Podcasts by Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff
Podcast by Kenneth Hite and Robin D. Laws
Further podcasts by Kenneth Hite and Robin D Laws
Podcast on the topic Spiele
All episodes
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Godzilla Minus One, Poker Face, The Bear from 2023-12-12T14:38:01
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies...
ListenEpisode 577: A Glove on the Flipper from 2023-12-08T14:43:37
In the Gaming Hut we come to the aid of beloved Patreon backer Keelan O’Hea, who wants to know how to revive a campaign after a period spent on hold. Recent reports that it is the world’s oldest py...
ListenKen and Robin Consume Media: High School Fight Club, Twisted Apparitions, and the Plot Against Hitler from 2023-12-06T13:55:10
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies...
ListenEpisode 576: Pantheon Hop from 2023-12-01T08:30
In the Gaming Hut we ask ourselves whether designers should include optional rules they don’t actually recommend using. The History Hut takes on the smell of rocket fuel as beloved backer Fred Kies...
ListenEpisode 575: Your Starter Past Life from 2023-11-24T08:30
In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Alexander Arebalo wants to know how to make a building more of a character than a setting in a scenario. Glittering backer Josh King checks the Crime Blotte...
ListenEpisode 574: Kettle of Worms from 2023-11-17T08:30
In the Gaming Hut show you how to remind players that their characters are the experts. The Tradecraft Hut profiles American novelist, journalist and Soviet spy Martha Dodd. Ken and/or Robin Talk T...
ListenEpisode 573: Have a Train Handy from 2023-11-10T08:30
In the Gaming Hut we discuss ways to build premise acceptance into pregenerated characters. Beloved Patreon backer invites us to the Horror Hut to discuss H. P. Lovecraft’s view that Bram Stoker wa...
ListenEpisode 572: Rains of Peas and Gravel from 2023-11-03T08:30
In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Bart Mallio asks us for ways to make traps exciting. Redoubtable backer Patrick Crowley directs us to the History Hut for a look at St. Louis’ Veiled Prophe...
ListenKen and Robin Consume Media: Satanists, Demon Contagion, and a Science Vampire from 2023-10-31T14:06:53
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies...
ListenEpisode 571: Forensic Chainsawologists from 2023-10-27T08:30
The Gaming Hut stands inconveniently close to a weapons and armor store as beloved Patreon backer Urchin Prince asks for advice on handling shopping-obsessed players. At the request of arborially c...
ListenEpisode 570: Perhaps I’m Wrung Out from 2023-10-20T08:30
Our first all-request episode in many moons kicks off with a Gaming Hut question from beloved Patreon backer Derrick Yates, on running horror when you don’t love gory movies. Then compelling backer...
ListenKen and Robin Consume Media: Alien Invaders, Outback Noir, and a Curse-Breaking Conspiracy from 2023-10-17T14:20:52
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies...
ListenEpisode 569: Alacrity was Their Dump Stat from 2023-10-13T08:30
The Gaming Hut completes its series on scenario structures, as inspired by Robin’s recent Adventure Crucible chapbook for the Kraken, with the intrigue scenario. In Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone...
ListenEpisode 568: Dream Ghosts from 2023-10-06T08:30
The Gaming Hut continues its look at the structures analyzed in Robin’s Adventure Crucible Kraken chapbook with the survival scenario. In the Cinema Hut Robin points you toward the best geek-facing...
ListenEpisode 567: All This Stupid Wheat from 2023-09-29T08:30
The Gaming Hut continues its look at scenario structures, as found in Robin’s new Adventure Crucible chapbook, with the chain of fights. In Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else, Eric Prister from ...
ListenEpisode 566: You Are a Special Island from 2023-09-22T08:30
In the Gaming Hut, we look at the second of the scenario structures Robin breaks down in his new Adventure Crucible chapbook, the mystery. Beloved Patreon backer Joshua Randall beckons us into the ...
ListenEpisode 565: Live at Gen Con 2023 from 2023-09-15T08:30
Ken and Robin were together once more for a live show at Gen Con, and here it is, with the mystical confluence of Elvis, Ben Franklin, and zombies, plus harissa, fancy liquor labeling, our nemeses,...
ListenEpisode 564: Speciation Event from 2023-09-08T08:30
The Gaming Hut hosts part one in a series breaking down the various scenario structures, as inspired by Robin’s new Kraken chapbook, Adventure Crucible. We start with a look at the dungeon and othe...
ListenEpisode 563: The Human Salmon of 1737 from 2023-09-01T08:30
Among My Many Hats looks at Robin’s new Adventure Crucible Kraken chapbook, in which he breaks down the structures of various scenario types to help you design them better. Get in PDF from DriveThr...
ListenEpisode 562: Never Refer to Peoples’ Necks from 2023-08-25T08:30
In the Gaming Hut, we propose ways to respond to the characters’ failures of stealth without killing story momentum. In Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else, both of us chat with author Howard And...
ListenEpisode 561: If Sauron Was an Eye of Love from 2023-08-18T08:30
For the first time since the Great Unpleasantness, not only Ken but also Robin made it to Gen Con. Picking up a tradition where it left off, we devote the episode to recapping our experience there....
ListenEpisode 560: A Total Gef Move from 2023-08-11T08:30
The episode we record together in Indianapolis before Gen Con is back, starting with a Gaming Hut look at using the vagaries of attendance to guide your plot developments. In the Food Hut we look a...
ListenEpisode 559: It’s Not a Two Demon Bag from 2023-08-04T08:30
In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Lauberfen asks for tips on achieving balance with F20 magic items. How do GMs find the sweet spot between a boring +1 sword and a full MacGuffin? The Book H...
ListenEpisode 558: Any Other Stupid Cave Lake from 2023-07-28T08:30
In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Hector Trelane asks us to discuss the Jeepform game design movement. A Crime Blotter investigation has us looking at Captagon, a licit pharmaceutical produc...
ListenEpisode 557: All Four-Sided from 2023-07-21T08:27
In the Gaming Hut, beloved Patreon backer Michael David Jr. wants to know how to fold the 19th century French interest in Ancient Egypt into The Yellow King Roleplaying Game. In the Food Hut we loo...
ListenEpisode 556: We Touched the Thing in Tomb of Horrors from 2023-07-14T08:31
Beloved Patreon backer and longtime GM David Rourke convenes us in the Gaming Hut to ask, is it okay if running published adventures doesn’t work for you? Travel Advisory features a report from Ken...
ListenEpisode 555: Do We Get a Deal for Seven? from 2023-07-07T08:30
The Gaming Hut looks at collaborative worldbuilding. Our Cinema Hut Science Fiction Cinema Essentials series reaches the back half of the 90s. In Ask Ken and Robin, beloved Patreon backer Kevin Gre...
ListenEpisode 554: The Best Way to Annoy a Husband from 2023-06-30T08:30
In the Gaming Hut we look at a common GMing pitfall, which we like to call the Case of the Tight-lipped Informant. The Tradecraft Hut opens the dossier on 18th century antiquarian and spy Philipp v...
ListenEpisode 553: They Get a Really Great Poem Out of It from 2023-06-23T08:30
Beloved Patreon backer Ryan McClelland ventures into our seedy, low rent Gaming Hut to ask how Sam Spade’s monkeywrenching style of investigation fits in GUMSHOE. In Ken and/or Robin Talk to Somebo...
ListenEpisode 552: Worse Hats from 2023-06-16T00:30
In the Gaming Hut we suggest ways to design your player character backstory to make you a premise accepter. Learn with Ken as Among My Many Hats discusses his upcoming online adult education course...
ListenEpisode 551: It’s a Bad Gun from 2023-06-09T08:30
In the Gaming Hut, beloved Patreon backer Elias Helfer wants to hear our take on our esteemed colleague Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan’s take on investigative leads. Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else fi...
ListenEpisode 550: LIGHTNING ROUND!!! from 2023-06-02T08:30
The planet Earth has hurtled through time and space yet again to take this podcast to another milestone: our five hundred and fiftieth episode. Longtime listeners know what that means—LIGHTNING ROU...
ListenEpisode 549: Secretly About Papyrus from 2023-05-26T08:30
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 Se...
ListenEpisode 548: The Rhino and I Have an Alibi from 2023-05-19T08:30
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 ge...
ListenEpisode 547: Such Things as No from 2023-05-12T08:30
In the Gaming Hut we wonder how running games for a streaming audience will change GMing practice in general. At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Dan Noland with proceed with extreme caution in...
ListenEpisode 546: Now I Can Talk To Plants from 2023-05-05T08:30:56
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 mysterie...
ListenEpisode 545: B-52s are Just Very Large Horses from 2023-04-28T08:30:43
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 discus...
ListenEpisode 544: Sean Connery’s Speedo from 2023-04-21T08:30:24
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 gi...
ListenEpisode 543: Truffle Bulettes from 2023-04-14T08:28:57
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 scie...
ListenEpisode 542: Classic Snake Swap-Out from 2023-04-07T08:30:18
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 ta...
ListenEpisode 541: That’s Where You Collect Your Bonus from 2023-03-31T08:30:21
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 Gl...
ListenEpisode 540: Kaiju Angering Chemical from 2023-03-24T08:30:06
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 th...
ListenEpisode 539: Players and/or Humans from 2023-03-17T08:30:22
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 Patreo...
ListenEpisode 538: Perhaps an Exploder from 2023-03-10T08:30:25
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-c...
ListenEpisode 537: Bring Me the Incompetent Laggard File from 2023-03-03T08:30:11
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 inspiratio...
ListenEpisode 536: A Box Somewhere in Scotland from 2023-02-24T08:30:15
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 contem...
ListenEpisode 535: NASA is Not in the Neck Adjustment Business from 2023-02-17T08:30:53
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 th...
ListenEpisode 534: Manimal Utopia from 2023-02-10T08:30:35
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...
ListenEpisode 533: Best Non-Answer of the 19th Century from 2023-02-03T08:30:01
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...
ListenEpisode 532: In Which Ken Is Shot from 2023-01-27T08:30:49
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...
ListenEpisode 531: The Copts Still Have His Head from 2023-01-20T08:30:45
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 ...
ListenEpisode 530: More Than One Adida from 2023-01-13T08:30:36
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, unswer...
ListenEpisode 529: More Cryptids Than It Can Consume Domestically from 2023-01-06T08:30:37
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...
ListenEpisode 528: Live at Dragonmeet from 2022-12-23T08:30:52
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...
ListenEpisode 527: 100% Game Handoutable from 2022-12-16T08:30:09
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...
ListenEpisode 526: From What Steve Did from 2022-12-09T08:30:34
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-shiftin...
ListenEpisode 525: Neptune Reveal Party from 2022-12-02T08:30:36
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 K...
ListenKen and Robin Consume Media: Andor, Guardians Holiday Special, and Wednesday from 2022-11-29T15:35:01
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies...
ListenEpisode 524: Let’s Just Dump It in the West from 2022-11-25T08:30:28
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...
ListenEpisode 523: Never Seen With a Windsock from 2022-11-18T08:30:53
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...
ListenEpisode 522: Pre-Rex from 2022-11-11T08:30:26
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...
ListenEpisode 521: You Can’t See Atlantis for All the Cheese Curds from 2022-11-04T08:30:21
In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Neil Barnes dons his lovingly constructed Benjamin Disraeli costume to ask how to best portray historical figures at the roleplaying table. The Cinema Hut l...
ListenEpisode 520: Cell Phone From the Elder Things from 2022-10-28T08:30:41
In the Gaming Hut we address a query from beloved Patreon backer Steven Dosman on keeping the solutions of mysteries far enough away from characters with the competence and point spends to solve th...
ListenEpisode 519: Everything Weak and Flimsy from 2022-10-21T08:30:49
The Gaming Hut as always uses Skynet for your benefit, providing ways to use AI art at your roleplaying table. In Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else, Ken talks to two someones: Katarzyna “...
ListenEpisode 518: A Big Fan of Heliocentrism from 2022-10-14T08:30:54
Belle Époque wings flutter as the Gaming Hut brings the faery world into The Yellow King Roleplaying Game. Ken issues a Travel Advisory for his recent visit to the Mothman Festival in Point Pleasan...
ListenEpisode 517: Kinda Goopy from 2022-10-07T08:33:47
The first annual Robin and Valerie International Film Festival has come to an end, and just like TIFF before it, that means Robin has a list of movies to recommend to you in the Cinema Hut. The tw...
ListenEpisode 516: Co-Frankensteining from 2022-09-30T08:30:27
We enter the Gaming Hut to ponder the constituency of gamers who prefer lots of crunch, but don’t actually use it when they play. In the History Hut beloved Patreon backer Gene Ha asks if electrici...
ListenEpisode 515: Live from Gen Con 2022 from 2022-09-23T08:30:46
Rob Heinsoo and Gareth-Ryder Hanrahan step in for a sadly absent Robin as the annual live episode from Gen Con returns from the slumber of Pandemicland. They join Ken for a robust discussion of tal...
ListenEpisode 514: Joseph Campbell in a Jar from 2022-09-16T08:30:12
In the Gaming Hut we look at a largely foregone phenomenon in tabletop, the roleplaying tournament. At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Dan L, the Tradecraft Hut examines Project Coast, South A...
ListenEpisode 513: Tiptoe Away from His Flailing Proboscis from 2022-09-09T08:30:33
The Gaming Hut exists in all dimensions as beloved Patreon backer Jacob Boersma asks how to giving Evelyn Wang’s multiversal powers from Everything Everywhere All at Once to player characters. In K...
ListenEpisode 512: The Spiders Pay For Themselves from 2022-09-02T08:30:10
In the Mythos Hut we decide that fish people and serpent folk have hogged the spotlight for too long. It’s time for us to invent some humanoid toads, of the psychedelic variety of course, and wrap ...
ListenEpisode 511: I Just Wanted to Say Astrosome from 2022-08-26T08:30:57
Foul sorcerers flee the Gaming Hut as beloved Patreon backer Jesse Lowe asks for the best Earth-based setting for swords and sorcery—the Hellenistic Era excepted, of course. In Ken and/or Robin Tal...
ListenEpisode 510: The Worst Chocolate, The Worst Cake from 2022-08-19T08:30:03
Normally a post-Gen Con debrief takes up an entire episode. But since only one of us was there, Ken gives Robin the lowdown in a double-header Travel Advisory segment. In the Gaming Hut, beloved Pa...
ListenEpisode 509: Charismatic Megafauna of Food from 2022-08-12T08:30:45
In the Gaming Hut we demonstrate how to dovetail player-created character hooks into your scenario, as Ken proposes a Freaking Weird Moment for his This is Normal Now character and Robin weaves it ...
ListenEpisode 508: KARTAS A-Z from 2022-08-05T08:30:05
On August 2, 2012, the first installment of Ken and Robin Talks About Stuff debuted to a waiting gaming world. For our recent 500th episode celebration, we held the traditional Lightning Round. For...
ListenEpisode 507: Awesomely Underfunded from 2022-07-29T08:30:22
In the Gaming Hut, Beloved Patreon backer Eric Jeppesen, or a clever facsimile thereof, kicks off an all-request episode, as he wonders how to run GUMSHOE One-2-One with a doppelganger protagonis...
ListenEpisode 506: His Bonaparte Eyes from 2022-07-22T08:30:59
The Gaming Hut floats further from land than it ever has as beloved Patreon backer Alden Strock seeks the tabletop uses of Point Nemo, the planet’s literal middle of nowhere. In Ken and/or Robin Ta...
ListenEpisode 505: Move Them Back to the Fun from 2022-07-15T08:30:42
The next time you’re about to design a situation where the players can’t do what they want to do, you’ll recall this week’s Gaming Hut segment and think, “How do I let them do that without wrecking...
ListenEpisode 504: Area Nihilists from 2022-07-08T08:30:42
In the Gaming Hut we ask when the GM should apply a rules set’s cost system for actions, and when it is instead best to make it a freebie. The Command Hut provides a dossier on the Russian mercenar...
ListenEpisode 503: Distinctively Muppety from 2022-07-01T08:30:52
Ken kicks us off with a Travel Advisory on his journey to Poland’s Pyrkon, with ancillary adventures in Poznan. Then the Gaming Hut subtly ratchets up the tension as we ask how long a horror scenar...
ListenKen and Robin Consume Media: Obi-Wan, Doctor Strange, Rothaniel, and the First Shin Honkaku Novel from 2022-06-28T13:47:07
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies...
ListenEpisode 502: Aramaic Mutterer Whisperer from 2022-06-24T08:28:21
Surprisingly often, mysteries in other genres show clues landing in the detective’s lap. The Gaming Hut asks how to do this at the roleplaying table without leaving players feeling that they’re bei...
ListenEpisode 501: Go Toward the Omen from 2022-06-17T08:30:02
The Gaming Hut mines a new source of mysterious, danger-laden plot hooks: Reddit’s WhatIsThis forum. The Horror Hut takes the unusual step of profiling a real person, as beloved backer Louis Sylves...
ListenEpisode 500: LIGHTNING ROUND!!! from 2022-06-10T08:30:02
We don’t believe it, you don’t believe it, but it’s true all the same. Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff has reached that milestone of milestones, Episode 500. Which means, thanks to the perspicacious...
ListenKen and Robin Consume Media: Top Gun, Ghostbusters, We Own This City from 2022-06-07T13:58:48
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies...
ListenEpisode 499: The Easily Discouraged Ones from 2022-06-03T08:30:21
In the Gaming Hut, beloved Patreon backer Bill Durfy asks us to provide advice for budding professional GMs. The Tradecraft Hut looks at John Stonehouse, a British MP who spied for the Czechs and w...
ListenEpisode 498: Time Narcs from 2022-05-27T08:30:58
Beholders swoop around the futuristic spires of the Gaming Hut as beloved Patreon backer Ian Carlsen seeks tips on time travel in F20 games. Estimable backer Jason Thompson beckons us into the Cult...
ListenKen and Robin Consume Media: Dr. Strange, Men, and a Demon-Possessed Skull from 2022-05-24T13:30:16
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies...
ListenEpisode 497: Edgelord Tarot from 2022-05-20T08:30:13
Beloved Patreon backer Ryan McClelland kicks of an all-request episode in the Gaming Hut, seeking advice on how to convincing players to treat former adversaries as questionable allies. In the Hist...
ListenEpisode 496: Tonsils Not Included from 2022-05-13T08:30
Beloved Patreon backer Urchin Prince beckons us to the shiniest throne of the Gaming Hut to ask about boons the PCs’ patrons might give them. The Architecture Hut faces cost overruns for its fiendi...
ListenEpisode 495: More of an Octagon from 2022-05-06T08:30:19
The Gaming Hut investigates the difference between problems that rules sets should set out to solve and mere conceptual issues that never come up in play. The History Hut gets hairy as we reveal th...
ListenEpisode 494: Sidekicks to the Bear from 2022-04-29T08:30:51
In an episode dedicated to recreating for posterity the good half of an old installment that has since gone missing, the Gaming Hut looks at campaigns where most of the PCs are sidekicks to a super...
