Role Playing Public Radio

The Worldship is back! There’s a new edition of the Synibarr and we’re diving into it. I got a full round table of RPPR regulars to explore the Ultimate Adventurer’s Guide. Baz, Caleb, Noah, and Thad and I found so many different things, it’s hard to keep track of them all. From bizarre metaphysics to unbalanced spaceships, Synnibarr has it all! Listen to the full episode o...

Like so many other things, game design has changed in the post-pandemic world. Jeff Barber, author of Blue Planet, and Caleb Stokes, author of Red Markets, and I talk about work and the industry. Jeff’s been hard at work on Blue Planet: Recontact and Caleb talks more about Fae’s Anatomy and other projects he’s working on. We hit on everything from writing, art direction, to graph...

The Consumer Aesthetics Research Institute (CARI) is an amazing website that categorizes popular aesthetic trends from the last 70 years in pop culture. Baz, Thad, and I browsed through the categories and used them to come up with ideas for new RPGs, campaigns for existing RPGs, D&D source books, and board games. This is a preview of the full episode now on the RPPR Patreon. If you want to hea...

The Multiverse is back! Films and TV shows featuring the concept of a multiverse are more popular than ever, even though they are old hat in tabletop RPGs. Special guest Patrick from RPX and Tech Diff podcasts and I talk about ways you can implement a multiverse in your RPG and some examples. We also have some shout outs! News : Don’t forget to check out the RPPR Patreon ! Patrons can sign u...

Many RPGs use cards in their mechanics, from playing cards to Tarot to custom decks of cards. We discuss some of these games, the types of mechanics we’ve seen and the history of card-based games. If you enjoy this episode, back our Kickstarter for Season 2 of Ludonarrative Dissidents. This podcast is only possible with the help of backers and this time we’ll have a private RSS feed fo...

The Terminator RPG was released as a PDF recently. A special guest, Jacqueline Bryk and I went through the game. It contains a lot of rules, including a dense system for hacking, something I hadn’t seen since Shadowrun and Cyberpunk. What makes a licensed game good or bad? We talk about the highlights and lowlights of the game and other licensed games out there. Plus shout outs! Shout Outs G...

News: The RPPR Patreon just finished a six part podcast series on the mega dungeon Castle Greyhawk. It’s a very funny and weird module and we had a lot of reviewing combing through it. P atrons at the $10 level and higher can get one on one RPG design/advice consultations in May and June. If you want Ross to look at your project, here’s your chance! We are also offering remastered actu...

Castle Greyhawk (module WG7) might be the worst official D&D module of all time. A massive dungeon of 12 levels, each written by a different author, sounds like a great hack and slash module, but Castle Greyhawk has a twist. It’s supposed to be…funny. Puns, pop culture references and other ‘jokes’ populate the pages of this adventure. Caleb, Rob, and I read the first tw...

The public domain expanded this year and Caleb and I dive into it to find gameable material. Anyone can use these books, images, or music, for whatever project they can imagine. I found a list of characters from pulp fiction magazines with such interesting heroes like the vigilante Crimson Clown, and a group of French boy scouts who explore the hollow earth. News : We’re doing a weekly lives...

Quake 1 is an incredibly influential video game, not just to other video games, but to tabletop RPGs as well. We played Slipgate: Chokepoint recently . Now that we’ve re-played Quake 1 and a RPG inspired by it, Chris and I discuss the thematic and mechanical differences in translating pixels to a paper game. (on a personal note – I plan to post more episodes here more frequently. The l...

A new crew of smugglers start taking jobs in Duskvol. They call themselves the Blind Eyes and specialize in the weird and the occult. As the gang grows in power, they learn of an invisible war for control over the city between supernatural beings and ruthless factions and an incredibly powerful artifact that can change the course of history. This episode, the players and I talk about what worked a...

My friend Chris (the voice of Ab3 in our early radio plays and a cool guy on Twitter ) had an idea for a new series on RPPR. Tabletop RPGs have influenced video games since their creation. Video games have influenced tabletop RPGs for a while as well. In Pixel 2 Paper, we will focus on specific video games and their connection to tabletop RPGs. In the first episode, we will look at the video game,...

A cluster of enclaves in Missouri faces annihilation at the hands of a massive horde of the undead. Their only hope is to prepare for war, a job for their preeminent taker crew, the D4s. The crew uses an armored vehicle to take the largest scores of valuable goods they can find, no matter what gets in their way, whether it’s undead, human, or mother nature. In this episode, Jason B, Aaron, Maddy,...

