Among My Many Hats is an Egyptian headdress with a distinctly feline aspect, as Ken talks about his installment of Ken Writes About Stuff devoted to Bast. The Gaming Hut looks at ways to write scenarios to present the information about Game Master Characters GMs need to run their games. Thanks to Patreon Patron Jeff Kahrs, the Tradecraft Hut finally gets around to that segment on Kim Philby it’s had on the to-do list since forever. And finally, Ask Ken and Robin fulfills the desire of Kolbe and ...
Apr 08, 2016
We start with Ask Ken and Robin , as Patreon supporter Ross Ireland asks us to tell our best crazy game stories. Then it’s off to the History Hut to consider the troubled Presidency of a guy who really couldn’t get a Supreme Court nominee approved, John Tyler. In our inaugural edition of Tell Me More , three items from Ken and Robin Consume Media, as approved by our patrons over on the Patreon, get expanded treatment: The Secret History of Wonder Woman , the Dictionary of Deities and Demons in t...
Apr 01, 2016
Pull your swords out of your stones and step into the Gaming Hut for a consideration of the Chosen One trope. How to Write Good explores a phenomenon Robin calls Nigeling, when you make one character look good by painting others as rubes. You’ll place great stock in… no, I’m sorry, I can’t. Let’s just say the Food Hut is talking soup and leave it at that. Then we close on an most unusual Ken’s Time Machine mission: getting a notorious criminal cast as James Bond before he commits his famous crim...
Mar 25, 2016
Now that backers of our exciting and handsome Patreon campaign get priority access to pose questions for the show, we have a bunch of great questions in the hopper. So let’s get to four of them in a special celebratory all-request episode. In the Gaming Hut Paul Stefko asks us for tips on running games set in artificial realities. Drew Clowery takes us into the History Hut for a look at the Know Nothings. Ask Ken and Robin features a Scott Bennett question on keeping a fresh attitude toward olde...
Mar 18, 2016
In this special theme episode, we start in the uncharted waters of the Cartography Hut , to look at the struggle to accurately measure longitude at sea, and its underdog hero, clockmaker John Harrison. We shift to the Gaming Hut to ask ourselves how to introduce navigational uncertainty into magic-rich F20 worlds. Then the Consulting Occultist tours us through the colorful career of privateer, courtier, cookbook author and magic powder maker Kenelm Digby. The connection? The rejected magical dog...
Mar 11, 2016
Sneak up on us very carefully as Ask Ken and Robin responds to a Josh Kroger question regarding stealth systems in RPGs. Recent events force us to reconsider past Politics Hut pronouncements as, with increasing trepidation, we ask once more, is Donald Trump America’s Rob Ford? In the Mythology Hut we pry under the ecclesiastical floorboards to look for Finnish frog coffins . Then it’s just a hop skip and jump across a bridge patrolled by the grim forces of Chris Christie to the Eliptony Hut , wh...
Mar 04, 2016
Let’s schmooze a while in the Gaming Hut as we spitball a game based on social experience points. Get in touch with your inner cave dweller as the Conspiracy Corner checks out Neanderthal conspiracy theories, most notably those of painter and sculptor Stanislav Szukalski. Finally it’s that time of year again: in a bumper segment of the Cinema Hut , we list our top 10 films of 2015. Get your golf pencils ready; they’ll be needed to overcome a shocking clerical error that threatens to tear the wor...
Feb 26, 2016
Long have we teased it! Now it’s finally here, for your keeping-the-show-alive convenience: our Patreon campaign . In this special mini-episode we talk the whys, the wherefores, and the long-coveted extra stuff we can do if we hit particular milestones. Jump on board to make show notes, transcripts and the new Ken and Robin Consume Media feature happen.
Feb 25, 2016
There’s a rat looking at us and a hawk flying overhead as Ask Ken and Robin fields a Michael Shreeves question on making familiars narratively satisfying. Our lead time prevents the Politics Hut from engaging in prognostication, so instead we step back to look at ways of understanding this most chaotic and suspenseful of US primary seasons. Among My Many Hats goes for the gold as Ken tells us about his treatment of alchemy in the latest Ken Writes About Stuff . Then we discover the role Ken’s Ti...
Feb 19, 2016
Can you make it through the terrors of Ask Ken and Robin , when Sean Maclean asks us how to run survival horror? If so, the Tradecraft Hut awaits, where we deliver our promised full segment on legendary M15 counterintelligence honcho Maxwell Knight. Go down to the basement and get made small as Horror Hut zooms in on scary dolls. Finally, the Consulting Occultist fills us in on Paracelsus, a literal Renaissance man whose achievements in medicine, psychology and toxicology also included influenti...
