This Ol’ Dungeon Podcast

Your dungeon architects are back at it, with this third installment of Masks of Nyarlathotep. This time we take a look at the Australia leg of that world-hopping campaign. We have a good letters section about Christmas RPG memories and some good discussion of using "ships" as the base of an adventuring group. Bill is mysteriously absent from this episode...or is he? You'll have to listen to the whole thing to know for sure!

Edwin and Lou get a chance to hang with friend of the show Jason Hobbs and talk about his "Into the Odd" inspired Civil War-Era, Post-Apocalyptic Western, "Bite the Bullet." He's doing some cool things with social interaction rules in this among other things! Its a tight RPG that really pushes into character play and leaves a lot of room for setting building that is still supported by in-game themes and mechanics pushing the "wild west" pseudo-apocalypse genre. We also get to hear a bit about Edwin's test-run of his in-development "Dungeon Survivor" RPG system during his running of Crawl for the Cure.  You can check out "Bite the Bullet" as a pay what you want here: Bite the Bullet on DrivethruRPG

Alright, if you have followed the podcast for any length of time, you know that I (Luau Lou) have this weird ambition to do a podcast with my childhood buddy, Christopher Tupa, where we just talk. It's not about gaming. It is not even really tangent to the theme of This Ol' Dungeon, but I inflict it on you all nonetheless. This year instead of another Halloween episode, we branch off to Christmas! So, if you need the company of conversation, turn us on. If not, you may want to pass. If you have thoughts of your own about some of the topics we cover, please write in at thisoldungeon@gmail.com. Or drop some messages on our Facebook page.  Both Christopher and I (and Edwin!) will be on The Crawl for the Cure this Saturday (12/13/25).  Here's the blurb: Live on the DCC Mayhem Twitch Channel:   Time Judge / System / Adventure 7:00:00 AM CK Chuck Cumbow - Castles & Crusades - The Dark Crypt of Nagízotl 10:00:00 AM Judge Brendan Lasalle - Xcrawl Classics - The 36 Chambers of Xcrawl 2:00:00 PM Judge Tim Deschene - DCC/MCC MASHUP - Powerman and Defenders of the Cosmos 5:00:00 PM Judge Edwin Nagy - Dungeon Survivor - The Sweetest Curse 8:00:00 PM Judge Luau Lou/Insanti Clawz - Mutant Crawl Classics - A Convenient Stop with Special Guest Chris Holmes 11:00:00 PM Director Randy Miller - Horror Cinemas Classics - Legion on the Lakefront with Special Guests Paul Fricker (Chaosium) and Jon Hook (Modern Mythos)   Additionally, Freelance Artist Christopher Tupa will be putting up the incredible artworks pictured for raffle, as well as hanging out in the dcc_mayhem Twitch chat to take your requests for custom artworks! Starting at $25 for a black ink drawing and starting at $50 for color, this is NOT an opportunity you’ll want to miss!   The memorial play-a-thon is in memory of Jerry Stefek: gamer, father, friend and altruist. We tragically lost Jerry to aggressive lymphoma in 2018. ALL proceeds will be given to cancer research and patient assistance through Tiltify to the American Cancer Society!

In this One Shot Epsiode, Lou gets to sit down with listener Alexander Another Skip Davis and learn about his experiences both playing the Mechwarrior RPG and taking it to the next level as a LARP! Though he hasn't mentioned it on the show before, this creative dude also manufactures a cool style of dice that work as rings rotating around a string or necklace chain. You can check them out at his link here: Turning Dice - for fans of funky dice, these are a must have...and Christmas is around the corner, how convenient!

This time we get up to a real classic, "Expedition to the Barrier Peaks" by the man himself - E. Gary Gygax! On top of this beaut, we have a great selection of listener mail and (drum roll) the return of Geek Credit! Thanks to the submission of questions by the listeners, we were able to do our first round of the new and improved quiz show! If you have some fun Geek Credit questions for us and want to be inline for a chance to win fabulous RPG prizes, send your questions to thisoldungeonquiz@gmail.com. Thanks for giving us a listen, and we'll be back in December with another episode! Here are the links listener John Williams gave for looking at his 2nd Edition Warhammer materials. For legal purposes, the show is not affiliated with this but loves the archival nature of what he's doing and wants to see fans connect over the love of old systems and gaming material!   Hosted on google drive.  https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19ZGff8aGyf3g3pR7GN9BkbcnEaOLn1IK?usp=drive_link   On DakkaDakka forums.  https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/816543.page   On the 3rd ed 40k facebook group.  https://www.facebook.com/groups/294172802284175   In the 3rd ed 40k discord server.  https://discord.gg/hj9s2ZEU

In this, our October episode, Bill is back from the land of the dead, and we finally get a chance to cover “Null Set” a Mechwarrior adventure…oh the things we do to please our listeners… Well, aside from “Null Set” we had some nice listener mail about how to do XP and the use of table props. Edwin gets the bug to design a system, and Bill announces Pacesetter’s release of the Gamma-X beta rules (available here: https://pacesettergames.com/search?q=gamma&options%5Bprefix%5D=last). OH, don’t forget to write-in at thisoldungeon@gmail.com. Also, we will be doing the trivia game (should be next episode) and if you wish to contribute a question you can do so at thisoldungeonquiz@gmail.com. Till next time, happy gaming!

