Campaign Spotlight

Game Mechanics as a Poem Structure: Self-paced TTRPGs with Satah [S4E9]

Folded Frequencies — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 15:36:01 -0800

In this week's episode, we chat with Satah about the distinction between games and writing exercises, the social expectations of GMing, and a table writing 150,000 words of fanfiction about their own campaign. We get into some of the themes that have been bubbling up through Campaign Spotlight since the beginning: the role of the GM in guiding the gameplay, player expectations around telling a cohesive story, and the way games changed in 2020 during the lockdown era. In the months since we recorded this interview, this conversation has changed how we've incorporated writing exercises in our own home games.

Satah runs Folio, a very cool podcast about solo and epistolary games. Go check out their Itch for some very cool TTRPGs they've released. They also make music as People You Meet Outside of Bars (which Jake has been listening to for a decade now) and Piloting the Animal.

We discuss a whole lot of TTRPG systems in this episode:

Mothership, which we previously heard about in this onsite session at Vulpine Taproom
Galactic, a Star Wars-inspired space opera game
Masks, which we discussed in this interview with Garrett and the Bucket Buddies
Strange Places and other AdventureByMail games
Fiasco, which we heard about our interview with Erika about using multiple systems to build the campaign
Furyya, a solo survival journalling game
Monsterhearts, about the messy lives of teenage monsters
Dungeon World, which we discussed with Prim way back in our very first season
Alone Among the Stars and all its hacks on Itch

Satah was also kind enough to share with us the letters generated by playing the AdventureByMail game The Resistance of New Holloway, which you can read here.

Thanks to Lavitts for providing the introduction to this week's episode! Beep boop.

This episode also marks the end of Season 4. This has been our longest and most ambitious season yet, with some incredibly thoughtful guests and a very busy schedule of onsite recording sessions. Thank you to all the guests who's taken the time to share their games with us - and to all the listeners who keep tuning in, telling us what they think of the episodes, and supporting the production on Patreon. We're getting right back into the studio to record some more interviews and try some new episode types. Get ready to hear more of Jake and Reilly rolling big handfuls of dice in Season 5.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music. You can also listen to Reilly's DJ sets on Mixcloud.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon or supporting us on Ko-Fi. A special thanks to Hannah W, Jake K, Perry C, Elvin Prince, Jason K, Smokie Derg, and Maureen H for supporting us on Patreon!

For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

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Onsite at OrcaCon [S4T9]

Folded Frequencies — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 12:15:01 -0800

This week, we're on location at OrcaCon 2026! We hear about taste mechanics, Canadian orthography, and products for the sloppy player. Thanks to everyone who took the time to chat with us:

[2:01] GameStorm is a very cool convention in Portland - and they offered listeners a promo code for discounted registration in this episode! You'll have to listen to find out what it is.
[4:57] Aspiring Youth, which offers some very cool TTRPG programming for neurodivergent youth.
[12:06] Brush Wielders Union, whose founder Simon has come on the podcast to talk about miniatures in combat. (Some very cool pictures of painted minis at that link.)
[13:06] Found Family Adventurecrafts, whom we first met at Dragonflight GameCon a few months ago. (Go listen to our Dragonflight episode! And then come back to finish this one.)
[15:36] RipCrypt, who've made a video directly addressing the game's whole raison d'être, which feels like something all indie TTRPG developers should think about.
[22:08] Legends of Gadia, whom we first encountered at OrcaCon last year and who've released a full-fledged card game in the year since then! Here's an example of how the gameplay works.
[32:47] The Game Shelf, an old-school local game store in Kent.
[33:45] Studio Hexe, who set Jake straight on some questions about dice balance.
[38:55] Inclusive Imagination, who make some very thoughtfully designed games.
[41:01] Nailon Realm, whom we also first met back at Dragonflight a few months ago.
[43:25] Mice of Legend (by Alchemical Press), whom we also first met back at Dragonflight, and who currently have Kickstarters going for a new OSR adventure and a Shadowdark version of Mice of Legend. We talk quite a bit about the Shadowdark system in this conversation. We also talk about OSR, which we previously talked about with Max - and then again with Max, focusing on exploration in OSR games in particular.

At the beginning of the episode, we talk about our experience at OrcaCon 2025. Here's the first part and here's the second part of our time at OrcaCon last year! Last year's OrcaCon is also where we met Dante of Chance Encounter Games - and then later we interviewed Dante and attended the grand opening of the Chance Encounter Games storefront (part 1 and part 2).

Go check out our website for some pictures from OrcaCon! We're trying to figure out some opportunities to get out to more cons in 2026. We're definitely getting to NorWesCon 2026 in April - but let us know if there's anywhere else in the PNW we should check out.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music. You can also listen to Reilly's DJ sets on Mixcloud.

For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

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Game Engines and Grunk Pits: Running Green Ronin Publishing with Chris [S4E7]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 09:02:25 -0800

In this week's episode, we chat with Chris Pramas of Green Ronin Publishing! We hear about adapting a series of novels as a TTRPG, implementing spaceship combat without writing a physics textbook, and the importance of considering what a fantasy city would smell like. Our conversation goes deep into the lifecycle of a tabletop game, the economics of the publishing industry, and the complications of crowdfunding. Spoilers abound for The Expanse and Broken Earth novel series. Thanks to Reilly for editing out the part where Jake tried to say "Fifth Season" but accidentally said "Fifth Element".

Chris Pramas is the founder and co-owner of Green Ronin Publishing. They're the publisher behind Mutants and Masterminds and Fantasy Age as well as some very in-depth adaptations. We talk about the adaptations for The Fifth Season as well as The Expanse in quite a bit of detail, but their original content like Lost Island of the Pirate Queen is also extremely fun and flavourful. This year has been their 25th anniversary, so they've been doing some cool monthly specials. Also, the bankruptcy of their physical books distributor has had them in a bit of a bind over the past few months, so possibly consider helping them out?

Green Ronin Publishing also has some community sites for people interested in building their own game supplements:

AGE Creators Alliance is for Adventure Game Engine supplements.
Chronicle System Guild is for Sword Chronicle supplements, which is the genericized version of the A Song of Ice and Fire system.
Atomic Think Tank is a forum for Green Ronin TTRPGs more broadly.

Chris has some great recommendations for nonfiction history:

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard
The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe by Matthew Gabriele and David M Perry
Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan, 1839-42 by William Dalrymple
William Dalrymple and Anita Anand's podcast Empire

Finally, while we were putting these show notes together, we found the program for GenCon 2000, and it's an excellent examples of turn-of-the-century TTRPG graphic design. Head on over to our website to check it out.

If you've enjoyed this interview, maybe go check out the first time we met Chris way back at OrcaCon 2025!

For more conversations about publishing TTRPGs, go listen to our interview with David about self-publishing TTRPGs, our interview with Simon about minis (where we talk a lot about indie TTRPG publishing in the 90s), and our interview with Selius about publishing a third-party D&D supplement.

For a discussion about TTRPG adaptations of sprawling fictional universes from the point of view of a GM, go listen to this episode with Jesse about playing a campaign in the Dune system.

For some Flashlights where we talk about the history of Wizards of the Coast, here's the one where we talk about magazines and the birth of Paizo and here's the one where we talk about Chris Cox's tenure as Hasbro CEO.

Thanks to Emmett for providing this week's intro! Emmett is one of the writers of the Heir of Smoke D&D supplement, which is extremely cool.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music. You can also listen to Reilly's DJ sets on Mixcloud.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon or supporting us on Ko-Fi. A special thanks to Hannah W, Jake K, Perry C, Elvin Prince, Jason K, and Smokie Derg for supporting us on Patreon!

For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Goblins with Satellites: The Magical Land of Yeld with Maia [S4L2]

Folded Frequencies — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 11:05:59 -0700

In this week's episode, we chat with Maia about tracking the passage of time within a campaign, how GMing changes your persective on the game, and the challenges of playing coming-of-age narratives at a table of adults. Maia is part of the team behind the Magical Land of Yeld TTRPG system, and this ended up being a really thoughtful conversation about designing and playing a game that feels very different from the classical fantasy TTRPG.

This season, we're experimenting with shorter conversations about how people play games. We heard from the Yeld team (briefly!) at the Dragonflight gaming convention earlier this season, and we're really grateful to dive deeper into the system with Maia this week.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music. You can also listen to Reilly's DJ sets on Mixcloud.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon or supporting us on Ko-Fi. A special thanks to Hannah W, Jake K, Perry C, Elvin Prince, Jason K, and Smokie Derg for supporting us on Patreon!

For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

A Delver's Guide to Third-Party Supplements: Building the Beast World with Selius [S4E6]

Folded Frequencies — Sat, 11 Oct 2025 10:00:00 -0700

In this week's episode, we chat with Selius from Heartleaf Games about building an economy where dungeon delving makes sense, the hazards of concentrating intellectual property in a single company, and the mechanics for noodle-bodied PC species. Initially, we planned to talk with Selius about the Delver's Guide to Beast World sourcebook (which is extremely cool!), but we ended up talking more broadly about the process of developing third-party supplements for D&D 5th Edition. Since the interview, Heartleaf Games has also released a deck of NPC cards for Beast World campaigns.

We talked way more about Dungeons and Dragons, Wizards of the Coast, and intellectual property in this Flashlight back in Season 2. Jake also mentions the Ironclaw system.

