D&D is weird because when you give the players loot, it feels like you can do it WRONG. Take a look at the Vorpal Sword; if you crit with this thing, you instakill your target. If you've given this to a level 1 party, have you ruined your campaign? Our answer is: no, you're fine!

Watch the video version of this podcast on YouTube: https://youtu.be/7YjOsZcUSL4

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❤️ Matt's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@heyitsmattyp

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1. The Vorpal Sword https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/5397-vorpal-sword

Isn't it weird how a D&D player can cast the Goodberry spell and decide for the entire group that foraging and rations will not be a feature of this campaign? Or how about an adventurer with the Lucky feat deciding that failure isn't interesting? These are in-game features designed to address out-of-game player preferences, and they're super weird, and that's what this episode is about.

Watch the video version here: https://youtu.be/0fyLpRIfJDo

And sign up to the newsletter https://www.start-a-quest.com

▼▼ SOURCES MENTIONED ▼▼

1. Montola's Invisible Rules of Roleplaying (exogenous, endogenous, diegesis) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273946812_The_Invisible_Rules_of_Role-Playing_The_Social_Framework_of_Role-Playing_Process

2. The Grasshopper, Bernard Suits (constitutive rules, technique rules, etc) https://books.google.com.au/books/about/The_Grasshopper_Third_Edition.html?id=K3ARAwAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y

3. TBA, Sidney's paper about coherence in games...

4. Blades in the Dark TTRPG https://bladesinthedark.com/

What actually happens when you sit a six-year-old down to play Dungeons & Dragons? In this episode, we pull apart D&D’s wargame DNA, talk about kids’ totally different sense of “fairness” and failure, and ask who the game is really for: the child… or the adult desperate to share their favourite hobby.

Watch the video version here: https://youtu.be/DA1n1qjQd8o

And sign up to the newsletter https://www.start-a-quest.com

▼▼ SOURCES MENTIONED ▼▼

1. The Design of Everyday Things https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Design_of_Everyday_Things

2. IIEE https://rpgmuseum.fandom.com/wiki/IIEE

3. Animal Adventures https://steamforged.com/collections/animal-adventures

4. Qwirkle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qwirkle

5. Sidney's talk about probability https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0l2zfEUU1E

6. No Thank You Evil https://www.nothankyouevil.com/

7.The Power of Moments https://www.amazon.com.au/Power-Moments-Certain-Experiences-Extraordinary/dp/1501147765

SAQ is a fortnightly D&D and TTRPG podcast. Hosted by Matt (bald) and Sidney (they/them), based in Melbourne, Australia.