Rene Plays Games

Design Diaries | Gardens of Rust Part 2 - Character Creation

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. 
 
In episode 2 I walk through the Character Creation process and create two different characters to try and show the breadth of characters you may be going into this game with!
 
Hopefully this gets you excited and thinking about the types of characters you'd want to bring to the post-collapse world who can rebuild a community and new life in the Rust. Definitely join the DMs After Dark Discord or email me to tell me about a character idea, we can build it together!
 

Colostle | Dungeons Episode 11 - The Rookling Forge

Welcome back for another episode of Colostle - Dungeons!
 
Sybil and friends explore the Rookling Forge and discover a dark secret. They follow the spectral chains down to the source to save a friend.
 
Learn more about Colostle and the Dungeons supplement here! If you like all of the new additions and ideas constantly being added to the world of Colostle, I highly recommend checking out Nich's Patreon page!
 

[Bonus] Call of Cthulhu | Love You To Death Valentine's One-Shot

We're back again for another totally romantic Valentine's Day one-shot!
 
The annual tradition continues as my wife Lynn joins me for a tangentially-love-related one-shot of a TTRPG session. This year we go back to Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu to play the 2nd scenario in the Does Love Forgive? collection of 1-GM-1-Player mysteries!
 
One day after Chicago's St. Valentine's Day Massacre in February 1929, a simple dog retrieval turns into a long-simmering love triangle gone very, very wrong!
 
 

Perspective Checks | Ian (Undercommon Taste) - Homebrew Is Design

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!
 
Ian and I met playing in a short TTRPG series for previous guest of the show C.R. Rowenson's LitRPG series New Eternity and knew we had to chat more from our brief interactions and roles as the tankybois of the party.
 
Ian is one-half of the podcast Undercommon Taste, a TTRPG Homebrew podcast, so it's perfect that he's coming on to talk about all things homebrewing! This is a big umbrella in the TTRPG space. House rules are homebrew, technically, but so are some games that hack existing systems, so when do you know it's time to make something new? How much do you need to do? What do you need to consider?
 
We barely scratch the surface of the topic, but there's a lot of great nuggets of wisdom in this chat!
 
Also, you best believe that there's a Powered by the Aporkalypse file in my Google Docs now...
 

Colostle | Dungeons Episode 10 - Return to Castle Revolving

Welcome back for another episode of Colostle - Dungeons!
 
Sybil returns to the major labyrinth Castle Revolving to reach the heart of the dungeon and find what lies within. Then, a new friend leads the crew straight to the Rookling Forge.
 
Learn more about Colostle and the Dungeons supplement here! If you like all of the new additions and ideas constantly being added to the world of Colostle, I highly recommend checking out Nich's Patreon page!
 

Design Diaries 2026 | Gardens of Rust Part 1

Helloooooo my favorite nerds.
 
Welcome to the first episode of my monthly design diaries series here in 2026 where I am holding myself accountable toward putting out more games.
 
I have already pivoted! The first episode was supposed to be about my upcoming playing card-based 2-player buddy cop TTRPG Decktectives, but the state of the modern world made me really not want to talk about any kind of law enforcement, so instead we're talking about a post-societal collapse game, which is way more fun.
 
I know you've heard me talk about this one before, but I can promise big things are happening and you can expect it sooner than later. In this episode I'm talking about Gardens of Rust, the post-catastrophe survival and community rebuilding game by myself and Christian from the DMs After Dark.
 
I'll be doing a few episodes about this one, but in this I just tell you about what the game is going to be, how it's going to feel, and give the basics of the core resolution mechanic we've designed known as the 2dDifference System.
 
Next month I'll make a character and do some solo actual play previewing of the game, and after that we'll dive into how the GM role will play out in Gardens of Rust, as well as ideas for the future beyond that.
 
Get excited, it is coming. (The game, not the collapse of society. I hope)
 

Colostle | Dungeons Episode 9 - Stillnights

Welcome back for another episode of Colostle - Dungeons!
 
After escaping the Castle Revolving major labyrinth, Sybil recovers back in Oubliette during a festival known as Stillnights.
 
Learn more about Colostle and the Dungeons supplement here! If you like all of the new additions and ideas constantly being added to the world of Colostle, I highly recommend checking out Nich's Patreon page!
 

Perspective Checks | PJ (Solo Roleplayers Podcast) - Get Those Games Off Your Shelf

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!
 
We're kicking off 2026 with PJ Sack, a fellow solo podcaster and host of the excellent A Wasteland Story Fallout 2d20 solo AP as well as the incredible The Solo Roleplayers Podcast, which you will absolutely love if you're listening to me.
 
PJ and I sat down to talk about solo roleplaying in general and PJ's oft-repeated advice: "Get those games off your shelf." A fellow fan of variety, PJ often has 8+ stories and games going on at any time, and sometimes it's just because opening that new rulebook and getting ideas means taking 20 minutes to just give it a shot. And once that happens, you've got a story going that you can always come back to. We talk about his fantastic framing for A Wasteland Story, wanting to interview and connect with more likeminded people, and just how wonderful solo gaming can be.
 
