Ian, José, and special correspondent Danny put the knowledge we've gained from past episodes into practice. We talk about figuring out what you actually like in a game and advocating for it, playing to lift our fellow players, and Danny's 4-step method for iterative improvement through play.

Find out more about the Open Hearth Gaming Community
Our website - May the 4th is coming soon!
Support us on Patreon!
Our actual play podcast can be found here
Follow us on Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/open-hearth-rpg
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Mastodon: @openhearthrpg@dice.camp

Our info:
Email: adifferenthex@gmail.com
Music: https://lloydeaves.bandcamp.com/album/a-different-kind-of-hex

0:03:38 - Pick Your Poison
0:17:10 - What does it mean to develop as a player?
0:38:14 - Reflection & Table Feedback
0:45:05 - Danny's 4-Step Method
0:52:14 - How we handle "bad scenes"
0:58:46 - Outro

Roll for Origin: Supers TTRPG History looks at two closely linked licensed supers games: Smallville and Marvel Heroic. To dig into this pair, Lowell and Jay bring on Rich Rogers (Hit the Streets: Defend the Block; +1 Forward) to give his perspectives as a GM and player. We talk about the system mechanics of the two games, including the big differences, the publication history of MWP, the media touchstones for these properties, and then give our general thoughts-- including wondering where our Smallville retroclones are...

If you dig this series, please rate, review, and subscribe.

Jay's the author of By Aecer’s Light, The Clockwinders for Fate, Cortex Prime's Supers, and a contributing author on Pathfinder’s Mwangi Expanse, Trophy Gold, Hit the Streets: Defend the Block, and the upcoming Lifted: Indomitable RPG, a supers game about everyday folks with extraordinary powers in a tech-aggressive world.

Check out Mad Jay's work at Play.Fearless and at the Diceology Podcast.

You can find Rich's game, Hit the Streets here.

Lowell is the designer and co-author of Hearts of Wulin. He's the ENnie-winning creator of the Age of Ravens blog and community manager for the Open Hearth Gaming Community.

You can find Lowell's work on YouTube, on Itch.io, and on DriveThruRPG.

Find out more about the Open Hearth Gaming Community
Support us on Patreon!
Our actual play podcast can be found here
Follow us on Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/open-hearth-rpg
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/openhearthrpg
Mastodon: @openhearthrpg@dice.camp

00:00 Intro
01:48 Pitch and Mechanics
12:11 Publication History
17:46 Where these Licenses Were
23:28 Thoughts

In this episode of the Open Hearth Podcast, host Lowell Francis (edige23) once again talks with a couple of community members about their recent gaming. This time we have veteran community couple Tyler and Patrick. We talk preparations for an upcoming Ars Magica campaign and how it fits with past campaigns, the challenges and joys of long-running story campaigns, and the intersection of current events and modern superhero gaming. We finish up with some of the things we've been digging recently.

May the Fourth: Star Wars Minicon 2026
Ars Magica Manager
Tyler's YouTube

Find out more about the Open Hearth Gaming Community
Support us on Patreon!
Our actual play podcast can be found here
Follow us on Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/open-hearth-rpg
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/openhearthrpg
Mastodon: @openhearthrpg@dice.camp

00:00 Introduction
01:40 Patrick & Ars Magica
16:22 Tyler & long-running story campaigns
29:33 Lowell & the challenges of modern supers games
40:52 Giving Me Life

This episode presents a community talk from back in 2022. It features Rae Nedjadi, David MK, and myself talking about managing and working with playtests. It seemed like a useful thing to get back into the feed, so I've cleaned up the audio for posting. We talk about planning playtests, setting expectations, dealing with feedback, and filtering input.

Rae Nedjadi on itch.io
Rae Nedjadi on Patreon
David MK on itch.io
David MK on Patreon

Find out more about the Open Hearth Gaming Community
Support us on Patreon!
Our actual play podcast can be found here
Follow us on Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/open-hearth-rpg
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/openhearthrpg
Mastodon: @openhearthrpg@dice.camp

In our fifth episode of Roll for Mutation, we look at two different licensed post-apocalyptic TTRPGs from the 1990s. First, World of Tank Girl, part of West End Games Masterbook series which apparently launched even before the film it was based on hit the theaters. Then we cover Ralph Bakshi's Wizards, based on the eponymous wild animated movie from the 1970s. We talk about what both games do, the source materials, their specific apocalypses, and how both games showcase 1990's game design tendencies: for better or worse (Lowell says worse).

References
Designers and Dragons: The 1980s
Designers and Dragons: The 1990s
Tank Girl on Wikipedia
Wizards on Wikipedia

For other shows like this, check out Roll for Origin: Supers TTRPG History.

