Roleplay Rescue

One of the most overlooked aspects of running a roleplaying games campaign is the question of what you and your players want from such a game. We tend to assume that other people come to the table for the same reasons that we do. We also tend towards diving in head-first to getting a game up and running, keen to play, without considering how we want to the game to feel. There’s also a tendency to...

This episode follows on from Choosing Fantasy Worlds, which was episode 13. Brian’s question was about recommending worlds that are well-done and while I have some personal favourites which fit that description, I also want to talk about why it’s so hard to find well-done modern and SF worlds for games. Thanks to Brian from I’ll Have To Look That Up for the call in that inspired the episode. Thank...

I am uncomfortably Old-School. While I don’t self-identify as being part of the so-called Old-School Renaissance, my habits and sensibilities have much in common with the early days of that Movement. But I am not truly part of the OSR because the games I enjoy are too complex and detailed for the members of that Movement. So where do I fit? I suspect I have fallen between the cracks of the rolepla...

There are many, many worlds that I would love to explore and play in. But if we specify worlds that are well-done then that list is much shorter. I’ve thought about it a great deal and I am going to suggest three worlds - or settings - that I consider to be well done. To keep things sane, I’m going to begin by focusing on Fantasy worlds. If you want my thoughts about modern-era or science-fiction...

A big part of what makes this show special is the community of discovery that has grown up around it - through the blog comments, emails, Discord messaging, Patreon support, and podcast call-ins. You, the listeners, are what make working on the show a joy and about 80% of the reason that I keep recording and editing episodes. Every call-in gets saved but not every call-in has space in the regular...

Today’s episode is a quick overview of an approach to GM preparation that I call Tiny Prep. It was inspired by the work of BJ Fogg, the Director of the Stanford Behavioural Lab and discussed at length in his highly-recommended book “Tiny Habits”. Tiny Prep is the simple idea of doing your GM game preparations in very small increments daily or, in my case, six days a week. I utilise the science of...

This one is a bit of a rant. It arises from repeated comments from players about GURPS which irk me. It begins with this: “Sure,” says the player when I suggest we play a game using GURPS, “I’d be happy to play… as long as I don’t have to build a character.” GURPS is not a complex or difficult game. But it is a generic and universal game. It doesn’t come with a pre-packaged world nor with a bunch...

Today is the last in a series of conversations I shared over the period between the seasons, with some of the most creative gamers I know. My guest today is a fellow podcaster and perhaps one of the nicest and most mellow souls I have had the privilege to meet. We sat down to talk a little about the Classic Traveller roleplaying game - especially since, at the time, I was re-approaching the old Bl...

Which set of roleplaying game rules should you use? What do you need to learn before you run the game? And how important are they to the success of the game? As an anxious gamer, the biggest focus of my hobby over the years has been the question of which set of rules is the best for roleplaying. My experience has been simple: this is the wrong question. Thanks to the Pink Phantom, Jason Connerly,...

Today is the third in a series of conversations I shared over the period between the seasons, with some of the most creative gamers I know. My guest today is the single biggest influence on this podcast, a huge inspiration to me as a Game Master. He is, of course, The Alexandrian himself - Justin Alexander. Just in case you don’t know, Justin is a freelance writer and the author of The Alexandrian...

How do we get started setting up and running a fantasy roleplaying game? What’s the best approach to getting the game off the ground quickly? And how can we do it in such a way as to keep stress to the minimum? Let’s start with this: The best way to get a game going quickly is to begin with a place, a location from which to launch an adventure. Thanks to Jason and Wiebe for the call-ins! Legend of...

Today’s chat is with Menion, aka Rob, the creator and host of Confessions of a Wee Tim'rous Bushi, a podcast that hails from Japan. This conversation was about Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and arose as I was trying to put together my own Open Table game now known as Hiraeth. At the time, I was wavering on which rules system to use and ultimately this chat helped me decide. Big thank you in adva...

