0:00

Mastering Dungeons, my favorite DND podcast,

0:02

is going independent. We've seen DND

0:04

now on ESPN. We're

0:07

gonna look at the two different kickstarters today, including

0:10

the Heretics Guide to devotion and EVENITY,

0:12

and the Ultimate Guide to Foraging Harvesting

0:15

and Natural Discovery. and we're gonna

0:17

cover our first questions for November twenty

0:19

twenty two from the Patreon Q

0:21

and A all today on the La ZD talk

0:23

show. I'm Mike Shea, your pal from Slifelirsch

0:25

here to talk about all things D and D.

0:28

This show, like all of the work of Slifelirsch, is

0:30

brought to you by the patrons of Slifelirsch. If

0:32

you want access to the City of Arch's source

0:34

book, a whole bunch of exclusive adventures, access

0:36

to the monthly Patreon q and a, access

0:39

to the the dedicated Discord channel, you

0:41

can do by becoming a patron of LifeLurs,

0:43

the link to become a patron is down in the show

0:45

notes below. So I'm definitely biased,

0:48

but by the fact that there are two good friends

0:50

of mine. But my friends, Teo Sabadee, and Sean Merwin

0:52

are one of my they're my favorite listen

0:54

on for podcast. I always whenever they put

0:56

out a new show, I love to listen to their show. Two

0:58

very smart to d and d designers to

1:01

big fans of the game who know this

1:03

industry in and out. They talk to all kinds

1:05

of people about it. They have lots of really good

1:07

ideas. and they talk all

1:09

about DND on their show. They have

1:11

recently gone independent with the show,

1:13

breaking away from misdirected Mark and

1:16

beginning to do all of their editing and everything

1:18

themselves. I think the podcast

1:21

feed should switch over automatically

1:23

if you're already subscribed to the podcast

1:25

feed for Mastering Dungeons. I believe that they're switching

1:27

that over. If not, you can go

1:30

to this article. It's down in the show notes below. If you wanna

1:32

be sure, and you wanna be sure. Go down in the

1:34

show notes. Click on the article by Tayo Sabadee

1:36

on on alphastream dot com, alphastream dot

1:38

org, where he talks about going independent.

1:40

And in there is a link to his podbean channel

1:43

where you can subscribe directly to the podcast

1:45

to the pod being podcast. But also

1:47

more interesting to me is that they

1:49

now have a YouTube version that has

1:52

of them. So you can see the two of them talking. They're

1:54

actually recording the video along with the audio, which is

1:56

excellent. That makes it more of like a new good

1:58

online d and d talk show. So I'm very excited

1:59

about this. subscribe to their channel on

2:02

YouTube. I will link down to the YouTube YouTube

2:04

below. They have two episodes up, but they're

2:06

I think they're gonna have a weekly episode up on YouTube.

2:08

So really, really good show. Very

2:10

excited for them and very

2:12

happy that they will be kind of

2:14

grabbing control over their own material and also

2:17

making sure that the video version gets out more

2:19

frequently than it has been. So that is that is really

2:21

good. So congratulations to Tayo and Sean. I

2:23

know it's a lot of work. I I had

2:25

to migrate over from having a

2:27

show that was published been produced by another

2:29

group and taking it over myself, and it is

2:31

a lot of work, but it's also very rewarding when you

2:33

when you are able to kind of control all aspects

2:35

of the thing that you're doing. So very excited about

2:37

that. So check check that out in the show notes

2:39

below. Over on ESPN apparently,

2:42

they had about a four

2:44

or five minute special. It's broken

2:46

up into two different videos that

2:48

show some very I assume they're very

2:50

popular football players. I know

2:53

Absolutely nothing about But

2:55

I do know that it is very interesting

2:57

to see essentially a five segment

3:00

of football players playing dunges and

3:02

dragons. it's a joy to

3:04

watch. And boy, it really

3:06

just got me thinking about this And

3:08

like, you know,

3:10

we used to be in the butt of jokes

3:13

so long ago and to see especially

3:15

you would think among, like, among

3:17

among sports folk, it was definitely a

3:19

joke. Even though fantasy football is

3:21

essentially dungeons and dragons. It's

3:24

amazing to see football player

3:26

playing D and D and to see it in the light

3:29

that they are promoting it, which is very

3:31

positive. really fun. They also have

3:33

a hell of a dwarven forge setup, by the way. If you wanna

3:35

see their setup on the table, they got a they got a crazy

3:37

crazy dwarven forge setup. So how awesome

3:39

is it? that this hobby has become

3:42

that cool. I remember when I was thinking about video games,

3:44

and I remember when like video games were also

3:46

sort of a a source of ridicule. and

3:48

then it changed. And video games were

3:50

like bigger than the movie industry. And I'm like, well, now everyone

3:52

plays video games. This thing that I was kind

3:54

of the nerd for playing in high school, I'm not

3:56

the nerd anymore. Everyone's a nerd. We're all nerds. We

3:58

all love this stuff. And now DND

3:59

is doing the same thing,

4:01

which is great. Like the idea that

4:03

you can watch these two videos. And so I highly

4:05

I'm I'm linking it to down in the show notes.

4:07

Take a look at the two videos five minutes, but boys

4:09

just a joy to watch people from

4:11

a very different slice of life. who

4:13

are enjoying this hobby as much as the rest of

4:15

us. I'm really excited to see it. I think it's very positive.

4:19

And it's great. You know, and now we got the movie coming

4:21

out next year. I hope the movie is good. Right?

