The Diceology Podcast

A game is “done” when you stop thinking about it, right? The Bakers complicate that in the best way, and it instantly changes how we think about tabletop RPG design, publishing, and the long life of ideas. We start with the deceptively simple question of finishing, then follow it into Apocalypse World, Burned Over, and the broader Powered by the Apocalypse ecosystem where iteration, hacks, and play communities keep a design alive for decades.From there, we zoom out to the craft problem every creator hits sooner or later: how do you keep your work from turning into an echo chamber? We talk about avoiding insular design, why it helps to play with people who are not game designers, and how “outside” inputs like movies, museums, walks, concerts, and conversations with other creatives can reshape mechanics and story procedures. If you care about playtesting, creative collaboration, and making games that land with real tables, you’ll find a lot to steal here.We also get personal about inspiration and values. Place and history matter, including the messy histories under our feet and the responsibility to amplify underrepresented voices. Then we shift into family creativity across generations: different brains, different processes, different remix instincts, and the hard-won skills of staying respectful and genuinely invested when creative conflict shows up.We wrap with a candid segment on social media, kids’ privacy, and media literacy, grounded in ongoing critical thinking rather than one-size rules. If this hits for you, subscribe, share the episode with a designer friend, and leave a review. What’s one creative choice you’d change, and why?Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

We sit down with the Bakers to talk about how games and art grow out of everyday family life. We dig into creative conflict, staying unstuck, and why shelving a project can be a sign of craft rather than failure. • building a household that supports making through space, tools, and tolerance for mess • handling creative disagreement by keeping vision ownership clear • collaborating across different styles from solitary drafting to talk-it-through ideation • separating feedback from co-opting, asking for help without losing control • switching modes with small rituals, momentum, and “one step closer” progress • letting unfinished work exist, then choosing what to keep or release • abandoning broken designs, saving parts, and avoiding years-long dead ends • finding creative community through weekly meetups, check-ins, and lightweight support structures Thank you so much for listening. Please comment and let us know what you thought of the episode or your thoughts on creativity and making games.Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

Creativity doesn’t come with a handbook, so we're building our own. We swap notes on how solo game makers and artists actually get things done: setting a three-influence pillar to keep ideas fresh, designing from mechanics without losing theme, and navigating the murky last 5 percent where projects stall. Sarah shares how Bluebeard’s Bride and Velvet Glove grew from triangulated influences, why a haunted hotel retreat unlocked a stuck chapter, and how tiny mint‑tin drawings rebuilt a drawing habit. Jay brings a crunchy “debt‑punk” concept where upgrades cost debt and the whole loop is about clawing your way back to zero, plus the reality of pacing work under the gaze of Kickstarter backers.We get candid about boundaries, voice, and trust. Backers deserve clarity, not personal disclosure, so we talk about communicating progress without oversharing. Editing is a partnership that should preserve tone, not sand it down. Accountability doesn’t have to be a crowd; sometimes it’s a weekly call with one trusted peer who will cheer, critique, and expect pages by Tuesday. And when screens drain you, physical making—ink sketches, pencils, binding, even painting minis—can refill the well in a way no doc can. Music becomes a quiet engine for focus too: looping Yes Yeah Yeahs for a vast, echoing dungeon vibe; dropping All Them Witches to score void‑cathedrals and space‑goth moods.There’s a personal layer we don’t gloss over: how early support—or the lack of it—shapes creative identity, and how we parent with privacy in mind while giving kids real access to tools, art, and music. We close with an “Ask One Forward” prompt for our next guests, the Bakers, about social media, kids, and creativity, and we lay out what’s shipping: In The Pines in edit, Velvet Glove headed to editing, Prison Planet drafting, and more playtests on deck. If you care about game design craft, sustainable habits, and finishing strong without losing your voice, this one’s for you.Enjoyed the conversation? Follow, share with a creative friend, and leave a review with your favorite trick for getting from 95 percent to done.Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

