In this genre-defining episode, Violet and Freya are joined by fiancée of the show Imogen Gingell to talk about bringing a beloved videogame genre to the tabletop. How can you faithfully capture the themes while adapting mechanics to a new medium? How do you make each little guy mechanically unique and full of personality, without losing track of your travelling zoo? We explore how different games answer these questions - including, of course, Imogen’s upcoming JourneyMon, on Kickstarter right now!

Freya builds buzz for her broadcasting bees-ness. Violet dabbles with disobedience. Imogen reflects on symmetry. Freya draws a circle, then a blank. Violet bundles babies in her backpack. Imogen opens a box of dogs.

Check out JourneyMon on Kickstarter now!

Funded in seven hours, and (at time of press) well on the way to our second stretch goal! Campaign ends on Thursday, November 27th 2025.

Timestamps

What’s new? - 0:03:25

Tabletop Scotland - 0:11:03

Mailbag - 0:15:36

Intro to the topic - 0:23:37

Mechanics & design questions - 0:33:27

History - 0:56:44

Digression about 00’s homebrew forums - 1:08:21

Taxonomicon - 1:13:55

Design Dreams - 1:55:59

Wrap up - 2:13:02

Design Dreams

Violet - PokémOSR, Squires & Spirits

Freya - Isekai Ecologists, Everyone Is Mon

Imi - JourneyMon!

Games Discussed

Eberron

Cosmere RPG

Journeymon

Mythic Bastionland

Monsterhearts

Stonewalkers (Cosmere adventure path)

Escape From Riedra (Eberron adventure path)

Fall of Magic

City of Winter

Delve

Microscope

Armour Astir

Masks

Daggerheart

Apocalypse World

D&D

OSR (in general)

Runequest

Shin Megami Tensei TTRPG

Big Eyes, Small Mouth

Cute And Fuzzy Cockfighting Seizure Monsters

Pokéthulhu

Pokemon Tabletop Adventures

Pokémon Tabletop United

Pokémon 5e

Pokéroll

Pokeymanz

Monsters Tail

Magimonsters

Animon Story

Monsters And Other Childish Things

Monster of the Week

Pocket Monster of the Week

Lancer

Everyone is John

Lasers & Feelings

Kids With Critters

How To Train Your Mutant Fire Dog

Genepals

Convocation Prime

Bones Deep

ForeverDex

Transit

Wilderfeast

Other media discussed

Arkham Horror (card game)

Game Soup

Escape This Podcast

Pokémon*

Final Fantasy

Digimon**

Dark Souls

Battletech (the tabletop wargame)

His Dark Materials

Megami Tensei

Dragon Quest

Critical Ditto

The Adventure Zone

Microsoft Excel

Battletech (the videogame (2018))***

Ben 10

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure

Pokemon: Too Many Types

What Beats Rock

World of Warcraft

Let’s Learn Everything

Decktamer

My Card Is Better Than Your Card

Encounters of the Spooky Kind

Cassette Beasts

Jade Empire

My Trainer is Dumb?!

Disco Elysium

Inside Out

Monster Hunter

Dungeon Meshi

Notes and links

* we make it 25 minutes before naming Pokemon…

** …and it took us 42 minutes to namedrop Digimon!

*** I got the year wrong, clearly I’m not a True Fan

ProZD’s Q&A about his home Pokemon TTRPG -https://youtu.be/pndtlIKl0Qw?t=272

One youtuber’s report from the front lines of Pokemon: Too Many Types - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjoLQvj7lAE

I couldn’t find the Chansey Death Stranding game again. I’m moderately confident that it wasn’t a fever dream.

Contact us!

At systemshoppodcast@gmail.com

Additional credits

Our intro music is

"Magic Escape Room" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/