ListenEpisode 493: That New Cleaning Acid from 2022-04-22T08:30:33
With the Gremlins franchise coming back, warnings are on the mind of beloved Patreon backer Bryan. He beckons us into the back room of the Gaming Hut to ask how to handle them at the roleplaying ta...
ListenKen and Robin Consume Media: Everything Everywhere, The Protege, Argentinean Noir and Italian Jack London from 2022-04-19T14:30:18
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies...
ListenEpisode 492: More Feck in the Bank from 2022-04-15T08:30:13
In the Gaming Hut we provide advice on working with the GM to play a mastermind character. At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Drew, the History Hut goes all the way back to 2004 for the tale ...
ListenEpisode 491: Stormy Petrels of Crime from 2022-04-08T08:32:58
In the Gaming Hut, we look at the elements that ought to go into an introductory scenario. Beloved Patreon backer Todd W. Olson has not left the building, but has rather entered the Culture Hut, as...
ListenEpisode 490: They Left the Irony Bridge Intact from 2022-04-01T08:30:31
In the Gaming Hut we lay out goals the GM should set for convention games and other one-shots. The Command Hut looks at an invasion of a smaller power by a larger one that has somewhat fallen down ...
ListenEpisode 489: Ideally a Themologue from 2022-03-25T08:30:33
In the Gaming Hut we look at that most elusive of GM skills: knowing when to shut up. The smell of ancient newsprint pervades the Horror Hut as beloved Patreon backer Jamie Twine seeks the connecti...
ListenEpisode 488: The Da Vinci Code of Numbers from 2022-03-18T08:27:14
Among My Many Hats looks at Ken’s latest work of Cthulhoid essays, Tour de Lovecraft: the Destinations, available as of March 22nd from Atomic Overmind Press. The Gaming Hut looks at ways you...
ListenEpisode 487: Nothing More Organic Than a Moon from 2022-03-11T08:30:23
Beloved Patreon backer Chihiro Yamata has access to an Edwardian house with a creepy ghost plaque, and wants the Gaming Hut to do something about it. Esteemed backer Jake beckons us into the Cartog...
Listen[REPOST] Episode 486: Temple of Political Evil from 2022-03-04T19:48:39
The Gaming Hut gets a snazzy Architecture Hut retrofit as beloved Patreon backer Alexander Arebalo seeks tips for a game based around physical locations. In Conspiracy Corner we ask ourselves if to...
ListenEpisode 486: Temple of Political Evil from 2022-03-04T08:30:28
The Gaming Hut gets a snazzy Architecture Hut retrofit as beloved Patreon backer Alexander Arebalo seeks tips for a game based around physical locations. In Conspiracy Corner we ask ourselves if to...
ListenEpisode 485: What I Might Have Done in the Future from 2022-02-25T08:30:34
Beloved Patreon backer Walter Manbeck chases a bad guy we thought we vanquished into the Gaming Hut, asking us how to keep recurring villains scary after the group has teamed up to defeat them. At ...
ListenEpisode 484: Unprecedented Snow from 2022-02-18T08:30:06
In the Gaming Hut we wonder how many possible player character choices the writer of published scenarios should provide guidance for. The Mythology Hut makes room for a round table as beloved Patre...
ListenEpisode 483: Don’t Come at Me, Circle People from 2022-02-11T08:30:36
In the Gaming Hut we look at GMing techniques to respond to that moment when one player makes a unilateral choice that causes the rest of the group to groan in protest. The History Hut acquires a p...
ListenEpisode 482: I Never Really Got Rid of Her from 2022-02-04T08:30:12
The launch pad has been positioned uncomfortable close to the Gaming Hut, as beloved Patreon backer Neil Barnes seeks ways to center a game around the Soviet Space Program. The Crime Blotter has to...
ListenEpisode 481: We Love This Gnoll from 2022-01-28T08:30:11
In the Gaming Hut we consider the genre all tabletop roleplaying games bend toward. Spoiler: it has to do with the players. Our ongoing Mythos Hut process of creating a new Lovecraftian god reaches...
ListenKen and Robin Consume Media: Hawkeye, Finch, Eternals, and The Velvet Underground from 2022-01-25T14:55:20
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies...
ListenEpisode 480: Not Described Otherwise as Being a Metal Tube from 2022-01-21T08:30:34
The Gaming Hut attempts to pin down a much-used bit of tabletop terminology as beloved Patreon backer Ludovic Chabant asks what we mean when we say that a game breaks. Esteemed Patreon backers Jero...
ListenEpisode 479: His Old Draping Skills from 2022-01-14T08:30:30
Get ready for twists and Gaming Hut turns as beloved Patreon backer Terry Robinson asks for advice on genre shifts on the tabletop. The Tradecraft Hut finds intrigue behind an old-timey Canadian hi...
ListenEpisode 478: His Pursevant Had Dropsy from 2022-01-07T08:30:13
We open up the Gaming Hut for another year and find a strangely folded missive from beloved Patreon backer Stephen Dosman, who wants us to incorporate the practice of letter-locking into historical...
ListenEpisode 477: Not For That, But Not Not For That from 2021-12-24T08:30:08
Nestle your rattling dice and thumping miniatures with care for our final episode of 2021. In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Bob Grider seeks the connection between the King in Yellow and lo...
ListenEpisode 476: Homeostasis and Recurrence in Great Power Relations from 2021-12-17T08:30:07
In the Gaming Hut we find ways to design scenarios that highlight the cool and unique features of a location. It’s that most wonderful time of the year as the Horror Hut contemplates Christmas ghos...
ListenEpisode 475: Romance or Blasphemy from 2021-12-10T08:30:43
Hey look it’s another all-request episode! Beloved Patreon backer Kieron Gillen opens the Gaming Hut, which we hope isn’t a portal into a hellish otherrealm, to ask how designers screen out their s...
ListenEpisode 474: Becuthbert from 2021-12-03T08:30:12
In the Gaming Hut we look for ways to design F20 encounters that players don’t want to skip. The Architecture Hut reaches unprecedented heights as beloved Patreon backer Philip Masters seeks the es...
ListenEpisode 473: The Special Ability is It’s a Gun from 2021-11-26T08:30:25
In the Gaming Hut we take on a classic horror scenario design issue. When the menace stems from ambient weirdness, how do you build fresh ways for the player characters to conclude the story? Belov...
Listen[Corrected] Episode 472: Running Away from a Bush from 2021-11-20T17:33:17
An all-request episode kicks off with a Gaming Hut question from beloved backer Tom Abella, who wants to know if, when playtesting, there is such a thing as too good a GM. Estimable backer Elias He...
ListenEpisode 472: Running Away from a Bush from 2021-11-19T08:30:33
An all-request episode kicks off with a Gaming Hut question from beloved backer Tom Abella, who wants to know if, when playtesting, there is such a thing as too good a GM. Estimable backer Elias He...
ListenEpisode 471: They Called Him Johnny Polymorph from 2021-11-12T08:31:48
Our Gaming Hut series on the axes of tabletop RPG design concludes, we think and hope, with an opposition separately suggested by beloved Patreon backers Nicola Wilson and Lauberfen: Randomness vs....
ListenEpisode 470: Snailteaser from 2021-11-05T08:30:31
The Gaming Hut axes of RPG design series turns toward setting for its next opposition, Canon vs. Open. Ken is back from the Chicago Film Festival to report on his findings in the Cinema Hut. In Ken...
ListenEpisode 469: Real Rumors from 2021-10-29T08:30:02
Axes keep showing up at the Gaming Hut, and this week we look at the Abstract vs Emotional slider in roleplaying game design. Inspired by the passing of one of its prime exponents, Owen Luder, the ...
ListenKen and Robin Consume Media: The Card Counter, Secret Origins of the Afterlife, and Gems from the Chicago Film Fest from 2021-10-26T15:02:28
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies...
ListenEpisode 468: Weird Mushroom Things and a Swirl Over There from 2021-10-22T08:30:54
Our Gaming Hut look at the axes of roleplaying game design continues with the previously teased Ease versus Mastery. In Ask Ken and Robin beloved Patreon backer Joe Webb takes the bait and requests...
ListenEpisode 467: Can We Make It Blow Up? from 2021-10-15T08:30:25
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 seek...
ListenEpisode 466: Foolish Enough to Get Near Us from 2021-10-08T08:30:52
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 de...
ListenEpisode 465: Sour Joe from 2021-10-01T08:30
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...
ListenEpisode 464: By Fun You Mean Opaque from 2021-09-24T08:30:45
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? ...
ListenEpisode 463: The Bubble Wrap of Roleplaying Games from 2021-09-17T08:28:30
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 Head...
ListenEpisode 462: I Can Turn Him Into a Skink from 2021-09-10T08:30:06
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 sco...
ListenEpisode 461: Armed for the Wedding from 2021-09-03T08:30:39
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 G...
ListenEpisode 460: The Price is Scarecrow from 2021-08-27T08:30:40
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 ...
ListenEpisode 459: Dragons Are the Federal Reserve from 2021-08-20T08:30:35
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 op...
ListenEpisode 458: Slacker Infant from 2021-08-13T08:30:18
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 th...
ListenEpisode 457: A Lot to Lay on the Genius Loci from 2021-08-06T08:30:08
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 sc...
ListenEpisode 456: Least Worst Hell from 2021-07-30T08:30:13
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 roleplayi...
ListenEpisode 455: Ambush Us With Ghosts from 2021-07-23T08:30:03
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 ga...
ListenEpisode 454: A Disreputable Trade from 2021-07-16T08:30:43
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, a...
ListenKen and Robin Consume Media: Black Widow, Summer of Soul, and the Fate of the Artist from 2021-07-13T12:22:34
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies...
ListenEpisode 453: The Chicago Discount from 2021-07-09T08:30:05
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 Pat...
ListenEpisode 452: Don’t Look at the Leopards from 2021-07-02T08:30:42
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer as the Gaming Hut provides advice to players running in political intrigue games. In Fun With Science beloved Patreon backer Josh King asks for the r...
ListenEpisode 451: Bring a Bunch of Idiots from 2021-06-25T08:30:07
Keep an eye out for incoming candlesticks as the Gaming Hut finds ways to engage players in the prelude part of a scenario, for example the bit in a cozy mystery before any genteel murdering happen...
ListenEpisode 450: LIGHTNING ROUND!!! from 2021-06-18T08:30:55
Just when time had lost all meaning, the ineffable power of numbers tells us that we’ve hit Episode 450. Seasoned investigators know what that means: our beloved Patreon backers pose them, and we b...
ListenEpisode 449: Quietly Judging You from 2021-06-11T08:30:18
We venture from the Gaming Hut into a wider world of stashed items as beloved Patreon backer Carrie Schutrick requests the RPG angle on geocaching. Estimable Patreon backers pool their resources in...
ListenEpisode 448: Mice and Diamonds from 2021-06-04T08:30:01
In the Gaming Hut we spitball scenarios that take place over a period of many years. Fun With Science answers the call from beloved Patreon backer bt to examine Freudian psychologist Charles Seligm...
ListenEpisode 447: The Bert-Adjacent Ugly Wheels of Commerce from 2021-05-28T08:30:59
We start out in the Gaming Hut to tell your GM that the shocking premise subversion they have in mind isn’t as fun or cool as they might think. A segment that had to hibernate during the pandemic i...
ListenEpisode 446: Well Also H. R. Giger from 2021-05-21T08:33:59
An all-request episode kicks off in the Gaming Hut with beloved Patreon backer Chris Camfield’s request to follow up on a carelessly dropped side reference about realist F2O. Esteemed Patreon backe...
ListenEpisode 445: The Cavern of Boring from 2021-05-14T08:30:13
In the Gaming Hut we provide tips enabling you to convince your fellow players to go along with your plans. Beloved Patreon backer Jurie Horneman asks us to convene a Book Hut to talk about Robert ...
ListenEpisode 444: Axe Democracy from 2021-05-07T08:30:13
Prepare to reverse polarity as the Gaming Hut looks at scenarios that revolve around science mysteries. Beloved Patreon backer Tennant Reed asks us to unfurl the Crime Blotter for the story of pena...
ListenEpisode 443: Ruined by Farm Children from 2021-04-30T08:30:43
In the Gaming Hut, we help you, the player, bring your character’s narrative hook, in this case a Freaking Weird Moment for The Yellow King Roleplaying Game, into play. As befits this weird year, t...
ListenEpisode 442: Mad at Unicorns from 2021-04-23T08:30:14
Bravely we enter the Gaming Hut, at the behest of beloved Patreon backer Scott Wachter, to roast the cockatrice and other weaksauce monsters. The History Hut runs aground as estimable Patreon backe...
ListenEpisode 441: Cheese Made of Cheese from 2021-04-16T08:30:58
In the Gaming Hut, beloved Patreon backer Joe Webb asks for a Fall of DELTA GREEN / Night’s Black Agents crossover inspired by a Cambodian pop song. (After we recorded this segment Ken remembered t...
ListenEpisode 440: All the Van Helsings from 2021-04-09T08:30:37
In the Gaming Hut the beloved Patreon backer known as Ed, Speaker in Digressions, asks us to envision a game that that arcs from a state of nature to civil society. The Tradecraft Hut steams open t...
ListenEpisode 439: Untainted By Dockyard Activities from 2021-04-02T08:30:13
Would we rather fight a turnip-headed wyvern, or an enormous Jenny Haniver? The answer awaits in the T-Shirt Justification Hut. In Ask Ken and Robin, mighty-thewed Patreon backer Mike Mearls asks f...
ListenEpisode 438: Anyone Can Bilocate from 2021-03-26T08:30:21
Beloved Patreon backer Jonathan Keim asks us to take care of the Gaming Hut for the winter, during which time we will contemplate making place as big a part of a game session as the Overlook Hotel ...
ListenEpisode 437: Your Chartreuse Leotard from 2021-03-19T08:30:53
Pick up that flashlight and head down into the basement as the Gaming Hut looks at building moments that take advantage of a single protagonist for one-player games like GUMSHOE One-2-One. The Hist...
ListenEpisode 436: Needs to Have a Lith from 2021-03-12T08:30:51
In the Gaming Hut we parse the differences between crunch and simulation, as we examine the yen for complexity and the various related but separate impulses behind it. At the behest of beloved Patr...
ListenEpisode 435: Unreliable Satanists from 2021-03-05T08:30:34
Sidle up to the Gaming Hut as we provide tips on bringing your player characters into historical events. In Ask Ken and Robin, beloved Patreon backer Dennis Harlow asks us to add detail and credibi...
ListenEpisode 434: Fight the Mimes from 2021-02-26T08:30:39
Beloved Patreon backer Michael Curtis dons a Nehru jacket and John Lennon glasses to duck into the Gaming Hut for tips on running occult investigation in Swingin’ London. In part 9 of the Cinema Hu...
ListenEpisode 433: Leave Out a Syllable For Elijah from 2021-02-19T08:30:42
The Gaming Hut nestles next to an apothecary and a retailer of used armor pieces as we suggest techniques to populate buildings for a city sourcebook. Fright film enters the psychic hangover of the...
ListenEpisode 432: Smart Shark Money from 2021-02-12T08:30:40
In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Jacob Ansari seeks tips on introducing complex settings to the players. Part 8 of our Cinema Hut horror essentials series sees the genre take an apocalyptic...
ListenEpisode 431: Working for Bigfoot from 2021-02-05T08:30:04
Keep that Abingdon Island giant tortoise under a blanket as beloved Patreon backer Kevin L. Nault beckons us into the Gaming Hut to work animal trafficking into RPG scenarios. Part 6 of our Cinema ...
ListenEpisode 430: Look What’s Happened to Consensus Reality from 2021-01-29T08:30:07
Classic occult conspiracy meets eldritch espionage when beloved Patreon backer Daniel Fidelman pokes his head into the Gaming Hut, asking how to incorporate Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier’s The ...
ListenEpisode 429: It Will Make a Lovely Allegory from 2021-01-22T08:30:18
In a co-production between the Mythology Hut and the T-Shirt Justification Hut, a particularly mournful example of the species inspires us to find ways to put the phoenix in your games. Then put th...
ListenEpisode 428: Only a Modernist Horse from 2021-01-15T08:30:16
In the Gaming Hut we return to that perennial, not at all distracting topic of the red herring, as beloved Patreon backer Kevin Greenlee asks how to work player-generated herrings into the drama. T...
ListenKen and Robin Consume Media: Discovery, WW84, and Korean Time Phone Horror from 2021-01-12T15:47:37
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies...
ListenEpisode 427: Poor Bactrian Saps from 2021-01-08T08:30:55
We’re back for another year, starting in the Gaming Hut, where beloved Patreon backer Nicola Wilson wants to know how to incorporate the relatively high cost of clothes and food in the Middle Ages ...
ListenEpisode 426: Licensed Mumming from 2020-12-18T08:30:01
In our last episode of 2020 we lurch, masked and tipsy, into the Kringle Hut, to fashion a horror scenario around the Newfoundland tradition of mummering. Beloved Patreon backer Noel Warford conven...
ListenEpisode 425: Pork Chop of the Truth from 2020-12-11T08:30
In the Gaming Hut, beloved Patreon backer Jacob Boersma asks how, with conspiracies theories going mainstream, we should create them for our horror games. In Ripped from the Headlines, backer Gray ...
ListenKen and Robin Consume Media: Mank Writes Kane and H. G. Wells is Full of Himself from 2020-12-08T14:50:55
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movi...
ListenEpisode 424: Reverse Darwinism from 2020-12-04T08:30:48
In the Gaming Hut we discuss a key difference between RPG settings and the real world: imaginary politics has a lot more smart people in it. Beloved Patreon backer Andrew Miller lures us into an es...
ListenEpisode 423: The Mysterious G from 2020-11-27T08:30:43
In the Gaming Hut, Lisa Steele and Neil Fortier ask how to adjust Robin’s police procedural superhero game, Mutant City Blues, in the wake of the George Floyd murder. George III’s topographical col...
ListenEpisode 422: Sumerian GM Screens from 2020-11-20T08:30:31
In the Gaming Hut we look at narrative coherence and whether GMs should enforce it by trying to make all introduced story elements pay off. Something sufficiently definitive has happened that we ar...
ListenEpisode 421: The Lawful Evil Parade [Corrected] from 2020-11-13T14:00:16
In the Gaming Hut, beloved Patreon backer David Sowa asks us how to incorporate machine politics into an F20 game. Ken beckons us into the Cinema Hut to discuss his discoveries at this year’s virtu...
ListenEpisode 420: They Were Hurt Frankly from 2020-11-06T08:30:52
Beloved Patreon backer John Scheib summons us to the Gaming Hut to find techniques for infusing Earth-based settings with your chosen nerdtrope. In the Tradecraft Hut we find that the Cuban sonic a...
