Seth Skorkowsky Talks RPG Philosophy

[@DiekuGames]

Hey everyone! if you liked the video i'd appreciate it if you checked out my channel and if you find others that you like, please consider subscribing! Thanks!

[@SSkorkowsky]

It was a lot of fun chatting with you.

[@DiekuGames]

The pleasure was all mine! Thanks again for coming on the show!

[@martinbowman1993]

I got into Call of Cthulhu and Traveller through watching Seth Skorkowski's KZbin channel

[@bryanstephens4800]

Us too

[@Bearwiffa228]

Same 👌🏽. Had been curious about Cthulhu for years. Watched intimate encounters /w glass cannon and it was over. 🤩

[@Frostfly]

Jack is so well developed as a character in my mind that I have to work to remember that Jack and Seth are the same person. He's really well done.

[@Raven.flight]

JACK AND SETH ARE THE SAME PERSON???

[@brettsimpson1505]

Thank you for this interview. Seth is a pillar of the RPG community in my view. So much wisdom. His content is entertaining and informative, and I think the importance of being a positive influence cannot be overstated.

[@DiekuGames]

I definitely agree!

[@DaveThaumavore]

Seth is a class act. Very inspirational.

[@DiekuGames]

I totally agree! Thanks for watching, I'm a big fan of your channel!

[@SkepticViking]

I’ve followed Seth Skorkowsky for a long time and enjoyed the content. But the Scott Brown incident made fall in love with him!

[@griselame]

That was the Bonesaw for me

[@Tysto]

Seth's stuff is amazing. If you want to play those adventures, his advice is highly and directly useful. But if you don’t play those adventures, he tells the story of the adventure & what his players did in such a way that it's highly entertaining on its own.

[@Melvin7727]

Sometimes I struggle with anger and other negativity. People like Seth are role models for me to do better. I really appreciate that he consciously chooses to do a positive show. This is a good person.

[@TheConfessor]

This is one of the single best interviews I've seen in the RPG industry in years. Seth is insightful and experienced, but always comes off as just another guy playing games and rolling dice. What you see is what you get, and I love it.

[@DiekuGames]

Thanks for watching!

[@motadelladelamorte]

Seth Skorkowsky is such a charismatic and seemingly wise Person. I'm always happy when I see him, although I don't play most systems mentioned...yet.

[@99zxk]

Seth is the best. I don't play Call of Cthulhu and haven't found a group for Traveller, so I skip those videos, but his general rpg vids are the best on youtube. He got my group into Cyberpunk, and we had a blast.

[@RealmBuilderGuy]

Another great interview. I’m a big fan of Seth’s work and this was an insightful chat.

[@adahnliegl740]

Good job on the interview - the entire conversation flow felt quite natural and friendly and I got the impression you still got around to ask all the relevant questions you had prepared. And Seth was a treasure as always.

[@DiekuGames]

Thanks for the kind words! They say that sometimes you shouldn't meet your heroes, but Seth is just as nice as you would expect him to be!

[@--enyo--]

I really, really enjoy his RPG philosophy videos. The whole channel is great, but I really like the guidance of those. I share them a lot. At one point in a campaign I was running there was a few issues covered in the meta gaming video that went on in a game. Sharing it really helped my players understand each other’s point of view. Also I’m sorry to hear about all the internet hate in the early years.

[@tomsgametable3936]

This was a great discussion. Thanks for taking the time to do it!

[@DiekuGames]

Thanks for watching! It was a really enjoyable interview to do!

[@matthew_thefallen]

Big Seth fan here! 🎉 He's the kind of content creator I would like to see more! I've learned so much literally from scratch to GM with his tips and experience with Call of Cthulhu 🙌 Thank you for this interview!! It was great!

[@DiekuGames]

Thank you for watching!

[@KyleMaxwell]

Grats to Set on the nomination again, and way to represent us East Texas + Dallas boys!

[@AJBernard]

Thanks for this interview! I'm a huge fan of Seth's stuff. Subbing to the channel!

[@DiekuGames]

Thanks for subbing! There's a lot of great Indie designers in the back catalog!

