This channel aspires to help new and seasoned players, GMs/DMs and designers advance in their craft by creating more compelling narratives, constructing richer and more immersive game-worlds, improving their improvisational skills, and striving to be exceptional in the tabletop RPG arena. Greetings and welcome to RPG PHD! With over 35 years of experience playing role-playing games, I am thrilled to witness how this hobby has flourished, transformed, and gained greater acceptance than ever before. Alongside my passion for RPGs, I have pursued a professional career as a theater professor, facilitator, actor, writer, director, and storyteller, teaching people of all ages how to act, write, direct, play RPGs, and craft captivating narratives.
My goal is to empower new players by equipping them with the necessary tools and skills to enhance their confidence and enjoyment of the game. Thank you for joining me, and I hope you find value in what RPG PHD has to offer! - Dr. Ben
RPG PHD
New video is up. Part 1 of a two-part series on feeling overwhelmed at the table. We look at why working memory runs out so fast for new players, why veterans can’t see the load, and what a GM can change tonight: rule order, prep, combat, and your own pre-session nerves. https://youtu.be/QJX4DQVb1D8
3 days ago | [YT] | 4
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RPG PHD
This week on RPG PHD, I dig into Benne and Sheats' functional group roles and what they mean for players and GMs, from stretching into a new role to spotting the one your table is missing. https://youtu.be/JhxyUt_c_h4
1 week ago | [YT] | 4
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RPG PHD
New episode is up. We're taking a detour through cybernetics, specifically Ross Ashby's Law of Requisite Variety, to explain why GMs burn hours writing contingency branches that never get used. Covers the theory, how to apply it to faction design and clocks, what it means for improvising at the table, and where the framework actually breaks down. Link below. https://youtu.be/G8UQZdbQrlA
2 weeks ago | [YT] | 6
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RPG PHD
Ever watch a player go quiet after one laugh and never really come back from it? Or a GM who ran a great session and still thinks she got lucky? Neither one is a confidence problem in general, they're two completely different problems with two completely different fixes. New RPG PHD video is up, breaking down the psychology behind both, table by table. https://youtu.be/LTYiqHhRwYk
3 weeks ago | [YT] | 11
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RPG PHD
New episode is live: what systems engineering and Silicon Valley startups can teach you about designing a tabletop RPG. If you've ever built five mechanics at once and had no idea which one broke the game, this one's for you. https://youtu.be/d0h42Hs1eNw
1 month ago | [YT] | 6
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RPG PHD
Your table isn't broken when it storms. It's doing exactly what functional groups do.
Bruce Tuckman spent decades studying small groups (therapy groups, work teams, training cohorts) and found the same five stages every time: forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning. Your campaign runs through all five, on two tracks at once. The party forming trust in the fiction. The players forming trust around the table.
New video breaks down all five stages, where GMs misread them, and how to actually close a campaign out instead of just letting it fizzle. https://youtu.be/ZgvJ5iUOHv0
1 month ago | [YT] | 15
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RPG PHD
Status transactions, why the railroad is technically a block, spontaneity over cleverness, and the reincorporation trick that makes an improvised session feel planned from session one. New video: Johnstone's Five Principles. https://youtu.be/5QUmcViedk4
1 month ago | [YT] | 2
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RPG PHD
https://youtu.be/c5JeVOw7r3E
New RPG PHD video digs into the psychology of character loss: why the grief is real, why a beloved character's brain signature can start to resemble a real friend's, what actors already know about exiting a role cleanly, and a full step-by-step process for handling a character's death or retirement at the table.
1 month ago | [YT] | 6
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RPG PHD
New script's up: why a quiet player at your table might be checked out, or might be the most engaged person in the room, and how those two states can look exactly the same from the GM's seat. Covers learned helplessness, locus of control, evaluation apprehension, processing lag in neurodivergent players, and diffusion of responsibility, with a step-by-step diagnostic guide. Drop your own diagnosis in the comments once you've watched. https://youtu.be/oG5CeP-yKNI
2 months ago | [YT] | 7
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RPG PHD
Your players didn't miss the clue because they weren't paying attention. They missed it because the room's noise floor buried it. New episode on Signal Detection Theory, from WWII radar rooms to your table. https://youtu.be/XRgPWjyV1z4
2 months ago | [YT] | 4
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