PODCAST · news
Rascal News
by Rascal News
Rascal News is an independent, worker-owned outfit composed of Chase Taylor-Carter, Thomas Manuel, Caelyn Ellis, Rowan Zeoli, and Lin Codega. Join them in exploring the tabletop industry and its associated online spaces across two shows: Rascal Radio Hour is a biweekly show where the crew dig deeper into the biggest news and newest games; and Rascal Reading Club allows Thomas to wax long on RPG rulebooks.
Episodes
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Talkback: Eberron
Book club episode! I am joined by Duamn Figueroa Rassol, game designer and Eberron afficionado, and we respond to people's responses about my discussions questions from last week. Audio is a little rough this week, apologies. Also, in an attempt to make reading and writing into these games…
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Rascal Radio Hour E43: Two Many Vampires, feat. Christopher Hutton
Chase is joined by fellow tabletop RPG journalist Christopher Hutton from TTRPG Insider to discuss a very busy couple of weeks for the hobby. Wizards of the Coast laid off community and social media managers, while the licensing rights for World of Darkness games will fully leave Renegade at the...
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Reading Club: Eberron (2004)
Book club episode! We discuss Eberron Campaign Setting by Keith Baker. As always, you can participate in the talkback episode by sending in a response to any or all of the following questions. You can record yourself speaking, you can post in the discord thread for this episode, or write to...
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Talkback: Blades in the Dark/Doskvol
Book club episode! We respond to people's responses about my discussions questions regarding Blades in the Dark and Doskvol. Show Notes: Games mentioned: Mythic Bastionland, Spire, Paranoia, Silent Titans Kieron's blog about Mythic Bastionland on Old Men Running the World COTTONMOUTH LAW, THE 400...
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Reading Club: Blades in the Dark/Doskvol
Book club episode! We discuss Blades in the Dark by John Harper. Read more here. As always, you can participate in the talkback episode by sending in a response to any or all of the following questions. You can record yourself speaking, you can post in the discord thread for this episode, or…
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Rascal Radio Hour E42: Scootin' for a Mutin'
Rowan joins Chase and Thomas for a podcast that almost immediately flies off the rails and deep into tangent territory. Also, Chase gets roundly bullied by his friends and coworkers. The crew discuss Rowan, Rook and Decard's new union, Wizards of the Coast's vision keynote at Gen Con, and the...
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State of the Rascal - August 2026
Subscribe now to get 33% off an annual memberships! Already a subscriber? We'd appreciate a donation to our tip jar. Rascal News needs your help. You might have seen our recent article laying out the potentially dire financial straits that the website finds itself facing. In this special episode…
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Interview: Cameron Kunzelman on Lifepaths
Cameron Kunzelman, game critic and scholar, returns to our podcast feed with a conversation with Thomas about lifepaths, his new book Path Apparatus, and his love-hate relationship with Pendragon. This interview is also available as an article. You can read an edited excerpt here. Show Notes…
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Rascal Radio Hour E41: Three Damage Tracks!!
Thomas and Chase wade into a forum controversy over Deathrbringer that's about something other than the purile art and misguided promises of lethality. They also discuss delays to the Wolfenstein RPG adaptation and the slightly baffling (deep breath) Anne Rice's Immortal Universe Roleplaying…
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Rascal Interview: Agency, frustration, and secrets in Asa Donald's SPINE
Heads up: We explain some large structural spoilers for SPINE during this interview but stay away from particular details. While Thomas plans the next seasons of the Reading Club, Chase invites designer Asa Donald for a conversation about his ENNIE-nominated solo RPG, SPINE. The peculiar title...
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Rascal Radio Hour E40: The Clicky-clacky Candy Metric, feat. Clayton Notestine
Chase is joined by designer and blogger Clayton Notestine of Explorer's Design to discuss the ENNIEs, both as a former judge and as a current nominee! Awards are a strange beast for tabletop RPGs, mattering very little but able to change smaller designers' career trajectory. How does the public's...
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Talkback: Stonetop
Book club episode! Sean Foer, professional GM and maker of videos, joined me to go through people's responses about my discussions questions on Stonetop. Show Notes: Games mentioned: Secret of the Night Market, Perils & Princesses, Dictionary of Mu, Realis, Green Oaks by Roberto de Luca, Heart,...