In this episode, we reflect on our favorite tabletop RPG experiences of 2024 and discuss exciting upcoming games for 2025. We explore character creation, the importance of storytelling, and how strange mechanics add depth to our games.• Reflection on standout RPG experiences of 2024• Insights from Judd Karlman on tabletop storytelling• Exploration of the Ioun City game and its unique narrative• Importance of memorable NPCs and their impact on gameplay• Embracing the weirdness and unpredictability in RPGs• Anticipation of innovative games in 2025• Discussion of missed opportunities for gaming experiences• Tips for running engaging and memorable game sessionsSend us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

Have you ever wondered what it's like to turn your tabletop gaming passion into a profession? Judd Karlman and I chat about our extraordinary path from hobbyists to professional game masters (GMs), revealing the quirky, exciting, and sometimes absurd adventures that come with the territory. From hilarious bachelor party RPG requests to the broader implications of monetizing our love for gaming, we peel back the curtain on a niche that's rapidly gaining traction. Join us as we reminisce about our initial foray into paid GMing and how it has evolved into a noteworthy part of our creative and community endeavors.As seasoned GMs, we also tackle the practical side of running various campaign styles, including the nuances of open table versus West Marches formats. I open up about the routines I've adopted to stay sane and healthy during long sessions at the screen, and we both reflect on the rewarding experience of watching players shape their own narratives. Setting boundaries and creating inclusive spaces for our players is paramount, and we share how we navigate these responsibilities to ensure that everyone at the table feels comfortable and safe.The episode concludes with a critical discussion on maintaining a safe and respectful gaming community, addressing the challenge of confronting 'broken stairs'—problematic individuals who threaten the group's play. We highlight the cultural impact of phenomena like Critical Role and the excitement around the Dungeons & Dragons movie, emphasizing how they shape our approach to community building. Our conversation is an invitation to listeners to engage with us and contribute to a dialogue that prioritizes safety, inclusion, and the pure joy of collaborative storytelling in gaming.Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

Jolt and his family are hunkering down at a Hilton Garden Hotel in Jacksonville, guarded by Cherry Bomb's security. It's nearly midnight when Red-Eye calls Jolt... and it's not a "wyd?!" kinda call. Chimaera is making a move to grab Citrus Climax! And you know who's coming to the rescue? I bet ya do!Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

Jolt #4 - Daye & KnightNate and Obie encounter some extraordinary security guards when they try to make off with goods from the secret lab they've robbed. Later after getting Jason to a hospital, they have a strange encounter with 3-Pain. That night Nate, Obie, and Maggie strategize for the coming days ahead.Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

Ready for an action-packed hour of gaming discussion and adventure? Join Rich and me as we delve into the world of real life and role-playing games, exploring the connection between comic books and gaming, and discovering what it means to truly "play to find out." Experience the thrill of strategizing to keep our in-game characters, Sera and Mason, safe while handling new threats and enlisting help from old contacts. But tread carefully - who can we really trust in this thrilling adventure?Nathan "Jolt" and "OB" tackle planning the search for a warehouse and how to payoff Red-Eye.  Dive into Nate's thoughts and feelings as he grapples with trusting OB to complete the mission alone. Will they need to recruit someone to keep an eye on Sera while Nate and OB are away? Tune in to find out!Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

Jolt #2: Nathan interviews for the super spokesmodel position at Door Dash but gets an emergency text from his wife and leaves abruptly! 3Pain, the witness protection assassin, has made a house call! Later, Nathan and OB discuss OB's debt to Red-Eye, the wetwork job left undone, and a secret lab OB found while doing that job. Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

Jolt #1 - Nathan is lured into a CHIMERA experiment as they trap him on the Buckman bridge to observe his abilities! Back home, it’s parent-teacher conference night for him Sarah and their kid Mason. OB stops by looking for a hanging-out buddy. And Danny “Red-Eye” comes looking for OB.It was a smooth session of #ChampionsNow, mostly - the area effect rules tripped me up a little. But We got to see Nathan put the slap down on some CHIMERA agents with his super speed.Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

