Ben Riggs argues that a large active D&D fanbase is what creates a stable RPG environment for everything else and that the issues with the OGL and D&D Next cause unnecessary splintering that may hurt everyone

Slaying the Dragon - Ben's book on D&D in the 90s

Reading D&D Aloud - Ben's new project

RPG academics is a growing field and Dr. Scott Bruner joins to talk about the shared realities, defining a game, and the persistence of Dungeons & Dragons.

Plot Points podcast

Dr. Bruners masters thesis

Bleak Spirit

Microscope

Fiasco

Pain in the Dice Plays Scion: Hero Second Edition! This is the first of three parts in which Chazz storyguides for various people and a train is involved.

Terry LARPs for the first time and Chazz plays Mork Borg and Fall of Magic. Hear if they'll ever do either ever again.

Fall of Magic - The big scroll game

Mork Borg - an OSR artbook game

Jackalope Studios - The company whose staff put on The House of the Glass Atlas

TSR made the most popular RPG of all time yet was 30m in debt entering 1997. How did it get there? What mis-steps did it make and what can learn from them? Ben Riggs, author of Slaying the Dragon (out July 19th, 2022) tells its tale.

Plot Points Podcast - Ben's regular podcast

Pre-order for Slaying the Dragon - Ben's book

Book plate for pre-orders - if you pre-ordered, sign up to get a book plate here

What goes into a kitting out an actual play? What equipment do you need? How do you balance the books? Patrick McNamara from Dogfood Studios joins to talk Mage of Sail and how to make it as an actual play.  Patrick McNamara on Twitter

Patrick McNamara on Patreon

Patrick McNamara on Twitch

Equipment discussed:

Shure SM7B - High quality desktop mic

Shure SM58LC - A more manageable XLR

Yeti Blue - A perfectly fine mic

Do you need stats for a wall of snakes, a candleflame that makes heart's explode, bears wearing armor, a mile tall elemental, or a sentient dead house? Hundred Devils Night Parade has it and Chazz and Terry walk you through it.

Hundred Devils Night Parade - This book 

Exalted 3e Core - The core book for Exalted

Systematic Understanding of Everything - Our previous Exalted explainer podcast

Time is meaningless and is both passing rapidly and also at a crawl. So let's talk about what we did in 2021! Chazz and Terry are joined by SUoE cohost Monica Speca to talk what we did and what we hope to do.

Guest Michael Parker walks us through what an RPG distributor does, their role in the market, and how they've adapted to the rise of Amazon, digital distribution, Kickstarter and the changing nature of local game stores.

Heirs to the Shogunate outlines cadet houses, forest witches, outcastes, notable Dragon-Blooded, new charms, a civil war, and more. Chazz and Terry walk through what the book offers and how they think it fits into the evolving 3rd Edition.

Josh and Terry discuss the rollout of Vampire the Masquerade 5th Edition on the Storyteller's Vault, their latest kickstarter adventures, and truth in shipping estimates.

Links!

• Planebreaker
• Follow Me Down
• Ice and Dice
• Chew
• Lupines V5 STV
• Morra Kickstarter

Scion is an urban fantasy game set in a richly polytheistic version of our world where the gods, or at least their minions walk the earth. Titanomachy provides antagonists and goes into the motives and methods of their escalating war.

Titanomachy - This book

Scion Hero Second Edition - The core book for Scion along with Origins

How is Hunter the Reckoning 5th edition at the table? Can you draft a one-shot character? Do TTRPGs have a future at Gencon? These and more on this So Whatcha Playin'.

Hunter the Reckoning 5th Edition - The book

Terry had a bunch of old DTRPG reprints that he'd replaced with originals so he went to Ebay to sell. He shares his experience while Josh considers Ebay ethics and the glories of offset print runs.

Chazz and Terry talk what they've learned from recent games that maybe weren't their favorites and what makes for a game they're glad to play vs a game they're glad to have played.

Welcome to Pain in the Dice! A project by Chazz and Terry of Pain in the Dice games. We'll be launching a few projects in the coming weeks so I figure I should introduce them. 

So Lets Try which documents one shots by first timers who have a fair amount of experience with other games as well as our experiences learning the system.

RPGnomics which explores topics in the RPG business

How We Game where we discuss topics pertaining to the table experience and conversations with our friends and contacts who've thought about games.

Our goal is to release something roughly twice a month but we'll see how it actually works out.

In the mean time, if you have any questions, shoot us a message at questions@paininthedice.com, I'm @terryrobinson on twitter and Chazz is @storytoldchazz

So you have a blockbuster idea and just need to get an IP holder on board, what could go wrong? A lot! Rachel J Wilkinson, creator of Port Saga joins to talk about license holders, Paradox, writing, and audience surveys.

Rachel's Portfolio

Port Saga

My World of Darkness survey

Lifemancy podcast

Charlie Cantrell is a part-time RPG writer who's using Storytellers Vault royalties to commission game books. What are the economics of this and how does he set his targets? Listen and find out!

Radio Free Arcadia on Facebook

Radio Free Arcadia on Storytellers Vault

Exalt characters need Exalt-level foes and Adversaries of the Righteous provides them in spades. Chazz and Terry talk sneak peaks at Exalt types, earth elemental apocalypse cults, and so so so many charms.

Adversaries of the Righteous - This book on DTRPG

Hundred Devils Night Parade - Another book of things

Demigods ply a path that results in either godhood or death in a brutal up-or-out challenge to Fate. Chazz and Terry talk new pantheons, building demigod narratives, and the underworld in Scion 2e Book Three: Demigod.

Scion Second Edition Book Three: Demigod

Midjourney, Dall-E, and Stable Diffusion are poised to disrupt the market for commissioned art. How do these technologies work and how might they effect RPG publishing? Jason Pitre of Genesis of Legend Publishing joins to discuss.

Midjourney Bot home -Web interface for the Midjourney model

Stable Diffusion - Local or cloud image generation

Artbreeder - Image modification tool

Monkey Selfie Copyright case - The macaque who didn't own a copyright

Jason on Mage the Podcast - In which we talk about belief mechanics

Noir World - Noir Powered by the Apocalypse

Sig: City of Blades - Totally not Sigil

Carry - A game about the Vietnam war

Poser - a 3D Rendering program

Todd Lockwood - Artist

Egon Schiele - Artist

Peter Mohrbacher - Artist

Pain in the Dice Plays Scion: Hero Second Edition! The third of three episodes in which we discover that sometimes swimming is an interesting action and that Enhancement is a lovely way to accrue successes.

Pain in the Dice Plays Scion: Hero Second Edition! In which what is obviously a villain is revealed and we discuss Josh's truck.