rpg – Casting Shadows Podcast

Episode 72: A Friendly, Conversation about Natural-Feeling Characters~

Summary

Published: February 19, 2026

In this installment of the Friendly Conversations about RPGs series, I am joined by Erik Schmidt of the Setting First YouTube Channel, Blog, and Discord (Links Below). Our topic for this discussion is the interplay of setting, character, and player perspective to help foster characters which feel believable and lead players toward play that feels natural and grounded in that setting. If you enjoy where this conversation goes and how it gets there, I encourage you to take a look at Erik’s channel and follow the link to the Setting First Discord (if Discord survives its own shenanigans).

As usual with this series, it also has a YouTube video version which is annotated extensively to share further detail, explanation, subtext, and context.

Some Relevant Links from ⁠ @SettingFirstRPG ⁠ :

Language!

Trust!

Topical Links from our Discussion:

“Immersion?”

Playing “In-Character”

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Send in a voice message via Speakpipe!

Ubiquity Roleplaying Games Discord

@Runeslinger for YouTube, TwiXter, BlueSky, and Facebook

Episode 71: A Friendly, Conversation about Characters and Social Inequality (Rank)~

Summary

Published: February 9, 2026

Recorded on January 28, 2026, this is a 1:1 conversation with Scott Welker, long-time gamer and successful game designer, and most importantly for this video: 30 years of experience in the Navy working his way up to the top of the Enlisted ranks. With titles based in Savage Worlds, D20, Year Zero, and soon a system of his own making. Scott is one half of @ThievesGuildGamingOfficial. Our conversation is an examination of concerns with representing rank and social differences in RPGs, things to consider when making them a part of play, perspectives to view rank from, and some suggestions for making it seem real enough to satisfy the needs of your group. Scott has written a game for Savage Worlds called Task Force Raven which puts the players in the roles of Tier 1 Operators and that plays its own role in our discussion. We do not discuss his Year Zero cyberpunk release, Neon Blood, but it too has fertile ground for including this sort of play. Neon Blood can be found ⁠here ⁠in an OSR version, and ⁠here ⁠for its YZE version.

NOTE: This episode has two appendices dryly sharing the details, key points, and observations which my videos put onscreen. If you prefer to get these in their original context and for a shorter run-time, you can watch the full conversation, with its load of onscreen annotations, notes, and links on YouTube:

⁠

Useful links:

Thieves Guild Games on DTRPG, has a public beta of their new OPENSIX system and are looking for feedback. As a system, it is directly relevant to this discussion. The game is currently PWYW and can be found here:

⁠https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/524225/opensix-zero-edition-take-back-your-imagination⁠

First in a series of videos on Scott’s first game, OS+R ⁠https://youtu.be/HaDi13UM21Y?si=dgRGHBnLRIDw6brd⁠

Scott and I discuss the film: Zero Charisma⁠

https://www.youtube.com/live/dVXKIX78DIQ?si=oeIvKiePEcTp_WMI⁠

My follow-up:

⁠https://youtu.be/X2TCg2cl9aI?si=PS_sEUrfL2wKmxYi⁠

⁠

_______

CONTACT ME:

Send in a voice message via Speakpipe!

Ubiquity Roleplaying Games Discord

@Runeslinger for YouTube, TwiXter, BlueSky, and Facebook

Episode 70: A Frightfully Cheerful Conversation

Summary

Published: January 19, 2026

What if four fellows with different views on horror in their lives and different approaches to humor found themselves in a chatroom to share their experiences with RPGs? Not telling war stories, not pontificating, but instead finding common ground and simple truths – like we do in a good group of gamers. This time, it’s all about horror, comedy, and when someone gets their comedy in your horror or vice versa~

Special Guests: ⁠ ⁠

⁠⁨@OrcusDorkus⁩ ⁠ ⁠ ⁨⁠

⁠@RPGSean⁩ ⁠ ⁠ ⁨⁠

⁠@ThirdFloorWars⁩ ⁠

Panel Topic: Running Horror, Comedy, or Comedic Horror – in the moment. In this audio-only version of our frightfully cheerful conversation nothing has been cut or lost, but the video version on YouTube has had some extra details, notes, and ideas added to it which you might appreciate. You can also see all the nodding in that version~

Games Mentioned: Call of Cthulhu, Kult: Divinity Lost, Mothership, Ghostbusters, Army of Darkness, The Laundry, Paranoia, Outbreak Undead, The End of the World, Delta Green, Liminal Horror, Rivers of London, and more

LINKS:

GO BAG Podcast

Titterpigs Podcast

Tabletop Talk Podcast

Discomfort, Fear, Terror, and Vast Cosmic Horror, on a dime a day

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

Can I make my game better?

