This one's a treasure-trove of lovely call-ins mixed with the usual snippets from the DM's Diary. As ever, it's unashamedly personal, raw, and poorly edited. Massive thanks to the callers - Spencer, Colin, Lieren, Jason, and Andy! It's a good-un! Dear Diary Theme Song and incidental music by TJ Drennon: patreon.com/TJD Contact Details: Voice Message: anchor.fm/rpgrescue/message Email: hello@rpgrescue.com Patreon: patreon.com/rpgrescue Blog: roleplayrescue.com MeWe Group: mewe.com/join/roleplayre...
Mar 11, 2020•31 min•Season 5Ep. 20
This week’s episode is about my sudden return to the Fifth Edition of Dungeons & Dragons and the profound impact this has had on me over the past week and a half. I also want to take the time to share a whole bunch of great call-ins that I’ve received, most of which are in praise of episode 518 in which Andy Goodman and I shared a deep conversation about the Fear and Freedom of Improvisation. I'm not entirely sure if this makes a whole bunch of sense but there you go. Game on! Thanks to Spik...
Mar 07, 2020•36 min•Season 5Ep. 20
This week is an unusually energetic blast through my thoughts on narrative, description, what happened at the school club, D&D5e, what's going on in my Traveller gaming, and how Dolmenwood is going. As usual, it's a raw and largely unedited collection of random thoughts collected through the week and assembled into a rough diary. Take from it what you will - but it's pretty candid and personal, you have been warned! Dear Diary Theme Song and incidental music by TJ Drennon: patreon.com/TJD Co...
Mar 04, 2020•33 min•Season 5Ep. 19
This week I’ve been thinking an awful lot about what it means to be a Referee - or Game Master, Dungeon Master, Storyteller, whatever - running your own game. With our theme of getting back to the table firmly in mind, I sat down to jot out a list of the key Referee Tools that I would seek to bring to the table for almost any game I run. I am not necessarily good at remembering to assemble these items, but I do strongly feel like they help me to run a positive session for my friends - both face-...
Feb 29, 2020•33 min•Season 5Ep. 19
This week was half-term for me and I was off work with my wife. We spent a fair bit of time zipping out to nice places and in-between I got to do some travelling myself. Alone. Fabulous call-ins included. Many thanks to Andy Goodman, Goblin's Henchman, Rob C, and Menion for taking the time to shoot me a message. Game on! Dear Diary Theme Song and incidental music by TJ Drennon: patreon.com/TJD Contact Details: Voice Message: anchor.fm/rpgrescue/message Email: hello@rpgrescue.com Patreon: patreon...
Feb 26, 2020•37 min•Season 5Ep. 19
Following on from recent thoughts on questions surrounding the role of story and narrative in tabletop roleplaying games, I hopped online to chat with fellow Anchor podcaster, Andy Goodman from Expedition to The Grizzley Peaks. We had a fairly unstructured natter about the role of emergent play, improvisation, and prepared narrative structure in gaming. It was a very illuminating conversation. Thanks to the call-in callers: Jason, Mr Henchman, and Rui - you are amazing and I am, as ever, deeply ...
Feb 22, 2020•1 hr 21 min•Season 5Ep. 18
This was the week I ran my first-ever game of Old-School Essentials in Dolmenwood. Call-ins from Jason, ShandyAndy, and Menion kick us off and then we dive through the past week's DM's Diary entries. It all culminates in the outcomes from Dolmenwood and a new project for Traveller entering my consciousness. Remember: this is the DM's Diary so it's raw, uncut, and meandering. Enter at your own risk! Game on! Old-School Essentials: necroticgnome.com/collections/old-school-essentials Learning How T...
