Roleplay Rescue

What is it about slipping fully into a character and exploring a living, open‑ended world that makes us feel so drawn into the fantasy and have fun? What part of our human make-up is refreshed and excited by these imaginary adventures we experience during roleplay? Is there a way to understand this specific preference for slipping into a imaginary persona and exploring a living, open-ended world?...

After a break of nearly 11 weeks between August and the tail end of October 2025, Roleplay Rescue was reborn with an experimental mindset and a specific pact to record one short episode per week for 10 weeks, focusing solely on actions and experiences as a GM. This is the tenth episode of that pact. How have things worked out and what has been learned? And what about the other pacts I made for my...

I've been shifting my focus towards preparing a new school-based game designed to engage the students in roleplay but also to be light, fun, and open to newbies as much as possible. For me, the trick is to get started: my confidence in the game, in my ability to deliver the game and run it, and in engaging the students begins with the first steps. This time, I’m taking a modified approach and...

What’s the point of solo roleplaying games? Why do it? And, frankly, how do you keep the game moving? If you’ve ever tried to play a role‑playing game solo, you know the feeling: the excitement of stepping into a new world, followed by the nagging question, ‘How do I keep the game moving when there’s no one else at the table?’ This past week, I built a tiny experiment to solve that tension and tod...

This one's a reflection on the mental health side of my journey wherein I talk about the reflection that hitting 7 years of the show coincides with 5 years of healing since the mental health breakdown that I experienced in 2020. Here at the tail end of 2025, I’ve been reminded of the "Scanner" concept – because I had forgotten about it in all the hustle of the past couple of years – and it’s...

On the 28th of November 2018 , the 8 minute and 14 second Episode Zero of Roleplay Rescue was aired. Seven years of striving, failing, starting over, and asking: How can I run a game that is creatively engaging for my friends and myself, while managing the crippling anxiety and self-doubt that plagued my identity as the "world's flakiest GM" ? This episode we dive into the manifesto that emerged f...

This week patron and regular listener, Alex from the UK, called in with a question about my approach of what he calls, "Player-Directed Goal-Driven Play". His specific issue is around whether this approach can work with shorter periods of play that are designed to be time-bound to fewer sessions than my own aspiration for 1-year plus long-form play. This episode is my answer to the question. Thank...

This week I found myself wandering back to Traveller - specifically, the current edition of the game published by Mongoose. Wandering is an inevitability in my hobby. My mind is constantly scanning for interesting things. I am curious by nature. This is the way I am. This week, Pioneer caught my attention again. It's a game about exploring the solar system. For me, the idea of a "For All Mank...

Starting with a seemingly random quote from "Tiny Experiments" by Anne-Loure Le Cunff, I riff off the idea of non-linear paths through RPG adventures. I draw on Jamison's idea about the Obstacle and its three stages. Overall, this is me animatedly talking about how I prep for my games right now. Thanks to everyone who is supporting the show on Patreon! Thanks to Anthony for calling in (even if I d...

This episode I talk about Brian Jamison's approach to setting up a role-playing game. I stitch together Pat Mullen's bio sheet into this process as I talk about how I've applied it in my gaming in recent months. I also point out how good play involves improvisational elements which Jamison and Mullen's process encourages. Thanks to everyone who is supporting the show on Patreon! Thanks to Carl D f...

What would happen if I recorded one short episode every week for ten weeks? This is my tiny experiment for Roleplay Rescue Reborn. This episode I talk about the intention, the experimental mindset, and the three RPG experiments I've got underway. Thanks to everyone who is supporting the show on Patreon! Game on! Roleplay Rescue Details: Voice Message: speakpipe.com/roleplayrescue Patreon: patreon....

I don’t want to say this out loud, because it feels so final and unlikely, but this is the last planned episode of Roleplay Rescue. After seven years, what is there left to say? Well, uncounted things and many topics as the hobby moves forward and ideas still percolate through my consciousness, BUT… The truth is that producing the podcast is a big investment in time and energy. Do I want to m...

