Geekerati Radio
By Christian Lindke
Geekerati RadioApr 17, 2023
Episode 171: Wandering Planet to Release Nancy Drew Action Figures
Doc Wyatt and Gavin Hignight are the co-owners of Wandering Planet Toys a small action figure company that is releasing some very exciting lines of action figures. Their first foray into the field was a line of The Prisoner action figures and they are following it up with a new Nancy Drew action figure Kickstarter campaign. I chat with them about their inspirations and why they think Nancy Drew is a perfect fit for a line of action figures.
Episode 170: Lou Anders Chats About Sword and Sorcery Fiction
Lou Anders visits Geekerati Media to discuss Sword and Sorcery Fiction. Anders edited an excellent compilation of new Sword and Sorcery Fiction and is the author of a fun young adult series in the genre called Throne and Bones. In this interview, we touch on a definition of Sword and Sorcery and Anders provides several recommendations for readers who are interested in what's happening in the genre right now.
In addition to the interview with Anders, this episode features our two regular review segments. In Critical Hits or Misses, Colleen Watts Carson reviews The Crystal Cavern by Mary Stewart and Randy Delgado discusses the most recent Pokemon Dungeon adventure in Randy's Corner.
Join us for the discussion and share your thoughts.
Episode 169 -- Cartoons to Watch During Covid-Quarantine with Doc Wyatt
Film and Television Writer and Producer Doc Wyatt (Napoleon Dynamite, Iron Man Armored Adventures, Spider-Man, Ninjago, and Much More) stops by the Geekerati Discord Server to share his recommendations for cartoons that are worth binging during the Covid-Quarantine... and when it's over. This interview is followed by our monthly Book Review from Colleen Watts Carson and Randy Delgado's pop culture review.
Give a listen. Enjoy and share your thoughts with us.
Episode 168: WOGD is Resurrecting an Old School Gem called the Manual of Aurania
In this episode of Geekerati Radio, we've got some very interesting segments for your listening pleasure.
In our main segment, Jared Daniel Nielson from World of Game Design discusses the republication of a rare “70s California Style D&D” game supplement called The Manual of Aurania and plans for a new edition.
In her Critical Hits and Misses segment, our resident literature reviewer Colleen Watts Carson chats about The Dark Lands by Markus Heitz, a novel that features the “daughter of Solomon Kane.” Does the book live up to the possibilities that creates?
Looks like our reviews have a Robert E Howard-ish theme this month, fitting given his January Birthday, as in Randy’s Reviews our video game and comic book reviewer Randy Delgado gives his thoughts on the recent Savage Avengers Trade Paperback.
Episode 167: Keith Baker Talks About Eberron and the Adventure Zone Card Game
Christian Lindke and Keith Baker discuss the new rule book for the now classic Eberron setting for the Dungeons & Dragons role playing game, as well as Keith's upcoming card game inspired by the Adventure Zone podcast. It's a great conversation that touches on some of the design decisions required when updating a setting for a new edition of a game, as well as going into many of the things that make Eberron so special.
Episode 167 also features the addition of a new segment called Critical Hits and Misses where Colleen Watts Carson gives her review of a work of fiction to let you know whether it is a Critical Hit or a Critical Miss. Geekerati Radio will be bringing in a host of new review spots and we'd love to hear your thoughts on them.
Episode 166: Jim Pinto Talks About D&D as "Work," Player Agency vs. Consumer Agency, and the DM/Player Compact
Jim Pinto is an experienced and influential game designer who has some thought provoking opinions about the state of the art in role playing games. One of his opinions is that as D&D has evolved as a game, that the role of game master has become more like "work" and less like "play" and that there is an imbalance in player expectations and game master responsibilities. We discuss this phenomenon, the concept of agency in role playing games, and the dynamics of the DM to Player social compact.
What do you think the proper role of the game master is? I give my answer in this episode, but I'd love to hear yours. You can leave a voice message with your response or email it to me at christian@geekeratimedia.com.
Episode 165 Doc Wyatt Discusses Alien Bones, Super Dinosaurs, and So Much More!
Chris "Doc" Wyatt is a television executive producer who has worked on a wide variety of animated shows ranging from Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes and Spectacular Spider-man to Stretch Armstrong and Super Dinosaur. His latest work is a comic book entitled Alien Bones, a book about alien dinosaurs, pirates, and...THE END!
