Using TTRPGs to Interview Interesting People: Jeff Stormer Looking Back on Ten Years of "Party of One"

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This issue is taking a look at PARTY OF ONE, an AP/interview show that crossed a major milestone and is trying to find a new way to use gameplay to tell stories and get to know people in interview format.

Party of One, an award-winning podcast run by creator Jeff Stormer, crossed its 10th anniversary this fall and is slowly evolving from an actual-play show into an interview show that explores who people are through gameplay.

Jeff Stormer is a face many creators in the independent RPG space have likely seen online or spoken with over the last decade. An award-winning podcaster, a published author and marketer from Philadelphia, Stormer wears many hats atop his high-sitting hair. Party of One, the project that shot his career into the stratosphere, has released more than 500 episodes over the last 10 years and featured guests of every variety.

Party of One, for those unfamiliar, is a show where Stormer sits down with a guest to play a two-player TTRPG. While the project was initially pitched as an AP featuring him hosting games for guests, Stormer says the show has evolved into something else altogether.

“I describe Party of One in its current form as an interview show,” Stormer told TTRPG Insider. “And the game that I choose to play with the guest is the centerpiece of the interview because it offers a different way to show off a different side of the guest’s personality and what excites them.”

Stormer found that he enjoyed drawing out the guests' uniqueness through the game rather than treating the podcast as a way to sell copies of the game, a change he’s only realized after so many years of producing content. “There was a pretty long stretch [between 2020 and 2024] where the crux of the show is a designer is coming on to play their own game, whether it is a new release or a crowdfunded project or something,” Stormer admitted. “We were sitting down to play a game with a designer and talk through the guts of the game. I've realized I'm not as excited about those because it becomes much easier to turn into a sales pitch or a tech demo,” That led to him viewing games not as a play experience but as a “vehicle for discussion, conversation and understanding. the show stopped being about the game and being more about the guest. And I think that change has made the show 100 times better.”

That’s allowed him to run games for creators like comic writer Kieron Gillen, Overwatch actress Anjali Bhimani, YouTuber and creator Mike Rugnetta, and so many more.

Party of One remains a passion project for Stormer and his wife/producer, Jen Frank, alongside their day jobs. Most podcast creators would pivot or move on to other projects by this point. But Stormer says that the interviews keep him excited. “I get to sit down and have cool conversations with interesting people once a week and share in this hobby that I love. And that's important to me. There's something really magical about getting to do that with a wide range of cool, interesting people.”

Going into 2026, Stormer hopes to continue finding interesting guests for Party of One and to find ways to reach listeners outside the TTRPG space. Stormer thinks his show is in a unique position to bring new faces into the actual play space because he’s only asking for less than 2 hours of their time. He wants to keep making the show until it stops being fun. And right now, that doesn’t appear to be any time soon.

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The History of Party of One

The show originated when Stormer and Frank, moved in together in 2013. They’d had a long-time D&D game going, but the drive across state borders that was required to keep playing wasn’t justifiable, so the couple parted ways with the table. But they still wanted to play TTRPGs. So Stormer and Frank began to look for two-person TTRPGs, a market that was significantly smaller than it is today.

In 2015, Stormer found the spark that led to Party of One. Stormer described himself as feeling “creatively unfulfilled” and seeking a creative outlet. A friend approached him and asked if he had any podcast pitches. He was also really into actual play podcast. Frank thought that Stormer could do an AP of the two-person games that the couple had been running. A pilot was eventually recorded and submitted. The final product eventually took on the guest-focused approach that defines Stormer’s podcasting. If they’d stuck to the original idea of just running two-person games, Stormer admitted, he would have burned out within the first six months of production.

The first few years involved Stormer having to modify established games so that two-player play was highly feasible. “I spent a lot of time pulling out the engines of cars and seeing if the car would still run,” Stormer admitted. That often meant stripping games of rules, modifying them to make them playable and enjoyable for those involved.

It wasn’t until itch.io became a central home for indie TTRPGs in 2018/19 that Stormer was able to spend less time on game design and more time finding games that fit a guest’s personality. He specifically pointed to the Emotional Mecha Jam in 2018/19 as the first “big explosion of short-form self-published games on itch.io.” The explosion of indie TTRPG duos on itch.io allowed him (as well as other publishers embracing duo play) to pick games that better fit his guests’ tastes, rather than spending a lot of time modifying established games.

The podcast saw a significant amount of growth and interest among AP fans. It helped connect Stormer with other creators and even launch his own podcast network. It also opened doors for Stormer to begin producing other podcasts, including a limited-run take on Yazeba’s Bed and Breakfast in partnership with Jay Dragon’s Possum Creek Games, the character creation-focused All My Fantasy Children and some non-TTRPG work for companies like Salesforce. He also penned The Ultimate Fantasy Character Creator after publishers discovered All My Fantasy Children.

Thanks to Jeff for chatting with us! You can find more of his work here.

What are your thoughts? Send any scoops, tips or press releases to [email protected].

1  500 episodes is a MASSIVE achievement, especially since the majority of podcasts only release 3-10 episodes over their lifespans.