Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Charles Picard, the Gaming Hut ponders cultural diaspora in F20 settings. The Archaeology Hut looks at a recent discovery in Denmark, an Iron Age house built on a foundation of weapons and armor. Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else features our chat with Nerdburger Games’ Craig Campbell, […]

In the Gaming Hut Robin discusses his recently concluded Golden Age DC superheroes versus the Cthulhu mythos game. Travel Advisory recalls our visit to the British Museum’s current Silk Roads exhibition. If we’re thinking about stuff that happened while we were in London, longtime listeners know what that means: Ken’s Bookshelf lovingly lists the purchases […]

As is our seasonal custom, we close our year with a live episode recorded at London’s Dragonmeet. At the show’s final outing in its longtime Hammersmith Novotel venue, Ken pulls off a revolutionary nerdtrope, and we field questions on the dangers of Tarot deck accumulation, the world’s ineluctable spiral into chaos, and tricking Brussels sprouts […]

Make sure your ropes are securely fastened as the Gaming Hut asks: have we been doing falling damage wrong? In Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else, we talk to tabletop game designer of DIE: the Roleplaying Game fame (and sure, comics writer extraordinaire) Kieron Gillen. The Mythology Hut gets festive for an encounter with […]

In The Business of Gaming we check in on the state of crowdfunding through the lens of the recently concluded Trail of Cthulhu 2nd Edition campaign. There are ants, ants, ants as big as well they’re quite small really but they’ve nearly completed a program of global conquest so Fun With Science takes a look […]

Ready your picks and jimmies as the Gaming Hut seeks fail forwards for one of the trickiest cases of all, the locked door. In Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else, Ken (and some crows) talk to fantasy, horror and SF writer Molly Tanzer. The Culture Hut covers the enigmatic, influential and Eliptony-adjacent theater experimenter […]

Get ready for more detail on the shag carpet than ever before as the Gaming Hut looks at the love some players have for non-interactive narration of their environment. The Crime Blotter investigates the 60s heroin trade and how it forms the linchpin of The Borellus Connection. At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Gene […]

In the Gaming Hut we imagine an F20 world where powerful undead don’t just drain levels, they sell them to the highest bidder. The Archaeology Hut checks out the latest tests on the Well-Man, a body found at Norway’s Sverresborg Castle who matches an account from an 800 year old Norse saga. Finally Ken’s Bookshelf […]

In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Mark Waterhouse asks what could possibly go wrong if we let players perform their own in-world divinations. At the behest of estimable backer Martin Rundkvist the Tradecraft Hut investigates the heroic career of Polish-born WWII British operative Krystyna Skarbek. Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else features our […]

The Gaming Hut looks at the most despised medieval occupations and wonders what would happen if you actually wanted to reflect this in your F20 world. The History Hut covers a very strange fashion fracas, the 1922 New York City straw hat riots. In the Mythos Hut we dial up the scare factor on the […]

In the Gaming Hut we discuss the challenge of revised edition design. When you encounter an element you wouldn’t build into a new system, how do you decide whether to replace it, or to respect the legacy and leave it in? The Horror Hut gets reflective as beloved Patreon backer Bart Mallio asks for a […]

In the Gaming Hut beloved backer Ryan McClelland argues that the Sailor is a fine Occupation that ought to be in Trail of Cthulhu 2nd Edition (now on Backerkit) and urges us to rebut him by listing even more such Occupations. With the 1930s still in mind, the Crime Blotter pulls the dossier on the […]

It’s time to rattle some paper in the Gaming Hut as we discuss character sheet design. After that, a deluge, as the Archaeology Hut, at the behest of beloved Patreon backer Niclas Matikainen, studies the sunken city of Rungholt. Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else features game designer and military consultant for media and […]

In the Gaming Hut we build an F20 setting where everyone knows your level. At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Derrick Yates the Tradecraft Hut profiles baseball player and spy Moe Berg. In the Food Hut we decide what to order for lunch at the Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel in 1933. Finally the Consulting […]

In the Gaming Hut we look at the changes Ken did and didn’t make in character creation for Trail of Cthulhu 2nd Edition. The Cinema Hut highlight’s Robin’s fantasy, horror and SF discoveries from the 3rd Annual Robin and Valerie International Film Festival. In Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else we chat with Taylor […]

Recorded live in a seminar room in the good Marriott at Gen Con, Ken and Robin talk the secret US-UK intergalactic financial war, chicken roasting secrets, our Indianapolis drinks of choice, a 1966 UFO incident and how to real-life investigate the real-life cult in your real-life hometown. Want to pose a question to the show? […]

This week the Gaming Hut populates the town of Locust Grove Oklahoma with gamemaster characters for a Trail of Cthulhu game. Beloved Patreon backer Andrew Bates convenes the History Hut for the story behind Kentucky’s very specific, dare we say duel shy, oath of office. Completing our three-part Horror Hut miniseries on reality horror, estimable […]

In the Gaming Hut we look at ways to tell whether your group will thrive in a sandbox game. Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else features our chat with fast-rising board game designer Clarence Simpson, whose credits include The Wolves, A Message from the Stars, Chomp, and Merchants of Magick. Part two of our Horror […]

At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Ian Carlsen, the Gaming Hut looks at ways to prepare for a technothriller game. The moment we learned of an increasingly ascendant Brazilian narco gang called the Bonde da Kabbalah, you know it was time to reach for the Crime Blotter. A three-part Horror Hut mini-series on reality […]

In the Gaming Hut we toss our ideas into beloved Patreon backer Shon Richards’ Bookhounds of TimeWatch series concept. One of our favorite industry stalwarts, Peter Adkison, joins us in Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else to talk Gen Con TV, his world of Chaldea project, and the state of Gen Con. The Borellus […]

Your intrepid gaming reporters return from Gen Con 2024 to talk awards, tabletop industry trends and scuttlebutt and maybe a restaurant recommendation or two. Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon! Our Patreon-backed Letterboxd list of all films mentioned on the […]

In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Ludovic Chabant asks us what it means when a game mechanic is swingy. The Word Hut isn’t having any of your cockamamie ackamarackus, because we’re talking 1930s slang. The Food Hut extrapolates what the food scene in Yellow King: Aftermath looks like. Other than the well-established craze for […]

In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Lauberfen asks us to seek mythic inspiration for gaming scenarios. Estimable backer Derek Upham beckons us to the Tradecraft Hut for our take on the theory that infamous pirate Henry Every might have had a second covert career as a spy. The Mythology Hut investigates the shamir, the […]

In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Toonspew asks us if it’s time to stop worrying and love the total party kill. Estimable backer Hyperlexic urges us to shoo costumed devils out of the History Hut by looking at the scandal-brushed career of Los Angeles evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson. Ripped From the Headlines tackles the […]

Beloved Patreon backer Philip Masters invites a pack of bumblers into the Gaming Hut as he asks how one might run a series based around realistic incompetence in high places. Creep softly up to the Crime Blotter for the tale of prolific UK burglar Flannelfoot, aka Henry Vickers. The Cinema Hut doesn’t have trouble getting […]