Recently, Rob Bohl of Misspent Youth and Independent Insurgency fame applied his advance interviewing techniques to me to ferret out some of the secrets to playstorming. Would it kill you to give it a listen?* It’s only 26 minutes out of your life.

* The Imagination Sweatshop and the Independent Insurgency are not responsible for any actual deaths that occur as the result of listening to this podcast.

Despite not blogging much, we *are* doing things over here at ISS. Eppy has piled another game idea onto his plate–something we have dubbed “Passionate Losers,” although I think that name may have changed by now. Basically, the game is about normal everyday folks who have to deal with their life crumbling around them. The latest playstorm Jim ran for us was an exciting Silver Age-style superhero game with a lot of freedom to improvise. And me? I’m trying to bolt the Solar System mechanics (the core rules from Shadow of Yesterday) onto the Hellspace setting.

But the big, big news is our appearance on the latest Voice of the Revolution podcast! Our good friend Brennan Taylor (of IPR) interviewed us about playstorming. Go and take a listen–there’s even some interesting bits in there that aren’t about us!

I always find it quite interesting when people talk about the things in which I am involved, be it praise or damnation. Which is why I listened with rapt attention to the latest episode of the Independent Insurgency, especially the part where host Robert Bohl brings up the idea of playstorming to designer Ben Lehman.

SPOILER ALERT! Basically, Ben says that the playstormosophy “isn’t for him.” Well, good for him. A man who knows what he wants and likes. Can’t fault him for that, of course.

And that probably would have been the end of it, except for the fact that it prompted the good people over at the story-games forum to ask some questions. Thanks to John and Eppy and Emily for answering those questions. You people are the true heroes.

I’ve got no judgments about what people are saying about playstorming, I’m just excited that people are talking about it at all. Because, in the end, that’s all we’ve got.

Also, a quick Trial & Terror: SVU update. We’ve had our first observed blind playtest of the game and it’s definitely clear where the game needs some spit and polish. But I’m happy to report that the game does work and is fun to play. Phew!

Shout outs to John C. (who probably did the first blind playtest, even though we didn’t get to see it) and to Saif for running the “observed” game. Also, thanks to Donna and Rob (stop drifting my game, dammit!) for playing.