LUDO
NARRATIVE
DISSIDENTS
a podcast about RPGs, how they’RE MADE AND HOW THEY’RE PLAYED
ABOUT
Ludonarrative Dissidents is about roleplaying games, their culture, design and play. Each episode deep-dives on one tabletop RPG, book, mechanic or style of game, taking it apart to see how it works, and putting it back together to understand how people play it.
It’s playful, insightful, informed, and thoroughly entertaining. New episodes drop every 2–3 weeks, plus we do a livestream once a month: check the Discord for dates.
Your hosts are Ross Payton, Greg Stolze and James Wallis.
SUPPORTING US
Ludonarrative Dissidents is funded by our generous Kickstarter backers, sales of merchandise, and affiliate fees.
If you want to support us – and get access to new episodes a month before they go public – then you can by clicking here to go to our Ko-Fi page.
SEASON 1
Our first season kicked off in August 2021. Across 16 episodes we cover:
- Apocalypse World
- Blades in the Dark
- Outlaws of the Water Margin
- Lancer
- Nights Black Agents
- Delta Green
- Continuum
- Bluebeard’s Bride
- Ars Magica
- The Quiet Year
- Thousand Year Old Vampire
- 13th Age
- Unknown Armies
- The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen
- Base Raiders
- Dueling Fops of Vindamere (actual play)
Click below for links to the episodes and our notes on them.
SEASON 2
The second season of the podcast began in November 2022, with 18 episodes. This time we also look at specific RPG mechanics and design tropes.
- Card mechanics in RPGs
- Coyote and Crow
- Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th edition
- Red Markets
- Metacurrencies in RPGs
- The Laundry RPG
- MÖRK BORG
- Eclipse Phase 2nd edition
- Initiative systems
- Call of Cthulhu 7th edition
- Planet Mercenary
- Dread
- Tales from the Loop
- Diceless RPGs
- Fiasco
- Experience points
- Mongoose Traveller
- Pendragon 6e
- Hole In The Sky for DCC (actual play)
Click below for links to the episodes, and notes on each one.
SEASON 3
Season 3 will be 27 mighty episodes, each one with its own page and extensive show notes.
Episode 0: Hole in the Sky by Brendan LaSalle.
The level-zero peasant-funnel adventure we played at the end of Season 2. What did we think of it?
Episode 1: Heart The City Beneath
This sibling game to Spire is an original and weirdly organic take on dungeon-delving.
Episode 2: Delta Green Convergence
The very first Delta Green adventure is short but still packs a considerable punch.
Episode 3: Savage Worlds Adventure Edition
Does this cinematic RPG deliver? Strap in and find out what makes its motor run.
Episode 4: Night’s Black Agents: Double Tap
A gear book for the RPG of tactical espionage against vampires. High-stakes adventure, you might call it.
Episode 5: James Bond 007 RPG
The sine qua non of tech spy RPGs in the 1980s. Like Bond, has it kept up with the times?
Episode 6: Alien: Chariot of the Gods
We vivisect this intro adventure for Free League’s SFRPG based on the classic movies.
Episode 7: Vampire: the Masquerade 5th edition
Does the latest version of the 90s classic still have bite, or is it looking a bit long in the tooth?
Episode 8: Grogs for Ars Magica
A fascinating collection of ideas and careers for minor PCs, in the game that originated troupe-play.
Episode 9: Dogs in the Vineyard by Vincent Baker
‘Mormon Judge Dredd’, as Greg Stolze calls it, by the creator of Powered by the Apocalypse.
Episode 10: The Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues for Paranoia
Does the humour of 1985 stand up forty years later? Does the style of roleplay?
The classic RPG of near-future technoir gets a fresh coat of paint.
Episode 12: Black Chrome, a gearbook for Cyberpunk Red
Does the reboot of the classic Chromebooks from the 1990s still have that shine?
The epic game of Glitterboys and mega-damage gets the LND field-stripping.
THE AUDIO FOR THIS EPISODE IS CURRENTLY ONLY AVAILABLE TO OUR BACKERS. CHECK BACK SOON TO HEAR IT!
Click here to go to all Season 3 episodes and livestreams