Thanks to Beatrix for providing this week's intro!

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music. You can also listen to Reilly's DJ sets on Mixcloud.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon or supporting us on Ko-Fi. A special thanks to Hannah W, Jake K, Perry C, Elvin Prince, Jason K, and Smokie Derg for supporting us on Patreon!

For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Onsite at Dragonflight [S4T8]

Folded Frequencies — Fri, 26 Sep 2025 12:54:56 -0700

This week, we're on location at the Dragonflight GameCon in Bellevue, WA! We hear about carefully engineered dice, the unsustainability of grimdark campaigns, and orange cats that are not burdened by an abundance of thought. Thanks to everyone who took the time to chat with us:

Norwescon is a Science Fiction and Fantasy convention in the Seattle suburbs in April.
Zephren Varner makes extremely cool minis and dice.
Alchemical Press publishes Mice of Legend (and has a live Kickstarter for their new modules!).
Nailon Realm makes some very fun minis.
Stout Game Tables builds some very practical gaming tables.
Found Family Adventurecrafts makes fun whimsical minis.
PurrnelKitty Studio publishes The Golden Tuna and sells fun orange cat merch.
Gameswell makes really elegant card games.
Yeld is a fantasy TTRPG about children in a magical world (which we'll be hearing more about later this season).
Sketchsauce sells 3D printed toys and minis from a range of artists.
Majestic Adventures runs some very fun LARP camps and parties.
Alexandria RPG Library does an incredible job preserving and sharing TTRPG sourcebooks. We chatted with David about the old d6 Star Wars TTRPG and also Deadlands.

At the beginning of the episide, we mention the profusion of wizard hats at OrcaCon in January. Here's the first part and here's the second part of our time at OrcaCon.

Go check out our website for some pictures from Dragonflight! Jake's also going to throw in a bonus picture of the public transit they took to get to the con venue.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music. You can also listen to Reilly's DJ sets on Mixcloud.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon or supporting us on Ko-Fi. A special thanks to Hannah W, Jake K, Perry C, Elvin Prince, Jason K, and Smokie Derg for supporting us on Patreon!

For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Onsite at Furlandia (Part 2) [S4T7]

Folded Frequencies — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 10:41:01 -0700

This week, we're back on location at the Furlandia furry convention in Portland! We hear about the virtues of being your party's straight man (in the comedy sense), PC-on-PC romance, and a party that fails to notice that you're secretly Mothman. Thanks to Wulfryk, Theo, Dexter, Skia, Jacqueline, MIkiib, Faye, Chloe, and Liam for taking the time to chat with us! Jake (who writes these show notes) promises to Reilly (who does all the audio editing) never to wear a large clanky cowbell while recording podcast audio again.

We hear about the Savage Worlds system in this one - and, in particular, its (unofficial) Fallout setting.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music. You can also listen to Reilly's DJ sets on Mixcloud.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon or supporting us on Ko-Fi. A special thanks to Hannah W, Jake K, Perry C, Elvin Prince, Jason K, and Smokie Derg for supporting us on Patreon!

For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Viciously Destroying the Things You're Anxious About: TTRPG Therapy with Wesley [S4E5]

Folded Frequencies — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 11:08:41 -0700

In this week's episode, we chat with Wesley about the enforcement of veils and lines, the virtues of stabbing birds, and the use of TTRPGs in therapy. (Wesley's an actual literal therapist!) This ended up being a thoughtful conversation about people's emotional needs when they're playing TTRPGs, even outside the therapy context.

We make a few references to our episode with Kyros way back in Season 1. (Spoilers for Curse of Strahd in both this episode with Wesley and that episode with Kyros, incidentally.) If you want to hear more about paid GMing in non-therapy contexts, go listen to our interviews with RP and Dante.

As promised to Wesley, we're going to plug touching grass and donating to your local LGBT centre. In the PNW, we'd suggest Qmunity in Vancouver or Seattle’s LGBTQ+ Center (formerly Gay City).

Thanks to Briar for providing this week's intro! You can book Briar to GM your game or check out a D&D module they co-wrote.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music. You can also listen to Reilly's DJ sets on Mixcloud.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon or supporting us on Ko-Fi. A special thanks to Hannah W, Jake K, Perry C, Elvin Prince, Jason K, and Smokie Derg for supporting us on Patreon!

For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Six-Mile Hex Grids with Seventeen Locations: Exploration in OSR Games with Max [S4L1]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 13:34:01 -0700

In this week's episode, we chat with Max about Seattle-appropriate doula gifts, the TTRPG version of porn brain, and the concept of exploration in TTRPGs. This season, we're experimenting with shorter conversations about how people play games. We first spoke with Max way back in Season 2, and we wanted to keep talking about OSR games, so we convinced Max to come back for another round. This is one of our most game theory-focused interviews, especially when we're talking about incentives and objectives in TTRPGs. If you're interested in why so many older systems treated gold as XP, this episode is for you.

Throughout the conversation, Jake and Max both keep saying "D&D". However, the actual system Max is using is Shadowdark. Jake kind of regrets this inaccuracy, but also it feels like "D&D" becoming a generic term for TTRPGs and losing its trademark protections (like "aspirin" or "thermos" or "escalator") would be a funny outcome of its cultural dominance.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music. You can also listen to Reilly's DJ sets on Mixcloud.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon or supporting us on Ko-Fi. A special thanks to Hannah W, Jake K, Perry C, Elven Prince, Jason K, and Smokie Derg for supporting us on Patreon!

For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Onsite at Furlandia (Part 1) [S4T6]

Folded Frequencies — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 08:00:00 -0700

This week, we're on location at the Furlandia furry convention in Portland! We hear about tricky metallurgy puns, the challenge of playing a character with a limited vocabulary, and the hazard of DMing in Florida. Thanks to Ember, Briar, Sage, Veer, Mud, Celina, Salem, Guy, Scone, King, Kiki, Lavitts, Cotton, Diego, Nathan, Fenric, and Body for taking the time to chat with us!

Lavitts shared some cool character art with us! Head on over to our website to check it out. We also hear about a fun TTRPG system called Pirate Borg in this one.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music. You can also listen to Reilly's DJ sets on Mixcloud.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon or supporting us on Ko-Fi. A special thanks to Hannah W, Jake K, Perry C, Elvin Prince, Jason K, and Smokie Derg for supporting us on Patreon!

For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Hackensack Hack 'n' Slash: Rotating GMs with Garrett and the Bucket Buddies [S4E4]

Folded Frequencies — Thu, 14 Aug 2025 11:56:47 -0700

In this week's episode, we chat with Garrett about highly effective cult leaders, a curse of potential unkillability, and a table of players that rotates GMing duties (and systems!) for each campaign. This was a really thoughtful conversation about short game sessions, building shared ownership of the world, and what it means to be a GM. Plus, three of the other members of Garrett's table shared their perspectives with us as well!

Garrett has a wealth of knowledge about TTRPG systems. Here are some of the systems that Garrett mentions in this episode:

Swords Without Master
Ars Magica
Nitrate City
Masks
Monster of the Week
Spire: The City Must Fall
Dungeon World, which we heard about from Prim
Blades in the Dark
Boondock Cartomancy
Lasers and Feelings, of which we played a very fun hack called Radical Catgirl Anarchy
Kids on Bikes

We hear about a LARP gone wrong in this episode. To hear about LARP gone right, check out our interviews with Andrew (who told us about Legacies LARP) and Rex (who told us about Gothic LARP).

Garrett also publishes TTRPGs! Check out Garrett's Itch page for some fun creative GMless games, and also this (now-closed) Kickstarter for another system now under development.

We also hear from some other members of the table! They're also extremely knowledgeable about TTRPG systems:

Jason mentions Monster Hearts, Dungeon World, Questlandia, Girl by Moonlight, and City Planning Department.
Jared mentions Always/Never/Now and Blister Critters. Jared publishes TTRPGs too! Check out Jared's Itch page for solo journalling games, micro games, and missions for The Company.
Chris mentions Uranium Chef and Alas for the Awful Sea.

A special thanks to Jason, Jared, and Chris for taking the time to share their experiences! We're very grateful to all of you for seeing a surprise email from a stranger about your home TTRPG game and still taking the time to record some audio for us. We reached out to all of the Bucket Buddies, but didn't hear back from the rest by release time.

(Also, we checked out City Planning Department after we heard about it from Jason. We liked it so much that we'll be playing it in a episode later this season with a special guest! So an additional thanks for that recommendation.)

Thanks to Ruckgar of Orc Style for providing this week's intro!

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music. You can also listen to Reilly's DJ sets on Mixcloud.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon or supporting us on Ko-Fi. A special thanks to Hannah W, Jake K, Perry C, Elvin Prince, Jason K, and Smokie Derg for supporting us on Patreon!

For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Onsite at VancouFur, Part 2 [S4T5]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 08:00:00 -0700

This week, we're back on location at the VancouFur furry convention in Vancouver! We hear about a bomb mage, a high-charisma roguelike wizard, and a monk who discovers a new way to defeat Strahd. Reilly's around for this episode, and so order is restored, even as we need to podcast away from a crisis. Thanks again to the organizers for giving us permission to record at the convention!

