Roll For Topic

It’s the holidays so that can only mean one thing: it’s time for us to build a dungeon and then play it live on air! In this year’s Build episode, Andy and Chris are joined, yet again, by John Corey and Kyle Latino of The Splatbook!

Andy and Chris talk about The Walking Dead and videogames before diving into their topic: what questions do long-term campaigns raise that RPG rulebooks do not address?

With Chris temporarily away, Andy is joined by guest co-hosts John and Tim for something we’ve never done before: opening a mystery box of gaming goodness live on the air. Tim unboxes a Christmas surprise package from Palladium Books, after which we revisit one old topic and then ponder a brand new one. Show notes

Andy and Chris take a different approach to gaming in this episode as they discuss the idea of “interesting failures”–art and experiences that don’t succeed, but that nonetheless deliver something worthwhile. After discussing Alien Resurrection, Andy’s favorite example of an interesting disaster, they move on to talk about what “interesting failure” looks like i...

Andy and Chris talk about Halloween, how to make a party harder for your players, and then about how to maintain momentum when you have long gaps between game sessions.

What do you do when your players make in-game choices you weren’t expecting? Should you try to shift them back onto your planned course, or appreciate the challenge they’re throwing your way? Chris listens as Andy describes a recent adventure that went awry (albeit in a fun way) and they discuss what could have been … Continue reading "Episode 125 – When Players Do the Unex...

How much rules mastery do you ask of your players? Chris and Andy discuss the unique challenge that roleplaying games present, with their often-massive rules tomes and the complicated relationship between rules and roleplaying that takes place at the game table.

Our first live episode in front of a studio (con) audience! Andy runs us through his annual Roll For Topic Swap Table Quiz. Take the quiz while listening and see you how do!

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...