Horror – Casting Shadows Podcast

Episode 67: Biting Bullets (with Jason Hobbs)

Summary

Published: December 6, 2025

For this episode, I am joined by the host of the seemingly lapsed Hobbs and Friends, and the sadly sporadic Random Screed, by the Mr. Hobbs of Mr. Hobbs’ Gamerhood: Jason Hobbs. He and I dive into some core elements of his recent foray into game writing with his release ‘Bite the Bullet‘ which you can obtain PWYW on itch.io or DriveThruRPG. The game, a western-themed RPG based on Into the Odd, puts a tight focus on who the character is and what they will do to get what they want. We dig into that, and some of the approaches we might take to playing it in this discussion.

You can watch and listen, rather than just listen to this episode as a video podcast directly on Spotify, and on YouTube.

Relevant Links:

⁠Random Screed⁠

⁠Nerds RPG Variety Cast⁠

⁠Roleplay Rescue⁠

⁠Godless⁠

⁠Cole & Hitch Series⁠

⁠Spenser⁠

⁠Spenser for Hire⁠

A relevant post from the Casting Shadows blog might be of interest to some who come to watch or listen to this episode. It was entitled, The Thrill of Victory, and the Agony of Conversation.

The Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Conversation

CONTACT:

Leave a voice message via ⁠SpeakPipe⁠

⁠Ubiquity Roleplaying Games Discord

@Runeslinger for YouTube, TwiXter, BlueSky, and Facebook

Episode 66: A Friendly yet Impossible chat (with RPG Sean)

Summary

Published: October 26, 2025

THIS IS THE FULL, UNABRIDGED CONVERSATION.

Sean Kelley now host of the ⁠ @RPGSean ⁠ channel joins me for a natural discussion of seemingly tough topic: long-form and campaign play of cosmic horror RPGs. Drawing on experiences in our own play, using our own material, and such fantastic and lengthy campaigns as Impossible Landscapes and Masks of Nyarlathotep, we cruise through some core ideas, some foundational practices, and some notions of goal-setting, which might help alleviate some of that sense of impossibility~

Podcasts Mentioned in this Discussion:

Gaming and BS Podcast

⁠GM Mastermind

GoBag Podcast

Casting Shadows Podcast

Nerds RPG Variety Cast

Noteworthy Products mentioned herein:

Call of Cthulhu – ⁠https://www.chaosium.com/call-of-cthulhu-rpg/⁠

Masks of Nyarlathotep

Delta Green – ⁠https://shop.arcdream.com/⁠

Impossible Landscapes

The Annotated King in Yellow

Actual Play Playlists mentioned as examples:

Impossible Landscapes

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Turn of a New Leaf

Notes:

An abridged but helpfully annotated version of this conversation with Sean is also available on my YouTube channel. The link to that episode is here:

CONTACT ME:

Send in a voice message via Speakpipe!

Ubiquity Roleplaying Games Discord

@Runeslinger for YouTube, TwiXter, BlueSky, and Facebook

Episode 61: Call of Cthulhu Campaign Recap 1

Summary

Published: April 8, 2025

Is Hindsightless THE most sporadic podcast on the Internet? I am not sure, this one must surely qualify for something in that category.

NOTE: This episode is available as a video on Spotify and as audio on other distributors. The specific recap portion of the video has been subtitled for your convenience.

I have been putting up a in-depth videos on the YouTube channel lately about the nature of RPGs, so this weekend, with my thin strips of free time, I grilled up a recap as a sort of celebration of the great play I have been enjoying with Call of Cthulhu for the past year and a half, and as a possible on-ramp to getting into or at least enjoying the campaign vicariously, for those who don’t enjoy YouTube. It was fun for me to go over our calendar of dates and events and spin that into a sort of StoryTime for the Casting Shadows Podcast. I hope you enjoy it, too. It is also available in written form if you would prefer to read it.

Call of Cthulhu Immersive Sandbox Campaign Recap and Reflection ~ 1

Recommendation!

If you are curious about a great exploration of Chainmail in the context of playing it as the wargame it began life as, rather then the product shoehorned into OD&D, please consider checking out the Diegetic Advancement podcast.

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CONTACT ME:

Send in a voice message via Speakpipe!