We're grateful to Syren, Pluto, Sappho, Cherry Blossom, Rudy, and Lexi for taking the time to talk with us! We hear about the Starfinder system in this episode. Back in January, we encountered a Starfinder playtest at OrcaCon.

At VancouFur, we commissioned a quick scrungly portrait of ourselves recording the podcast from Chebits. Head on over to our website to check it out!

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music. You can also listen to Reilly's DJ sets on Mixcloud.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon or supporting us on Ko-Fi. A special thanks to Hannah W, Jake K, Perry C, Elvin Prince, Jason K, and Smokie Derg for supporting us on Patreon!

For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

A Table Full of Chaos Monkeys: Con Games with Greg and Casey [S4E3]

Folded Frequencies — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 20:09:44 -0700

In this week's episode, Greg and Casey of Black Shield Productions share their experience running large-scale games at conventions. We hear about the flow of information between players and tables, deciding whom to leave behind on a doomed planet, and the trope of a preacher with a gun. Thanks to Black Shield Productions for making this interview possible!

We first encountered a Black Shield Praoductions game back at OrcaCon in January. Their games use a modified version of the Fate system. The Black Shield Productions crew has also done some streaming, including the Elder Scrolls RPG and the Adventures in Middle-earth RPG.

Thanks to Theo for providing this week's intro!

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music. You can also listen to Reilly's DJ sets on Mixcloud.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon or supporting us on Ko-Fi. A special thanks to Hannah W, Jake K, Perry C, Elvin Prince, Jason K, and Smokie Derg for supporting us on Patreon!

For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Onsite at VancouFur (Part 1) [S4T4]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 18:15:55 -0700

This week, we're on location at the VancouFur furry convention in Vancouver! We hear about capitalist considerations in a fantasy world, a plucky little rat, and the cuthtroat Vancouver real estate industry. Jake exposes an embarrassing ignorance of the order of the Discworld books. Thanks to the organizers for giving us permission to record at the convention!

We're grateful to Jade, Fion, Edge, Herman, Asher, Reno, Musrom, Rainyatsu, and Laurien for taking the time to chat with us! Here's that building in Surrey that Musrom was talking about. It looks like it did sell recently, so maybe it won't be empty for long?

We unfortunately didn't receive any art that we could link to in the show notes. If you're reading this and you have cool art of your character or campaign, get in touch! We'd love to see it, and if you like we'd be happy to share it on social media.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music. You can also listen to Reilly's DJ sets on Mixcloud.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon or supporting us on Ko-Fi. A special thanks to Hannah W, Jake K, Perry C, Elvin Prince, Jason K, and Smokie Derg for supporting us on Patreon!

For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Onsite at the Grand Opening of Chance Encounter Games (Part 2) [S4T3]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 18:07:52 -0700

This week, we're once again on location at the grand opening of Chance Encounter Games! We hear about a sham trial and a public execution at a LARP, very ambitious notetaking, and playing a nonmagical character in a very magical world. (Also, a little bit about Jake's long-running campaign.)

This is the TTRPG store and gaming space that Dante told us about during our interview earlier this season. Thanks again to Dante for letting us record at your grand opening! Also, thanks to Alaria, N, Miller, Aidan, Kathrin, and Mario for taking the time to chat with us. If you haven't already heard it, go listen to the first half of our coverage.

We hear about a very intense storyline at Legacies LARP in this episode. Last season, Andrew talked about the experience of writing storylines for Legacies.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music. You can also listen to Reilly's DJ sets on Mixcloud.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon or supporting us on Ko-Fi. A special thanks to Hannah W, Jake K, Perry C, Elvin Prince, Jason K, and Smokie Derg for supporting us on Patreon!

For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Tactical Immersive Experience: Miniatures Combat with Simon [S4E2]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 16:12:36 -0700

In this week's episode, we chat with Simon about using soda cans and pizza boxes as terrain, the shift away from miniatures in TTRPGs, and the incompatibility of the Seattle real estate market with large-scale miniatures combat. Plus, Jake gets grumpy about indie TTRPG marketing.

Simon (whom we met at OrcaCon) owns Strix Publishing and runs the Brush Wielders Union and the associated podcast as well as a Horus Heresy fan podcast. He has a ton of experience in TTRPG publishing, including work on Warmachine, Hordes, Iron Kingdoms 2e, Eclipse Phase, The Hammer and the Stake, Dune: Adventures in the Imperium and Unhallowed Metropolis. As a result, this conversation goes very far afield of our original plan to talk about minis, because Simon really has such a depth of experience. We wound up chatting about folk knowledge and traditions in popular games, the history of D&D's status as a cultural juggernaut, and the extremely nineties television show Kindred: the Embraced. Here are those stats on the most common systems played on Roll20, in case you were wondering. Some previous Campaign Spotlight episodes come up in this conversation:

Simon also discusses some fun rulesets:

Dungeon Crawl Classics (not a minis combat system, but a fun OSR TTRPG)
Necromunda (a very miniatures-intensive Warhammer system)
Strength and Honour (a wargame system for battles in the ancient world)
Test of Honour (a miniatures system focusing on samurai skirmish combat)

After we recorded this interview, Simon sent us some pictures of the incredible minis he's painted! Head on over to our website to check them out.

Thanks to Delta for introducing this week's episode! Delta is a player in Jake's long-running home game.

Thanks to Goblin Society Games for supporting this week’s episode! Go check out their website and take a look at Mukrag’s Compendium of Curios, the HELBINE setting, and all the other cool games and supplements they make. Through July 23, if you purchase Goblin Society Games products on DriveThruRPG, they'll donate 10% of the proceeds to Partners in Health.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music. You can also listen to Reilly's DJ sets on Mixcloud.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon or supporting us on Ko-Fi. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

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Onsite at the Grand Opening of Chance Encounter Games (Part 1) [S4T2]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 23:38:20 -0700

This week, we're on location at the grand opening of Chance Encounter Games! We hear about the economy of game publishing, the joy of playing your character like you're driving a stolen car, and the impeccable vibes of a cast-iron portcullis. This is the TTRPG store and gaming space that Dante told us about during our interview earlier this season. Thanks again to Dante for letting us record at your grand opening! Also, thanks to everyone who took the time to chat with us:

Allen
Tom
Adam
Parker, who runs the Seattle RPG Variety Society and mentioned a few game systems:
- Copperhead County, which uses the engine from Blades in the Dark
- Dungeon Crawl Classics
- Delta Green
Davi, who gave us a hot take and mentioned a couple game systems in the process:
- Dragon Age from Green Ronin Games (whom we'll be talking more about later this season)
- The Cosmere TTRPG
Max, who talked about the business model of game stores and mentioned a system and a sourcebook:
- Unknown Armies
- Monster Overhaul
Brian

In this episode we mention Distant Worlds Coffeehouse - which is a block away from Chance Encounter Games, and a very chill space with excellent food. We also mention OrcaCon, which is an extremely fun gaming convention in Seattle every January. Here's the first part and here's the second part of our experience at OrcaCon.

In the outro, Jake refers to polytopes as "polyhedra". We sincerely apologize for this error. Here are some cool renderings of four-dimensional polytopes you can look at while deciding whether to forgive us.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon or supporting us on Ko-Fi. A special thanks to Hannah W, Jake K, Perry C, Elvin Prince, Jason K, and Smokie Derg for supporting us on Patreon!

For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

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On Location at Vulpine Taproom (Part 2) [S4T1]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 12:45:33 -0700

In this week's Streetlight, we're back on location at Vulpine Taproom in Seattle asking people about their characters and campaigns! We hear about liches with day jobs, wild magic druids, and the downsides of digital dice.

We're very grateful to Vulpine Taproom for letting us record at their game night! We talked with so many people in one evening that we ended up breaking it up into two episodes. The first episode aired towards the end of last season - go give it a listen.

Thanks to Margaret, Shawn, Brandon, Chris, and Andrew for featuring in this week's episode! Margaret and Shawn mention a ton of TTRPG systems in our conversation:

Here's a review of Champions 4th Edition, which Margaret and Shawn repeatedly refer to as the Big Blue Book. Here's a brief contemporary review of the system from a 1988 issue of Computers and Video Games.
This is the Ars Magica system they discuss.
Here's a 2005 review of the Serenity system they discuss. If you weren't around for Firefly and Serenity, the reverence might seem a little disorienting. The entire rulebook is also available on Internet Archive.
Here's the concept for Mage: the Ascension.
We talk briefly about Lancer and Jake mentions last season's interview with Tyler.
Here's the synopsis of the book Shawn is working on based on the steampunk campaign he ran. The illustrations here are really incredible.
Here's a lot more of the art Shawn has worked on professionally.

Throughout our conversation, Margaret and Shawn were showing us pieces of physical art. All of these were extremely cool! We can't embed images in the show notes, so head over to our website to see some more of Shawn's art.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon or supporting us on Ko-Fi. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Cats That Herd Themselves: Running a Campaign across Multiple Tables with Dante [S4E1]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 14:07:10 -0700

Welcome to Season 4 of Campaign Spotlight! This week, we chat with Dante about running eleven weekly parallel tables in the same campaign, falling in to becoming a professional GM, and embracing the tropes of the fetch quest. Plus, Dante has some sage advice for GMs like Jake who love spreadsheets.

