Rene Plays Games

Quick pivot to play a recommended one-player one-shot of Tiago Junges' Ronin, recommended by this month's Perspective Checks guest Cezar Capacle!
 
Ronin is a solo TTRPG that was the mechanical and framework precursor to the excellent NOTORIOUS & OUTSIDERS which I played on this podcast. You play the part of a Ronin, a masterless samurai of Sengoku period Japan on a journey to achieve your goal.
 
I condensed what could have been a whole series into one hour, but I highly recommend you play this game and let me know how your story goes! I want to play more of it now, and I already have the successor to Benjiro, Little Bear Ronin to do it with :)
 
Get Ronin (for FREE) here! and now I want to check out Shinobi - an expansion for Ronin!
 

Sure, we've had one one-shot, but what about second one-shots?
 
Okay, the joke doesn't land, but you get it! I ran some of the DMs through a one-shot of The One Ring 2e! Amber, Chris, Jess, and Kent play as members of a new fellowship in the time between the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings far away from anywhere you may be familiar with in Middle Earth! West of the Shire, west of the Blue Mountains lies the lands of Lindon, where the elves set sail from the Grey Havens to the Undying Lands, but north of those elven lands lies Forlindon, a northern territory of elves long banished or self-exiled from the rest of their eternal kindred.
 
The Lady of Forlindon has called for aid from beyond to solve a problem in an abandoned dwarven mine in the Blue Mountains, and our heroes take up the call! What ancient horrors lurk in the dark caves of dwarves? Listen and find out!
 

Iorlas encounters a population of Ents long separated from their kin in Fangorn Forest out on the cape of Eryn Vorn. It takes some time, but he convinces them to bring him to the heart of the forest where the corruption is most foul... but their interactions are not unnoticed.
 
Learn more about The One Ring 2e by Free League Publishing.
 

Welcome to another episode of Perspective Checks where I sit down with friends and folks from the TTRPG world and discuss what they love about this wonderful hobby!
 
This month I'm honored to have sat down and talked with one of my absolute favorite game designers Cezar Capacle! You've heard me play multiple of his games on this feed such as Wraithound and Midnight Melodies, and believe me I will play more of them!
 
Cezar is a Brazilian game designer now living on the island of Madeira and not only does he put out a lot of games, all of which are incredibly quality, his breadth of genres and mechanics and concepts is truly a marvel to behold. We talk about his philosophy of letting all of your ideas bounce around in your head like a game design hadron collider to his work ethic of diligent vs. inspired creativity which helps him capitalize on those a-ha moments. Honestly, if you take nothing else from this episode, this was an amazing tip to just show up and do the work so you find your groove, hone your craft, and then the rest will come easily when the muse comes to bless you with great game ideas.
 
But most importantly, we talk about his upcoming game Mausworn: Brave Tails on Perilous Trails, a Mausritter-meets-Ironsworn game of mice adventurers on epic quests. This game feels like it was made FOR ME, and you can be I'm going to play it on this podcast when I can! Instead of just taking bits and mashing up the two systems, Cezar has carefully crafted OSR sensibilities and Ironsworn's narrative generation into a whole new thing and it. sounds. amazing.
 
Cezar's YouTube channel has multiple videos on his process with Mausworn I highly recommend!
 
I hope you enjoy this chat, I would love to bother and chat with Cezar every day about games if I could. Go get his games and tell me (and him!) how excellent your experience was, you won't be sorry.
 

After the ambush in the barn, Iorlas rides southeast toward the dark forested cape of Eryn Vorn. Long have the steads and rolling hills of Minhiriath laid unpopulated after the Great Plague, and the massive pine forest on the high cliffs of Eryn Vorn looms over the sea like a shadow...
 
En route, Iorlas encounters dangers and grim sightings that may be the reason none enter these lands...
 
Learn more about The One Ring 2e by Free League Publishing.
 

I've decided to continue my playtesting of the (few years out) upcoming Ironsworn: Legacies!
 
Five months after releasing the enormous elder shadow wolf god from the glacier, Tessa and Farina - along with some new friends - continue to track the beast.
 
They find themselves in the coastal village of Fisher's Grove, but their pursuit of Inkanis, the Wolf God is halted by raiders holding the small village hostage. Tessa makes things worse.
 
If you want to, please head over to the Ironsworn Discord channel which you can find a link to on the Ironsworn website to get in on the playtesting!
 

