Rolling the Dice on a New Podcast

Words by Alex Marinkovich-Josey (he/him)

Wait, Roll That Again! is a TTRPG Design podcast that takes you through your first steps to building a game alongside Alex, a brand new game designer. You'll hear from leading, award-winning, and vastly experienced designers as they help Alex get a better idea of how to make a game, from the basic idea all the way through to publication.

This year, I set out to work on a new podcasting project, hoping to combine my love for tabletop games and narrative podcasting. 

Narrative podcasts follow a story from start to finish. For example, true crime podcast, or one of my favourite shows, Mission ImPASTAble, one man’s journey to create his very own pasta shape. One of the characteristics of a narrative show that separates it from other formats is the use of narration, connecting interview content and other elements to pull the story together. I had my practice working in this style with Salient this year, when we covered the university cuts as they were announced on The Salient Unedited Session podcast.

I’ve played tabletop games like Dungeons and Dragons since I was in high school.  The podcast space for tabletop gaming is dominated by ‘actual play’ podcasts: shows that follow a group’s game play through. Not immediately hooked by that idea, I wanted to do something different with this project. I was interested in the background of these games. I wondered what it would take to create one…

Designing tabletop games seemed to be an art that eluded me, but my curiosity led me to connecting with Kēmu Whakatau O Aotearoa, or KiwiRPG. The collective’s website states that they’re a collective of “Aotearoa’s TTRPG podcasters, live streamers, YouTubers, and game designers” coming together to spotlight the work made here locally in Aotearoa. By connecting with the group, I learned a little bit more about their process and I was hit with a sudden spark of inspiration!

During the annual KiwiRPG week event in June, the first episode of my show, Wait, Roll That Again! was released. The show’s format follows me as I try to design my first-ever tabletop game. I speak with experienced designers from Aotearoa and internationally about their own game design, the steps they take to get their games out there, and their key takeaways from their years of experience. I also work with the players in my usual tabletop gaming group to figure out mechanics for the game and help me with play testing, running development versions of the game, and give me critical feedback on what is and isn’t working. 

In the first episode, I speak to Welly-based designer Morgan Davie. He tells me game design is like “chasing a rainbow, and you’re never gonna quite get to it, but you can see it’s out there! You want to try grab on to a theme and play around with it, that’s game design.” With his help, I eventually found a rainbow for myself, and I kept going. 

Speaking to designers like Monster of The Week’s Michael Sands, and Wanderhome’s Jay Dragon, with Wait, Roll That Again! I’m able to give listeners insights into the behind-the-scenes of the tabletop design world from some of gaming’s greatest designers working today. 

Some of my favourite podcasts are narrative shows. They combine the best elements of investigative journalism, documentary style, and creative story-telling that brings their listeners along for the journey. With this project, I’ve pushed my own skill set further than ever before. I’ve made plenty of mistakes, including audio fuck-ups and production delays, but now I know now what I’ll do differently next time.