Plot Points

We're back after an unexpected two-week hiatus with Dale Donovan, an editor, game designer, TSR alum, and Dragon Magazine veteran. He takes us through a career that made him a witness to some pivotal…

How the deal to buy the world's first role-playing game company was negotiated and sealed. Ben Riggs has interviewed those who were there and can tell for the first time the whole story. Recorded liv…

The 2020 version of my research on how TSR went from grossing $40 million a year to being bought by Wizards of the Coast. Performed live at Gen Con Online!

Ben’s book on RPG adventure design, Encount…

Imagine inserting Cthulhu, Aladdin, and the Easter Bunny in your 5E campaign. That is exactly the kind of role-playing madness allowed by Mythological Figures & Maleficient Monsters, on Kickstarter n…

RPG designer WJ MacGuffin comes on the show to talk Paranoia, the dystopic/comic sci-fi RPG of clones and treason! They've got Project Infinite Hole on Kickstarter right now!

Ben’s book on RPG advent…

Mark Diaz Truman is one of the madcap masterminds of Magpie Games. Magpie's Zombie World, a card-based, Powered by the Apocalypse game of zombie survival is up for multiple Ennies. In this deep discu…

David Larkins, writer of Berlin: The Wicked City takes us on a tour of Weimar Berlin, now with more tentacles!

Learn more about Chaosium in the 21st century with this article Ben wrote. 

Here's an ep…

Robin Laws had a dream, which led him to write a short story, and use that to create The Yellow King Roleplaying Game. Once HP Lovecraft dreamed of a book called the Necronomicon. Will Robin's RPG tu…

John Tynes writes RPGs so good it makes me stutter. I've interviewed him twice. Each time, I've been fidgety and nervous beforehand. The man's games take up the #1 and #2 slots on the RPG.net game in…

Michael Prescott is the motivating genius behind Trilemma Adventures, a beautiful book of two-page adventures for fantasy role-playing games. How did he go from writing a blog to Kickstarting a book …

Brad, Sarah, & Ben take a deep dive on Thousand Year Old Vampire, the lonely RPG where you live the life of an immortal undead! 

Check out the bizarre gaming deeps at Tim Hutchings' Play Generated Ma…

Hear the 1st edition DMG read aloud with RPG academic Scott Bruner and host Ben Riggs! 

Learn more about the conference Scott talked about, NarraScope, here. 

Ben’s book on RPG adventure design, Enco…

A solo game of "lonely role-playing" allows you to become an immortal drinker of lives! Ben Riggs interviews game-creator and total mensch Tim Hutchings in this interview about his seminal work, Thou…

Hear the 1st edition DMG read aloud with RPG academic Scott Bruner and host Ben Riggs! 

Also, check out Ben's prior work on demons & devils & Dungeons & Dragons, and this 60 Minutes piece on D&D from…

Imagine a notebook with everything you need to create your own fantasy campaign already in it. Blank hex maps, pages set up for charts, even high-frequency fantasy words and eye-violating fantasy art…

Worldwide Wrestling is the Powered by the Apocalypse game of furious sports entertainment! The game both highlights the strength of the Apocalypse Engine and simulates the bombastic drama of professi…

Bluebeard's Bride from Magpie Games is a revolution in RPGs. Players take on the role of one character, just one among the group of them, and experience the tragic horror of the Bride!

Like Plot Poin…

Listen to history professor Glenn McDorman and ENnie Award-winning designer Jacob Hurst discuss "The Scarlet Citadel" by Robert E. Howard, and the story's influence on RPGs! You can check out Glenn's…

Academic Scott Bruner and Ben Riggs read aloud and comment on the 1st edition Dungeon Master’s Guide by Gary Gygax, an attempt by the game’s co-creator to instruct players, but also exert control ove…

Emily Care Boss is the brilliant designer of games like The Romance Trilogy, and Bubblegumshoe. With Ben Riggs, she chews over game theory, her career, and how Ars Magica may have directly inspired s…