2Eleven returns with Jolt!Welcome to Session Zero for Jolt! A Champions Now actual play. I feel like I must remind you I do not receive any kickbacks for the millions of Champions Now sessions, content, or name drops! 🤣Champions Now RPG has been a great source 0f fun for me, and I am thrilled to have Rich Rogers of +1 Forward fame along for the ride!Nathan Fellows was the Jolt! Cola Super Supermodel back in the day. Today, Nathan is an aging, unemployed speedster juggling multiple gigs in Jacksonville. He's got a wife and kid and his old pal Obie. This is his origin story. How Rich and I talk through session zero for this game.Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

Champions NowJolt #2 -3 Nathan interviews for the super spokesmodel position at Door Dash but gets an emergency text from his wife and leaves abruptly! 3Pain, the witness protection assassin, has made a house call looking for 'Claire' AKA Sera, Nathan's wife, who's in the program. Later, Nathan and OB discuss OB's debt to Red-Eye, the wetwork job left undone, and a secret lab OB found doing that job. Next Jolt #3: Nathan and OB check out that secret lab with help from Cherry Bomb, Forbes CEO of the year! But they won't like what they find in that lab!!r/CapitolCryptids #5 -6. Anita, Raul, and Father Martin do a lot of legwork to discover who the old man in the video footage of the museum heist is and the location of the artifact that was stolen. It turns out Michael, Father Martin's brother, has the artifact -an ankh. And the old man is some sort of mummy sorcerer named Asim. Bonus find: All the heist planning was done using a new app called Sieben for crime gigs! H/T @widdledragon https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/littlewish/the-old-the-cold-the-bold/descriptionLater Father Martin and Raul visit an old occult acquaintance, Papa Raam, to get his thoughts on the Ankh artifact. Their meeting is interrupted by a murder of crows and a large fire-breathing tengu with a spear - they all squawk the same two words. “Ankh. Give!”RolemasterThe Oracle at Scalu. Our questing heroes discover a mass of folks waiting at the cliffs of Scalu to see the oracle. Visitations and payment are handled by Tava and her crew, which includes a rather hulking man, Brinanr, who sports a shield and ill-fitting helm that belonged once to a Deathless Regiment member. This is not lost on Deronil, likely the last of the Deathless. The heroes pay for a place in the Oracle queue while scouting out other temple entries. They find a cave tomb, and awaken the dead buried there! The finale in 2 weeks!Twilight 2000Wroclaw Winters had a by-week. I spent some time updating the Foundry VTT and thinking about VTTs in general. We'll easily break 50 sessions as we move into the urban city sandbox and survive the winter. Thomas Moore is big on the Todos list and getting Anne and Antonie back.Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

My guests, Jason Lutes and Paul Beakley, and I get lost in the West Marches game style. Jason is currently running his second West Marches campaign using Freebooters on the Frontier and Arden Vul as the setting. I get an incredible amount of joy from running West Marches campaigns, and geeking out with both Jason and Paul on the subject was good stuff.I am very, very sorry for some of the audio. I recorded using a new audio platform and discovered issues with Paul's audio in the recording that didn't appear live. Hopefully, my audio sorcery is potent!Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

Easily the week of the West Marches. Starting with my halfling wizard’s Arden Vul adventure to helping my local gamers launch their own IRL West Marches games. It’s got me thinking about other non-fantasy applications.On the Gauntlet, we’ve wrapped up a three-session run of Fading Suns with Lowell Francis at the helm. He also hosted a Zoom talk about Legacy 2E: Life among the Ruins. Best practices, some thoughts around running the game, hacking the game. Pretty much talked me into running Legacy again on The Gauntlet using some of these new insights. Also wrapped up Rebels of the Outlaw Wastes with Micael Addison of Nerdy Pup Games. Rebels of the Outlaw Wastes has players exploring a hyper-saturated dystopian world that's being controlled by a tyrannical collective of powers.And the usual suspects - Twilight 2000, Cortex work on Lifted: Indomitable.Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