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Rascal Radio Hour E39: You Game of Thrones'd Yourself
Union wins and hall of fame inductions headline a much more positive week for tabletop games. Chase and Thomas convene to discuss the major headlines, including some awards news out of Origins and United Wizards of the Coast officially electing the venerable company's first ever union. Later on,...
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Reading Club: Stonetop
Book club episode! We discuss Stonetop by Jeremy Strandberg. Read more here. As always, you can participate in the talkback episode by sending in a response. You can record yourself speaking, you can post in the discord thread associated with this podcast or write to [email protected]. Looking...
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Rascal Radio Hour E38: Documents and Daggers
UPDATE: Thomas spoke with Paizo CEO Jim Butler after we recorded this. Industry news looms heavy over the discussion between Chase, Thomas, and Caelyn, but they find plenty of time for regularly scheduled shenanigans. The episode leads with Paizo's recent layoffs, how Diamond Comics Distribution...
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Talkback: Burning Wheel
Book club episode! Andrew Gillis, designer of Girl by Moonlight, joined me to go through people's responses about my discussions questions on Burning Wheel. Show Notes: Games mentioned: D&D, Pathfinder, Fate, Blades in the Dark, Dogs in the Vineyards, Ironsworn, Realis, Apocalypse World,...
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Rascal Radio Hour E37: Entering a Horse Race on a Donkey, feat. Jenna Stoeber and Tomas Franzese
Chase is joined on this episode (which is #37 despite what he says) by Jenna Stoeber and Tomas Franzese to discuss two overlapping issues between the tabletop and video game industries. First, the crew dive into Wizards of the Coast's response to unionization efforts within the Magic: The…
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Reading Club: Burning Wheel
Book club episode! We discuss Burning Wheel, the influential fantasy RPG from Luke Crane. Read more here. As always, you can participate in the talkback episode by sending in a response. You can record yourself, you can post in the discord thread associated with this podcast or write to...
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Talkback: Draw Steel
Book club episode! We respond to people's responses about my discussions questions regarding Draw Steel. Party Members can nominate games for this series about GM advice through this form. Show Notes: Games mentioned: D&D, Pathfinder, Lancer, Daggerheart, Dolmenwood Caio's youtube channel, The…
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Rascal Radio Hour E36: Scouting Days, feat. Mollie Russell
Check out the Indie Media Collective Bundle! Rascal is partnering with five other independent outlets and creators to offer a group subscription at 50% for the first month. -- Chase and Caelyn are joined by Wargamer's resident haunt-lover, Mollie Russell, to discuss (among other games) Call of...
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Reading Club: Draw Steel
Book club episode! We discuss Draw Steel by MCDM. Read more here. As always participate in the talkback episode, either post in the discord thread associated with this podcast or write to [email protected]. Discussion Questions What do you think of Draw Steel? What do you think of the GM being...
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Rascal Radio Hour E35: Countless Bridges, feat. Austin Walker and Tyler Crumrine
Chase and Thomas invite Austin Walker and Tyler Crumrine onto the show to discuss the upcoming science fantasy RPG, Realis. Austin explains his history of facilitating tabletop games and how writing the book's GM sections forced him to imrpove his craft. Tyler shares his love for big, beautiful...
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Talkback: Deathmatch Island
Book club episode! We respond to people's responses about my discussions questions regarding Deathmatch Island by Tim Denee & Evil Hat. Read more here. Party Members can nominate games for this series about GM advice through this form. Show Notes: Games mentioned: Apocalypse World, Mothership…
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Rascal Radio Hour E34: AI Can't Replicate My Terrible Sense of Humor
Chase and Caelyn grind a pair of well-worn axes in this episode, beginning with crowdfunding campaign culture before moving onto to generative AI in creative fields. Later, they discuss the games hitting their personal tables -- Chase has dipped into a rare sequel, while Caelyn is discovering why...
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Reading Club: Deathmatch Island
Book club episode! We discuss Deathmatch Island by Tim Denee & Evil Hat. Read more here. As always participate in the talkback episode, either post in the discord thread associated with this podcast or write to [email protected]. Discussion Questions What do you think of Deathmatch Island? What…
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Rascal Radio Hour E33: Attempted Aura Farming
Suffuse with expected ribaldry is the only way to describe this episode, where Thomas and Caelyn join Chase to create a Rascal trifecta. The news? Discussed. The Question Dungeon? Delved. Tangents and meanderings? Absolutely assured. From the cancelled Neopets RPGs to pedantic arguing over the...
