Rene Plays Games
Hi! I’m Rene (pronounced Rainy) and I want to share my love of roleplaying games with you! Join me as I play through smaller publisher games, talk design and gaming topics with friends, and explore all the ways you can be a better game master or player.
Episodes
Thanks for giving my nerdy little RPG podcast a chance. This is just a little introduction to me and what you can expect from this podcast feed. Stick around, I hope you like it and find something that inspires you to go start your own game!
Welcome to the Sundered Isles, a setting expansion for the incredible Ironsworn: Starforged roleplaying game by Shawn Tomkin & Joshua Meehan.
In this series I'm going to be playing the (as yet) unreleased rules for the Sundered Isles setting, an age of sail take on Starforged with naval exploration, pirate themes, and general discovery built into the game. It was added on a stretch goal for the massively successful Starforged...
The series begins in earnest! Dyne Aloma and his crew of the Venture are called upon to aid The Morien and Eldarian Resistances on the isle of Isto Mavana against the Kyrody Dominion arriving to claim the island after their victory in a generations long war... However, these islands far out in the Reaches will not fall easily, and the first punch in a long fight is thrown. All the while, Dyne looks for ways to visit the sky isle wh...
After the successful strike against one of the three Kyrodi battleships to procure medicine for the Eldarian Remnants on Isto Mavana, the crews decide it's time to find a new home for the resistance. Dyne takes his crew Laolo & Ephraim to the nearby island of Gamadar, half-torn into the sky a few leagues above during the Cataclysm. The expedition encounters some nasty local flora and one of the crew is in danger.
Welcome to the inaugural episode of Perspective Checks, the new take on the DMs After Dark discussion show Modified Rolls!
In this series, I will be interviewing friends and folks from the hobby about something they like to think about when it comes to this wonderful world of tabletop RPGs, and what better way than to start with one of the first people to ever introduce me to the world of D&D, Troy Bliss!
You know Troy from...
Dyne, Laolo, and Ephraim return to Isto Mavana to seek medical attention for the puppet vine sprouting from Ephraim's arm. After an unfortunate surgery, the Resistance decides that the island explored by the crew of the Venture is the most promising, and they must return. This time, however, Dyne and friends are tasked with exploring the skyward half of the island floating above the oceans nearby, where more dangers await them than...
Welcome to the first episode of Mining Media, a short brainstorming style series that will come out every 3rd Tuesday of the month where I discuss a book, TV series, movie, video game, or any other kind of media I've been binging and think about what kind of inspiration and ideas you can take from it to use at your table and better your gaming experience.
This first episode dives into John Gwynne's The Faithful and the Fallen boo...
It's the 5th Tuesday of the month which means we're doing something special, and that means it's time to release One Last Quest, a one page RPG that allows you to bring back some of your favorite PCs of campaigns past and play them in their elderly retired years. However, a loose thread or problem arises that forces them to put down the shuffleboard and dust off the old heroics one more time.
Download at https://RenePlaysGames.it...
Dyne unintentionally initiates his first Mystic Trial - the Trial of the Storm, and makes some mistakes (and a bit of a mess) before he gets a handle on his powers. However, he comes out the other side with a little more control and a lot more to do, both in his own journey to master his sorcery and the resistance against the Kyrody Dominion.
Pre-order Starforged physical books or get it digital from Modiphius!
Welcome to another episode of Perspective Checks where I sit down with a friend in the tabletop roleplaying game world and discuss a topic of their choice!
For this episode I was joined by artist, video game streamer, and long-time home party member of Rene's - Matt Raso. Matt is the graphic designer behind both the DMs After Dark and Rene Plays Games logos, and you can find his art on Instagram and game streams on Twitch. Matt i...
Not every bonus episode has to be on a 5th Tuesday, holidays are good reason, too, right?
In this bonus one-shot, Rene ropes his wife Lynn into her first foray with Call of Cthulhu in a one-on-one scenario from the Does Love Forgive? collection.
Set in 1930s New York City amidst the bustling jazz scene, the scenario features a love triangle and questions just how far you'd go to achieve your goals. As Lynn's first dip into the ...
Dyne & crew wait out the night on the island of Gamadar, afraid of being spotted by the Dominion sky ship that flew out to the Cynosure Society research station after Dyne's Trial of the Storm. The night does not go peacefully, and their delay in returning to Isto Mavana does not help their cause either - all villagers are being tested for sorcerous potential - and it only gets worse...
Welcome to this month's Mining Media where I help you think about ideas from other forms of entertainment that can elevate your tabletop RPG experience. In this episode we're talking about Sabotage Studio's retro JRPG inspired Sea of Stars - a love letter to the 90s/early 2000s 16-bit JRPGs of my youth.
The game itself is a beautiful game with very evocative locations and, most importantly for this episode, interesting combat mec...
More bonus episodes because we get an extra day for the leap year, why not an extra episode?
In this episode I play REAP by Gila RPGs (aka Spencer Campbell) - a soulslike solo RPG and companion game to RUNE, where you take on the role of a Reaper - a necromancer wandering the realms of the dying world Obron, harvesting souls from the evil horrors that plague the denizens of their domains and helping the world find peace in its en...
Dyne is taken prisoner by Captain Vega and brought to a secret sea cave the Kyrody sailor has been stockpiling equipment in, as well as where he is experimenting with sky iron. An escape is attempted, but this episode keeps riding the dice luck of the previous, and things just keep getting worse...
You can sign up to be notified when Sundered Isles goes live on Kickstarter and/or pre-order Starforged physical books or get it digi...
Welcome to another episode of Perspective Checks where I sit down with a friend in the tabletop roleplaying game world and discuss a topic of their choice!
This time Rene is joined once again by Troy from the DMs After Dark to talk with Liz Greene, LMHC MFT TGM/DM GT, a licensed Geek Therapist who uses games and popular media in her sessions! We discuss games as a community, using characters as buffers to experiences, practicing ...
Dyne is dragged out to sea after swearing an iron vow on the sky iron shard in Vega's Cave. The flooding recesses and pulls all of Captain Vega's Kyrody sailors out to a watery grave, but Dyne finds himself on a dry circle of sea floor at the bottom of a maelstrom - a shipwreck graveyard... What awaits him for his Trial of the Sea?
Go check out the sample guidebook and back Sundered Isles on Kickstarter!
Welcome to another Mining Media where we turn your binging into better TTRPG experiences. In this episode we're talking about Delicious In Dungeon - a manga turned anime currently streaming on Netflix about a group of adventurers delving a massive dungeon and eating the monsters they encounter along the way!
This show is so obviously inspired by traditional TTRPGs from decades past, but does such an incredible job of environmenta...
The Substratum Protocol is a scientific initiative to explore and investigate an unnatural, cosmic portal that has appeared at the very center of the Earth's core. At the time of its arrival, a massive fracture split the planet and swallowed entire cities. The first scientists to attempt any form of data analysis from signals emitted by the portal struggled with their sanity afterwards. Using patented DSPT Mk II exo-suits, a team o...
Has anyone heard of this obscure CRPG called Baldur's Gate 3? Apparently there have been 2 others, but let me tell you something... they're pretty neat for getting tabletop RPG ideas!
Happy April Fool's, ya nerds, and I'm super grateful you're all listening. Thanks, hope you chuckled, and if you do play Baldur's Gate 3 (you should), send me your favorite character builds!
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