Can Chris and Andy design a shop for a roleplaying game that’s actually interesting to visit? Listen as they brainstorm a quirky shop that provides not only items for your players to purchase, but opportunities for investigation and adventure.
Episode 87 appendix (aka show notes):
The Deep House, a horror movie that takes place entirely underwater
Dillman’s Dungeon, the “Air D&D” venue that recently funded on Kickstarter
Test your might and win the prize of listening to this episode where Chris and Andy take on the design challenge of: “Create a festival” (a topic added by Tim Saucer)!
Chris reminisces way too much his stint in Indiana and Andy relives some memories of horrible footwear. Then they imagine a totally normal festival with absolutely no creepy stuff set in 80s/90s small town America.
Episode 85 — Space Anomalies That Beg to be Investigated
/
RSS Feed
Share
Link
Embed
What space object or event would be so insanely interesting that even the most dedicated PCs will divert course to go check it out? Chris and Andy brainstorm three space anomalies that even the least curious characters couldn’t stop themselves from investigating.
Episode 84 — Underwater Adventures (That Are Actually Fun)
/
RSS Feed
Share
Link
Embed
Big news in this episode! Roll for Topic isn’t on its own anymore–we’re now part of a brand-new podcast network. After discussing this news (and nerding out about Michael Moorcock’s Elric novels), Chris and Andy puts their GM brains together to come up with an idea for an underwater adventure that sounds not just workable, but fun.
Andy and Chris ambush Peter Dillman, creator of the Dillman’s Dungeon: A Gamer’s Retreat Kickstarter campaign, and force him to design an ambush scenario for a fantasy roleplaying game. Along the way we learn all about Peter’s amazing vision for an “Air D&D” venue to host gaming getaways.
Episode 82 — Useless Magic Items (That Might Have a Use)
/
RSS Feed
Share
Link
Embed
Ever given the player characters a magic item that seems to have no practical use… only to have the players figure out a good use for it anyway? Andy and Chris brainstorm up several such “useless” magic items you could drop into your campaign.
Episode 81 — Creating a Love Triangle for Your Game
/
RSS Feed
Share
Link
Embed
We’re starting something new with this episode! Join as we roll on our brand new Table of Design Challenges to determine a random GM design challenge for Andy and Chris to create on air. The first challenge is to create a love triangle that can be added to any D&D campaign!
Episode 80 — Actual Play Retrospective, and New Year GMing Goals
/
RSS Feed
Share
Link
Embed
It’s a brand new year! We start with Chris’ reflections on running last episode’s live game, and then Andy and Chris both talk about GMing goals for 2022—as well as about plans for the podcast!
Join Nicole, Cory, Phill, and Brandon as they explore the crazy sci-fi dungeon we created in Episode 78! With Chris as GM, they encounter space pirates, escape from space bugs, and do many other exciting space-related things.
The system used to run this game is the excellent Caltrop Core, which puts the divisive d4 to good use in a fast-moving rules system that the group found easy to learn on the fly. You can follow Caltrop Core’s creator @titanomachyRPG on Twitter.
To help you follow along with the game, you’ll want to reference this amazing ASCII art map of the space dungeon by Kyle “Map Crow” Latino, who helped design the dungeon and shared tips for making ASCII dungeons in a video companion to this episode. Here’s the map:
It’s our annual Build a Dungeon Special! Andy and Chris are joined by John Corey and Kyle Latino to brainstorm and build out a dungeon/adventure live on-air. Our next episode will be a play-through of the dungeon with some other special guests.
