Now You Know – 15 Years Of Know Direction

Every week, Now You Know recaps the Know Direction content of the past week, previews the Know Direction content of the week to come, and shares the thoughts on the state of the network from the director of operations, Ryan Costello.

This usually gets overshadowed by Halloween themed content, but the first episode of the Know Direction network’s first podcast, 3.5 Private Sanctuary, released on October 30th, 2007. That makes today the 15th anniversary of Know Direction content. Sadly, we took the 3.5 Private Sanctuary episodes off the network due to space constraints, but you can find them preserved on archive.org’s Private Sanctuary page.

To give an idea of how much the TTRPG industry changed since then, our third episode, Digital Vs Print, was mostly on the ethics of getting digital copies of the game since we couldn’t yet imagine a world where digital RPG rulebooks could be legally acquired. And even though we’re best know as a Pathfinder fan site, The Know Direction Network went live about 6 months before Paizo’s March 18, 2008 announcement that they’d were designing their own RPG.

I’ve been working on this network longer than any job I’ve had. Heck, I’ve had a longer and more consistent relationship with the network than I have with anyone or anything other than my wife and family. It’s something I think about and interact with on a daily basis for the last 5480 days. Next year, it can learn to drive, and in a few years it can vote and drink (both of which are allowed at 18 in Quebec, which surely has never caused problems).

I do feel like I’ve been waxing nostalgic a lot in my editorials this year. Maybe I felt the shadow of the milestone casting over me. In any case, I don’t want to dwell too much on the past yet again. I just want to thank our audience, old and new, for investing in us for however long you’ve been a fan, and to the staff, who continues to evolve and add to the Know Direction Network.

Speaking of the Know Direction Network, here’s a recap of the content from last week:

Recap of October 24th to 28th

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

Monday, October 24th

Article

Now You Know – Now We Can Talk About This

With Paizo hiring both Vanessa and Dustin, and allowing them to announce it, we now know how much work we need to do during the network restructuring.

Tuesday, October 25th

Podcast

Young and Adventurous 012 – Everyone’s a Critic

You see, we were at an art auction, with art critics, and Xavier used an art critique (courtesy The Instant Art Critique Phrase Generator) to inspire courage, but also Scott kept critting Oggdren. The titles of our episodes have layers.

Wednesday, October 26th

Podcast

Presenting – Andrew Mullen

I can definitely relate to Andrew’s experience balancing home life and fatherhood with a TTRPG writing career, but the bulk of what I took away from this interview was his excitement for and investment in the upcoming  Luminant Age campaign setting for Pathfinder 2e.

Preview of October 31st to November 4th

Block 1 of our 2-block schedule.

Monday, October 31st

Podcast

Intrepid Heroes 098 – That’s No Moon

GM Ron Lundeen runs a band of misfits through the Starfinder Devastation Ark adventure path from Paizo.

Article

Now You Know – 15 Years Of Know Direction
By Ryan Costello

Happy birthday, Know Direction Network!

Tuesday, November 1st

Podcast

Game Design Unboxed 49: Creature Comforts

Shortly after Roberta Taylor won a game design award as a hobbyiest, she had to decide whether to turn down all of her new board game industry opportunities, or fully commit to it as a new job.

Article

Eldritch Excursion
By Nate Wright

Nate Wright’s journal of flavour and mechanics.

Wednesday, November 2nd

Discord

Patron’s Private Sanctum 52

Aftershow no more! Patrons of the Familiars tier or higher are invited to join us for the first standalone recording of a Patron’s Private Sanctum.

Article

Behind The Screens
By Ryan Costello

Veteran Game Master Ryan Costello talks with his fellow GMs on their side of the GM screen.

Thursday, November 3rd

Podcast

Digital Divination 69

John and Jason talk Starfinder.

Friday, November 4th

Podcast

Upshift 005 – Operation: Cold Iron Breakdown

Jason and I breakdown the first G.I. Joe Adventure Series hardcover, Operation: Cold Iron.

Article

Iconic Design – Hero Forge Fridays
By Alex Auguna

Iconic Designs meets Hero Forge Fridays as Alex Augunas creates a mini and stat block every week.

 

Now you know,

Ryan Costello

Ryan Costello

What started as one gamer wanting to talk about his love of a game grew into a podcast network. Ryan founded what would become the Know Direction Podcast network with Jason "Jay" Dubsky, his friend and fellow 3.5 enthusiast. They and their game group moved on to Pathfinder, and the Know Direction podcast network was born. Now married and a father, Ryan continues to serve the network as the director of logistics and co-host of Upshift podcast, dedicated to the Essence20 RPG system he writes for and helped design. You can find out more about Ryan and the history of the network in this episode of Presenting: http://knowdirectionpodcast.com/2021/01/presenting-ryan-costello/