Explore every episode of the podcast Ludonarrative Dissidents
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The One Ring RPG and Microscope 2E: Live with Gareth Hanrahan and Ben Robbins | 19 oct. 2026 | 01:15:15 | |
Special guests Gareth Hanrahan (The One Ring RPG and too many games to count) and Ben Robbins (Microscope) join us for another live episode of LND to discuss game design and history. Back the LND Kickstarter today and join our book club on game design! | |||
| Vincent and Meg Baker and Season 4 Kickstarter Launch! | 14 oct. 2026 | 02:41:00 | |
We hosted a live episode to talk about the launch of our Season 4 Kickstarter. Join me, Greg Stolze, James Wallis and special guests Meg and Vincent Baker (Apocalypse World, Dogs in the Vineyard and many more) as we discuss the history of RPGs, possible games we may review for Season 4 and many other topics! | |||
| The Quiet Year: An Actual Play featuring creator Avery Alder and Dr. Emily Friedman | 05 oct. 2026 | 02:48:20 | |
The Season 4 LND Kickstarter pre-launch page is live! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rosspayton/ludonarrative-dissidents-podcast-season-4The Quiet Year is a map game. You define the struggles of a post-apocalyptic community, and attempt to build something good within their quiet year. Every decision and every action is set against a backdrop of dwindling time and rising concern.We were fortunate enough to have two very special guests for this episode.Avery Alder is the Quiet Year's creator and an award winning game designer. You can find her website at https://buriedwithoutceremony.com/ and she's on Bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/lackingceremony.bsky.socialOrder the Quiet Year https://buriedwithoutceremony.com/the-quiet-yearor from DrivethruRPG https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/110152/the-quiet-year?affiliate_id=465273Dr. Emily Friedman studies actual play and storytelling. She has an upcoming book on the history of Actual Play. You can find her on Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/ecfriedman.comand on https://patreon.com/ecfriedman | |||
| Ludonarrative Dissidents Season 4 Pre-Launch Live Episode 0 and Mothership: Wages of Sin Review | 28 sept. 2026 | 01:12:28 | |
We recently completed season 3 and are going to launch a Kickstarter on October 13 to fund a fourth season! Follow the Kickstarter campaign to be notified when the campaign goes live! This live episode discusses what will be new for the fourth season. We plan to have shorter book reviews in our live episodes, along with special segments. To that end, I review the new Mothership bounty hunting supplement, Wages of Sin. We're also hosting a book club on game design, where each host reads and discusses multiple books with backers. | |||
| Swords of the Serpentine Actual Play | 15 sept. 2026 | 03:25:51 | |
IN OUR TRADITIONAL style, as we reach the end of the season we’re bringing you a couple of Actual Play sessions of games that we’ve covered in earlier episodes, putting some actual ludo-ing into the customary narrative. This episode is the first part of the Ludonarrative Dissidents Season 3 finale and we are delighted that Kevin Kulp, co-designer of Swords of the Serpentine, volunteered to administer a one-off adventure for Greg, Ross and James. It was a splendid evening of entertainment, running the system through its paces as we hurtled through several of the setting’s notable locations, and finding every possible opportunity to fall in the water. SWORDS OF THE SERPENTINE is a game of fantasy shenanigans in a labyrinthine sinking city populated by rogues, schemers, cultists, swashbucklers and your player characters, written by Kevin Kulp and Emily Dresner, and published by Pelgrane Press in 2022. It uses a variation of the Gumshoe system originally created by Robin D. Laws in 2007. The book has 396 pages. No conventional show-notes this time, except to express our thanks to Kevin for giving up an evening to escort us through his co-creation, and to you for giving up your time to listen to it. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did. Thank you for listening! The hosts of this episode were Ross Payton, Greg Stolze and James Wallis, with audio editing by Ross and show notes by James. We hope you enjoyed it. If anything in this podcast or these notes has spurred your interest then we invite you to come and chat about it on our friendly Discord. If you click on any of the above links to DriveThruRPG and buy something, Ludonarrative Dissidents will receive a small affiliate fee. You will not be charged more, and the game’s publisher will not receive less, it’s a win-win-win. Thank you for supporting the podcast this way. | |||