Fading SunsFading Suns on The Gauntlet. Lowell Francis trying out the system, and you can tell he’s down his prep. I’m playing an Ur-Ukar witch with TK-like abilities. We’ve taken up a mission from a noble to be his escort and eyes and ears in a hostile system. Fading Suns has pulled at me for some years now; I’m hoping to jump-start my future runs of it by playing it first. At its core, it is a Skill + ability roll under system. This was our session one, and we got a small, easy skirmish under our belt so far.Into the OddIn Dragonslayers, using Into the Odd, I play a reluctant tailor pressed into military service against the dragon empire. The dragons have won, and we're left in the aftermath of many battles. This was mostly session zero, making characters and setting up things. Our first act next session is to free our captured griffin riders and griffins!!Judd also runs games out on StartPlaying.games, and I paid to play his Spelljammer + Into the odd game: Rock of Braal. (I’ll have more to say very soon about paying to play and GM-for-hire) I played a warden, one of two survivors off a gith vessel. The other was an Illithid captive. We both took on a bounty from a ghost pirate to recover his stolen goods. Into the Odd is a great system for getting folks in fast and keeping them hooked through the session. I forget I much I LOVE combat mechanics where there is a free & clear declaration step, followed by the dice then reading the outcomes!Rebels of the Outlaw Wastes - Session 01Centered in the apocalypse of Florida, I play an ex-Imagineer, (ex-jackboot in Outlaw parlance) trying to escape my former employer. With the help of an Abe Lincoln animatronic, an Alligator-Man hybrid, and a gothic biker with electricity powers. We flee into the swamp -bogs of Florida chased by Imagineer security on hoverboards!Big thanks to Michael Addison of Nerdy Pup Games for running his new game on Actual Play!Champions Now - Lifted.The KC Defenders get stomped by Protheseus agents during a simple recon of the downtown train yard. The rail house was, in fact, not abandoned or empty. I still get a kick out of agents as hazard rules in Champions Now, especially when player characters try to ignore the agents!Sci-fi West MarchesReading the Gateway saga. Looking to use the premise of an abandoned alien space station and its network of ships and unknown routes as a column in a Sci-Fi West Marches game. Currently hacking BX via OSE to get the play experience I want.Prepping Remember TomorrowAnother Gregor Hutton jam that holds up great n these modern times. It’s a cyberpunk RPG, GM-less, but best with a facilitator. You play troupe-style Gibsonesque characters at odds with various factions.What did you play last week?Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

Mad Jay talks about Mythras and Glorantha, Twilight: 2000, Horizon Zero Dawn, Cortex and BX D&D with Old School Essentials!Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

My guest today is a gamer I admire for his style of DMing and asking players questions. He has the uncanny ability for generating gameable premises. He is the author of the Dictionary of Mu, a favorite sword and sorcery setting of mine. He's the host of the Daydreaming About Dragons podcast and my current Friday morning GM for Trophy Gold. Judd Karlman Blog: githyankidiaspora.comPodcast: https://anchor.fm/daydreaming-about-dragons Twitch.tv/ActualPlayTrophy Gold Worlds of Dungeons Dungeons & Dragons Hutt Cartel | Cartel RPG Canva Stars without Number RPG Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

I've recorded this conversation with Geoff and Neil from my Twilight: 2000 Saturday morning game. This group, this time slot, and the game are a magical thing for me right now, and I suspect for the four players as well. I wanted to get their thoughts and feels 10 sessions in about the game, the group, and whatever else comes up. Content warning. Twilight: 2000 is a survival sandbox game set in war-torn Poland in the 2000s. There are parallels with the current invasion of Ukraine and we talk about the early stage of the war in Ukraine. We're using Free League's setup for Foundry VTT and it's been incredibly useful. ICYMI check out my post The Promise of VTTs.BIG shout out to The Gauntlet and their Open Gaming program. This game grew out of a one-shot I ran for an Open Gaming weekend hosted by the Gauntlet.  Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

