Setting the Stage, Campaigns for D&D and Other RPGs

Al from the Point of Insanity Game Studio and Podcast is here to talk about a couple of different things! We started off by discussing the Dark Sun campaign setting, which was a post-apocalyptic campaign setting released for D&D in 1991. Next was the changes in D&D over the editions/years. After that was Al's Point of Insanity Network podcast, a variety podcast about a number of different topics in the geek and horror space...

Kevin tells us about his setting and TTRPG, Orbis. It's a crunchy mech combat game!

Central to Orbis is the Ion Tempest storm. It started long ago and afflicts the world with electrical storms, cold snaps, heat waves, and odd magnetic and gravitational fields. History of the world before the arrival of the Ion Tempest is lost. Some sort of apocalypse occurred to this science fiction civilization that destroyed everything and cre...

John tells us about his setting and TTRPG system he's developing, Dalteria.

Dalteria the world was originally lifeless. Long ago on Earth, magic existed. When God flooded Earth, the wizards took all the magic with them. Noah built his ark while the wizards left Earth to settle and terraform Dalteria with their magic. Millenia later the people of Earth advanced enough to develop colonization starships. One of these colonies made ...

Deor tells us about his game system and setting, Black Noon. Interesting fact about Deor is that he has never GMed a game of his own. Black Noon should end up very player-facing in how its written and how it plays.

The Black Noon system is a 2d6 system. Rolls are modified by adding more dice or with bigger modifiers. When adding more dice you always select the best two dice from the bunch (or worst two if you're receiving a pena...

Today's guest is Helix, the GM of the actual play podcast, RPG Major. RPG Major is a detective show in a fantasy version of modern Seattle. The show is half RPG/half musical improv, setting it apart from many other actual plays. The game is run using the Genesys system. Every few minutes a song drops in to cover the group's activities and emotions. The whole show is accompanied by live acoustic guitar music. There's a little chord ...

Todd tells us about his world, Skjaald, and his fantasy TTRPG system he's designing for it called Skjaald Sagas. The main continent for Skjaald is Driktsuung, a place with varied biomes similar to North America. The people of Driktsuung are divided into the Six Realms with different governmental structures for each Realm. All the typical fantasy races are present with a few twists. Magic is deeply connected to the soul in Skjaald, ...

Ryan is designing a TTRPG system and setting called Ethereal. In the setting all cryptids like Sasquatch, the Loch Ness Monster, and Mothman are real. An international government organization known as the Beacon exists to control these cryptids and keep them away from humanity. The players act as agents of the Beacon, solving different cryptid crises in an X-Files or Men in Black fashion. The stories take place during the 1910's, b...

Luca presents his world, dubbed Codex Inversus. Luca is from Italy and has used Italian Renaissance art as the inspiration for his campaign setting. Whenever he writes a new piece of lore its accompanied by a photoshopped piece of Renaissance style art. To see all the amazing art you can check out Luca's links below.

Codex Inversus is a world that its creator god abandoned. With the creator gone, all the lesser divinities, devil...

Daniel tells us about his community published campaign, Mists of Eldoria! Mists of Eldoria is available for anyone to download and run for themselves via Daniel's Patreon page. Of the nine parts of the campaign four are finished so far. You can follow along with the adventure as Daniel and his own group explore Eldoria and get closer to defeating the ancient evil at the heart of the continent.

Eldoria is a magical continent hidd...

Austin is here to talk about her Forged in the Dark game, Beam Saber, and one of the setting's she's released for it, Rush Wars. Beam Saber is designed for mech battles but with the numerous supplements it can be adapted for any sort of vehicle conception. Gundams, planes, robot dinosaurs, fast cars, or even the vertical maneuvering equipment in Attack on Titan are all possibilities within Beam Saber. After a mission PCs rest and r...

Ben tells us about Kobold Press's fantasy setting, Midgard. Midgard started off as an open design campaign setting in which the main author, Wolfgang Baur, allowed fans to vote on options for what would be included. That project expanded into the Kobold Press company which now has their own TTRPG, Tales of the Valiant. Ben is a contributing author to many different RPG publications, including but not limited to Kobold Press. Ben's ...

Dylan tells us about his campaign, set in the official Forgotten Realms setting! At long last Setting the Stage is covering the big D&D setting. Set sometime in the future of Faerun, Dylan's campaign focuses on a sentient and malevolent crystal that wants to mind control everyone in the world. This crystal is a representation of the forces of Lawful Evil within D&D's alignment spectrum along with eight other crystals for th...

Maia is our guest today presenting her actual play campaign, Pinehurst Academy. Maia used the City of Mist system for her game. From the City of Mist website, "In City of Mist you play ordinary individuals with powers that emanate from myths and legends investigating supernatural crimes and mysteries in a noir City where the truth is always hidden behind the pervasive Mist." Maia has used a fairly straight interpretation of that se...

This week's stars are Arin and Caleb from the Black Flare podcast. Arin is the GM for the podcast using the Delta Green rules system and Caleb is the podcast's producer and editor. They work together to create a phenomenal, slow-building horror story. Delta Green is an RPG for telling Cthulian Lovecraft stories in a more modern setting typically in the late 1990's or early 2000's. The PCs all have a connection to a secret governmen...

This week's guest is Amanda, another member of the Quelmar organization. Quelmar was featured previously in episode 32 with James, the original creator of Quelmar. Amanda is a Quelmar DM and is currently DMing a Quelmarized version of Hitpoint Press's Heckna!. Her interview focused on her homebrew campaign without a "proper" name dubbed the Delicious Homebrew.

The Delicious Homebrew focuses on a world that has lost connection to...

Somewhere there is a door.

Today's guests are Emma and Maia, the creators of the Yeldplay actual play podcast which was nominated for a 2024 CRIT award. Yeldplay is the official podcast of the Yeld RPG to showcase the system's unique mechanics and style of play. The Yeld RPG lets your roleplay as children that find a door to the Magical Land of Yeld. The children can explore Yeld and return home, but eventually the door locks be...

This episode features one of the other CRIT award nominees from 2024, Josh, who tells us about his game Last Fleet. Josh and his partner, Becky, are the main drivers at Black Armada Games which makes TTRPGs (among other games). Last Fleet is a Powered by the Apocalypse game that simulates a situation similar to that of the Battlestar Galactica show. In the far future humanity is on the run in the titular Last Fleet. Human planets h...

Udy tells us about his experiences with the Seventh Sea TTRPG system, the Scion system, and the focus for this episode, Pendragon! Pendragon is a generational RPG where you play a small noble house in England during the time of Arthurian legends. You play a knight or lady with responsibilities to your subjects, your lord, and the king. As play proceeds, your character finds friends, makes enemies, gets married, has children, goes o...

Malcolm, a member of the Advanced Age Roleplaying Gamers (AARPG) podcast, joins us to talk about one of his campaigns named Our Town. The concept for Our Town came about accidentally where rather than going on an adventure, the players all stayed in town and wanted to kick out any outsiders that wanted to change their little village. A rival baron to their lord schemes to take over their town and the players formed a neighborhood w...