Posts Tagged ‘How To Write Good’
Episode 205: The Complaining Hut
August 26th, 2016 | Robin
Get your dice and character sheets together and head on into the Gaming Hut as we field Patreon backer Gnoll Warford’s question about preparing as a first-time convention GM.
In How To Write Good, we slake patron Corey Pierno’s desire to know our writing and researching routines.
When Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else, that someone else turns out to be Emily Care Boss, whose classic games of personal interaction have now been collected as the Romance Trilogy. Pre-order it now!
Then Ken’s Time Machine revs up to answer a question from Patreon backer Drew Clowery—can Ken use his time knowledge to finally reveal the identity of the Culper Ring’s Agent 355?
Get trapped in Lovecraft’s story “The Call of Cthulhu” in Atlas Games’ addictive new card game Lost in R’lyeh. Take a selfie with your purchased copy of the game at your brick and mortar game retailer and send it to Atlas to claim your special Ken and Robin promo card. 
It’s hard to imagine that you listen to this show and have yet to check out The Dracula Dossier. But now that it has taken home Product of the Year and an oodle of other ENnie awards, perhaps you have remembered your blood thirst it. Time to drink deep of Dracula Dossier from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the Director’s Handbook and Dracula Unredacted. 
For those seeking yet more Ken content, his brilliant pieces on parasitic gaming, alternate Newtons, Dacian werewolves and more now lurk among the sparkling bounty of The Best of FENIX Volumes 1-3, from returning sponsors Askfageln. Yes, it’s Sweden’s favorite RPG magazine, now beautifully collected. Warning: not in Swedish. 
Attention, operatives of Delta Green, the ultra-covert agency charged with battling the contemporary forces of the Cthulhu Mythos! Now everything you need to know to play Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game, perhaps extending your valiantly short field life, can be found in the Delta Green Agent’s Handbook. 
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Episode 193: Bonaparte Eyes
June 3rd, 2016 | Robin
In Ask Ken and Robin, Patreon backer Andrew Jones asks about working with Greg Stafford.
The History Hut looks at the post-WWI occupation of Istanbul, as requested by Alexander Perman.
How to Write Good rips the lid off of our least favorite fake stock moments in fiction.
Finally the Conspiracy Corner finds Timothy Coram asking us to make something of the Westfield Watcher.
Attention, class! Anchor sponsor Atlas Games wants to enroll you in Mad Scientist University, the card game of evil genius, insane assignments, and unstable elements. Act now, Ken and Robin listeners, and they’ll throw in the Spring Break expansion set for free. Shipping within the US is also free. 
Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the Dracula Dossier from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the Director’s Handbook and Dracula Unredacted. You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. His brilliant pieces on parasitic gaming, alternate Newtons, Dacian werewolves and more now lurk among the sparkling bounty of The Best of FENIX Volumes 1-3, from returning sponsors Askfageln. Yes, it’s Sweden’s favorite RPG magazine, now beautifully collected. Warning: not in Swedish. Attention, operatives of Delta Green, the ultra-covert agency charged with battling the contemporary forces of the Cthulhu Mythos! Now everything you need to know to play Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game, perhaps extending your valiantly short field life, can be found in the Delta Green Agent’s Handbook.
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Episode 186: You Need Canapes To Have a Secret Society
April 15th, 2016 | Robin
Ask Ken and Robin gets especially educational as Patreon supporter Brent Brown asks us for tips for using RPGs to teach history, home school style.
Tradecraft Hut peers into the espionage scene in Brussels.
How To Write Good looks at influences and how to incorporate them well.
Finally the Consulting Occultist slakes the hankering of Patreon backer Stewart Robertson for info on the Black Dragon Society.
Bend reality to your will, but be ready to pay the price, as Atlas Games’ Unknown Armies bubbles up from the supernatural underground for a weird and majestic new Kickstarter campaign.
Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the Dracula Dossier from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the Director’s Handbook and Dracula Unredacted. If you’re like every roleplayer we know, you strive to outshine others in showing your love of dice. Well, now you can arouse the envy of friends and foes alike with Askfageln’s dazzling coffee table photo art book dedicated to all things pipped and many-sided, Dice: Rendezvous with Randomness. Luxuriate in the photo artistry of Mans Danneman. Grab the book or gorgeous prints through their Kickstarter! 
When you assemble your bug-out kit, make sure it includes a copy of Delta Green: Need to Know, the everything-you-need quickstart kick for the classic game of covert agents against the Cthulhu mythos, from our fine friends at Arc Dream Publishing.
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Episode 183: Eaten By a Ghost
March 25th, 2016 | Robin
Pull your swords out of your stones and step into the Gaming Hut for a consideration of the Chosen One trope.
