Dead Letters

Witch/Demon hunters Walid and Misha bring on possible witch/demon Sam to discuss their vampire shenanigans in Thousand Year Old Vampire, a journaling RPG by Tim Hutchings. Join the guys as they discuss their favorite prompts, the nuances of solo gaming, and what it looks like to "break the rules". Side note, Walid got a new mic and it was not being good to him. Apologies for his choppy a...

Two sides of the same brain Misha and Walid bring single minded Sam to discuss Dan D's gothic horror adventure Unicorn Meat. Join the two (brains) as they discuss faction play, sandbox rhythm, and weird little murderous children. Follow us on bsky: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bsky.app/profile/dead-letters.bsky.social⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Sam on bsky: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bsky.app/profile/sams...

Sam invites Legendary inventor Misha and Technologist Walid to discuss the freaky monsters and caves in Patrick Stuart's Veins of the Earth. Join the guys's descent into madness as they parse poetic descriptions, tackle "the sublime", and figure out what it means to move in a cave. Follow us on bsky: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bsky.app/profile/dead-letters.bsky.social⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠...

Join our medium Sam with two ghosts (again?!) Walid and Misha to discuss Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game by Magpie Games. Dig into the spirit's love of Avatar, what to expect from a licensed game, PBTA, and the ever important question: who's playing this? Follow us on bsky: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bsky.app/profile/dead-letters.bsky.social⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Sam on bsky: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠...

Today on the #1 money management podcast Dead Letters, finance bros Walid, Sam, and Misha take a step back from their stock portfolios to discuss Jay Dragon's Expressionist Games Manifesto. Join the guys as they discuss expressionism, playing expressionist games, and being a menace at RPG tables. Follow us on bsky: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bsky.app/profile/dead-letters.bsky.social⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Fol...

Dead Letters has returned! On this episode, time traveling RPG enthusiasts Walid and Misha argue with Sam about the beloved, massive, hexcrawl adventure Wolves Upon the Coast by Luke Gearing. Tune in as the guys discuss open world adventure games, GM legwork, and man-eating horses. By the end perhaps we will all have answers to the age old question: Why does the Medusa speak Latin? Follow us on bs...

Sam holds a seance with two spirits, Walid and Misha, to discuss the beloved combination of blogs, pdfs, excel documents, and communities that make up the GLOG: a ruleset by by Arnold Kemp. Join the guys as they recap the history of OSR revival, walkthrough version 1.0, and argue design philosophy. Stick to the end to hear about our favorite classes, and meet special guest Bill Toast. Follow us on...

Walid and Misha, two sentient insects controlling human bodies, bring on entomologist Sam to discuss the Ennie Award winning adventure by Leo Hunt: The Shrike. Join the bugs as they converse over dungeon design, mandatory cannibalism, "video-gamisms", and the problems with visualizing physical space. Editors Note: Misha's audio get's a little janky partly through this episode. Ap...

Sam brings on two of his favorite cyborg robots, Misha and Walid, to discuss an influential book to them and much of the TTRPG scene: John Harper's Blades in the Dark. Listen to the guys break down their experience Forging in the Dark, what this book provides, what its missing, and a brief stint into what really constitutes "fiction first" gameplay. Follow us on bsky: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https...

Dead Letters is back with a special episode! Sam and two famed astronauts Walid and Sam return from their mission on flat Mars to discuss Miguel Sicarts famous article Against Procedurality. Listen to the guys transform into video game designers for an episode, and discuss what the deal is with proceduralists, MDA, meaningful play, and how it all connects to RPGs! Follow us on bsky: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https...

We at Dead Letters are proud to present two Mega Billion lottery award winners Misha and Walid along with their poor "friend" Sam to discuss Luka Rejec's Holy Mountain Shaker, a caving adventure. Listen to the billionaires +1 discuss the pitfalls of point crawls, modularity on mountains, and the infamous bullet points vs paragraphs debate! Follow us on bsky: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bsky.app/...

Sam invites Fields medal winning mathematicians Walid And Misha as they ponder the various machine mysteries in Gradient Descent, a Mothership adventure by Luke Gearing. Listen to the guys argue about panic checks, formatting decisions, how they would run Monarch, and what the best number is (it's 0). Follow us on bsky: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bsky.app/profile/dead-letters.bsky.social⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Sam...

Local magicians Misha and Walid bring Sam along a magical journey of discovery, as they review Thriftomancer's funky metasystem: Null. Discover the implications of system when it is removed from play, parsed between the guys arguing about definitions, what counts as a "lyric game", and the fraudulent nature of Harry Potter spells. Follow us on bsky: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bsky.app/profile/dea...

Today is a special day at Dead Letters as the guys return from the moon to analyze and review the iconic: Apocalpyse World. They'll discuss the makings of a great system, the power of modularity, and how Vincent and Meguey Baker's vision has evolved through PbtA. Follow us on bsky: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bsky.app/profile/dead-letters.bsky.social⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Sam on bsky: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bsky.app/profile...

Sam brings in his two uncles, Misha and Walid, to discuss the ENNIE Awards: the premier TTRPG award show. The guys do this through the lens of Clayton Notestine's series of blogposts discussing his personal experience as a judge for the awards. Join Sam and the Uncs as they argue about award shows being bogus (they are), and how they plan on capitalizing on making their own (which definitely w...

Today on Dead Letters, Sam and two dangerous musicians, Misha and Walid unravel the mystery in Zedeck Siew's "A Perfect Wife". Join the guys as they talk about the best parts of world building, anxious roleplaying, and mispronouncing the word "Pontianak". Follow us on bsky: ⁠⁠⁠https://bsky.app/profile/dead-letters.bsky.social⁠⁠⁠ Follow Sam on bsky: ⁠⁠⁠https://bsky.app/profi...

Today on Dead Letters, Misha, Sam and Walid talk about RPG rules as railroading through the lens of multiple award wining TTRPG book Triangle Agency. Discover what frame theory is, the problems with breaking the fourth wall, and why Sam thinks the color red is for normies. Follow us on bsky: ⁠⁠https://bsky.app/profile/dead-letters.bsky.social⁠⁠ Follow Sam on bsky: ⁠⁠https://bsky.app/profile/samsor...

What is a setting guide? What should a GM, or player, expect after buying one? Tune in as the guys discuss whether Eduardo Carabaño's Settlers of a Dead God meets their totally reasonable expectations of what should or shouldn't be included in a book like this. Follow us on bsky: ⁠https://bsky.app/profile/dead-letters.bsky.social⁠ Follow Sam on bsky: ⁠https://bsky.app/profile/samsorensen.b...

When is it time for your homebrew, epic, high fantasy, mega campaign to be published? Sam, Misha, and Walid - three tabletop roleplaying game designers and academics give their take on the question through the lens of Joshua McCrowell's "His Majesty the Worm" in this inaugural episode of Dead Letters. Listen in as we argue about rules vs procedures, OSR inspirations, and how this boo...