| Dialect | 24 août 2026 | 00:55:00 | |
DIALECT: A Game About Language And How It Dies is a 2018 single-session RPG by Hakan Seyalioglu and Kathryn Hymes, published by Thorny Games. It’s a game about a small community, isolated from larger groups, that first creates its own verbal forms to describe its situation, and then must adapt or lose them as the community reacts to external threats. It is critically acclaimed and a winner of multiple awards. | |||
| Ludonarrative Dissidents Livestream for August 2026 | 17 août 2026 | 01:05:48 | |
Our livestream discussion for August! | |||
| Swords of the Serpentine | 02 juil. 2026 | 01:09:01 | |
SWORDS OF THE SERPENTINE is a game of fantasy shenanigans in a labyrinthine sinking city populated by rogues, schemers, cultists, swashbucklers and your player characters, written by Kevin Kulp and Emily Dresner, and published by Pelgrane Press in 2022. It uses a variation of the Gumshoe system originally created by Robin D. Laws in 2007. | |||
| Ludonarrative Dissidents Livestream for June 2026 | 23 juin 2026 | 01:02:42 | |
Our livestream discussion for June! | |||
| Chicago by Night: Vampire the Masquerade 5th Edition | 29 mai 2026 | 00:57:24 | |
CHICAGO BY NIGHT is a 2018 city sourcebook for Vampire the Masquerade 5th edition, written by Matthew Dawkins and a host of others, and published by Renegade Game Studios, who have the rights to do all this stuff these days. The most recent iteration of a sourcebook that first appeared in 1991, this edition is by far the longest at 357 pages. It describes the vampire culture, clans, people, locations, backstory and subterfuges of the eponymous city. (‘Eponymous’, because I always have to check, means ‘lending its name to’ a thing, not ‘taking its name from’). We talked about the latest edition of Vampire the Masquerade earlier this season and concluded that it did what it needs to in a suitable style, if you like that sort of thing. How does that fit with huge chunks of crunchy campaign-world detail like this? Don’t click that dial!
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| Ludonarrative Dissidents Livestream for May | 25 mai 2026 | 01:04:53 | |
Our livestream discussion for May, featuring special guest Jerry Grayson of Khepera Publishing. Check out the Godsend Agenda today. | |||
| Ludonarrative Dissidents Livestream for April 2026 | 05 mai 2026 | 01:04:06 | |
| Call of Cthulhu: In Medias Res | 22 avr. 2026 | 01:11:43 | |
IN MEDIAS RES is a short modern-horror scenario (‘adventure’ is the wrong word for it) by John Scott Tynes, originally designed for Cthulhu Now and first printed in The Unspeakable Oath issue 10 in 1993. It was reprinted in The Resurrected #3 – Out of the Vault in 2003. Thirty years after its publication, it still lives up to its reputation as an unflinching piece of modern horror RPG design that’s genuinely horrific. | |||
| Ludonarrative Dissidents Livestream for March 2026 | 06 avr. 2026 | 01:04:50 | |
| Maelstrom | 20 mars 2026 | 01:09:06 | |
MAELSTROM is a paperback-format RPG written by Alex Scott and published in 1984 by Puffin Books, a division of Penguin Books in the UK. It contains rules for roleplaying in Europe, mostly England, at the time of the Tudors (the 1500s), with a solo adventure, a sample adventure and a herbiary. It is an interesting comparison to the other 1980s British RPG set in a faux-Europe of the early Renaissance, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, which was published two years later. The game was re-released by Arion Games in 2008, and the company has also released an expanded version and several supplements, as well as standalone titles Maelstrom Domesday (set after the Norman invasion), Maelstrom Rome and Maelstrom Gothic. | |||
| Livestream for February 2026 | 23 févr. 2026 | 01:15:27 | |
We have a special guest, Adam Scott Glancy, one of the Delta Green co-authors! He clarifies a few points about Delta Green Countdown. | |||
| Delta Green: Countdown | 02 févr. 2026 | 01:14:49 | |
Sponsor: Technical Difficulties Podcast - check out an excellent actual play RPG podcast, featuring Delta Green, Eclipse Phase, and many other fine systems featured on LND. Delta Green Countdown is a massive sourcebook for the original edition of Delta Green. It blows the doors off the world of Delta Green, reaching wider and digging deeper to map the terrain of the twisted pulp apocalypse we call the dawning of the 21st century. How has it aged since then? | |||