4:23

I really hope so, but I hope it brings

4:25

D and D even more mainstream. Even if it, you

4:27

know, even the movie's not perfect, maybe it still

4:29

gets more attention and people can see that that

4:31

that D D is popular. So I really

4:33

I'm just I'm just excited by that. I really

4:35

think that it's awesome that that they're able to

4:37

kinda talk about, you know, talk about this. So so check

4:39

out the video on the show notes below. It's really heartwarming.

4:41

It's really amazing stuff. The first Kickstarter spotlight

4:43

we're talking about is the heretics Guide to devotion

4:45

and divinity for five e. It's

4:47

A5E source book for all

4:49

kinds of things involving religion. Lakon's

4:52

divine NPC's religious cults. We

4:54

love we love us some cults. New celestial

4:56

foesen divinely inspired loot. It was the

4:58

loot that actually really grabbed my attention. This is

5:00

being done by Even tier games, j a

5:02

valor is the the author and lead creator, and

5:04

then other people that are there, kind of, you know, other

5:06

other authors that are involved. And

5:08

you can take a look at the Kickstarter page. It is course,

5:10

linked in the show notes below. What's

5:12

really great is they have a free preview.

5:14

I'm I'm I'll tell you if you were doing a

5:16

Kickstarter. definitely you definitely wanna

5:19

have a free preview. And somewhere

5:21

on this, yeah, the free twenty page

5:23

sample. I downloaded the free twenty

5:25

page sample right here. It is, in fact, twenty

5:27

pages. And, boy, it gives you really

5:29

good look at the stuff that you're gonna get. And I'm thinking

5:31

like, you know, more options for this kind of thing. That's always great. But

5:33

what do I look in here? And then I look at them like, oh,

5:35

I want this. great layout.

5:38

Beautiful, beautiful look. I I can never really because

5:40

I don't I don't read them cover to cover. So

5:42

I can't give a full, like, oh yeah, the editing on this

5:44

is absolutely fantastic. I can usually find

5:46

problems pretty quickly. So if I don't find problems

5:48

anyway, that's that's probably fine. But that doesn't mean I you

5:50

know, what I don't find is not necessarily doesn't

5:52

mean that it's necessarily there. but has

5:54

all kinds of things. divine oaths. These

5:56

are oaths that your character can pick up

5:58

that sort of bond your character around a specific

6:00

thing that you're going to do. We saw a little of this with

6:02

the What was it called? Well,

6:04

this is the one I just previewed. Somebody

6:07

helped me out Celeste Con, which is book.

6:10

Somebody remind me. Oh, make

6:12

me go look it up.

6:14

Venture Maiden's thank you. Stack Daniels.

6:16

You get a free freebie on

6:18

your Bingo card. The Venture Maiden's campaign

6:20

book also had something like this. sort of things, you

6:22

know, quest that your character would go on that sort

6:24

of bound that sort of bound you

6:26

to a a thing. So I think that that is I think that

6:28

that is really really pretty neat. Different different

6:31

oaths that you pick up. throughout. That looks cool.

6:33

We have specific n p c's, good

6:35

descriptions of the n p c's, stat blocked for the

6:37

n p c's, great artwork, look at the art.

6:39

fantastic art. I'll tell you. One thing about all products

6:41

that I'm seeing these days, art is always so

6:43

good. So really, really

6:45

neat stuff. Different services that they that they offer

6:48

so you can sort of drop them right into it. And

6:50

then this is the one. Oh, so we have a little

6:52

dungeon here, the shrine of the silent blade,

6:54

kind of a neat little dungeon that looks like a blade. never

6:56

really know about the dungeons that actually look like something

6:58

because I don't think the d anybody but the DM is

7:00

gonna recognize what they look like. Oh, look, it's a

7:02

giant skull. Well, you wouldn't know that if you didn't see the map.

7:04

I guess, like, if you were mapping it, you might see it's

7:06

kinda blade shaped. So that looks kind of it. It's

7:08

just also a relatively linear dungeon. But, you

7:10

know, looks cool. Like, good good description. It's kind of

7:12

a fun little five room five room layer.

7:14

Again, really neat really neat art, good

7:16

flavor text stuff. The thing that grabbed me,

7:18

here we have creatures that forsake and diva,

7:21

looks looks definitely looks

7:23

fun. c r ten, two MACE

7:25

attacks, seven plus eighteen. I

7:27

was looking at how much damage did they do? And then Yeah.

7:29

Fair bit. The god blood

7:31

ooze, that's pretty pretty

7:33

wild stuff. skull

7:36

scroll wrapped mummy. Again, you can check all

7:38

this out. It's in the preview of the Kickstarter. So if you

7:40

wanna download and get some free monsters and try try

7:42

stuff out, take a look at it. See what you

7:44

wanna drop into your game. See what you like. You can

7:46

check all this out in the twenty page preview. Really,

7:48

really cool. So then this is what I I read

7:50

this. I was like, oh man, this I dig. because

7:52

it's really straightforward and simple. A

7:54

magic weapon called Bedlam. Bedlam is

7:56

a weapon that grows in

7:58

power as you do certain things. In

8:00

this case, you either slay a

8:02

celestial or a fiend. And when

8:04

you slay them at certain challenge rating levels,

8:06

the weapon grows in power. I

8:08

think this is a really cool weapon. This is the kind of thing

8:10

I read it. and I didn't think I have to tweak

8:12

it. Like, I'm ready to throw this thing right into my game.

8:14

You know, I think it's a really, really cool idea.

8:16

The idea of weapons that grow are really

8:18

cool. We have a couple of other magic items as well that

8:20

are in here. So looks like a really cool book.

