Taking 20 Podcast

Happy Holidays one and all!  Didn't get enough of the Blood War last time?  Good.  Let's talk some more about Demons and Devils slaying each other by the billions in a fight that's lasted damn near forever.  But what about the Celestials?  Who is the Lady of Pain?  Where do these fights happen?  Tune in and find out!

It's easy to come up with NPCs.  What's hard is coming up with NPCs that feel like more than a one dimensional cariacature of someone real.  In a topic suggested by Michael K. in Illinois, we discuss a simple 3-bullet technique for GMs to make realisitic NPCs and a similar technique for players to make compelling backstories.   Also, Jeremy gets sent to horny jail.

This week we talk about two specialized martial characters:  the Paladin and Ranger.  These are not dumb fighters or mindless barbarians.  These characters have options when it comes to fighting and can really give you lots of options when it comes to running a character...with some caveats of course.

Continuing last week's discussion on encounter design, this week we tackle the environment, tactics, stakes and motivations of the combat.  We discuss variety of the above and how to make combats feel different and better for our 5e and Pathfinder players.

This episode is a deeper dive into what makes for a good encounter and how we GMs can make them more memorable by adding variety to the monsters, the location, the motivations and the stakes of the encounter.

Taverns are the most overdone trope of starting campaigns.  Taverns are familiar and easy but also bland and boring.  While you can start your campaign with a clandestine meeting or good old fistfight in the local tavern, there are so many better options available to you.  In this episode, I make a case for making a better choice.

Kobolds are just moronic annoying little tunneling monsters who are just goblins in a different body, right?  WRONG!  Kobolds aren't like other monstrous humanoids.  They build complicated lairs, work with other races, and are masterful hit-and-run combatants.

Wizards of the Coast released some radical character creation ideas in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything and Pathfinder 2e drastically changed the way ancestries were treated in the newest edition of its game.  What are those changes?  Are they good for the game?  Tune in and find out.

Curses have played major roles in numerous movies and media:  the ring in Lord of the Rings, the Aztec gold in Pirates of the Caribbean, Ladyhawke, Shrek, Ella Enchanged, the list goes on.  How can you use these curses in your game and not have your player try to kill you with a d4?  Tune in to find out.

GMs, do your players like treasure?  Sure they do.  Everyone does; and that's why mimics are always medium-sized treasure chests in the corner, right?  Not so fast, my friend.  Mimics are more than mindless, opportunistic hunters.  Tune in for some tips and tricks for using these creatures in your game.

PCs have a number of options when it comes to bringing more allies to the battlefield and to the campaign.  What are some best practices for PCs who want to have a super-intelligent celestial dinosaur best friend that they can bring into this plane anytime they want?  Tune in and find out.

This week we return to the class series, focusing on those classes that focus a lot on baddie hit points:  fighters and monks.  Do you want some ideas on how to build a Pathfinder or D&D 5e Fighter or Monk?  Then this episode is for you.

Is your game moving online or staying online longer than you expected?  Mine are staying online for a while so I compiled a list of tips that can help you and your game while using Virtual Tabletops (VTTs).   Music is: Smooth Lovin by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4379-smooth-lovin License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Travel between adventures doesn't have to be a boring slog of survival checks or reinforcement of how empty your world is.  Travel and exploration activities can spark the imagination, jump start role play and help set the tone for your entire campaign.  Tune in for some ideas on how to execute your players...er...a good travel section of your adventure.

Fair warning:  I'm doing weird episodes again.  This week, I advocate taking lessons from video games and movies and introducing new class abilities and gameplay mechanics in a safe, non-lethal environment...except for the one case where it doesn't make sense.

Building worlds, countries, and even towns can be tough.  There are a lot of moving parts to try to tame and it's easy to miss preparing some important information.  Luckily, the GRAPES worldbuilding system is here to help provide a framework on which you can build your world.  In this episode we talk about how we can use this great tool.

Goblins are classic low level one-note baddies that eat anything they can, kill everything else, except for the few things that they try to mate with.  There's no nuance there, right?  Not so fast my friends.  Goblins can be just as nuanced as the other ancestries and make for great player characters and big bads for your campaigns.

Clerics and Druids are more diverse than most people realize.  Playing them as Healy McHealface and Joe Ent-Lover may come second nature (ba-dum-tss) but they can be played a lot of different ways to satisfy a lot of different players.  In this week's episode we look at the fun and choices of playing these two classes.

At the beginning of the D&D 5th Edition Dungeon Master's Guide there is a paragraph that was likely only included as a joke and it reinforced my belief that inspiration for good DMing really can come from anywhere.  During this episode, we go over the paragraph and Jeremy gives some advice that all of us can take from this unusual source.

Skill challenges were one of the best things to come out of the much maligned 4th edition of Dungeons and Dragons.  What are they?  How can you use them in your campaign?  Will Jeremy ever be able to limit himself to a 20 minute episode again?

Like most people who have done something for a while, I look back at my early days of playing D&D and cringe at some of the mistakes I made as a new player.  In this episode we talk about 15 of those mistakes and the lessons I've learned since then.

Adding aerial or swimming combatants to your battlefield can make things very complicated very quickly.  It doesn't help matters when the different game systems are so different in the way they handle these situations.  In this episode, Jeremy talks about the challenges, reasons to persevere through those challenges, and tips he's learned running these complicated combats. Tune in next week when I...

I received a listener suggestion to talk about some of the classes available in 5e and Pathfinder.  This episode starts that series, beginning with the Barbarian and the Bard.  Jeremy talks about tropes, playing with them and against them, and his wife helps him with a beep button when things get a little...suggestive.

"Part of the journey is the end," as it was so wisely said.  As tough as it can be guiding the adventure to an end, handling the end properly can be surprisingly tougher.  In this episode Jeremy talks about his favorite method to put a bow on a campaign and prime the next one for success.

Oops.  One of your PCs was just bitten by a werewolf and have begun the transformation into a howling, flesh-devouring monster.  How do you handle this as a GM?  Does the PC automatically become an NPC?  Tune in and find out. Now with an introduction recorded by Suzysays  on Fiverr.  She did amazing work.  Get her help with your voice over project at https://www.fiverr.com/suzysays/