Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

Flashbacks and cold opens fill the Gaming Hut as beloved Patreon backer Kelly Fisher asks how scenes without the player characters work as downbeats. In the Cinema Hut Science Fiction Essentials Series, we reach installment 17, which might not get us all the way through that most speculative year, 1984. Then our bibliomaniacal hero regales […]

Your heroes don masks and top hats in the Gaming Hut as beloved backer Daniel Fidelman asks how to use iconic French pulp villain Fantomas in The Yellow King Roleplaying Game. The Tradecraft Hut gets a little too online as we look at the tabletop implications of the Jack Teixeira spy secrets leak case. We […]

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 into the Book Hut for a look at an arsenic-infused volume of 19th century silhouette portraits by peripatetic artist William Bache. Installment […]

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 mysteries, the Food Hut tackles the terrifying possibility that ice cream might be good for you. In the Cinema Hut our Science […]

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 discussion of the Charge of the Savoia Cavalleria at Izbushensky, and whether it was in fact history’s last significant cavalry charge. The lucky thirteenth chapter […]

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 gives way to corrupt hedonism as the Cinema Hut science fiction essentials series reaches the mid 70s. In The Business of […]

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 science fiction essentials series takes us to the malaise of the early seventies. In Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone […]

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 tabletop roleplaying. The Cinema Hut takes place in the shadow of a certain monolith as installment ten of our Science Fiction Cinema Essentials reaches […]

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 Glendora CA home winds up in the Cartography Hut at the behest of beloved backer Monster Talk, who has […]

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 the Headlines finds the gaming potential in recent animal thefts at the Dallas Zoo. In the Cinema Hut, part eight of our Science […]

In the Gaming Hut we wonder whether it is always bad for the players to figure out the mystery prior to the big reveal scene. A relic heist comes under scrutiny in the History Hut as beloved Patreon backer Mark D. Rinna asks why black ops crusaders raided the tomb of St. Nicholas. Installment seven […]

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-causing ghosts. Then the Tradecraft Hut looks up in the sky for the truth about spy balloons. Finally, the Cinema Hut makes […]

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 inspiration from Operation Pedro Pan, a covert effort to migrate unaccompanied teens and kids to the US from early 60s Cuba. The […]

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 contemplate the prospect of evil unicorns. We take our seats in the Cinema Hut for installment five of our […]

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 the ChatGPT AI text generator, including the inevitable query about its Mythos implications from beloved Patreon backer Tom Abella. The […]

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 one segment. Hear it, in real time, turn into three! That leaves room for the Cinema Hut’s Science Fiction Film Essentials series to reach […]

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. In part two of our Cinema Hut Science Fiction Essentials series, we finally get to some actual movies, the […]

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 tells the story of his recent shooting. We kick off a new series in the Cinema Hut, Science Fiction Cinema […]

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 anechoic chambers. Estimable backer Ray Slakinski beckons us to the Northern Ontario location of the Horror Hut to discuss the Wilno vampire. […]

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, unswerving backer Jeromy French unwittingly illuminates the number one rule of Canadian history by seeking the secrets behind the assassination of Ontario newspaperman […]

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 reason the books you’re waiting for are late, the great freelancer / creator crash-out of 2022. Then another long dormant segment returns, […]

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 card. Then, fortified by sticky toffee pudding and Christmas sandwiches, we talk topical villains, the cure for cursed dice, the occult […]

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 bring visual “aha” moments into investigative games. Then London’s National Gallery becomes the Culture Hut as our heroes recall their visit to its current […]

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-shifting southwestern Culture Hut, as estimable backer Robert Wolfe seeks knowledge on cartoonist George Herriman’s Krazy Kat and its effect on the […]

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 Knoche, who in the late 19th century took his penchant for mummification innovation to Venezuela. In Ken and/or Robin […]

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 Jurie Horneman, the Cartography Hut gets out a map to look at the 50 square mile legal loophole known […]

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 Steve Dempsey for a profile of innovative site diggers Tessa and Mortimer Wheeler. At the behest of regal backer Paul Douglas […]

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 us to fit Magnum P.I. into Trail of Cthulhu. In Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else, Ken talks with J-M […]

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 looks at the flattening of cinematography in the streaming era, asking the question that is on all of your lips. Is Netflix the new […]

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 them. The Mythos Hut obeys the command of estimable backer Joshua Randall, who seeks the eldritch secrets behind the Antarctic doom of […]

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 “Kate” Kuczynska and Marcin “Martin” Kuczynski of Game Machinery, publisher of the Defiant Roleplaying Game. In the Horror Hut we look […]

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 Pleasant, West Virginia. In How to Write Good we look at calibrating your characters’ complexity level to the story you are telling. […]

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 twist: this time you can find and watch them right away. Then in The Business of Gaming we […]

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 electricity-loving Benjamin Franklin was the real modern Prometheus. The Culture Hut situates itself near a vast outdoor art work as […]

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 talking animals in the War of the First Coalition, Malort, why The King in Yellow gets restaged all the time, dealing […]

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 Africa’s apartheid-era chemical weapons program, and its head, Wouter “Dr. Death” Basson. Esteemed backer Chad Ward meets us in the Mythology Hut to […]

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 Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else, Ken talks to Cody Swendrowski, developer for the Foundry virtual tabletop platform, who tells how its community […]

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 them into a Fall of DELTA GREEN scenario hook. Inevitably, Fun With Science must grapple, so to speak, with […]

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 Talk To Someone Else, designer Gwen Marshall joins Ken to discuss the thinking behind such acclaimed projects as the ENnie-winning Ancestry & Culture and […]

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 Patreon backer Mikey Hamm wants to emulate genres in which death is threatened but never actually happens. We conclude with Ken’s […]

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 into a trio of mystery premises. The Culture Hut uncovers a Dreamhound of Chicago, 30s surrealist painter Gertrude Abercrombie. Then we duck […]

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 this extra special anniversary, we take a look back at the show, its topics and its origins with an A to Z […]

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 protagonist. Stealthy backer Erik R gains access to the Tradecraft Hut to ask how to set Night’s Black Agents in Asia. Dimensionally resonant backer […]

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 Talk to Someone Else, Ken talks to author Ben Riggs about his history of TSR, Slaying the Dragon, now orderable from […]

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 everything?” The Crime Blotter investigates a string of rhino horn thefts attributed to the Dead Zoo Gang. In […]

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 mercenary company called the Wagner Group. In the Horror Hut, beloved backers Derek Upham and Stuart Thomas […]

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 scenario can go without anything overtly terrifying or supernatural happening. But a worse fright awaits in The Business of Gaming, […]

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 being led through the scenario. In our first combo segment of the episode, we find the Crime Blotter in the Architecture Hut, as beloved […]

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 Sylvester asks for the lowdown on the explorer, linguist and polemicist Arminius Vambery, described by Bram Stoker in Dracula as a knowledgeable vampire hunter. […]

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 queries of our beloved Patreon backers, it is once again time for… LIGHTNING ROUND!!! Want to pose a question to the […]