Rocky and Jords see how deep the rabbit hole goes as they figure out how to plan a session that feels like you’re in the Matrix. But then, out of the Matrix. And then, back in the Matrix again.

We had a few flashbacks this episode! If you enjoyed this one, you might enjoy hearing us talk about westerns, cyberpunk, Avatar, and John Wick.

If you have ideas for topics you’d like to hear us cover, hit us up at [email protected], or slide into our DMs on Instagram, Bluesky and Mastodon.

You can also join us on Discord for a chat about the show, and all things game mastering – we’ll see you there!

Rocky and Jords dive into the world of queen bees and wannabes as they turn Mean Girls into a game.

One small correction for this one – the sequel to The Quiet Year is The Deep Forest, not The Dark Forest. They’re both wonderful games and we recommend them highly!

If you have ideas for topics you’d like to hear us cover, hit us up at [email protected], or slide into our DMs on Instagram, Bluesky and Mastodon.

You can also join us on Discord for a chat about the show, and all things game mastering – we’ll see you there!

Rocky and Jords are back to discuss how to run a great game about being a terrible archaeologist.

We basically landed on “turn your RPG into a game of high-stakes globe-hopping MacGuffin Football.” It could be some of our best work.

And hey – it’s March, but we’re still planning our year! If you have ideas for what you’d like to see in 2025, hit us up at [email protected], or slide into our DMs on Instagram, Bluesky and Mastodon.

In a fast-and-loose end of year review, Rocky and Jords talk about some of the ideas that kept showing up in Season 1.

If you have ideas for what you’d like to hear in 2025, hit us up at [email protected], or slide into our shiny new DMs on Instagram, Bluesky and Mastodon.

After a year of podcasting, Rocky and Jords finally ask the big question: how do you run a great game of D&D that actually feels like D&D?

We normally try to keep these under an hour, but as you might expect, we had some things to say.

Thanks for joining us for Season 1! If you have ideas for what you’d like to see in 2025, hit us up at [email protected] – or slide into our DMs on Instagram, Bluesky and Mastodon.

See you in 2025!

It’s killing all the way up as Rocky and Jords tackle John Wick, the ultimate movie for hyperviolent dog people.

Our system suggestions this time were Wushu, Eat the Reich and Feng Shui.

Rocky and Jords dive into Stranger Things, ET and Super-8, to figure out how to nail that nostalgia-fuelled Kids On Bikes Solving Mysteries vibe.

We talked about nodes a couple times in this episode without really diving into what they were! It’s a concept we’ve blatantly stolen from The Alexandrian, but if you’d like to hear us talk about in a way where we actually explain it, it’s come up a few times before.

You can find our recommendations of Tales from the Loop here, and Roll For Shoes here.

Rocky and Jords figure out how to capture the fake gods and real adventures of classic early 2000s TV show, Stargate: SG-1.

If you enjoyed this episode, you might also enjoy our episode on Elder Race for more on mixing and matching tech levels!

We mentioned a few other blogs in this one – for more about this style of adventure design, if you’re not across them already, head to The Alexandrian for more on node based design, and Sly Flourish for “yam shaped adventures”(?). We also briefly talked about Grant Howitt’s One Page RPGs, which are worth a look too.

And finally, thanks for waiting the extra month for what should be August’s episode! Our editor, Rocky, was in the jungles of Uganda chasing gorillas, but we should be back to our regular monthly schedule from here.

Rocky and Jords take you out to the black, to figure out how to deliver on the Space-Western-Heist vibes of Firefly.

“It’s not exactly Blades in the Dark. It is Scum and Villainy, built on Forged in the Dark.”

Arthur C. Clarke one said that “…any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” It’s a cool idea for a book – but can it work in an RPG? Rocky and Jords are on a quest to find out.

If you enjoyed this episode, try Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Elder Race, Iain M. Banks’ Inversions, or Brandon Sanderson’s The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England, all mentioned in the episode.

The Ur-example, we’ve since discovered, is Gene Wolfe’s short story Trip Trap Trip Trap, which might also be worth a look. If you have any other examples, we’d love to hear about them – it’s one of our favourite genres.