Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

In the Gaming Hut we look at what characters should do more often in horror: run! At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Eric Saltwell, the Word Hut seeks the real truth behind Unicode ghost kanji. In part two of our Cinema Hut Science Fiction Essentials series, we finally get to some actual movies, the […]

In the Gaming Hut we remember our friend and colleague Darren Watts, prolific Champions designer and former head of Hero Games. The Crime Blotter comes a little too close to home for comfort as Ken tells the story of his recent shooting. We kick off a new series in the Cinema Hut, Science Fiction Cinema […]

In response to this Caity Weaver New York Times Magazine article, beloved Patreon backer Scott Wachter makes the Gaming Hut a very quiet place indeed by asking us for the scenario possibilities of anechoic chambers. Estimable backer Ray Slakinski beckons us to the Northern Ontario location of the Horror Hut to discuss the Wilno vampire. […]

Fire up your automated die rollers as the Gaming Hut goes digital to answer beloved Patreon backer Marc Kevin Hall’s request for guidance on running tabletop RPGs online. In the History Hut, unswerving backer Jeromy French unwittingly illuminates the number one rule of Canadian history by seeking the secrets behind the assassination of Ontario newspaperman […]

We start by whittling some polyhedrals in the Gaming Hut, as beloved Patreon backer Derrick Yates asks us to sketch out an Appalachian cryptid campaign. In The Business of Gaming we discuss another reason the books you’re waiting for are late, the great freelancer / creator crash-out of 2022. Then another long dormant segment returns, […]

After nearly three chaotic years, the universe has begun to right itself, as you can tell when this episode recorded live at Dragonmeet enters your ear canals. Ken answers the call of the nerdtrope card. Then, fortified by sticky toffee pudding and Christmas sandwiches, we talk topical villains, the cure for cursed dice, the occult […]

Our weary protagonists, fresh from Dragonmeet, stumble into the Gaming Hut. There they undergo the sort of deductive epiphany required, as per a request from beloved Patreon backer Keelan O’Hea, to bring visual “aha” moments into investigative games. Then London’s National Gallery becomes the Culture Hut as our heroes recall their visit to its current […]

We start as per usual in the Gaming Hut, where this time beloved Patreon backer Bart Mallio asks for tips on combining The Esoterrorists with Night’s Black Agents. Then we move onto an ever-shifting southwestern Culture Hut, as estimable backer Robert Wolfe seeks knowledge on cartoonist George Herriman’s Krazy Kat and its effect on the […]

In the Gaming Hut we look at scenario text as a place to put GM advice. At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Bret Kramer the History Hut hosts the tale of German-born eventual doctor Gottfried Knoche, who in the late 19th century took his penchant for mummification innovation to Venezuela. In Ken and/or Robin […]

In the Gaming Hut we mull a peculiar property of RPGs as narrative, the expectation that a scenario will set up more plot elements than it actually pays off. At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Jurie Horneman, the Cartography Hut gets out a map to look at the 50 square mile legal loophole known […]

In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Elias Helfer asks us how to start researching real-world places we intend to use in our games. The Archaeology Hut dusts off a request from estimable backer Steve Dempsey for a profile of innovative site diggers Tessa and Mortimer Wheeler. At the behest of regal backer Paul Douglas […]

As noted wearers of colorful shirts, we are uniquely qualified to enter a Hawaiian edition of the Gaming Hut. There we respond to the call of beloved Patreon backer Kristian Groenseth, who wants to us to fit Magnum P.I. into Trail of Cthulhu. In Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else, Ken talks with J-M […]

In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Neil Barnes dons his lovingly constructed Benjamin Disraeli costume to ask how to best portray historical figures at the roleplaying table. The Cinema Hut looks at the flattening of cinematography in the streaming era, asking the question that is on all of your lips. Is Netflix the new […]

In the Gaming Hut we address a query from beloved Patreon backer Steven Dosman on keeping the solutions of mysteries far enough away from characters with the competence and point spends to solve them. The Mythos Hut obeys the command of estimable backer Joshua Randall, who seeks the eldritch secrets behind the Antarctic doom of […]

The Gaming Hut as always uses Skynet for your benefit, providing ways to use AI art at your roleplaying table. In Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else, Ken talks to two someones: Katarzyna “Kate” Kuczynska and Marcin “Martin” Kuczynski of Game Machinery, publisher of the Defiant Roleplaying Game. In the Horror Hut we look […]

Belle Époque wings flutter as the Gaming Hut brings the faery world into The Yellow King Roleplaying Game. Ken issues a Travel Advisory for his recent visit to the Mothman Festival in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. In How to Write Good we look at calibrating your characters’ complexity level to the story you are telling. […]

 The first annual Robin and Valerie International Film Festival has come to an end, and just like TIFF before it, that means Robin has a list of movies to recommend to you in the Cinema Hut. The twist: this time you can find and watch them right away. Then in The Business of Gaming we […]

We enter the Gaming Hut to ponder the constituency of gamers who prefer lots of crunch, but don’t actually use it when they play. In the History Hut beloved Patreon backer Gene Ha asks if electricity-loving Benjamin Franklin was the real modern Prometheus. The Culture Hut situates itself near a vast outdoor art work as […]

Rob Heinsoo and Gareth-Ryder Hanrahan step in for a sadly absent Robin as the annual live episode from Gen Con returns from the slumber of Pandemicland. They join Ken for a robust discussion of talking animals in the War of the First Coalition, Malort, why The King in Yellow gets restaged all the time, dealing […]

In the Gaming Hut we look at a largely foregone phenomenon in tabletop, the roleplaying tournament. At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Dan L, the Tradecraft Hut examines Project Coast, South Africa’s apartheid-era chemical weapons program, and its head, Wouter “Dr. Death” Basson. Esteemed backer Chad Ward meets us in the Mythology Hut to […]

The Gaming Hut exists in all dimensions as beloved Patreon backer Jacob Boersma asks how to giving Evelyn Wang’s multiversal powers from Everything Everywhere All at Once to player characters. In Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else, Ken talks to Cody Swendrowski, developer for the Foundry virtual tabletop platform, who tells how its community […]

In the Mythos Hut we decide that fish people and serpent folk have hogged the spotlight for too long. It’s time for us to invent some humanoid toads, of the psychedelic variety of course, and wrap them into a Fall of DELTA GREEN scenario hook. Inevitably, Fun With Science must grapple, so to speak, with […]

Foul sorcerers flee the Gaming Hut as beloved Patreon backer Jesse Lowe asks for the best Earth-based setting for swords and sorcery—the Hellenistic Era excepted, of course. In Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else, designer Gwen Marshall joins Ken to discuss the thinking behind such acclaimed projects as the ENnie-winning Ancestry & Culture and […]

Normally a post-Gen Con debrief takes up an entire episode. But since only one of us was there, Ken gives Robin the lowdown in a double-header Travel Advisory segment. In the Gaming Hut, beloved Patreon backer Mikey Hamm wants to emulate genres in which death is threatened but never actually happens. We conclude with Ken’s […]

In the Gaming Hut we demonstrate how to dovetail player-created character hooks into your scenario, as Ken proposes a Freaking Weird Moment for his This is Normal Now character and Robin weaves it into a trio of mystery premises. The Culture Hut uncovers a Dreamhound of Chicago, 30s surrealist painter Gertrude Abercrombie. Then we duck […]