Iorlas departs Bree and heads south along the Greenway between the Barrow Downs and South Downs, a perilous place to travel... Not long after he sets out does he realize his progress is now being observed and his journeys are unlikely to go smoothly as he heads to investigate the cape of Eryn Vorn for Cirdan the Shipwright...
 
Learn more about The One Ring 2e by Free League Publishing.
 

Welcome to another episode of Perspective Checks where I sit down with friends and folks from the TTRPG world and discuss what they love about this wonderful hobby!
 
This month I'm joined by Ciera, a.k.a. RagePandaPajamas around the internet! Ciera is a media theory enthusiast who loves to look at and review TTRPG actual plays through a critical academic lens, as well as an author on the blog The Fandomentals, a theater & live production designer, and designer of the GM-less game Leave A Message After the Tone!
 
We don't get anywhere as deep as we could have into this topic, but the idea of looking into the evolving landscape of actual play performances in all of their forms from audio to video to written, with various intentions and goals to achieve different experiences was such an interesting talk. We discuss a lot about what it means to put your game out there in the world for an audience and how you don't need to strive to be like the bigger productions or do something entirely new to find your niche, but you do need to commit to learning and improving your craft.
 
Some of the books Ciera mentions are:
Radio Drama & other essays on audio dramas by Tim Crook
The Fantasy Role-Playing Game: A New Performing Art by Daniel Mackay
Watch Us Roll: Essays on Actual Play by Shelly Jones et al.
(the upcoming): Playing Stories:  Reimagining Genres, Ownership, and Authenticity in the Performance of Actual Play by Emily C. Friedman

After falling through the floor in the ruins of Fornost, Iorlas discovers something worse than orcs or evil Men. Luckily he gets out and makes it back to Bree, where he begins to recover from the terrifying ordeal and reunites with Gandalf before the next leg of his journey begins...
 
Learn more about The One Ring 2e by Free League Publishing.
 

Playtest session 2 of Ironsworn: Legacies!
 
Tessa and the hunters get Farina to the site of her dreams on a massive frozen glacial valley, but a broken opening holds sacred secrets of the past, as well as old, corrupt shadows emerging...
 
If you want to, please head over to the Ironsworn Discord channel which you can find a link to on the Ironsworn website to get in on the playtesting!
 

A little late, but it's going to turn into 2 episodes of the playtest materials for the upcoming Ironsworn: Legacies from Shawn Tomkin instead of just the one bonus one for next week!
 
I am SUPER excited to be able to test this out, and if you want to, please head over to the Ironsworn Discord channel which you can find a link to on the Ironsworn website to get in on the playtesting!
 
In this episode I make my character, Tessa, a mighty shieldmaiden trying to earn redemption by being part of a small group of Ironlanders from the village of Rockfall to escort a mysterious outcast known as Farina, a dreamer of gods and old magic, to a place she knows only from dreams... What could go wrong, right?

Iorlas fights the wraith that rose in the ruins of the plaza in Fornost Erain and gains insight into the past. Going further in he traces the steps of Rangers who came before him, but one wrong step sends him deeper into the darkness...
 
Learn more about The One Ring 2e by Free League Publishing.
 

Welcome to another episode of Perspective Checks where I sit down with friends and folks from the TTRPG world and discuss what they love about this wonderful hobby!
 
This month I'm joined by Meadow a.k.a. HowdyLoveDarlingM, an incredibly thoughtful TTRPG designer, actual play GM, performer, cosplayer, writer, singer, artist, Meadow does so much! We talk about her collection of games and how she loves to explore the world of storytelling and doesn't shy away from filling the gaps in games with her own mechanics, putting her own spin on things to leave her mark, and the importance of collaboration throughout the entire process.
 
We also talk about our love of media and how it inspires everything we think and make, how we can use that creativity to explore new ideas and stories, as well as the importance of WRITING THINGS WITH YOUR HANDS. Do it, seriously, try it for a bit and see how much you realize you missed it/love it.
 
Never stop making art, telling stories, and putting yourself into them. Rebel with whatever cool silly things you're into (and share the weird with me please). And now go follow Meadow!
 
Meadow's games are available on her Patreon, and you can hear them played on her Twitch or YouTube! 
 

After trumpeting a magical horn found in the burnt remains of the homestead, Iorlas has earned the trust of a majestic steed en route to Fornost Erain, the ancient keep and capital of Men from Ages past.
 
