Plot Points

Worldwide Wrestling  is the Powered by the Apocalypse game of furious sports entertainment! The game both highlights the strength of the Apocalypse Engine and simulates the bombastic drama of professional wrestling! Like Plot Points? Support it on  Patreon  at the $2 level, and you'll get a sneak peek into Ben's book about the sale of TSR to Wizards of the Coast! This chapter concerns TSR West, an...

Bluebeard's Bride  from Magpie Games is a revolution in RPGs. Players take on the role of one character, just one among the group of them, and experience the tragic horror of the Bride! Like Plot Points? Support it on  Patreon  at the $2 level, and you'll get a sneak peek into Ben's book about the sale of TSR to Wizards of the Coast! This chapter concerns TSR West, an effort by TSR to open an LA o...

Listen to history professor Glenn McDorman and ENnie Award-winning designer Jacob Hurst discuss "The Scarlet Citadel" by Robert E. Howard, and the story's influence on RPGs! You can check out Glenn's  Elder Sign  podcast here , and see Jacob's brilliant RPG design work here ! Like Plot Points? Support it on  Patreon  at the $2 level, and you'll get a sneak peek into Ben's book about the sale of TS...

Academic Scott Bruner and Ben Riggs read aloud and comment on the 1st edition  Dungeon Master's Guide  by Gary Gygax, an attempt by the game's co-creator to instruct players, but also exert control over the burgeoning community of gamers.  Ben's book on RPG adventure design,  Encounter Theory , is on DriveThruRPG.  Click here  to pick up this essential volume! Like Plot Points? Support it on  Patr...

Emily Care Boss is the brilliant designer of games like  The Romance Trilogy , and  Bubblegumshoe . With Ben Riggs, she chews over game theory, her career, and how Ars Magica may have directly inspired some of the most important indie designers of the 21st century. Then, in a brief chat, Ben talks to Wizards of the Coast founder and Gen Con owner Peter Adkison about what quality may have led to hi...

Imagine a world where teachers used RPGs as teaching tools. That is the world the  Teacher-Gamer Handbook  aims to bring about. Zachary Reznichek is a master teacher who has been using RPGs to teach writing, math, and other skills to students. He has taken his decades of accumulated wisdom and put it into the  Teacher-Gamer Handbook , a volume which teachers (or parents) can use to teach their chi...

Academic Scott Bruner and Ben Riggs read aloud and comment on the 1st edition  Dungeon Master's Guide  by Gary Gygax, an attempt by the game's co-creator to instruct players, but also exert control over the burgeoning community of gamers. This week, we tackle the forward and preface to the work.  Ben's book on RPG adventure design,  Encounter Theory , is on DriveThruRPG.  Click here  to pick up th...

The Plot Points gang continues looking at Descent into Avernus  chapter-by-chapter. This week, we visit Baldur's Gate, and then descend into the pit itself! Ben's book on RPG adventure design,  Encounter Theory , is on DriveThruRPG.  Click here  to pick up this essential volume! Like Plot Points? Support it on  Patreon  at the $2 level, and you'll get a sneak peek into Ben's book about the sale of...

Bill Bridges worked on some of the most phenomenal game products of the 1990s at White Wolf, and he's back with a Kickstarter for a new edition of Fading Suns, the far-future RPG of sci-fi passion!  Ben's book on RPG adventure design,  Encounter Theory , is on DriveThruRPG.  Click here  to pick up this essential volume! Like Plot Points? Support it on  Patreon  at the $2 level, and you'll get a sn...

Peek behind the curtain at the stores and supply chains that make the RPG industry run with Micheal Parker of ACD Distribution. How did the industry weather the '08 recession? How does the RPG industry look on the sales side? Find out! Ben's book on RPG adventure design,  Encounter Theory , is on DriveThruRPG.  Click here  to pick up this essential volume! Like Plot Points? Support it on  Patreon...

Ptolus  was the home campaign Monte Cook ran while designing 3rd edition D&D. Brimming with brilliant fodder for the gaming table, it quickly sold out and became an item for the collector's market. Now, Monte Cook Games is Kickstarting a new edition of Ptolus , updating the classic setting for both the Cypher System and 5th Edition. Click here to learn more about this stupendous setting! Ben's boo...

Once upon a time, the TSR offices were in downtown Lake Geneva in an old hotel. These are the stories of that building.  Ben's book on RPG adventure design,  Encounter Theory , is on DriveThruRPG.  Click here  to pick up this essential volume! Like Plot Points? Support it on  Patreon  at the $2 level, and you'll get a sneak peek into Ben's book about the sale of TSR to Wizards of the Coast! This c...

