
Ryan - The Curmudgeon
Co-Host of On A Roll
Ryan Faricelli is often found speaking on social media, crisis communications, public relations, gaming and all manner of film. He has lived in Los Angeles, Chicago and Chattanooga, and is currently a public relations specialist for a billion dollar healthcare corporation. He attended film school at Columbia College in Chicago, was creator and host of the film-centered radio show and podcast Lights Camera Cleveland, is co-founder of the Cleveland Geekster toy and comic show and wrote the book upon which this podcast is based: "On A Roll: Level Up Your RPG".
Ryan began role-playing with the Marvel Superheroes tabletop game in 1989. In college he was introduced to Dungeons & Dragons, the West End Games’ Star Wars, Last Unicorn Games’ Star Trek and World of Darkness.
In 2001, Ryan played his first LARP, Werewolf: the Apocalypse, in One World By Night. He served as a Tribal Narrator for several years and eventually founded and acted as Head Storyteller for a Vampire: the Masquerade game 2003 and in 2004 became Head Storyteller of one of the largest Werewolf games in the org.
Along with several others, Ryan was one of the founders of The Garou Nation in 2005, and served as Tribal Narrator for various tribes from 2005 until 2011. Ryan also served as the developer and final author of TGN’s entire system of Bylaws and Administration Policies until he left the organization in 2011.
Ryan was the Communications Director for the LARP organization Underground Theater for four years and currently helps run Adventurers Not Wanted (a D&D-style game where players play Level 0 townsfolk). Ryan is currently working on an original tabletop RPG called “The Gun Belt.”
Ryan - The Curmudgeon has hosted 104 Episodes.
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Episode 403: Exploring The Gun Belt
Episode | June 30th, 2022 | Season 4 | 1 hr 6 mins
characters, dungeons and dragons, experience points, game design, games, geeks, larp, mush, pathfinder, podcast, roleplaying, rpg, tabletop, world of darkness, xp
The Curmudgeon steps away from hosting to talk about his forthcoming tabletop RPG, The Gun Belt! The Favorite and the Legend talk to Ashley Raburn and Ryan about alien and robot cowboys riding dinosaurs in an interstellar Wild West!
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Episode 402: New Players
Episode | May 11th, 2022 | Season 4 | 57 mins 3 secs
characters, dungeons and dragons, experience points, game design, games, geeks, larp, mush, pathfinder, podcast, roleplaying, rpg, tabletop, world of darkness, xp
Carie, Jason and Ryan talk about the challenge of welcoming new players to your gaming group. They discuss the typical ways new players often behave, and how to make sure they get involved and enjoy the game! Join the Favorite, the Curmudgeon and the Legend as they explore New Players!
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Episode 401: The Story of Grapevine
Episode | May 28th, 2021 | Season 4 | 57 mins 20 secs
characters, dungeons and dragons, experience points, game design, games, geeks, grapevine, larp, mush, pathfinder, podcast, roleplaying, rpg, tabletop, world of darkness, xp
In the season four premiere of On A Roll, the Favorite, the Curmudgeon and the Legend return with guest Adam Cerling. Adam created the infamous larp character database software Grapevine, used around the world for more than two decades as the standard for running World of Darkness larps. Carie, Jason and Ryan learn the story of how Grapevine came to be, and the tale of Adam's new project – an indie larp called Storywild!
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Episode 330: The Hero's Journey
Episode | February 11th, 2021 | Season 3 | 1 hr 11 mins
characters, dungeons and dragons, experience points, game design, games, geeks, larp, mush, pathfinder, podcast, roleplaying, rpg, tabletop, world of darkness, xp
The Favorite, the Curmudgeon and the Legend explore the twelve steps to greater story telling. Carie, Jason and Ryan take a deep dive into the monomyth structure of The Hero's Journey!
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Episode 329: Memories of Gaming
Episode | December 4th, 2020 | Season 3 | 1 hr 11 mins
characters, dungeons and dragons, experience points, game design, games, geeks, larp, mush, pathfinder, podcast, roleplaying, rpg, tabletop, world of darkness, xp
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Episode 328: Building a Gaming Org
Episode | October 20th, 2020 | Season 3 | 1 hr 58 mins
characters, dungeons and dragons, experience points, game design, games, geeks, larp, mush, pathfinder, podcast, roleplaying, rpg, tabletop, world of darkness, xp
In this double-length episode, the Favorite, the Curmudgeon and the Legend talk about what they've learned from being administrators of national larp organizations. Carie, Jason and Ryan then build a hypothetical org for The Gun Belt!
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Episode 327: Shooting Genre From Canons
Episode | October 2nd, 2020 | Season 3 | 1 hr 12 mins
characters, dungeons and dragons, experience points, game design, games, geeks, larp, mush, pathfinder, podcast, roleplaying, rpg, tabletop, world of darkness, xp
Josh Heath joins the Favorite, the Curmudgeon and the Legend to talk about genre and canon. Carie, Jason, Ryan and Josh try to define what they are before talking about how they're different, the importance of enforcing them, and if your game even needs them!