Feb 19, 2020•38 min•Season 5Ep. 17
Catching up on my DM's Diary, this episode brings you through to about the turn of the month in February 2020. Lovely call-ins from Goblin's Henchman, John Alan Large, Josh Beckelhimer, and Menion aka Rob. Thanks to all of them! Remember: this is the DM's Diary so it's raw, uncut, and meandering. Enter at your own risk! Game on! Dear Diary Theme Song and incidental music by TJ Drennon: patreon.com/TJD Contact Details: Voice Message: anchor.fm/rpgrescue/message Email: hello@rpgrescue.com Patreon:...
Feb 16, 2020•30 min•Season 5Ep. 17
What if roleplaying games aren’t about storytelling? What if we stop thinking about our games as collaborative attempts to create coherent narratives? What if, after all, we consider that RPGs are - at their roots - actually just games? I’ve been thinking a lot about the assumptions that we tend to have about roleplaying games. There is one particular oft-repeated phrase that has long niggled at me and which, if I am honest, I am not entirely sure is true. Or, at least, I don’t think it HAS to b...
Feb 15, 2020•31 min•Season 5Ep. 17
This has been a tough week with a lot going on. I've been essentially bed-bound for several days, but I have had a lot of time to read and think in the hours during which I wasn't asleep. There is a kind of wondrous freedom in that, despite the fact that I can skant remember a time when I have been more ill. Well, that seems to be coming to an end. I am grateful for my immune system and the wisdom of my doctor. This episode focuses on just a handful of the wonderful call-ins made because I also ...
Feb 12, 2020•31 min•Season 5Ep. 16
This is a very special and yet highly experimental episode: Josh Beckelhimer, from JB Publishing, emailed in an extended audio response to Dungeon Master's Diary #22. At the end of that episode, I had asked for help in relation to Sword & Wizardry as a game system and Josh responded. It's a heartfelt and, frankly, amazing testimony to the S&W game system and its designer, Matt Finch. I felt I had to share it because it sits at the heart of what Roleplay Rescue stands for. Thanks to Josh....
Feb 08, 2020•35 min•Season 5Ep. 16
Everything has changed inside about 40 hours or so. Hear my reaction to Gavin Norman's invitation to playtest the Dolmenwood Player's Guide, how this has catalysed a whole host of insights and emotions, and what I have decided to do. This is either one of the biggest breakthroughs in my gaming or the most rash decision from the World's Flakiest Dungeon Master. Time will tell. Be warned - this is very raw, very emotional, and very much off the cuff. Thanks also to the wondrous Barney (Loco Ludus)...
Feb 05, 2020•33 min•Season 5Ep. 15
This week has been foul: the UK exited the European Union, I went down with a nasty bout of a flu-like illness, and I had a lot of time to think. Is it time to finally transcend my current hobby expectations and try Swords & Wizardry? You tell me. Game on! Thanks to Frank T and Andy G for the call-ins! Dear Diary Theme Song and incidental music by TJ Drennon: patreon.com/TJD Contact Details: Voice Message: anchor.fm/rpgrescue/message Email: hello@rpgrescue.com Patreon: patreon.com/rpgrescue ...
Feb 02, 2020•23 min•Season 5Ep. 15
This one's a rather fabulous chat I had with fellow Anchorite podcaster, Dave Aldridge about the issues around using RPGs in education. He's a lecturer at a prestigious British university and I'm a classroom teacher in a mainstream UK high school. It seems Dave has some misgivings about using RPGs in the educational setting which led me to engage him in a deeper conversation about those issues. It's a deep, philosophical, and ever-so-slightly technical chat and I sincerely hope we managed to mai...
Feb 01, 2020•1 hr 17 min•Season 5Ep. 15
This was the week in which I prepped for the Traveller "High and Dry" scenario, talked to the school club kids about one-shots, figured out how I would run a science-fiction Open Table, and found out that the Satanic Panic is back. It's an emotional roller-coaster made all the better by call-ins from ShandyAndy, Jason Connerley, and Colin Spikepit. Enter at your own risk! Game on. Dear Diary Theme Song and incidental music by TJ Drennon: patreon.com/TJD Contact Details: Voice Message: anchor.fm/...