Started Mothership with Judd. I'm playing a character inspired by Fox Mulder.  The pitch: Two scientists investigate the disappearance of their professor and the crew of a science vessel. Twilight: 2000:  The discovery of a dead soldier stashed in the woods and a convoy heading toward Barnes's occupied Polish town,  sends Bard and Justin off to extract Tracy and Janush. They decide to confront the polish spook, Phil before sneaking out of the encampment and back to their base in the woods.Legacy 2E: Gale and  Manta-ray kill each other in the Endless city over control of the "Hand"  artifact. Gale's death move sends both players to an eternal hellscape. The artifact is lost to the Endless City. And the Third age begins.Wrath & Glory: Exotic weapons have been turning up in skirmishes on Gideon Prime. Tasked with investigating the origins of these weapons our favorite Tech-Priest follows a trail that leads him to the Spacehulk - Veritagous.Playing Elden Ring - dying, wonder, exploring, dying.Prepping Barbarians of Lemuria: Treachery at Axos Mountains. We have a fully leaned-in sorcerer, a sky-ship pilot, and an amnesiac mercenary being pursued into the Axos Mountains where they hope to find a haven of outcasts to go to ground at. Improv for Gamers 2e will be on Gamefound by Evil Hat. I've got a piece in there as well as a cornucopia of amazing folks, check it out.And GauntletCon Open Gaming end of March. C'mon out and play!!Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

Rich Rogers, co-host of Plus One Forward and designer of Hit the Streets: Defend the Block, an ENnie award-winning street-level supers RPG joins me to talk about his gaming week - it's like a mini-con!!Rich's Stone Top duet game with his wife,  Vampire 5e, Bounty of the Week (Monster of the Week hack), Gravity Rip, Star Wars Blades in the Dark, Rascals, X-Crawl.Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

Running:Whitehack + Dungeons and Dilemmas Twilight: 2000: Base building and sweet, sweet sandbox magic.Legacy 2E: Life Among the Ruins. Four families and bad virtual dice rolling!Wrath & Glory 1v1. Tech-Priest visiting a Space Hulk.PlayingAn ex-Stormtrooper in Bounty of the Week on twitch.tv/actualplay, Rich Rogers is running it.A Buzzard-headed god of death in Godbound Northern Death Pantheon.And thinking about Dragons.. 😉Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

The 2021 Mad Jay Picks!Some year-end metrics and my personal game picks for: Most Surprised Experience. The Old Man Logan Award.The  Lethal Sessions AwardMost evocative settingClosest to my heart.Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

 The One Ring on Twitch is a wrap at 11 sessions! We've traveled from Rivendell to the Cold Fells to Bree and finale in the South Barrow-downs tracking down the fell sorcerer Gorlanc! Rich Rogers of +1 Forward takes the reigns and will run Bounty of the Week in the new year!Twilight: 2000 - Straight Outta Kalisz the Saturday sessions, we're two sessions into a gas station firefight! Combat is STRESSful! Whitehack RPG has been fun on Tuesday nights, I'm digging the fiction that gets generated as players use the groups and vocations they've picked.  I ran Mothership Rpg - Desert Moon of Karth for Star Wars Con Special Edition for the Gauntlet. Fixed Ewok cage match. Say No more!!Headed to PAX later this week.TWIL: There's a Cortex community license?! I'll take a swing at that! You can check out my madness at Playefearless on substack.Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

