Reading D&D Aloud

Today, enjoy this conversation between 3rd edition D&D lead designer Jonathan Tweet and TTRPG historians Shannon Appelcline and Ben Riggs! They discuss one of the hotbeds of gaming ferment, St. Olaf College, which produced nerd legends like Lisa Stevens, Mark Rein-Hagen, Nicole Lindroos, and Tweet himself. Then they move on to discuss one of the most influential games of all time: ARS MAGICA.

Because Ben is a nerd, he wrote poems introducing the pair of them:

This is a poem named Jonathan Tweet:

Behold the mage of rules, whose art is deep,

The spellwright bold, our guest Jonathan Tweet.

From ARS MAGICA's birth to d20's grand reign,

His hand has shaped the games that fire the brain.

With visions vast, mechanics deft and true,

He forged new worlds for countless fans to view.

Tonight we call his wisdom to our show,

To learn how tales of wizards first did grow.

This is a poem named Shannon Appelcline:

Behold the sage who tracks our gaming lore,

The chronicler of nerdy days of yore.

From Designers & Dragons he drops the whole score,

The wins, the fails, the beefs, the stats, and more.

So buckle up folks, 'cause tonight we're online,

With gaming's hot chronicler, Shannon Appelcline.

You can find Shannon's latest history, THIS IS FREE TRADER BEOWULF, here.

Jonathan suggest you check out his book on evolution for kids, GRANDMOTHER FISH, here.

And you can always buy Ben's book, SLAYING THE DRAGON: A SECRET HISTORY OF DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, which is excellent, here.

Our guest tonight is a giant in the realms — literally and figuratively. Richard Baker is a legendary Dungeons & Dragons designer, novelist, and world-builder whose fingerprints are all over the game we love. He's helped shape settings like the Forgotten Realms, Birthright, and Alternity. He designed iconic adventures. He wrote novels that bring fantasy worlds roaring to life. With all that experience, it is certain sure Rich knows how to roll natural 20s on creativity. So grab your dice and brace for adventure — Richard Baker is in the house!

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D&D is bigger than it has ever been, but being a D&D fan in 2025 is deeply confusing.

The questions come on and on.

• Why do extensive promotion of a virtual tabletop for D&D, Sigil, and then give it no marketing at rollout and kill it a month later?
• Why has there been an exodus of staff from the company?
• Why, after a golden age during the game's 5th edition, has Wizards struggled to find traction since the debut of 2024 D&D?

In this seminar from Gen Con 2025, I try to answer a bunch of these questions.

Listen, and enjoy!

Support the podcast and get extra content on Patreon here!

Is Wizards messing this up? We discuss with two titans of the TTRPG industry!

First up, David M. Ewalt – journalist, editor, and author of the engaging and wonderful Of Dice and Men. He is currently the editor in chief of Scientific American, which may make him the most prestigious personage I've ever had on this podcast. He is also the author of Defying Reality: The Inside Story of the Virtual Reality Revolution and has worked at Forbes and the Wall Street Journal. Welcome David!

And then there's Sean McCoy, the creative whirlwind behind Mothership, the award-winning sci-fi horror RPG that has taken the RPG scene by storm. Mothership is tense, terrifying, totally unforgettable, and yet somehow rules light! He is without a doubt a hot shot of 21st century game design, and he's a real "get" for the podcast. Welcome Sean!

Support the podcast and get extra content on Patreon here!

This week, we go deep into the Old School Revolution with Old School Essentials creator Gavin Norman and Josh McCrowell of His Majesty the Worm!

Gavin Norman is the mind behind some of the most exciting work in the modern OSR scene. He is best known for Old-School Essentials, the gold standard for clean, accessible retro-gaming rules that have brought thousands of new players into old-school play. His work doesn't just celebrate the roots of tabletop RPGs—it refines them, making them sing with clarity and style. If you've ever cracked open an OSE book, you know exactly what I mean: sharp design, killer layout, and an unwavering love for the game. Gavin Norman is, simply put, one of the defining voices of today's old-school revolution.

