Party of One is Secretly an Interview Podcast
Hey Party People! We’ve been pretty deep in thought about Party of One lately, so it felt like the right time for a newsletter update unpacking what feels like a pretty big shift in the show. Let’s dig in.
If You Listen to Just One Thing
Blister City with Malcolm Critcher
Malcolm is the host of This Is Propaganda, a FASCINATING podcast about the history of propaganda and its evolution into what we know as marketing and public relations. Playing a game about resistance, and freedom of expression, and liberating Mars from the fascists who ruined it, could not have been a more perfect fit.
The people who ruined Mars have names and addresses. Make them pay.
What’s On My Mind: Examining Party of One as Interview Show
You’ve probably heard or seen me pitching the podcast in a different way lately in the past year:
Party of One is a podcast about getting to know interesting people through the shared, universal act of play.
This has been the result of a lot of conversations; with Jen, with listeners, with dear friend Ned Donovan, and my dear friends at the Moonshot Network. And it’s been the outgrowth and thinking about where Party of One fits as nonfiction entertainment.
Where I’ve landed is this: Party of One, at its core, is an interview show, in ways that I think are not always apparent. Let’s dig into it.
How is Party of One an Interview Show?
The best episodes of Party of One tend to go beyond the game.
Checking out specific games (or more broadly, the concept of two-player TTRPGs) may tend to be what draws people into the podcast. But the episodes that they rave about, the episodes we get feedback about, the ones people come back to again and again… they all have a different, specific energy in common.
These are the episodes where my guest and I deep dive on a shared passion, or a hobby, or a specific genre and really cut loose for an hour, whether about pro wrestling, superheroes, or specific trashy horror movies.
When viewed in that context, the show really sings when a guest has fully let their guard down and shown the audience a different side of their personality. There’s a vulnerability to that kind of excitement, and an intimacy of that moment. And the best episodes of Po1 lean into capturing that energy.
That… is the sign of a great interview.
So How Do the Games Fit In?
If the conversation is what hooks a listener, why bother with a different indie TTRPG every episode? Why not just do some freeform improv, or host a chat show?
Besides the discoverability angle I mentioned earlier, the right game can prompt some of these conversations, to push us into these unguarded moments. Playing Masks or Apocalypse Keys or World Wide Wrestling might push us into talking about X-Men, or Hellboy, or John Cena’s heel turn. The game gives us a reason to have these conversations on a deeper level as we play.
To put it another way, the role of a TTRPG on Party of One is increasingly to spark an interesting, intimate conversation that gets the guest to lower their guard and show a side of themselves you don't always see.
Party of One is Hot Ones and the TTRPGs are chicken wings.
What Do We Do With This Perspective?
Beyond workshopping the pitch of the show, thinking of Party of One in this context has been really helpful in driving episodes, guests, and game selection.
Let’s take another look at the episode linked above, Blister City with Malcolm Critcher. I had heard This is Propaganda after my dear friend Wil Williams and the folks at Tink Media introduced me to it, and I knew I wanted to spotlight them on the show. I knew I’d want to get into what made the show special for me, and to talk about how the show’s focus related to my own experience working in marketing for 15 years.
Viewing the show as an interview, and viewing games as a tool to elicit that interview showed me a clear next step: Find games that elicit those themes, and use them to open the door to those conversations. In this way, picking a game becomes its own form of drafting interview questions, and researching a guest. I’m not picking a game or a system; I’m analyzing the guest’s personality and setting the table for a conversation that will bring out their best.
The end result was, I think, one of the best episodes we’ve produced in ages.
Where Do We Go From Here?
In fully leaning into this not-quite-a-rebrand of the show, we’ve made some strategic changes that I think will bring out the best in the podcast. In other words, if we’re going to make an interview show, here are the next steps to make the best interview show imaginable:
More Guests From Outside of Games. If the show is a window into the lives of interesting people, we have a unique opportunity to bring in guests (and subsequently audiences) from well outside of games. Athletes. Musicians. Podcasters. Voices you might not hear in any other Actual Play… ever. We’re going to see fewer designers playing their own games (those episodes will move increasingly towards the Patreon, if that’s something you’re interested in), and more guests you never thought you’d hear playing a TTRPG.
More Repeat Games. My goal remains to play as many different TTRPGs as possible on Party of One, and I know looking for specific games is a big thing that pulls people towards the show. But as we expand our guest pool, you’re likely going to see more games appear on the show three, four times. It adds an element of familiarity to facilitate a conversation with someone unfamiliar with the artform.
More Pre-Game & Post-Game Banter. Admittedly, this one is really for my dad. He listens to every episode, and tells me how much he enjoys it… but also admits he loses focus when we get deep into the gameplay. Adding some additional questions before and after play lets us get into real traditional interview fodder, and also loosen our conversational muscles for the game itself.
What’s New On Party of One
446 – The Magical Year of a Teenage Witch with Rene Legault
You'll dig this episode if you like: Sabrina the teenage witch, My Neighbor Totoro, modern supernatural adventures, warm friendship, the chaos of the big city
445 – Blister City with Malcolm Critcher
You'll dig this episode if you like: You'll dig this episode if you like: Putting the punk back in cyberpunk, "What if a counter-strike map woke up and said ACAB," stories about Making Them Pay
444 – Errant with Steve Morrison
You'll dig this episode if you like: THE GREEN KNIGHT, Arthurian Legend, horny fey courts, shifting fantasy landscapes
443 – HOME with Nick Gralewicz
You'll dig this episode if you like: You'll dig this episode if you like: Pacific Rim, the Angel designs from Evangelion, knock-down drag-out robot monster brawls
442 – An Altogether Different River with Nala J. Wu
You'll dig this episode if you like: Quiet moments in a big fantasy world, mysterious curses, the catharsis of battling the elements, forking paths and intimate conversations, one of my favorite games of all time
What Else Is New
We’re still collecting responses to our audience survey for the podcast!
Something I Liked, That You Might Too
The Righteous Gemstones
Holy shit, how did I miss this show until this month? I feel like a damn fool. A heathen, the Gemstones would call me. What a masterwork of writing and performance and a deep commitment to really dumb jokes.