Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

Ask Ken and Robin tackles a Tim Isakson question on ways to handle tone as a GM. Among My Many Hats tips its pith helmet to Ken’s new GURPS Horror book, The Madness Dossier. How to Write Good sits in the chair to examine discipline, morale, the value of routine, and the hazards of self-doubt. […]

Our multi-episode arc about the underwater dead who sell life and buy dreams comes to a conclusion in the Gaming Hut as we break out specific scenario ideas for our riffed setting. In a new segment called Recommendation Engine we tell you what’s catching our fancy in the worlds of books, TV, movies, and food. […]

Let the bells ring out and the banners fly. It’s the landmark 100th episode of our humble podcast! To celebrate, we’ve collected from listeners across the social media landscape a cornucopia of lightning round questions, which we dispatch with varying degrees of efficiency. Also in a celebratory mood are our ever-reliable anchor sponsors and fine […]

We are honored and delighted to say that Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff has been nominated for a 2o14 ENnie Award for Best Podcast. If you are seeing this before Aug 1st, and want us bounding up to that podium on Friday night at Gen Con, please do us a huge solid and go […]

Often in the Gaming Hut (and other huts arrayed around it) we riff a ton of quick ideas in Gatling gun fashion. This time out we take one of those riffed ideas, that of the city of underwater dead who sell longer lives to mortals, as we demonstrate the process of fleshing out a concept […]

All hail the audio majesty of editor Rob Borges, who rescued this and last week’s episodes from the scourge of electronic interference, leaving only a touch of distortion in Robin’s sibilants. A mystery questioner Asks Ken and Robin how they handle red herrings. Ken flips on the projector in the Cinema Hut to get us […]

All hail the audio majesty of editor Rob Borges, who rescued this and next week’s episodes from the scourge of electronic interference, leaving only a touch of distortion in Robin’s sibilants. It’s time to talk terms in the Gaming Hut, as we toss around the distinction between simulation and modeling. In the Conspiracy Corner we […]

Turn your head and sarcophagus as Ask Ken and Robin raises the lid on a @CrazyDogSpirit question on making the most of mummies. Then it’s time for another Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else, in which Allison Fizzard, associate professor of history at Regina’s Campion College, explains Tudor-era retirement plans and how Henry VIII’s […]

A fog-shrouded Travel Advisory sees Robin reporting on his trip to historic (and Fortean) St. John’s, Newfoundland. In Ask Ken and Robin, donor Brendan Power asks about handling spotty game night attendance. The Horror Hut mulls over that very odd foundation of the Gothic tradition, The Castle of Otranto. Finally the Consulting Occultist looks at […]

We start in a submersible as the Cartography Hut takes you under the sea to riff on campaign and adventure possibilities arising from the mapping of sunken Dunwich. In Ask Ken and Robin, Yohann Delalande asks us to find inspiration for Night’s Black Agents in the flamboyant and multi-pronged career of Uzbekistan’s Gulina Karimova. We […]

We kick off with Ask Ken and Robin and a Sean Phelan question about asynchronous information dissemination in roleplaying games. Dire rumors swirl as the Tradecraft Hut looks at disinformation and fear-mongering as a geopolitical instrument, from the Crimea to the ghost dance. In Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else, Robin chats with Moon […]

The titular emotion exudes from a certain Chicagoan as we issue a Travel Advisory for Robin’s trip to the Chimeriades convention in sunny Provence. In Ask Ken and Robin, Chris Shorb asks about making alternate histories plausible in roleplaying. We take another request in the Eliptony Hut, because Alan Scott wants to know about the […]

In the Gaming Hut we demonstrate scenario construction by brainstorming a Fear Itself adventure featuring the fearsome Crate Man. Duck furtively into the Cartography Hut as we look at maps as secrets. In Ask Ken and Robin we field a query from Tom Allman on prepping for Cthulhu games. Then we sidle up to Ken’s […]

The Gaming Hut reverberates with spectral dread as we find ways to make ghosts and hauntings scary in roleplaying. Fun with Science looks for story and gaming grist in the increasingly respected, and increasingly mind-blowing, multiverse theory of cosmological physics. In That Thing I Always Say Robin goes on about the lasting influence a game’s […]

In the Gaming Hut, Robin asks Ken to specify a suitable period of occult ferment and together they riff it into a DramaSystem Series Pitch. We unseal the stone door of the Mythology Hut to give Lilith the once-over. The Cinema Hut joins forces with the Horror Hut as we mull the current cycle of […]

Ken’s return from Portland’s HP Lovecraft Film Festival and its sister event Conthulhu prompts the issuance of an especially eldritch Travel Advisory. Listener Greg Gray gets an unprecedented answer when he poses an Ask Ken and Robin question about the paucity of info in roleplaying rules books for spanking new players. How to Write Good […]

Pull up an extra special chair in the Gaming Hut as we look at ways to put guest players to good use. In the Tradecraft Hut, Ken helps listener Rick Jonzz start a beginner’s tradecraft bookshelf. In Ask Ken and Robin, Joshua Weiss wonders what we might say about miniatures in narrative-based gaming. Then we […]

In Ask Ken and Robin, Kevin Maroney asks us to expand on an earlier Ken comment questioning the suitability of the d20 structure for Cthulhu gaming. The History Hut flies the Jolly Roger to examine best practices of, and essential conditions for, piracy. In the Gaming Hut we recount our least favorite setting cliches. And […]

The Gaming Hut rings with the sound of accents and impressions as we examine the role of voice work in GMing. The Crime Blotter finds a surprising nexus of grift, elephant materialization and the technological spread of 20th century entertainment in the person of Harry Thurston. A less famous follower in his magician brother Howard’s […]

Is that a displacer beast in your pocket, or are you just glad to listen to us? Convene in the Gaming Hut as we discuss monster abilities and to what extent they enter into player awareness. The Tradecraft Hut furtively considers stolen passports. Don’t let your characters leave theirs as collateral for motorcycles in Phuket, […]

In the Gaming Hut we again lift the RPG design hood to tinker with PC/NPC asymmetry. Eerie Horror Hut riffing ensues as we sift the story possibilities of 3D-Printed Clone Dolls. Ask Ken and Robin opens in the middle of a Philippe Marcel question about starting game sessions in media res. Purely hypothetically, you understand, […]

In the Cartography Hut we set out techniques to add a dose of psychogeography to the map of your imaginary city. The Gaming Hut looks at the elasticity of vampire mythology, as inspired by Ken’s golden steampunk vampires of El Dorado, as seen in Fenix magazine. How to Write Good confronts the pesky threat of […]

Gaming Hut starts on a somber note as we remember the roleplaying innovations of Aaron Allston (1960-2014.) We go on to discuss one of the key themes of his work, genre emulation at the tabletop. The Eliptony Hut takes on a distinctly octagonal shape as we look at the eight-sided architectural influence of phrenologist and […]

Grab your retrospective popcorn and hunker down in the Cinema Hut as Ken and Robin review their movie top tens for 2013. Responding to popular demand, the Consulting Occultist assesses competing new claims of having cracked the cryptobotanical mysteries of the Voynich Manuscript. In Ask Ken and Robin we hit the dimmer switch to address […]

Find new reason to plunge into the dungeon as the Gaming Hut tackles ways of giving narrative meaning to F20 combat encounters. Look at Fluffy in a new light as the Tradecraft Hut examines the animal spying  claims of trainer Bob Bailey, who in addition to creating the chicken Tic-Tac-Toe machine says he was a contractor for the CIA. In Ask Ken […]