The Download's tracks

This week the word is Memories. The nerds talk about stories and games they’ve enjoyed in which memories are tampered with: implanted, erased, jumbled, and so on. These topics merge into dreams, which they also talk about a lot, which Andy going off on a tangent about bi-phasic sleep. Keith gives a report on his aging mother, prompting Andy to recommend a relevant book by Roz Chast. Andy also talk...

This week the word is Eberron. Keith tells the story of how he won the D&D setting contest that made him famous, and they spend a lot of the show digging into those details, including Andy’s review of one of Keith’s Eberron books, Queen of Stone. Andy talks about the Man from Taured, and then they drop the spoiler curtain to discuss the end of season 1 of The Book of Boba Fett. SPOILER WARNING: co...

This week the word is choices. The nerds start by discussing various difficult choices and how creating those is a goal of game designers. Keith talks about recent events in his role playing game that involved 4 chickens. Moving on to media, Keith talks about watching Yellow Jackets, and Andy talks about Station Eleven and Miracle Workers. Next they talk a bit about unusual tarot decks. After drop...

This week the word is Galactus. The nerds start by discussing the giant Marvel character at great length. Next, after checking in with work stuff, they discuss recently rewatching the original Matrix movie. Then they really get into the spoilers, first talking about the book they’re both reading, House of Leaves, then a movie, Marvel’s Eternals, and a series, the Book of Boba Fett. SPOILER WARNING...

This week the word is gimmick. The nerds discuss gimmicks seen in games and 3-D movies and various nuances of the term. Next Keith talks about watching movies with a home projector. He gives his non-spoilery thoughts about several films including The Matrix 4, and Andy talks similarly about Don’t Look Up and Get Back. Then Andy yammers about the ending of an obscure time travel movie from 1964, an...

This week the word is Pyramids. Andy yammers about his life-long obsession with pyramids and talks about a new theory for how they were built. Then the nerds talk about unusual names, artificial candles & fireplaces, seeing a movie (Spiderman) in a movie theater again, Root and other asymmetrical powers games, and Taskmaster. Lastly, after dropping the spoiler curtain, Keith has many thoughts abou...

This week the word is conventions. The nerds start by talking about PAX Unplugged, the first big convention they’ve been to since the pandemic began. Then they talk about a fan-edit of the series For All Mankind that focuses only on the space mission plotlines, called For Only Moonkind. Andy tells the origin story of the obscure usage of “Robocop” as a verb, and then they talk about Star Trek Disc...

This week the word is History. First, Keith takes about finding a very old note in a very old book. After some other discussions of historical stuff, the nerds talk at a high level about For All Mankind, The Expanse, Star Trek, and Arcane. Keith talks about starting a game of Tales from the Loop, and Andy talks about Olympus Fluxx and Loonacy. Next they discuss a bit more of House of Leaves. Lastl...

This week the word is Exposition. First, Keith has things to say about Dune. Then the nerds discuss a bunch of their favorite (and least favorite) examples of well-done exposition scenes. Next Keith raises the important question of how vampires would deal with a zombie apocalypse. Speaking of the undead also brings up the subject of Ghosts. Andy also mentions enjoying a film called The History of...

This week the word is Dolphins. The nerds reminisce about Bluestar, the almost-a-videogame about dolphins in space they worked on back in the nineties. They also discuss cetacean ops on the starship Enterprise. Andy talks about the most recent episode of Survivor and how much the game has changed since it started. Keith reports in vague terms on work stuff he’s been working on, and talks about his...

This week the word is Cookies. Topics include the crime of replacing chocolate chips with raisins, the recipe for Sweet Dream cookies, the best gluten-free flour substitute, rigging a baking contest during a D&D game, and biscuits vs scones. Then they get into a long discussion about discontinued candy and other lost foods. Moving on to media, they talk about Foundation and Dune and the importance...

This week the word is Quisling, for reasons that become clear only after Andy talks about watching old videos of Norm MacDonald. Keith talks about the Bar None candy bar raises the question of discontinued food products. Non-spoilery media topics include the movie Clue, Taskmaster, Only Murders in the Building, and the first few episodes of For All Mankind and Foundation. Next Andy talks about Chr...