When he arrives, he finds it twisted and overgrown, treacherous and eerily abandoned, but of course trouble lurks within... Trouble in the form of evil Men and undead, but what is it that Gandalf has sent him here to learn?
 
Learn more about The One Ring 2e by Free League Publishing.
 

Welcome back to the monthly design diaries series of 2026 where I am holding myself accountable toward putting out more games.
 
For the first Design Diaries of the year that isn't about Gardens of Rust, I decided to go back to what was going to be the original Design Diaries episode of 2026... my two-player buddy cop TTRPG Decktectives.
 
In this game, the two players sit down and create a pair of detectives or investigators who are going to solve a crime in around 1 hour of real time like an episode your favorite procedural using a deck of cards and a Three Act Structure with "commercial breaks."
 
The game mechanics are very simple, using cards from small hands to overcome prompts and obstacles flipped from a 3x3 grid representing each Act of the investigation to create piles of Clues & Complications. By the end, hopefully your duo has amassed enough evidence to put away the culprit (or solve the crime and let it slide).
 
I'm confident this one's done design-wise, I just need to get the layout done. SOMEONE YELL AT ME UNTIL I DO!
 

Iorlas spends time recovering between the small community of Archet in the Chetwood and a visit to Bree, where he runs into Gandalf again. After hearing news of an attack on a homestead along the Greenway to the north, Iorlas assumes it must be Drustan and his allies, so he ventures slightly out of the way to investigate. He finds a wondrous item...
 
Learn more about The One Ring 2e by Free League Publishing.
 

Welcome to another episode of Perspective Checks where I sit down with friends and folks from the TTRPG world and discuss what they love about this wonderful hobby!
 
This month I have the pleasure of talking with Brian Flaherty, AP performer, GM, sound designer, producer, game designer, and one of the founders of the Many Sided Media network with an insane lineup of TTRPG podcasts including:
My First Dungeon
Talk of the Table
Bitcherton
And many, many more of some absolute staples in my own podcast queue like Dice Exploder and Maia's Game Room.
 
Anyway, this is just to say Brian wears A TON of hats that make him and his crew so aspirational and inspirational. One of my favorite quotes of this interview is him describing the idea for this TTRPG podcast adventure to show people "the peak of an indie game through actual play," and to get people excited about the game so they can play anywhere on that mountain in terms of how much production or extras they want to add onto it, but the goal is to provide an immersive, enjoyable experience with a game that tells a story like no other can.
 
Brian's episode is full of so much wisdom not just about podcasting professionally, but also about supporting creators, artists, and all the people whose work goes into making the things we love and play to tell great stories. 
 
Please go check out everything Brian and his friends work on over at Many Sided Media and pay it back for him demanding that you leave me a rating (please do) by going and 5-star bombing all of their shows, too!
 

The adventure continues.
 
As Iorlas and Fitch Talltree, Forester of Archet hunt for the escaped servants of Saruman in the Chetwood, something from Fitch's past comes back to settle a different score. Iorlas is wounded.
 
Learn more about The One Ring 2e by Free League Publishing.
 

Welcome back to the monthly design diaries series of 2026 where I am holding myself accountable toward putting out more games.
 
We're back to talk more Gardens of Rust, the post-catastrophe survival and community rebuilding game by myself and Christian from the DMs After Dark. 
 
This is the final episode of this series for Gardens of Rust and it goes over the Community Phase of the game; when the PCs return back to their small settlement of survivors in the Rust, play zooms out and the players make decisions from a community-wide perspective. Based on the Comm's stats, the players have a limited number of actions to handle issues facing the community, make progress on forward-looking projects, enjoy moments when they can be enjoyed, and more, which in turn inform the goals of the next PC-focused Player Phase.
 
Please email or join the DMs After Dark Discord server to tell me about the kind of character you'd make for a post-collapse game so we can make it together! I want to start playtesting this game more with new players, so maybe we can set something up on the Discord.
 

The adventure continues.
 
Iorlas takes Drustan the Mercenary to Bree to face justice, but underestimates the extent of his resources. When Iorlas beseeches the folk of Bree to help him search for the escaped man, he must convince them before it's too late. In the end, he moves on, refusing to let evil men spread.
 
Learn more about The One Ring 2e by Free League Publishing.