ListenEpisode 419: Five Hour Haste from 2020-10-30T08:30:50
We risk mixing up our aromatics with our alembics as beloved Patreon backer Jason Gorkisch enters the Gaming Hut to ask which ingredients and cooking styles make the best basis for magic. Peter McA...
ListenEpisode 418: Professor X Will Hug Me from 2020-10-23T08:30:39
A Theosophical choir sings in the Gaming Hut as beloved Patreon backer Brad McClain asks for Trail of Cthulhu scenario seeds inspired by Alexander Scriabin’s unfinished, Armageddon-inducing composi...
ListenEpisode 417: Double Devil from 2020-10-16T08:30:38
In the Gaming Hut, beloved Patreon backer Ross Ireland asks about the possibility of victory in an ongoing game. Is it essential, or can certain doom become its own kind of win? Regal backer Mikey ...
ListenEpisode 416: They’re Gonna Have Their Lifeforms Fight from 2020-10-09T08:30:13
An all-request episode kicks off in the Gaming Hut as Dicegeeks asks us how to incorporate the Fossil Showman Albert Koch and his Missouri Leviathan into a game. We jump some bulls on our way into ...
ListenEpisode 415: Psychedelic Tupperware Party from 2020-10-02T08:30:36
The pandemic didn’t stop Robin from attending the Toronto International Film Festival, because it took place in his living room this year. In the Cinema Hut he reviews the best of a cut-down slate ...
ListenEpisode 414: That’s How You Get Your Grants Approved from 2020-09-25T08:30:35
The Gaming Hut transforms into a spooky manor by the moors as beloved Patreon backer Ian Carlsen asks what you can do, outside the setting, to make an F20 game more gothic. In Ripped from the Headl...
ListenEpisode 413: Live from Gen Con Online from 2020-09-18T08:30:58
Convention season has gone into hibernation, but that didn’t stop us from doing a live episode at Gen Con Online. The Nerdtrope deck served up a duplicate, but that didn’t stop us from sticking in ...
ListenEpisode 412: Dumas’Salads from 2020-09-11T08:30:03
The Gaming Hut gets into a crossover mood as beloved Patreon backer Adam Grotjohn wants to know how to turn player characters from Vampire: the Masquerade into the antagonists for Night’s Black Age...
ListenEpisode 411: Chief Plant Health Officer from 2020-09-04T08:30:17
In the Gaming Hut, beloved Patreon backer Philippe Marcil asks how you start with Earth when it is full of racism, sexism, and a plethora of other isms. A man in a barrel pleads with a man not in a...
ListenEpisode 410: My Uncle Never Had an Owl from 2020-08-28T08:30:33
The Gaming Hut dares to risk horrific ill fortune to answer beloved Patreon backer Kevin Greenlee’s request for tips on game mastering powerful but cursed objects. The History Hut looks at ways to ...
ListenEpisode 409: League of Extraordinary Liability Lawyers from 2020-08-21T08:30:16
In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Michael Brodhead seeks our assistance in moving from setting to story. Might taxonomies of storytelling help? The Architecture Hut provides grand surroundin...
ListenEpisode 408: Not That My Players Would Do Anything Like That from 2020-08-14T08:30:45
In lieu of our usual Gen Con wrap, we reach for an all-request episode. Beloved Patreon backer Lauberfen meets us in the Gaming Hut to ask how to incorporate TPKs and character death into the narra...
ListenKen and Robin Consume Media: American Pickle, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, and Iconic Michael Caine from 2020-08-11T13:32:30
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies...
ListenEpisode 407: You May Be Competent from 2020-08-07T08:30:19
In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Gene Ha asks about trusting players with knowledge of upcoming secrets, for example the vampire content in Night’s Black Agents. The Tradecraft Hut delves i...
ListenEpisode 406: The Mystical Land of Hat from 2020-07-31T08:30:44
Beloved Patreon backer Manfred convenes us in a camouflage-covered Gaming Hut to ask how to run Fall of Delta Green agents through the Vietnam War. Complicating factor: his players are ex-military;...
ListenEpisode 405: It Would Totally Match Her Raven from 2020-07-24T08:30:41
Robin has coined yet another new term and so naturally we must enter the Gaming Hut to talk about table sense. The T-Shirt Justification Hut wrings a segment out of our latest foray into feline-the...
ListenEpisode 404: Toss In Your Werecows from 2020-07-17T08:30:10
ListenEpisode 403: Someone Thought to Give It Beer from 2020-07-10T08:30:54
In the Gaming Hut we look at villain plans, and why they have to make sense in investigative games. The Food Hut goes to the drive-thru for a double-double as beloved Patreon backers Tim Maness and...
ListenKen and Robin Consume Media: Harlem Renaissance Detecting, Italian Renaissance Painting, and That Play You’ve Heard About from 2020-07-07T13:28:02
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies...
ListenEpisode 402: NBIMBY from 2020-07-03T08:30:32
Beloved Patreon backer Bob Grider invites us into the Gaming Hut to discuss top-down vs bottom-up design. Discerning Patreon backer Allen Wilkins invokes his Ask Ken and Robin powers to request a m...
ListenEpisode 401: Chorus Cubed from 2020-06-26T08:30:32
In the Gaming Hut, Ken introduces us to the meta-textual, meme-filled wonderland that is his Fall of Delta Green player group. The Crime Blotter visits the wild mobbed-up years when Montreal Quebec...
ListenEpisode 400: LIGHTNING ROUND!!! from 2020-06-19T08:30:38
On August 3, 2012, Ken and Robin debuted into a podcast-starved world the first edition of their weekly podcast. Stuff we talked about incluuuuded a brand new game called Night’s Black Agents, the ...
ListenEpisode 399: Webster’s Defines a Shoggoth As from 2020-06-12T08:30:46
The Gaming Hut goes below the depths for beloved Patreon backer Hector Trelane, who seeks tips on adapting the feel of Wolfgang Petersen’s 1981 classic Das Boot into a roleplaying setting. How to W...
ListenEpisode 398: Dragons Love Merch from 2020-06-05T08:30:25
ListenEpisode 397: Terrifying Gauziness from 2020-05-29T08:30:16
In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer wants to know about arc-sized endgames for player characters. Your Call of Cthulhu characters may have wound up in a sanatorium, but did your D&D heroes...
ListenEpisode 396: Submarine for Sea Ghouls from 2020-05-22T08:30:06
If the hairs on the back of your neck are tingling, you must be in the Gaming Hut, and we may be providing tips on using Sense Trouble abilities. In Fun With Science beloved Patreon backer Chris Se...
ListenEpisode 395: Uninterested in Not Attacking from 2020-05-15T08:34:43
In the Gaming Hut we fulfill a Tell Me More Request from beloved Patreon backer Bryan, who wants us to wring gaming ideas from the most recent version of The Invisible Man. Ask Ken and Robin finds ...
ListenEpisode 394: Fruit Cutting Policies from 2020-05-08T08:30:09
The Cartography Hut gets smart as beloved Patreon backer Gerald Sears asks us to riff on intelligent maps. Esteemed Patreon backer Sibel Permann urges the History Hut to find gaming gold in the Gue...
ListenEpisode 393: Sonia Plus Melted Cheese from 2020-05-01T08:30:59
In the Gaming Hut we help beloved Patreon backer Jamie Twine as he seeks to adapt scenarios written for standard GUMSHOE to the QuickShock version of the system found in The Yellow King Roleplaying...
ListenEpisode 392: Existence Does Exist from 2020-04-24T08:31:38
Remote play is all the rage and we’ve convened in the Gaming Hut, physically distanced as always, to provide our tips to smooth your sudden conversion to the format. In the Archaeology Hut, beloved...
ListenEpisode 391: Vigorous Deaccessioning Policy from 2020-04-17T08:30:34
You are getting sleepy very sleepy in the Gaming Hut as we look at ways to make being mind-controlled fun for players. The Yellow King Roleplaying Game profiles move back to the Culture Hut for a l...
ListenKen and Robin Consume Media: An Iconic Illustrator and Ontario Bike Gang History from 2020-04-14T13:32:30
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies...
ListenEpisode 390: Open a Can Hut from 2020-04-10T08:30:40
The aroma of a damn fine cup of coffee wafts through the Gaming Hut as beloved Patreon backer Drew Eicholz asks us to pitch a non-frustrating version of Lynchian roleplaying. In Fun With Science we...
ListenEpisode 389: The Owl Costume Never Pulled from 2020-04-03T08:30:02
In the Gaming Hut we spitball ideas for GUMSHOE One-2-One scenarios enterprising listeners might turn into self-published PDF products under the auspices of its Creative Commons license. We enter t...
ListenEpisode 388: The Toppling is the Point from 2020-03-27T08:30:58
In the Gaming Hut we ask when a historical event the players can research might also be a spoiler. Ripped From the Headlines allows beloved Patreon backer Chris Lydon to discover the hidden signifi...
ListenEpisode 387–Yell Down Into the Hollers from 2020-03-20T13:02:06
In the Gaming Hut, beloved Patreon backer Peter McAveney asks how to set up a Night’s Black Agents game as if it is, at first, some other less vampire-infested game. The Tradecraft Hut goes to 50s ...
ListenEpisode 386: The Apache Helicopter of Toaster Ovens from 2020-03-13T08:31:45
In the Gaming Hut, beloved Patreon backer Trung Bui asks us for tips and tricks on running open-ended games without interfering with player agency. The Food Hut remains just as crispy, with a fract...
ListenEpisode 385: Shill for the Macedonians from 2020-03-06T08:30:10
In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Gray St. Quintin asks us to expand on our past fleeting discussion of the various voices and modes used in a roleplaying session. The Tradecraft Hut has no ...
ListenEpisode 384: Number One Nightmare from 2020-02-28T08:30:49
Look out for dirigibles as the Gaming Hut looks at the process of selecting your tech level when building an alternate timeline. The Aftermath sequence of The King in Yellow Roleplaying Game serves...
ListenEpisode 383: Not Quite Doctor Cowboy from 2020-02-21T08:30:17
Longtime listeners know that “Start with Earth” is a Thing Ken Always Says. But in the Gaming Hut, beloved Patreon backer Nicola Wilson wants to know exactly where. In the Conspiracy Corner estimab...
ListenEpisode 382: Health and Safety from 2020-02-14T08:30:26
In the Gaming Hut we come to the rescue of beloved Patreon backer Keelan O’Hea, whose players have conceived the inexplicable desire for a version of GUMSHOE with more die rolling in it. The Food H...
ListenEpisode 381: Anthropodermic Wallet from 2020-02-07T08:30:43
They tried to suppress it. They tried to contain it. They left it for months on a loading dock in Estonia. But now The Yellow King Roleplaying Game has made its final crack in reality by heading to...
ListenEpisode 380: He Said, Foreshadowingly from 2020-01-31T08:30:45
In the Gaming Hut, we show you how to turn otherwise inert scenes in a sandbox game into prompts for activity. With the Academy Awards creeping up on us yet again, it’s time for us to sashay into t...
ListenEpisode 379: Stealth Out and Touch the Egg Wrong from 2020-01-24T08:30:35
That knife you smuggled into the Gaming Hut will finally pay off as we provide tips on playing the secret assassin character. Patreon backer Tom Abella provides us a story Ripped From the Headlines...
ListenEpisode 378: Killer Puppies from 2020-01-17T08:30:15
With a wave of his chainsaw hand, Patreon backer Walter Manbeck summons us to the Gaming Hut for tips on running comedy horror games. Inspired by a recent New York Times Magazine piece, the Tradecr...
ListenEpisode 377: Everyone Believes in Horse Theft from 2020-01-10T08:30:52
In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Tom Shaw asks us to even the odds when strong PCs fight weak opponents. A gruesome find in the History Hut prompts estimable backer Polydamas to seek guidan...
ListenEpisode 376: Landlord Reform from 2020-01-03T08:30:06
Pull up a comfy chair and get your fireballs back in the Gaming Hut as we look at the timing of resource refreshing. In the Tradecraft Hut we peer into the espionage activities of William Playfair,...
ListenEpisode 375: Live from Dragonmeet from 2019-12-20T08:30:15
In our final episode of the year, we unwrap the annual Christmas present that is our episode recorded live at Dragonmeet in London. Join us for the nerdtroping of the Norman Conquest and Hindu myth...
ListenEpisode 374: All Books are Tax Deductible from 2019-12-13T08:30:29
Freshly home and invigorated, or perhaps exhaugorated, by our annual trip to Dragonmeet in London, we issue a Travel Advisory for the William Blake exhibition at Tate Britain. Rocketed by the power...
ListenEpisode 373: Nutty Crab Soup [Corrected] from 2019-12-06T15:29:02
In the Gaming Hut we figure out what people are really talking about when they take sides in the system matters debate. The Tradecraft Hut peers into a classic tabloid spy scandal, 1961’s Profumo A...
ListenEpisode 372: We Welcome All People with Mithril from 2019-11-29T08:30:18
Join us not midway through but at the top of the podcast as the Gaming Hut finds ways to introduce a new player to a long-running series. In the Television Hut beloved Patreon backer Jeromy French ...
ListenEpisode 371: Werewolf Adjacent from 2019-11-22T08:30:06
In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Elias Helfer asks us how to invent great magical artifacts. The History Hut exits pursued by a bear, and also flying bricks, as we look at New York City’s 1...
ListenEpisode 370: Dire, Satanic Chili from 2019-11-15T08:30:22
, We show up in the Gaming Hut with our usual punctuality to look at ways of handling player absences. Crime Blotter looks at video games as a platform for money laundering. Beloved Patreon backer ...
ListenEpisode 369: Lotta Garlic There Though from 2019-11-08T13:47:38
In the Gaming Hut, Patreon backer Jacques de Villiers wonders how one might use The Armitage Files or Dracula Dossier in The Fall of Delta Green. Then Ken convenes a Cinema Hut to talk about his di...
ListenEpisode 368: Good Government and Dry Socks from 2019-11-01T08:30:39
The Gaming Hut chunks a double-double in the pentacle as Patreon backer Louis Sylvester asks us to riff on regional linguistic magic. Backer Nikolaj Hansen runs into a Mythology Hut shaped like a p...
ListenEpisode 367: Ungrateful Mopes from 2019-10-25T08:30:54
The Gaming Hut warms up its blue bolts as we mull the exasperated Dungeon Master trope. Beloved Patreon backer Corey Pierno asks the Book Hut for tips on researching the everyday lives of historica...
ListenEpisode 366: Ample Provender from 2019-10-18T08:30:48
We hunker down in the mud and fear of the Gaming Hut to answer beloved Patreon backer Bill Durfy’s request to combine WWI and ghouls. Impeachment is in the news, the 1867 news that is, as the Histo...
ListenEpisode 365: The Grumpocene from 2019-10-11T08:30:28
Our forces muster outside the Gaming Hut as Patreon backer Robert Dean asks us how to fold mass battles into D&D. Thanks to a redaction failure the Tradecraft Hut discovers ICE’s requisition fo...
ListenEpisode 364: In the World of Awful Meats from 2019-10-04T08:30:58
The PCs are being pursued! Run to the Gaming Hut to learn how to make this fun! A sinister substances drips in your direction! Creep into the Horror Hut for an examination of ooze horror. Fill your...
ListenEpisode 363: Movie! Movie! Movie! from 2019-09-27T08:30:53
Beloved Patreon backer Timothy Daly meets us in the Gaming Hut to ask why D&D remains the most popular roleplaying game. Speaking of D&D, Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else, specifically...
ListenEpisode 362: The Dinosaurs Always Won from 2019-09-20T08:30:52
In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Walter Manbeck asks how to do El from Stranger Things as a player character. Expressionistic shadows flit across the Cinema Hut as we take a look at F. W. M...
ListenEpisode 361: Step Away From the Arras from 2019-09-13T08:30:29
We take a closer look at Ken’s new Pelgrane Press book Hideous Creatures by way of the Monster Hut, which seems to be full of our pals, the Deep Ones. In How To Write Good we talk about foils and h...
ListenEpisode 360: Sir Gawain“the Rock”Johnson from 2019-09-06T08:30:48
This week’s Gaming Hut comes to you by telegram as Patreon backer Jay Tea asks us how to research and deploy historical communications technology, oh let’s say, FALL OF DELTA GREEN. Patreon backer ...
ListenEpisode 359: Stith Thompson Entries All Over It from 2019-08-30T08:30:53
The Gaming Hut shows up with its usual punctuality as Patreon backer Ken Ringwald asks to hear about time as a resource in RPGs. It’s dark out. He has a full tank of gas. He’s wearing sunglasses....
ListenEpisode 358: Live at Gen Con 2019 from 2019-08-23T08:30:44
Present your badges for scanning and take a seat as we present our annual episode recorded before a live audience bursting with Patreon backers. Join us as we talk squishy Habsburgs, chron0-suppres...
ListenEpisode 357: Thunder and Filk from 2019-08-16T08:30:34
Voices weary and brains bleary, Ken and Robin return from Gen Con 2019 to take their annual look at the state of the industry through the lens of the convention that invented roleplaying. Want to p...
ListenEpisode 356: Jealous of My Katana from 2019-08-09T08:30:03
Our annual Indianapolis hotel room episode begins in the Gaming Hut, where we find ways to be a lone wolf PC the rest of the players won’t hate. In the Food Hut we look at our favorite cooking show...
ListenEpisode 355: If Abstract Expressionism Doesn’t Do the Trick from 2019-08-02T08:30:18
In the Gaming Hut, we build on some recent articles by Robin to further explore a crossover between the surrealist adventures of Dreamhounds of Paris to the psychedelic spycraft of THE FALL OF DELT...
ListenEpisode 354: It Ain’t That Non-Euclidean from 2019-07-26T08:30:44
An all request episode kicks off with a co-production between the Gaming Hut teams and our Tell Me More benefit for Patreon backers. Backers Mike Marlow and Kevin J. Maroney, seeing the Ken and Rob...
ListenEpisode 353: You Can’t Say Eliptonic Without Tonic from 2019-07-19T08:30:39
In the Gaming Hut we deconstruct scenarios where the PCs have to wait for certain events to take place. How to Write Good comes to the aid of Patreon backer Dustyn Mincey, who seeks guidance on the...
ListenEpisode 352: We’ve Still Got that Other Folder from 2019-07-12T08:30:16
The Gaming Hut starts us strong as we look for ways to avoid stock scenario openings. In the Culture Hut we examine the way critical terms lose their meaning when they penetrate popular consciousne...
ListenEpisode 351: The Molticore from 2019-07-05T08:30:10
In the Gaming Hut Patreon backer(s) The Armchair Adventurers ask if we agree with Greg Stafford’s prohibition on invisiblity spells in his games. Was every noteworthy English writer also a spy? In ...
ListenEpisode 350: 7th Anniversary LIGHTNING ROUND!!! from 2019-06-28T08:30:30
Like much of our content, it’s hard to believe. Unlike much of it, it’s true. Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff has reached its milestone 350th episode. Yes, we’ve been laying down the skinny on alien...