This week the word is Clue, since Keith has been watching Only Murders in the Building. This leads to a discussion of mystery stories in general and the board game Clue in particular. Next they again discuss Taskmaster, and Andy talks about buying the Golden Ticket game at Target. They begin a Survivor-style debate what book to read next, and Keith reports on his D&D campaign. After dropping the s...

This week the word is Zombies. The nerds have a lot to say about zombies, and how they differ from other undead beings including vampires, ghosts, and reanimated corpses. After all that, Keith recaps the start of his Fugue State: Threshold campaign running via Twitch, and Andy again has things to say about Taskmaster. Next they talk about what book they should read next. Behind the spoiler curtain...

This week the word is American, specifically the cheesy American version of things created elsewhere, including the American versions of The Office, Taskmaster, Iron Chef, and Ultraviolet. Digressions include the differences between American and English senses of humor, language differences, Doctor Who, and yet more discussions of Taskmaster. Next they discuss the last few stories in Donald Barthe...

This week the word is Collectors, and begins with the nerds talking about their own collections and various types of collectors. The discussion includes classic arcade games (including the obscure hit, Rip Off), Magic cards (and what it was like in the very early days), collecting topics ranging from curating to completeness, Keith’s story about the difficulty of obtaining RPG dice in Bulgaria, an...

This week the word is speculation. The nerds talk about various What Ifs and alternate reality stories, culminating (at the end of the show) in their discussion of the first episode of the “What If?” series. Next they discuss Taskmaster again, which Keith told Andy about last week; now that Andy’s gotten hooked on it as well, he had a lot to say about it. Next they discuss a few more of Donald Bar...

This week the word is Taskmaster, and begins with the nerds talking about what it’s like to be their own taskmasters. Then Keith tells Andy about the British telly program called Taskmaster, and Andy tells Keith about A Very Brady Renovation. Andy shares a few recent findings, and talks about the word findings. Specifically, Andy talks about finally starting to watch The Wire, and Keith shares som...

This week the word is Stakes. First they nerds discuss the importance of stakes in story-telling, and in games. Keith reports on the D&D game he’s running on Patreon, then they discuss 7 more Donald Barthelme short stories. Lastly, after the spoiler they discuss the Loki season finale and The Tomorrow War. SPOILER WARNING: contains spoilers.

This week the word is epistolary. First, the nerds discuss their favorite letter-related works of literature, then they talk about the fine art of including inexplicable “enclosures” when mailing a letter. Next, Andy talks about traveling again for the first time since the pandemic started, and describes his family’s recent trip to The House on the Rock. Keith talks about recent plumbing woes, and...

This week the word is Variants. First they nerds discuss media with various variants of the same character: mirror universe versions, evil twins, clones, multiverse crossovers, etc. Moving on to real life stuff, Keith talks about the visit by his mom during the heat wave, and Andy talks about trying to think of something to do with 7 extra cards on a card sheet. Next they begin their discussions o...

This week the word is Icebreaker. Starting with icebreakers in general, they then discuss Andy’s videogame by that name and the newly released video about Andy that started with a fan’s childhood obsession with Icebreaker. Keith talks about relocating his mother, and a new version of Beowulf he just started reading. Next they hatch a plan to read 100 short stories by Donald Barthelme. They also di...

This week the word is cicadas. Andy gives a brief report on the swarms of cicadas, which can be heard faintly in the background of the entire show. Next Keith gives a report on the current status of his Patreon-based D&D campaign. Andy compares the cicadas to Logan’s Run, then talks about re-watching some other classics including Galaxy Quest and Inception. They discuss other dream-walking classic...

This week the word is questionnaire. The nerds spend most of this show going through the 15 questions on Stephen Colbert’s questionert. Then they begin their discussions of the Dictionary of the Khazars. They also discuss the next-to-last episodes of Debris, and Keith talks about playing the new Mass Effect game. SPOILER WARNING: contains spoilers.

This week the word is Expansion. The nerds discuss the challenges of creating expansions for games, including issues like bloat, keeping current with changing source material, and needing to have something cool & new for the expansion vs. wishing for that cool new feature to be part of the core game. Some specific games they discuss (in addition to their own) are Talisman, The Lord of the Rings bo...