On the table3 sessions in for Vena and the King of Nothing! We had a solid ordinary but strong third session of Burning Wheel. We talk about the three sessions and the game so far, the good, the bad, and what's next. Spoilers: Elle is still game!I did a panel called Fresh Starts for Big Bad Con with Lowel Francis from the Gauntlet and Rich Rogers of +1 Forward fame.  We talked about starting new games with new groups.I re-started a Twilight: 2000 limited series, a reboot of a one-shot I ran for GauntletCon Open Gaming --two events ago!Starting up some Delta Green with Brendan. He is playing an online blogger media journalist that investigates weird true crimes. How have I not looked at this game before?!I've finished Superman and the Authority #4. I don't want it to end! Played a Debtpunk hack of Apocalypse World, looking to see where the fun, interesting stuff is. And thus was born the IX playbook!PreppingWhitehack for a group formed on the IGRC.Back into Pirates of Drinax and the One Ring this week.Forbidden Lands for the Patreon monthly hustle game.What are you playing?Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

Mad Elle and I continue our Burning Wheel series. Vena the Elf ranger is on the run with the young Elven prince she was tasked to kill for the Queen-Regent. In this episode, she has to make some choices about the humans living in the millhouse she once stayed in with the ghost king. An Elven patrol finds her and her crew at the mill house. And Elle makes anamazing stake setting choice!You can check out our session zero and see how we got here!Vena, Ranger of the Wilderland.Born Etharch, Attendant, Second, RangerRelationships:Seeker, prince-in-exileGhost of the murdered Elf King (Forbidden, Romantic)Queen-Regent (Family, Hateful)Uncle-King (Forbidden)Beliefs:I must protect the prince, we need to find shelter before winter sets in.I will avenge the king by bringing his murderers to justice.I will reach out to the Tengu people to make friends.InstinctsAlways see the best in people.Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

It's a Bye Week!!!The One Ring was a Bye Week. Our Fellowship is in Bree to track down Gorlanc the sorcerer dwarf?! The One Ring has final PDFs released and we're pouring through looking updating our characters!My new Burning Wheel game Vena and the King of Nothing is two sessions in and on the Diceology podcast. Vena is pursued by elves,  made an owlbear friend, and learned about Elven grief via human conflict. My lady friend, Elle had a fantastic rules breakthrough and we learned some hard truths about Vena her character!Pirates of Drinax had a bye week. I'm looking at Firefly and Hammerheads for vehicle mechanics inspirations! Prepping for some Delta Green 1v1play with  Brendan from the What people do podcast. I'm reading UVG and excited about running it soon.I'm set to run Desert Moon of Karth via Mothership for the Gauntlet's Star Wars Sat/Sun: Special Edition mini-con. in Dec and the session is full.I hung out with some gamers from the Gauntlet Sunday afternoon on Zoom. About 9 or 10 other folks scattered globally. We just chatted about recent games we're playing and running down the gaming tangents.This week I learned about Whitehack experiences from Christopher Kubasik via the Indie Game Reading Club Slack and it's climbed up my must playlist!What's on your game table or shortlist?Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

We set off on our Burning Wheel series. Vena the Elf ranger is on the run with the young Elven prince she was tasked to kill for the Queen-Regent. We learn a bit about the ghost of the murdered King, Tengu in an ancient forest, and an Owlbear!You can check out our session zero and see how we got here!Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

We've started our second chapter of The One Ring. The fellowship is journeying from Rivendell to Bree in search of that bad, bad, sorcerer!!Prepping a Legacy: Life Among the Ruins 2ED by UFOPress for play with the Gauntlet folksGauntletCon Open Gaming is coming up and I'm running sessions of Twilight 2K and UVG. My lady friend has burned up a 4LP Ranger elf for the Burning Wheel RPG. She's protecting the young elf prince she was supposed to kill for the queen. She has relationships with the murdered elf king's ghost, the queen-regent(cousin, hateful), and her uncle, now the king!!Superman and the Authority #3 is confirming my fears. No spoilers, but damn!Return to Marduk with Judd of the Daydreaming about Dragons podcast. More Dictionary of Mu and Sorcerer gaming on twitch.tv/actualplayThis week I learned about  http://fantasycities.watabou.ru/ for mapping cities!And Inktober is coming!!!Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