8:22

Looks like a really fun source book.

8:24

Lots of different options. Lots of different things that they're

8:26

including in here. And that

8:28

are all based on the idea of of of

8:31

divinity and devotion. So really looks

8:33

good. I back to the PDF. You can

8:35

pick up the PDF for twenty

8:37

five euros and which is about

8:39

twenty five dollars. You and that gives you

8:41

the source book and all of

8:43

the assets as well. So that is the heretics guide

8:45

to devotion and divinity. Check

8:47

out the link in the show notes. The other kick

8:49

start I wanna spotlight today is the ultimate guide

8:51

to foraging, harvesting, and natural discovery

8:53

done by Nord Games. I

8:55

partnered with Nord Games they They helped me

8:57

run my Kickstarter for the lazy DM's

8:59

companion. I talked to Chris Haskins who

9:01

runs Nord as a friend of mine. We we we chat

9:03

often about this stuff. and

9:05

he's putting out a lot of really neat things. And when

9:07

I first looked at this, I was like, oh, that's kinda

9:09

cool. A source book about harvesting and

9:11

forging a natural discovery sounds kinda neat. But

9:13

then when I started diving deeper into this

9:15

Kickstarter, there's a lot of

9:17

really really interesting things going on here. That

9:19

is more than just the book. So you came

9:21

back the book, twenty five dollars for the PDF,

9:23

fifty dollars for the physical book. But one of the

9:25

things that are also including in here is if

9:27

you recall, Nord also ran a

9:30

Kickstarter last year, I think, for the

9:32

Oracle deck. And the Oracle

9:34

deck are Taro sized cards, love

9:36

story prompts, different cards with different

9:38

roles on them that you can sort of pull up one card and then

9:40

roll on it and start to get an idea

9:42

for different story elements. They

9:44

are continuing this with magic

9:46

items. So they have these taro taro

9:48

sized cards designed for 5VD

9:50

and d that are in collections.

9:52

There are two collections,

9:54

five decks per collection, five decks

9:56

per box, So two hundred and fifty

9:58

cards per box at each one is fifty bucks. Again, two

10:00

hundred fifty cards for fifty

10:02

dollars. Hundred dollars gets you two cards,

10:04

which, you know, that's that's not cheap.

10:06

Right? But five hundred cards of

10:08

different magic items that you can that you can

10:10

manipulate in different ways. And Then

10:13

you get these magic item generators, taro

10:15

size cards, sixty four cards per generator,

10:17

four magic item attributes. Twenty

10:19

dollars each. So that's actually very reasonable. I'm

10:21

definitely gonna pick those up. To me, like, the

10:23

smaller sets are easier and faster to

10:25

use. Really neat stuff. I like the idea that they're

10:27

nice big meaty cards. media cards that you can

10:29

use. And then the book itself, which talks a lot

10:31

about forging, but what I I

10:33

think that it it it's

10:35

when you get past the idea of foraging

10:37

and harvesting, what you're talking about is

10:40

crafting stuff. And there's a lot

10:42

of drive for books to help you

10:44

learn about how to craft things, how to

10:46

craft potions, how to craft magic items, how

10:48

to craft other stuff, to modify stuff, and

10:50

that's really what we're talking about. And so when we we

10:52

look at it, we'll we'll start by looking at the book

10:55

itself. The forging, you know, this is

10:57

the preview guide. This is a thirty five page

10:59

preview. Thirty five pages. Obviously, it's not

11:01

fully done yet. You can see in the in in

11:03

the Kickstarter and the show notes, you can

11:05

download these previews. And they

11:07

talk about all of the different kinds of things each

11:09

compare again, art and

11:11

layout is is top notch. Really, really looks

11:13

good. Really looks good. but the

11:15

kind of stuff you pick up and

11:17

how you can work with it, the DCs

11:19

that you have, where you would find it, what

11:21

you find, and then what you can do with to

11:23

me, that's the real interesting thing of the kinds of

11:25

things you pick up. This is all the sort of

11:27

things that you would pick up. But then you dig

11:29

into it more and it talks

11:31

about what it can do for

11:33

you, you know, that it can, you know,

11:36

it it that it can it it it

11:38

acts very much like various potions

11:40

or solves or things that you

11:42

can apply to weapons or armor

11:44

and things like that. Lots and lots of

11:46

information about how to do this and how to make, you

11:48

know, the, you know, fairy song

11:50

willow bonus trade animal friend,

11:52

spectral melody, soothing songs, special

11:54

effects. So these are these are ways to

11:56

craft stuff in your game. You're finding you're going out

11:58

and you're finding this stuff. It's also about like you

11:59

know, can you skin a basilisk? And what

12:02

what kind of stuff can you get from that?

12:04

So really neat ideas. You

12:06

know, really, really fun. If you wanna fill out

12:08

this part of the game. If this is an area of the game that is

12:10

not really well filled out, this book

12:13

has tons of different things that you can use

12:15

in here. for ingredients and everything else.

12:17

More so than just like make a nature check.

12:19

Yeah. You find the materials you want.

