Roleplay Rescue

If roleplaying games are really about roleplay then how come so much of our time at the table is spent doing all sorts of other things that aren’t roleplay?

Is there a way in which we can craft our play experience to put the roleplay back into the roleplaying game while still remaining a collaborative game?

There comes a time when many a roleplaying gamer realises that they are unsatisfied with the way in which the game is being played. I’ve been in this place for longer than I can remember, and I have attempted to resolve this in many unsatisfactory ways. No one else’s game rules have ever quite worked for me – although there are a couple of sets that get close – but more fundamentally it turns out that the problem has been methodological. 

As I start the fifteenth season of Roleplay Rescue, I want to focus on how to get more of what I want: roleplay with friends in an imaginative Otherworld.

Big thanks to Spencer and Barry for taking the time to record their messages!

Roleplay Rescue Details:

Voice Message:

speakpipe.com/roleplayrescue

Patreon:

patreon.com/rpgrescue 

Email:

[email protected]

Blog

roleplayrescue.com 

Bluesky Social:

https://bsky.app/profile/ubiquitousrat.bsky.social

MeWe:

https://mewe.com/p/roleplayrescue

Logo and artwork by MJ Hiblen:

https://www.patreon.com/MJHiblenART/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode emerged from a Zoom call I shared with today’s guest which he was gracious enough to allow me to record and share. The episode is as simple as that: a recorded chat in which we catch up and then start to talk about Dungeoneer, also known as the Advanced Fighting Fantasy RPG from 1989.

My conversation is with Simon Williams, a British artist and illustrator as well as being the creator of the Legend of The Bones podcast, a hybrid Solo Old School Dungeons and Dragons actual play and dark fantasy audio drama. 

Simon opens the conversation with a bold claim - the one you heard at the top of the show - and we explore the idea of using the Fighting Fantasy rules for developing our own Otherworld-immersed games.

Big thanks to Simon for coming on the show and letting me share it largely unedited. I hope you find his enthusiasm as infectious as I did.

Game on!

Legend of the Bones podcast:

Legend of the Bones Podcast — Apple Podcasts OR https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/legend-of-the-bones/id1622036301

Legend of the Bones | Podcast on Spotify OR https://open.spotify.com/show/2HIuUxGzBtQLdGgPWRwjkg?si=0e438637d0854b09&nd=1&dlsi=57a5f90b55a148d1

Legend of the Bones website: Legend of the Bones OR https://legendofthebones.blogspot.com/

Roleplay Rescue Details:

Voice Message:

speakpipe.com/roleplayrescue

Patreon:

patreon.com/rpgrescue 

Email:

[email protected]

Blog

roleplayrescue.com 

Bluesky Social:

https://bsky.app/profile/ubiquitousrat.bsky.social

MeWe:

https://mewe.com/p/roleplayrescue

Roleplay Rescue Theme by Jon Cohen from Tale of the Manticore:

https://taleofthemanticore.podbean.com/

Logo and artwork by MJ Hiblen:

https://www.patreon.com/MJHiblenART/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode emerged from a Zoom call I shared with today’s guest which he was gracious enough to allow me to record and share. The episode is as simple as that: a recorded chat in which we catch up and then start to talk about a question I raised: what would you do if you had a new player to add to your existing roleplaying group?

My conversation is with Johnn Four, the founder of RoleplayingTips.com which began as a GM tips newsletter back in the late 1990s. Johnn is perhaps best known for the 5 Room Dungeon, even though throughout the years, Johnn has published a GM advice column in Dragon Magazine, several books about how to improve your GMing, and continues to write on the topic of running better games. 

Big thanks to Johnn for allowing me to share this largely unedited conversation!

Game on!

Role Playing Tips for Tabletop Game Masters:

roleplayingtips.com/ OR https://www.roleplayingtips.com/

Roleplay Rescue Details:

Voice Message:

speakpipe.com/roleplayrescue

Patreon:

patreon.com/rpgrescue 

Email:

[email protected]

Blog

roleplayrescue.com 

Bluesky Social:

https://bsky.app/profile/ubiquitousrat.bsky.social

MeWe:

https://mewe.com/p/roleplayrescue

Roleplay Rescue Theme by Jon Cohen from Tale of the Manticore:

https://taleofthemanticore.podbean.com/

Logo and artwork by MJ Hiblen:

https://www.patreon.com/MJHiblenART/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Back at the beginning of 2025, I decided that I wanted to double-down on my mastery of GURPS as the roleplaying game system that I actually consistently enjoy. Alongside that I decided that I wanted to take on the challenge of developing my own science-fiction space-based game. This would involve creating a sector of space and working out the basis for different approaches to SF play within it. 