After multiple re-schedules things fell through for the episode we were wanting to give you this month, reviewing the Mechwarrior adventure, "Null Set." With Bill failing his save against the black plague, it is just Edwin and Lou talking about the origins of the podcast and how they go about "this old dungeoning" an adventure. We did not have any Letters to the Homeowner's Association for September, but we did have some Geek Credit questions, though we chose to wait until Bill was back to spring this new quiz format. We do have room for more questions if you still want to write-in (thisoldungeonquiz@gmail.com). We will return next month with a regular episode as well as Lou's annual sit down with friend of the show, Chris Tupa to discuss things Halloween!

On this month’s episode of This Ol’ Dungeon, we are digesting Boot Hill’s BH3, “Ballots and Bullets.” This adventure sets the PCs in the middle of the mining town, Promise City, where elections for Marshal, Mayor, and Town Council are about to take place. The PCs have 10 weeks to help their supported faction win these elections amid both fair and unfair practices and a lot of potential gun-play. The module itself is like many a political candidate, promising much…but does it deliver? We have a lot of fun talking about this one, and were given some great listener questions about making fantasy campaign games work as well as which board games we love to play.  At the end, we give out the information for being a part of our quiz-portion (Geek Credit) that we are trying to start back up. Basically, if you have a good multiple choice, geek-oriented question, you can send it to thisoldungeonquiz@gmail.com. if we use it on the show, you will get a shot at winning fantastic RPG prizes!  Thanks for listening folks, and we will catch you in September with a bit of Mechwarrior!

Friend of the show Eddie Bartlett stops by on this one shot episode to talk about his and John Watson’s up-coming DCC release, “Dungeon Dwelling Creatures” (DDC). This DCC-compatible rulebook puts players in the role of the monsters—and not that sort of cutesy “Oh I’m a cat-person,” or, “Look at me, my father was a dragon…” stuff. No, these monsters are grotesque, wicked little things like Orcs, Wendigos, Debiks, Hags and many more. Eddie talks a lot about the functional design of a game like this and gives us some insight into how some of the classes work, what “Vile” is and how it compares to Luck, and what we can expect in this new DCC-powered game system. This project is going to be live on Backerkit throughout August (launching August 1st). You can follow it here:  https://www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/3a256628-d20c-4ff6-b74b-a36b89f27015/landing?fbclid=IwY2xjawLyI7FleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHiQRGWJ-JnCNIdQiKW3AflCX8j6z85S07U7HV5QMwDl2-xBUwBqzOa1yB5aM_aem_x7LG46rBERYG-2bQypBeaw It also has a quickstart guide that has been out for a bit, available at DriveThruRPG here: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/502566/dungeon-dwelling-creatures-quick-start-rules The quickstart is a great sample of some of these amazing classes, a few spells, and a great adventure to show you just one of the many ways playing the monsters is a unique source of fun!

You won't believe it, dungeonneers!  We have the one and only Allen Hammack -yes, THAT Allen Hammack- on to talk about his seminal creation, "The Ghost Tower of Inverness." We learn about Allen's introduction to gaming, his experiences playing in and writing tournament games. We get a bit of a peek into the early days of TSR and his job there. And of course there's the listener mail segment—where we talk about "monster of the week" type adventures—and  the "This Ol' Dungeon" segment—where we learn the reasons behind some of the designs of the Ghost Tower and talk about a few of the things we might change up. Please give the episode a listen. If you have feedback, stories about your experiences with the Ghost Tower or tournament play, or questions you would like to hear our input on, write to: thisoldungeon@gmail.com. We are also excited to (soon) be getting back to the Geek Credit quiz show at the end of the episodes and have created thisoldungeonquiz@gmail.com where you can send your RPG and geek-related quiz questions and answers. Those questions will be selected to be used by one of us to test the others. All contributors to that segment's questions will be put in a drawing for fabulous RPG prizes!  Thanks for your support, everybody!