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Talkback: Apocalypse World
This is the talkback episode for our Rascal Reading Club about the MC section of Apocalypse World. Listeners wrote in with responses to the discussion questions. As usual, there was a range of responses: people agreeing, disagreeing, finding stuff I didn't see, telling me about stuff I didn't…
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Rascal Radio Hour E32: Printing Popularity, feat. Joe Parlock
Despite what Chase says in the intro, this is the 32nd episode of the Rascal Radio Hour. He and Thomas welcome Joe Parlcok, editor-in-chief at new TCG website Booster Pack, to talk about tabletop's most vibrant and financially dubious product category. Later, the crew discuss alleged unfair labor...
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Reading Club: Apocalypse World
Book club episode! We discuss Apocalypse World 2nd edition. To participate in the talkback episode, either post in the discord thread associated with this podcast or write to [email protected]. Discussion Questions 1. What do you think of Apocalypse World? What do you think of the MC section? 2....
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Rascal Radio Hour E31: Fan-pilled on Faerûn, feat. Joshua Rivera
Chase is joined by writer and television critic Joshua Rivera to discuss what we should expect from HBO's upcoming Baldur's Gate 3 television series. The pair discuss showrunner Craig Mazin's history with both Dungeons & Dragons and adaptation, how the series may diverge from The Last of Us, and...
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Rascal Shopping Spree 2026
It's a shopping episode! As part of Rascal's second anniversary celebration, Thomas and Chase jumped on a call to spend their professional development money on a whole mess of games. Come along for the audio version of their journey, wherein they discuss their choices and banter about each…
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Talkback: Warden's Operations Manual
This is the talkback episode for our Rascal Reading Club about the Warden's Operations Manual. Listeners wrote in with responses to the discussion questions. There was a range of responses: people agreeing, disagreeing, finding stuff I didn't see, telling me about stuff I didn't know. It's pretty...
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Rascal Radio Hour E30: A Postage Stamp Is Not A Paywall
Rascal's article about the fate of Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast, and that of its creators, sparked a significant amount of interest, questions, and criticism. The team decided to dedicate this week's podcast episode to a larger and more casual conversation tackling those inquiries. Thomas and Chase...
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Reading Club: Warden's Operations Manual
Today, we're launching a new podcast. The host, Thomas Manuel, talks about Warden's Operations Manual from Tuesday Knight Games, as a part of the Rascal Reading Club. If you'd like to participate in the discussion, you can respond to Thomas via email [email protected] or on the official Rascal...
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Episode 29: The Mothership has Landed, feat. Maddy Myers and Zoë Hannah
The Rascal crew are joined this week by Maddy Myers and Zoë Hannah of the recently launched Mothership Dot Blog (and you definitely pronounce the "dot"). The former Polygon editors discuss their website's goal of publishing smart and inclusive writing about games from a feminist angle and talking...
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Episode 28: Holiday Special 2025
Ho-ho-howdy, Anklebiters! The crew bring you a hefty podcast episode to get your through the final days of 2025, wherever they may take you. Caelyn, Lin, and Chase spelunk deep into the Question Dungeon to clear out as many lingering inquiries as possible before someone's bottle of, er... cheer...
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Episode 27: Orc Flickin' in Blighty
Chase and Caelyn return from Dragonmeet to show off the games, memories, and various illnesses they collected over the weekend. Later, the pair discuss DriveThruRPG's heavily criticized Partner Shipping Program, two big evils within trading card games (licensed crossovers and speculative…
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Episode 26: Bring out your Soapboxes
Hear that? It's the sound of well-ground axes. Of longstanding grudges. Thomas watches Chase remount a vertiably parade well-trod soapboxes on today's episode. These include the transient nature of Discord, crowdfunding platforms, and valorizing dungeon mastery as work done in the service of…
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Episode 25: Crunch's Catan Activations - ft. Mike Didymus-True
It's a board game bonanza this week as Chase and Thomas are joined by BoardGameWire's Mike Didymus-True to discuss a news week heavily skewed towards the meeple-side of the tabletop industry. The crew talks about Spiel Essen, the largest trade show-convention hybrid in the world, and some of the...
