Roll For Topic

Your players probably interact with you, the GM, in character from time to time. But do they roleplay with their fellow players? What does that look like at the table?

What makes for a good flawed player character? Chris and Andy explore what it means to be an interesting flawed or anti-hero. But before they do that, they check in on Andy’s “Masks of Nyarlathotep” campaign and talk about what makes “Masks” unique in a hobby full of great campaigns.

In a break from the usual format, Andy and Chris talk through the process of choosing the right game to run for a convention one-shot. Together, they go through the half-dozen games on Andy’s list of possibilities until they narrow down the one that will work best. On the way, they talk about spies, mechs, … Continue reading "Episode 120 — Choosing the Right Convention Game"

Andy and Chris fail to roll on the table for a topic, but of course have plenty to talk about. Listen as they talk about wrangling audio equipment for a live taping, Brindlewood Bay thoughts, Alien worries, and playing the same games over and over again.

Andy’s back from a cross-country road trip, and he’s eager to talk about all weird and wonderful claims to fame that small, rural towns celebrate. In this episode, Chris and Andy talk about how to make the small towns in your fantasy setting quirky and memorable places to travel through. But first they take time … Continue reading "Episode 118 — How to Make Small Towns in Y...

Andy and Chris are thieves! Everyone likes reading books and watching movies, but have you ever lifted a scene or character from them for your campaign?

We cover a lot of ground in this episode! We talk about health and injury rules, the quirky LitRPG genre, and rethinking alien species in tabletops RPGs. And of course we move onto our main topic: what has the last few years taught us about what makes for a great virtual RPG? Episode notes: Dungeon … Continue reading "Episode 116 — What Goes Into a Great Online TTRPG Experience?"

What’s the longest RPG campaign you’ve ever run? Six months? A year? Two? We’re pretty sure you can’t beat our guest for this episode, who’s been running a weekly D&D campaign for nearly three decades straight. Join us as we learn about Bryn’s truly epic D&D campaign and try to identify the secret of his … Continue reading "Episode 115 — The...

Chris and Andy are joined by Jeremy Bai, a prolific translator and author whose RPG Righteous Blood, Ruthless Blades: Wuxia Roleplaying brings the wuxia genre to your game table! We begin by talking to Jeremy about his various projects, RPG-related and otherwise, before discussing different ways that you can make food, drink, and meals more … Continue reading "Episode 114 — Making Food...

Andy and Chris are joined by James Pozenel of Horse Shark Games to talk about the best way to handle hacking scenes in your TTRPGs (as well as others scenes in which one PC is the star of the show). James is uniquely suited to dispense advice on this, since he’s working on a very … Continue reading "Episode 113 – Running Hacking Scenes (with James Pozenel)"

What do you need to know to run tabletop RPGs with kids? Guest GMs Liz Decker and Tim Saucer bring their experience organizing games for kids to a special roundtable discussion. Liz runs an RPG club at a local high school, and Tim incorporates RPGs into a summer camp for kids. Both have a lot … Continue reading "Episode 112 — Running RPGs with Kids"

Does nostalgia for your youth, and the games you played as a kid, play an active role in the games you play today? And it’s impossible to talk about D&D nostalgia without taking note of the upcoming D&D movie. Listen as they share their hopes and dreams (or lack thereof) for Dungeons and Dragons: Honor … Continue reading "Episode 111 – What Role Does Nostalgia Play in You...

How do you fine-tune the tone–whether it’s grim, comedic, or something else–at your gaming table? Chris and Andy talk about this, but not before they muse on the challenge of running murder mysteries in the TTRPG medium, among other things.

Family, friends, and loved ones of PCs, when they appear at all, often serve primarily as victims whose plight motivates the PCs. Are there more and better ways to make the PCs’ loved ones a part of the game? Andy and Chris discuss!

Have you ever struggled to stay focused on the campaign you’re running because you’re distracted by all the shiny new games on your bookshelf that you’d also like to be running? Andy and Chris talk about the challenge of avoiding “shiny object syndrome.”

Andy and Chris go back to their Roll For Topic roots and roll on the old Table of Topics for this one! They (briefly) discuss the OGL and D&D and what it all means to them before diving into just what in the world a GM should do when their players have no idea what … Continue reading "Episode 107 — What Do You Do When Your Players Get Stuck?"

Chris is temporarily out for this episode, which means that there’s nobody to stop Andy and guest GM Matt Wilson from venturing down all kinds of historical tangents! Join us as we try to keep our enthusiasm for the Late Antique period in check, and reflect on the GMing lessons we learned in 2022 and … Continue reading "Episode 106 — Old Year Reflections, New Year Ambitions (with...

In the last episode, we planned a Wild West adventure and “dungeon.” Now, we force a gang of hapless players through it! Guest players John, Ben, Toby, and Brandon team up to take on the sinister Snake Oil Kid and his gang. Will things go smoothly and according to plan? Or will they veer wildly … Continue reading "Episode 105 — Actual Play: Snake Oil’s Last Score"

It’s the holidays which means it’s the return of Roll For Topic’s traditional Build-a-Dungeon/Play-a-Dungeon! This episode we design a “dungeon” with our pals, Kyle and John, from The Splatbook. Next episode we’ll run what we came up with as an actual play. You can listen to these episodes in whatever order you’d like. Happy holidays!

This week Andy and Chris are joined by Toby to talk about encumbrance systems. Listen as they slowly convince themselves that encumbrance isn’t all bad. This topic was added by listener, Wulf Mungus. Thanks, Wulf!

Andy and Chris recap their Halloween roleplaying experiences before tackling a tricky design challenge: can they come up with an interesting way to use cellphones as part of a roleplaying experience?

Chris and Andy are joined by guest GM Alban to discuss how you might build an entire adventure around a performance. Is that a performance by the PCs, or by the players? We discuss that, with side forays into topics like Ars Magica, finding GM inspiration in the natural world around you, and more!

Can you believe we’ve produced 100 episodes? What a wonderful ride it’s been. Join Andy and Chris for a special episode of reflection on the last four years of roleplaying and podcasting. This episode departs from our usual format and asks you to indulge Andy and Chris as they discuss what they’ve learned and where … Continue reading "Episode 100 — Looking Back at 100...

What makes a “good” cult in a game? They also have a few pamphlets for you to read—and if you join them in their study they’d be happy to answer any questions you might have!

Chris and Andy brainstorm a tactile system for marking the passage of time or health in an RPG! But not before Chris a ridiculous action movie, and Andy pitches a ridiculous mashup of a certain intergalactic hunter and a certain murder-mystery RPG.