This time Roll for Origin: Supers TTRPG History jumps forward in time to the mid-1990s. Hosts Jay Brown and Lowell Francis look at Underground (1993), Mayfair's attempt to build on the DC Heroes system with a dystopian, cyberpunk supers setting. Content warning: cannibalism, PTSD, transphobia, regressive treatment of disabilities and mental illness. We go over what the game is, its place in the history of gaming, and what was going on in comics media at the time. We then move to general discussion, including what we found weird and what we dug.

If you dig this series, please rate, review, and subscribe.

Jay's the author of By Aecer’s Light, The Clockwinders for Fate, Cortex Prime's Supers, and a contributing author on Pathfinder’s Mwangi Expanse, Trophy Gold, Hit the Streets: Defend the Block, and the upcoming Lifted: Indomitable RPG, a supers game about everyday folks with extraordinary powers in a tech-aggressive world.

Check out Mad Jay's work at Play.Fearless and at the Diceology Podcast.

Lowell is the designer and co-author of Hearts of Wulin. He's the ENnie-winning creator of the Age of Ravens blog and community manager for the Open Hearth Gaming Community.

You can find Lowell's work on YouTube, on Itch.io, and on DriveThruRPG.

Find out more about the Open Hearth Gaming Community
Support us on Patreon!
Our actual play podcast can be found here
Follow us on Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/open-hearth-rpg
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/openhearthrpg
Mastodon: @[email protected] 

00:00 Intro
00:25 The Pitch
03:35 Gaming History
11:40 Comics & Media History
15:42 Thoughts  

In the inaugural episode of Fireside Chat with Agatha, Agatha is joined by Lowell Francis, Community Manager for the Open Hearth and designer of Hearts of Wulin, to talk game design. Listen as Agatha pushes Lowell for more stuff for HoW and beyond!

Agatha Cheng is the Co-Creator and Co-Host of the Asians Represent! and The Game Design Game Show podcasts
She works as a Cultural Consultant for content on Chinese history and mythology + the Chinese diaspora and Taiwan
She is the designer of Deadly Society

Lowell Francis is the designer and co-author of Hearts of Wulin. He's the ENnie-winning creator of the Age of Ravens blog and community manager for the Open Hearth Gaming Community. You can check out all of Lowell's actual plays on YouTube. You can find Hearts of Wulin and more on Itch.io, and on DriveThruRPG.

Find out more about the Open Hearth Gaming Community
Support us on Patreon!
Our actual play podcast can be found here
Follow us on Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/open-hearth-rpg
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/openhearthrpg
Mastodon: @[email protected]  

In this episode we cover a wide range of games old and new. Host Lowell Francis is joined by Rich Rogers (+1 Forward, Hit the Streets) and Jay Brown (Diceology, Life: Indomitable).

Smallville
Flying Circus
Blackout
Mythomorphosis
Spooky Asian Club
Just King Things

Find Rich Rogers' Hit the Streets here
+1 Forward Podcast Archives

Jay's the author of By Aecer’s Light, The Clockwinders for Fate, Cortex Prime's Supers, and a contributing author on Pathfinder’s Mwangi Expanse, Trophy Gold, Hit the Streets: Defend the Block, and the upcoming Lifted: Indomitable RPG, a supers game about everyday folks with extraordinary powers in a tech-aggressive world.

Check out Mad Jay's work at Play.Fearless and at the Diceology Podcast.

Lowell is the designer and co-author of Hearts of Wulin. He's the ENnie-winning creator of the Age of Ravens blog and community manager for the Open Hearth Gaming Community.

You can check out all of Lowell's actual plays on YouTube. You can find Hearts of Wulin and more on Itch.io, and on DriveThruRPG.

Find out more about the Open Hearth Gaming Community
Support us on Patreon!
Our actual play podcast can be found here
Follow us on Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/open-hearth-rpg
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/openhearthrpg
Mastodon: @[email protected] 

00:00 Introduction 
01:15 Rich and Smallville
16:14 Jay and Flying Circus
32:45 Lowell and Mythomorphosis
44:45 Giving Me Life 

Be sure to check out the Hearts of Wulin Bundle of Holding running through Wednesday July 23rd, 2025.

This is an edited and cleaned up version of a talk Lowell Francis, designer and co-writer on Hearts of Wulin, gave talking about moves, NPCs, set ups, and other topics in this game of wuxia melodrama. It is split between presentation and audience Q&A.  This is part of the Open Hearth series of seminars, discussions, and workshops.

Find out more about the Open Hearth Gaming Community
Support us on Patreon!
Our actual play podcast can be found here
Follow us on Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/open-hearth-rpg
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/openhearthrpg
Mastodon: @[email protected] 

Horror as a genre can be a great tool to use in your ventures in GMing horror games, but horror movies aren’t the only place to pull from. You can pull from many forms of media including books and real life situations. Sit down with us folks and let’s see how we each approach running horror ttrpgs!
 
This panel talk is part of the Open Hearth series of seminars, discussions, and workshops. Host Jellyfishlines moderates a panel with Mads, Vixie, and David Robles. The panel wraps with some audience Q&A.

