Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

Buckle up your extra special rapier for a jaunt into the Gaming Hut to consider the connection between gear and status. Take extra reindeer with you, for your predecessor lost all of his when he entered the far confines of the Cartography Hut to talk Soviet map-making. From hominids and their tapir pals to the […]

Robin gets a head start on his Dracula Dossier homework as the Gaming Hut lays out the whys and hows of campaign frames. The titular chapeau takes on a conical shape as Ken talks Yithians in Among My Many Hats. Check out his Ken Writes About Stuff installment for more. How to Write Good examines […]

Stuff we’re here to talk about in this milestone episode might include Ben Franklin, the Flash, Zeus, Tom Fury, Phar Lap, keraunomedicine, the Lockheed P-38,  Mjolnir, the blitzkrieg, Final Fantasy XIII, James Otis Jr., Garth Ranzz, al-Borak, Tampa Bay hockey, or the static discharge between clouds and the earth. That is to say, we’ve hit […]

Line up your polyhedrals in order of social preference as we enter the Gaming Hut to examine caste and class in worldbuilding. The History Hut provides a footnote to a somber event with details on the 1822 trial of Denmark Vesey, a founder of Charleston SC’s Mother Emanuel Church, for conspiracy to revolt against slavery. […]

The Gaming Hut acquires extra filigrees and an extended backstory as we examine the cognitive investments gamers make when they learn to love detail. The Food Hut takes a turn for the imaginary in response to this medieval recipe for griddle-roasted unicorn, brought to our attention by Terry O’Carroll. What happens when F20 adventurers start […]

Spruce up your decor as the Gaming Hut reveals the secrets of room description. Ken does the bulk of the replying in an eliptonic Ask Ken and Robin, as RogerBW seeks a disentanglement of convex and concave hollow earth theories. Once again we rev up the Recommendation Engine, tipping you to a movie, two books, […]

Guns blaze and mystic swords clash as Among My Many Hats goes under the hood on Blowing Up the Movies, Robin’s new book of essays combing the action movie classics for gameable nuggets. In Ask Ken and Robin, @clarkythecruel asks about incorporating sports into RPGs. How to Write Good shows you how to build a […]

Alex Guerrero has played before but never GMed. He wants to introduce a trio of interested neophytes/family members to roleplaying through a session of Fear Itself. He’s here to Ask Ken and Robin “What tips do you have on pacing, and not overthinking?” In History Hut we look at the craziest damn thing we’ve heard […]

Abandon your neutrality as we enter the Gaming Hut to talk about alignment in D&D. Find out if we’ve been digging what you’ve been digging about the recent crop of shows in the Television Hut. Then the Consulting Occultist gives us the lowdown on alchemist, mystic and eponymous library founder Elias Ashmole. Attention, class! Anchor […]

Using the conveniently public domain 1972 film Horror Express as a baseline, we demonstrate how to adapt a movie into a scenario worthy of the Gaming Hut. In a flood-threatened Travel Advisory, Ken takes us on a tour of the sights and horrors of his hometown, Oklahoma City. Then Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone […]

In the Gaming Hut we ask how much work game design should do to constrain problem players. Be careful in the History Hut not to sit in the sledgehammerin’ seat as we tell the tale of the Bloody Benders. In Ask Ken and Robin Ciaran Conliffe asks Ken and Robin to demonstrate how Esoterrorists might […]

In Ask Ken and Robin your intrepid hosts field an Eion Dornan question about helping players take on the role of real historical figures. The story of a Nigerian juju practitioner handed a lengthy sentence for magical services performed for Texas-based Gulf cartel drug traffickers calls for the debut of a new segment we can […]

Crack open your Chaotic Neutral dictionary as Ken and Robin venture into the Gaming Hut to spitball a fantasy world extrapolated from the existence of alignment languages. In Ken and/or Robin Talk to Somebody Else, both Ken and Robin speak with Leeman Kessler, the actor and auteur behind the Ask Lovecraft web series. And since […]

Screaming to you from the abyssal depths of the downtown Portland Oregon Crowne Plaza, comes our latest live episode. Join us as we talk Dracula vs. Gala, Muhammad Ali vs. Nyarlathotep, Nollywood, the Sino-Soviet split, DaVinci’s Glaaki revelation, our season of True Detective, and more. Attention, class! Anchor sponsor Atlas Games wants to enroll you […]

Make sure you have your magic translation earbuds on as we enter the Gaming Hut to talk about secret and magical languages. In Ask Ken and Robin, Ruth Tillman John Burgess asks us to reveal our research secrets. Sorry for the misidentification in the episode audio, John. Having previously run down the classic Hong Kong […]

This article on the programmable variability of claw machines springboards us into the Gaming Hut for an examination of pass/fail cycles. A corpse with the distinctive dagger of medieval Teutonic justice lies near the threshold of the History Hut, where we convene to discuss Vehmic courts. How to Write Good has us spitballing classic characters […]

Robin hijacks an Ask Ken and Robin question about running an Armitage Files-style campaign set after Sherlock Holmes’ plunge over Reichenbach to ask: do the master detective and the Mythos go together at all? Then of course we do answer Sami Uusitalo’s question, because what kind of podcast would we be otherwise? Ken tells us […]

When the Gaming Hut asks you to mind your tone, we’re talking about ways to instil it during roleplaying sessions. In Ask Ken and Robin, Roger Bell West draws us into the Eliptony Hut with by requesting the lowdown on Fomenko’s New Chronology. We ban phrases from our lexicon in an ever so impactful edition […]

It’s raining drama tokens in the Gaming Hut as Robin shares his DramaSystem GMing tips. The clash of arms resounds in the History Hut as Ken gives us the lowdown on legendary Indian empire-builder Chandragupta Maurya. In Ask Ken and Robin, Ryan Christiansen asks if RPGs can be used as a consciousness raising tool. Art […]

Cough into your elbow as we duck into the Gaming Hut to think up explanations imaginary cultures might give for the origin of diseases. The Cinema Hut unspools Robin’s top five recommended films for schooling your players in the Feng Shui spirit. In Ask Ken and Robin, Collin T asks how to get players immersed […]

In Ask Ken and Robin, Jonas Beardsley points us to this Wired article about advances in astrophysics brought about by the computer effects used in the movie Interstellar. We then make good on his invitation to explore ways overly realistic CGI could go horribly wrong. Safe under the covers of the Horror Hut, we talk […]

Join us in the Gaming Hut for a psychotropic ritual as we think about introducing entheogens into the magic of your F20 world. The Politics Hut flips its municipal focus as Ken shares his perspective on the Chicago machine and mayor Rahm Emanuel’s forced confrontation with a run-off election. How to Write Good takes a […]

Yohann Delalande kicks us off with an Ask Ken and Robin question about portraying current real-world horrors in RPGs without lapsing into insensitivity. We fulfill this podcast’s Canadian content requirements in the Tradecraft Hut with a look at iconic hooded defector Igor Gouzenko. Patron hero of surveyors Nain Singh Rawat inspires a duck into the […]

We start with an Ask Ken and Robin question from Ethan Cordray, who wants to know how a GM and player might collaborate in creating scenarios. Inspired by this Malcolm Gladwell piece, the Crime Blotter examines the changing relationship between organized crime and upward mobility. Fun with Science plays with your perceptions for a look […]

Weighty personages surrounded by bullet-proof genre expectations surround us in the Gaming Hut as we examine script immunity in historical gaming. The Mythology Hut finds us riffing a kid-friendly adventure idea arising from the superstitious connection between faeries and uncrushed eggshells. Pol Jackson poses an Ask Ken and Robin poser about the difficulty of staging […]