Isaac/Setting the Stage podcast

Capital & Ideology Book Review A lot of my learning comic books are gifts from my dad who is also a comic book lover. He got me Capital & Ideology for Christmas 2025. It's a comic book adaption of the economics book of the same name. The original book was about how the structures of capitalist power evolved and what can be done to ethically change the system.

I read the comic book adaption of Capital and Ideology. It did a great job of explaining the development of the West's political/economic system, with a hopeful path for the future.

Check it out!
Especially if you've read the original book.

It's a cool one! The islands are really huge, continent sized. But there's probably some smaller ones that could be moved around with the right setup.

Setting the Stage Episode 76 – Flying Island Worlds (Alan and Fractus) Alan tells us about his Daggerheart campaign setting, Fractus, that launched on Kickstarter recently. Fractus was a normal planet until it exploded and stopped halfway through. Now bunches of asteroids rotate a swirling magical maelstorm at the center of the planet. The people of Fractus survive on the asteroids which are large enough to support life. The land is now separated by air rather than oceans, resulting in a different path for technology along the lines of flight rather than sea travel.

Setting the Stage Episode 76 – Flying Island Worlds (Alan and Fractus)

Alan tells us about his Daggerheart campaign setting, Fractus, that launched on Kickstarter recently. Fractus was a normal planet until it exploded and stopped halfway through. Now bunches of asteroids rotate a swirling magical…

Idols of the Neon Dark: A D&D 5e K-Pop Adventure and Setting Roleplay in a K-Pop neon-fantasy world where idol-warriors fight evil with rhythm, style, and harmony.

If you want to play D&D that's inspired by K-Pop music and themes a cool new Kickstarter just launched! Take a look! www.kickstarter.com/projects/wre...

#dnd #rpg #kpop

Races of Cimmeria: Lycanthropes Part 2 Subraces There are numerous types of lycanthropes when they are defined by their animal form. Despite that, it is more helpful to separate lycanthropes by how they acquired their condition. Natural lycanthropes were born that way due to their lineage. Infected lycanthropes became that way due to a bite from another lycanthrope. Additionally, there is a subrace called shifters. Shifters are the children of a lycanthrope, but due to dilution of the transformation gene, they cannot transform.

Lycanthropes come in three varieties, Natural, Infected, and Shifter. That's besides all the animal kinds. Find out more on the GoCorral Blog!
#DnD #RPG #werewolf

An illustration man of medium complexion with slicked back hair and an aquiline nose wearing thick furs and with a sword slung over his back is seen from a low angle in what appears to be a cave. He has a lit torch in his right hand illuminating the space, orange and red light bouncing around a greenish tinted background. He seems uncertain as he looks around. In the background a spirit looms over him, threatening him. It’s a strange hulking creature with a massive back hump, a circular head that seems to have no face, just a sphere of energy and horns jutting from it. One arm is a reaching the fingered claw; the other is a writhing mass of tentacles. The figure hasn’t seen the entity stalking him but seems to be looking around as if he suspects something is there but isn’t sure as to what. He doesn’t seem scared, but he should be. White text with ART SHARE is at the bottom.

It's been ages and the world feels very grim. Let's do an art share! The rules as usual
✅No A/I or N/F/Ts
✅Alt text please!
✅Introduce yourself and interact. Tag some other folks if you wish. Don't drop and run.
✅If you show NSFW work please tag!

I'll share throughout the day

Comic Book Learning I love learning from comic books. I've been doing it since I was a kid. It's just so much easier to absorb information when the visual components are actually visual instead of described. Since comics aren't as serious as a textbook, they can be easier to understand. Relatable writing that includes irreverent humor will capture your attention better than paragraph after paragraph of boring text.

Non-fiction comics can be just as fun as other books! I wrote a few recommendations from ones I've read.
#comic

Races of Cimmeria: Lycanthropes Part 1 Physical Description Lycanthropes are humanoids of any kind that possess the natural power to turn into an animal. Typically the animal is a mammalian predator such as a wolf, bear, or tiger, but all sorts of lycanthropes have been observed. Sharks, eagles, rats, and boars are frequent. While in animal form, lycanthropes feel the urges of that animal to hunt and stalk prey as if they were a natural predator.

Time to delve into the secret history of Werewolves and Lycanthropes in Cimmeria! Click to learn about the origin of animal people.
#DnD #RPG #werewolf

Roll20’s Five White Guys Controversy Is attempting to understand an eight year old controversy useful? No! Are we going to do it anyway? Yes! Back in 2018 Cody Lewis of the Taking20 YouTube channel had a meeting with Roll20 executives. Cody had an actual play series called Save or Dice made with other YouTube creators. He was pitching it to Nolan T. Jones of Roll20 as a possible sponsorship collaboration with the company.

