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Roleplay Rescue
Rediscovering your lost roleplaying hobby.
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2. Patrick Mullen... Steal This Idea!
59:53||Season 18, Ep. 2Welcome to the Summer Conversations, a short series of podcasts in which I welcome a guest who brings their own topic of interest and we have a chat. The recordings are done in under one hour, barely edited, and released without fanfare.Episode 2: Steal This Idea — How to Create Original Worlds Without Losing Your MindWhat does it mean to "steal" from your inspirations instead of copying them? Pat Mullen joins Che to unpack Baudrillard's concept of simulcra and pastiche, arguing that mature creators should adapt rather than imitate. From adapting Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest for a Star Trek campaign to building worlds that feel organically lived-in rather than assembled from IP fragments, this conversation digs into how research, historical accuracy, and deep immersion create authenticity. No pastiche, no shortcuts — just worlds that breathe.Big thanks to Patrick Mullen of GURPStalk for coming on the show.Game on!Roleplay Rescue Details:Voice Message:speakpipe.com/roleplayrescuePatreon:patreon.com/rpgrescue Email:roleplayrescue@pm.meBlogroleplayrescue.com Bluesky Social:https://bsky.app/profile/ubiquitousrat.bsky.socialLogo and artwork by MJ Hiblen:https://www.patreon.com/MJHiblenART/
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1. Arlen Walker on... Big Battles in RPG
01:01:20||Season 18, Ep. 1Welcome to the Summer Conversations, a short series of podcasts in which I welcome a guest who brings their own topic of interest and we have a chat. The recordings are done in under one hour, barely edited, and released without fanfare. Episode 1: Running Big Battles Without Losing Your PlayersHow do you run a battlefield with hundreds of combatants without turning your RPG session into a war game? Che and Arlen explore strategies for scaling combat beyond the usual skirmish, from positioning players as specialist units and scouts to using historical battles like Hastings as inspiration. Plus: keeping player agency alive when the stakes are army-sized, crafting authentic chaos through limited information, and letting strategy—not dice rolls—decide the fate of empires.Big thanks to Arlen Walker of Live From Pellam's Wasteland. Game on!Roleplay Rescue Details:Voice Message:speakpipe.com/roleplayrescuePatreon:patreon.com/rpgrescue Email:roleplayrescue@pm.meBlogroleplayrescue.com Bluesky Social:https://bsky.app/profile/ubiquitousrat.bsky.socialLogo and artwork by MJ Hiblen:https://www.patreon.com/MJHiblenART/8. Hanging Up My Hat
15:36||Season 17, Ep. 8It is finished.This is the episode where we hear from a couple of recent callers and then I tell you that this is the last show.If you’ve been here since the beginning, thank you. You’ve heard me say I’m done quite a few times over the years. Never say never, isn’t that what they say? Who knows what tomorrow brings?If you’ve just joined us, well, welcome … and farewell. There’s a back catalogue if you want to share the journey. Just know that it does have a destination. Thanks for listening and… well, I’ll still be around.Game on!Roleplay Rescue Details:Voice Message:speakpipe.com/roleplayrescuePatreon:patreon.com/rpgrescue Email:roleplayrescue@pm.meBlogroleplayrescue.com Bluesky Social:https://bsky.app/profile/ubiquitousrat.bsky.socialRoleplay Rescue Theme by Jon Cohen from Tale of the Manticore:https://taleofthemanticore.podbean.com/Logo and artwork by MJ Hiblen:https://www.patreon.com/MJHiblenART/7. Becoming a Player
