Andy and Chris were on a panel with Phil Cameron at the AADL Game Con! We talked about “How to GM like a pro”. Thanks to everyone who came out! It was a lovely time. The panel is also on youtube if you want to watch us talk instead of listen.Roll For Topic

Andy and Chris talk about sharing the narrative at the game table. It gets surprisingly philosophical! Also, Andy and Chris will be at the 2024 AADL Game Con on Saturday April 13th! Come say hi!Roll For Topic

What does it look like to shine the spotlight on a particular character in a TTRPG? In this episode, we talk through some player feedback about our last episode, then move on to this important GMing practice. Show notes:Roll For Topic

Andy and Chris ponder what famous figure, past or present, would be most fun to have at the gaming table! We also check in on Andy’s Band of Blades game and Chris’ progress through The Lord of the Rings.Roll For Topic

Join Andy and Chris as they talk about LotR and Andy’s Band of Blades game!Roll For Topic

Andy and Chris got to game in-person with each other! They talk about the experience of playing Dialect as a world building game for a campaign.Roll For Topic

We’ve all read books or watched movies that were difficult, but ultimately rewarding. With Andy having just finished Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun, we talk about whether that kind of challenging but satisfying-in-retrospect experience has a parallel in RPG campaigns. What kind of value do we get out of dense, difficult settings and … Continue re…

As Andy prepares to run Stormwreck Isle, conversation turns to what makes a great D&D starter set or introductory adventure. What experiences do you think best embody D&D? Bonus content in this episode includes more discussion of The Thing, and (if you listen closely) the sound of Andy’s pet guinea pigs squeaking and chattering in … Continue readin…

How do you calculate odds and probabilities at the game table? What do we get out of random dice rolls and random tables? And how do dice probabilities work, anyway? We’re joined by mathematician and GM Toby, who talks with Chris about both the mechanics of probability and the ways we use randomness to have … Continue reading "Episode 132 — All Abo…

It’s part 2 of our annual Build-a-Dungeon/Play-a-Dungeon specials! Jo, Abby, Liz, and Brandon come on to play through “The Mice of The Artemis” with Chris as GM. Happy holidays everyone!Roll For Topic

It’s the holidays so that can only mean one thing: it’s time for us to build a dungeon and then play it live on air! In this year’s Build episode, Andy and Chris are joined, yet again, by John Corey and Kyle Latino of The Splatbook!Roll For Topic

Andy and Chris talk about The Walking Dead and videogames before diving into their topic: what questions do long-term campaigns raise that RPG rulebooks do not address?Roll For Topic

With Chris temporarily away, Andy is joined by guest co-hosts John and Tim for something we’ve never done before: opening a mystery box of gaming goodness live on the air. Tim unboxes a Christmas surprise package from Palladium Books, after which we revisit one old topic and then ponder a brand new one. Show notes…

Andy and Chris take a different approach to gaming in this episode as they discuss the idea of “interesting failures”–art and experiences that don’t succeed, but that nonetheless deliver something worthwhile. After discussing Alien Resurrection, Andy’s favorite example of an interesting disaster, they move on to talk about what “interesting failure…

Andy and Chris talk about Halloween, how to make a party harder for your players, and then about how to maintain momentum when you have long gaps between game sessions.Roll For Topic

What do you do when your players make in-game choices you weren’t expecting? Should you try to shift them back onto your planned course, or appreciate the challenge they’re throwing your way? Chris listens as Andy describes a recent adventure that went awry (albeit in a fun way) and they discuss what could have been … Continue reading "Episode 125 …

How much rules mastery do you ask of your players? Chris and Andy discuss the unique challenge that roleplaying games present, with their often-massive rules tomes and the complicated relationship between rules and roleplaying that takes place at the game table.Roll For Topic

Our first live episode in front of a studio (con) audience! Andy runs us through his annual Roll For Topic Swap Table Quiz. Take the quiz while listening and see you how do!Roll For Topic

