This Ol’ Dungeon Podcast

Episode 50 With Returning Hosts Featuring Lathan's Gold and Merle Rasmussen

We're all very honored to have made it to 50 regular episodes! Suggested by listeners, we tried to hype-up this golden anniversary by having former hosts Briggy and Thomas back on to join the current crew in discussions that range from whether module challenge ratings give accurate information, to hosting our own "dream episode" of TOD, to giving the This Ol' Dungeon treatment to Merle Rasmussen's "Lathan's Gold." Mid-episode you also get a one-on-one interview with the man, himself, Merle Rasmussen. It's a bit of a long one, folks, but you don't hit 50 too often! We had a lot of fun on this one and we hope you will too.

One Shot Episode 24 G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King with Stefan Surratt

Stefan Surratt is launching a cool DCC campaign called "Conquest of Chaos" filled with inspiration from the old "Against the Giants" modules. On this episode, he and Luau Lou sit down and talk about his adventures' designs as well as the finale in the G series, G3: Hall of the Fire Giant King. Its amazing how many little bits of "wow" that very early adventure has smashed between dozens and dozens of fights with giants... If you want a fresh take on conquesting jotnars you should check out Stefan's Backerkit (launching at the end of January): Conquest of Chaos. The regular hosts will be back soon with a regular episode (OUR 50th!), so stay tuned for that as well!

OneShotEpisode23_Pre-Christmas Hanging out With Dave Townsend of Games with Dave

On Christmas Eve...Eve, I had the opportunity to do a Zoom call with my good friend Dave Townsend. Figuring that we would end up talking about gaming stuff, I asked him if it would be OK to just record the conversation and put it out there as a oneshot for This Ol' Dungeon; just in case there was someone out there that wanted a little company. He was cool with it. In this conversation between friends, we talk about gaming and the holidays, games we played with our siblings and children, 3D printing, the advent of the resin printer, and a bit more. So come hang with us for a conversation...

If you would like to see Dave's amazing webstore, you can find it here: Games with Dave the RPG Store

For his awesome collection of video interviews with a who's-who of RPG legends, check out his YouTube channel: Games with Dave the Youtube Channel

Episode 49: Have a Trappy New Years!

In this episode, Bill, Edwin and Lou discuss the use of traps in the game, compare their thoughts on the Grimtooth's Traps series, and challenge the listeners to write in with their own reflections (write to thisoldungeon@gmail.com). Have a very Merry Christmas or whatever holiday is warming your heart right now, and may great fortune be yours in 2025!

Episode 48 Caverns of Thracia

Episode 48 might be one of the most personally satisfying episodes for Lou, as he, Bill, and Edwin tackle the Judge’s Guild classic, “Caverns of Thracia.” There’s a lot of gushing over many of its fine qualities and a bit of suggestion as to what might make it more endearing to players and other ways this product might be used. We have our usual opening banter, much of which is devoted to the awesome Long Con RPG convention both Bill and Lou attended recently and to the upcoming (December 14^th) Ethernet Version of the Crawl for the Cure (View at: https://www.twitch.tv/dcc_mayhem) (Info at: https://crawlforthecure.net/wpcftc/?page_id=74). Edwin and Lou will be participating in games for the Crawl for the Cure and MANY, MANY great gaming companies are throwing in for prizes for the raffles (all donors get put in for the raffles), so please give the channel a watch on the 14^th and make a donation with a crazy suggestion for the judge or the players as they put on these “live plays” for you. There are a lot of cool industry personalities playing and running AND you get to see some great products brought to life on the actual gaming table. Check it out, running all day and into the wee hours of the night on December 14^th.  Until next episode, have a great Thanksgiving and make those saves vs. sleep!  P.S. Here’s a link to get signed up for PAGE con (https://phillyexpocenter.com/events/philadelphia-area-gaming-expo/) and here is one for Total Con (http://www.totalcon.com/) both conventions mentioned in the episode.

