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What’s actually useful for a GM to know about a city or other adventuring location? Chris and Andy discuss how to take the “Wizard City” theme of this year’s RfT Con and turn it into a gameable place. Plus, more on GMing with kids.

Andy and Chris talk more about prepping T1 and that fine line between being ready and just winging it.

Chris is prepping T1: The Village of Hommlet to run this summer. Andy and Chris talk all about it!

Chris has a lot of store credit to spend on TTRPG goodies. What will Andy pressure him into picking up? Around this important question, Chris and Andy fit a discussion of the importance of books as physical artifacts, the allure of those early iconic RPGs, and more.

With a new Elric RPG announced, Chris and Andy discuss what their dream Eternal Champion game might look like. Plus, Chris discovers Christopher Priest’s The Prestige and Andy glumly reports about the (non)state of his Band of Blades game.

Andy talks about an upcoming game he’s kicking off. It’ll be the 3rd time he’s tried it! They gush about forged in the dark, talk about the value of running campaigns, and discuss building dungeons with random tables.

Chris explored a cave recently! That brings Andy and Chris to discuss the challenge of injecting the thrill of real-world locations into their in-game versions. Can a fantasy game about fighting goblins in caves convey some of that real-world excitement?

Chris has been busy building props for a school play, and wonders how some of that energy might be expressed at the game table! Also, Andy and Chris discuss the joys of history and the ways they do and don’t make history and culture an important part of player characters.

Lots to catch up on this episode, including the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, edgelord vampire roleplaying from the 1990s, and Chris’ dilemma as a player: can he respec a PC that isn’t mechanically working the way he intended?

Chris and Jess talk about a small Daggerheart campaign that Jess ran and Chris played in! (Andy will be back next time!)

Andy’s back from his weekend GMing an Antarctic Cthulhu campaign, and Chris has questions! Topics covered include the value of creating special game events like this, the challenge of fighting a long campaign into a short weekend, and more.

Chris is heading off on a work trip, so discussion turns to which RPGs or board games you squeeze into your suitcase when traveling. With snow days and work trips imposing on our schedules, it’s a short episode–but we’ll be back next episode with a detailed breakdown of Andy’s epic Arkham Horror RPG weekend.

Andy and Chris have a lot to talk about! They discuss Splatbook, how the build-a-dungeon/play-a-dungeon went, the worst part of the D&D ruleset, Shadowdark, and Andy’s upcoming weekend game in a secluded cottage.

It’s time to play this year’s “Build-a-Dungeon”! Chris GMs a party of five intrepid amusement park employees as they try to save the fair from a rampaging kaiju. This is part of our annual tradition wherein we create an adventure collaboratively in one episode and play it in the next. For the making of this … Continue reading "Episode 184 – Play-a-Dungeon 2025:...

This is part 1 of our 2 part Build-A-Dungeon Play-a-Dungeon special for 2025! Chris and Andy are joined, yet again, by John Corey and Kyle Latino! In this episode we brainstorm and build out a one shot adventure that Chris will run in the following episode.

Chris tries to get Andy to watch the new season of Stranger Things. Andy talks about Doom’s brilliance. Then they talk about simple systems for running one shots.

Every TTRPG Kickstarter from the last few years seemed to fulfill this month, so Andy and Chris take an episode to go through the piles of shiny new roleplaying games they’ve acquired recently. Along the way they discuss the impact of strong authorial voices in RPG books and plot to ensnare the author of Netcrawl.

Chris has found himself playing in two campaigns, so Andy and Chris talk about how he can be the best player he can be!

Chris and Andy take a break from their usual format and have an open discussion about Chris’ new Daggerheart game, and what has their attention now that a wave of post-OGL D&D-alikes are finally arriving. As a bonus, we learn about the corporate merch with which Chris bedecks himself.

Andy and Chris talk about Stranger Things and then an issue that Andy had at the table with players and their pregen characters.

Every year, we host a game convention in Ann Arbor. And every year, a highlight of the con is our obscure RPG trivia contest! This is the live recording of RfT Con 2025’s trivia segment. How does your RPG trivia knowledge stack up?

Chris and Andy are busy planning RfT Con, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t brainstorming new campaigns they want to run. In this short pre-convention episode, they chat about the campaigns they’re gearing up to run this autumn/winter.

We revisit one of our earliest topics, this time with guest Garrett Douglas, creator of Wayne Scotting’s Guide to the Very Small Folk! Garrett shares insight from the many short-duration game sessions he’s run, but not before we chat Ars Magica and share our favorite Chicagoland game stores. Show notes

Chris is joined by guest GM Andy Jones to talk about the intersection between gaming and theater and how good kids these days have it with being able to talk openly about their hobbies.

Toby’s going to run a game at RfT Con 2025 about mechs! He comes on to talk through some design ideas and Andy and Chris get very excited about mechs!