In this episode we handle some great listener mail discussing important, non-game con items, whether pulp has transformed from a genre to play style in RPGs, and face the aftermath of doing the TSR Indiana Jones game. For our main offering we have the divisive classic, "Against the Cult of the Reptile God." And like the naga that lies at the conclusion of the adventure our thoughts and writhe between praise and reproach of the adventure's parts - you'll never gues who Bill winds up siding with (actually, you will because there are only two other hosts...).  Here's the addition Bill's company made to try and fix some of the issues with this adventure: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/263910/n0-5-twisting-trail-of-the-reptile-cult

Quick apology to those that already downloaded this episode once. There was apparently some corrupt parts of the original file. This version has the entire show on it. Thanks for your patience!  The planets must be ready to align, because in a moment of shocking This Ol' Dungeon history, all three hosts get fired up about this episode's focus, 'Nepal Nightmare." This adventure for the infamous Indiana Jones RPG by TSR has a lot to work from. As mentioned in the episode, the unpublished paper models for Star Frontiers by the late Dennis Kauth can be found through this link: https://www.papermodelers.com/forum/alternate-dimensions/44572-rpg-vehicles-dennis-kauth.html. Please keep the letters coming. We plan to return again mid-June. Happy gaming!

It's been a minute, but we are back at our trek through the classic Call of Cthulhu campaign, "Masks of Nyarlathotep." This time Bill is sick, so its up to Edwin and Lou to come through. we've got some great write-ins about using other adventure parties as random encounters, a question about XP systems and what they contribute to the feel of a campaign, and then a run through of the London portion of the Masks.

Lou gets to sit down once again with creator Matt De Micco who's newest creation is a fantasy setting explored through 4 interlinked non-linear adventures entitled "The Cult of the Winged Skull." You will get to hear all about the Wythmail setting and these adventures as Matt discuss this fantastic undertaking. We're talking rivaling groups of knights, clandestine sects of wizards, new monsters and PIRATES! Towards the end of the episode we also get a sneak peak at his upcoming Weird Frontiers work, and bit about his pulp-baseball RPG. If you want in on this awesome tome of fantasy adventure, check out his Kickstarter! Time is running out! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cclydesdalemassacre/the-cult-of-the-winged-skull?ref=discovery&term=winged%20skull&total_hits=11&category_id=34

In this episode we discuss different uses and purposes of random encounter charts (thanks to the suggestion of listener John Williams) and do our best to make a go of "Time Trap!" an early adventure for the TSR Marvel Super Heroes games. If you have suggestions, questions, or gaming stories you would like to share, write us at thisoldungeon@gmail.com or catch us on Facebook!

Well, curtain pulled back, February was a busy month and almost got away from us! So here we go with a fun mini-adventure that was packaged between AC2 Combat Shield..."The Treasure of the Hideous Ones." Like the adventure, this episode is low-key but full of some fun moments!

We're all very honored to have made it to 50 regular episodes! Suggested by listeners, we tried to hype-up this golden anniversary by having former hosts Briggy and Thomas back on to join the current crew in discussions that range from whether module challenge ratings give accurate information, to hosting our own "dream episode" of TOD, to giving the This Ol' Dungeon treatment to Merle Rasmussen's "Lathan's Gold." Mid-episode you also get a one-on-one interview with the man, himself, Merle Rasmussen. It's a bit of a long one, folks, but you don't hit 50 too often! We had a lot of fun on this one and we hope you will too.

Stefan Surratt is launching a cool DCC campaign called "Conquest of Chaos" filled with inspiration from the old "Against the Giants" modules. On this episode, he and Luau Lou sit down and talk about his adventures' designs as well as the finale in the G series, G3: Hall of the Fire Giant King. Its amazing how many little bits of "wow" that very early adventure has smashed between dozens and dozens of fights with giants... If you want a fresh take on conquesting jotnars you should check out Stefan's Backerkit (launching at the end of January): Conquest of Chaos. The regular hosts will be back soon with a regular episode (OUR 50th!), so stay tuned for that as well!

On Christmas Eve...Eve, I had the opportunity to do a Zoom call with my good friend Dave Townsend. Figuring that we would end up talking about gaming stuff, I asked him if it would be OK to just record the conversation and put it out there as a oneshot for This Ol' Dungeon; just in case there was someone out there that wanted a little company. He was cool with it. In this conversation between friends, we talk about gaming and the holidays, games we played with our siblings and children, 3D printing, the advent of the resin printer, and a bit more. So come hang with us for a conversation... If you would like to see Dave's amazing webstore, you can find it here: Games with Dave the RPG Store For his awesome collection of video interviews with a who's-who of RPG legends, check out his YouTube channel: Games with Dave the Youtube Channel

In this episode, Bill, Edwin and Lou discuss the use of traps in the game, compare their thoughts on the Grimtooth's Traps series, and challenge the listeners to write in with their own reflections (write to thisoldungeon@gmail.com). Have a very Merry Christmas or whatever holiday is warming your heart right now, and may great fortune be yours in 2025!