Epic Adventure

Send us Fan Mail

In February of 2019 Ron Burgandy started his podcast. You know, Ron Burgandy, “Stay Classy San Diego”, the fictional 70s character from the movie Anchorman played by Will Ferrall. 

When Will Farrall started the Ron Burgandy Podcast was when the AV Club announced that “Everybody has a podcast.” And that’s not far from the mark. But while the sentiment might feel like it’s a bad thing I completely disagree. The ability for everyday people to broadcast their thoughts, hobbies, ideas, and passions to the world for like minded people is truly one of the great marvels of our world and we should embrace it instead of making fun of it.

I started my first podcast in 2020 when the world was shut down and in 2023 I started this one to showcase my love of roleplaying. Since then, I have listened to hundreds, hell thousands of podcasts, many have come and gone but the ones that endure and become successful do so for a variety of reasons. That’s what we are going to talk about today on this Behind-the-Scenes episode of Epic Adventure.

Joining me today will be my friend Malcolm from the Finding Atoria Podcast and we are going to talk about whey we started our podcasts in the first place, the challenges of getting them off the ground and how we keep them rolling from week to week.

Malcolm, who’s idea was it to start the Finding Atoria Podcast and how hard was it to put together that first episode?

[Kick to Malcolm]

Send us Fan Mail

Welcome to you heard it here last, where we talk about news you’ve already heard.

Don’t worry, there is nothing wrong with your podcast and you don’t have to change the dial. This isn’t Morning Drive on FM 103 The Wave, it’s just Malcolm from the Finding Atoria Podcast stepping in this morning.

Say Hello Malcom,

[Kick to Malcolm]

You know ever since we started chatting, I felt like we had our own Berry White and Isaac Hayes thing going on, so hopefully the listeners can sit back, relax and enjoy.

So here is the deal, we are going to break down some recent RPG news and give our opinions, ideas, and feelings on the topic.

Our first story comes to us from EN World and its there Most Anticipated RPG of 2026 Fan Vote.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/its-time-to-vote-for-your-most-anticipated-ttrpg-of-2026.716726/

By now the voting is likely done, but I thought it would be interesting to throw out our votes and get the debate rolling.

Malcom, what are your three most anticipated RPG’s for 2026?

[Kick to Malcolm]

[Here are my Three, in no particular order; Toon, 2nd Edition from Steve Jackson Games. Procedural from Occupied Hex Games and the mind of Rob Kerkovich. Sisterhood: Nuns with Guns from Parable Games.]

https://www.enworld.org/threads/james-ohlen-shifts-from-archetype-entertainment-head-to-creative-consultant-for-tabletop-rpgs-at-wizards.716766/

Next up is the announcement that James Ohlen is leaving Archetype Entertainment a Wizards of the Coast video game company and he is being replaced by Blizzard Veteran Paul Della Bitta. This comes as Archetype Entertainment is moving into the final phase of bringing Exodus to release in 2027. But Ohlen isn’t leaving Wizards. He is sticking around as a consultant to focus on Table Top Roleplaying Games. This whole thing smells like the fishing docks at low tide to me. What are your thoughts Malcolm?

[Kick to Malcolm]

And there you have it, all the news, you’ve already heard.

Send us Fan Mail

I’ve got a lot of games on my book shelves. Some are old games that I have played a lot, others are games that looked good in the store and I picked them up, but never got around to playing them. And then there is my Kickstarter addiction. Yea, I’ve got several that I picked up through Kickstarter because they sounded good and then once I got them, I never broke them out and played them.

I don’t think I’m unique in that regard and I also know that I’m on the low end of the collecting scale so really my problem is in my own head. But, it doesn’t change the fact that I have a lot of games I want to play.

So my New Years Resolution is to pick three of those games on my shelf I’ve never played, and play them this year.

That’s it. Just play three games I haven’t played before in 2026

That couldn’t be easier, could it?

Well not so fast. You see I’m running an ongoing Conan Campaign that the players seem to love and of course Christina is running her Ghost Hunters in Space game and then Mike keeps promising Cyberpunk … He’s a busy man I can’t give him too hard a time.

