Panda's Talking Games
374 episodes - English - Latest episode: 1 day ago - ★★★★★ - 58 ratingsQueer gamers talking about table top role playing games and making outtakes! Join pandas Phil and Senda every Wednesday talking about TTRPGs and answering listener questions.
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Episodes
PTG 351 – Structure
May 15, 2024 10:03 - 54 minutes - 126 MBShow us how you tell stories in your session — structure that story! It was our 7 year podaversary and we completely forgot, so we’re taking this one to do a topic that Phil had MORE
PTG 350 – Big Ol’ List
May 08, 2024 10:03 - 57 minutes - 132 MBShow us how you…do a bunch of littler topics! It’s been a little while since we’ve done a topic round up! On today’s episode we talk about: Check out the Lumberjils kickstarter here! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/unrulydesigns/lumberjills-a-war-birds-game?ref=discovery Bamboo MORE
PTG 349 – Daydreaming Big
May 01, 2024 10:03 - 45 minutes - 105 MBShow us how you use daydreaming as GM prep! Phil and Senda talk daydreaming, both intentional/focused and not, as well as where we do it best and when and how you might want to write MORE
PTG 348 – Phil’s Nostalgia Game
April 17, 2024 10:03 - 33 minutes - 77 MBShow us how you get the old group back together! Phil went on a trip and did some game prep for a very unique and specific circumstance, and we’re going to talk about it. Welcome MORE
PTG 347 – When You Aren’t the IP Expert
April 10, 2024 10:03 - 1 hour - 150 MBShow us how you run or play a game when you’ve only dabbled in a particular IP! Phil and Senda talk being the GM or being a player when you’re not the expert in something MORE
PTG 346 – March Chit Chat
March 27, 2024 13:24 - 46 minutes - 105 MBHey friends! We ran into a crunch and needed to turn out a lower stakes episode this week, so here we present to you (drum roll please!) a chit chat! If this is your first MORE
PTG 345 – Game of Theseus
March 20, 2024 15:00 - 53 minutes - 122 MBShow us how much of a game you can replace before you may as well write your own! Senda and Phil chat about the Ship of Theseus syndrome of games (if you replace all the MORE
PTG 344 – Emotional Investment in One Shots
March 13, 2024 15:43 - 1 hour - 150 MBShow us how you get emotional investment in one shots and the beginnings of campaigns! Phil and Senda talk player and GM responsibilities and faking it til you make it, along with some other ideas MORE
PTG 343 – Conditions and Agency
February 28, 2024 15:40 - 54 minutes - 124 MBShow us how you handle conditions and agency! Character agency vs. player agency — is there a difference? Phil and Senda talk agency and conditions, and when conditions have the potential to infringe on player MORE
PTG 342 – Are You Down with NPCs?
February 21, 2024 15:13 - 56 minutes - 128 MBWho's an NPC? How can we categorize them? Let's talk non-player characters (and the sometimes spectrum)!
PTG 341 – Less Than Enthused
February 15, 2024 04:03 - 46 minutes - 106 MBShow us how you run a game when you are less than enthusiastic about it...maybe? Phil and Senda talk running games as a gift or favor for folks (when you are not a professional GM), how to get onboard or find a way to be onboard, and when it's maybe not worth it.
PTG 340 – Giving Your Setting LIFE
January 31, 2024 15:57 - 47 minutes - 109 MBShow us how you breathe life into your setting at the table! How do you make a setting feel alive, engaging, and evocative? Phil and Senda discuss in this off the cuff episode.
PTG 339 – Challenging Challenges
January 24, 2024 03:03 - 43 minutes - 101 MBShow us how you make an encounter (in whatever context) challenging without being *too* challenging! Phil and Senda talk GM knowledge vs. NPC knowledge, planning challenges and encounters, and not nerfing your players special powers on the reg.
PTG 338 – Introducing Settings
January 17, 2024 18:21 - 54 minutes - 124 MBShow us how you introduce a new setting to players! Phil and Senda talk setting considerations, ways to do setting introductions without turning on the firehose, and recommendations for getting folks up to speed quickly.
PTG 337 – New Years Aspirations
January 10, 2024 03:03 - 49 minutes - 114 MBShow us your gaming plans for 2024! We're taking the gentle on ramp after our holiday and talking about some of our aspirations for the new year, both gaming and personally. What are some of your gaming aspirations?
PTG 336 – Leading into the Holidays with Leading Questions
December 06, 2023 08:03 - 54 minutes - 125 MBShow us how you use leading questions in your games! Phil and Senda talk leading questions, as well as how and when to use them effectively. Unfortunately two thing happened this episode: 1. Phil’s mic MORE
PTG 335 – Thanksgaming 2023
November 22, 2023 06:49 - 48 minutes - 111 MBShow us what you’re grateful for in gaming this year! Phil and Senda record a quick episode before American Thanksgiving to tease apart some of the things we are really grateful for this year when MORE
PTG 334 – I’m Bleeding Here!
