Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

Once again we close out the year with an episode recorded in front of a live audience at Dragonmeet in Hammersmith, London. Topics include the relationship between Queen Elizabeth and the Peloponnesian War, Cthulhoid Teletubbies, giant cows, modes of Yellow King RPG Game Mastering, and of course, sausages. We’ll be back with our first episode […]

Jet-lagged and full of pudding, we return from our latest trip to Dragonmeet to issue a Travel Advisory about the Anglo Saxon Kingdoms exhibit at the British Library. In the Gaming Hut we pursue a request from Patreon backer Mikey Hamm to talk about chase rules. If we were just in London, our hero must […]

Not to spoil anything, but we open in the Gaming Hut as Patreon backer V Weather asks us what to do when it turns out you’ve already read the adventure your GM is running. In How To Write Good, we examine the uses and abuses of ambiguity in RPG setting materials. Then it’s off to […]

Get out your space calculators as we meet in the Gaming Hut to entertain a request from Patreon backer Robert Dean, who wants to hear more about the time Ken ran Traveller for accountants. In the History Hut we fulfill the desire of backer Joe Littrell to learn the real reason behind Churchill’s wartime initiative […]

  This podcast never wastes your time, but what if you, as a GM, have to fill some space in your session? The Gaming Hut looks at ways to vamp for time. In the drafty confines of the Architecture Hut, Patreon backer Darren Hennessy wants to know about Houska Castle in the Czech Republic, known […]

Under the black stars of Carcosa, we celebrate the impending publication of Robin’s The Yellow King Roleplaying Game and the manuscript completion of Ken’s The King in Yellow Annotated Edition with an all-Pallid Mask edition of our decadent podcast. In Among My Many Hats, Ken shares what he’s learned about Chambers and the Hyades while working on […]

  We open in the Gaming Hut, or is all part of an elaborate trick, as Patreon backer Sean asks how to pull switcheroos on players who don’t like being fooled. Ken meets us in the Cinema Hut to reveal the filmic goodies he saw at this year’s Chicago International Film Festival. In Ask Ken […]

  Join us in the Gaming Hut to assist Patreon backer Dustyn Mincey with his difficulty in sticking with a single game, when there are so many awesome games in the world. Then Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else, specifically designer extraordinaire Steve Kenson. Finally it’s again time to vicariously caress the covers of […]

  Join us for an elegaic Gaming Hut as we tackle but a single topic: the life and work of our friend and inspiration, the grand shaman of gaming, Greg Stafford (1948-2018.) Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon! Snag Ken […]

  In the Gaming Hut we assist Patreon backer Jean-Francois Paradis in creating a campaign where the PCs’ homeland is invaded by a technologically superior rival. Stay far from manhole covers and sewer grates as the Horror Hut looks at CHUDs and troglodytes. Then Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else, specifically gaming’s cartoonist laureate, […]

  Another all-request episode kicks off in the Gaming Hut as Patreon backer Gene Ha asks what F20 evil deities get out of all the dungeons they create and manage. In the Cartography Hut we look into trap streets and parch marks, at the behest of backer Jurie Hornemann. Ask Ken and Robin gives backer […]

  The Cinema Hut bursts with upcoming delights as Robin returns from his annual jaunt to Toronto International Film Festival to provide highlights on a banner year. In the Gaming Hut we tackle a perennial problem: how do you make sure the talky PC gets to talk to the talky NPC before the killy PC […]

Advice for players kicks us off in the Gaming Hut, as we suggest ways to react when the GM provides you with a magic gun. Then in a segment we persist in calling How To Write Good, rather than Robin Yells Into the Wind, we show you how to tag jokes on the Internet. Ken […]

  Let’s summon the spirit of summer one last time by hearkening back to a balmy Indianapolis Friday, when Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff live from the surprising new confines of the Lucas Oil stadium at Gen Con. Come for the Nerdtrope cards, come for the incisive questions from our ever-alert audience. Want to […]

  The Gaming Hut makes room for our collection of crystal balls as Patreon backer Rob Towell asks for hints on GMing prophecies and divinations. The Crime Blotter looks at a rash of highly professional heists targeting relics looted from the Old Summer Palace and held in European museums. Patreon backer Polydamas asks us to […]

On the alert for treacherous banana peels, we gather in the Gaming Hut to wonder if GUMSHOE can handle incompetent PCs. In Ask Ken and Robin, Patreon backer Frank Rafaelson wants Ken to pitch a new edition of Nephilim. How to Write Good posits that idiot plotting is not just an issue in procedure-heavy narratives. […]

    Another all-request episode opens in the familiar confines of the Gaming Hut, where Patreon backer Trung Bui wants to know how we pull out all the stops for climactic campaign-ending episodes. In the Horror Hut, backer Samwise Crider asks how to incorporate the newly discovered Icelandic and Swedish versions of Bram Stoker’s Dracula […]

  Patreon backers, specifically Patreon backer Brian Malcolm, demand yet more dungeon talk from us in the Gaming Hut. How do you lend a dungeon complex a narrative quality, instead of making it a random collection of rooms and fights? In Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else, Christoph Sapinsky tells us about his new […]

  We’re scratchy voiced and mushy headed from our journey to Gen Con 18. The Best Four Days in Gaming got bigger than ever this year, and we’re here to sort through the awards, the announcements, and perhaps a spot of food. Also at Gen Con we talked to Emily Reinhart, whose magical girl RPG […]

  Once more we’re in the same room together with an episode recorded in our hotel the day before Gen Con. Hmm, what easy topics shall we tackle? Does the game system you’re playing expect you to generate a plot hook for your character? We’re waiting in the Gaming Hut with tips and advice. The […]

  Mystery scenario construction is once again on our minds in the Gaming Hut, as we discuss ways to run a mystery in which the investigators respond to an ongoing spree of murders, monster attacks, or the like. We make sure the roof of the History Hut is well-patched as we consider the cosmic terror […]

  Most RPG scenarios assume that it’s up to the player characters to conclusively defeat the bad guys at the end. In the Gaming Hut we ask when it’s okay to leave the mop up to outside forces. In the History Hut Patreon backer Jake asks us to unveil the mysteries of the Cagots. Ask […]

  In the Gaming Hut we look at how the same adversary can play very different roles from one game to the next. Serving as an example is Red Jack, created for Night’s Black Agents but presently contemplating a killing spree in The Yellow King Roleplaying Game. The Tradecraft Hut examines China’s latest hacking coup […]

  The Gaming Hut lies at the end of a ten foot corridor this week as Patreon backer Elias Helfer asks us, as paragons of story-driven RPGs, to explain why we think dungeons are awesome. In Fun With Science we extrapolate a future with affordable carbon reclamation. With the Over the Edge Kickstarter now in […]

  It’s been 300 installments, just a smidge shy of six years, and longtime listeners and backers know what that means. Time for another episode-length Lightning Round, as we provide uncharacteristically snappy As to Qs about games, beverages, monsters, bees and the ever-proverbial so much more. Want to pose a question to the show? Get […]