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, reality infringed on our escapism.
We cancelled a scheduled Geek Together recording on Wednesday, after the Capitol Hill invasion put us in too contemplative a mood for a chill chat.
We also shifted gears for last week’s Adventurous recording. Originally this was going to be either the episode we raid Count Bartelby’s home to try to force him out, or all about planning for it. Instead, we played Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate on Tabletop Simulator. It’s not that we weren’t in the mood for a night of cutthroat intrigue gaming, it was the flavour of intrigue we needed to change.
It wasn’t my country whose democracy was attacked last week. Even if I understand the issues and implications of a mob terrorizing their government because of the lies they’ve been fed and the baseless narrative they choose to believe, I don’t feel it on the same level as my American friends. That said, even I didn’t find the idea of playing out a fantasy version of very similar events to be fun, especially when we’d be paralleling the actions of those in the wrong in this case. This was before I edited the episode of Adventurous that released today. While editing it, it’s hard not to draw lines between of Count Bartelby’s unlawful tactics and Donald Trump. I guess that’s the issue with playing a political adventure during politically discordant times.
The thought was that we’d need the one week breather and then we’d be able to return to regularly scheduled Adventurous. Unfortunately, the realities of our recording schedule don’t line up with that plan. We can’t record this Friday or the next, and I just posted the last recording. That means there won’t be an Adventurous in two weeks. Maybe it’s for the best, who knows what the last scheduled days of the outgoing president’s term will hold. Odds are Trump does not have access to a nightmare spider, but who knows?
Luckily, there will be actual play content to make up for the lack of Adventurous. Paizo themselves dropped an alternative in our lap. This weekend, Luis Loza will be running an original adventure for Network members Perram, Alex Augunas, Randal Meyer, Vanessa Hoskins, Dustin Knight, and myself to playtest the new classes. I’ll be playing a sharkfolk armor inventor. I’ll get into my build on this week’s Know Direction, when we breakdown the classes.
Speaking of Know Direction Network content, here’s a recap of what you might have missed last week from the Know Direction Network:
Recap of January 4th to January 8th
What happened last week on knowdirectionpodcast.com and twitch.tv/knowdirection?
Not much, to be honest. It was our second week of the end of year holiday hiatus. All the more reason to let you know what we did release!
Monday, January 4th
Podcast
Stellar 014 — Against All Odds
In case you were wondering if “don’t split the party” also applied to Starfinder, Alex wandered off and got ambushed by a couple of monsters XVII had zero ability to handle, while the rest of the party was dealing with another threat in a previous room.
Article
Recall Knowledge – New Year, New Playtest
By Ryan Costello
Y’all! For the first time ever, my wild speculation was 100% right! Heck, it was 200% right, since I also guessed what book was coming out, which wasn’t even part of the intent of my guesses.
I went heavy on the disclaimers in that article. In case I came off a little too “doth protest too much,” I truly did not have any inside information on the classes. There is Network staff working on the book, and the disclaimers were for their benefit.
So how was I able to guess exactly right? Deduction. Secrets of Magic is already on the horizon, and the “we’re not making Secrets of Combat next” messaging was out there, so that eliminated most 1e classes. There was also the messaging that Paizo wasn’t just going to rehash 1e classes, so the time felt right for an original class. Getting the gist of what the original class would be was the largest luck component of my guess.
Tuesday, January 5th
Patreon
Patron’s Private Sanctum 12
I called this post “My Favourite Private Sanctum. Perram’s been calling the Patron’s Private Sanctum recordings his favourite part of the network lately, and I can see why. These are fun, loose conversations, and they give us an excuse to chat about stuff we don’t usually talk about while still giving us content! Everyone wins!
Podcast
Legend Lore 017 – New Player Guide, Part 1: Brand New Players
I am excited for this new series. Luis and Loren are amazing ambassadors for Pathfinder 2e. As listener weezicus said on Discord in response to this series, “I’m really excited for the episode on experienced players from other games coming in to P2E. I come across a lot of posts from 5E players coming to P2E.”