| Livestream for January 2026 | 19 janv. 2026 | 01:05:33 | |
Our first livestream of the year! We talk about new games we played and a grabag of topics. | |||
| Alice is Missing | 09 janv. 2026 | 01:09:58 | |
ALICE IS MISSING is a self-contained one-session RPG for 3–5 players, designed by Spenser Stark and released in 2020 by Hunters Entertainment with Renegade Game Studios, after a Kickstarter that raised $138,000. It’s been described as ‘unique’, ‘sublime’ and ‘a little masterpiece’, and has won a bagful of awards including three 2021 Gold ENNIEs and the Indiecade award for tabletop design. | |||
| LND Livestream for December | 22 déc. 2025 | 01:01:17 | |
Our monthly livestream for December! | |||
| Mothership: Gradient Descent | 08 déc. 2025 | 01:12:10 | |
Gradient Descent is a module/campaign setting/megadungeon for the SF-horror RPG Mothership, released in 2020. It is written by Luke Gearing, with art by Nick Tofani and layout by Sean McCoy, and was published by Tuesday Night Games. Dimensionally it is a tightly packed 64-page digest-sized booklet, and the PDF sells for $20, or as part of the Mothership deluxe boxed set. | |||
| Livestream for November 2025 | 26 nov. 2025 | 01:03:04 | |
Our monthly livestream for November 2025. We talk about larping, new games in development and Dragonmeet! | |||
| EABA v 2.01 | 10 nov. 2025 | 01:08:32 | |
EABA (End All Be All) 2e is a generic roleplaying system with a core rulebook and a collection of sourcebooks designed by Greg Porter and published by his company BTRC (Blacksburg Tactical Research Centre). The first edition was released in 2003, the second – which is what we discuss in this episode – in 2012. | |||
| Livestream for October 2025 | 14 oct. 2025 | 01:02:34 | |
| Livestream for September 2025 | 30 sept. 2025 | 01:09:32 | |
| Red Markets: Trabajo | 24 sept. 2025 | 01:00:26 | |
Trabajo (Hebanon Games, 2019) is a 32-page ‘portfolio’, part sourcebook and part adventure pack, for the Red Markets post-apocalypse RPG of economic and undead horror, written by Ludonarrative Dissidents’ own Ross Payton. We analysed Red Markets last season and liked it a lot, as you can imagine, and this episode is an opportunity to hear more about how it looks in action, and get Ross’s insights into how he went about constructing this compact, intense supplement.
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| Brindlewood Bay | 04 sept. 2025 | 01:17:07 | |
Brindlewood Bay is a tabletop roleplaying game that combines Murder, She Wrote with H.P. Lovecraft. In it, you play a group of elderly women, members of the local Murder Mavens Mystery Book Club, who help the authorities solve murder cases in a picturesque New England Town. | |||
| Unknown Armies: Jailbreak | 07 août 2025 | 01:20:16 | |
JAILBREAK is a one-session scenario for Unknown Armies, originally written by Greg Stolze of this parish, in 1998 as a demo adventure for conventions, and subsequently published in the One Shots adventure anthology. It has since been described as one of the great horror adventures for any RPG. Greg is, of course, one of the creators of Unknown Armies, along with John Tynes, and his insights here into how the adventure came together, its structure, how it works and how it’s played are fascinating. Enjoy the episode! | |||
| Livestream for July 2025 | 22 juil. 2025 | 01:08:00 | |
Our livestream for July! We talk about Gencon, the Ennies, and we get a surprise visit! Watch the episode here on Youtube if you want to see the visuals. | |||
| Rifts: Ultimate Edition | 03 juil. 2025 | 01:11:18 | |
RIFTS is a role playing game designed by Kevin Siembieda and originally published by his company Palladium Books in 1990. In this episode we examine the Rifts Ultimate Edition from 2005, a revised and expanded version of the original game rulebook. Like it, hate it or previously unaware of it, there’s nothing like it on the market today and we enjoyed the chance to delve into what makes it work. Read the full show notes here.
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| Cyberpunk RED: Black Chrome | 05 juin 2025 | 01:09:34 | |
BLACK CHROME IS A 2023 gearbook for the Cyberpunk Red roleplaying game, written by James Hutt, Jay Parker, Turbo, J Gray, Anne Morrison, Chris Spivey, Fran Stewart, and Linda M Evans, and published by R Talsorian Games.
