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    <fireside:genDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 08:50:52 -0500</fireside:genDate>
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    <title>Topic Lords - Episodes Tagged with “Wren”</title>
    <link>https://topiclords.com/tags/wren</link>
    <pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
    <description>Every week, Jim invites different friends to guest on Topic Lords and be excited about whatever they've been fixated on this week.
</description>
    <language>en-us</language>
    <itunes:type>episodic</itunes:type>
    <itunes:subtitle>The only place on the internet you can hear topics discussed!</itunes:subtitle>
    <itunes:author>Jim Stormdancer</itunes:author>
    <itunes:summary>Every week, Jim invites different friends to guest on Topic Lords and be excited about whatever they've been fixated on this week.
</itunes:summary>
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    <itunes:explicit>yes</itunes:explicit>
    <itunes:owner>
      <itunes:name>Jim Stormdancer</itunes:name>
      <itunes:email>jim@goombas.org</itunes:email>
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  <title>339. Become Uncoffinable</title>
  <link>https://topiclords.com/become-uncoffinable</link>
  <guid isPermaLink="false">64b134dd-0068-492d-8510-0262128eceb7</guid>
  <pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
  <author>Jim Stormdancer</author>
  <enclosure url="https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/3597ddeb-e52e-4cda-a59c-c64600489fea/64b134dd-0068-492d-8510-0262128eceb7.mp3" length="62231795" type="audio/mpeg"/>
  <itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType>
  <itunes:author>Jim Stormdancer</itunes:author>
  <itunes:subtitle>Lords: Watson and Wren. We discuss faction design in historical strategy games, linguistics making it easier and harder to name things, belonging in SLUSD, The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert W. Service, and the magic systems of Brandon Sanderson</itunes:subtitle>
  <itunes:duration>1:04:36</itunes:duration>
  <itunes:explicit>yes</itunes:explicit>
  <itunes:image href="https://media24.fireside.fm/file/fireside-images-2024/podcasts/images/3/3597ddeb-e52e-4cda-a59c-c64600489fea/cover.jpg?v=5"/>
  <description>Lords:
* Watson
* Wren
Topics:
* Faction design in historical strategy games
* Linguistics makes it easier and harder to name things
* You belong in SLUSD. What is SLUSD?
* The Cremation of Sam McGee
  * https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45081/the-cremation-of-sam-mcgee
* The magic systems of Brandon Sanderson
Microtopics:
* The Three-Body Problem (Not That One)
* Jade City; Jade Legacy. 
* Making any non-creamy soup into a creamy soup.
* Boiling an entire civilization down to a concept simple enough to program. 
* Getting to the end of the tech tree first and winning science. 
* Greece as the origin of many of our modern ideas about government. 
* Grand strategy games where you spend most of your time trying to not to be assassinated by your family. 
* Dwarf Fortress except it's obsessed with the royal family.
* Hiring Charles Babbage to invent the analytical engine because otherwise all your game jams will have to be board game jams. 
* Playing a TTRPG and having to name something so first you have to create thousands of years of linguistic history. 
* The World Builder's Disease. (A.k.a. having a delightful hobby) 
* What you might have named somebody back in Zelda Times.
* Developing a set of phonotactics so that you can name something plausibly.
* What is SLUSD?
* The webp of 3D model formats. 
* Trans people: they belong in Ohio.
* Putting up a billboard and hoping people will look away from the road to see your content. 
* What investigative journalists might do if investigative journalism still existed. 
* Solving the SLUSD mystery. 
* Reconstructing the history of civilization from the Topic Lords vaults.
* What did people with ADHD do before Topics?
* Strange things done in the midnight sun.
* Cremating Sam in the wreck of the Alice May.
* The secret tales of the Arctic trails that would make your blood run cold.
* A poet who mostly writes about burial rituals in the arctic circle. 
* Stompin' Tom. 
* Bits to Try if You Think You're About To Die.
* Supernatural small-town Alaska death promises.
* Why SETI@Home looked for three spikes. 
* At what point to Doom clones become first-person shooters, and at what point do you become a conspiracy theorist for pointing out all these games are the same.
* Gandhi becoming so peaceful that he integer underflows. 
* Video games as a way to cope with the outcome of civilization. 
* Sanderson's four laws.
* A fictional branch of physics.
* Various metals that do various things.
* Consuming metal filings that have magical effects based on this funky diagram. 
* Eating a burrito wrapped in aluminum foil.
* Coinshots shooting people with coins.
* Soothing and inflaming various emotions.
* The element of thinking about stuff in various kinds of ways, and its atomic number.
* Forcing a Mistborn to burn aluminum, as a prank.
* Creating a magic system by working backwards from the premise that tinfoil hats are effective in this universe.
* A fandom wiki. Made by fans. Not on fandom.com.
* Gradually revealing the rules of your system as they become relevant.
* Lit RPG.
* Whether fantasy and horror fiction would be better if it was more like a video game.
* Characters in a story who are trying real hard to level up.
* Establishing the reality of the fiction while also taking that reality to a very strange place. 
</description>
  <content:encoded>
    <![CDATA[<p>Lords:</p>

