Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

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 flipper motions of supreme pleasure in the presence of Greg Stafford, and we limn unmistakable evidence […]

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’s latest publication, a fundraiser chapbook for the Kraken Convention called Sharper Adventures in HeroQuest Glorantha, available to the public soon after […]

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 in the chair to examine discipline, morale, the value of routine, and the hazards of self-doubt. […]

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 called Recommendation Engine we tell you what’s catching our fancy in the worlds of books, TV, movies, and food. […]

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 lightning round questions, which we dispatch with varying degrees of efficiency. Also in a celebratory mood are our ever-reliable anchor sponsors and fine […]

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 that podium on Friday night at Gen Con, please do us a huge solid and go […]

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 who sell longer lives to mortals, as we demonstrate the process of fleshing out a concept […]

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 sibilants. A mystery questioner Asks Ken and Robin how they handle red herrings. Ken flips on the projector in the Cinema Hut to get us […]

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 sibilants. It’s time to talk terms in the Gaming Hut, as we toss around the distinction between simulation and modeling. In the Conspiracy Corner we […]

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 which Allison Fizzard, associate professor of history at Regina’s Campion College, explains Tudor-era retirement plans and how Henry VIII’s […]

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 attendance. The Horror Hut mulls over that very odd foundation of the Gothic tradition, The Castle of Otranto. Finally the Consulting Occultist looks at […]

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 Delalande asks us to find inspiration for Night’s Black Agents in the flamboyant and multi-pronged career of Uzbekistan’s Gulina Karimova. We […]

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 fear-mongering as a geopolitical instrument, from the Crimea to the ghost dance. In Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else, Robin chats with Moon […]

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 making alternate histories plausible in roleplaying. We take another request in the Eliptony Hut, because Alan Scott wants to know about the […]

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 secrets. In Ask Ken and Robin we field a query from Tom Allman on prepping for Cthulhu games. Then we sidle up to Ken’s […]

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, and increasingly mind-blowing, multiverse theory of cosmological physics. In That Thing I Always Say Robin goes on about the lasting influence a game’s […]

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 Lilith the once-over. The Cinema Hut joins forces with the Horror Hut as we mull the current cycle of […]

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 answer when he poses an Ask Ken and Robin question about the paucity of info in roleplaying rules books for spanking new players. How to Write Good […]

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 bookshelf. In Ask Ken and Robin, Joshua Weiss wonders what we might say about miniatures in narrative-based gaming. Then we […]

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 best practices of, and essential conditions for, piracy. In the Gaming Hut we recount our least favorite setting cliches. And […]

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 technological spread of 20th century entertainment in the person of Harry Thurston. A less famous follower in his magician brother Howard’s […]

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 Tradecraft Hut furtively considers stolen passports. Don’t let your characters leave theirs as collateral for motorcycles in Phuket, […]

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 opens in the middle of a Philippe Marcel question about starting game sessions in media res. Purely hypothetically, you understand, […]

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 golden steampunk vampires of El Dorado, as seen in Fenix magazine. How to Write Good confronts the pesky threat of […]

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. The Eliptony Hut takes on a distinctly octagonal shape as we look at the eight-sided architectural influence of phrenologist and […]

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 new claims of having cracked the cryptobotanical mysteries of the Voynich Manuscript. In Ask Ken and Robin we hit the dimmer switch to address […]

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 animal spying claims of trainer Bob Bailey, who in addition to creating the chicken Tic-Tac-Toe machine says he was a contractor for the CIA. In Ask Ken […]

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 spaces of the Genre Hut, we look at ways to nerdtrope the Western, including Ken’s Once Upon a Time in the […]

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, as proposed by a recent Birmingham City University study of British hired killers. Tropes face off against cliches as we once […]

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 of listener Benjamin Blattberg, we essay a hidden gems segment of the Cinema Hut. In Among My Many Hats, Ken quizzes […]

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. Hat tip to Big Think for its Middle Earth-to-Earth conversion map. Next, Derek Upham Asks Ken and Robin to solve the […]

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 fantasist Jorge Luis Borges, and the beautifully idiosyncratic English Lit class he once taught, courtesy of the newly translated book Professor […]

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 which we find gaming and story fodder in multispectral palimpsest recovery. In Ken and Robin Talk To Someone Else, we speak together to […]

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 2013, for a segment of Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else featuring James Wallis of […]

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 nerdtropes the alchemical secrets of the JFK airport. Rob performs a parlor trick of his own by telling us a story about danger. And Robin […]

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 Ken’s gig as a dramaturg for WildClaw Theatre’s stage production of Shadow Over Innsmouth. With the holidays nearing, the Food Hut […]

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 for cash online. Then Ask Ken and Robin visits the Consulting Occultist on behalf of Steven W. King, who wants to know what to […]

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 Idea Clearinghouse, in which we look at creative ideas we decided not to pursue and why we set […]

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 confines of the Horror Hut to ask if terror and sense of wonder can coexist. In Ask Ken and Robin, Leo […]

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 the Tradecraft Hut we round up such national security concerns as Angela Merkel’s cellphone and the secret Twitter life of dismissed White […]

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. As prompted by George Pletz, Ask Ken and Robin considers the picaresque and floats various techniques for strictly episodic RPGing. In the Genre […]

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 to write what you know? Erik Otterberg supplies us the subject for Ask Ken and Robin: what if H. P. […]

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 contrast two nerd-relevant new shows—”Sleepy Hollow” and “Marvel’s Agents of Shield.” In Ask Ken and Robin we take on a Jeromy French […]

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 and geographic information systems to look at the genre possibilities of digital cemetery mapping. In Ask Ken […]

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 we look at the averted strike on Syria and the limits of military intervention. Ask Ken and Robin features a Tim Daly question […]

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 a historical case file in the Tradecraft Hut, looking at the role spy novelist William Le Queux, abetted by the Daily […]

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 Film Festival. Listen to Ken wish he had more crossover with the upcoming Chicago Film Festival, or follow along at home. […]

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 about ninja anti-competition efforts, our most hated gaming clichés, and much, much more. Not to mention the toxic […]

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 DragonCon. In How to Write Good we consider discipline, routine, and various techniques to keep the productivity flowing at the keyboard. Then Ken […]

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 the haul of treasures secured in Toronto for Ken’s Bookshelf. Gangsters, pirates and ancient Americans flood into the Hite Memorial Library as we […]