News: Check out Cody’s Kickstarter, Lose Your Own Paradise, a multiple choice adventure novel! Cody’s back and we’re examining an interesting Ravenloft scenario, The Created. It’s about an evil puppet trying to murder all the adults in a village. Only a group of heroic adventurers can stop it! Cody and I review this scenario and talk through its unusual design. If you like...

Sponsor: Check out the Chew RPG Kickstarter! After running a two part game with the new Forged in the Dark RPG, Chew, I wanted to talk to Pete Petrusha about the game. I liked how Chew ran differently than Blades as it focuses on investigating crimes instead of pulling off heists. Chew uses the FitD system but changes quite a few things about the mechanics from the original Blades in the Dark. Pet...

News : Please fill out the RPPR Survey so I can improve the quality of the RPPR Patreon. Thanks! Synopsis : Thad and I both have ideas for scenarios. I got an idea for an investigative scenario (probably Delta Green) after I watched a series called Fear City . It focuses on the FBI’s prosecution of the mafia in the early 80s and how wiretapping was a key component. So I thought why not build...

NOTE: This is a preview of our most recent After Hours episode. If you want to listen to the full episode, subscribe to the RPPR Patreon for only $2 a month! There’s one Palladium RPG we’ve barely mentioned and it’s now time to dissect it. Ninjas and Superspies is a bizarre mix of high tech espionage and martial art mysticism. It supposedly contains 41 unique martial art forms bu...

News : We’re remastering classic actual play episodes of RPPR! If you want to listen to Lady Gaga 2.0 with improved audio quality, download the episode here . If you want to pick which classic episodes are edited, back the RPPR Patreon before September 6. We’re running a special offer and I’ll be adding more rewards to the offer during this time. If the special offer does well, I...

We have another preview episode of After Hours from the RPPR Patreon ! If you enjoy this episode, consider backing us to help support this podcast. Episodes 70 , 71 , and 72 continue our descent into Inferno. Synopsis: We’re going to Hell! Judge’s Guild put out a module called Inferno in 1980, ostensibly based on Dante’s Divine Comedy. It’s a LOT. Caleb, Rob Stith (from the...

News : Check out Arkham Cold Cases on the RPPR Patreon! Episode 4 features Caleb as a guest and it’s quite hilarious. Listen to a sample here . We’ve also picked a regular time for livestreams on the RPPR Patreon Discord – 6 pm CST on Sundays. Come hang out with us by joining the Patreon. Synopsis : Over the last year, Shaun has become a fan of vtubers, a new type of performer on...

Caleb and I sat down to talk about his new project, Fae’s Anatomy. It parodies the stories found in procedural medical dramas. Think General Hospital , Grey’s Anatomy , M.A.S.H , or House . Only insane, because who needs realism? It mixes over the top melodrama role playing with cooperative puzzle solving. Caleb talks about the design process, preparing it for Kickstarter, and using online t...

Ludonarrative Dissidents is a new podcast series from Ross Payton , Greg Stolze , and James Wallis . Check out the Kickstarter to help fund this project and get unique rewards! In each episode, we plan to focus on a particular RPG, looking at its mechanics, setting, and everything else to see what makes this game tick. In this preview episode, we look at Apocalypse World, the RPG that launched a r...

Jeff Barber recently spoke to me about his new project, Blue Planet Recontact. It’s the new, updated, definitive edition of the classic science fiction roleplaying game set on the wild, frontier waterworld of Poseidon. Blue Planet is a compelling RPG journey into humanity’s precarious future on a distant waterworld where political unrest and a hungry alien ecology threaten the nascent colony...

The first full Delta Green campaign, Impossible Landscapes, is finally out. I’ve long awaited this book, as I have been fascinated with Carcosa and surreal horror since I first read Night Floors years ago. I caught up with Dennis Detwiller and Shane Ivey of Arc Dream Publishing to learn more about the book.  Read the essay that began it all, the Road to Hali. Caleb also joined us to talk abo...

This is Baz’s cat, heard at various points in this episode. News : RPPR episodes are going to be a bit slower because I want to ensure quality episodes. We should have some game designer workshops this year because Caleb and I are both working on various projects.  Our weekly livestreams (every Sunday!) on the RPPR Patreon Discord are going strong with better quality audio. Join the Patreon...