RTFM

Max Lander and Aaron King dig through RPGs of yore to bring you valuable nuggets of mechanics, lore, and strangeness. They read the fucking manual so that you don't have to. Sen Holiday joins us to discuss Monster of the Week. The game has a laser focus, but it's a popular D&D off-ramp. What's the deal with that? If you want to chat about the episode, join our Discord .

Max Lander and Aaron King dig through RPGs of yore to bring you valuable nuggets of mechanics, lore, and strangeness. They read the fucking manual so that you don't have to. Ghostbusters International ! It's Ghostbusters. We talk about caving to audience demands, sex comedies through the decades, and how bustin makes us feel. (Spoiler warning: it feels good.) If you want to chat about the...

Max Lander and Aaron King dig through RPGs of yore to bring you valuable nuggets of mechanics, lore, and strangeness. They read the fucking manual so that you don't have to. Jonathan Levstein joins the conversation on Monster Care Squad from Sandy Pug Games . How many player choices are too many? How does layout affect the reading experience? What's the best monster, and why is it the one...

Max Lander and Aaron King dig through RPGs of yore to bring you valuable nuggets of mechanics, lore, and strangeness. They read the fucking manual so that you don't have to. Haunted house time! Natalie Zina Walschots joins us to talk about Bluebeard's Bride. What's the deal with men? Can you consent to a book? Can tone go too far? If you want to chat about the episode, join our Discord...

Max Lander and Aaron King dig through RPGs of yore to bring you valuable nuggets of mechanics, lore, and strangeness. They read the fucking manual so that you don't have to. As monster season continues, Dia Lacina joins us to talk about Wet Grandpa by Evey Lockhart . What's the best way to write an adventure? Do vibes rule everything? And why do we end up talking about '90s RPGs? If...

Max Lander and Aaron King dig through RPGs of yore to bring you valuable nuggets of mechanics, lore, and strangeness. They read the fucking manual so that you don't have to. Dan Phipps of Gem Room Games is here to talk about Blood Feud from Blackfisk Publishing ! It's the start of our new season. The theme is "monsters," and we talk about the biggest monster of all: toxic masculinit...

Max Lander and Aaron King dig through RPGs of yore to bring you valuable nuggets of mechanics, lore, and strangeness. They read the fucking manual so that you don't have to. This is the final mini-sode exploring the influences behind the games we're Kickstarting . First up is Kismet by Cezar Capacle , a deceptively simple game with revolutionary mechanics. Then we talk about The Inv...

Max Lander and Aaron King dig through RPGs of yore to bring you valuable nuggets of mechanics, lore, and strangeness. They read the fucking manual  so that you don't have to. With our Kickstarter running, we wanted to do a series of shorter  episodes focusing on the various inspirations for our games. It's movie night! With Battle Royale and The Matrix. We talk about subte...

Max Lander and Aaron King dig through RPGs of yore to bring you valuable nuggets of mechanics, lore, and strangeness. They read the fucking manual  so that you don't have to. With our Kickstarter running, we wanted to do a series of shorter episodes focusing on the various inspirations for our games. First up is Cybermetal 2012 by Adam Vass . What has Max repeatedly saying "Fuc...

Max Lander and Aaron King dig through RPGs of yore to bring you valuable nuggets of mechanics, lore, and strangeness. They read the fucking manual so that you don't have to. We look back at this season's games, rank them, and chat about our upcoming season three. Check out our Kickstarter here . If you want to chat about the episode, join our Discord !

Max Lander and Aaron King dig through RPGs of yore to bring you valuable nuggets of mechanics, lore, and strangeness. They read the fucking manual so that you don't have to. We return to R. Talsorian Games and Mike Pondsmith in order to talk about CyberGeneration ! We cover regretting and correcting their creative decisions, punk and optimism, and malls. Also, R. Talsorian keeps the...

Max Lander and Aaron King dig through RPGs of yore to bring you valuable nuggets of mechanics, lore, and strangeness. They read the fucking manual so that you don't have to. We continue our slow exploration of D&D editions with the First Quest box set for AD&D 2nd Edition. Is the box set the ultimate expression of the RPG? Do more RPGs need to hire child actors to pretend to...

Max Lander and Aaron King dig through RPGs of yore to bring you valuable nuggets of mechanics, lore, and strangeness. They read the fucking manual so that you don't have to. Our holiday extravaganza concludes as Max is joined by return guests KeganExe , Rae Nedjadi and new guest Josh Hittie to talk about Patchwork World . Is it the real D&D? What's up with all the whales and parents?...

