Maia is our guest today presenting her actual play campaign, Pinehurst Academy. Maia used the City of Mist system for her game. From the City of Mist website, "In City of Mist you play ordinary individuals with powers that emanate from myths and legends investigating supernatural crimes and mysteries in a noir City where the truth is always hidden …

This week's stars are Arin and Caleb from the Black Flare podcast. Arin is the GM for the podcast using the Delta Green rules system and Caleb is the podcast's producer and editor. They work together to create a phenomenal, slow-building horror story. Delta Green is an RPG for telling Cthulian Lovecraft stories in a more modern setting typically in…

This week's guest is Amanda, another member of the Quelmar organization. Quelmar was featured previously in episode 32 with James, the original creator of Quelmar. Amanda is a Quelmar DM and is currently DMing a Quelmarized version of Hitpoint Press's Heckna!. Her interview focused on her homebrew campaign without a "proper" name dubbed the Delicio…

Somewhere there is a door. Today's guests are Emma and Maia, the creators of the Yeldplay actual play podcast which was nominated for a 2024 CRIT award. Yeldplay is the official podcast of the Yeld RPG to showcase the system's unique mechanics and style of play. The Yeld RPG lets your roleplay as children that find a door to the Magical Land of Yel…

This episode features one of the other CRIT award nominees from 2024, Josh, who tells us about his game Last Fleet. Josh and his partner, Becky, are the main drivers at Black Armada Games which makes TTRPGs (among other games). Last Fleet is a Powered by the Apocalypse game that simulates a situation similar to that of the Battlestar Galactica show…

Udy tells us about his experiences with the Seventh Sea TTRPG system, the Scion system, and the focus for this episode, Pendragon! Pendragon is a generational RPG where you play a small noble house in England during the time of Arthurian legends. You play a knight or lady that is the head of your household with responsibilities to your subjects, yo…

Disclaimer: All links are to the websites or social media presence of RPG publishers, creators, gaming stores, gaming clubs, or actual play channels. I take no responsibility for the content behind those links. I received no compensation for linking to any of these pages. The classic Spanish TTRPG Aquelarre is available in English. Blacksad, Malefi…

You can find the show notes in Part 2!De către Moritz Botts

Malcolm, a member of the Advanced Age Roleplaying Gamers (AARPG) podcast, joins us to talk about one of his campaigns named Our Town. The concept for Our Town came about accidentally where rather than going on an adventure, the players all stayed in town and wanted to kick out any outsiders that wanted to change their little village. A rival baron …

Ben tells us about his setting and independently designed TTRPG system, Cybertopia. Cybertopia is a fiction first system set in the near future. Amazing Corp saved the world from climate and energy catastrophes with a magical clean energy machine. As the world moves into a post-scarcity economy, Amazing Corp has risen in power and influence beyond …

Roger tells us about his world Savinaru. It was created by elementals, primal forces of creation. Ever since Savinaru has been plagued by demons, primal forces of destruction. Savinaru is in the midst of its Industrial Revolution via magic. Magically powered public transportation networks are being built and weaponry has advanced to muskets and can…

Our guest for this episode is Derry, DM of the Dice Will Roll podcast and winner of a 2024 CRIT award! Woo! Derry talks with us about his journey with RPGs, actual play podcasting, and Pathfinder's official setting of Golarion. Derry started doing actual play podcasting because many of the more popular TTRPG podcasts featured a mostly white suburba…

On this episode of On Board Games, Erik and Don talk about games (and other things) they've played including: Freedom Five Trophy Gold Vacsen Obsession Crusader Kings Midnight Suns You can get a discount on Zencastr.com using this link. (24:52) Then, they discuss how to create memorable settings in your RPGs. ---------------------------------------…

Disclaimer: All links are to the websites or social media presence of RPG publishers, creators, gaming stores, gaming clubs, or actual play channels. I take no responsibility for the content behind those links. I received no compensation for linking to any of these pages. My three "legacy games" are Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, World of Darkness, an…

I talked with Dain about his 2024 CRIT award nominated, actual play campaign, No Quest for the Wicked. Dain's campaign uses the Starfinder rules and is loosely based off the Starfinder setting by using the same set of basic aliens for racial options. Each of the different races experienced some sort of disaster on their homeworld. Before extinction…

Bob tells us about his various experiences with D&D and writing. Bob is the writer of the Jubal County Saga, a series of books about Howard Marsh, a meth addicted magician living in the American South. Bob has also designed and published a few dozen single page RPGs and a few longer ones. All of this in a joking collaboration with three partners wh…