12:21

So definitely has a lot of cool

12:23

stuff in here. know, what are the what are the

12:25

different hides, you know, different hides and what kind

12:27

of resistance does it offer? So you don't

12:29

necessarily have to, like, apply this whole thing to your

12:31

whole game, but you could just have one little scene

12:33

or one little section where you could grab it and say, okay,

12:35

this is what they're able to do to kind of harvest. And

12:37

I certainly had players who were like, oh, I'd really like to

12:39

find out more about how to, like, use the hide

12:41

of this dragon we killed or something else while here

12:43

you've got some you've got some good ideas. So

12:46

that's all in the main book itself. Lots

12:48

lots of different things. And again, great big page, thirty five

12:50

page preview that you could go you could go download

12:52

and take a look at. And when I read it, I'm like, yeah, you know, I

12:54

kinda went from I don't know, Harvard,

12:56

you know, doing a game about foraging

12:58

is really for me. But I'm like, oh, there's probably there's

13:00

definitely times where I'm gonna go whip open this

13:02

book and use use parts of it for for things that

13:04

the players wanna do. but the magic

13:06

item thing is what really got me excited because I

13:08

love random generators. I'm a huge fan of

13:10

random generators. And this is an example. This one

13:12

actually is based on the PDF

13:14

version, so it's kinda showing what the cards can do, but

13:16

it's showing a PDF form. I think I'm definitely gonna

13:18

pick up the physical cards. because IAI know Nord

13:20

can deliver on it. And I know that

13:22

the having the physical cards, I think, is a

13:24

really is kind of a fun it's a fun thing to play

13:26

with. So you can see, like, you can pick up like a

13:28

long sword, you know, and it gives good

13:30

flavorful description, fearsome play longer in your

13:32

arm with cut to that'll cut through flesh and bone with

13:34

ease. And then you have like a type. One

13:36

mirrored. The blade of the sword is polished during it during

13:38

shine, reflecting light around it. awe

13:40

inspiring. Those who'd be told this sort of struck with a sense

13:42

of awe that carries way far beyond his

13:44

physical presence. So neat little

13:46

characteristics of just that

13:48

that kind of make it make it special all

13:50

for, like, rings, gems, everything like that. And

13:52

then you can say, okay. Well, what does it have about it?

13:55

Well, it's a protect You know, this item is enhanced

13:57

with a toughness or charm that made out of magical

13:59

materials such as adamantium, critical strikes

14:01

have no extra impact on you. Right?

14:03

So maybe like, different items you

14:05

pick up have these other things. If you think about

14:07

the tables in the Dungeonmaster's guide where you can sort

14:09

of apply, there was like four different

14:11

principles you could apply to a magic item. this

14:13

is building on that. This is making these

14:15

items even more interesting than just

14:17

what you've got. And unlike the way I

14:19

typically do generators is like a d

14:21

twenty list, you have another d twenty s, you're rolling both,

14:23

you combine the two together. This one there is sort

14:25

of one leading to another. One

14:27

one leading to another. So you're

14:30

going to likely get something that makes a

14:32

lot more sense. But it's a great

14:34

way to build, not quite an

14:36

unlimited. Unlimited is very large Right?

14:38

Unlimited is closer to billions than

14:40

billions is to or or unlimited is billions

14:42

are closer to one than unlimited

14:45

is to billions. So But

14:47

it gives you many many many

14:50

combinations of things that you can build to come up with lots

14:52

of lots of interesting stuff. you know,

14:54

origin traits, you know, what are the different origins

14:56

you roll AD4 then you roll AD8 you can

14:58

pick that. And it doesn't just say

15:00

aberrant. Right? Oh, this is an aberrant one. That's what

15:02

like my generator says, oh, it's an aberrant sword.

15:04

This one says it's an item that's forged as part of

15:06

a dead god. So it's giving

15:08

that in my opinion, this is the kind

15:10

of thing I wanna pay for, more than I just wanna

15:12

generate on my own. What I

15:14

wanna pay money for is I wanna pay money for

15:16

somebody to give me a little piece of a

15:18

story that I can apply. This item

15:20

is forged from part of a dead god. It might still

15:22

retain some of that being sentience or abilith. That

15:24

item is created by an abilith. It might nullify

15:26

divine magic around it. only

15:28

work underwater or be slimy to the

15:30

touch. Abicipal that demon

15:32

lord of hunger created this item, those who

15:34

bear it always are always famished. it demands

15:36

a flash offering to be used.

15:38

Right? So neat neat beyond

15:40

just, oh, it's alpha or priority or abicipal.

15:42

These actually have specific things.

15:45

locations. Right? Where would they find it? The item

15:47

was hidden away in a treasure room. So now you might

15:49

actually have a quest about how they're gonna

15:51

go go get this stuff. So

15:54

great great stuff. Again, you can you can find find

15:56

the kickstart in the show notes below and you can see the

15:58

link. I'll I'll I think it's in a posting where they link

16:00

to them. So I'll link to the postings that you can actually get

16:02

this stuff. but looks really good. And I'm I'm

16:04

definitely eager to pick that up. That is the

16:06

ultimate guide to foraging, harvesting, and

16:08

natural discovery by Nord Games. You

16:10

can check out the link to that in the show notes

16:12

low. Two very exciting kickstarters. I'm I backed both

16:14

of them, and I'm excited. I'm excited for both

16:16

of them. Let's do some Patreon

16:19

questions. Every month on the Slifler's Patreon,

16:21

I put up a new thread for

16:23

each month of questions and answers.

16:25

These are opportunities for patrons of Slifelers to

16:27

ask me a question related to DND

16:29

and Dungeon Mastering And I answer

16:31

every question there on Patreon and

16:33

some of those I take and I bring to this show so

16:35

that we can talk about them here. Other ones

16:37

become articles or other videos

16:39

that I that I record from time to time.

