Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

There’s a rat looking at us and a hawk flying overhead as Ask Ken and Robin fields a Michael Shreeves question on making familiars narratively satisfying. Our lead time prevents the Politics Hut from engaging in prognostication, so instead we step back to look at ways of understanding this most chaotic and suspenseful of US […]

Can you make it through the terrors of Ask Ken and Robin, when Sean Maclean asks us how to run survival horror? If so, the Tradecraft Hut awaits, where we deliver our promised full segment on legendary M15 counterintelligence honcho Maxwell Knight. Go down to the basement and get made small as Horror Hut zooms […]

Get your chlorophyll on as we enter a vine-choked version of the Gaming Hut to riff an alien species that feeds via photosynthesis. Ken gets you started on your collection of books about maps in a bibliographic  Cartography Hut. It’s been a while since Ask Ken and Robin had a lightning round, so let’s have […]

Oh, the humanity! How do we characterize being a human in F20 games and settings? Answers lie inside the Gaming Hut. You think the media is bad today. Back during Chicago’s circulation wars you could get shot for reading the wrong paper on the subway. Elucidation waits in a hard-to-target corner of the History Hut. […]

Roll the dice with us as Among My Many Hats finds Ken headed to Las Vegas 68. Grant our dramatic petition while How To Write Good breaks down dramatic scene construction. Join us for a plate of tamarind-infused noodles as the Food Hut looks at the politics of pad thai. Finally, narrowly avoid drowning not […]

In the Gaming Hut we rise to popular new demand to riff a whole bunch of scenario entry-points to get you started with a Dracula Dossier campaign. As teased last episode, the History Hut looks at anatomical tables, as seen in our December visit to London’s Royal College of Physicians. Continuing the London weirdness, the […]

While in London in December, the Consulting Occultist got a sneak peek at key items of John Dee’s book collection. Join us in previewing the upcoming exhibit Scholar, courtier, magician: the lost library of John Dee, which runs Jan 18-July 29  at the Royal College of Physicians.       Then we turn to the […]

Once again we end a year of talking about stuff with a live episode from Dragonmeet in London. Join us as we discuss a time war involving Isaac Newton and the Crusades, GUMSHOE, Feng Shui, highly detailed games, hypothetical gaming-inspired cookbooks, what we’re afraid of now, and making gnomes interesting. Enjoy your holidays, and join […]

What should you look for when revising a scenario? The Gaming Hut holds the answers. Cinematic technique, legacy and mortality all come out to play in the darkened space of the Cinema Hut as we delve into Robin’s powerful response to the documentary Hitchcock/Truffaut. Then Ken and Robin Recycle Audio, specifically more clips from Robin’s […]

We start amid the familiar shag carpet of the Gaming Hut to look at the question of making the mechanics serve the story and not the other way around. The History Hut delves into the best-named military conflict ever, the War of Jenkins’ Ear. In the Horror Hut we avoid gazing into mirrors while discussing […]

The New York Public Library online map collection provides a feast of gameable treasures. We gather in the Cartography Hut to pick our favorites and riff on ways to put them to use. Ken’s first map, of Brasov, appears here. Robin’s map, to the residences of Ebenezer Ingalsbie and T. R. Wolcott, is here. Ken’s […]

The New York Public Library online map collection provides a feast of gameable treasures. We gather in the Cartography Hut to pick our favorites and riff on ways to put them to use. Ken’s first map, of Brasov, appears here. Robin’s map, to the residences of Ebenezer Ingalsbie and T. R. Wolcott, is here. Ken’s […]

We kick off with Ask Ken and Robin, as Reinier Dobbelmann question about power-gaming, relevant to six-year olds literal and metaphorical. Smell the flavor volatiles as Food Hut looks at the science of taste. Referenced in this segment: Barb Stuckey’s Taste: Surprising Stories and Science About Why Food Tastes Good. In the Horror Hut we […]

We predicted that Ask Ken and Robin would feature a Manfred Gabriel question about incorporating prophecy into roleplaying sessions, and we were right! Dracula tried to thwart him, but Ken still managed to check out some titles at this year’s Chicago International Film Festival, and joins us in the Cinema Hut to talk about the […]

When Deep Ones suddenly display their powers of teleportation, are they being uncool? Step into the Gaming Hut for a look at situations where you want to keep the abilities of your monsters consistent. In Ask Ken and Robin @marcaddress gets us to riff a society where corpse reanimation for heavy lifting and other tasks […]

Find the enigma within the enigma as the Gaming Hut hosts a look at existential mysteries. In Ask Ken and Robin we find the key to a Gerald Sears question about Parisian official’s bid to remove the love locks from the Pont des Arts bridge. How to Write Good serves up tips on character names. […]

The Gaming Hut turns over the hourglass as we discuss villain clocks. Ken issues a Travel Advisory on the latest installment of the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival. In Ask Ken and Robin we field a Pete Darley question about our adherence to canon in published scenario. And in a pulse-pounding, pumice-raining edition of Ken’s […]

The Gaming Hut features an ill-advised open bar as we mull campaigns in which player characters have to be married. Ask Ken and Robin tackles a question posed to us by approximately 75% of listeners: hey, what about that Nazi Gold train? Vegetables return to the Food Hut, demanding to know how we will roast […]

The Cinema Hut heralds the androids, fish men and yakuza vampires coming to a movie consumption venue near you as Robin regales you with the hottest tips from this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Consult his full list here. It was the Gaming Hut, he thought, where the topic of internal monologue in roleplaying would […]

The Gaming Hut finds us in an under-the-hood mood as we turn over Robin’s assertion that a full adventure written as early in the process as possible can illuminate your RPG game design process. Ken and Robin Recycle Audio presents our final trove of treasures from the Gen Con investigative panel, with a series of […]

Our recording chambers may be hot but our subject matter gets cold, cold, cold, as Among My Many Hats takes a look at the Wendigo. In How To Write Good, the dialogue turns to dialogue tags, he said, informatively. Ken and Robin Recycle Audio continues to pillage the very best treasures of the  investigative roleplaying […]

A skepticism of all things pseudopod suffuses the question Thomas Deeny poses in Ask Ken and Robin. “Why Cthulhu? By that, I mean, why do gamers love Cthulhu games? Boardgames, RPGs — it seems as if you slap Cthulhu on the game, it just sells. What is the draw?” Providence proved Providential indeed for our […]

In the dog days before Labor Day, Ask Ken and Robin happily accepts a softball from Cam Banks (a ringer name if ever we heard one.) “Why is “fantasy” supposedly a genre in RPGs but people mostly mean “F20 fantasy”? Why is there no equivalent in science fiction RPGs?” Ken issues a Travel Advisory for […]

Genetic enhancements meet tradecraft as Among My Many Hats looks under the hood of Ken’s new Mutant City Blues campaign frame, “Mutant City Spies.” The Food Hut returns in what might be the first of an sweeping two-part series as we find ways to trick vegetables into being delicious. Ken and Robin Recycle Audio from […]

As the action opens in the Gaming Hut, we find Ken and Robin just one day back from Gen Con, punchy but unbowed. Hear them talk Diana Jones Awards, the new regime at Chaosium, and the great D&D resurgence. Make future spending plans as they recount such Pelgrane-rich announcements as The Fall of Delta Green, […]