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| Ludonarrative Dissidents Livestream for May 2025 | 21 mai 2025 | 01:03:40 | |
We talk a bit about conventions - Greg visited a small con called Forge Midwest and Ross prepares for Gencon this year with 7 events. We also answer audience questions. | |||
| Cyberpunk RED | 25 avr. 2025 | 01:26:30 | |
Cyberpunk RED is the latest edition of the dystopian sci-fi RPG series originally created by Mike Pondsmith. Set in 2045 after a major war, characters in Cyberpunk RED can pull off jobs for secretive clients, roam the wastelands, or reclaim them. It contains everything needed to play. | |||
| Ludonarrative Dissidents Livestream for April 2025 | 16 avr. 2025 | 01:06:46 | |
James went on vacation to Pompeii, so he's sharing his photos and discussing ancient Roman history. If you want to see the video version with the photos, it's on Youtube. | |||
| Paranoia: The Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues | 25 mars 2025 | 01:31:23 | |
The Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues is a 48-page adventure for the Paranoia RPG. It was written by John M. Ford, published by West End Games in 1985, and is generally regarded as one of the classic adventures for the game, and a milestone in the development of comedy in RPGs. It was re-released in 2017 for the rebooted edition of Paranoia that was co-designed by James Wallis, Grant Howitt and Paul Dean, and I swear that’s the first I’ve ever heard of that version, though it seems to be the only form in which TYCBBB is commercially available right now. $29.99 for a 48-page PDF from 1985. | |||
| Dogs in the Vineyard | 04 mars 2025 | 01:27:12 | |
THIS EPISODE COVERS DOGS IN THE VINEYARD, a 2004 game by Vincent Baker, who is better known as the co-designer of Apocalypse World, the game that the entire Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) RPG design movement is based on. Dogs in the Vineyard is no longer available for sale, for reasons that we discuss in the episode. “Mormon Judge Dredd” – Greg Stolze See the Wikipedia entry for Dogs in the Vineyard Talk about this on the LND Discord! Today's episode is brought to you by the Tabletop Arts Fund! The Tabletop Arts Fund is a community nonprofit dedicated to supporting independent TTRPG and actual play creators through professional development, networking opportunities, and charitable grants. Are you an independent creator with a game or scenario nearing the finish line? Submissions open February 15th for the first round of TTRPG Creator Grants, providing financial support for art, editing, layout, and other professional services. Full details on these and other projects are available at tabletopartsfund.org, or via social media at tabletopartsfund.org. | |||
| Ludonarrative Dissidents Livestream #9 February 2025 | 27 févr. 2025 | 01:06:47 | |
Our latest livestream! Greg talks about his new fantasy serial and we discuss zines, crowdfunding, and more! | |||
| Ars Magica: Grogs | 03 févr. 2025 | 01:11:57 | |
GROGS is a supplement for Ars Magica 5th edition, edited by longtime ArM line-editor David Chart, released in 2012 and still in print. Ars Magica is a roleplaying game of a community of wizards in a medieval world where magic is rare and feared by the general populace. This supplement presents systems and advice for expanding multi-character ‘troupe play’, a core concept of Ars Magica. Read the full show notes on our website! We explored Ars Magica way back in season 1, episode 9. It’s an important game in the history of RPGs, co-designed by Mark Rein*Hagen who went on to create Vampire: the Masquerade, and Jonathan Tweet who was lead designer on Dungeons & Dragons 3e. Click here to see Grogs on DriveThruRPG Click here to see Ars Magica 5th edition on DriveThruRPG This episode is brought to you by Laszlo Szidonya, who wants a shout out to his friend and longtime GM Aron Peterfy. We are enormously grateful to Laszlo (and Aron), and everyone else whose generosity helps to keep the podcast running. | |||
| Livestream #8 January 2025 | 20 janv. 2025 | 01:38:28 | |
We're discussing European RPGs, especially the new wave of Italian games like Outgunned, plus action cinema and more. Watch this episode on Youtube. Discuss it on our Discord. | |||
| Vampire the Masquerade: 5th Edition | 06 janv. 2025 | 01:18:35 | |
This episode covers the roleplaying game VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE 5th edition, developed by Kenneth Hite and Karim Muammar, published in 2018 by White Wolf Entertainment in association with Paradox Entertainment and Free League. The original Vampire: The Masquerade was designed by Mark Rein•Hagen and released by White Wolf Publishing in 1991. It dominated the RPG hobby in the 1990s and remains one of the biggest RPGs of all time. Click here to see Vampire: the Masquerade 5th edition at DriveThruRPG Read the full show notes on our website It’s a fascinating read for anyone who wants to experience the origins of the World of Darkness. “It would have been like kicking a tiny puppy in a tiny corset” – Greg | |||
