boss? Let's talk about it! -----------------------------------------------------------...

Imagine you're in a facebook group chat with a bunch of people and someone asks what constitutes a sandbox in a TTRPG. How much does improv vs. preparation factor into it? Can the players go off and do absolutely anything they want? What happens when you run a complete dungeon crawl? Let's talk about it! ---------------------------------------------------------------- Want to watch these episodes...

Well, well, well, if it isn't the Derpies. LIVE FROM MANGO'S BASEMENT! Wouldn't you know it, when two people live within an hour of each other we can record our very first live episode in eight years of podcasting! What are the categories this year? What categories do YOU want to relay into chat? Let's find out! ---------------------------------------------------------------- Want to watch these e...

The Sopranos Now that Buddy has returned to the east coast, it's time to rediscover his New Jersey roots. Gabbagool. Mob wife aesthetics. Throwing people off bridges in Newark. From the black void of New England, because he hasn't bought lights for his desk yet, this is the time for great profundity. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Want to watch these episodes live...

Gladiator II Did they have sharks in the water in the Colliseum? No. Did they have Trebuchets at the siege of Numidia? Nope. Did one of Marcus Aurellius' slaves ascend to become Emperor? Also, no. And also, he never stepped foot in Rome! But that shit doesn't matter because it's Ridley Scott, baby! ---------------------------------------------------------------- Want to watch these episodes live?...

Ok, now, hear me out: What if we started investigating a new cinematic universe? A cinematic universe from a titan of modern American cinema? A cinematic universe that has huge movies coming out every year-- on Netflix. Our first, and maybe only, exploration into the Netflix Hallmark Christmas Cinematic Universe. Is Frosty hot enough? Are the stakes too low? Is this even a good Christmas movie? --...