Episode 658-With Brandon Crilly

The Functional Nerds Podcast

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Brandon Crilly, author of Serpentine Scenarios: Five New Adventures for B.O.A..

About Serpentine Scenarios: Five New Adventures for B.O.A.: The Bureau of Agents (B.O.A.) follows a simple mandate:

• Priority One: Remain unseen. Or, at minimum, don’t get caught.
• Priority Two: Accomplish the mission.
• Priority Three: Promote snake advocacy. (I mean, we’re doing all this good, so why not.)

Serpentine Scenarios is the first supplement for B.O.A. and offers five unique missions for this rules-light TTRPG. Missions can be played as standalone one-shots, or as part of a longer campaign.

• How Much to Buy Off the Court? – Plant listening devices to find a mole in a local DA’s office.
• A Little Gene Editing New Hurt Anyone – Investigate a zookeeper experimenting with the enclosure’s plants.
• Flawless Tech – A prototype drone crashes in an oil magnate’s backyard, and you’re tasked with retrieving it.
• Super Sprinkle Spectacular – A beloved donut shop’s award-winning recipe has been stolen by an evil conglomerate.
• Airborne! – Snakes on a plane, as spies, to rescue a witness.

About Brandon Crilly: Brandon Crilly is a Canadian novelist, games writer, and speaker specializing in weird worlds with doses of cli-fi, characters on the sidelines and outside-the-box adventures. His debut novel Catalyst won an IPPY Award for Fantasy in 2023; Castoff will be his second novel, completing the Aspects of Aelda duology in 2025. He has more than 50 published short works to date, in markets including Fusion Fragment, Apex Magazine, and Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction. Brandon is also a freelance games writer, contributing to award-winning IP lines like The Expanse RPG and Shadowrun and publishers including Kobold Press and Gallant Knight Games. Find out more about his upcoming releases by following him on Instagram or signing up for his newsletter via brandoncrilly.com.

This week’s picks:

• Brandon: I Want to Save the World but I’m Just a Level 1 Skeleton (Solo RPG)
• Tracy: Fields of Arle (Game)
• Patrick: Paizo’s Content Machine

Links:

• Brandon Crilly on Instagram
• Tracy Townsend on BluSky
• Patrick Hester on Instagram
• The Functional Nerds Patreon Page

© 2025 Patrick Hester

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