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Episode 24: Stare The Devil in the Face and Walk Forward - ft. Cameron Kunzelman
Chase is joined on this episode by writer, critic, academic, friend of the show, and hater of Commander: Cameron Kunzelman. The two wax long on the current, Fortnite-ified state of Magic: The Gathering, as well as its carefully and expertly maintained past. How does one square financial success…
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Episode 23: Trickle-down Gamenomics
Chase and Thomas professionalize the tabletop podcast space one news story at a time. GAMA makes some serious-sounding moves -- including the surprise resignation of executive directory John Stacy -- but that includes a not-so-serious "rebranding". Kickstarter workers go on strike. Game designers...
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Episode 22: Fear of Hights
Thomas returns to the podcast to discuss the two chunky investigations he produced since we last had him in front of a microphone. Zatu and Brandfox are not only depressingly common stories within the tabletop industry but also criticially important ones to tell. We talk inside baseball regarding...
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Episode 21: Rogue's Gallery
(Hey gang, Chase here. My audio produced this very strange, high pitched whine throughout. I've done my best to either cut or minimize it, but this could still be an unpleasant listen for some folks. My apologies -- will have this sorted by the next episode.) Two members of the newly founded...
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Episode 20: Pedant Party
Um, actually, it's pronounced 'PEE-dunt'. This is the slightly grating but technically correct energy that Caelyn and Chase bring to this episode. After discussing more tariff nonsense, the pair discover that most of the news is a huge bummer and they'd rather delve into their experience creating...
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Episode 19: Horus-scopes
The crew psychoanalyze each other at least twice during this episode of the Rascal Radio Hour, which features everyone but Rowan (she brought home an illness souvenir from Gen Con) wading through a dense thicket of tabletop news from the last two weeks. They discuss two new RPGs adapted from book...
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Episode 18: Yard Goats to Throat GOATs
Rowan and Chase finally deliver a tight 60-minute podcast discussing itch.io's abrupt deindexing of explicit and games tagged as "NSFW" or "adult", among others, thanks to pressure from payment processors and right-wing citizen lobbyists from Australia. It's a strange and sad affair with ties to...
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Episode 17: A Franchise By Any Other Name
Chase and Lin Codega co-host an episode that is all about licensed games and this week's dirty word: franchise. The pair discuss the cancelled Tomb Raider RPG and what IP-scrubbed game might rise from its ashes, along with the continually disastrous Diamond Comic Distributors bankruptcy leaving...
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Episode 16: Cardboard Coercion
We're tackling a stuffed two weeks of news on this week's episode. Thomas and Caelyn join Chase in discussing Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins' professional shuffle over to Darrington Press, and what it does and doesn't mean for the future of Daggerheart. We also cover Rebel Scum's censorship on...
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Episode 15: Soft Moves and Soft Power
Someone on this podcast doesn't like Belonging Outside Belonging games, and the other doesn't find much use in industry awards. Both Chase and Thomas showed up ready to ruffle feathers on this week's podcast, but only after discussing BackerKit's new self-crowdfunding plans, impressions of UK…
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Special: Final Fantasy - Magic: The Gathering, feat. Ash Parrish and Emma Partlow
Magic: The Gathering's crossover with Final Fantasy drops on June 13, but unfortunately Chase doesn't know much about the storied Japanese RPG video game series. So, he brought in a couple of bona fide experts to talk about this already massively successful set. The Verge reporter Ash Parrish and...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Rascal News is an independent, worker-owned outfit composed of Chase Taylor-Carter, Thomas Manuel, Caelyn Ellis, Rowan Zeoli, and Lin Codega. Join them in exploring the tabletop industry and its associated online spaces across two shows: Rascal Radio Hour is a biweekly show where the crew dig deeper into the biggest news and newest games; and Rascal Reading Club allows Thomas to wax long on RPG rulebooks.
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How many episodes does Rascal News have?
Rascal News currently has 64 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Rascal News about?
Rascal News is an independent, worker-owned outfit composed of Chase Taylor-Carter, Thomas Manuel, Caelyn Ellis, Rowan Zeoli, and Lin Codega. Join them in exploring the tabletop industry and its associated online spaces across two shows: Rascal Radio Hour is a biweekly show where the crew dig...
How often does Rascal News release new episodes?
Rascal News has 64 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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You can listen to Rascal News on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
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Rascal News is created and hosted by Rascal News.
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