Undercommon Taste

This week, we welcome returning guest Clark (C.R.) Rowenson, who has come to discuss his new LitRPG novel Spawn Point. Join us as we discuss the his new book, the LitRPG genre as a whole, and some ways to adapt LitRPG into your tabletop games (and vice versa).

You can preorder Spawn Point for Kindle here (Release date Oct. 24th, 2025): https://www.amazon.com/Spawn-Point-New-Eternity-Book-ebook/dp/B0DVF4LX4N/

You can find Clark's ot...

This week, we make the best of our scheduling conflicts to talk about some of our favorite depictions of dragons in non-D&D media. Join us as we talk about some of our favorite dragons, what makes them different, and ways to change up how you run dragons in your game.

As noted, we had some scheduling conflicts come up and were unable to get our interview with C.R. Rowenson done in time for this week's release. We have resched...

This week, we return to our draconic conversation by visiting the third major dragon category - the gem dragons. Join us as we discuss these neutral, neurotic, and psionic dragons, plus how to incorporate dragons narratively into your game in a meaningful way.

The Solo But Not Alone 5 bundle is almost over! You still have until May 20th, 2025 to pick up this bundle, which you can find here: https://itch.io/b/2865/solo-but-not-alo...

This week, we're taking unconventional inspiration from the holiday season to discuss different ways to bring characters back from the dead. Join us as we talk about boons from otherworldly entities, reincarnation, reanimation, and what comes back when you call across the veil.

The Solo But Not Alone 5 bundle is also still ongoing, and it has reached its $20k goal! You still have until May 20th, 2025 to pick up this bundle, which...

This week, we're continuing our draconic conversation by discussing the metallic dragons. Join us as we talk about ways to play with the "physical vs. magical" nature of dragons, the evolution of metallic dragons through the editions, and some interesting ways to implement metallic dragons in your settings.

I mentioned a video by TikTok creator Felix in this episode. Here's a link to the video in question: https://www.tiktok.com/...

This week, we're revisiting an aspect of a previous topic and talking about festivals. Join us as we discuss celebrations of all types, a food-eating contest minigame, and some ideas about how to implement these ideas in your home game.

As mentioned in the episode, we had another episode a little over a year ago where we talked about creating holidays for your game. There are multiple topics which overlap between the two, so if y...

This week, we're fulfilling a promise from almost a year ago and starting our discussion about dragons. Join us as we briefly discuss D&D cosmology from a draconic perspective, followed by an analysis of the five primary chromatic dragon types - black, blue, green, red, and white - and some unconventional ways to incorporate them into your games.

The Solo But Not Alone 5 bundle is finally live! You can find it here: https://i...

This week, we're still talking about the economy, but not the monetary kind. Join us as we discuss different forms of player economy, from action economy in game design to how to prioritize which (and how many) aspects of gameplay you want to focus on with your players at the table.

As I mentioned in the insert at the beginning of the episode, we were invited by Eric and Matt to join them for The Goblin's Corner's 200th episode. ...

This week, we're talking about economies. Join us as we discuss ways to use economy, currency, and wealth as worldbuilding tools. 

The Solo But Not Alone 5 bundle is finally live! You can find it here: https://itch.io/b/2865/solo-but-not-alone-5

Here are a couple of bonus links for this week. First off, here's a link to YouTuber RamsesThePigeon's video about aluminum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob-PiPJBHdc

And here's an ar...

This week, we're taking a step back to discuss where we see the podcast now, four years in, and what we're planning to do in the future. Join us as we talk about why we're stepping away from making content specifically geared towards D&D, what we're going to do instead, and how we aim to get from Point A to Point B.

The Solo But Not Alone 5 bundle is finally live! We got word from Cat that the bundle went live shortly before ...

We're back in 2025! To kick off this year's episode lineup, we welcome back Cat from Peach Garden Games to discuss both the Solo But Not Alone 5 bundle and their Carta SRD (System Resource Document). The Carta SRD is a mechanical system designed to assist game developers with creating single-player RPGs powered by a humble deck of playing cards. 

You can find Cat on BlueSky (bsky.app/profile/catlinggun.bsky.social), and can find th...

This week, we're playing a holiday themed game of Kids on Bikes! Join us as we try to figure out how to play with Dr. Mary Crowell and Mike Daniel; our game may not be an ideal example of Kids on Bikes gameplay, but we sure had a whole lot of fun doing it. 

This is our last episode for 2024. We'll be taking time off through the holidays, as we do every year, and will be back with new episodes in January 2025.

You can find Mary and ...

This week, we're having a chat about Appalachia with our friend and West Virginia native Kelly West. Join us as we discuss the history and culture of Appalachia and some ways to incorporate it as a setting in your home games. Please excuse the quality of Kelly's audio. I cleaned it up as best I could, and hopefully the content of our conversation overrides any unpleasantness with the audio quality.

Submissions for the Solo But No...

This week, we're talking about the Old Gods of Appalachia roleplaying game by Monte Cook Games. Join us as we discuss the inner workings of the Cypher system and how it has been modified to run games set in 1930s Appalachia. 

To pick up a copy of OGoA, you can visit the Monte Cook website (https://www.montecookgames.com/store/product/old-gods-of-appalachia-roleplaying-game/), or check your local game store. 

To check out the (bri...

This week, we're taking a break from our regular episodes for a one-shot game of The Lost Bay. Join us as we try to find our way through the darkness and out of the mall.

Special thanks to Kris for writing and running the adventure, and to Danny for coming on to play with us. Kris didn't have any media links he wanted to provide, but Danny can be found with the handle @dannyrmendoza on Twitter and Instagram.

Additional thanks to Ik...

This week, we're talking about Monster of the Week! Join us as we discuss the Powered by the Apocalypse system, monster hunting, and game mechanics, and highlight some of our favorite playbooks in the base ruleset.

At about the 30 minute mark, we mention a game where you play as cats. It's called "Magical Kitties Save the Day", by Atlas Games, and you can find it here: https://www.atlas-games.com/magicalkitties/

Our website is ...

This week, we're talking about Kids on Bikes! Join us as we discuss the themes and mechanics of the game, and culminate with trying our hand at character creation.

Hurricane Helene hit our region of East Tennessee hard. While we both got out safe and sound, many folks in nearby communities weren't so lucky. If you want to help in this area specifically, please consider making a donation to the East Tennessee Foundation's Neighbor t...

This week, we (mostly) finish our discussion of the changes to the classes in the new D&D 2024 ruleset. Join us as we discuss quality of life improvements, forget to mention the rogue, and James voices his... opinions.

As mentioned in the episode, one of the sources we're using to get our information about the new 2024 ruleset is the YouTube channel Treantmonk's Temple. You can find this channel at youtube.com/treantmonkstemple...

This week, we welcome back Michael Ross from The RPG Academy and Rob Hilferty from Worldbuild With Us to play Michael's Ennie-nominated game Action 12 Cinema to celebrate our podcast's fourth anniversary. Join us for the second part of our play session, where we complete the Production Phase of the game, engaging in bad B-movie hijinks to discover the identity of the leader of the Vampires gang and the location of the Last Operatio...