Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

We enter the secret chamber of the Gaming Hut at the behest of beloved Patreon backer Ian Carlsen, who seeks guidance on a campaign built around initiation into a mystery cult. Speaking of mysteries, the Food Hut tackles the terrifying possibility that ice cream might be good for you. In the Cinema Hut our Science […]

Get your spreadsheets and notebooks out because in the Gaming Hut we’re talking bluebook-heavy games. In the Command Hut beloved Patreon backer Andrew Miller waves his saber to precipitate a discussion of the Charge of the Savoia Cavalleria at Izbushensky, and whether it was in fact history’s last significant cavalry charge. The lucky thirteenth chapter […]

The Gaming Hut makes knowing reference to the Gaming Hut as beloved Patreon backer Joshua Hillerup asks how one might make a game that is to roleplaying what Community was to the sitcom. Malaise gives way to corrupt hedonism as the Cinema Hut science fiction essentials series reaches the mid 70s. In The Business of […]

In the Gaming Hut we examine the social contract of F20, specifically whether players want the GM to move the boss fight into a room convenient to session pacing. Part eleven of our Cinema Hut science fiction essentials series takes us to the malaise of the early seventies. In Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone […]

We begin in the Gaming Hut as beloved Patreon backer Ludovic Chabant asks for tips on porting the single-protagonist assumptions of much genre source material to the party-driven play typical to tabletop roleplaying. The Cinema Hut takes place in the shadow of a certain monolith as installment ten of our Science Fiction Cinema Essentials reaches […]

In the Gaming Hut we look at the Efficiency Paradox, where players who most effectively grapple with the choices of a scenario are the most likely to regard it as linear. A Zillow floorplan of a Glendora CA home winds up in the Cartography Hut at the behest of beloved backer Monster Talk, who has […]

Things get both creepy and capey in the Gaming Hut as beloved Patreon backer Sean asks how to combine superheroes with cosmic horror. At the behest of estimable backer Cynistrategus, Ripped From the Headlines finds the gaming potential in recent animal thefts at the Dallas Zoo. In the Cinema Hut, part eight of our Science […]

In the Gaming Hut we wonder whether it is always bad for the players to figure out the mystery prior to the big reveal scene. A relic heist comes under scrutiny in the History Hut as beloved Patreon backer Mark D. Rinna asks why black ops crusaders raided the tomb of St. Nicholas. Installment seven […]

We hope you’re wearing headphones for this one because we start in the Gaming Hut with a request from beloved Patreon backer Kevin L. Nault asks us to wrap a campaign around ear-entering, disease-causing ghosts. Then the Tradecraft Hut looks up in the sky for the truth about spy balloons. Finally, the Cinema Hut makes […]

We appear to be stuck in the Gaming Hut as beloved Patreon backer Walter Manbeck seeks tips on scenarios set in confined spaces. In the Tradecraft Hut estimable backer Dan L seeks gaming inspiration from Operation Pedro Pan, a covert effort to migrate unaccompanied teens and kids to the US from early 60s Cuba. The […]

In the Gaming Hut we ask ourselves what we would pitch to Disney if they asked us to design an F20 game using their characters. Beloved Patreon backer Toonspew draws us to the Monster Hut to contemplate the prospect of evil unicorns. We take our seats in the Cinema Hut for installment five of our […]

The topic may be vagueness but the analysis remains sharp as the Gaming Hut looks at open questions and unsolved mysteries in RPG setting material. In Fun With Science, we look for plot hooks in the ChatGPT AI text generator, including the inevitable query about its Mythos implications from beloved Patreon backer Tom Abella. The […]

Beloved Patreon backer Michael Gemar requests that The Business of Gaming tackle Wizards of the Coast’s latest adventures in managing the Dungeons and Dragons Open License. We thought that would be one segment. Hear it, in real time, turn into three! That leaves room for the Cinema Hut’s Science Fiction Film Essentials series to reach […]

In the Gaming Hut we look at what characters should do more often in horror: run! At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Eric Saltwell, the Word Hut seeks the real truth behind Unicode ghost kanji. In part two of our Cinema Hut Science Fiction Essentials series, we finally get to some actual movies, the […]

In the Gaming Hut we remember our friend and colleague Darren Watts, prolific Champions designer and former head of Hero Games. The Crime Blotter comes a little too close to home for comfort as Ken tells the story of his recent shooting. We kick off a new series in the Cinema Hut, Science Fiction Cinema […]

In response to this Caity Weaver New York Times Magazine article, beloved Patreon backer Scott Wachter makes the Gaming Hut a very quiet place indeed by asking us for the scenario possibilities of anechoic chambers. Estimable backer Ray Slakinski beckons us to the Northern Ontario location of the Horror Hut to discuss the Wilno vampire. […]

Fire up your automated die rollers as the Gaming Hut goes digital to answer beloved Patreon backer Marc Kevin Hall’s request for guidance on running tabletop RPGs online. In the History Hut, unswerving backer Jeromy French unwittingly illuminates the number one rule of Canadian history by seeking the secrets behind the assassination of Ontario newspaperman […]

We start by whittling some polyhedrals in the Gaming Hut, as beloved Patreon backer Derrick Yates asks us to sketch out an Appalachian cryptid campaign. In The Business of Gaming we discuss another reason the books you’re waiting for are late, the great freelancer / creator crash-out of 2022. Then another long dormant segment returns, […]

After nearly three chaotic years, the universe has begun to right itself, as you can tell when this episode recorded live at Dragonmeet enters your ear canals. Ken answers the call of the nerdtrope card. Then, fortified by sticky toffee pudding and Christmas sandwiches, we talk topical villains, the cure for cursed dice, the occult […]

Our weary protagonists, fresh from Dragonmeet, stumble into the Gaming Hut. There they undergo the sort of deductive epiphany required, as per a request from beloved Patreon backer Keelan O’Hea, to bring visual “aha” moments into investigative games. Then London’s National Gallery becomes the Culture Hut as our heroes recall their visit to its current […]

We start as per usual in the Gaming Hut, where this time beloved Patreon backer Bart Mallio asks for tips on combining The Esoterrorists with Night’s Black Agents. Then we move onto an ever-shifting southwestern Culture Hut, as estimable backer Robert Wolfe seeks knowledge on cartoonist George Herriman’s Krazy Kat and its effect on the […]

In the Gaming Hut we look at scenario text as a place to put GM advice. At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Bret Kramer the History Hut hosts the tale of German-born eventual doctor Gottfried Knoche, who in the late 19th century took his penchant for mummification innovation to Venezuela. In Ken and/or Robin […]

In the Gaming Hut we mull a peculiar property of RPGs as narrative, the expectation that a scenario will set up more plot elements than it actually pays off. At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Jurie Horneman, the Cartography Hut gets out a map to look at the 50 square mile legal loophole known […]

In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Elias Helfer asks us how to start researching real-world places we intend to use in our games. The Archaeology Hut dusts off a request from estimable backer Steve Dempsey for a profile of innovative site diggers Tessa and Mortimer Wheeler. At the behest of regal backer Paul Douglas […]

As noted wearers of colorful shirts, we are uniquely qualified to enter a Hawaiian edition of the Gaming Hut. There we respond to the call of beloved Patreon backer Kristian Groenseth, who wants to us to fit Magnum P.I. into Trail of Cthulhu. In Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else, Ken talks with J-M […]