I only heard about Roll20's old Five White Guys "controversy" recently. I decided to do some digging and write a blog article on it. Give it a read if you like silly internet drama.
#DnD #RPG #Roll20

Setting the Stage Episode 75 – Masks, Capitalism, and Coming of Age (Joel and Critical Bits) Joel tells us about his actual play podcast, Critical Bits! The campaign was a teen super hero story using the Powered by the Apocalypse system Masks. The Masks system is great for teen drama and coming of age stories for superheroes that still live with their parents, have school, and don't know who they want to be yet. Joel and the players did a great job of capturing those feelings in a world where superpowered individuals are under threat.

Joel tells us about his actual play Masks campaign, Critical Bits! It's a teen superhero drama where the government is trying to control teenage superpowers, but for what purpose? Learn more on this episode of Setting the Stage!
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3K2UcaPbMMJr7isy3W1Lhk

75 - Masks, Capitalism, and Coming of Age (Joel and Critical Bits) YouTube video by Go Corral

I got to talk with @gocorral.bsky.social about the making of Critical Bits and ended up talking a lot about capitalism and trauma. Oops, lol.

But go listen to it and check out the other amazing episodes they have and also tell me what you thought about the interview.

youtu.be/9zxfTeebEm8?...

American culture invades everything we do... Definitely an interesting conversation and I enjoyed taking with you. Thanks for coming on the show!

Legend of the Five Rings 5th Edition RPG Review Game History Legend of the Five Rings (L5R) is a game with an interesting history. The name of the game derives from the philosophy and martial arts guide, The Book of Five Rings, written by the famous swordsman Miyamoto Musashi in the 1640s. The book uses a Buddhist five element system to describe swordsmanship and the world. The L5R game uses those elements and builds an alternate reality version of peaceful…

I took a look a the Legend of the Five Rings fifth edition TTRPG. Solid samurai drama game, but very little support for ronin like I would've wanted. Read the review here. #L5R #DnD #RPG

HarmonQuest would be a good fit I think.

Applying TTRPG Customer Profiles to the Setting the Stage Podcast How do I use the customer profiles that I wrote? I've got three main TTRPG products that I produce. The Setting the Stage podcast is the most prominent one at the moment. I've got my video content that I post on YouTube and TikTok. Finally, I have the gocorral.com blog, right here! I'll focus on just Setting the Stage for now.

Continuing to work with the TTRPG customer profiles I wrote by applying them to my podcast, Setting the Stage. Hopefully you can learn something from reading my process!
#DnD #RPG

BREAKING: Kristen Bell cast as Amy Rose in #SonicMovie4!

Via The Hollywood Reporter

Races of Cimmeria: Undead Part 2 Subraces There are dozens of types of undead, but they fall mainly into three groups. These are corporeal insentient undead with bodies but no minds, corporeal sentient undead with bodies and minds, and incorporeal undead with minds but no bodies. Corporeal Insentient: The most common type of undead have bodies, but no intelligence. Without commands from a necromancer, they seek only to destroy any living thing they can see.

Which Greek gods do Undead like besides Hades? And how are different types of undead created in Cimmeria? #DnD #rpg

TTRPG Customer Profiles – Revised These are a set of customer profiles I designed to help with creating marketing material for TTRPGs. The idea is that you pretend you're talking to one of these profiles instead of a faceless conglomerate audience. They should help you adjust your message based on which profile you're targeting with a particular piece of media. The customer profiles I've designed are somewhat modeled after player motivation types presented in different DMGs.

The revised TTRPG Customer Profiles are here! And just in time for Valentine's Day!
#DnD #RPG #marketing

Responses to TTRPG Customer Profiles I posted the RPG Customer Profiles I wrote in a RPG Discord server to see what people thought of them. I got a few responses that I'll break down here. New Customer Profile? One person recommended adding an additional profile called Bobby Beer and Pretzels. That would be someone who plays TTRPGs largely for the social interaction with their friends. This would be the…

I posted some TTRPG customer profiles a few weeks ago. They generated some interesting discussion. I got some feedback on them and made a few changes.
#DnD #RPG #marketing

Setting the Stage Episode 74 – Kylie and Fallout: Garden of Atom The Fallout TV show has ended, but you can still get more Fallout in your life with TTRPGs! Kylie talked with me about her actual play campaign, Fallout: The Garden of Atom. The show follows Pete and Reed as they leave their Vault in Florida. They travel towards Orlando in search of Pete's father who left Vault 71 a few years previously.

Want some more Fallout in your life? Listen to this show about Fallout: The Garden of Atom, then check out the actual play campaign for yourself!
#DnD #RPG #Fallout

Races of Cimmeria: Undead Part 1 Physical Description Undead are the animated corpses and spirits of the deceased. Their dead forms move as they did in life, but now as horrid monsters. Most undead are warped to think only of the consumption of living beings from their previous species. This obsession is further twisted by undead that retain some of their memories. They remember, but only act on their memories in negative ways.

