Game Master's Journey

Lex takes a deep dive into Waterdeep: Dragon Heist , an adventure for 5th edition D&D. He gives an honest review of the good and bad of this adventure and discusses its usefulness to DMs who don’t end up running the adventure. Lex begins with a spoiler free review, and then goes into a more detailed review for DMs and others considering buying the adventure. Please don’t listen to the later, s...

In this instalment of Hinterlands of Elandria, Kravitz finds his voice, and Bryn asks Quincy for aid in finding the firbolg. The PCs put the best spin on things possible when they explain the situation with Ezryn the Mad with the Mayors of Dianara’s Rest, and then they consider their next moves.

The PCs grapple with the repercussions of their battle with Ezryn the Mad. They search the ruins of her hut for treasure and debate Miguel the Flayer’s fate.

Lex returns to the 5th edition DMG to discuss how to link adventures together into a larger campaign. He also talks about campaign tracking and organization.

The PCs face off with Ezryn the mad.

The PCs enter the Swamp of Woe in search of the witch, Ezryn the Mad.

Lex discusses traps in 5th edition D&D--how to detect traps, how to figure them out and how to disarm them. He also discusses his own experiences with traps in the game and gives some tips on how to use them well.

Bryn receives some valuable information from her dreams and the dryad, Anna.

This week Lex responds to your feedback! He shares a couple more strategies to cope with GM burnout, and he discusses tools he’s used for grid play at the table. He revisits his opinion on alignment, sharing some more instances in which it can be useful, as well as his advice on how to avoid annoying your players with it. Finally he talks about why he stopped playing Numenera and gives some behind...

Lerissa, the tiefling bard, gets up to some shenanigans while the rest of the village of Dianara’s Rest sleeps.

Lex returns to his exploration of the Dungeon Master’s Guide . This week he explores adventuring in settlements, underwater, on the sea and in the sky. He also responds to some Listener-GM thoughts on alignments and gives his own opinions on alignment in D&D.

Wahl's mother, Eliira, angel of Elandra, visits him in a dream.

Lex returns to his exploration of the Dungeon Master’s Guide . This week he discusses mapping a wilderness and wilderness survival. He shows how concerning yourself with how the PCs survive in the wilderness can really add a lot to your game and enhance the players’ feelings of accomplishment as their characters progress through the game.

Lex returns to his exploration of the Dungeon Master’s Guide to discuss techniques for using wilderness travel in your adventures. He outlines two basic techniques—the travel-montage approach and the hour-by-hour approach—and he gives advice and strategies for both.

Any GM (or player!) can experience burnout. Lex investigates signs of possible burnout and explores various strategies of coping with GM burnout.

Even with the near-glacial release schedule for D&D fifth edition, the game is long enough in the tooth now that we have quite a few products to choose from. Which products are the most useful? Lex gives his opinions on which order to purchase the various supplements in today's episode of Game Master's Journey.

Lex gives an overview of the new D&D supplement,  Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes .

Lex returns to his exploration of the Dungeon Master's Guide to discuss one of his favorite adventure environments--dungeons.

Lex investigates the rules and (not-so) common sense of darkness & light in D&D.

The PCs finally reach the magic tree and negotiate with Anna, the dryad, for a seedling to take back to Dianara’s Rest.

The PCs enter the Faerie Forest and search for the magic tree. They get to know their new companion Dahlia, and they learn that not all denizens of Faerie are friendly.

The PCs continue their journey to the Faerie Forest, and they meet a new companion along the way.

Lex returns to his exploration of the DMG. He discusses Chapter 4: Creating Nonplayer Characters. This chapter has lots of useful advice and tables for fleshing out your NPCs.

In the latest installment of the Hinterlands of Elandria D&D actual play, Lex gets together with Jaime to flesh out the backstory of his character, Marcos the College of Lore Bard.

How much of the rules should you know as a beginning GM? Lex gives a breakdown of where the basic rules of the game can be found and what to focus on. He also gives his thoughts on how to approach campaigns that make certain classes, subclasses, races, etc. undesirable to play as PCs.