RPPR Episode 103: School of Dice

News:Gencon approaches! Check the RPPR thread for more info. Also, support Caleb with the No Soul Left Behind Kickstarter! It has what gamers crave! And speaking of Kickstarters, The Horrors of War Kickstarter is pretty awesome too! Synopsis: Training, learning, and education are important topics in games but we seldom examine the assumptions made in games. The gaming trope of leveling up (I learned a new language after I killed enough orcs!) is a poor model to represent learning but what should good experience/leveling up rules look like? Aside from educational rules in games, we also discuss academic themes for adventure ideas and using a game to teach it to other people.No letter from Tom, but we do have shout outs and an anecdote. Shout Outs: * Rhesus Chart: The fifth book in the Laundry series. Vampire bankers meet an occult bureaucracy. * Deadly Games: How To Play – A murder novel set at Gencon and features real game designers as characters. * Girl with All The Gifts: a sci-fi novel about a girl in an unusual education system. * Designers and Dragons: A book series about the history on RPGs. Now on Kickstarter! * Banshee Chapter: a horror movie on Netflix loosely based on a HP Lovecraft story. * Morph Recognition Guide: You want to know what the morpsh in Eclipse Phase look like? Here you go. * Misquoting Jesus: A good primer on biblical textual criticism. * Broforce Demo: The Expendabros are here to shoot dudes. Also, free! * Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons: An interesting video game and worth playing through. * Last Week Tonight: John Oliver’s new show on HBO. Very funny and insightful stuff. Music: Selected pieces from Computer Death by Infinite Frequencies. Check out more Vaporwave if you want to hear elevator music from Carcosa.