During the interview, Dante mentions that they're opening a physical storefront for Chance Encounter Games in Seattle. In the time since we recorded this interview, we attended the grand opening and asked the customers about their campaigns, characters, and hot takes. Expect to hear all about it in an upcoming Flashlight.

Dante also mentions two useful mapmaking Patreons:

Way back in March 2024, we chatted with Jesse about a very different approach to running the same campaign across multiple tables. Last season, we heard from RP about the experience of professional GMing.

Thanks to Bramble for introducing this week's episode! Bramble is a player in Jake's long-running home game.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon or supporting us on Ko-Fi. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Season 3 Finale [S3F8]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 13:19:31 -0700

In the very last Flashlight of Season 3, Jake describes Reilly's rations, Reilly shows off some sound effect finesse, and we commit to a timeline for Season 4. Spoiler alerts for either Inspector Gadget or Mission Impossible, potentially. This was our first time recording one-on-one in the studio in a long time, and we'd really missed it.

Listen to the episode to hear what we have in store for Season 4! If you're enjoying the show, and you'd like to support it, here are some ways you can make that hapen:

Subscribing and leaving a review helps other people find Campaign Spotlight! When people find the show, they sometimes get in touch with us about cool campaigns, and we interview them on the next season, and that's how we can keep making more episodes.
If you'd like to introduce a Season 4 episode in-character as your PC, call that intro in to 724 320 2020. This has been a really fun part of the last couple seasons, and we'd like to keep it going.
If you have a cool character or campaign you'd like to show off, feel free to call 724 320 2020 and tell us about it! If you've played it and it was fun and interesting, we'd love to hear about it and feature it in an episode.
If you have something you'd like to promote on the show (an actual play, a new game, a work of fiction) that's related to TTRPGs, get in touch with us at campaign.spotlight@gmail.com about advertising.
Subscribing to our Patreon helps us pay for production, hosting, and distribution, and also lets us record at more cons and other events.

Thanks so much to everyone who's continued to listen to the show! This has been such a fun and rewarding project. We hope you enjoy what's coming next.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Black Trenchcoats and Pink Mohawks with Ev [S3E8]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 26 Mar 2025 23:01:00 -0700

In our very last interview of Season 3, we chat with Ev about spontaneous goblinization, nanite infestation, and a future Seattle that's even grimmer than the one we live in. Quite a bit of Seattle talk in this one, but also a lot of discussion of playing a TTRPG in a grounded and realistic world where actions have consequences. Also, spoilers for iZombie, Mr Robot, and possibly Oceans Eleven? Jake would like to sincerely apologize for making a Homestuck reference.

In addition to the Shadowrun system, Ev mentions a few other science fiction-themed TTRPG systems:

Jake mentions this Flashlight from last season where we tried out a system that uses a bunch of lookup tables for combat.

To get used to the rhythm and rules of Shadowrun, Ev recommends checking out the Shadowrun subreddit, the Complex Action YouTube channel, this massive PDF tome called Shadowrun Storytime, and the Shadowrun: Dragonfall and Shadowrun: Hong Kong CRPGs.

You can find more about Ev's music and events here and you can find more about Impact Foundation events here. Maybe we'll head to a future Impact Foundation event to interview people about their PCs?

This week's intro comes from Rex, who was a guest in Season 2! Go check out Rex's writing projects.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

On Location at Vulpine Taproom [S3F7]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 14:47:58 -0700

In this week's Flashlight, we're at Vulpine Taproom in Seattle! We hear about the appropriate attire for a fantasy cosplay wedding, the hazards of getting emotionally invested in a gimmick character, and the downsides of having a life outside of gaming. Thank you so much to Vulpine Taproom for letting us record at your game night.

Thanks to Josh, Chris, Abraham, Shoe, Brandon, Sean, and another Chris for taking the time to talk with us! (And, once again, serious gratitude to Vulpine Taproom.) As usual, we have some notes on our conversations:

Abraham mentioned the Mothership system as well as the original Dragonlance setting which starts with Dragons of Despair. We talked about why TSR had to release so many sourcebooks back in this Season 2 Flashlight about the history of D&D.
We discuss the right system for running a cyberpunk-themed game with Shoe. Neither of us remembers the year for Cyberpunk Red - it's 2045. Sorry about this. We also discuss the Shadowrun system, which you'll be hearing about in next week's interview! Also, if anyone has any suggestions for running a cyberpunk-themed game, send them our way and we'll pass them along to Shoe.
When we talk with Chris (the second Chris) we discuss Cortex and also mention Lancer. You might remember Lancer from last episode's s interview with Tyler.

We ended up talking with way more people than we can fit in a single episode. Given that we're getting close to the end of Season 3, the second half of our evening at Vulpine Taproom will likely end up in Season 4. You'll hear more from some of these people in that episode.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

PC Customization with Tyler [S3E7]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 16:28:20 -0800

In this week's episode, we chat with Tyler about big beefy robots smashing into each other, character specialization and specificity, and playing with a whole party of GMs. This interview started out as being about the Lancer system in particular, but we ended up talking about building and levelling PCs more generally.

Tyler tells us about Lancer and its free COMP/CON character-building website and also mentions a few other games:

He also plugs going to Itch.IO and downloading a free TTRPG and getting back into Tumblr. Both of these sound like excellent suggestions to us.

This isn't our first interview about giant robots! We also heard from Erika (who GM'd a campaign in Beam Saber) last season. For that matter, we spoke with Austin (who wrote Beam Saber) earlier this season.

This week's intro comes from Bobby!

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

On Location at OrcaCon (Part 2) [S3F6]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 26 Feb 2025 21:36:26 -0800

In this week's Flashlight, we're still at the OrcaCon tabletop games convention in Seattle! We see a lot of excellent wizard hats, we hear about a lot of cool projects, and Jake reveals the deep lore of Campaign Spotlight. We can't wait to get back to the con next year!

Here's everyone we spoke with in this episode. Some of these were booths at the con, and some were people who saw us with a mic and wanted to let our listeners know what they were working on. We're really grateful to everyone who took the time to speak with us!

We heard about the Alzheimer's Association and its games fundraising project The Longest Day.
North End Makerspace has a ton of cool equipment including a water laser cutter! Their booth was staffed by Rebecca, who's contributed to the horror anthology podcast Waterlogged.
Blue Cactus Press is a publishing house with collaborators from historically marginalized groups on projects like the game Reveal the Elephant.
We heard about Black Shield Productions, who run some incredible con games and have a very dedicated fan base.
Start Here is a TTRPG from Beach House RPGs.

We mention it on the episode - but if you'd like to introduce an episode in-character as your PC, or if you'd just like to tell the world about your character or your campaign, get in touch! The hotline is 724 320 2020 if you have anything you'd like to call in. So far, we don't have way to send Reilly cute things, but we're working on it.

Also, thanks again to everyone from the Oppegaard Meadery episode who recommended OrcaCon to us!

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Professional GMing with RP [S3E6]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 19 Feb 2025 23:38:18 -0800

In this week's episode, we chat with RP about the expectations of the hero's journey, mysterious celebrity clients, and getting paid to DM. Spoilers for Beowulf, I think? We tank our chances for a Neuralink sponsorship in this one, just like we tanked our chances for a Tesla sponsorship earlier this season. (Also, just in case it wasn't clear, we recorded both this interview and the interview with Austin before the election, when joking about Elon Musk's failing companies felt different somehow.)

RP plugs Order of the Stick in this episode, and the fact that this webcomic has been running for more than two decades has made Jake feel intensely mortal. They also plug Demon: A Memoir and The Silmarillion. Head on over to RP's Instagram to see what they're working on, send them an email to ask about playing in one of their professionally DM'd games, or support them on Patreon or Ko-fi.

In this episode we also refer back to a couple previous conversations, including our interview about OSR-style gameplay with Max and our Flashlight on recent decisions at Wizards of the Coast.

This week's PC intro comes from Hali, who plays in one of RP's home games with friends, and who's also been a player in one of Jake's campaigns.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

On Location at OrcaCon (Part 1) [S3F5]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 13:15:55 -0800

In this week's Flashlight, we head to the OrcaCon tabletop games convention in Seattle! We hear about a bunch of cool projects, we spot a prominent state official, and Jake is flummoxed by the concept of 24-hour livestreams. This convention was honestly so much fun, and we're already scheming to get to more tabletop gaming events.

Rainbow Roll Network features actual plays by LGBTQIA+ creators and runs Rainbow Roll Fest, which is an online TTRPG festival
Legends of Gadia is a fantasy card game with an active Kickstarter based on an upcoming fantasy novel series
Game On Youth is a gaming group for neurodivergent youth in Seattle
Extra Life is a peer-to-peer fundraising organization that supports Children's Miracle Network hospitals through gaming
Brush Wielders Union is a community with a bunch of cool resources for miniatures gamers including a podcast
Terminal City Tabletop Convention is coming up in Vancouver next month
Chance Encounter Games offers TTRPG workshops, games, and accessories in Seattle
Outsider Comics is a cozy and inclusive comic book store in Seattle
Goblin Society Games is an independent developer and publisher of board, card, and tabletop roleplaying games
Around the Table is a local game store, cafe, and pub in Lynnwood
Green Ronin Publishing, a roleplaying game company that's producing a Fifth Season TTRPG we're really excited about
Cay Fletcher is an independent author and artist in Portland

Also, thanks to everyone from the Oppegaard Meadery episode who recommended OrcaCon to us!

