Adventures & Ampersands, with Irwin Chen, Nathan Dummitt, & Ed Chung

Everybody's Talking at Once

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 156.

A fair few of the kids who played Dungeons & Dragons in the 1980s are now parents with kids old enough to play Dungeons & Dragons. At the same time, and beyond that: Tabletop Role Playing Games, which were once firmly esoteric and counter-cultural pursuits (not to mention the target of frothy moral panic) are increasingly a visible, present part of pop culture.

Which means that the time is right for TTRPGs that parents can play with their kids—including very young kids, and including parents who didn’t play D&D back in the day & day. Irwin Chen, Nathan Dummitt, and Ed Chung developed their Ampersand RPG system to fulfill precisely those needs. Int his conversation, they talk about how their approach emphasizes tactility, creativity, collaboration, “classroom management,” and investment without self-seriousness.

Snakes and Sarcophagi, the newest Ampersand RPG adventure, is now on Kickstarter.
You can also follow the project on Twitter, and learn more on the Ampersand RPG website.

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• The Satanic-panicky made-for-TV movie in which Tom Hanks joins a cult because of Dungeons & Dragons is indeed, somewhat pitiably, called Mazes and Monsters. (They didn’t even use an ampersand. Amateurs).

• The reason that Drew defaulted to videogames when when he started talking about instrumental play was that this Dan Olson video popped into his head.
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“All The People Say (Season 5)” by Carpe Demon.
“Buckin’ the Dice” by “Fats” Waller, performed by “Fats” Waller and his Rhythm.
“Snakes’ Hips” by Spencer Williams, performed by the Original Memphis Five.

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Logo by Aaron Perry-Zucker, using Icons by by Llisole, Dávid Gladiš, Atif Arshad, Daniel Nochta, Mike Rowe, Jakub Čaja, Raji Purcell and IconsGhost from the Noun Project.

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