IN THIS WORLD MICROSCOPE KINGDOM FOLLOW UNION Subscribe More Ars Ludi

Posts in this Category

“And then later they high-five each other in the hallway”

This interview I did with Dave Pruner on Electric Dice was a ton of fun. Is it gaming advice? Is it advice for living your best life? Who says it can’t be both!?! Note to self: do more interviews and panels. Talking about all the awesome games and all the awesome gamers is always fun. […]

Ben Robbins | May 21st, 2020 | , | 1 comment

Live Interview on Electric Dice

I’m going to be doing a live interview / chat with Dave Pruner on Twitch this Thursday. We may be talking about everything from Microscope to West Marches, and if you show up you can spam chat with your own deeply thoughtful questions. Electric Dice on Twitch Thursday May 7 7 PM EDT If you […]

Ben Robbins | May 3rd, 2020 | ,

“But we know… they’re gonna die” (Games and Education Interview)

I got to chat with Keenan Kibrick on his new podcast, talking about Microscope, games in the classroom, and (spoiler!) how Romeo and Juliet ends… Games and Education: Interview With Ben Robbins of Microscope Keenan’s being doing great work adapting games for education. Kids playing Lord of Flies as a Kingdom game? Yep, that was […]

Ben Robbins | June 12th, 2018 | , , ,

“You know why I got the funny voices? Years of GMing”

Back with the fine folks at HyperRPG, talking about Microscope. And a bit about Follow. And West Marches. And Braunstein. And Pokemon Go. We cover some territory, we do. The bad news is, I have no idea why there is jazz playing the whole time. We couldn’t hear it in the studio. Yeah, it’s kind […]

Ben Robbins | July 25th, 2016 | , , ,

“I have never been so proud of her…”

I was on my way to make a surprise appearance on Strix’s Weekly Affirmations show on HyperRPG when it occurred to me that in the seven years I’ve been playing Microscope, I had never recorded a session I played. Ever. So if you’ve been curious to see how I play and teach Microscope (with occasional […]

Ben Robbins | July 5th, 2016 | , , , | 2 comments

Coffee & Kickstarters

Yesterday we brewed the strong coffee (and tea) and sat down and talked about the wonders and woes of Kickstarters. (depicted: me doing some kind of magic trick, apparently) There’s an audio malfunction for about a minute towards the end that gives my voice a robotic, destroy-all-humans quality. You can’t make it out, but I […]

Ben Robbins | May 17th, 2016 | , ,

“The people at the table are what matters”

Story games documentary time! https://www.lamemage.com/friends/Story_Games_by_Film_342.mp4 [ don’t be alarmed, the first thirty seconds or so is black, but if you have trouble here’s a direct link ] That’s me, J.C. and Natalie playing, plus Ashley and Ed at the interview table. The background action is all the awesome folks of Story Games Seattle playing at […]

Ben Robbins | January 26th, 2015 | , , , | 2 comments

“Bring me the finest gamers in town! Bring them on a platter!”

Meaty, behind-the-scenes documentary examining how our dark and epic Salem Fiasco game was translated into a movie, The Devil Walks in Salem: [ direct link ] Tons of fantastic moments with Caroline Hobbs, Jerome Virnich and Pat Kemp talking about our session and story games in general. Some great examination of the wheels-within-wheels that make […]

Ben Robbins | September 30th, 2014 | , ,

LUG Con Microscope Interview

Great interview with Tre’ and Pete for LUG Con (“Let Us Game”), an online gaming convention. We pre-recorded it back in August, but it just went online. We were supposed to talk for 30 minutes but we got on a roll and time slipped by and then the sun came up. Tre’ also hosted a […]

Ben Robbins | September 22nd, 2013 | , ,

“You’d know because your flesh would start to melt from your bones!”

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 […]

Ben Robbins | February 16th, 2012 | , , ,

Talking ’bout Story Games

Jay Loomis put together a great video interviewing folks from the Seattle-Olympia story games family, including yours truly, flanked by ducks. “Play more! Less talk, more play! More play!”

Ben Robbins | January 26th, 2012 | , ,

“It was a gaming pyramid scheme.”

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 […]

Ben Robbins | January 9th, 2012 | | 2 comments

“There’s a much better randomizer that we use: human beings”

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 […]

Ben Robbins | November 1st, 2011 | , , | 3 comments