Dungeon Master of None

DMs Matt and Rob cover the essentials of building your own world for RPG campaigns: scale, theme, and conflict!  If you want to join us on this worldbuilding epic quest, then join us on twitter . Let's all build new campaign worlds together!    Music: Roll the Dice - Pac Div Drunk as Dragons - The Woodbox Gang Dungeon Master - Visigoth 

It's a mailbag episode! We. Answer. Your. Letters. But first, DMs Rob and Matt chat about surprise Yog-Sothoth as well as the new errata and unearthed arcana for DnD 5e. Here's a link to Matt's homebrew rules for 5e Naval Combat. Also, because we live in Hellworld, we talk more about the Flaming Sphere of Shit that is White Wolf (now featuring Instagram despot Ramzan Kadyrov).  Here comes the lett...

Hoooooo boy. So remember back when the CEO of Hasbro said that D&D was going to be the new "E-Sport?" Well, it didn't take long for someone to try to put that together.  DMs Matt and Rob watched the very first competitive PvP game of D&D on Twitch and are here to talk about it. We aren't saying you can't have competitive RPGs. You can. But, uh, this ain't it, chief.    Music: Roll the Dice, Pac Di...

Matt and Rob review two new releases from Wizards of the Coast:  The Dungeon of the Mad Mage   and  The Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica .  NO SPOILERS! If you are planning on playing  Mad Mage , do not be afraid! Your DMs only talk about the adventure in general terms.  Megadungeons! What are they? What types of players and dungeons masters will enjoy this type of adventure? Matt and Rob discuss th...

After some uninformed speculation about what the announced 2019 D&D campaign setting book  will be, Rob and Matt discuss a recent article in Quartzy ,  "Dungeons & Dragons Created the Blueprint Nerd Culture Still Follows Today" by Dave Gershgorn.   Q&A time! If you could DM for any three celebrities, who would they be? What video game needs a TTRPG rulebook? Can a DM metagame? What is your answer...

Put on your masks and get out your account books! Matt and Rob are joined by a very special guest, Dave the Prof ! They discuss Seth Dickinson's groundbreaking fantasy novel,  The Traitor Baru Cormorant . The book's approach to race, queerness, and empire will get your fantasy world-building gears turning like no other novel!  Happy Halloween and happy the Monster Baru Cormorant day!   Links: On T...

Matt and Rob review the newest adventure from Wizards of the Coast, Waterdeep: Dragon Heist!   WARNING! Spoilers begin at 45:10. But first, we gird ourselves for a Tales from the Loop TV series and a Wheel of Time TV series. Matt shares his bafflement with TORG: Eternity . Now, on to Waterdeep ...Dragon Heist is a welcome departure from the all the other 5e adventures...modular antagonists...it's...

DMs Matt and Rob talk about RPGs in the classroom using the Reacting to the Past curriculum and Matt's panel on Paradox Interactive 's video games and history.   Now, on to your letters: Nate writes, "Discord has a dice roller and a macro add-on!" [16:30] Ryan asks, "Is the Dynamic Lighting option in Roll20 worth it?" [21:00] Abstract Figure writes, "I love old school throwing weapons and boomeran...

"7 DM Tips to take your game to the next level...#6 will blow you away!"  "Players hate him! Master the Game with this one Weird Trick!" Matt and Rob are back with some slightly more advanced tips to help you as a game master!  But first, a listener asks, "Can I run a game with two swapping Dungeon Masters?" On to the tips: creating a recap blog...playing to your strengths...you are using your DM...

Matt and Rob discuss some recent drama related to Roll20, a virtual tabletop platform [05:40]. Your hosts then try present both the challenges and opportunities of running RPGs online [20:30]. Last, Matt and Rob try to give you some practical tips for using Roll20 and other online tabletops [41:30].  Have you struggled or had success running games online? Let us know how it went! dmofnone@gmail.co...

Matt and Rob love history. They also love making custom magic items. In this episode, your hosts combine these two loves by using historic artifacts as inspiration to create stats for D&D magic items.  Image Gallery D&D 5e Magic Item Descriptions Music: "Roll the Dice" by Pac Div "Season of the Witch" by Donovan "Blister in the Sun" by Violent Femmes "Nothin' But A Good Time" by Poison "The Magic...

Read the full blog post here. This is a call-to-action for all our listeners! Please, donate your RPG books or buy a manual or two for prisoners in the United States. RPG manuals are on the "most requested" list of almost every prison book donation website and are never stocked by the humorless authoritarian bureaucrats that run what's left of prison libraries. These books are so in demand that wh...