Max Lander and Aaron King dig through RPGs of yore to bring you valuable nuggets of mechanics, lore, and strangeness. They read the fucking manual so that you don't have to. Actually, that's a lie. Max isn't here this time, because we're talking about the game he wrote, Himbos of Myth & Mettle. Aaron is joined by previous guest Izzie Colpitts and himbos extraordinaire Adam Guzkowski...

Max Lander and Aaron King dig through RPGs of yore to bring you valuable nuggets of mechanics, lore, and strangeness. They read the fucking manual so that you don't have to. Christian Sorrell of MeatCastle GameWare joins us for another Star Wars episode. This time, it's Edge of the Empire from Fantasy Flight Games. We talk about proprietary components, walls of text, and play experi...

Max Lander and Aaron King dig through RPGs of yore to bring you valuable nuggets of mechanics, lore, and strangeness. They read the fucking manual so that you don't have to. Christian Sorrell of MeatCastle GameWare joins us for the first of two episodes about Star Wars. Here, we discuss the Star Wars RPG published in 1987 by West End Games. Topics include genre emulation, morality i...

Max Lander and Aaron King dig through RPGs of yore to bring you valuable nuggets of mechanics, lore, and strangeness. They read the fucking manual so that you don't have to. Join us on a pilgrimage to a northern island with Witch: The Road to Lindisfarne . Author Natalie Zina Walschots joins us to talk about LARP adjacency, GMing in GMless games, read-aloud ritualism, and more. It's...

Max Lander and Aaron King dig through RPGs of yore to bring you valuable nuggets  of mechanics, lore, and strangeness. They read the fucking manual so that you don't have to. Shh, it's time for reflection. Rev. Haven Green joins us to talk about The Quiet Year by Avery Alder. Is it a mapmaking game or a game about community? How do radical organizations make decisions? And learn abo...

Max Lander and Aaron King dig through RPGs of yore to bring you valuable nuggets of mechanics, lore, and strangeness. They read the fucking manual so  that you don't have to. Come with us to the future! KeganExe joins the podcast to talk about transhumanist sci-fi RPG Eclipse Phase. Who imagines the future? How do we free ourselves from the present? And when do we all get to start p...

Max Lander and Aaron King dig through RPGs of yore to bring you valuable nuggets  of mechanics, lore, and strangeness. They read the fucking manual so that you don't have to. We finally break our streak of fighting about books! We're talking Apocalypse World with 0sarahXfrank0 . How did it revolutionize game design? How do you untrain your brain from bad game habits? How much can we...

Max Lander and Aaron King dig through RPGs of yore to bring you valuable nuggets of mechanics, lore, and strangeness. They read the fucking manual so  that you don't have to. Tyler Crumrine of Possible Worlds Games has brought us Agone, a French fantasy RPG. We talk about "what is an RPG?" sections, horny satyrs, and Aaron's favorite actual play podcast, Friends at the Table . If yo...

Max Lander and Aaron King dig through RPGs of yore to bring you valuable nuggets of mechanics, lore, and strangeness. They read the fucking manual so that you don't have to. This episode, we're joined by Essay Mnktl , audio engineer and player on the Three of Hearts podcast . We talk about the first edition of Fiasco by Jason Morningstar . What's up with these "story games"? How can a de...

Max Lander and Aaron King dig through RPGs of yore to bring you valuable nuggets of   mechanics, lore, and strangeness. They read the fucking manual so you don't have to. This episode is the season finale! We rank the 12 games we've read so far in an intense hour of judgment and argument. (Not really; most of them were pretty easy.) We also answer listener questions! If you want to...

NOTE: This was the first episode we ever tried to record. As such, the audio isn't great! But we wanted to release it so that we could reference it in future episodes. Plus, Traveller is a cool game! Max Lander and Aaron King dig through RPGs of yore to bring you valuable nuggets of   mechanics, lore, and strangeness. They read the fucking manual so that you don't have to. This epis...

Max Lander and Aaron King do live game design at Exalted Funeral Con ! By reading random excerpts from random RPG books (along with some audience participation), they put together an aquatic game of genetic manipulation and rebel resistance. And lots of juice and milk and ooze. If you want to support the hosts, check out the RTMF Ko-Fi store for limited-run zines and merch . If you want to chat ab...