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.

Podcasts don’t usually conclude. For almost as long as I’ve been podcasting, I’ve known the term podfade, a specific word for how podcasts don’t end so much as they release fewer episodes until one day they just don’t release any more.

We’ve had a few podcasts on the Know Direction Network podfade. Heck our original podcast, (3.5) Private Sanctuary ended unceremoniously with episode 302, a few episodes after the landmark 300^th episode and a few months shy of its 10^th anniversary. As both a fan of podcasts and a podcast content creator, podfading isn’t a nice feeling.

All that to say, today’s episode of Stellar marks the end of its journey. First announced in April 2019, Stellar launched as the Know Direction Network’s first Starfinder actual play podcast, featuring character art by Alan Cooper that was as amazing as the cast.

GMed by Vanessa Hoskins, Stellar featured the entire cast at the time of Know Direction Beyond, Perram, Alex, and James, as well as Loren Sieg in her first of many actual play collaborations with Vanessa, and Paizo’s the Managing Developer for the Starfinder RPG, Amanda Hamon. From the first episode, Vanessa’s camera-eye-view narrative stood out, aided by her players’ early comfort with their characters and abilities to improvise. There was no doubt who these characters were, how they felt about one another, and why they were together.

Unfortunately, Stellar’s trajectory had too many asteroids in its flight path. Scheduling for the show could be downright disastrous. It’s reputation about staff as a cursed show -which specifically referred to how many last minute cancellations it saw- trickled out of the staff channels and into episodes of our podcasts. In the 19 months since its first episode released, only 16 episodes successfully recorded.

Something else that happened in the last 19 months: life. Amanda left Paizo to work for Kobold Press, and recently left Kobold Press to work for Wizards of the Coast. James had a baby. 2020 happened. 2021 is still happening.

It’s sad to see Stellar go, but it’s good to know it concluded. Today’s Stellar: E016 — It’s Been Stellar concludes book 1 of  Against the Aeon Throne and wraps up the show. Everyone agrees that it would have been nice to see books 2 and 3 explored, but it’s also refreshing to see an actual play podcast conclude rather than podfade away.

We don’t have plans for Stellar’s replacement at the moment. And while “a new podcast every weekday” felt nice for the two weeks since Game Design Unboxed moved to Wednesdays, we will just have to wait until we are ready to fill the Block 1 Monday slot. We don’t want to put out content for content’s sake.

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 25^th to January 29^th

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

Monday, January 25^th

Podcast

KD Plays – Guns & Gears Playtest

I’ve talked about how much I enjoyed playing my armour inventor, Whi Thahu, for this playtest. Ends up I cheated in every combat. I misunderstood Unstable, believing that I only had to make the dreaded DC 17 flat check if I used an unstable option two turns in a row. This is not anywhere in the room. I totally made it up. I don’t even know how. The actual rule (at least as of the playtest) is that you have to make the unstable flat check if you use an unstable option a second time in the same combat period.

I don’t know how I got the rule so wrong. Sorry to everyone I lead astray with my mistake.

Still enjoyed the class, though.

Article

Recall Knowledge – On Actual Play Editing

When I’m not recording actual plays, I’m editing them! And it can be quite an ordeal, as I went into in this space last week.

Tuesday, January 26^th

Podcast

Digital Divination 022 – Coming from other RPGs to GM Starfinder

Picking up where the last episode left off, John and Ron give some great advice on what veteran GMs who are new to Starfinder need to know.

Article

Burst of Insight— 2021 New Year, New Prompts

I could relate to Andrew feeling so creatively antsy after not GMing or playing as much that he just needed some outlet for him campaign ideas.

Wednesday, January 27^th

Twitch

Making Pathfinder SAVAGE – Know Direction 242 Live

Pinnacle Entertainment Group CEO Shane Hensley and freelancer Mike Barbeau gave us insight into the goals and methodology of bringing Pathfinder to Savage Worlds.

Podcast

Game Design Unboxed 7: Thug Life

Danielle sneaks references to me and our friendship onto a lot of podcasts, and it tickles me. In this case, she worked the Looking For Group board game I designed, Orphans & Ashes, into the conversation about designing a game Jason Serrato about designing a game with a controversial theme.

Thursday, January 28^th

Podcast

Know Direction 242: Making Pathfinder SAVAGE

I enjoyed the interview this episode, but found the conversation went off the rails in the next segments and I’m not sure why. I’d love insight into whether it was just me or if I was off last week.

Article

Something Creates – Developing a Plan

If writing is rewriting, than game design is game development. I appreciate Andrew revisiting the quest line he wrote with a developer’s hat on.

Friday, January 29^th

Podcast

Intrepid Heroes 052 – This Vesk is on Fire!

I’m not a Starfinder player, so I’m introduced to a lot of Starfinder mechanics by way of Intrepid Heroes. Episodes like this make me want to covert Starfinder aliens to Pathfinder. Or just steal some of their abilities.

Preview of February 1^st to February 5^th

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

Monday, February 1^st

Podcast

Stellar: E016 — It’s Been Stellar

Yes, it has.

Article

Recall Knowledge – Stellar Send Off

So long and thanks for all the fish, Stellar.

Tuesday, February 2^nd

Patreon

Patron’s Private Sanctum 14

Perram and I talked into the then breaking GameStop Wallstreet story.

Podcast

Legend Lore 019 – New Player Guide, Part 3

Luis and Loren’s series on introducing new players to Pathfinder continues to continue, covering PF2 Tips and Tricks.

Article

Fox’s Cunning by Dustin Knight

Wednesday, February 3^rd

Twitch

Geek Together

Podcast

Presenting – Gamers Making Games: Dave Nelson

Article

Guidance by Alex Augunas

Thursday, February 4^th

Podcast

Valiant Episode 9

Article

Investing In by Rob Pontious

Friday, February 5^th

Podcast

Geek Together

Article

Monstrous Physique by Luis Loza

 

Now you know,

Ryan Costello