Reading D&D Aloud

Today, we pick the brain of the creator of the Forgotten Realms, Ed Greenwood! Ed is a man who needs no introduction, but who will be subjected to one anyway, a man who's bibliography is longer than his already lengthy beard. Ed is the original creator of the Forgotten Realms, which has been translated into hundreds of novels and one pretty good movie. Joining him is Jon Hage. Jon is the designer behind Sleeping Giant Gaming, creator of the Woven Worlds of Allera, and author of Hamel's House of Oddities, a 2025 ENNIE-nominated adventure. You can find Ed's majestic work for Fate of the Norns here: https://www.fateofthenorns.com/store/product/ath-cliath-boxed-set/ Buy Hamel's House of Oddities here: https://www.sleepinggiantgaming.com/explore/hamels-house-of-oddities/

Today, we have two remarkable designers here to share with us their insights and thoughts. Alex Roberts is the winner of the Diana Jones Award, and the designer of STAR CROSSED and FOR THE QUEEN. Joining her is Graham Walmsley, creator of CTHULHU DARK and a TRAIL OF CTHULHU designer with many credits to his name. Back Graham's current Kickstarter for PLAY UNSAFE here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/grahamwalmsley/play-unsafe You can pick up Alex's award-winning STAR CROSSED here: https://bullypulpitgames.com/products/star-crossed

Tonight's first guest is a hunter of hunters, a designer who seized upon the monster-of-the-week TV formula and used it as the bones of a horrifying gaming monstrosity of freakish limbs, a brutish head, a harsh brow, a criminal brain, and yes, it's alive!! Michael Sands is the creator of Monster of the Week, the game that turned supernatural investigation, bad decisions, and glorious improvisation into one of the great engines of modern tabletop roleplaying. From Wellington to game tables all over the world, he's built not just a hit game but a whole haunted ecosystem around it, with books like Tome of Mysteries, Codex of Worlds, and the newly released Hunter's Journal and Slayer's Survival Kit. It's also what I'm running for my group at the moment. Welcome Michael! Our other guest tonight is Tim Denee, a designer with a gift for taking sharp ideas, stylish worlds, soldering them to systems under pressure. He's the mind behind Deathmatch Island, which is Battle Royale or The Hunger Games the RPG, and he has pushed forward the timeline of John Harper's magnum opus Blades in the Dark forward a hundred years with Blades '68, which recently funded, creating a retrofuturist new age of crime, glamour, and trouble. Welcome Tim! You can find Tim's BLADES 68 here: https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/evil-hat/blades-68 MONSTER OF THE WEEK can be found here: https://evilhat.com/product/monster-of-the-week/ Yesterday, I interviewed 1st edition D&D artist Erol Otus an 2nd edition D&D artist Jeff Easley in the Hugh Hefner suite in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Sometime soon, it will be up on our Patreon page. Join here for a mere $3 a month!

My first guest tonight is one of the great mad scientists of tabletop gaming. Epidiah Ravachol helped create Dread, the game that made a horror RPG out of a Jenga tower. It's brilliant, cruel, elegant game design that makes players sweat before anything terrible has even happened. He's just launched a sword & sorcery RPG called Swords Without Master. Please welcome Epidiah Ravachol! My next guest is Quinn Murphy, the creator of COMMUNITY RADIO, an improv-driven RPG about a weird town, dark humor, supernatural trouble, and the public radio station trying to narrate its way through the madness, which, frankly, is an incredible pitch. He's also the founder of Thoughtcrime Games, which is a ten-out-of-ten company name. An editor and contributor and layout designer of the GRIOT ANTHOLOGY of African-American game designers. Please welcome Quinn Murphy! Support Epidiah's SWORDS WITHOUT MASTER here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/unwrittenearths/swords-without-master Pickup COMMUNITY RADIO here! Enjoy the GRIOT ANTHOLOGY here!

5E + dragon mounts = :) Chris Lindsay is the godfather of the DM's Guild, and that institution brought us titanic names in the world of game design, such as Kelsey Dionne & MT Black, to name just a few. He is now at Goodman Games, and is crowdfunding THE DRAGONRIDER'S PRIMER, a 5E supplement for winged mounts, everything from dragons to dung beetles. Click here to see more!

Tonight I'm joined by W.F. Smith, the mind behind Prismatic Wasteland, one of the sharpest OSR blogs in the game. And if you've heard of Barkeep on the Borderlands, that's him too: the barhopping, pubcrawl-fantasy fever dream that took home a Gold ENnie. W.F. writes like a man with a notebook full of bad ideas he's somehow made playable. We're going to talk about design, tables, taste, and why the tavern should be an engine of chaos, not a loading screen. W.F. Smith, welcome! Also on the show: Brad Kerr, writer at Necrotic Gnome and co-host of Between Two Cairns, the podcast that reviews modules with the seriousness of scholars and the emotional stability of goblins. Brad's the author of Hideous Daylight, and Temple of 1000 Swords. and he's also the guy who, along with Skullfungus, created The Dream Shrine, which won Gold at the 2025 ENNIEs for Best Adventure, Short Form. If you want to see WF's Pokemon parody game, click here! Brad recommends you check out his adventure anthology, Wyvern Songs. On Patreon, I posted my Gamehole Con seminar where I went over 18 years of leaked D&D sales data. You can enjoy it posthaste if you subscribe to my Patreon! It's only $3 a month! Click here!

