Roleplay Rescue

This one’s a conversation with a new friend. My guest hails from Florida, USA, and this is probably the beginning of a sequence of chats I’d like to have with him.Our focus was on what my guest calls, "world first" play and we specifically take his currently running Twilight 2000 campaign as an example. Yes, we talk GURPS and we talk modern post-apoc but that's not quite the point: this is about methodology.Big thanks up front to Patrick for coming to talk!Game on!Pat's T2K...

This one’s an eclectic collection of thoughts emerging from listener messages and the ongoing experience of running games in the wake of recent episodes.When I started this podcast, it was really about getting my concern about losing gamers to the experience of play - of people giving up the play which enriches our lives under the pressures of modern living. At the same time, I was aware that the title - Roleplay Rescue - implies that the show is about recovering the art and depth of roleplaying. Strangely, all these years lat...

This one’s a conversation with an old friend. My guest hails from South Korea and this continues a sequence of chats that we’ve shared over a number of months. Fear not though - this episode stands alone.Big thanks again to Anthony, aka Runeslinger from Casting Shadows for having this conversation and allowing me to record it.Game on!Casting Shadows: castingshadowsblog.com/Roleplay Rescue Details:Voice Message:speakpipe.com/roleplayrescuePatreon:patreon.com/rpgrescue <p...

What if roleplaying games are not about telling stories?Is there another way to approach these games?And what happens if we stop treating the game like it’s a movie?This one is about expressing where I am in my own quest for improved roleplaying game experiences for my players. As the GM, this episode discusses where I am coming from and helps to explain some of the choices that I am making.Big thanks to Wiebe, Bob, and Jason for the call-ins!Game on!...

This one's a conversation with Joe, the host of the Dekahedron podcast where he talks about his love of the tabletop RPG hobby. On his show Joe talks about a range of stuff from OSR gameplay ideas through to newer (?) games like Fudge and Dungeon World.Joe's renowned for his honesty in RPG reviews and it’s that which triggered an invitation to the show. He recently did a couple of episodes reviewing Fudge (1995) and so I invited him on to explore it a little more.Big thanks to Joe for taking the ti...

What happens if we drop the script and the expectation that this is going to be a thought-provoking analysis of some aspect of roleplaying?What happens if we lean into improvisation and see where things end up going?What if I just riff off the call-ins and other seemingly-random thoughts that pop into my head?Wouldn’t that just be a descent into the raw and unedited mess of the GM’s Journal?Or would it be me becoming unshackled?Big thanks to Jason Wiebe and Carl D fo...

What happens if we lean back into the roots of our hobby - which for me is largely the 1980s - and realise that the kind of roleplaying we enjoy the most is in fact the Old-School variety?But instead of landing back in the realm of Dungeons & Dragons, what if we find the kind of system that emphasises the roleplay is actually found in the emergence of a game designed to encourage just that: roleplay?In 1985, Steve Jackson Games published the combat system from their forthcoming roleplaying game system and they named...

If roleplaying games are really about roleplay then how come so much of our time at the table is spent doing all sorts of other things that aren’t roleplay?Is there a way in which we can craft our play experience to put the roleplay back into the roleplaying game while still remaining a collaborative game?There comes a time when many a roleplaying gamer realises that they are unsatisfied with the way in which the game is being played. I’ve been in this place for longer than I can remember, and I ha...

This episode emerged from a Zoom call I shared with today’s guest which he was gracious enough to allow me to record and share. The episode is as simple as that: a recorded chat in which we catch up and then start to talk about Dungeoneer, also known as the Advanced Fighting Fantasy RPG from 1989.My conversation is with Simon Williams, a British artist and illustrator as well as being the creator of the Legend of The Bones podcast, a hybrid Solo Old School Dungeons and Dragons actual play and dark fantasy audio drama. ...

This episode emerged from a Zoom call I shared with today’s guest which he was gracious enough to allow me to record and share. The episode is as simple as that: a recorded chat in which we catch up and then start to talk about a question I raised: what would you do if you had a new player to add to your existing roleplaying group?My conversation is with Johnn Four, the founder of RoleplayingTips.com which began as a GM tips newsletter back in the late 1990s. Johnn is perhaps best known for th...

