Gnoll Country for Old Men

Mind Flayers! Ancient beings of arcane and psionic power that want to eat your brains! A classic monster of dungeons and dragons, the humble Ilithid has been around since the earliest editions of the game, and is a favorite of dungeon masters looking for a way to humble their players.

How does magic work in a game? How is it presented in a fantasy setting? Is Pokemon a fantasy setting? These are some of the questions we try to answer on this episode of Gnoll Country for Old Men.

Has the podcast delved too greedily, and too deep? If so we may have just stumbled onto the subterranean home of the dwarves, everyone's favorite hard working, hard drinking, hard bearded underground folk. But where do dwarves come from? (mountains) What do dwarves want? (treasure) And why are dwarves so cool? We just don't know.

3D printing: because sometime you need to spend a lot of time and effort to make a very specific model for your wargame. But where did the technology come from, and will it make all other manufacturing obsolete? (no).

A staple of fantasy worlds since the days of Tolkien, orcs are a classic monster for a reason. But what is that reason? And why are orcs the way they are? And what makes the orcs of different settings interesting and unique?

It's the end of the (TTRPG) world as we know it, and I feel fine. This week we're talking about one of the powerhouses of the indie tabletop roleplaying scene, Powered by the Apocalypse! This 2d6 based narrative heavy system is a player favorite, and has been used for games ranging from superheroes to dungeon crawls and so much more!

Welcome to season 2 of Gnoll Country for Old Men! We're celebrating Gnollvember by doing an episode dedicated to that mis-understood hyena demonspawn monster, the Gnoll! From its origins in early fantasy fiction, to the decision to make them hyena themed, to ideas for how to run space gnolls, we talk about it all.

The formalized version of sitting around a campfire telling scary stories, Horror TTRPGs have been around for a long time. We discuss some of the most interesting games out there, and learn what each of them is good for.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the gamestore... Spooky season continues, as we discuss Slasher films, their influence on tabletop games, and what you can play if you're looking to get a horrifically good game for Halloween!

Cosmic horror! The awakening of ancient elder gods, the alienation of man in an uncaring universe, the discovery of sanity melting forgotten civilizations... and also a lot of board games. The works of HP Lovecraft have influenced a lot of games, and we're going to talk about them.

As we enter spooky season, it's time to talk about one of the classic horror monsters and how they fit into tabletop games, board games, and RPGs. That's right, zombies! They eat your brains, they shuffle around aimlessly, and they provide social commentary on the nature of man.

Think tabletop miniatures games look cool, but don't know how to start playing them? Want to learn about options beyond just dropping an entire paycheck on a Warhammer army? Feel like painting all the models and rolling all the dice? Then this is the episode you've been waiting for!

We're talking about Eberron! Our favorite modern DnD setting, a rip-roaring land of pulp adventures, noir intrigue, magic slinging robots, and lightning trains!

In this educational episode, our hosts delve into the world of miniatures! Learn how to get started cultivating your collection of tiny figures for fantasy games, science fictions games, and anything else. With tips on painting, where to buy figures, and much, much more.

It's time to talk about a classic and beloved setting: Planescape! Journey across the outlands, visit the outer planes, the inner planes, and Sigil, the City of Doors! We love this setting. Wizards of the Coast better not mess it up when they do a re-release.

This Labor Day, we're taking some time off working to discuss games where you decide how and where people work! Worker placement games have been a fast growing type of modern board games. But what are they? What makes them interesting? Which ones do we like? Learn all this and more on this episode of Gnoll Country for Old Men.

Well, Spelljammer came out for 5th edition DnD. It's not what we were hoping for. This podcast is mostly just complaining about the lack of new features and lore, and pointed references to what could have been.

What makes a science fiction setting (or franchise) good? What makes a universe good for playing games, either RPGs or wargames? What's that noise at the airlock? We discuss, and take the opportunity to talk about some of our favorite science fiction worlds.

What if Mad Max were a DnD setting? Welcome to the world of Dark Sun, a dying-Earth apocalyptical wasteland abandoned by the gods and ruled by ruthless sorcerer-kings. A great place for adventurers, although maybe not a great place if you want metal armor.

Perhaps the most popular wargame setting, it's World War 2! We're talking about all the games set during the 20th century's most destructive conflict. Also, why we prefer alternate history if you want to do a "historical" RPG.

It's fantasy, in space! Spelljammer, the classic DnD setting where you sail between the crystal shells and pilot your ship to distant worlds, with strange new life and new civilizations! Also, there are miniature giant space hamsters.

We've talked about bad game mechanics, but what about good game mechanics? There are things that we like to see in board games, war games, and RPGs. So game designers, if you're listening, do more with these sorts of things.

They're not as forgotten as you might think! The Forgotten Realms is one of the most details and beloved settings in the Dungeons and Dragons game. We talk about it, and probably don't do it justice.

Happy 4th of July! We interrupt the scheduled discussion of DnD settings to take a look at some of the fearsome beasts, legendary monsters, and cryptids in American folklore. From the Wendigo to Mothman, we look at classics and forgotten favorites and determine how they might be used in a TTRPG.

It's time to talk about the oldest board game that is still being played competitively! Go! From it's origins in China more than 2000 years ago, to the recent developments in AI that can beat humans, to how nice it would be to own one of the fancy expensive board for the game, we get into many of the game's details.