In which Brennan Taylor calls Dirty Secrets his pick of 2007.

The Voice of the Revolution, Episode 20

From CNN.com:

A college student who branded a date’s body with a scalding piece of metal as payback for never calling her after they had sex was sentenced to five years in prison Friday.

Kristina Caban, 23, had no comment as state Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus sentenced her for what he called a crime that was “not remotely justifiable.”

Assistant District Attorney Nicole Blumberg told Obus that Caban was the “mastermind behind the plan” to sear the torso of Samir “Sammy” Sara, then 23, for having sex with her once in 2004 and never calling her again.

Caban enlisted new boyfriend Robert Testagrossa to help brand a four-inch-high “R” on Samir’s abdomen in October 2006, the prosecutor said. She said Caban lured the former lover to a hotel room, where Testagrossa and another man grabbed him.

Blumberg said the men used a Taser to immobilize Sara in a room at the Chelsea Inn while Caban laughed at his distress and kicked him while he was down.

Yeah, that’s really bizarre.

But you know what’s really bizarre? The headline. I quoth:

“Woman brands thoughtless date with hot iron”

Having sex with a woman that isn’t your wife and then not calling back is a bit beyond just “thoughtless”. Actually, it’s sinful.

I’m just sayin’….

A couple of Dirty Secrets discussions broke out on the web today. So, here they are:

“Investigator Investment in Dirty Secrets” by Gerald Cameron
blog version
Forge version
Story Game version

[Practice: Dirty Secrets] Be Judgmental.

This is a really good post, by the way, with some excellent discussion that will help your Dirty Secrets game.

This review is in German. Thankfully, Google does an automated translation of German, so here’s the Mangled English version of the review.

…then you can read this review of Dirty Secrets. The author has indicated that it’s a positive review, so I pass it along.

My interview with the Gamemaster Show has finally gone live! I seem like I was in a particularly convivial mood, which may have been partly the result of the Chik-Fil-A that I was consuming. Mmm…Chik-Fil-A….

This is the link to the mp3: click here

Sam Chupp interviewed Chris Chinn for his podcast The Bear’s Grove on the issue of race and RPGs. Dirty Secrets was mentioned positively during the interview. This is a good thing. Crystal put a lot of effort into selecting a racially diverse group of photographs. She knew that, since we were addressing the issue of race with the game, we would need to be especially mindful of this aspect of the game. Glad to see that it was received well!

Dirty Secrets gets a mention on the latest Voice of the Revolution. Brennan Taylor of Indie Press Revolution briefly reports on his play experience, starting at 35:41.

Dirty Secrets makes Fred Hicks’ Top 5 RPGs of 2007 list. Thanks, Fred!

(Heh. I had fun with that title.)

No, I haven’t published anything new, but now that I’ve drawn you in with false advertising, I do have a helpful hint for playing Dirty Secrets.

When you’re playing Dirty Secrets, be sure to have a copy of your local phone book with you at the table. This is helpful for a couple of reasons.

First, if you’re stuck for a name, just flip open the phone book and grab a name. Not only is the phone book a massive list of names, it’s a list of names that comes from your locale. You can’t get much more true to your area than using names that are actually from your area. As a bonus, you’ll get an address to go with the name, which you can use, if you want.

The second reason is similar. If you’re needing a particular type of business, then just hit the Yellow Pages. I actually did this in a recent game of mine. We needed a high-class lawyer, so we consulted the phone book. In our case, we were pretty sure that we knew the one that we wanted, but we checked the phone book to get the correct name.

Other useful resources in a phone book include maps of the area, bus routes, government offices, and pizza coupons for in-game refreshments. It really is the best supplement to Dirty Secrets that you could own. And it’s free!

Thanks to Jason Corley for pointing this out.

Mattijs Holter writes:

In all, this is a game I liked playing a lot. Its daring use of randomness, coupled with well-tested structures and a basic trust in that players will do cool things when given enough freedom, makes the game shine in many places. It’s a matter of taste that I really don’t like the conflict system in the game.

For the entire review, click here.

“Daring use of randomness”…I like that!

I was interviewed for The Voice of the Revolution podcast. I haven’t listened to it yet, so hopefully I don’t sound bad….

I haven’t written up the AP report from our Dirty Secrets session on Monday, but I do have audio ready! So, for both of you who are really eager to get a jump on this, here you go.

click here

The second part of my interview with Matt Snyder is now available.

Judd, of the Sons of Kryos, talks about crime comics. Personally, I recommend Fell highly, if you’re into that sort of thing. The first issue is available online. It’s pretty bleak, though, just so you’re aware.

Click here to listen