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Writing Story for LARP with Andrew [S3E5]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 22:37:45 -0800

This week, we chat with Andrew from Legacies LARP about terrorizing the town as a fae abductor, depicting a demonic plague, and writing story for a long-running live-action role-playing game. This is a conversation about a very different type of storytelling experience in a game that's been running continuously for decades where each plot team only controls the narrative for six months at a time. (Also, if you're wondering, the town was called Fortnight long before the game Fortnite even existed.)

Thanks to Legacies LARP for making this interview possible! We're talking about Legacies LARP this week because we really enjoyed learning about Gothic LARP with Rex last season. In addition to Legacies and Gothic, Andrew also mentions Shadow Accord and Dystopia Rising.

This week's intro comes from Kaji, who's a player in Legacies LARP! We hope the demonic plague didn't get him. Go check out his Twitch channel.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

On Location at Howloween (Part 3) and a Midseason Update [S3F4]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 29 Jan 2025 12:38:07 -0800

In this week's Flashlight, we're back on location one last time at the Howloween furry convention in Vancouver! This season, we're getting out into the community and asking people about their PCs and their campaigns. We hear about banishing political figures from the timeline, a party with multiple competing cultists, and becoming the first vampires to climb Mount Everest.

Also this week, Jake and Reilly chat about the season so far and what's coming next for Campaign Spotlight. Along the way, we talk about the difference between GM-only players and PC-only players, and Jake pleads with Reilly to run a campaign someday.

Thanks to Zero, Delcan, Miranda, Masq, and Cylixeen for taking the time to chat with us! Howloween was an incredible experience that really made us realize how much fun we'd have wandering around with a mic asking people about their characters and campaigns. We'll be doing a lot more of this in the future.

Also, here's the PC playlist that Masq mentions in the episode. As of posting, it's over 24 hours long.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

High-level Campaigns with Rob [S3E4]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 12:54:33 -0800

In this week's episode, we chat with Rob about order and chaos, recruiting a potato peeler, and running an epic high-level campaign. Rob shares a very controversial take on combat that Jake's still not sure about. Spoiler warnings for Mass Effect in this one.

In our discussion of worldbuilding, we mention our very first interview with Mike. We also mention the Genesys system a couple times. Rob introduced Jake to the system many years ago, and we tried it out on the podcast way back in Season 1. (Incidentally, that's also the Flashlight where Reilly introduces Monocles McGillicudy.) Rob also references the D&D 3rd Edition book Weapons of Legacy, which is extremely fun for a high-level campaign. He recommends a few helpful resources:

WorldAnvil for keeping track of worldbuilding details
Syrinscape for soundscapes during the game
RPG Campfire cards for helping build out the PCs and their bonds

This week's unhinged intro comes from Cameron! Thanks Cameron for helping our show earn its explicit rating.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

On Location at Howloween (Part 2) [S3F3]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 13:04:39 -0800

In this week's Flashlight, we're back on location at the Howloween furry convention in Vancouver! This season, we're getting out into the community and asking people about their PCs and their campaigns. We hear about elfaboos, being dumb in a productive way, and a LARP character that actually steals things. Because we're at a furry convention, one of us is wearing a very clanky bell, and you can hear it throughout the recording. The host who's wearing a very clanky bell would like to apologize to the host who edits the audio for that poor satrorial decision.

Thanks to Shakaar, Ono, Evelyn, Jed, and Shane for taking the time to chat with us! (And if you talked to us at Howloween but you're not featured in this week's episode or last week's episode, stay tuned for the next Flashlight.)

Shakaar mentions Legacies LARP in this episode. Later this season, we're going to be talking with one of the people who writes plot for Legacies.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Special Guest Stars with Mike [S3E3]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 14:46:15 -0800

This week, we chat with Mike about killing your PCs' beloved animal companions, treating your players to cool hats with powers, and bringing in guest players for very special episodes. Mike refers quite a few times to our interview with Sam way back in Season 1. Also, spoiler alert for How I Met Your Mother.

Sam also recommends the podcast Dungeoncast, which is sadly shutting down.

This week's PC intro comes from Marquis, who's also one of the guest stars Mike mentions. Marquis also plays in Sam's campaign from Season 1, and played in Prim's campaign from Season 1, and has played in one of Jake's campaigns too. You should go check out all of Marquis's projects.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

On Location at Howloween (Part 1) [S3F2]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 01 Jan 2025 17:32:04 -0800

In this week's Flashlight, we're on location at the Howloween furry convention in Vancouver! This season, we're getting out into the community and asking people about their PCs and their campaigns. We hear about hat enthusiasts, revenge at all costs, and giving up the reins of your PC to your DM.

Thanks to Joey, Sean, Kaesu, Shadowsmyst, Fir, Robin, and Kaji for taking the time to chat with us! (And if you talked to us at Howloween but you're not featured in this week's episode, stay tuned for the next Flashlight.) You can see some of Sean's PC art over on our website, you can listen to Kaesu's music on Spotify, and you can see Shadowsmyst's whole webcomic on their website.

Kaji mentions Legacies LARP at the very end of the episode. Later this season, we're going to be talking with one of the people who writes plot for Legacies.

Check out our website for the portrayal of us recording the show we commissioned from Shesta of Critter Cove as well as a picture of the sign we were waving around at the convention.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

TTRPG Publishing with David [S3E2]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 18 Dec 2024 12:47:40 -0800

This week, we chat with David about saving the whales, publishing your own game systems, and making a city feel corrupt, classy and discreet. David has built some very cool systems, and our conversation covers rules lawyering, game balance, and what it means for a table to tell a story together. For the first time in a long time, we don't spoil any media and we also don't ruin our changes at any sponsorships.

This episode is heavy on references to other games! First and foremost, you should go check out David's Itch page where you can find Blood and Velvet and other game systems. David cites the following systems as inspiration:

Noirlandia
Follow
Mobile Frame Zero: Firebrands (which we discussed with Prim last season)
Epyllion

We also discuss a few worldbuilding systems:

Kingdom
Dialect
For the Queen
Microscope (which Jake and Reilly played way back in Season 1)
The Quiet Year

David also recommends Fallen London, Darkest Dungeon, Black Jack Justice, and Friends at the Table - especially the Partisan arc.

Finally, if you're interested in learning how to code in Python, here's a decent place to get started.

These week's intro comes from Seattle Dungeon Master Bryan Erickson! Thanks for the fun intro.

David composed and recorded the theme music for this week's monologue. As always, Reilly wrote the main theme for the podcast. If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

On Location at Oppegaard Meadery [S3F1]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 11 Dec 2024 18:07:28 -0800

In the very first Flashlight of Season 3, we're on location at Oppegaard Meadery in Seattle! This season, we're getting out into the community and asking people about their PCs and their campaigns. This was a fun episode - not just because people had interesting things to say about TTRPGs, but also because the space was ludicrously cozy and the mead was delicious. Thanks to everyone who took the time to chat with us! Check out our website to see some pictures we took while we were recording.

A clarifying note: we emailed Oppegaard Meadery management asking permission to record at their D&D night, and they were incredibly friendly and helpful, but this episode isn't sponsored. Jake has been buying their mead since before we even knew they had a D&D night at the meadery. If we start advertising on the show, we'll clearly delineate the advertisement and keep it separate from the rest of the episode.

Another clarifying note: Jake refers to the peasants in Warcraft II saying "zug zug". It's actually the orcish peons that say this. We sincerely regret this error.

We discuss the Fate of the Norns game system in this episode.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Actual Play with Austin [S3E1]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 04 Dec 2024 16:25:10 -0800

In the very first episode of Season 3, we chat with Austin about literal truckloads of cryptocurrrency, designing high-level enemies, and the importance of in-game downtime. Austin is an accomplished game designer and brings a ton of helpful advice to the conversation. Unfortunately, we do tank our prospects for a Tesla sponsorship.

A heads up that this episode swerves into a discussion of imperialist military violence in TTRPG campaigns and its parallels in the real world.

Go check out the Beam Saber system, which Austin designed. (To hear more about this system, go listen to last season's interview with Erika. Erika also provided the incredible and intense intro for this episode!) Talking about the Rush Wars supplement made us want to rewatch the Fast and Furious series. Austin also tells us about the CalazCon actual play. It's a huge ambitious actual play project, and we're excited to listen to the whole thing! While you're at it, go check out Austin's itch.io page.

Austin also mentions two podcasts:

Blowback which is about US military adventurism
The Great Gundam Project, which covers all of Gundam in production order

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Flashlight: Season 2 finale! [S2F8]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 25 Sep 2024 13:03:34 -0700

In this finale Flashlight of Season 2, Jake is embarrasingly earnest, Reilly gives the listeners a lot of homework, and the sword makes a second ominous appearance. We plug our Patreon, repeatedly give different numbers for the PC intro hotline (it's 724 320 2020), and talk about our plans for Season 3. This is honestly an extremely silly conversation. We've had so much fun getting to make this podcast and we're sincerely grateful to our guests so far and we're really excited to share another season of interviews with you.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Blending the Fantastic and Mundane with Lew [S2E8]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 17:05:07 -0700

In this week's episode, we chat with Lew about unsustainable character voices, mixing ABBA with Norse mythology, and the importance of buying in to the fantasy. Very minor spoiler alert for 500 Days of Summer. We do joke about Ikea being our sponsor, but they're not, and this episode probably guarantees that they never will be.