Disclaimer: All links are to the websites or social media presence of RPG publishers, creators, gaming stores, gaming clubs, or actual play channels. I take no responsibility for the content behind those links. I received no compensation for linking to any of these pages. The actual play from Taiwan was from Crispy Fish's channel. The music is by T…

Peter tells us about Tales of Elsewhere, his own RPG system that he's using for his campaign. Characters are made with a Culture (where they're from), a Profession, and an Inciting Incident that sets them on their adventuring path. These different traits combine to decide your character's skills which are the only character number relevant to actio…

Disclaimer: All links are to the websites or social media presence of RPG publishers, creators, gaming stores, gaming clubs, or actual play channels. I take no responsibility for the content behind those links. I received no compensation for linking to any of these pages. The actual play from Singapore was from Royal Nerd Theatre. Kellynn has a web…

Disclaimer: All links are to the websites or social media presence of RPG publishers, creators, gaming stores, gaming clubs, or actual play channels. I take no responsibility for the content behind those links. I received no compensation for linking to any of these pages. This bonus episode is about the inaugural Warhammer Conference which has its …

This marks the first of a couple episodes where I got the chance to interview different people/groups nominated for one of the 2024 CRIT Awards. Kevin tells us about his campaign and actual play podcast, Wing Women. The campaign uses the Powered by the Apocalypse Night Witches rules system developed by Jason Morningstar of Bully Pulpit Games. Night…

Jeph started playing D&D in school with a group of friends as most typically do. They played a couple different small campaigns, swapping between different DMs. One constant in their group was "Big Campaign," the world that Jeph ran that everyone always came back. Jeph has run Big Campaign for at least seven major campaigns and now hosts a podcast …

Disclaimer: All links are to the websites or social media presence of RPG publishers, creators, gaming stores, gaming clubs, or actual play channels. I take no responsibility for the content behind those links. I received no compensation for linking to any of these pages. The first Markus was the gamemaster of the actual play teaser last episode, w…

Gallo tells us about his D&D campaign that was designed for a girlfriend's teenage daughter. Her one request, "I want Bob Ross to be in it." Gallo ran with the idea and created a world where Bob Ross's evil alter ego, Rob Boss, is the villain. He used his paint brush to create a painted forest full of painted monsters. The physics and tone of the w…

Adam is the main DM for the Majestic Goose Network, a collection of actual play podcasts that grew out of Adam's home games with his family. The network started with One Shot Onslaught, a series of one shot D&D adventures from DM's Guild. It grew from there to around a dozen shows on various TTRPG topics. This episode focuses on Adam's homebrew cam…

You can find the show notes in Part 3!De către Moritz Botts

You can find the show notes in Part 3!De către Moritz Botts

Disclaimer: All links are to the websites or social media presence of RPG publishers, creators, gaming stores, gaming clubs, or actual play channels. I take no responsibility for the content behind those links. I received no compensation for linking to any of these pages. ### Added section: German TTRPGs that are available in English include The Da…

Edric tells us about his campaign that takes place during the American Revolutionary War where all myths and folktales are real. Magic exists but spellcasters must keep their powers a secret or be burned as a witch. Eldritch horrors and evil spirits threaten North America while historical events proceed along a parallel path to our own reality. Edr…

Josh tells us about his world, The Collide. Josh is a new DM and player, providing a unique perspective on what D&D is like from that fresh point of view. The Collide is a combination of two worlds that smashed together in a cataclysmic event several hundred years ago. Collide is single continent split in half by a large mountain range. The western…

Maura tells us about her campaign, Her Dark Ministrations, which uses the Spire rules and setting made by Rowan, Rook and Decard. Maura's campaign and version of Spire follow the base setting pretty closely. From the game's website, "Spire is a roleplaying game about desperate revolutionary dark elves caught up in a secret war against the high elve…

Corey tells us about his campaign called Tales of the Undead which takes place in the island country of Equalia. This episode starts off with a reference to a video about Equalia that Corey uploaded to YouTube. For the full experience you can watch that video at this link: https://youtu.be/qFsqInICbAo?si=Vm9B5UVVjoJJm3ga Equalia was once ruled by a…

I’m confused, Joe’s confused, this one dude’s… scary, LG’s… well, she’s good. What does confusion mean in the face of horror? Yeah. Deep stuff.