Some Games Mentioned In The Episode:
Modiphius Fallout 2d20
Beetle Knight
The One Ring 2e
Boromir Lives! (Solo Variant Rules for The One Ring by Will at the End of the World)
Dolmenwood
Daggerheart
Forbidden Lands
Crown & Skull
 

Colostle | Dungeons Episode 8 - Castle Revolving

Welcome back for another episode of Colostle - Dungeons!
 
Pressing on and into the major labyrinth Castle Revolving, Sybil and the rooklings (and Zorn) quickly realize this is not like the rest of the Dungeons. This labyrinth is hostile and brutally punishing on top of being a confusing maze to navigate.
 
Sybil begins to figure out the way through, but the elemental attrition and Bastion defenders of the labyrinth force her to make an early exit back to Oubliette... 
 
Learn more about Colostle and the Dungeons supplement here! If you like all of the new additions and ideas constantly being added to the world of Colostle, I highly recommend checking out Nich's Patreon page!
 

2025 Retrospective//Plans for 2026

Another year of the podcast is in the books! In this short episode I mostly just want to thank everyone for listening and share some insights from the year.
 
Some big ones were:
Over 10,000 downloads in 2025 (whoa, thank you)
Better gender diversity in Perspective Checks (working on racial diversity, I promise)
15 different games on the podcast in 2025 (same as 2024, weird)
 
And for 2026, I have small plans to slightly adjust the regularly scheduled offerings from the last 2 years by making 4th week releases strictly design diaries, but specific to near completion/release games to hold myself more accountable, as well as a monthly Twitch stream where I just hang out with folks who want to come chat about games and what goes on behind the screen.
 
I hope your personal 2025 wasn't on par with the dumpster fire that was this year, and I hope your 2026 is going to be incredible with many many many many great games :) <3
 

Christmas Is Coming | DMs After Dark Family Holiday One-Shot

Happy Holidays!
 
DO YOU HAVE THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT IN YOU?
 
Welcome back to another DMs After Dark holiday one-shot! This year we decided to do a sequel to a previous holiday special - the Thursday time loop cheesy holiday movie set in a strange little bean tree town that we have appropriately named Beantree! This year, a group is traveling to avoid holiday get-togethers in a one-shot of Grant Howitt's Christmas Is Coming, a folk horror RPG, which, honestly tracks for how our holiday one-shots tend to go...
 
In all seriousness, though, we at the DMs After Dark/Rene Plays Games family of nerds sincerely wish all of you a safe, happy holiday season and the best 2026 full of peace, prosperity, and most of all... games. 
 

Tabletop Tutorial | The Time We Have with Troy from DMs After Dark

Time for another Tabletop Tutorial, the series where I play two player TTRPGs with friends and we learn them together.
 
BIG OL' CONTENT WARNINGS FOR THIS EPISODE: Death, Alcoholism, Inappropriate Crude Body Humor, Body Horror, and probably a whole lot more, be careful with this one, please. It's heavy.
 
I'm once again joined by Troy from the DMs After Dark to play the heartbreaking two player TTRPG The Time We Have by Elliot Davis, a.k.a. moreblueberries, an excellent game designer as well as tabletop roleplaying mind from podcasts such as Talk of the Table and My First Dungeon, both regular staples in my podcast audio diet.
 
The Time We Have is a game about brothers in the post-apocalypse. There are a lot of potential settings provided with the game that cover more genres than near-future Earth, but the truth of the game is that one of you has been infected and only has 6 days to live. The two brothers sit on other side of a closed door and have conversations until the end or a hard decision must be made. 
 
No spoilers for our episode, but safe to say Troy and I were both very moved by the session. The game has a rule that at the end of the game, you open the door and hug the other player, and for a game that gets this heavy, it's a very nice touch. Go get The Time We Have.
 

Perspective Checks | Kat The Dungeon Mom - TTRPGs as a Village

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!
 
The last Perspective Checks of 2025 is a wonderful conversation with Kat The Dungeon Mom, a GM, actual play performer, teacher, mom, and so much more as a community member. We sit down to talk about raising the next generation of nerds, maintaining a curiosity and interested approach to new things in familiar spaces, and recontextualizing the concept of the broad, internet-sized TTRPG community more in terms of "the village," a smaller scope, more intimately involved group of people playing games and helping one another.
 
I cannot recommend the actual play All Our Faults that Kat is on enough, it is an amazing Monsterhearts 2 show that will make you feel things, and you should not shy away from feeling big things!
 

Colostle | Dungeons Episode 7 - No Going Back Now

Welcome back for another episode of Colostle - Dungeons!
 
Sybil wants to return to Oubliette to have her new unique rookstone appraised, but she didn't get here alone, so she continues deeper into the Dungeons with Zorn and the rookling  to find the lost rooklings and possibly a Rookling Forge.
 
Sybil finds a way back to the surface, but with too many questions left unanswered, she stays in the Dungeons and finds yet another major labyrinth...
 
Learn more about Colostle and the Dungeons supplement here! If you like all of the new additions and ideas constantly being added to the world of Colostle, I highly recommend checking out Nich's Patreon page!
 

