DoubleDM

Magic Items are some of the coolest parts of playing D&D and TTRPGs, cool items to give your players an edge over your monsters and villains? Yes please! But what goes into making these good magic items? That is todays topic and we talk about making magic items, what magic items we've created, errors we've made and lessons we learned. We talk about Inspiration and the Creative Process...

Today we discuss the topic of raising the stakes at your TTRPG tables and dealing out consequences for your Players actions and what's the best way for you to have fun doing it. For us, stakes are mostly the threat of a consequence for a character's actions coming to be, it's not the threat itself but just that that threat is likely to happen, so how do we play this unseen gambling gam...

Today we have an incredible topic and episode for you that discusses chaos at the D&D and TTRPG tables. But what does that mean and why do you want more of it? What we understand as chaos is the innate randomness and creativeness of TTRPGs that allow for truly unexpected things to happen. Living in the Moment of the Game and Experiencing it is what you want from most games and today we're...

We've talked a lot about Worldbuilding so far and today we focus on Worldbuilding Places and Locations but even more so we highlight fundamentals in our worldbuilding and how you can lay your own. Our discussion focuses on locations and what you need to create in order for your locations to work, geography, economy, people and so much more, but we also focus on more general aspects of worldbui...

This time we're talking about Lairs in D&D and other TTRPGs. Lairs are places your Monsters, Villains and just Entities are at home and feel safe, but how do we make these places actually interesting and not just a place for another combat? Our discussion focuses on all aspects of a lair, be it the vibe you want to evoke, the combat you want to hold in it, or the Personality and Facettes o...

This time we're joined by Leigh also known as the creator of Albyon Abseys Geographical Almanac, a D&D 5e Supplement that provides you with some of the most interesting and evocative locations for your home games! We discuss where Leigh and his team get their ideas from, what inspiration they use for creating their content and what that creation process looks like. We talk about the absurd...

Today we're finally talking about the biggest Gaming Hype of this year. I don't know if that's true but it sure felt like that in the D&D Space. And for good reason, Baldurs Gate 3 is one of the best video games I've ever played, and it's based on a TTRPG... but how can the video game relate back to the TTRPG and how does it bridge the medium gap? Today we discuss the Good,...

Today we talk about Actual Plays again, could this be a sign for something coming soon? This time around we talk to Ben Newbon of Cybertopia, a new Actual Play, about creating and running your first Actual Play. Ben and We've been friends for years and when he started to produce his own new show we got talking about the hurdles and problems in starting an actual play. Today you will find out e...

Today we talk to Eric Silver of Multitude Productions and specifically the Actual Play Show Join the Party. Eric has the self-proclaimed title of "Best GM in Podcasting" and has the 5 Tools of every GM, the 4 Pillars of a Bad Show, the 3 Campaign Experience, the too (2) great laugh, and the 1 personality to prove it. We discuss Actual Play Creation, Production, and Hosting as well as the...

Horror is a topic that is being talked about all the time in TTRPG spaces and has been on DoubleDMs Showroom before, but today we get a new perspective from DoubleDMs resident Horror DM. We discuss running a horror scenario for D&D and TTRPGs and what it means to truly create a horror environment that goes beyond just having a few spooky vibes. We give advice on handling horror as a GM and as...

In a game of slaying dragons, dispelling evil curses, and saving the land from impending doom you need to make a place for celebrations. And that is what we're discussing today. We discuss creating and running festivals for your games of D&D and TTRPG where players can experience a more jovial side of your world and it's people. They can eat food from all around the world, play fun gam...

Curses are one of the fantasy tropes you just cannot avoid. They are part of every world that has magic in them and for good reason. Dark Twisted Magic used to make someone's Day miserable is a perfect fit for the fantasy genre. That is what we are discussing today. We will discuss what makes curses fun to use for your D&D and TTRPG games and how you can create the best curses for your pla...