Episode 164: Greg Gorden Discusses Torg Eternity and Game Design
This episode, we are joined by master game designer Greg Gorden who discusses the latest Torg Eternity products and his thoughts on role playing game design. Gorden's work has ranged from the James Bond 007 and DC Heroes Role Playing Game to 4th Edition D&D, Deadlands, Earthdawn, and Torg. His designs have innovated the rpg scene on several occasions and we were lucky enough to have him stop by for a chat.
In our Dungeons and Dilemmas segment, David Nett discusses running one-shot rpg adventures at home, at conventions, and for online streaming. Nett is an experienced dungeon master who has worked for Geek & Sundry and produced the excellent webseries GOLD.
Episode 163: Toy Wizards, Pop Lurkers, and Running Mysteries.
In our Interview Segment we are joined by Loryn Stone and Scott Zillner of Toy Wizards to discuss California Convention Culture from Toon Con and Powermorphicon to Comic Con and everything between. Loryn and Scott host a premiere website on toy collecting and run several excellent conventions in Southern California.
Christian Lindke and David Nett discuss how to run engaging mysteries in your role playing games. Game masters and players have different levels of information and that can cause a breakdown in player engagment and fun. We share our 3...or is it 5?... tips for avoiding common pratfalls.
Episode 162: Not So Tiny Conversations About Tiny d6
This episode features two Tiny d6 Role Playing Game system interviews. The first interview is with Alan Bahr of Gallant Knight Games who discusses Beach Patrol, Tiny Supers, and the overall Gallant Knight Games catalog. The second interview is with John D Payne and Gregory Israel of the Micronomicon Kickstarter Project, a collection of spells, archetypes, and Micro-Settings for the Tiny Dungeon Second Edition Role Playing Game.
Our regular review segment Something Old and Something New discusses the Beach Patrol and Tales from the Floating Vagabond Game.
New this episode is our Dungeons and Dilemmas segment, a bi-weekly discussion with Game Master extraordinaire David Nett.
Join us as we Geek out about games and fiction in this weeks episode.
Episode 161: Geekerati Returns with a New Format and an Interview with Dom Zook of Saving Throw Show
Geekerati was founded in 2007 and streamed 160 episodes before going on hiatus in 2014. It was meant to be a brief hiatus as the Geekerati panelists coordinated their busy schedules, but it ended up lasting almost five years. With this episode Geekerati returns with new Bi-Weekly prerecorded episodes with new guests and new segments. We are proud to relaunch with an interview with our friend Dom Zook. Dom is the Executive Producer of Saving Throw Show a Role Playing Game Live Play streaming channel on Twitch. If you're a fan of Critical Role, or any other live play show, you should give Saving Throw Show a look.
This episode also sees the introduction of our first new segment, Something Old/Something New. This segment will be a regular review segment and will be joined by other segments including our Dungeon Master advice segment Dungeons & Dilemmas in the near future. Our current segment reviews the old Conan Roleplaying Game by TSR and Attack of the Necron, the first entry in Warped Galaxies the new YA Warhammer Adventures book series from Games Workshop.
This episode featured the following sound effects from Plate Mail Games: 1950s Space, Inside the Internet, and Space Battle.
Episode 155: Wayne Shaw Discusses the History of Superhero Role Playing Games
The early days of Superhero themed role playing games are a case study in innovation and collaborative design. A couple of years ago on Geekerati Media I demonstrated some of the influence that Superhero 2044 influenced the Champions roleplaying game’s combat system, but the Superhero 2044 rule book wasn’t the only thing to influence the Champions system.
A key influence was Wayne Shaw’s point build system. The first clue as to Wayne’s influence on Champions is in the first edition of the game. Toward the end of the rulebook there is a brief discussion of how the game came to be designed. The basic story is that George MacDonald “had some good ideas for combat and characteristics, but the problem of assigning powers was a difficult one. George met Wayne Shaw at a convention, and saw his point system for distributing superpowers. The current system looks almost nothing like Wayne’s original work, but owes much in spirit to Wayne and his group’s pioneering work”
Those rules were published in issue 8 of the Southern California based fanzine Lords of Chaos, and we were lucky enough to talk with Wayne about how those rules were designed and get a glimpse into pre-internet era collaboration and innovation that was fostered by a vibrant APA community.
While there were already some point build role playing game systems, The Fantasy Trip and Superhero 2044 itself, they weren’t as complex as the system that Wayne designed. Additionally, Wayne added a concept that would shape many games published in the future…the disadvantage.
