Roleplay Rescue

In the spirit of turning up, this one's a bit more ad hoc and GM Journal in style, but it's relevant and heartfelt.I talk about getting back to Ariadne's Thread (powered by Cypher) and report on the Monster Hunters (powered by GURPS). The over-arching theme is the power of choosing to turn up to play. Improvisation around the tools and notes you've got can help you overcome the fear and play.Thanks to everyone for your ongoing support.Game on!Roleplay Rescue Details:<...

How do you overcome the sense of inertia where you don't want to play or prep anything?After weeks of holiday disruption, how do you get yourself moving as a GM and rediscover some enjoyment.Thanks to Frank T and Pat M for the call-ins.Game on!Roleplay Rescue Details:Voice Message:speakpipe.com/roleplayrescuePatreon:patreon.com/rpgrescue Email:roleplayrescue@pm.meBlogroleplayrescue.c...

What is it about slipping fully into a character and exploring a living, open‑ended world that makes us feel so drawn into the fantasy and have fun? What part of our human make-up is refreshed and excited by these imaginary adventures we experience during roleplay? Is there a way to understand this specific preference for slipping into a imaginary persona and exploring a living, open-ended world?This one’s sharing a more experimental theory that’s emerged in my mind over recent days. It’s rooted back in my first conversations with friends of the show Dan...

After a break of nearly 11 weeks between August and the tail end of October 2025, Roleplay Rescue was reborn with an experimental mindset and a specific pact to record one short episode per week for 10 weeks, focusing solely on actions and experiences as a GM.This is the tenth episode of that pact. How have things worked out and what has been learned?And what about the other pacts I made for my hobby?This is an opportunity to reflect and, hopefully, through that reflection to discern the next steps on the...

I've been shifting my focus towards preparing a new school-based game designed to engage the students in roleplay but also to be light, fun, and open to newbies as much as possible. For me, the trick is to get started: my confidence in the game, in my ability to deliver the game and run it, and in engaging the students begins with the first steps. This time, I’m taking a modified approach and running an experiment in providing a mission-based game in a grounded Otherworld with the potential to offer the players a sandbox to explore and mysteries to...

What’s the point of solo roleplaying games? Why do it? And, frankly, how do you keep the game moving?If you’ve ever tried to play a role‑playing game solo, you know the feeling: the excitement of stepping into a new world, followed by the nagging question, ‘How do I keep the game moving when there’s no one else at the table?’This past week, I built a tiny experiment to solve that tension and today I’m sharing it with you.Game on!Role...

This one's a reflection on the mental health side of my journey wherein I talk about the reflection that hitting 7 years of the show coincides with 5 years of healing since the mental health breakdown that I experienced in 2020.Here at the tail end of 2025, I’ve been reminded of the "Scanner" concept – because I had forgotten about it in all the hustle of the past couple of years – and it’s refreshed my sense of acceptance for the way my mind functions. That led me into thinking about some of the things that I do (or am returni...

On the 28th of November 2018, the 8 minute and 14 second Episode Zero of Roleplay Rescue was aired. Seven years of striving, failing, starting over, and asking: How can I run a game that is creatively engaging for my friends and myself, while managing the crippling anxiety and self-doubt that plagued my identity as the "world's flakiest GM"?This episode we dive into the manifesto that emerged from that struggle. Thanks to Anthony and Thorsten for the call-ins!Music by Jon from Tale of the Manticore.Game on!<...

This week patron and regular listener, Alex from the UK, called in with a question about my approach of what he calls, "Player-Directed Goal-Driven Play". His specific issue is around whether this approach can work with shorter periods of play that are designed to be time-bound to fewer sessions than my own aspiration for 1-year plus long-form play. This episode is my answer to the question.Thanks Alex for the call-in question!Hope this is useful to others too.Game on!Roleplay Rescue Details:<...

This week I found myself wandering back to Traveller - specifically, the current edition of the game published by Mongoose.Wandering is an inevitability in my hobby. My mind is constantly scanning for interesting things. I am curious by nature. This is the way I am.This week, Pioneer caught my attention again. It's a game about exploring the solar system. For me, the idea of a "For All Mankind" type of space exploration game in the near future sounds great. I downloaded the free book that's on the Kickstarter page:The P...

