This week’s guest is Tyler Crumrine of Possible World Games and we talk about his map-labeling game Beak, Feather, & Bone and its Ennie-winning (Best Cartography) expansion Claw Atlas. We talked about his one-shot games like Dating.Sim, what he’s learned from teaching game design at Carnegie Mellon University, and his upcoming RPG card project BAD BAD BAD.
Follow Tyler: Website – Discord – XTwitter – Instagram – Facebook
MD 231 – Tiny Tarts with Big Hearts
Tiny Tarts Restaurant is a highly sought after date location that’s been a real hit with the single’s scene and thrill seekers alike. The Gygaxian horror of this room has been scrubbed and replaced by romantic things: mood lighting, flowers and a “Tiny Tarts” neon sign (logo that’s a flail with a hanging chain that ends in a heart of spikes).
As you enter this romantic restaurant, you’re greeted by a lich maître d’ wearing a nametag that says “Tart”. Tart stands at a podium that’s covered in blooming shrink shrooms. They’ll explain the rules of the room, and with your permission, shrink you down with the shrink shrooms’ spore gas. “Shrink shrooms is how you get shrunk down.” From the podium, you zipline to Shinkland, which looks like a grapefruit hockey puck in the center of the room.
Shrinkland: This crowded, pocket-sized carnival adventure park is quite romantic, but rife with dangers. Lots of single Lilliputians are looking for love, but beware of thirst traps and honey traps. The zipline lands you in an oversized garden where you can pick and give people flowers, but be wary of garden mites, and living thorny roses. From here you can enjoy the other carnival games: bug wrangling pit, marksman range, flea circus, strawberries big enough to feed 20 people, and a pretzel with jello and pudding in the holes for spicy wrestling. On bad days, rats the size of dragons will attack Shrinkland, devouring everything.
To become unshrunk, you must find someone to be in a consenting, mutually beneficial relationship (that can be aromantic), and leave as a pair holding hands through the Tunnel of Love.
Art: Tiger Wizard Words: Steve Albertson
Story by: Andrew Bellury, Steve Albertson, Tyler Crumrine
Appendix N:
Polly Pocket & Mighty Max, Tales from the Crypt, Dating apps (Tinder, Hinge, etc…), ‘80s VHS dating tapes, Friends (TV), Looney Tunes, The Bachelor / Bachelor in Paradise, I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson (Zipline sketch), abandoned buildings of Pittsburgh, Gary Gygaxian dungeons, Grave of the Fireflies, “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids,” World of Warcraft, Downsizing.
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This week Tiger Wizard teams up with celebrity judges David Hoskins, Erol Otus to discuss their judging criteria and their love of dwarves as they judge the winners of our Best Dwarf Drawing Contest in the break of this episode.
Best Dwarf Drawing Contest: All Dwarf drawings are in, submissions have closed, and our amazing panel of judges have reviewed all of the entries. We’ve announced the winners in this episode!
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
Dungeon Cats is a rules-light, casual TTRPG by our own Tiger Wizard. The pre-launch page is now live on the Epic Level’s Kickstarter! Click the “notify me on launch” button to make sure you don’t miss out!
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We’ll be podcasting live at Gamehole Con in Madison on Oct. 19th- 24th. Dragon Warrior will be running games. Sign ups are now available. Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 10:00 AM CST – Old School Essentials: Mad Dungeon Rooms
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We’ll be be at PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia from Dec. 1st-3rd. Dragon Warrior will be running games. Signups TBD.
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Two new poster adventure maps are now available for purchase at Exalted Funeral.
The Worm that Glows based off of season one, episode 11 with Jenna Marie of Chaotic Click Clacks with amazing artwork from Oh! Oozi.
Oh! Oozi is also the artist and co-creator with Steve for their Image comic book Ghost Spy.
Headkicker! The Musical based off of season one, episode 19 with Brian Shutter of Neon Lords of the Toxic Wastes with front side artwork from Mustafa Bekir.
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Thanks for listening to Season Two of the Epic Levels Mad Dungeon podcast, where D&D hip hop group Epic Levels and a guest create a system-neutral, playable dungeon room using improv, comedy, and lifetimes wasted on roleplaying games.
You can support us via Patreon for early episode releases, bonus map content, extra art, access to our discord server, and lots of other exclusive goodies.
Get nerd merch and stay up to date with socials: HERE
Mad Dungeon is hosted by Andrew Bellury, Steve Albertson, and produced by Zach Cowan.
Theme song by Epic Levels and beat by Inner Resting.
© 2023 Epic Levels. All characters in this adventure–even those based on real people–are entirely fictional.