No Plot, Only Lore

Josh Varty and Kristoffer Hansen
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Two old men talking about the art and craft of collaborative storytelling games.

  1. The Ecology of Goblins: Deconstructing 'Goblin Mode' & Millennial Burnout

    -2 J

    The Ecology of Goblins: Deconstructing 'Goblin Mode' & Millennial Burnout

    What is the difference between Goblin Mode and Goblin Core? Dive into the ecology of the internet's most feral archetype. We explore why embracing your inner "cozy swamp creature" is a coping mechanism for millennial burnout and the pressure of perfect adulting.

    31 min
  2. The Problem With Progress: OPR's Sentient Bugs and Fan Backlash

    7 NOV.

    The Problem With Progress: OPR's Sentient Bugs and Fan Backlash

    One Page Rules (OPR) started as a quick, simple alternative to Warhammer 40,000, but now it’s charting its own path with unique lore. The results? A minefield of mixed audience reactions. In this episode, we dive into the difficulties OPR faces transitioning from a '40k knock-off' to an original game system, and how the inherent differences in audience expectations—especially those conditioned by the constant feedback loop of the internet—make that transition so volatile

    31 min
  3. Anime Powers for TTRPGs: Can Groundhog Day Death & Turbo Granny Work in D&D?

    31 OCT.

    Anime Powers for TTRPGs: Can Groundhog Day Death & Turbo Granny Work in D&D?

    Welcome back to No Plot Only Lore! This week, your hosts Josh and Chris dive deep into the most chaotic and complex anime powers to figure out how to import them into your favorite TTRPG (like Dungeons & Dragons). If you love D&D mechanics, worldbuilding, and outlandish character concepts, this episode is for you. We break down the rules and roleplaying challenges of: The Social Credit Hero: A power set based entirely on a character's popularity and public trust. What happens to a superhero's power when their social score tanks?Death & Reset Mechanics: Examining the genre of "Groundhog Death Day" anime where a character resets time upon death, including the protagonist who killed himself 4,000 times to power up.Magical Garbage: Analyzing the unique ability to imbue mundane trash with extraordinary TTRPG powers.The Turbo Granny Problem: How to run an encounter against a villain with a bizarre, high-speed power, and the logistics of powers drawn from the series Dan Da Dan. Discover the best (and worst) ways to integrate these plot-bending abilities into your next D&D campaign or tabletop adventure.

    39 min
  4. Cringe: Why Sincerity Still Matters at the TTRPG Gaming Table

    24 OCT.

    Cringe: Why Sincerity Still Matters at the TTRPG Gaming Table

    Let’s talk about being cringe!  Pretend play is an essential part of growing up and learning social roles and shit.This goes back to Piaget and Vygotsky - pretending is how we experiment and try on identities and learn empathy and problem-solving. Adults often repress that because it’s fucking cringe as hell.Sitting down to play a role-playing game reactivates that early developmental muscle, but it’s occasionally awkward and weird.Kids: The floor is lava! Adults: If I do enough pretend violence I might be able to afford pretend real estate!  Irony is the Armor of Sincerity Memes, quotes, and in-jokes make the table feel safe — a shared cultural shorthand.Emotional detachment also feels safe. Not caring about fake people is cooler than caring about fake people, and we usually want to be cool.But irony can also block emotional engagement. If everyone’s half-laughing through their character arcs, no one has to risk being sincere. The Cringe Frontier Why do we generally cringe at sincerity? Is cringe just a way of enforcing emotional conformity? Can being cringy be brave, or is it always the absolute worst? We both come from improv backgrounds where being cringe is kind of a necessity. Has that better prepared us for cringe at our tables?  Circle of Safety I was reading a post recently from someone who was wondering if maybe we’d gone a bit too far on making game tables a safe space. I’m pretty sure I disagree with that person, but I will agree that the tools we have aren’t ideal and probably never will be.What are your personal safety mechanisms? How do you invite people to be sincere without forcing them to “act” at the table? What is the DM’s role in creating an emotional stable space for Big Feelings? Huizinga’s Magic Circle suggests that normal rules, even rules about social conformity, are suspended during play. Does that work if the real space (outside of the liminal shared imagined space of play) is not safe? How can we support emotional safety in service to enabling bravery?