It's been a couple of weeks and I have lots to cover!We played our first session of Pirates of Drinax using Cortex Prime -it was the BOMB!Talked about playing Burning Wheel with my lady friend, she brought it up and pitched a premise inspired by...The Lion King. We also played the Harry Potter Hogwarts battle game, the co-op, and the PvP version. She LOVES Harry Potter.Two sessions of The One Ring -now weekly on Twitch.tv/actualplay We visited a wight inhabited barrow-tomb! And experience some horse theft!I'm working on some Foundry VTT code for my online games.Played an X-Men/X-Force-inspired game of Champions Now testing out pregens for my Lifted zine.Juggling basic moves and the first draft of 3 playbooks for Debtpunk.  And thinking about the futuristic setting that it exists in.I've read Superman and the Authority #2 was less than #1, but it was a team assembling montage, so I get it. I still have lore questions!The new Kill Team is out and I got in my Desert Moon of Karth Zine. And this week I learned: Lupin the 3rd will be an RPG by Magnetic Press Play! Love it! And old Palladium Fantasy is pretty hot in the right hands!Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

Kickstarters...WTF!!Hottest KS - Avatar Legends. The Upset - Tears of a Machine SC Carbon Grey RPG Chronicles of Drunagor Dogmight’s GM screen. Forbidden Lands RPG – Book of Beasts and The Bloodmarch A|State Ran/Played:2nd episode of The One Ring on Twitch.tv/ActualPlayR3D - Lifted with Champions Now.On my campaign turn with Five Parsecs from Home, a Sci-fi Solo Adventure wargaming game by Modiphius.Lancer RPG - The Long Rim.Reading/Prepping:Debtpunk iterating through moves and playbooks.Foundry VTT and the Forbidden Lands-Mad JaySend us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

Last week I ...  Ran/Played:The One Ring on Twitch.tv/ActualPlayTwilight: 2000 twice!Lifted with Champions Now two times! And thinking about an All-Star-Crisis session.Started Five Parsecs from Home, a Sci-fi Solo Adventure wargaming game by Modiphius.Lancer RPG.Reading/Prepping:Session Zero from Nahual Reading Ruin Masters and the White Hack.And then there's Debtpunk.and some stuff about Jorune.What's on your play/read list?-Mad JaySend us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

I nerd-out about designing Debtpunk and Pinx via Vincent Baker's Powered by the Apocalypse essays and my Vampire game (SPOILERS)Played:Lancer RPG Hutt Cartel - a Star Wars hack of CartelTwilight: 2000Tears of a Machine Sc -Live on Kickstarter!! PreppingVtM:Rio by Night The One Ring for Twitch/ActualplayNahual A Tabletop RPG of Mexican Urban Fantasy Powered by the Apocalypse.What are you playing or nerding-out about?Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

Russell Collins is an instructional and game designer. As an instructional designer for Learning Ally, he has spent decades creating accessible content for blind and dyslexic students and training others to do the same. As a game designer, he created The Tears of a Machine, a game inspired by his love of science fiction stories and young adult melodrama. He hopes to further access and inclusion in gaming. You can catch up with him at RobotClawTears of a Machine SC-  Live on Kickstarter!! Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

Kira is a multi-award-winning tabletop roleplaying game and LARP designer, queer nonbinary human, and snake friend living in Columbus, Ohio.Kira and I go from goth to future punk at the speed of Trans. We discuss how Kira got into games, her goto game to run and what she gets out of the gaming hobby. Check out her library of work including her latest games A Cozy Den and Something is Wrong Here.  Kira is also on Patreon where she shares her work and design process.We've talked for a bit over two hours!! So yes, there' san extended version...I'm STILL editing!Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

Mad Jay covers his gaming from last week.Rio By Night. A Vampire the Masquerade ChronicleSorcerer: The Fallen. A Mage setting powered by Sorcerer RPG. Nibiru RPG on Twitch.tv/ActualPlay Sorcerer of Marr'd. Yes another game of Sorcerer set in the Dictionary of MuLancer RPG with my kid.Lifted RPG teasers,Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