Midnight Melodies | One-Player One-Shot

We're a few days late, but if it means anything to you, dear listener, it made me haul a lot of my music equipment up to my office and I am definitely going to try and do more original music for my episodes now!
 
Welcome to another one-player one-shot where I play games I have been dying to get to the table all by myself. This time it's another by one of my favorite designers in the TTRPG community, Midnight Melodies by Cezar Capacle.
 
In Midnight Melodies, you play as a jazz pianist confronted by the Grim Reaper themself after a night out playing, but there's a catch - you're immune to their touch. Instead, they recruit you for the Department of Unauthorized Deaths to investigate strange, unsanctioned deaths while the big Death works out what to do with you. Now, every now and again, a name will appear in the tip jar at the end of the night, and you must get to the bottom of the unnatural death.
 
In this episode I play Riley Hawkins, member of the big jazz band The Eclipse, as he goes unauthorized death detective on the case of an academic counselor, Bradley Keats. It gets wild. 
 
Go get Cezar's games, they're all bangers, you can't go wrong!
 

Colostle | Dungeons Episode 6 - Whispers of Rookling & Stone

Welcome back for another episode of Colostle - Dungeons!
 
Sybil and the Rookling are joined by the traveling Bastion monk, Zorn, who is searching for something known as a Rookling Forge after many of the rooklings from his monastery have left to destinations unknown. When their expedition hits a dead end, they are waylaid by a Lichen Rook and rush away only to find that Sybil's Whisperstone is pulling her somewhere. Remembering her strange experience with a Spectral Rook, she follows it into a labyrinth where she finds another unique rookstone as well as more clues about the Spectral Rooks...
 
Learn more about Colostle and the Dungeons supplement here! If you like all of the new additions and ideas constantly being added to the world of Colostle, I highly recommend checking out Nich's Patreon page!
 

Perspective Checks | Craig Hatler - Learning & Teaching RPGs

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's episode is with Craig Hatler (a.k.a. Tezrak the Impslayer most places on the internet), a game designer and educator who came on to talk about the importance of a game's communication and resources when sitting down to learn how to play, run the game, or even for designers before it goes out. We talk about his game Shadowlight & Personae, a genre-agnostic neutral system aiming to be able to emulate any type of story, and the work he's done to improve his layout, resources, and more.
 
This episode bounces around a lot, but we primarily stick to the topic of "how can we, as designers or players engaging with a game, ensure that the rules and mechanics are effectively spelled out so we can just get right to the gameplay." Even as an admitted hoarder of TTRPGs, the act of sitting down to read a rulebook isn't the most exciting thing, I'd rather be reading an actual book to get ideas going, I just need the game book to explain how to do the thing. 
 
We talk about Daggerheart's cards, pre-generated character sheets, player resource sheets, the read-along rules from For the Queen, and more to lower your game's barrier to learning!
 

Colostle | Dungeons Episode 5 - Spectral Chains & Fostles

Welcome back to the new series of Colostle - Dungeons!
 
Sybil ventures out of the hanging city of Oubliette with her ice rookling in tow to attempt to find her way back to the surface. The two have more time to appreciate the immensity of the subterranean world and its architecture, but hear a cry for help while investigating a chained rook husk. The find a stranger bound with spectral chains, but before they can help, he is pulled away into the darkness below. When Sybil and the rookling give chase, they find an archaeological dig site for a Fostle, and brave the poisonous fumes to go in and rescue this stranger.
 
Learn more about Colostle and the Dungeons supplement here! If you like all of the new additions and ideas constantly being added to the world of Colostle, I highly recommend checking out Nich's Patreon page!
 

[Bonus] Halloween Star Crossed

Bonus Halloween day episode release and it's one we teased wayyyy back in February in our Valentine's Day bonus episode! I'm joined by my wife Lynn to play another game of Star Crossed (and in digital) by Alex Roberts, published by the wonderful Bully Pulpit Games, but this time we're not leaning hard into the expected romance tropes or characters, we're getting spooky! (spoiler: it is not, in fact, spooky).
 
In this Halloween-flavored game of forbidden love, we take on the roles of a House and the Ghost that really, really wants to haunt it, but they really, really can't.
 
Neither of us could have ever expected where this episode was going to go, but in the end, I think it comes together quite nicely. Also, Rene's a sucker for a happy ending, so... that tower's bound to fall.
 

Spellbook | One-Player One-Shot

Can't forget to do a solo one-shot for spooky month, so here is my one-player one-shot experience of Spellbook by DValeris a.k.a. Edaureen Muhamad Nor! This game is based on a familiar game from last year's holiday one-shots, Bucket Of Bolts by Jason Price and uses the Lost & Found SRD to simulate the life of a sentient spellbook that is past down through the hands of witches over three Acts. It was a very fun session and I fully admit I fall hard into stereotypical Rene tropes (sorry not sorry).
 
Definitely give this and more of Edaureen's games a look!
 
Also, shout out and check out friend of the show C.R. Rowenson's new LitRPG book Spawn Point, Book 1 of the New Eternity series! And if you want to watch me and some other creators play a short TTRPG series in that world, check out Clark's YouTube channel - The Magic Engineer!