Kyle goes to Gen Con and talks about all the amazing stuff he saw, and heroes he met. John pitches some ideas for an upcoming James Bond RPG one shot, and Kyle shares an email from a fan - his mom!

Listener Gabe sent John and Kyle a Splatphone so thoughtful, we based this entire episode around it: How do you choose a satisfying hobby or creative pursuit?

Kenny and John spoil the sh$t out of The Dark Tower. The WHOLE THING. John fails to convince Kenny that he is wrong about the ending, Kyle takes Kenny's side and John gets sooooo angry. Then John thinks it might just be that he is broken.

Kyle and John are joined by some of his Cloud Curio collaborators, Amber and Kenny! We discuss their recent trip to Origins, projects they are working, asking strangers for eggs, and the impending launch of Monstrous!

Kyle is recovering from Origins fatigue, so Jess and Brandon step in to save the day. We talk about a recent session of Alice is Missing we all participated in. Enjoy this post game discussion of this excellent "silent RPG".

Murph! joins us to discuss Play AWay From The Table (PAWFTT!). Kyle tries to make PAWFTT a thing, Murph! enables him, and John is powerless to stop it.

Hello comrades! Kyle and John bust out the soap boxes and ask: What is with all the new games? And why can't we talk about the creative aspects of these new games, instead of business moves? Spoiler: Because social media and capitalism ruin everything.

Kyle and John exchange and discuss some of their favorite passages from RPG books. Call us on the Splatphone! Send us an email [email protected]!

Kyle takes John back to school to discuss how RPGs fit into our ideas of play, games, and other strange creatures.

What do you do when part of your game group takes some time off? Try new games? Try new ways of playing old games? John and Kyle discuss.

This week John and Kyle take a deep dive into Free League publishing's Year Zero SRD. Kyle goes full professor on John, and then they talk about Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

Kyle tells John about a programming project he designed for his students, and what he hopes they will learn from it: When acquiring new skills, you have to get comfortable sucking at them at first. John says he has always struggled with this, and somehow does not say the phrase "learn to play tennis with a wooden racket" even though this was the right episode to say it.

John and Kyle dig into one of their favorite OSR modules: Winter's Daughter by Gavin Norman

Kyle and John talk about the Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure Sailors on the Starless Sea and ask: "Why is it so dang good?" They also answer a listener's question left via the Splatphone! Hang around for the cut-bitlets to hear in-depth discussion of Kyle's new cat.

What is that ringing sound!? Could it be... THE SPLATPHONE! Listener Jake recorded some thoughts on melancholy in RPGs. This prompted John and Kyle to enter the Swamp of Sadness, and discuss the topic through the lens of the film The Neverending Story.

Kyle and John take a break from talking about favorite media to give some tips on doing NPC and characters voices. Or maybe they just needed an excuse to make silly voices?

Roll for Topic's own Andy Rau joins Kyle and John to talk about the first book of the Dark Tower series: The Gunslinger. Will the podcast survive this titanic show down?

Kyle finally tricks John into talking about the story The Fortress Unvanquishable, save for Sacnoth. After many attempts, John learns how to pronounce Tharagavverug and Wong Bongerok. Kyle compares the story to the Legend of Zelda, and points out that Leothric teaming up with Tharagavverug is kinda like Spiderman teaming up with Venom. Spoiler: We love this story.

John and Kyle wrap up 2022 with a discussion of what they are grateful for, what they learned, and what they are looking forward to in 2023. And then they sing!

This week Kyle and John tackle two excellent articles from the OSR Canon. Kyle realizes that John is old enough to have played D&D when the OSR style was just called... playing D&D. John gets cranky, and Kyle calms him down.

In this episode John and Kyle talk about the Beatles, The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, The Twilight Zone, and OH YEAH, the actual story listed in the title of this episode. We also totally talk about RPGs a whole bunch.

This week we go old school with a story from the influential author Lord Dunsany: The Quest of the Queen's Tears. Marvel at how John and Kyle can talk about a 3 page story for almost an hour. You can read the full text of The Quest of the Queen's Tears - link in the show notes.

John and Kyle discuss another entry in the the annals of their Personal Appendix N. For this episode John choose The Dark Muse by Karl Edward Wagner. This story is part of Wagner's collection Night Winds, which features his most famous character - Kane the Mystic Swordsman. Check the show notes for more about Karl Edward Wagner, Kane, and this story. Including a link to an excerpt from The Dark Muse.

On episode of 97 of our sister podcast Roll for Topic, Chris and John designed a 1-page RPG: Prison Escape!. In this episode of The Splatbook, Chris joins John and Kyle to run the game. Enjoy!

Kyle and John are back! We talk about our own personal appendix N. What works of fiction have inspired us, and how they have influenced our games? Listen and find out!