Podcast > Tabletop RPG > Tavern WatchJul 8, 2025 11:00 am CT

All of the TTRPGs we’ve played on the Tavern Watch Podcast!

By Phil Ulrich

On the Tavern Watch Podcast, we don’t like to just talk about tabletop RPGs: we like to play them, too! We run monthly one-shot adventures, exploring different tabletop games, so if you’re looking for any of the previous actual play series that we’ve done you’ve come to the right place. Here are all of the TTRPGs we’ve played so far.

Starfinder (2E)

The crunchy, extremely customizable system from Pathfinder comes to outer space with Starfinder — now officially out in its second edition! Starfinder presents a fully-thought-out and detailed outer space environment that expands on Pathfinder in exciting ways, while also being fully compatible with it; however, instead of Fighters with big swords and Wizards casting fireball, here you might have a Witchwarper casting doom scroll or a Soldier toting a plasma cannon big enough to be mounted on a vehicle. It’s exciting, fast-paced, and full of lots of choices for players to make in character creation — we’re fans.

Shadowdark

New school ease-of-play meets deadly old-school sensibilities in the Ennie Award-winning Shadowdark. Emphasizing speed of play and deadliness, Shadowdark is designed to be easy to learn and quick to pick up and play, especially if you already have familiarity with D&D 5E. And since it was heading into October, we decided the time was perfect to take this brand new game out for a spin with an old adventure module — 1983’s I6: Ravenloft, the original appearance of the infamous Count Strahd von Zarovich.

Outgunned Adventure

Delve into a world of cinematic adventure with daring explorers who solve problems with their wits, their reflexes, and their own two fists — in search of treasure and, yes, adventure. (It’s right there in the name!) Outgunned Adventure is perfect for recreating the kinds of world-hopping adventures and larger-than-life treasure hunts you see in things like the Indiana Jones, Tomb Raider, The Mummy, and Uncharted franchises.

Rebel Scum

Ready to break the chains (and necks) of fascist tyrants in a space opera that looks a lot like Star Wars with the serial numbers filed off? If kicking jackbooted thugs in their faces sounds like something you’re interested in, Rebel Scum might be the tabletop roleplaying game for you. It’s another Polymorph system, so it’s fast, flexible, and narrative-focused, getting right to the lightsaber action.

Motherboard (Daggerheart)

Visit a fallen world where survivors live among the ruins of once-great cities, wielding technology so advanced that it may as well be magic in order to survive in a world full of hostile autonomous machines. Wandering cities scour the land for scrap and the once-benevolent Motherboard — the greatest of the data spires dotting the land — may have turned against the people of the Echo Vale. Inspired by things like Horizon Zero Dawn and the Mortal Engines series, Motherboard is one of the campaign frames included in the book for Daggerheart, and presents a fun and unique spin on an ordinary fantasy tabletop RPG.

Masks: A New Generation

Masks is a game of teenage superheroes dealing both with being teens and being superheroes. Navigate a comic-book world of adults that want to tell you exactly what you should be, while also fighting off supervillains who want to ruin the day of everyone in Halcyon City and dealing with the messy, complicated world of the average teen.

Legend in the Mist

A game of pastoral fantasy (think the first book of the Wheel of Time series, or the parts of Lord of the Rings involving the hobbits), Legend in the Mist follows small-time heroes-in-the-making as they take their first steps into the world beyond full of adventure and great portent; these aren’t great knights and well-read wizards, this is the blacksmith and the town cook deciding to step up to do what’s right.

Pigeon’s Eleven

Be birds, do crime. Pigeon’s Eleven lets you tell stories of birds that commit heists for food. Sometimes they steal something very important along the way! It’s exactly what it sounds like: comedic and great, light and easy to learn. Luckily, no one expects birds of being capable of crime.

Triangle Agency

Welcome to the best job you can never tell anyone about. Triangle Agency is a game about the fine, upstanding agents of the titular Triangle Agency, who hunt down dangerous Anomalies that threaten to destabilize reality. You don’t want that! You like reality! It’s where all your stuff is! It’s surreal, it’s funny, and it’s like the best parts of SCP and X-Files combined with the smiling corporate Mandated Fun of things like Severance.

Murder on the Eberron Express (D&D 5E)

A lightning rail full of suspicious figures. A dead body. A party that may be concealing the murderer. Murder on the Eberron Express is a one-shot set in the world of Eberron that riffs on the classic murder mystery game by having one of the players — all family or acquaintances of the dead man, Egan Bakker, even if it’s not immediately obvious how — secretly be the killer, decided randomly before the game by the DM. It’s not your standard D&D game, but it is a lot of fun!

Starfinder (2E Playtest)

Launch into a universe of sci-fi adventure with Paizo’s Starfinder! Based on the already battle-tested Pathfinder 2E, Starfinder gives you pulse-pounding battles, starship action and adventure, and planet-hopping heroes in a strange and wondrous (and completely original) universe. In this game, we check out the 2e playtest rules, which didn’t include the game’s full compliment of classes yet (in case you were wondering why no one played a technomancer).

Sentai & Sensibility

Do you like Regency romances, fancy balls that are the social event of the season, and that one shot of Mr. Darcy caught in the rain from that one adaptation of Pride & Prejudice? Do you also like transforming heroes, shouted catchphrases, and giant robots that link together to form an even bigger giant robot? If you fit into this very weird Venn diagram, then Sentai & Sensibility is going to be your jam. Bridgerton meets Power Rangers in this easy-to-play game of secret suited heroes piloting giant machines to fight the forces of the diabolical Syndicate, in the name of queen and country.

Rise of the Runelords (Pathfinder 2E)

What once began as a spinoff of folks wanting to do D&D their own way has turned into a fantasy juggernaut in its own right. The Pathfinder Role-Playing Game gives you all the tools needed to create heroic adventures in painstaking detail and lead them on fantastic adventures in worlds of magic, mystery, and malevolence. In this series, we’re playing the beginning of the classic Pathfinder 1st edition adventure path Rise of the Runelords, adapted for 2nd edition.

Daggerheart (v1.2 Playtest)

While it may be the hot new fantasy game on everyone’s tables now, in 2024 Darrington Press’ Daggerheart was the new kid on the block — so new, in fact, that we couldn’t help but take the playtest rules for a spin. It’s a fun fantasy game that lets you build characters that feel unique and have complicated relationships with one another right off the bat.

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Filed Under: Tavern Watch Plays