All Episodes
Displaying 1 - 20 of 60 in total
Talking Long Campaigns
While the Open Hearth Community has often focused on one-shots, two-shots, and monthly short campaigns, there's always the siren call of running a longer series: a qua...
A Different Kind of Hex Ep. 7 - Showing & Telling
Ian, José, and special guest Shane explore the space between direct exposition and embodied demonstration during play. How are these two approaches different? What are...
Roll for Origin: Supers TTRPG History: Ep. 7 Mutants & Masterminds
Roll for Origin: Supers TTRPG History looks all four editions of one of the most important modern supers TTRPGs, Mutants & Masterminds. Jay and Lowell talk about the c...
Talking Adapting Modules
Since almost the beginning, game publishers have supplemented games with pre-generated dungeons, scenarios, and campaigns. Some of these have becomes touchstones among...
Roll for Mutation: Post-Apocalyptic TTRPG History: Ep. 4 Apocalypse World
In our fourth episode of Roll for Mutation, we look at one of the most important post-apocalyptic games, Apocalypse World. We consider both the impact of PbtA and the ...
Talking RPG Cities
What makes a good city in a role-playing game? People, places, factions, rumors? We're going to be talking about that and bringing together your insights. This communi...
A Different Kind of Hex Ep. 6 - The Gift of Offers
As the first installment in a series of episodes on improv tools at the gaming table, Ian & José are joined by Karen Twelves, the author of Improv for Gamers, to discu...
Roll for Origin: Supers TTRPG History: Ep. 6 Godlike & Wild Talents
Roll for Origin: Supers TTRPG History looks at two related RPG systems. First Godlike, the World War II supers game that leans into realism and consistency. Second Wil...
Open Hearth Podcast Ep 15: Mythic Bastionland, Villa Encantata, Rapscallion
In this episode host Lowell Francis is joined by Kieron Gillen and Cat Rambo to talk about recent games, plans for future games, current writing projects, and more.Kie...
Open Hearth Games of the Year 2025
A collection of favorite tabletop RPGs of 2025 from our community members. It's split into three sections, with host picks in-between.Find out more about the Open Hear...
Open Hearth Podcast Ep 14: Going for Broke, Grimwild, Band of Blades
In this episode host Lowell Francis is joined by Michael D. and Alun R. to talk about the ups and downs of "funny" game mechanics, a modern approach to traditional fan...
Roll for Mutation: Post-Apocalyptic TTRPG History: Ep. 3 Paranoia
Note: we had some audio issues with this recording (apologies)! In our third episode of Roll for Mutation, a look at the history of Post-Apocalyptic TTRPGs, we bow in ...
A Different Kind of Hex Ep. 5 - Playing to Fail
Content Advisory: character death, ritual sacrificeIan & José are joined by Wyllora to explore what it means to fail in an RPG, and why we might want to do it on purpo...
Talking Space Opera
Lets talk widescreen, big idea sci-fi. Games of space fleets, interstellar empires, sometimes aliens-- big ideas and lasers. Games like Star Trek Adventures, Traveller...
Roll for Origin: Supers TTRPG History: Ep. 5 Base Raiders
Roll for Origin: Supers TTRPG History jumps forward significantly in time to just after the d20 boom/bust cycle. Today's focus is Ross Payton's independently produced ...
Roll for Mutation: Post-Apocalyptic TTRPG History: Ep. 2 Twilight 2000
In our second episode of Roll for Mutation, a look at the history of Post-Apocalyptic TTRPGs, we tackle Twilight 2000 from GDW, focusing on those original editions but...
Talking White Whales and Inadvisable Ideas
What's the game you've wanted to get to the table but haven't been able to? What's the campaign premise you've considered but don't know how to make it work? What's th...
Design Chat: Pedro Barrenechea & Rotted Capes 2e
This week we present a bonus episode for both Roll for Origin & Roll for Mutation. Lowell chats with Pedro Barrenechea, lead designer for Rotted Capes 2nd Edition, a p...
Talking One-Shots
For this episode we've cleaned up the audio from an older community seminar on running one-shots. Like several of our other "Talking" episodes, this has Lowell Francis...
Open Hearth Podcast Ep 13: Ex Tenebris, Wise Women, Star Trek Adventures
In this episode Host Lowell Francis talks with Becky Annison and Josh Fox of Black Armada games about what they've been playing, herbal witches, the final frontier, th...
