Five-Fingered Praxis

Episode 14 of the Rascal Radio Hour, like every time the crew let Chase and Rowan record alone, gets a little punchy. What can they say? The best cure for a little fascism is often a closed fist with ample follow-through. And there's plenty of recent news to put the pair in a tizzy, whether it's Rowan, Rook and Decard's decision to not attend Gen Con 2025 over safety concerns when flying to the US, or itch.io's inability to disperse much-needed charity funds to a group helping Gazans. And then there's Goodman Games' flirtation with previously ostracized bigots.

Luckily, tabletop games remained good. Rowan's running Triangle Agency and can't compliment its buttery smooth design enough. Chase's time with solo RPG Mechs into Plowshares reached a clever rug pull that he didn't expect from a game of that size. Finally, The Question Dungeon goes action-noir as the pair attempt to build a better — or at least different — itch.io platform before deciding that the nobody is less qualified to write about World of Darkness games than them.

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Here's an excerpt:

Rowan: Chase. Wrestling is good.

Chase: Wrestling is good.

Rowan: I didn't believe it, but wrestling is good. I watched Dimension 20's Titan Takedown, an actual play where four WWE superstars play Dungeons & Dragons. You know, the D&D kind of schtick where you bring in someone from another media property that seems pretty separate and irrelevant, ties it in together, and makes it all make sense.

Chase: We've been doing this since Vin Diesel ran D&D campaigns like 10 years ago, right?

Rowan: Yeah, D&Diesel.

Chase: Oh, my god. They saw their shot and did not miss.

Rowan: Exactly. So, we're doing wrestling stars this time. And what's going on there is Brennan Lee Mulligan is playing the world, but the main antagonist is Big Z, a Macho Man Randy Savage, tech bro-esque version of Zeus who is overlooking a wrestling tournament where the winners get a seat on the pantheon of gods. All of the WWE superstars are underdog monsters who have been cursed and looked down on and are reclaiming it for the people, basically.

And I went, What? That's not wrestling. That doesn't make any sense. I've never liked wrestling. It's kind of never been for me. At least I assumed so. And then I went, fuck it, fine. All of the like most far left people that I know love wrestling. And that made no fucking sense to me because Linda McMahon, a WWE co-founder, is the fucking secretary of education. Fucking Hulk Hogan spoke at the RNC, Donald Trump was on WWE. Fascists run WWE, so how can we like it? How does that make sense?

Chase: Art under capitalism, baby.

Rowan: I went on a real deep dive. I went through a journey, a soul journey, to find out why the fuck do people like wrestling? And how is it in any way similar to actual play and roleplaying games? I spoke to Brennan Lee Mulligan, I spoke to Dare Hickman from Transplaner, I spoke to Jeff Stormer from Party of One, I read essays from the Worldwide Wrestling Second Edition book. I spoke to Kayla Dice who made Transgender Deathmatch Legend 2. And I'm a convert now. I'm in. I'm like, this is all facade, and the history of wrestling is one of the working class. It's one of saying power to the powerful, and performing, and getting people through this catharsis to perform.