Reading D&D Aloud

Wanna know what the hell is going on at WotC? Let’s ask people who used to work there.  It is difficult to describe what a superstar gathering this is on the show. These are not the first names that you think of when you hear D&D, but they are just as significant if not more so than the names we all know.  First Liz Schuh, whose final title at Wizards was Head of Publishing and Licensing for Dungeons & Dragons, has had a hand in the production of every edition of Dungeons & Dragons since 3rd. She was one of the guiding hands involved in the success of 5th edition. Personally, I think the coolest thing she was involved in was her work on the lawsuit which brought the movie rights to D&D back to Wizards/Hasbro, but her career is so long with so many highlights that it is difficult to pick out just one. Her career of more than 28 years ended in December, 2023 in the great culling. Next, we have Chris Lindsay. Chris was a product manager for Wizards, but his career at the company also spanned over 20 years. Chris was one of the guiding voices of the DM’s Guild, and while I have no idea how much money the DM’s Guild has brought in for Wizards, it must be at least in the tens of millions of dollars. He was also let go in the great culling of December 2023. These two were on the team responsible for taking the words of the writers and the art of the artists and turning them into a physical book. What do they have to say about where Wizards was and where it’s going? Support the podcast and get extra content on Patreon here!  

An in-depth conversation with two of the most remarkable adventure-writers working today: Luke Gearing & Leo Hunt! Luke Gearing, is an incredible voice in the tabletop RPG world. His work includes Acid Death Fantasy for Troika!, the epic and disturbing Gradient Descent for Mothership and the Wages of Sin bounty book. His work is gritty, evocative, and dare I say delightfully lurid at times.  Leo Hunt is a brilliant adventure designer. The second edition of Vaults of Vaarn just funded, and I backed it, but I am most intrigued by his adventure The Shrike, which the back of the book describes as “A huge modular sandbox adventure setting in an abandoned fragment of Hell- a colossal blade dedicated to punishing a nameless God.” To support Luke's work, buy Mothership here, or check out his Itch.io page here! Find more of Leo's distinctive RPG flavors here!

Today, enjoy this conversation between 3rd edition D&D lead designer Jonathan Tweet and TTRPG historians Shannon Appelcline and Ben Riggs! They discuss one of the hotbeds of gaming ferment, St. Olaf College, which produced nerd legends like Lisa Stevens, Mark Rein-Hagen, Nicole Lindroos, and Tweet himself. Then they move on to discuss one of the most influential games of all time: ARS MAGICA. Because Ben is a nerd, he wrote poems introducing the pair of them:   This is a poem named Jonathan Tweet:  Behold the mage of rules, whose art is deep, The spellwright bold, our guest Jonathan Tweet. From ARS MAGICA’s birth to d20’s grand reign, His hand has shaped the games that fire the brain. With visions vast, mechanics deft and true, He forged new worlds for countless fans to view. Tonight we call his wisdom to our show, To learn how tales of wizards first did grow.   This is a poem named Shannon Appelcline: Behold the sage who tracks our gaming lore, The chronicler of nerdy days of yore. From Designers & Dragons he drops the whole score, The wins, the fails, the beefs, the stats, and more. So buckle up folks, ‘cause tonight we’re online, With gaming’s hot chronicler, Shannon Appelcline.   You can find Shannon's latest history, THIS IS FREE TRADER BEOWULF, here.   Jonathan suggest you check out his book on evolution for kids, GRANDMOTHER FISH, here.   And you can always buy Ben's book, SLAYING THE DRAGON: A SECRET HISTORY OF DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, which is excellent, here.