[@AJBernard]

@@DiekuGames Thanks. =) After January, my game catalog is suddenly wide open. Playing PF2, playing Marvel, learning ICRPG and Blades in the Dark, and... it's a big world out there for dice gobblins like myself! I look forward to watching more of your content.

[@ADiceySituation]

I hope the people who gave Seth hell are eating their words. The man does what he can to educate and entertain. His characters are funny and his wisdom is well needed. He's my personal Matt Mercer, not in that I get compared to him by my players and wind up feeling inadequate, but in that I try to take his GMing style and tips into my games as much as possible.

[@hondawilky]

Great conversation! Seth is definitely one of my favorites, and I really enjoyed listening to him whenever possible.

[@dm4life579]

Seth really doesn't get the attention he deserves. Thanks for the interview.

[@RHampton]

I am not big on skill based systems, but I am a fan of Seth's walk throughs and the many characters he has built.

[@kieranobrien9067]

Great to see one of my all time favourite tabletop creators on here!

[@DiekuGames]

Seth is such a good person!

[@timeofgifts]

Thank you so much for setting up this interview and it was lovely to hear Seth Skorkowski's thoughts, stories and the 'happy accidents' that experience taught him. I started watching him because 'Call of Cthulhu' was the 1st game I played with some friends at school. I want to thank him for his advice on 'role play etiquette' - 'Whatever happens, I will have fun tonight', in my case weekly by Zoom. When life is pressuring you, shut the door on its monsters, play with respect & good humour and you'll be better able to overcome those non game monsters, for having ignored them for an evening.

[@DiekuGames]

The best part of TTRPGs! Thanks for sharing!

[@vortega472]

Love this, big fan of Seth, I think he's my favorite RPG guy.

[@quickanddirtyroleplaying]

Great interview! Seth has always been a delight to listen to.

[@shadomain7918]

great point Seth, about needing to know many different games in order to create one. Talking through a new game concept with my partner the other day, we arrived at a decent starting point, and realized we'd borrowed from Cypher, Kids on Bikes, 10 candles, and PbtA. Without really trying, that's just what it needed.

[@DiekuGames]

Exactly! It's better to have a large toolbox of ideas and concepts to pull from!

[@jacob2389]

Really good interview. Enjoyed it! Thanks!

[@DiekuGames]

Thanks for watching! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[@martinbowman1993]

A good game is playable for years worth of sessions. For almost three years I played a weekly Traveller game and never got bored of it.

[@DiekuGames]

Which version of Traveller was it? I also have an interview with Marc Miller you might find interesting? kzbin.info/www/bejne/eHzVh6ewqtyDY6c

[@martinbowman1993]

@@DiekuGames Mongoose 2nd edition..

[@Acmegamer]

Nice. I'm a long time subscriber of Seth's and noted this video as a recommendation. Listening to it now,and I've decided to add you to my subscription list after looking through your videos. 😀

[@DiekuGames]

Thanks for subscribing!

[@collarlessdogsroam]

Same thing here lol good content, thanks for your efforts

[@razorboy251]

Just an aside about Seth's comment about Blade Runner and Aliens: Free League just announced Replicants Rebellion book where the players can play exactly what Seth proposed (I guess they were listening). In regards to Alien, that setting can definitely support broader sci-fi games than just recreating Aliens - I've run political, crime investigation, and military action games using the Alien rpg. Great interview overall!

[@MattAT95]

Great interview and thanks for doing this. Seth's channel is one of my favorites on this site and I find his advice and persona to be a breath of fresh air. My favorite part of the channel is how I have come to see Jack the NPC as being a completely separate person from Seth.

[@Panicagq2]

One of us! One of us! 😅

[@troychurch5064]

Great interview. I'm looking forward to checking out your other content.

[@DiekuGames]

Thanks for the kind words, and for watching!

[@kurtoogle4576]

Thanks for this interview! I really enjoyed it!

[@DiekuGames]

Thank you! Seth was definitely on my bucket list of people who I wanted to interview!

