Reading D&D Aloud

Tonight I'm joined by W.F. Smith, the mind behind Prismatic Wasteland, one of the sharpest OSR blogs in the game. And if you've heard of Barkeep on the Borderlands, that's him too: the barhopping, pubcrawl-fantasy fever dream that took home a Gold ENnie.
W.F. writes like a man with a notebook full of bad ideas he's somehow made playable. We're going to talk about design, tables, taste, and why the tavern should be an engine of chaos, not a loading screen. W.F. Smith, welcome!
Also on the show: Brad Kerr, writer at Necrotic Gnome and co-host of Between Two Cairns, the podcast that reviews modules with the seriousness of scholars and the emotional stability of goblins. Brad's the author of Hideous Daylight, and Temple of 1000 Swords. and he's also the guy who, along with Skullfungus, created The Dream Shrine, which won Gold at the 2025 ENNIEs for Best Adventure, Short Form.
If you want to see WF's Pokemon parody game, click here!
Brad recommends you check out his adventure anthology, Wyvern Songs.
On Patreon, I posted my Gamehole Con seminar where I went over 18 years of leaked D&D sales data. You can enjoy it posthaste if you subscribe to my Patreon! It's only $3 a month! Click here!

Apparently, snakes have something called "hemepenes," something I only know because of Emily Allen. 
Emily is a designer, writer, and the mind behind The Gardens of Ynn, one of those RPG books that feels less like a "setting" and more like a living dream you accidentally walked into and now can't stop exploring. Emily's work has that rare combination of elegance and danger: it's imaginative, it's playable, and it demands to be brought to a table and enjoyed. I am sorely tempted to start running her Stygian Library ASAP. If you like your fantasy uncanny, like wonder with teeth, Emily is your person. 
And today we welcome back Josh McCrowell, designer of His Majesty the Worm, a book that basically looks at the classic dungeon crawl and hits it with a Tarot deck. With this appearance, Josh may be the most-frequently appearing guest in the history of the pod. The Worm won ENnies for best rules and best game this year.
If you want to to explore the full panoply of Emily's work, from Ynn to the Library, click here!
Preorder The Worm's first expansion, The Castle Automatic, here!
On Patreon, I posted my Gamehole Con seminar where I went over 18 years of leaked D&D sales data. You can enjoy it posthaste if you subscribe to my Patreon! It's only $3 a month! Click here!

If you know Infinity of Ships, you know their vibe: big imagination, tight design, and the kind of tables-and-ideas toolkit that makes a GM's brain start sprinting. Their latest release, 100 Strangers, gives us NPCs with story fuel, despite how incredibly clipped they are.
That's right. Today, I've got Adam Good and Jaimie Perez, the creative engines behind STATIONS. 
Adam and Jaimie build for the moment at the table when you look up and say, "Okay, what happens next?" and suddenly you've got an answer that's surprising, usable, and weird in exactly the right way.
Hop on the next STATIONS project with 100 Strange Spaces! Click here to be notified on launch, or if it's Tuesday or after, back it!
On Patreon, I posted my Gamehole Con seminar where I went over 18 years of leaked D&D sales data. You can enjoy it posthaste if you subscribe to my Patreon! It's only $3 a month! Click here!

The Wild 90s in TTRPGs!
This conversation was a great one!
First up today is Wolfgang Baur, a creator and businessperson whose fingerprints are all over the hobby. He can write fantasy like Tolkien and run a business like, uh, someone whose geeky, good at running a business, and not at all ethically challenged in this year of 2026. He's the creator of the MIDGARD campaign setting and the founder of Kobold Press. 
My other guest today is Satyros Phil Brucato: a name that radiates pure 90s occult bookshelf energy in the best possible way. Phil is a designer who helped define an era: Mage: The Ascension, Werewolf, Wraith; games that didn't just ask "What do you do?" but "What do you believe?" and "What does it cost you?" Phil's work sits right at the crossroads of myth, philosophy, and punk-rock metaphysics. 
Support Baur's current Kickstarter for a 5E game of astonishing nocturnal horror here!
You have a magnificent multiplicity of ways to support Satyros Phil Brucato!
Buy Brucato's MAGE MADE EASY here!
Support his Patreon here!
Buy his novel RED SHOES here!
Buy 13 tales of darkness by Satyros here!
A collection of 27 more short stories here!
Brucato's game of rock 'n roll and fairies can be found here!
On Patreon, I posted my Gamehole Con seminar where I went over 18 years of leaked D&D sales data. You can enjoy it posthaste if you subscribe to my Patreon! It's only $3 a month! Click here!

Today we welcome back Joshua McCrowell, designer of His Majesty the Worm, a game that looks at the classic dungeon crawl and hits it with a Tarot deck. The Worm won ENnies for best rules and best game this year. Josh has a gift for taking old-school adventure DNA, labyrinths, delving, danger and giving it a new spine. Welcome Josh!
Pick up Josh's work here!
On Patreon, I posted my Gamehole Con seminar where I went over 18 years of leaked D&D sales data. You can enjoy it posthaste if you subscribe to my Patreon! It's only $3 a month! Click here!