Our guest tonight is a giant in the realms — literally and figuratively. Richard Baker is a legendary Dungeons & Dragons designer, novelist, and world-builder whose fingerprints are all over the game we love. He’s helped shape settings like the Forgotten Realms, Birthright, and Alternity. He designed iconic adventures. He wrote novels that bring fantasy worlds roaring to life. With all that experience, it is certain sure Rich knows how to roll natural 20s on creativity. So grab your dice and brace for adventure — Richard Baker is in the house! Support the podcast and get extra content on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/u121641556?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink

D&D is bigger than it has ever been, but being a D&D fan in 2025 is deeply confusing.  The questions come on and on. Why do extensive promotion of a virtual tabletop for D&D, Sigil, and then give it no marketing at rollout and kill it a month later?  Why has there been an exodus of staff from the company?  Why, after a golden age during the game’s 5th edition, has Wizards struggled to find traction since the debut of 2024 D&D? In this seminar from Gen Con 2025, I try to answer a bunch of these questions.  Listen, and enjoy! Support the podcast and get extra content on Patreon here!

Is Wizards messing this up? We discuss with two titans of the TTRPG industry! First up, David M. Ewalt – journalist, editor, and author of the engaging and wonderful Of Dice and Men. He is currently the editor in chief of Scientific American, which may make him the most prestigious personage I’ve ever had on this podcast. He is also the author of Defying Reality: The Inside Story of the Virtual Reality Revolution and has worked at Forbes and the Wall Street Journal. Welcome David!  And then there’s Sean McCoy, the creative whirlwind behind Mothership, the award-winning sci-fi horror RPG that has taken the RPG scene by storm. Mothership is tense, terrifying, totally unforgettable, and yet somehow rules light! He is without a doubt a hot shot of 21st century game design, and he’s a real “get” for the podcast. Welcome Sean! Support the podcast and get extra content on Patreon here!

This week, we go deep into the Old School Revolution with Old School Essentials creator Gavin Norman and Josh McCrowell of His Majesty the Worm! Gavin Norman is the mind behind some of the most exciting work in the modern OSR scene. He is best known for Old-School Essentials, the gold standard for clean, accessible retro-gaming rules that have brought thousands of new players into old-school play. His work doesn’t just celebrate the roots of tabletop RPGs—it refines them, making them sing with clarity and style. If you’ve ever cracked open an OSE book, you know exactly what I mean: sharp design, killer layout, and an unwavering love for the game. Gavin Norman is, simply put, one of the defining voices of today’s old-school revolution. Josh McCrowell is the creator of His Majesty the Worm—a deeply weird, beautiful, and melancholy dungeon crawler that uses tarot cards as its core mechanic. It’s also up for an ENNIE this year! Josh is also one of the brains behind Knock Magazine, that gloriously chaotic love letter to the DIY RPG scene, packed with ideas, art, and inspiration. His work blends creativity with a genuine sense of wonder. Josh McCrowell is a designer who reminds us that the dungeon isn’t just for killing monsters—it’s for exploring what it means to be alive. Find Gavin's work on OSE here! https://www.exaltedfuneral.com/pages/old-school-essentials Acquire Josh's brilliant game here: https://www.hismajestytheworm.games/#h.mvmqxy70j0s9 Ben's Gen Con seminar this year is entitled "Solving the Mysteries of the D&B Business." He's interviewed dozens of former and current WotC employees, and has real answers to questions we all have about the game. Why do extensive promotion of a virtual tabletop for D&D, Sigil, and then give it no marketing at rollout and kill it a month later? Why has there been an exodus of staff from the company? Why, after a golden age during the game’s 5th edition, has Wizards struggled to find traction since the debut of 2025 D&D? These questions and more Ben will attempt to answer in his sold-out Gen Con seminar! Given demand, Ben is going to livestream a rehearsal of the show on Zoom on Tuesday, July 29th, at 9 PM EST/ 6 PM PST. But the only way you can listen is by being a Patreon subscriber! It's only $3 a month. Click here to join now! https://www.patreon.com/user?u=121641556&utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink  