Your players probably interact with you, the GM, in character from time to time. But do they roleplay with their fellow players? What does that look like at the table?Roll For Topic

What makes for a good flawed player character? Chris and Andy explore what it means to be an interesting flawed or anti-hero. But before they do that, they check in on Andy’s “Masks of Nyarlathotep” campaign and talk about what makes “Masks” unique in a hobby full of great campaigns.Roll For Topic

In a break from the usual format, Andy and Chris talk through the process of choosing the right game to run for a convention one-shot. Together, they go through the half-dozen games on Andy’s list of possibilities until they narrow down the one that will work best. On the way, they talk about spies, mechs, … Continue reading "Episode 120 — Choosing…

Andy and Chris fail to roll on the table for a topic, but of course have plenty to talk about. Listen as they talk about wrangling audio equipment for a live taping, Brindlewood Bay thoughts, Alien worries, and playing the same games over and over again.Roll For Topic

Andy’s back from a cross-country road trip, and he’s eager to talk about all weird and wonderful claims to fame that small, rural towns celebrate. In this episode, Chris and Andy talk about how to make the small towns in your fantasy setting quirky and memorable places to travel through. But first they take time … Continue reading "Episode 118 — Ho…

Andy and Chris are thieves! Everyone likes reading books and watching movies, but have you ever lifted a scene or character from them for your campaign?Roll For Topic

We cover a lot of ground in this episode! We talk about health and injury rules, the quirky LitRPG genre, and rethinking alien species in tabletops RPGs. And of course we move onto our main topic: what has the last few years taught us about what makes for a great virtual RPG? Episode notes: Dungeon … Continue reading "Episode 116 — What Goes Into a…

What’s the longest RPG campaign you’ve ever run? Six months? A year? Two? We’re pretty sure you can’t beat our guest for this episode, who’s been running a weekly D&D campaign for nearly three decades straight. Join us as we learn about Bryn’s truly epic D&D campaign and try to identify the secret of his … Continue reading "Episode 115 — The 30-Yea…

Chris and Andy are joined by Jeremy Bai, a prolific translator and author whose RPG Righteous Blood, Ruthless Blades: Wuxia Roleplaying brings the wuxia genre to your game table! We begin by talking to Jeremy about his various projects, RPG-related and otherwise, before discussing different ways that you can make food, drink, and meals more … Conti…

Andy and Chris are joined by James Pozenel of Horse Shark Games to talk about the best way to handle hacking scenes in your TTRPGs (as well as others scenes in which one PC is the star of the show). James is uniquely suited to dispense advice on this, since he’s working on a very … Continue reading "Episode 113 – Running Hacking Scenes (with James …

What do you need to know to run tabletop RPGs with kids? Guest GMs Liz Decker and Tim Saucer bring their experience organizing games for kids to a special roundtable discussion. Liz runs an RPG club at a local high school, and Tim incorporates RPGs into a summer camp for kids. Both have a lot … Continue reading "Episode 112 — Running RPGs with Kids…

Does nostalgia for your youth, and the games you played as a kid, play an active role in the games you play today? And it’s impossible to talk about D&D nostalgia without taking note of the upcoming D&D movie. Listen as they share their hopes and dreams (or lack thereof) for Dungeons and Dragons: Honor … Continue reading "Episode 111 – What Role Do…

How do you fine-tune the tone–whether it’s grim, comedic, or something else–at your gaming table? Chris and Andy talk about this, but not before they muse on the challenge of running murder mysteries in the TTRPG medium, among other things.Roll For Topic

Family, friends, and loved ones of PCs, when they appear at all, often serve primarily as victims whose plight motivates the PCs. Are there more and better ways to make the PCs’ loved ones a part of the game? Andy and Chris discuss!Roll For Topic

Have you ever struggled to stay focused on the campaign you’re running because you’re distracted by all the shiny new games on your bookshelf that you’d also like to be running? Andy and Chris talk about the challenge of avoiding “shiny object syndrome.”Roll For Topic