Josh McCrowell is the creator of His Majesty the Worm—a deeply weird, beautiful, and melancholy dungeon crawler that uses tarot cards as its core mechanic. It's also up for an ENNIE this year! Josh is also one of the brains behind Knock Magazine, that gloriously chaotic love letter to the DIY RPG scene, packed with ideas, art, and inspiration. His work blends creativity with a genuine sense of wonder. Josh McCrowell is a designer who reminds us that the dungeon isn't just for killing monsters—it's for exploring what it means to be alive.

Find Gavin's work on OSE here! https://www.exaltedfuneral.com/pages/old-school-essentials

Acquire Josh's brilliant game here:

https://www.hismajestytheworm.games/#h.mvmqxy70j0s9

Ben's Gen Con seminar this year is entitled "Solving the Mysteries of the D&B Business." He's interviewed dozens of former and current WotC employees, and has real answers to questions we all have about the game.

Why do extensive promotion of a virtual tabletop for D&D, Sigil, and then give it no marketing at rollout and kill it a month later?

Why has there been an exodus of staff from the company?

Why, after a golden age during the game's 5th edition, has Wizards struggled to find traction since the debut of 2025 D&D?

These questions and more Ben will attempt to answer in his sold-out Gen Con seminar!

Given demand, Ben is going to livestream a rehearsal of the show on Zoom on Tuesday, July 29th, at 9 PM EST/ 6 PM PST. But the only way you can listen is by being a Patreon subscriber! It's only $3 a month. Click here to join now!

https://www.patreon.com/user?u=121641556&utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink

My guest tonight is a legend in the world of game design and storytelling. Richard Dansky is best known as the mind behind some of the darkest and most compelling corners of the World of Darkness. He served as the developer for Wraith: The Oblivion and helped shape the haunting masterpiece Charnel Houses of Europe: The Shoah, one of the most powerful books ever written for a roleplaying game.

But Richard''s also a veteran of the video game industry, working as a writer and narrative designer. My favorites there include the 2004 Far Cry and Driver. He's a novelist, a storyteller, and someone who knows how to make horror feel deeply, uncomfortably human. Cough cough soulforging.

My next guest is a name well-known to fans of classic fantasy RPGs—Lou Prosperi. Lou was the developer of Earthdawn at FASA, the beloved post-apocalyptic fantasy game where magic, horror, and high adventure collide. His work helped define the rich, mythic tone of that setting, making Earthdawn one of the most unique fantasy RPGs of the 1990s.

I would like to start with a summary of the book we are going to discuss, and just to be clear, we will be covering some disturbing stuff today. I cried reading this book, which I think is a first for a TTRPG book, and it would not surprise me if I cried during this discussion, so I am just laying that out there now.

Charnel Houses of Europe: The Shoah is a profound, unsettling supplement that turns the Holocaust into a haunting Wraith narrative—melding historical documentation with metaphysical resonance.

It looks at what happens when millions of dead arrive in the afterlife all at once. It causes a crisis in the hierarchy, the rather nasty government ruling the western afterlife. The response is actually quite remarkable. In an arrangement called the Covenant of the Millions, they decide to give space to the dead of the Shoah for them to govern themselves. They also decide to allow the Shoah dead to hunt down Nazis in the afterlife.

Its strength lies in its gravity and respect for the subject: it's not a casual horror romp, but a rigorous, emotionally charged exploration.

For Storytellers aiming to address trauma, memory, and unresolved spirits, this book offers compelling—and deeply sobering—tools.

It's from White Wolf's Black Dog Gaming imprint, which means Use with care: it's intended for mature, sensitive gamers, and its impact depends heavily on tone, preparation, and player trust.

I'd say the same for this conversation.

You can pick up Lou's great books on Disney's imagineering here!

Read Rich's book on surviving the video game industry as a writer here!

This one's a banger: D&D designer Steve Winter meets Ben Milton of Questing Beast!

Ben Milton is a game designer, YouTube sage, and sorceror-king of the OSR demigod! He's the mind behind Knave 2e and the force behind Questing Beast, your portal to the wild, weird wonders of old-school RPGs. If you like sharp rules, deadly dungeons, and freedom at the table, Ben's your guy.

And don't sleep on Steve Winter — a living D&D legend. From sneaking into TSR through a second-story window to shaping 2e, 3e, and beyond, Steve has been part of D&D's DNA for decades.

