Episode 60: DM Tips 202

DM tips! Learn how to start games good! Practice shutting the hell up! And more! Plus, DMs Matt and Rob answer your letters and get some deserved criticism and critiques! 

Tips: playing on the cheap...setting the tone...seeing, hearing,  smelling for your players' characters...using your posture...preparing social situations...listening to your players...how to make mistakes... 

Letters: steampunk and hopepunk responses and critiques! What's the best way to build dungeons? How do I get started reading fantasy to help me DM? Should I twist the plot? 

 

Recommendations:

Elizabeth Bear

The Magic Goes Away

 

Music:

Pac Div - Roll the Dice

Tommy James & The Shondells - I'm Alive 

Loretta Lynn & Jack White - Portland, Oregon 

The Staves - Tired As Fuck 

Scenario - A Tribe Called Quest 

DM tips! Learn how to start games good! Practice shutting the hell up! And more! Plus, DMs Matt and Rob answer your letters and get some deserved criticism and critiques!  Tips: playing on the cheap...setting the tone...seeing, hearing,  smelling for your players' characters...using your posture...preparing social situations...listening to your players...how to make mistakes...  Letters: steampunk and hopepunk responses and critiques!

Episode 59: Genre Talk and Goths who like Brown

DMs Matt and Rob answer your questions! Then, let us sit upon the ground. And tell sad stories of the death of genres.

Music:

Pac Div - Roll the Dice

Aurra - A Little Love

Jeremiah Kane - The Future Past

DMs Matt and Rob answer your questions! Then, let us sit upon the ground. And tell sad stories of the death of genres.    Music: Pac Div - Roll the Dice Aurra - A Little Love Jeremiah Kane - The Future Past 

Episode 58: Do we need a 6th edition?

DMs Matt and Rob tackle the ultimate question of life, the multiverse, and everything: should there be a new edition of D&D? Spoilers: we don't. But we will get one...eventually. Your DMs then speculate wildly about what might and should be changed. 

 

Music:

Pac Div - Roll the Dice

David Bowie - Cat People (Put Out Fire)

DMs Matt and Rob tackle the ultimate question of life, the multiverse, and everything: should there be a new edition of D&D? Spoilers: we don't. But we will get one...eventually.

BONUS: Listener Worldbuilding

As iron sharpens iron, so one worldbuilder sharpens another. Matt and Rob discuss your homebrew campaign settings and ideas in this special bonus episode! Thank you to everyone who sent us your work!

 

Music:

Roll the Dice - Pac Div 

Spirit in the Sky - Norman Greenbaum

Big Rock Candy Mountain - Harry McClintock

Princes of the Universe - Queen

As iron sharpens iron, so one worldbuilder sharpens another. Matt and Rob discuss your homebrew campaign settings and ideas in this special bonus episode! Thank you to everyone who sent us your work!

Episode 57: Worldbuilding 102 - Gods & Magic

The professors are in! It's an advanced worldbuilding class focusing on gods, faith, and magic systems. 

Links: Brandon Sanderson's Laws of Magic 

 

Music:

Pac Div - Roll the Dice

Johnny Cash - God's Gonna Cut You Down

Gillian Welch - Old Time Religion 

The professors are in! It's an advanced worldbuilding class focusing on gods, faith, and magic systems.  Links: Brandon Sanderson's Laws of Magic    Music: Pac Div - Roll the Dice Johnny Cash - God's Gonna Cut You Down Gillian Welch - Old Time Religion 

Episode 56: Dice Farce

Happy New Year! After alienating every listener from the UK, your DMs of None answer some unwanted advice and then use real historical artifacts to build new magic (and mundane!) items for your campaigns. 

Image Gallery

Historical Magic Items 2: The Dragon's Maw, the Cyrosiphon, and the Mirror of the Exalted Ancestor 

 

Music:

Pac Div - Roll the Dice

Juicy J, Wiz Khalifa, and Ty Dolla $ign - Shell Shock 

Nicki Manaj and Eminem - Roman's Revenge 

Happy New Year! After alienating every listener from the UK, your DMs of None answer some unwanted advice and then use real historical artifacts to build new magic (and mundane!)

