Role Playing Public Radio

News : A new hero has been released for Base Raiders. Check out Elizabeth Solomon, a scholarly vampire ! Synopsis : For some reason, we’ve kept up making podcast episodes since 2007. It’s taken us that long to get to 100 episodes of the main podcast, but here we are. Of course, we had to do something special, so we’re doing a roundtable discussion of our history and answering lis...

News : Caleb’s Eclipse Phase scenario, the Devotees , is now out. Check it out! Synopsis : Writing a new game is hard enough, but it’s only the beginning. Playtesting the game to see if it works is the second part. Seeing a group of players tear your precious game apart may be painful, but it is a necessary part of creating a better game. Caleb and I discuss our thoughts on Caleb&#8217...

News : Check out the Devotees, a new Eclipse Phase adventur e written by Caleb Stokes! The first part of the actual play is up . We also have a new digital audio recorder for the APs, a Zoom H2N . Higher quality APs for everyone!  Also, I’m working on a new horror RPG called Ruin. BTW, have you checked out the video game I’m working on, Delver’s Drop ? Synopsis: During the last w...

Luke Crane (Burning Wheel, Mouse Guard, Torchbearer), Thor Olavsrud (Torchbearer) and Adam Koebel (Dungeon World) talk trash about boring (and offensive) ideas in fantasy RPGs while waxing poetic about OSR and indie RPGs. Drawing on over a decade of experience publishing fantasy RPGs, they promise to offend sensibilities and enlighten the curious to worlds undreamed. This panel was recorded at PAX...

The past 20 years have been a roller-coaster ride for RPGs.  The release of Magic: The Gathering in 1993 changed the fundamental nature of the hobby gaming industry and forever altered the business of making and selling RPGs.  Explore the recent history of the category through the lens of Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder, and hear predictions for the future of the hobby. This panel was record...

Do you have a great boardgame design, want to make it yourself, but have no idea how to start? Join us as we take you through the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of independent tabletop game publishing. Thomas Eliot of Sixpence Games designed, Kickstarted, manufactured, and brought to retail Professor Pugnacious , and was on the Indie Boardgame Panel at PAX AUS 2013, while Christopher Batarlis...

News: Caleb and I will be at Fear the Con this year! We will both be running games and attending events there. I will be at PAX East this year, as part of Pixelscopic , showing off their new game, Delver’s Drop . (Have I mentioned I’m working on it? I totally am!) Also, check out No Security , Caleb’s new book. I’ve also released 2 new short PDFs for Base Raiders: The Hedge...

Back during Gencon 2013, Caleb and I hung out with the talented members of Posthuman Studios and talked about many a topic, including game design and the tabletop RPG industry. If there is one interview you listen to this year, make it this one!

Caleb recorded a panel discussion  at Gencon 2013 about Arc Dream’s One Roll Engine games, from Godlike to Better Angels, led by Shane Ivey. Find out what’s going with the system and how it came to be.

Thanks to Crazon for the art! Synopsis : After the conclusion of our Night’s Black Agents campaign, Tribes of Tokyo, we sat down to discuss what went right and what went wrong. I talk about my inspiration for the campaign, including the Long Vault s. Caleb, Aaron, and Tom describe their experiences playing the game, including their critique of Night’s Black Agents as a game.

New s: Hebanon Games is proud to present the print version of No Security ! Get your copy today. Synopsis : The nuts and bolts of any game are, well, the nuts and bolts. Creating and balancing game mechanics is a tricky business, especially with a brand new system. Caleb and I discuss our thoughts on designing new game mechanics in connection with Caleb’s game-in-progress, Red Markets. Enjoy...

Both RPGs and fiction draw heavily on historical cultures and narratives, even for a new setting. This panel recorded at Gencon 2013 discusses how real history can be twisted, altered, mashed up, or remixed to create compelling games. It features industry veterans Keith Baker, Jessica Banks, Kenneth Hite, and Lewis Pulsipher.

News : RPPR is now on Tumblr ! Follow us for random stuff! Ross works for Pixelscopic on their new video game, Delver’s Drop . It is also quite awesome. More Base Raiders content is forthcoming, including more actual play episodes, new PDF only supplements, and the final conversion guide. The Wild Talents and Mutants and Masterminds conversion guides are already available. Synopsis : Sooner...

