Jul 29, 2026 · 50 min · 13 segments
In this episode, we carefully consider our words in order discuss the different purposes served by creating abstractions with your game rules, and how word choices can both result from and drive game…
Nathan D. PaolettaHost
Epidiah RavacholHostAll right, so I'll go ahead and start this recording, and, uh, hopefully we'll catch, capture a little bit of the, "Oh, we should talk about that," that we just-
[upbeat music] Welcome, friends, to the Unwritten Earth Symposium Podcast, the show where I sit down with my good friend, Ebadi Ravishol, to talk about naming things in truly true role-playing games.
[laughs] And it's a show where I sit down with my good friend, Nathan Paoletta, where we talk about abstractions.
Uh, we found a word for the concept that we were trying to articulate to each other shortly before-
Uh, we, yeah, we, we sat down and we were like, "Do we have anything to talk about on, on a hot mic today?"
And, uh, as often happens with us, I think we, we start off with like, "No," and then-
... we, we start talking about a thing, and then we're like, "We have to stop talking about this and get, get-"
... actually that, that goes, that's a tradition that goes all the way back to the Rockford Files.
But I think at the beginning, we, uh, before we started recording an episode about the Rockford Files, we would be like-
Um, which is why we started Plus Expenses, 'cause we were like, "We're just talking about stuff that's not the show."
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All right, so I'll go ahead and start this recording, and, uh, hopefully we'll catch, capture a little bit of the, "Oh, we should talk about that," that we just-
[upbeat music] Welcome, friends, to the Unwritten Earth Symposium Podcast, the show where I sit down with my good friend, Ebadi Ravishol, to talk about naming things in truly true role-playing games.
[laughs] And it's a show where I sit down with my good friend, Nathan Paoletta, where we talk about abstractions.
Uh, we found a word for the concept that we were trying to articulate to each other shortly before-
Uh, we, yeah, we, we sat down and we were like, "Do we have anything to talk about on, on a hot mic today?"
And, uh, as often happens with us, I think we, we start off with like, "No," and then-
... we, we start talking about a thing, and then we're like, "We have to stop talking about this and get, get-"
... actually that, that goes, that's a tradition that goes all the way back to the Rockford Files.
But I think at the beginning, we, uh, before we started recording an episode about the Rockford Files, we would be like-
Um, which is why we started Plus Expenses, 'cause we were like, "We're just talking about stuff that's not the show."