Episode 55: The Old School with Special Guest Andy

Happy new year! Welcome to a brand new episode of Dungeon Master of None on Old School Rules and mega-dungeons with special guest Andy. 

[00:19:20] What is OSR? Andy discusses what types of campaigns and players work best with Old School Rules.

[00:49:00] The art of the mega-dungeon design. Plus, Andy gives his trademarked 1d4 rules for creating a mega-dungeon.  

[01:04:45] Matt and Andy riff up some sweet mega-dungeon  concepts for you to steal. 

[01:10:20] How to raise money for charity at your convention games. 

 

Links:

Goblinoid Games' free Labyrinth Lord rules 

Labyrinth Lord rules for purchase 

Give to the Houston Food Bank

 

Music:

Roll the Dice - Pac Div

Gravitas - Little People

Old School - 2Pac

Christmas in Hollis - Run-DMC

Texas - Fat Tony 

Happy new year! Welcome to a brand new episode of Dungeon Master of None on Old School Rules and mega-dungeons with special guest Andy.  [00:19:20] What is OSR? Andy discusses what types of campaigns and players work best with Old School Rules. [00:49:00] The art of the mega-dungeon design.

Episode 54: Strongholds and Footnotes

It's your mega-episode for the holidays! DMs Rob and Matt review two successful kickstarters that are now available for public purchase: Savage Worlds Adventure Edition [00:11:05] and Strongholds and Followers [00:44:00]. Then, on to your DM questions and letters [01:20:00]!

 

Gerard asks, "Will I destroy my game giving my players opposing goals?" [01:21:10]

Scott says, "Quidditch is trash." [01:25:45]

Ryan asks, "What are quick tips for creating interesting NPCs and setting their CR?" [01:26:05]

 

Recommendations: 

Strongholds & Followers, MCDM

Running the Game, Matt Colville

Savage Worlds Adventure Edition, PEG Press 

 

Music:

Roll the Dice - Pac Div 

The Passenger - Iggy Pop

Sweetback's Theme - Earth, Wind & Fire 

Seein' Red - Unwritten Law

Power - Kanye West

Marathon - Rush 

It's your mega-episode for the holidays! DMs Rob and Matt review two successful kickstarters that are now available for public purchase: Savage Worlds Adventure Edition [00:11:05] and Strongholds and Followers [00:44:00]. Then, on to your DM questions and letters [01:20:00]!   Gerard asks, "Will I destroy my game giving my players opposing goals?"

Episode 53: Hobbit Phrenology

DMs Matt and Rob sit down for a deep dive into Tolkien, race, drow, Game of Thrones, and Euro-centric campaign worlds. Listen to a discussion of how to think critically about ideas of race in fantasy RPGs. We hope you will leave with some ideas about to tell anti-racist stories in our games.  

You can do your DM of None homework by reading Paul Sturtevant's article on the Public Medievalist, "Race: the Original Sin of the Fantasy Genre."

 

Recommendations: 

Saladin Ahmed - Throne of the Crescent Moon 

N. K. Jemisin - The Broken Earth Series 

 

Music:

Roll the Dice - Pac Div

Fantastic Man - William Onyeabor 

DMs Matt and Rob sit down for a deep dive into Tolkien, race, drow, Game of Thrones, and Euro-centric campaign worlds. Listen to a discussion of how to think critically about ideas of race in fantasy RPGs.

Episode 52: You are a Pirate!

WARNING: Spoilers for Skulls & Shackles begin at 37:30!

Have your players ever wanted to acquire a ship? Pirates are the murder-hobos of the sea, so let them!

DMs Rob and Matt discuss how to plan open-ended nautical adventures for your players. Stick around for a review of Skull & Shackles, one of the best pirate modules ever published!