November 15, 2023 08:03 - 1 hour - 142 MBShow us how you….okay. Hang on a sec. [The screech of a soap box being dragged out from a closet] Real talk. There’s a lot of discourse currently occurring about bleed on a number of MORE
PTG 333 – Feel the Character Beat
November 08, 2023 08:03 - 51 minutes - 118 MBShow us how you slide some character beats into an action oriented game! Phil and Senda talk about the spectrum that is character driven games and action driven games, and how to push your slider MORE
PTG 332 – Play Moar Games
November 01, 2023 07:03 - 47 minutes - 109 MBShow us how you play more games! Phil and Senda….both had quite a few weeks there, but we’re happy to be on mics again, even if we kept it pretty short. This week, we talk MORE
PTG 331 – Recall, Improv, and Anxiety Part II
October 11, 2023 07:03 - 1 hour - 174 MBNo cliffhangers today! Phil and Senda talk about the second part of the question regarding GM brain and anxiety — some common GM anxieties and ideas about how to address them (besides just the old MORE
PTG 330 – Recall, Improv, and Anxiety, Part I
September 27, 2023 07:03 - 1 hour - 169 MBShow us how you can use improv at the table to alleviate your recall anxiety! Phil and Senda talk improv and GM anxiety at the table, with a helping of other resources for practicing improv MORE
PTG 329 – Turning Point Chit Chat
September 20, 2023 16:09 - 1 hour - 98.7 MBWe’re bringing it back! Way back before the pandemic, Phil and Senda were well on their way to kickstarting this game. We’ve just picked it back up again and we’re working hard! We were a MORE
PTG 328 – I’m So Into It, Into It, Into It
September 13, 2023 07:03 - 1 hour - 176 MBShow us how you manage being REALLY into your game when not everyone is! Phil and Senda talk about the disparity of time spent thinking about a game between player and GM, as well as MORE
PTG 327 – Galaxy GM Brain (GM Brain Part 2)
September 06, 2023 07:03 - 1 hour - 153 MBFinishing up last week’s topic (barely!), we’re bringing it home by merging in the discussion of GM brain with GM style and GM supports. Bamboo Lounge for Patreon backers today! Find these and more at http://patreon.com/mmp. MORE
PTG 326 – GM in the Membrane (GM in the brain!)
August 30, 2023 07:03 - 1 hour - 157 MBShow us how you find the right kind of game for your GM brain! Thanks to a comment about a quick aside from a few episodes ago where Senda mentioned in passing that her attachment MORE
PTG 325 – Let’s Talk About Scenes, Baby
August 23, 2023 07:03 - 1 hour - 148 MBShow us how you set a scene to give it genre feel and manage pacing! Phil and Senda talk scene setting — pacing, description and set up, spotlight, and participants — for genre emulation and MORE
PTG 324 – How to Incorporate Memorable Gaming Experiences
August 16, 2023 07:03 - 53 minutes - 123 MBShow us how you take your memorable or influential gaming experiences forward into your future games! Phil and Senda revisit last week’s topic to talk about exactly how we carried things forward from our games. MORE
PTG 323 – Game Changing Games
August 09, 2023 07:03 - 1 hour - 141 MBShow us your memorable gaming moments! Phil and Senda answer a request to talk about memorable gaming moments. Bamboo Lounge for Patreon backers today! Find these and more at http://patreon.com/mmp. Find us on the internet: Twitter: @PandasTalkGames MORE
PTG 322 – Supporting New GMs
August 02, 2023 07:03 - 57 minutes - 132 MBShow us how players can support a brand new GM! Phil and Senda talk through some of the responsibilities that the GM stereotypically takes on and how players can either assist or take over those MORE
PTG 321 – Queering It Up
July 19, 2023 07:03 - 1 hour - 183 MBShow us how you queer up your game when it isn’t written that way! Phil and Senda talk queer themes (and a little personal history) and some of the ways our games get queerer. Bamboo MORE
PTG 320 – When Real Life Crashes Your Campaign (Tone and Content)
July 12, 2023 07:30 - 1 hour - 142 MBShow us how you manage mid game changes to your game’s tone or content that are caused by out of game, real world stuff! This hasn’t actually happened to Phil or Senda — we’ve just MORE
PTG 319 – June Chit Chat
June 28, 2023 07:03 - 1 hour - 139 MBIiiit’s a chit chat! Due to some *life,* we’re doing a chit chat today instead of our normal discussion episode style. Additionally, there will be no new episode next Wednesday, July 5, as we won’t MORE
PTG 318 – Showing Your Dice and Uninviting Players
