Campaign Spotlight

In this week's Flashlight, we're trying out DNGN+DRGN! Along the way, we end up talking about long-closed Vancouver bars, walk-in coolers, and vampire grandmothers. This ends up being a fun system - a combination of rules-light and dice-heavy, which appeals to how we like to play games. We still don't know how to pronounce "DNGN+DRGN", though. Potential spoiler alerts for Twin Peaks and Office Space. Head on over to our website to see how Reilly's character sheet looked at the end of the episode.We talk a lot about OSR games in this...

Welcome back to a brand new season of Campaign Spotlight! This week, we're chatting with Paul from Alchemical Press and Cailon from the Nailon Realm about solving problems without getting your swords out, playing a character with values very different from your own, and building out a vibrant world of rodents and mustelids on OSR-style TTRPG adventures. Minor spoilers for Ladyhawke, Redwall, and maybe also Adventure Time.We first met Paul and Cailon at Dragonflight GameCon back in 2025. When we invited them onto the show, we planned to talk about the Mice of Legend adventures that Paul...

In this week's episode, we chat with Satah about the distinction between games and writing exercises, the social expectations of GMing, and a table writing 150,000 words of fanfiction about their own campaign. We get into some of the themes that have been bubbling up through Campaign Spotlight since the beginning: the role of the GM in guiding the gameplay, player expectations around telling a cohesive story, and the way games changed in 2020 during the lockdown era. In the months since we recorded this interview, this conversation has changed how we've incorporated writing exercises in our own home games.<...

This week, we're on location at OrcaCon 2026! We hear about taste mechanics, Canadian orthography, and products for the sloppy player. Thanks to everyone who took the time to chat with us:[2:01] GameStorm is a very cool convention in Portland - and they offered listeners a promo code for discounted registration in this episode! You'll have to listen to find out what it is.[4:57] Aspiring Youth, which offers some very cool TTRPG programming for neurodivergent youth.[12:06] Brush Wielders Union, whose founder Simon has come on the podcast to talk about miniatures in combat. (Some very cool pictures of painted...

In this week's episode, we chat with Chris Pramas of Green Ronin Publishing! We hear about adapting a series of novels as a TTRPG, implementing spaceship combat without writing a physics textbook, and the importance of considering what a fantasy city would smell like. Our conversation goes deep into the lifecycle of a tabletop game, the economics of the publishing industry, and the complications of crowdfunding. Spoilers abound for The Expanse and Broken Earth novel series. Thanks to Reilly for editing out the part where Jake tried to say "Fifth Season" but accidentally said "Fifth Element".Chris...

 In this week's episode, we chat with Maia about tracking the passage of time within a campaign, how GMing changes your persective on the game, and the challenges of playing coming-of-age narratives at a table of adults. Maia is part of the team behind the Magical Land of Yeld TTRPG system, and this ended up being a really thoughtful conversation about designing and playing a game that feels very different from the classical fantasy TTRPG.This season, we're experimenting with shorter conversations about how people play games. We heard from the Yeld team (briefly!) at the Dragonflight g...

In this week's episode, we chat with Selius from Heartleaf Games about building an economy where dungeon delving makes sense, the hazards of concentrating intellectual property in a single company, and the mechanics for noodle-bodied PC species. Initially, we planned to talk with Selius about the Delver's Guide to Beast World sourcebook (which is extremely cool!), but we ended up talking more broadly about the process of developing third-party supplements for D&D 5th Edition. Since the interview, Heartleaf Games has also released a deck of NPC cards for Beast World campaigns. We talked way more about...

This week, we're on location at the Dragonflight GameCon in Bellevue, WA! We hear about carefully engineered dice, the unsustainability of grimdark campaigns, and orange cats that are not burdened by an abundance of thought. Thanks to everyone who took the time to chat with us:Norwescon is a Science Fiction and Fantasy convention in the Seattle suburbs in April.Zephren Varner makes extremely cool minis and dice.Alchemical Press publishes Mice of Legend (and has a live Kickstarter for their new modules!).Nailon Realm makes some very fun minis. Stout Game Tables builds some very practical gaming t...

This week, we're back on location at the Furlandia furry convention in Portland! We hear about the virtues of being your party's straight man (in the comedy sense), PC-on-PC romance, and a party that fails to notice that you're secretly Mothman. Thanks to Wulfryk, Theo, Dexter, Skia, Jacqueline, MIkiib, Faye, Chloe, and Liam for taking the time to chat with us! Jake (who writes these show notes) promises to Reilly (who does all the audio editing) never to wear a large clanky cowbell while recording podcast audio again.We hear about the Savage Worlds system in this...

In this week's episode, we chat with Wesley about the enforcement of veils and lines, the virtues of stabbing birds, and the use of TTRPGs in therapy. (Wesley's an actual literal therapist!) This ended up being a thoughtful conversation about people's emotional needs when they're playing TTRPGs, even outside the therapy context.We make a few references to our episode with Kyros way back in Season 1. (Spoilers for Curse of Strahd in both this episode with Wesley and that episode with Kyros, incidentally.) If you want to hear more about paid GMing in non-therapy contexts, go listen...