ListenEpisode 349: Bad Odds in a Balloon from 2019-06-21T08:30:54
In the Gaming Hut Patreon backer Ethan Schoonover asks us to explain the bespoke game terms we use, from F20 to GMC. Mikko Airaksinen puts a chill in the History Hut with his request for the esoter...
ListenEpisode 348: Marsupial Valley from 2019-06-14T08:30:35
The Gaming Hut manifests somewhere between Balla Balla and Yagga Yagga as Patreon backer Bill Cohen asks us how to lure RPG characters to adventure in Australia. The Crime Blotter profiles Dai Cath...
ListenEpisode 347: We’ve Warren Commissioned Your Witch Problem from 2019-06-07T08:30:34
Patreon backer Ross Ireland pulls a fast one on us in the Gaming Hut, asking how to pitch campaigns with switcheroo premises to players. Via the Tell Me More Feature of Ken and Robin Consume Media,...
ListenEpisode 346: Everybody’s Limbs are Still On from 2019-05-31T08:30:53
In the Gaming Hut, Patreon backer Hyperlexic asks Robin to elucidate the core pleasures of RuneQuest. The History Hut finds us obeying the commands of backer Antti Elomaa to get to the bottom of Br...
ListenEpisode 345: Go Talk to Some Other Trees from 2019-05-24T08:30:13
We enter the Gaming Hut pursued by powerful patrons as backer Remi Permann seeks help importing 13th Age icons to other games. In Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else, Ken chats with Nathan Paolet...
ListenEpisode 344: Moses Does a Heel Turn from 2019-05-17T08:30
The Gaming Hut looks at the task of assembling a game’s skill list. In the Cinema Hut Patreon backer Andrew Miller observes the North American launch of the Criterion Channel by asking for a 101 on...
ListenEpisode 343: I’m a Baron and Classy from 2019-05-10T08:30:37
Patreon backer Jacob Ansari collars us in the Gaming Hut to ask about running alternate history games. The Tradecraft Hut looks at the February raid on Madrid’s North Korean embassy by the Free Jos...
ListenEpisode 342: Traduced By Raisins from 2019-05-03T08:30:55
In the Gaming Hut Patreon backer Jake asks us how to portray a character modeled on Janet Armstrong in a NASA adventure series. We dust off the long-disused Politics Hut so that Ken can give us an ...
ListenEpisode 341: Trouser Leg of the Mythos from 2019-04-26T08:30:22
We lit the fires of the Gaming Hut the old-fashioned way before answering a question from Patreon backer Jason Thompson on interesting players in low-tech settings. In the Cinema Hut we revisit the...
ListenEpisode 340: Jar Cats from 2019-04-19T08:30:32
In another imperious edition of That Thing I Always Say, Robin says, “Envision this in play.” Ask Ken and Robin finds Patreon backer Kevin Roy seeking the scoop on remote control inventor Joh...
ListenEpisode 339: A Lot of Bathories from 2019-04-12T08:30:04
Last week you heard us from Carcosa Con in Poland. This time we’re back and ready to share out experience of the show and the local RPG scene in the Gaming Hut. Then, in Ken and/or Robin Talk to So...
ListenEpisode 338: Live From CarcosaCon from 2019-04-05T08:30:24
Recorded in front of a live audience, this episode emanates from the 14th century confines of Czocha Castle, on Lake Lesnia, in southwestern Poland, courtesy of our lovely hosts at CarcosaCon. Want...
ListenEpisode 337: Bound by a Wussier Reptile from 2019-03-29T08:30:38
An all request episode kicks off in the Gaming Hut, where Patreon backer Michael Fox asks about picking exactly the right Mythos creature for your scenario. Backer Jacob Boersma meets us in the Foo...
ListenEpisode 336: The Trees Need Nutrients from 2019-03-22T08:30:03
The Gaming Hut stages a baccarat game with the devil as Patreon backer Eain Bankins asks for help introducing the main villain without devolving into an immediate and disappointing fight. In the Ho...
ListenEpisode 335: Any Smart Gundamologist from 2019-03-15T08:30:55
The Gaming Hut delves into a design issue at the behest of Patreon backer Mikey Hamm, who wants to know how to balance player options against the archetypal experience of a game. We keep mentioning...
ListenEpisode 334: The Number One Mistake of Smart People from 2019-03-08T08:26:23
Protect the precious store of dwindling oxygen in the Gaming Hut as we riff a crew of GMCs for an installation horror scenario. Journey into the History Hut to hear us satisfy Martin Rundkvist’s Pa...
ListenEpisode 333: Our Earth and Cincinnati from 2019-03-01T08:30:57
Time to check your dermal surfaces for sigils as the Gaming Hut takes a look at spell side effects. The Tradecraft Hut goes contemporary and shadowy to examine private spy agencies, including Black...
ListenKen and Robin Consume Media: Mumbai Rap Dreams and Classic Fu Comedy from 2019-02-26T14:32:43
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies...
ListenEpisode 332: Unencumbered By Space Cats from 2019-02-22T08:30:32
In the Gaming Hut we contemplate lunar havoc as Patreon backer Ray Slakinski asks us to turn Project A119 into a Fall of Delta Green scenario. We walk the red carpet into the Cinema Hut as we indul...
ListenEpisode 331: Tomb of the Kardashians from 2019-02-15T08:30:55
In the Gaming Hut we imagine what will happen when LARPs meet e-sports. Call our people, TV industry. Patreon backer Jason Thompson summons us to the Cartography Hut to express disbelief in the non...
ListenEpisode 330: The Crocodiles are Strictly Notional from 2019-02-08T08:30:11
We find a new disruptive way to travel to the Gaming Hut as we consider scenarios inspired by scooter charger culture. In the Conspiracy Corner we ask if journalists and police could do with some b...
ListenEpisode 329: The Looming Party from 2019-02-01T08:30:21
The Gaming Hut goes retro goth cartoony as Patreon backer Arthur invites us to envision an Edward Gorey RPG. In the Crime Blotter we look at Los Caballeros Templarios, the drug cartel that borrows ...
ListenEpisode 328: That Doesn’t Sound Like Y’golonac from 2019-01-25T08:30:37
Get ready for a tear gassing as the Gaming Hut finds us riffing a Fall of Delta Green scenario set during the 1968 Democratic convention. Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else features a chat with ...
ListenEpisode 327: Good Luck Getting Any Wood from 2019-01-18T08:30:36
In the Gaming Hut we examine the desire to play less than competent characters. The History Hut takes us back to the 7th century BC and the reign of Assyrian super-king Ashurbanipal. In How to Writ...
ListenEpisode 326: Credulous Ghost-Hunting Dupe from 2019-01-11T08:30:18
Struggle to stay one step ahead of the authorities as the Gaming Hut finds ways to do the classic trope of the protagonist framed for a crime in a roleplaying scenario. The Horror Hut enters an old...
ListenEpisode 325: NIMBY Horror from 2019-01-04T08:30:33
We kick off 2019 with an all-request episode, starting with Patreon backer Bryan Gustafson, who enters the Gaming Hut to ask us how to use the tiny houses movement in a Cthulhu Confidential scenari...
ListenEpisode 324: Live from Dragonmeet from 2018-12-21T08:30:29
Once again we close out the year with an episode recorded in front of a live audience at Dragonmeet in Hammersmith, London. Topics include the relationship between Queen Elizabeth and the Peloponne...
ListenEpisode 323: They Pecked the Anglo Saxons from 2018-12-14T08:30:29
Jet-lagged and full of pudding, we return from our latest trip to Dragonmeet to issue a Travel Advisory about the Anglo Saxon Kingdoms exhibit at the British Library. In the Gaming Hut we pursue a ...
ListenHoly Forking Shirtballs Ken and Robin are Consuming Media from 2018-12-11T15:02:03
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies...
ListenEpisode 322: The Cinnabon of the 17th Century from 2018-12-07T08:30:37
Not to spoil anything, but we open in the Gaming Hut as Patreon backer V Weather asks us what to do when it turns out you’ve already read the adventure your GM is running. In How To Write Good, we ...
ListenEpisode 321: Red Dawn Times from 2018-11-30T08:30:12
Get out your space calculators as we meet in the Gaming Hut to entertain a request from Patreon backer Robert Dean, who wants to hear more about the time Ken ran Traveller for accountants. In the H...
ListenEpisode 320: Ghost Rationing Policy from 2018-11-23T08:30:54
This podcast never wastes your time, but what if you, as a GM, have to fill some space in your session? The Gaming Hut looks at ways to vamp for time. In the drafty confines of the Architect...
ListenEpisode 319: Eventually You Run Out of Zigs from 2018-11-16T08:30:51
Under the black stars of Carcosa, we celebrate the impending publication of Robin’s The Yellow King Roleplaying Game and the manuscript completion of Ken’s The King in Yellow Annotated Edition with...
ListenEpisode 318: Bootlegger Reverse from 2018-11-09T08:31:02
We open in the Gaming Hut, or is all part of an elaborate trick, as Patreon backer Sean asks how to pull switcheroos on players who don’t like being fooled. Ken meets us in the Cinema Hut to...
ListenEpisode 317: To Be Sure, the Romans from 2018-11-02T08:31:01
Join us in the Gaming Hut to assist Patreon backer Dustyn Mincey with his difficulty in sticking with a single game, when there are so many awesome games in the world. Then Ken and/or Robin ...
ListenEpisode 316: Remembering Greg Stafford from 2018-10-26T08:30:57
Join us for an elegaic Gaming Hut as we tackle but a single topic: the life and work of our friend and inspiration, the grand shaman of gaming, Greg Stafford (1948-2018.) Want to pose a ques...
ListenEpisode 315: Eloi au Vin from 2018-10-19T08:30:17
In the Gaming Hut we assist Patreon backer Jean-Francois Paradis in creating a campaign where the PCs’ homeland is invaded by a technologically superior rival. Stay far from manhole covers a...
ListenKen and Robin Consume Media: Ken Does the Chicago Film Fest; Robin Homebrews His Own Horror Fest from 2018-10-16T13:00
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies...
ListenEpisode 314: Preamble Snipper from 2018-10-12T08:27:25
Another all-request episode kicks off in the Gaming Hut as Patreon backer Gene Ha asks what F20 evil deities get out of all the dungeons they create and manage. In the Cartography Hut we loo...
ListenEpisode 313: All the Hitting in the World from 2018-10-05T08:30:09
The Cinema Hut bursts with upcoming delights as Robin returns from his annual jaunt to Toronto International Film Festival to provide highlights on a banner year. In the Gaming Hut we tackle...
ListenEpisode 312: Short Inspirational Napping Pieces from 2018-09-28T08:30:57
Advice for players kicks us off in the Gaming Hut, as we suggest ways to react when the GM provides you with a magic gun. Then in a segment we persist in calling How To Write Good, rather than Robi...
ListenEpisode 311: Live from Gen Con 2018 from 2018-09-21T08:30:21
Let’s summon the spirit of summer one last time by hearkening back to a balmy Indianapolis Friday, when Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff live from the surprising new confines of the Lucas Oil ...
ListenEpisode 310: The Social Media Impact of Ulthar from 2018-09-14T08:30:42
The Gaming Hut makes room for our collection of crystal balls as Patreon backer Rob Towell asks for hints on GMing prophecies and divinations. The Crime Blotter looks at a rash of highly pro...
ListenEpisode 309: Snort the Pringles from 2018-09-07T08:30:02
On the alert for treacherous banana peels, we gather in the Gaming Hut to wonder if GUMSHOE can handle incompetent PCs. In Ask Ken and Robin, Patreon backer Frank Rafaelson wants Ken to pitch a new...
ListenEpisode 308: A Stargate in His District from 2018-08-31T08:30:42
Another all-request episode opens in the familiar confines of the Gaming Hut, where Patreon backer Trung Bui wants to know how we pull out all the stops for climactic campaign-ending ...
ListenEpisode 307: Nobody Wants to Be a Gate from 2018-08-24T08:30:50
Patreon backers, specifically Patreon backer Brian Malcolm, demand yet more dungeon talk from us in the Gaming Hut. How do you lend a dungeon complex a narrative quality, instead of making i...
ListenEpisode 306: Gen Con 2018 from 2018-08-17T08:30:19
We’re scratchy voiced and mushy headed from our journey to Gen Con 18. The Best Four Days in Gaming got bigger than ever this year, and we’re here to sort through the awards, the announcemen...
ListenEpisode 305: I Put My Whole Head In and I am Fine from 2018-08-10T08:30:31
Once more we’re in the same room together with an episode recorded in our hotel the day before Gen Con. Hmm, what easy topics shall we tackle? Does the game system you’re playing expect you ...
ListenEpisode 304: We’re Not Running a Party of Death Here from 2018-08-03T08:30:48
Mystery scenario construction is once again on our minds in the Gaming Hut, as we discuss ways to run a mystery in which the investigators respond to an ongoing spree of murders, monster att...
ListenEpisode 303: It’s Not Owls, It’s Charlemagne from 2018-07-27T08:30:35
Most RPG scenarios assume that it’s up to the player characters to conclusively defeat the bad guys at the end. In the Gaming Hut we ask when it’s okay to leave the mop up to outside forces....
ListenEpisode 302: Jack the Riffer from 2018-07-20T08:30:26
In the Gaming Hut we look at how the same adversary can play very different roles from one game to the next. Serving as an example is Red Jack, created for Night’s Black Agents but presently...
ListenEpisode 301: Thanks For Knowing We Were Right from 2018-07-13T08:30:28
The Gaming Hut lies at the end of a ten foot corridor this week as Patreon backer Elias Helfer asks us, as paragons of story-driven RPGs, to explain why we think dungeons are awesome. In Fun...
ListenEpisode 300: LIGHTNING RO-O-O-O-O-O-OUND from 2018-07-06T08:30:10
It’s been 300 installments, just a smidge shy of six years, and longtime listeners and backers know what that means. Time for another episode-length Lightning Round, as we provide uncharacte...
ListenEpisode 299: Mostly Claw Dudes from 2018-06-29T08:30:21
The Gaming Hut has a bunch of vampires in the shop for adjustments as we look at the process of adapting creatures between systems. In Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else, Ken talks to Ric...
ListenEpisode 298: Now We’re Just Gygaxing from 2018-06-22T08:30:26
Having both recently moved big projects off our plates and into post-production, we convene in the Gaming Hut to look at lessons and surprises from our design work on Vampire: the Masquerade 5th Ed...
ListenEpisode 297: Walrus Revenge from 2018-06-15T08:30:51
Do gamers like choice more than ordinary humans? We raised the question several episodes back, and now it’s all grown up into its very own Gaming Hut segment. In the Tradecraft Hut we look at the e...
ListenEpisode 296: Build a Crummy Robot and Call It Gnostic from 2018-06-08T08:28:22
Not by chance do we start in the Gaming Hut, for a look at the role of coincidence in various mystery genres. Then at the behest of Patreon backer Stewart Robertson we duck into the secret r...
ListenEpisode 295: That’s Why They Call It Ichor from 2018-06-01T08:30:35
Another all-request episode begins in the Gaming Hut, where Patreon backer David Shaw wants us to turn supermarket tokens into an eldritch menace. In the Architecture Hut Ken fills us in on ...
ListenEpisode 294: More Poison Duck from 2018-05-25T08:30:38
Patreon backer Andy Olson invites us to plan a fantasy heist in the Gaming Hut. In the Tradecraft Hut backer Andrew Miller debriefs us on the Fat Leonard case. How to Write Good looks at inv...
ListenEpisode 293: Kill America’s Famous Pigs from 2018-05-18T08:30:13
Stop plinking those kobolds and pop into the Gaming Hut as we ask if today’s median gamer is less motivated than before by the prospect of in-game reward. In Ask Ken and Robin, Patreon backe...
ListenEpisode 292: Double Skeleton Town from 2018-05-11T08:30:13
The Gaming Hut takes place inside the Tradecraft Hut, or is it the other way around, as we, with the assistance of a FOIA request, investigate CIA-designed board games. How to Write Good loo...
ListenEpisode 291: Where Magic Goes to Die from 2018-05-04T08:30:01
In the Gaming Hut, Patreon backer SR points us to an archived trove of CounterSpy magazine and asks how to make use of it in Fall of DELTA GREEN. We wouldn’t lead you on in an elaborate sche...
ListenEpisode 290: Leaves Don’t Work on PayPal from 2018-04-27T08:30:51
In the Gaming Hut we cover ways to design monsters to star in investigative scenarios. We tromp into the Command Hut at the behest of Patreon backer Thomas Vallejos, who wants to know the de...
ListenEpisode 289: CHRONOCA$H from 2018-04-20T08:30:06
Picking up a thread left hanging a few episodes back, the Gaming Hut looks at ways to make a mundane solution to an apparently occult mystery work satisfyingly for your players. The Tradecra...
ListenEpisode 288: Grift the Pope from 2018-04-13T08:30:44
Another all-request episode begins in the Gaming Hut, as Patreon backer Ruth Tillman asks us how we might game Annihilation in both its film and novel iterations. We head into the Book Hut at the b...
ListenEpisode 287: In League With Leopard Seals from 2018-04-06T08:30:42
Robin tries out a new maxim in That Thing I Always Say: in a game RPG session, the only way to go off track is a dead end. In The Culture of Gaming, we look at gatekeeping, which rears its head onc...
ListenEpisode 286: Guy Across the Stupid Mountain from 2018-03-30T08:30:33
Keep a close eye on your open beverage as the Gaming Hut spins a Fall of DELTA GREEN arc from that most notorious of covert programs, MKULTRA. The Food Hut goes sequel for Instant Pot II: Th...
ListenEpisode 285: 2) Get In Too Deep from 2018-03-23T08:30:12
You have nothing to lose but your chains, and also your handcuffs, and possibly also your orange prison scrubs, as the Gaming Hut shows you what to do the next time your PC gets captured. The Trade...
ListenEpisode 284: There’s Always a Worse Writer Death from 2018-03-16T08:30:27
Ken dons raffish 60s-vintage headgear to give The Fall of DELTA GREEN, now available for preorder, the Among My Many Hats treatment. Robin reviews ways to shape a dramatic scene in How to Write Goo...
ListenEpisode 283: It’s Just a Tumor Tree from 2018-03-09T08:30:43
We gather suspiciously in the Gaming Hut to ask if and how GMs can assist players in horror games who want their characters to exercise a Scully-like skepticism. We break into the History Hu...
ListenEpisode 282: Haunted Anarchist Texts from 2018-03-02T08:30:29
In the Gaming Hut we put up our dukes and look at ways to frame fights that advance the story. Oscar time is upon us, so as is our annual wont we pop into the Cinema Hut for a look back at our favo...
ListenEpisode 281: In Service of the Yeast God from 2018-02-23T08:30:47
We swear we didn’t plan this, but Patreon backer Chris Sellers showed up unexpectedly in the Gaming Hut to ask about improvising GUMSHOE scenarios. The location of the Tradecraft Hut has been...