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@Runeslinger for YouTube, TwiXter, BlueSky, and Facebook

Episode 68: On What Might Be in a Name

Summary

Published: December 13, 2025

This episode includes a call from Jason Connerley in regard to Episode 65 with the Arcane Alienist, about RPGs and memory, and then sets the Wayback Machine for 2010 and a fresh look at an old post called By any other name~ and the town that got away.

LINKS:

⁠Weird Studies Podcast⁠ Homepage

–⁠Episode on Dungeons & Dragons, or the Reality of Illusions⁠

⁠Nerds RPG Variety Cast⁠

⁠Arcane Alienist Podcast⁠

⁠By Any Other Name⁠ blog post on Casting Shadows

By any other name~

CONTACT ME:

Send in a voice message via Speakpipe!

Ubiquity Roleplaying Games Discord

@Runeslinger for YouTube, TwiXter, BlueSky, and Facebook

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

⁠

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:

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@Runeslinger for YouTube, TwiXter, BlueSky, and Facebook

Episode 65: On Memory and RPGs (with Arcane Alienist)

Summary

Published: October 19, 2025

This is an OctOSR-adjacent episode. Thanks go out to BJ Boyd, the Arcane Alienist, for being a guest on this episode to help frame and execute a discussion on the nature of memory and some key ways it can affect our play and understanding of RPGs. You can find BJ’s podcast at the link below:

⁠The Arcane Alienist⁠

LINKS relevant to this episode:

⁠Things Gamers Say…⁠

⁠Things Gamers Imagine…⁠

⁠On the Caller in Early RPGs⁠

An interesting and relevant link suggested by Jason Connerley of the Nerds RPG Variety Cast comes from SpectreVision Radio:

⁠Episode 6: Dungeons & Dragons, or the Reality of Illusions

CONTACT ME:

Send in a voice message via Speakpipe!

Ubiquity Roleplaying Games Discord

@Runeslinger for YouTube, TwiXter, BlueSky, and Facebook

Episode 64: Is Immersion Impossible? A Friendly, Abridged Discussion~

Summary

Published: October 6, 2025

This is an abridged version of a long overdue conversation with Scott Welker, long-time gamer and successful game designer with titles based in Savage Worlds, D20, Year Zero, and soon a system of his own making. Scott is one half of Thieves Guild Gaming. Our conversation is a full on, open-minded examination about focused attention in RPGs – otherwise known colloquially but ambiguously and unhelpfully as “immersion.”

You can watch the full conversation, with its load of annotations and notes, on YouTube:

⁠

Scott likes to say “Immersion is impossible!” We get into what he means by that. I, as you know, Dear Listener, like to say that immersion, like so many other things, is frequently misunderstood. We get into that, too. For added value, one way we explore the topic is through Scott’s games and how they were written.

Useful links:

Thieves Guild Games on DTRPG, has just launched a public beta of their new OPENSIX system and are looking for feedback. As a system, it is directly relevant to this discussion. The game is currently PWYW and can be found here:

⁠https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/524225/opensix-zero-edition-take-back-your-imagination⁠

First in a series of videos on Scott’s first game, OS+R ⁠https://youtu.be/HaDi13UM21Y?si=dgRGHBnLRIDw6brd⁠

Scott and I discuss the film: Zero Charisma⁠ https://www.youtube.com/live/dVXKIX78DIQ?si=oeIvKiePEcTp_WMI⁠

My follow-up:

⁠https://youtu.be/X2TCg2cl9aI?si=PS_sEUrfL2wKmxYi⁠

Scott’s recent video on Autotelic Engagement: ⁠https://youtu.be/qHVyFOYRPgo?si=Lcuf10VFaZfFaT2v⁠

Blog post summarizing my basic theory of “immersion”

On Immersion and Engagement in RPG Play ⁠

A recent video from James Bacon modelled on the above post and exploring the points raised by Scott can be found here:

⁠

_______

CONTACT ME:

Send in a voice message via Speakpipe!

Ubiquity Roleplaying Games Discord

@Runeslinger for YouTube, TwiXter, BlueSky, and Facebook