In this week's episode, we chat with Max about Seattle-appropriate doula gifts, the TTRPG version of porn brain, and the concept of exploration in TTRPGs. This season, we're experimenting with shorter conversations about how people play games. We first spoke with Max way back in Season 2, and we wanted to keep talking about OSR games, so we convinced Max to come back for another round. This is one of our most game theory-focused interviews, especially when we're talking about incentives and objectives in TTRPGs. If you're interested in why so many older systems treated gold as XP, this episode...

This week, we're on location at the Furlandia furry convention in Portland! We hear about tricky metallurgy puns, the challenge of playing a character with a limited vocabulary, and the hazard of DMing in Florida. Thanks to Ember, Briar, Sage, Veer, Mud, Celina, Salem, Guy, Scone, King, Kiki, Lavitts, Cotton, Diego, Nathan, Fenric, and Body for taking the time to chat with us!Lavitts shared some cool character art with us! Head on over to our website to check it out. We also hear about a fun TTRPG system called Pirate Borg in this one....

In this week's episode, we chat with Garrett about highly effective cult leaders, a curse of potential unkillability, and a table of players that rotates GMing duties (and systems!) for each campaign. This was a really thoughtful conversation about short game sessions, building shared ownership of the world, and what it means to be a GM. Plus, three of the other members of Garrett's table shared their perspectives with us as well! Garrett has a wealth of knowledge about TTRPG systems. Here are some of the systems that Garrett mentions in this episode:Swords Without MasterArs M...

This week, we're back on location at the VancouFur furry convention in Vancouver! We hear about a bomb mage, a high-charisma roguelike wizard, and a monk who discovers a new way to defeat Strahd. Reilly's around for this episode, and so order is restored, even as we need to podcast away from a crisis. Thanks again to the organizers for giving us permission to record at the convention!We're grateful to Syren, Pluto, Sappho, Cherry Blossom, Rudy, and Lexi for taking the time to talk with us! We hear about the Starfinder system in this episode. Back...

In this week's episode, Greg and Casey of Black Shield Productions share their experience running large-scale games at conventions. We hear about the flow of information between players and tables, deciding whom to leave behind on a doomed planet, and the trope of a preacher with a gun. Thanks to Black Shield Productions for making this interview possible!We first encountered a Black Shield Praoductions game back at OrcaCon in January. Their games use a modified version of the Fate system. The Black Shield Productions crew has also done some streaming, including the Elder Scrolls RPG and...

This week, we're on location at the VancouFur furry convention in Vancouver! We hear about capitalist considerations in a fantasy world, a plucky little rat, and the cuthtroat Vancouver real estate industry. Jake exposes an embarrassing ignorance of the order of the Discworld books. Thanks to the organizers for giving us permission to record at the convention!We're grateful to Jade, Fion, Edge, Herman, Asher, Reno, Musrom, Rainyatsu, and Laurien for taking the time to chat with us! Here's that building in Surrey that Musrom was talking about. It looks like it did sell recently, so maybe...

This week, we're once again on location at the grand opening of Chance Encounter Games! We hear about a sham trial and a public execution at a LARP, very ambitious notetaking, and playing a nonmagical character in a very magical world. (Also, a little bit about Jake's long-running campaign.)This is the TTRPG store and gaming space that Dante told us about during our interview earlier this season. Thanks again to Dante for letting us record at your grand opening! Also, thanks to Alaria, N, Miller, Aidan, Kathrin, and Mario for taking the time to chat with...

In this week's episode, we chat with Simon about using soda cans and pizza boxes as terrain, the shift away from miniatures in TTRPGs, and the incompatibility of the Seattle real estate market with large-scale miniatures combat. Plus, Jake gets grumpy about indie TTRPG marketing. Simon (whom we met at OrcaCon) owns Strix Publishing and runs the Brush Wielders Union and the associated podcast as well as a Horus Heresy fan podcast. He has a ton of experience in TTRPG publishing, including work on Warmachine, Hordes, Iron Kingdoms 2e, Eclipse Phase, The Hammer and the Stake, Dune...

This week, we're on location at the grand opening of Chance Encounter Games! We hear about the economy of game publishing, the joy of playing your character like you're driving a stolen car, and the impeccable vibes of a cast-iron portcullis. This is the TTRPG store and gaming space that Dante told us about during our interview earlier this season. Thanks again to Dante for letting us record at your grand opening! Also, thanks to everyone who took the time to chat with us:AllenTomAdamParker, who runs the Seattle RPG Variety Society and mentioned a few game systems...

In this week's Streetlight, we're back on location at Vulpine Taproom in Seattle asking people about their characters and campaigns! We hear about liches with day jobs, wild magic druids, and the downsides of digital dice.We're very grateful to Vulpine Taproom for letting us record at their game night! We talked with so many people in one evening that we ended up breaking it up into two episodes. The first episode aired towards the end of last season - go give it a listen. Thanks to Margaret, Shawn, Brandon, Chris, and Andrew for featuring i...