Billy Wardlow was executed in Texas on July 8th, 2020.

He spent his last few weeks of life playing D&D.

We only know about it because of the fantastic journalism of Keri Blakinger. Today, Ben Riggs and Dr. Aaron Trammell discuss her article, "The Dungeons & Dragons Players of Death Row" with Keri herself.

Read Keri's article here.

Like what we do? Support the show on Patreon, and you'll get special episodes, such as Ben Riggs reading the Dungeon Masters Guide aloud with Dr. Scott Bruner! Hear Ben's seminars on D&D history! Chat on our Discord! All that, for a mere $3 per month! Click here to support us!

Sometimes, you catch lightning in a bottle.

That is what happened in this conversation between 3rd ed designer Jonathan Tweet, 4th ed designer Rob Heinsoo, and controversial D&D historian Ben Riggs about the spell "Wish" in D&D."

Like what we do? Support the show on Patreon, and you'll get special episodes, such as Ben Riggs reading the Dungeon Masters Guide aloud with Dr. Scott Bruner! Hear Ben's seminars on D&D history! Chat on our Discord! All that, for a mere $3 per month! Click here to support us!

Wish is a spell that is ridiculously powerful, ridiculously fun, and (perhaps) ridiculously broken! We're going to do a deep dive and look at the spell across editions. Helping us look at the spell in 2nd and 3rd edition D&D are designer Skip Williams and show stalwart, Eliza Lambert!

Like what we do? Support the show on Patreon, and you'll get special episodes, such as Ben Riggs reading the Dungeon Masters Guide aloud with Dr. Scott Bruner! Hear Ben's seminars on D&D history! Chat on our Discord! All that, for a mere $3 per month! Click here to support us!

Dungeon Crawl Classics designer Joseph Goodman set out to make a TTRPG that would recreate the wonders of fantasy and sci-fi literature as laid out by Gary Gygax in Appendix N of the 1979 Dungeon Masters Guide. In Appendix N of the Dungeon Crawl Classics, Goodman explains what he learned from Gygax's Appendix N, and how DCC is a response to it. Writer, editor, and icon of the industry James Lowder joins us to read it aloud!

Like what we do? Support the show on Patreon, and you'll get special episodes, such as Ben Riggs reading the Dungeon Masters Guide aloud with Dr. Scott Bruner! Hear Ben's seminars on D&D history! Chat on our Discord! All that, for a mere $3 per month! Click here to support us!

Peter Bebergal's Appendix N anthology can be found here!

Today, I humbly offer you joy and the bladesinger!

The bladesingers were elven warrior-wizards who swore to defend Elvenkind against all foes. They were tattooed dandies who danced into combat, and they were so cool that they have appeared in every edition of D&D since. Here, I speak with actress and DM Eliza Lambert about them! Link in the comments!

 If you want to support the show, join our Patreon here!

In a solo episode, Ben reads aloud an essay from the 2nd edition Vampire: The Masqerade Player's Guide which asks us to consider: How is a TTRPG group like God?

We are taking a break from the podcast until the week after the week of November 15th. I have turned off the Patreon payments, so no one will be charged for October. Frankly, this podcast has been much more successful than I could have anticipated when we started. I cannot overstate how much we owe this community for its support in making that success possible. That said, we want to keep what you like and add more of what you love about the show. There will be some re-jiggering. If you have any strong opinions about what you like or what you don't, please feel free to email me at [email protected]

If you give your villians psychology, do they lose their mythic status? Scott & Ben examine that and the debate between narrative-ism and game-ism in the TTRPG space on today's show!

Gollum getting Sam those rabbits seems out of character somehow... Could there be something more behind it? I run a podcast, so I got Tolkien scholar John Rateliff and The One Ring game writer Gareth Hanrahan on the show to discuss! Buy The History of the Hobbit by John Rateliff here! As I write this, it is 50% off on Amazon!

Sign up to be notified of the launch of Trail of Cthulhu 2nd edition here!

Learn more about the Tolkien collection at Marquette University here!

It's digression all the way down on this one folks! Are you looking for the juiciest of juice and the hottest of tea? Well, Ben has released his Gen Con 2024 seminar, "The Battle for the Soul of D&D," which is the culmination of dozens of hours of interviews with former Wizards of the Coast employees, and may be a sort of rough draft of his next book. The things he's heard will shock you! But the only way to get it is to become a subscriber on Patreon. Patreon subscribers will be getting a special seminar once per month from Ben, access to our Discord, and the joy of knowing they are supporting journalism and history through their current dark age. 

A reading of the spell Cure Blindness leads to the King James Bible, and a discussion of the most-controversial of D&D topics: the contributions of Gygax vs. Arneson in the creation of D&D. Are you looking for the juiciest of juice and the hottest of tea? Well, Ben has released his Gen Con 2024 seminar, "The Battle for the Soul of D&D," which is the culmination of dozens of hours of interviews with former Wizards of the Coast employees, and may be a sort of rough draft of his next book. The things he's heard will shock you! But the only way to get it is to become a subscriber on Patreon. Patreon subscribers will be getting a special seminar once per month from Ben, access to our Discord, and the joy of knowing they are supporting journalism and history through their current dark age.