What’s the easiest and most straightforward way to start playing roleplaying games after many years away from the table? And if we’re playing already but want to make the jump towards being Game Master, what’s the simplest path? Is there a way to make our first games so likely to succeed that we can overcome the anxiety that stands in the way? Big thanks to Jason, Brian, and Adam for the call-ins!...

A short while ago I was privileged to be able to catch Doug for a chat about his forthcoming projects, most notably his entry into the Old-School Essentials B/X D&D space, with a really cool Kickstarter running until the tail end of August 2022.  Big thanks to Doug for coming to speak to us and I hope you find this conversation illuminating. Especially look out for Doug talking about a fe...

This is the first of a series of conversations I’ve shared, over the period between the seasons, with some of the most creative gamers I know. Simon Williams is a British artist and illustrator as well as being the creator of the Legend of The Bones podcast, a hybrid Solo Old School Dungeons and Dragons actual play and dark fantasy audio drama. His evocative illustrations are inspired by classic r...

This season we are working towards creating an anxious gamer’s guide to roleplaying games and seeking to reduce the stress, worry, and heartache that so often seems to accompany something that feels like it should be more fun than it is. In his book, Play, Brown asserts that the reason we are doing an activity defines whether or not it is play. This pairing of ideas helped me to realise that some...

Some roleplayers experience deep anxiety around playing and running games. Although I didn’t realise it until recently, my gaming habits have been formed as much by social and generalised anxiety as they have by anything else. More than that, one of the most repeated comments I have received over the past 3 and a half years of producing this podcast has been the one about how much my honest talk a...

I know I said that Season 10 had come to an end after 22 episodes but when opportunity strikes it’s best to grasp it with both hands. Besides, episode 23 also has a nice, mystic ring to it.  My guest today is the single biggest influence on this podcast, a huge inspiration to me as a gamer and Game Master, and just about the best source of roleplaying wisdom I have come across on the internet...

A selection of comments and questions from listeners to round off Season 10. Lots of interesting thoughts and a whole bucket of encouragement for me! Thank you to all the callers: Wiebe, Jason C., Frank, Lord Tygger, Bob from Safeco, James Sral, Graham First Age, and Brian. Thanks also to you for listening, to all the RPR Patrons, and to everyone who has shared the show anywhere! Couldn't do it wi...

A very special episode in which Jon from Tale of The Manticore and I hopped online to play an improvised game using the Mythic solo game engine. There was zero prep and the whole thing was very off-the-cuff but we had a great time! The result is lightly edited because I didn't want to lose any of the magic I felt between us as players and the emergent story we conjure. After the game, Jon and I ha...

Three and a half years, ten seasons, and 295 episodes have elapsed since Roleplay Rescue began. Where have we got to, what’s the pathway forward, and do I have anything else left to say? As I reach Episode 20 of this tenth season, a milestone I set up in my mind at the beginning, I am taking stock and wondering what more I can share with this fantastically supportive Roleplay Rescue community. Man...

A few days ago I was privileged to be able to schedule a conversation with Daniel Jones, the originator of the term Otherworld-immersion and a proponent of the idea that changing the methodology of our roleplaying games being the key to changing the experience we have at the table. For those who don’t know him, Daniel is a published author, game designer, philosopher, and the man behind the Eudaim...

What does it mean to play a roleplaying game by yourself? How is it possible to find play in the solitude of alone? Should we even allow ourselves to go there? Last time I talked about the tension between being a player and being the GM in a roleplaying game. Today, I want to explore the question of what it means to play alone, solo, just you and the game. Thanks to Spencer for calling in! Rolepla...

“First and foremost, then, all play is a voluntary activity. Play to order is no longer play: it could at best be but a forcible imitation of it. By the quality alone, play marks itself off from the course of the natural process. It is something added thereto and spread out over it like a flowering, an ornament, a garment.” These words from Johan Huizinga’s “ Homo Ludens ” raise a question: if pla...

What if you could always sit down on a regular basis and actively prep for your next game in a way that left you feeling confident and positive? What if you could work in such a way as to unlock your maximum creativity while preserving your energy and motivation for the long haul? We all know how exciting it can feel to set up a brand new roleplaying game campaign - you are pumped with the vision,...