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Episode 326: Good Strong Hands
Episode | September 25th, 2020 | Season 3 | 1 hr 12 mins
characters, dungeons and dragons, experience points, game design, games, geeks, larp, mush, pathfinder, podcast, roleplaying, rpg, tabletop, world of darkness, xp
Craig Campbell from NerdBurger Games came by to tell the Favorite, the Curmudgeon and the Legend about his new game, Good Strong Hands. Carie, Jason and Ryan learn about this fun new game based loosely on The Neverending Story!
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Episode 325: Find a DM on CRAWLR
Episode | September 10th, 2020 | Season 3 | 1 hr 1 min
characters, crawlr, dungeons and dragons, experience points, game design, games, geeks, larp, mush, pathfinder, podcast, roleplaying, rpg, tabletop, world of darkness, xp
Jackie Zantow-Schwartz joins Ryan, Jason and Carie to tell the story of CRAWLR, the web-based social network she created that connects gamers with one another. It's like TindR, but for Clerics!
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Episode 324: Ryan Asks A Question
Episode | September 4th, 2020 | Season 3 | 1 hr 15 mins
characters, dungeons and dragons, experience points, game design, games, geeks, larp, mush, pathfinder, podcast, roleplaying, rpg, tabletop, world of darkness, xp
Jason's finished his surgery, so we're back! This week, Ryan made a list of fun questions about our experiences in gaming. With no preparation, Ryan asks Carie and Jason all sorts of things about games, players, locations, game lines and more!
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Episode 323: Australian Nerdball
Episode | August 21st, 2020 | Season 3 | 1 hr 19 mins
australia, characters, dungeons and dragons, experience points, game design, games, geeks, international, larp, mush, nerdball, pathfinder, podcast, roleplaying, rpg, tabletop, world of darkness, xp
Brendan Faithfull joins us from Melbourne to talk about larp in Australia and the popularity of weekly battle larps they refer to as Nerdball. Carie, Jason and Ryan learn about his larp, Exodus, and talk about the differences and similarities of international larp philosophies!
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Episode 322: Great Artists Steal
Episode | August 13th, 2020 | Season 3 | 1 hr 1 min
characters, dungeons and dragons, experience points, game design, games, geeks, larp, mush, pathfinder, podcast, roleplaying, rpg, tabletop, world of darkness, xp
This week, the Favorite, the Curmudgeon and the Legend take a look at where great ideas come from. Carie, Jason and Ryan discuss great sources for plots, characters and themes you can adapt for your games!
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Episode 321: Craig Campbell and Nerdburger Con Online
Episode | August 5th, 2020 | Season 3 | 1 hr 2 mins
capers, characters, die laughing, dungeons and dragons, experience points, game design, games, geeks, larp, mush, nerdburger games, pathfinder, podcast, roleplaying, rpg, tabletop, world of darkness, xp
Nerdburger Games' Craig Campbell. creator of Capers and Die Laughing, stops by to tell the Favorite, the Curmudgeon and the Legend all about Nerdburger Con Online, coming Aug. 14-16, 2020. He also tells Carie, Jason and Ryan about his upcoming game, Good Strong Hands, and how to run an online con!
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Episode 320: Of Goats and Idiots
Episode | July 31st, 2020 | Season 3 | 1 hr 1 min
characters, dungeons and dragons, experience points, game design, games, geeks, larp, mush, pathfinder, podcast, roleplaying, rpg, tabletop, world of darkness, xp
Internationally renowned larp creator Dan Comstock joins the Favorite, the Curmudgeon and the Legend to talk about Goat Larp 2, Village of Idiots and the crazy world of larp production. Carie, Jason and Ryan also speak with him about the future of larp in a pandemic land!
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Episode 319: NPCs
Episode | July 16th, 2020 | Season 3 | 1 hr 2 mins
characters, dungeons and dragons, experience points, game design, games, geeks, larp, mush, pathfinder, podcast, roleplaying, rpg, tabletop, world of darkness, xp
Non-player characters are essential, so the Favorite, the Curmudgeon and the Legend take a look at the kinds of NPCs that are in a game. Carie, Jason and Ryan then examine the best ways to utilize them!
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Episode 318: Building South Fallenrock
Episode | July 3rd, 2020 | Season 3 | 1 hr 6 mins
characters, dungeons and dragons, experience points, game design, games, geeks, larp, mush, pathfinder, podcast, roleplaying, rpg, tabletop, the gun belt, world of darkness, xp
This week, the Favorite, the Curmudgeon and the Legend test a session zero component of Ryan's roleplaying game, The Gun Belt! Ryan leads Carie and Jason through the town-building process as they create the interstellar wild west streets of South Fallenrock!