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After a hiatus, I'm back podcasting about TTRPGs. I'll continue to post actual plays I'm part of, but I've also launched a new series centered around what Whitebred and I refer to as Conversation-First Roleplaying.

"We start with the conversation, then we add rules to the conversation."

And to prove we eat our own dog food, the podcast itself is just a conversation. No scripts! We just said "podcast" and hit record.

What If RPGs Came From Storytelling Instead of Wargaming?

Imagine a world in which roleplaying grew from storytelling. Just a conversation with rules added only when needed. Instead, many games feel like board games or wargames with a little roleplaying pasted on top.

D&D came from wargaming: referees managing units, stats for everything, rules to adjudicate combat. People added roleplay later. That foundation is still there: you check your character sheet for permission, calculate modifiers, then describe what the numbers mean.

We flip it. The conversation comes first. Characters talking, making choices, using the world around them. Rules only show up when they help—when there's risk, when stakes matter, when we need to find out what happens next.

Get the Math Out of the Way

Looking at a character sheet or flipping through rules breaks the flow. You're in the middle of a tense moment and suddenly you're doing arithmetic. It pulls you out of the world.

That's why both our games use Names (epithets) instead of stats.

• In Named, Names describe who the characters are and what they can do
• In Of Yarn and Bone (OYAB), your character is a product of the world, defined by their role, their past, or what people whisper about them

If you're a "Reluctant Captain" or "The Ship Thief," I don't need a number to tell me if you can sail a boat. The conversation tells us. We only roll dice when it's risky or the cost is meaningful.

Someone asked Whitebred recently: "How do you handle flashbacks?" His answer: "We just do them? It's now a month ago." If it makes sense in the fiction, you don't need a rule for it. Don't hunt for costs to charge people.

Mechanics Are Conversation

The best mechanics don't stop the talking; they structure it.

Take Reflections, for example. Instead of calculating XP at the end of a session, we discuss each character in turn. Did the character change? Does the world see them differently? Have their Names changed? Did you earn a new Name? Should we upgrade one? Did you prove you're not actually a pacifist?

Characters emerge naturally through play. You're not adding numbers to a character sheet, you're discovering who they are by what they do.

We do the same thing with magic. In OYAB, there are no mana points or spell slots. A mage "petitions the world for indulgence," asking air, stone, water, fire to do what they naturally want to do. Stones gather. Water reflects. Vines tangle. It's about the relationship between the caster and the world, not a resource economy.

When a spell fails, you can take on a Burden, represented by a tarot card. Not a mechanical cost, but narrative debt. The world will be repaid! The card sparks conversation: what does this mean? How will this come back? That's the magic system. A conversation about consequences.

Just Play

Don't worry about getting it "right." This isn't a manifesto or a movement. It's just how we play.

Steal the ideas you like. Treat your game like a toolkit. Sit down with people who want the same kind of game you do, figure out who you are in the world, and start talking.

Rule Zero from Of Yarn and Bone says it plainly: "By the powers vested in me (which are none), I give you permission to do anything that results in a better game."

If a rule gets in the way of the conversation, kill it. If a mechanic helps structure the conversation, keep it. The game is yours. Play it your way.