Tune in. Nerd out. 🎲🔥

Find Knave here, and Ben's YouTube channel here!

Tuesday, July 15th at 9 PM EST, Patrons of the show will be able to join a live book discussion on Charnal Houses of Europe: The Shoah. The conversation will include the book's developer, Richard Dansky, and Earthdawn developer Lou Prosperi. But only Patrons can participate live! Click here to back the show and participate in the conversation!

Not one, not two, but THREE RPG HISTORIANS in one hour of amazing audio!

Today, we are fortunate to have with us Shannon Appelcline, author of the magisterial THIS IS FREE TRADER BEOWULF, which is a history of the Traveller RPG. He's probably most famous for DESIGNERS AND DRAGONS, which is his multi-volume history of seemingly every role-playing game company that ever put up a shingle and slammed some dice on a table. It was a book that got me through the pandemic. He seems to finish writing books at the pace other people finish playing video games.

Second in order but by no means in rank we have Jon Peterson. As I will keep repeating until I see it on Google's N-gram viewer, Jon is the Thucydides of D&D history. His PLAYING AT THE WORLD and GAME WIZARDS are both required reading if you are going to post about D&D history anywhere online.

The 2nd edition of PLAYING AT THE WORLD is nominated for an ENNIE Award!

Buy THIS IS FREE TRADER BEOWULF here!

On July 15th, Patrons of our pod will get a special treat! We will be doing a book club on Shoah for Wraith: The Oblivion. The conversation will include the book's developer, Richard Dansky, and Earthdawn developer Lou Prosperi. Patrons can participate live, and even ask questions! If that sounds good, hie thee forth to our Patreon to subscribe!

I can't believe I got these two on the show together! First, Kevin Crawford is a TTRPG design legend. My favorites from his work are Stars Without Number, and Worlds Without Number, both of which have been tremendously successful and influential as paragons of sleek game design and peerless GM tools. Stars was what I ran during the pandemic, and Worlds I read, and since the birth of my son, I read about one RPG every six months, but I had to put Worlds in that rotation just to see what Kevin did in it. To give just a taste of Kevin's influence, Blades in the Dark creator John Harper said that the origin of Blades in the Dark was a Stars Without Number campaign. And Blades, which is itself an epochal piece of design, birthed an entire universe of games using its system.

Second, we have D&D icon Steve Winter. It is possible that Steve has the longest D&D career of anyone in the history of the game. He began working on D&D back at TSR in downtown Lake Geneva, and once even broke into the offices by climbing in a second storey window. He was a vital voice on 2nd edition AD&D. He was one of the first people to work on 3rd edition D&D, even though that project then passed on to other hands, and he followed D&D from Wisconsin to Renton, Washington where he continued to produce work for D&D through 5th edition.

Check out Kevin's work here!

On July 15th, Patrons of our pod will get a special treat! We will be doing a book club on Shoah for Wraith: The Oblivion. The conversation will include the book's developer, Richard Dansky, and Earthdawn developer Lou Prosperi. Patrons can participate live, and even ask questions! If that sounds good, hie thee forth to our Patreon to subscribe!

Who saved Dungeons & Dragons? How many people could say that they saved Dungeons & Dragons? Off the top of my head, I would say that the list of people who could say they saved D&D at some point over the course of its 51-year history is less than 20. But I believe I have one of those people who could credibly tell a story explaining how they saved D&D on the podcast with me today, because today I am speaking with Ryan Dancey. Ryan is like a Rhode Island private who just happened to be at every major battle of the Civil War. He seems to have been present at a number of important moments during the transplantation of D&D from TSR to Wizards of the Coast. He went to Lake Geneva as part of a team to negotiate an initial purchase with TSR CEO Lorraine Williams. Then, when D&D landed at Wizards, he found himself in charge of D&D, and had to figure out how to make the game make money again.

Ben interviewed 2nd ed designer Zeb Cook in Hugh Hefner's suite at Gary Con and there's video! You NEED to see this! And the only way you are going to get access to this amazing interview is by subscribing to our Patreon. It's only $3 a month! Click here!

Want more of Ben's work? Check out SLAYING THE DRAGON: A SECRET HISTORY OF DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, available wherever books are sold!