How to Write Good explores a phenomenon Robin calls Nigeling, when you make one character look good by painting others as rubes.
You’ll place great stock in… no, I’m sorry, I can’t. Let’s just say the Food Hut is talking soup and leave it at that.
Then we close on an most unusual Ken’s Time Machine mission: getting a notorious criminal cast as James Bond before he commits his famous crime.
Ken and Robin have oft been accused of being cards. Well, we can deny it no longer. We have become super-limited promo cards for Murder of Crows, Atlas Games’ fast-paced card game of murder and the macabre, for two to five players in the mood for something a little morbid. It’s Edward Gorey meets Caligari, by way of Edgar Allan Poe. Wait a minute, what does that graphic say? I’m not so sure about this… 
Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the Dracula Dossier from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the Director’s Handbook and Dracula Unredacted. 
If you’re like every roleplayer we know, you strive to outshine others in showing your love of dice. Well, now you can arouse the envy of friends and foes alike with Askfageln’s dazzling coffee table photo art book dedicated to all things pipped and many-sided, Dice: Rendezvous with Randomness. Luxuriate in the photo artistry of Mans Danneman. Grab the book or gorgeous prints through their Kickstarter!
In a move that surely violates someone’s security clearance, this episode is also brought to you by our friends at Arc Dream Publishing. The Kickstarter for Delta Green: the Roleplaying Game has come to an end, but don’t let that stop you from indulging your fever for this classic game, or that pinnacle of the Cthulhu game zine world, The Unspeakable Oath. 
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Episode 174: Metaphor Drift! Metaphor Drift!
January 22nd, 2016 | Robin
Roll the dice with us as Among My Many Hats finds Ken headed to Las Vegas 68.
Grant our dramatic petition while How To Write Good breaks down dramatic scene construction.
Join us for a plate of tamarind-infused noodles as the Food Hut looks at the politics of pad thai.
Finally, narrowly avoid drowning not once but twice as Ken’s Time Machine explains why our hero saved both a young James Garfield and his eventual assassin Charles Guiteau from separate watery graves.
Ken and Robin have oft been accused of being cards. Well, we can deny it no longer. We have become super-limited promo cards for Murder of Crows, Atlas Games’ fast-paced card game of murder and the macabre, for two to five players in the mood for something a little morbid. It’s Edward Gorey meets Caligari, by way of Edgar Allan Poe. Wait a minute, what does that graphic say? I’m not so sure about this… Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the Dracula Dossier from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the Director’s Handbook and Dracula Unredacted. You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. His brilliant pieces on parasitic gaming, alternate Newtons, Dacian werewolves and more now lurk among the sparkling bounty of The Best of FENIX Volumes 1-3, from returning sponsors Askfageln. Yes, it’s Sweden’s favorite RPG magazine, now beautifully collected. Warning: not in Swedish. In a move that surely violates someone’s security clearance, this episode is also brought to you by our friends at Arc Dream Publishing. The Kickstarter for Delta Green: the Roleplaying Game has come to an end, but don’t let that stop you from indulging your fever for this classic game, or that pinnacle of the Cthulhu game zine world, The Unspeakable Oath.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Episode 163: Building Things Out of Zebras
October 23rd, 2015 | Robin
Find the enigma within the enigma as the Gaming Hut hosts a look at existential mysteries.
In Ask Ken and Robin we find the key to a Gerald Sears question about Parisian official’s bid to remove the love locks from the Pont des Arts bridge.
How to Write Good serves up tips on character names.
Finally in the Eliptony Hut, we examine Ilya Ivanov’s attempt to hybridize humans and chimpanzees.
Ken and Robin have oft been accused of being cards. Well, we can deny it no longer. We have become super-limited promo cards for Murder of Crows, Atlas Games’ fast-paced card game of murder and the macabre, for two to five players in the mood for something a little morbid. It’s Edward Gorey meets Caligari, by way of Edgar Allan Poe. Wait a minute, what does that graphic say? I’m not so sure about this…
Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter will want to sink their fangs into the pre-order for the Dracula Dossier from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the Director’s Handbook and Dracula Unredacted. You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. His brilliant pieces on parasitic gaming, alternate Newtons, Dacian werewolves and more now lurk among the sparkling bounty of The Best of FENIX Volumes 1-3, from returning sponsors Askfageln. Yes, it’s Sweden’s favorite RPG magazine, now beautifully collected. Warning: not in Swedish.
In a move that surely violates someone’s security clearance, this episode is also brought to you by the Kickstarter for Delta Green: the Roleplaying Game from our friends at Arc Dream Publishing. Add to the awesomeness of this classic setting of Mythos espionage, now its own standalone game.
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Episode 158: Englishman is Not Actually Valued For Its Own Flavor
September 18th, 2015 | Robin
Our recording chambers may be hot but our subject matter gets cold, cold, cold, as Among My Many Hats takes a look at the Wendigo.
