Turn your head and sarcophagus as Ask Ken and Robin raises the lid on a @CrazyDogSpirit question on making the most of mummies. Then it’s time for another Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else , in which Allison Fizzard, associate professor of history at Regina’s Campion College, explains Tudor-era retirement plans and how Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries threw them for a loop. Plus, there’s beer. We springboard from that into the Gaming Hut, examining ways to incorporate legal petiti...
Jun 27, 2014
A fog-shrouded Travel Advisory sees Robin reporting on his trip to historic (and Fortean) St. John’s, Newfoundland. In Ask Ken and Robin , donor Brendan Power asks about handling spotty game night attendance. The Horror Hut mulls over that very odd foundation of the Gothic tradition, The Castle of Otranto . Finally the Consulting Occultist looks at husband and wife demon-busters Ed and Lorraine Warren. It’s yo ho ho and a pocketful of doubloons as Atlas Games surveys the seven seas from the crow...
Jun 20, 2014
We start in a submersible as the Cartography Hut takes you under the sea to riff on campaign and adventure possibilities arising from the mapping of sunken Dunwich . In Ask Ken and Robin , Yohann Delalande asks us to find inspiration for Night’s Black Agents in the flamboyant and multi-pronged career of Uzbekistan’s Gulina Karimova. We oblige, throwing in some Hillfolk and The Esoterrorists for good measure. The Business of Gaming lays down the wisdom on professionalism. And Anne Boleyn’s life h...
Jun 13, 2014
We kick off with Ask Ken and Robin and a Sean Phelan question about asynchronous information dissemination in roleplaying games. Dire rumors swirl as the Tradecraft Hut looks at disinformation and fear-mongering as a geopolitical instrument, from the Crimea to the ghost dance. In Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else , Robin chats with Moon Design’s Jeff Richard, who tells tales of the epic heroquest that brought the mammoth and jaw-dropping Guide to Glorantha project back from the mythic realm ...
Jun 06, 2014
The titular emotion exudes from a certain Chicagoan as we issue a Travel Advisory for Robin’s trip to the Chimeriades convention in sunny Provence. In Ask Ken and Robin , Chris Shorb asks about making alternate histories plausible in roleplaying. We take another request in the Eliptony Hut , because Alan Scott wants to know about the Lemurians of Mount Shasta. Finally an overdue Politics Hut catches up on the latest turns in the Rob Ford saga, which landed him in rehab and temporarily out of Tor...
May 30, 2014
In the Gaming Hut we demonstrate scenario construction by brainstorming a Fear Itself adventure featuring the fearsome Crate Man. Duck furtively into the Cartography Hut as we look at maps as secrets. In Ask Ken and Robin we field a query from Tom Allman on prepping for Cthulhu games. Then we sidle up to Ken’s Bookshelf to vicariously paw through the spoils of his recent raid on Powell’s Book City in Portland. It’s yo ho ho and a pocketful of doubloons as Atlas Games surveys the seven seas from ...
May 23, 2014
The Gaming Hut reverberates with spectral dread as we find ways to make ghosts and hauntings scary in roleplaying. Fun with Science looks for story and gaming grist in the increasingly respected, and increasingly mind-blowing, multiverse theory of cosmological physics. In That Thing I Always Say Robin goes on about the lasting influence a game’s first adventure has on the way it is played thereafter. The Consulting Occultist finishes his major figures of the French enlightenment trilogy with the...
May 16, 2014
In the Gaming Hut , Robin asks Ken to specify a suitable period of occult ferment and together they riff it into a DramaSystem Series Pitch. We unseal the stone door of the Mythology Hut to give Lilith the once-over. The Cinema Hut joins forces with the Horror Hut as we mull the current cycle of haunting movies. Finally, we respond to a Justin Mohareb request for Ken’s Time Machine . The suspicious revocation of Richard Nixon’s FBI application sure smells like time stream interference. Did Ken d...
May 09, 2014
Ken’s return from Portland’s HP Lovecraft Film Festival and its sister event Conthulhu prompts the issuance of an especially eldritch Travel Advisory . Listener Greg Gray gets an unprecedented answer when he poses an Ask Ken and Robin question about the paucity of info in roleplaying rules books for spanking new players. How to Write Good serializes its commas and regularizes its colons when we tackle the hot topic of punctuation gray areas. Finally the Consulting Occultist pulls a long con and ...
May 02, 2014
Pull up an extra special chair in the Gaming Hut as we look at ways to put guest players to good use. In the Tradecraft Hut , Ken helps listener Rick Jonzz start a beginner’s tradecraft bookshelf. In Ask Ken and Robin , Joshua Weiss wonders what we might say about miniatures in narrative-based gaming. Then we flip Ken’s Time Machine to mythic setting, assigning him to stop Circe from turning Odysseus men into pigs. It’s yo ho ho and a pocketful of doubloons as Atlas Games surveys the seven seas ...
