Our Gaming Hut series on axes of roleplaying design continues with Robin’s handling cost opposition, Harmonica versus Violin. In the Architecture Hut, beloved Patreon backer Anders Gabrielsson seeks the truth about Chicago’s Midway Gardens. Robin picks up a foreshadowed Cinema Hut thread on the changing face of international film, from access to style. Finally estimable […]

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

Episode 467: Can We Make It Blow Up?

Our Gaming Hut series on the axes of RPG design takes a turn as Robin looks at the trade-offs he thinks about while working on games, starting with Simulation vs Emulation. Fun With Science goes deep to contemplate the abundance of mesopelagic fish. The Horror Hut gets connubial at the behest of beloved Patreon backer […]

Episode 466: Foolish Enough to Get Near Us

If it’s September, it must be, uh, Gen Con? Ken kicks off with a Travel Advisory on how the in-person side of the event went. Speaking of unusual versions of long running events, Robin opens up the Cinema Hut to provide highlights of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, and to make a stunning announcement. […]

Episode 465: Sour Joe

Our continuing Gaming Hut survey of tabletop RPG design principles tackles Power. That sounds like something we always want. Does it belong at one end of a spectrum, or does it corrupt absolutely? Beloved Patreon backer the Molten Sulfur Blog makes a Tell Me More request that opens up the History Hut to profile Edwardian […]

Episode 464: By Fun You Mean Opaque

In the Gaming Hut we continue our series on axes of tabletop RPG design with an examination of Resilience and Robustness. At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Allen Wilkins, Ripped from the Headlines finds the real truth behind the November incident in which a crashing commuter train was saved by polyester whale tails. In […]

Episode 463: The Bubble Wrap of Roleplaying Games

The Gaming Hut kicks off a series looking at the axes of RPG design, so appropriately enough we start with elegance. In the Architecture Hut beloved Patreon backer Nicola Wilson seeks the truth scoop on the Trylon and Perisphere, noted features of the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Fun With Science fields a question from […]

Episode 462: I Can Turn Him Into a Skink

In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer JP Moral asks for steps to take when homebrew adventures don’t feel right in play. Estimable backer Bryan takes the History Hut to 1970 for a look at Ohio Governor Jim Rhodes and the Kent State shootings, with an eye toward portraying them in Fall of DELTA GREEN. […]

Episode 461: Armed for the Wedding

In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer V. R. Weather asks for a 101 on playtesting. Surprised that we have not directly tackled this basic topic before, we immediately comply. The Tradecraft Hut profiles the peripatetic career of OSS and CIA operative Louise Page Morris. In How to Write Good estimable Patreon backer Benjamin Rawls […]

Episode 460: The Price is Scarecrow

The T-Shirt Justification Hut gets scaly and doomy with a look at the connection between dragons and apocalypses. In the Money Hut, we reveal high-frequency trading as yet another Carcosan front operation. Then we fulfill a past promise with part two of Ken’s Bookshelf New England haul. Want to pose a question to the show? […]

Episode 459: Dragons Are the Federal Reserve

In the Gaming Hut we provide tips on GMing for a loose cannon character. Surely not a loose cannon player. None of us have ever had that experience. Beloved Patreon backer Travis Johnson summons the power of Ask Ken and Robin to ask how to include the Bush Wars in The Fall of DELTA GREEN. […]

Episode 458: Slacker Infant

In the Gaming Hut, we look at game balance. What is it, and when do we care about it? We try not to step on any skulls in the Archaeology Hut as Beloved Patreon backers Liz & Siskey seek the scoop on Roman gravesite in Cambridgeshire containing a surprising number of beheaded remains. In the […]

Episode 457: A Lot to Lay on the Genius Loci

Hey, it’s an all-request episode! Count the syllables and jot down the allusions as an anonymous Patreon backer beckons us into the Gaming Hut to ask how to do spontaneous poetry duels in roleplaying sessions. Then pseudonymous Patreon backer Polydamas meets us in the Architecture Hut for the secret history behind Columbia University’s New York […]

Episode 456: Least Worst Hell

The Gaming Hut hits the streets, many of them, for a look at designing scenarios to introduce a city. We find the Crime Blotter is covered in ancient leather and animal glue, our cue to find the gaming in the fake Biblical scrolls purchased by the Museum of the Bible. In Ask Ken and Robin, […]

Episode 455: Ambush Us With Ghosts

Make sure anyone else in the room is really them as the Gaming Hut looks at fox spirits, doppelgangers, and other foes who disguise themselves as human. The Tradecraft Hut profiles CIA operative, author, and coup arranger Miles Axe Copeland, Jr. How to Write Good serves up tips on the revision process, from break taking […]

Episode 454: A Disreputable Trade

Don’t forget you’re in the Gaming Hut as beloved Patreon backer Lauberfen asks for tips on finding the fun in amnesia and similar player character flaws. In Ripped from the Headlines, estimable Patreon backer Robert Wolfe seeks the true truth on the clones of the strong-willed pig. Finally, as normalcy, or at least retail sales, […]

Episode 453: The Chicago Discount

Podcast by Kenneth Hite and Robin D. Laws

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Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

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