Apparently, snakes have something called "hemepenes," something I only know because of Emily Allen. Emily is a designer, writer, and the mind behind The Gardens of Ynn, one of those RPG books that feels less like a "setting" and more like a living dream you accidentally walked into and now can't stop exploring. Emily's work has that rare combination of elegance and danger: it's imaginative, it's playable, and it demands to be brought to a table and enjoyed. I am sorely tempted to start running her Stygian Library ASAP. If you like your fantasy uncanny, like wonder with teeth, Emily is your person. And today we welcome back Josh McCrowell, designer of His Majesty the Worm, a book that basically looks at the classic dungeon crawl and hits it with a Tarot deck. With this appearance, Josh may be the most-frequently appearing guest in the history of the pod. The Worm won ENnies for best rules and best game this year. If you want to to explore the full panoply of Emily's work, from Ynn to the Library, click here! Preorder The Worm's first expansion, The Castle Automatic, here! On Patreon, I posted my Gamehole Con seminar where I went over 18 years of leaked D&D sales data. You can enjoy it posthaste if you subscribe to my Patreon! It's only $3 a month! Click here!

If you know Infinity of Ships, you know their vibe: big imagination, tight design, and the kind of tables-and-ideas toolkit that makes a GM's brain start sprinting. Their latest release, 100 Strangers, gives us NPCs with story fuel, despite how incredibly clipped they are. That's right. Today, I've got Adam Good and Jaimie Perez, the creative engines behind STATIONS. Adam and Jaimie build for the moment at the table when you look up and say, "Okay, what happens next?" and suddenly you've got an answer that's surprising, usable, and weird in exactly the right way. Hop on the next STATIONS project with 100 Strange Spaces! Click here to be notified on launch, or if it's Tuesday or after, back it! On Patreon, I posted my Gamehole Con seminar where I went over 18 years of leaked D&D sales data. You can enjoy it posthaste if you subscribe to my Patreon! It's only $3 a month! Click here!

The Wild 90s in TTRPGs! This conversation was a great one! First up today is Wolfgang Baur, a creator and businessperson whose fingerprints are all over the hobby. He can write fantasy like Tolkien and run a business like, uh, someone whose geeky, good at running a business, and not at all ethically challenged in this year of 2026. He's the creator of the MIDGARD campaign setting and the founder of Kobold Press. My other guest today is Satyros Phil Brucato: a name that radiates pure 90s occult bookshelf energy in the best possible way. Phil is a designer who helped define an era: Mage: The Ascension, Werewolf, Wraith; games that didn't just ask "What do you do?" but "What do you believe?" and "What does it cost you?" Phil's work sits right at the crossroads of myth, philosophy, and punk-rock metaphysics. Support Baur's current Kickstarter for a 5E game of astonishing nocturnal horror here! You have a magnificent multiplicity of ways to support Satyros Phil Brucato! Buy Brucato's MAGE MADE EASY here! Support his Patreon here! Buy his novel RED SHOES here! Buy 13 tales of darkness by Satyros here! A collection of 27 more short stories here! Brucato's game of rock 'n roll and fairies can be found here! On Patreon, I posted my Gamehole Con seminar where I went over 18 years of leaked D&D sales data. You can enjoy it posthaste if you subscribe to my Patreon! It's only $3 a month! Click here!

Today we welcome back Joshua McCrowell, designer of His Majesty the Worm, a game that looks at the classic dungeon crawl and hits it with a Tarot deck. The Worm won ENnies for best rules and best game this year. Josh has a gift for taking old-school adventure DNA, labyrinths, delving, danger and giving it a new spine. Welcome Josh! Pick up Josh's work here! On Patreon, I posted my Gamehole Con seminar where I went over 18 years of leaked D&D sales data. You can enjoy it posthaste if you subscribe to my Patreon! It's only $3 a month! Click here!

This conversation was incredible. The participants in today's talk designed the following games: D&D 3rd Edition, Apocalypse World, Ars Magica, Over the Edge, and even an "Additional Writing" credit on Daggerheart. You have to check this out. First up: Jonathan Tweet! A legend with a designer's designer résumé, the kind of mind that can build a rules engine and make it sing. Lead designer of 3rd edition Dungeons & Dragons, Jonathan's sticky fingerprints are all over modern tabletop, and somehow he's still out here pushing the form forward like it's the year 2000 and we just discovered fire. Batman and Robin. Nick and Nora. Sherlock and Watson. Mario & Luigi. Chocolate and peanut butter. Vincent Baker and Meg Baker. Designers. Provocateurs. They are the Marx & Lenin of the Powered by the Apocalypse revolution. Like Jonathan, to count the games and designers who owe a debt to Vincent and Meg would be to try to count the stars. All three of you have been on the show before. So this isn't a first date. This is the sequel. the stakes are higher, and this conversation I hope will be dangerously good. Check out Jonathan's book about evolution for kids, Grandmother Fish! (My 4-year-old fully endorses this book.) Embrace the work of the Bakers with In Dreaming Avalon, wherein Arthurian knights meet Shakespearean fairies.

Tonight on D&D Outloud, I'm joined by Joseph Laycock, a scholar of religion who explores what happens when belief, culture, and controversy collide. Joe is an associate professor of Religious Studies at Texas State University, and he's written some incredibly relevant work for anyone who remembers when D&D was treated like a portal to perdition, including Dangerous Games, his sharp look at the moral panic over role-playing games. He's also the editor of The Penguin Book of Exorcisms and the Penguin Book of Cults, because apparently he collects moral panics like some people collect dice. Also joining me tonight is Daniel Harms, a librarian, researcher, and one of the great cartographers of the weird. Dan's work lives at that crossroads where folklore shakes hands with grimoires, and the footnotes start whispering back. He's written and edited a stack of essential occult reference works, including The Necronomicon Files, a deep dive into the "truth behind the legend," and he's spent years tracking the history of magical texts, ritual traditions, and the kind of lore that feels one inch away from becoming an adventure hook. He wrote the Encyclopedia Cthuliana, which is the indispensable source for Cthulhu mythos knowledge. If your idea of fun is "primary sources, but make it eldritch," you're in good company. You can find Joe's book on cults here. And Dan's amazing book on the Necronomicon here, and updates on Encyclopedia Cthuliana here.

