This Ol’ Dungeon Podcast

On Christmas Eve...Eve, I had the opportunity to do a Zoom call with my good friend Dave Townsend. Figuring that we would end up talking about gaming stuff, I asked him if it would be OK to just record the conversation and put it out there as a oneshot for This Ol' Dungeon; just in case there was someone out there that wanted a little company. He was cool with it. In this conversation between frie...

In this episode, Bill, Edwin and Lou discuss the use of traps in the game, compare their thoughts on the Grimtooth's Traps series, and challenge the listeners to write in with their own reflections (write to thisoldungeon@gmail.com) . Have a very Merry Christmas or whatever holiday is warming your heart right now, and may great fortune be yours in 2025!

Episode 48 might be one of the most personally satisfying episodes for Lou, as he, Bill, and Edwin tackle the Judge’s Guild classic, “Caverns of Thracia.” There’s a lot of gushing over many of its fine qualities and a bit of suggestion as to what might make it more endearing to players and other ways this product might be used. We have our usual opening banter, much of which is devoted to the awes...

This is that once-a-year, oddball episode where Luau Lou sits down with his old buddy and artist friend, Christopher Tupa and they blather on and on about Halloween-themed topics. This episode gets a bit morbid at one point, as they discuss real life death scenes, but otherwise they try and tell some spooky stories but mostly just go down the river of nostalgia without a paddle to direct themselve...

We have a great October Episode for you all! We have Stephen Clements of the Langhorne Creative Group ( https://rumble.com/c/StephenClements ) on. If you aren't already following his channel on Rumble or YouTube ( https://www.youtube.com/@stephenclements6158 ) he is one of the Internet's BEST RPG adventure reviewers-and we're going to need his help on this episode as we take on the critically pann...

While Edwin is off gallivanting in France, Bill and Lou are joined by former guest host, Chris Holmes! We get caught up with Bill after his big (three month) hiatus from the program, then dig in to the classic Star Wars adventure, 'Strike Force Shantipole." This is one of those "right over the plate" adventures that West End was doing so well when they first launched the line. Meet COMMANDER Ackba...

Feeling bad about not getting an official episode together for the month of August, Luau Lou quickly sat down to record this episode, hoping it would appease the gods of podcasting. In this episode you get a quick run through of the AD&D 2nd edition product "Fast Play #1." This was a free handout that included the basic rules to play AD&D 2nd Ed. and a 4-room dungeon to start you off. Unfo...

In this episode, Edwin and Lou talk about solving the problem of gaming at small cons, whether "tangents" hurt or help RPG module writing, the 1000th episode of Skype of Cthulhu ( listen here ), and how useful the program/podcast "The Why Files?" could be to creating modern RPG adventure content..oh yeah, we also talk about this episode's feature, "Beast Quest" for the Pendragon RPG system (1st ed...

Howdy Pard'ners! Have we got a treat for you! With us for this one-shot episode is an awesome new adventure writer, Matt De Micco talking about his experiences gaming, growing up with true-in-the-saddle cowboys out on the Arizona trails and how all that worked its way into his adventure and campaign setting "Massacre Grounds" -currently live on Kickstarter ( Kickstarter Link ). You can even see th...

In this episode Lou, Edwin, and special guest, famed DCC/MCC writer James Pozenel pour through the Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0. rule book, discuss the major D&D villains, hear about James's writings, including his up-coming DCC compatible "NetCrawl" project -AND we see a return of Geek Credit! For those concerned listeners, Bill is alive and well (despite rumors of his death), but had a work emergency....

On this Episode of This Ol' Dungeon, Edwin and Lou talk about their first D&D characters then get into the 1984 Car Wars adventure path "Convoy!"  -This game bridges solo with group play and role playing with miniature war gaming!

The episode starts with a nice mail segment that gets us discussing creating variations on standard fantasy RPG settings and face the dilemma of what to do with horses stirred to commotion by a pursing owl bear! The feature of the month is the first Dragonlance module, DL1: Dragons of Despair. We find this module has a lot more to offer than our memories suggested. A couple tweaks at the beginning...

Well folks, I couldn’t let a month pass without getting out some sort of content on this channel, now could I?  So, I sent up some smoke signals and a great many of our gaming friends responded! Hopefully we will get several of them in for a show over the next season.  -But, first to reply was an awesome guy who’s out to bring the RPG world a little closer, Dave Townsend of “Games with Dave.” I’ve...

