Undercommon Taste

This week, we're brainstorming and developing one-shot outlines inspired by the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, in preparation for a game at a library event celebrating the publication of The Hobbit (not Tolkien's birthday - sorry, got that bit of info wrong). Join us as we figure out how to put the Nazgul on Bikes, how to steal treasure from a dragon, and just how far we can stretch the trope of three kobolds in a trench coat.

Once aga...

This week, we're celebrating our fifth anniversary (and Tarrasquemas) with Spencer Campbell's solo souls-like necromancer RPG, REAP. Join us as James reaps his way across the realm of Kyrie, Ian gets *most* of the rules right, and we find out if Petrov the Necromancer can defeat the Horror at the end of the game.

You can find REAP, and Spencer Campbell's many other games, through his website gilarpgs.com or his Itch store at gila...

This week, we start looking at some of the dragons native to planes beyond the Material. Join us as we discuss dragons from the Feywild, the Underdark (okay, not TECHNICALLY another plane), and the Elemental and Paraelemental Planes.

Our website is live! Head on over to undercommontaste.com to find links to all of our social media, streaming sites, Patreon, Itch store, and Discord.

Our theme song is Massacre Anne, written and per...

This week, Ian is recounting his adventure to the distant city of Indianapolis to be counted among the record 72,000 attendants of GenCon 2025. Join us as he gives a recap of the games he played, shows off the games he purchased, and poorly describes some game mechanics (I was tired, okay?).

Here's a list of the games mentioned this week, plus places where you can find them (if they aren't available at your FLGS):

Pirate Borg by ...

This week, we're taking a meme and making the framework for a TTRPG out of it. Join us as we discuss themes and mechanics, define some terms, and just generally have a good time figuring out how we might get our own booth at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. 

Here's a link to the meme in question: https://imgur.com/wkK73kR 

A large amount of the information I know regarding the 1893 World's Fair (the "World's Columbian Exhibition"...

This week, we discuss the variety of undead dragons available in the D&D rulebooks. Join us as we discuss the mechanics of undeath with regards to dragons, create a dragon mummy, and revel in the terror from the 3.5e Fiend Folio that is the Hullathoin.

As mentioned in the episode, we discuss the dracolich at length in Episode 92, "Lich Please". Here is a link to that episode: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-9987i-12605dd

Our ...

This week, we take a look at the Module Maker Kit for One Shot in the Dark, the solo-capable game written by Jon from Tale of the Manticore. Join us as we assess the advice, play with the Mythic GM Emulator, and start our work creating a module for One Shot in the Dark.

We forgot to mention it in the actual episode, but you can find all of Jon's work on DriveThruRPG (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher/20015/tale-of-the-manti...

This week, we're turning back the clocks to look at some of the dragons from 2nd and 3rd Edition D&D which haven't been updated to 5E in official books. Join us as we discuss seven different types of dragons - each one interesting and, often, unreasonably deadly - that have been relegated to the annals of time.

Our website is live! Head on over to undercommontaste.com to find links to all of our social media, streaming sites,...

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...