ListenEpisode 280: Problem Solving Gases from 2018-02-16T08:30:54
February loses its rep as the cruelest month when we confront it with an all-hut, all-request episode, in tribute to our fabulous Patreon backers. In the Gaming Hut, Tom Bagatelle seeks guid...
ListenEpisode 279: Logical Analogy Shock from 2018-02-09T08:30:10
Brace yourself for musical metaphors as we head into the Gaming Hut and find that Patreon backer Brian Thomas has left us the logical analogy Orchestra: jazz combo :: play’s ensemble c...
ListenEpisode 278: Full of Panthers from 2018-02-02T08:30:16
In Among My Many Hats Robin talks about Beating the Story, which gears the story beat system you may know from Hamlet’s Hit Points to fiction writing in all of its forms. Pre-order the print...
ListenEpisode 277: Knife Fight in the Afterlife from 2018-01-26T08:30:26
Ladies and tigers abound as the Gaming Hut looks at story choices and how players respond to them. Then Patreon backer Scott Wachter dusts off the Archaeology Hut to ask why King Tut armed himself ...
ListenEpisode 276: Retinue of Clowns and Goofs from 2018-01-19T08:30:28
Yeah verily and anon, the Gaming Hut goes iambic pentameter as Patreon backer Chris Camfield asks us how to add Shakespearean flavor to a roleplaying campaign. Then your sweet and savory hos...
ListenEpisode 275: Convenient Anti-Harpy Shield from 2018-01-12T08:30:11
In the Gaming Hut we mull the process of scenario writing, specifically the differences between writing first, or playing first. Backer Fred Kiesche takes advantage of his Patreon priveleges...
ListenEpisode 274: What Would Thagdar Do? from 2018-01-05T08:30:39
It’s 2018 and we’re back, starting as usual in the Gaming Hut. Within its cozy confines we answer a question from a mystery backer on achieving genuine emotional investment in roleplaying. T...
ListenEpisode 273: Live at Dragonmeet 2017 from 2017-12-22T08:30:06
Our final episode of 2017 arrives with bells a-jangling in the form of our traditional live show from Dragonmeet. Learn about Stalin and Atlantis, what elements of our work we think other de...
ListenEpisode 272: We Laugh At Your Fireball from 2017-12-15T08:30:43
Our throats showing the wear of travel to that most lurghy-inducing of wonderlands, we issue a Travel Advisory on Dragonmeet and the Modigliani show at the Tate Modern in London. In the Gaming Hut ...
ListenEpisode 271: The Friends We Met Along the Way and Ate from 2017-12-08T08:30:20
Hey, it’s an all-request episode! Patreon backer Joshua Trowbridge entreats us in the Gaming Hut to return to a perennial puzzler: how to convince change-averse players to try the awesome ne...
ListenEpisode 270: Nobody Wants to be a Waistcoat from 2017-12-01T08:30:32
Patreon backer Doc Cross pulls his satin bell-cord to summon us to the Gaming Hut to mull the droll possibilities of P. G. Wodehouse gaming. In the Tradecraft Hut we journey to the shadowy i...
ListenKen and Robin Consume Media: Mystery Elephant Coins and a True Crime Masterpiece from 2017-11-28T14:45:21
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies...
ListenEpisode 269: Egg Nog Related Time Travel from 2017-11-24T08:29:59
We’ve installed additional measures in the Gaming Hut to discuss security camera surveillance and how to stop it from wrecking your mystery plots. Jump scares await in the Horror Hut as we l...
ListenEpisode 268: I Don’t Want to Say Tax Dodge from 2017-11-17T14:28:46
Make sure your copy of this podcast has been properly authenticated, preferably by a person in a pointy hat, as the Gaming Hut looks at forgery in worlds with truth magic. Get your drama on ...
ListenKen and Robin Consume Media: Heaven, Asgard and Times Square from 2017-11-14T15:42:17
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies...
ListenEpisode 267: The First Two Things are Metaphors For the Third from 2017-11-10T08:30:23
Gather in the Gaming Hut but keep an eye on who might be creeping up on you with a knife or candlestick as we riff a cast of murder suspects. Ken then meets you in the Cinema Hut to report o...
ListenEpisode 266: Moral Crisis Dungeon Tile from 2017-11-03T08:30:06
Evade lasting shame by joining us for tea and scones in the Gaming Hut, where Patreon backer Tom Abella asks us to riff on the subject of social spirals. Sneak into the Tradecraft Hut for a ...
ListenEpisode 265: Vegan Vampire from 2017-10-27T08:30:34
We situate the Gaming Hut near a wolf trap as we answer a request from Patreon backer Dicegeeks and find ways to use the Green Children of Woolpit in a game. In the Food Hut backer Bryan Gus...
ListenEpisode 264: Diegetic Prod from 2017-10-20T08:30:43
In the Gaming Hut we examine a classic dichotomy in GMing technique: when do you use the world to nudge the story, and when do you address the players out-of-character? The Tradecraft Hut lo...
ListenEpisode 263: All Seven Spleens from 2017-10-13T08:30:10
Some monsters we want to kill. But others we want to figure out, then kill. The Gaming Hut looks at designing creatures that make for good mysteries. Then at the behest of Patreon backer Fri...
ListenEpisode 262: Profit Motive and a Fast Boat from 2017-10-06T08:30:59
Robin is back from his annual sojourn to the Toronto International Film Festival, so it’s time to open up the Cinema Hut to alert you to the best and nerdiest of the 44 titles he saw there. From zo...
ListenKen and Robin Consume Media: Now Ken’s in the Black Lodge from 2017-10-03T15:13:07
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies...
ListenEpisode 261: Them Doritos is Rigged! from 2017-09-29T08:30:16
Hold onto your wallet when you enter this Gaming Hut. It’s full of scamsters, as we look at clipjoint towns in F20 games. Patreon backer Elias Helfer digs into the files for a declassified Tr...
ListenEpisode 260: Live from Gen Con 2017 from 2017-09-22T13:39:22
When Ken and Robin go live, as they do here in this episode recorded in August at Gen Con, the audience, aided by a mythic pack of index cards, tells us what the topics are. And in this case...
ListenEpisode 259: All the Cute Girls are Capulets from 2017-09-15T08:30:11
In That Thing I Always Say, we examine Ken’s maxim that death spirals make for good gaming. With Labor Day in the rear view mirror, the Cinema Hut looks back at blockbuster season for a roun...
ListenKen and Robin Consume Media: Golden Age Mysteries and The Sewer Clown from 2017-09-12T13:29:32
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies...
ListenEpisode 258: Mom! He’s in Cisalpine Gaul! from 2017-09-08T08:30:36
A couple of episodes ago we put a pin in the idea of Magic Blackwater and now in the Gaming Hut we unpin it for further consideration. In yet more business arising from the previous minutes,...
ListenEpisode 257: Gen Con 2017 from 2017-09-01T08:30:55
Annual traditions happen only once a year, and since Gen Con has now happened fifty times, we must bring you an extra special convention review Gaming Hut. With a Travel Advisory on somethin...
ListenEpisode 256: 13/10, Would Betray from 2017-08-25T08:30:39
That ambient sound you hear is the muffled bustle of the Embassy Suites in beautiful downtown Indianapolis as we record a face-to-face episode immediately prior to the sweet chaos of Gen Con...
Listen[Repost] Episode 255: The Devil’s Condiment from 2017-08-19T13:03:23
The Gaming Hut goes inside the design process as Robin discovers he wants to make a humble sub-system a little less humble. The Food Hut goes inside the casing as Ken waxes rhapsodic on the history...
ListenEpisode 255: The Devil’s Condiment from 2017-08-18T18:40:23
The Gaming Hut goes inside the design process as Robin discovers he wants to make a humble sub-system a little less humble. The Food Hut goes inside the casing as Ken waxes rhapsodic on the history...
ListenEpisode 254: Snouted Meepers from 2017-08-11T08:29:16
We clatter our dice and thump our miniatures in the Gaming Hut, considering a Patreon backer Travis Johnson question about what to do when the players break the tone they asked you to instill. With...
ListenEpisode 253: That’s More of a Gloss on Aristotle from 2017-08-04T08:30:45
The Gaming Hut falls all over itself answering a question from Patreon backer Daniel Krauklis: “What does the choice to have fumbles in your rules that tell us about your game and the moral u...
ListenEpisode 252: A Different, Less Pear-Like Shape from 2017-07-28T08:30:35
Are your modern investigators getting cocky? Join us in the Gaming Hut as we riff a rival team to toss some sand in their gears. The Cartography Hut looks at the process of mapping fictional cities...
ListenGet on the Bus! Tour de Lovecraft: The Destinations Kickstarter Has Launched from 2017-07-26T15:04:24
As heard on this very podcast, I and Atomic Overmind Press are launching — nay, have already launched — the Kickstarter for my book Tour de Lovecraft: the Destinations, the sequel to my...
ListenEpisode 251: Where, As Opposed to What and AAAHH! from 2017-07-21T08:30:57
As one Kickstarter ends, another begins, specifically on Wednesday, July 26. In Among My Many Hats Ken tells us about his cool new book, Tour de Lovecraft: The Destinations, which is Kickstarting o...
ListenEpisode 250: Lightning Round!!! from 2017-07-14T08:30:40
Who would have believed that when they started a podcast two scrappy writer/game designers could make it all the way to episode 250? You know what that means: time once again for another Lightning ...
ListenEpisode 249: You Take What Toes You Can Get from 2017-07-07T08:30:11
Run! Hide! The Gaming Hut is coming for you, with a look at chase rules for horror RPGs. Homicide and puppets collide as the Crime Blotter recounts 1929’s Benny Evangelist murders. The recen...
ListenEpisode 248: Bill Somewhat American Johnston from 2017-06-30T08:30:33
In the Gaming Hut we find ways to design compelling consequences, with a particular nod toward Robin’s recent work on GUMSHOE One-2-One and The Yellow King Roleplaying Game. The Tradecraft Hut prov...
ListenEpisode 247: So Fair It Shines as a Marketing Quote from 2017-06-23T08:30:21
Stare! Stare my friends, into the most psychically destablizing hat of all. For this week Among My Many Hats has the Yellow Sign neatly embroidered upon it, and you know what that means: Robin̵...
ListenSpecial Dire Announcement: The Yellow King Roleplaying Game is Now on Kickstarter from 2017-06-22T00:06:49
We interrupt the tranquility of your regular podcast subscription feed to riff briefly on some long anticipated yet terrifying news. The Yellow King Roleplaying Game, which Robin has been covertly ...
ListenEpisode 246: A Number of Anonymous Grand-Dukes from 2017-06-16T08:30:03
Uh-oh, looks like Robin wants to introduce another term of art into the RPG design lexicon. Ken joins him in the Gaming Hut to consider system humility. Transfixed by the hypnotic gaze of Patreon b...
ListenEpisode 245: Floaty McBeercan from 2017-06-09T08:30:24
A guy in a hat was going to tell us what was in the Gaming Hut this week, but then one of your PCs just shot him with a crossbow. That leaves us to figure out what to do when the players kill off t...
ListenEpisode 244: You Have to Sit in the Jar from 2017-06-02T08:30:08
We knew you were going to join us in the Gaming Hut, where we answer Patreon backer Bret Kramer’s question on running omniscient GMCs as allies or enemies of the player characters. In the Foo...
ListenEpisode 243: I Do Not Wish to Be a Moth Hat from 2017-05-26T08:30:15
We know you want to hear about it, so Among Our Many Hats digs into the announcement that a certain Ken Hite will serve as lead designer for the new edition of Vampire: the Masquerade. But that’s n...
ListenEpisode 242: Brain Out from 2017-05-19T08:30:23
The Gaming Hut has a thatched roof this time out as we riff a cast of pseudo-medieval villagers for your next F20. In The Business of Gaming we puzzle the mystery of the generic supplement. In the ...
ListenEpisode 241: New Hampshire’s Second Most Famous Notch from 2017-05-12T08:30:11
In the Gaming Hut we look at premise rejection from a player perspective. How do you catch yourself doing it, and how do you find your way through it? We crawl over to the Cinema Hut to discuss the...
ListenEpisode 240: Bush Bachelor from 2017-05-05T08:30:36
Our second consecutive all-request episode kicks off in the Gaming Hut, as Ray Slakinksi asks for tips on running Night’s Black Agents at conventions. In the History Hut Andy Young wants to know ab...
ListenEpisode 239: Mom, He’s Touching My Answer from 2017-04-28T08:30:44
Another all-request episode kicks off in the Gaming Hut, as Stewart Robertson asks how to make a BSM (Big Science McGuffin) integral to a game series. The History Hut, takes on a yurt-like configur...
ListenEpisode 238: The Titular Goat in This Reenactment from 2017-04-21T08:30:15
The Gaming Hut gets foundational as we discuss the meaning and implications of Gygaxian naturalism. Patreon backer Derrick McMullin meets us in the History Hut to ask for the hidden truth behind th...
ListenEpisode 237: You Can’t Be a Martyr and Have It Coming from 2017-04-14T08:30:13
Get outside your own perspective and inside the Gaming Hut as Ken and Robin envision a gun that triggers out of body experiences. With espionage everywhere in the news, it’s time for that Tradecraf...
ListenEpisode 236: Not on the Front Page of the Literature from 2017-04-07T08:30:19
Get ready to argue logistics as the Gaming Hut considers player planning. When is it prelude to play, and when is it play? The Crime Blotter opens one of the most famous cold cases of all: the Blac...
ListenEpisode 235: He-Man’s Woman Hating Civilization from 2017-03-31T08:26:07
In the Gaming Hut Patreon backer Joan Guardiet asks us to make a game set in a warrior woman society work for a party of male PCs. Speaking of requests, in Ask Ken and Robin backer Kalin Kadiev see...
ListenEpisode 234: I Barely Killed Anybody from 2017-03-24T08:34:37
We creep into the Gaming Hut at the command of Patreon backer Alexander Permann, who assigns us the mission of envisioning a Night’s Black Agents spinoff featuring the Kingdom of Asturias. In a joi...
ListenEpisode 233: It’s Peter Framptons All the Way Down from 2017-03-17T08:22:06
The Gaming Hut goes abstract as we discuss metagaming. At the behest of Patreon backer Vana Stillwater, the Food Hut hosts a look at culinary crimes and scams. Then we paw through the contents of K...
ListenEpisode 232: Cat Hamlet Half-Elf Robot from 2017-03-10T08:30:16
The Gaming Hut may seem friendly and bucolic, but this time it’s full of danger, as we riff a cast of conspiratorial small town NPCs. Take your seat and suppress your coughing as the Culture Hut ge...
ListenEpisode 231: Please Compensate For Our Brutal Incompetence from 2017-03-03T08:30:53
The Hoary Hosts of Patreon backer Elias Helfer command the opening of the Gaming Hut! Therein we shall describe ways to portray weird and magnficent landscapes like those seen in the Doctor Strange...
ListenEpisode 230: Not the Helsinki Mojitos from 2017-02-24T08:30:41
Know us by our funny voices and exaggerated mannerisms as we meet in the Gaming Hut to discuss what makes a Game Master character easy to play. Grab a mojito and light a fine cigar as Ken supplies ...
ListenEpisode 229: Your Perspective on Trees and Badgers from 2017-02-17T08:30:47
The Gaming Hut stands at the service of Patreon backer Vince Arebalo’s son Dax, who asks for tips on getting comfortable around unfamiliar fellow players. The CIA has finally put its trove of...
ListenEpisode 228: I Assume Someone Has Blood-Typed All the Monkeys from 2017-02-10T08:30:35
In the Gaming Hut we ask ourselves how far rules and GM influence should go to prevent the players from idiot plotting their own characters. Speaking of gaming the system, esteemed Patreon backer J...
ListenEpisode 227: Other Buopoths Do from 2017-02-03T08:31:48
Another all-request episode starts in the Gaming Hut, where Patreon backer Gerald Sear wants us to consider the Mythos implications of the Disney corporation. Then assemble your miniature greenhous...
ListenEpisode 226: Yig is More of a Moundsville Ohio Guy from 2017-01-27T08:30:24
A surrealist sandbox and a structured mystery make a date in the Gaming Hut, as Josh Rose asks how to run Dreamhounds of Paris as a GUMSHOE One-2-One setting. Given that the world has turned into a...
ListenEpisode 225: Just Make Up a Bunch of Dwarves from 2017-01-20T08:23:21
Patreon backer Zachary Joyner poses some Gaming Hut questions about improvising a GUMSHOE game. How quickly do you give out clues? How do you maintain pace without leading the players? Though our l...
ListenEpisode 224: Without Checking, Because That Spoils the Fun from 2017-01-13T08:33:10
Gather in the Gaming Hut as we ask ourselves when one should take historical license when running or designing a game set in the real past. Spoiler: we also answer ourselves. In the Book Hut, Patre...
ListenEpisode 223: There’s No Blood in a JPEG from 2017-01-06T08:30:16
The contents of this podcast become too horrible to correlate as we slip into the Gaming Hut to answer a question from Patreon backer Laurel Halbany about handling secret mythos knowledge in an age...
ListenEpisode 222: Suddenly You’re Eating Mustard Lettuce from 2016-12-23T08:30:50
Finally, after ceding all recent chapeaus to Ken, Robin seizes control of Among My Many Hats to talk about Cthulhu Confidential and the design of the GUMSHOE One-2-One system. Because it’s finally ...
ListenEpisode 221: Live at Dragonmeet 2016 from 2016-12-16T08:30:38
If it’s December, Ken and Robin must be coming to you live from Dragonmeet, the little London convention that isn’t so little any more. Join us as Ken emerges triumphant from a draw of the nerdtrop...
ListenEpisode 220: Bear With Us, Everyone Else from 2016-12-09T08:30:11
In the Gaming Hut, urged on by Patreon backer Fred Kiesche, Ken takes us under the hood of his Rex of the Old 97 campaign. What does he do behind that Peter Frampton GM screen, and how does he do i...
ListenEpisode 219: Argue With Ceramics from 2016-12-02T08:31:30
Dirk the Dice rolls into the Gaming Hut to ask us how to make sword and sorcery monster encounters exciting. Don’t believe a word you hear in the Conspiracy Corner, as we look at the history ...
ListenEpisode 218: This Podcast Still Hates Nazis from 2016-11-25T08:30:51
Patreon backer Michael Kotschi pops a moony question over the Ask Ken and Robin transom, prompting us to look at 70s NASA from a Moon Dust Men perspective. The Politics Hut still has a hangover, bu...
ListenEpisode 217: Home Movies You Didn’t Take from 2016-11-18T08:30:40
Patreon backer Ethan Cordray rises from the Pacific waves of Ask Ken and Robin to pose a stumper: how to make Cthulhu scary again. Ken is back from an extended sequester in the Cinema Hut to talk a...
ListenEpisode 216: Some Old Schlubby Wine God from 2016-11-11T08:30:14
This week the Gaming Hut holds a special surprise: it’s not just a segment, but a free game in and of itself, as Robin teaches you how to run Death Spiral. In Ask Ken and Robin, Reiner Dobbel...