[@SlyBlueDemon]

This was a fantastic interview, watched it on and off for a couple of days and kept coming back

[@DiekuGames]

Thanks for the kind note and completing the adventure! 1000xp!

[@micklangan7544]

Thank you for the video, great conversation. I had a smile that Seth wanted a game that enabled you to play a Replicant in the blade runner universe, and all of a sudden... Blade runner Replicant Kickstarter is announced, coincidence??

[@SeanLaMontagne]

I would love to see Seth out there talking to other content creators in the community! I had no idea that podcasters trying to pawn labor off on their guests was a thing.

[@DiekuGames]

I'm not too sure how to take that?

[@SeanLaMontagne]

@@DiekuGames the videos is an hour long, so I should probably give context lol. I'm referencing the bit where Seth talks about how he's gotten previous offers to do podcasts but was asked to also edit the video after.

[@DiekuGames]

@@SeanLaMontagne gotcha! It's surprising the amount of post production that is required! Even my humble little videos require a couple of hours of work beyond the interview.

[@SSkorkowsky]

It's not pawning it off on guests, but partners. Kinda like, "We're going to do this cool show together. I'll show up and chat for an hour and you can spend the next 8 hours doing the post-production work."

[@davidbrennan660]

Seth is worth giving your Two Magic Points each Holy day, Believe it! His style and stick entertains and enlightens, I always enjoy his advice and identification of my own limitations as a Player, GM and continued love of the hobby.... thanks for the reminder to be better in my enjoyment and playing of my lost youth and current Nerdy Self... Respect to Seth and his PR Guy, Jack the NPC... the true hero of his channel.

[@jimbeam5607]

Excellent interview. Well paced, varied and frankly cozy. Thanks for providing it and all the best to you both.

[@DiekuGames]

Thanks for watching - and for the kind words!

[@ARKavli]

I mostly write supplements for other systems, Cepheus Engine and Tricube Tales mostly. I have written my own systems, but haven't published any, because I usually end up just making a mish-mash house rules versions of perfectly good games that already exist. Another great interview, I love Seth's channel.

[@Daves_Channel]

Just listened and to this episode as a podcast. Really good interview, thank you. Now I’ve subscribed to both your podcast feed and your KZbin feed. Keep up the awesome content! Now I’m looking forward to listening to your back catalog! :) Sounds like you’re Canadian. I’m in Van! G’day ‘eh!

[@DiekuGames]

Take off, eh?! Thanks for subscribing!

[@DiekuGames]

I guess I should have mentioned that I'm in Calgary, home of the worlds largest game store, which I made a documentary on: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qZa1dqSajZxoos0

[@brianjohnson1985]

Thank you! Great interview. Seth you have given me the knowhow and confidence to be as my players say a great storyteller they think I make this stuff up... Some I do but without your channel I don't think I would have found call of cthulhu in the first place.

[@DiekuGames]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@MissionControl-yc5fq]

Awesome interview, as always! Really interesting to hear about the evolution of Seth's work and channel!

[@mackdmara]

That was a delightful interview.

[@DiekuGames]

I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching!

[@anon_laughing_man]

Great interview. Thanks guys!

[@DiekuGames]

Thanks! Helps when you have Seth as the guest!

[@MemphiStig]

I really like this guy. He's definitely got The Voice. And his videos are really good. I like the characters in them, too, which aren't cringe to me like some I've seen. Great interview.

[@paulcrosslin]

If Seth got into Blades in the Dark or any hack thereof it would be phenomenal.

[@brandonk6157]

Say what you want part 2 sounds like a great next video Seth

[@Toriatrix]

We need more Valducan books. And they need to be read by R.C. Bray. 😁 And a Kickstarter for Valducan rpg would be awesome.

[@GhettoFabulousLorch]

I did not expect the MU connection. I used to live listening to that.

[@thorinbane]

Loved tnundar the barbarian. Thanks for being on Seth

[@twistedturns65]

The OGL shenanigans is going to lead to a lot of heartbreak games. I've seen a number of KZbinrs who used to cover nothing but 5E trying their hand at a new RPG, and I swear I can smell the sinkers and the floaters out of the swarm.

