The crew gather for the first Rascal Radio Hour episode of 2025, and they somehow manage to keep it under two hours. Please clap. Caelyn regales us with her time as a gym leader while Thomas and Chase keep accidentally reinventing video games. Meanwhile, Rowan is--as the title suggests--hungover on a Thursday. We talk through our recent industry-focused article, along with its clarifying followup. Rowan and Caelyn apparently have friends to play a ton of games with, and our latest delve into the Question Dungeon proves fruitful. Rascal is gearing up for a pledge drive to celebrate its first birthday! Plans are firming up, but expect to hear more as we get closer to February. In the meantime, you can purchase a gift subscription here for the people in your life who would appreciate some worker-owned tabletop journalism.

https://www.rascal.news/

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Hosted by Chase Carter (@chasecarter.bsky.social).

Featuring Caelyn Ellis (@caelyn.bsky.social), Rowan Zeoli (@rowanzeoli.bsky.social), and Thomas Manuel (@newmadras.bsky.social).

Theme song by People Need Goals.

Cover art logo by Johan Nohr (@johannohr.bsky.social).

The entire Rascal crew celebrate their first holiday season together by recording what might be their most chaotic episode yet. Chase jokes too close to the edge about kinks, Thomas digs up a piece of his mysterious pre-Rascal backstory, and Caelyn introduces everyone to Big Divorced Energy. Everyone waxes passionate about the website's first year, and then we plunge into what is eventually dubbed The Question Dungeon. Rascal is still hosting a couple of holiday subscription deals for our Friendly NPC tier. Sign up at this link and get your first two months of access for a whopping $1 per month - that's an 80% discount on full access to the site, an invitation to our subscriber-only Discord channel, among other benefits. You can also purchase a gift subscription here and present your friends and loved one with a little worker-owned journalism.

https://www.rascal.news/

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Hosted by Chase Carter (@chasecarter.bsky.social).

Featuring Caelyn Ellis (@caelyn.bsky.social), Rowan Zeoli (@rowanzeoli.bsky.social), Thomas Manuel (@newmadras.bsky.social), and a guest appearance by Lin Codega (@lincodega.bsky.social).

Theme song by People Need Goals.

Cover art logo by Johan Nohr (@johannohr.bsky.social).

Chase and Caelyn tackle the podcast beast as an adventuring duo this week. They weather a flurry of news about Funko accidentally taking down itch.io, union wins within New York City game stores, and another corporate media company feeding its writers' work into the mouth of a generative AI grist mill. Elsewhere, MTG renames a world, a board game company gets screwed by Meta, and tariffs continue to loom. Rascal is still hosting a couple of holiday subscription deals for our Friendly NPC tier. Sign up at this link and get your first two months of access for a whopping $1 per month - that's an 80% discount on full access to the site, an invitation to our subscriber-only Discord channel, among other benefits. You can also purchase a gift subscription here and present your friends and loved one with a little worker-owned journalism.

https://www.rascal.news/

https://www.rascal.news/funko-inadvertently-disables-itch-ios-whole-website-blames-third-party-brand-protection/

https://www.rascal.news/tabletop-workers-united-secures-key-non-economic-demands-after-a-year-of-fraught-negotiations/

https://www.rascal.news/future-fed-my-work-into-the-content-machine/

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Hosted by Chase Carter (@chasecarter.bsky.social).

Featuring Caelyn Ellis (@caelyn.bsky.social).

Theme song by People Need Goals.

Cover art logo by Johan Nohr (@johannohr.bsky.social).

Chase, Caelyn, and Thomas belly up to the podcasting table for a heaping helping of tabletop RPG industry news. What's going on with new EU trade regulations? Why is everyone mad at an OSR YouTuber? Why is the Battersea Transformers store so shit? All of these answers and more lie within the Rascal Radio Hour By the way, Rascal is hosting a couple of holiday subscription deals for our Friendly NPC tier. Sign up at this link and get your first two months of access for a whopping $1 per month - that's an 80% discount on full access to the site, an invitation to our subscriber-only Discord channel, among other benefits. You can also purchase a gift subscription here and present your friends and loved one with a little worker-owned journalism.

https://www.rascal.news/

https://www.rascal.news/new-legislation-impacts-games-sales-to-the-european-union/

https://www.rascal.news/no-politics-is-always-a-red-flag-even-when-defending-your-tabletop-business/

https://www.rascal.news/digital-commander-would-make-hasbro-a-ton-of-money-and-be-objectively-terrible/

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Hosted by Chase Carter (@chasecarter.bsky.social).

Featuring Caelyn Ellis (@caelyn.bsky.social) and Thomas Manuel (@newmadras.bsky.social).

Cover art logo by Johan Nohr (@johannohr.bsky.social).

Chase, Rowan, and Caelyn gather around microphone once again to chat about trench demons, legal threats against Dropout TV, and a very suspicious email in the Rascal inbox. Also, Chase talks with fellow tabletop journalist and Dungeons & Dragons expert, Christian Hoffer, about the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide. How does it hold up against the admittedly shaky version from 2014? What are the best bew additions? What's the deal with Bastions?

https://www.rascal.news/

https://www.rascal.news/building-fun-not-worlds-with-the-new-2024-dungeon-masters-guide/

https://www.rascal.news/going-over-the-top-with-trench-crusades-mike-franchina-and-toumas-pirinen/

https://www.rascal.news/rascal-receives-solicitation-from-suspicious-email-after-tabletop-union-declares-potential-strike/

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Hosted by Chase Carter (@chasecarter.bsky.social).

Featuring Rowan Zeoli (@rowanzeoli.bsky.social) and Caelyn Ellis (@caelyn.bsky.social). Special Guest is Christian Hoffer (@choffercbus.bsky.social). Check out Above the Table on YouTube!

Cover art logo by Johan Nohr (@johannohr.bsky.social).

Rascal News has a podcast! In our first episode, the crew talks about the wild tribulations of World of Game Design, German tabletop RPG The Dark Eye, and Chase's ambivalence regarding the future of Magic: The Gathering. We also discuss DriveThruRPG's new levers for filtering AI-generated content and the multivarious games the team has been playing lately.

Is our audio still pretty wonky? Yes (sorry, we're working on it). But the camaraderie and vibes are immaculate from the jump. And we keep it to a tight 60 minutes! Believe me; no need to confirm the runtime at all!

https://www.rascal.news/

https://www.rascal.news/scrying-on-irans-tabletop-scene/

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Hosted by Chase Carter (@chasecarter.bsky.social)

Featuring Rowan Zeoli (@rowanzeoli.bsky.social), Thomas Manuel (@newmadras.bsky.social), and Caelyn Ellis (@caelyn.bsky.social).

Cover art logo by Johan Nohr (@johannohr.bsky.social).