ListenEpisode 215: Not an Impaleologist from 2016-11-04T08:26:19
Among My Many Hats blows the lid off of Ken’s upcoming Kickstarter for a revised, revamped, and reanimated Tour de Lovecraft: the Tales. Are the results of this podcast rigged? Find out as the Hist...
ListenEpisode 214: The Puppet Below from 2016-10-28T08:30:24
The Gaming Hut looks at top temporal locations for TimeWatch scenarios. Pelgrane Press celebrates our segment by offering you, the listener, a voucher code to order from its online store. Plunk in ...
ListenEpisode 213: I Would Have Been On the Other Side of That from 2016-10-21T08:30:13
A fork in the road leads to either the Gaming Hut, or the Gaming Hut, as we look at those times when giving players choice and control in a scenario leads to a less interesting outcome. The History...
ListenEpisode 212: I Was Scheduled For One Anyway from 2016-10-14T08:30:34
We kick off another episode inspired entirely by Patreon backer requests with John Corey, who asks Ken to expand on real history as the best setting for gaming and the challenges of reskinning it, ...
ListenEpisode 211: It’s Called Salvage from 2016-10-07T08:29:34
Unfurl your flags as we gather in the Gaming Hut to envision an F20 game in which nationalities take the place of alignments. In Ask Ken and Robin, Patreon backer Jason Breti asks us to talk about ...
ListenEpisode 210: Tell Jimbo That You’ve Moved House from 2016-09-30T08:30:23
Much tabletop roleplaying advice, ours included, helps GMs to keep players entertained. But what about the other way around? Thanks to Patreon backer Jesse Morgan, we head into the Gaming Hut to lo...
ListenEpisode 209: There is Mooching To Be Done from 2016-09-23T08:30:35
Take a reality check before you dare to enter the Gaming Hut, as we answer Patreon backer Bryan’s request to devise a campaign based on flawed perceptions. Time for another intro course in th...
ListenEpisode 208: Live from Gen Con 2016 from 2016-09-16T08:30:37
Robin is away at the Toronto International Film festival, and longtime listeners know what that means: it’s time to cover his absence from the podcast mic to drop the live episode we released...
ListenEpisode 207: It’s Pronounced“Executive” from 2016-09-09T08:31:11
Our 207th installment starts on a tripartite note as Patreon backer Andrew Young pops his head into the Gaming Hut to ask about the pertinence of three-act structure in roleplaying scenarios. Speak...
ListenEpisode 206: They Had Hyenas In Inventory from 2016-09-02T08:30:26
Rules get hybridized in the Gaming Hut, at the behest of Patreon backer Jason Carter, who wants to fuse GUMSHOE’s investigative rules with the combat systems of other games, say for example Feng Sh...
ListenEpisode 205: The Complaining Hut from 2016-08-26T08:30:13
Get your dice and character sheets together and head on into the Gaming Hut as we field Patreon backer Gnoll Warford’s question about preparing as a first-time convention GM. In How To Write ...
ListenEpisode 204: Gen Con 2016 from 2016-08-19T08:30:30
Voices weary and graveled, but with spirits lifted by ENnies Gold and Silver, Ken and Robin return from Gen Con to regale you with this year’s round-up of the Best Four Days in Gaming. As is our an...
ListenEpisode 203: Pull the Damn Trigger You Coward! from 2016-08-12T08:30:08
In a special live from our hotel room episode, we inflate a portable Gaming Hut to field a question from Frent about catastrophe pile-ups in popular continuities. The Tradecraft Hut looks at the im...
ListenEpisode 202: While We’re On the Surface of the Freezing Sun from 2016-08-05T08:30:58
Another all-Patreon backer request episode kicks off in the Gaming Hut as Tom Abella asks what Brexit will do to spycraft in our world and that of Night’s Black Agents. In The Business of Gaming We...
ListenEpisode 201: You Don’t Need to Drag Pokemon Into It from 2016-07-29T08:30:20
Pokemon fever is back and more feverish than ever. As Pokemon Go breaks loose of the Gaming Hut, forcing players onto the actual streets, is there anything we can riff about it that reality hasn...
ListenEpisode 200: Lightning Round 2016 from 2016-07-22T08:30:02
Let the bells ring out and the banners fly! We can remember starting this occasionally humble podcast like it was yesterday, but here we are with our 200th episode. And you know what that means: li...
ListenEpisode 199: Not That That’s What Time Travelers Say from 2016-07-15T08:30:50
In Ask Ken and Robin, Patreon backer Conrad Kinch asks what the cruel empire of Tsan-Chan might be up to in 5000 AD. The answer might surprise him! Now that you’ve worked your way through the...
ListenEpisode 198: Stab Them in the Peninsula from 2016-07-08T08:30:50
Matters come to a head in the Gaming Hut, where we talk about writing scenario climaxes. In Ask Ken and Robin, Patreon backer Eric Jeppesen asks Ken and Robin to help weave a campaign around 16th c...
ListenEpisode 197: Obviously She Fought Radium Ghosts from 2016-07-01T08:27:46
Ever-prolific Ken dons a knit cap like all the youngsters wear to bring us the scoop on Bubblegumshoe in Among My Many Hats. In the Gaming Hut, we satisfy Patreon backer Sean McAuliff’s reque...
ListenEpisode 196: Conspicuously Non-Assassinated from 2016-06-24T08:30:56
In Ask Ken and Robin, Patreon backer Philip asks for ways to incorporate the beat cycle from Robin’s book Hamlet’s Hit Points into game systems that don’t already support it. The Tradecraft Hut pee...
ListenEpisode 195: All Its Guns in Norman Rockwell from 2016-06-17T08:30:41
Patreon backer Trung Bui asks us to assemble in the Gaming Hut to tell him who the murderer is, and also to discuss the challenges of investigative scenario construction. The gore runs thick but th...
ListenEpisode 194: Knocking Off Early For Gin and Lemonade from 2016-06-10T08:30:50
The Gaming Hut becomes a boat we might just die in as Patreon backer Luke Wassink asks us to make environmental obstacles suspenseful and compelling. In Among My Many Hats, Ken tells us about his n...
ListenEpisode 193: Bonaparte Eyes from 2016-06-03T08:30:51
In Ask Ken and Robin, Patreon backer Andrew Jones asks about working with Greg Stafford. The History Hut looks at the post-WWI occupation of Istanbul, as requested by Alexander Perman. How to Write...
ListenEpisode 192: Emulating a Genre That Doesn’t Exist from 2016-05-27T08:30:03
In the Gaming Hut we ponder a meta-terminology games designers might use to describe the purpose and function of the various sub-systems they build into roleplaying rules sets. Now that Donald Trum...
ListenKen and Robin Consume Media: Ghost Transit, Noir Identities and a Murderous Jigsaw Puzzle from 2016-05-24T15:08:35
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies...
ListenEpisode 191: In Case I Trip Over a Sand Dune from 2016-05-20T08:30:06
Patreon supporter Tim Brandis kicks us off with an Ask Ken and Robin question about which of our core design beliefs might have evolved over time. In the Tradecraft Hut we reach way back to that mo...
ListenEpisode 190: Boy Meets Manifestation from 2016-05-13T08:30:19
Patreon backer Graham Wills starts us off in the Gaming Hut by asking how to balance conspiratorial genres, like the spy thriller, with group trust. Among My Many Hats finds Ken laying down some wi...
ListenEpisode 189: It Won’t Fix Me But It Will Fix That from 2016-05-06T08:30:24
Patreon backer Kevin J. Maroney gets us started with an Ask Ken and Robin question about other designers’ mechanics we consider to be under-stolen. The Tradecraft Hut takes on a recent story claimi...
ListenEpisode 188: He Drinks Tables Under the Table from 2016-04-29T08:30:53
In the Gaming Hut, Patreon backer Bill Sundwall wants Ken to mash up two of his projects, The Madness Dossier and Night’s Black Agents, into one. The Business of Gaming looks for the best ways to c...
ListenEpisode 187: Honest and Dishonest Graft from 2016-04-22T08:30:30
The Gaming Hut gets organized as we answer Patreon backer Samwise Crider’s question about tracking clues in GUMSHOE and other investigative games. Backer Adam McDonald enters the Politics Hut for t...
ListenEpisode 186: You Need Canapes To Have a Secret Society from 2016-04-15T08:30:20
Ask Ken and Robin gets especially educational as Patreon supporter Brent Brown asks us for tips for using RPGs to teach history, home school style. Tradecraft Hut peers into the espionage scene in ...
ListenEpisode 185: I Don’t Think I Prefer That At All from 2016-04-08T08:30:51
Among My Many Hats is an Egyptian headdress with a distinctly feline aspect, as Ken talks about his installment of Ken Writes About Stuff devoted to Bast. The Gaming Hut looks at ways to write scen...
ListenEpisode 184: Snorting the Hand of Vecna from 2016-04-01T08:30:01
We start with Ask Ken and Robin, as Patreon supporter Ross Ireland asks us to tell our best crazy game stories. Then it’s off to the History Hut to consider the troubled Presidency of a guy w...
ListenEpisode 183: Eaten By a Ghost from 2016-03-25T08:30:05
Pull your swords out of your stones and step into the Gaming Hut for a consideration of the Chosen One trope. How to Write Good explores a phenomenon Robin calls Nigeling, when you make one charact...
ListenEpisode 182: Much Like the Person In It from 2016-03-18T08:30:08
Now that backers of our exciting and handsome Patreon campaign get priority access to pose questions for the show, we have a bunch of great questions in the hopper. So let’s get to four of them in ...
ListenEpisode 181: Taking Latitudes with Longitude from 2016-03-11T08:30:27
In this special theme episode, we start in the uncharted waters of the Cartography Hut, to look at the struggle to accurately measure longitude at sea, and its underdog hero, clockmaker John Harris...
ListenEpisode 180: Nordic Tamborine Cult from 2016-03-04T08:30
Sneak up on us very carefully as Ask Ken and Robin responds to a Josh Kroger question regarding stealth systems in RPGs. Recent events force us to reconsider past Politics Hut pronouncements as, wi...
ListenEpisode 179: Art Film with Explosions from 2016-02-26T08:30:34
Let’s schmooze a while in the Gaming Hut as we spitball a game based on social experience points. Get in touch with your inner cave dweller as the Conspiracy Corner checks out Neanderthal conspirac...
ListenSpecial Minisode: Our Patreon Launches from 2016-02-25T14:17:42
Long have we teased it! Now it’s finally here, for your keeping-the-show-alive convenience: our Patreon campaign. In this special mini-episode we talk the whys, the wherefores, and the long-c...
ListenEpisode 178: Whoops! Democracy! from 2016-02-19T08:30:36
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 fr...
ListenEpisode 177: You’ve Got Your Chainsaw Working from 2016-02-12T08:30:50
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 legen...
ListenEpisode 176: Shut Up, Fungus from 2016-02-05T08:30:19
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 ...
ListenEpisode 175: And Then Everyone Gets Indicted from 2016-01-29T08:30:41
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 cou...
ListenEpisode 174: Metaphor Drift! Metaphor Drift! from 2016-01-22T08:30:09
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 tam...
ListenEpisode 173: The Unknown Quadruped from 2016-01-15T08:30:38
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 a...
ListenEpisode 172: #notAllAstrologers from 2016-01-08T08:30:36
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 l...
ListenEpisode 171: Live from Dragonmeet 2015 from 2015-12-18T08:26:53
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 d...
ListenEpisode 170: Deprived of Moss from 2015-12-11T08:30:16
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 del...
ListenEpisode 169: If You Dibs an Entire Hemisphere from 2015-12-04T08:30:43
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 mil...
Listen[REPOST] Episode 168: Real Made-Up History from 2015-11-27T18:26:51
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 fir...
ListenEpisode 168: Real Made-Up History from 2015-11-27T08:30
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 fir...
ListenEpisode 167: Fred Williamson Syndrome from 2015-11-20T08:30:45
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 scienc...
ListenEpisode 166: No Ice Cream Trucks Anywhere from 2015-11-13T08:30:21
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 ma...
ListenEpisode 165: If You Violate a Ghost’s Trade Policy from 2015-11-06T08:30:42
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 consist...
ListenEpisode 164: Another Excuse To Drink In the Street from 2015-10-30T08:30:39
We kick off an episode devoted to Halloween in the Mythology Hut, where we survey the holiday’s history, mutations over time, and cultural diffusion. Ken suspects that 1933’s so-called Black Hallow...
ListenEpisode 163: Building Things Out of Zebras from 2015-10-23T08:30:33
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 th...
ListenEpisode 162: Of the Massachusetts Necrotaurs from 2015-10-16T08:20:01
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 Pe...
ListenEpisode 161: The Horse Had It Coming from 2015-10-09T08:30:45
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 listener...
ListenEpisode 160: Or His Solid Ghost from 2015-10-02T08:30:20
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...
ListenEpisode 159: I Was a 10 Year Old Nihilist from 2015-09-25T08:30:29
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. Ke...
ListenEpisode 158: Englishman is Not Actually Valued For Its Own Flavor from 2015-09-18T08:30:36
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...
ListenEpisode 157: I Have Points in Both, Simon from 2015-09-11T08:30:21
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 seem...
ListenEpisode 156: Crazily Pork-Bellied from 2015-09-04T08:30:33
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 peop...
ListenEpisode 155: Semi-Facing Into the Abyss from 2015-08-28T08:30:51
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 f...
ListenEpisode 154: Orange and Tufty From the Primordial Swamp from 2015-08-21T08:30:51
The featured headgear in Among My Many Hats is of a knitted variety as Robin talks about Ghosts in the Black, the Firefly campaign book he contributed to, and just what his credited role as story d...
ListenEpisode 153: Gen Con 2015 in Review from 2015-08-14T08:30:12
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...
ListenEpisode 152: X-Acto Athame from 2015-08-07T08:30:47
Buckle up your extra special rapier for a jaunt into the Gaming Hut to consider the connection between gear and status. Take extra reindeer with you, for your predecessor lost all of his when he en...
ListenEpisode 151: Draculas Competing To Be the Dracula from 2015-07-31T08:30:47
Robin gets a head start on his Dracula Dossier homework as the Gaming Hut lays out the whys and hows of campaign frames. The titular chapeau takes on a conical shape as Ken talks Yithians in Among ...
ListenEpisode 150: Anniversary Lightning Round Extravaganza III from 2015-07-24T08:30:54
Stuff we’re here to talk about in this milestone episode might include Ben Franklin, the Flash, Zeus, Tom Fury, Phar Lap, keraunomedicine, the Lockheed P-38, Mjolnir, the blitzkrieg, Final Fantasy...
ListenEpisode 149: Contemptible People Tavern from 2015-07-17T08:29:07
Line up your polyhedrals in order of social preference as we enter the Gaming Hut to examine caste and class in worldbuilding. The History Hut provides a footnote to a somber event with details on ...
ListenEpisode 148: The Truffles of the Fiend Folio from 2015-07-10T08:30:01
The Gaming Hut acquires extra filigrees and an extended backstory as we examine the cognitive investments gamers make when they learn to love detail. The Food Hut takes a turn for the imaginary in ...
ListenEpisode 147: The Worst Doppelganger from 2015-07-02T08:30:17
Spruce up your decor as the Gaming Hut reveals the secrets of room description. Ken does the bulk of the replying in an eliptonic Ask Ken and Robin, as RogerBW seeks a disentanglement of convex and...
ListenEpisode 146: The Most Punished“Well Actually”Ever from 2015-06-26T08:30:18
Guns blaze and mystic swords clash as Among My Many Hats goes under the hood on Blowing Up the Movies, Robin’s new book of essays combing the action movie classics for gameable nuggets. In Ask Ken ...
ListenEpisode 145: I’ll Bet It’s a Bad Star from 2015-06-19T08:30:43
Alex Guerrero has played before but never GMed. He wants to introduce a trio of interested neophytes/family members to roleplaying through a session of Fear Itself. He’s here to Ask Ken and Robin &...
ListenEpisode 144: Chaotic Prolix from 2015-06-12T08:30:06
Abandon your neutrality as we enter the Gaming Hut to talk about alignment in D&D. Find out if we’ve been digging what you’ve been digging about the recent crop of shows in the Television Hut. ...
ListenEpisode 143: You Can’t Just Set It on Fire from 2015-06-05T08:30:46
Using the conveniently public domain 1972 film Horror Express as a baseline, we demonstrate how to adapt a movie into a scenario worthy of the Gaming Hut. In a flood-threatened Travel Advisory, Ken...
ListenEpisode 142: The Scots Cannibal Registry from 2015-05-29T08:30:46
In the Gaming Hut we ask how much work game design should do to constrain problem players. Be careful in the History Hut not to sit in the sledgehammerin’ seat as we tell the tale of the Bloo...
ListenEpisode 141: Larger and Larger Cups from 2015-05-22T08:30:19
In Ask Ken and Robin your intrepid hosts field an Eion Dornan question about helping players take on the role of real historical figures. The story of a Nigerian juju practitioner handed a lengthy ...
ListenEpisode 140: More Like Winter Derleth from 2015-05-15T08:30:26
Crack open your Chaotic Neutral dictionary as Ken and Robin venture into the Gaming Hut to spitball a fantasy world extrapolated from the existence of alignment languages. In Ken and/or Robin Talk ...
ListenEpisode 139: Live from Cthulhucon from 2015-05-08T08:30:59
Screaming to you from the abyssal depths of the downtown Portland Oregon Crowne Plaza, comes our latest live episode. Join us as we talk Dracula vs. Gala, Muhammad Ali vs. Nyarlathotep, Nollywood, ...
ListenEpisode 138: All the Characterization You’re Gonna Require from 2015-05-01T08:30:10
Make sure you have your magic translation earbuds on as we enter the Gaming Hut to talk about secret and magical languages. In Ask Ken and Robin, Ruth Tillman John Burgess asks us to reveal our res...
ListenEpisode 137: Clown Moistening Skills from 2015-04-24T08:27:17
This article on the programmable variability of claw machines springboards us into the Gaming Hut for an examination of pass/fail cycles. A corpse with the distinctive dagger of medieval Teutonic j...
ListenEpisode 136: It Says Necropolis Right in the Name from 2015-04-17T08:35:53
Robin hijacks an Ask Ken and Robin question about running an Armitage Files-style campaign set after Sherlock Holmes’ plunge over Reichenbach to ask: do the master detective and the Mythos go toget...
ListenEpisode 135: So Bad the Quakers Riot from 2015-04-10T08:30:26
When the Gaming Hut asks you to mind your tone, we’re talking about ways to instil it during roleplaying sessions. In Ask Ken and Robin, Roger Bell West draws us into the Eliptony Hut with by reque...
ListenEpisode 134: Glam, Baby from 2015-04-03T08:30:18
It’s raining drama tokens in the Gaming Hut as Robin shares his DramaSystem GMing tips. The clash of arms resounds in the History Hut as Ken gives us the lowdown on legendary Indian empire-builder ...