Jim Lowder is a writer, an editor, a lore architect, and if we're being honest, a kind of Indiana Jones of shared worlds. From Ravenloft to Forgotten Realms to the trenches of TSR itself, Jim has chronicled the industry, shaped it, and occasionally had to wrestle it into coherence with nothing but a red pen and stubborn Massachusetts resolve. He brings history, insight, and the kind of war stories that remind us this hobby was built by humans, not dragons. Our second guest is a man whose career arc reads like it was designed by a particularly chaotic bard. Pat Kilbane is an actor, comedian, documentarian, and now one of our most energetic chroniclers of Dungeons & Dragons history. You might know him from MADtv, but in the last few years he's become a relentless investigator of the game's past, digging through archives, tracking down lost media, and turning old TSR ephemera into modern revelations. Pat is equal parts entertainer and excavator; he's here not just to tell stories, but to figure out why they matter. Pat Kilbane, welcome to D&D Outloud.

Today, we converse with two firehoses of the human imagination: Mark Diaz Truman and Jay Dragon! Some people play games. Some people publish games. And then there are the people who change how the whole industry works. Mark Diaz Truman is one of the architects of the modern tabletop renaissance; designer, publisher, organizer, and strategic mastermind behind Magpie Games, one of the forces that helped bring Powered by the Apocalypse roaring into the mainstream. From Masks to Avatar Legends, Mark doesn't just build games. He builds movements, communities, and launchpads for new voices. We are living in a future Mark helped to chart. Jay Dragon is a creative force. I am over the moon to have her back on because our last conversation was one of my favorites. Jay's the mind behind Wanderhome, and Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast, games that blend gentle heartbreak with radical imagination. She is currently the head of design at Steve Jackson Games. Please welcome the pastoral prophet of indie RPGs, Jay Dragon! You can find more of Mark's work here: https://magpiegames.com/ And more of Jay Dragon's work here: https://warehouse23.com/collections/possum-creek

Happy Thanksgiving Americans! Here's a seminar from Gamehole Con 2025 about why YOU should be writing geeky nonfiction.

My favorite RPG book of the year is a book of spaceship p*rn designed by two poets! INFINITY OF SHIPS is random tables for spaceship creation along with stunning artwork and essays that are as fun as they are engaging. The book was brought to us by Adam Good & Jamie Perez, and the pair have another book Kickstarting right now: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/72stations/100-strangers-misfits-weirdos-and-outcasts-for-sci-fi-rpgs The show also features Justin Sirois, publisher at Severed Books and author of Sickest Witch, a D20 Folk Horror RPG which can be found here: https://www.severedbooks.com/ On Patreon, I posted my Gamehole Con seminar where I went over 18 years of leaked D&D sales data. You can enjoy it posthaste if you subscribe to my Patreon! It's only $3 a month! Click here!

This is an RPG historian you have to hear from. Shannon Appelcline. He's the mind behind Designers & Dragons, which chronicles our hobby's wild past, from basement print runs to global pop culture phenomenon. Shannon has done the research, interviewed the legends, and connected the dots between decades of dice-rolling history. So grab your character sheet, because today, we're diving deep into how our favorite games became the worlds we live in. Back Shannon's current project, Dungeons & Dragons: Origins here! On Patreon, I posted my Gamehole Con seminar where I went over 18 years of leaked D&D sales data. You can enjoy it posthaste if you subscribe to my Patreon! It's only $3 a month! Click here!

What do Cormac McCarthy, Charles Dickens, & Scheherazade say to each other on the podcast? Today, we find out! First up, we have Meguey Baker: game designer, textile historian, and one of the most revolutionary voices in the history of tabletop gaming. You might know her from 1001 Nights, Psi-Run, or her work on Apocalypse World, a game that cracked open an entire design movement. Meguey's games invite players to explore power, intimacy, and identity with uncommon grace, they whisper truths in a world that's used to shouting. She's proof that you don't need a sword to change the game. Sometimes, all you need is a question and a well-set stage. Next up is the man lucky enough to be married to Meguey, Vincent Baker, the other half of the mad team that gifted fandom Apocalypse World, whether we would have it or no. A mad scientist of narrative mechanics, Vincent looked at D&D's six stats and thought, "Cute, but what if we had Hot and Cool instead?" Vincent is the co-creator of Apocalypse World, maker of The Barbarian's Bloody Quest, and a host of games that re-wired how designers think about fiction, failure, and fun. The fingerprints of the Bakers are everywhere, from Monsterhearts to Blades in the Dark. Their design DNA has gone viral in the best possible way. Last but by no means least, we have John Harper, the noir poet of the tabletop, the guy who made crime, chaos, and consequence sing in Blades in the Dark. John's work fuses cinematic cool with mechanical precision. He builds worlds where danger is stylish, failure fascinating, and every die roll feels like a drumbeat. If tabletop games had a film noir auteur, it'd be this guy. Buy one of John's many fine games here. Be notified about the Apocalypse World: Burned Over Kickstarter by clicking here. A quick note. We've had a delay on publishing my Gamehole Con seminar. It should be up in 48 hours, but if you were looking for a link here, I wanted you to know about it. -Ben

Shamelessly, 30 minutes into this interview with Cam Banks & Fred Hicks, I share leaked D&D sales data. He's the Kiwi conjurer who helped create the Cortex System, which has been used on everything from Firefly to Marvel. He's made the rules that make the stories sing, and he's living proof that spreadsheets and sorcery can coexist. Please welcome the unflappable, unstoppable Cam Banks! He's the co-founder of Evil Hat, one of the wizards who bottled lightning and called it Fate. He turned indie passion into publishing power and proved you can run a company on creativity and caffeine. When he's not redefining what "small press" can mean, he's out there building the future one rulebook at a time. Give it up for the hat-tipping hero himself, Fred Hicks! Support Cam Banks's patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/cw/cambanks Support Evil Hat's current crowdfunding campaign here: https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/evil-hat/designers-dragons-origins Next week, I'm planning on posting my seminar from Gamehole Con, where I go over 18 years of D&D sales data. But I'm only posting it on my Patreon! Click here to join so you won't miss it! https://www.patreon.com/u121641556?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink

This conversation is absolutely brilliant. I talk to a lot of game designers, but this episode is easily a favorite. Today, we discuss with two engines of creativity: Jay Dragon of Wanderhome & Watt of Cloud Empress! Watt is a designer, artist, and architect of the beautifully bizarre. Watt's games feel like dreams with teeth, lush, lyrical, and a little dangerous. Their work digs into ecology, and the wild weirdness. I found their Mothership mutation CLOUD EMPRESS at Gen Con and fell into it head first. Next, welcome to the show the one, the only Jay Dragon, game designer, storyteller, and the pastoral prophet of indie RPGs. Jay's the mind behind Wanderhome, and Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast, games that blend gentle heartbreak with radical imagination. She's helped reshape the way we play, proving that the quietest games can hit the hardest. Jay Dragon is a cozy engine of chaos. Jay's manifesto on expressionistic game design is here. Do you want more engaging conversations like this? There is subscriber-only content on our Patreon. Wanna hear Trail of Cthulhu designer Ken Hite speak to Call of Cthulhu designer Sandy Peterson? It's up there! Want to see 2nd ed D&D designer Zeb Cook interviewed in Hugh Hefner's old suite? It's up there! And we have a Discord! AND IT ONLY COSTS $3 A MONTH! Click here to join!

Why borg? Today on the show, we're joined by Zac Goins, RPG designer, Kickstarter consultant, and all-around tabletop creative. Zac has worked with Marvel, Wizards of the Coast, Modiphius, and more, and currently serves as Director of Marketing for Limithron. He's designed for systems like Old School Essentials, Mörk Borg, Shadowdark, and beyond. Also today, we are joined by Erica Lowe-Tarpley, Owner of Broken Brain Games and Lead Designer on RagnaBorg, which is kickstarting right now, Chambers of Agony, as well as 3rd party content for Shadowdark and DCC. Back Ragnaborg here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ragnaborg/ragnaborg Find more of Zac Goins work here: https://www.zacgoins.com/ Do you want more engaging conversations like this? There is subscriber-only content on our Patreon. Wanna hear Trail of Cthulhu designer Ken Hite speak to Call of Cthulhu designer Sandy Peterson? It's up there! Want to see 2nd ed D&D designer Zeb Cook interviewed in Hugh Hefner's old suite? It's up there! And we have a Discord! AND IT ONLY COSTS $3 A MONTH! Click here to join!

Today, we've got a four-way! Listen and marinate in the brilliance of Justin Alexander, Panayiotis Lines, & Aled Lawlor! Aled Lawlor and Panayiotis Lines are the creative duo behind Leyline Press. In just a few short years, Leyline has carved out a reputation for distinctive, atmospheric RPGs that blend striking visual design with elegant, playable mechanics. I purchased SALVAGE UNION at Gen Con, and it has beautiful art, and delightfully mashes up mecha combat, exploration, and socialism. Aled and Panayiotis are reshaping what small-press tabletop games can look and feel like. And then we're thrilled to welcome a name familiar to just about every GM who's ever looked for deeper insight into the craft, a man whose influence on the culture of TTRPGs is hard to overstate, the human responsible for the blog, THE ALEXANDRIAN, Justin Alexander. His essays, reviews, and innovative techniques, such as like the "Three Clue Rule," have become touchstones in modern RPG discourse. His book, SO YOU WANT TO BE A GAME MASTER, is absolutely outstanding and has been read by I think four different tweens in my classroom. You can find more delightful work by Panny & Aled here! Learn how to be a gamemaster from one of the best, Justin Alexander, here! Do you want more engaging conversations like this? There is subscriber-only content on our Patreon. Wanna hear Trail of Cthulhu designer Ken Hite speak to Call of Cthulhu designer Sandy Peterson? It's up there! Want to see 2nd ed D&D designer Zeb Cook interviewed in Hugh Hefner's old suite? It's up there! And we have a Discord! AND IT ONLY COSTS $3 A MONTH! Click here to join!

Today, I am going to talk turkey with fellow historian and bestselling author, Michael Witwer. His books, such as Empire of Imagination, the acclaimed biography of Gary Gygax, and the lavish Dungeons & Dragons: Art & Arcana, have helped bring the hidden history of role-playing games into the mainstream. His work combines deep research with a storyteller's flair, making the origins of our hobby vivid, human, and dramatic. Today he's here to talk about his brand-new book, Dungeons & Dragons: The Book of Dragons! It is the definitive illustrated guide to dragons; the most iconic creatures in the D&D universe, the ultimate draconic compendium. To pick up one of Michael's many fine volumes, click here! Do you want more engaging conversations like this? There is subscriber-only content on our Patreon. Wanna hear Trail of Cthulhu designer Ken Hite speak to Call of Cthulhu designer Sandy Peterson? It's up there! Want to see 2nd ed D&D designer Zeb Cook interviewed in Hugh Hefner's old suite? It's up there! And we have a Discord! AND IT ONLY COSTS $3 A MONTH! Click here to join!