Back at the beginning of 2025, I decided that I wanted to double-down on my mastery of GURPS as the roleplaying game system that I actually consistently enjoy. Alongside that I decided that I wanted to take on the challenge of developing my own science-fiction space-based game. This would involve creating a sector of space and working out the basis for different approaches to SF play within it. With a month of anxious dithering behind me, I found inspiration while sitting with the face-to-face group prior to continuing our current Cthulhu investigation: one of the players expressed, n...

This one’s filled with the voices echoing out the of Abyss - in other words, it’s a call-in episode. These all stacked up from the 4th December 2024 into 2025, so there’s plenty of good comments, questions, and ideas to hear.I love to hear from you because it encourages me. Without your voices - the listener’s feedback - it would feel a very empty and dark abyss to be shouting into. Big thanks in advance to Jon, Simon, Wiebe, Matt, Karl R, Michael, Andrew, and Carl D for taking the time to record me a mess...

What if prep didn’t have to feel like work? What if there were ways in which we could be more playful with our prep? Would that transform the way in which we feel about being the GM?Following a call-in from listener Jon M, who was responding to some comments in GMJ #270, I was inspired to comment on the topic of making prep less like work and more playful. Big thanks to Jon for the call-in!Game on!Roleplay Rescue Details:Voice Message:<...

As the year turns from 2024 into 2025, I decided to invite Grail Knight Patron and regular caller Jason Wiebe to come and have a chat on air. The topic was broadly, “Becoming a Game Master” and based on the notion that Wiebe has been struggling his way to the GM’s chair over many years and finally feels he has a handle on what it all entails. For my part, I was curious to find out what he had to say.Jason is a long-time listener and Patron to Roleplay Rescue. Hailing from Montreal, Canada, he’s someone...

This episode is a pitch for building a tiny roleplay habit using 30-minute sessions and one-on-one play with the rules behind the GM’s screen. The idea, taken from solo play, is to gather more often for shorter periods. In busy lives, dropping online to play for 30 minutes is much easier to schedule. This is viable because RPGs work best on the accumulation of play over many sessions. One-on-one places the player’s focus on just their own character’s perspective. If we blend this with the desire for Otherworld-immersion, we can marry the character and player perspective in a powe...

The most important game mechanism is, of course, the Game Master of a roleplaying game. Roleplaying games are all about making choices as-if you are your character and then seeing what happens as a consequence. This week the Angry GM gave me a long-overdue kick up the butt when I read an article on his blog. This episode is a response to that kick up the butt. Big thanks to the Angry GM for his book and blog - I hope he won't mind the extensive quotation from them. Thanks to Frank T for calling in! </p...

What happens if we lean in hard to the Roleplay in roleplaying game? What if we take away the elements which distract from the enjoyment of being in-character, as-character, in a fantastic world? The first move is to start caring more about the fantastic Otherworld. The second is to push for greater Rules Opacity.Thanks to Jason Wiebe for calling in once again. Game on!Roleplay Rescue Details:Voice Message:speakpipe.com/roleplayrescuePatreon:patreon.com/rpgrescue Email:...

Why do I spend so much of my time drifting from game to game, system to system, and between diverse imaginary worlds? Why do I find it hard to settle on a game and make it come alive? Am I doomed to roam for the remainder of my life never quite experiencing the games I want to enjoy?I’ve been adrift in the hobby for a long, long time. And then something clicked. That click was a simple question: What’s it for?  The answer is simple: the RPGs that I want to play are first...

I love to hear from listeners and, while email and social media messages are great, the best moments are when people call in with a voice message. This episode collects four listener calls which I have been wanting to respond to for a few weeks, plus a bonus-length call-in from Patron Carl D. These date back over the period from the 7th September until the 19th October 2024 and cover thoughts on a few past episodes.Big thanks in advance to Patrons Jason Wiebe, Spencer aka Free Thrall, Jason Connerley, and Carl D aka "The Kid" for...

Chris Casciano is a medieval fantasy illustrator and author from Syracuse, New York. He has illustrated for novels, tv shows, and numerous games such as Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, and Game of Thrones. His personal art series, “The Iron Cast,” is a world of medieval knights and environments painted with a combination of realism, abstract shapes and textures. Chris has also written and illustrated his own Solo RPG novel, Escaping Tynebris: The Dungeons. Beyond being a professional creator, he also teaches Concept Art, Illustration and Digital Design at the high school level. Talking to him, I realised just how spec...