Dice Exploder

• Love, Sex, and Romance: The War (Will That Be All?) with Kim Lam

  Transcripts available at diceexploder.comToday we’re wrapping up the Dice Exploder series on love, sex, and romance with Will That Be All? by Graham Walmsley, a game about the social relationships between the downstairs staff at Melton Hall, a fictional British estate, over the course of about a decade between the first and second world wars.It’s a lovely game about finding solace and community even as the world outside feel deeply uncertain - and that’s what Kim wanted to talk about: how setting, and in this case the spectre of war, can encourage and affect how not just romance but relationships of all kinds can play out in a game.Further ReadingWill That Be All? by Graham WhalmsleyBreaking the Ice, and The Romance Trilogy, by Emily Care BossRosenstrasse by Jessica Hammer and Moyra TurkingtonDownton AbbeySocialsK Lam on Bluesky and itchSam on Bluesky and itchThe Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.comOur logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!Dice Exploder on Patreon

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• Love, Sex, and Romance: Big Chunky Prompts with Tasha Robinson

  Transcripts available at diceexploder.comI’m back! Alex and Sharang have done an amazing job talking love, sex, and romance over the past month but I have plenty to say on the subject myself. In particular, I wanted to approach the conversation Alex and Sharang started about the quantification of romance from the perspective of how I feel when I’m actually at the table playing these games. Because that quantification makes me feel kinda weird… but what do I want instead?Because freeform romance is tough for me. Romance is scary! I want some help, some guidelines, some dare-I-say rules and mechanics for it. But if not quantification... then what? What else might help alleviate my fear and awkwardness? Or is that awkwardness part of the fun and charm of romance, and really we should leave it in?Today, Tasha Robinson returns to the show to talk it all through with me.Further ReadingSteal My Heart by Sam DunnewoldThe King Is Dead by Meguey and Vincent BakerSocialsTasha on BlueskyThe Next Picture Show podcastSam on Bluesky and itchThe Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.comOur logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!Dice Exploder on Patreon

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• Love, Sex, and Romance: Physical Touch with Alex & Sharang

  Transcripts available at diceexploder.comIn this final episode hosted by Sharang and Alex, perhaps their climactic episode, they are turning up the heat on sex mechanics all the way to physical contact, both as a way to simulate sex acts through other kinds of physical touch... and through actual sex acts being used as game mechanics.This stuff is fascinating, I think much more broadly applicable than you might believe at first blush, and I think also very obviously under discussed in the way that all things sex and sexuality are under discussed. Let's get into it.Further ReadingThe Sleepover by Kat Jones & Julia B. EllingboeThis interview by Lizzie Stark with Emma Wieslander, who created Ars Amandi for the 2001 larp Between Heaven and SeaA Place to Fuck Each Other by Avery AlderKirigami Dominatrix Display Simulator by Aura BellePraise the Hawkmoth King by sage the anagogueVice & Violence by ScalliORKFUCK by SympatheticSapphicSapphicworld by Darling Demon GamesSocialsAlex on Bluesky and carrdSharang on Bluesky and itchSam on Bluesky and itchThe Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.comOur logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!Dice Exploder on Patreon

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• Love, Sex, and Romance: The Phallus with Alex & Sharang

  Transcripts available at diceexploder.comOur series on game mechanics centered around sex and romance continues with returning champions Alex Roberts and Sharang Biswas, and today they are talking about dicks. “The phallus.” Or more generally, physical objects. I did some episodes on physicality earlier this year and how the physicality of a game undeniably affects how it feels to play it. But Alex and Sharang go a step further, talking about how in a game you can use an object as almost a vessel for player emotions. Take a listen.Further ReadingTales of the Fisherman’s Wife by Julia Bond EllingboeThe Beast by Aleksandra SontowskaJust a Little Lovin’ by Tor Kjetil Edland and Hanne GrasmoBetween Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial DesireLet These Mermaids Touch Your Dick Maybe by Riverhouse GamesSocialsAlex on Bluesky and carrdSharang on Bluesky and itchSam on Bluesky and itchThe Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.comOur logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!Dice Exploder on Patreon

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• Love, Sex, and Romance: Roll to Seduce with Alex & Sharang

  Transcripts available at diceexploder.comAlex Roberts and Sharang Biswas are back for round two, this time with “roll to seduce,” that classic action so many people try and even succeed at taking across any number of games. If I roll high enough on my persuasion check, surely the dragon will fuck me instead of killing us, right? In some games, yes! Right indeed!This is such a weird dynamic, but clearly so appealing to so many people, and today Alex and Sharang get into the why and how of it all. That leads to all kinds of places, but in particular the seductive choice to quantify sex and romance, but put a number to all these ephemeral and scary ideas about sex and romance, presumably so we might better understand them or be able to avoid dealing with how potentially embarrassing and messy they can be.Further ReadingThe Book of Erotic Fantasy by Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel and Duncan ScottLove and Sex in the 9th World by by Shanna GermainStrixhaven: A Curriculum of ChaosAlex Roberts on Dice Exploder discussing KagematsuFog of Love by Jacob JaskovBluebeard’s Bride by Whitney “Strix” Beltran, Marissa Kelly, & Sarah DoomSocialsAlex on Bluesky and carrdSharang on Bluesky and itchSam on Bluesky and itchThe Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.comOur logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!Dice Exploder on Patreon

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