Article
Gibbering Mouth: Of Adventures and Options
By Alexander Augunas
I like the point Alex makes about Paizo’s recent tendency for player-oriented options in published adventures. He’s not totally against it, but he’s confused why this isn’t advertised more? I know personally, during the Beyond interview with Jasons Keeley and Tondro about Starfinder’s future published adventures, hearing about the junkomancer from Junker’s Delight made that adventure stand out. I know I don’t follow Starfinder news closely, but that was definitely the first I’d heard about that option being in that book.
Wednesday, January 6th
Podcast
Presenting – Alex Speidel
John had a lively discussion with Paizo Organized Play Associate Alex Speidel. Alex got the job in early 2020, only to have everything he knew about Paizo’s Organized Play programs changed due to the pandemic.
Article
Fox’s Cunning – Gunslinger Breakdown
By Dustin Knight
With the 2e Gunslinger freshly revealed, Dustin gave the class (and the fire arms rules that the class depends on) a close look.
Thursday, January 7th
Podcast
Valiant Episode 7 : In Which Some Crimes Are Confessed
Good episode for getting to know our Valiant heroes, and for our Valiant heroes to get to know each other. Also, you get to witness in real time Luis introduce original items he made just for this campaign get rejected by the party and sold. This is why I don’t prep when I GM!
Article
Investing In: Call of Cthulhu
By Rob Pontious
Before I started podcasting, I had never heard of Cthulhu or HP Lovecraft. It wasn’t until I interviewed Wolfgang Baur for 3.5 Private Sanctuary back in 2008 that I even heard the name, and it was in the context of the Call of Cthulhu RPG. So even though it’s a game I’ve barely played, having become a fan of Cthulhu memes, I will always associate him with the RPG, which Rob covers nicely in his article.
Friday, January 8th
Twitch
Adventurous Plays Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate
Instead of the scheduled episode recording, we played Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate (a D&D version of Betrayal at House on the Hill) on Tabletop Simulator. It was a lot of fun.
Article
Monstrous Physique — Pale Stranger (PF2E)
By Luis Loza
With the gunslinger showing up in 2e, Luis brought in an old West themed villain to challenge them.
Preview of January 11th to January 15th
This is back to Block 1 of our 2-block schedule.
Monday, January 11th
Podcast
Adventurous 051 – Cooking Up More Murder
Now that our heroes have killed, where do we go from here?
Article
Recall Knowledge – No Escape
There’s no escaping Recall Knowledge! Or reality.
Tuesday, January 12th
Patreon
PF2.KD 2k21 update
What’s going on with PF2.KD? An update!
Podcast
Digital Divination 021
John and Ron talking Starfinder stuff as only John and Ron can!
Article
Burst of Insight by Andrew Marlowe
Andrew Marlowe shares GM and design advice for and from other game systems.
Wednesday, January 12th
Twitch
Know Direction 241 Live! Guns & Gears Playtest Breakdown
Perram and I will probably joined by a guest, that’s TBA, to give our thoughts on the new Pathfinder 2e playtest version of the gunslinger, and 2e’s first original class, the inventor.
Podcast
Game Design Unboxed 6: Misdirection
Danielle, Ben, and Denice chat with designer Michael Langford about his game, Misdirection, and what using Kickstarter to launch a game is like.
Article
Phantasmal Killer by Crystal Frasier
Crystal Frasier turns new concepts and narrative tropes into subsystems for a variety of RPGs.
Thursday, January 14th
Podcast
Know Direction 241 – Guns & Gears Playtest Breakdown
The latest episode of Know Direction, the Know Direction Network’s flagship podcast.
Article
Something Creates by Andrew Sturtevant
Andrew continues his series on creating a Starfinder archetype for his original quest line.
Friday, January 15th
Podcast
Intrepid Heroes 51
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.
Saturday, January 16th
KD Plays – Guns & Gears Playtest
Luis Loza runs Know Direction Network members Ryan Costello, Perram, Alex Augunas, Randal Meyer, Vanessa Hoskins, and Dustin Knight through a playtest including all six flavours of gunslinger and inventor!
Now you know,
Ryan Costello