    37 min
  5. Bring out the Clowns: Humor and Jokes at the TTRPG Table

    10 OCT.

    Bring out the Clowns: Humor and Jokes at the TTRPG Table

    We was talking clowns and that got me on the ha-has.  The Party as a Comedy Troupe Most D&D tables accidentally become improv comedy theater.“Every game starts as Game of Thrones and ends as Monty Python.”Long campaigns kind of naturally develop bits and recurring gagsPlayers have a tendency to start to fall into roles associated with ensemble comedy subconsciously. Quotes I don’t know what to tell you, man - people are gonna quote D20, Critical Roll, Monty PythonThey aren’t necessarily meant to be funny? They’re more like a cultural shorthand and rituals for belonging.They say “I am one of you, I know the right scripts, I can do the call-and-response!” It’s like a meta-textual handshake of sorts.Often, the quotes mutate or change over time to become more specific to your group. The Bits Every group, whether gaming or not, develops an internal economy. A bit is currency - you can buy attention or affection with it.You trade a bit for laughs or groans or the DM watching their soul evaporate into sighs.In some ways, tables will self-regulate this economy.Good bits live on, bad bits die, Legendary Bits may transcend this table or this game and be used at others.  Modern table comedy is deeply parasocial. Many players have internalized the cadence of Brennan Lee Mulligan, Aabria Iyengar, or Matt Mercer.Quoting or mimicking them isn’t laziness — it’s a way to align tone and show respect.But it can also blur identity: Are we referencing their games, or ours?Is the humor derivative, or are we participating in a shared meta-culture of play?This creates a kind of folk comedy canon — the oral tradition of Actual Play media. The Function of Comedy in Collaborative Play It defuses tension, reinforces bonds, and stitches continuity across long gaps.Laughter is a feedback loop of participation — even disengaged players rejoin the moment when someone lands a good bit.Table humor = the heartbeat of the group.In many ways, the group’s sense of humor defines its culture more than its ruleset. The Meta Bit: When the Table Knows It’s a Show For Actual Play games, humor becomes performative.The “table” has a secondary audience.Every joke carries dual awareness:Does it land here?Does it land out there?The bit becomes both a bonding mechanism and part of the brand.You joke different if you know your joke could be on a mug forever.

    41 min
  6. Ludonarrative Dissonance: When TTRPG Game Mechanics Don't Match the Story

    3 OCT.

    Ludonarrative Dissonance: When TTRPG Game Mechanics Don't Match the Story

    Time to get real pretentious with it again! Buckle up! Talking about the friction that takes place between a game's mechanics and that game's story, and how that impacts the art of gaming in general.

    41 min
  7. Campaign Aftercare: What do You do When a Long TTRGP Campaign is Over?

    26 SEPT.

    Campaign Aftercare: What do You do When a Long TTRGP Campaign is Over?

    How do you make sure your players are ready to re-enter reality after the campaign is over?

    38 min
  8. Playing With Yourself: Solo Board Games that Don't Need Other Players

    19 SEPT.

    Playing With Yourself: Solo Board Games that Don't Need Other Players

    This week we talk about board games you can play all by your lonesome!

    33 min
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À propos

Two old men talking about the art and craft of collaborative storytelling games.

Informations

  • Création
    Josh Varty and Kristoffer Hansen
  • Années d’activité
    2023 - 2025
  • Épisodes
    73
  • Classification
    Contenu explicite
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2025 Josh Varty and Kristoffer Hansen
  • Site web de l’émission
    No Plot, Only Lore