Jellyfishlines
https://jellyfishlines.carrd.co/
https://bsky.app/profile/jellyfishlines.itch.io
https://jellyfishlines.itch.io/

Mads
Madelancholy on YouTube and Discord
https://bsky.app/profile/madelancholy.bsky.social
https://madelancholy.itch.io/

Vixie
https://linktr.ee/thepocketdragonpub
https://ko-fi.com/pocketdragonpub
Indie Game Designer Month in September! The PDP is accepting submissions! Email [email protected]

David Robles
https://linktr.ee/streamingrainbow
You can see how David GMs for horror in Mythos of War Journey through the Pyrenees and SS Sophia available on YouTube and wherever you listen to podcasts

Find out more about the Open Hearth Gaming Community
Support us on Patreon!
Our actual play podcast can be found here
Follow us on Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/open-hearth-rpg
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/openhearthrpg
Mastodon: @[email protected]

In this second episode of Roll for Origin: Supers TTRPG History, hosts Jay Brown and Lowell Francis look at Villains & Vigilantes, the superhero rpg that broke the genre open. We go over what the game is, its place in the history of gaming, and what was going on in comics media at the time. We then move to general discussion, including what we found weird and what we dug.

If you dig this series, please rate, review, and subscribe.

Jay's the author of By Aecer’s Light, The Clockwinders for Fate, Cortex Prime's Supers, and a contributing author on Pathfinder’s Mwangi Expanse, Trophy Gold, Hit the Streets: Defend the Block, and the upcoming Lifted: Indomitable RPG, a supers game about everyday folks with extraordinary powers in a tech-aggressive world.

Check out Mad Jay's work at Play.Fearless and at the Diceology Podcast.

Lowell is the designer and co-author of Hearts of Wulin. He's the ENnie-winning creator of the Age of Ravens blog and community manager for the Open Hearth Gaming Community.

You can find Lowell's work on YouTube, on Itch.io, and on DriveThruRPG.

Find out more about the Open Hearth Gaming Community
Support us on Patreon!
Our actual play podcast can be found here
Follow us on Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/open-hearth-rpg
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/openhearthrpg
Mastodon: @[email protected] 

00:00 Intro
02:50 The Pitch
09:20 Gaming History
13:52 Comics & Media History
17:20 Thoughts 

In this episode we talk recent gaming and look at some really interesting and intense games.  Host Mike Minutillo is joined community members Gwen Marshall  and Ethan Harvey. 

Night Witches: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/146173/night-witches

Fathom: https://sulcata.itch.io/fathom

Impossible Landscapes: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/344408/delta-green-impossible-landscapes

Gwen

https://bsky.app/profile/drgwenmarshall.bsky.social

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/browse?keyword=gwendolyn%20marshall

https://drgwenmarshall.itch.io

Ethan

https://ethanharvey.itch.io

https://bsky.app/profile/cavedueller.bsky.social

Find out more about the Open Hearth Gaming Community
Support us on Patreon!
Our actual play podcast can be found here
Follow us on Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/open-hearth-rpg
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/openhearthrpg
Mastodon: @[email protected]

A recording of a talk by Lowell Francis about handling world building and collaborative elements. This session was part of Shared Hearth, the Open Hearth Gaming Community free ttrpg weekend. 

In this talk/discussion we hit on 

• Reasons for a shared approach 
• How existing games handle this 
• Online tools and techniques 
• Managing collaborative building 
• ...and more. 

Talk Outline and Notes

This was a mixed discussion and Q&A. We talked about adapting a more fixed setting, like Duskvol from Blades in the Dark, and make it into one with even more interesting player input and creation. 

Find out more about the Open Hearth Gaming Community
Support us on Patreon!
Our actual play podcast can be found here
Follow us on Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/open-hearth-rpg
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/openhearthrpg
Mastodon: @[email protected] 

In this first episode of Roll for Origin: Supers TTRPG History, hosts Jay Brown and Lowell Francis look at Superhero 2044, arguably the first supers role-playing game. We go over what the game is, its place in the history of gaming, and what was going on in comics media at the time. We then move to general discussion, including what we found weird and what we dug.

If you dig this series, please rate, review, and subscribe.

Jay's the author of By Aecer’s Light, The Clockwinders for Fate, Cortex Prime's Supers, and a contributing author on Pathfinder’s Mwangi Expanse, Trophy Gold, Hit the Streets: Defend the Block, and the upcoming Lifted: Indomitable RPG, a supers game about everyday folks with extraordinary powers in a tech-aggressive world.

Check out Mad Jay's work at Play.Fearless and at the Diceology Podcast.

Lowell is the designer and co-author of Hearts of Wulin. He's the ENnie-winning creator of the Age of Ravens blog and community manager for the Open Hearth Gaming Community.

You can find Lowell's work on YouTube, on Itch.io, and on DriveThruRPG.

Find out more about the Open Hearth Gaming Community
Support us on Patreon!
Our actual play podcast can be found here
Follow us on Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/open-hearth-rpg
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/openhearthrpg
Mastodon: @[email protected] 

00:00 Intro
01:30 The Pitch
05:23 Gaming History
08:55 Comics & Media History
12:45 Thoughts

Ian & José are joined by Marc Majcher to discuss how we develop & pursue both in- and out-of-character aspirations. What makes a goal, and how can having one drive play? Along the way we talk about how closely we identify with our PC’s, and peer briefly into using techniques from improv theatre to improve our gaming.

Timecodes:
0:01:30 Pick Your Poison
0:09:55 Setting character goals
0:18:55 Goals & Plot
0:25:44 How do games help us form goals?
0:36:37 Instrumental play & balancing goals between PC's
0:42:08 Finding goals through improv & PC embodiment
0:48:52 Unconscious PC motivation
0:52:24 Generic systems & stock tropes
0:59:33 Pearls of Wisdom
1:03:13 Outro

Marc’s Work: majcher.com, Twitch.tv/mmajcher

Find out more about the Open Hearth Gaming Community
Support us on Patreon!
Our actual play podcast can be found here
Follow us on Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/open-hearth-rpg
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/openhearthrpg
Mastodon: @[email protected]

Our info:
email: [email protected]
music: https://lloydeaves.bandcamp.com/album/a-different-kind-of-hex