John and Craig welcome author Stu Horvath to look at the rich history of tabletop role playing games. From Stu’s collection of over 2300 RPGs, they look at the evolution of collaborative storytelling, interactive narrative design, and the communities of players they inspire.

We also discuss the complicated influences of J.R.R. Tolkien and H.P. Lovecraft on the world of D&D, and how the need to escape their derivative influences pushed RPGs to new heights of world-building and storytelling.

In our bonus segment for premium members, Stu leads us down down down to discuss a surprisingly recent narrative staple: dungeons.

Links:

Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground by Stu Horvath
VintageRPG.com by Stu Horvath
D&D 5th Edition
Amateur press association (APA)
Little Wars by H.G. Wells
Peter Cushing painting his minifigs
Chainmail by Gary Gygax & Jeff Perren
Chaosium
Tunnels & Trolls
Dread RPG
Fiasco
Scriptnotes episode 142: The Angeles Crest Fiasco
Critical Role
Alien: The Roleplaying Game
Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game
Traveller
2024 D&D Player’s Handbook
Blackoath Entertainment
Thousand Year Old Vampire
Tales From the Loop RPG
Honey Heist
WWDC live translation
She Used to Be Mine performance and vocal coach reaction
Kolchak: The Night Stalker
Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!
Check out the Inneresting Newsletter
Become a Scriptnotes Premium member, or gift a subscription
Subscribe to Scriptnotes on YouTube
Craig Mazin on Instagram
John August on Bluesky and Instagram
Outro by Nick Moore (send us yours!)
Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli.

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.

Tunnels and Trolls

Mentioned by

Mentioned in 0 episodes

The AI-powered Podcast Player