Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer V. R. Weather asks for a 101 on playtesting. Surprised that we have not directly tackled this basic topic before, we immediately comply. The Tradecraft Hut profiles the peripatetic career of OSS and CIA operative Louise Page Morris. In How to Write Good estimable Patreon backer Benjamin Rawls […]

The T-Shirt Justification Hut gets scaly and doomy with a look at the connection between dragons and apocalypses. In the Money Hut, we reveal high-frequency trading as yet another Carcosan front operation. Then we fulfill a past promise with part two of Ken’s Bookshelf New England haul. Want to pose a question to the show? […]

In the Gaming Hut we provide tips on GMing for a loose cannon character. Surely not a loose cannon player. None of us have ever had that experience. Beloved Patreon backer Travis Johnson summons the power of Ask Ken and Robin to ask how to include the Bush Wars in The Fall of DELTA GREEN. […]

In the Gaming Hut, we look at game balance. What is it, and when do we care about it? We try not to step on any skulls in the Archaeology Hut as Beloved Patreon backers Liz & Siskey seek the scoop on Roman gravesite in Cambridgeshire containing a surprising number of beheaded remains. In the […]

Hey, it’s an all-request episode! Count the syllables and jot down the allusions as an anonymous Patreon backer beckons us into the Gaming Hut to ask how to do spontaneous poetry duels in roleplaying sessions. Then pseudonymous Patreon backer Polydamas meets us in the Architecture Hut for the secret history behind Columbia University’s New York […]

The Gaming Hut hits the streets, many of them, for a look at designing scenarios to introduce a city. We find the Crime Blotter is covered in ancient leather and animal glue, our cue to find the gaming in the fake Biblical scrolls purchased by the Museum of the Bible. In Ask Ken and Robin, […]

Make sure anyone else in the room is really them as the Gaming Hut looks at fox spirits, doppelgangers, and other foes who disguise themselves as human. The Tradecraft Hut profiles CIA operative, author, and coup arranger Miles Axe Copeland, Jr. How to Write Good serves up tips on the revision process, from break taking […]

Don’t forget you’re in the Gaming Hut as beloved Patreon backer Lauberfen asks for tips on finding the fun in amnesia and similar player character flaws. In Ripped from the Headlines, estimable Patreon backer Robert Wolfe seeks the true truth on the clones of the strong-willed pig. Finally, as normalcy, or at least retail sales, […]

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer as the Gaming Hut provides advice to players running in political intrigue games. In Fun With Science beloved Patreon backer Josh King asks for the real truth behind Siberian mystery holes. Ask Ken and Robin fields a question from estimable Patreon backer William Brafford, who seeks a […]

Keep an eye out for incoming candlesticks as the Gaming Hut finds ways to engage players in the prelude part of a scenario, for example the bit in a cozy mystery before any genteel murdering happens. At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Dustyn Mincey, the History Hut examines the era of Greek history known […]

Just when time had lost all meaning, the ineffable power of numbers tells us that we’ve hit Episode 450. Seasoned investigators know what that means: our beloved Patreon backers pose them, and we blast them with electric force. It’s time for celebratory Qs and exultant As! It’s time for… LIGHTNING ROUND!!! Want to pose a […]

We venture from the Gaming Hut into a wider world of stashed items as beloved Patreon backer Carrie Schutrick requests the RPG angle on geocaching. Estimable Patreon backers pool their resources in the Tradecraft Hut, where we gaze into the eyeless sockets of the CIA’s top secret asset—a mask of actor Rex Harrison. Demon gods […]

In the Gaming Hut we spitball scenarios that take place over a period of many years. Fun With Science answers the call from beloved Patreon backer bt to examine Freudian psychologist Charles Seligman’s project to gather dreams from the many peoples occupied by the British Empire. Good thing we just had a new bar installed […]

We start out in the Gaming Hut to tell your GM that the shocking premise subversion they have in mind isn’t as fun or cool as they might think. A segment that had to hibernate during the pandemic is back! In Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else, Ken talks to colleague Jeff Tidball about […]

An all-request episode kicks off in the Gaming Hut with beloved Patreon backer Chris Camfield’s request to follow up on a carelessly dropped side reference about realist F2O. Esteemed Patreon backer Chris Melkus meets us in the Archaeology Hut to ask about a recent story of tomb robbing in China’s Shaanxi province, in which the […]

In the Gaming Hut we provide tips enabling you to convince your fellow players to go along with your plans. Beloved Patreon backer Jurie Horneman asks us to convene a Book Hut to talk about Robert Anton Wilson. In Ask Ken and Robin, estimable Patreon backer Gabriel Rossman looks for a fictionalized treatment of the […]

Prepare to reverse polarity as the Gaming Hut looks at scenarios that revolve around science mysteries. Beloved Patreon backer Tennant Reed asks us to unfurl the Crime Blotter for the story of penal colony escapee and confessed cannibal Alexander Pearce. In Ask Ken and Robin, estimable Patreon backer Kaijuthulu seeks tips on running a Mutant […]

In the Gaming Hut, we help you, the player, bring your character’s narrative hook, in this case a Freaking Weird Moment for The Yellow King Roleplaying Game, into play. As befits this weird year, the Cinema Hut finally gets around to our Top Ten Films of 2020, right in time for you to have already […]

Bravely we enter the Gaming Hut, at the behest of beloved Patreon backer Scott Wachter, to roast the cockatrice and other weaksauce monsters. The History Hut runs aground as estimable Patreon backer Stephen Dosman asks how the Yellow Fleet, marooned in the Suez Canal after the Six Day War, might fit into a Fall of […]

In the Gaming Hut, beloved Patreon backer Joe Webb asks for a Fall of DELTA GREEN / Night’s Black Agents crossover inspired by a Cambodian pop song. (After we recorded this segment Ken remembered that Tod Browning’s Dracula uses the Swan Lake theme as its title music, but if he had done that in advance […]

In the Gaming Hut the beloved Patreon backer known as Ed, Speaker in Digressions, asks us to envision a game that that arcs from a state of nature to civil society. The Tradecraft Hut steams open the career of Alexandrine, Countess of Taxis, and Postmistress of the Holy Roman Empire. The ongoing Cinema Hut Horror […]

Would we rather fight a turnip-headed wyvern, or an enormous Jenny Haniver? The answer awaits in the T-Shirt Justification Hut. In Ask Ken and Robin, mighty-thewed Patreon backer Mike Mearls asks for sources to run an F20 game in Ancient Sumer. The Cinema Hut finally gets with the present century as the horror essential series […]

Beloved Patreon backer Jonathan Keim asks us to take care of the Gaming Hut for the winter, during which time we will contemplate making place as big a part of a game session as the Overlook Hotel is part of The Shining. In the Food Hut Ken takes us to almost Nebraska and the spiral […]

Pick up that flashlight and head down into the basement as the Gaming Hut looks at building moments that take advantage of a single protagonist for one-player games like GUMSHOE One-2-One. The History Hut returns to the wild streets of Ken’s signature city as beloved Patreon backer Neal Dalton seeks the story of Count Dante […]

In the Gaming Hut we parse the differences between crunch and simulation, as we examine the yen for complexity and the various related but separate impulses behind it. At the behest of beloved Patreon backers Will Ferguson and Felicity Pyatt, the Crime Blotter heads to 1827 Suffolk to open the case files of the notorious […]