Talk of the Table

Elliot and Brian are joined by Devon Chulick, founder and CEO of StartPlaying, the largest online platform for players to find TTRPGs and Professional GMs. We discuss how the platform is allowing GMs to make a living in tabletop roleplaying games, how StartPlaying can help expand the hobby and introduce new games, and the power of community created through play.

Elliot and Brian are joined by Connie Chang and Sea Thomas, the creative duo behind the award winning actual play Transplanar RPG. We dive deep on the use of dramaturgy in actual play: how it weaves the wants and needs of players and GM, how it informs safe artistic storytelling in a noncolonial anti-orientalist multiverse, and how it supports long-term actual play in Transplanar’s The Chaos Protocol.

In this Talk of the Table Roundtable special, Brian & Elliot sit down with Dr. Emily Friedman, Quintin Smith aka ‘Quinns’, and Brennan Lee Mulligan for a discussion on pedagogic actual play. We dig into whether or not actual play is the best tool for teaching games, how we understand skill and learning in TTRPGs and beyond, and who our imagined student is when thinking of actual play as a teaching tool.

Elliot and Brian are joined by Jack Caesar of Caesar Ink, the team behind TTRPG adaptations of beloved IPs like My Little Pony, Discworld, and Labyrinth. We dig into how to approach IP-based games, how to treat adapted properties with respect even if you’re not a typical fan, and how working on licensed games informs Caesar Ink’s work on the original world of Doomsong.

Elliot and Brian are joined by Josh Fox who is one half of Black Armada, the duo behind Lovecraftesque. We get into the exciting new features of the boxed second edition of this emergent mystery game, why safety tools should be a tailored part of game design, and Black Armada’s latest project Ex Tenebris.