Feb 12, 2016
Get your chlorophyll on as we enter a vine-choked version of the Gaming Hut to riff an alien species that feeds via photosynthesis. Ken gets you started on your collection of books about maps in a bibliographic Cartography Hut . It’s been a while since Ask Ken and Robin had a lightning round, so let’s have a lightning round. Then the Eliptony Hut blows up real good with a look at the Martian nuclear armageddon theory. Ken and Robin have oft been accused of being cards. Well, we can deny it no lo...
Feb 05, 2016
Oh, the humanity! How do we characterize being a human in F20 games and settings? Answers lie inside the Gaming Hut . You think the media is bad today. Back during Chicago’s circulation wars you could get shot for reading the wrong paper on the subway. Elucidation waits in a hard-to-target corner of the History Hut . Wizards of the Coast is licensing its flagship setting, the Forgotten Realms, to third party creators prepared to join its Dungeon Masters’ Guild venture, a joint effort with DriveT...
Jan 29, 2016
Roll the dice with us as Among My Many Hats finds Ken headed to Las Vegas 68. Grant our dramatic petition while How To Write Good breaks down dramatic scene construction. Join us for a plate of tamarind-infused noodles as the Food Hut looks at the politics of pad thai. Finally, narrowly avoid drowning not once but twice as Ken’s Time Machine explains why our hero saved both a young James Garfield and his eventual assassin Charles Guiteau from separate watery graves. Ken and Robin have oft been a...
Jan 22, 2016
In the Gaming Hut we rise to popular new demand to riff a whole bunch of scenario entry-points to get you started with a Dracula Dossier campaign. As teased last episode, the History Hut looks at anatomical tables, as seen in our December visit to London’s Royal College of Physicians. Continuing the London weirdness, the Eliptony Hut takes on an Egyptian revival exterior as we probe into rumors of a time machine in the Brompton Cemetery. Finally, conveniently placed for the spoiler averse, those...
Jan 15, 2016
While in London in December, the Consulting Occultist got a sneak peek at key items of John Dee’s book collection. Join us in previewing the upcoming exhibit Scholar, courtier, magician: the lost library of John Dee, which runs Jan 18-July 29 at the Royal College of Physicians. Then we turn to the Gaming Hut for a consideration of apparent versus actual complexity in roleplaying games, and how to present simple game systems so they look as easy to run as they actually are. Finally, if we were re...
Jan 08, 2016
Once again we end a year of talking about stuff with a live episode from Dragonmeet in London. Join us as we discuss a time war involving Isaac Newton and the Crusades, GUMSHOE, Feng Shui, highly detailed games, hypothetical gaming-inspired cookbooks, what we’re afraid of now, and making gnomes interesting. Enjoy your holidays, and join us when we return on January 8th with episode 172 and more details of our secret mission in London. Ken and Robin have oft been accused of being cards. Well, we ...
Dec 18, 2015
What should you look for when revising a scenario? The Gaming Hut holds the answers. Cinematic technique, legacy and mortality all come out to play in the darkened space of the Cinema Hut as we delve into Robin’s powerful response to the documentary Hitchcock/Truffaut . Then Ken and Robin Recycle Audio , specifically more clips from Robin’s Q&A at FanExpo in Toronto. Men in black peer into the windows of the Eliptony Hut as we round up the career of sardonic Fortean investigator John A. Keel...
Dec 11, 2015
We start amid the familiar shag carpet of the Gaming Hut to look at the question of making the mechanics serve the story and not the other way around. The History Hut delves into the best-named military conflict ever, the War of Jenkins’ Ear. In the Horror Hut we avoid gazing into mirrors while discussing the Bloody Mary trope. Finally, in Ask Ken and Robin, Rob Dean asks us to nerdtrope a real-life found artifact, these instructions to Mr. A.M. Brosius in 1911 concerning a dig in Baltimore. Ken...
Dec 04, 2015
The New York Public Library online map collection provides a feast of gameable treasures. We gather in the Cartography Hut to pick our favorites and riff on ways to put them to use. Ken’s first map, of Brasov, appears here . Robin’s map, to the residences of Ebenezer Ingalsbie and T. R. Wolcott, is here . Ken’s second map, of 1840s Brooklyn, is here . Among My Many Hats has Ken turning your players into an official bulwark against UFO incursion in his latest Ken Writes About Stuff installment, M...
Nov 27, 2015
The New York Public Library online map collection provides a feast of gameable treasures. We gather in the Cartography Hut to pick our favorites and riff on ways to put them to use. Ken’s first map, of Brasov, appears here . Robin’s map, to the residences of Ebenezer Ingalsbie and T. R. Wolcott, is here . Ken’s second map, of 1840s Brooklyn, is here . Among My Many Hats has Ken turning your players into an official bulwark against UFO incursion in his latest Ken Writes About Stuff installment, M...
