Modern Mythology RPGs
Subscribe for interviews and discussions, actual-plays and system breakdowns to keep your TTRPG creativity sharp.
Roleplaying games are a template for modern myths—not because they copy folklore, but because groups build shared meaning through play.
Storytelling at the table is an active dialogue. Rules shape choices. Choices in the fiction trigger rulings. Table culture reinforces what gets rewarded, what gets skipped, and what becomes “how we do things here.” Out of that loop, shared meaning emerges.
Here at Modern Mythology, we treat “game” broadly, but not vaguely: systems matter, and so do style and context—whether callbacks, borrowed tropes, or the shared references that let a group cohere fast.
Zoom out and the same dynamics show up anywhere stories are steered by constraints and incentives: marketing, propaganda, folklore.
The payoff isn’t grand theory. It’s practical craft. Tools for building collaboration, tension, and meaning at the table.
the modern mythology podcast
What can a collaborative approach teach us about building compelling characters?
Podcast episodes run approximately 60–180 minutes and feature one or more of the following formats:
Topic Discussions: Round‑table discussions on TTRPG themes, mechanics, tropes, or table habits.
Actual‑Play One Shots: We demo systems in real time, sometimes on our own first play‑through, to see how the mechanics shape play. The goal is demonstration and exploration, not long‑running narratives.
Interviews: Conversations with designers, scholars, and culture nerds comparing notes.
We value exploration over pre-established doctrine. If you design, GM, or simply love watching story‑gears turn, pull up a chair.
Recent episodes
articles
Our blog lets us slow down, draw diagrams in the margins, and dig deeper. We’re just getting started, but our flagship series Rules in Practice maps the hobby’s evolution and dives into debates that date back to its origins.
As we grow expect more:
Informed Reviews: New releases sifted for steal‑worthy moves.
Hands‑On Tips: Sometimes as an adjunct to a podcast episode, sometimes as a stand-alone. Discussion of pacing, downtime, consent, safety tools, tech at the table and lore.
Applied Media Theory: Broader discussions on mythology and play.
Jump in anywhere and pass the torch.
Featured articles
podcast network
The fallen cycle mythos fiction podcast
Forgotten, forgetful gods (of a sort) walk among us.
Listen to some of their stories…
The Fallen Cycle is created by James Curcio and a rotating team of collaborators over the years. This transmedia project spans illustrated novels, comics, audio fiction, and RPGs.
This podcast features free audio versions of Fallen Cycle stories. As independent wholes, they can be experienced in any order. However, the podcast is best listened to sequentially.
narrative machines theory podcast
A podcast on memetics, myth and propaganda: how our narratives define the limits of our political and personal identity, how any era of civilization may be consigned to myth just as it was defined by it.
Drawing on over a decade of interdisciplinary research, this podcast examines how ideas spread through the internet, shaping perceptions, reshaping societal norms, and constructing identities and politics—often without conscious awareness.