Halloween 2024 with Luau Lou and Christopher Tupa

This is that once-a-year, oddball episode where Luau Lou sits down with his old buddy and artist friend, Christopher Tupa and they blather on and on about Halloween-themed topics. This episode gets a bit morbid at one point, as they discuss real life death scenes, but otherwise they try and tell some spooky stories but mostly just go down the river of nostalgia without a paddle to direct themselves... Listen in if you want, otherwise the next official episode of TOD will be in November!  Happy Halloween!

 

Here's Christopher's webpage if you want to check out his cool art! http://www.ctupa.com/Home.html

Episode 47 House on Gryphon HIll with Stephen Clements

We have a great October Episode for you all! We have Stephen Clements of the Langhorne Creative Group (https://rumble.com/c/StephenClements) on. If you aren't already following his channel on Rumble or YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@stephenclements6158) he is one of the Internet's BEST RPG adventure reviewers-and we're going to need his help on this episode as we take on the critically panned "Ravenloft II: House on Gryphon HIll." This adventure has it all: dream sequences, body-swaps, Mr. Hyde syndrome, first appearance of Azlin the lich... We also get a chance to bring back Geek Credit and get some Halloween themed gaming material into the hands of one of our listeners! Throughout the episode we mention the UK gaming convention schedule given to us by Peter Skanes (http://bit.ly/UKIRPGBGCons) and a drive to get more users on the ever-awesome RPG Market Facebook group (much better prices than eBay for cool RPG stuff) (https://www.facebook.com/groups/rpgmarketgroup/).  As always, remember that everyone who writes into the show gets a chance to win fabulous RPG swag, rolled at random for each episode! The best way to contact us is through our email: thisoldungeon@gmail.com but you can leave a message on our Facebook page or here as well!  Happy gaming!

Episode 46: Star Wars D6 Strike Force Shantipole with Chris Holmes!

While Edwin is off gallivanting in France, Bill and Lou are joined by former guest host, Chris Holmes! We get caught up with Bill after his big (three month) hiatus from the program, then dig in to the classic Star Wars adventure, 'Strike Force Shantipole." This is one of those "right over the plate" adventures that West End was doing so well when they first launched the line. Meet COMMANDER Ackbar and escort his engineering team as they try to escape from an Imperial invasion with the prototypes for the B-Wing Fighters! 

We forgot to do the roll on air for those that wrote it, but fear not! After the fact, a random roll determined The Lone DM to be the winner of this episode's RPG swag.  If you want a chance at some cool RPG swag, write in with comments, memories, questions or whatever at thisoldungeon@gmail.com.  We'll look forward to being with you again in October with both a regular episode and another special Halloween episode with Lou and his artist buddy, Christopher Tupa!

 

Episode 45 Almost in Time for August...AD&D Fast Play 1

Feeling bad about not getting an official episode together for the month of August, Luau Lou quickly sat down to record this episode, hoping it would appease the gods of podcasting. In this episode you get a quick run through of the AD&D 2nd edition product "Fast Play #1." This was a free handout that included the basic rules to play AD&D 2nd Ed. and a 4-room dungeon to start you off. Unfortunately, in a rush to get this recorded, Lou forgot to actually "This Ol' Dungeon" it -and so all you really get is a review. The episode ends with a list of other podcasts that put out really good gaming content.  We are committed to bringing you a full-blown episode here in September. Till then dungeoneers-take care!

Episode 44 Pendragon's Beast Quest

In this episode, Edwin and Lou talk about solving the problem of gaming at small cons, whether "tangents" hurt or help RPG module writing, the 1000th episode of Skype of Cthulhu (listen here), and how useful the program/podcast "The Why Files?" could be to creating modern RPG adventure content..oh yeah, we also talk about this episode's feature, "Beast Quest" for the Pendragon RPG system (1st edition). As you would expect for Pendragon, "Beast Quest" offers an interesting mix of true Dark Age narrative structure and a hint of whimsy. Check it out! And in case you're wondering we did release Bill from solitary confinement into the charge of his wife.  Hopefully he has learned his lesson and will be with us on the next episode.  Don't forget to send us some emails, messages, or whatever -there's always a chance to win some great gaming material just for telling us about what you're doing in the hobby, asking us a questions, or correcting us on misspoken facts! Cheers!