An academic, a game professional, and your host gather to review Richard Stanley's latest effort, an HP Lovecraft adaptation:  The Colour Out of Space starring Nicholas Cage! Ben's book on RPG adventure design,  Encounter Theory , is on DriveThruRPG.  Click here  to pick up this essential volume! Like Plot Points? Support it on  Patreon  at the $2 level, and you'll get a sneak peek into Ben's book...

How did HP Lovecraft's "Colour Out of Space" influence gaming? Academic Scott Bruner, Chaosium stalwart Jim Lowder, and host Ben Riggs gather to discuss!  Ben's book on RPG adventure design,  Encounter Theory , is on DriveThruRPG.  Click here  to pick up this essential volume! Like Plot Points? Support it on  Patreon  at the $2 level, and you'll get a sneak peek into Ben's book about the sale of T...

The RPG business has been growing like gangbusters since the Great Recession. Recent numbers from Diamond Comics and Kickstarter provoke a question: Is that growth coming to an end? Ben's book on RPG adventure design,  Encounter Theory , is on DriveThruRPG.  Click here  to pick up this essential volume! Like Plot Points? Support it on  Patreon  at the $2 level, and you'll get a sneak peek into Ben...

Vampire: The Masquerade 5th edition tries to re-start and re-introduce itself to the gaming community with the New Blood Starter Pack . Designed for gaming novices, the product tries to introduce the player to the system, setting, and gaming itself. A hard task. Does it succeed? Ben's book on RPG adventure design,  Encounter Theory , is on DriveThruRPG.  Click here  to pick up this essential volum...

Possibly no novel had a greater impact on  Dungeons & Dragons  than  Three Hearts and Three Lions  by Poul Anderson. Law, chaos, the paladin, the troll, the list goes on. Ben Riggs discusses the novel with gaming great Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan and academic Scott Bruner. Ryder-Hanrahan is one of the geniuses behind the greatest RPG campaign of all-time,  The Dracula Dossier , and he has a new novel, ...

The only thing keeping humanity from extinction among the stars is The Last Fleet , a new role-playing game by Joshua Fox using the Powered by the Apocalypse engine. Ben interviews Josh, covering design, inspiration, and thoughts on D&D and even JRR Tolkien. Last Fleet is Kickstarting right now. Click here to check it out! In January, an episode of Appendix N University will cover  Three Hearts an...

Ben Riggs interviews Ed Greenwood, father of the Forgotten Realms, about his 1987 agreement with TSR wherein he sold the rights to the Realms for $5,000. They also discuss the origin and publication of the Realms, and Ben is able to tell Ed, officially, how many units his game work sold decades after the fact. (You can check out the numbers below!) In January, an episode of Appendix N University w...

In this Best of Plot Points episode, the gang checks out a gem from the early aughts from Fantasy Flight, Fireborn ! It's a game where you play a reincarnated dragon living in a London where magic is coming alive again.  Vote for us in this poll on  ENworld ! In January, an episode of Appendix N University will cover  Three Hearts and Three Lions  by Poul Anderson if you want to read it for the ep...

Enjoy Robert J. Schwalb's delve into dark fantasy with  Shadow of the Demon Lord . Tremble in fear, be afraid, and game away! New Plot Points will arrive in the new year! Vote for us in this poll on  ENworld ! In January, an episode of Appendix N University will cover  Three Hearts and Three Lions  by Poul Anderson if you want to read it for the episode.  Ben's book on RPG adventure design,  Encou...

In August of 1996, TSR employees rushed from the exhibit hall at Gen Con to the federal courthouse in downtown Milwaukee to sue Wizards of the Coast and Acclaim Entertainment, filing the lawsuit before the convention was even over. Why? About what? And what is its significance today? Ben Riggs has your answers! Vote for us in this poll on ENworld ! In January, an episode of Appendix N University w...

R. Talsorian Games is one of the ancient and storied RPG companies of the 1980s which has really hit the ground running again in the second decade of the 21st century. T hey are most well known for 1987's Cyberpunk , the first neo-noir, mega-corporation RPG setting. Cyberpunk is back in the limelight now with the release of the Cyberpunk Red Jumpstart Kit , which has an adventure that a reviewer o...

Zombie World takes the Powered by the Apocalypse engine and breaks it out into decks of cards. It promises, fast, fun, and bloody undead action. Brad, Sarah, and Ben try it out at their gaming table! Ben's book on RPG adventure design,  Encounter Theory , is on DriveThruRPG.  Click here  to pick up this essential volume! Like Plot Points? Support it on  Patreon  at the $2 level, and you'll get a s...

Americans, enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday with this deep cut from the Plot Points archives, our first-ever episode, Ravenloft! The Delta Green Agent's Handbook is currently free on DriveThruRPG! Check it out! Music courtesy 50 Breaks. Image courtesy Wizards of the Coast.