June 21, 2023 07:03 - 1 hour - 165 MBShow us how you roll your dice — open, or closed — and show us how you uninvite people from your group! Phil and Senda answer two questions from J.T. Evans. How do you feel MORE
PTG 317 – To GMPC or not to GMPC
June 14, 2023 07:03 - 1 hour - 148 MBShow us how you use a GMPC! GMPCs get a bad wrap a lot, and for good reason. Phil and Senda talk when they’re actually pretty great and helpful, and the circumstances you might want MORE
PTG 316 – Playtesting this Title
May 31, 2023 07:03 - 1 hour - 148 MBShow us how you playtest! Phil and Senda talk playtesting (a discussion topic we received from multiple requests). We approach it based on an idealized version of how we’ve playtested games, but also in consideration MORE
PTG 315 – May Chit Chat
May 24, 2023 15:47 - 58 minutes - 133 MBIt’s time…for a chit chat! If this is your first time listening, this is not our standard format. In a chit chat, we talk about things that are giving us life in gaming, and things MORE
PTG 314 – Easy As Pi (Connecting published adventures and Non-Railroad Mysteries)
May 17, 2023 07:03 - 55 minutes - 127 MBShow us how you…answer multiple questions! Phil and Senda talk connecting published adventures to each other or to your homebrew, and clues in mysteries without railroading (and why mysteries can feel railroad-y). Bamboo Lounge for MORE
PTG 313 – Emotional Damage
May 10, 2023 07:03 - 55 minutes - 128 MBShow us how you handle non-physical damage! Phil and Senda talk emotional conditions from Masks specifically and non-physical damage, how to use it in games that already have it and how to implement it in MORE
PTG 312 – Character Death
May 03, 2023 07:03 - 55 minutes - 127 MBShow us how you deal with the death of a character in game — emotionally and logically! Senda and Phil talk fall out from various types of character death and how it comes about. Bamboo MORE
PTG 311 – Safety Breaks
April 27, 2023 12:48 - 1 hour - 142 MBShow us how you manage safety breaks in your game. Phil and Senda talk about how to deal with safety breaks even when everyone at the table is acting in good faith and things still MORE
PTG 310 – Dropped Game, We Out
April 19, 2023 13:56 - 1 hour - 157 MBShow us how you manage the emotional fall out of dropped games — especially when they stack up! Phil and Senda talk ideas for dealing with the mechanical why of games being dropped and thoughts MORE
PTG 309 – The Camera Pan(da)s Down
April 12, 2023 07:03 - 54 minutes - 124 MBShow us how you use camera shots in your game — and when you show your players things from a camera angle their characters can’t see! Senda and Phil talk camera angles, descriptions, teasers, and MORE
PTG 308 – Inspiration not Aspiration
April 05, 2023 07:17 - 57 minutes - 132 MBShow us how you take inspiration from actual plays — without getting disappointed or let down but real table play! Phil and Senda talk about how to take inspiration from actual play and why it MORE
PTG 307 – March Grab Bag [insert funny name here]
March 29, 2023 07:03 - 56 minutes - 130 MBToday is a grab bag! We answer two quick questions: How to purge your physical TTRPG book collection and our current thoughts on conventions. Bamboo Lounge for Patreon backers today! Find these and more at http://patreon.com/mmp. MORE
PTG 306 – Today’s Fit Check
March 22, 2023 07:03 - 1 hour - 141 MBShow us how you know if your game mechanics are a good fit — or how you make a graceful change if they’re not! Senda and Phil talk about how to tell if your game MORE
PTG 305 – Beginnings and Endings
March 08, 2023 11:18 - 1 hour - 155 MBShow us how you hit those beginnings hard and knock out those endings! Senda and Phil talk intros and outs, suggestions for how to make them impactful, and some tips on what to avoid. Bamboo MORE
PTG 304 – The Challenge of Skill Challenges
March 01, 2023 17:29 - 1 hour - 139 MBShow us how you keep skill challenges interesting! Senda and Phil talk skill challenge challenges (see what I did there?), suggestions for when and how to use them, and some tips on what to avoid. MORE
PTG 303 – Feb Chit Chat
February 22, 2023 18:19 - 45 minutes - 105 MBDue to some *life stuff,* we had to record a quick chit chat! If you are listening for the first time, this is not our standard format, but it is the format that we use MORE
PTG 302 – Prep Me Up
February 15, 2023 08:13 - 1 hour - 170 MBShow us how you maximize your prep to game play time! Phil and Senda talk prep, prepping the most important stuff, and pacing the game to fill the time you want it to. Book resources MORE