This episode arose after 12 weeks of conversations and not recording a more personal episode during those 3 months. Here you'll catch up with what I've been doing since April, hear three great messages from listeners and the replies they spark from me, and get the lowdown on what's coming this summer on Roleplay Rescue. Big thanks to the callers - Matt, Jason C, and Pat. Big thanks to you for list...

This one’s with a familiar guest - Simon Williams - in which, as it turned out, Simon interviewed me on the question of Scenario Design: how do I do it and what approaches do I take? Simon is a British artist and illustrator, and also the creator of the Legend of The Bones podcast, a hybrid Solo Old School Dungeons and Dragons actual play and dark fantasy audio drama. Through several conversations...

My guest today is Clarke Peterson from Speaks and Spells Publishing, the author of several 5th Edition compatible products including Venture Forth, The Arcane Exterminator, and Secrets of the Selkies. The work he has been doing has been focused on Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition, and he has also contributed regularly to EN Publishing's monthly periodical for the system, the Gate Pass Gazette. Clark...

This one is all about the call-in feedback for the discussions I recently shared with Anthony, aka Runeslinger, from Casting Shadows on the topic of the Story Divide. More specifically, these messages largely relate to the longest episode ever - S15 Ep9 What are Roleplaying Games - in which we discussed the emergence of the Story Divide through the lens of what game designers were writing in their...

This one’s another conversation with Runeslinger, aka Anthony from the Casting Shadows blog, podcast, and Youtube channel. He hails from South Korea and, having just enjoyed a week off work, I was able to cue up some chats with him. This conversation is essentially the third part that began in Episode 6, The Story Divide, and explores - through the lens of D&D - the process by which the charac...

This one’s a conversation with Runeslinger, aka Anthony from the Casting Shadows blog, podcast, and Youtube channel. He hails from South Korea and, having just enjoyed a week off work, I was able to cue up some chats with him. This conversation continues from Episode 6, The Story Divide, and delves deeper into the history of the emergence of a perception that roleplaying games are about storytelli...

This one’s a conversation with a new friend. My guest hails from Florida, USA, and this is probably the beginning of a sequence of chats I’d like to have with him. Our focus was on what my guest calls, "world first" play and we specifically take his currently running Twilight 2000 campaign as an example. Yes, we talk GURPS and we talk modern post-apoc but that's not quite the point: this is about...

This one’s an eclectic collection of thoughts emerging from listener messages and the ongoing experience of running games in the wake of recent episodes. When I started this podcast, it was really about getting my concern about losing gamers to the experience of play - of people giving up the play which enriches our lives under the pressures of modern living.  At the same time, I was aware th...

This one’s a conversation with an old friend. My guest hails from South Korea and this continues a sequence of chats that we’ve shared over a number of months. Fear not though - this episode stands alone. Big thanks again to Anthony, aka Runeslinger from Casting Shadows for having this conversation and allowing me to record it. Game on! Casting Shadows: castingshadowsblog.com/ Roleplay Rescue Deta...

What if roleplaying games are not about telling stories? Is there another way to approach these games? And what happens if we stop treating the game like it’s a movie? This one is about expressing where I am in my own quest for improved roleplaying game experiences for my players. As the GM, this episode discusses where I am coming from and helps to explain some of the choices that I am making. Bi...

This one's a conversation with Joe, the host of the Dekahedron podcast where he talks about his love of the tabletop RPG hobby. On his show Joe talks about a range of stuff from OSR gameplay ideas through to newer (?) games like Fudge and Dungeon World. Joe's renowned for his honesty in RPG reviews and it’s that which triggered an invitation to the show. He recently did a couple of episodes review...

What happens if we drop the script and the expectation that this is going to be a thought-provoking analysis of some aspect of roleplaying? What happens if we lean into improvisation and see where things end up going? What if I just riff off the call-ins and other seemingly-random thoughts that pop into my head? Wouldn’t that just be a descent into the raw and unedited mess of the GM’s Journal? Or...

What happens if we lean back into the roots of our hobby - which for me is largely the 1980s - and realise that the kind of roleplaying we enjoy the most is in fact the Old-School variety? But instead of landing back in the realm of Dungeons & Dragons, what if we find the kind of system that emphasises the roleplay is actually found in the emergence of a game designed to encourage just that: r...