Reading D&D Aloud

Rico Sirignano, co-founder of Italy’s Two Little Mice and designer of Household and Outgunned, joins Amit Moshe, creator of City of Mist and Legend in the Mist. They explore designing from a feeling, turning story details into mechanics, balancing cinematic action with risk, and making games welcoming through art, starter boxes, character sheets, and compelling premade heroes.

Mike Franchina, the artist and world-builder behind Trench Crusade, joins Chris Pramas, founder of Green Ronin Publishing. They explore the setting’s grim World War I-inspired aesthetic, religious imagery, Diablo influences, and provocative monsters. The conversation covers Games Workshop, collaborative worldbuilding, fan-driven creativity, historical fiction, artistic influences, crowdfunding, and why a compelling setting can outlast imperfect rules.

Billy Wardlow was scheduled to be executed in just a few weeks. He decided to spend the little time he had left playing D&D. But why? This is a reading from the book I'm currently writing, tentatively titled, Critical Hit: How and Why D&D Conquered the World in the 21st Century. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

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

Ross Payton, longtime podcaster and RPG designer behind Base Raiders and The Night Clerk, and Dennis Detwiller, co-creator of Delta Green and modern Cthulhu stalwart, dive into Delta Green’s realist horror. They trade stories about controversial art, anti-fascist themes, fandom bleeding into real-world conspiracy narratives, recent UAP echoes, and upcoming Delta Green releases and scenarios.