Every week, Recall Knowledge recaps the Know Direction content of the past week, a preview of the Know Direction content of the week to come, and the director of operations, Ryan Costello, thoughts on the state of the network.

“Content!”

You’ve probably heard the word content thrown around our podcasts with a mix of reverence and fear. It’s in reference to when we are not currently recording and the conversation gets too entertaining for something no one else will experience but us. It means we have to stop and save it for the audience. And I am usually the one who says it.

A lot of the reason I don’t like having conversations that could be content when we’re not recording relates to how I GM: off-the-cuff and reactive. I’m sure some people would prefer a test run on the topics they’ll be discussing, but I find my enthusiasm drops considerably if it’s not my authentic first reaction.

All this to say, I was thinking of running the Pathfinder 2e Beginner Box for Scarlett. She’s 5, loves fantasy, is interested in games, and has a great imagination. She’s not able to read yet and is still new to math, so I was thinking up ways to translate the rules into tangibles. Like giving her different small cups, each with a certain number of beads related to different bonuses, and then have her count from the beads starting at the number she rolled.

While I was planning this out, I had to ask myself: Is this content? It would be helpful for parents looking to get their Scarlett-aged children into RPGs. I thought my solutions were clever enough and worth sharing. And it would be cool to capture the moment Scarlett got into Pathfinder, assuming things went well.

I pictured a tablet for each player (I’m thinking Perram and my friends Will and Amelie), and physical map and miniatures. Scarlett gets first choice for her character, of course, and is the leader of the party with the experienced players acting as her advisors and back-up. One camera fixed on the map, one on Scarlett, and one on me/the room.

I’m on the fence right. Setting it up would take a lot of planning, especially with Abigail at an age where she would want to get involved, but is too young to contribute. And we’re currently restricted from visiting family, so a babysitter’s not an option. Plus there’s hoping Scarlett sits still and stays interested long enough to get content out of it. And I suppose there’s the question of whether this is a father sharing his hobby with his daughter or a network director exploiting a child…

I’m at the point where I have to decide if this is a good enough idea for Scarlett to do even without recording, or if it’s such a good idea for content that it’s worth waiting on.

Speaking of content, here’s a recap of what you might have missed last week from the Know Direction Network:

Recap of November 21^st to November 27^th

What happened last week on knowdirectionpodcast.com and twitch.tv/knowdirection?

Saturday, November 21^st

Podcast

Game Design Unboxed 002: Tiny Towns with Peter McPherson

Even though it was designer Peter McPherson;s first game, Tiny Towns was a huge hit for publisher AEG. Danielle, Ben, and Denice have a spirited and insightful conversation with him about how it feels to see his game played at huge marathon events, and how you follow up on winning some of the industry’s biggest awards so early into his career.

Monday, November 23^rd

Article

November 16th to November 27th

The winners of the Beadle & Grimm’s T-Shirt Giveaway are announced.

Tuesday, November 24^th

Podcast

Legend Lore 015 — Death

Confession: I find the 2e rules for death really confusing. And that’s an issue, because it’s the kind of rules that rarely come up (especially since NPCs don’t work the same way) and therefore I don’t get used to them, but they’re also rules you have to get 100% right. So this episode is super important to me, and I will listen to it before every session when I start GMing 2e.

Article

Fox’s Cunning – I Need a Hero (Point)

By Dustin Knight

Dustin explains how and why Hero Points are so important in 2e, and offers some tips on how to remember to give them out.

Wednesday, November 25^th

Podcast

Presenting – Vanessa Hoskins

Know Direction’s own Vanessa Hoskins talks about how she hit the ground running with her game design career. I didn’t even realize Vanessa’s rise to prominence in the industry was this quick. It ends up I’ve known her for most of her time as a professional game designer.

Article

Iconic Design — Way Wicked Kumiho
By Alex Augunas

Ah, Iconic Design. Breaking down the choices of an elaborate build was Alex’s original blog, pre-KD, and the reason he came to the network’s attention. He mostly writes Guidance these days, which is also appreciated. It’s just nice to see him return to ID from time to time and tell you too can make a kitsune bloodrager that… eats… the livers of his enemies?

Patreon

Private Sanctum 009

A potential podcast idea came up in Know Direction 237, and the patrons wanted to hear more about it. Perram and I spent some time talking about it, and then went into other podcasts that were in some state of development but never saw the light of day.

Thursday, November 26^th

Podcast

Valiant Episode 5: In Which They Hang Out In Town

After 4 straight episodes of adventure and increased power, our Valiant heroes get a little downtime to do some shopping, visit old friends, and, oh yes, figure out why they have powers the likes of which none of them have ever seen!

Article

Investing In: Intrigue and Influence in Riddleport
by Rob Pontious

Golarion is what you call a kitchen sink Campaign Setting, where you can set any campaign your heart desires. Since Rob chose the very specific locale of Riddleport for the Pathfinder 2e game he’s been talking about in the last few installments, it’s interesting to hear what about it motivated him to choose the City of Cyphers as the setting of his campaign.

Friday, November 27^th

Podcast

Adventurous 049 – My Dear Baroness

Episode 49 was a rare instance where we recorded two episodes in the same night. As it was a while ago and there was overlap in my mind about what happened in which episode, I thought this was just episode of our always entertaining actual play. It wasn’t until I started editing it that I realized how moving and fun this episode was. I’m barely in it, so this is more my take on it as a fan than pride as a participant.

Know Direction: Beyond 52 – Precog Premonitions with Thursty

You don’t know how much listening to Thursty talk about the precog made me want to play this class. Specifically, it made me want to play it as a Pathfinder 2e version of Super Genius Games’ Time Thief. I doubt I will get around to playing a precog during the playtest, but maybe someday I will bring one to the table for a Starfinder game.

Preview of November 30^th to November 21^st

This week is Block 2 of our 2-block schedule.

Monday, November 30^th

Article

Recall Knowledge (available now)

Tuesday, December 1^st

Podcast

Digital Divination with John and Ron

Article

Burst of Insight by Andrew Marlowe

Wednesday, December 2^nd

Twitch

Know Direction 238 Live

Article

Phantasmal Killer by Crystal Frasier

Thursday, December 3^rd

Podcast
Know Direction 238

Article

Something Creates by Andrew Sturtevant

Friday, December 4^th

Podcast
Intrepid Heroes

http://knowdirectionPodcast.com/category/Podcasts/intrepid-heroes/

 

Article
Bend The Knee by Loren Sieg

http://knowdirectionPodcast.com/category/articles/bend-the-knee/

Saturday, December 5^th

Game Design Unboxed 003

http://knowdirectionPodcast.com/2020/10/game-design-unboxed-000-meet-us/

 

Now you know,
Ryan Costello