Ken And Robin Talk About Stuff

Yohann Delalande kicks us off with an Ask Ken and Robin question about portraying current real-world horrors in RPGs without lapsing into insensitivity. We fulfill this podcast’s Canadian content requirements in the Tradecraft Hut with a look at iconic hooded defector Igor Gouzenko. Patron hero of surveyors Nain Singh Rawat inspires a duck into the […]

We start with an Ask Ken and Robin question from Ethan Cordray, who wants to know how a GM and player might collaborate in creating scenarios. Inspired by this Malcolm Gladwell piece, the Crime Blotter examines the changing relationship between organized crime and upward mobility. Fun with Science plays with your perceptions for a look […]

Weighty personages surrounded by bullet-proof genre expectations surround us in the Gaming Hut as we examine script immunity in historical gaming. The Mythology Hut finds us riffing a kid-friendly adventure idea arising from the superstitious connection between faeries and uncrushed eggshells. Pol Jackson poses an Ask Ken and Robin poser about the difficulty of staging […]

We begin with endings as the Gaming Hut enumerates ways to build your roleplaying series to the biggest of finishes. Among My Many Hats has Ken telling us about Vendetta Run, the latest installment of Ken Writes About Stuff, in which a spectral Wyatt Earp decides you’re in need of some rough supernatural justice. How […]

A pithy remark from LEGO Batman inspires our latest excursion into the Gaming Hut, as we ponder the question of narratively acceptable character demises. In the Tradecraft Hut we look at bone music, 50s era contraband pop music recordings etched against the will of Soviet authorities onto old medical X-rays. The Recommendation Engine spits out […]

Ken and Robin remember a 90% scale replica of the façade of the Alamo in this episode themed around their recent sojourn in Austin, TX. In the Gaming Hut we recapitulate a Chupacabracon panel with talk of villains and how to portray them. The Food Hut has us munching on barbecue, Tex Mex and the […]

Join Ken and Robin for this live episode recorded at Chupacabracon in beautiful Austin, TX. The best audience ever, per capita, punch above their weight to keep us supplied with incisive questions. We discover that the Nerdtrope game is exceptions-based as Ken draws a historic quintuple Trope. Or is that Nerd? I forget. Vicissitudes of […]

Verily and anon, adopt the cloak of darkness as Ken ducks into the Elizabethan tavern that is the Gaming Hut to discuss his School of Night GUMSHOE setting. Violence and mayhem disrupt the tranquil comfort of the Food Hut as we examine America’s Whiskey Wars and riff some dystopian futuristic equivalents. Should that scene end […]

The Magicians’ Guild turns out to be rife with factions and competing interests as the Gaming Hut looks at ways to add realistic messiness to your game’s imaginary institutions. In Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else, Robin asks up-and-coming illustrator Rachel A. Kahn how an artist breaks into the roleplaying game market these days, […]

Our voices are as froggy as London used to be foggy in our first episode back after our UK sojourn. Inspired by the Museum of London’s current Sherlock Holmes exhibit, we usher a certain consulting detective into the Gaming Hut. As listeners know, every trip to the UK occasions a raid by Ken on London’s […]

Just like sugar plums and figgy pudding, the annual live podcast from London’s Dragonmeet is here to warn us that December holds us in its thrall. Ken nerdtropes Genghis Khan and alien artefacts. Robin ups the ante on the tradition of live episode f-bombs. We contemplate Sigil’s thorniest immigration issues. And we tell you what […]

In Ask Ken and Robin, we answer an Ian Porell question about how much writing should go into a GUMSHOE NPC, and move on from there to supply other tips on creating supporting players for investigative games. From there we take a short hop to the Gaming Hut to look at post-mortems and other ways […]

In Ask Ken and Robin, Jeff Jones seeks advice on running an anti-Nazi campaign set in 30s America. We oblige in both pulp and occult genre modes. Become conscious of an enticing aroma in the Gaming Hut as we look at creature senses. The Consulting Occultist continues his Parisian sojourn with an examination of uxurious […]

In Ask Ken and Robin, Stephanie asks Ken and Robin to find gaming ideas in the disappearance, and much later resurfacing, of Henry IV’s long-dead head. The Gaming Hut has us looking at moments where player choice conflicts with character believability. Back to matters Gallic, the Consulting Occultist details the life, thought, and possible Dreamlands […]

The Tradecraft Hut takes an unusual lead slot as Ken answers an FMGuru request for the tale of WWII Soviet spy Richard Sorge. Horatio stands to our right and Laertes to our right as the Gaming Hut contemplates the use of supporting characters as foils. Blasting his trumpet for Dreamhounds of Paris, the Consulting Occultist […]

The hats in Among My Many Hats are bowlers, and green apples obscure our faces, because we’re talking about Dreamhounds of Paris, now available for preorder, and its companion volume, The Book of Ants. In the Food Hut we answer a Ryan Macklin request to talk about herbs. Which delicious plant will we name as […]

Gallop into the Gaming Hut as we discuss a term from documentary filmmaking, chasing story, and how it might relate to roleplaying games. Take a seat in the Cinema Hut as Ken discusses his top picks from the 2014 Chicago International Film Festival. Begin at the beginning as How to Write Good looks at constructing […]

In the Gaming Hut we consider the dividing line between fun character customization and tiresome homework, and whether it’s moving lately. Still in a Draculanean mood, Ken enters the Book Hut for a vantage on the career of Bram Stoker. We rev up the Recommendation Engine for its sophomore run to talk about a movie, […]

In the Gaming Hut we look at ways to add nuance to your setting’s faiths by considering the split between official and popular religion. Ken spills blood-red beans on the coming Dracula Dossier Kickstarter in Among My Many Hats. The Food Hut takes on a bookish sheen as we recommend our favorite food writing. Finally, […]

We kick off with a Gaming Hut riffed adventure premise, as heavily armed lords come from miles around to claim their share of a holy man’s ashes. How to Write Good stacks its deck in favor of the protagonists to show you how to avoid Mary Sue syndrome. Ask Ken and Robin leaves Robin as […]