The Celestial Job : A Planescape Adventure for 3rd-level Characters DMs Matt and Rob return to "The Celestial Job," a one-shot Planescape adventure we wrote during Episode 30.  Today, we take a fresh look at the adventure after play-testing it with two groups of players. Your DMs discuss how to run an adventure with an eye towards revision. We look at what didn't work, what was fun, and what was h...

DMs Matt and Rob talk building monsters, from inspiration and concept down to armor class and damage immunities. First, we take a look at Appalachia's version of Big Foot: the Mothman ! Then, we fill out the ranks of any respectable wizard's staff with the Parchment Golem .  Music: "Half Light" by Low with Tomandandy "Paper Planes" by M.I.A.

Matt and Rob answer your letters! Helping new players learn to role-play...hacking other systems into 5e DnD...balancing player goals...ditching random encounters...Chekhov's magic sword on the mantle...inclusivity in Pathfinder 2nd edition...Eurocentric humans in the Player's Handbook...the Broken Earth trilogy by N. K. Jemisin...getting "a head" with the Speak with Dead spell...Hellboy 1 is the...

We have done a crazy thing. Rob and Matt sat down and watched 1982's made-for-TV movie,  Mazes and Monsters.   We are now the Maze Controllers and have absolute authority! So grab your maps and get ready for a strange journey of 80s DnD panic, Tom Hanks, bad parenting, dungeon love, 9/11, and WASP angst. Your intrepid hosts deduce the rules-as-written of the Mazes and Monsters RPG, determine which...

Matt and Rob dive into the good, the bad, and the tedious inside Paizo's new playtest for the 2nd edition of the Pathfinder Role-Playing Game. The rule book, bestiary, and short adventure path can all be found at the following link:  http://paizo.com/pathfinderplaytest    

Matt and Rob are joined by special guest Natasha , an amazing DM and co-host of the Metamashina Podcast, a show about genre fiction from the feminine perspective.   WARNING: SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 26 OF CRITICAL ROLE BEGIN @ [03:40].   Your DMs discuss how to handle character death, the problems of custom class mechanics, and fan reaction to the episode.  [Discussion ends 40:10] Matt, Rob and Natash...

Matt and Rob discuss WotC's surprise announcement of a Magic: The Gathering and  Dungeons and Dragons  crossover:  The Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica.  While we are mostly disappointed and unenthused about this mixing of games, your hosts try to salvage some useful silver linings in the upcoming  Ravnica release.  Then, Matt gets way into MtG's "Color Wheel" for a few minutes. On to what we really...

Matt and Rob recap the controversy over the new 5th edition of Vampire: The Masquerade . [07:20] This is a chilling reminder that the  alt-right and actual Nazis are using our hobby—specifically fake controversies like Gamer Gate and DnD Gate—to recruit people to their reactionary and racist ideology. On to Unwanted Advice, the segment where we answer the questions you didn't ask about RPGs: How d...

DMs Matt and Rob bite into the 5th edition campaign: the Curse of Strahd! We just finished the whole thing and would like to en-frighten you with our experience. If you are considering running this campaign, then this is a must listen episode for any would be horror Dungeon Masters. Even if Strahd isn't your cup of blood, you'll find tons of great tips for running horror games and lessons for stru...

Listen to a hungover Matt and Rob go over the news of the day, including the newly announced WotC module, an interesting Tweet from Adam Koebel, and more! Yeah, we're a little behind the curve, but tune in for a conversation about urban campaigns and GM fiat anyway.

Matt and Rob write a Dungeons and Dragons one-shot adventure on-the-fly in under an hour!  Writing adventures is not hard or scary.  It's something that just takes practice.  We hope our brainstorming and adventure planning will help inspire and encourage you to get those plots prepped.   The adventure will be available for free on our homebrew page about a week after release.  Feel free to downlo...

Matt and Rob share their first impressions of the sixth rule book in the Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition: Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes .  There will be war.  There will be blood.  There will be a Blood War.  Your hosts talk about the upgrading the Tiefling with the new stuff in this book.  The new Githzerai and Githyanki are full of flavor and story-telling potential; the other section of races an...

This week Matt and Rob talk mazes and monsters -- no, not the classic 1982 Tom Hanks movie about the dark side of gaming, we're talking Planescape, which is full of both! Your favorite DM duo talk about the theme and setting of the wackiest D&D setting out there, give some ideas on how to run a campaign, and generally geek out about what makes it cool. Make sure to listen carefully for a rare inst...