My guest tonight is a legend in the world of game design and storytelling. Richard Dansky is best known as the mind behind some of the darkest and most compelling corners of the World of Darkness. He served as the developer for Wraith: The Oblivion and helped shape the haunting masterpiece Charnel Houses of Europe: The Shoah, one of the most powerful books ever written for a roleplaying game. But Richard’’s also a veteran of the video game industry, working as a writer and narrative designer. My favorites there include the 2004 Far Cry and Driver. He’s a novelist, a storyteller, and someone who knows how to make horror feel deeply, uncomfortably human. Cough cough soulforging. My next guest is a name well-known to fans of classic fantasy RPGs—Lou Prosperi. Lou was the developer of Earthdawn at FASA, the beloved post-apocalyptic fantasy game where magic, horror, and high adventure collide. His work helped define the rich, mythic tone of that setting, making Earthdawn one of the most unique fantasy RPGs of the 1990s. I would like to start with a summary of the book we are going to discuss, and just to be clear, we will be covering some disturbing stuff today. I cried reading this book, which I think is a first for a TTRPG book, and it would not surprise me if I cried during this discussion, so I am just laying that out there now.   Charnel Houses of Europe: The Shoah is a profound, unsettling supplement that turns the Holocaust into a haunting Wraith narrative—melding historical documentation with metaphysical resonance. It looks at what happens when millions of dead arrive in the afterlife all at once. It causes a crisis in the hierarchy, the rather nasty government ruling the western afterlife. The response is actually quite remarkable. In an arrangement called the Covenant of the Millions, they decide to give space to the dead of the Shoah for them to govern themselves. They also decide to allow the Shoah dead to hunt down Nazis in the afterlife.   Its strength lies in its gravity and respect for the subject: it’s not a casual horror romp, but a rigorous, emotionally charged exploration. For Storytellers aiming to address trauma, memory, and unresolved spirits, this book offers compelling—and deeply sobering—tools. It’s from White Wolf’s Black Dog Gaming imprint, which means Use with care: it's intended for mature, sensitive gamers, and its impact depends heavily on tone, preparation, and player trust. I’d say the same for this conversation. You can pick up Lou's great books on Disney's imagineering here! Read Rich's book on surviving the video game industry as a writer here!  

This one’s a banger: D&D designer Steve Winter meets Ben Milton of Questing Beast! Ben Milton is a game designer, YouTube sage, and sorceror-king of the OSR demigod! He’s the mind behind Knave 2e and the force behind Questing Beast, your portal to the wild, weird wonders of old-school RPGs. If you like sharp rules, deadly dungeons, and freedom at the table, Ben’s your guy. And don’t sleep on Steve Winter — a living D&D legend. From sneaking into TSR through a second-story window to shaping 2e, 3e, and beyond, Steve has been part of D&D’s DNA for decades. Tune in. Nerd out. 🎲🔥 Find Knave here, and Ben's YouTube channel here! Tuesday, July 15th at 9 PM EST, Patrons of the show will be able to join a live book discussion on Charnal Houses of Europe: The Shoah. The conversation will include the book's developer, Richard Dansky, and Earthdawn developer Lou Prosperi. But only Patrons can participate live! Click here to back the show and participate in the conversation!

Not one, not two, but THREE RPG HISTORIANS in one hour of amazing audio! Today, we are fortunate to have with us Shannon Appelcline, author of the magisterial THIS IS FREE TRADER BEOWULF, which is a history of the Traveller RPG. He’s probably most famous for DESIGNERS AND DRAGONS, which is his multi-volume history of seemingly every role-playing game company that ever put up a shingle and slammed some dice on a table. It was a book that got me through the pandemic. He seems to finish writing books at the pace other people finish playing video games. Second in order but by no means in rank we have Jon Peterson. As I will keep repeating until I see it on Google’s N-gram viewer, Jon is the Thucydides of D&D history. His PLAYING AT THE WORLD and GAME WIZARDS are both required reading if you are going to post about D&D history anywhere online. The 2nd edition of PLAYING AT THE WORLD is nominated for an ENNIE Award!  Buy THIS IS FREE TRADER BEOWULF here!  On July 15th, Patrons of our pod will get a special treat! We will be doing a book club on Shoah for Wraith: The Oblivion. The conversation will include the book's developer, Richard Dansky, and Earthdawn developer Lou Prosperi. Patrons can participate live, and even ask questions! If that sounds good, hie thee forth to our Patreon to subscribe! 

