Seth Skorkowsky has become one of the most respected, most honest voices in tabletop roleplaying games. His principle is simple: no adventure review unless he’s run it or played it from start to finish; no system review unless he’s had a lot of sessions with it. No hot takes or drama bait—just well considered, nuanced gamer advice supported by actual experience.
His channel is a gold mine for any GM or player in the hobby. It’s near enough essential viewing for Call of Cthulhu (standard and pulp), Traveller, and Cyberpunk Red & 2020 gamers; there’s also content for Dungeons & Dragons, Delta Green, Paranoia, Kult, Righteous Blood Ruthless Blades—and the list goes on—too.
What marks Seth out isn’t just his thoughtful approach and range of experiences—he’s a published adventure designer and novelist as well; it’s the warmth and humour that really set him apart. Aided by alter-egos Jack The NPC, Mike, Todd, and Dweebles, he makes sharp points while getting genuine laughs.
Seth was kind enough to share insights into gaming and running a YouTube channel framed with integrity. We also discussed the future of the hobby and the truth about Dweebles.
Seth Skorkowsky on Gaming
First off Seth, thank you so much for taking the time to do this. Let’s start with gaming. Your TTRPG experience is vast: D&D, Call of Cthulhu, Traveller, Delta Green, Cyberpunk 2020 and Red, and Kult for starters. How much does changing system change your approach and mentality? How much do the rules matter to you as GM and as player?
For game system, my mentality changes for whatever the game is going for. Call of Cthulhu is investigative horror, while Righteous Blood Ruthless Blades is over-the-top wuxia. So, the rules and my mindset need to accommodate whatever mood or theme we’re hoping to achieve. I want to be familiar enough with the rules to smoothly transition us into whatever game it is without becoming the point of failure.
As a player, it’s a whole lot easier, because I’m not worried about the bigger picture of the system and the fiddly bits, and can focus simply on mastering the rules that my character will be using.
New Tricks & Writing
Is there a system or adventure anyone—experienced gamers included—might get a surprise playing and learn something new?
Murder on Arcturus Station is the best murder mystery scenario I’ve ever read. I didn’t believe a Traveller module from 1983 would teach me anything about running a mystery game. I’d been doing those for years. But it blew me away. The reason Mongoose Publishing tapped me to write the update to the current edition was because I wrote Matthew Sprange and told him they couldn’t let such a great adventure be lost to time, and it absolutely needed to be shared with the current generation of gamers. He agreed and offered me the job.
As well as a published adventure designer, you’re also a highly-rated novelist. There’s the Valducan series—especially Redemptor—plus Ashes of Onyx, and the Black Raven stories. Does the novelist boost the GM? Or does it give impulses that need resisting?
Writing and Game Mastering flex different creative muscles for me. There isn’t much in the way of skill-set overlap. With writing a book, you have absolute control. It’s a very lonely process. Gaming is social and a group effort, along with the chaos-factor of dice and shenanigans.
YouTubing Success
Jack The NPC, Todd, Mike, and Dweebles make a brilliant gang of alter-egos on the channel. Another major draw is the total commitment to only reviewing systems and adventures you’ve actually played. Has that principle cost you anything, or opened any doors you didn’t expect?
Thank you. Jack and the Gang just sorta happened by happy accident. I never had a plan for any of them to become repeat characters, but they ended up working. I’ve gotten a lot of grief about them and the skits being cringy, but the honest truth is doing those skits is fun. I do them for me. Without them, I don’t know if I’d have kept to the channel as long as I have.
A year or so before I started the channel I started paying attention to online game reviews. It quickly became obvious when the reviewer hadn’t actually played the game or adventure. They were all surface-level or more theoretical than practical in their analysis. Coming from the novelist side, where scathing reviews from people who never bothered reading past the first 10 pages can absolutely sink a small-time author, it really bothered me. Having received negative reviews where it was obvious the reviewer didn’t actually read the book, I made the decision to not do that. I expect my book reviewer to have read the book, my car reviewer to have driven the car, and my game reviewer to have played the game.
