From Deadlands and Pinnacle in the 90s to the Marvel Multiverse RPG today, Matt Forbeck makes the adjective prolific look insufficient. He writes so much that there is a unit of writing named after him, the Forbeck, and exactly how many words long is a Forbeck Matt?  Steve Kenson has been designing RPGs professionally since 1993, and in 2002 he designed Mutants & Masterminds, a game that became one of the defining superhero RPGs of the 21st century. Reviews have been singing the praises of M&M for decades, some calling it the best superhero RPG in years and others describe it as a perfect RPG. Welcome Steve! Support Steve Kenson's Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/cw/stevekenson See what Matt Forbeck is up to here: https://www.forbeck.com/    

This adventure won a silver ENNIE a few weeks ago at Gen Con. Imagine Renaissance Venice with all the art and politics and war we already know about, but now with flippin' MAGIC! Tyler Denison and Sarp Duyar both worked on this magnificent adventure, and we sit down to chat about it. You can find Historica Arcanum - Serenade for the Damned here: https://www.metismedia.net/product-page/hardcover-with-pdf-of-historica-arcanum-a-serenade-for-the-damned

Pawel Kicman's WHISPERS OF THE WOODS is oily with atmosphere and new takes on old monsters. (You won't believe what he did to the basilisk.) And it's so fantastic it won the Gold ENnie for Short Form Adventure this year! We discuss herein. See more of Pawel's work here: https://heltung-storytelling.itch.io/  

Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan and Josh McCrowell are both ridiculously talented designers and ridiculously frequent guests on this show. But they ain't never been on together! Hear their wisdom here and now! Back Gareth's current Merryshire crowdfunding campaign here: https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/pelgrane-press/merryshire-detective-club Buy Josh's brilliant work here: https://www.exaltedfuneral.com/pages/the-castle-automatic-preorder See Josh's Middle-earth hexcrawl here: https://riseupcomus.blogspot.com/2025/09/a-hexmap-for-middle-earth.html

This is the Wildest Magic System You've Ever Seen! THIEVES OF THE TOME is an ENnie-nominated game where you bring a book to the table and you use it to cast magic! Check out creator George Philbrick's other games here: https://dairykillsme.itch.io/  

A chat with multiple ENnie-nominee Justin Sirois! Pickup his fantastic game, THE SICKEST WITCH here: https://www.severedbooks.com/ Back his most recent Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/justinsirois/sickest-wretch-for-sickest-witch-new-non-witch-class-book Find more Sick Witch stuff here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/johnhambonemcguire/under-the-shadow-of-the-noon-day-witch

Delta Green is the RPG of modern existential horror. Events from the game appear to have been bleeding into our reality. We discuss with the following luminaries: Ross Payton is the man with the golden throat. He has been podcasting continuously since George W. Bush was president and YouTube was still good. He has won more ENnies than I have nipples, he created his own RPG, Base Raiders, but my favorite piece of his is The Night Clerk, a system free horror scenario which reminds me of a piece from Delta Green, actually, but that's a separate piece of our discussion. Audience, please welcome a slumming Ross Payton! Next up is a man whom I am somewhat afraid to attempt to summarize. His career has been both broad and deep, and his work was really formative to the shape of myself growing up. Delta Green took the Cthulhu Mythos and made it modern. It imagined a war of shadowy and hyper-competent conspiracies within the bloated bureaucracy of the United States government, which is something that is becoming somewhat more and more difficult to imagine with each passing week, but that is neither here nor there. Additionally, Cthulhu is real and he is coming for us all. Eldritch and hoary members of the audience, please welcome the rector magnificus, the shadow that haunts us in the shape of a man that wears the name Dennis Detwiller. Dennis, thanks for taking the time to come on the show! You are not cleared to click this link: https://www.delta-green.com/ Support Ross Payton's work here: https://www.patreon.com/cw/RPPR  

MUSHIE MISSIONS is the ENnie-nominated game of mushrooms and their parties! Catch up on what the game's creators are doing here: https://brightbardgames.com/?srsltid=AfmBOoo1Ubpl1xozAFe5w9xmzI_j065xA3c2Xet-BCrJRIFaB7Mz2SSM

Wanna know about the products nominated for an ENnie? Start here! We talk to Samuel Gregor-Stewart about TERRA ANTARCTICA, a pulpy adventure of Lovecraftian horror! Buy it here: https://store.asmodee.com/products/arkham-horror-rpg-terra-antarctica-eng Vote here: https://vote.ennie-awards.com/vote/2026/ Check out the Scarring Party here, especially track 10: https://open.spotify.com/album/1UfaEfrl0tcsaZwqUOhgYJ?si=xd7ZN3I5TQmtztAYGx5JlA

Today, we have three of the most brilliant and prolific game designers of our time on the show, and my buddy Brent.  First up is Owen KC Stephens. Owen has more ENnies than I can count, and was part of the design team for STARFINDER 1st edition, and of course STAR WARS SAGA EDITION, and he's the owner and publisher of Rogue Genius Games. Next up is Rodney Thompson. Rodney worked on the 4th edition DARK SUN CAMPAIGN SETTING, and the creation of 5th edition, and is notable today because he was also co-designer of STAR WARS SAGA EDITION Thirdly, we have one of the most nerd-famous people I know, Chris Perkins. Chris's career stretches back to Dungeon Magazine at TSR, and goes all the way up to the release of the 5.5 rules for D&D in 2024. In a career so long and varied, it is hard to pick out highlights, but I would point to CURSE OF STRAHD, which is an excellent expansion and translation of RAVENLOFT into 5th edition, and of course, he is also one of the co-designers of STAR WARS SAGA EDITION. Lastly, and I promise not least, we have my buddy Brent. Brent is here because I have heard from him and others that the best campaign they ever played in was a STAR WARS SAGA EDITION campaign run by him. The concept of the game was simple: "What if a small cadre of fledgling Jedi got mixed up in the early days of the Rebel Alliance and changed the course of events in the Galaxy?"