I can't believe I got these two on the show together! First, Kevin Crawford is a TTRPG design legend. My favorites from his work are Stars Without Number, and Worlds Without Number, both of which have been tremendously successful and influential as paragons of sleek game design and peerless GM tools. Stars was what I ran during the pandemic, and Worlds I read, and since the birth of my son, I read about one RPG every six months, but I had to put Worlds in that rotation just to see what Kevin did in it. To give just a taste of Kevin’s influence, Blades in the Dark creator John Harper said that the origin of Blades in the Dark was a Stars Without Number campaign. And Blades, which is itself an epochal piece of design, birthed an entire universe of games using its system.  Second, we have D&D icon Steve Winter. It is possible that Steve has the longest D&D career of anyone in the history of the game. He began working on D&D back at TSR in downtown Lake Geneva, and once even broke into the offices by climbing in a second storey window. He was a vital voice on 2nd edition AD&D. He was one of the first people to work on 3rd edition D&D, even though that project then passed on to other hands, and he followed D&D from Wisconsin to Renton, Washington where he continued to produce work for D&D through 5th edition. Check out Kevin's work here! On July 15th, Patrons of our pod will get a special treat! We will be doing a book club on Shoah for Wraith: The Oblivion. The conversation will include the book's developer, Richard Dansky, and Earthdawn developer Lou Prosperi. Patrons can participate live, and even ask questions! If that sounds good, hie thee forth to our Patreon to subscribe!    

Who saved Dungeons & Dragons? How many people could say that they saved Dungeons & Dragons? Off the top of my head, I would say that the list of people who could say they saved D&D at some point over the course of its 51-year history is less than 20. But I believe I have one of those people who could credibly tell a story explaining how they saved D&D on the podcast with me today, because today I am speaking with Ryan Dancey. Ryan is like a Rhode Island private who just happened to be at every major battle of the Civil War. He seems to have been present at a number of important moments during the transplantation of D&D from TSR to Wizards of the Coast. He went to Lake Geneva as part of a team to negotiate an initial purchase with TSR CEO Lorraine Williams. Then, when D&D landed at Wizards, he found himself in charge of D&D, and had to figure out how to make the game make money again. Ben interviewed 2nd ed designer Zeb Cook in Hugh Hefner's suite at Gary Con and there's video! You NEED to see this! And the only way you are going to get access to this amazing interview is by subscribing to our Patreon. It's only $3 a month! Click here! Want more of Ben's work? Check out SLAYING THE DRAGON: A SECRET HISTORY OF DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, available wherever books are sold!

The theme of today’s conversation is Ravenloft, but I don’t know think that’s the best place to actually start introducing my three guests. Instead, I am going to say that I have a very addictive personality. I play one video game about every three years. But one of the video games I have played is MASS EFFECT, and with us today is the accomplished Canadian voice actor, the voice of Commander Shephard, and probably the most real-world famous person I will ever have on this podcast, Mark Meer! Another one of the video games I’ve played is SKYRIM, and with me today is the lead designer of SKYRIM, a game which generated more income in its first week than TSR did in its best year, the co-creator of RAVENLOFT and lead author of the 1990 RAVENLOFT Boxed Set, Bruce Nesmith! Last but not least, we have author of the Ravenloft novel, KNIGHT OF THE BLACK ROSE, editor of more books than I can list, alumni of TSR and Chaosium, James Lowder. You can play D&D in a castle with Mark Meer by clicking here!  Check out Bruce Nesmith's LitRPG, GLORY SEEKER, here! Fear the sanity-blasting secrets contained within the eldritch auction that was THE DAGON COLLECTION, featuring Jim Lowder! Uncover its secrets here!    