ListenEpisode 133: Wielding Fennel Without Proper Church Authority from 2015-03-27T08:43:24
Cough into your elbow as we duck into the Gaming Hut to think up explanations imaginary cultures might give for the origin of diseases. The Cinema Hut unspools Robin’s top five recommended films fo...
ListenEpisode 132: Underground Subterranean Fort from 2015-03-20T08:25:29
In Ask Ken and Robin, Jonas Beardsley points us to this Wired article about advances in astrophysics brought about by the computer effects used in the movie Interstellar. We then make good on his i...
ListenEpisode 131: Helping People Steal Concrete from 2015-03-13T08:30:52
Join us in the Gaming Hut for a psychotropic ritual as we think about introducing entheogens into the magic of your F20 world. The Politics Hut flips its municipal focus as Ken shares his perspecti...
ListenEpisode 130: Regional Resentments of Canadian Mollusks from 2015-03-06T08:30:25
Yohann Delalande kicks us off with an Ask Ken and Robin question about portraying current real-world horrors in RPGs without lapsing into insensitivity. We fulfill this podcast’s Canadian content r...
ListenEpisode 129: How to Alert the Occult Police from 2015-02-27T08:30:11
We start with an Ask Ken and Robin question from Ethan Cordray, who wants to know how a GM and player might collaborate in creating scenarios. Inspired by this Malcolm Gladwell piece, the Crime Blo...
ListenEpisode 128: The Heavy Hand of the Fourth Wall from 2015-02-20T08:30:55
Weighty personages surrounded by bullet-proof genre expectations surround us in the Gaming Hut as we examine script immunity in historical gaming. The Mythology Hut finds us riffing a kid-friendly ...
ListenEpisode 127: Blah Blah Zombies Blah Blah from 2015-02-13T08:30:04
We begin with endings as the Gaming Hut enumerates ways to build your roleplaying series to the biggest of finishes. Among My Many Hats has Ken telling us about Vendetta Run, the latest installment...
ListenEpisode 126: Rhode Island Jones from 2015-02-06T08:30:02
A pithy remark from LEGO Batman inspires our latest excursion into the Gaming Hut, as we ponder the question of narratively acceptable character demises. In the Tradecraft Hut we look at bone music...
ListenEpisode 125: Just Get Two Corpses, People from 2015-01-30T08:30:46
Ken and Robin remember a 90% scale replica of the façade of the Alamo in this episode themed around their recent sojourn in Austin, TX. In the Gaming Hut we recapitulate a Chupacabracon panel with ...
ListenEpisode 124: Live from Chupacabracon in Austin, TX from 2015-01-23T08:30:05
Join Ken and Robin for this live episode recorded at Chupacabracon in beautiful Austin, TX. The best audience ever, per capita, punch above their weight to keep us supplied with incisive questions....
ListenEpisode 123: Freemium Democratic Regime from 2015-01-16T08:30:39
Verily and anon, adopt the cloak of darkness as Ken ducks into the Elizabethan tavern that is the Gaming Hut to discuss his School of Night GUMSHOE setting. Violence and mayhem disrupt the tranquil...
ListenEpisode 122: Accelerated Gameable Force from 2015-01-09T08:30:15
The Magicians’ Guild turns out to be rife with factions and competing interests as the Gaming Hut looks at ways to add realistic messiness to your game’s imaginary institutions. In Ken and/or...
ListenEpisode 121: Handy Scrying Mirror Carrying Case from 2015-01-02T08:26:45
Our voices are as froggy as London used to be foggy in our first episode back after our UK sojourn. Inspired by the Museum of London’s current Sherlock Holmes exhibit, we usher a certain consulting...
ListenEpisode 120: Live from Dragonmeet 2014 from 2014-12-19T08:30:01
Just like sugar plums and figgy pudding, the annual live podcast from London’s Dragonmeet is here to warn us that December holds us in its thrall. Ken nerdtropes Genghis Khan and alien artefacts. R...
ListenEpisode 119: Sex Argentina from 2014-12-12T08:30:21
In Ask Ken and Robin, we answer an Ian Porell question about how much writing should go into a GUMSHOE NPC, and move on from there to supply other tips on creating supporting players for investigat...
ListenEpisode 118: There’s Nothing In It For Owls from 2014-12-05T08:30:16
In Ask Ken and Robin, Jeff Jones seeks advice on running an anti-Nazi campaign set in 30s America. We oblige in both pulp and occult genre modes. Become conscious of an enticing aroma in the Gaming...
ListenEpisode 117: Covered in Cats and Croissant Crumbs from 2014-11-28T08:30:57
In Ask Ken and Robin, Stephanie asks Ken and Robin to find gaming ideas in the disappearance, and much later resurfacing, of Henry IV’s long-dead head. The Gaming Hut has us looking at moments wher...
ListenEpisode 116: Okay, I’ll Go Get Your Leg from 2014-11-21T08:30:33
The Tradecraft Hut takes an unusual lead slot as Ken answers an FMGuru request for the tale of WWII Soviet spy Richard Sorge. Horatio stands to our right and Laertes to our right as the Gaming Hut ...
ListenEpisode 115: Anopheles Mosquito, Stagnant Pond from 2014-11-14T08:30:36
The hats in Among My Many Hats are bowlers, and green apples obscure our faces, because we’re talking about Dreamhounds of Paris, now available for preorder, and its companion volume, The Book of A...
ListenEpisode 114: Don’t Read Books from 2014-11-07T08:30:47
Gallop into the Gaming Hut as we discuss a term from documentary filmmaking, chasing story, and how it might relate to roleplaying games. Take a seat in the Cinema Hut as Ken discusses his top pick...
ListenEpisode 113: And the Heads of a Whole Bunch of People from 2014-10-31T08:30:48
In the Gaming Hut we consider the dividing line between fun character customization and tiresome homework, and whether it’s moving lately. Still in a Draculanean mood, Ken enters the Book Hut for a...
ListenEpisode 112: Someone Will Break Out Into Recipes from 2014-10-24T08:30
In the Gaming Hut we look at ways to add nuance to your setting’s faiths by considering the split between official and popular religion. Ken spills blood-red beans on the coming Dracula Dossier Kic...
ListenEpisode 111: A Rat Eats It and It Explodes from 2014-10-17T08:30:20
We kick off with a Gaming Hut riffed adventure premise, as heavily armed lords come from miles around to claim their share of a holy man’s ashes. How to Write Good stacks its deck in favor of the p...
ListenEpisode 110: Eat My Orange Slices, Peons! from 2014-10-10T08:30:54
In the Gaming Hut Robin asks Ken to resolve Robin’s ambivalence toward creativity rewards. The Politics Hut puts one of Ken’s rules distinctions to real life use as we contemplate Stability, ...
ListenEpisode 109: Put a Pointy Wizard Hat On It from 2014-10-03T08:28:32
Ask Ken and Robin starts us in a murderous frame of mind as Dreaming Johnny wonders about settings and play styles for games where you play assassins. In The Business of Gaming we helpfully collate...
ListenEpisode 108: Too Many Cyber-Monkeys from 2014-09-26T08:30:15
Before getting to the main meat of the episode, a Preamble Hut seems necessary to update a few stories of interest to KARTAS listeners. So gather round as Ken dispatches fresh claims of a DNA solut...
ListenEpisode 107: Live from Gen Con 2014 from 2014-09-19T08:30:08
Join us for another Ken and Robin live episode, this time from beautiful and now slightly better smelling Indianapolis, Indiana. We nerdtrope magical slave revolts, fit the Fords into the Cthulhu m...
ListenEpisode 106: No One’s Gonna Get an Orange from 2014-09-12T08:26:07
Questions of pacing kick us into fall, as Ask Ken and Robin tackle a query from listener Michael Bowman. In Crime Blotter we hunker down in our tarmac-damaging humvee to consider the trend of polic...
ListenEpisode 105: Does This Look Like a Railroad to You? from 2014-09-05T08:30:59
In Ask Ken and Robin, we field a Tuukka Heimola question about running great one-shots and convention games. The History Hut reveals itself to be a series of rapidly constructed forts as we look at...
ListenEpisode 104: Stabby Detective Stories from 2014-08-29T08:30:47
It’s Gen Con, Gen Con and more Gen Con as we issue our usual bumper Travel Advisory in the wake of the big show. Robin comes home wreathed in Hillfolk glory, Ken and Robin snag gold, Ken makes the...
ListenEpisode 103: Francis Peameal Bacon from 2014-08-22T08:30:27
Ken slaps down suggestions of a Gaming Hut renovation, but that poses little impediment to Robin as he sets out the four key components that make for an engaging obstacle. For more, see Robin’...
ListenEpisode 102: Nonsense is on the March from 2014-08-15T08:30:09
Ask Ken and Robin tackles a Tim Isakson question on ways to handle tone as a GM. Among My Many Hats tips its pith helmet to Ken’s new GURPS Horror book, The Madness Dossier. How to Write Good sits ...
ListenEpisode 101: It’s Like Football Camp from 2014-08-08T08:30:52
Our multi-episode arc about the underwater dead who sell life and buy dreams comes to a conclusion in the Gaming Hut as we break out specific scenario ideas for our riffed setting. In a new segment...
ListenEpisode 100: Special Anniversary All Lightning Edition from 2014-08-01T08:30:55
Let the bells ring out and the banners fly. It’s the landmark 100th episode of our humble podcast! To celebrate, we’ve collected from listeners across the social media landscape a cornucopia of lig...
ListenEpisode 99: Methane Planet of the Rakshasas from 2014-07-25T08:30:14
We are honored and delighted to say that Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff has been nominated for a 2o14 ENnie Award for Best Podcast. If you are seeing this before Aug 1st, and want us bounding up to...
ListenEpisode 98: Why are We Conquering This? from 2014-07-18T08:30:14
Often in the Gaming Hut (and other huts arrayed around it) we riff a ton of quick ideas in Gatling gun fashion. This time out we take one of those riffed ideas, that of the city of underwater dead ...
ListenEpisode 97: Hamsterface from 2014-07-11T08:30:22
All hail the audio majesty of editor Rob Borges, who rescued this and last week’s episodes from the scourge of electronic interference, leaving only a touch of distortion in Robin’s sib...
ListenEpisode 96: Yardarm Shortage from 2014-07-04T08:30:43
All hail the audio majesty of editor Rob Borges, who rescued this and next week’s episodes from the scourge of electronic interference, leaving only a touch of distortion in Robin’s sib...
ListenEpisode 95: A Big Can of Time Worms from 2014-06-27T08:30:13
Turn your head and sarcophagus as Ask Ken and Robin raises the lid on a @CrazyDogSpirit question on making the most of mummies. Then it’s time for another Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else, in ...
ListenEpisode 94: The Simpering Bridegroom from 2014-06-20T08:30:23
A fog-shrouded Travel Advisory sees Robin reporting on his trip to historic (and Fortean) St. John’s, Newfoundland. In Ask Ken and Robin, donor Brendan Power asks about handling spotty game night a...
ListenEpisode 93: A Damp 1968 from 2014-06-13T08:30:24
We start in a submersible as the Cartography Hut takes you under the sea to riff on campaign and adventure possibilities arising from the mapping of sunken Dunwich. In Ask Ken and Robin, Yohann Del...
ListenEpisode 92: The Werepig Demographic from 2014-06-06T08:30:54
We kick off with Ask Ken and Robin and a Sean Phelan question about asynchronous information dissemination in roleplaying games. Dire rumors swirl as the Tradecraft Hut looks at disinformation and ...
ListenEpisode 91: The Envy Must Flow Through Me from 2014-05-30T08:30:02
The titular emotion exudes from a certain Chicagoan as we issue a Travel Advisory for Robin’s trip to the Chimeriades convention in sunny Provence. In Ask Ken and Robin, Chris Shorb asks about maki...
ListenEpisode 90: Nine Yards of Crazy from 2014-05-23T08:30:55
In the Gaming Hut we demonstrate scenario construction by brainstorming a Fear Itself adventure featuring the fearsome Crate Man. Duck furtively into the Cartography Hut as we look at maps as secre...
ListenEpisode 89: The Elvis of the European Occult Underground from 2014-05-16T08:30:59
The Gaming Hut reverberates with spectral dread as we find ways to make ghosts and hauntings scary in roleplaying. Fun with Science looks for story and gaming grist in the increasingly respected, a...
ListenEpisode 88: Script Justification Technology from 2014-05-09T08:30:55
In the Gaming Hut, Robin asks Ken to specify a suitable period of occult ferment and together they riff it into a DramaSystem Series Pitch. We unseal the stone door of the Mythology Hut to give Lil...
ListenEpisode 87: The Whacking Shovel from 2014-05-02T08:30:07
Ken’s return from Portland’s HP Lovecraft Film Festival and its sister event Conthulhu prompts the issuance of an especially eldritch Travel Advisory. Listener Greg Gray gets an unprecedented answe...
ListenEpisode 86: Al-Qaeda Doesn’t Read Their Comments from 2014-04-25T08:30:50
Pull up an extra special chair in the Gaming Hut as we look at ways to put guest players to good use. In the Tradecraft Hut, Ken helps listener Rick Jonzz start a beginner’s tradecraft booksh...
ListenEpisode 85: History is Replete With Idiots from 2014-04-18T08:30:40
In Ask Ken and Robin, Kevin Maroney asks us to expand on an earlier Ken comment questioning the suitability of the d20 structure for Cthulhu gaming. The History Hut flies the Jolly Roger to examine...
ListenEpisode 84: Those Punk Magicians Killed My Elephant from 2014-04-11T08:34:26
The Gaming Hut rings with the sound of accents and impressions as we examine the role of voice work in GMing. The Crime Blotter finds a surprising nexus of grift, elephant materialization and the t...
ListenEpisode 83: Chekov’s Squid Throwing from 2014-04-04T08:30:52
Is that a displacer beast in your pocket, or are you just glad to listen to us? Convene in the Gaming Hut as we discuss monster abilities and to what extent they enter into player awareness. The Tr...
ListenEpisode 82: Ken and Robin’s Tiny Dolls Talk About Stuff from 2014-03-28T08:34:51
In the Gaming Hut we again lift the RPG design hood to tinker with PC/NPC asymmetry. Eerie Horror Hut riffing ensues as we sift the story possibilities of 3D-Printed Clone Dolls. Ask Ken and Robin ...
ListenEpisode 81: If I Were an Otter from 2014-03-21T08:30:01
In the Cartography Hut we set out techniques to add a dose of psychogeography to the map of your imaginary city. The Gaming Hut looks at the elasticity of vampire mythology, as inspired by Ken’s go...
ListenEpisode 80: Vulnerable to Attack By Panzer Leaders from 2014-03-14T03:30
Gaming Hut starts on a somber note as we remember the roleplaying innovations of Aaron Allston (1960-2014.) We go on to discuss one of the key themes of his work, genre emulation at the tabletop. T...
ListenEpisode 79: Take That, Entertainment from 2014-03-07T08:30:48
Grab your retrospective popcorn and hunker down in the Cinema Hut as Ken and Robin review their movie top tens for 2013. Responding to popular demand, the Consulting Occultist assesses competing ne...
ListenEpisode 78: Elves Don’t Listen to Podcasts from 2014-02-28T08:30:01
Find new reason to plunge into the dungeon as the Gaming Hut tackles ways of giving narrative meaning to F20 combat encounters. Look at Fluffy in a new light as the Tradecraft Hut examines the anim...
ListenEpisode 77: All the John Waynes from 2014-02-21T14:40:43
They said it couldn’t strike twice, but the Ask Ken and Robin lightning round is back, tackling game designer payment, Day After Ragnarok, book hunting, and a Rob Ford mini-update. In the wide open...
ListenEpisode 76: Hunker in the Bunker from 2014-02-14T08:30:57
We start this episode in the Gaming Hut, where we bat around ways to activate your player character’s character hook. In our new segment, Crime Blotter, we examine the four categories of hit man, a...
ListenEpisode 75: The Don Cheadle of Creepy Tunnels from 2014-02-07T08:30:18
A curious case study, in which a regrettable glacier incident leads listener Joe Tyne to a Call of Cthulhu stumbling block, warrants treatment from the experts in Ask Ken and Robin. At the request ...
ListenEpisode 74: They Failed to Organize Italy from 2014-01-31T08:32:24
Keep your silver dagger ready in the Gaming Hut as we look at campaign setting creation through the example of Ken’s Werewolves of Dacia, which will appear in the upcoming Best of Fenix anthology. ...
ListenEpisode 73: Guff About Other Planets from 2014-01-24T08:30:57
Ask Ken and Robin dispenses advice on running SF and space opera games, in response to a query from Ed Hirsch. In a curiously hexagonal Book Hut, we examine the seminal work of Argentinean fantasis...
ListenEpisode 72: Suckytown was Already Taken from 2014-01-17T08:30:46
Seize the narrative steering wheel as a player in the Gaming Hut, where we discuss techniques to productively exercise character agency. Uncover the layers beneath the layers of the History Hut, in...
ListenEpisode 71: Oh, Tentacle Bob! from 2014-01-10T08:30:52
We ring in 2014 with an Ask Ken and Robin from Ross Ireland, who wants to switch to a more serious horror tone after years of loosey-goosey play. Then we zoom back in time to the dying embers of 20...
ListenEpisode 70: Live from Dragonmeet 2013 from 2013-12-20T08:30:17
Special guest Rob Heinsoo joins Ken and Robin for a very special episode recorded live at Dragonmeet, from the municipal splendor of Kensington Town Hall in beautiful downtown London. Ken nerdtrope...
ListenEpisode 69: You Already Met the First Tiger from 2013-12-13T08:30:47
Ken and Robin open the Gaming Hut to air evolving differences in gamer expectations, with Feng Shui player feedback offering a time portal between the mid-90s and now. Among My Many Hats looks into...
ListenEpisode 68: Why You Shouldn’t Ask Us to Destroy Civilization from 2013-12-06T08:30:21
News that US states are now legalizing Internet gambling within their borders send us to an unusually garishly lit and jingle-jangling Gaming Hut, where we consider hobby gaming twists on playing f...
ListenEpisode 67: You Suck as a Depicter of Matriarchies from 2013-11-29T08:30:36
Take a moment to study the menu in the Gaming Hut, as we contrast the operations of prix fixe and a la carte character improvement RPG designs. Watch us cut the ribbon on our brand new Abandoned Id...
ListenEpisode 66: The Random Piggly-Wiggly Table from 2013-11-22T08:30:51
We place a horseshoe over the mantle of the Gaming Hut to consider luck’s role as a branch point in roleplaying. Then, at the behest of lead sponsor Stephen Jankiewicz, we enter the cobwebbed confi...
ListenEpisode 65: Cherubs Who Have Aged Out from 2013-11-15T08:30:57
We put down our catalogues of iron rations and guaranteed unpossessed cats to venture into the Gaming Hut and discuss the allure of shopping and gear in roleplaying games. Inside the perimeter of t...