A two parter on Undead in Cimmeria. Click to see how #DnD necromancy might've developed in Ancient Greece! #rpg

Outer Invasion (Chapter 12) Chapter 12 Finished! Well, not really finished because this is all a first draft. But ready to read! Chapter 12 - Guild Members The trio greeted Phoenix as the sun rose over the city. Their return journey took longer than the way to the Artemis shrine due to the extra weight they carried. Tereman took the statue of Artemis and the offering plate in his pack.

Huzzah! I've finished another chapter in my #NaNoWriMo book. Working slower now, but I should be done before next November. Check it out if you like fantasy stuff like R.A. Salvatore.

Races of Cimmeria: Giantkin Part 3 Location Giants live in the mountains, hills, and caves of Cimmeria. Their tendency towards violence makes them incompatible with the settled development of civilization. A giant is likely to accidentally destroy a building in anger, so the little folk have banded together to push giants away from buildings. There are slight variances between the different subraces in their home of choice.

Learn about giantkin. Where they live, who their friends are, what gods they worship. The gods is pretty easy, they like the Titans. #DnD #RPG

Setting the Stage Episode 73 – Duncan and Extraordinary Locations Duncan Rhodes comes on the show to talk about his new book, The Creative Game Master's Guide to Extraordinary Locations: & How to Design Them or just Extraordinary Locations. The book is filled with 30 adventure locations to drop into your campaign, modify, or use as a full adventure path! The locations are loosely stated out for D&D 5e but could easily be adapted for any fantasy system.

I talked with Duncan Rhodes from the Hipsters & Dragons blog about his new D&D book, Extraordinary Locations. Check it out for all sorts of quick locations you can drop into your campaign or use to build adventures from!
#DnD #RPG

Races of Cimmeria: Giantkin Part 2 Subraces Giantkin come in many varieties. All giants are descended from the first giants and cyclopes birthed from Gaia. While the different subraces have diverged over time, they all maintain the general humanoid shape, large size, and powerful musculature iconic of giants. Elemental Giants: Elemental giants are the most pure connection to the first giants of Gaia. There are five sub varieties of elemental giants, each with a different connection to an elemental force.

Read about the five subraces of giantkin, Elemental Giants, Cyclopes, Ettins, Ogres, and Trolls. And that's also roughly the order of how nice they are. #DnD #RPG

TTRPG Customer Profiles The Setting the Stage podcast had a really good year in 2025. My audience went from 6143 downloads to 9743. My listeners on Spotify multiplied by 5 according to the 2025 Wrapped feature so I'm guessing most of my reach came from there. Along with those numbers, I got approved for ad revenue and started a Patreon. Setting the Stage has moved from a small cost hobby to about revenue neutral!

There are public customer profiles for marketing Magic the Gathering and other cards games too. Why not TTRPGs as well? Read and tell me which one you are!
#DnD #RPG

Races of Cimmeria: Giantkin Part 1 Physical Description There are many kind of giants in Cimmeria but they are all huge, strong, and ferocious. The smallest giants stand at about eight feet tall while the largest are more than twenty feet tall. Weights are similarly variable with giants often being heavy for their relative height due to increased fat and muscle mass. The might of giants is legendary.

Giantkin in Cimmeria have an interesting history. Originally there were only two types of giantkin in Greek Mythology, giants and cyclopes. Interbreeding produced all the other varieties. #DnD #RPG

RPG Player Motivation Types Why do different people play D&D and other RPGs? You'll get different answers whenever you ask different people. The combat, the puzzles, the roleplay, the stories, the snacks, the people, and so on. What motivates them to play? The idea of player motivations wasn't well formulated when RPGs were getting started. And why bother? It's helpful to understand your players, but by no means a necessity.

As a GM are you using Player Motivation types to help design your adventures? You'd be surprised how useful they are!
#DnD #RPG #DM #Gamemaster #Dungeonmaster

Setting the Stage Episode 72.5 – CalicoVisions and Psychomortis (Part 2) This is the second of a two part interview with Calico. If you haven't listened to the first episode with him, you should go do that before listening to this one. The first episode was #72 and this is #72.5. Calico returns with additional info on the world of Psychomortis. We get to hear more information about the Ecclesia church that rules over the world above Pandora's Labyrinth.

Part 2 of my conversation with Calico about his philosophical exploration and dungeon crawler RPG, Psychomortis.
#DnD #RPG #philosophy

PSYCHOMORTIS: 0.999 ALPHA VISION by CALICOVISIONS A Dungeon Crawling Thriller about high-stakes tactical survival and Virtue in the face of Fear.

I've been hard at work writing and designing the GV copy of Psychomortis. So now's the perfect time to release the original.
I put it up on itch, alongside the release of @gocorral.bsky.social's new podcast episode featuring me!
calicovisions.itch.io/psychomortis...

#ttrpg #DnD #indiedev #tabletop