Welcome to D&D Outloud with Ben Riggs, I am Ben Riggs, apparently controversial D&D historian and author of Slaying the Dragon A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons, and over the past 13 years of writing and podcasting, I have met hundreds of creative geniuses in and around the world of TTRPGs. Here on this show, I ask two of these flaming torches of the human imagination to come on and have a fascinating discussion which I then record and send out into the world. Today we're stepping into new territory with a new name and a special kind of episode as one of our guests is most notable for his work on Comedy Central. And that guest is comedian, writer, and voice actor Jeremy Bent. You may know Jeremy from his time on Tooning Out the News which was on after the Daily Show on Comedy Central, or as the voice of C-53 on the beloved sci-fi comedy podcast Mission to Zyxx. He's also brought his wit to improv stages across the country and created shows like Eurovangelists, which tries to explain the Eurovision contest to people outside of Europe. He is also a huge TTRPG nerd. And today, he's here to have a conversation with one of the hottest names in roleplaying games. Our second guest is a trans-Atlantic sensation, a man whose work has reshaped indie role-playing. He is a demon of creativity striding the world in human form, a shape that answers to the name Chris McDowall. Chris is the creator of Into the Odd, a lean, haunting, and deeply influential RPG, and more recently Mythic Bastionland, a spiritual successor that expands his vision of evocative, rules-light play. Chris is known for distilling mechanics down to their essence and crafting games that feel both poetic and dangerous. Chris killed it at the ENNIEs this year, with MYTHIC BASTIONLAND winning Gold for best art, Gold for best layout, and Silver in the coveted Product of the Year category. I suppose I should add that I backed his recent crowdfunding campaign for MAC ATTACK, which is his sci-fi mecha minis wargame. If you are in the US and you want to purchase one of Chris's Bastionland games, click here! https://plusoneexp.com/collections/bastionland-press To support his sci-fi minis game, click here! https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/bastionland-press/mac-attack-sci-fi-mecha-miniature-wargame If you want to learn how to make a podcast from a consummate professional like Jeremy Bent, click here! https://jeremybent.com/podcasting-classes/ Do you want more engaging conversations like this? There is subscriber-only content on our Patreon. Wanna hear Trail of Cthulhu designer Ken Hite speak to Call of Cthulhu designer Sandy Peterson? It's up there! Want to see 2nd ed D&D designer Zeb Cook interviewed in Hugh Hefner's old suite? It's up there! And we have a Discord! AND IT ONLY COSTS $3 A MONTH! Click here to join! https://www.patreon.com/u121641556?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink

Does 4E D&D have the best combat? The question leads us to a conversation with two of the game's three lead designers. First up, we have Rob Heinsoo, one of the leading minds behind Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition. He's also the co-creator of 13th Age, a system that blends narrative freedom with crunchy mechanics in amazing ways. He's a designer, a worldbuilder, and a relentless innovator in tabletop roleplaying games. Joining us as well is Andy Collins, a multi-tour veteran of the Wizards of the Coast. Andy, along with Rob and Jim Wyatt, was co-creator of D&D 4th edition, but his design credits don't stop there. I wish I got to talk to him about the Saga edition of Star Wars. He was also one of the guys working on Project Sigil for Wizards until it was essentially strangled in its cradle by the company earlier this year. Now please behold a brilliant designer and a real mensch, Andy Collins! Do you want more conversations like this? There is subscriber-only content on our Patreon. Wanna hear Trail of Cthulhu designer Ken Hite speak to Call of Cthulhu designer Sandy Peterson? It's up there! Want to see 2nd ed D&D designer Zeb Cook interviewed in Hugh Hefner's old suite? It's up there! And we have a Discord! AND IT ONLY COSTS $3 A MONTH! Click here to join!

Wanna know what the hell is going on at WotC? Let's ask people who used to work there. It is difficult to describe what a superstar gathering this is on the show. These are not the first names that you think of when you hear D&D, but they are just as significant if not more so than the names we all know. First Liz Schuh, whose final title at Wizards was Head of Publishing and Licensing for Dungeons & Dragons, has had a hand in the production of every edition of Dungeons & Dragons since 3rd. She was one of the guiding hands involved in the success of 5th edition. Personally, I think the coolest thing she was involved in was her work on the lawsuit which brought the movie rights to D&D back to Wizards/Hasbro, but her career is so long with so many highlights that it is difficult to pick out just one. Her career of more than 28 years ended in December, 2023 in the great culling. Next, we have Chris Lindsay. Chris was a product manager for Wizards, but his career at the company also spanned over 20 years. Chris was one of the guiding voices of the DM's Guild, and while I have no idea how much money the DM's Guild has brought in for Wizards, it must be at least in the tens of millions of dollars. He was also let go in the great culling of December 2023. These two were on the team responsible for taking the words of the writers and the art of the artists and turning them into a physical book. What do they have to say about where Wizards was and where it's going? Support the podcast and get extra content on Patreon here!

An in-depth conversation with two of the most remarkable adventure-writers working today: Luke Gearing & Leo Hunt! Luke Gearing, is an incredible voice in the tabletop RPG world. His work includes Acid Death Fantasy for Troika!, the epic and disturbing Gradient Descent for Mothership and the Wages of Sin bounty book. His work is gritty, evocative, and dare I say delightfully lurid at times. Leo Hunt is a brilliant adventure designer. The second edition of Vaults of Vaarn just funded, and I backed it, but I am most intrigued by his adventure The Shrike, which the back of the book describes as "A huge modular sandbox adventure setting in an abandoned fragment of Hell- a colossal blade dedicated to punishing a nameless God." To support Luke's work, buy Mothership here, or check out his Itch.io page here! Find more of Leo's distinctive RPG flavors here!

