Ludonarrative Dissidents
Ross Payton
Ludonarrative Dissidents is a podcast from Greg Stolze, James Wallis, and Ross Payton to explore and analyze tabletop RPGs. What does each game do, how does it work, and why do people play it? We are currently in season 2, and we've expanded to include episodes on types of game mechanics like meta currencies and initiative systems.
- 1 hour 2 minutesLivestream for October 202514 October 2025, 5:18 pm
- 1 hour 9 minutesLivestream for September 202530 September 2025, 7:12 pm
- 1 hour 26 secondsRed Markets: Trabajo
Trabajo (Hebanon Games, 2019) is a 32-page ‘portfolio’, part sourcebook and part adventure pack, for the Red Markets post-apocalypse RPG of economic and undead horror, written by Ludonarrative Dissidents’ own Ross Payton. We analysed Red Markets last season and liked it a lot, as you can imagine, and this episode is an opportunity to hear more about how it looks in action, and get Ross’s insights into how he went about constructing this compact, intense supplement.
- Our previous episode covering Red Markets
- Trabajo at DriveThruRPG
- Red Markets at DriveThruRPG, ridiculously good value at just $5
24 September 2025, 7:12 pm - 1 hour 17 minutesBrindlewood Bay
Brindlewood Bay is a tabletop roleplaying game that combines Murder, She Wrote with H.P. Lovecraft. In it, you play a group of elderly women, members of the local Murder Mavens Mystery Book Club, who help the authorities solve murder cases in a picturesque New England Town.
4 September 2025, 4:48 pm - 1 hour 20 minutesUnknown Armies: Jailbreak
JAILBREAK is a one-session scenario for Unknown Armies, originally written by Greg Stolze of this parish, in 1998 as a demo adventure for conventions, and subsequently published in the One Shots adventure anthology. It has since been described as one of the great horror adventures for any RPG. Greg is, of course, one of the creators of Unknown Armies, along with John Tynes, and his insights here into how the adventure came together, its structure, how it works and how it’s played are fascinating. Enjoy the episode!
7 August 2025, 7:00 pm - 1 hour 8 minutesLivestream for July 2025
Our livestream for July! We talk about Gencon, the Ennies, and we get a surprise visit! Watch the episode here on Youtube if you want to see the visuals.
22 July 2025, 9:44 pm - 1 hour 11 minutesRifts: Ultimate Edition
RIFTS is a role playing game designed by Kevin Siembieda and originally published by his company Palladium Books in 1990. In this episode we examine the Rifts Ultimate Edition from 2005, a revised and expanded version of the original game rulebook. Like it, hate it or previously unaware of it, there’s nothing like it on the market today and we enjoyed the chance to delve into what makes it work.
Read the full show notes here.
- See the original Rifts rulebook at DriveThruRPG
- See the Rifts Ultimate Edition at DriveThruRPG. We can’t speak for other Rifts PDFs but this PDF is a scan of the print book, every page is an image, the text is not searchable, there is no indexing or bookmarking. It’s like an artefact from a more primitive time.
- See the Rifts game-line at the Palladium Books website
- See Savage Rifts at DriveThruRPG
3 July 2025, 10:07 pm - 1 hour 9 minutesCyberpunk RED: Black Chrome
BLACK CHROME IS A 2023 gearbook for the Cyberpunk Red roleplaying game, written by James Hutt, Jay Parker, Turbo, J Gray, Anne Morrison, Chris Spivey, Fran Stewart, and Linda M Evans, and published by R Talsorian Games.
- Read the Wikipedia entry for the Cyberpunk RPG
- Read about Black Chrome on DriveThruRPG
- See the Cyberpunk Red rulebook on DriveThruRPG
5 June 2025, 5:14 pm - 1 hour 3 minutesLudonarrative Dissidents Livestream for May 2025
We talk a bit about conventions - Greg visited a small con called Forge Midwest and Ross prepares for Gencon this year with 7 events. We also answer audience questions.
21 May 2025, 9:04 pm - 1 hour 26 minutesCyberpunk RED
Cyberpunk RED is the latest edition of the dystopian sci-fi RPG series originally created by Mike Pondsmith. Set in 2045 after a major war, characters in Cyberpunk RED can pull off jobs for secretive clients, roam the wastelands, or reclaim them. It contains everything needed to play.
25 April 2025, 7:45 pm - 1 hour 6 minutesLudonarrative Dissidents Livestream for April 2025
James went on vacation to Pompeii, so he's sharing his photos and discussing ancient Roman history.
If you want to see the video version with the photos, it's on Youtube.
16 April 2025, 9:37 pm - More Episodes? Get the App