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.

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.)

• Here’s a CNBC article about Wizards of the Coast’s financials, including its profitability.
• Here’s a link to World’s Largest Dungeon Session 01, which is the oldest RPGMP3 episode still online.
• Here’s the host of RPGMP3 talking about actual play podcasts in 2008.
• Here’s a Polygon article about the history and format of actual plays.
• Here’s an academic journal article on actual play production and monetization.
• Here’s a discussion of actual play shows trying to tell inclusive stories.
• Here’s an academic journal article that analyzes actual plays through a media studies lens.
• Here’s another CNBC article (sorry) quoting WotC management on the importance of actual play to the business.
• Here’s Hasbro’s quarterly SEC filing from May 2024.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

• Microscope
• Mobile Frame Zero: Firebrands
• Beam Saber
• Fiasco

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.

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.