Taking 20 Podcast

Once you find a potential DM or players, how do you know they will be the right ones for your game?  How do you know the game will be the right one for you?  In this episode Jeremy discusses questionnaires, interviews, and meetings to find a good match.

Should you use cliffhangers to entice your players?  If so, how and how often?  Fear not.  This short episode has got all of that covered.  Give it a listen and don't forget to subscribe and provide comments and feedback!

Happy Valentine's Day!  The Monster Series resumes this time focusing on those alpha dogs of the necromantic RPG world:  liches.  How do DMs use them in their campaign?  What tactics should they take on the battlefield?  Tune in and find out.

Wizards of the Coast and Paizo have wisely removed some of the problematic depictions of ancestries and ethnicities, adding nuance to those previously portrayed as universally evil.  How does that change our games and what does it mean for DMs?    

Sometimes it's good to be bad.  Evil campaigns can be amazing adventures unto themselves and can allow good role players to really stretch their wings and embrace being horrible people.  There are traps and potential gotchas to both running and being in a campaign.  Here's how to avoid them.

This episode idea is courtesy of Daniel in Melbourne, Australia who wanted to know where I get my ideas for quests.  In this episode, I talk about the different types of quests that you can run, sources for quest ideas, the importance of flexibility when it comes to quest solutions, and finally best practices for the two categories that all quests should fall under.

There's been a lot of character optimization discussion online the past couple of months.  What is it?  Should players always optimize their characters?  On the flip side, DMs need to say yes to player choices, right?  Not always.  Jeremy discusses the situations when optimization may be necessary, encouragement for DMs to say yes to their choices when possible, and the powerful ability to say No...

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.