Stories set in our world, or worlds adjacent to our own.
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.
CLASH! Shonen Battle Roleplay is a Tabletop Roleplaying Game love letter to shonen anime such as Bleach, One Piece, and Naruto in which big, bombastic characters grapple with dramatic fights and the dramatic emotions those fights represent.
I sat down with the game’s designer, Sabrina Hawthorne, to see the game in action.
Mirror Match is a role-playing game love letter to fighting games. Players create warriors based on shared themes and origins before facing off in arena combat. Inspired by two-player fighting games, sessions see new characters constantly enter the fray and the game provides scaffolding to create your own universe of mad ninja, shotgun-toting wizards, dragon-gods, and more. All of those characters will face off in the viscera-soaked court of Bloody Mary and only you can decide how they’ll fare in her wicked gaze.
I sat down with the game’s designer, Jackson Adams, to see the game in action.
Laura is an award-winning Actual Play performer, known for her work with Queen’s Court Games on a range of incredible shows, including The All-Night Society and Harlem Hellfighters Never Die. We sat down for some top-tier weird vampirism in a game of Elegy, a solo vampire RPG inspired by Ironsworn.
Rene is one of the founding members of DMs After Dark, and the host of Rene Plays Games, an actual play podcast focused on smaller published TTRPGs. (If you like the kinds of gameplay experiences we feature on this show, you’d really dig it.) We sat down to make something weird, joyful, and really special in a game of The Magical Year of a Teenage Witch.
We sat down to explore a town, those that left and came back, and those that returned in one of my all-time favorite RPGs, An Altogether Different River.
Episode art by Nala J. Wu
Christian is an Award-Winning TTRPG performer, educator, and the organizer of The Force Within, a 50-person BIPOC Star Wars TTRPG streaming event. We sat down to play Clever Girl, a two-player game about the lone survivor a malfunctioning dinosaur theme park, and the roving band of raptors in hot pursuit.
It’s Christmas Eve and you know that means–time for some holiday magic with my dear friend Brandon Leon-Gambetta. This year, we’re fighting off evil holiday spirits in Blood Yule, a winter-themed expansion for Bar the Windows, Bolt the Doors. Can we survive murderous elves, robot toys, and The Toymaker? Listen and find out!