 

Music:

Roll the Dice - Pac Div

Black Is the Color - Lucette

Musica notturna delle strade di Madrid - Luigi Boccherini

You are a Pirate - Lazy Town

WARNING: Spoilers for Skulls & Shackles begin at 37:30! Have your players ever wanted to acquire a ship? Pirates are the murder-hobos of the sea, so let them! DMs Rob and Matt discuss how to plan open-ended nautical adventures for your players. Stick around for a review of Skull & Shackles, one of the best pirate modules ever published!

Episode 51: Worldbuilding 101

DMs Matt and Rob cover the essentials of building your own world for RPG campaigns: scale, theme, and conflict! 

If you want to join us on this worldbuilding epic quest, then join us on twitter. Let's all build new campaign worlds together! 

 

Music:

Roll the Dice - Pac Div

Drunk as Dragons - The Woodbox Gang

Dungeon Master - Visigoth 

DMs Matt and Rob cover the essentials of building your own world for RPG campaigns: scale, theme, and conflict!  If you want to join us on this worldbuilding epic quest, then join us on twitter.

Episode 50: Pod of Many Things

It's a mailbag episode! We. Answer. Your. Letters.

But first, DMs Rob and Matt chat about surprise Yog-Sothoth as well as the new errata and unearthed arcana for DnD 5e. Here's a link to Matt's homebrew rules for 5e Naval Combat. Also, because we live in Hellworld, we talk more about the Flaming Sphere of Shit that is White Wolf (now featuring Instagram despot Ramzan Kadyrov). 

Here comes the letters:

Jai asks, "Did you here some other stuff about Nolan T. of Roll20 being a jerk?" [00:21:00]

Sally asks, "I have a player with a character with a build centered around disarming enemies that doesn't work mechanically until the build has reached a higher level. What should I do to alleviate his dissatisfaction until the character comes into its own?" [00:26:30]

Sally also asks, "How do I create memorable combat encounters for my players?" [00:35:45]

Anthony asks, "I enjoy the interstitial music on the podcast. Can I find a list of the songs and artists?" [00:39:00]

Darrin asks, "What's a good one-shot to run for my parents?" [00:41:45]

Other Matt asks the greatest question of all, "How great are we?" [00:48:20]

Conner asks, "I'm making custom werewolf race at a player's request. Should I share this race with the other player's in the game or the let the player keep their lycanthropy a secret?Also, send us your campaign bibles!!! [00:51:40]

Scott asks, "I have a final encounter with my campaign's big bad coming up. What level should my characters be?" [01:01:05]

 

Music:

Roll the Dice - Pac Div

Starman - David Bowie 

Date with the Night - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Disarm - The Smashing Pumpkins 

Better Off Alone - Alice DJ

Werewolves of London - Warren Zevon 

The Time is Now - John Cena

It's a mailbag episode! We. Answer. Your. Letters. But first, DMs Rob and Matt chat about surprise Yog-Sothoth as well as the new errata and unearthed arcana for DnD 5e. Here's a link to Matt's homebrew rules for 5e Naval Combat.

Episode 49: D&D is an eSport now?

Hoooooo boy. So remember back when the CEO of Hasbro said that D&D was going to be the new "E-Sport?" Well, it didn't take long for someone to try to put that together. 

DMs Matt and Rob watched the very first competitive PvP game of D&D on Twitch and are here to talk about it. We aren't saying you can't have competitive RPGs. You can. But, uh, this ain't it, chief. 

 

Music:

Roll the Dice, Pac Div

He Got Game, Public Enemy & Stephen Stills 

Fight Night, Migos

Hoooooo boy. So remember back when the CEO of Hasbro said that D&D was going to be the new "E-Sport?" Well, it didn't take long for someone to try to put that together.  DMs Matt and Rob watched the very first competitive PvP game of D&D on Twitch and are here to talk about it.

