This week, Adam and Tiana look back over the year and talk about the lessons learned and the many games played. Time for us to head into hibernation for the rest of the year!
This week, Adam and Tiana talk about Adam's favorite strategy manual: The Art of War by Sun Tzu. We talk about how to use the principles in that book to change the way GMs and players think about their roles in encounters and overall gameplay. To watch the Death Campaign live: https://www.twitch.tv/vanalosswen Join the Discord! https://discord.gg/gYSp3vcrqs
This week, Adam and Tiana talk about upcoming plans in the ongoing Westgate Patron game, where the party is about to start building political alliances within the city. We use that as a springboard to talk about how to set up those sorts of situations for your players, and ways that players can engage within the situations.To watch the Death Campaign live: https://www.twitch.tv/vanalosswen Join the Discord! https://discord.gg/gYSp3vcrqs
This week, Adam and Tiana are feeling TOTALLY NORMAL, NOTHING TO DISCUSS HERE, and talk about what a despot looks like. Dictators and despots can be incredibly intricate TTRPG villains, usable in a number of circumstances ranging from mustache-twirling to "doing the wrong thing for the right reasons." To watch the Death Campaign live: https://www.twitch.tv/vanalosswen Join the Discord! https://discord.gg/gYSp3vcrqsLinks used in the recording:https://anthropologyreview.org/anthropology-glossary-of-terms/despotism-a-single-ruler-who-has-absolute-power/#:~:text=One%20such%20factor%20is%20narcissism,assert%20their%20dominance%20over%20othershttps://easysociology.com/sociology-of-power/understanding-despotism-features-examples-and-implications/https://www.newsweek.com/robert-reich-fifteen-ways-recognize-tyrant-537866
This week, Adam and Tiana take a tool from politics and political coverage to talk about the best predictors for the survival of a TTRPG table. Because while we do our best to stay away from national politics, we do agree that there are politics inherent in table dynamics, and we want to give our listeners every chance to stack the deck in their favor.To watch the Death Campaign live: https://www.twitch.tv/vanalosswen Join the Discord! https://discord.gg/gYSp3vcrqs
This week, Adam and Tiana talk about Big Bad Evil Guys and how to make them feel appropriately dangerous and scary. We've all been there: you spend a campaign building up to the BBEG, and then when you get into the final fight, they go down like a tower of cards in the first few rounds. How do we make that not happen? Let's talk about it!To watch the Death Campaign live: https://www.twitch.tv/vanalosswen Join the Discord! https://discord.gg/gYSp3vcrqs
This week, Adam and Tiana introduce the second secret ingredient. We've talked about it before in passing, but this time, we dive deep into why curiosity is the second secret ingredient and how it can elevate your games. Be curious, not judgmental.To watch the Death Campaign live: https://www.twitch.tv/vanalosswen Join the Discord! https://discord.gg/gYSp3vcrqs
This week, Adam and Tiana talk about the lessons Adam learned from running two different sessions of Death: one on Friday for a private group of Patrons, and one on Tuesday for the livestream crew. No matter how long we've been playing or GMing, there's always something new to learn if we're willing to dig in!To watch the Death Campaign live: https://www.twitch.tv/vanalosswen Join the Discord! https://discord.gg/gYSp3vcrqs
This week, Adam and Tiana dive into a rewrite of the Ranger player class that Adam's been working on. The goal is to design to the Ranger fantasy, without being overly reactive to the 2024 changes to the class.The Google Doc with the rewritten class: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gCHFMjrHrnmmdlVeOJqFGaYVbxNY4flfQz-EeBcPlAE/edit?usp=sharingTo watch the Death Campaign live: https://www.twitch.tv/vanalosswen Join the Discord! https://discord.gg/gYSp3vcrqs
This week, Adam and Tiana take a break from talking about the mechanics to talk about games currently in progress: the Death Campaign, currently playing out as a streamed game on Tiana's channel and two Patron games on Discord. We discuss the philosophies being explored, Sir Terry Pratchett gets a moment in the spotlight, and we talk about where the games are going from here.To watch the Death Campaign live: https://www.twitch.tv/vanalosswen Join the Discord! https://discord.gg/gYSp3vcrqs
This week, Adam and Tiana finish their evaluation of the changes to the Player Classes with a deep dive into Druid 2024. We have access to the full book now, so there's a lot more to dig through and discover; come along with us as we wrap up our discussion on Player Classes!Death Campaign: https://www.twitch.tv/vanalosswen Join the Discord! https://discord.gg/gYSp3vcrqs