With a month of anxious dithering behind me, I found inspiration while sitting with the face-to-face group prior to continuing our current Cthulhu investigation: one of the players expressed, not for the first time, a desire to play something SF. Given my realisation that I have transitioned towards a more improvisational style at the table, I determined that it would be fun to create a framework within which we might play.

This episode is drawn from the play notes that I made one Sunday in February 2025, which were then posted on the Roleplay Rescue blog at roleplayrescue.com. Why share them here? Well, firstly they turned out to be a truly enlightening series of notes for me as a potential science-fiction GM, unlocking many of the doors to playing SF that I had experienced being closed tight ever since my earliest experiences with Traveller in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Big thanks to Carl D and Brian for taking the time to record some messages.

Game on!

New Frontiers Map:

https://roleplayrescue.com/2025/02/06/new-frontiers-part-v/

Roleplay Rescue Details:

Voice Message:

speakpipe.com/roleplayrescue

Patreon:

patreon.com/rpgrescue 

Email:

[email protected]

Blog

roleplayrescue.com 

Bluesky Social:

https://bsky.app/profile/ubiquitousrat.bsky.social

MeWe:

https://mewe.com/p/roleplayrescue

Roleplay Rescue Theme by Jon Cohen from Tale of the Manticore:

https://taleofthemanticore.podbean.com/

Logo and artwork by MJ Hiblen:

https://www.patreon.com/MJHiblenART/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This one’s filled with the voices echoing out the of Abyss - in other words, it’s a call-in episode. These all stacked up from the 4th December 2024 into 2025, so there’s plenty of good comments, questions, and ideas to hear.

I love to hear from you because it encourages me. Without your voices - the listener’s feedback - it would feel a very empty and dark abyss to be shouting into. Big thanks in advance to Jon, Simon, Wiebe, Matt, Karl R, Michael, Andrew, and Carl D for taking the time to record me a message. 

Game on!

Roleplay Rescue Details:

Voice Message:

speakpipe.com/roleplayrescue

Patreon:

patreon.com/rpgrescue 

Email:

[email protected]

Blog

roleplayrescue.com 

Bluesky Social:

https://bsky.app/profile/ubiquitousrat.bsky.social

MeWe:

https://mewe.com/p/roleplayrescue

Roleplay Rescue Theme by Jon Cohen from Tale of the Manticore:

https://taleofthemanticore.podbean.com/

Logo and artwork by MJ Hiblen:

https://www.patreon.com/MJHiblenART/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if prep didn’t have to feel like work?

What if there were ways in which we could be more playful with our prep? 

Would that transform the way in which we feel about being the GM?

Following a call-in from listener Jon M, who was responding to some comments in GMJ #270, I was inspired to comment on the topic of making prep less like work and more playful. Big thanks to Jon for the call-in!

Game on!

Roleplay Rescue Details:

Voice Message:

speakpipe.com/roleplayrescue

Patreon:

patreon.com/rpgrescue 

Email:

[email protected]

Blog

roleplayrescue.com 

Bluesky Social:

https://bsky.app/profile/ubiquitousrat.bsky.social

MeWe:

https://mewe.com/p/roleplayrescue

Roleplay Rescue Theme by Jon Cohen from Tale of the Manticore:

https://taleofthemanticore.podbean.com/

Logo and artwork by MJ Hiblen:

https://www.patreon.com/MJHiblenART/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As the year turns from 2024 into 2025, I decided to invite Grail Knight Patron and regular caller Jason Wiebe to come and have a chat on air. The topic was broadly, “Becoming a Game Master” and based on the notion that Wiebe has been struggling his way to the GM’s chair over many years and finally feels he has a handle on what it all entails. For my part, I was curious to find out what he had to say.