There are a few Discourse topics that always come up in TTRPG Discussions, especially in D&D Circles, one of these topics is Optimised vs. Unoptimised Characters often also referred to as Min Max Discourse. That is what we are discussing today. We want to shine a light on why this is in our opinion a pointless discussion and why saying one side is clearly better than the other feels disingenuo...

When we create stories for TTPRGs we often like to think of the Player Characters as the Good Guys. They are the Protagonists but that does not make them Automatically "Heroes". That is what we are discussing today. We talk about the Balance between Good and Evil in your Games and Stories in D&D and TTRPG. We talk about what it means to be good and what it means to be evil and why yo...

As a GM we often make decisions in prep and play often weighing how they will affect play. And sometimes when we put something in we create moments of frustration and game halting. That is what we are discussing today. We talk about complexity and simplicity and how you can balance them in your D&D and TTRPG Sessions. How complex and hard should a D&D puzzle be? Why do players take so long...

When talking about different types of D&D and TTRPG campaigns people often have a certain campaign style that is referred to as "Sandbox Campaigns", but what does that mean? That is what we are discussing today. We talk about what we perceive as Sandbox Gaming, why we think the term Sandbox might not be a perfect fit, and what it means to play creatively free (or more free than usual...

Player Characters get progressively stronger and more powerful as they level up in games like D&D, that means that we also have to level up the world around them to still provide a challenge to them, but how do we do this to make it not feel like a video game? That is what we are discussing today. We highlight a few different techniques you can use to challenge Player Characters that have real...

TTRPGs run on inspiration, it's like the fuel to the fire of the games we play. So how do we get inspired to write that intricate world, that gripping NPC, that captivating story? That is what we are discussing today. We know inspiration looks different for everyone so we can't tell you exactly what you have to do to get inspired, especially cause its different from day to day even. But wh...

When we play TTRPGs we need a place to set the adventure in and often it's the GMs job to keep track of and play the world around the Player Characters, but how do we make sure to have a world to set the adventures in that feels like it allows that adventure to flourish? That is what we are discussing today. We talk about the process of worldbuilding and especially how you can start when build...

When playing D&D, a very heavy combat-focused TTRPG, and we set our players out to face off against the Big Bad of our Campaign we don't want the combat to be over in just a single round with one side triumphing over the other in a flash. But how can we create combats that leave our players wondering if their character will even survive? That is what we are discussing today. We talk about...

When worldbuilding our own worlds for our TTRPG Campaigns and Games we often look to our real world for inspiration, but there are a ton of elements in games that do not exist in our real world, like magic. How do we make magic work when we don't even understand it? That is what we are discussing today. We discuss magic in worldbuilding and how someone being able to throw a fireball around wou...

Today we talk to Caleb one of the Lead Designers of Triangle Agency at Haunted Table Games and what this new, exciting, and intricate TTRPG has to offer. Spoiler: It's very Meta, It's very much designed around decisions and agency and features a lot of cool twists and ideas. Or in short, we both love it!!Caleb talks to us about the design philosophies that lead to triangle agency, the appr...

Something that we've heard and said ourselves quite often is that TTRPG and D&D Characters are supposed to be special in regard to the world around them, but what does that mean, how do we achieve that and what consequences can we draw from it? That is what we are discussing today. We talk about Players and their Characters being unique in the context of TTRPGs. We talk about how the fact...

Have you ever dreamed of swashbuckling action among the skies, battling across flying airships? Then this episode and this Kickstarter is right for you!! Today we talk to Tom and Bodhi from HomieandtheDude, the Father and Son Podcast for all things MMA and TTRPG, Tom and Bodhi are long-time great friends of the show and we are so thrilled to have them with us again to talk about their latest proje...

Murderhobos are a specific subset of players everyone has heard about in TTRPGs. They murder everything, violence is the solution to all the problems and they just don't learn from the consequences. But how do we deal with them? Should we just kick them from the table? Should we show them new ways? That's what we discuss in today's episode! We talk abut much more than just murderhobos...