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 E10: Mailbag #18

"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 E09: Gary Gygax

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 E08: Avoiding "Murder Hobos"

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 E07: Delvers Postmortem

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 E06: The Elements and Damage Types

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 E05: Mailbag #17

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 E04: Riddles and Logic Puzzles

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 E03: Weapons, Resistances, Vulnerabilities, and Immunities

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 E02: Weapon Properties

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.

S09 E01: Character Sheet Tour

Season 8 wraps up with questions from the mailbag. How can you handle players roleplaying outside their stats? Why do groups always fall apart? Should a level 3 spell deal 48d6 damage? And is it the job of the DM to make sure the party is balanced?

S08 E10: Mailbag #16

Balls and gala events are great climactic set pieces, but pulling them off can be tricky. By taking a look through history, we can identify what makes them unique and how you can transform an overwhelming night of NPC interaction into an interactive skill challenge and social event for your players.

S08 E09: Balls and Formal Parties

Players will surprise you with roleplay, be it a natural 20 Persuasion or unknown spell. Be prepared for the odd languages and have a plan for player spells, like comprehend languages, tongues, speak with dead, and speak with plants.

S08 E08: Planning for Surprise Roleplay

There is nothing wrong with filler combat when used appropriately. Give yourself a break from planning the main plot and add some filler while you figure out the next step.

S08 E07: Wilderness Encounters

Traps are cool, but they need proper setup and delivery. It's not just order of operations and mechanics, it's about tension and theming.

S08 E06: Traps 2.0

This mailbag tackles a multipart question from a new DM, how to make use of player theories, setting your own expectations for session zero, and how to deal with one of the most difficult problem players—the "but that's just what my character would do."

S08 E05: Mailbag #15

Every DM wants big set pieces packed with crowds for their players to be heroic in, but how do you manage such a scene? Here are tips and strategies to reduce your burden in executing the masses while still giving your players achievable goals and objectives.

S08 E04: NPC Crowds

Players love the idea of owning a castle, but all the hard work of running and managing its execution falls on the DM. Use these tricks to keep your fort from getting bogged down!

S08 E03: Player Strongholds and Housing

The life of adventure can be thrilling, but a functional world and economy means that some tasks might be more mundane. Create a montage for your players using assorted skill challenges to help showcase their impact on the world beyond just saving it from the big bad.

S08 E02: How to Montage

Livestreams and podcasts of D&D should be different from your home games. Factors like linear stories, paid actors, an audience, combat adaptations, world lore, and even being stuck in a chair change D&D from a game into a product. Enjoy your hobby and avoid stressing.

DM Gives Inspiration

DM Gives Inspiration

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