A special episode with the DM that taught me to play, John! When I was nine he ran us through a campaign he’d designed previously called Olnap. The name for Olnap is derived from the real-world map of OLympic NAtional Park that John used to design the campaign. In the campaign my friends and I rampaged across Olnap defeating monsters and solving problems that had come up due to the physical breaking of the peninsula’s luck into pieces. Of course we succeeded in the end. John is also the father of Will, the cohost of our first episode, Tolkien, WW1, and Shelob’s Farts.

John is in the process of designing and playtesting his own rule set for roleplaying games. The system is called Epic Power. It’s similar to GURPS with a realistic bell curve for action resolution. Additionally, players have a resource called Epic Power which they can use to influence die rolls or perform amazing feats. If you want to learn more about the system or possibly use it yourself you can email John at <epicpower@johnlamping.com> or take a look at the Epic Power store on itch.io.

Olnap’s campaign map is superimposed over a map of the Olympic National Park. Google Maps is just as good as any other image.

Want to be on the show? Fill out this survey.
Join our Discord!
Support Setting the Stage on Patreon!

One response to “Setting the Stage Episode 19 – John and Olnap”

  1. Applying TTRPG Customer Profiles to the Setting the Stage Podcast – GoCorral Avatar

    […] Scraw and Gnomestones, 14 – Nathan and Aenea, 15 – Hayden & Carson and Egress, 19 – John and Onlap, 39 – Jeph and Big Campaign, and 47 – Malcolm and Our […]

Leave a comment

I’m Isaac

Welcome to the GoCorral website! I’m Isaac Shaker and this is a place for me to write about D&D and occasionally other topics. I host a podcast called Setting the Stage that interviews different DMs about their campaigns. I’m currently focused on completing the Cimmeria campaign setting and turning it into a book.

Setting the Stage Podcast

84 – Horseback Riding D&D Camp (Michael and SaddleSnaps) Setting the Stage, Campaigns for D&D and Other RPGs

Michael tells us about a D&D horseback riding experience at SaddleSnaps! The Chicago-based stable hosted a weekend camping, horseback riding, and D&D event. About 50 players came from across the country for this new experience. During the event, the players were split up into three groups. Each of the groups engaged in the "Exploration" and "Social Interaction" pillars of RPGs as a LARP. They used horses to go out on rides around the area to find clues to a developing mystery. After returning to their base camp they'd set up around tables for the D&D "Combat" pillar. Michael was the main DM of the adventure along with lots of support DMs and NPC actors helping him out.SaddleSnaps is planning to do more rides like this in the future, both single day rides as well as full weekend campouts like this first one. There are evening rides every Thursday for the rest of July 2026 with more to come in future months. You can check out everything about SaddleSnaps on their website.Michael has his own website for his RPG resources called Paragon Provisions that you can check out as well.Michael also runs his own Discord server that you connect with him on if you'd like to keep up with all the cool D&D stuff he's doing.Check out the Setting the Stage website!Want to be on the show? Fill out this survey.Join our Discord!Support Setting the Stage on Patreon! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
  1. 84 – Horseback Riding D&D Camp (Michael and SaddleSnaps)
  2. 83 – Call of Cthulhu's Garden (Hem and The Sprouting)
  3. 82 – Tarot Ghosts (George and Fears & Fortunes)
  4. 81 – Biopunk 2287 RPG (Seiya and Synesthesia Synthetica)
  5. 80 – Dynamic RPG Countries (Travis and Tetara)