Ken And Robin Talk About Stuff

The Gaming Hut rings with the sound of accents and impressions as we examine the role of voice work in GMing. The Crime Blotter finds a surprising nexus of grift, elephant materialization and the technological spread of 20th century entertainment in the person of Harry Thurston. A less famous follower in his magician brother Howard’s […]

Is that a displacer beast in your pocket, or are you just glad to listen to us? Convene in the Gaming Hut as we discuss monster abilities and to what extent they enter into player awareness. The Tradecraft Hut furtively considers stolen passports. Don’t let your characters leave theirs as collateral for motorcycles in Phuket, […]

In the Gaming Hut we again lift the RPG design hood to tinker with PC/NPC asymmetry. Eerie Horror Hut riffing ensues as we sift the story possibilities of 3D-Printed Clone Dolls. Ask Ken and Robin opens in the middle of a Philippe Marcel question about starting game sessions in media res. Purely hypothetically, you understand, […]

In the Cartography Hut we set out techniques to add a dose of psychogeography to the map of your imaginary city. The Gaming Hut looks at the elasticity of vampire mythology, as inspired by Ken’s golden steampunk vampires of El Dorado, as seen in Fenix magazine. How to Write Good confronts the pesky threat of […]

Gaming Hut starts on a somber note as we remember the roleplaying innovations of Aaron Allston (1960-2014.) We go on to discuss one of the key themes of his work, genre emulation at the tabletop. The Eliptony Hut takes on a distinctly octagonal shape as we look at the eight-sided architectural influence of phrenologist and […]

Grab your retrospective popcorn and hunker down in the Cinema Hut as Ken and Robin review their movie top tens for 2013. Responding to popular demand, the Consulting Occultist assesses competing new claims of having cracked the cryptobotanical mysteries of the Voynich Manuscript. In Ask Ken and Robin we hit the dimmer switch to address […]

Find new reason to plunge into the dungeon as the Gaming Hut tackles ways of giving narrative meaning to F20 combat encounters. Look at Fluffy in a new light as the Tradecraft Hut examines the animal spying  claims of trainer Bob Bailey, who in addition to creating the chicken Tic-Tac-Toe machine says he was a contractor for the CIA. In Ask Ken […]

They said it couldn’t strike twice, but the Ask Ken and Robin lightning round is back, tackling game designer payment, Day After Ragnarok, book hunting, and a Rob Ford mini-update. In the wide open spaces of the Genre Hut, we look at ways to nerdtrope the Western, including Ken’s Once Upon a Time in the […]

We start this episode in the Gaming Hut, where we bat around ways to activate your player character’s character hook. In our new segment, Crime Blotter, we examine the four categories of hit man, as proposed by a recent Birmingham City University study of British hired killers. Tropes face off against cliches as we once […]

A curious case study, in which a regrettable glacier incident leads listener Joe Tyne to a Call of Cthulhu stumbling block, warrants treatment from the experts in Ask Ken and Robin. At the request of listener Benjamin Blattberg, we essay a hidden gems segment of the Cinema Hut. In Among My Many Hats, Ken quizzes […]

Keep your silver dagger ready in the Gaming Hut as we look at campaign setting creation through the example of Ken’s Werewolves of Dacia, which will appear in the upcoming Best of Fenix anthology. Hat tip to Big Think for its Middle Earth-to-Earth conversion map. Next, Derek Upham Asks Ken and Robin to solve the […]

Ask Ken and Robin dispenses advice on running SF and space opera games, in response to a query from Ed Hirsch. In a curiously hexagonal Book Hut, we examine the seminal work of Argentinean fantasist Jorge Luis Borges, and the beautifully idiosyncratic English Lit class he once taught, courtesy of the newly translated book Professor […]

Seize the narrative steering wheel as a player in the Gaming Hut, where we discuss techniques to productively exercise character agency. Uncover the layers beneath the layers of the History Hut, in which we find gaming and story fodder in multispectral palimpsest recovery. In Ken and Robin Talk To Someone Else, we speak together to […]

We ring in 2014 with an Ask Ken and Robin from Ross Ireland, who wants to switch to a more serious horror tone after years of loosey-goosey play. Then we zoom back in time to the dying embers of 2013, for a segment of Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else featuring James Wallis of […]

Special guest Rob Heinsoo joins Ken and Robin for a very special episode recorded live at Dragonmeet, from the municipal splendor of Kensington Town Hall in beautiful downtown London. Ken nerdtropes the alchemical secrets of the JFK airport. Rob performs a parlor trick of his own by telling us a story about danger. And Robin […]

Ken and Robin open the Gaming Hut to air evolving differences in gamer expectations, with Feng Shui player feedback offering a time portal between the mid-90s and now. Among My Many Hats looks into Ken’s gig as a dramaturg for WildClaw Theatre’s stage production of Shadow Over Innsmouth. With the holidays nearing, the Food Hut […]

News that US states are now legalizing Internet gambling within their borders send us to an unusually garishly lit and jingle-jangling Gaming Hut, where we consider hobby gaming twists on playing for cash online. Then Ask Ken and Robin visits the Consulting Occultist on behalf of Steven W. King, who wants to know what to […]

Take a moment to study the menu in the Gaming Hut, as we contrast the operations of prix fixe and a la carte character improvement RPG designs. Watch us cut the ribbon on our brand new Abandoned Idea Clearinghouse, in which we look at creative ideas we decided not to pursue and why we set […]

We place a horseshoe over the mantle of the Gaming Hut to consider luck’s role as a branch point in roleplaying. Then, at the behest of lead sponsor Stephen Jankiewicz, we enter the cobwebbed confines of the Horror Hut to ask if terror and sense of wonder can coexist. In Ask Ken and Robin, Leo […]

We put down our catalogues of iron rations and guaranteed unpossessed cats to venture into the Gaming Hut and discuss the allure of shopping and gear in roleplaying games. Inside the perimeter of the Tradecraft Hut we round up such national security concerns as Angela Merkel’s cellphone and the secret Twitter life of dismissed White […]