Finding Atoria

Send us Fan Mail Welcome Back to the Table! This week Arcadia and Malcolm sit down for some Convention talk.  We share a discussion about Arcadia’s recent attendance at the ALA (American Library Association) Annual Conference & Exhibition in Chicago IL.  Arcadia got a wonderful look into some of the people and initiatives that are leveraging TTRPG tools, strategy and access to bring value to l...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome Back to the Table! This week Jess joins Arcadia and Malcolm for a discussion about travel.  The crew shares stories of how getting out and seeing the world can bring huge inspiration to the games at your table. Arcadia discusses the beauty and history of Bordeaux where on a recent trips she found inspiration in all places for her games.  From the people to wine culture and...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome Back to the Table! This week Tori leads Arcadia and Malcolm through a conversation on the emerging data and discussions on mental health applications for TTRPG’s.  More research and study in using these games as vessels for skill building, alternative social redirection, therapeutic exploration is happening now than ever before and the FA team brings some of the stories an...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome Back to the Table! This week FA gets back into the conversation about how the TTRPG community and hobby space are being used by many, including adults to find, form and grow meaningful relationships.  The unique setting, collaborative and repetitive interactions of playing at the table reveal strong, safe and lasting friendships for many gamers. The newest generation also...

Send us Fan Mail 18. Antici…pation at the Table!  New TTRPG and Game Trends Welcome Back to the Table! This week Tori, Malcolm and Arcadia gather to discuss what lies on the horizon in the TTRPG market as we prepare for a new GenCon season.  Tori starts off with some of the bigger names in the industry making moves with game additions and releases.  She lets us know who will be having big releases...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome Back to the Table! This week we dive back into the World of Darkness to offer a beginner’s guide to two more factions of VTM lore.  First, Tori breaks down the Setite offshoot of The Ministry.  A vampiric plague of sorts, spreading the corruption of sin throughout modern nights.  With roots and relation to the followers of Set, this group of kindred sew malice and vice thr...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome Back to the Table! This week Arcadia sits down with Tori and Malcolm for another look at a couple Atorian Legends.  The tables turn a bit as Malcolm introduces us to his First Gen Hero of the Crossroads, Draville Goldblade.  We learn some of the early experiences and game moments that brought the party’s Dipshit in a Can from the rough brothel bouncer life to the throne ro...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome Back to the Table! This week Malcolm gets the opportunity to interview his cohosts, Tori and Arcadia about their First Generation PC’s in Atoria.  We peel back the curtain have a conversation about how two of the original Heroes of the Crossroads came to be, what shaped their roles and Atoria and what is left in the legacies fo these two Atorian Legends.  Arcadia introduce...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome Back to the Table! Malcolm and Tori have broken into the studio for more unsupervised shenanigans.  This week the two trade book reviews and get into very different Dungeons and Dragons source materials.  Malcolm wins the roll off and defers to Tori, who is only too happy to discuss Xanathar’s Guide to Everything .  A great resource book alive with subclasses, lore, charac...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome Back to the Table! Tori and Malcolm are in the studio today to check back in with a game that our table and studio bought into the hype for.  Almost a year in, we revisit the Darrington Press/Critical Role Narrative TTRPG.  We look at how it landed, how it splashed and where it has gone since.  Malcolm and Tori revisit why the game was such a scene when it hit shelves, wha...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome Back to the Table! Don’t adjust your podcast, that is just one of our Birthday Girls, Jess, who is stepping in to moderate this week’s episode!  We celebrate the birthdays of both Jess and Arcadia in fun look into the games that we are looking forward to playing.  Tori, Arcadia and Malcolm give a title they can wait to get their hands on at the table.  No spoilers here but...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome Back to the Table! This week we get to spend some time with a full studio (hooray!) and talk a little about the experience Arcadia and Jess had running the Heroes of the Borderlands Starter Set for Dungeons and Dragons 5e.  We get different perspectives on both playing in and running a game set in the starter campaign as well as dive a little into the differences in experi...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome Back to the Table! This week Malcolm is alone in the studio for an episode dealing with absences in your TTRPG group. Everyone has dealt with and most likely been an absent player or two at the table.  