The cost, of course, is turn-around time. I’m not going to be reviewing the newest and hottest games or adventures, simply because playing them takes time. It might take me months to play, and by then the hype is mostly gone. I’m also not the type to chase the hottest or most popular game. I simply find a game or adventure I feel is a good fit for us and I run it. Once done, I’ll review it.
I find it difficult at times calling myself a game reviewer because my intention when picking up a game isn’t to review it. I’m simply looking for something I feel my players and I will enjoy. I get tons of review requests and I turn the vast majority down. Mostly because the game doesn’t look like something we want to play. Sometimes it is, but we’re busy with whatever campaign we’re already playing.
The Long Game and…The Incident
A lot of your videos, especially more recent ones, give more nuanced advice; this is in sharp contrast to a lot of clickbait that dominates YouTube. Is there a piece of advice or perspective you’ve genuinely changed your mind on over the years? Something you’d tell an earlier version of Seth to rethink?
Any advice I’d give younger me is mostly technical advice on making videos and how to explain concepts clearly. While my opinions on some topics have certainly evolved, there’s nothing I can think of saying in a video that I’ve changed my mind on. By the time I’d started the channel, I’d been gaming for 25 years across several different RPGs. I’d already run the gauntlet of having lots of strong RPG opinions I later changed my mind about, only to change it again in a couple years. The challenge was more about learning how to articulate those opinions.
The Scott Brown Incident is, in this writer’s opinion, one of the best things in all the Internets. How a YouTube gaming story connects to a local real estate agent, then the actual Cyberpunk Red rulebook is brilliant. When does the campaign to get the channel official Scott Brown sponsorship start?
Man, I can’t believe how well the Scott Brown Incident was received. I was sure that video was going to bomb. Telling a story about a funny gaming moment is never close to how funny it was in that moment. Even after I made it, I waffled on actually posting it.
Little did I expect it’d appear in the next edition of Cyberpunk with Jack being included as a real-estate agent NPC. There’s been references in other books, an urban terrain set, even a song. It’s wild to see how much people enjoyed that story.
Thoughts on the Future
There has been a real surge in attention for systems like Shadowdark, Daggerheart, Draw Steel, and others, away from D&D. Some say the hobby is at a real turning point. Do you see this is as genuinely different from the GURPSor Pathfinder 1emoments? Or, is this just another repeat of the cycle?
I think it’s pretty normal. 5e D&D brought a surge of new blood into the hobby, but it’s also been a decade. Most gamers, myself included, started with D&D and after a few years began exploring other systems. One aspect that makes this cycle unique, is Daggerheart and Draw Steel have ‘celebrity’ attached to them. That’s a new twist. Until now, RPG celebrity status was for existing game designers, artists, and authors from the industry. Colville and the Critical Role crew built their popularity before releasing their games. I expect we’ll see more of that going forward, of Influencers transitioning into Game Designers. I hope these new games do well in the long-term, but I don’t see their current popularity as a major industry shift.
Personally, I’m still hoping for a game to kick down the doors like Vampire the Masquerade did in the 90s. There we had a game that changed genres from Fantasy to Modern Horror and its story-first approach altered the course of the hobby. It didn’t just pull from the pool of existing gamers, but drew in completely new players, especially a lot of women into the hobby.
Treasure & Dangerous Truths
MGS is building a treasure chest of d100 random loot. What useless magic item or cursed relic would you like to add?
A bag that when you reach into it you find a single left sock. You know when you do your laundry and seem to always lost a left sock? This bag is a portal to the Plane of Lost Left Socks.
Lastly, and all joking aside, is Dweebles the stone cold killer I believe him to be?
Because there’s a good chance he’ll read this, I think it’s safer for everyone involved if I answer no.
A big thank you to Seth for his time, honesty, and insights. I have personally picked up countless tips and realisations over the years from his channel; it was a genuine pleasure to chat with someone so kind, passionate, and skilled at what they do.
Where to Find Seth Skorkowsky
You can find Seth’s channel for reviews, gaming advice, and stories in the links below. His website also has details on all of his books, including the Valducan series and other fiction.
– Youtube channel: @SSkorkowsky
– Website: skorkowsky.com
– Bluesky: @sskorkowsky
Have a lovely day!