I (Luau Lou) always enjoy these one shot episodes, where I get to talk with creators about their brand-spankin' new creations and lean a little bit about how other folks go through that process.  This episode is doubly fun because it features the hot new publishing duo "Guts 'N Glory" a partnership of former guest host Ryan Howard and RPG art ninja, The Wonkee (Keelan Halvorsen).  They already did...

In this episode we go the distance on a couple great "letters from the homeowners association" dealing with all sorts of things like GMs altering player characters through encounter results, variable weapon damage, and the origin of the word "grok."  The center piece is the 1983 Star Frontiers adventure, "Sundown on Starmist." I want to warn you that I accidentally call the Sathar aliens the "Sraa...

We have a a bit of dissent over the 2nd Edition Ravenloft module, "Dark of the Moon." This werewolf-infested adventure has all the drama of daytime television with the thrill of spending a week vacationing in a gulag. On top of this discussion we cover both Snow Con and the brand new PAGE Con.  At the end of the episode we talk about a situation friend of the show J.E. Shields is going through wit...

In this episode Bill, Edwin, and Lou talk about the element of “Gonzo” in a RPG game, read some listener mail, and give the “This Ol’ Dungeon” treatment to one of the most famous Shadowrun adventure supplements, “Harlequin” from 1990. We discuss what works and what seems to need renovated within this grandiose set of 8 linked missions meant to tell a tale of revenge and subterfuge spanning what mi...

Due to flight delays, Edwin and Luau Lou are left without Bill to record this fun episode featuring a James Ward article from Polyhedron #15, called "Mass Day at New Hope." This Gamma World article is tentatively called an "adventure" but, in true This Ol' Dungeon style, we take turns trying to make this very simple encounter into a full-blown night of gaming - which is what you want for a holiday...

In this one shot episode I get a chance to hang with Friend of the show and fellow podcaster, Matt Gullet.  Fresh from Texas's Long Con RPG conventio n Matt has brought his long-running adventure, "Caverns of the Dead God" to publication and is Kickstarting it RIGHT NOW! This is quite the quintessential starting adventure: a well-sketched out village, a neighboring cavern steeped in rumors, and a...

It's that time of year again!  Every year, host Luau Lou sits down with artist and friend of the show, Christopher Tupa (http://ctupa.com/Art_by_Ctupa/Home.html, https://www.youtube.com/@artbytupa3222 ) to talk Halloweens-past and present.  THIS IS NOT A GAMING EPISODE! No, this is just an excuse for two old friends to get together and talk about their favorite holiday, Halloween.  This year the t...

Happy Halloween! For this month of the macabre we went diving for a good October RPG product and turned up, "All Hallow's Eve" a starting adventure from the Mage: The Ascension RPG rule book.  Come to find out, the adventure was expanded upon for the campaign-length 1993 product, "Loom of Fate." So we all took a good walk outside of our usual gaming systems to check out this tale of the weird from...

We got the jump on this one!  David Matalon (screenwriter of the up-coming Totally Killer movie) has used his down time from the writers' strike to work on a project within his beloved hobby, and on October 3rd he will be releasing the all-new DCC adventure " Prisoners of the Secret Overlords ." This adventure pays homage to many of the great lettered-series of the early days of gaming while just...

In this episode we take a swing at solo play modules with one of the classics, BSOLO "Ghost of Lion Castle." Solo play modules are making a big resurgence right now and it was a blast to look at how the process was done in 1984 and talk about how that experience could have been improved.  Speaking of new solo plays, Bill's company Pacesetter Games and Simulations is finishing out a Kickstarter fea...

With our full, regular September episode just around the corner, I wanted to sneak one extra One Shot Episode in while my buddy and all around "RPG Idea Wizard," Jonathan Sullivan still has his Kickstarter going.  However, we actually spend the majority of this episode talking about his early gaming experiences and what it takes to make an 3PP adventure worthy of the Dungeon Crawl Classics label....

Friend of the show Ben Burns is back to talk about all the projects going on over at New Comet Games including the recently released "Horrors at El Dorado Royale" for Call of Cthulhu and his current Kickstarter for D&D 5e as well as Swords & Wizardry, OSE, and B/X! Check out the campaign here: Adventures of Black Ridge Island . We talk about a bit about campaign and setting book production...