Stories set in our world, or worlds adjacent to our own.
Jax is a freelance game designer, writer, sensitivity reader, editor, and one of the organizers of NotACon: Revenge of the Con!, a three-day summit of games, feelings, and hot-tubbing happening in Millerstown, PA from October 22-25, 2026 (which I’ll be attending as a special guest!). We sat down live at Unity Java in Philadelphia, PA, for a weird, intimate, horrific but beautiful game of Insatiable Cravings by friend of the show j strautman!
Lachlan is an actor who you can see right now in Y2K, Chucky, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and more. We knew we wanted to explore some weird, messy horror, so I couldn’t think of a better game than 1978: The Night They Came Home by World Champ Game Co.
It’s Halloween night. Time for a showdown between survivor and killer.
John is the creator of Leverage and Leverage: Redemption, as well as The Librarians, Jackie Chan Adventures and more. We sat down to play MERGER, a solo RPG about trying to survive in a world of living predatory corporations (which, in addition to being an apt way to describe living in 2026, is literal in this case–massive, soul-consuming eldritch horrors given flesh).
Myq is a standup comedian of over 20 years, who has appeared on the Tonight Show, Conan, Letterman, James Corden, Seth Meyers, Comedy Central, Last Comic Standing, and America’s Got Talent. He’s also the host of Broccoli and Ice Cream and The Faucet, and his latest special, Rini, developed with his partner of over a decade, is available on YouTube right now.
We sat down to build a superhero world and celebrate our mutual love of comic books and big ideas in a game of Zoetrope, a superhero worldbuilding game about creating a comic book universe.
Emma is host of Unnatural Selection on the Moonshot Podcast Network, about film adaptations of books, the weird choices Hollywood makes, and what actually constitutes a “good” adaptation. He’s also a cast member on Interstitial Infinity (an Actual Play podcast about troubled pop culture teens on the Infinity Train) and Dead Teen House Party, a rewatch podcast of MTV’s Scream series.
We geared up, gathered our crew, and pulled the job of the century in fellow Moonshot podcast bestie Marn Lastname’s Time to Drop, a time loop heist game about a group of thieves forced to pull off the same job again… and again… and again… and again… and again… and again…
Mike is a longtime podcaster, and host of the show The Newest Olympian, which seeks to answer the question, “Has society been sleeping on the Percy Jackson series?”. His new show, Professional Talkers, is a comedic advice podcast all about navigating life’s awkward conversations with Sequoia Simone.
We wanted to talk about working in audio, and coming to the artform of podcasting, and so we sat down for a delightful game of The Cryptid Show, a two-player conversational RPG about a call-in radio show host answering a caller’s questions about their recent supernatural experience. It was a DELIGHT.
Kaitlin is one of the producers behind Thin Places Radio, an award-winning short-form fiction podcast in the shape of a radio show from nowhere, in which the mysterious Host comes responds to real voicemails from actual callers with supernaturally sentimental anecdotes and advice. She’s also a streamer, actual play performer, artist, and designer–a fellow wearer of many creative hats.
We sat down for a session of Kaitlin’s favorite game, Tapestry, an interpretive card-based RPG of weaving character’s stories together, and coming to witness the tanged, densely interconnected threads and patterns that result.
Cate is an author, podcaster, ADHD educator & advocate, kinkster and Shakespeare nerd. She hosts Sorry I Missed This, an everything guide to ADHD and relationships, and her new book, The ADHD Field Guide For Adults, drops in March. She’s also running vampire games at literal Castle Dracula as one of the GMs of Danube of the Damned, which is one of the coolest sentences I’ve ever gotten to write.
We got deep in the weeds on backyard concerts, monsters, lost identities, and tense showdowns between hunter and hunted in HUNTER(ER/ED) by Dillin Apelyan and Meghan Cross.
Rahrah is the creator and GM of The Heart is a Dungeon, an actual play TTRPG podcast focused on sad, emotional storytelling with a primarily BIPOC and fem presenting cast. We tapped into that deep, vulnerable spirit in a game of Shadow / Giant, an asymmetrical RPG about a gruff loner forced to take care of a mysteriously magically powerful child. Can they support one another as they race against the odds towards some kind of safety?
Marty is one of the hosts of Breaking Mayberry, an anti-nostalgia podcast focused on watching old TV (starting with, as the title suggests, The Andy Griffith Show) and assessing what holds up and what caused permanent damage to the psyche of an entire generation.
We wanted to talk TV, and storytelling, and the weird politics of creating collaborative art, and so we sat down with Lights Out, a game about the last day on set of a long running TV show.