Are hexcrawls the adventure's final form? We discuss that very question with two of the premier purveyors of the hexcrawl format in the 21st century: Jacob Hurst & WF Smith, aka Prismatic Wasteland. Jacob is one of the brilliant minds behind The Dark of Hot Springs Island, a hexcrawl of evil elves, interdimensional drug dealers, and beached whales. Smith is the lead designer or Barkeep on the Borderlands, a pubcrawl pointcrawl that is equal parts 1st edition homage, wine-soaked bachelorette party, and Terry Pratchett.   Ben interviewed 2nd ed designer Zeb Cook in Hugh Hefner's suite at Gary Con and there's video! You NEED to see this! And the only way you are going to get access to this amazing interview is by subscribing to our Patreon. It's only $3 a month! Click here! Above image courtesy Prismatic Wasteland. 

I have interviewed bestselling authors, Ivy League professors, and comic creators whose work has gone on to generate billions at the box office.  But as a class, TTRPG professionals seem to be the smartest people I regularly talk to. I discuss this and other fascinating points this week with Stephen Radney-Macfarland, a designer with a TTRPG resume longer than my arm.  Ben interviewed 2nd ed designer Zeb Cook in Hugh Hefner's suite at Gary Con and there's video! You NEED to see this! And the only way you are going to get access to this amazing interview is by subscribing to our Patreon. It's only $3 a month! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=121641...    

Kevin Kulp & Jeff Grubb have, between them, created entire cosmologies and entire timelines. Kulp is the award-winning creator of Timewatch and the investigative fantasy game, Swords of the Serpentine. Grubb, a legend in his own time, is the engineer of the Forgotten Realms, creator of Spelljammer, and writer of Manual of the Planes. Hear the pair discuss the secrets of creating new worlds with Ben Riggs. Ben interviewed 2nd ed designer Zeb Cook in Hugh Hefner's suite at Gary Con and there's video! You NEED to see this! And the only way you are going to get access to this amazing interview is by subscribing to our Patreon. It's only $3 a month! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=121641...

Shannon Appelcline is a TTRPG historian par excellence. His Designers & Dragons set a high bar for the field and I cannot recommend it too highly. HIs recent Traveller history, This is Free Trader Beowulf, is similarly excellent. Today, we talk with Shannon about his time in the trenches of RPG history! Ben interviewed 2nd ed designer Zeb Cook in Hugh Hefner's suite at Gary Con and there's video! You NEED to see this! And the only way you are going to get access to this amazing interview is by subscribing to our Patreon. It's only $3 a month! Click here!      

Ask a round of nerds what the first RPG was, and you'll likely get D&D as your answer. Some might shout out Blackmoor. A few may say Braunstein. But what if the answer was... something else? A long talk with the Thucydides of RPG history, Jon Peterson! Pick up the first volume of Playing at the World 2nd Edition here! Read Jon's article on Western Gunfight here! You can read Michael Korns's Modern Warfare in Miniature here! Ben interviewed 2nd ed designer Zeb Cook in Hugh Hefner's suite at Gary Con and there's video! You NEED to see this! And the only way you are going to get access to this amazing interview is by subscribing to our Patreon. It's only $3 a month! Click here!

Mary Fan is a sci-fi stalwart, a prolific author whose novels include the Jane Colt series among many, many, others, and lifelong reader. She shares with us her favorite short story, which happens to be by Polish genius Stanislaw Lem, and of course we argue about Star Wars and Star Trek.  Ben interviewed 2nd ed designer Zeb Cook in Hugh Hefner's suite at Gary Con and there's video! You NEED to see this! And the only way you are going to get access to this amazing interview is by subscribing to our Patreon. It's only $3 a month! Click here!

You will not regret spending an hour listening to this conversation between 5th edition designer Mike Mearls and Shadowdark designer Kelsey Dionne. The pair are without question two of the most outstanding game designers working in TTRPGs today, and in this episode, they each give us a peek into their persons and processes. You can find Mike's Patreon here! And you can be a late backer of Kelsey's newest Shadowdark expansion here! Ben interviewed 2nd ed designer Zeb Cook in Hugh Hefner's suite at Gary Con and there's video! You NEED to see this! And the only way you are going to get access to this amazing interview is by subscribing to our Patreon. It's only $3 a month! Click here!