Unplaytested

Season 1

S1E2 - Bring Me the Head of the Earthling, Sigourney Weaver!

Write a game in which the PCs are aliens in the process of invading Earth.

In this episode, Alex and Lara attempt to be anti-colonialist while playing alien colonizers. We did our very best. A game about alien invaders has the potential to be devastatingly serious or ludicrously silly, and we picked the option which has the word “Earthling” in the title, in this game about celebrities saving the world.

Important Discoveries

- Fun Fact: Alien is a good movie.

-Skeksis are creepy little bird monsters.

-Tumbling block towers cannot be used over Zoom. YET.

S1E3 - Metal Rush: Limit Breakers

NASCAR but with giant robots.

In this episode, Alex and Lara are joined by the dulcet tones of voice actor and fantasy child parent Aaron Catano-Saez. Together the trio tackles the most important question of them all: what if racing had cool mechs? Wouldn’t that be awesome?

-The most important part of racing… is love.

-There is no sport that can’t be improved with the addition of giant robots.

-Anybody can be a giant robot pilot. Anybody.

S1E4 - Kaiju Pirate Psychopomp Karaoke

A game in the golden age of piracy, set on the heads of water-dwelling kaiju

In this episode, Alex and Lara are joined by Sasha Reneau (of Spindlewheel fame), and given the task of making a game about pirates. On kaiju. And for some reason there’s singing, which is going to be a real challenge for the stream. And for some reason there’s ghosts and skeletons, which is just awesome.

S1E5 - HWAET! There is a Friend-Shaped Hole at the Center of Everything

Dire Capybara

In this episode, Lara and Alex are joined once again by Ash Cheshire, but we won’t mention the fact that we played that Kaiju Karaoke game last week, and you don’t need to question our elaborate kayfabe. The other thing you don’t have to question is how we started with a two word prompt based on a cute picture Lara saw, and ended up transcribing epic poetry… with capybaras.

S1E6 - The Simple Job

Home Alone the RPG

In this episode, Alex and Lara are joined by special guest Adira Slattery, in an effort to re-live beloved holiday classic of the 90s: Home Alone. We end up lyric-gaming it up just a hair, and put the players in the roles of the bandits who are destined to see their grand designs fall utterly to pieces.

S1E7 - Knife Swap: Slice of Life

Knife-based resolution mechanics. Make it work.

In this episode, Lara and Alex are joined by Robert and Star, and we talk about knives. What’s the best knife for the many situations we might find ourselves in? And what if someone else had the knife that WE need?

S1E8 - The Marks We Leave Behind

A Game in Which You Draw on Yourself a Lot

In this episode, Alex and Lara are once again on our lonesome, and we leaned the heck into it with this solo journaling game you play by drawing on your own physical human body. Visit the city you long ago abandoned and discover weird stuff. This one’s gonna be big and broad and, you guessed it, really hard for us to do a live-play of (but that’s a problem for future-Alex and Lara to deal with).

S1E9 - What Happened to the Moon?

A game where you start at the end and then work backwards, scene-by-scene, to the beginning.

In this episode, Alex and Lara are joined by Jasmine, and together the three go face-to-face with time itself, with a game challenge that proves that, while you don’t need to respect the linear flow of time while designing a game, it sure as heck makes things confusing when you don’t.

S1E10 - Nox Apud Operarcanum

Gay wizard drama

In this episode, Alex and Lara are joined my Monica and tasked with approaching the complex topic of gay wizard drama, emphasis on the DRAMA. Together we shall learn everything to know about the wizard opera, where wizards go to see, be seen, and furtively engage in fashion duels to impress Very Important Mages.

S1E11 - Soul Crushers

Everyone say the last video game you played. Combine them all into an RPG.

In this episode, Lara and Alex are joined by Kira, and talk about the video games we’re playing right now, and then smash them together like children playing with action figures, except the action figures combine into an RPG about fighting the physical manifestations of your own sadness in a corporate cloud city whilst observed by interchangeable god-narrators. As you do!

The Prompt: Everyone say the last video game you played. Combine them all into an RPG.

Special Guest: Kira Magrann