ListenEpisode 64: The Gypsy was Doing Us a Solid from 2013-11-08T08:30:15
Ken has returned from the Chicago Film Festival to regale the Cinema Hut with demonic pacts, ghost possession, a Kurdish western, and an unusually sympathetic take on the new Dario Argento flick. A...
ListenEpisode 63: Pretending To Be Regular Daves from 2013-11-01T08:00:34
Gather in the Gaming Hut as we discuss differences of perspective between game players and game designers. In How to Write Good we explore that most ancient of all fiction maxims. What does it mean...
ListenEpisode 62: Watch Out, Boys, He Has the Power of Transcendentalism from 2013-10-25T08:34:53
Feel all leafy-like as Ken issues an autumnal Travel Advisory for his recent road trip to Lovecraft’s Vermont and Marblehead. Bathe in the cathode rays of the Television Hut as we compare and contr...
ListenEpisode 61: Next To the Opposite Hex You’ll Be Like a Ferret in Heat from 2013-10-18T09:19:10
To what extent should an adventure tell a story to the GM who is about to read it? Journey with us into the Gaming Hut to find out. Then fire up your laptops with their Cartography Hut screensavers...
ListenEpisode 60: Problems With Sabertooth Tigers from 2013-10-11T09:55:52
With the smoke from our burning village billowing behind us, we take momentary refuge in the Gaming Hut to discuss great migration campaign frames. Under the war-room glare of the Geopolitics Hut w...
ListenEpisode 59: Thwarted by Trees from 2013-10-04T08:46:14
Gather your Hegelian war band around the speakers to listen to our opening Gaming Hut segment, in which we look at ways to transform groups of murder hoboes into ensemble procedural casts. We open ...
ListenEpisode 58: You or Shub-Niggurath Walk Out of The Room from 2013-09-27T09:09:27
If it’s late September, it must be time for Robin to exit bleary-eyed from the Lightbox theater and stumble into the Cinema Hut to regale us with his findings from the 2013 Toronto International Fi...
ListenEpisode 57: Live from FanExpo Canada from 2013-09-20T08:52:22
Join us for a very special live episode of Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff, live from FanExpo Canada. Hop in our time machine and journey back to Toronto on the weekend before Labor Day to hear abou...
ListenEpisode 56: Oh, My Pancreas from 2013-09-13T12:45:21
Having survived his epic three weekends, three conventions journey into the heart of geekdom, Ken returns to issue a Travel Advisory on his final leg, which took him to the newly de-asterisked Drag...
ListenEpisode 55: Endemic Clan Warfare and Beautiful Lakes from 2013-09-06T08:42
After a prefatory Travel Advisory on their activities at FanExpo Canada and a Food Hut trawl through the gustatory delight’s of Robin’s neighborhood, Ken and Robin take a nostalgic look back over t...
ListenEpisode 54: Gen Con 2013, or Should I Have Shaved My Head? from 2013-08-30T08:08:09
Somewhat rested but still with a fog upon their vocal chords, Ken and Robin issue a joint Travel Advisory for Gen Con 2013. Come for the shameless bragging, stay for the awards analysis, industry t...
ListenNow, With Donate Button from 2013-08-23T14:54:11
You demanded; we complied, adding a donate button to help you help us keep the show going. You’ll find it, and through it our eternal gratitude, at the right-hand side of the blog masthead.
ListenEpisode 53: My Feelings About Hatchets Have Completely Changed from 2013-08-23T09:28:41
In the Gaming Hut we power up our universal translators to contemplate the treatment of languages in roleplaying. Then we review our way through the summer blockbuster season in the Cinema Hut. In ...
ListenKen and Robin Talk Live This Weekend in Toronto from 2013-08-20T13:31:25
FanExpo Canada rolls out this weekend at the Metro Toronto Convention Center. Its many geekish splendors include a special live episode of Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff. Gather up your questions a...
ListenEpisode 52: The Delightful Burning Sensation You Alluded To Earlier from 2013-08-16T07:47:21
Join hands and sing fhtagn fhtagn as we self-congratulate ourselves on an epic year of podcasting. Then sidle past the mutual back-patting into the Gaming Hut, where we consider the export potentia...
ListenEpisode 51: A Tank Wearing a Truck Hat from 2013-08-09T08:39:09
In Ask Ken and Robin, Jacob Ansari asks about playing Night’s Black Agents in previous time periods. The Tradecraft Hut hosts a look at Jasper Maskelyne, the so-called War Magician. In The Business...
ListenAdvertise on Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff from 2013-08-07T00:39:19
Our present roster of fine sponsors pays for hosting and audio production of Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff. But to keep doing it, our titular hosts need to offset the time they devote to the show,...
ListenEpisode 50: Lasers and Moog Synthesizers from 2013-08-02T09:15:18
We flip through some pages in the Gaming Hut as we discuss the evolution of roleplaying game graphic design, from aesthetics to utility. Then we slip into the plush seats of the Cinema Hut to revie...
ListenEpisode 49: No One Likes a Blood Frenzy from 2013-07-26T08:25:25
From the Cartography Hut we send our separate adventurers on intercut journeys of exploration, as we riff on the fantasy game potential of the Atlas of True Names series. How to Write Good connects...
ListenEpisode 48: Except for All the Cannibalism from 2013-07-19T08:38:14
Events in Egypt have us taking shelter in the Gaming Hut to suggest approaches to uprisings and revolutions in roleplaying narrative. Then Robin beckons you to the Cinema Hut for a quick intro to C...
ListenEpisode 47: An Occasional Underused Wendigo from 2013-07-12T09:10:21
We start in the Gaming Hut by contemplating the massive Call of Cthulhu campaign. What drives the love for this classic cornerstone of roleplaying obsession? In Ask Ken and Robin, Leó Páll Hrafnsso...
ListenEpisode 46: An Indictment of Your Pudding from 2013-07-05T09:03:53
We shuttle over to the Gaming Hut to continue our discussion of omnipresent surveillance, this time in the context of your roleplaying group’s tendency to turtle up. The unveiling of the Word Hut s...
ListenEpisode 45: A Blatant Vowel Swap from 2013-06-28T09:24:26
Summer convention season kicks off with a Travel Advisory on Ken’s trip to Origins. Robin beckons you into the Cinema Hut to share his rare chance to see the first Wong Fei-Hung film, 1949’s The Wh...
ListenEpisode 44: The Marshy Aunt from 2013-06-21T09:37:48
Meet us in the Gaming Hut for techniques to make your characters’ backstories shine during RPG play. In Ask Ken and Robin we (meaning mostly Ken) address a question from friend of the site Jeromy F...
ListenEpisode 43: In a Non-Necromantic Context from 2013-06-14T08:25:07
This week’s Travel Advisory takes us to unfamiliar territory—not just the capital of Robin’s beloved Canada, but the On Words Conference held by the Writers’ Union of Canada. Come for compare/contr...
ListenEpisode 42: A Faith Demand Moment from 2013-06-07T08:47:38
First up, Ken and Robin enter the Gaming Hut to transcend their origins and discuss transhuman RPGs. How do we create inhuman characters human players can still portray? In the Tradecraft Hut, we d...
ListenEpisode 41: The Kind of Scary Energy That Doesn’t Exist from 2013-05-31T08:58:11
In the Gaming Hut, we examine the tradition of flaws and disads in RPGs. Do they put the “fun” in dysfunctional? Then Ken and Robin adjourn to the Cinema Hut, where they try not to tell you too muc...
ListenEp 40: Forces of the Tomkitten from 2013-05-24T09:05:39
Ken and Robin enter the Gaming Hut to catch you up on what they’re playing right now, from xenoarcheaological exploration to carnies caught between the devil and alien invaders. In Ask Ken and Robi...
ListenEpisode 39: The Book of Not At All Sinister Church Names from 2013-05-17T07:48:07
Two mysterious doors provide ingress into the Gaming Hut. Which one do we take, as we contemplate adventure structure and the choice points that comprise it? Ask Ken and Robin takes an alternate hi...
ListenEpisode 38: Driving Bananas Around from 2013-05-10T07:08:18
We start with a visit to the Gaming Hut to discuss the play utility of illustrations. In the Food Hut we explore the legends and lore of packaged goods, including the secret origins of Cool Whip, t...
ListenEpisode 37: Ghost-Kissed Pilsner from 2013-05-03T08:29:27
The undertones of jet lag in Robin’s voice indicate the issuance of another Travel Advisory, in this case concerning his lovely trip to Germany’s Hannover Spielt. Beers mentioned include: Herrenhäu...
ListenEpisode 36: A Scuba Diver Walks Into an Ice Cream Shop from 2013-04-26T08:18:56
Ken and Robin hit a bare and blackened stage to bring the improv concept of “yes anding” to the Gaming Hut. In Ask Ken and Robin, they answer Kevin J. Maroney’s question about picking a game for ro...
ListenEpisode 35: The Most English Story Ever Told from 2013-04-19T01:57:40
We start in the leatherbound precincts of the Book Hut for a look at a classic piece of early travel writing, Alexander William Kinglake’s Eothen. Grab as a Gutenberg ebook, or in print. Still in a...
ListenEpisode 34: Easily Approached By My Techniques from 2013-04-12T09:14:07
Ken and Robin meet in the Gaming Hut to workshop a game mechanic—the interpersonal disadvantage. The Tradecraft Hut uses further evidence that Blackwater served as a CIA front as an opportunity to ...
ListenEpisode 33: Bring Your Own Goat from 2013-04-05T08:55:57
We kick off with another Travel Advisory, this one centered on Ken’s quest to Las Vegas and the Gama Trade Show, to prise from it premonitions of the new hotness. Then History Hut takes a turn for ...
ListenEpisode 32: Cash in Your Magic Swords from 2013-03-29T09:50:01
Scoops of polyhedrals in hand, we enter the Gaming Hut to contemplate the power of experience points. Are they justified in a genre-emulative design? In Ask Ken and Robin, Darren Watts asks Ken to ...
ListenEpisode 31: Love, Gerald Ford from 2013-03-22T09:27:03
In the Gaming Hut, we consider the soul of the orc. How do you present this classic fantasy trope without letting in the toxin of real world racism? History Hut returns to crime in Chicago for a co...
ListenEpisode 30: Ring-Tailed and Fructivorous from 2013-03-15T09:37:01
In our latest venture into the Gaming Hut, we consider the classic sandbox versus railroad opposition. Useful dichotomy, or intellectual black hole that swallows all other argument? From there we g...
ListenEpisode 29: Because, Hey, Benzedrine from 2013-03-08T08:59:53
We start by venturing into the Genre Hut to limn the fraught boundaries of the Fake Nerd crisis. Our examination of the Chelyabinsk meteor takes us into the Eliptony Hut, where we trace its impact ...
ListenEpisode 28: Possibly an Anagnorisis from 2013-03-01T08:42:08
That Vitamin D sheen you see on Ken’s glossy coat shows that he recently escaped Chicago’s frigid embrace for the sunshine of California’s Bay Area, necessitating another Travel Advisory as we revi...
ListenEpisode 27: League of Extraordinary Skeletons from 2013-02-22T10:00:44
In Ask Ken and Robin, we field Conrad Kinch’s query about the politics of game design. Do a designer’s political beliefs show up in his work? Then, as you knew we would, we engage in some History B...
ListenEpisode 26: Passing the Legislation To See What’s In It from 2013-02-15T08:50:42
In an unprecedented merger of the Gaming Hut with the Politics Hut, we look to political scientist Steven Teles’ theory of government as kludgeocracy to demonstrate why government should hire game ...
ListenEpisode 25: Finally, the Woodrow Wilson Throwdown from 2013-02-08T10:03:14
In the Gaming Hut, we mull the economics of game design. Will the Kickstarter wave usher in a new era of component-driven play? Then it’s off to the History Hut for Ken’s long-anticipated final sho...
ListenEpisode 24: Conan Gets a Fish from 2013-02-01T08:51:21
After two bits of preamble business, one elegiac and the other bathetic , we issue a Travel Advisory to wring vicarious enjoyment from Ken’s journey to WarpCon in Cork, Ireland. We then step into t...
ListenEpisode 23: Within the Eliptonic Radius from 2013-01-25T09:08:56
Kicking off with another service-oriented segment of Ask Ken and Robin, we suggest ways to introduce a rich setting to players who are unfamiliar with it. Then we inaugurate the Eliptony Hut, first...
ListenEpisode 22: Her Agile, Ventriloquistic Foot from 2013-01-18T08:54:16
In a special Cartography Hut / Ask Ken and Robin crossover, Troy Holoday invites us to contemplate the vanished D&D roles of mapper and caller. On a serious note we go to the History Hut for a ...
ListenEpisode 21: A Thin Sludge Along the Sidewalks from 2013-01-11T13:48:56
Our first episode of the new year begins in the Gaming Hut, where we examine the difference between showing up to be entertained, and showing up to play. Ask Ken and Robin fields Paul Weimer’s ques...
ListenEpisode 20: Twentieth Century Eccentrics from 2012-12-21T21:18:50
In our final episode of 2012, we issue a Travel Advisory on our recent trip to Dragonmeet in London. A seamless segue then ushers us to the wonder of Ken’s Bookshelf, in which Robin vicariously enj...
ListenEpisode 19: Live from Dragonmeet 2012 from 2012-12-14T14:32:20
Join us for our first episode recorded in front of a live audience, in the council chambers at Kensington Town Hall as part of Dragonmeet 2012. We welcome special guest Simon Rogers for an uber edi...
ListenEpisode 18: Conspiracy To Commit Ophthalmology from 2012-11-28T15:22:54
This week’s episode commences with a trip to the Gaming Hut to consider Robin’s dichotomy of rewards versus incentives, which segues into a discussion of the co-designer syndrome in playtest feedb...
ListenEpisode 17: A Gorgeous Work of Rosicrucian Monomania from 2012-11-28T13:23:11
In Ask Ken and Robin, we examine the popularity, or lack thereof, of the western as a roleplaying genre, and point to models historical and cinematic for the adventuring party in spurs and Stetsons...
ListenEpisode 16: As Kenya is To Running from 2012-11-23T14:27:55
Inspired by Christian Marclay’s cinechronological video installation The Clock, Gaming Hut examines time and pacing in roleplaying. The Schaudenfreude Institute initiates a new PhD course and Ken p...
ListenTruly We Are Golden Geeks from 2012-11-17T23:53:38
Many thanks to all who voted or influenced the voters for the Golden Geek Awards! Your hard work or subtle noodges have paid off, as Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff has won the 2012 Golden Geek Awar...
ListenEpisode 15: A Mere Frustum from 2012-11-16T03:21:52
In The Business of Gaming, Robin shares the Kickstarter lessons he learned from the recent bumper crowdfund of his new roleplaying game, Hillfolk. Ken brings the light of his presence to a devastat...
ListenEpisode 14: Undetectable Notes of Irony from 2012-11-09T13:47:50
We kick off with another film festival wrap-up in the Cinema Hut, this time Ken’s visit to the Chicago International Film Festival. Ask Ken and Robin asks us to contemplate the differences between ...
ListenEpisode 13: That Time We Burned Down the White House from 2012-11-02T13:44:30
This week’s Ask Ken and Robin asks us to turn a previous thing that Ken always says on its head. When is it better not to base your setting on the real world? Then Robin and Ken square off in the H...
ListenEpisode 12: +4 Damage from Boat from 2012-10-25T15:42:44
We kick off with a Gaming Hut segment contemplating the question: is it ever okay to kick someone out of your game group and, if so, when? Jason Breti supplies our Ask Ken and Robin question, leadi...
ListenEpisode 11: When Angels Tell You To Wife-Swap from 2012-10-18T22:48:31
This week’s installment of Ask Ken and Robin prompts us to wax autobiographical and reveal our similar yet opposite secret origins. Then we descend into the Paris catacombs, escaping from what we f...
ListenEpisode 10: Brand Confusion from 2012-10-12T13:11:15
In Among My Many Hats, Robin discusses Hillfolk, his new game of iron age personal interaction, and its DramaSystem engine, now up for crowdfunding. Ken teases “Moscow Station”, a DramaSystem Serie...
ListenEpisode 9: Riesling and Dirigibles from 2012-10-05T13:29:27
With a tip of the hat to sponsors Profantasy Software, we fling open the inaugural doors of the Cartography Hut to contemplate maps we have known and loved. In a frenzy of construction, we then thr...
ListenGolden Geek Award Nomination from 2012-10-02T15:18:52
Wow! After a mere nine episodes, our humble audio adventure has garnered a Golden Geek Award nomination as Best Podcast from the good folks at RPGGeek. It’s a worthy crop of nominees and we’re prou...
ListenEpisode 8: Cruller-Infested Demi-Paradise from 2012-09-27T17:52:56
If there is a mother of all Cinema Huts, it is the Toronto International Film Festival. We kick off the episode with Robin’s picks from the just-completed 37th fest. Then we skulk into the Conspira...
ListenEpisode 7: Lindbergh’s Mummy from 2012-09-20T15:29:23
Travel Advisory whisks us on an aural journey to Worldcon, courtesy of Ken, who brings back knowledge of Chinese SF, steampunk semantics, the best vampire novel of the last 100 years, and the dread...
ListenEpisode 6: The Mystic Power of Indexing from 2012-09-14T04:41:04
This week’s stuff-talking kicks off with another Among My Many Hats. Here Robin unravels the circuitous design history of his Dying Earth Revivification Folio, as Ken orders his sandestin to ...
ListenEpisode 5: Gen Con‘12 from 2012-09-07T13:26:15
It’s a bumper installment of Travel Advisory as Ken and Robin look back on the whirlwind that was Gen Con 2012. Amid the fast-flying references: Fantasy Flight’s Spartacus and Netrunner; GURPS Horr...
ListenEpisode 4: Purely Medicinal from 2012-08-30T15:31:21
Stuff talked about on this week’s episode include: The debut of our segment That Thing I Always Say, in which we catch you up on Ken and Robin fundaments. We start with Ken’s contention that no inv...
ListenEpisode 3: The Audacity of Cupcakes from 2012-08-24T02:10:19
Stuff talked about in the third episode of Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff include: Among My Many Hats brings back the overt pluggery with a discussion of Robin’s new book of short stories, New Tale...
ListenOur iTunes Feed Is Now Up from 2012-08-15T12:30:35
You demanded, we complied: Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff is now available on iTunes.
ListenEpisode 2: It’s a Wonderful Life, Batman from 2012-08-09T16:24:34
We did it once, and now we’re doing it again. It’s Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff, the new podcast from game designers and authors Kenneth Hite and Robin D. Laws. Join our thrilling audio adventure...
ListenEpisode 1: Vampires are A-holes from 2012-08-03T17:50:44
Welcome to the inaugural episode of Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff, the new podcast from game designers and authors Kenneth Hite and Robin D. Laws. Join our thrilling audio adventure as we discuss ...
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