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 crusa

Secretly About Papyrus

May 26th, 2023 1h 6m

Flashbacks and cold opens fill the Gaming Hut as beloved Patreon backer Kelly Fisher asks how scenes without the player characters work as downbeats. In the Cinema Hut Science Fiction Essentials Series, we reach installment 17, which might not

The Rhino and I Have an Alibi

May 19th, 2023 1h 3m

Your heroes don masks and top hats in the Gaming Hut as beloved backer Daniel Fidelman asks how to use iconic French pulp villain Fantomas in The Yellow King Roleplaying Game. The Tradecraft Hut gets a little too online as we look at the tablet

Very Real Threat of Dialogue

2 days ago 1h 5m

In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Ross Ireland asks gamemasters tips to use when the player characters receive an imaginary tome chock-full of information. The sun casts a burning eye on the Horror Hut when estimable backer Keelan O’Hea

Astrophysicists Not Acronym Physicists

9 days ago 1h 5m

Beloved Patreon backer Noel Warford summons us to the Gaming Hut, asking how to coax more independence from one’s players. Estimable backer Kevin Nault pries open the door to the Archaeology Hut to hear the very colorful story, or stories, surr

It Takes a While to Work

16 days ago 1h 14m

In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Ryan McClelland asks for tips on incorporating 1890s anarchists into The Yellow King Roleplaying Game. After many previous passing mentions, writer, explorer, scenester and cannibal William Seabrook fina

He’s a Pregen

23 days ago 1h 1m

In the Gaming Hut we turn the rise of surreal online retailer Temu into a horror scenario hook. Beloved Patreon backer Ginge assigns the Tradecraft Hut to cough up the real dossier on the icy retrieval mission Project Coldfeet. Estimable backer

They Have a Space Lawyer

Jun 7th, 2024 1h 10m

In the Gaming Hut, Ken turns the tables on Robin by springing a concept for a game on him. Eavesdrop on the process as they riff on Ley Brothers. The Crime Blotter reaches back into America’s history of 19th century violence to cover the assass

Hydrate and Fix Your Boot

May 31st, 2024 1h 12m

In the Gaming Hut we examine the fine but crucial distinction between fun obstacles and dilemmas your players will read as punishments. The Horror Hut looks at a classic and misunderstood trio of classic characters, the so-called Brides of Drac

LIGHTNING ROUND!!!

May 24th, 2024 41m 45s

Numbers come and numbers go but when the podcast odometer clicks over to 600 Ken and Robin listeners know what to expect: the thunderous return of LIGHTNING ROUND!!! Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access

You Can’t Rule Fish Out

May 17th, 2024 57m 30s

In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Bob Grider asks how to create mystery hooks for sovereign citizens in The Yellow King: This Is Normal Now. With dire inevitability this leads to a discussion of pan-conspiratorialist Romana Didulo, aka t

Do We Really Want That Horse In Here?

May 10th, 2024 1h 3m

Picking up where a previous Gaming Hut left off, beloved Patreon backer Gene Ha asks about scenarios where one of the PCs is a mole working against the rest of the group. In Ask Ken and Robin, estimable backer Martin Rundkvist asks how Ken’s pl

The Copper Scroll is Real

May 3rd, 2024 1h 17m

In the Gaming Hut we talk about our visit to Shadowcon in Barcelona, courtesy of our beloved pals at Shadowlands, who have just published a stunning edition of the Dracula Dossier in the Spanish language. Travel Advisory covers our exploration

Also a No Show Job

Apr 26th, 2024 57m 50s

In the Gaming Hut, beloved Patreon backer Andrew Miller asks for tips on playing paladins well. We enter the History Hut to wonder what shattered the mind of Tudor historian John Leland. Amid the popcorn munching of the Cinema Hut estimable ba

IPA Aliens

Apr 19th, 2024 1h

In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Jason Thompson asks if the group dynamic known as the Tyranny of Structurelessness applies to GM-less roleplaying games. Estimable backer Gray St. Quintin seeks the regular confines of the Architecture H

Bishop of the Drowned Land

Apr 12th, 2024 1h 7m

In the Gaming Hut we identify the elements of a great recurring gamemaster character. At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Lester Ward, the Archaeology Hut mulls the ancient Egyptian fortresses that were flooded by the building of the Aswan

Supermarket of Murder

Apr 5th, 2024 1h 16m

Elves and dragons have some emotional needs to work out as the Gaming Hut answers beloved Patreon backer Nikolaj’s request for tips on bringing elements of DramaSystem into an F20 game. The Crime Blotter checks out the Philadelphia poison murde

A Rhode Island Level of Excitement

Mar 29th, 2024 1h 1m

In the Gaming Hut we find ways to bring players back into the action when they make sensible decisions that sideline their characters. 2Beloved Patreon backer Paul S. Enns beckons us into the Tradecraft Hut to cover the May 23rd Lake Maggiore b

Good Fun That Barbarians Have

Mar 22nd, 2024 1h 3m

In the Gaming Hut, Robin pitches Ken on a concept for a roleplaying game called Renfields. The Mythology Hut looks at the enigmatic Dacian god and/or person named Zalmoxis, who might have been a sky deity. Or an earth deity. Or a physician. In

Rolled a Critical and Saved a Clown

Mar 15th, 2024 1h 6m

We hope you can make it to the Gaming Hut for a discussion of quorum and attendance vagaries. In the History Hut we answer the request of beloved Patreon backer Jeromy French to flesh out a topic we have previously only alluded to—the Toronto c

Ordo Veritatis Chicago

Mar 8th, 2024 1h 21m

Players say they hate linear scenarios. Seasoned convention GMs extoll the efficacy of the greased rail session. In the Gaming Hut we ask what’s up with that. Beloved Patreon backer Monster Talk requests a Ripped from the Headlines on the now w

Full Stop Anti-Marooning

Mar 1st, 2024 1h 1m

Keep your ancient documents well-hidden in the Gaming Hut, as beloved Patreon backer Brian Thomas asks us how to construct a Bookhounds of London one-shot around explorer Aurel Stein, the Great Game, and the Diamond Sutras. When architects go w

Someone’s Gonna Wear the Skin

Feb 23rd, 2024 1h 5m

Beloved Patreon backer Mark Kenney inspires us to wear our classiest outfits in the Gaming Hut as we seek ways to bring the vocabulary of clothing and fashion to tabletop narration. The Food Hut examines an old school staple dessert ingredient

The Velveteen Rabbit of Signage

Feb 16th, 2024 1h 5m

In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Hector Trelane takes inspiration from Robin’s EZ One Shot system to ask if designers are finding a root language of roleplaying that points toward a less cluttered style of play. At the behest of estimab

Advice and Holy Water

Feb 9th, 2024 1h 1m

In the Gaming Hut we look at the paradox of choice, in which players want many alternative paths yet also want to explore all of them. The Archaeology Hut surveys the career of William Stukeley, the 18th century polymath whose studies of Stoneh