Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

Another all-request episode starts in the Gaming Hut, where Patreon backer Gerald Sear wants us to consider the Mythos implications of the Disney corporation. Then assemble your miniature greenhouses and sail over to the History Hut, where we make up interesting facts about botanist and tea smuggler Robert Fortune at the behest of backer Steve […]

A surrealist sandbox and a structured mystery make a date in the Gaming Hut, as Josh Rose asks how to run Dreamhounds of Paris as a GUMSHOE One-2-One setting. Given that the world has turned into a spy novel, and not a particularly believable one at that, maybe it’s time to duck into the Tradecraft […]

Patreon backer Zachary Joyner poses some Gaming Hut questions about improvising a GUMSHOE game. How quickly do you give out clues? How do you maintain pace without leading the players? Though our latest trip to London has faded into the mist of nostalgia, we would be remiss not to paw through the books Ken raided […]

Gather in the Gaming Hut as we ask ourselves when one should take historical license when running or designing a game set in the real past. Spoiler: we also answer ourselves. In the Book Hut, Patreon backers Scott Haring and Kalin team up to demand a rundown on the works of Tim Powers. Sorting one’s […]

The contents of this podcast become too horrible to correlate as we slip into the Gaming Hut to answer a question from Patreon backer Laurel Halbany about handling secret mythos knowledge in an age of ever-present information. In Ask Ken and Robin, backer Jeff Kahrs ask us to expound on the contradictions of opting out […]

Finally, after ceding all recent chapeaus to Ken, Robin seizes control of Among My Many Hats to talk about Cthulhu Confidential and the design of the GUMSHOE One-2-One system. Because it’s finally up for pre-order over at the Pelgrane store. While we’re mulling Cthulhu Confidential, Ken and/or Robin Talks To Someone Else has a word […]

If it’s December, Ken and Robin must be coming to you live from Dragonmeet, the little London convention that isn’t so little any more. Join us as Ken emerges triumphant from a draw of the nerdtrope deck that definitely, definitely happened exactly just as Robin describes it. Plus red herrings, steak, and more stupid gnomes. […]

In the Gaming Hut, urged on by Patreon backer Fred Kiesche, Ken takes us under the hood of his Rex of the Old 97 campaign. What does he do behind that Peter Frampton GM screen, and how does he do it? But stranger requests await us still! Patreon backer Jeromy French convenes a meeting in […]

Dirk the Dice rolls into the Gaming Hut to ask us how to make sword and sorcery monster encounters exciting. Don’t believe a word you hear in the Conspiracy Corner, as we look at the history and evolution of propaganda. Expand your consciousness in the Cinema Hut, where backers Andrew Collins and Adam Grotjohn invite […]

Patreon backer Michael Kotschi pops a moony question over the Ask Ken and Robin transom, prompting us to look at 70s NASA from a Moon Dust Men perspective. The Politics Hut still has a hangover, but I guess we still have to address that thing that happened. In Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else, […]

Patreon backer Ethan Cordray rises from the Pacific waves of Ask Ken and Robin to pose a stumper: how to make Cthulhu scary again. Ken is back from an extended sequester in the Cinema Hut to talk about his favorites from the Chicago International Film Festival. Once more we learn How to Write Good, this […]

This week the Gaming Hut holds a special surprise: it’s not just a segment, but a free game in and of itself, as Robin teaches you how to run Death Spiral. In Ask Ken and Robin, Reiner Dobbelman asks us about mythic-level play. Then we again hear the protesting groans of Ken’s Bookshelf as we […]

Among My Many Hats blows the lid off of Ken’s upcoming Kickstarter for a revised, revamped, and reanimated Tour de Lovecraft: the Tales. Are the results of this podcast rigged? Find out as the History Hut looks at the history of vote-rigging in America. When Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else, sometimes that someone […]

The Gaming Hut looks at top temporal locations for TimeWatch scenarios. Pelgrane Press celebrates our segment by offering you, the listener, a voucher code to order from its online store. Plunk in TIMEWATCH at the voucher prompt for 10% off any TimeWatch product. In keeping with the chronological confusion of TimeWatch, the offer is good […]

A fork in the road leads to either the Gaming Hut, or the Gaming Hut, as we look at those times when giving players choice and control in a scenario leads to a less interesting outcome. The History Hut has us looking at the career of oil magnate E.L. Doheny, key figure in the Teapot […]

We kick off another episode inspired entirely by Patreon backer requests with John Corey, who asks Ken to expand on real history as the best setting for gaming and the challenges of reskinning it, thus inviting another round of That Thing I Always Say. The enigmatic asker known only as Bryan ushers into the Horror […]

Unfurl your flags as we gather in the Gaming Hut to envision an F20 game in which nationalities take the place of alignments. In Ask Ken and Robin, Patreon backer Jason Breti asks us to talk about Microscope. How to Write Good looks at things that happen in real life that writers have to work […]

Much tabletop roleplaying advice, ours included, helps GMs to keep players entertained. But what about the other way around? Thanks to Patreon backer Jesse Morgan, we head into the Gaming Hut to look at ways to keep your GM motivated. Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else covers not one but two areas of expertise, […]

Take a reality check before you dare to enter the Gaming Hut, as we answer Patreon backer Bryan’s request to devise a campaign based on flawed perceptions. Time for another intro course in the Cinema Hut as Ken and Robin give your their film noir 101. Coriander meets pate as the Food Hut investigates the […]

Robin is away at the Toronto International Film festival, and longtime listeners know what that means: it’s time to cover his absence from the podcast mic to drop the live episode we released at Gen Con. Join us for another glorious nerdtrope, a big hand for all our Patreon backers, and all the questions a […]

Our 207th installment starts on a tripartite note as Patreon backer Andrew Young pops his head into the Gaming Hut to ask about the pertinence of three-act structure in roleplaying scenarios. Speaking of Andrews, the Tradecraft Hut opens the case file on East German spymaster Markus Wolf, at the behest of backer Andrew Collins. In […]

Rules get hybridized in the Gaming Hut, at the behest of Patreon backer Jason Carter, who wants to fuse GUMSHOE’s investigative rules with the combat systems of other games, say for example Feng Shui. The man who shot Billy the Kid was himself killed in a dispute over goats. Coincidence? The History Hut looks at […]

Get your dice and character sheets together and head on into the Gaming Hut as we field Patreon backer Gnoll Warford’s question about preparing as a first-time convention GM. In How To Write Good, we slake patron Corey Pierno’s desire to know our writing and researching routines. When Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else, […]

Voices weary and graveled, but with spirits lifted by ENnies Gold and Silver, Ken and Robin return from Gen Con to regale you with this year’s round-up of the Best Four Days in Gaming. As is our annual wont we throw separate segments to the wind to encompass all the Gaming Hut goodness. Sub-headings include […]

In a special live from our hotel room episode, we inflate a portable Gaming Hut to field a question from Frent about catastrophe pile-ups in popular continuities. The Tradecraft Hut looks at the implications of Russian intelligence’s hack of the Democratic National Committee emails. (See The Crusader, by Paul Kengor, pp. 317-320 for the full […]