Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

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 temperature taking, panel highlights, and Indianapolis food tips. Join us in a hearty welcome to our latest sponsor, Gorilla Games, now […]

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 an Ask Ken and Robin lightning round, we dispatch questions right and left, entertaining queries from the diceless to the non-violent. Then, […]

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 potential of DramaSystem series pitches to other roleplaying games. Rear back in shock as the Food Hut hosts our most heretical segment ever, in […]

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 of Gaming we examine the unfortunate implosion of the Kickstarter-funded boardgame The Doom that Came to Atlantic City. This episode was recorded […]

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 review the career of the great Hong Kong director Johnnie To. His latest masterpiece, Drug War, awaits a North American […]

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 the dots of stakes, consequences, and reader engagement. In Ask Ken and Robin, Geoffery Nelson asks how iconic characters can engage […]

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 Chinese film, as seen through three rarities recently screened at the TIFF Lightbox: the suppressed censorship satire Unfinished Comedy, showbiz melodrama […]

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 Hrafnsson wants to know what the deal is with the famously lost Ninth Roman Legion. Grab the remote in the Television Hut as we […]

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 sees us finding our preferences between US and UK words and punctuation. Petrol, anyone? In Ask Ken and Robin, we respond to […]

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 Whip That Smacks the Candle. Having established a Tradecraft Hut, we are naturally behooved to mull the implications of the […]

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 French: “are there merits to reading August Derleth’s Lovecraftian fiction and why?” Then we fire up the grills of the […]

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/contrast between traditional and gaming publishing, stay for the Ottawa facts. We bid a wistful Book Hut farewell to Jack Vance, the titan of SF […]

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 discuss the implications of the Obama administration’s war on leakers, and how to bring press revelations into your espionage gaming. Robin then […]

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 much about Shane Carruth’s Upstream Color while urging you to see it, and from there jump into […]

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 Robin, Terry O’Connell asks, “What’s your take on the Beyonce as Illuminati meme?” How to Write Good leads us into a general […]

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 history turn as Crane Brinton wonders: What does the alternate timeline where the Kaiser won WWI look like? Then we hop into […]

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, the Twinkie, and Gatorade. Conrad Kinch Asks Ken and Robin how one guides a playtester to greatness. Michael Cule […]

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: Herrenhäuser Pilsener, Astra Arschkalt, Schneider Aventinus, and Robin and John’s fave, Höss Doppel-Hirsch (the name of which Robin completely mangles during the podcast.) The trip also […]

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 roleplaying newbies. In its return appearance, How To Write Good tackles the basics of short story structure. And […]

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 choleric mood, we nip over to the Gaming Hut to examine the presentation of epidemic disease in fantasy gaming […]

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 riff on the differences between reality levels in espionage games and fiction. Ask Ken and Robin sees our intrepid heroes venturing from behind […]

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 the glandular as we examine the careers of quack testicular transplanter John R. Brinkley and perfectly respectable testicular […]

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 explain how zombies can be one of the two great 20th century myths, since this means either Superman or Godzilla aren’t? […]

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 consideration of its gangland, then and now. In Ask Ken and Robin, Robin is asked to further expound […]

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 gain access to the Tradecraft Hut, to examine the wartime disinformation career of thriller novelist Dennis Wheatley. In Ask Ken and Robin, Craig Maloney prompts […]

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 on, and incorporation into, a cluster of competing conspiracy theories. In Ask Ken and Robin we tackle the role of […]

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 review his trip to Dundracon. An unusual clatter of gunfire punctuates activities at the Food Hut, as we parse press reports of connections between […]

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 Bending in honor of Richard III’s recently-confirmed excavation from a Leicester car park. Our new segment How To […]

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 designers like Ken and Robin to playtest their legislation for them. Then we take latitudes with the longitudes of the Cartography Hut to examine […]

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 showdown with the historical legacy of Woodrow Wilson. Was he really America’s worst president? In Ask Ken and Robin, we are […]

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 the Cinema Hut to regale one and all with our top ten picks from the sterling movie year that was 2012. […]

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 by explaining what the heck eliptony is, then squeezing adventure and story ideas from the latest in white-hot weirdness, the Martian ground […]

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 sense of perspective, if not solace, on America’s relationship with the gun. In the Cinema Hut Robin finally […]

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 question about fudging die rolls—when, if ever, is it acceptable? The Politics Hut takes on the classic modernist curvature of […]

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 enjoys the impressive pile of tomes Ken liberated from the British Isles during his journey. With yet another end of […]

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 edition of Ask Ken and Robin, which in turn encompasses a panoply of our trademark huts. In the process as […]

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 feedback. Ask Ken and Robin fields a question from Brett Evill on how one might bend history to add Ruritania-style postage stamp states back to […]

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. We venture into a particularly cramped and cluttered iteration of the Cartography Hut to spin a passel of story threads from […]

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 plots a bold path forward for his beloved Republican party as we enter the ballot booth-like confines of the Politics Hut to mull the 2012 Presidential Election. In […]

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 devastated New Jersey in Travel Advisory, recounting his adventures at Metatopia. Ask Ken and Robin envisions the Dominion of America, the alternate world […]

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 two of Robin’s game engines, DramaSystem and Skulduggery, leading us to contemplate a broader old saw: does system matter? In the Cartography […]

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 History Hut for their long-planned reenactment of the War of 1812. As in real […]

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, leading us to examine Sandy Petersen’s original draft for Call of Cthulhu as compared to the final game we […]

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 find there only through the maps snatched from the high cabinets of the Cartography Hut. [From Temples, Tombs and Catacombs, part of Profantasy […]

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 Series Pitch offered as a campaign stretch goal. Ask Ken and Robin poses a follow-up on the Puritans, who turn out not to be as […]

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 throw caution to the wind and cut the ribbon on Politics Hut, in which we look at the current US […]

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 Conspiracy Corner to put the inflammatory impact of Innocence of Muslims in historical context. In Ask Ken and Robin, we compare […]

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 dreaded hallway seminar. Along the way we explore the sub-cultural differences between the literary side of geekery and its gaming cousin. We […]

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 Horror, Book of the Smoke, Bookhounds of London, the Coventry Street, Harmonsworth and Highgate Vampires; Charles Fort, Lorefinder, Ashen Stars, 13th Age, Delta Green, […]

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 invented setting is as interesting as the real world. Ask Ken and Robin invites us to contemplate the mental […]