Apr 25, 2014
In Ask Ken and Robin , Kevin Maroney asks us to expand on an earlier Ken comment questioning the suitability of the d20 structure for Cthulhu gaming. The History Hut flies the Jolly Roger to examine best practices of, and essential conditions for, piracy. In the Gaming Hut we recount our least favorite setting cliches. And in spoiler-ready last position, we point the remote at the Television Hut to give our take on True Detective. It’s yo ho ho and a pocketful of doubloons as Atlas Games surveys...
Apr 18, 2014
The Gaming Hut rings with the sound of accents and impressions as we examine the role of voice work in GMing. The Crime Blotter finds a surprising nexus of grift, elephant materialization and the technological spread of 20th century entertainment in the person of Harry Thurston. A less famous follower in his magician brother Howard’s footsteps, Harry made his influence felt through connections to the Chicago mob. We drink deep of mead, wine, beer and polyglot alcoholic beverages in the Food Hut ...
Apr 11, 2014
Is that a displacer beast in your pocket, or are you just glad to listen to us? Convene in the Gaming Hut as we discuss monster abilities and to what extent they enter into player awareness. The Tradecraft Hut furtively considers stolen passports. Don’t let your characters leave theirs as collateral for motorcycles in Phuket, Thailand! In Ask Ken and Robin , Jim Crocker prompts us to evaluate the works of William S. Burroughs as a source of gaming horror and weirdness. The Eliptony Hut goes naut...
Apr 04, 2014
In the Gaming Hut we again lift the RPG design hood to tinker with PC/NPC asymmetry. Eerie Horror Hut riffing ensues as we sift the story possibilities of 3D-Printed Clone Dolls . Ask Ken and Robin opens in the middle of a Philippe Marcel question about starting game sessions in media res . Purely hypothetically, you understand, a certain Ken’s Time Machine segment might tell you who murdered Alexander the Great, and why Ken helped cover it up. It’s yo ho ho and a pocketful of doubloons as Atlas...
Mar 28, 2014
In the Cartography Hut we set out techniques to add a dose of psychogeography to the map of your imaginary city. The Gaming Hut looks at the elasticity of vampire mythology, as inspired by Ken’s golden steampunk vampires of El Dorado, as seen in Fenix magazine. How to Write Good confronts the pesky threat of word clusters, and how to avoid using the same word twice in one…dammit! Consulting Occultist meets Tradecraft Hut as, at the request of listener Johnstone Metzger, we examine the work and s...
Mar 21, 2014
Gaming Hut starts on a somber note as we remember the roleplaying innovations of Aaron Allston (1960-2014.) We go on to discuss one of the key themes of his work, genre emulation at the tabletop. The Eliptony Hut takes on a distinctly octagonal shape as we look at the eight-sided architectural influence of phrenologist and social reformer Orson Squire Fowler. In the Business of Gaming , we share social media tips and tricks. Finally, Eoin Keith Boyle makes a St. Patrick’s Day request: can Ken’s ...
Mar 14, 2014
Grab your retrospective popcorn and hunker down in the Cinema Hut as Ken and Robin review their movie top tens for 2013. Responding to popular demand, the Consulting Occultist assesses competing new claims of having cracked the cryptobotanical mysteries of the Voynich Manuscript. In Ask Ken and Robin we hit the dimmer switch to address Richard Fryer’s question on lighting effects at the gaming table. Then a ghostly romance unfolds as Ken’s Bookshelf unexpectedly reunites with the revenant spirit...
Mar 07, 2014
Find new reason to plunge into the dungeon as the Gaming Hut tackles ways of giving narrative meaning to F20 combat encounters. Look at Fluffy in a new light as the Tradecraft Hut examines the animal spying claims of trainer Bob Bailey, who in addition to creating the chicken Tic-Tac-Toe machine says he was a contractor for the CIA. In Ask Ken and Robin , John Wilson asks Ken and Robin about turning homebrew sessions into published games and scenarios. Time Incorporated revs up Ken’s Time Machin...
Feb 28, 2014
They said it couldn’t strike twice, but the Ask Ken and Robin lightning round is back, tackling game designer payment, Day After Ragnarok , book hunting, and a Rob Ford mini-update. In the wide open spaces of the Genre Hut , we look at ways to nerdtrope the Western, including Ken’s Once Upon a Time in the North from Fenix magazine. We fit in all the John Waynes! Reserve your kitchen outlets as Ken and Robin talk gadgets and appliances in the Food Hut . Then look up, way up, to the paranoia of ch...
Feb 21, 2014
We start this episode in the Gaming Hut , where we bat around ways to activate your player character’s character hook. In our new segment, Crime Blotter , we examine the four categories of hit man, as proposed by a recent Birmingham City University study of British hired killers. Tropes face off against cliches as we once again tell you How to Write Good . Then Ken dons his Consulting Occultist regalia to tear the lid off the djinn menace. Once again Fenix Magazine occupies the coveted anchor sp...