So when do you fit it in. What do you stop playing and when do you start a new game.

That’s a problem for another show. In this episode Mike, Christina and I are going to talk about the three games we are going to try and run this year and why we want to run them or play them so badly.

We will do this round robin style with each of us talking about one game we want to play and why, and of course I’m going to start with Christina?

[Kick to Christina]

Mike, Your turn

[Kick to Mike]

Send us Fan Mail

Welcome to you heard it hear last, where we talk about news, you’ve already heard.

Well, here we are in 2026 and this is our first episode of Season 4. We are having a great time and I hope you are as well. Speaking of great times our first bit of news is like a blast from the past for me.

https://www.rascal.news/steve-jackson-games-announces-toon-second-edition/

Steve Jackson Games has just launched a Backerkit for Toon Second Edition. Toon is a roleplaying game set in the world of cartoons. Not the animie stuff, but the good old fashioned Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies cartoons produced by Warner Brothers. I grew up on those, routing for Bugs Bunny and always laughing when proclaimed the wrong turn at Albuquerque. Steve Jackson Games launched the first edition in 1984 and I loved it. Now, over 40 years later they are bringing out the Second Edition.

Mike, did you ever play Toon?

[Kick to Mike]

What about you Christina, where the Looney Tunes big for you growing up?

[Kick to Christina]

Next up we have a little interesting piece of news and maybe, just maybe a view of something to come.

https://www.rascal.news/why-did-his-majesty-the-worm-skip-the-kickstarter/

His Majesty the Worm is a tarot card RPG that was released in 2023. The creators utilized Itch.io and put up chapters as written with a pay-what-you-want request. They used the money gathered to help pay for artists and final printing costs. Now they are launching a supplement to His Majesty the Worm titled Castle Automatic. This mega dungeon in the Castlevania style isn’t going the route of backerkit or kickstarter. Nope, they are simply doing pre-orders through Exalted Funereal. We have talked several times on the podcast about the problems with big companies getting involved in platforms that were originally designed for new creators and this seems like the logical outcome of those markets being dominated now by the big brands.

Mike, Put on your business hat. What’s this mean?

[Kick to Mike]

Christina, Thoughts?

[Kick to Christina]

And there you have it. All they news, you’ve already heard.

Send us Fan Mail

If I have read it once in an online forum I have read it a thousand times.

“I want to play game X but my players won’t play anything but D&D”

I always want to fire back with get new players, but that isn’t necessarily realistic and besides it’s not a good answer.

Over the years I’ve played a ton of different games and game systems. I personally have never hard a difficult time convincing people to try something different, but maybe that’s because I’m good at convincing people to try something different.

Taking a step back I can see where someone might struggle with pitching a new game idea. Or have to overcome the inherent biases of their players who just want to keep doing the thing that they like instead of trying new stuff.

So, for our last episode of Season 3 and 2025, Christina and I are going to talk about pitching a game idea to your players. We are going to give you some tips and tricks to help sell them on the idea, but first let’s start with Christina.

Christina, Pitch Mike and I a game idea to make us want to play.

[Kick to Christina]

It’s only fair that I give it a shot. Here goes.

[Steve’s Pitch]

Send us Fan Mail

Welcome to You Heard it Here Last, where we talk about news, you’ve already heard.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/tolkien%E2%80%99s-writing-desk-on-auction-at-christies.716325/

Christie’s Action House is hosting a live auction in December, 2025 called Groundbreakers: Icons of our Time and in that auction, you will find a simple 19th Century Merton’s College Desk that just happened to be owned by JRR Tolkien. The desk is going for a deal at somewhere between 50 and 80 thousand Pounds.

Christina

You don’t strike me as much of a collector? Do these things interest you?

[Kick to Christina]

Along with the desk they also have the Winchcombe Meteorite, the Kenbak-1 First Personal Computer, and the original cover artwork for the first edition of Warhammer. Definitely some cools stuff for the collector out there.

Next up we have two of our favorite things; Netflix and D&D.

