Campaign Spotlight

In this week's Flashlight, we head to the OrcaCon tabletop games convention in Seattle! We hear about a bunch of cool projects, we spot a prominent state official, and Jake is flummoxed by the concept of 24-hour livestreams. This convention was honestly so much fun, and we're already scheming to get to more tabletop gaming events. Here's everyone we spoke with in this episode. Some of these were b...

This week, we chat with Andrew from Legacies LARP about terrorizing the town as a fae abductor, depicting a demonic plague, and writing story for a long-running live-action role-playing game. This is a conversation about a very different type of storytelling experience in a game that's been running continuously for decades where each plot team only controls the narrative for six months at a time....

In this week's Flashlight, we're back on location one last time at the Howloween furry convention in Vancouver! This season, we're getting out into the community and asking people about their PCs and their campaigns. We hear about banishing political figures from the timeline, a party with multiple competing cultists, and becoming the first vampires to climb Mount Everest. Also this week, Jake and...

In this week's episode, we chat with Rob about order and chaos, recruiting a potato peeler, and running an epic high-level campaign. Rob shares a very controversial take on combat that Jake's still not sure about. Spoiler warnings for Mass Effect in this one. In our discussion of worldbuilding, we mention our very first interview with Mike . We also mention the Genesys system a couple times. Rob i...

In this week's Flashlight, we're back on location at the Howloween furry convention in Vancouver! This season, we're getting out into the community and asking people about their PCs and their campaigns. We hear about elfaboos, being dumb in a productive way, and a LARP character that actually steals things. Because we're at a furry convention, one of us is wearing a very clanky bell, and you can h...

This week, we chat with Mike about killing your PCs' beloved animal companions, treating your players to cool hats with powers, and bringing in guest players for very special episodes. Mike refers quite a few times to our interview with Sam way back in Season 1. Also, spoiler alert for How I Met Your Mother . Sam also recommends the podcast Dungeoncast , which is sadly shutting down. This week's P...

In this week's Flashlight, we're on location at the Howloween furry convention in Vancouver! This season, we're getting out into the community and asking people about their PCs and their campaigns. We hear about hat enthusiasts, revenge at all costs, and giving up the reins of your PC to your DM. Thanks to Joey, Sean, Kaesu, Shadowsmyst, Fir, Robin, and Kaji for taking the time to chat with us! (A...

This week, we chat with David about saving the whales, publishing your own game systems, and making a city feel corrupt, classy and discreet. David has built some very cool systems, and our conversation covers rules lawyering, game balance, and what it means for a table to tell a story together. For the first time in a long time, we don't spoil any media and we also don't ruin our changes at any s...

In the very first Flashlight of Season 3, we're on location at Oppegaard Meadery in Seattle! This season, we're getting out into the community and asking people about their PCs and their campaigns. This was a fun episode - not just because people had interesting things to say about TTRPGs, but also because the space was ludicrously cozy and the mead was delicious. Thanks to everyone who took the t...

In the very first episode of Season 3, we chat with Austin about literal truckloads of cryptocurrrency, designing high-level enemies, and the importance of in-game downtime. Austin is an accomplished game designer and brings a ton of helpful advice to the conversation. Unfortunately, we do tank our prospects for a Tesla sponsorship. A heads up that this episode swerves into a discussion of imperia...

In this finale Flashlight of Season 2, Jake is embarrasingly earnest, Reilly gives the listeners a lot of homework, and the sword makes a second ominous appearance. We plug our Patreon , repeatedly give different numbers for the PC intro hotline (it's 724 320 2020), and talk about our plans for Season 3. This is honestly an extremely silly conversation. We've had so much fun getting to make this p...

In this week's episode, we chat with Lew about unsustainable character voices, mixing ABBA with Norse mythology, and the importance of buying in to the fantasy. Very minor spoiler alert for 500 Days of Summer . We do joke about Ikea being our sponsor, but they're not, and this episode probably guarantees that they never will be. In this episode Lew mentions the Wayward Children series as well as t...

In this week's Flashlight, we talk about intellectual property, resolve to go to law school, and finally earn that explicit rating. You can tell that we record a few weeks in advance, because we joke about WotC's next bad decision but we don't know about the DNDBeyond debacle yet. Jake gets into economic theory. Reilly's mic might just be a cursed artifact. Spoiler warning for Fountainhead ? Also,...

