Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

  When Ken and Robin go live, as they do here in this episode recorded in August at Gen Con, the audience, aided by a mythic pack of index cards, tells us what the topics are. And in this case they jointly demanded Crimean War mecha, Bannonesque intrigue, Ken’s beef with the Gnostics, time machine […]

  In That Thing I Always Say, we examine Ken’s maxim that death spirals make for good gaming. With Labor Day in the rear view mirror, the Cinema Hut looks back at blockbuster season for a round up of the summer movies that were. Finally the Consulting Occultist serves up a reply to Patreon backer […]

  A couple of episodes ago we put a pin in the idea of Magic Blackwater and now in the Gaming Hut we unpin it for further consideration. In yet more business arising from the previous minutes, the Mythology Hut looks at the kinship between the vampire and the serial killer. Then Ken and/or Robin […]

  Annual traditions happen only once a year, and since Gen Con has now happened fifty times, we must bring you an extra special convention review Gaming Hut. With a Travel Advisory on something that won’t happen for a long time or possibly ever–Ken’s journey into  eclipse totality! Want to pose a question to the […]

  That ambient sound you hear is the muffled bustle of the Embassy Suites in beautiful downtown Indianapolis as we record a face-to-face episode immediately prior to the sweet chaos of Gen Con. We start in a portable version of the Gaming Hut to answer a question from Patreon backer Alexandria Permann, who wants to […]

The Gaming Hut goes inside the design process as Robin discovers he wants to make a humble sub-system a little less humble. The Food Hut goes inside the casing as Ken waxes rhapsodic on the history and virtues of the Chicago hot dog. Ask Ken and Robin goes inside the business as Patreon backer David […]

The Gaming Hut goes inside the design process as Robin discovers he wants to make a humble sub-system a little less humble. The Food Hut goes inside the casing as Ken waxes rhapsodic on the history and virtues of the Chicago hot dog. Ask Ken and Robin goes inside the business as Patreon backer David […]

We clatter our dice and thump our miniatures in the Gaming Hut, considering a Patreon backer Travis Johnson question about what to do when the players break the tone they asked you to instill. With a Kickstarter and then a vacation, Robin hasn’t been paying attention to the news lately. So he meets Ken in […]

The Gaming Hut falls all over itself answering a question from Patreon backer Daniel Krauklis: “What does the choice to have fumbles in your rules that tell us about your game and the moral universe in which the characters operate?” We fortify the Cartography Hut for a workshop on designing strategic locations into your world. […]

Are your modern investigators getting cocky? Join us in the Gaming Hut as we riff a rival team to toss some sand in their gears. The Cartography Hut looks at the process of mapping fictional cities, like those invented by H. P. Lovecraft. In Ask Ken and Robin, John Scheib wants to know about habits […]

As heard on this very podcast, I and Atomic Overmind Press are launching — nay, have already launched — the Kickstarter for my book Tour de Lovecraft: the Destinations, the sequel to my much beloved volume Tour de Lovecraft: the Tales. Drop by the Kickstarter and back us if you care to, and we would […]

As one Kickstarter ends, another begins, specifically on Wednesday, July 26. In Among My Many Hats Ken tells us about his cool new book, Tour de Lovecraft: The Destinations, which is Kickstarting on Wednesday, July 26. The Gaming Hut poses a GMing question: when is it best for us, as Game Masters, not to talk? […]

Who would have believed that when they started a podcast two scrappy writer/game designers could make it all the way to episode 250? You know what that means: time once again for another Lightning Round, in which we fire through as many questions as we can, starting with those posed to us by our indispensible […]

  Run! Hide! The Gaming Hut is coming for you, with a look at chase rules for horror RPGs. Homicide and puppets collide as the Crime Blotter recounts 1929’s Benny Evangelist murders. The recent theft of Dawson City’s Downtown Hotel severed drinking toe prompts a Food Hut consideration of appalling drink rituals. Then we rev up […]

In the Gaming Hut we find ways to design compelling consequences, with a particular nod toward Robin’s recent work on GUMSHOE One-2-One and The Yellow King Roleplaying Game. The Tradecraft Hut provides a briefing requested by Patreon backer Stephen Brandon: given the recent Reality Winner case, what can player characters do to avoid her mistakes […]

Stare! Stare my friends, into the most psychically destablizing hat of all. For this week Among My Many Hats has the Yellow Sign neatly embroidered upon it, and you know what that means: Robin’s new GUMSHOE project for Pelgrane Press, The Yellow King Roleplaying Game, is Kickstarting now. Ken hangs onto his last Composure point […]

We interrupt the tranquility of your regular podcast subscription feed to riff briefly on some long anticipated yet terrifying news. The Yellow King Roleplaying Game, which Robin has been covertly promoting for many months, is now up for your decadent assessment on Kickstarter. We’ll be back in Friday to discuss it in detail, but we […]

Uh-oh, looks like Robin wants to introduce another term of art into the RPG design lexicon. Ken joins him in the Gaming Hut to consider system humility. Transfixed by the hypnotic gaze of Patreon backer Andrea Coletta, we shuffle into the History Hut to reveal all on the Rasputin phenomenon, as most recently echoed by […]

A guy in a hat was going to tell us what was in the Gaming Hut this week, but then one of your PCs just shot him with a crossbow. That leaves us to figure out what to do when the players kill off their information sources. In the Book Hut, Patreon backer Andy Young […]

We knew you were going to join us in the Gaming Hut, where we answer Patreon backer Bret Kramer’s question on running omniscient GMCs as allies or enemies of the player characters. In the Food Hut we look at cocktails, subject of a recently concluded quest by Robin. The Tradecraft Hut goes Gallic with the […]

We know you want to hear about it, so Among Our Many Hats digs into the announcement that a certain Ken Hite will serve as lead designer for the new edition of Vampire: the Masquerade. But that’s not all the hats! Then Robin looks at ways to use the Story Beats web app, which allows […]

The Gaming Hut has a thatched roof this time out as we riff a cast of pseudo-medieval villagers for your next F20. In The Business of Gaming we puzzle the mystery of the generic supplement. In the Food Hut we look at foodstuffs as treasure. Finally we pry open the bars of the Eliptony Hut […]

In the Gaming Hut we look at premise rejection from a player perspective. How do you catch yourself doing it, and how do you find your way through it? We crawl over to the Cinema Hut to discuss the motifs of the war movie and how they’re adjusting to contemporary conflicts. In Ken and/or Robin […]

Our second consecutive all-request episode kicks off in the Gaming Hut, as Ray Slakinksi asks for tips on running Night’s Black Agents at conventions. In the History Hut Andy Young wants to know about the Mythos truth behind the death of legendary Canadian painter Tom Thomson. Rick Neal uses the kind offices of Ask Ken […]

Another all-request episode kicks off in the Gaming Hut, as Stewart Robertson asks how to make a BSM (Big Science McGuffin) integral to a game series. The History Hut, takes on a yurt-like configuration as Morgan Ellis demands the scoop on the Mad Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg. Joshua Hillerup convenes an installment of Ask Ken […]