[@DiekuGames]

Do you have any that you think might make it?

[@twistedturns65]

​@@DiekuGames Yes, while I don't like that they're going in the direction of 5e compatibility, Kobold Press's "Tales of the Valiant" will do well, probably better than EnWorld's Level Up, since they have the fan support and the brand recognition behind them. I jumped on a Kickstarter called MythCraft. Honestly, I thought they'd be one of these heartbreak things, but they already have a 3rd party support campaign setting, so good on them? I think it's a coin flip whether they'll stick around. Hope they do, they have some solid ideas. Almost positive the Shadowdark RPG is going to stick around for awhile. Thing is, they're OSR, 5e based OSR, but their entire design philosophy will clash with most 5E players who can't stand the idea of their special character being unable to see in the dark, or being able to die at 0 hit points. So while it's awesome, it isn't quite in the same category as D&D in the sense that one has a level of minmaxing that can see players as demigods by 10th level, and the other most definitely does not. Still, I'd be shocked if Shadowdark didn't become one of the best modern takes on OSR design games. There's a KZbin channel I enjoy, The Dungeon Coach, is making his own RPG. However I've not seen him branch out from D&D 5e, and there are a slew of other more established channels doing what he wants to do. So I suspect he'll be a heartbreak, but I hope he proves me wrong.

[@trequor]

​@@twistedturns65Lol typical NPC follower. Despite the conventional "wisdom" of the internet, 5e is a deadly system if you play by the rules.

[@twistedturns65]

@@trequor Wow, someone used NPC unironically out in the wild, that's hilarious!

[@samuelbroad11]

@@twistedturns65 I own a number of kobold press books, and we've been playing in Midgard setting for years (5E). They have a HUGE editing problem. They will have to up their editing game if TotValiant is going to have a following. I like their stuff, of course. But they've rules confused with their production, often conflate Pathfinder in their 5E material. Scarlet Citadel was almost un-DMable, I tried. You needed the map pack to see how the traps in the book worked, there was 6 pages of lore and 3 sentences about hooking players into wanting to go on a deadly dungeon crawl. 2 pages of hooks would've been a massive help. You're unsure as to which NPC's are known about and which aren't. Finally, the maps are nice, but the top two levels are made out of red stone: the stone work in the maps is grey, again, terrible editing. Thank Hecate there is KPOGL to look up the 60+ monster stats you need for the majority of the encounters, unless you own every volume KP has published. So Tales of the Valiant? I'd wait a year or two after it's published for the errata to clean it up before even glancing at it. Don't mean to be a bummer, just a realist.

[@PeculiarNotions]

Pretty great interview all around.

[@sequoyahwright]

Thank you both for sharing! I enjoy Dieku interviews, and am a longtime fan of Seth's channel. I have to agree with Seth regarding Free League products! I have used 2d20 and Year Zero, and while I believe YZE is superior to 2d20, for many of the same reasons Seth has given, I consider all of Free League's catalog to be something like "Boutique RPGs", if that is a term. Highly specialized to the specific tones and themes of a given IP, and they typically nail it. It is interesting to consider how versatile the Year Zero Engine is as a rule set, but how pigeon-holed the RPGs that use it are. Also, while I love FL's products, gods, do I find running their games to be frustrating. Neither the books nor the pdfs are laid out or organized in a way that allows a GM to run freely at the table. The products are gorgeous, and that is clearly their priority. Thank you both again for your work, time, and generosity!

[@DiekuGames]

Thanks for watching, and sharing your observations! FL does produce some amazing looking games!

[@iantanner-nosker7552]

Awesome!

[@twitchew]

I love asking Seth "please explain the gap in your resume"...

[@davidbrennan660]

Whenever you GM a game no matter how complete and detailed the rules are as soon as you play you will soon find you have a situation you will have to rule on which is not directly covered, understanding the mechanic of your game is key so whatever you decide fits into spirit of the game so not to annoy your players.