Jan 29, 2020•36 min•Season 5Ep. 14
Three major call-ins from three top Rescuers allow me to talk you through three very neat ideas. What's a Game Structure and why should you care? Can you run a module on the fly? How can we find non-5e gamers in an age of D&D5e? All worthy questions tackled off-the-cuff and (hopefully) with good humour. It must be another episode of Roleplay Rescue. Game on! The Alexandrian on Game Structures: thealexandrian.net/wordpress/15126/roleplaying-games/game-structures Many thanks to Andy Goodman, J...
Jan 25, 2020•32 min•Season 5Ep. 14
Another collection of top-notch call-ins followed by my rough and ready DM's Diary entries. Thanks to all of the callers! As ever, you guys make my show better. This one has had one entry removed due to time and you can find it over on my Patreon very soon. I hope you find something useful and thanks for taking the time to listen to my ramblings. Game on! Dear Diary Theme Song and incidental music by TJ Drennon: patreon.com/TJD Contact Details: Voice Message: anchor.fm/rpgrescue/message Email: h...
Jan 22, 2020•31 min•Season 5Ep. 13
Catching up on a host of great call-ins makes this episode slightly longer than I usually prefer... but it's good stuff from the community and definitely overdue. Following the first 15 mins or so of call-ins, I dive into a discussion around the question of whether it's better to be a Roleplayer or a Rollplayer. I've being hearing this dichotomy talked about in several places lately, so I decided to chip in my two-penneth on the question. I hope you find it useful... or, at the very least, inter...
Jan 18, 2020•39 min•Season 5Ep. 13
Squeezing in as many of the fantastic call-in that I can within my self-imposed 25-35 minute episode length, there are still more to come. Thanks to everyone who called in and sorry that my responses are a little brief. This episode I go back to work, get snubbed by teenagers, delve into Star Trek Adventures, and we find out what lay beyond The Iron Door in Thaarl. Game on! Dear Diary Theme Song and incidental music by TJ Drennon: patreon.com/TJD Contact Details: Voice Message: anchor.fm/rpgresc...
Jan 15, 2020•32 min•Season 5Ep. 12
Brilliant interview with Necrotic Gnome's Gavin Norman, the creator of the Old School Essentials RPG! This one has some announcements about projects coming through 2020 and there's a major scoop about the "big project" of the year. If you want to skip to the "what's next" question, you'll find that at about 34:33. Massive thanks to Gavin for giving me an hour and sharing the latest in the world of OSE. Game on! Necrotic Gnome: necroticgnome.com Rescue Theme Song and incidental music by TJ Drenno...
Jan 11, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Season 5Ep. 12
Catching up on the New Year diary entries, this one is short and (hopefully) sweet. A collection of musings over the period from 1st-3rd January. This also resets the DM's Diary back to running from Saturday to Saturday so that we can have but one episode per week again. Hope you enjoy! Dear Diary Theme Song and incidental music by TJ Drennon: patreon.com/TJD Contact Details: Voice Message: anchor.fm/rpgrescue/message Email: hello@rpgrescue.com Patreon: patreon.com/rpgrescue MeWe Group: mewe.com...
Jan 07, 2020•24 min•Season 5Ep. 11
This was not an easy episode to put together. Key diary entries running up to and including New Year's Eve are prefaced with responses to DM's Diary #16. I've tried to be honest and respond to people's comments / questions with openness. That said, I fear that what I say will be (once again) misunderstood. But , hey, publish and be damned, eh? Game on! Dear Diary Theme Song and incidental music by TJ Drennon: patreon.com/TJD Contact Details: Voice Message: anchor.fm/rpgrescue/message Email: hell...
Jan 05, 2020•36 min•Season 5Ep. 11
Just had a weird moment typing "2020" into the date field for the episode tags. Are we really here? This one's a cool conversation with the artist behind my recent Artefact Cards and several successful Kickstarter campaigns. Many RPG creators will appreciate his work and it was an honour to catch up with him in his studio just before the New Year. The sound is sometimes patchy but what James has to say is golden. Game on! Jeshields' Patreon: patreon.com/jeshields Rescue Theme Song and incidental...