Episode 24: An Interview with Jeff Mariotte and a Discussion of Vampires and Other Things that Prefer the Night
On October 15, 2007, Jeff Mariotte visited our show for a short 15-minute interview that helped us kick off a conversation about Vampire movies and television shows, as well as other nasty things that go bump in the night. Jeff Mariotte is a former editor-in-chief at IDW Comics and the co-author of two published 30 Days of Night media tie-in novels, Rumors of the Undead and Immortal Remains. In this interview, Jeff discusses his comic book series Graveslinger, his 30 Days of Night media tie-in novels Immortal Remains and Rumors of the Undead, as well as his novel Missing White Girl. After the interview, Shawna Benson, Eric Lytle, and Christian Lindke discuss there favorite vampire stories on film and television.
Episode 23 (October 8, 2007): Were the Dark Ages Really That Dark? A Discussion of Pop Culture Medievalism
In this episode, the Geekerati panel chats with Professor Richard Scott Nokes about representations of Medieval life in popular culture. We pay particular attention to television and film in part two of the episode. Dr. Nokes is a professor of medieval literature at Troy University. Dr. Nokes enjoys reading, film, and all things medieval and he was a wonderful guest.
We had some bandwidth issues during this episode, so please forgive the muddiness of some of the conversation.
Episode 20 (September 17, 2007) -- The Geek Quiz
In 2007, GEEK MONTHLY magazine published their Geek Quiz article which readers could use to measure how deep their geek goes. We used that quiz as a way to launch a conversation and then proceeded to stump one another with a series of trivia questions. We all thought we would do well with each others' questions, but alas and alack we were wrong. In the overtime, we continue our discussion of the Friday Night Death Slot and the future of streaming programming.
Episode 18 (September 3, 2007): The Pulps and Their Modern Legacy -- An Interview with Win Scott Eckert Discussing Barsoom, Hyboria, and Urban Mean Streets.
Listen to this blast from the past as the Geekerati panel discusses Win Scott Eckert's book Myths for the Modern Age and the long lasting legacy of pulp fiction. It's a conversation about John Carter of Mars, Tarzan, Doc Savage, The Shadow, French Pulps, and Dashiell Hammett. Who could ask for more?
Episode 17 (August 27, 2007) -- James Lowder Discusses HOBBY GAMES: THE 100 BEST
On August 27th, 2007 we were visited by author, editor, and game designer James Lowder to discuss Hobby Games: The 100 Best. It's been over 10 years since the episode aired, but Hobby Games remains one of the best starting points for people interested in the table top gaming hobby. The episode also included recommendations from the Geekerati panel regarding film, tv, books, games, and comics.
Episode 16 (August 20, 2007): Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda
We all have opinions about shows that should be remade, comic books that should be made into films/tv shows, or about how movies and shows missed the mark in adapting our favorite properties. In this episode, the geek panel discusses their own favorite old school IP that they think should be brought to the screen.
Episode 15 (August 13, 2007): Trash or Treasure
Shawna Benson takes the helm this episode and after a couple of technical glitches (dead air is the devil) discusses things that we think are Treasures that many people think are Trash. The hosts hope that you will come to love some of these things too. Such is the plight of the geek!
Episode 14 (August 6, 2007): Alien Invasions
Our panel of resident geeks discuss alien invasions in film, television, and games.
Episode 13 (July 7, 2007): Marc Bernardin, Highwaymen, and Monster Attack Network
Before Alphas, before Fatman Beyond. and long before Treadstone, Marc Bernardin was a guest on the Geekerati Radio show. He discussed his transition from comic book journalist to comic book writer. At the time of the episode, Marc had just recently written the HIGHWAYMEN and MONSTER ATTACK NETWORK comic books.
Episode 12 (July 23, 2007): Geekerati's Pre-Comic Con 2007 Rundown
Comic Con begins July 25th and the Geeks are Going!
Episode 11 (July 16, 2007): What's so Special about DVD Special Features?
Do you ever listen to or watch the bonus features on your DVDs? We do and we want to talk about what we like and don't like about special features.
Episode 10 (July 9, 2007): Harry Potter and Pottermania
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was one of the big summer releases in 2007 and the Geekerati Team are big Pottermaniacs. We discussed our love of the franchise and our excitement about the upcoming film in this archived episode.