16:41

So let's take a look. Ash s

16:43

says, my players really enjoy

16:45

roleplaying amongst themselves, which is something I'm

16:47

happy to conclude often by having them visit

16:49

fantastic locations that can draw out character

16:51

moments from each of the p c's. An

16:53

issue I'm having however is that sometimes

16:55

these conversations can go on a little

16:57

long. What's a good way to move the

16:59

game's pace along while not upsetting

17:01

players at the table who would be who would

17:03

happily not progress the story and talking character

17:05

for four hours instead.

17:07

So that's a good it's a common

17:10

problem. You have some players who are very into a

17:12

scene or very into a situation. You might have other

17:14

players who are not. Sometimes it's hard

17:16

to tell. So you really kinda wanna read the room.

17:18

That's even harder online where you might

17:20

not be getting the kind of feedback

17:22

you would typically be getting by looking at

17:24

players and seeing that they are

17:26

bored. If you if you are

17:28

pretty sure that everybody is engaged,

17:30

you can let it run a little bit. I

17:32

would expect If

17:34

you noticed that it's going long, it's

17:36

gone long. Because as a DM, you're

17:38

often fully engaged. Flow is

17:40

in place. Time is slipping by. You

17:42

don't even know. So you might be really enjoying

17:44

the conversation. And if you're like, wow, this conversation is going

17:47

well. I bet you that your players have already thought it's

17:49

been going on too long. I had this happen

17:51

recently where there was a lot of discussion they were

17:53

gonna engage in the situation in a room. And I

17:55

was like, oh, this is good. This is fun. They're they're

17:57

figuring it out. And then later, it's like, oh, god. They went on

17:59

forever. And I'm like, oh, really? And then like, oh, yeah.

18:01

They went on, like, thirty minutes. I mean, thirty

18:03

minutes. So if you notice

18:05

it as a DM, it's probably time

18:07

to move on. And there are takes you can

18:09

have. Put the options in front of the characters again. What

18:11

are the things that they can do? Push them towards

18:13

action. Where do they wanna go

18:15

next? What options have they picked? Choose a

18:17

course of action or have something

18:19

happen? Orcs attack. Somebody brought up in the chat. Have Orcs attack.

18:21

Have something, you know, change the

18:23

scene, move things forward, move the

18:25

spotlight forward, cut the time and say,

18:28

Three days later, you arrive at your city of

18:30

destination. Here's a situation that occurs. Get

18:32

them into a situation so that they're

18:35

doing something. But yeah, it's it's okay to let things go a

18:37

little long, but it's really good if you're

18:39

aware of how long things are

18:41

going. And if you know, like,

18:43

III would bet you that the time you think it's gone on

18:45

too long, you have players who certainly

18:47

have thought it's gone on too long. So that's a that's

18:49

a really good Ryan says, what

18:52

writing pro writing project

18:54

type do you think did the most to

18:56

improve your DMN1

18:58

writing an adventure, two writing an

19:00

encounter, three writing a setting, four none

19:02

of the above. I'm gonna

19:03

go with I don't

19:05

think writing anything helped

19:08

me DM. I think

19:10

DM ing helped me DM. There are

19:12

other ways that I feel like I've

19:14

improved as a DM that

19:16

are beyond writing. Writing

19:18

helps me write. The more

19:21

I write, I hope the

19:23

better I get at it. The more I

19:25

read other people's work, the better I get it.

19:27

The more I work with editors who who enough

19:29

time with me to kind of explain some of the issues

19:31

that I've got in my writing. That I

19:33

think is better. I get better at writing adventures by

19:35

writing adventures. I get better at writing encounters by

19:38

writing endounters. I get better writing settings by writing settings.

19:40

I get better dimming by dimming.

19:43

However, there are some cross training things that you

19:45

can do to get better. I

19:47

I think in my opinion. It's just

19:49

like my opinion, man. There are

19:51

some things that I think have helped me.

19:53

Let me share experiences rather than

19:55

share opinions. There are some things that I've done that I think have helped me

19:57

become a better DM. One, play in

19:59

other games. Be a

19:59

player in games. Work. Play with other

20:02

DM's. I think going to organize play

20:05

games, playing with a lot of other DMs,

20:07

going to conventions, and seeing how other people

20:09

DM, that can teach you a lot. And I've I've

20:11

learned as much from DMs that are considered

20:13

me not the best d m's I've ever played with. More

20:15

so than I've have with good d m's. Right?

20:17

because when I'm running with a good DMI just I'm

20:19

just onboard with with the

20:21

game. but it's, you know, other DMs aren't

20:23

like, ah, what's something they could have done that would have

20:25

made this whole operation better, maybe paying better attention to

20:27

time, maybe focusing on the right stuff, maybe

20:29

keeping the lens moving. other other things like that.

20:31

So watching as an observer during

20:33

a game can help you a

20:35

lot. Running games for people that aren't

20:37

your typical friends if you

20:39

run, this is One Sabadia often brings up. He says that

20:42

that he he and then Sean

20:44

Merwin talks about the two, they got

20:46

much stronger as as dungeon masters

20:48

by playing and running lots of organized play

20:50

games for lots of different players, lots of different

20:52

adventures, lots of different venues. that taught

20:54

them a whole lot. And I think that you

20:56

can get really good at DMing for your friends

20:58

if you're only ever DMing for your friends.

21:01

but you might pick up some things from other games that you could bring and

21:03

make that game even better if

21:05

you play with other people.

21:07

So there's definitely playing in other

21:10

games, running games for other people, and then running other

21:12

systems. We've had other questions about, like, what other

21:14

systems have you helped? Have have helped you

21:16

run games? And there are other systems that

21:18

I think I've learned a lot from that helped me

21:20

run DND games. Thirteenth Age is a big one.