Episode 48: It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Mage (plus Ravnica)

Matt and Rob review two new releases from Wizards of the Coast: The Dungeon of the Mad Mage and The Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica

NO SPOILERS! If you are planning on playing Mad Mage, do not be afraid! Your DMs only talk about the adventure in general terms. 

Megadungeons! What are they? What types of players and dungeons masters will enjoy this type of adventure? Matt and Rob discuss the benefits and limitations of megadungeon-style adventure and what you can steal for your own campaigns. DM of None recommends Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage.

Ravnica! It's not great. Also, we complain about how you can't be a Plainswalker, the most obvious thing for a group of heroes. New races and new classes! Lots of centaurs but the cen-towers have fallen. 

Do you love Ravnica? Please let us know why! 

 

Music:

Roll the Dice, Pac Div

Black Hole Sun, Soundgarden

Mad World, Tears for Fears

Red Eyes and Tears, B.R.M.C.

Matt and Rob review two new releases from Wizards of the Coast: The Dungeon of the Mad Mage and The Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica.  NO SPOILERS! If you are planning on playing Mad Mage, do not be afraid! Your DMs only talk about the adventure in general terms.  Megadungeons! What are they?

Episode 47: D&D is a bicycle and other tortured metaphors

After some uninformed speculation about what the announced 2019 D&D campaign setting book will be, Rob and Matt discuss a recent article in Quartzy"Dungeons & Dragons Created the Blueprint Nerd Culture Still Follows Today" by Dave Gershgorn. 

Q&A time! If you could DM for any three celebrities, who would they be? What video game needs a TTRPG rulebook? Can a DM metagame?

What is your answer to these questions? Let us know at dmofnone@gmail.com!

 

Music:

Roll the Dice, Pac Div

Be Healthy, Dead Prez 

Q.U.E.E.N., Janelle Monáe featuring Erykah Badu

Video Games (Remix), Lana Del Ray and Club Clique

After some uninformed speculation about what the announced 2019 D&D campaign setting book will be, Rob and Matt discuss a recent article in Quartzy, "Dungeons & Dragons Created the Blueprint Nerd Culture Still Follows Today" by Dave Gershgorn.  Q&A time! If you could DM for any three celebrities, who would they be?

Episode 46: The Traitor Baru Cormorant

Put on your masks and get out your account books! Matt and Rob are joined by a very special guest, Dave the Prof! They discuss Seth Dickinson's groundbreaking fantasy novel, The Traitor Baru Cormorant. The book's approach to race, queerness, and empire will get your fantasy world-building gears turning like no other novel! 

Happy Halloween and happy the Monster Baru Cormorant day!

 

Links:

On Top of the World, Dave's podcast (Matt is also a co-host)

The Traitor Baru Cormorant 

The Monster Baru Cormorant

 

Music:

Roll the Dice, Pac Div

Rebel, Rebel, David Bowie

Empire State of Mind, Jay Z. feat. Alicia Key

Mask Off, Future 

Put on your masks and get out your account books! Matt and Rob are joined by a very special guest, Dave the Prof! They discuss Seth Dickinson's groundbreaking fantasy novel, The Traitor Baru Cormorant. The book's approach to race, queerness, and empire will get your fantasy world-building gears turning like no other novel!  Happy Halloween and happy the Monster Baru Cormorant day!

Episode 45: Water Heist, Deep Dragon

Matt and Rob review the newest adventure from Wizards of the Coast, Waterdeep: Dragon Heist! 

WARNING! Spoilers begin at 45:10.

But first, we gird ourselves for a Tales from the Loop TV series and a Wheel of Time TV series. Matt shares his bafflement with TORG: Eternity.

Now, on to Waterdeep...Dragon Heist is a welcome departure from the all the other 5e adventures...modular antagonists...it's so short (and that's a good thing)......non-adventuring things for your adventurers to do...walking the fine line between pure sandbox and straight linear adventures...is this too complex...where are our criminals...Waterdeep is a city of LAWS...planning for when your players do nothing...inaction should never be the best choice for your PCs...modularity is still in beta but better to go down swinging...we recommend Daughter Peep: Flagon Iced! 

