Archeologist Scott Smallwood returns to the podcast to discuss treasure hunting and looting in real life and in role-playing games. His perspective as an archeologist is thought-provoking and insightful. We also check in on his RPG design projects and end up talking about ancient Norse rap battles.

RPG designer and writer, Shawn Merwin, joins me on the podcast today. We discuss Shawn's history with role-playing games and how he began writing RPG adventures. We talk about his work on the Acquisitions Incorporated sourcebook for D&D 5e. Plus we talk about his current work with Ghost Fire Gaming and, of course, he drops role-playing wisdom and advice along the way.

Ryan McHargue, co-host of the Geezers of the Game podcast, joins me today on the show. We discuss what not to do when GMing and other role-playing game advice and tips. We talk about creating planets for Star Wars and Star Trek RPGs, FASA Star Trek, and Ryan's work with his RPG podcast. Plus we go on a rant about Star Trek 2 and 3 as well as take a detour through the feature film directorial career of Leonard Nimoy.

Tales from the Magician's Skull magazine editor and author Howard Andrew Jones returns to the podcast. In the discussion, we define the sword and sorcery genre. We cover the submission guidelines for Tales from the Magician's Skull magazine and Howard tells us feelings about dwarf and elf detective stories. Howard enlightens us as to why stories shouldn't include whiny characters when writing. We also talk about why simply writing up our RPG campaigns usually does not work as short stories. Plus, we talk about Howard's new novel released in August 2021 called When the Goddess Wakes.

Game designer Luke Miller joins me on the podcast today. We talk gamemaster advice, writing, and running solo tabletop role-playing games. The discussion kicks off with how Luke was introduced to tabletop RPGs and how he became a dungeon master. Then we talk about his new adventure in creating a solo RPG called Journey.

Gamemaster and game designer Guy Sclanders joined me on the podcast. Guy runs the How to be a Great Gamemaster YouTube Channel where posts incredible GM advice. In our discussion today, we touch on various aspects of running tabletop RPGs and Guy gives excellent advice on how to up your game. We also talk about his new diceless TTRPG called Bounty Hunter.

Director, producer, and author, James L. Conway, joins me on the show today. We discuss his television directing career including shows like MacGyver, Star Trek: TNG, Star Trek: ENT, Smallville, Charmed, The Magicians, and many more. I ask James about storytelling, directing, writing, and more. We talk about his time working on various Star Trek shows and how he was a fan of the original series. The discussion ranges from his television work into novel writing, and more.

Role-player and audiobook narrator Zac Katz-Stein joins me on the podcast today. The discussion ranges from dungeon master advice to playing your character to cutting down your GM prep time. We dive deep into tips and tricks that can help tabletop RPG gamemasters. Also, we touch on how Zac began playing RPGs and his work as an audiobook narrator.

RPG adventure designer and novelist Beth Ball drops in on the podcast today. Beth and I have a wide-ranging conversation discussing playing role-playing games with one gamemaster and one player, sometimes called one-on-one or duet play. We talk about strategies for effective one-on-one role-playing. We touch on the dreaded gamemaster player character (GMPC) and how it can be used correctly in duet RPGs. Beth gives us insights into writing and designing D&D duet adventures. Plus Beth and I dive into novel writing and discuss our experiences and processes of writing our books.

Writer and game designer Tristan Zimmerman joins me once again to take real history and work it into our RPG campaigns. We discuss a Hungarian crown heist, fated rulers in Africa, and a monk with an awesome name. The conversation ranges from an overview of these topics to taking bits of them and working them into your existing tabletop games. Get ready for an action-packed episode with tons of situations that will enhance your role-playing games.