Postgame.16: The Quiet Year, Part 2

Postgame.16: The Quiet Year, Part 2

Welcome back to Postgame, Sidequest’s monthly (aspirationally), formerly-Patreon-exclusive podcast. We’re extending our break from hot takes on cold games this episode, instead continuing (and resolving) our game of The Quiet Year. Tune in to hear us work through Summer, Fall, and Winter, in which we consider war crimes and mushrooms in roughly equal measure.

(more…)

Postgame.16: The Quiet Year, Part 2

Postgame.15: The Quiet Year, Part 1

Welcome back to Postgame, Sidequest’s monthly(ish) (formerly) Patreon-exclusive podcast, where the editors lay down hot takes on cold games. This month, we decided to do something different: instead of talking about games for an hour and a half, we played one for… longer. In this episode, we play the first season of Avery Alder’s incredible GM-less tabletop roleplaying game The Quiet Year, in which we play a community of people trying to rebuild after the end of a long war. We also spend a lot of time with a big tree. Love that big tree. (more…)

September Roundtable: Changing Seasons

September Roundtable: Changing Seasons

I can’t speak for the whole of Sidequest, but when I feel the first day of crisp autumn air or see the first morning with a dusting of frost, something changes in me. The transitory seasons are where it’s at, in my opinion, and while games may not have mastered the art of pumpkin-flavored everything or the itchiness of spring allergies, they nonetheless have done a pretty good job of exploring the beauty of seasonal changes. This month, we’re talking about gaming seasons—the literal and the figurative.

(more…)

January Roundtable: Renewal in Games

January Roundtable: Renewal in Games

Calendars are an arbitrary measure of time, but I think we can all agree that leaving 2020 behind is something of a blessing, right? So this month, let’s talk about games that center around renewal as a theme. (more…)

5 Low-Prep, GMless Games to Play from Far Away

5 Low-Prep, GMless Games to Play from Far Away

Welcome to the quarantimes. All across the land, folks are starting remote D&D games in an effort to find something to do with their distant friends, and you’re starting to think a tabletop RPG sounds like fun, too. But wait! You don’t have a friend you can easily designate as DM (or GM, as the case may be), and you certainly don’t want to put in that kind of planning time.

Well, good news: You don’t always need a GM to play TTRPGs. I love telling stories with my friends, but I’ve never in my life been able to commit to GMing… so I’ve built up a stable of GM-less games that I can pull out and play with zero prep. (more…)