Modern Mythology | Story & Setting in RPGs and beyond

Have you had a character die mid-session? How did it feel, and had the table talked it through first? We all run games with violence of some kind, juggling different systems and different layers of mortality — and a lot of players read a death as an ending, an inconvenience, or a real emotional blow when a favorite character meets their end. This game, like many others, shows it doesn't have to be...

What alignment are you, and what does that mean? Does it drive your behavior? Does your character’s alignment drive theirs? We look at one of D&D’s most durable sacred cows: alignment as personality test, moral framework, table tool, campaign problem, and cosmology. Somehow, we try not to come to blows. We want to hear how alignment plays into your games. 00:00:22 What Alignment Are You? 00:07...

In Episode 25 of Modern Mythology, we take on the Cypher System, a well-known universal tabletop RPG system with a strong reputation for flexible, narrative-driven play. Because Cypher isn’t tied to a single core setting, it gives us a good way to look at how a system’s mechanics shape story across genre—and in this case, through a fantasy lens. We’re joined by SJ McKeen —author, fellow pro GM , p...

In Episode 24 of Modern Mythology, we dig into one of the biggest questions in tabletop RPG design: how setting and system actually interact at the table. This is a dense, nearly two-hour conversation about the ways mechanics shape player behavior, how they steer attention toward certain kinds of choices, and how that pressure can either reinforce the fiction or get in its way. As always, we don't...

Burning Wheel has stayed Scott’s favorite RPG for a reason, and this two-hour episode digs into the specifics. We look at how the game’s tools reinforce each other at the table: lifepath character creation, goal-driven play, organic advancement, and combat with real risk. In combination, those systems tend to produce strong characterization and narrative momentum without forcing outcomes. Burning...

Modern Mythology Ep. 22 — Technology takes a reflective look at how changing technologies have shaped tabletop role-playing games over time. From physical tools at the table to digital spaces that bring groups together across distance, we talk about what stuck, what faded, and why. Along the way, we explore how randomness, connectivity, and new creative tools altered player expectations and game c...

Episode 21 closes our sci-fi season with a debrief: what we learned when theory met the table. We revisit the systems we ran— Coriolis , Freemarket , CBR+PNK , Mothership , Twilight Imperium among others—and pull out the through-lines that surfaced across very different design priorities, moving between genre, system, and setting. Across the season, certain levers kept showing up, including Dark P...

This week is an interesting collision between board games and tabletop RPGs as we jump into Twilight Imperium: Ashes of Power, the Free RPG Day adventure built for the Genesys roleplaying system. Designed as an easy on-ramp, Ashes of Power comes with simplified Genesys rules and pre-made characters—so you can go from “what is Genesys?” to “roll initiative” fast. In play, we focus on what makes Gen...

In this episode, Jamie and Scott dig into troupe-style play—campaigns where each player might run multiple characters over time instead of a single, fixed PC. We talk about what changes when you treat the cast as an ensemble instead of a party, and how that shift can affect spotlight, continuity, and the kinds of stories your table can tell. Using games like Ars Magica, Pendragon, Blades in the Da...

Next in our first line-up of sci fi RPGs, we get to play a really exciting game in our catalogue – Freemarket by Luke Crane and Jared Sorenson. This is a system-forward, reputation-driven game that’s brilliant and notoriously opaque, at least at the outset. FreeMarket runs like an open-world sandbox. Your choices broadcast to the network; the network pushes back. Stakes aren’t hit points but statu...

All four hosts join the table as Scott storyguides Trinity Continuum: Æon by Onyx Path , marking the first full-group session in our sci-fi series. We put the Storypath system through its paces, showing how Attributes + Skills shape scene pacing and spotlight moments, while smart resource management heightens tension and demands sharper decision-making. It’s a clear demonstration of our story-meet...

Recorded just before Episode 13 (Echoes of the Veil), this session has Scott running Mind the Gap —Emanoel Melo’s compact introduction to CBR+PNK—for James and Sean. The pamphlet delivers a self-contained cyberpunk heist in the Forged-in-the-Dark lineage, offering both a crash course in the system’s flow and a taste of its sharp, high-pressure style. We used it as a baseline for comparison with Ra...

Jamie and Scott dig into how we’re all wired to find creativity in different ways. This is a critical part of the process. Not only are we talking about how structure drives us all differently but communicating those expectations at the table. We circle back to some ideas we referenced early on and begin our exploration of OSR ideas and GNS. For more on the discussion of System and Style check out...

