DM Gives Inspiration

Latest Episodes:

S09 E10: Mailbag #18 Nov 30, 2021

Show notes

Questions answered. How do you get players to roleplay? How should DMs handle the "evil" races? How do you know your big bad fight will be good? How do you avoid frustration when players miss something you worked hard on?

S09 E09: Gary Gygax Nov 18, 2021

Show notes

"The father of role-playing games," Gary Gygax's, story. A tumultuous tale of obsession, backstabbing, and betrayal, that, in the end, defined him as the creator of the beloved game Dungeons and Dragons.

S09 E08: Avoiding "Murder Hobos" Nov 09, 2021

Show notes

What do you do if violence is the only solution your players present to your problems? If you feel your players are constantly ruining your game with their murderous antics, how can you fix that? And did you actually throw the first stone?

S09 E07: Delvers Postmortem Nov 04, 2021

Show notes

For the past year, I have been DMing a three season live play show on the Frogpants Network—There Will Be Dungeons: Delvers. This episode is a peek behind the curtain to talk about the production goals of that show and how it was run. It's also a tale of corporative storytelling and the importance of music.

S09 E06: The Elements and Damage Types Oct 27, 2021

Show notes

There are many magical damage types: poison, acid, fire, cold, radiant, necrotic, lightning, thunder, force, and psychic. They all follow the rules of damage, but different monsters host different interactions. Use these elements to design interesting combat encounters and even entire dungeons.

S09 E05: Mailbag #17 Oct 20, 2021

Show notes

Three big questions with three big answers. How can you make puzzles make sense? While things may not be realistic all the time, here are several tricks to get a puzzle working in your world. Kyle also tackles how to end a campaign and how to home flavor an undead dragon for your big bad ending.

S09 E04: Riddles and Logic Puzzles Oct 13, 2021

Show notes

Puzzles are not content unless they are interactive. Riddles, codes, logic, and grid puzzles can all be crafted to create a cooperative challenge. This episode includes famous puzzles such as One Tells the Truth One Lies and the Ravensborg's Guild.

S09 E03: Weapons, Resistances, Vulnerabilities, and Immunities Oct 05, 2021

Show notes

Rules for player weapons continued. Player weapons are divided into three types: bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing. These damage types can play into features on your monsters, particularly their defenses—resistances , vulnerabilities, and immunities. To use these effectively as part of the combat monster puzzles, we must first understand their mechanical meaning.

S09 E02: Weapon Properties Sep 28, 2021

Show notes

A DM must know what the players know. Weapon properties, two-weapon fighting, and finesse can all be quite confusing if not overwhelming. This episode goes over the simple and martial proficiencies, where proficiencies come from, and how your players got them. Understanding these will allow you to give proper loot, make better custom monsters, and help steer your players toward optimization so you can run more difficult encounters.

S09 E01: Character Sheet Tour Sep 21, 2021

Show notes

How to read a character sheet as told through a goblin adventure. The age of digital D&D player preparations have left DMs ill-prepared for teaching players. Here, Kyle discusses not only how to teach players to read their characters but also what the DM should know to look for when starting a session.

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