My good friend Rich Rogers and I talk about ALL the stuff he played last week! Rich is the creator of ENnie Award-winning Hit the Streets: Defend the Block, a ttRPG about street-level supers who protect their neighborhood. Co-host of +1 Forward podcast.  And it's Star Wars Sundays -not Saturdays! 😬Light-Hearted RPG by Kurt PottsOnce more Into the Void Hutt Cartel and Cartel Nibiru RPG Star Wars World Bounty of the Week hack of Monster of the Week Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

This week Paul Beakley of the Indie Game Reading Club talks about what he played last week.Paul started the Indie Game Reading Club on Google+ in 2015. It was a king's vault of opinions, reviews, thoughts, and play experiences. Today he covers a ton of small press games on his blog, there you can find links to his Patreon and the club’s slack.The lineup:Sig City of Blades - Jason PitrePlanescape Tears of a Machine: SC  - Russel CollinsLifted : Champions Now  - Mad JayTwilight Imperium Twilight: 2000 and the Goat Fight Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

I'm back and covering the week of May 9th, let me know what you're playing in the comments or on Twitter at @madjayzero Sorcerer & Sword & Dictionary of Mu with Judd.Lifted Universe with Champions Now with Kickstarter BackersSorcerer: The Fallen a Mage setting with BrendanRio  by Night a Vampire the Masquerade ChronicleThree from Kalisz using Twilight: 2000Stars without Number finale with Misha & Judd on Twitch.tv/ActualPlaySend us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

Trying out something new by request. Here's how my gaming life played out last week! Let me know if this stuff is useful to you -I'll keep doing it. Behind the scenes of Three From Kalisz , my Twilight: 2000 game.ActualPlay, where I play|stream Nibiru RPG, Sorcerer: Dictionary of Mu, Stars without Number.Tears of a Machine Kickstarter Lifted. My supers setting about humans being suddenly 'uplifted' to something more.Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

We get out on the existential side of things with Dr. Mitch, the virtual pub landlord.We start easy enough with beer, early gaming life in the UK, and the Virtual Pub origin story. We cover both his RPG works Liminal and the newly Kickstarter funded Out of the Ashes (of which I am a stretch goal writer) then we get off the path into consciousness, non-human intelligences, games we haven't but need to run, and post-cyberpunk. Lots of great book references in this one!Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

It’s my birthday month. I had my midlife crisis back in my late 20s returning to civilian life after I left the military. On the 21st of January at 16:20 I’ll be 50. Every year I get a skull tattoo to mark the years that I’m kicking diabetes ass and I make a playlist of 21 songs that I’m currently feeling. This year I will also make playlist of the 50 most important songs and a list of the 50 most important games in my life thus far. Lucky for you, I’ve already got that list of 50 games completed. I think that song list will be a longer project!Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

Happy Birthday to me! This is the full, part two version of my talk with Andy Kitkowski made possible by my Patreon supporters, my gift to you!Andy K on TwitterHeavy Kotdama DiscordLiminal RPG Raphael Chandler Judd KarlmanStras Acimovic Ars Magica The Spire RPG Shinobigami RPG Dungeon World Tenra Bansho Zero RPG Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾

Andy and I talk for two hours and thirty minutes. After editing, I have two hours and fifteen minutes of conversation!  This, part one, is our first hour and while we cover a lot of topics, there's a central point that plays out, again, and again!Andy K on TwitterHeavy Kotdama DiscordLiminal RPG Raphael Chandler Judd KarlmanStras Acimovic Ars Magica The Spire RPG Shinobigami RPG Dungeon World Tenra Bansho Zero RPG Send us Fan MailSupport the showThanks for listening to Diceology! If you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Want to support the show and get exclusive content? Head over to Play Fearless or My Patreon to subscribe and join the community! Let's make this our regular thing! 🤘🏾