Jan 04, 2020•1 hr 6 min•Season 5Ep. 11
This one's unashamedly personal and open. I have begun to come to terms with a sense of being wrong about the roleplaying hobby and decided to tackle that sense of wrongness with some experimentation. This is probably one of those "important moments" which, in actual fact, was probably facilitated by my awareness of you guys out there listening. Without you guys, I doubt I would have grasped this one and begun to move through it. Just be warned: this one's pretty rambling. Dear Diary Theme Song ...
Dec 31, 2019•30 min•Season 5Ep. 11
Last one for 2019, folks. This is another one of my rough and raw collections of random gamer musings. You should listen with caution and understand that the Diary is very personal, something not for the faint hearted. In this episode, there's a lovely call-in from Jason and then me bumbling about in the run-up to Christmas Eve. Game on! Dear Diary Theme Song and incidental music by TJ Drennon: patreon.com/TJD Contact Details: Voice Message: anchor.fm/rpgrescue/message Email: hello@rpgrescue.com...
Dec 29, 2019•24 min•Season 5Ep. 10
I want to begin an ongoing discussion about getting started with tabletop roleplaying games by talking about some things you definitely should NOT do - even though I and most other GMs almost always seem to do them - if you want to get a good game going. Because I am a teacher - someone who knows that the human brain tends to ignore negative instructions - I am going to turn those negative statements around and state them as positives - things to do. I hope you’ll bear with me and consider my po...
Dec 28, 2019•38 min•Season 5Ep. 10
Merry Christmas to everyone! As we close in on the Western celebration of the Nativity, I wanted to say thanks to everyone who has supported and listened to the show in 2019 - thank you! On top, you can hear Frank T's call-in about Monster Manuals. Then we dive into my exploration of Pathfinder 2e, a lot of musing about why I buy and read RPGs, and finishing with a Traveller proposal. As ever, it's a collection of my weekly audio diary entries - be warned: this is raw and rough. Game on! Dear Di...
Dec 23, 2019•23 min•Season 5Ep. 10
Gribsnak grabs the mic. An email about GM Accreditation from Luderati. Call-in from Evil Jeff. Reports from Thaarl. Unboxing some boxes. Oh, and running down a side-track. As ever, this is raw and unedited journalling from my personal RPG hobby. Listen with caution! Dear Diary Theme Song and incidental music by TJ Drennon: patreon.com/TJD Contact Details: Voice Message: anchor.fm/rpgrescue/message Email: hello@rpgrescue.com Patreon: patreon.com/rpgrescue MeWe Group: mewe.com/join/roleplayrescue ...
Dec 22, 2019•30 min•Season 5Ep. 9
A bunch of call-ins which inspired me, a long reading from one of my favourite RPG gaming books, and a dollop of my random musings makes this episodes a wild mash-up of ideas... and I am desperately hoping it hangs together. This one's unscripted, not very well thought-through, and unapologetically all I've got this week. Hope you find something useful in here. Game on! The Angry GM's book: theangrygm.com/gameangry Rescue Theme Song and incidental music by TJ Drennon: patreon.com/TJD Contact Det...
Dec 21, 2019•35 min•Season 5Ep. 9
Three very welcome call-ins from the community to lead us into the diary of the week past. This was the week in which work got VERY intense, the UK had a General Election, and I almost lost my mind. Salvation came in the form of a Saturday night online game in the Dungeons of Thaarl. Once again, it's me warbling on - rough, largely unedited, and very candid. Listen at your peril! Dear Diary Theme Song and incidental music by TJ Drennon: patreon.com/TJD Contact Details: Voice Message: anchor.fm/r...
Dec 16, 2019•38 min•Season 5Ep. 8