<ul>
<li>Watson</li>
<li>Wren</li>
</ul>

<p>Topics:</p>

<ul>
<li>Faction design in historical strategy games</li>
<li>Linguistics makes it easier and harder to name things</li>
<li>You belong in SLUSD. What is SLUSD?</li>
<li>The Cremation of Sam McGee

<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45081/the-cremation-of-sam-mcgee" rel="nofollow">https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45081/the-cremation-of-sam-mcgee</a></li>
</ul></li>
<li>The magic systems of Brandon Sanderson</li>
</ul>

<p>Microtopics:</p>

<ul>
<li>The Three-Body Problem (Not That One)</li>
<li>Jade City; Jade Legacy. </li>
<li>Making any non-creamy soup into a creamy soup.</li>
<li>Boiling an entire civilization down to a concept simple enough to program. </li>
<li>Getting to the end of the tech tree first and winning science. </li>
<li>Greece as the origin of many of our modern ideas about government. </li>
<li>Grand strategy games where you spend most of your time trying to not to be assassinated by your family. </li>
<li>Dwarf Fortress except it&#39;s obsessed with the royal family.</li>
<li>Hiring Charles Babbage to invent the analytical engine because otherwise all your game jams will have to be board game jams. </li>
<li>Playing a TTRPG and having to name something so first you have to create thousands of years of linguistic history. </li>
<li>The World Builder&#39;s Disease. (A.k.a. having a delightful hobby) </li>
<li>What you might have named somebody back in Zelda Times.</li>
<li>Developing a set of phonotactics so that you can name something plausibly.</li>
<li>What is SLUSD?</li>
<li>The webp of 3D model formats. </li>
<li>Trans people: they belong in Ohio.</li>
<li>Putting up a billboard and hoping people will look away from the road to see your content. </li>
<li>What investigative journalists might do if investigative journalism still existed. </li>
<li>Solving the SLUSD mystery. </li>
<li>Reconstructing the history of civilization from the Topic Lords vaults.</li>
<li>What did people with ADHD do before Topics?</li>
<li>Strange things done in the midnight sun.</li>
<li>Cremating Sam in the wreck of the Alice May.</li>
<li>The secret tales of the Arctic trails that would make your blood run cold.</li>
<li>A poet who mostly writes about burial rituals in the arctic circle. </li>
<li>Stompin&#39; Tom. </li>
<li>Bits to Try if You Think You&#39;re About To Die.</li>
<li>Supernatural small-town Alaska death promises.</li>
<li>Why SETI@Home looked for three spikes. </li>
<li>At what point to Doom clones become first-person shooters, and at what point do you become a conspiracy theorist for pointing out all these games are the same.</li>
<li>Gandhi becoming so peaceful that he integer underflows. </li>
<li>Video games as a way to cope with the outcome of civilization. </li>
<li>Sanderson&#39;s four laws.</li>
<li>A fictional branch of physics.</li>
<li>Various metals that do various things.</li>
<li>Consuming metal filings that have magical effects based on this funky diagram. </li>
<li>Eating a burrito wrapped in aluminum foil.</li>
<li>Coinshots shooting people with coins.</li>
<li>Soothing and inflaming various emotions.</li>
<li>The element of thinking about stuff in various kinds of ways, and its atomic number.</li>
<li>Forcing a Mistborn to burn aluminum, as a prank.</li>
<li>Creating a magic system by working backwards from the premise that tinfoil hats are effective in this universe.</li>
<li>A fandom wiki. Made by fans. Not on fandom.com.</li>
<li>Gradually revealing the rules of your system as they become relevant.</li>
<li>Lit RPG.</li>
<li>Whether fantasy and horror fiction would be better if it was more like a video game.</li>
<li>Characters in a story who are trying real hard to level up.</li>
<li>Establishing the reality of the fiction while also taking that reality to a very strange place.</li>
</ul><p><a rel="payment" href="http://patreon.com/topiclords">Support Topic Lords</a></p>]]>
  </content:encoded>
  <itunes:summary>
    <![CDATA[<p>Lords:</p>