Episode 9 (July 2, 2007): An Interview with Author and Game Designer Matt Forbeck
Matt Forbeck is one of the busiest freelance game designers in the hobby industry. His past work includes content for games ranging from Dungeons and Dragons to Deadlands and his fiction content ranges from original SF/F like Carpathia and Amortals, kid friendly media tie-in work like Endless Quest books and Secret of the Spiritkeeper, and adult media-tie in work for Wizards of the Coast and Games Workshop. He has also written several geek related non-fiction books including the Marvel Encyclopedia.
Episode 8 (June 25, 2007): An Interview with SF/Fantasy Author Susan Palwick
Our 8th episode featured our second interview and our first with a content creator, in this case Science Fiction and Fantasy author Susan Palwick.
Susan Palwick is an American SF/F author who began her professional career by publishing "The Woman Who Saved the World" for Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine in 1985.
Raised in northern New Jersey, Palwick attended Princeton University and holds a Ph.D. in English Literature from Yale. Susan Palwick is not a prolific writer, but she is much admired by her colleagues for her consistently well written stories. She has won multiple awards, including the Rhysling Award (in 1985) for her poem "The Neighbor's Wife." She won the Crawford Award for best first novel with Flying in Place in 1993, and The Alex Award in 2006 for her second novel, The Necessary Beggar. Her third novel, Shelter, was published by Tor in 2007. Her short story collection, The Fate of Mice, has was published by Tachyon Publications.
Episode 7 (June 18, 2007): TV Shows and Viral Campaigns
From the Original Star Trek Series to Jericho, fan uprisings have helped shape television entertainment. Shows rise and fall on more than ratings and sometimes a passionate fanbase can encourage networks to pickup or continue a show on the edge of cancellation.
Episode 6 (June 13, 2007): "Blog Like It's the End of the World" Edition
In 2007, there was a brief "Blog Like it's the End of the World" meme going around the blogosphere where bloggers were supposed to do a few blog posts as if they were currently experiencing a Zombie Apocalypse. The Geeks used this as an opportunity to discuss Zombie Movies, The Coming Apocalypse, and Internet Memes.
Episode 5 (June 11, 2007): Truly Independent and the Blatantly Mass Market
We had our first on air interview in our June 11, 2007 show. Luke Y Thompson, then of OC Weekly, joined us to discuss Independent Genre films and OC Weekly's June 8, 2007 Summer Blockbuster Issue.
Luke Y Thompson is a graduate of USC's School of Cinema Television who has been editor-in-chief and staff writer at many irreverent humor and pop-culture news sites including Nerdist, Wizard World, OC Weekly, Forbes, Topless Robot, and Deadline. "The Notorious LYT" combines a sophisticated film school approach with a deep appreciation of popular culture and cult classic films. In many ways, he's a punk rock mashup of Joe Bob Briggs and and John Bloom, but who is always himself.
Episode 4 (June 4, 2007): Entertainment as Dialogue
In 2018 we take the interactive nature of "television" entertainment for granted, but in 2007 when this episode aired the concept of Entertainment as Dialogue with the audience was relatively new. The Geeks discussed the potential for digital platforms to transform television shows into choose your own adventure style entertainment.
EPISODE 3 (May 28, 2007): Cinema, Cineplexity, and TV Wars
In this episode we discussed the early 2007 summer film season, television's "off season" season, and the Cineplexity party game.
In the mid-2000s television networks like USA created what we at Geekerati called the "off season" season during which they ran shows like MONK, BURN NOTICE, and WHITE COLLAR. These networks used the hiatus of the bigger networks as an opportunity to promote and distribute shows that might get lost in competition with the full network schedule.
Episode 2 (May 21, 2007): Downloading the Upfronts -- Discussing the 2007 Television Pilot and Pickup Season
The Upfronts are an annual gathering where the television networks formally introduce their upcoming fall line up to advertisers. In this episode, the Geeks discussed the upcoming (2007) season. The 2007-2008 season was eventually interrupted with a major strike, a strike we covered in later episodes.
Episode 1 (May 14, 2007): A Preview of 2007's Summer Blockbusters with the Geekerati Team
This mildly embarrassing first episode aired on May 14, 2007. In it the Geeks talked about the exciting line up of films slated to come out during the summer of 2007. Even though there are minor tech issues, we engaged in an interesting discussion about the film slate and set the stage for a show that streamed for over 100 episodes.