Panda's Talking Games
Queer gamers answering your TTRPG questions! It's like CarTalk, but for your tabletop role playing game. Campaign making a weird noise? One shot difficult to steer? Join pandas Phil Vecchione (Misdirected Mark, Gnome Stew, Encoded Designs) and Senda Linaugh (She’s A Super Geek, Gnome Stew) every Wednesday answering listener questions about playing, running, and designing TTRPGs.
- Update frequency
- every 9 days
- Average duration
- 51 minutes
- Episodes
- 308
- Years Active
- 2018 - 2025
PTG 340 – Giving Your Setting LIFE
Show us how you breathe life into your setting at the table! How do you make a setting feel alive, engaging, and evocative? Phil and Senda discuss in this off the cuff episode.
Bamboo Lounge for…
PTG 339 – Challenging Challenges
Show us how you make an encounter (in whatever context) challenging without being *too* challenging! Phil and Senda talk GM knowledge vs. NPC knowledge, planning challenges and encounters, and not n…
PTG 338 – Introducing Settings
Show us how you introduce a new setting to players! Phil and Senda talk setting considerations, ways to do setting introductions without turning on the firehose, and recommendations for getting folk…
PTG 337 – New Years Aspirations
Show us your gaming plans for 2024! We’re taking the gentle on ramp after our holiday and talking about some of our aspirations for the new year, both gaming and personally. What are some of your ga…
PTG 336 – Leading into the Holidays with Leading Questions
Show us how you use leading questions in your games! Phil and Senda talk leading questions, as well as how and when to use them effectively. Unfortunately two thing happened this episode: 1. Phil’s …
PTG 335 – Thanksgaming 2023
Show us what you’re grateful for in gaming this year! Phil and Senda record a quick episode before American Thanksgiving to tease apart some of the things we are really grateful for this year when i…
PTG 334 – I’m Bleeding Here!
Show us how you….okay. Hang on a sec.
[The screech of a soap box being dragged out from a closet]
Real talk. There’s a lot of discourse currently occurring about bleed on a number of social me…
PTG 333 – Feel the Character Beat
Show us how you slide some character beats into an action oriented game! Phil and Senda talk about the spectrum that is character driven games and action driven games, and how to push your slider a …
PTG 332 – Play Moar Games
Show us how you play more games! Phil and Senda….both had quite a few weeks there, but we’re happy to be on mics again, even if we kept it pretty short. This week, we talk about some ideas for getti…
PTG 331 – Recall, Improv, and Anxiety Part II
No cliffhangers today! Phil and Senda talk about the second part of the question regarding GM brain and anxiety — some common GM anxieties and ideas about how to address them (besides just the old a…
PTG 330 – Recall, Improv, and Anxiety, Part I
Show us how you can use improv at the table to alleviate your recall anxiety! Phil and Senda talk improv and GM anxiety at the table, with a helping of other resources for practicing improv for gami…
PTG 329 – Turning Point Chit Chat
We’re bringing it back!
Way back before the pandemic, Phil and Senda were well on their way to kickstarting this game. We’ve just picked it back up again and we’re working hard! We were a little…
PTG 328 – I’m So Into It, Into It, Into It
Show us how you manage being REALLY into your game when not everyone is! Phil and Senda talk about the disparity of time spent thinking about a game between player and GM, as well as more generally …
PTG 327 – Galaxy GM Brain (GM Brain Part 2)
Finishing up last week’s topic (barely!), we’re bringing it home by merging in the discussion of GM brain with GM style and GM supports.
Bamboo Lounge for Patreon backers today! Find these and m…
PTG 326 – GM in the Membrane (GM in the brain!)
Show us how you find the right kind of game for your GM brain! Thanks to a comment about a quick aside from a few episodes ago where Senda mentioned in passing that her attachment to improv GMing ha…
PTG 325 – Let’s Talk About Scenes, Baby
Show us how you set a scene to give it genre feel and manage pacing! Phil and Senda talk scene setting — pacing, description and set up, spotlight, and participants — for genre emulation and tone cr…
PTG 324 – How to Incorporate Memorable Gaming Experiences
Show us how you take your memorable or influential gaming experiences forward into your future games! Phil and Senda revisit last week’s topic to talk about exactly how we carried things forward fro…
PTG 323 – Game Changing Games
Show us your memorable gaming moments! Phil and Senda answer a request to talk about memorable gaming moments.
Bamboo Lounge for Patreon backers today! Find these and more at http://patreon.com/…
PTG 322 – Supporting New GMs
Show us how players can support a brand new GM! Phil and Senda talk through some of the responsibilities that the GM stereotypically takes on and how players can either assist or take over those res…
PTG 321 – Queering It Up
Show us how you queer up your game when it isn’t written that way! Phil and Senda talk queer themes (and a little personal history) and some of the ways our games get queerer.
Bamboo Lounge for …