Roll For Topic

Listen as Ryan Gough teaches Andy and Chris all about a game played by millions of people that they barely understand. For regular listeners this one is a bit far afield from what we normally do, but we thought it’d be fun to discuss on air. Hope you enjoy it! Extra special thanks to Ryan … Continue reading "Episode 47 – A Different Kind of Fantasy Gaming"

Do you build encounters and adventures in such a way that players have lots of opportunity to show off their character’s abilities, powers, and personality? Andy and Chris discuss!

Tom Knauss of Frog God Games joins us to discuss the new Lost Lands: Tehuatl Kickstarter. We enjoy an in-depth talk about the process of creating a Mesoamerica-themed setting book, then launch into this episode’s topic: how you care for your physical game books. Note: the sound quality for this episode isn’t up to our … Continue reading "Episode 45 — Tom Knauss, Tehuatl Kic...

This week Christopher Becker came on to talk about running set-piece encounters. Those points in your game where you take some special care to prepare. Do you break out special terrain or miniatures? Do you prepare a big speech for the BBEG to deliver? Do you treat every moment as a set-piece lovingly created for … Continue reading "Episode 44 — How Do You Prepare Set-piece Encounters?...

Do you share your GMing secrets with players after each adventure? Or do you hang on to them in hopes of re-purposing them? With Chris back at the helm as co-host, we follow this topic into some unexpected places, including the merits of re-running adventures and the importance of information asymmetry in RPGs.

What’s the key to making NPCs who are memorable, interesting, and possibly even beloved by the players? Chris, Andy, and John discuss. And as a bonus, Andy breaks out a brand-new GM challenge for his co-hosts. Listen and judge their on-the-spot GMing decisions!

Special guest (and former host) Chris joins Andy and John to talk about what you can do when you’re just not feeling very excited about your game.

Do you like running games set in established, well-defined settings? Do you prefer coming up with setting details on the fly? Something in between? John and Andy talk through the big topic of finding or building the right setting for your game. Episode 40 appendix (show notes): RPG Alchemy Fate Condensed Dungeon World Swords Without … Continue reading "Episode 40 — How Do You Build or...

What does fear look like when it crops up in your games, horror or otherwise? How can you use fear to motivate player characters and make for a fun, tense game? John and Andy discuss.

What role do maps play in the games that you run? While Chris is taking a few weeks of parental leave, Andy is joined by guest co-host John Corey to discuss the wonderful topic of maps. Note: the audio quality on this episode is a bit lower than our usual standard, for which we apologize; … Continue reading "Episode 38 — How Do You Use Maps in Your Game?"

What do you do when a character in your game bites the dust? If character death happens, how do you work it into your campaign, and how do you address the topic with your players? Andy and Chris discuss this notoriously tricky subject.

Are the dungeons in your game mysterious, exciting experiences, or dull, slow-moving grinds? Andy and Chris are joined by John Corey to discuss ways you can inject a little bit of that “Indiana Jones” vibe into your dungeons.

Do you wince at the thought of roleplaying through a long journey? You’re not alone. Chris and Andy chat about what makes the difference between a travel sequence that is tedious, and one that adds something compelling to your campaign.

If you’re a GM stuck at home during this time of social distancing, you’re almost certainly giving some thought to running your favorite RPG online. What should you know going in? Andy and Chris are wondering the same thing, so they’ve convened a special panel discussion with returning guests Kyle and Murph to talk through … Continue reading "Episode 34 — Social Dista...

We’ve all been there. It’s game night and over the course of the day everyone is cancelling until you only have 1 or 2 players. Do you cancel? Do you play a board game instead?! Or do you embrace the smallness and see what happens? Shel Kahn joined us this week to roll on the … Continue reading "Episode 33 – How do you run games when your group is just one or two players? (...

Donn Stroud joins us to talk about two things that are a major part of life that sometimes get missed in tabletop games: romance and shopping! Unsurprisingly, we had more to say about one of these things than the other. Appendix: Mothership and Dead Planet Lesser Key to the Celestial Legion – cowritten with James … Continue reading "Episode 32 – How Do You Handle Romance and Shop...

Joking around with your friends around the game table is great, but sometimes you want to steer away from that default “adventure slapstick” vibe. How do you establish the appropriate mood for the game you’re running? Andy and Chris discuss this, along other diverse topics including Games You Should Play in Art Museums and Chris’ … Continue reading "Episode 31 —...

Chris and Andy chit-chat about some recent games they ran. Then we dive into our topic about the most fun part about games: referring to the rules! Rules are arguably what makes a game a game; however, pausing the session to flip through a book can kill the narrative momentum at the table. So, dear … Continue reading "Episode 30 – When Do You Look Up Rules?"

Guest GM Jess Snyder joins Andy and Chris to address the timeless question: do you run published adventures or exclusively homemade ones? And how do you address the challenges that arise with each approach?

How do you go about bringing a new RPG to the table? Andy and Chris discuss—and do a little reflecting on the first year of Roll for Topic.

Happy holidays everyone! We’re back with an episode in which we play through the dungeon that we made during the last episode. Andy is your esteemed GM for this one and we were pleased to have Aaron, Matt, and Brandon join in as players! If you liked this two-part experiment of building and playing a … Continue reading "Holiday Special Part 2: Live Play-a-dungeon!"

As a change of pace for the holidays, Andy and Chris team up with previous guest Kyle to design a dungeon one-shot on the fly! Will the end result be a masterpiece of adventure design or a hilarious trainwreck that features psychic whales, post-apocalyptic shopping malls, and something called a “hyperskeleton”? Tune in to find … Continue reading "Holiday Special Part 1: Live Buil...

Call it stage fright, nervousness, or GMing anxiety, but all gamemasters must deal with it. What are some ways to minimize it? Andy and Chris discuss. Episode 25 appendix: Hotel Artemis. The Improv for Gamers book. The videogame Ion Fury. Junji Ito’s horror manga Uzumaki.

We’re joined by Aaron this week to talk about reading the written block text from adventures. When there’s block text in the adventure module you’re running, do you read it out loud? Verbatim, do you paraphrase, do you throw it all away because you know best?! Join us as we talk all about narrating at … Continue reading "Episode 24 – Do You Read the Block Text in Your...

This week it’s just Andy and Chris jabbering about how to introduce non-gamers to your game. We talk about such things as: character creation, whether players should have to read the rules cover to cover, and when and how to introduce mechanics into the game. Appendix: The Adventure Zone’s MaxFunCon East Live show where they … Continue reading "Episode 23 – How to Introduce...