![Dungeon Lore VII: Hasbro and the OGL controversy [S3F7]](https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Podcasts122/v4/a0/35/63/a035636e-d9c1-64ca-bb48-70a2cc72c2c4/mza_10881795099954059703.jpg/250x250bb.jpg)
Episodes
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In this finale Flashlight of Season 2, Jake is embarrasingly earnest, Reilly gives the listeners a lot of homework, and the sword makes a second ominous appearance. We plug our Patreon, repeatedly give different numbers for the PC intro hotline (it's 724 320 2020), and talk about our plans for Season 3. This is honestly an extremely silly conversation. We've had so much fun getting to make this podcast and we're sincerely grateful to our guests so far and we're really excited to share another season of interviews with you.
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.
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In this week's episode, we chat with Lew about unsustainable character voices, mixing ABBA with Norse mythology, and the importance of buying in to the fantasy. Very minor spoiler alert for 500 Days of Summer. We do joke about Ikea being our sponsor, but they're not, and this episode probably guarantees that they never will be.
In this episode Lew mentions the Wayward Children series as well as the SCP Foundation. Lew also shared with us a ton of very cool pictures of the maps and minis from this campaign. Head on over to our website to check them out!
This week's PC intro comes from Kyros, whom you may remember from this conversation last season about Curse of Strahd. Thanks Kyros!
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.
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Episodes manquant?
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In this week's Flashlight, we talk about intellectual property, resolve to go to law school, and finally earn that explicit rating. You can tell that we record a few weeks in advance, because we joke about WotC's next bad decision but we don't know about the DNDBeyond debacle yet. Jake gets into economic theory. Reilly's mic might just be a cursed artifact. Spoiler warning for Fountainhead? Also, we're not actually sponsored by Microsoft.
Dennis mentioned the OGL controversy last week, so go listen to the interview if you'd like to hear another perspective on the whole situation. Also, here's a book by Reilly's professor that looks pretty cool.
Here are some links that we used in research for the episode.
Here’s a Wall Street Journal article on the Hasbro reorganization that refers to D&D as “old-school tabletop games”.Here’s the Hasbro press release about the WotC CEO becoming the overall Hasbro CEO.Here’s the interview with WotC’s VP of tabletop gaming about the rationale for the OGL.Here’s an academic journal article with statistics on TTRPG publications after the release of the OGL.Here’s a very early Gizmodo piece on the updated OGL.Here’s a blog post that lays out the biggest issues with the proposed updated OGL.Here’s Hasbro’s annual SEC report for 2022.Here’s an article about the plans to release new editions under a Creative Commons license. Here’s a review of Paizo’s ORC license.Here’s a Reddit thread on Paizo’s ORC license and whether it’ll be applied to Pathfinder Infinite.Here’s Monte Cook’s guide to consent in gaming.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.
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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 rulesTangled Blessings, which has an extremely strong aestheticContained, which is a very cute micro-TTRPG that Dennis built previouslyThis 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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:
MicroscopeMobile Frame Zero: FirebrandsBeam SaberFiascoWe 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.
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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.
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In this week's episode, we chat with Max about Old School Revival gameplay, the joys of exploration, and how being a guest on our show can improve your romantic relationship. Minor spoilers for Lost Mine of Phandelver, if that matters to you. Also, if you're wondering what the production process looks like, the beginning of this episode has a bit of behind-the-scenes conversation.
This is a very theory-heavy episode with long discussions of the connection between TTRPGs and video games as well as the role of skill checks in D&D 5th Edition. Also, we briefly touch on the economic impacts of explorers continually hauling gold back to the village. For more on how dungeon gold can devalue the currency in a world with magic and dragons, Google "fantasy inflation".
Here's an overview of the BECMI system Max describes in this episode.Here's the MÖRK BORG system Max mentions playing in.Here's the Old School Essentials sytem that Max recommends.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.
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In this week's deep dive into the history of D&D, we talk about the origins of two iconic aspects of the game: the variety of dice and the extremely weird and specific monsters. Jake describes probability distributions, Reilly comes up with appealing backstories for creatures, and we take a brief detour into the concept of good and evil in fantasy worldbuilding. Throughout the episode we completely ignore the d10, which is the least aesthetically pleasing die shape.
Here are some links that we used in research for the episode:
This video from Bob World Builder summarizes the history of the dice used in D&D.This blog post shows the chits TSR shipped out during the dice shortage era.Here’s the rules for Chainmail, which was a TSR combat system that used d6s.Here’s a list of all the US PTO dice patents, which includes some really ambitious dice designs.This blog post from Tony Diterlizzi includes pictures and descriptions of the figurines that inspired the monsters we talked about in this episode.Also, in this episode, Jake implies that 3^8 is "about 6400". It's actually 6561. We sincerely apologize for the error and we promise to never attempt math on the fly again.
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.
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This week, we chat with Kit about incorporating intimate character moments in a campaign with a cosmic scale, themes of family and lineage at an all-queer table, and dealing with a whole menagerie of PC pets. Spoiler warnings for A Series of Unfortunate Events. We also talk about the poem "Auguries of Innocence". Unfortunately, we never did manage to land that Cover Girl sponsorship.
Kit shared plenty of great recommendations for your home game:
The Owlbear Rodeo virtual tabletop systemBattlemaps from Eightfold Paper, Fantasy Atlas, Morvold Press, and WizgridsThe Griffon's Saddlebag for cool itemsKenku.FM for musicThis week's PC intro comes from Chris, who was our guest at the very end of Season 1. You can watch Chris play D&D on Twitch if you're so inclined. He's on the Phandelver and Below streams!
