Game Design Era

Posted on March 9, 2024 by Michael R. Underwood

I haven’t posted here in a while, so I wanted to provide a short update for folks that don’t visit my Patreon, which is updated much more frequently.

Since May of last year, I’ve been much more active in ttrpg game design. I was a design consultant and provided additional writing for the Darrington Press game Candela Obscura, a supernatural investigation game using their Illuminated Worlds system. I did more consulting from October through February, but the NDA means I can’t talk about it until it’s out in the world. But rest assured that once I am allowed to talk about it, you won’t be able to get me to stop. 😛

In other news, I stepped down from being a co-host of Speculate in January, after helping make the show for many years. In my last year co-hosting, our show Valloward, which I produced and GMed, was an official selection at five web festivals, including the New Jersey Web Festival, currently the premiere festival for actual play. You can read more on my departure from Speculate here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/some-news-from-96627620

The Pitman Sculpture, an Apocalypse Keys miniseries, is the last show we completed while I was still a co-host. You can listen to the complete miniseries at speculatesf.com now or on your podcast app of choice.

Speculate Marathon + Fundraiser Nov 12th

Posted on November 4, 2022 by Michael R. Underwood

Hi folks! I haven’t been very active on this feed, mostly because I’ve just now started returning to in-person cons and I’ve been hard at work on writing without as much news to announce.

But now I have news!

If you’re a long-time viewer or fan, you know that I co-host an actual play show called Speculate with my friends Gregory A. Wilson and Brandon O’Brien. We’ve played games from D&D to Blades in the Dark, Girl by Moonlight, and more. We’ve been making actual play shows for several years, we love making these shows, and want to make more!

Which brings me to the news. We’re going to be streaming an all-day event on Saturday, November 12th, starting at 3pm EST at Twitch.tv/Arvaneleron

We’ll be bringing you several segments of gaming fun, with the hope that you’ll get excited about what we do and help us to be able to do even more. We’re very proud of the work we do, but it’s resource-intensive, not just in time, but in costs – games, tech, paying for audio editing (worth every penny), and more. Right now, our primary pain point is resources.

Our goal is to be able to release episodes more regularly, going weekly for at least a couple of months, with some other options if we reach higher levels, things like a website refresh, some new tech for regular cast members, and new shows/programming.

Here’s a rundown of our schedule! All times EST

3pm – Greg is running a D&D one-shot from Critical Crafting with Skiffy & Fanty show cast members Shaun Duke, Paul Weimer, and Trish Matson!

6:30 pm – Brandon, Greg, and Iwill dive into the world of Destiny 2, a game renowned for good shooting and interesting but largely underused lore. We’re excited to talk about the world and storytelling techniques Destiny is now utilizing to put the story more directly into the gameplay.

9pm – The Strange Friends Crew (as seen in The Case of the Cindered Seal and Fractal Spire) will be playing a one-shot of Blades in the Dark as we’ve done for Worldbuilders and other special events, but this time, with a major twist! We’ll be playing in Faerun’s famed city of Waterdeep in an adventure GMed by Iori Kusano!

Throughout the fundraiser, we’ll have special incentives for large donations, highlights/greatest hits reels from our shows to run during the breaks, and more!

So please mark your calendars and get excited about an entire day of storytelling awesomeness as we work to take Speculate to the next level!

Streaming on Twitch!

Posted on October 15, 2021 by Michael R. Underwood

Promotional Image for Twitch.tv/TurboTango

I’ve relaunched my channel “TurboTango” on Twitch, which I’m hoping to use to stream both video games and some future TTRPG actual play.

In last Sunday’s re-launch stream, I played a run on Trials of Fire, a fantasy post-apocalyptic roguelike deckbuilder. It’s a recent favorite of mine, and I’ll be playing the game again (with a new scenario) this Sunday!

My current streaming schedule is as follows:

Wednesdays and Sundays, 1-4pm EDT – Games With Mike (Video games, mostly roguelikes and/or deckbuilders)

To get reminders when the streams go live, you can follow my page at Twitch.tv/TurboTango and turn on notifications.