Marc Majcher is an award-winning game designer, performer, educator, director, woodworker, writer, and all-around goblin-man recently relocated from Austin, Texas to East Lansing, Michigan. You can find their RPGs and LARPs inspired by the works of Philip K. Dick, a bird apocalypse, eldritch startup cults, viral videos, and much, much more at https://majcher.itch.io/ and everything else at https://majcher.com/.

Lowell Francis is the designer and co-author of Hearts of Wulin. He's the ENnie-winning creator of the Age of Ravens blog and community manager for the Open Hearth Gaming Community.

You can find Lowell's work on YouTube, on Itch.io, and on DriveThruRPG.

Find out more about the Open Hearth Gaming Community
Support us on Patreon!
Our actual play podcast can be found here
Follow us on Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/open-hearth-rpg
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/openhearthrpg
Mastodon: @openhearthrpg@dice.camp

Music: Here Comes the Night Karl Casey @White Bat Audio

00:00 Introduction: Licensed Apocalypses
02:02 Tank Girl
24:41 Ralph Bakshi's Wizards

While the Open Hearth Community has often focused on one-shots, two-shots, and monthly short campaigns, there's always the siren call of running a longer series: a quarterly or beyond. In this community talk we're going to talk about "long" campaign best practices, planning, dealing with burnout, and more. Lowell has ideas and he'll be leading this discussion group– relying mostly on the participation of folks who join us and desperately filling dead air in between points. This is part of our Open Hearth series of community RPG talks.

Links
Microscope
Microscope with 13th Age
Arium
Talking World Building (OH Podcast Episode)
Age of Ravens Campaign Builder Decks
Trinity Game Prep Sheet
World Ending Game

Find out more about the Open Hearth Gaming Community
Support us on Patreon!
Our actual play podcast can be found here
Follow us on Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/open-hearth-rpg
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/openhearthrpg
Mastodon: @openhearthrpg@dice.camp

Ian, José, and special guest Shane explore the space between direct exposition and embodied demonstration during play. How are these two approaches different? What are their best use cases? And how can they, when used well, support each other, the player, and the entire table?

Jason Morningstar's great essay, "How to End" - https://www.patreon.com/posts/how-to-end-116645883

Find out more about the Open Hearth Gaming Community
Our website - it's 🤖 Mecha March 🤖
Support us on Patreon!
Our actual play podcast can be found here
Follow us on Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/open-hearth-rpg
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/openhearthrpg
Mastodon: @openhearthrpg@dice.camp

Our info:
Email: adifferenthex@gmail.com
Music: https://lloydeaves.bandcamp.com/album/a-different-kind-of-hex

Roll for Origin: Supers TTRPG History looks all four editions of one of the most important modern supers TTRPGs, Mutants & Masterminds. Jay and Lowell talk about the core elements of the game-- what has remained the same and how the powers system has shifted over time. They then cover the publication history of the game and how each edition rolled out, followed by talk about how M&M has dealt with media, genres, and a few IPs. The episode then wraps up with a general discussion, where *spoilers* Lowell talks about why this has become his favorite trad-leaning supers game and his most embarrassing convention story.

• Mutants & Masterminds 4e Kickstarter (running through March 5, 2026)
• The Play Fearless Greatest Crits Zine Kickstarter (Jay's project running through March 1, 2026)
• Muses of Play (Mad Jay and Sarah Doom's new podcast project)
• Mutants & Masterminds System Guide for 3e
• RPGs I Like: Mutants & Masterminds, 2e (Part One)
• RPGs I Like: Mutants & Masterminds, 2e (Part Two)

If you dig this series, please rate, review, and subscribe.

Jay's the author of By Aecer’s Light, The Clockwinders for Fate, Cortex Prime's Supers, and a contributing author on Pathfinder’s Mwangi Expanse, Trophy Gold, Hit the Streets: Defend the Block, and the upcoming Lifted: Indomitable RPG, a supers game about everyday folks with extraordinary powers in a tech-aggressive world.

Check out Mad Jay's work at Play.Fearless and at the Diceology Podcast.

Lowell is the designer and co-author of Hearts of Wulin. He's the ENnie-winning creator of the Age of Ravens blog and community manager for the Open Hearth Gaming Community.

You can find Lowell's work on YouTube, on Itch.io, and on DriveThruRPG.

Find out more about the Open Hearth Gaming Community
Support us on Patreon!
Our actual play podcast can be found here
Follow us on Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/open-hearth-rpg
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/openhearthrpg
Mastodon: @openhearthrpg@dice.camp

00:00 Intro
01:13 The Pitch
09:34 Gaming History
17:53 Comics & Media History
25:53 Thoughts