Jason is a long-time listener and Patron to Roleplay Rescue. Hailing from Montreal, Canada, he’s someone I’ve played with a fair bit over the past year or so and we’ve become solid friends. We hopped on to Zoom just prior to playing a game in Fellmyr and I simply pressed “Record”. Jason agreed to share the resulting conversation uncut. Here’s hoping it’s as interesting and enlightening for you as it was for me - we certainly exchanged a few emerging ideas that I didn’t expect. As it turns out, Wiebe had a whole list of ideas about being a great GM.

Thanks to Wiebe for coming on the show!

Game on!

Roleplay Rescue Details:

Voice Message:

speakpipe.com/roleplayrescue

Patreon:

patreon.com/rpgrescue 

Email:

[email protected]

Blog

roleplayrescue.com 

Bluesky Social:

https://bsky.app/profile/ubiquitousrat.bsky.social

MeWe:

https://mewe.com/p/roleplayrescue

Roleplay Rescue Theme by Jon Cohen from Tale of the Manticore:

https://taleofthemanticore.podbean.com/

Logo and artwork by MJ Hiblen:

https://www.patreon.com/MJHiblenART/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is a pitch for building a tiny roleplay habit using 30-minute sessions and one-on-one play with the rules behind the GM’s screen. The idea, taken from solo play, is to gather more often for shorter periods. In busy lives, dropping online to play for 30 minutes is much easier to schedule. This is viable because RPGs work best on the accumulation of play over many sessions. One-on-one places the player’s focus on just their own character’s perspective. If we blend this with the desire for Otherworld-immersion, we can marry the character and player perspective in a powerful manner. Rules opacity is also easier for the GM to handle because there is only one PC sheet.

Big thanks to Frank T for running this Tiny Roleplay experiment and allowing me to share the session recordings.

Game on!

Roleplay Rescue Details:

Voice Message:

speakpipe.com/roleplayrescue

Patreon:

patreon.com/rpgrescue 

Email:

[email protected]

Blog

roleplayrescue.com 

Bluesky Social:

https://bsky.app/profile/ubiquitousrat.bsky.social

MeWe:

https://mewe.com/p/roleplayrescue

Roleplay Rescue Theme by Jon Cohen from Tale of the Manticore:

https://taleofthemanticore.podbean.com/

Logo and artwork by MJ Hiblen:

https://www.patreon.com/MJHiblenART/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The most important game mechanism is, of course, the Game Master of a roleplaying game. Roleplaying games are all about making choices as-if you are your character and then seeing what happens as a consequence. This week the Angry GM gave me a long-overdue kick up the butt when I read an article on his blog. This episode is a response to that kick up the butt. Big thanks to the Angry GM for his book and blog - I hope he won't mind the extensive quotation from them.

Thanks to Frank T for calling in! 

Game on!

The Angry GM's article:

A Campaign Manager’s Guide to Selfishness | The Angry GM

OR https://theangrygm.com/a-campaign-managers-guide-to-selfishness/

The Angry GM's book in his Shop:

https://angry.games/shop/ols/products/game-angry-how-to-rpg-the-angry-way

Roleplay Rescue Details:

Voice Message:

speakpipe.com/roleplayrescue

Patreon:

patreon.com/rpgrescue 

Email:

[email protected]

Blog

roleplayrescue.com 

Bluesky Social:

https://bsky.app/profile/ubiquitousrat.bsky.social

MeWe:

https://mewe.com/p/roleplayrescue

Roleplay Rescue Theme by Jon Cohen from Tale of the Manticore:

https://taleofthemanticore.podbean.com/

Logo and artwork by MJ Hiblen:

https://www.patreon.com/MJHiblenART/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What happens if we lean in hard to the Roleplay in roleplaying game? What if we take away the elements which distract from the enjoyment of being in-character, as-character, in a fantastic world? The first move is to start caring more about the fantastic Otherworld. The second is to push for greater Rules Opacity.

Thanks to Jason Wiebe for calling in once again. 

Game on!

Roleplay Rescue Details:

Voice Message:

speakpipe.com/roleplayrescue

Patreon:

patreon.com/rpgrescue 

Email:

[email protected]

Blog

roleplayrescue.com 

Bluesky Social:

https://bsky.app/profile/ubiquitousrat.bsky.social

MeWe:

https://mewe.com/p/roleplayrescue

Roleplay Rescue Theme by Jon Cohen from Tale of the Manticore:

https://taleofthemanticore.podbean.com/

Logo and artwork by MJ Hiblen:

https://www.patreon.com/MJHiblenART/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.