DM Advice Episodes

Anything which will help DMs in the macro and micro of managing games. Including organising your notes, the minutia of balancing encounters on the fly, and managing problematic players.
Dec. 10, 2021

Adaptation

I am once again joined by Manny a.k.a. Growed Up Geek to talk about adaptation. One great way to kill two birds with one stone is by integrating player character backstories into published adventure modules; not only do you g...
Nov. 26, 2021

Death

This episode features the "Bard Killer" Seven from the 7th Roll podcast, and we talk all about the concept of death in our Dungeons & Dragons campaigns. We coin the phrase "murderhobo DM"; a DM who is more than comfortable wi...
Guest: Seven
Nov. 12, 2021

Emotions

This episode I'm joined by Mike "The Birdman" Dodd from This Week in Geek to discuss all about how TTRPGs make us feel . Part of the Game Master's job is to elicit emotions from their players, so we discuss a few ways this ca...
Nov. 5, 2021

Monster

This week I am joined by Lucas Zellers, host of the 'Making a Monster' podcast to talk, unsurprisingly, about monsters! This episode is broadly split into two halves, the first focusing on mechanical minutia of running stat b...
Guest: Lucas Zellers
Oct. 29, 2021

Story

Jon from the 'Tale of the Manticore' ( @ManticoreTale ) actual-play podcast joins me to talk about creating stories in Dungeons and Dragons. We open by tackling the academic: the seven story archetypes and how to crack the "c...
Oct. 8, 2021

Growth

This episode I'm joined by Aaron Preuss ( @Primus_Casts ) to discuss growth within Dungeons & Dragons, and there's a lot to unpack here. Most people find their own character designs evolve and mature over time, and Aaron take...
Guest: Aaron Preuss
Sept. 24, 2021

Narrative

This episode I'm joined by Adam from Snyder's Return to debate the pros and cons of narrative focused TTRPG systems. Such an interesting topic overflowing with meaning, subjectivity, and design intent; this episode covers it ...
Sept. 10, 2021

Streaming

CW: A fictional anecdote containing references to NPC children dying and descriptions of gore & bodily harm to children, all within a Dungeons & Dragons context. This episode Robert Hartley , the DM for Viva La Dirt League , ...
Aug. 20, 2021

Failure

I'm joined by one of the hosts of the Double DM podcast , Emil Auerbach, to talk all about failure: how it comes about, how to mitigate it, and most importantly, how to learn from it. Failure is an intrinsic part of Dungeons ...
Aug. 13, 2021

Puzzles

Puzzles, the marmite of Dungeons & Dragons! I'm joined by Michael Wu, a.k.a. DM Micycle , to discuss the nuances of designing puzzles for TTRPGs. Certain considerations have to made during the design process, as puzzles are a...
Aug. 6, 2021

Magic

" Perpetuating the success of fireball. " Cat McDonald of Peach Garden Games brings her perspective of being an indie TTRPG designer and knowledge of the occult to this talk about magic in Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. She ...
July 30, 2021

Pressure

For this discussion I'm joined by Matt Perkins, DM/podcaster/YouTuber extraordinaire, to talk all about pressure in your TTRPGs! We split the term down the middle by differentiating narrative (in-game) from "meta" (OoG) press...
July 16, 2021

Voices

This episode I'm joined by Pete, a.k.a. @BadDMPete , to discuss all about voices! If I can start off by apologising for the embarrassing mistake of confusing the Akira Kurosawa epic Seven Samurai with the Tom Cruise bombast o...
Guest: Peter
July 2, 2021

Random

This episode I'm joined by Nikki from Beholder to No One , the award winning TTRPG podcast featuring discussions and one-shots. Broadly this episode can be summed up as "how random elements affect gameplay", however as we qui...
June 25, 2021

Style

This episode I'm joined by Joe Dunn ( @jcd0818 ) to talk about a very stylish topic. Joe has 17 years TTRPG experience across multiple systems including D&D, Pathfinder, and Powered by the Apocalypse, so is exceptionally qual...
Guest: Joe Dunn