Long‑time friend of the show and gamer Johnathan Lee drops in as we crack open Mothership , the d100 panic engine from Tuesday Knight Games. A brisk build phase shows how quickly you can assemble a potentially doomed crew. Then we plunge through a five‑scene drift where hull plates groan and heartbeat monitors spike. Note the scenes that kicked off TOMBS (Transgression, Omens, Manifestation, Banis...

On this special episode we bring fellow Philadelphia-based designer Raffi onboard to explore Echoes of the Veil, a new expansion that turns the Forged in the Dark masterwork of design CBR+PNK into a quick-fire mini-campaign engine. We jump straight into character creation, unpacking the new runner-growth track and “Weird" options, modular downtime boards, and other Veil-specific mechanics along th...

Episode 12 welcomes clinical-tech nerd—and lifelong D&D DM—Sean, deepening the Modern Mythology bench to four hosts. (Sean, James, and Scott are on-mic this time). A quick opening discussion uncovers Sean’s gaming roots and, in the process, reveals some of how each host hacks rules at the table, a topic we will surely return to. Scott—who has logged hundreds of systems—champions underrated mec...

Our horror TTRPG spotlight winds down—for now. Jamie, Mark, and Scott unpack game mechanics that subtly shape pacing and tension, exploring ritual framing, partial successes, player-facing rolls, and objective-driven rewards. We also discuss two cult-favorite horror rpgs we haven’t covered before— Unknown Armies and Kult —before diving into a brisk (~30-minute) actual play of Don’t Rest Your Head...

In Episode 10, Mark, Jamie, and Scott follow up our discussion on story-facing design by zeroing in on player spotlight: who talks when, who takes control of a moment, and how game systems shape pacing and participation. This episode asks a simple but essential question—how do you decide who gets the scene? From GM-led framing to player-initiated action, from systems that distribute authority to t...

We sat down with Sacha Lightfoot of Slightly Reckless Games to talk all things Ronin—a brutal, beautiful RPG about masterless samurai and the weight of honor. We dig into where the game came from, what makes it sing, and why we think OSR games are SHITE (clickbait, we actually don't). Sacha shares what’s next from SRG, and we get into how Ronin adapts and builds on Mörk Borg’s core concepts. There...

Here is our inaugural conversation about story structure and the ways both system and choice shape our RPG sessions. In this episode, we focus on the classic three-act structure—how it translates into collaborative, improvised play over the course of an ongoing campaign, or within individual sessions. We explore a few core questions: Where does the responsibility for story lie in an RPG? What game...

This episode highlights an exciting new story game from Bully Pulpit Games, Zhenya's Wonder Tales, a GMless rpg driven by cards to tell grim slavic-inspired fairy tales. We do our first interview with the game designer, Jason Morningstar - prolific designer of Fiasco , Shab-al-hiri Roach , and Gray Ranks , among others. Check out Zhenya's Wonder Tales on Backerkit - Campaign ends April 4th. Topics...

The crew have a conversation about how to convey information at the table. The GMs responsibility and the roles players have to bring the fiction to the game. This is a big topic but we chat about props, failing forward, NPCs and other tools we employ to bring depth and color to our worlds. As usual, our conversation ranges far and wide. Topics Discussed: 00:01:00 Introducing the ideas 00:07:50 No...

The gang has a discussion on structure in TTRPGs. How does structure make a good horror game? How does setting inform players what they can and can’t do? Some examples of story structure in World of Darkness, Invisible Sun, and Dogs in the Vineyard. Then the crew plays a short session of Whispering Vault, Mike Nystul’s 1993 story game inspired by the likes of Hellraiser and Nightbreed. We play it...

In episode 4, Jamie and Scott have a lot to say about agency at the table. Who controls what? Who drives the story? Who narrates die outcomes? Traditionally the GM handles a lot of this but we challenge groups to explore situations where you can hand over a lot of that responsibility. And we discuss over a dozen games that change how we think about agency. Topics: 1:00 Seriousness 3:35 Ginni Di -...

In Episode 3 of Modern Mythology, we continue our exploration of horror RPG systems with Chronicles of Darkness, the successor to White Wolf’s World of Darkness and the “new” World of Darkness. While the editions’ lineage may be complex, the system’s core mechanics remain intuitive and accessible. To demonstrate how it plays, we dive into an Actual Play with a simple yet evocative premise: “Your c...