Ubiquity Roleplaying Games Discord

@Runeslinger for YouTube, TwiXter, BlueSky, and Facebook

Episode 60: On Mystery and Horror Roleplaying with TrilltheDM

Summary

Published: September 29, 2024

This nearly 90-minute conversation was made possible by the open-minded attitude of TrilltheDM, the interest of MercuriousAulicus and Black Lodge Games, and I suppose, the letter X. In it, we discuss Trill’s recent video: Mastering Player Choice in Mystery and Horror RPGs and take it further than the original 10-minute runtime would allow, dive into its specific context, and in general have an enjoyable and interesting discussion.

You can find the original video at this link:

⁠Mastering Player Choice in Mystery & Horror RPGs (youtube.com)⁠ This episode appears in its uncut, video form on my YouTube channel and is also re-distributed there in this audio-only version.

LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE:

⁠Mastering Player Choice in Mystery & Horror RPGs – YouTube⁠

The Imagination series on the Casting Shadows Podcast

⁠Sandboxes

⁠⁠Layers and Vectors of Play

⁠⁠Immersion and Engagement⁠

⁠On Immersion⁠⁠

On Attention⁠⁠

Imagination and Preparation

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CONTACT ME:

Send in a voice message via Speakpipe!

Ubiquity Roleplaying Games Discord

@Runeslinger for YouTube, TwiXter, BlueSky, and Facebook

Episode 59: #RPGaDAY2024 Week 2 Highlights + Mordavia

Summary

Published: August 12, 2024

This episode is in three segments. The first presents links and reactions to just a few of the cool posts I have seen in response to the 2nd week of #RPGaDAY2024. This is part of a series for each week of the event. If you have suggestions for great posts, send me a message with the links! The second segment offers some tantalizing morsels stolen from the freshly unearthed Mordavia: Land of Horror supplement for Leagues of Adventure, Leagues of Gothic Horror, and Leagues of Cthulhu by Triple Ace Games. The final segment runs roughshod over my own responses to the #RPGaDAY2024 prompts in unseemly haste!

LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE:

⁠⁠Autocratik Blog⁠

⁠Halls of the Nephilim⁠

⁠Mordavia on DriveThruRPG

NOTES:

#RPGaDAY2024 infographics are available at ⁠⁠AUTOCRATIK: Announcing #RPGaDAY2024 for August⁠

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CONTACT ME:

Send in a voice message via Speakpipe!

Ubiquity Roleplaying Games Discord

@Runeslinger for YouTube, TwiXter, BlueSky, and Facebook

Episode 33: On Play Experiences (Bonus)

Summary

Published: December 11, 2022

Using an example from the Halloween Cerebrevore episode, we briefly suggest some ideas about playing for character experience versus playing a role in a story~

Links mentioned in the episode:

Nerd’s RPG Variety Cast

⁠Cerebrevore: On Serious Horror RPG play

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Episode 29: On (MY) Call of Cthulhu

Summary

In response to a great series of episodes and call-ins on the Nerd’s RPG Variety Cast and Bandit’s Keep podcast, I have labored to produce this “brief” episode on my relationship with Call of Cthulhu and some of what I have seen of its use in my own groups and out there in the cold, cold world.

Relevant Links:

Bandit’s Keep

Hindsightless

⁠Nerd’s RPG Variety Cast

-Episode #380 In Defense of Call of Cthulhu by Nerd’s RPG Variety Cast

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Episode 18: Alien RPG – Introducing the Alien

Summary

Part 6: Introducing the Alien… In this installment of the preparation for improvisation series using Free League’s Alien RPG, we give a brief overview of the campaign so far and look at the process of ongoing assessment and analysis of play which makes it easier to shift and react to how play is really going, rather than how we might want it to go.

This series of blog, vlog, and pod episodes will explore ⁠Alien the Roleplaying Game⁠ by Free League from the perspective of preparation for horror and improvisation within the framework of Campaign Mode for Colonial Marines.

Read the blog post for this episode!

Additional Links: Alien the Roleplaying Game – ⁠Rules and Actual Play

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Episode 17: Alien RPG – Playing the Alien

Summary

Part 5: Playing the Alien… On our first session, spontaneous improvisation within an understood framework of in-game and meta goals, and getting going even if not feeling 100% ready.

Read the blog post for this episode!

Additional Links: Alien the Roleplaying Game – ⁠Rules and Actual Play

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Episode 16: Alien RPG – Framing the Alien

Summary

Part 4: Framing the Alien… On conceptualizing the process of preparation in the context of who the characters are, what the approach to play is, and how those things intersect with the setting and its genre.

Read the blog post for this episode!

Links: Alien the Roleplaying Game – ⁠Rules and Actual Play

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