Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

In the Gaming Hut we take on a classic horror scenario design issue. When the menace stems from ambient weirdness, how do you build fresh ways for the player characters to conclude the story? Beloved Patreon backer Joshua Hillerup wafts salt air into the Culture Hut as he requests a nerdrtoping of Stan Rogers’ classic […]

An all-request episode kicks off with a Gaming Hut question from beloved backer Tom Abella, who wants to know if, when playtesting, there is such a thing as too good a GM. Estimable backer Elias Helfer climbs all the way to the summit of the Tradecraft Hut to seek knowledge of Hassan-i Sabbah. In Ask […]

An all-request episode kicks off with a Gaming Hut question from beloved backer Tom Abella, who wants to know if, when playtesting, there is such a thing as too good a GM. Estimable backer Elias Helfer climbs all the way to the summit of the Tradecraft Hut to seek knowledge of Hassan-i Sabbah. In Ask […]

Our Gaming Hut series on the axes of tabletop RPG design concludes, we think and hope, with an opposition separately suggested by beloved Patreon backers Nicola Wilson and Lauberfen: Randomness vs. Choice. Crime Blotter goes old-timey with a profile of con artists Tim Oakes and Larry Summerfield, inventors of the wire game. The Monster Hut […]

The Gaming Hut axes of RPG design series turns toward setting for its next opposition, Canon vs. Open. Ken is back from the Chicago Film Festival to report on his findings in the Cinema Hut. In Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else, Tristan Zimmerman of the Molten Sulfur Blog talks up his game, Shanty […]

Axes keep showing up at the Gaming Hut, and this week we look at the Abstract vs Emotional slider in roleplaying game design. Inspired by the passing of one of its prime exponents, Owen Luder, the Architecture Hut gazes at the brutalist style and its influence on science fiction. Then our resident bibliomane continues to […]

Our Gaming Hut look at the axes of roleplaying game design continues with the previously teased Ease versus Mastery. In Ask Ken and Robin beloved Patreon backer Joe Webb takes the bait and requests the previously teased adventures of T. E. Lawrence and Robert Graves. The Culture Hut looks at the changing moods of SF […]

Our Gaming Hut series on axes of roleplaying design continues with Robin’s handling cost opposition, Harmonica versus Violin. In the Architecture Hut, beloved Patreon backer Anders Gabrielsson seeks the truth about Chicago’s Midway Gardens. Robin picks up a foreshadowed Cinema Hut thread on the changing face of international film, from access to style. Finally estimable […]

Our Gaming Hut series on the axes of RPG design takes a turn as Robin looks at the trade-offs he thinks about while working on games, starting with Simulation vs Emulation. Fun With Science goes deep to contemplate the abundance of mesopelagic fish. The Horror Hut gets connubial at the behest of beloved Patreon backer […]

If it’s September, it must be, uh, Gen Con? Ken kicks off with a Travel Advisory on how the in-person side of the event went. Speaking of unusual versions of long running events, Robin opens up the Cinema Hut to provide highlights of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, and to make a stunning announcement. […]

Our continuing Gaming Hut survey of tabletop RPG design principles tackles Power. That sounds like something we always want. Does it belong at one end of a spectrum, or does it corrupt absolutely? Beloved Patreon backer the Molten Sulfur Blog makes a Tell Me More request that opens up the History Hut to profile Edwardian […]

In the Gaming Hut we continue our series on axes of tabletop RPG design with an examination of Resilience and Robustness. At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Allen Wilkins, Ripped from the Headlines finds the real truth behind the November incident in which a crashing commuter train was saved by polyester whale tails. In […]

The Gaming Hut kicks off a series looking at the axes of RPG design, so appropriately enough we start with elegance. In the Architecture Hut beloved Patreon backer Nicola Wilson seeks the truth scoop on the Trylon and Perisphere, noted features of the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Fun With Science fields a question from […]

In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer JP Moral asks for steps to take when homebrew adventures don’t feel right in play. Estimable backer Bryan takes the History Hut to 1970 for a look at Ohio Governor Jim Rhodes and the Kent State shootings, with an eye toward portraying them in Fall of DELTA GREEN. […]

In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer V. R. Weather asks for a 101 on playtesting. Surprised that we have not directly tackled this basic topic before, we immediately comply. The Tradecraft Hut profiles the peripatetic career of OSS and CIA operative Louise Page Morris. In How to Write Good estimable Patreon backer Benjamin Rawls […]

The T-Shirt Justification Hut gets scaly and doomy with a look at the connection between dragons and apocalypses. In the Money Hut, we reveal high-frequency trading as yet another Carcosan front operation. Then we fulfill a past promise with part two of Ken’s Bookshelf New England haul. Want to pose a question to the show? […]

In the Gaming Hut we provide tips on GMing for a loose cannon character. Surely not a loose cannon player. None of us have ever had that experience. Beloved Patreon backer Travis Johnson summons the power of Ask Ken and Robin to ask how to include the Bush Wars in The Fall of DELTA GREEN. […]

In the Gaming Hut, we look at game balance. What is it, and when do we care about it? We try not to step on any skulls in the Archaeology Hut as Beloved Patreon backers Liz & Siskey seek the scoop on Roman gravesite in Cambridgeshire containing a surprising number of beheaded remains. In the […]

Hey, it’s an all-request episode! Count the syllables and jot down the allusions as an anonymous Patreon backer beckons us into the Gaming Hut to ask how to do spontaneous poetry duels in roleplaying sessions. Then pseudonymous Patreon backer Polydamas meets us in the Architecture Hut for the secret history behind Columbia University’s New York […]

The Gaming Hut hits the streets, many of them, for a look at designing scenarios to introduce a city. We find the Crime Blotter is covered in ancient leather and animal glue, our cue to find the gaming in the fake Biblical scrolls purchased by the Museum of the Bible. In Ask Ken and Robin, […]

Make sure anyone else in the room is really them as the Gaming Hut looks at fox spirits, doppelgangers, and other foes who disguise themselves as human. The Tradecraft Hut profiles CIA operative, author, and coup arranger Miles Axe Copeland, Jr. How to Write Good serves up tips on the revision process, from break taking […]

Don’t forget you’re in the Gaming Hut as beloved Patreon backer Lauberfen asks for tips on finding the fun in amnesia and similar player character flaws. In Ripped from the Headlines, estimable Patreon backer Robert Wolfe seeks the true truth on the clones of the strong-willed pig. Finally, as normalcy, or at least retail sales, […]

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer as the Gaming Hut provides advice to players running in political intrigue games. In Fun With Science beloved Patreon backer Josh King asks for the real truth behind Siberian mystery holes. Ask Ken and Robin fields a question from estimable Patreon backer William Brafford, who seeks a […]

Keep an eye out for incoming candlesticks as the Gaming Hut finds ways to engage players in the prelude part of a scenario, for example the bit in a cozy mystery before any genteel murdering happens. At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Dustyn Mincey, the History Hut examines the era of Greek history known […]

Just when time had lost all meaning, the ineffable power of numbers tells us that we’ve hit Episode 450. Seasoned investigators know what that means: our beloved Patreon backers pose them, and we blast them with electric force. It’s time for celebratory Qs and exultant As! It’s time for… LIGHTNING ROUND!!! Want to pose a […]