ars ludi

RPG Countdown compiled sales stats from 126 brick and mortar stores to figure out their top 100 selling RPGs of 2011.

Microscope comes in at #23, which is pretty sweet. I talk a little bit in the podcast about the connection between Microscope and my old D&D game, how I used to run spin-off campaigns in different parts of my world’s history, starting at 2:08:56 (yes, that’s two hours in). Fun stuff.

But the real story? Fiasco tops the list. Number one, baby. Ahead of both Pathfinder and D&D in the stores surveyed. A GMless, indie, very non-traditional game, and it’s on top.

How wild is that?

Seriously, that’s how they explained D&D to me. Listen to the interview, it’ll make sense.

Ben Robbins Interview with Bad Wrong Fun

This interview brought to you courtesy of Alex Guzman, mastermind of Bad Wrong Fun. They’re running an insane campaign combining Microscope and West Marches. I warned them there were Things Man Was Not Meant To Know but they’re doing it anyway. Brave, brave souls.

It’s only 15 minutes long but we cover a lot of ground: a beginner’s guide to spotting Gelatinous Cubes, Monopoly, bringing in new gamers and the social impact of GMless games, hidden motives of game design, memories of Shippensburg Adventure Game Camp, and (of course) Microscope.

When the fine folks at RPG Geek asked me to do an interview, they may not have expected to hear the terrifying tale of how I first got started playing D&D. We’re talking a boxed set that came with cardboard chits instead of dice. Seriously, chits. When you made an attack you had to pull one out of a tea cup to see if you hit.

RPG Industry Professional Interview: Ben Robbins

See? Terrifying. And no, I never did game with the Gelatinous Cube guys.

Want to listen to me rant for forty minutes about D&D camp, playtesting M&M, GMing or not GMing, Microscope, and how actually playing games trumps just sitting around talking about them? Then this is your lucky day!

Ben Robbins Interview (BAMF Podcast)

Really fun interview. Thanks to Mike Lafferty for having me on. Yeah, I get pretty fired up once I get going. What can I say: gaming is exciting stuff!