Rene Plays Games

Welcome to another episode of Perspective Checks where I sit down with friends and folks from the TTRPG world and discuss what they love about this wonderful hobby!

Ian and I met playing in a short TTRPG series for previous guest of the show C.R. Rowenson's LitRPG series New Eternity and knew we had to chat more from our brief interactions and roles as the tankybois of the party.

Ian is one-half of the podcast Undercommon Taste...

Welcome back for another episode of Colostle - Dungeons!

Sybil returns to the major labyrinth Castle Revolving to reach the heart of the dungeon and find what lies within. Then, a new friend leads the crew straight to the Rookling Forge.

Learn more about Colostle and the Dungeons supplement here! If you like all of the new additions and ideas constantly being added to the world of Colostle, I highly recommend checking out Nich'...

Helloooooo my favorite nerds.

Welcome to the first episode of my monthly design diaries series here in 2026 where I am holding myself accountable toward putting out more games.

I have already pivoted! The first episode was supposed to be about my upcoming playing card-based 2-player buddy cop TTRPG Decktectives, but the state of the modern world made me really not want to talk about any kind of law enforcement, so instead we're...

Welcome back for another episode of Colostle - Dungeons!

After escaping the Castle Revolving major labyrinth, Sybil recovers back in Oubliette during a festival known as Stillnights.

Learn more about Colostle and the Dungeons supplement here! If you like all of the new additions and ideas constantly being added to the world of Colostle, I highly recommend checking out Nich's Patreon page!

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Join the DMs After Dark ...

Welcome to another episode of Perspective Checks where I sit down with friends and folks from the TTRPG world and discuss what they love about this wonderful hobby!

We're kicking off 2026 with PJ Sack, a fellow solo podcaster and host of the excellent A Wasteland Story Fallout 2d20 solo AP as well as the incredible The Solo Roleplayers Podcast, which you will absolutely love if you're listening to me.

PJ and I sat down to talk ...

Welcome back for another episode of Colostle - Dungeons!

Pressing on and into the major labyrinth Castle Revolving, Sybil and the rooklings (and Zorn) quickly realize this is not like the rest of the Dungeons. This labyrinth is hostile and brutally punishing on top of being a confusing maze to navigate.

Sybil begins to figure out the way through, but the elemental attrition and Bastion defenders of the labyrinth force her to ma...

Another year of the podcast is in the books! In this short episode I mostly just want to thank everyone for listening and share some insights from the year.

Some big ones were:

• Over 10,000 downloads in 2025 (whoa, thank you)
• Better gender diversity in Perspective Checks (working on racial diversity, I promise)
• 15 different games on the podcast in 2025 (same as 2024, weird)

And for 2026, I have small plans to slightly...

Happy Holidays!

DO YOU HAVE THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT IN YOU?

Welcome back to another DMs After Dark holiday one-shot! This year we decided to do a sequel to a previous holiday special - the Thursday time loop cheesy holiday movie set in a strange little bean tree town that we have appropriately named Beantree! This year, a group is traveling to avoid holiday get-togethers in a one-shot of Grant Howitt's Christmas Is Coming, a folk ...

Time for another Tabletop Tutorial, the series where I play two player TTRPGs with friends and we learn them together.

BIG OL' CONTENT WARNINGS FOR THIS EPISODE: Death, Alcoholism, Inappropriate Crude Body Humor, Body Horror, and probably a whole lot more, be careful with this one, please. It's heavy.

I'm once again joined by Troy from the DMs After Dark to play the heartbreaking two player TTRPG The Time We Have by Elliot Davi...

Welcome to another episode of Perspective Checks where I sit down with friends and folks from the TTRPG world and discuss what they love about this wonderful hobby!

The last Perspective Checks of 2025 is a wonderful conversation with Kat The Dungeon Mom, a GM, actual play performer, teacher, mom, and so much more as a community member. We sit down to talk about raising the next generation of nerds, maintaining a curiosity and int...

Welcome back for another episode of Colostle - Dungeons!

Sybil wants to return to Oubliette to have her new unique rookstone appraised, but she didn't get here alone, so she continues deeper into the Dungeons with Zorn and the rookling  to find the lost rooklings and possibly a Rookling Forge.

Sybil finds a way back to the surface, but with too many questions left unanswered, she stays in the Dungeons and finds yet another majo...

We're a few days late, but if it means anything to you, dear listener, it made me haul a lot of my music equipment up to my office and I am definitely going to try and do more original music for my episodes now!

Welcome to another one-player one-shot where I play games I have been dying to get to the table all by myself. This time it's another by one of my favorite designers in the TTRPG community, Midnight Melodies by Cezar Capa...

Welcome back for another episode of Colostle - Dungeons!

Sybil and the Rookling are joined by the traveling Bastion monk, Zorn, who is searching for something known as a Rookling Forge after many of the rooklings from his monastery have left to destinations unknown. When their expedition hits a dead end, they are waylaid by a Lichen Rook and rush away only to find that Sybil's Whisperstone is pulling her somewhere. Remembering he...

Welcome to another episode of Perspective Checks where I sit down with friends and folks from the TTRPG world and discuss what they love about this wonderful hobby!

This month's episode is with Craig Hatler (a.k.a. Tezrak the Impslayer most places on the internet), a game designer and educator who came on to talk about the importance of a game's communication and resources when sitting down to learn how to play, run the game, or ...

Welcome back to the new series of Colostle - Dungeons!

Sybil ventures out of the hanging city of Oubliette with her ice rookling in tow to attempt to find her way back to the surface. The two have more time to appreciate the immensity of the subterranean world and its architecture, but hear a cry for help while investigating a chained rook husk. The find a stranger bound with spectral chains, but before they can help, he is pulle...

Bonus Halloween day episode release and it's one we teased wayyyy back in February in our Valentine's Day bonus episode! I'm joined by my wife Lynn to play another game of Star Crossed (and in digital) by Alex Roberts, published by the wonderful Bully Pulpit Games, but this time we're not leaning hard into the expected romance tropes or characters, we're getting spooky! (spoiler: it is not, in fact, spooky).

In this Halloween-fla...

Can't forget to do a solo one-shot for spooky month, so here is my one-player one-shot experience of Spellbook by DValeris a.k.a. Edaureen Muhamad Nor! This game is based on a familiar game from last year's holiday one-shots, Bucket Of Bolts by Jason Price and uses the Lost & Found SRD to simulate the life of a sentient spellbook that is past down through the hands of witches over three Acts. It was a very fun session and I ful...

Welcome back to the new series of Colostle - Dungeons!

In episode 4, new friend Thorug guides Sybil and the Rooklings to the capital of the Dungeons - the Hanging City of Oubliette! This incredible city hangs from the top of an enormous cavern, lit up in all different colors in a perpetual nightlife. Run by four clans (Cups, Rings, Keys, and Shards), the city is both powerful and dangerous. What will Sybil find in Oubliette?

Le...

Welcome to another episode of Perspective Checks where I sit down with friends and folks from the TTRPG world and discuss what they love about this wonderful hobby!

This month's episode is with Kate the Great Cosplays talking about the many, many angles she approaches the TTRPG scene through. Not only a cosplay event coordinator including TTRPG cosplay photo sessions and meet-ups, but an actual play performer and producer of the ...