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Episode 297: Walrus Revenge
Do gamers like choice more than ordinary humans? We raised the question several episodes back, and now it’s all grown up into its very own Gaming Hut segment. In the Tradecraft Hut we look at the...
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Episode 302: Jack the Riffer
In the Gaming Hut we look at how the same adversary can play very different roles from one game to the next. Serving as an example is Red Jack, created for Night’s Black Agents but presently...
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Episode 305: I Put My Whole Head In and I am Fine
Once more we’re in the same room together with an episode recorded in our hotel the day before Gen Con. Hmm, what easy topics shall we tackle? Does the game system you’re playing expect you to...
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Episode 322: The Cinnabon of the 17th Century
Not to spoil anything, but we open in the Gaming Hut as Patreon backer V Weather asks us what to do when it turns out you’ve already read the adventure your GM is running. In How To Write Good, we...
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Episode 328: That Doesn’t Sound Like Y’golonac
Get ready for a tear gassing as the Gaming Hut finds us riffing a Fall of Delta Green scenario set during the 1968 Democratic convention. Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else features a chat with app...
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Episode 333: Our Earth and Cincinnati
Time to check your dermal surfaces for sigils as the Gaming Hut takes a look at spell side effects. The Tradecraft Hut goes contemporary and shadowy to examine private spy agencies, including Black...
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Episode 343: I’m a Baron and Classy
Patreon backer Jacob Ansari collars us in the Gaming Hut to ask about running alternate history games. The Tradecraft Hut looks at the February raid on Madrid’s North Korean embassy by the Free Joseon...
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Episode 351: The Molticore
In the Gaming Hut Patreon backer(s) The Armchair Adventurers ask if we agree with Greg Stafford’s prohibition on invisiblity spells in his games. Was every noteworthy English writer also a spy? In the...
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Episode 356: Jealous of My Katana
Our annual Indianapolis hotel room episode begins in the Gaming Hut, where we find ways to be a lone wolf PC the rest of the players won’t hate. In the Food Hut we look at our favorite cooking shows...
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Episode 365: The Grumpocene
Our forces muster outside the Gaming Hut as Patreon backer Robert Dean asks us how to fold mass battles into D&D. Thanks to a redaction failure the Tradecraft Hut discovers ICE’s requisition for a...
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Episode 373: Nutty Crab Soup [Corrected]
In the Gaming Hut we figure out what people are really talking about when they take sides in the system matters debate. The Tradecraft Hut peers into a classic tabloid spy scandal, 1961’s Profumo...
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Episode 376: Landlord Reform
Pull up a comfy chair and get your fireballs back in the Gaming Hut as we look at the timing of resource refreshing. In the Tradecraft Hut we peer into the espionage activities of William Playfair,...
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Episode 378: Killer Puppies
With a wave of his chainsaw hand, Patreon backer Walter Manbeck summons us to the Gaming Hut for tips on running comedy horror games. Inspired by a recent New York Times Magazine piece, the Tradecraft...
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Episode 385: Shill for the Macedonians
In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Gray St. Quintin asks us to expand on our past fleeting discussion of the various voices and modes used in a roleplaying session. The Tradecraft Hut has no...
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Episode 387 – Yell Down Into the Hollers
In the Gaming Hut, beloved Patreon backer Peter McAveney asks how to set up a Night’s Black Agents game as if it is, at first, some other less vampire-infested game. The Tradecraft Hut goes to 50s...
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Episode 393: Sonia Plus Melted Cheese
In the Gaming Hut we help beloved Patreon backer Jamie Twine as he seeks to adapt scenarios written for standard GUMSHOE to the QuickShock version of the system found in The Yellow King Roleplaying...
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Episode 396: Submarine for Sea Ghouls
If the hairs on the back of your neck are tingling, you must be in the Gaming Hut, and we may be providing tips on using Sense Trouble abilities. In Fun With Science beloved Patreon backer Chris...
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Episode 398: Dragons Love Merch
In the Gaming Hut we look at times when it’s appropriate to give a player an auto-success. Sometimes winning beats failing forward! The Tradecraft Hut checks out the story of Czech mayors alleged to...
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Episode 407: You May Be Competent
In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Gene Ha asks about trusting players with knowledge of upcoming secrets, for example the vampire content in Night’s Black Agents. The Tradecraft Hut delves into...
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Episode 418: Professor X Will Hug Me
A Theosophical choir sings in the Gaming Hut as beloved Patreon backer Brad McClain asks for Trail of Cthulhu scenario seeds inspired by Alexander Scriabin’s unfinished, Armageddon-inducing...
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Episode 420: They Were Hurt Frankly
Beloved Patreon backer John Scheib summons us to the Gaming Hut to find techniques for infusing Earth-based settings with your chosen nerdtrope. In the Tradecraft Hut we find that the Cuban sonic...
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Episode 427: Poor Bactrian Saps
We’re back for another year, starting in the Gaming Hut, where beloved Patreon backer Nicola Wilson wants to know how to incorporate the relatively high cost of clothes and food in the Middle Ages...
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Episode 440: All the Van Helsings
In the Gaming Hut the beloved Patreon backer known as Ed, Speaker in Digressions, asks us to envision a game that that arcs from a state of nature to civil society. The Tradecraft Hut steams open the...
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Episode 449: Quietly Judging You
We venture from the Gaming Hut into a wider world of stashed items as beloved Patreon backer Carrie Schutrick requests the RPG angle on geocaching. Estimable Patreon backers pool their resources in...
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Episode 454: A Disreputable Trade
Make sure anyone else in the room is really them as the Gaming Hut looks at fox spirits, doppelgangers, and other foes who disguise themselves as human. The Tradecraft Hut profiles CIA operative,...
