Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

The Gaming Hut looks at the peace paradox, in which players successfully negotiate their way out of a conflict and then feel let down by the anti-climactic result. Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else features Lyla Fujiwara, project lead on the Cosmere RPG. The fantasy film essentials series returns to the Cinema Hut for […]

The Gaming Hut becomes a pit stop as beloved Patreon backer Aser Tolentino asks how a tabletop game might reproduce the spectacle of Formula One racing. In the History Hut we ask if Elizabeth Bathory was framed. Robin shares his KARTAS-friendly discoveries from this year’s Robin and Valerie International Film Festival in the Cinema Hut. […]

In the Gaming Hut we wonder what might appear on a tabletop roleplaying design course curriculum. At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Charles Picard the History Hut looks at the Welsh settlement in Patagonia. Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else features Elliot Davis, designer of Rom Com Drama Bomb, and such solo games […]

Recorded live at Gen Con, Ken, special guest co-host Darcy Ross and a cameo from Robin’s disembodied voice, this extra-special episode features the obligatory nerdtrope deck plus meatloaf secrets, Templar channeling points, Indiana’s mythos patron, and onesies for goth infants. Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with […]

In the spirit of the episode number, we kick off a demons and devils special in the Gaming Hut. Robin pitches Ken three ideas for a game with demon PCs; Ken picks one and we flesh it out. In the Mythology Hut we figure out what the big deal is with the number 666 anyway. […]

Clutch your stakes and polish your silver bullets as the Gaming Hut looks at the special vulnerabilities that allow player characters to defeat monsters. In the Stock Character Hut, we look at a key type essentials to Robin’s upcoming game Page Turners, the confidant. The Cinema Hut Fantasy Essentials series returns to solid footing as […]

In the Gaming Hut we look at how the unsatisfying nature of real life persuasion leads to player dissatisfaction with social combat systems. In Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else, Ken sits down the Pat Mooney of Flagbearer Games. The Cinema Hut Fantasy Essentials Series reaches the heartbreaker era of the mid 80s. Finally […]

Beloved Patreon backer Sikander orders and/or bribes the Gaming Hut into a discussion of game mechanics that require players to take in-genre actions versus those that offer rewards for doing so. At the behest of estimable backer David Sowa, the Tradecraft Hut peers into the world of private espionage organizations. Wielding Excaliburs both silly and […]

Ken is back from Gen Con to share his main takeaways from the 2025 show in OUR latest Travel Advisory. The Cinema Hut fantasy film essentials series covers the early 1970s. Speaking of Gen Con, the ENnie Awards just celebrated their 25th anniversary. Organization director Stacy Muth joins Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else […]

In the Gaming Hut we look at ways to run prelude scenes in scenarios, set before its main objective becomes apparent. The Word Hut gets judgmental as we look at archaic, obscure and rarely used words and decide which of them deserves to enter the general lexicon. Our Cinema Hut Fantasy Film Essentials Series covers […]

The episode starts with a retreat to the Gaming Hut as we talk about the importance of a safe headquarters for player characters. The Command Hut looks at Aggressor, Krasnovia, and other fictional geopolitical adversaries used as targets in US military training maneuvers. The Cinema Hut’s Fantasy Film Essentials Series makes its way through the […]

In the Gaming Hut we consider the two meanings of the term roleplaying. Through the joint auspices of Travel Advisory and the Culture Hut we profile surrealist occultist painter Ithell Colquhoun, subject a career retrospective show current at Tate Britain. The power of fantasy becomes the subject as the Cinema Hut’s Fantasy Essential Series turns […]

Beloved Patreon backer Tennant Reed seeks Gaming Hut tips on scenarios where  the player characters discover that they’re not who they think they are. The Crime Blotter profiles Old West cattle rustler and creative evader of consequences Climax Jim Nephew. The Cinema Hut Fantasy Film Essentials series focuses on postwar tales of ghosts, love, and […]

Settle back for some Gaming Hut disambiguation as beloved Patreon backer Bart Mallio asks us to explain the difference between a setting and a campaign frame. The Mythos Hut listens to a conch and screams when estimable backer Ludovic Chabant seeks the Deep One shenanigans behind the Margate Shell Grotto. The Cinema Hut Fantasy Essentials […]

The Gaming Hut gets informative as beloved Patreon backer Daiv Barr asks for campaign frames built around the librarian answer-seeking list Stumpers-L, aka Project Wombat. The Mythology Hut looks at St. Cuthbert, the historical Anglo-Saxon saint who became a D&D god.  Our Cinema Hut fantasy essential series continues with the early 40s. Finally Ken’s Time […]

As assigned by an anonymous beloved Patreon backer, the Gaming Hut ponders a university urban fantasy campaign where the syllabuses matter as much as the sylphs. The History Hut retreats to the high ground to meet estimable backer Robert Wolfe’s request for the esoteric and gaming ramifications of Dayton’s Great Flood. Our Cinema Hut Fantasy […]

The Gaming Hut has stacked up the non-perishables and gas masks to answer beloved Patroen backer’s Jason Thompson about a campaign that starts on the day of the apocalypse. The Stock Character Hut returns to examine a trope with a truly ancient provenance, the wily servant. Part two of the Cinema Hut Fantasy Essentials Series […]

In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Michael Cule wants to know more about the role dice play in roleplaying games. Fun With Science answers estimable backer Jurie Horneman’s request to look into a case of brain diagnosis by inner voices. The Cinema Hut kicks off our tour through Fantasy Film Essentials with the formative […]

In the Gaming Hut we talk roleplaying the French Revolution at the behest of beloved Patreon backer Dr. Nick. The Tradecraft Hut profiles English spy George Blake. The Cinema Hut kicks off a new Fantasy Film Essentials series by examining the boundary of the genre and setting some ground rules. Finally the Consulting Occultist obeys […]

Beloved Patreon backer beckons us to the Gaming Hut seeking tips on keeping PC hope alive when the bad guys run the authorities. In the Tradecraft Hut estimable backer Scify wants to know if DOGE has been cutting funding for CIA front operations. Urban cows are just the beginning as the Food Hut looks at […]

Much has changed since our last anniversary episode, but one thing that remains the same is our dedication to celebratory LIGHTNING ROUND!!! questions from our beloved Patreon backers. In quick startling fashion we dispatch inquiries, most not lists, favorites, or lists of favorites, concerning tabletop games, time travel, food & drink, spy stories and horror […]

The Gaming Hut finds reasons for player characters to show mercy toward defeated opponents. Hoaxing is usually a white collar crime. Not so, as the Crime Blotter explores, in the case of Mark Hofmann, whose production of forged Church of Latter Day Saints historical documents escalated to murder. The first installment of the Stock Character […]

In Among My Many Hats, Robin tells all about Page Turners, his game of dramatic interaction for one player and one game moderator, in which he is joined as a scenario writer by Sarah Saltiel, Ruth Tillman, and Wade Rockett. Beloved Patreon backer Michael David Jr. draws us into the Mythos Hut to cross Silver […]

For the first time at THE KRAKEN, the legendary Gaming Retreat held in the remote yet cozy environs of the Schloss Neuhausen in what used to be Prussia, Ken and Robin talk live to a group of rapt attendees. After nerdtroping Stalin and an alien invasion, we field questions on German cuisine, the economics of […]

Sometimes you want to let the player characters stand back and let more capable parties mop up the threat. The Gaming Hut finds ways to keep that exciting and suspenseful. The History Hut profiles Milton Bradley, the person behind the famous game company. Beloved Patreon backer beckons us to the Narrative Hut to consider whether […]