In How To Write Good, the dialogue turns to dialogue tags, he said, informatively.
Ken and Robin Recycle Audio continues to pillage the very best treasures of the investigative roleplaying seminar at Gen Con, this time delving into red herrings, leaving room for player improv, and keeping your horror tropes fresh.
Then we circle back to Arctic climes as the Eliptony Hut rips the lid off the Franklin conspiracy.
It blew up Kickstarter. It slid into Gen Con on a gurney with both guns blazing. And now Feng Shui 2: Action Movie Roleplaying is laying down the kung fu, the gun fu, and the cybernetic primate fu, and rocketing its way to a retail store near you. Join our friends at Atlas Games in celebrating the long-anticipated release of Robin’s classic game, accompanied by the GM Screen: Fistful of Fight Scenes and Blowing Up the Movies.
Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter will want to sink their fangs into the pre-order for the Dracula Dossier from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the Director’s Handbook and Dracula Unredacted.
You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. His brilliant pieces on parasitic gaming, alternate Newtons, Dacian werewolves and more now lurk among the sparkling bounty of The Best of FENIX Volumes 1-3, from returning sponsors Askfalgen. Yes, it’s Sweden’s favorite RPG magazine, now beautifully collected. Warning: not in Swedish.
Would you like to sharpen young children’s memory skills while also introducing them to the cosmic dread of the Cthulhu Mythos? Then Recall of Cthulhu, Kickstarting from the fine folks at Toy Vault, until September 25, is for you. Amazingly adorable artwork of the Elder Gods and their ilk to delight the young and the young at heart. This classic matching game can be played by up to four of the most deranged patients in the Sanatorium, as well as young cultists aged 4 and up! 
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Episode 151: Draculas Competing To Be the Dracula
July 31st, 2015 | Robin
Robin gets a head start on his Dracula Dossier homework as the Gaming Hut lays out the whys and hows of campaign frames.
The titular chapeau takes on a conical shape as Ken talks Yithians in Among My Many Hats. Check out his Ken Writes About Stuff installment for more.
How to Write Good examines different authorial worldviews and how they determine what does and doesn’t fit in your narrative.
Finally Ken’s Time Machine whirs up for a trip to pre-gold rush California, courtesy of a question from Rich Fryer.
Look out, Lieutenants of evil! The sinister mastermind you work for has taken some time to shake the post-conquest blues. But he’ll be back soon, and your survival depends on impressing him. Thankfully, our lead sponsor Atlas Games has just what you need: their delightful new card game of competitive minion-stacking, Three Cheers for Master.
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Episode 146: The Most Punished “Well Actually” Ever
June 26th, 2015 | Robin
Guns blaze and mystic swords clash as Among My Many Hats goes under the hood on Blowing Up the Movies, Robin’s new book of essays combing the action movie classics for gameable nuggets.
In Ask Ken and Robin, @clarkythecruel asks about incorporating sports into RPGs.
How to Write Good shows you how to build a dimensioned protagonist for an idea-based story.
Ken’s Time Machine reports back from the alternate dimension where Samuel Taylor Coleridge and his pal Robert Southey actually established that Susquehanna River utopia they were always talking about.
Look out, Lieutenants of evil! The sinister mastermind you work for has taken some time to shake the post-conquest blues. But he’ll be back soon, and your survival depends on impressing him. Thankfully, our lead sponsor Atlas Games has just what you need: their delightful new card game of competitive minion-stacking, Three Cheers for Master.
This podcast is also sponsored by another podcast, Game Master’s Journey. Join Lex Starwalker as he covers all things RPG from the secret side of the GM screen.
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Episode 141: Larger and Larger Cups
May 22nd, 2015 | Robin
In Ask Ken and Robin your intrepid hosts field an Eion Dornan question about helping players take on the role of real historical figures.
The story of a Nigerian juju practitioner handed a lengthy sentence for magical services performed for Texas-based Gulf cartel drug traffickers calls for the debut of a new segment we can only call Nerdtrope Cards in the News.
How to Create Good examines the secrets of successful collaboration.
And Ken’s Time Machine, answering a request from Christoph Sapinsky, reveals why our resident time traveler assisted the booze-related demise of Ogedei Khan in 1241.
Attention, class! Anchor sponsor Atlas Games wants to enroll you in Mad Scientist University, the card game of evil genius, insane assignments, and unstable elements. Act now, Ken and Robin listeners, and they’ll throw in the Spring Break expansion set for free. Shipping within the US is also free.
If you’re in Dublin over the June bank holiday, check out the convivial proceedings of Hobocon, May 30th to June 1st, at the Teachers Club, 36 Parnell Square West.
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