[@1979benmitchell]

Can we get a link to the video where Seth talks about his Post Apocalyptic Call of Cthulhu game? I'm building a campaign right now within the Cyberpunk RED rules, but pulling in elements of Call of Cthulhu. Would love to see how Seth or others managed to pull it off.

[@Whiizom]

You have a great day!

[@kaden7443]

I often say "Jason Alexander" on accident too instead of Justin Alexander. I try to remember it is the Alexandrian not George Costanza lol. Great interview.

[@SSkorkowsky]

Oh damn. I hadn't realized I called him by the wrong name. Crap.

[@s1nistergnome]

Seth drinking Crazy Water, that's how you know he's a Texan gamer.

[@ARKavli]

HOSTILE by Zozer uses the Cepheus / Traveller system and the setting is designed to replicate the grungy industrial sci-fi setting of the movies of 80s and 90s. It has aliens and replicants!

[@shawnfisher9976]

GURPS is an awesome multifunction system.

[@DiekuGames]

It's one of the best for providing a system that adapts to absolutely everything! (Even super heroes, which is the holy grail)

[@trequor]

Is it? It seems very limited in mechanical terms. Using a d6+flat bonus system doesnt leave much variability in results

[@candidgamera]

Seth is the best!

[@misterdad490]

True! We do 5 hour games..1hr chit chat

[@tabletopgamingwithwolfphototec]

I have always enjoyed Seth's videos. An i'm really interested in what Seth likes or dislikes about any system.

[@DiekuGames]

Totally!

[@TeranceCrosby]

That was a top notch Dr. Girlfriend

[@brianjohnson1985]

What is the name of the podcast,with hook n seth?

[@DiekuGames]

It's Modern Mythos: open.spotify.com/show/6EJhPCPmXJQYVG2RncLhB5

[@michaelwelker8759]

Patience padowan… a neighbor of mine has 360,000 YT subscribers. Crazy times.

[@batjutsu]

Thank you both for a great chat 🤩

[@DiekuGames]

Thanks for watching!

[@KeyserSoze1972]

I was a DM for 20+ years, life got in the way. Plus I moved to Australia and all my gaming friends do not even talk to me.

[@zeehond23]

Love the interview but a commercial break every 5 minutes makes it borderline unwatchable on mobile

[@DiekuGames]

Thanks for that note - To be honest, I didn't even know what the settings were. I've now removed monetization on all my videos, as this channel was never intended to make money. I'm just here to chat about games!

[@zeehond23]

@@DiekuGames that's... Actually amazing! I'd love to support you, any options for that?

[@DiekuGames]

@@zeehond23 I'm just happy if you find value in an episode! Feel free to share them if you do! Thanks!

[@ProfBoggs]

What is the UGO?

[@Myname-o7h]

1:03:38 what's the name of the game is saying here?

[@SSkorkowsky]

Bluebeard's Bride

[@o_enamuel]

32:32 that's what she said moment

[@maciejkukla9615]

Skórkowski. That how that name would be spelled in Poland. However, that accent over o was, as we can see, lost. Very common for Polish names abroad to cut off accents. So - now it's an American name and Seth pronounciation is obviously correct.

[@anon_laughing_man]

2E is 100% playable. Sad it was made sans Gygax, but maybe that is why it was 100% playable. Who knows? We'll never know.

[@SeldonnHari]

38:57 I can bully you Garry if you like. Jk. Your channel is great.

[@DiekuGames]

Thanks for watching! (And not bullying me!)

[@markmedinabattletrix781]

I want to see those old, allegedly horrible videos!😅

[@skyguy713]

I really want to see the toxic knitting fandom, us that the catty ladies at the returement home?

[@bigbiggoblin2873]

Noice

[@samuelbroad11]

noice wun.

[@steveholmes11]

More hate from a smaller subscriber base. This is an impact of obsessives spending 18 hours online looking for a fight. It's an unfortunate characteristic of "algorithms" that early adopters are often rather toxic obsessives.

[@fluidfox1436]

The toxic fandom of knitting takes the cake.

[@chandlerkerns6966]

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