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 season's Flashlight episodes, we're taking a deep dive into the history of Dungeons and Dragons. Whether you love it, hate it, or are grimly resigned to playing it because everybody already knows the rules, the long history of D&D parallels the history of modern TTRPGs. We're starting out in the 1960s and working forward to the present day.
This week, we try to talk about the wargames of the pre-D&D era. Along the way, we end up exposing our lack of knowledge of 1790s Prussia, discussing the travails of tavern ownership, and announcing a wholly fictitious live podcast tour. It's our first time back in the studio one-on-one in a while, and as a result we get a little silly.
This guide to running a Braunstein RPG is an excellent and comprehensive resource with links to plenty of other resources.This article from Ben Robbins (the creator of Microscope!) adds some more flavour to David Wesley’s history with tabletop games.The first and second volume of Strategos explore the really deep history of wargames, which were the precursor to TTRPGs.
Here are some links that we used in research for the episode:Also, in this episode, Reilly asks Jake about the history about student loans, and Jake doesn't have a good answer. Jake, who writes the show notes, is still mortified about this. Here's a very long and detailed history of student loans.
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 our very first episode of Season 2, we chat with Perry about running a campaign motivated by spite, building a griot PC class, and becoming a cleric by eating another cleric. Spoiler warnings for the D&D 5e Tomb of Annihilation module - although, honestly, this episode is a great primer for running any campaign set in Chult. This is our first time back in the studio after a big break since Season 1, and you can hear Jake getting back up to speed at the start.
Perry has plenty of great recommendations in this episode: Darker Hue Studios, Black Dice Society, the Wagadu Chronicles, Harriet Tubman: Demon Slayer, and the books of Tananarive Due. You can watch Perry on Symphony Entertainment or find his other projects on his Linktree. You can also find many of his creations on DNDBeyond.
This weeks's PC intro comes from Jason. Thanks to Jason for kicking off our PC intros for the season - and also for all the love and support the whole time we've been making this podcast.
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 the experience of making a podcast about the creativity and uniqueness of home TTRPGs! Jake describes the terrible initial plan for this project, Reilly recounts an incident of subpar DMing, and we go wildly off the rails by the end.
It's been a real privilege to get to hear about the wild fun games our friends are running. We discuss why we started this show, how it's changed the way we play TTRPGs, and what we're planning for the future of Campaign Spotlight. We also talk about the capricious and inscrutable algorithms that control the flow of information on the Internet and the implications for this podcast.
Also, we should have mentioned this sooner - but Reilly wrote and produced all the music for this season (except for the very first episode, which Mike recorded for his own interview). You can follow Reilly on Bandcamp or listen to some mixes from Reilly's live shows on Mixcloud.
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. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.
Do you run your own home game? Tell us about a cool homebrew item and we might feature it in an upcoming episode. Give us a call and tell us about it at 724 320 2020.
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In this week's episode of Campaign Spotlight, we chat with Chris about healthcare crowdfunding, LARPing on a remote island, and the virtues of small-scale personal stories. No spoilers this week, although we do discuss quite a few old D&D modules in general terms. Also, it's not clear why Chris and Jake are so dead-set on winning sponsorships from the knife store at the mall.
This is the very end of our Campaign Spotlight season! In next week's Flashlight, we chat about what we learned this season and where we're planning to go from here.
You can watch Chris play D&D on Twitch if you're so inclined. He's on the Phandelver and Below streams!
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. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.
Do you run your own home game? Tell us about a cool homebrew item and we might feature it in an upcoming episode. Give us a call and tell us about it at 724 320 2020.
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In this week's Flashlight, we explore the game Dallas, based on the TV series from the 1970s and 1980s! Reilly leaves in a hot-mic moment, Jake tries to sound knowledgeable about buying horses, and neither one of us can sustain a Texas accent.
Here's a MemoryAlpha article on the original Star Trek TTRPG and here's a (still-active!) forum for it.Here's a catalogue of the sourcebooks for the Indiana Jones TTRPG - which are apparently very hard to find today.Here's a review of the Judge Dredd TTRPG which is also very hard to find today.Here's an archive of the Marvel Super Heroes TTRPG, with a bunch of character profiles as well.Here's a modern review for the original Doctor Who TTRPG.
Here's the link to SPI Wargame Resources, where you can find the ruleset for Dallas if you really want to try playing it. We also mention a few other old-school TTRPGs based on the hottest IP of the early 1980s: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. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.
Do you run your own home game? Tell us about a cool homebrew item and we might feature it in an upcoming episode. Give us a call and tell us about it at 724 320 2020.
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In this week's episode of Campaign Spotlight, we chat with Jesse about the Mophidius 2d20 system, the information flow between players, and improving the lot of your noble house. Spoiler warning for Dune, because Jesse's using the Dune TTRPG system. Also, spoiler warning for Game of Thrones, we guess. What's going on with all the sirens in the background in this episode? Not entirely sure, but maybe we should look into soundproofing.
Here's the publisher's website for the system Jesse is using. Hearing about a really fascinating game based on pre-existing IP made us curious about the history of IP-based tabletop games. In next week's Flashlight, you'll hear about our attempt to play the Dallas TTRPG, based on the 1970s TV show.
Also, here's the site Jesse used to build his game's wiki and here's the virtual tabletop system Jesse used to run his encounters.
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. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.Do you run your own home game? Tell us about a cool homebrew item and we might feature it in an upcoming episode. Give us a call and tell us about it at 724 320 2020.
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