21:22

Shadow of the demon lord is a big one. Fate,

21:24

fake condensed, I haven't really run fake in this. So I've

21:26

run fake in fake accelerated, which is essentially

21:28

fake in dense. That helped a lot. Dungeon and

21:30

world I've talked about before, the the power by

21:32

the apocalypse games. So run other

21:34

systems. So I think that

21:36

those rather than writing as

21:38

a method of getting to be better. Now III

21:40

don't feel like writing makes better d

21:42

m's. I think DM ing makes better DM's.

21:45

And I would say that the some

21:47

some good ways that I would recommend

21:49

is If you have the opportunity, you can you know, another

21:51

one is watch other DM's run games online.

21:53

You can go to YouTube and watch DM's run

21:55

games, and you can see what they do and

21:57

can figure it out. And obviously, you don't

21:59

just have to look at a critical role. That's certainly one to

22:01

consider, but you can look at other games too. And ask

22:03

yourself, well, how does that game different than mine? How are

22:05

my players different than that? so you can

22:07

learn a lot from watching other DMs. So watch other DMs, play in

22:10

other games, run games for other people,

22:12

run other games. Those are all good ways,

22:14

I think, to really kinda

22:16

get better at DMing that I think are all better

22:18

to help you DM than any of the kinds of

22:20

writing you could do, not to not writing.

22:22

Of course, I love writing too. So

22:24

I have an article that's related to this called paths of DM's

22:26

ex paths of DM expertise

22:29

that you can find in the show notes below that

22:31

talks about all these different things that you can

22:33

do to kind of cross train and get better at

22:35

DM ing. That's a really fun article. Right?

22:37

I tie it to a the levels of

22:39

complexity, videos that YouTube or that

22:41

wired has done on YouTube, including Tony Hawk's

22:43

levels of complexity for skateboarding, which is

22:45

really fascinating. You should take a look at that. But the

22:47

question is, well, what if you're by yourself? like,

22:49

what if what what are some things you can do to

22:51

just kinda get better on your own if you

22:53

don't really have a lot of people? I would highly

22:55

recommend solo RPG's. iron

22:57

sworn is one that I really like, but there are

22:59

others. Any of the storing storytelling ones,

23:01

there's one called thousand year thousand

23:03

year vampire. I think is a lot of fun. But any

23:05

of the solo RPG's can help

23:07

you learn how to improvise. It gives you

23:09

ideas that as you're rolling on tables and as

23:11

you are kind of building a story on

23:13

your own, rolling on tables and making things true,

23:15

particularly if iron sword does as well.

23:17

It gets your brain to think about

23:19

how to bring these things together and

23:21

create cohesive stories from

23:23

random elements. When you're at a table with your players, you're really

23:25

bringing in kind of random elements. These things

23:27

that they're bringing to and you're riffing on them and

23:29

turning into something else. that idea of

23:31

using something like the irons were an oracle and

23:33

rolling on it and making parts of your story

23:35

true as you're telling it. That's

23:38

training for it. So if you're by yourself, I think you could do far

23:40

worse. And it's also really fun to

23:42

play a game like Iron Sworn. I've linked down to Iron

23:44

Sworn. You can actually get a whole lot of it for

23:46

free, but it's worth picking up the book in some of the accessories as well. So check

23:48

that out in the show notes below. Rainey

23:51

says, what happens after you announce that the

23:53

PCs are gaining a level? Do

23:55

they level the characters individually, or do you encourage them to

23:57

discuss their choices with each other? Personally, I

23:59

would love for my players to communicate with each

24:01

other off how they're leveling their characters. I

24:04

I think certain choices would

24:06

benefit the group significantly and perhaps even

24:08

change their future tactics. But on the other

24:10

hand, they lose the joy of surprise when they whip out

24:12

a cool new feature spell with no one no

24:14

one knew they had. Thoughts? Yes.

24:16

I think you're right. I think that having the players

24:18

build the characters together and level their characters

24:20

together is fantastic. The way I've done

24:22

it is typically I've had the players where they pick their own things and

24:24

then discuss those things during part of the

24:27

session. So if they level up, I will

24:29

dedicate part of the session to say you have all leveled the

24:31

fourth level. don't you talk about the new

24:33

features you have? And I'll walk down each player and they can

24:35

describe what features I had. I did this in a game

24:37

I ran last night. And I said, I have two questions

24:39

for you. What new features did you pick up at at

24:41

fourth level? And what are you excited for

24:43

your character to do? Not not

24:45

just like in the game, but even mechanically.

24:47

Like, what of of this of the

24:49

new things you've got? Or where are your character?

24:51

What do you to do. Oh, I really am excited

24:53

to charm people. I'm really excited to

24:55

hit lots of dudes with my new area effect. Like,

24:57

what are the things that you're excited to do?

24:59

I like doing that. I think you could go even

25:02

better by asking the players to describe the

25:04

things that they're considering picking up.

25:07

When they're actually picking they can do things. I had one of my

25:09

players last night say, hey, talking

25:11

to one of my other players. Hey, I'd really like to talk

25:13

to you about what spells you're picking so that we

25:15

can pick synergistic spells rather

25:17

than duplicating each other. And they said, yeah, we'll get

25:19

together before the game. So I think you can encourage that

25:21

too. I think that's a better way to a good way to go.

25:23

I think that's better than them whipping out

25:25

this surprise. I know that the surprise can be kinda

25:27

fun. But I bet you they're gonna find

25:29

combinations that will still be a surprise, and they

25:31

can they could do that instead. So yeah,

25:33

I would I would lean towards,

25:35

you know, add that to your session.

