We sat down with Sacha Lightfoot of Slightly Reckless Games to talk all things Ronin—a brutal, beautiful RPG about masterless samurai and the weight of honor. We dig into where the game came from, what makes it sing, and why we think OSR games are SHITE (clickbait, we actually don't).

Sacha shares what’s next from SRG, and we get into how Ronin adapts and builds on Mörk Borg’s core concepts. There’s death, duty, and just enough darkness to feel real. As always, we talk theme, tone, and what we’re really chasing in an RPG.

Stick around for a preview of our Ronin Actual Play with the Late Night Marauders, and don’t miss the chance to back SRG’s upcoming expansion, Densetsu.

Also, check out Scott’s StartPlaying page for weekly Ronin sessions—featuring both original and published scenarios:
👉 https://startplaying.games/gm/myth-forged

Topics Discussed:

2:00 What are we working on

8:10 Slightly Reckless Games

17:20 Lets talk about Ronin

23:40 Death and Resurrection

32:30 Exploring OSR

40:10 Honor System

46:00 Densetsu Kickstarter on its final week https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/slightlyreckless/ronin-densetsu

53:00 Third Party Development for Ronin

58:00 Ronin Actual Play excerpt (1 hour) of module 13 Demons of Akuma Saizo by John Ossaway.

For podcasts, articles and more visit ModernMythology.net

Here is our inaugural conversation about story structure and the ways both system and choice shape our RPG sessions. In this episode, we focus on the classic three-act structure—how it translates into collaborative, improvised play over the course of an ongoing campaign, or within individual sessions.

We explore a few core questions:

Where does the responsibility for story lie in an RPG?

What games drive narrative through structure, and how do they do it?

How can we think differently about the formulas we bring to the table?

Our goal is to offer several ways to create story in nearly any type of game, including those without explicit narrative mechanics. This is the beginning of a longer conversation about how stories emerge in play, and the different tools we can use to shape them.

More to come on this topic, we’re sure.

Topics Discussed:

00:01:00 What we’re playing?

00:18:50 Narrative Structure

00:24:00 Site-based games

00:44:42 Sandbox games

01:01:00 Player facing

01:08:00 Story Driven Structures, ie Three Acts

01:10:00 The Inciting Incident

01:19:00 Act Two

01:27:00 Reluctant Heroes

01:29:00 Act Three

01:33:20 Wrapping Up

For more podcasts, articles and more visit ModernMythology.net

This is an auxiliary episode highlighting an exciting new story game from Bully Pulpit Games, Zhenya's Wonder Tales, a GMless rpg driven by cards to tell grim slavic-inspired fairy tales. We do our first interview with the game designer, Jason Morningstar - prolific designer of Fiasco, Shab-al-hiri Roach, and Gray Ranks, among others.

Check out Zhenya's Wonder Tales on Backerkit - Campaign ends April 4th.

Topics Discussed:

00:00:45 Intro

00:07:30 Green and Narrow Bed

00:12:12 Zhenya's Wonder Tales

00:24:00 Art by Momatoes

00:32:20 Safer spaces in rpgs

00:37:25 Explicit stakes in *moves*

00:48:30 No dice?

00:54:00 Interview Wrap-Up

@jmstar on social media

Actual Play

00:56:20 Rules Read Aloud

We ran Zhenya's Wonder Tales in Roll20

01:04:00 Choose characters

01:10:10 Enjoy as we play Zhenya's Wonder Tales

For more podcasts, articles and more visit ModernMythology.net