Andy and Chris go back to their Roll For Topic roots and roll on the old Table of Topics for this one! They (briefly) discuss the OGL and D&D and what it all means to them before diving into just what in the world a GM should do when their players have no idea what … Continue reading "Episode 107 — What Do You Do When Your Players Get Stuck?"…

Chris is temporarily out for this episode, which means that there’s nobody to stop Andy and guest GM Matt Wilson from venturing down all kinds of historical tangents! Join us as we try to keep our enthusiasm for the Late Antique period in check, and reflect on the GMing lessons we learned in 2022 and … Continue reading "Episode 106 — Old Year Refle…

In the last episode, we planned a Wild West adventure and “dungeon.” Now, we force a gang of hapless players through it! Guest players John, Ben, Toby, and Brandon team up to take on the sinister Snake Oil Kid and his gang. Will things go smoothly and according to plan? Or will they veer wildly … Continue reading "Episode 105 — Actual Play: Snake O…

It’s the holidays which means it’s the return of Roll For Topic’s traditional Build-a-Dungeon/Play-a-Dungeon! This episode we design a “dungeon” with our pals, Kyle and John, from The Splatbook. Next episode we’ll run what we came up with as an actual play. You can listen to these episodes in whatever order you’d like. Happy holidays!…

This week Andy and Chris are joined by Toby to talk about encumbrance systems. Listen as they slowly convince themselves that encumbrance isn’t all bad. This topic was added by listener, Wulf Mungus. Thanks, Wulf!Roll For Topic

Andy and Chris recap their Halloween roleplaying experiences before tackling a tricky design challenge: can they come up with an interesting way to use cellphones as part of a roleplaying experience?Roll For Topic

Chris and Andy are joined by guest GM Alban to discuss how you might build an entire adventure around a performance. Is that a performance by the PCs, or by the players? We discuss that, with side forays into topics like Ars Magica, finding GM inspiration in the natural world around you, and more!Roll For Topic

Can you believe we’ve produced 100 episodes? What a wonderful ride it’s been. Join Andy and Chris for a special episode of reflection on the last four years of roleplaying and podcasting. This episode departs from our usual format and asks you to indulge Andy and Chris as they discuss what they’ve learned and where … Continue reading "Episode 100 —…

What makes a “good” cult in a game? They also have a few pamphlets for you to read—and if you join them in their study they’d be happy to answer any questions you might have!Roll For Topic

Chris and Andy brainstorm a tactile system for marking the passage of time or health in an RPG! But not before Chris a ridiculous action movie, and Andy pitches a ridiculous mashup of a certain intergalactic hunter and a certain murder-mystery RPG.Roll For Topic

John Corey, on loan from The Splatbook, comes on to talk about Vaesen and then helps Chris design a 1 Page RPG.Roll For Topic

Andy and Chris, with clear eyes and full hearts, chat about their experiences at Roll For Topic Con 2022. They start by using the “Stars and Wishes” framework and then immediately deviate into a less structured conversation.Roll For Topic

Beset with pre-convention GMing anxiety, Andy and Chris describe their game prep challenges and brainstorm solutions to some of the questions and problems they face. After passing through the depths of GM despair, will they recapture their enthusiasm for convention GMing by the end of this episode? Spoiler: YES!…

Andy and Chris brainstorm a deadly, yet survivable, 10x10x10 room. But not before recent family vacations prompt more musings about the mysterious Natural World outside our basements, and the “GM brain” curse of constantly thinking about gaming when you should be admiring the great outdoors.Roll For Topic

Join Andy (holed up in an airBnB somewhere in the hinterlands of Colorado) and Chris (holed up in his office) as they chit-chat about their recent travels and how they cannot stop thinking about running games.Roll For Topic

Andy and Chris try very hard not to step on Brian Jacques toes while designing an adventure for a mouse!Roll For Topic

What kind of door would simultaneously beg players to open it, yet fill them with dread at the prospect of doing? Chris and Andy devise a creepy-yet-compelling door sure to cause your players to argue about whether and how to open it.Roll For Topic