In this week's episode, we chat with Dennis about branching out from D&D, useful feedback on game design, and the tradeoff between generality and specificity. We're doing something a little bit different this week (talking to someone who's built a new game system) and so the conversation gets a little crunchy at times. Also, you get to hear about Jake and Reilly's whole process of backups on b...

In this week's Flashlight, we talk the rise of actual plays, the incredible profitability of Wizards of the Coast, and the professionalization of a hobby. We get into both academic media theory and SEC filings. Reilly is astounded by how many movies Jake has never seen. Spoiler warnings for Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves as well as "I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream" as well as maybe R...

In this week's episode, we chat with Wolfgang about the struggle of making it in showbusiness, the importance of embracing a system's genre conventions, and the deployment of feminine appeal. Spoiler warning for Jaws in this one? And, to a lesser extent, The Young and the Restless . Disclaimers that we're not actually sponsored by Adobe Acrobat and Jake is not actually 5'6.  Here's the Beginning I...

In this week's Flashlight, we talk about playtesting at scale, becoming a cult leader, and the development of D&D 3e and D&D 3.5e as well as Pathfinder. Reilly shares his philosophy on ability checks and roleplay. Jake really doesn't know anything about cinema. We mention the games Swords of the Serpentine and Time Watch , both of which look extremely fun. Also, here are some links that we...

In this week's episode, we chat with Rex about being a mean satyr, the role of persuasion and compulsion in TTRPGs and LARP, and how to step out of your players' ways and let them tell their own stories. This conversation might actually have convinced Jake and Reilly to start getting into LARP. Jake is very concerned about whether you still get to sleep on a comfortable mattress, though. Rex is te...

In this week's Flashlight, Reilly introduces some very special guests, Jake is intimidated by game store employees, and we discuss the meteoric rise of Wizards of the Coast. We also get into the economic situation in the 1990s, the Canadian political system, and how our podcast production works behind the scenes. The bit about unpaid interns was a joke, we promise. We compare and contrast WotC wit...

This week, we chat with Erika about running a campaign using multiple systems, the upsides of metagaming, and worldbuilding at a table of dirty anarchist punks. Spoiler warning for Super Dimension Fortress Macross . In a sure sign that we're close to middle age, we do joke about the contents of our filing cabinets.  Here are the TTRPG systems that Erika describes playing in this campaign: Microsco...

In this week's Flashlight, we chat about the complicated corporate history of TSR, monetizing your hobbies, and how we'd deal with getting sued. Reilly wields a sword. Jake makes a metaphor about a goose that calls into question whether Jake has ever seen a goose before.  In this episode we also introduce Monocles McGillicuddy with absolutely zero context. Monocles was Reilly's PC way back in our...

In this week's episode, we chat with Max about Old School Revival gameplay, the joys of exploration, and how being a guest on our show can improve your romantic relationship. Minor spoilers for Lost Mine of Phandelver , if that matters to you. Also, if you're wondering what the production process looks like, the beginning of this episode has a bit of behind-the-scenes conversation. This is a very...

In this week's deep dive into the history of D&D, we talk about the origins of two iconic aspects of the game: the variety of dice and the extremely weird and specific monsters. Jake describes probability distributions, Reilly comes up with appealing backstories for creatures, and we take a brief detour into the concept of good and evil in fantasy worldbuilding. Throughout the episode we compl...

This week, we chat with Kit about incorporating intimate character moments in a campaign with a cosmic scale, themes of family and lineage at an all-queer table, and dealing with a whole menagerie of PC pets. Spoiler warnings for A Series of Unfortunate Events . We also talk about the poem " Auguries of Innocence ". Unfortunately, we never did manage to land that Cover Girl sponsorship. Kit shared...

In this season's Flashlight episodes, we're taking a deep dive into the history of Dungeons and Dragons. Whether you love it, hate it, or are grimly resigned to playing it because everybody already knows the rules, the long history of D&D parallels the history of modern TTRPGs. We're starting out in the 1960s and working forward to the present day. This week, we try to talk about the wargames...