Yep, I read that in my sarcasm voice.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/shawn-levy-provides-update-on-netflix-d-d-show.716209/

Shawn Levy the producer for the upcoming live action D&D Show title Forgotten Realms gave a brief update on what’s been going on behind the scenes with the show and his answers are, well, Interesting. Levy said "I think that the reason it's taken so long and the reason why it is a challenging process is you're not adapting story IP, You're adapting a world and a lexicon and a spirit, but story needs to be invented largely from scratch. And it needs to be invented in a way that feels organic to everything that's great about DnD. So that one is in very active every day chipping-away-at-it development at Netflix."

Let me translate that for you…This show is going to suck.

Christina, what do you think?

[Kick to Christina]

And finally, from all of us to all of you. Whatever you believe in and however you believe it. Just be happy. 

And there you have it, all the news, you’ve already heard.

Send us Fan Mail

I remember being a young roleplayer diving into my first rpg’s. Character creation was similar in most of the games on the market. Make a very basic character, adventure with them, kill monsters, find treasure, gain experience points, gain levels, get more skills, rinse, repeat. Back in the day we would memorize the XP charts so we would know when our characters would level up.

Those old TTRPG’s were bad enough, but when computer programmers took their favorite table top games and ported them into the computer world the character advancement concept of “leveling up” started to look like heroine dealers giving their junkie friends the first taste for free.

Over the years character advancement has been closely tied to the leveling up concept, but I’ve noticed something interesting as I’ve become an older and more mature gamer.

I don’t care about leveling up.

It’s not the character advancement I’m looking for. I think I first became aware of the anti-leveling up faction when I first started playing Traveller all of those years ago. In Traveller you create a seasoned, experienced character. After character creation nothing really changes. And then there was Call of Cthulhu a game in which your character is more likely to get worse as you play and not better.

Funny enough, those are my two favorite roleplaying games.

In this episode Christina, and I are going to talk about character advancement. The traditional methods and why it was innovative and important at the time and the current ideas of character advancement and how they have changed over the years.

First let’s start with the Doc.

Christina, what are you personal thoughts on character advancement, before we get into all the scientific nitty gritty?

Kick to Christina

Send us Fan Mail

Welcome to You Heard it Here Last where we talk about news, you’ve already heard.

We have a little D&D announcement coming out of Wizards of the Coast that I’m actually kind of interested in.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/wizards-of-the-coast-re-registers-dark-sun-with-uspto.716113/

Wizards of the Coast recently filed an application to register Dark Sun in the US, a sign that D&D could be bringing back the campaign setting in the near future. That’s the opening sentence to the article about the move on EN world. The article goes on to point out that the trademark on Dark Suns lapsed a year ago and that this might be basic paperwork, but I’m kinda holding out hope.

Dark Sun was an original campaign world set on a post-apocalyptic desert planet and in my opinion the only interesting setting D&D has ever had. It was dark, gritty, and at the time of it’s release in 1991 genre-bending. It was also a little controversial at the time and I think it would be even more so today. The setting had slavery, genocide, and leaned into racial themes such as the “muls” a half human half dwarf created for forced labor. I’m not sure those would fly today.

Chirstina, this seems like a setting just dripping with ethical issues and your our ethical expert…thoughts?

[Kick to Christina]

Next on our list is a cultural mile marker. One of those things that can really tell you where you are at in the great timeline. If you doubted that roleplaying had become a common hobby then this is the final piece of information you have been waiting for to change your mind.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/review-of-how-to-dungeon-master-parenting.716272/

This new book, designed for expecting families breaks down parenting in a way that gamers will understand. Move over Dr. Spock, we have How to Dungeon Master Parenting. While I haven’t read the book, the article on EN World is enough to sell me on it.

Christina, from a cultural standpoint, how important is a book like this that mergers our favorite hobby with raising kids?

[Kick to Christina]

And there you have it, all the news that you’ve already heard.

Send us Fan Mail

In 2023 I was already neck deep into my Kickstarter obsession when I saw an advertisement for a brand new OSR style roleplaying game called Shadowdark. It was the creation of Kelsey Dionne and it looked very cool. The book was large and black with silver script and silver artwork of what I thought was a beholder.