25:37

Add add give give a part of your

25:39

session over to them describing what

25:41

new abilities it It's also great for YouTube. Have them describe their abilities.

25:43

I actually have a YouTube video where I

25:45

talk specifically about this. Have the players describe the

25:47

new character abilities they've got.

25:50

Great question. Jeremy c

25:52

says, I plan on running a lot of one shot

25:54

adventures from my friends, so we can play

25:56

test the one d and D1DD try

25:58

other characters and mechanics that we might not

26:00

normally use. Do you have a lazy way of

26:02

giving players magic items before

26:04

one shot? I looked at xanithar's guide and

26:06

there's a few tables that aren't very user

26:08

friendly. Yes. I do have a

26:10

lazy. I I have a very lazy approach for

26:12

this that I think works well. when the

26:14

characters are about near

26:16

third to fifth level, if

26:18

you're depending on when you're starting the characters,

26:20

maybe fourth level or fifth level. You could you could wait

26:22

go as far as fifth level. give them one

26:24

uncommon magic item. Let them choose

26:26

one uncommon magic item. Let them pick whatever it

26:28

is. There's a couple of broken ones that you

26:30

might wanna pull out like the instrument in the bards

26:33

which are that was really harder. That's really more powerful than an uncommon

26:35

magic item. But generally speaking, you can say

26:37

pick from and pick an uncommon. The and

26:39

then have them you might if they're if they're

26:41

in the mid to your

26:43

two eighth ninth level, you could have them pick

26:45

a rare item as well. So they have one rare

26:47

item and one uncommon item. Do

26:50

the same thing at tier three, tier they get

26:52

one very rare very rare

26:54

item. And then and that tier four

26:56

is where you might give them a legend let them pick a

26:58

legendary item. So, though, they like,

27:00

essentially, an uncommon magic item, a rare item,

27:02

and very rare item in the legendary. And you

27:04

can choose, like, depending on what level you

27:06

pick, and depending on on the a playtest

27:08

you want in the level of magic is whether or not they would have that item

27:10

or not. So easy one would be a

27:12

fifth level, they get an uncommon, at eleventh level,

27:15

they get a rare and at

27:17

seventeenth level, they get it very rare. That would

27:19

be pretty on par,

27:21

maybe a little low. If you drop

27:24

that two or three levels so that they're getting, like, an an

27:26

uncommon item at three, a

27:28

rare item at seven or

27:30

eight or eight ish, a

27:32

very rare at, like, thirteen or fourteen and then

27:34

a legendary that would be higher magic. So you

27:36

can you can decide, but essentially just let them take

27:38

a magic item and let let the player

27:41

for their pre gen pick the item that they get. I think that's

27:43

fine. Like, the idea that you, like, roll random

27:45

items for them. Let them pick

27:47

the kind of they want. It does mean

27:49

that they're gonna build a character around their item, which might

27:52

be a good reason to move the magic item

27:54

that that that lists further along so that they do

27:56

it a fifth eleventh and

27:58

seventeenth for a common rare and very

27:59

rare because they are getting to choose what it

28:02

is. It's not some random thing they picked up in

28:04

a in a horde. They know what their estimates. So

28:06

they might say, I'm a barbarian with a

28:08

strength of eight, but I have gauntlets of voker

28:10

power. That way, all their other stats are really good

28:12

too. If they're getting to build their character around

28:14

the magic item, you probably

28:16

don't wanna give them that many of them. So

28:18

Jeremy, that's my lazy trick. You know,

28:20

offer a magic item at fifth level, an

28:22

uncommon item at fifth, a rare item at

28:24

eleventh level and a very rare at seventeenth, and

28:26

let them choose what it is. Deck a

28:28

says, what are your thoughts on using box text?

28:30

Oh, the dreaded boxed text

28:32

question? oh, no. I'm gonna

28:34

lose, like, half of my readers

28:36

or viewers because I'm gonna say one thing and

28:38

the other I'm gonna say, oh, that was terrible. You're terrible

28:41

person. I think fine.

28:43

I like it. III think it's

28:45

and there's some good discussions. My

28:47

friend, again, Sean Merwin and Tayo sobriety.