 

 

Music:

Roll the Dice, Pac Div

A Theme for the Wheel of Time, Robert Berry

Love Song, Sara Bareilles

Once in a Lifetime, Talking Heads

Matt and Rob review the newest adventure from Wizards of the Coast, Waterdeep: Dragon Heist!  WARNING! Spoilers begin at 45:10. But first, we gird ourselves for a Tales from the Loop TV series and a Wheel of Time TV series. Matt shares his bafflement with TORG: Eternity.

Episode 44: Mailbag of Holding, Type II

DMs Matt and Rob talk about RPGs in the classroom using the Reacting to the Past curriculum and Matt's panel on Paradox Interactive's video games and history.

 

Now, on to your letters:

Nate writes, "Discord has a dice roller and a macro add-on!" [16:30]

Ryan asks, "Is the Dynamic Lighting option in Roll20 worth it?" [21:00]

Abstract Figure writes, "I love old school throwing weapons and boomerangs from movies of the 80s and 90s. What's the best way to put these iconic items into a game for my kids?" (He also sent us a link to some great drawings!) [25:30]

Adam asks, "How do I get players more engaged with NPCs and make them curious about my world?" [35:00]

 

Music:

"Roll the Dice" by Pac Div 

"The Games People Play" by The Alan Parsons Project

"Blinded by the Light" by Manfred Mann's Earth Band

"When I Come Around" by Green Day

"BKNY" by Fat Tony (featuring Old Money)

DMs Matt and Rob talk about RPGs in the classroom using the Reacting to the Past curriculum and Matt's panel on Paradox Interactive's video games and history.   Now, on to your letters: Nate writes, "Discord has a dice roller and a macro add-on!" [16:30] Ryan asks, "Is the Dynamic Lighting option in Roll20 worth it?"

Episode 43: DMing 201

"7 DM Tips to take your game to the next level...#6 will blow you away!" 

"Players hate him! Master the Game with this one Weird Trick!"

Matt and Rob are back with some slightly more advanced tips to help you as a game master!  But first, a listener asks, "Can I run a game with two swapping Dungeon Masters?"

On to the tips: creating a recap blog...playing to your strengths...you are using your DM screen wrong...the freedom of rolling in the open...binders full of NPC names...player name tents...getting to know what makes your players tick...mastering the "character spotlight" and the quick "around the table check-in."

Thanks for listening! Don't forget to rate and review!

Email / Twitter

 

Music:

"Roll the Dice" by Pac Div

"Going through the Motions" by Buffy the Vampire Slayer

"Good Times Bad Times" by Led Zeppelin

"Say My Name" by Destiny's Child 

"No Beginner" by Serengeti 

 

Recommendations: 

The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

"7 DM Tips to take your game to the next level...#6 will blow you away!"  "Players hate him! Master the Game with this one Weird Trick!" Matt and Rob are back with some slightly more advanced tips to help you as a game master!  But first, a listener asks, "Can I run a game with two swapping Dungeon Masters?"

Episode 42: Playing Extremely Online


Matt and Rob discuss some recent drama related to Roll20, a virtual tabletop platform [05:40]. Your hosts then try present both the challenges and opportunities of running RPGs online [20:30]. Last, Matt and Rob try to give you some practical tips for using Roll20 and other online tabletops [41:30]. 

Have you struggled or had success running games online? Let us know how it went! dmofnone@gmail.com 

Music:

"Roll the Dice" by Pac Div

"Pursuit of Happiness" by Kid Cudi, MGMT, and Ratatat

"Smoke and Mirrors" by Gotye

"Long Distance" by Bruno Mars

Matt and Rob discuss some recent drama related to Roll20, a virtual tabletop platform [05:40]. Your hosts then try present both the challenges and opportunities of running RPGs online [20:30]. Last, Matt and Rob try to give you some practical tips for using Roll20 and other online tabletops [41:30].  Have you struggled or had success running games online?