I immediately backed it. But to be fair I was immediately backing a lot of things back then. When I turned on my YouTubes I got blasted with a social media blitz unlike any I had seen before. All of the TTRPG sites that covered anything even remotely different than D&D were all over this game. The superlatives seemed to match the online excitement and soon it had garnered 1.4 million dollars on Kickstarter.

I couldn’t wait to get the book. But while I was reading the .pdf and waiting for the hardback to arrive I had the chance to watch Kelsey Dionne herself walk backers through her creation process of the ranger class. I also got to see a number of interviews with her regarding the product. Again, I just kept getting more and more excited.

When the book finally came it sat on my bookshelf. Now don’t be sad for the game, that’s what tends to happen to most of the stuff I grab off of Kickstarter. But, it was on a short list of games to be played.

Finally, my Masks of Nyrlethotep came to a shuddering, bumbling halt and I wanted something fast, easy, and different as a palette cleanser. Enter Shadowdark. I quickly brushed up on the rules and set the date for my group. This was about the same time that the Glass Cannon Podcast announced they were going to be using Shadowdark as the rules for their next big live play. Yep, stoked again.

We dove head first into Shadowdark.

And it was … Ok … I guess.

Not the resounding plug you thought I was going to give.

If you are fans of the game, stick around because we are diving deeper than that. There are some really good things about this game. Some really bad things about this game. And a lot of mehh things about this game. In this episode Mike, Christina, and I are going to walk you through all of that and give you our honest review of the game.

Send us Fan Mail

Welcome to You Heard it Here Last where we talk about news, you’ve already heard.

Let’s start with my favorite Vin Diagram. Roleplayers and Cat Owners. It’s a perfect circle. And to prove it we are going to start with the King of Crits, 2025 Dice Advent Calendar.

https://dnddice.com/products/dice-advent-calendar-2025?variant=46949401395426&country=US¤cy=USD&utm_source=chatgpt.com

The dice are cute as hell and if you or someone you know is into advent calendar’s then this is perfect.

Mike, what do you think about the King of Crits 2025 Dice Advent Calendar.

[Kick to Mike]

Christina, you love dice are you in on this one?

[Kick to Christina]

The King of Crits isn’t the only dice advent calendar on the market this year.

https://diceenvy.com/products/advent-calendar?currency=USD&variant=47074082324723&stkn=1f01dd7311e3&utm_source=chatgpt.com

Dice Envy has gotten into the game with their 2025 dice advent calendar. The twist on this one is you get to decide if you want the Nice version with Santa and all the traditional happiness that comes with that or the Naughty version based on Krampas with the darker side of Christmas dice. They also have an option to let the Christmas goblin decide which one you get when you order, which I think is pretty cool.

Christina, the more dice the merry I assume, but which one of this do you like better? And I’m not Christmas shopping, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

[Kick to Christina]

Mike, I’m going to assume you like the cat dice, but which one is it for you?

[Kick to Mike]

Next up we have the Glass Staff Player Journal.

https://forgedgaming.com/products/glassstaff-player-journal?variant=47958671098087&country=US¤cy=USD&utm_source=chatgpt.com

I love these player journals. They are faux leather bound with gold foil and premium paper. They look great and inside they have almost 200 pages to keep track of your character. From pages with all of the little boxes for character stuff to open pages to write about your adventures. The only problem for me is that they all seem to be made for D&D5e and since I don’t play that…oh well.

Finally, how about a little fantasy glass ware. Nobody can have enough glass ware and if you settling down with your friends after storming the duke’s castle and sharing some of your favorite adult beverage then you need something cool to put it in.

https://www.fantasyglassworks.com/

Fantasy Glass Works can pretty much custom make whatever you want from beer mugs to coffee cups and most things in between. And they are family owned out of Rockford Illinois so that’s a bonus. I think I would get a Tankard Beer Mug with the Sigil from our Conan Campaign.

Mike, how about this as a Christmas gift?

[Kick to Mike]

Christina, any favorites?

[Kick to Christina]

And there you have it, all the news, you’ve already heard.