<ul>
<li>Watson</li>
<li>Wren</li>
</ul>

<p>Topics:</p>

<ul>
<li>Faction design in historical strategy games</li>
<li>Linguistics makes it easier and harder to name things</li>
<li>You belong in SLUSD. What is SLUSD?</li>
<li>The Cremation of Sam McGee

<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45081/the-cremation-of-sam-mcgee" rel="nofollow">https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45081/the-cremation-of-sam-mcgee</a></li>
</ul></li>
<li>The magic systems of Brandon Sanderson</li>
</ul>

<p>Microtopics:</p>

<ul>
<li>The Three-Body Problem (Not That One)</li>
<li>Jade City; Jade Legacy. </li>
<li>Making any non-creamy soup into a creamy soup.</li>
<li>Boiling an entire civilization down to a concept simple enough to program. </li>
<li>Getting to the end of the tech tree first and winning science. </li>
<li>Greece as the origin of many of our modern ideas about government. </li>
<li>Grand strategy games where you spend most of your time trying to not to be assassinated by your family. </li>
<li>Dwarf Fortress except it&#39;s obsessed with the royal family.</li>
<li>Hiring Charles Babbage to invent the analytical engine because otherwise all your game jams will have to be board game jams. </li>
<li>Playing a TTRPG and having to name something so first you have to create thousands of years of linguistic history. </li>
<li>The World Builder&#39;s Disease. (A.k.a. having a delightful hobby) </li>
<li>What you might have named somebody back in Zelda Times.</li>
<li>Developing a set of phonotactics so that you can name something plausibly.</li>
<li>What is SLUSD?</li>
<li>The webp of 3D model formats. </li>
<li>Trans people: they belong in Ohio.</li>
<li>Putting up a billboard and hoping people will look away from the road to see your content. </li>
<li>What investigative journalists might do if investigative journalism still existed. </li>
<li>Solving the SLUSD mystery. </li>
<li>Reconstructing the history of civilization from the Topic Lords vaults.</li>
<li>What did people with ADHD do before Topics?</li>
<li>Strange things done in the midnight sun.</li>
<li>Cremating Sam in the wreck of the Alice May.</li>
<li>The secret tales of the Arctic trails that would make your blood run cold.</li>
<li>A poet who mostly writes about burial rituals in the arctic circle. </li>
<li>Stompin&#39; Tom. </li>
<li>Bits to Try if You Think You&#39;re About To Die.</li>
<li>Supernatural small-town Alaska death promises.</li>
<li>Why SETI@Home looked for three spikes. </li>
<li>At what point to Doom clones become first-person shooters, and at what point do you become a conspiracy theorist for pointing out all these games are the same.</li>
<li>Gandhi becoming so peaceful that he integer underflows. </li>
<li>Video games as a way to cope with the outcome of civilization. </li>
<li>Sanderson&#39;s four laws.</li>
<li>A fictional branch of physics.</li>
<li>Various metals that do various things.</li>
<li>Consuming metal filings that have magical effects based on this funky diagram. </li>
<li>Eating a burrito wrapped in aluminum foil.</li>
<li>Coinshots shooting people with coins.</li>
<li>Soothing and inflaming various emotions.</li>
<li>The element of thinking about stuff in various kinds of ways, and its atomic number.</li>
<li>Forcing a Mistborn to burn aluminum, as a prank.</li>
<li>Creating a magic system by working backwards from the premise that tinfoil hats are effective in this universe.</li>
<li>A fandom wiki. Made by fans. Not on fandom.com.</li>
<li>Gradually revealing the rules of your system as they become relevant.</li>
<li>Lit RPG.</li>
<li>Whether fantasy and horror fiction would be better if it was more like a video game.</li>
<li>Characters in a story who are trying real hard to level up.</li>
<li>Establishing the reality of the fiction while also taking that reality to a very strange place.</li>
</ul><p><a rel="payment" href="http://patreon.com/topiclords">Support Topic Lords</a></p>]]>
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