Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

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 […]

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 wound up ineptly faking his own death. In Ask Ken and Robin stylish backer Joe Webb asks Robin if his head […]

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 Culture Hut to ask if self-taught Chicago artist Joseph E. Yoakum might have been peering into the Dreamlands. Finally our hero returns from […]

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 History Hut, estimable backer Derek Hiemforth has discovered that two doomed airships, the R101 and the Hindenburg, used the exact same Duralumin, and naturally asks […]

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 fiendish traps as estimable backer Tim Vert asks which famous architects we’d commission were we to build dungeons. An odd shrimp smell […]

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 the secrets of the Chester Cat Hoax. Umbrage is entertained in the Narrative Hut as beloved Patreon backer Benjamin Rawls seeks […]

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 superior hero. In the Tradecraft Hut we examine the career of former Putin aide Vladislav Surkov, the so-called Gray Cardinal […]

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 table. In Tour de Lovecraft: the Destinations, Ken tells us what Arkham was like during the period of HPL’s […]

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 of the missing Sri Lankan handball team. We venture into the Food Hut to provide estimable backer […]

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 he asks how Elvis Presley’s 1968 Comeback Special might reverberate in Fall of DELTA GREEN. In Ask Ken and […]

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 the memory hole: the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979. Beloved Patreon backers such as Gabriel Rossman demanded that […]

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 connection between the King and Yellow and his contemporary, early newspaper comics character the Yellow Kid. Finally, the imminence of […]

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, the player, can find a way into a scenario when you don’t see a natural course of action. Then Ken’s Bookshelf finishes […]

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 Cartography Hut to discuss the evolution of maps in WW2, as inspired by Ken’s recent review of Jeremy Black’s A History of […]

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 today’s full-paranoia anti-vaxxers would have been yesteryear’s Gnostics. And finally our roving hero returns from the wilds of Florida and California with an honest […]

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 today’s full-paranoia anti-vaxxers would have been yesteryear’s Gnostics. And finally our roving hero returns from the wilds of Florida and California with an honest […]

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 the best of well-rounded backer Robert Wolfe, the Architecture Hut goes Dymaxionic with a look at Buckminster Fuller. Night’s Black […]

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 Patreon backer Steve Dempsey seeks gaming inspiration from the kings and emperors whose stories make up the composite figure of King Arthur. We […]

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 pointy hat as beloved Patreon backer Bob J. Koester asks us to delve into Yale’s 1825 Conic Sections […]

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 wait a little while longer for that immersion blender as we look at the recent media flap over package thefts from […]

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 the stage where we outline a story to introduce her. What will Qotha-Nhur’rin, the Destruction at the Heart of Creation, get […]

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 Jeromy French and Bryce Perry weave into the Food Hut, hungry and wanting to know more about archetypal drunk food, and why […]

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 historical footnote with a profile on Thomas Miller Beach, infiltrator of the Fenians. In part two of our Mythos Hut series on creating […]

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 games. A new series begins in the Mythos Hut, as we construct a Lovecraftian deity, starting with a look at the common qualities […]

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 locally celebrated fast food chain White Castle. The History Hut goes nautical once more as formidable backer Dave Munro requests the rundown […]

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 ghost stories. The Mythology Hut takes a look, get it, look, at the oddball Greek mythological figure Argus Panoptes. Due to […]

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 skill as GMs during in-house playtests. Erudite backer Bruce Miller infiltrates the Book Hut to ask about Richard Marsh’s The Beetle, a horror […]

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 esoteric secrets of the London Eye. The Cinema Hut takes a bash at that laziest of storytelling devices, the dream sequence. Finally well-measured […]

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? Beloved Patreon backer Joshua Hillerup wafts salt air into the Culture Hut as he requests a nerdrtoping of Stan Rogers’ classic […]

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 Helfer climbs all the way to the summit of the Tradecraft Hut to seek knowledge of Hassan-i Sabbah. In Ask […]

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 Helfer climbs all the way to the summit of the Tradecraft Hut to seek knowledge of Hassan-i Sabbah. In Ask […]

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. Choice. Crime Blotter goes old-timey with a profile of con artists Tim Oakes and Larry Summerfield, inventors of the wire game. The Monster Hut […]

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 and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else, Tristan Zimmerman of the Molten Sulfur Blog talks up his game, Shanty […]

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 Architecture Hut gazes at the brutalist style and its influence on science fiction. Then our resident bibliomane continues to […]

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 the previously teased adventures of T. E. Lawrence and Robert Graves. The Culture Hut looks at the changing moods of SF […]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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