| Ludonarrative Dissidents Livestream #7 - December 2024 | 17 déc. 2024 | 01:16:20 | |
Ross talks about RPGs in Japan and other things he encountered during his vacation there. James talks about Mappa Mundi, an upcoming exploration RPG and more! | |||
| Alien: Chariot of the Gods | 05 déc. 2024 | 01:09:40 | |
Alien: Chariot of the Gods is an introductory/one-shot adventure for Free League’s Alien RPG, written by Andrew E. C. Gaska and set in the universe of most of the Alien/Aliens movies. It was published in 2019. Click here to see the Alien RPG on the Free League website Click here to see the Alien RPG on DriveThruRPG Click here to see the Alien: Chariot of the Gods adventure on DriveThruRPG This episode is brought to you with support from Brent, one of our Kickstarter backers, who wanted to give a shout-out to his Youtube channel @Rolewise. Thanks, Brent! | |||
| Ludonarrative Dissidents Livestream #6 - October 24 | 10 nov. 2024 | 01:09:35 | |
Our livestream for October. Watch it on Youtube to see what we're talking about. | |||
| James Bond RPG | 05 nov. 2024 | 01:09:36 | |
James Bond 007: Roleplaying In Her Majesty’s Secret Service was designed by Gerard Christopher Klug (known as Chris Klug these days) with development by Greg Gordon and Neil Randall, and was released by Victory Games between 1983 and 1987, selling over 100,000 copies. It is long out of print but available on the second-hand market at reasonable prices (as I write Noble Knight lists it at under $15 for the core rules) though the supplements are usually 200-500% more. This episode was made possible by our patron and friend Christian Bickle, who chose the game for us to cover. Huge thanks go out to him for letting us create a really fun episode. Full show notes are available here | |||
| Double Tap - Night's Black Agents | 01 oct. 2024 | 01:17:05 | |
Click here to read the full show notes! Night’s Black Agents: Double Tap is a ‘gear book’ from 2013, a collection of new equipment, background and game material for GM and players, written by Ken Hite and several others. It’s an expansion for Night’s Black Agents, an RPG of modern tactical espionage and vampires, also written by Ken Hite and published by Pelgrane Press in 2011. It’s a really interesting book whether you play NBA or not, and we think you’ll enjoy our far-ranging discussion of it and the issues it raises. Click here to see NBA: Double Tap on DriveThruRPG | |||
| Ludonarrative Dissidents Livestream #5 - September 24 | 23 sept. 2024 | 01:04:23 | |
Our livestream for September. If you want to see the visuals, watch it on Youtube. | |||
| Savage Worlds Adventure Edition | 04 sept. 2024 | 01:24:58 | |
Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (SWADE) was designed and written by Shane Lacy Hensley with Clint Black, and published by Pinnacle Entertainment Group in 2023. It’s a generic rules system of cinematic action with a historied pedigree and an amazing range of sourcebooks, but how does it fare against more rules-y games like GURPS or narrativist darlings like FATE? We take it apart to see what keeps its motor running, mechanically and stylistically, then put it back together to discuss how that affects play. As noted at the end of the episode, Greg and James were given PDF copies of the game by PEG and we are properly grateful for that. Click here to see Savage Worlds: Adventure Edition on DriveThruRPG Click here for Episode 3 full show notes | |||
| Ludonarrative Dissidents Livestream #4 August 2024 | 30 août 2024 | 01:08:26 | |
We're talking about Gencon 2024 and new trends in games. Watch the livestream here for the visuals. | |||
| Delta Green: Convergence | 19 août 2024 | 01:11:20 | |
Delta Green: Convergence is a short adventure for the Delta Green RPG. Originally written by John Scott Tynes and published by Pagan Publishing in 1992, it is the first adventure ever set in the Delta Green universe, the original source, the motherlode, the primal zygote. In this episode of Ludonarrative Dissidents we are discussing the slightly updated edition released by Arc Dream Publishing in 2023. Click here to see Delta Green Convergence on DriveThruRPG FULL SHOW NOTES ARE AVAILABLE HERE | |||
| Heart: The City Beneath | 15 juil. 2024 | 01:30:25 | |
Heart: The City Beneath is a game of unconventional fantasy adventurers who are drawn to enter, explore and lose themselves in a very corporeal underworld beneath the city of Spire. They’ll face horrific foes, bizarre locations and a mysterious and eldritch subway system. It’s from the same designers and publisher as Spire, it’s an indie darling, but what will the Ludonarrative Dissidents make of it? Will they locate the life-ending revelation they seek in its fleshy realms? Will Heart find a place in their ribcages, or turn them into a big ol’ train? Heart: The City Beneath at DriveThruRPG Heart: The City Beneath at Rowan, Rook & Decard FULL SHOW NOTES ARE AVAILABLE HERE | |||