Nov 27, 2015
We kick off with Ask Ken and Robin , as Reinier Dobbelmann question about power-gaming, relevant to six-year olds literal and metaphorical. Smell the flavor volatiles as Food Hut looks at the science of taste. Referenced in this segment: Barb Stuckey’s Taste: Surprising Stories and Science About Why Food Tastes Good . In the Horror Hut we pitch and cast our imagined filmed vampire update, Dracula AD 2017 . (Please note that a couple of tangential references in this segment seem odd in light of t...
Nov 20, 2015
We predicted that Ask Ken and Robin would feature a Manfred Gabriel question about incorporating prophecy into roleplaying sessions, and we were right! Dracula tried to thwart him, but Ken still managed to check out some titles at this year’s Chicago International Film Festival, and joins us in the Cinema Hut to talk about the highlights. The Tradecraft Hut looks at the career of Czarist master spy Pyotr Rachkovsky. Was he to spying what Henry Ford was to automated production? Finally Robin take...
Nov 13, 2015
When Deep Ones suddenly display their powers of teleportation, are they being uncool? Step into the Gaming Hut for a look at situations where you want to keep the abilities of your monsters consistent. In Ask Ken and Robin @marcaddress gets us to riff a society where corpse reanimation for heavy lifting and other tasks becomes just another normal aspect of life. Powell’s Portland thought it was safe. But then Ken went back in its waters for a second strike on its reserve in a single year. Come r...
Nov 06, 2015
Find the enigma within the enigma as the Gaming Hut hosts a look at existential mysteries. In Ask Ken and Robin we find the key to a Gerald Sears question about Parisian official’s bid to remove the love locks from the Pont des Arts bridge. How to Write Good serves up tips on character names. Finally in the Eliptony Hut , we examine Ilya Ivanov’s attempt to hybridize humans and chimpanzees. Ken and Robin have oft been accused of being cards. Well, we can deny it no longer. We have become super-l...
Oct 23, 2015
The Gaming Hut turns over the hourglass as we discuss villain clocks. Ken issues a Travel Advisory on the latest installment of the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival. In Ask Ken and Robin we field a Pete Darley question about our adherence to canon in published scenario. And in a pulse-pounding, pumice-raining edition of Ken’s Time Machine , sabotage places our doughty chrononaut in Pompeii, eight hours ahead of the head cloud that will flash-cook its remaining residents. Ken and Robin have oft been...
Oct 16, 2015
The Gaming Hut features an ill-advised open bar as we mull campaigns in which player characters have to be married. Ask Ken and Robin tackles a question posed to us by approximately 75% of listeners: hey, what about that Nazi Gold train? Vegetables return to the Food Hut , demanding to know how we will roast them. Finally the Eliptony Hut turns its laser scalpels on the topic of cattle mutilations. It blew up Kickstarter. It slid into Gen Con on a gurney with both guns blazing. And now Feng Shui...
Oct 09, 2015
The Cinema Hut heralds the androids, fish men and yakuza vampires coming to a movie consumption venue near you as Robin regales you with the hottest tips from this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Consult his full list here . It was the Gaming Hut , he thought, where the topic of internal monologue in roleplaying would be settled once and for all. We save the debauchery till last as the History Hut tackles the hot topic of the Hellfire Club. It blew up Kickstarter. It slid into Gen Co...
Oct 02, 2015
The Gaming Hut finds us in an under-the-hood mood as we turn over Robin’s assertion that a full adventure written as early in the process as possible can illuminate your RPG game design process. Ken and Robin Recycle Audio presents our final trove of treasures from the Gen Con investigative panel, with a series of deep GUMSHOE tips. Then the Cinema Hut alerts you to another passel of the latest and coolest Asian action flicks. Titles discussed: Assassination, Kundo: Age of the Rampant, Wild City...
Sep 25, 2015
Our recording chambers may be hot but our subject matter gets cold, cold, cold, as Among My Many Hats takes a look at the Wendigo . In How To Write Good , the dialogue turns to dialogue tags, he said, informatively. Ken and Robin Recycle Audio continues to pillage the very best treasures of the investigative roleplaying seminar at Gen Con, this time delving into red herrings, leaving room for player improv, and keeping your horror tropes fresh. Then we circle back to Arctic climes as the Elipton...
Sep 18, 2015
A skepticism of all things pseudopod suffuses the question Thomas Deeny poses in Ask Ken and Robin . “Why Cthulhu? By that, I mean, why do gamers love Cthulhu games? Boardgames, RPGs — it seems as if you slap Cthulhu on the game, it just sells. What is the draw?” Providence proved Providential indeed for our resident bookhound. Ken’s Bookshelf paws through his haul from his recent jaunt to Necronomicon. We begin to glean the gold of the packed Investigative Roleplaying Seminar of this year’s Gen...
Sep 11, 2015
