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

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!

71 – Aaron Ryan and Dissonance/The End – Setting the Stage, Campaigns for D&D and Other RPGs

I talked with Aaron Ryan about two of his book series, Dissonance and The End.Dissonance is a near future world where aliens have attacked, killing most humans and animals on Earth and driving humans into hiding underground. Humans finally develop technology to fight back and the war enters a new stage while the characters also struggle to determine the motivation for the alien invasion and nefarious actions of the government.The End is a Christian End Time series based loosely on the events described in Revelations. A man calling himself Nero has risen to rule over the world and he has outlawed Christianity. Robots called Guardians hunt Christians throughout the world, murdering them on the spot if they don't recant their faith. A resistance movement works in the shadows against Nero, but things aren't looking good for them.We talked about the basics of those settings along with how they could be adapted for RPG campaign settings. My main recommendations were Ashes Without Number, Spire, and Blades in the Dark.If you're interested in reading Aaron's books you can find them at most any bookstore or library. Both of the series are also being adapted into movies, but aren't publicly available yet. Aaron's website is https://authoraaronryan.com/ for the latest updates on his work. Next up for Aaron is the Talisman series that covers events within the "Aaronverse" in the decades between Dissonance and The End.Our website: https://gocorral.com/stsWant to be on the show? Fill out this survey: https://forms.gle/U11TbxtAReHFKbiVAJoin our Discord: https://discord.gg/Nngc2pQV6CSupport the show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SettingtheStage Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.