Episode 74: On Taking Two Steps Forward and Backward in RPGs

Summary

Published: October 2, 2026

This episode takes three relatively recent posts from the Casting Shadows blog and brings them into the audio format of the Casting Shadows podcast – raising three different observations on the members of our hobby for your consideration. Links to those posts and other material mentioned in the episode are below.

Voice Comments are welcome at ⁠www.speakpipe.com/castingshadowspodcast⁠

⁠Neely Link 1⁠

⁠Neely Link 2⁠

⁠Silent Majority⁠

⁠A Universe Parallel to the RPG Experience⁠

⁠From a Certain Point of View… On RPGs⁠

⁠Rivers of London: Not all Magic and Laughter (or dice)⁠

⁠Rivers of London: Riots, and Jazz, and Sten Guns, oh my!⁠

⁠Rivers of London: ‘Tis the Season for Novellas⁠

⁠Rivers of London: Murder, Brutalism, and Cheeky Nandos⁠

⁠Same0ldJi “What We Do” series⁠

SameOldJi: What We Do – Interview of Runeslinger

⁠Third Floor Wars⁠ – Cthulhu Dark and Psalms to Walmsley

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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 69: On the Idea of a Better Game

Summary

Published: December 20, 2025

This episode is another review of a post from the ⁠Casting Shadows blog⁠, though this time the Wayback Machine is just taking us five short years (and a few decades of observation and experience) into the past. This time we look at a post based on the increasingly narrowing rhetoric around the technique of the Session 0 which tries to restore the balance required in that technique for long-term play.

This time, the full post is presented before I get into any commentary from the present of the time of recording. Among the things in that commentary is a link to an earlier video on the same theme, but slightly different topic. It is linked below and is called Theories & Practices. It’s almost a rant. One of two I may have recorded in all my time sharing RPG ideas.

LINKS:

⁠A friend of the show, Patrick Mullen, on his Processing GURPS blog has recently referenced the Can I make my game better? post in a post of his own about his process of setting up a new campaign. I think we need many such examples of the great variety of approaches and needs we gamers have and so I share the link here:

⁠Zero Hour⁠

⁠Theories & Practices ⁠video mentioned in the episode. This video was recorded in 2014 in response to an uptick in extreme views in the regular cyclical confrontation between preferences between ‘Just play!’ and ‘Elitist Theory instead of play!’

⁠⁠⁠

⁠Can I make my game better?⁠⁠⁠⁠ blog post on Casting Shadows

CONTACT ME:

Send in a voice message via Speakpipe!

Ubiquity Roleplaying Games Discord

@Runeslinger for YouTube, TwiXter, BlueSky, and Facebook

Episode 56: On the In-Character Character…

Summary

Published: July 23, 2024

This episode takes us on a semi-farcical journey into language and imagery to talk about the very necessary nature a lack of meaning and import can have to immersive and engaging in-character play.

Curious? I hope so~

NOTES:

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

Marty Robbins Gunfighter Ballads:

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CONTACT ME:

Send in a voice message via Speakpipe!

Ubiquity Roleplaying Games Discord

@Runeslinger for YouTube, TwiXter, BlueSky, and Facebook