Today, enjoy this conversation between 3rd edition D&D lead designer Jonathan Tweet and TTRPG historians Shannon Appelcline and Ben Riggs! They discuss one of the hotbeds of gaming ferment, St. Olaf College, which produced nerd legends like Lisa Stevens, Mark Rein-Hagen, Nicole Lindroos, and Tweet himself. Then they move on to discuss one of the most influential games of all time: ARS MAGICA. Because Ben is a nerd, he wrote poems introducing the pair of them: This is a poem named Jonathan Tweet: Behold the mage of rules, whose art is deep, The spellwright bold, our guest Jonathan Tweet. From ARS MAGICA's birth to d20's grand reign, His hand has shaped the games that fire the brain. With visions vast, mechanics deft and true, He forged new worlds for countless fans to view. Tonight we call his wisdom to our show, To learn how tales of wizards first did grow. This is a poem named Shannon Appelcline: Behold the sage who tracks our gaming lore, The chronicler of nerdy days of yore. From Designers & Dragons he drops the whole score, The wins, the fails, the beefs, the stats, and more. So buckle up folks, 'cause tonight we're online, With gaming's hot chronicler, Shannon Appelcline. You can find Shannon's latest history, THIS IS FREE TRADER BEOWULF, here. Jonathan suggest you check out his book on evolution for kids, GRANDMOTHER FISH, here. And you can always buy Ben's book, SLAYING THE DRAGON: A SECRET HISTORY OF DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, which is excellent, here.

Our guest tonight is a giant in the realms — literally and figuratively. Richard Baker is a legendary Dungeons & Dragons designer, novelist, and world-builder whose fingerprints are all over the game we love. He's helped shape settings like the Forgotten Realms, Birthright, and Alternity. He designed iconic adventures. He wrote novels that bring fantasy worlds roaring to life. With all that experience, it is certain sure Rich knows how to roll natural 20s on creativity. So grab your dice and brace for adventure — Richard Baker is in the house! Support the podcast and get extra content on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/u121641556?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink

D&D is bigger than it has ever been, but being a D&D fan in 2025 is deeply confusing. The questions come on and on. Why do extensive promotion of a virtual tabletop for D&D, Sigil, and then give it no marketing at rollout and kill it a month later? Why has there been an exodus of staff from the company? Why, after a golden age during the game's 5th edition, has Wizards struggled to find traction since the debut of 2024 D&D? In this seminar from Gen Con 2025, I try to answer a bunch of these questions. Listen, and enjoy! Support the podcast and get extra content on Patreon here!

Is Wizards messing this up? We discuss with two titans of the TTRPG industry! First up, David M. Ewalt – journalist, editor, and author of the engaging and wonderful Of Dice and Men. He is currently the editor in chief of Scientific American, which may make him the most prestigious personage I've ever had on this podcast. He is also the author of Defying Reality: The Inside Story of the Virtual Reality Revolution and has worked at Forbes and the Wall Street Journal. Welcome David! And then there's Sean McCoy, the creative whirlwind behind Mothership, the award-winning sci-fi horror RPG that has taken the RPG scene by storm. Mothership is tense, terrifying, totally unforgettable, and yet somehow rules light! He is without a doubt a hot shot of 21st century game design, and he's a real "get" for the podcast. Welcome Sean! Support the podcast and get extra content on Patreon here!

This week, we go deep into the Old School Revolution with Old School Essentials creator Gavin Norman and Josh McCrowell of His Majesty the Worm! Gavin Norman is the mind behind some of the most exciting work in the modern OSR scene. He is best known for Old-School Essentials, the gold standard for clean, accessible retro-gaming rules that have brought thousands of new players into old-school play. His work doesn't just celebrate the roots of tabletop RPGs—it refines them, making them sing with clarity and style. If you've ever cracked open an OSE book, you know exactly what I mean: sharp design, killer layout, and an unwavering love for the game. Gavin Norman is, simply put, one of the defining voices of today's old-school revolution. Josh McCrowell is the creator of His Majesty the Worm—a deeply weird, beautiful, and melancholy dungeon crawler that uses tarot cards as its core mechanic. It's also up for an ENNIE this year! Josh is also one of the brains behind Knock Magazine, that gloriously chaotic love letter to the DIY RPG scene, packed with ideas, art, and inspiration. His work blends creativity with a genuine sense of wonder. Josh McCrowell is a designer who reminds us that the dungeon isn't just for killing monsters—it's for exploring what it means to be alive. Find Gavin's work on OSE here! https://www.exaltedfuneral.com/pages/old-school-essentials Acquire Josh's brilliant game here: https://www.hismajestytheworm.games/#h.mvmqxy70j0s9 Ben's Gen Con seminar this year is entitled "Solving the Mysteries of the D&B Business." He's interviewed dozens of former and current WotC employees, and has real answers to questions we all have about the game. Why do extensive promotion of a virtual tabletop for D&D, Sigil, and then give it no marketing at rollout and kill it a month later? Why has there been an exodus of staff from the company? Why, after a golden age during the game's 5th edition, has Wizards struggled to find traction since the debut of 2025 D&D? These questions and more Ben will attempt to answer in his sold-out Gen Con seminar! Given demand, Ben is going to livestream a rehearsal of the show on Zoom on Tuesday, July 29th, at 9 PM EST/ 6 PM PST. But the only way you can listen is by being a Patreon subscriber! It's only $3 a month. Click here to join now! https://www.patreon.com/user?u=121641556&utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink

My guest tonight is a legend in the world of game design and storytelling. Richard Dansky is best known as the mind behind some of the darkest and most compelling corners of the World of Darkness. He served as the developer for Wraith: The Oblivion and helped shape the haunting masterpiece Charnel Houses of Europe: The Shoah, one of the most powerful books ever written for a roleplaying game. But Richard''s also a veteran of the video game industry, working as a writer and narrative designer. My favorites there include the 2004 Far Cry and Driver. He's a novelist, a storyteller, and someone who knows how to make horror feel deeply, uncomfortably human. Cough cough soulforging. My next guest is a name well-known to fans of classic fantasy RPGs—Lou Prosperi. Lou was the developer of Earthdawn at FASA, the beloved post-apocalyptic fantasy game where magic, horror, and high adventure collide. His work helped define the rich, mythic tone of that setting, making Earthdawn one of the most unique fantasy RPGs of the 1990s. I would like to start with a summary of the book we are going to discuss, and just to be clear, we will be covering some disturbing stuff today. I cried reading this book, which I think is a first for a TTRPG book, and it would not surprise me if I cried during this discussion, so I am just laying that out there now. Charnel Houses of Europe: The Shoah is a profound, unsettling supplement that turns the Holocaust into a haunting Wraith narrative—melding historical documentation with metaphysical resonance. It looks at what happens when millions of dead arrive in the afterlife all at once. It causes a crisis in the hierarchy, the rather nasty government ruling the western afterlife. The response is actually quite remarkable. In an arrangement called the Covenant of the Millions, they decide to give space to the dead of the Shoah for them to govern themselves. They also decide to allow the Shoah dead to hunt down Nazis in the afterlife. Its strength lies in its gravity and respect for the subject: it's not a casual horror romp, but a rigorous, emotionally charged exploration. For Storytellers aiming to address trauma, memory, and unresolved spirits, this book offers compelling—and deeply sobering—tools. It's from White Wolf's Black Dog Gaming imprint, which means Use with care: it's intended for mature, sensitive gamers, and its impact depends heavily on tone, preparation, and player trust. I'd say the same for this conversation. You can pick up Lou's great books on Disney's imagineering here! Read Rich's book on surviving the video game industry as a writer here!

This one's a banger: D&D designer Steve Winter meets Ben Milton of Questing Beast! Ben Milton is a game designer, YouTube sage, and sorceror-king of the OSR demigod! He's the mind behind Knave 2e and the force behind Questing Beast, your portal to the wild, weird wonders of old-school RPGs. If you like sharp rules, deadly dungeons, and freedom at the table, Ben's your guy. And don't sleep on Steve Winter — a living D&D legend. From sneaking into TSR through a second-story window to shaping 2e, 3e, and beyond, Steve has been part of D&D's DNA for decades. Tune in. Nerd out. 🎲🔥 Find Knave here, and Ben's YouTube channel here! Tuesday, July 15th at 9 PM EST, Patrons of the show will be able to join a live book discussion on Charnal Houses of Europe: The Shoah. The conversation will include the book's developer, Richard Dansky, and Earthdawn developer Lou Prosperi. But only Patrons can participate live! Click here to back the show and participate in the conversation!

Not one, not two, but THREE RPG HISTORIANS in one hour of amazing audio! Today, we are fortunate to have with us Shannon Appelcline, author of the magisterial THIS IS FREE TRADER BEOWULF, which is a history of the Traveller RPG. He's probably most famous for DESIGNERS AND DRAGONS, which is his multi-volume history of seemingly every role-playing game company that ever put up a shingle and slammed some dice on a table. It was a book that got me through the pandemic. He seems to finish writing books at the pace other people finish playing video games. Second in order but by no means in rank we have Jon Peterson. As I will keep repeating until I see it on Google's N-gram viewer, Jon is the Thucydides of D&D history. His PLAYING AT THE WORLD and GAME WIZARDS are both required reading if you are going to post about D&D history anywhere online. The 2nd edition of PLAYING AT THE WORLD is nominated for an ENNIE Award! Buy THIS IS FREE TRADER BEOWULF here! On July 15th, Patrons of our pod will get a special treat! We will be doing a book club on Shoah for Wraith: The Oblivion. The conversation will include the book's developer, Richard Dansky, and Earthdawn developer Lou Prosperi. Patrons can participate live, and even ask questions! If that sounds good, hie thee forth to our Patreon to subscribe!

I can't believe I got these two on the show together! First, Kevin Crawford is a TTRPG design legend. My favorites from his work are Stars Without Number, and Worlds Without Number, both of which have been tremendously successful and influential as paragons of sleek game design and peerless GM tools. Stars was what I ran during the pandemic, and Worlds I read, and since the birth of my son, I read about one RPG every six months, but I had to put Worlds in that rotation just to see what Kevin did in it. To give just a taste of Kevin's influence, Blades in the Dark creator John Harper said that the origin of Blades in the Dark was a Stars Without Number campaign. And Blades, which is itself an epochal piece of design, birthed an entire universe of games using its system. Second, we have D&D icon Steve Winter. It is possible that Steve has the longest D&D career of anyone in the history of the game. He began working on D&D back at TSR in downtown Lake Geneva, and once even broke into the offices by climbing in a second storey window. He was a vital voice on 2nd edition AD&D. He was one of the first people to work on 3rd edition D&D, even though that project then passed on to other hands, and he followed D&D from Wisconsin to Renton, Washington where he continued to produce work for D&D through 5th edition. Check out Kevin's work here! On July 15th, Patrons of our pod will get a special treat! We will be doing a book club on Shoah for Wraith: The Oblivion. The conversation will include the book's developer, Richard Dansky, and Earthdawn developer Lou Prosperi. Patrons can participate live, and even ask questions! If that sounds good, hie thee forth to our Patreon to subscribe!

Who saved Dungeons & Dragons? How many people could say that they saved Dungeons & Dragons? Off the top of my head, I would say that the list of people who could say they saved D&D at some point over the course of its 51-year history is less than 20. But I believe I have one of those people who could credibly tell a story explaining how they saved D&D on the podcast with me today, because today I am speaking with Ryan Dancey. Ryan is like a Rhode Island private who just happened to be at every major battle of the Civil War. He seems to have been present at a number of important moments during the transplantation of D&D from TSR to Wizards of the Coast. He went to Lake Geneva as part of a team to negotiate an initial purchase with TSR CEO Lorraine Williams. Then, when D&D landed at Wizards, he found himself in charge of D&D, and had to figure out how to make the game make money again. Ben interviewed 2nd ed designer Zeb Cook in Hugh Hefner's suite at Gary Con and there's video! You NEED to see this! And the only way you are going to get access to this amazing interview is by subscribing to our Patreon. It's only $3 a month! Click here! Want more of Ben's work? Check out SLAYING THE DRAGON: A SECRET HISTORY OF DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, available wherever books are sold!