James tells us about Quelmar which is not just a campaign world but also a charity organization! Quelmar was created by James for his D&D games in college. Many more players joined the campaign swelling it in size and complexity as more and more PC backstories populated the lore of the world. James took the idea and ran with it, expanding Quelmar i…

Darin is back from Episode 11 to tell us more about Aellorah! Since we last spoke Darin has worked more on Aellorah's magic system called the Flow. There's plenty of new metals and special materials to make equipment out of. New classes and subraces abound. The governments of Aellorah are more detailed and fleshed out than before. Darin has created…

Gretchen and Rob discuss the idea, "Should we even bother rolling?" Plus: Bad Indian food, indigestion, Pilsbury dough samosa, tomato soup, tortilla naan, saag paneer, Bollywood, Hercules and Xena, Atlanta, Renaissance Faire, leather armor, West End Games, d6, Streetwise, Hope, Pandora’s Box, Perseus, Athens, Lizard Man, Iason, Medusa, Euryale, The…

Disclaimer: All links are to the websites or social media presence of RPG publishers, creators, gaming stores, gaming clubs, or actual play channels. I take no responsibility for the content behind those links. I received no compensation for linking to any of these pages. The actual play channel I used for the teaser can be found here (https://www.…

Bryon tells us about his Vaesen game set in the Pacific Northwest during the Industrial Revolution. Vaesen is a Swedish RPG where the PCs possess the Second Sight and are able to see all the monsters and faeries of folklore and myth. The societal changes of the Industrial Revolution have upset the hidden creatures of the world. As humanity has expa…

On this episode of RPGs & Baby Makes 3, Rob and Gretchen discuss a sentence that gives DMs major anxiety: It's what my character would do. Plus: What’s your alignment? Junior Braves Survival Guide to the Apocalypse Hercules and Xena West End Games D6 Greek Myths Perseus The Cyclops Mothra Frankenstein DnD 5th Edition Dungeon of the Mad Mage Dragon …

Jack presents his arcanepunk world of Televyse. Televyse is a metropolis city on a plane made up of large hexagons of territory. Every month the hexagons rotate, destroying all life and structures on the previous hexagons and replacing them with something new. The hexagon Televyse is located on is the only one immune to the hexagon shift. The city …

Disclaimer: All links are to the websites or social media presence of RPG publishers, creators, gaming stores, gaming clubs, or actual play channels. I take no responsibility for the content behind those links. I received no compensation for linking to any of these pages. The actual play channel I used for the teaser can be found here (https://www.…

A special episode! A look at my own campaign with my players after the fact. This is a post session recording with my players and me after the conclusion of our D&D 4e campaign Orkish Rising. The campaign focused on the orc chief, Gregor, and his rise to power within the Orclands. He had to fight and unite tribes to oppose the evil necromancer trib…

Disclaimer: All links are to the websites or social media presence of RPG publishers, creators, gaming stores, gaming clubs, or actual play channels. I take no responsibility for the content behind those links. I received no compensation for linking to any of these pages. The actual play channel I used for the teaser can be found here (https://www.…

Disclaimer: All links are to the websites or social media presence of RPG publishers, creators, gaming stores, gaming clubs, or actual play channels. I take no responsibility for the content behind those links. I received no compensation for linking to any of these pages. The actual play channel I used for the teaser can be found here (https://www.…

Gretchen and Rob start the show by discussing recent sessions of Old Gods of Appalachia and Old School Essentials, before moving to the main topic: Geeks, Nerds, & Dorks Plus: Setting Expectations; Old Gods of Appalachia; Monte Cook Games; Roll the Bones; Savannah, Georgia; Party Foul; Renegade Paws; One Love; Chicken Salad Chick; Thank You Brandon…

I went to see a movie and I have feelings about it.

Tim's fantasy world of Alanui is recovering from an apocalypse that nearly wiped out all life. A small habitable region remains, surrounded by the Wall Wood which expands against the irradiated Wastes. The apocalypse was multifaceted, but strangely parts of it were erased from history and memory of all but a few by the Director, the leader of the p…

What’s a dude gotta do to make ends meet around here?

Am I nuts? Probably. But that’s been this whole experiment. Maybe it’s time for a change of scenery…

Gretchen and Rob have been through the wringer. This: Car Crash; Friday the 13th; Full Moon; Black Cats; Odin; Road Rage; Meth Addict; Oatland Island; Wildlife Rehabilitation; Halloween Hike; Sirenhead; Siren Head; Toddler; Preschooler; Broken Bones; Clumsy; EMT; Urgent Care; Children’s Hospital; Emergency Room; Fentanyl; Memorial Health; Surgery; …