This week, Chris joins Adam and Tiana to talk about games he played last year that weren't D&D 5e. Along the way, we discuss design ethos, what we look for in games, and why so many systems work great for Persona. Sugar Punch, Chris's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@SugarPunchDeath Campaign: https://www.twitch.tv/vanalosswen Join the Discord! https://discord.gg/gYSp3vcrqs
This week, Adam and Tiana continue their discussion about the changes to Player Character classes in the upcoming 2024 Player's Handbook. We're comparing two classes with a lot of similarities to see how they hold up in the new editionSorcerer blog post: https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1769-2024-sorcerer-vs-2014-sorcerer-whats-newWizard blog post: https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1753-2024-wizard-vs-2014-wizard-whats-newDeath Campaign: https://www.twitch.tv/vanalosswen Join the Discord! https://discord.gg/gYSp3vcrqs
This week, Adam and Tiana continue their discussion about the changes to Player Character classes in the upcoming 2024 Player's Handbook. It's charisma hour with Warlocks and Bards, two of the funnest classes to play!Warlock blog post: https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1756-2024-warlock-vs-2014-warlock-whats-newBard blog post: https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1768-2024-bard-vs-2014-bard-whats-newDeath Campaign: https://www.twitch.tv/vanalosswen Join the Discord! https://discord.gg/gYSp3vcrqs
This week, Tiana takes on the solo hosting role again and welcomes Sam Tillis to the podcast to discuss his journey to becoming a professional GM and how he handles the differences between games as recreation and games as profession. Sam's Links: https://linktr.ee/stillis.gamingEmissary link: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/447790/emissaryDeath Campaign: https://www.twitch.tv/vanalosswen Join the Discord! https://discord.gg/gYSp3vcrqs
This week, Adam and Tiana continue their discussion about the changes to the player classes in the 2024 Player's Handbook. We discuss Paladin and Cleric, with our opinions about the changesPaladin blog post: https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1749-2024-paladin-vs-2014-paladin-whats-newCleric blog post: https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1767-2024-cleric-vs-2014-cleric-whats-newDeath Campaign live on Tuesdays at 6 pm Pacific: https://www.twitch.tv/vanalosswen
This week, Adam and Tiana continue their deep-dive into what's known so far about the 2024 player classes. While we planned to talk about two classes as before, we had a lot to say about ranger and our perspective on the design philosophy behind the changes. Ranger blog post: https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1759-2024-ranger-vs-2014-ranger-whats-newDeath Campaign live on Tuesdays at 6 pm Pacific: https://www.twitch.tv/vanalosswen
This week, Adam and Tiana continue their discussion about the changes to the player classes in the 2024 Player's Handbook. We discuss Rogue and Monk, with some digression into YouTubers and Star Wars. Rogue blog post: https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1752-2024-rogue-vs-2014-rogue-whats-newMonk blog post: https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1758-2024-monk-vs-2014-monk-whats-newDeath Campaign live on Tuesdays at 6 pm Pacific: https://www.twitch.tv/vanalosswen
This week, Adam and Tiana begin talking about the changes to the player classes in the 2024 D&D Player Handbook. We're working from the playtest bundles and the D&DBeyond blog posts, comparing the 2014 classes to the new changes.Barbarian blog post: https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1750-2024-barbarian-vs-2014-barbarian-whats-newFighter blog post: https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1746-2024-fighter-vs-2014-fighter-whats-newDeath Campaign live on Tuesdays at 6 pm Pacific: https://www.twitch.tv/vanalosswen
This week, Tiana takes on the solo host role and welcomes Alandra Hileman onto the show to talk about tips and tricks for running mob combat in D&D 5e. We use examples from Phandelver and Below, a campaign Tiana recently wrapped up, to discuss ideas for making the juggling act behind the GM screen as smooth as possible.Join our Discord to continue the conversation!Alandra's itch.io page: https://ladybedivere.itch.io/Keys from the Golden Vault, GM'd by Alandra, over on Quests and Chaos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLSM6UhQ5Q6LIyy4uUQVV2sAG0MeA-P6tPhandelver and Below, GM'd by Tiana, over on Quests and Chaos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLSM6UhQ5Q6JF3hrzaTwY8zlbanZ9vWxc