28:49

I've talked a lot about BoxTex. more

28:52

than I'm going to. And good box

28:54

text is is what you really wanna look

28:56

for. And what does good box text

28:59

mean? good box test mean it is telling

29:01

the players things that are really

29:03

important for them to know and

29:05

nothing that they are

29:06

they're they're looking at

29:08

what they the stuff you

29:10

read are the things they need to know

29:12

and nothing else. it's very easy

29:14

to go long with box x. I have gone long with

29:17

box x. I've gotten criticism for going

29:19

long with box x, especially with, like,

29:21

strong starts in ruins at the grand it has a lot

29:23

of text in And I think that

29:25

there's shorter amounts of box text, the

29:27

often the better. And I don't think you

29:29

need it everywhere. I actually think wizards of the coast has

29:31

a pretty good balance on that

29:33

if you look at wizards of the coast products, they have usually pretty

29:36

short box text for important

29:38

places and then just small

29:40

descriptions for everything else. One

29:42

thing that I'm aware of is when adventures are overwritten. And

29:44

when they're overwritten, you have a lot of text. It's really

29:46

hard for somebody to parse it and read it and

29:48

understand it. So less text that

29:51

describes as much as possible is better

29:53

than a lot of text. My

29:55

friend James EnterCastle had an idea

29:57

of using, like, how do you use bullets

30:00

instead of box text, bullet sort of a bullet

30:02

list of things that could be read

30:04

aloud like box text, but gave

30:06

more specific like, what's the

30:08

situation? What are the important features? What's

30:10

going on? I think he has some articles on his website

30:12

where he talks about this idea. I haven't really

30:14

seen it in use. So I don't

30:16

know how well it would work. And I I

30:18

think I think even we chickened out when

30:20

we did, like, fantastic layers and still

30:22

wrote box text in the end. But

30:24

yeah, I have one strong

30:26

opinion about box text. As a DM,

30:28

don't write it. Don't write your own

30:30

box text. You don't need to write yourself

30:32

a script. you are making

30:34

the thing up. You either have

30:36

boxed text that somebody else wrote

30:38

or you can write down bullets so that you

30:40

know what to describe. So

30:42

I think it is AIII

30:44

know every time I have written boxed x, it was

30:46

a waste of my time. I'm better off doing short

30:49

abbreviated stuff. Recall that your notes are for

30:51

you. Your notes are not for anybody

30:53

else. You don't need

30:55

to put in your own read aloud text. You are

30:57

not writing a published adventure. you

30:59

run when you're putting prep notes down, you're putting down notes to

31:01

help you run the game, and that's all

31:03

that needs to be in there. So I am

31:06

III don't think If you if you

31:08

love it, Go with the gods. Right? If

31:10

you are if you are happy to

31:12

write your own box when you do it and is working

31:14

for you, you'd certainly not have to listen to me.

31:16

Right? Like, you get to decide what works for you. I don't get

31:18

to decide that. III have a feeling

31:20

though that that writing

31:22

box text is probably over prepping.

31:25

And I would think that you're better

31:28

off jotting down, even just words, a few

31:30

words to catch your to catch your mind. You see it in my

31:32

notes all the time. a few

31:34

words. So that's the like,

31:36

a let let's like, a, I don't know.

31:38

I pronounce it. That is how that that's my

31:40

feeling some Chris m says, what are your thoughts on

31:42

using an anti hero versus a

31:45

villain? Or in a layman's terms are

31:47

redeemable versus non redeemable bad

31:49

guy? I don't know what the difference is between an

31:51

anti hero and a villain. And I

31:53

think that it it always makes sense to

31:55

me that villains have reasons for

31:58

doing what they're doing. and I think

32:00

we see this. He watches the Marvel movies watch a

32:02

lot. Villains who aren't just

32:04

villains who aren't just bad people

32:06

doing bad stuff. I think it's always

32:08

interesting when they have a motivation that somebody can sympathize with. Or

32:10

at least understand if they can't sympathize with

32:13

it. And I think that

32:15

that is always

32:17

worth doing. On the question of

32:19

redeemability versus non redeemability, I

32:22

think if you're in the your if you're acting as your villain

32:24

would act, if you're having the villain move in directions

32:26

that make sense for the direction of the villain,

32:28

maybe they'll redeem themselves, and maybe they

32:30

won't. And it's really up to you to

32:32

decide that. It just kinda happens. I would

32:35

not wire it in. I would not wire

32:37

in a villain that's going to be redeemed

32:39

or not. I would instead build a

32:41

villain, give him a motivation, give him quest

32:43

that they're gonna take to to to

32:45

accomplish their goal, let them run-in the game,

32:47

see where they go, and then and

32:49

then react to what the players bring. And sometimes

32:51

it might be, you know what, we're gonna be on the same

32:53

side. I had a villain in my

32:56

Eberon game that changed I

32:58

ran the same villain in two different games for two

33:00

different groups, and his impressions

33:02

changed drastically in both directions.

33:04

And it was really fun. In some cases, he was on the side of

33:06

the players. And in other cases, he wasn't. That's

33:08

because of the way the game went. It was because of the

33:10

circumstances that that went. So I would

33:12

not build it in. I think

33:14

is my opinion. I think that it's great to have a villain

33:16

that has a reason to be a villain or a

33:18

a reason to do what they're doing. I think

33:20

a good villain thinks that they're right.

33:22

A magneto from x man is a

33:24

great one. magneto, you know why magneto is doing what magneto

33:27

is doing. And many times magneto is

33:29

right. Now, the trick is sometimes you make a villain

33:31

and you make their motivation so

33:33

correct. that you're like,

33:35

the the players are like, I guess, we're on his

33:37

side. Right? And, like, you probably wanna

33:39

make it not quite so morally ambiguous that they're

33:41

they're they end up on the side of the villain.

33:43

but you want you at least want a motivation

33:46

that you can understand. I think that that works very

33:48

well. But my my tricks for my my tricks

33:50

for villains that I've run that I think has worked

33:52

well for me. is giving them a good

33:54

motivation, giving them a good reason to do what

33:56

they're doing, that that players can

33:58

understand if they can't sympathize

33:59

with them. give them quest that they're on to accomplish this

34:02

goal, and then let them run. And

34:04

and and periodically go back into

34:06

the villain's eyes and say, what are they

34:08

doing? Right? how are they doing this? Why are they doing this? And what can

34:10

what can change? I think that that is a really

34:12

fun way to to to look at

34:14

villains. And during your prep, when you look into

34:16

your MPCs, can look at your villains and say,

34:18

what are my villains doing right now? So, Chris, that

34:20

is a that is what I would

34:22

recommend. Friends, we are

34:24

going to call the show over

34:26

today. I wanna thank everybody for hanging

34:28

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35:02

you all very much. Have a great

35:04

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35:06

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