News : The RPPR Actual Play podcast has a new look. Thanks to KC Green for the banner! Be sure to check out his webcomic, Gun Show. We also have new content on the Base Raiders website, including a character creation survival guide . Synopsis: Research is an important part of game design, especially when writing historical scenarios. We invited Adam Scott Glancy of Pagan Publishing to talk about r...

Caleb interviewed quite a few game designers at Gencon this year, to talk about their new creations. Because each interview was short, I made a compilation of the first four interviews. They are in order: Jasn Painter, creator of Drunk Quest Jason Pitre, creator of Spark Dennis Detwiller, author of The Sense of Sleight of Hand Man Mark Diaz Truman, author of Our Last Best Hope

News : Check out the first Base Raiders Actual Play , with brand new Origin Story rules available for free on the Base Raiders website. Also, BUY MY BOOK Synopsis : We decided to analyze two recently written scenarios to see how the art of scenario writing has changed over the last 20 years. We took Millionaire’s Special, a Trail of Cthulhu adventure from the book Out of Space and Ghost Town...

News : Base Raiders is out! You can buy the print edition here and the PDF here . If you buy a print copy forward your order confirmation email to rpprpodcast@gmail.com to receive the PDF for free. All copies to backers have been shipped. In other news, Aaron has a new series on Raillery called Let’s Play in the Dark. Check out the first episode in the above Youtube link. Finally, because of...

In the second episode of Game Designer Workshop, Caleb and I talk about the importance of research. This is not only researching setting material but other games. It’s important to understand what kind of game mechanics have already been done so you can learn from them. Researching details for your setting, like technology and history, can take a lot of forms as well. Reading books, listenin...

At Gencon this year, I sat down and talked to Mike Olson, one of the leading FATE designers currently working in the industry. He created the Strange FATE system used by Kerberos Club and Base Raiders and his latest project, the Atomic Robo RPG , will hopefully be completed soon. We talked about the state of the FATE system and game design.

News : Base Raiders is almost done. The books will be printed and shipped soon. There are new videos on the RPPR Youtube channel, including a new improv comedy with Thad. Synopsis : If you have an unusual idea for a campaign setting, then it’s often better to take a toolkit game system like GURPS for the rules instead of building your own system for it. In this episode, Tom and I discuss the...

Caleb of Hebanon Games is in the beginning stages of designing a new RPG from the ground up, and he has decided to document the entire process, from start to finish. In this new series, Caleb will talk to other game designers and figure out what works and what does not work when making a new role playing game. In this episode, Caleb and Ross discuss the concept for his new game, which is called Re...

News : Base Raiders is nearly complete! The PDF should be available to backers around September 10! Caleb is starting a new podcast through RPPR called Game Designer’s Workshop. Expect the first episode in the next month. Also, check out his blog post about Gen Con at Hebanon Games . Synopsis : Another Gen Con has come and gone. This year, Tom, Aaron, Caleb, and I quested for the most awesom...

News : Transhuman, a sourcebook for players in Eclipse Phase is out! Caleb and I both wrote for it, so check it out. In other news, Base Raiders is rapidly nearing completion and in playtesting. More importantly, Gencon draws near! Tom, Aaron, Caleb and I will be there. The RPPR Meetup will be 6 pm on Friday the 16th at the Hyatt Lobby. See you there. Synopsis : Describing things is the primary jo...

News : Base Raiders is in layout! Hooray! Raillery is on hiatus until Base Raiders is complete. Boo! Synopsis : Tom and I once again dive into the “ Pile of Broken Dreams “to look at two old modules, Zombietown USA for GURPS and All Fall Down for Cyberpunk. Adventure design was quite different back then. For example, a brutal dungeon crawl was apparently required for every scenario, re...

News: Just to clarify something about RPPR B-Sides : each volume will be released for free after a 1 year delay. Volume 1 will be released to the public on August 14, 2014. If you want to listen to the 20 AP episodes contained in Volume 1, then you can donate $20 to RPPR. Simple as that! I also want to give a shout out to comic artist David Faught for his contributions to Base Raiders, which is no...