Playing The Roll

One Shot games are a great way to introduce new players to the world of table top roleplaying! they're also fantastic for trying out new systems and new ideas! This week Playing The Roll talks about the benefits of planning and running one session games, and how they can be a great learning tool for GMs and players alike. In The Challenge, our hosts each come up with their own unique one shot game...

Character flaws are the secret sauce that make for well rounded and memorable role playing experiences. It adds to the drama and excitement of a game when character's Achilles heel comes into play. This episode is devoted to exploring the narrative opportunities in flaws, and how to best incorporate them into your characters. In this week's challenge our hosts are on a Redemption Arc! They must cr...

Sometimes things get weird at the RPG table. Sometimes things get out of control. It happens to everyone eventually, a game gets out of hand and loses sight of the original plot and goals that the players and GM started out with. This week we're talking about why and how games get out of hand, and how to get them back on track. Then in The Challenge part of the show our hosts have to create fantas...

All good things come to an end. Monsters, heroes, and sometimes whole campaigns die before their time. This week on PTR we're talking about the death of games and characters. Like grave robbers we're cracking open the caskets of dead games to figure out why games die early, and what can be done to avoid such a hideous fate! Even this week's challenge is death themed. We've got to come up with an i...

World building is a vital component of any RPG. On this episode we discuss how we like to approach world building, how players and game masters should world build together, and how starting small is often the best way to build big detailed worlds! This week's challenge is: New Person Creation (NPC).  Our hosts are tasked with coming up with an important NPC for nautical themed game who will act as...

Adventure Skeletons and Goat Crashers are wonderful One Page RPGs by Grant Howitt. In this solo episode, Nathan reviews these two strange and (frankly) adorable RPGs, and makes his own Adventure Skeleton and Party Goat characters. Welcome to Playing The Roll! the show that explores tabletop roleplaying from both sides of the DM screen. Join Dylan, Nathan, and Darcy; three long time role players an...

We're talking character creation from both sides of the table. There's an art to making good characters and the rules are the same whether you're playing Dungeons and Dragons, Call of Cthulhu or pretty much any other system you can name. We'll talk about the red and green flags of building a character, appropriate backstories, and the secret sauce that is collaborative character design!  This week...

In the first episode of Playing the Roll our hosts discuss the best ways to plan a successful TTRPG campaign from scratch, including who to invite, scheduling, setting expectations, and the other foundational decisions that set you up for success when running a game! In our inaugural Challenge, our hosts must create a fresh faced adventurer who's just beginning their Hero's (or Villain's) Journey!...

Welcome to Playing The Roll! Whether you're into Dungeons and Dragons, Call of Cthulhu, Pathfinder, or any one of the hundreds of other great table top role playing games out there, Playing The Roll is for you. Our mission is to help ourselves and our listeners become better role players and better Game Masters by discussing what makes for great RPG experiences, those things to avoid, and stories...