The theme of today's conversation is Ravenloft, but I don't know think that's the best place to actually start introducing my three guests. Instead, I am going to say that I have a very addictive personality. I play one video game about every three years. But one of the video games I have played is MASS EFFECT, and with us today is the accomplished Canadian voice actor, the voice of Commander Shephard, and probably the most real-world famous person I will ever have on this podcast, Mark Meer! Another one of the video games I've played is SKYRIM, and with me today is the lead designer of SKYRIM, a game which generated more income in its first week than TSR did in its best year, the co-creator of RAVENLOFT and lead author of the 1990 RAVENLOFT Boxed Set, Bruce Nesmith! Last but not least, we have author of the Ravenloft novel, KNIGHT OF THE BLACK ROSE, editor of more books than I can list, alumni of TSR and Chaosium, James Lowder. You can play D&D in a castle with Mark Meer by clicking here! Check out Bruce Nesmith's LitRPG, GLORY SEEKER, here! Fear the sanity-blasting secrets contained within the eldritch auction that was THE DAGON COLLECTION, featuring Jim Lowder! Uncover its secrets here!

Are hexcrawls the adventure's final form? We discuss that very question with two of the premier purveyors of the hexcrawl format in the 21st century: Jacob Hurst & WF Smith, aka Prismatic Wasteland. Jacob is one of the brilliant minds behind The Dark of Hot Springs Island, a hexcrawl of evil elves, interdimensional drug dealers, and beached whales. Smith is the lead designer or Barkeep on the Borderlands, a pubcrawl pointcrawl that is equal parts 1st edition homage, wine-soaked bachelorette party, and Terry Pratchett. Ben interviewed 2nd ed designer Zeb Cook in Hugh Hefner's suite at Gary Con and there's video! You NEED to see this! And the only way you are going to get access to this amazing interview is by subscribing to our Patreon. It's only $3 a month! Click here! Above image courtesy Prismatic Wasteland.

I have interviewed bestselling authors, Ivy League professors, and comic creators whose work has gone on to generate billions at the box office. But as a class, TTRPG professionals seem to be the smartest people I regularly talk to. I discuss this and other fascinating points this week with Stephen Radney-Macfarland, a designer with a TTRPG resume longer than my arm. Ben interviewed 2nd ed designer Zeb Cook in Hugh Hefner's suite at Gary Con and there's video! You NEED to see this! And the only way you are going to get access to this amazing interview is by subscribing to our Patreon. It's only $3 a month! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=121641...

Kevin Kulp & Jeff Grubb have, between them, created entire cosmologies and entire timelines. Kulp is the award-winning creator of Timewatch and the investigative fantasy game, Swords of the Serpentine. Grubb, a legend in his own time, is the engineer of the Forgotten Realms, creator of Spelljammer, and writer of Manual of the Planes. Hear the pair discuss the secrets of creating new worlds with Ben Riggs. Ben interviewed 2nd ed designer Zeb Cook in Hugh Hefner's suite at Gary Con and there's video! You NEED to see this! And the only way you are going to get access to this amazing interview is by subscribing to our Patreon. It's only $3 a month! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=121641...

Shannon Appelcline is a TTRPG historian par excellence. His Designers & Dragons set a high bar for the field and I cannot recommend it too highly. HIs recent Traveller history, This is Free Trader Beowulf, is similarly excellent. Today, we talk with Shannon about his time in the trenches of RPG history! Ben interviewed 2nd ed designer Zeb Cook in Hugh Hefner's suite at Gary Con and there's video! You NEED to see this! And the only way you are going to get access to this amazing interview is by subscribing to our Patreon. It's only $3 a month! Click here!

Ask a round of nerds what the first RPG was, and you'll likely get D&D as your answer. Some might shout out Blackmoor. A few may say Braunstein. But what if the answer was... something else? A long talk with the Thucydides of RPG history, Jon Peterson! Pick up the first volume of Playing at the World 2nd Edition here! Read Jon's article on Western Gunfight here! You can read Michael Korns's Modern Warfare in Miniature here! Ben interviewed 2nd ed designer Zeb Cook in Hugh Hefner's suite at Gary Con and there's video! You NEED to see this! And the only way you are going to get access to this amazing interview is by subscribing to our Patreon. It's only $3 a month! Click here!

Mary Fan is a sci-fi stalwart, a prolific author whose novels include the Jane Colt series among many, many, others, and lifelong reader. She shares with us her favorite short story, which happens to be by Polish genius Stanislaw Lem, and of course we argue about Star Wars and Star Trek. Ben interviewed 2nd ed designer Zeb Cook in Hugh Hefner's suite at Gary Con and there's video! You NEED to see this! And the only way you are going to get access to this amazing interview is by subscribing to our Patreon. It's only $3 a month! Click here!

You will not regret spending an hour listening to this conversation between 5th edition designer Mike Mearls and Shadowdark designer Kelsey Dionne. The pair are without question two of the most outstanding game designers working in TTRPGs today, and in this episode, they each give us a peek into their persons and processes. You can find Mike's Patreon here! And you can be a late backer of Kelsey's newest Shadowdark expansion here! Ben interviewed 2nd ed designer Zeb Cook in Hugh Hefner's suite at Gary Con and there's video! You NEED to see this! And the only way you are going to get access to this amazing interview is by subscribing to our Patreon. It's only $3 a month! Click here!

Lin Codega is the most important gaming journalist in the history of TTRPGs. They broke the OGL scandal wide open and changed the industry forever. In this hour-long conversation, Ben picks their brain about the state of things today, and where they are going next. Find further delight in Lin's words at Rascal! Ben interviewed 2nd ed designer Zeb Cook in Hugh Hefner's suite at Gary Con and there's video! You NEED to see this! And the only way you are going to get access to this amazing interview is by subscribing to our Patreon. It's only $3 a month! Click here!