In this episode Lew mentions the Wayward Children series as well as the SCP Foundation. Lew also shared with us a ton of very cool pictures of the maps and minis from this campaign. Head on over to our website to check them out!

This week's PC intro comes from Kyros, whom you may remember from this conversation last season about Curse of Strahd. Thanks Kyros!

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Dungeon Lore VII: Hasbro and the OGL controversy [S3F7]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 13:03:35 -0700

In this week's Flashlight, we talk about intellectual property, resolve to go to law school, and finally earn that explicit rating. You can tell that we record a few weeks in advance, because we joke about WotC's next bad decision but we don't know about the DNDBeyond debacle yet. Jake gets into economic theory. Reilly's mic might just be a cursed artifact. Spoiler warning for Fountainhead? Also, we're not actually sponsored by Microsoft.

Dennis mentioned the OGL controversy last week, so go listen to the interview if you'd like to hear another perspective on the whole situation. Also, here's a book by Reilly's professor that looks pretty cool.

Here are some links that we used in research for the episode.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Building a new game system with Dennis [S2E7]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 14:56:37 -0700

In this week's episode, we chat with Dennis about branching out from D&D, useful feedback on game design, and the tradeoff between generality and specificity. We're doing something a little bit different this week (talking to someone who's built a new game system) and so the conversation gets a little crunchy at times. Also, you get to hear about Jake and Reilly's whole process of backups on backups when we're recording these episodes.

Spoiler alert for Jane Eyre, which Jake embarrassingly confuses with Sense and Sensibility. Also, spoiler alert for Lord of the Rings. If you're listening to this podcast and you've somehow never read or watched Lord of the Rings, let us know.

If you're interested in downloading SAGAS for yourself, here's the Kickstarter and here's the DriveThruRPG page. Also, go check out Dennis's other projects!

Here are some of the other game systems that we mention in this episode:

ezd6, which has some excellently streamlined rules
Tangled Blessings, which has an extremely strong aesthetic
Contained, which is a very cute micro-TTRPG that Dennis built previously

This week's PC intro comes from Jordan. Thanks Jordan!

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Dungeon Lore VI: Actual Plays and Peak D&D

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 13:03:25 -0700

In this week's Flashlight, we talk the rise of actual plays, the incredible profitability of Wizards of the Coast, and the professionalization of a hobby. We get into both academic media theory and SEC filings. Reilly is astounded by how many movies Jake has never seen. Spoiler warnings for Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves as well as "I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream" as well as maybe Rick and Morty? Also, we mention our Patreon on air for the first time.

Here are some links that we used in research for the episode. (It's a research-heavy episode.)

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Beginning Idol with Wolfgang [S2E6]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 17:17:04 -0700

In this week's episode, we chat with Wolfgang about the struggle of making it in showbusiness, the importance of embracing a system's genre conventions, and the deployment of feminine appeal. Spoiler warning for Jaws in this one? And, to a lesser extent, The Young and the Restless. Disclaimers that we're not actually sponsored by Adobe Acrobat and Jake is not actually 5'6.

Here's the Beginning Idol system that Wolfgang is sharing with us. Here's Wolfgang's own Itch page. And, because we mention Eric a few times, here's Eric's actual real-life band.

We talk about the Dallas TTRPG a little bit, so here's the Flashlight where we try to play Dallas.

This week's PC intro comes from Sonne, who builds travel guides to the best (and worst) places in the multiverse. Thanks Sonne!

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Dungeon Lore V: Playtesting and Pathfinder [S2F5]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 07 Aug 2024 13:01:24 -0700

In this week's Flashlight, we talk about playtesting at scale, becoming a cult leader, and the development of D&D 3e and D&D 3.5e as well as Pathfinder. Reilly shares his philosophy on ability checks and roleplay. Jake really doesn't know anything about cinema.

We mention the games Swords of the Serpentine and Time Watch, both of which look extremely fun. Also, here are some links that we used in research for the episode:

Here’s a Department of Commerce study called “A Nation Online” that talks about who would be able to access the Internet in the era of the 3rd Edition playtest, complete with some very old-school Excel charts.
Here’s a forum thread from Jonathan Tweet (the lead designer on D&D 3rd Edition) that talks about the changes in 3rd Edition.
Here’s a contemporary Death Cookie review of 3rd Edition that discusses some of the changes from previous editions.
Here’s a review of 3rd Edition play from 2000 that’s mostly positive.
Here’s another forum thread with a retrospective on how players felt about D&D 3rd Edition.
Here’s Monte Cook, one of the designers for 3rd Edition (but not 3.5) talking about the development of 3.5.
Here’s a brief history of Paizo, the publisher of Pathfinder.
Here’s the character generator we used in this episode.
We didn’t really get into this, but Roll20’s Orr Report shows the relative popularity of different TTRPG systems.

Head over to our website to see to the character sheet that Reilly builds in this episode.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Live Action Role-Playing with Rex [S2E5]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 13:04:07 -0700

In this week's episode, we chat with Rex about being a mean satyr, the role of persuasion and compulsion in TTRPGs and LARP, and how to step out of your players' ways and let them tell their own stories. This conversation might actually have convinced Jake and Reilly to start getting into LARP. Jake is very concerned about whether you still get to sleep on a comfortable mattress, though.

Rex is telling us about the Gothic LARP system. The two currently-active theatres are Luisant and Runeheim. For a picture of Rex's sword, check out our website.

This week’s PC intro comes from Jake - not host Jake, nor Season 1 guest Jake, but a completely separate Jake. We apologize for the confusion and commit to a moratorium on future Jakes on this podcast.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Dungeon Lore IV: Wizards, Pokemon, and Primal Order [S2F4]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 13:00:48 -0700

In this week's Flashlight, Reilly introduces some very special guests, Jake is intimidated by game store employees, and we discuss the meteoric rise of Wizards of the Coast. We also get into the economic situation in the 1990s, the Canadian political system, and how our podcast production works behind the scenes. The bit about unpaid interns was a joke, we promise.

We compare and contrast WotC with its predecessor TSR, so it might help to listen to our Flashlight on the history of TSR as well.

Also, in this episode Jake says "top quintile" without defining it. This just means "top 20%". Sorry about that.

Here are some links that we used in research for the episode:

You can see those original rules for Wizards of the Coast’s first publication The Primal Order here.
Here’s a detailed history of the history of Wizards of the Coast through the 1990s.
This review of the very first Magic: the Gathering World Championships isn’t the very first use of the word “metagame” but it’s an interesting read and an early discussion of the concept.
Here’s a forum thread on early Magic: the Gathering card prices - we didn’t talk about this in the episode, but it’s interesting history.
Here are the Consumer Expenditure Survey tables we used to get historical spending on hobbies.
Here’s WotC’s patent on collectible card games.
Here’s the Bulbapedia page on the WotC Pokemon card era. As always Bulbapedia is one of the most comprehensive sources of information on anything anywhere on the Internet.
Here’s a thoughtful critical review of the Homelands MtG card deck.

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Messy Entanglements with Erika [S2E4]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 13:12:55 -0700

This week, we chat with Erika about running a campaign using multiple systems, the upsides of metagaming, and worldbuilding at a table of dirty anarchist punks. Spoiler warning for Super Dimension Fortress Macross. In a sure sign that we're close to middle age, we do joke about the contents of our filing cabinets.

Here are the TTRPG systems that Erika describes playing in this campaign:

We also talk about Friends at the Table, which you should go listen to once you're all caught up on Campaign Spotlight.

Erika shared a map of the Citadel from the campaign, which is extremely cool. Go to our website to check it out.

We tried playing Microscope in a Flashlight way back at the beginning of Season 1, and we really enjoyed it.

This week's PC intro comes from Levi, who has been a very fun player in some of Jake's games and who is also an incredible performer.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Dungeon Lore III: Corporate Finance and also Swords [S2F3]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 10 Jul 2024 12:59:42 -0700

In this week's Flashlight, we chat about the complicated corporate history of TSR, monetizing your hobbies, and how we'd deal with getting sued. Reilly wields a sword. Jake makes a metaphor about a goose that calls into question whether Jake has ever seen a goose before.

In this episode we also introduce Monocles McGillicuddy with absolutely zero context. Monocles was Reilly's PC way back in our Season 1 Flashlight on the Genesys system.

Here are some links that we used in research for the episode:

If you’re interested in that Hunt for Red October game from TSR, here’s an analysis of the game complete with a bunch of photos.
If you really need to see the odious comments that blew up the TSR revival, here’s a rundown of the comments and here’s an article on a lawsuit from Wizards of the Coast about the last iteration of TSR. Reading about this will not brighten your day.
Completely off-topic, but if you want to play the critically-panned Ringworld-themed point-and-click adventure game that launched at the same 1993 GenCon as Magic: the Gathering, you can still do so.
Here’s a free character sheet for the Top Secret TTRPG if you want to see what the game is like.

Also, in our last episode, Drew provided the PC intro. Thank you so much to Drew, who is a player in Jake's long-running campaign and every bit as chaotic as that intro sounded. We apologize for the omission last week.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Old School with Max [S2E3]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 03 Jul 2024 15:13:34 -0700

In this week's episode, we chat with Max about Old School Revival gameplay, the joys of exploration, and how being a guest on our show can improve your romantic relationship. Minor spoilers for Lost Mine of Phandelver, if that matters to you. Also, if you're wondering what the production process looks like, the beginning of this episode has a bit of behind-the-scenes conversation.

