Setting the Stage

Hello and welcome to Setting the Stage, a new podcast where I will talk about different campaign settings for roleplaying games.

If you’re interested in being a guest on the show fill out the Google survey at this link: https://forms.gle/R9y6Y26Fr1DMSheH7
I’ll get back to you on the next round of interviews I set up.

I am your host, Isaac Shaker, and I’ll be speaking with a different person each week about a different campaign setting for D&D.

The podcast will have two types of episodes.

In one type I will be talking with one of my friends about an established campaign setting for D&D. This could be an official setting like Faerun or Greyhawk, or a popular fantasy world like Tolkien’s Middle-Earth or Martin’s Westeros. These episodes will focus on how to use the world as a campaign setting for RPGs and which RPG rule system would work best for running a campaign in that world.

The second type of episode will be where I interview different members of the D&D community and discuss their campaign world. This is a chance for the guest to show off what they’ve made, explain challenges they’ve overcome, and discuss paths that didn’t work for them when creating their campaign setting. Our homebrew worlds often get no attention outside of our own play groups, so this is a way to present a DM’s hard work to a wider audience.

With guests coming on the show, it’s only fair that they know a bit more about me before agreeing to an interview, so I’m also going to give a short introduction about myself.

I’m Isaac Shaker. I’m a biology scientist and IT project manager for my day job. I’m married and have two young daughters. I started playing D&D in 2000 when I was nine years old with my friend’s dad as our DM. I’ve been DMing since I was 12. My main campaign world is called Cimmeria and is based off of Classic Greek Myths. I’ve designed a few other campaign worlds and have played in a few other groups, but I’ve been lucky to keep the same play group from the beginning. We are currently playing the Pathfinder 2e Season of Ghosts adventure path on Foundry once every two weeks.

If you’d like to be a guest on the podcast, fill out this form. If you’d like to be more connected to the Setting the Stage podcast community, you can join our Discord.

If you’d like to learn more about how I made the podcast I have a few posts on that here:
Hosting and Distribution
Recording Software
Making the Podcast Icon
Comparing Descript and Audacity Editing Software

The podcast feed is available by searching Setting the Stage or “Isaac Shaker” on your favorite podcast app, by downloading from this link, or right here!

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.