Taking 20 Podcast

Another worldbuilding episode where we discuss ways you can make your campaign world feel different than the mundane rock we currently live on.  Before you tackle making your first outlandish world, give this a listen!

We all remember our first time, nervously fumbling about.  Maybe it was with someone you know well, perhaps a stranger.  Maybe it was with a group of people you went to school with.  And if we do things the right way, maybe we can be there to support someone's first time having sex...er...tabletop gaming.  In this episode we talk about how we support these new players and new Game Masters at our t...

You've been playing Skyrim and you'd like to test your players' wits by adding a clever puzzle to baffle them in their bonnets and worry them in their wigs.  How do you add puzzles without making them boring or too deadly?  How do you add puzzles that make sense?  Tune in to find out!  I'd love to hear your feedback or episode ideas to feedback@taking20podcast.com.

In the cold open, Jeremy responds to the "I'm Quitting Pathfinder 2e" video by Cody at the Youtube channel called "Taking 20" (not affiliated). Chances are you've watched or listened to a live let's play podcast as they used music, sound effects, and visual puzzles during an episode.  What are some tips for doing that in my home game?  Jeremy can help with that!

I wanted to address an aspect of Critical Role's success that's mentioned too often called the Matt Mercer effect.  Its most common manifestation is that every Tabletop RPG should be just like Critical Role and every DM should be just like Matthew Mercer.  In this episode, Jeremy breaks down why that's simply unfair to him and to your DM.

Traps - some DMs love them and others hate them.  PCs usually hate them so how do you use them effectively in your campaign?  How can they go wrong?  Why are Pixie farts brought up so often this week?

Mind flayers - evil alien beings with octopus heads and the ability to fry your mind from 60 feet away then eat it while you're still breathing.  I know.  Freaky, right?  What about these monsters and their abilities?  How can you use them in a campaign?  Well, wonder no longer.

Let's flip the screen.  What should players do to get ready for Session 0 and how can they help make the session a success?  I'm glad you asked, voice in my head.  Here are some tips!

Most campaigns are better when they start with a Session 0 but what the heck is a Session 0?  What do you do during a Session 0 and how do you conduct one?

You're a DM and you have a story you'd like to tell but the darn Player Characters won't follow the story.  What do you do?  How do you handle the campaign that's not going as planned?  Jeremy pulls a major piece of advice from a song from 1980s band 38 Special.

A lot of people dismiss D&D 4th Edition as a mistake but there were a lot of good aspects to that version of the game.  One of them was minions which were simplified monsters used in tandem with bosses and boss fights.  In this episode Jeremy suggests that bringing the concept back can spice up combat encounters.

It's almost Halloween in the U.S. and maybe you'd like to run a scary One Shot or Adventure.  How do you bring scary elements into your game?  What types of horror are there?  Jeremy waxes poetic about one of his favorite adventure types.

Want a Roc that can teleport giant rocks to drop on the players?  How about an alien with acid for blood found on a crash landed ship.  That's completely unique and no one else has ever thought of it.  In this episode Jeremy gives some tips for customizing monsters and mostly encourages you to be creative with your creatures!

In the finale of the 3-part interview, Johnn and Jeremy discuss garnering emotional responses from your players and a weird question about the Stone to Flesh spell.

In Part 2 of the interview, Jeremy and Johnn discuss how to hand out treasure, and making compelling cultures.  Part 3 will release this Thursday!

In the first of what I hope will be many more to come, Jeremy sits down to answer listener and reader questions with Johnn Four of www.roleplayingtips.com .  The rest of the interview will be released Tuesday and Thursday this week.

RPG Gatekeeping is the practice of deciding someone isn't worthy of participating in our hobby or that because they look different, have different beliefs, or lead a different lifestyle, they can't participate in our hobby.  It's wrong.  In this episode Jeremy talks about the need to be accepting of everyone in the hobby, young/old, straight/gay/bi, cis/trans.  None of that matters.  What matters...

Random Encounters, some DMs love them, some hate them.  In this episode Jeremy discusses strategies for using Random Encounters that still make your world feel alive and active but won't derail your gaming session.

In this episode, Jeremy fights through a sinus infection to talk about how you can use real world organizations as a framework for groups and guilds that could exist in your world.  He also mispronounces a lot of words and generally sounds rough.  I apologize for that.

Seems simple, doesn't it?  Your players' characters do something amazing and you give them something for it.  Players, your characters slay the beast and stare at a huge pile of stuff.  However, when mishandled, players can feel like they're getting shafted when it comes to loot and this can cause hurt feelings, rifts in the party, and even cause players to leave your game.

In RPGs, skill checks are different from attack rolls, saving throws, and other d20 rolls.  Jeremy discusses some ways that skill checks can be used in your game and how they can be adjucated in multiple ways.

In one of is rare DM-only episodes, Jeremy discusses the secret to ratcheting up the tension for the players to make them feel their characters' lives are on the line.  

There are two primary ways that combat can be run in Role Playing Games - Using battle maps that are printed or digitally produced or theater of the mind where all the action happens in everyone's imaginations.  Like nearly everything else, there are advantages to each and this episode discusses pros and cons of each with some lessons Jeremy has learned along the way.

Dragons.  They should be important encounters and villains.  Hell, they're in the name "Dungeons and Dragons".  How do you make encounters with them epic?  How should they take on the plucky band of adventurers who seek to steal their treasure from their lairs?  In this 20 minute episode, we look at things from a dragon's perspective and discuss tips and tricks for running these all powerful badas...

The idiot host of this podcast keeps saying that character death is a powerful and dramatic moment.  If that's true, how do we as DMs deal with the death of a character around the table?  In this episode we talk about the dos and don'ts of character death and how to handle the moment properly.