This is a very theory-heavy episode with long discussions of the connection between TTRPGs and video games as well as the role of skill checks in D&D 5th Edition. Also, we briefly touch on the economic impacts of explorers continually hauling gold back to the village. For more on how dungeon gold can devalue the currency in a world with magic and dragons, Google "fantasy inflation".

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Dungeon Lore II: Platonic Solids and Horned Beasts [S2F2]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 26 Jun 2024 13:00:25 -0700

In this week's deep dive into the history of D&D, we talk about the origins of two iconic aspects of the game: the variety of dice and the extremely weird and specific monsters. Jake describes probability distributions, Reilly comes up with appealing backstories for creatures, and we take a brief detour into the concept of good and evil in fantasy worldbuilding. Throughout the episode we completely ignore the d10, which is the least aesthetically pleasing die shape.

Here are some links that we used in research for the episode:

This video from Bob World Builder summarizes the history of the dice used in D&D.
This blog post shows the chits TSR shipped out during the dice shortage era.
Here’s the rules for Chainmail, which was a TSR combat system that used d6s.
Here’s a list of all the US PTO dice patents, which includes some really ambitious dice designs.
This blog post from Tony Diterlizzi includes pictures and descriptions of the figurines that inspired the monsters we talked about in this episode.

Also, in this episode, Jake implies that 3^8 is "about 6400". It's actually 6561. We sincerely apologize for the error and we promise to never attempt math on the fly again.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Eternity in an Hour with Kit [S2E2]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 19 Jun 2024 13:12:01 -0700

This week, we chat with Kit about incorporating intimate character moments in a campaign with a cosmic scale, themes of family and lineage at an all-queer table, and dealing with a whole menagerie of PC pets. Spoiler warnings for A Series of Unfortunate Events. We also talk about the poem "Auguries of Innocence". Unfortunately, we never did manage to land that Cover Girl sponsorship.

Kit shared plenty of great recommendations for your home game:

The Owlbear Rodeo virtual tabletop system
Battlemaps from Eightfold Paper, Fantasy Atlas, Morvold Press, and Wizgrids
The Griffon's Saddlebag for cool items
Kenku.FM for music

This week's PC intro comes from Chris, who was our guest at the very end of Season 1. You can watch Chris play D&D on Twitch if you're so inclined. He's on the Phandelver and Below streams!

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Dungeon Lore I: Brawl in Braunstein [S2F1]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 12 Jun 2024 13:02:12 -0700

In this season's Flashlight episodes, we're taking a deep dive into the history of Dungeons and Dragons. Whether you love it, hate it, or are grimly resigned to playing it because everybody already knows the rules, the long history of D&D parallels the history of modern TTRPGs. We're starting out in the 1960s and working forward to the present day.

This week, we try to talk about the wargames of the pre-D&D era. Along the way, we end up exposing our lack of knowledge of 1790s Prussia, discussing the travails of tavern ownership, and announcing a wholly fictitious live podcast tour. It's our first time back in the studio one-on-one in a while, and as a result we get a little silly.

Here are some links that we used in research for the episode:

This guide to running a Braunstein RPG is an excellent and comprehensive resource with links to plenty of other resources.
This article from Ben Robbins (the creator of Microscope!) adds some more flavour to David Wesley’s history with tabletop games.
The first and second volume of Strategos explore the really deep history of wargames, which were the precursor to TTRPGs.

Also, in this episode, Reilly asks Jake about the history about student loans, and Jake doesn't have a good answer. Jake, who writes the show notes, is still mortified about this. Here's a very long and detailed history of student loans.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Chultan Pride with Perry [S2E1]

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 05 Jun 2024 15:14:21 -0700

In our very first episode of Season 2, we chat with Perry about running a campaign motivated by spite, building a griot PC class, and becoming a cleric by eating another cleric. Spoiler warnings for the D&D 5e Tomb of Annihilation module - although, honestly, this episode is a great primer for running any campaign set in Chult. This is our first time back in the studio after a big break since Season 1, and you can hear Jake getting back up to speed at the start.

Perry has plenty of great recommendations in this episode: Darker Hue Studios, Black Dice Society, the Wagadu Chronicles, Harriet Tubman: Demon Slayer, and the books of Tananarive Due. You can watch Perry on Symphony Entertainment or find his other projects on his Linktree. You can also find many of his creations on DNDBeyond.

This weeks's PC intro comes from Jason. Thanks to Jason for kicking off our PC intros for the season - and also for all the love and support the whole time we've been making this podcast.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Flashlight: Season finale!

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 17 Apr 2024 13:05:04 -0700

In this week's Flashlight, we talk about the experience of making a podcast about the creativity and uniqueness of home TTRPGs! Jake describes the terrible initial plan for this project, Reilly recounts an incident of subpar DMing, and we go wildly off the rails by the end.

It's been a real privilege to get to hear about the wild fun games our friends are running. We discuss why we started this show, how it's changed the way we play TTRPGs, and what we're planning for the future of Campaign Spotlight. We also talk about the capricious and inscrutable algorithms that control the flow of information on the Internet and the implications for this podcast.

Also, we should have mentioned this sooner - but Reilly wrote and produced all the music for this season (except for the very first episode, which Mike recorded for his own interview). You can follow Reilly on Bandcamp or listen to some mixes from Reilly's live shows on Mixcloud.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

Do you run your own home game? Tell us about a cool homebrew item and we might feature it in an upcoming episode. Give us a call and tell us about it at 724 320 2020.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Episode 8: Ending a campaign with Chris

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 10 Apr 2024 13:01:02 -0700

In this week's episode of Campaign Spotlight, we chat with Chris about healthcare crowdfunding, LARPing on a remote island, and the virtues of small-scale personal stories. No spoilers this week, although we do discuss quite a few old D&D modules in general terms. Also, it's not clear why Chris and Jake are so dead-set on winning sponsorships from the knife store at the mall.

This is the very end of our Campaign Spotlight season! In next week's Flashlight, we chat about what we learned this season and where we're planning to go from here.

You can watch Chris play D&D on Twitch if you're so inclined. He's on the Phandelver and Below streams!

Do you run your own home game? Tell us about a cool homebrew item and we might feature it in an upcoming episode. Give us a call and tell us about it at 724 320 2020.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Flashlight: Dallas

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 13:03:46 -0700

In this week's Flashlight, we explore the game Dallas, based on the TV series from the 1970s and 1980s! Reilly leaves in a hot-mic moment, Jake tries to sound knowledgeable about buying horses, and neither one of us can sustain a Texas accent.

Here's the link to SPI Wargame Resources, where you can find the ruleset for Dallas if you really want to try playing it. We also mention a few other old-school TTRPGs based on the hottest IP of the early 1980s:

Here's a MemoryAlpha article on the original Star Trek TTRPG and here's a (still-active!) forum for it.
Here's a catalogue of the sourcebooks for the Indiana Jones TTRPG - which are apparently very hard to find today.
Here's a review of the Judge Dredd TTRPG which is also very hard to find today.
Here's an archive of the Marvel Super Heroes TTRPG, with a bunch of character profiles as well.
Here's a modern review for the original Doctor Who TTRPG.

Do you run your own home game? Tell us about a cool homebrew item and we might feature it in an upcoming episode. Give us a call and tell us about it at 724 320 2020.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Episode 7: Dune with Jesse

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 27 Mar 2024 13:01:57 -0700

In this week's episode of Campaign Spotlight, we chat with Jesse about the Mophidius 2d20 system, the information flow between players, and improving the lot of your noble house. Spoiler warning for Dune, because Jesse's using the Dune TTRPG system. Also, spoiler warning for Game of Thrones, we guess. What's going on with all the sirens in the background in this episode? Not entirely sure, but maybe we should look into soundproofing.

Here's the publisher's website for the system Jesse is using. Hearing about a really fascinating game based on pre-existing IP made us curious about the history of IP-based tabletop games. In next week's Flashlight, you'll hear about our attempt to play the Dallas TTRPG, based on the 1970s TV show.

Also, here's the site Jesse used to build his game's wiki and here's the virtual tabletop system Jesse used to run his encounters.

Do you run your own home game? Tell us about a cool homebrew item and we might feature it in an upcoming episode. Give us a call and tell us about it at 724 320 2020.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Flashlight: AD&D

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 20 Mar 2024 13:01:32 -0700

In this week's Flashlight, we explore a very old ruleset for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, First Edition! Reilly attempts to befriend a sloth, Jake covets Reilly's dice, and we speculate on the role of a sociologist in a Tolkienesque fantasy world.

Finding an old copy of the rules can be tricky. OSRIC has compiled a set of first-edition rules (excluding the flavour text, which is subject to copyright) which you can read in more detail here.

Do you run your own home game? Tell us about a cool homebrew item and we might feature it in an upcoming episode. Give us a call and tell us about it at 724 320 2020.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Episode 6: Curse of Strahd with Kyros

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 13 Mar 2024 12:58:19 -0700

In this week's episode of Campaign Spotlight, we chat with Kyros about making your own story out of a pre-existing module, adding too many NPCs to the party, and flesh golem weddings. Spoiler alerts for the Curse of Strahd module - although, as we learn, this isn't necessarily a great choice for your next campaign.

