Standard, Everyday Gamemaster: A Gamemaster's Journey

Want to know the thoughts and inner process followed by a standard every-day gamemaster? Join me on my journey through planning, level design, game-work-life balance, and how to handle the situations that occur both at the table and away from it. Episodes will be filled with my reflections upon events which occurred at my table, providing, I hope, a small amount of interest, enlightenment, and maybe even entertainment.

An Adventure Needs... A Connection to Your World

What can players learn about your world from the adventure? Or better yet, what can your players learn about your adventure from the world? Learn how to tie both together in today's show.

02-15
47:40

An Adventure Needs... Conflict

Learn the right level of conflict to include in your adventures in today's show. The answer is lots, but not too much.

02-08
43:32

An Adventure Needs... A Beginning

What do adventures need? Beginnings. That's where we start talking about adventures, because it's the most reasonable place to, well, begin.

01-25
40:04

Adventure, The Theme of Season 2

In this shorter episode, I summarize what is to become the remainder of Season 2 of the podcast. We talk about the theme of adventure writing, and briefly look at potential topics for future episodes. Is there something you want covered? Let me know in the question link on Spotify Podcasts!

01-23
24:58

The Why of Challenge

Why should you be challenging your players? This question is explored on today's episode! Episodes release at 3 pm Central Time on Wednesdays.

12-28
40:04

Testing the Adaptability of Your Players

The topics of challenge and adaptability are merged as we discuss how to challenge your players' adaptability at the table. Episodes release at 3 pm Central Time on Wednesdays.

12-21
36:17

Challenging Your Players

The discussion of adaptability is put on hold to talk about ways to challenge your players at the game table. Episodes release at 3 pm Central Time on Wednesdays.

12-14
42:21

Improving Your Adaptability

We continue our discussion of adaptability by looking at ways to improve your ability to adapt as a game master. Episodes release at 3 pm Central Time on Wednesdays.

12-07
35:41

The Need for Both Adaptability and Data Backups

Following a critical error on my computer, resulting in the potential loss of data (which has since been recovered), I discuss the need for data backups and adaptability. I hope others can learn from my hubris. Episodes release at 3 pm Central Time on Wednesdays.

11-30
39:13

Preparing New Regions

We ease into Season 2 of the show with a discussion about how I prepare new regions when my players stray from the areas I already have prepared. I look at a few of the ways I keep them manageable, and also do the conceptual work on a region I plan to use in my game. Episodes release on Wednesday at 3 pm.

11-23
40:50

Improving Your Game Part 3 - Improving Yourself/Adding to What Remains

We conclude our mini series on improving your game, as well as Season 1 of the show, by discussing the best possible additions to your game, and yourself, which could improve its quality. Season 2 begins next Wednesday at 3 pm Central Time!

11-16
39:18

Improving Your Game Part 2 - Excluding What Doesn't Help

We continue our end-of-season mini series with a look at how to improve your game by excluding what is not contributing, by subtracting the least impactful elements, and by focusing on what will make the biggest difference in the quality of your game. Episodes release on Wednesdays at 3 pm Central Time.

11-09
45:07

Improving Your Game Part 1 - Organization

We end Season 1 with a short  series on improving your game. This episode focuses on organization and looks at what I do to stay organized. Episodes release Wednesdays at 3 pm Central Time.

11-02
34:32

Boss Fights - Interlude

I discuss boss fights in this episode and review what happened in a recent boss fight in my ongoing campaign. Episodes release Wednesdays at 3 pm Central Time.

10-26
42:12

Best in Class Part 5 - Campaign Overview B

I look at the details of how the system I am running, Best in Class, has impacted the campaign my group is experiencing. This concludes the Best in Class series, but the game will be revisited as topics arise from my current campaign. Episodes release Wednesdays as 3 pm Central Time.

10-19
42:38

Best in Class Part 4 - Campaign Overview A

I move on from discussing my system to looking at how it plays at the game table. Players of my current campaign should skip this episode and the next one. This episode provides a broad campaign background while the next looks at the specifics of the game as my players are playing it. Episodes release Wednesdays at 3 pm Central Time.

10-12
46:56

Best in Class Part 3 - System Overview B

We continue our series on my current game with the remainder of the system overview. Episodes continue to release on Wednesdays at 3 pm Central Time.

10-05
42:43

Best in Class Part 2 - System Overview A

We continue our series on my system Best in Class with an overview of the system itself and how I developed it. Episodes continue to release on Wednesdays at 3 pm Central Time.

09-28
44:38

Best in Class Part 1 - Why 5e Had to Go at My Table

I launch into the next series here on the show where I discuss the system I'm currently running for my players. I can't get into that, though, without talking about why I made it, which primarily is a reaction to the state of the game in fifth edition. So in this episode, I go into detail about why the game had to change at my table. Episodes continue to release Wednesdays at 3 pm Central Time.

09-21
44:57

Stealth - Interlude

I create the bones of an enhanced stealth system for the game in this episode. Why stealth? It's a part of the game that could stand to be done well as the plethora of stealth video games exhibits. I hope to bring some of that same tension and excitement to the table in a way that can actually be managed by a game master. This stealth system is now released, and available online! Episodes continue to release Wednesdays at 3 pm Central Time.

09-14
36:00

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