Tabletop Weekly

About Tabletop Weekly

A weekly roundup of tabletop gaming news

Publisher

Solarian Games

Category

leisure · leisure

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

23 Jul 2024

Latest episode

23 Dec 2025

Latest episodes

74 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   23 Dec 2025

   Punks and Toons

   This week on TableTop Weekly… Jason and Peter ease into a quieter, holiday-season episode with a mix of indie highlights, industry shifts, and thoughtful commentary on where tabletop gaming culture is heading as the year winds down. The show opens with a spotlight on Hey Ho, Let's Go Home, a new punk-infused holiday zine from Ham and Egg Publishing. Written by John Maguire and Gio Colazzo, the short story reimagines A Christmas Carol through the lens of DIY punk, following a teenage runaway visited by the ghosts of the Ramones. The hosts praise its warmth, sincerity, and strong connection to tabletop-adjacent storytelling culture. Next, the conversation turns to New Game Master Month, an annual January initiative designed to help first-time GMs overcome anxiety and run their first sessions. With support across multiple systems, the hosts highlight its hands-on structure and argue that mentorship and encouragement matter more than endless GM advice videos. Creators take note as Meta quietly tests limits on link posting for Facebook professional accounts. Jason and Peter unpack what this means for small publishers, the creeping pay-to-be-seen model of social media, and why modern promotion feels more complex and less effective than traditional magazine advertising ever was. On a lighter note, the long-awaited second edition of Toon finally arrives. With original artist Kyle Miller returning, full-color interiors, and a renewed focus on fast, slapstick play, the hosts celebrate Toon as a perfect convention and one-shot game that understands comedy is hard and supports it with strong design tools. The episode wraps with industry news as GMT Games welcomes Candace Harris to its team. Known for her years at BoardGameGeek, Candace's move signals a push to make deep, logistics-driven wargames more accessible. The hosts close by musing about the untapped potential of wargaming as spectator media and why someone really should turn it into a sports-style broadcast. https://www.solariangames.com https://www.youtube.com/@solariangames

2. 

   23 Dec 2025

   Just the news!

   This week on TableTop Weekly… Jason and Peter open the show with a heartfelt thank-you to the community as the Top Secret: Tradecraft Manual Kickstarter continues to outperform expectations. With five days to go, strong backer numbers, and solid momentum in what is traditionally a difficult launch window, the hosts reflect on what this says about the Top Secret community and why expansions only matter if people are actually playing the game. The first news story covers Evil Hat Productions opening its annual game submission window. The discussion breaks down what Evil Hat is looking for, why 5e is explicitly excluded, and what creators should realistically expect from a traditional publisher relationship, including ownership, royalties, crowdfunding partnerships, and legal protections around unsolicited submissions. Next, the hosts tackle controversy in Magic: The Gathering, where players destroyed cards over allegations of AI-generated art. While no proof has emerged, the conversation widens into a thoughtful examination of broken trust, corporate pressure, artist reputation, and the uncomfortable reality that human-made art is now sometimes required to prove itself as human. The tone shifts with a look at the newly launched Black Company RPG playtest from Arkdream Publishing. The hosts praise the open playtest model, old-school percentile mechanics, and the grounded, military-forward tone inspired by Glen Cook's novels, calling it a promising system worth attention. Personnel news follows as Wizards of the Coast promotes Justice Ramen Armen to Game Design Director for Dungeons & Dragons. While congratulatory, the discussion also raises questions about experience, institutional knowledge, and the weight of stewarding the world's most influential RPG. The episode closes on sobering industry news as Mythic Games officially enters liquidation, leaving millions in unfulfilled Kickstarter pledges. The hosts analyze what went wrong, why scale increases responsibility, and how failures at this level damage trust in crowdfunding as a whole. To end on a positive note, they spotlight community projects, including Tomb of the Ancient Mor King from Orange Cat Games, and circle back to the ongoing success of Tradecraft Manual as an example of doing it right. https://www.solariangames.com https://www.youtube.com/@solariangames

3. 

   23 Dec 2025

   A better way to run gaming conventions?

   This week on TableTop Weekly… Special guest Kai Schaefer, creator of Gamers Online, joins Jayson and Peter to talk about a better way to organize tabletop conventions and events. Before the main segment, the crew rolls out a TableTop Weekly holiday gift guide, blending practical gaming tools, clever accessories, and a healthy dose of humor. Gift highlights include DIY gaming tokens, D&D-themed ornaments, 3D-printed dice trees and towers, compact GM screens, fidget-friendly dice spinners, gamer backpacks designed for books and minis, novelty ice molds shaped like polyhedral dice, and offbeat party favorites like Butts on Things. The discussion focuses on gifts that enhance play at the table without feeling disposable or overly gimmicky. The main interview dives into Gamers Online, a platform designed to improve how gamers find groups and how conventions manage schedules, sessions, badges, and communication. Kai walks through the system's attendee-facing and organizer-facing tools, including visual schedules, mobile-friendly badge management, session submissions, real-time updates, and messaging that instantly notifies players about changes. The emphasis is on reducing friction for players, volunteers, and organizers alike. The hosts discuss how Gamers Online compares to existing tools like Tabletop Events and Warhorn, why usability matters as much as features, and how conventions can transition without disrupting existing plans. The episode wraps with a broader conversation about community-building, accessibility, and giving gamers more control over their convention experience. https://www.solariangames.com https://www.youtube.com/@solariangames

Who has been a guest on Tabletop Weekly

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Craig
• Chet Minton
• Jim Ward
• Ron
• KEVIN BORUP

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

6,695,939

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

4 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 59 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

68

Social presence

0

YouTube

93

Engagement

32

Contact Tabletop Weekly

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.