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.

Last week I talked about the nightmare that was scheduling recordings lately. It boggles the mind how long we’ve recorded Know Direction in a consistent time slot, and how rarely our guests had issues with the time.

In defiance of that blog post, we managed so much recording last week!

We’ve mentioned plans to conclude Legend Lore’s New Player Guide trilogy with a one shot featuring players without any 2e experience. Everyone we spoke with loved the idea. But, as seen in the Doodle from last week, schedules refused to line up.

After working it out, we changed our idea. Instead of two sessions -one character creation session and one play session- we decided players would make characters on their own, then we would record the session. That way, we don’t need to try to schedule another recording.

At least, that was the plan for a day or so. We quickly reversed the decision and the recording we managed to schedule became a session zero, with character creation and setting expectations.

By the time plans changed back, I’d already recorded a one-on-one character creation session with one of the players, crowd favourite Meg The Dweeb from Know Direction 235 – Pathfinder Society: The Book, The Organized Play Program, The Lifestyle. Of course. We went from not being able to record anything to having redundant recordings. Fortunately, the content of that one-on-one session and the session zero we recorded as a group don’t overlap too much, so I can still release the Meg recording as content. Of course, now I want a similar one-on-one session with the other players, for completist sake.

Finally, Friday, we recorded our first Adventurous session of the year. Which I couldn’t believe at first, but it’s true. We recorded the January 11th release in December, and a mix of conflicts and mental health kept us from recording another session until Friday. I fast tracked the editing and released the episode today.

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

Recap of February 15^th to February 19^th

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

Monday, February 15^th

Article

Recall Knowledge – On Scheduling
By Ryan Costello

I vent about all the ways scheduling can go wrong.

Tuesday, February 16^th

Patreon

Patron’s Private Sanctuary 15 – Foundry, Hero Forge, and more Ancestry Guide

I had the hardest time remembering how this Patron’s Private Sanctum was an houre long, because I could only remember about 10 minutes of the content. That’s because more than half of it is a continuation of our talk about the Ancestry Guide and how good it is.

Podcast

Legend Lore 020 — Cleric

Oh, that’s right. Luis and Loren also do class features. There was an interesting dichotomy between what chat had to say about the warpriest and Luis and Loren’s sample builds, which were mostly warpriests. Is the cloistered cleric hands down better than the warpriest? You decide!

Article

Fox’s Cunning – It’s a Trap
By Dustin Knight

I absolutely loved this instalment of Fox’s Cunning, and I’m not just saying that because yesterday was Dustin’s birthday (happy birthday, Dustin!). The role traps play in an adventure is a topic I greatly enjoy, especially because of the number of unfun ways I’ve seen it implemented. Solid advice from Dustin for any adventure writer who feels the need to include traps but isn’t sure how.  

Wednesday, February 17^th

Twitch

Know Direction: Beyond 55 – Editors of the Void

I tried a couple of times over the years to have an Editors- The Unsung Heroes of Pathfinder episode of Know Direction, and I let those past failures impact my drive to schedule it again, even though I spoke with Leo Glass about it a couple of years ago at PaizoCon and he was game. Well Alex and Vanessa picked up my slack and delivered one of my favourite podcasts on the network in recent memory.

Podcast

Presenting – Mike Kimmel

Mike Kimmel’s someone that deserves more attention from us than he’s gotten. Not only has he been one of Paizo’s most consistent freelancers, he’s now an Organized Play Developer at Paizo. Plus, he founded Freelance Forge. This is the kind of episode that makes me glad Presenting exists.

Article

Guidance – Resolving Friction in Your Gaming Group
By Alexander Augunas

Alex shares his reaction to how a few players in his Teenage Wasteland group responded to a situation in the campaign they didn’t care for.

Thursday, February 18^th

Podcast

Valiant Episode 10: In Which They Chat Around the Campfire

To be honest, I’m surprised by the title Luis went with. If I’d gone with a title like that for Adventurous, it would be for a transitive episode and I felt the need to evoke a pleasant feeling for an episode where not a lot happened. But a lot happened in this episode! They’ve been building to the Glass Treader for several episodes, and we got it’s debut!

Article

Investing In: Lost Omens Ancestry Guide
By Rob Pontious

Rob talks up the Ancestry Guide, as a concept, and how it already left an impact on his game.

Friday, February 19^th

Podcast

Know Direction: Beyond 55 – Editors of the Void

As I was saying, this episode rocks. Leo Glass and Kieran Newton explained how valuable editors are to RPGs, and were entertaining while they did it. Well worth the listen even if you aren’t a Starfinder player.

Article

Monstrous Physique — Pit (PF2E)
By Luis Loza

Pit’s a character that makes me show my age. I never played Kid Icarus, don’t like Super Smash Bros, and only know the character from Captain N. On that show, he was called Kid Icarus, like his game. So I’m not sure where the name Pit comes from, and other than “kid with wings,” I don’t know what his deal is. But I did enjoy Luis tying him into Valentine’s Day.

Preview of February 22^nd to February 26^th

This is back to Block 1 of our 2-block schedule.

Monday, February 22^nd

Article

Recall Knowledge – Call To Adventure
By Ryan Costello

I could have used today’s editorial to talk about how there won’t be an Adventurous again this week, but we’re trying hard to get a make up recording or two in before the next Friday we’re all (tentatively) available to record, February 18^th. Instead, I dedicated my editorial to a cute story about my mom. I’m OK with this.

Tuesday, February 23^rd

Patreon

PF2.KD Update – Incapacitation Reimagine

I missed the last PF2.KD update, unfortunately, as I’ve been busy with freelance work. I may miss this week as well, unfortunately, but I’ve left this on the calendar in the hope that I don’t miss it.

Podcast

Digital Divination 024

John and Ron open the book on writing for Starfinder. 

Article

Burst of Insight by Andrew Marlowe

Andrew Marlowe shares GM and design advice for and from other game systems.

Wednesday, February 24^th

Twitch

Know Direction 244 Live –  Hybrid Game Tables: When Virtual Groups Return to In Person Gaming

Randal Meyer joins Ryan and Perram to speculate on the future of game groups that formed during quarantine, and offer insight into how you can create a hybrid game table experience.

Podcast

Game Design Unboxed 9: The Networks

Designer Gil Hova, owner of Formal Ferret Games, talks about The Networks, a TV studio simulator that just wasn’t working during playtesting.

Article

Phantasmal Killer by Crystal Frasier

Crystal Frasier turns new concepts and narrative tropes into subsystems for a variety of RPGs.

Groundbreaking by Randal Meyer

Randal Meyer brings a Pathfinder campaign setting to life, one blog post at a time.

Thursday, February 25^th

Podcast

Know Direction 244 – Hybrid Game Tables: When Virtual Groups Return to In Person Gaming

The latest episode of Know Direction, the Know Direction Network’s flagship podcast.

Article

Something Creates by Andrew Sturtevant

Andrew Sturtevant creates Starfinder content, and shares insight into his decisions and his struggles along the way.

Friday, February 25^th

Podcast

Intrepid Heroes 54

An actual play podcast of the Starfinder Adventure Path Dawn of Flame from Paizo, currently GMed by book 4’s writer, Paizo developer Ron Lundeen.

Article

Bend The Knee by Loren Sieg

Loren Sieg, the DovahQueen herself, asks elaborate gaming questions of game industry personalities, Know Direction staff, and our listeners.

 

Now you know,

Ryan Costello