Talking about this module with Kyros got us morbidly curious about old-school Dungeons and Dragons. In next week's Flashlight episode, we track down the AD&D ruleset and try out some of its mechanics.

Here's that full implementation of Castle Ravenloft in Minecraft that Kyros describes.

For a Romani tabletop game developer's perspective on the depiction of Vistani people in the Curse of Strahd, check out this piece by Rue Dickey.

Do you run your own home game? Tell us about a cool homebrew item and we might feature it in an upcoming episode. Give us a call and tell us about it at 724 320 2020.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Flashlight: Radical Catgirl Anarchy

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 06 Mar 2024 13:07:17 -0800

In this week's Flashlight, we explore a rules-light tabletop game called Radical Catgirl Anarchy! Reilly displays a profiency for catgirl name generation, Jake learns about rollerskates, and we ponitificate on the difference between catgirlism and radicalism.

Here are the rules for Radical Catgirl Anarchy, here are the rules for the original game Lasers and Feelings, and here's a list of other Lasers and Feelings hacks. We discussed quite a few other games from this list:

Jake mentioned Adventure Skeletons, which isn't related to Lasers and Feelings but which is a fun micro TTRPG. Also, Jake apologizes for getting so worked up about Carly Rae Jepsen.

Do you run your own home game? Tell us about a cool homebrew item and we might feature it in an upcoming episode. Give us a call and tell us about it at 724 320 2020.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Episode 5: Long-running campaigns with Jake

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 12:52:35 -0800

In this week's episode of Campaign Spotlight, we chat with Jake about making the most of players' busy schedules, dealing with important story beats happening offscreen, and Philadelphia energy. (This is our third guest this season from the Delaware Valley and yet somehow this is the first episode where Wawa comes up.) Very light spoilers for Neon Genesis Evangelion.

This conversation got us thinking about ways to get a lightweight game session up and running really quickly. In next week's Flashlight episode, we try the very lightweight Radical Catgirl Anarchy.

Our guest Jake was kind enough to share with us some of the cutscenes he built for his players. Check out our website for some screenshots from those (very charming) cutscenes.

Our guest also mentioned a bunch of useful resources:

Hamill Illustration, Filibuster Frog, and Amanda Rotten for illustrations.
Tale of an Industrious Rogue for inspiration.
The r/battlemaps subreddit for battlemaps.
FoundryVTT for running tabletop games online.

Do you run your own home game? Tell us about a cool homebrew item and we might feature it in an upcoming episode. Give us a call and tell us about it at 724 320 2020.

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Flashlight: Warhammer 40k

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 21 Feb 2024 12:55:23 -0800

In this week's Flashlight, we explore everyone's favourite minis wargame, Warhammer 40k! Reilly deploys a tape measure to manifest a smite, Jake repents for overly sweaty final showdowns in past campaigns, and we begin to wonder if playing a minis wargame on a podcast was a mistake.

Here's the link to the publisher's website for the Warhammer 40k system and here's the wiki if you're feeling like a few hours of fascinated clicking.

Do you run your own home game? Tell us about a cool homebrew item and we might feature it in an upcoming episode. Give us a call and tell us about it at 724 320 2020.

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Episode 4: Combat encounters with Sam

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 13:03:35 -0800

In this week's episode of Campaign Spotlight, we chat with Sam about running novel and interesting combat encounters, raising the stakes by putting everyone's favourite NPC in danger, and ethically nonmonogamous orc throuples. Spoiler warning for Sam's campaign - although we recorded this a while ago, and we're pretty sure the players have already encountered that set filled with traps.

This interview got us thinking about the type of games that take the physical battlemap really seriously. In next week's Flashlight episode, we'll be talking about Warhammer 40K.

This is an episode where we spend some time admiring Sam's intricate 3D battle sets. Is a podcast the best medium for discussing combat visuals? Probably not, but Jake doesn't have the face for YouTube. We've posted some of the pictures Sam sent us on our website, so you can see what we're talking about.

Sam mentioned the John Green YouTube channel Crash Course. Jake mentioned the David Prokopetz homebrew item Deck of Many Tarrasques.

Do you run your own home game? Tell us about a cool homebrew item and we might feature it in an upcoming episode. Give us a call and tell us about it at 724 320 2020.

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Flashlight: Genesys

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 07 Feb 2024 13:09:48 -0800

In this week's Flashlight, we explore the Genesys TTRPG system! Reilly expounds a new definition for sports, Jake gets a little heated about private equity, and we seriously damage our chances that Spirit Airlines will ever sponsor the show.

Here's the link to the publisher's website for the Genesys system and here's the dice roller we use in the episode. We mention a few flavour packs, including this one that fleshes out familiars and this one that goes deep into unarmed combat.

We also discuss Paizo's Open RPG Creative License which is worth reading about in full if you're interested in the future of TTRPG intellectual property norms.

Do you run your own home game? Tell us about a cool homebrew item and we might feature it in an upcoming episode. Give us a call and tell us about it at 724 320 2020.

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Episode 3: DM PCs with Chris

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 13:05:18 -0800

In this week's episode of Campaign Spotlight, we chat with Chris about his DM PC, Disney movie monarchies, and the wonders of extremely crunchy combat sessions. Spoiler warning for The Emperor's New Groove, I guess? Although it's not the topic of the episode, this is the first time that Jake and Chris have chatted about the campaign they played together since it wrapped up, so it comes up a few times. Sorry about that.

Here's the link to the publisher's website for the Pathfinder system that Chris used to run this game. All this talk about really crunchy combat gave us the idea to try the even crunchier Genesys system which you'll hear all about on next week's Flashlight episode.

Here's the d10000 table that we roll on in this episode. Chris also recommends Dungeon Fog and PCGen as tools for running your campaign.

Do you run your own home game? Tell us about a cool homebrew item and we might feature it in an upcoming episode. Give us a call and tell us about it at 724 320 2020.

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Flashlight: Dungeon World

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 13:03:56 -0800

In this week's Flashlight, we explore Dungeon World and chat about Powered by the Apocalypse-based games! Reilly gets some serious firepower, Jake approves of biblical plagues, and we both struggle to recall basic facts about modern American history.

Here's the link to the publisher's website for the Dungeon World system, and here are the other Powered by the Apocalypse systems we discuss:

Apocalypse World launched this whole style of TTRPG.
MASHED is a PbtA game set in the Korean War.
Saga of the Icelanders is a PbtA game set during the Norse settlement of Iceland.
Thirsty Sword Lesbians is basically exactly what it says on the tin
Spirit of 77 is a PbtA game set in 70s movies, we think? Again, neither one of us knows very much about modern American history.
The Warren is a PbtA game about intelligent rabbits.

Do you run your own home game? Tell us about a cool homebrew item and we might feature it in an upcoming episode. Give us a call and tell us about it at 724 320 2020.

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Episode 2: Narrative control with Prim

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 12:54:22 -0800

In this week's episode of Campaign Spotlight, we chat with Prim about sharing narrative control with your players, hitting dragons with sticks, and the joys of being a deeply adversarial GM. Very light spoiler warning for Fullmetal Alchemist. Will Jake ever get on board with a TTRPG system that doesn't let you roll big chunky handfuls of dice every couple minutes? Prim makes a compelling case for Dungeon World.

Here's the link to the publisher's website for the Dungeon World system that Prim describes. (We'll also be talking about this game system in next week's Flashlight episode.)

Prim also mentioned the podcast Friends at the Table and the TTRPG system Stars Without Number as excellent resources.

Do you run your own home game? Tell us about a cool homebrew item and we might feature it in an upcoming episode. Give us a call and tell us about it at 724 320 2020.

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Flashlight: Microscope

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 10 Jan 2024 14:01:08 -0800

In our very first Flashlight, we explore the worldbuilding game Microscope! Reilly shows off his voice-acting abilities, Jake is very enthusiastic about a curse, and we both realize we much we rely on the randomness of a dice roll to drive a story forward. Throughout this episode Jake used a very squeaky whiteboard market to track our decisions, which Reilly had to edit out from the audio. Thanks Reilly!

Here's the publisher's website where you can buy Microscope for yourself.

Do you run your own home game? Tell us about a cool homebrew item and we might feature it in an upcoming episode. Give us a call and tell us about it at 724 320 2020.

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Episode 1: Worldbuilding with Mike

Folded Frequencies — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 14:51:10 -0800

In our very first episode of Campaign Spotlight, we chat with Mike about building a vibrant and realistic world for your campaign, NPCs who just want to be messy, and the importance of learning AutoCAD. Spoiler warning - especially for Annihiliation but also for 3:10 to Yuma and maybe Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Does Jake's mic discipline get any better as the season goes on? Stay tuned to find out.

Here's the WorldAnvil page for Mike's campaign. Click through to zoom in and pan around on the world map we discuss in the episode - or check out the version on our website.

Here's the Planet Map Generator that Mike used to build the world. On next week's Flashlight, we'll be talking about a very different tabletop game that's all about worldbuilding.

For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.

Do you run your own home game? Tell us about a cool homebrew item and we might feature it in an upcoming episode. Give us a call and tell us about it at 724 320 2020.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★