Feb 14, 2014
A curious case study, in which a regrettable glacier incident leads listener Joe Tyne to a Call of Cthulhu stumbling block, warrants treatment from the experts in Ask Ken and Robin . At the request of listener Benjamin Blattberg, we essay a hidden gems segment of the Cinema Hut . In Among My Many Hats , Ken quizzes Robin on his latest creation, The Gaean Reach: The Roleplaying Game of Interstellar Vengeance . Death to Quandos Vorn! Finally, with a nod of the chrono-helmet to Kevin Kulp’s TimeWat...
Feb 07, 2014
Keep your silver dagger ready in the Gaming Hut as we look at campaign setting creation through the example of Ken’s Werewolves of Dacia, which will appear in the upcoming Best of Fenix anthology. Hat tip to Big Think for its Middle Earth-to-Earth conversion map . Next, Derek Upham Asks Ken and Robin to solve the mystery of medieval knights in dire combat with snails . Then, having found in the Cartography Hut a map showing where Soviet citizens were forbidden to go in 1955 , we kick around the ...
Jan 31, 2014
Ask Ken and Robin dispenses advice on running SF and space opera games, in response to a query from Ed Hirsch. In a curiously hexagonal Book Hut , we examine the seminal work of Argentinean fantasist Jorge Luis Borges, and the beautifully idiosyncratic English Lit class he once taught, courtesy of the newly translated book Professor Borges: A Course on English Literature . Among My Many Hats prompts Robin to talk Storyscape, his design for a tablet-based tabletop roleplaying game, now being Kick...
Jan 24, 2014
Seize the narrative steering wheel as a player in the Gaming Hut , where we discuss techniques to productively exercise character agency. Uncover the layers beneath the layers of the History Hut , in which we find gaming and story fodder in multispectral palimpsest recovery. In Ken and Robin Talk To Someone Else , we speak together to two someone elses, Cat Tobin and Simon Rogers of Pelgrane Press, who discuss the logistical lessons from the now-fulfilled Hillfolk Kickstarter. Then we rev up Ken...
Jan 17, 2014
We ring in 2014 with an Ask Ken and Robin from Ross Ireland, who wants to switch to a more serious horror tone after years of loosey-goosey play. Then we zoom back in time to the dying embers of 2013, for a segment of Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else featuring James Wallis of The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen and Once Upon a Time fame. We conclude our episode of all-eponymous segments with another dive into Ken’s Bookshelf , this time examining his haul from our recent trip t...
Jan 10, 2014
Special guest Rob Heinsoo joins Ken and Robin for a very special episode recorded live at Dragonmeet, from the municipal splendor of Kensington Town Hall in beautiful downtown London. Ken nerdtropes the alchemical secrets of the JFK airport. Rob performs a parlor trick of his own by telling us a story about danger. And Robin spills some beans on continuity changes in the upcoming Feng Shui 2 . In response to audience questions the panel reveals its favorite gaming moments and sources of design e...
Dec 20, 2013
Ken and Robin open the Gaming Hut to air evolving differences in gamer expectations, with Feng Shui player feedback offering a time portal between the mid-90s and now. Among My Many Hats looks into Ken’s gig as a dramaturg for WildClaw Theatre’s stage production of Shadow Over Innsmouth . With the holidays nearing, the Food Hut learns what Christmas food means to us. Finally Ken’s Time Machine gears up to undo the 1979 Iranian revolution....
Dec 13, 2013
News that US states are now legalizing Internet gambling within their borders send us to an unusually garishly lit and jingle-jangling Gaming Hut , where we consider hobby gaming twists on playing for cash online. Then Ask Ken and Robin visits the Consulting Occultist on behalf of Steven W. King, who wants to know what to put on his beginning occult bookshelf. In the Cartography Hut we look for the fun in the relative inaccuracy of period maps. Finally, in an all-too-inevitable Politics Hut , Ro...
Dec 06, 2013
Take a moment to study the menu in the Gaming Hut , as we contrast the operations of prix fixe and a la carte character improvement RPG designs. Watch us cut the ribbon on our brand new Abandoned Idea Clearinghouse , in which we look at creative ideas we decided not to pursue and why we set them aside. In Ask Ken and Robin , we don our therapeutic coats to help listener Martin Rundkvist through a crisis of verisimilitude brought on by his humanities degree. Finally we enter the Eliptony Hut to p...
Nov 29, 2013
We place a horseshoe over the mantle of the Gaming Hut to consider luck’s role as a branch point in roleplaying. Then, at the behest of lead sponsor Stephen Jankiewicz, we enter the cobwebbed confines of the Horror Hut to ask if terror and sense of wonder can coexist. In Ask Ken and Robin , Leo Pall Hrafnsson inquires: “How do you run a game that feels like Heat or Catch Me If You Can , where the PCs directly oppose one another?” Finally, a grumbling time traveler revs up Ken’s Time Machine to i...
Nov 22, 2013