Starting with a seemingly random quote from "Tiny Experiments" by Anne-Loure Le Cunff, I riff off the idea of non-linear paths through RPG adventures. I draw on Jamison's idea about the Obstacle and its three stages.Overall, this is me animatedly talking about how I prep for my games right now.Thanks to everyone who is supporting the show on Patreon!Thanks to Anthony for calling in (even if I didn't use it yet)!Game on!Jamison's "Gamemastering": Gamemastering: Amazon.co.uk: Jamison, Brian: 9781448675432...

This episode I talk about Brian Jamison's approach to setting up a role-playing game. I stitch together Pat Mullen's bio sheet into this process as I talk about how I've applied it in my gaming in recent months. I also point out how good play involves improvisational elements which Jamison and Mullen's process encourages.Thanks to everyone who is supporting the show on Patreon!Thanks to Carl D for calling in (even if I didn't use it yet)!Game on!Jamison's "Gamemastering": Gamemastering: Amazon.co.uk: Jamison, Brian: 9781448675432...

What would happen if I recorded one short episode every week for ten weeks? This is my tiny experiment for Roleplay Rescue Reborn.This episode I talk about the intention, the experimental mindset, and the three RPG experiments I've got underway.Thanks to everyone who is supporting the show on Patreon!Game on!Roleplay Rescue Details:Voice Message:speakpipe.com/roleplayrescuePatreon:patreon.com/rpgrescue Email:roleplayrescue@pm.me</p...

I don’t want to say this out loud, because it feels so final and unlikely, but this is the last planned episode of Roleplay Rescue. After seven years, what is there left to say? Well, uncounted things and many topics as the hobby moves forward and ideas still percolate through my consciousness, BUT…The truth is that producing the podcast is a big investment in time and energy. Do I want to make a podcast or would I rather run some games? The playing of these games is far more important to me tha...

This episode arose after 12 weeks of conversations and not recording a more personal episode during those 3 months. Here you'll catch up with what I've been doing since April, hear three great messages from listeners and the replies they spark from me, and get the lowdown on what's coming this summer on Roleplay Rescue.Big thanks to the callers - Matt, Jason C, and Pat. Big thanks to you for listening in.Blogs mentioned in the show include...The Alexandrian "Roleplaying Games versus Storytelling Games":thealexandrian.net/wordpress/6517/roleplaying-games...

This one’s with a familiar guest - Simon Williams - in which, as it turned out, Simon interviewed me on the question of Scenario Design: how do I do it and what approaches do I take? Simon is a British artist and illustrator, and also the creator of the Legend of The Bones podcast, a hybrid Solo Old School Dungeons and Dragons actual play and dark fantasy audio drama.Through several conversations, both on and off air, Simon and I have become friends and this chat wasn’t really slated for airing but I had clic...

My guest today is Clarke Peterson from Speaks and Spells Publishing, the author of several 5th Edition compatible products including Venture Forth, The Arcane Exterminator, and Secrets of the Selkies. The work he has been doing has been focused on Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition, and he has also contributed regularly to EN Publishing's monthly periodical for the system, the Gate Pass Gazette.Clarke is currently working to launch a Kickstarter for Wild Magic Reimagined, the most versatile and dynamic system yet for adding wild magic to anything and published under the ORC license. This was a...

This one is all about the call-in feedback for the discussions I recently shared with Anthony, aka Runeslinger, from Casting Shadows on the topic of the Story Divide. More specifically, these messages largely relate to the longest episode ever - S15 Ep9 What are Roleplaying Games - in which we discussed the emergence of the Story Divide through the lens of what game designers were writing in their books.Big thanks to Anthony, aka Runeslinger, for adding his responses to this call-in episode. Thanks also to JonM, Jason C, Carl D, Wiebe, Bob, and BJ for...

This one’s another conversation with Runeslinger, aka Anthony from the Casting Shadows blog, podcast, and Youtube channel. He hails from South Korea and, having just enjoyed a week off work, I was able to cue up some chats with him.This conversation is essentially the third part that began in Episode 6, The Story Divide, and explores - through the lens of D&D - the process by which the character became a protagonist… and the impact this change had on play.Big thanks to Anthony for coming to talk. We do hope it h...

This one’s a conversation with Runeslinger, aka Anthony from the Casting Shadows blog, podcast, and Youtube channel. He hails from South Korea and, having just enjoyed a week off work, I was able to cue up some chats with him.This conversation continues from Episode 6, The Story Divide, and delves deeper into the history of the emergence of a perception that roleplaying games are about storytelling as opposed to being about, well, something else.The approach was to dig out several texts - both in book form off our shelves and PDF fo...