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Episode 460: The Price is Scarecrow
In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer V. R. Weather asks for a 101 on playtesting. Surprised that we have not directly tackled this basic topic before, we immediately comply. The Tradecraft Hut...
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Episode 472: Running Away from a Bush
An all-request episode kicks off with a Gaming Hut question from beloved backer Tom Abella, who wants to know if, when playtesting, there is such a thing as too good a GM. Estimable backer Elias...
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[Corrected] Episode 472: Running Away from a Bush
An all-request episode kicks off with a Gaming Hut question from beloved backer Tom Abella, who wants to know if, when playtesting, there is such a thing as too good a GM. Estimable backer Elias...
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Episode 479: His Old Draping Skills
Get ready for twists and Gaming Hut turns as beloved Patreon backer Terry Robinson asks for advice on genre shifts on the tabletop. The Tradecraft Hut finds intrigue behind an old-timey Canadian...
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Episode 485: What I Might Have Done in the Future
Beloved Patreon backer Walter Manbeck chases a bad guy we thought we vanquished into the Gaming Hut, asking us how to keep recurring villains scary after the group has teamed up to defeat them. At the...
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Episode 494: Sidekicks to the Bear
In an episode dedicated to recreating for posterity the good half of an old installment that has since gone missing, the Gaming Hut looks at campaigns where most of the PCs are sidekicks to a superior...
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Episode 499: The Easily Discouraged Ones
In the Gaming Hut, beloved Patreon backer Bill Durfy asks us to provide advice for budding professional GMs. The Tradecraft Hut looks at John Stonehouse, a British MP who spied for the Czechs and...
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Episode 507: Awesomely Underfunded
In the Gaming Hut, Beloved Patreon backer Eric Jeppesen, or a clever facsimile thereof, kicks off an all-request episode, as he wonders how to run GUMSHOE One-2-One with a doppelganger protagonist....
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Episode 514: Joseph Campbell in a Jar
In the Gaming Hut we look at a largely foregone phenomenon in tabletop, the roleplaying tournament. At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Dan L, the Tradecraft Hut examines Project Coast, South...
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Episode 520: Cell Phone From the Elder Things
In the Gaming Hut we address a query from beloved Patreon backer Steven Dosman on keeping the solutions of mysteries far enough away from characters with the competence and point spends to solve them....
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Episode 524: Let’s Just Dump It in the West
In the Gaming Hut we mull a peculiar property of RPGs as narrative, the expectation that a scenario will set up more plot elements than it actually pays off. At the behest of beloved Patreon backer...
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Episode 537: Bring Me the Incompetent Laggard File
We appear to be stuck in the Gaming Hut as beloved Patreon backer Walter Manbeck seeks tips on scenarios set in confined spaces. In the Tradecraft Hut estimable backer Dan L seeks gaming inspiration...
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Episode 538: Perhaps an Exploder
We hope you’re wearing headphones for this one because we start in the Gaming Hut with a request from beloved Patreon backer Kevin L. Nault asks us to wrap a campaign around ear-entering,...
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Episode 548: The Rhino and I Have an Alibi
Your heroes don masks and top hats in the Gaming Hut as beloved backer Daniel Fidelman asks how to use iconic French pulp villain Fantomas in The Yellow King Roleplaying Game. The Tradecraft Hut gets...
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Episode 554: The Best Way to Annoy a Husband
In the Gaming Hut we look at a common GMing pitfall, which we like to call the Case of the Tight-lipped Informant. The Tradecraft Hut opens the dossier on 18th century antiquarian and spy Philipp von...
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Episode 574: Kettle of Worms
In the Gaming Hut show you how to remind players that their characters are the experts. The Tradecraft Hut profiles American novelist, journalist and Soviet spy Martha Dodd. Ken and/or Robin Talk To...
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Episode 582: That’s a Bad Laser
In the Gaming Hut beloved backer Jamie Twine seeks tips on signaling weirdness and danger in horror games not set in our recognizable world. Esteemed backer Ginger asks for the Tradecraft Hut take on...
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Episode 592: A Rhode Island Level of Excitement
In the Gaming Hut we find ways to bring players back into the action when they make sensible decisions that sideline their characters. 2Beloved Patreon backer Paul S. Enns beckons us into the...
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Episode 599: You Can’t Rule Fish Out
In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Bob Grider asks how to create mystery hooks for sovereign citizens in The Yellow King: This Is Normal Now. With dire inevitability this leads to a discussion...
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Episode 603: He’s a Pregen
In the Gaming Hut we turn the rise of surreal online retailer Temu into a horror scenario hook. Beloved Patreon backer Ginge assigns the Tradecraft Hut to cough up the real dossier on the icy...
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Episode 610: She Probably Met a Nice God
In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Lauberfen asks us to seek mythic inspiration for gaming scenarios. Estimable backer Derek Upham beckons us to the Tradecraft Hut for our take on the theory...
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Episode 619: The Zeppo of the Golden Dawn
In the Gaming Hut we build an F20 setting where everyone knows your level. At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Derrick Yates the Tradecraft Hut profiles baseball player and spy Moe Berg. In the...
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Episode 624: Impractical at Most Gaming Tables
In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Mark Waterhouse asks what could possibly go wrong if we let players perform their own in-world divinations. At the behest of estimable backer Martin Rundkvist...
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Episode 635: His Cousin Latte Dick
In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Tom Abella seeks tips on compiling historical reading lists to players. We don elaborate ruffs in the Tradecraft Hut to profile Jacobean spymaster Robert...
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Episode 642: Radicalized by a Fish
In Gaming Hut we discuss organizing one’s game mastering notes. At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Sam Rutzick, the Horror Hut asks if Jacobin oppressor turned Napoleonic secret policeman Joseph...
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