21:00||Season 17, Ep. 7Exploring the daunting transition from forever-GM to player. Preparing to join Pat's open-world Star Trek campaign, Imminent Destinies, Che discusses how to apply Jamison's Otherworld-immersion and Justin Alexander's clear "action and intent" loop directly from the player's seat. The episode dives into the gritty, espionage-heavy Rigel Basin setting and navigates a trilemma of character concepts ahead of 'Session Minus One'. Discover the framework for banishing rules-talk, leaning into maximum player agency, and becoming a true Sojourner in a living Otherworld.Game on!Roleplay Rescue Details:Voice Message:speakpipe.com/roleplayrescuePatreon:patreon.com/rpgrescue Email:roleplayrescue@pm.meBlogroleplayrescue.com Bluesky Social:https://bsky.app/profile/ubiquitousrat.bsky.socialRoleplay Rescue Theme by Jon Cohen from Tale of the Manticore:https://taleofthemanticore.podbean.com/Logo and artwork by MJ Hiblen:https://www.patreon.com/MJHiblenART/6. Wandering the Mythic
26:22||Season 17, Ep. 6Why do we spend hours prepping and playing our games, only to walk away feeling like we've just consumed another piece of disposable entertainment?What if the modern tabletop obsession with "managing the fiction" is actually the very thing breaking the spell of the Otherworld?And how do we stop trying to construct a narrative, and finally step into a shared, living myth?I believe we are a people starved of story, wandering a paved-over world looking for a genuine connection. In this episode, we are going to explore the deep, often unspoken reasons why we gather to play, and seek an answer to those questions.Game on!Roleplay Rescue Details:Voice Message:speakpipe.com/roleplayrescuePatreon:patreon.com/rpgrescue Email:roleplayrescue@pm.meBlogroleplayrescue.com Bluesky Social:https://bsky.app/profile/ubiquitousrat.bsky.socialRoleplay Rescue Theme by Jon Cohen from Tale of the Manticore:https://taleofthemanticore.podbean.com/Logo and artwork by MJ Hiblen:https://www.patreon.com/MJHiblenART/5. Testing Your Priors
22:31||Season 17, Ep. 5Why do some campaigns feel like they have a heartbeat, lasting for years, while others fizzle out before the second session? Is it the system? The players? Or is it something deeper we haven't named yet? We talk endlessly about how to run a game. We debate rules, we share tips on prep, we argue about systems. But we rarely talk about why we’re running it in the first place. What are we actually trying to build?What if the secret to stopping the Drift isn’t a better rulebook, or another clever prep technique, but a clearer set of beliefs about what we’re actually trying to achieve?What if we look at the invisible assumptions we make before we even open a rulebook? They’re not rules you follow; they’re truths you build upon. And once we name them, a lot of the friction starts to fade.Game on!Roleplay Rescue Details:Voice Message:speakpipe.com/roleplayrescuePatreon:patreon.com/rpgrescue Email:roleplayrescue@pm.meBlogroleplayrescue.com Bluesky Social:https://bsky.app/profile/ubiquitousrat.bsky.socialRoleplay Rescue Theme by Jon Cohen from Tale of the Manticore:https://taleofthemanticore.podbean.com/Logo and artwork by MJ Hiblen:https://www.patreon.com/MJHiblenART/4. Sojourner in the Otherworld
24:45||Season 17, Ep. 4This season, I’ve introduced the shift from viewing my mental differences as pathology toward building an Architecture for Play that works with my mind—introducing the Sentinel, the Scout, and the Sojourner as the three stances that make High-Fidelity roleplay possible. In the last episode, I walked you through deploying the Scout—the stance that lets me discover the Otherworld alongside my players using sensory detail instead of scripts, whether we're docking at Dorsey or brainstorming character archetypes. Now that we've explored the ground, it's time to get a handle on the other people in the Otherworld – the NPCs.If you’ve struggled with consistently running a believable fantastic Otherworld for upwards of a half-dozen sessions without driving yourself crazy, there might be something here for you.Game on!Roleplay Rescue Details:Voice Message:speakpipe.com/roleplayrescuePatreon:patreon.com/rpgrescue Email:roleplayrescue@pm.meBlogroleplayrescue.com Bluesky Social:https://bsky.app/profile/ubiquitousrat.bsky.socialRoleplay Rescue Theme by Jon Cohen from Tale of the Manticore:https://taleofthemanticore.podbean.com/Logo and artwork by MJ Hiblen:https://www.patreon.com/MJHiblenART/