What can send GMs into panic and cause disruptions in your game, doesn’t have.  We take a look at the nature of missing games, the likely and the underlying causes and give...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome Back to the Table! This week we continue our VTM Beginner’s Guide to clans while sending healing potions to Arcadia and missing Jess at the table. That’s right, somebody didn’t read the memo and left Tori and Malcolm unsupervised on the mics.  Tori brings us the world of the Ravnos, a rare and mysterious find in modern nights.  These Kindred work outside of the social real...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome Back to the Table!  We are down one Tori for today’s discussion on telling stories.  But Arcadia, Jess and Malcolm peel back the story teller role in both sets of media.  We look at the audiences, similarities and differences in scripted media production vs the chaotic collaborative storytelling found in most TTRPG experiences.  What advantages a scripted media piece has i...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome Back to the Table!  Tori is downing health potions and is missed today. Settle in for a fun and telling chat with Malcolm, Arcadia and Jess.  Far from the hard hitting, serious interview topics, today the group keeps it light and Funcilitates good conversation.  We discuss a little about them as GMs and Players and then jump into the people at our table with less than deep...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome Back to the Table!  We are letting our inner Book-Goblins out today!  Join Arcadia, Malcolm, Tori and Jess for a look at some old school tomes from our library of tomes.  Today Tori opens up with a little compare and contrast on two sources for everything from little minions to BBEGs.  The stories behind the releases and inclusions of both the Monster Manual for AD&D a...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome Back to the Table!  Today Arcadia, Tori, Malcolm and Jess sit down to discuss the Terry Pratchett Disc World RPG update as presented by Mordiphius Games.  What we know, what we like and a bit on what others are saying about the game.  We take some time to step in the setting, nod to the books and media that in doubt influenced the game and explore what, if any niche space...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome Back to the Table!  We have a full and festive studio for another dive into the World of Darkness with two more Guides to Clans for Beginners in VTM.  Tori Starts us off with the story of the Salubri, an odd duck in Vampire lore.  The Salubri were healers whose origins date back to the oldest of nights but their Empathy served to make them a target and continues to be thei...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome Back to the Table!  You’ve really locked into a strange one this week!  We have a full studio for a conversation (that just about gets going) on Dual and Multi-Class characters, rules and impacts in D&D in contrast to other games and systems.  Tori introduces us to her Rouge (and more) who are using the rules of Multi-Classing at the table to progress the character thr...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome Back to the Table!  This week Malcolm sits down with Jess to discuss her wildly popular Home Brew Campaign; Japan In Space.  This 5e setting is a product of two great loves, interests and fandoms, bringing together a historical age of strife and change in Bakumatsu Japan and the operatic expansive elements found in Star Wars media.  More than a TTRPG in a Galactic skin, Je...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to the table — and welcome back for Season 2 ! Malcolm, Tori, and Jess return for another Clan Comparison from VTM . Tori leads off with Clan Gangrel, a clan made up of strays and rogues who value strength, independence, and survival above all else. These vampires aren’t interested in the shenanigans of courtly politics; instead, they focus on living their unlife on t...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to the table! This week, as we wrap up 52 episodes in 52 weeks , we’re pulling something special from behind the Patreon paywall just for you. Tori, Arcadia, and Malcolm come together for the second entry in Tori’s Monster Comparison series, diving deep into the Adult Blue Dragon . This monster is near and dear to all of our hearts here at the podcast, and we take a l...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to the table! This week, Tori, Arcadia, and Malcolm are in the studio with Jess for a perhaps uncomfortable chat about the predictive elements quickly growing in our hobby space. With no wrong answers, honest conversation sheds light on where using technology as a tool makes sense—enhancing experiences and opening access to TTRPGs. After the break, we shift the lens t...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to the table! This week, Tori, Arcadia, and Malcolm are joined by Jess for a look at Life Path System character generation. Here at Finding Atoria , we’re longtime devotees of stat block roll-ups and ability-score-driven character creation—but the Life Path System (of which there are many) offers a very different way to build a character. Life Path Systems were popula...