Taking 20 Podcast

Ep 178 - The Players Spoiled My Plans and the Paizo Remaster

DMs, what should you do when the players derail your entire adventure plan, reveal a secret or short circuit the story that you had planned for the group?  How can you recover from this?  Tune in and find out

 

#DMTips #dnd #Pathfinder #ORClicense

 

Resources:

Pathfinder Second Edition Remaster Project:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiYCs0fPFnM&t=50s

 

Twitch stream of “Pathfinder Remastered” at Paizocon on Friday May 26th from 12-2 PDT.

Ep 177 - Back to Basics -Make Scenes not Stories

I have been guilty of trying to craft stories from an overview, a 50,000 foot view, if you will, and neglecting the individual encounters, scenes and scenarios.  In this episode I encourage you to do the opposite of this, focus on crafting these individual scenes to give you the flexibility to allow the PCs to take the story whatever direction they would like.

 

#dmtips #dnd #pathfinder #learnfrommistakes #orclicense

Ep 176 - Making Monsters Scarier

There are a few common tips and tricks that DMs can use to make monsters scarier or merely seem that they are.  In this episode I discuss ways that you can get rid of that same-old-same-old feeling with your monsters and keep your players on their toes.

 

#dnd #Pathfinder #opendnd #dungeonsanddragons #dmtips

Ep 175 - Wizards of the Coast, Pinkertons, and That One DM Question

I've given the WOTC Pinkerton issue a couple of weeks to marinate and I wanted to give my thoughts on the matter.  Also, I wanted to give my wonderful GMs out there a useful tool:  one question you can ask your players to keep them from making a preventable mistake.

#DMTips #Dnd #OpenDnd #Pathfinder #WOTC #Pinkerton

Ep 174 - Quest Design - 36 Dramatic Situations

In this episode I point out how to find inspiration in a book that is 125 years old and use the building blocks to make quests and backstories that are just as compelling today as they were then.

 

#dnd #opendnd #Pathfinder #DMTips #StoryDesign 

Resources:

https://www.storyanddrama.com/the-36-dramatic-situations-of-georges-polti/

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thirty-Six_Dramatic_Situations

 

http://ifxgroup.net/plots.htm

Ep 173 - Monster Series - Oozes

Oozes may seem like boring combatants at first, mindless blobs of acidic gels that don't exactly have complex motivations or rich histories but they can be so much more than that.  In this episode I talk about how DMs can use oozes and a couple of particularly nasty encounters that include them.

 

#dnd #pathfinder #opendnd #DMTips #oozes

Ep 172 - PvP and David Carter of Crucible of Fate

On a very special super-sized edition of the Taking 20 Podcast I interview David Carter of the competitive D&D 5e tournament on Youtube called Crucible of Fate.  We talk about running PvP and the challenges of running a 5e competitive game show.  Thank you David for being so generous with your time and your expertise!

 

#CrucibleofFate #dnd #PvP #DMinterview #DMTips

 

Resources

Crucible of Fate Youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWJ5d0XblyYA7Sh6sWVhGFw 

Crucible of Fate Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/crucibleoffate/ 

Crucible of Fate Discord server:  https://discord.gg/hjDAER9DWb

Crucible of Fate Twitter:  https://twitter.com/Crucible_ofFate 

Ep 171 - Good NPCs - Quest Givers

In this episode I talk about giving life to your campaigns by making your quest givers more dynamic and how you can use quest givers to steer the campaign the directions you'd like.

 

#dnd #Pathfinder #opendnd #orc #DMTips

Ep 170 - Narrative Combat, Armor Class and Hit Points

This week I'm picking a fight and a lot of DMs will disagree with me.  I talk about what Armor Class and Hit Points really mean and how that can affect narrative combat.

 

NOTE:  Fixed the audio edit error about 11 minutes in.  Sorry about that.

 

#dnd #opendnd #pathfinder #narrative #combat

Ep 169 - Honor Among Thieves Review and Use of RPG Social Skills

In this episode I give a brief review of the new D&D movie Honor Among Thieves and talk about how DMs should not use social skills like persuasion, diplomacy, and intimidation to rob a player of agency over their character.

#dnd #opendnd #Pathfinder #DMTips #persuasion #diplomacy #intimidation

 

Resources:

Dungeons and Dragons:  Honor Among Thieves

Startplaying.games

Warhorn.net

Looking for Players & Groups D&D Beyond board

D&D Beyond Discord